\ O C ^-. V c^:d Q .^59 ^/y\^ C V A ^^i MISCELI.ANIES' "^ ^^ .^ FROM THE COLLECTED WEIIINGS OF EDWARD IRVING J^^ ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER 148 STRAND, I.ONDOX 1865 CONTENTS. The first and second columns of this Table of Contents refer to the volume and page of " The ColUcted Writings of Edward Ircing," from whence these Miscellanies are taken. VOL. PAGE iv. 167. iv. 504. i. 70. i. 322. i. 104. i. 493. iv. 1. i. 53. i. n40,-| \209.j V. 463. V. 92. V. 296. iii. 39. iii. 142. i. 359. ii. 120. ii 127. ii. 106. ii. 107. iv. 114. iv. 482. i. 261. iv. 578. iii. . 385. qgtljicaL PAGE Morality Borrows of Religion • • • • 3 Theology of Nature l*^ Analogy between Natural and Spiritual Processes . . 18 Natui-e Worship : its Falseness 23 Intellectual Atheism 31 Necessity of Forms 3o Origin of Idolatry 38 Superiority of Divine to Hiunan Knowledge . . . . 52 Man's Limited Knowledge ^4 Christ in Creation : The Church the First-Fruits . . 57 Christ the Foreshadowed of Nature and Spirit . . . . CO Life and Death <52 Why the Natural Mind conceives God as Human . . 64 Why Heaven has always been placed in tlie Sky . . 67 Reverence and Irreverence 71 Envy ''■4 Fruits of Enry 78 Pride »^ Pharisaism 81 Misconceptions as to Change of Nature 82 Natural Will and Regenerate Will 85 An Honest Heart 88 The Sabbath and its Sanctions 91 True Idea of Education 95 vi Contents. »)OCiaL PAGB Social Cares 109 Marriage 113 Cliildrcn : Sacred Charges : Parents Mediums of Grace to Children 116 Duty to Parents 121 The Orphan's Case 124 A Distinction between Men and Women 128 Antidote to Selfishness 131 The Four Offices of Friendship 133 Prosperous Preachers 140 Mr. Irving and his Glasgow Hearers 142 ATrueCliurch 145 Social Eeligion 148 Eecluseiiess of Soul 153 Inefficiency of Education piu'ely Private 156 Uses of Education 161 Education most needed by the Poor 163 3DoctrinaU Unchangeableness of God 169 Kelations of the Persons of the Trinity 171 The Fatherhood of God 175 Christ's Relation to the Godhead 180 The Relation of Father and Son 183 The Doctrine of the Incarnation 187 The True Idea of the Incarnation 190 Christ the Embodiment of God"s Holiness 192 The Body and Soul of Christ 196 Effects of Christ's Incarnation 200 Atonement or At-one-ment 203 Christ's Life the Realization of the Spirit's Work . . 207 Christ in the Separate State 210 Adam's Property in the Promised Seed 212 VOL. PAGE i. 204. iii. 261. i. 351.1 iii. (232, 1240.) iii. 250. iii. 277. ii. 166. ii. 132. iii. 297. iii. 350. iii. 353. iii. 373. iii. 313. iii. 332. iii. 417. iii. 414. iii. 405. V. 75. V. 410. iv. 245. V. 437. iv. /236,\ \2.59./ V. 564. V. 12/ V. / 25,\ I 33.) v. 116. V. 146. V. 165. V. 235. V. 303. iv. 275. vot., , PAGE V. 338. V. 423. V. 399. ii. 220. V. 209. ii. 535. ii. /330,\ l4G3./ ii. 415. ii. \387./ ii. 483. V. 180. iii. 53. iv. 542. V. /381,) \315.| V. 495. V. 481. Contents. vii PAGE Man punished in liis Nature 213 Clirist's Mediatorhood 215 Christ the Eedeemer of Creation 220 The Temptation 225 How the Bunds of the Law are removed 227 The Meaning of the Sacrament 231 Baptism not a mere Eite 234 Baptismal Regeneration 240 Baptized Children Members of the Church . . . . 243 The Lord's Supper 249 Particular Election 255 The Idea of Favomitism false 257 Love and Sorrow 2G3 Grace 267 Interpretation of Tongues 270 Of Prophecy 274 ^cdcticaL 527. Ordination Charge to the Minister of the Scots Cliurch, London Wall, March 15, 1827 .. .. 281 Diificulties of a IMoral Life 295 Life merely the Means to Spiritual Life 303 The Perversion and Use of Suffering 304 Blessed and Unblessed Changes 306 Practical Fruits of simple Honesty 310 What alone preserves the Church 311 Use of Money 314 Eeligion the Root of all fruitful Labour- 317 What may be Expected from Preaching 321 Sunshine Clmstians 324 The Search for Novelty 326 Deference to Opinion 328 Spiritual Suicide 330 Idolatry of Sense and its Elfects 332 Idolatry of Intellectual Life 340 v. 139. i. 267. ii. 178. i. 45. i. 303. ii. 408. V. 394. L 342. i. 98. i. 168. i. 178. i. 186. ii. 509. V. 35. iv. 101. viii Contc7its. 31.. PArjE r. 19. ^f. 67. V. 82. V. 94. i. 117. i. 46. i. 244. i. 140. V. 455. i. 1. i. 22. ( 20, ii. 87, (ill. V. 485. V. 492. i. 43. i. 372. i. 155. PAGK Idolatrj' of the Imagination 348 Idolatvy of Preachinp; 353 Idolatry of tlie Bible 358 Idolatry of the Sacraments 361 Sectarianism our Bane 3fi4 True Charity 369 Conflict not continuous 375 Christian Prudence 376 Evils of Prosperity to C'aristians 378 Claims of God's Word 380 Study of the Bible a Privilege 390 True Christian Prayer 396 Faith and Works 401 Discipline as related to Doctrine 405 Topics of Terror 411 The State and Religion 412 Grace runs through all 414 ll^i^toncal anti propljeticaU 285. The Visible and the Invisible Church 419 500. What tlie Protestant Church has neglected .. .. 420 9^(£(0(onarp» i. 447. A Contrast : Kings' Ambassadors and Heaven's Jlis- sionaries . . . . 427 i. 449. The Apostolical Missionary . . 43t) »>cn'pture ^ortrait^, 1. 412. David 447 "•{41'} John the Baptist 455 CriticaL i. 384. The Psalms of David 469 ETHICAL ' tw MORALITY BOEROWS OF RELIGION. AMOEALITY without a theology is nothing, and 1 question whether it exists independent of a theohogj any further than law, or custom, or convenience sustains it. Kow it is a small part of morality that established law sus- taineth — only that extreme part which is conversant with another's vested interests. Custom wardeth an inward circle of morality, but still it is confined to that which is visible. All that passes within the breast iinseen, or in secret places unknown, or with confederates undivulged, — all ideas and schemes of things, all those various emotions which the varying countenance expresseth, and all more inward which is hidden behind the scenes, — remain unwarded either by law or custom. Now in this is the great stress and strain of Christian morality. The apostle goes so far as to say that the law was not made for a godly man, and that we are not under the law ; which meaneth that we never come near to its brink, but carry on our life for removed from the things which it prohibits; — unless, indeed, the law arm against us, when persecution begins ; and then, according to the old Covenanting adage, where persecution begins allegiance ends. That is, we owe no further obedience, but must patiently take the detriment, B 2 4 Ethical. if by no means we can defend ourselves fron? its coming. To secure all this — which, properly speaking, is the only province of morality — there must be a theology, a divine affection generated ; otherwise it will be trampled under the foot of man. There is a maxim indeed current in the world, that virtue is its own reward ; but it seems to live only in the mouths of men. And I dare say I might appeal it to any one here present, whether they have found the present rewards of virtue able to sustain them in virtuous courses. I allow that what of virtue the world approves may, through fear of the world's reproach, find favour in our sight. But when the world disapproves, or when the world hath no consciousness, as is the case in Christian life, which is hid with Christ in God, and which the world knoweth not, I question whether this discovery was ever made by any one till he had tasted deeply and bitterly of self-indulgence, and fled into the arms of self-denial, as a refuge from disease or from the grave. Howbeit the cases are so few, if any, in which this principle is found sufficient for the conservation of conscience, that I stay not now at present from the question of the world's general necessity. When morals do not borrow of religion, they amount to no more than a code of laws, without any authority to enforce them except custom, the sense of duty, and the eye of man ; and without any rewards or punishments, to give them tlie true force of laws, except it be that reward which virtue is to itself, a reward which, however it be talked of, hath been found in all ages and in all countries, and I may almost say in all men, to be quite imequal to the task of keeping the ways of life parallel with the rules of con- science. But when moralists borrow of religion, as in all countries they do less or more, and in these Christian coun- tries they have especially done, though without acknow- ledgment, then the question changes its form, and becomes more of a theological nature than it hath hitherto been. We are willing to allow them all the advantage of that science which hath lately sprung into exititence, under the Morality Borroivs of Religion. 5 name of natural religion, though it be gathered from a thousand lights which revelation hath kindled ; and, yield- ing them this, we are still to point out their feebleness in comparison with one who goes by faith in the revela- tion of God. The true nature of obedience to laws is little understood amongst us, though we be the most wisely governed of nations, and the most jealous of our national liberty ; for it is thought to depend chiefly upon the punishment which sanctions the law, whereas it rests upon the spirit of loyalty and fealty that is begotten in the people. Once let a people be heartily in love with the institutions of their native soil, — once let them be growing unto greatness, and flourishing under the olive reign of happiness, their laws are obeyed almost instinctively, through love and affection to the constitution of society. Kow, let this same people become discontented in their breasts, dissatisfied with their condition, alienated from the ruling powers, and unprosper- ous in their vocations, and it comes to pass that those laws which were wont seldom to be called upon, are not able to constrain the turbulent mind, but are violated at every risk. The fitness of the laws, therefore, to the condition of the people, their adjustment to equity, their encouragement of benevolence, and their general tendency to happiness, and their general coincidence with the good principles already implanted in the hearts of the people, this,— not the severity of their sanctions, or the strictness with which they are enforced— constitutes their strength, and gains for for them stability and acquiescence. There is a noble nature in man that rejects fear and force, but yields softly to rectitude and justice. Therefore, of all governors, it ought to be the chief aim to keep the people in good heart and contentment with their condition ; to which end they ought to act honestly and uprightly, that by the natural love of good order and justice may be kept up that spirit of patriotism and loyalty which is the surest safeguard of the laws. If I were going nicely into the question of reason's theo- 6 Ethical. logy, I should side with Hume, whom I regard as the best advocate of revelation this country has produced, inasmuch as he hath swept away the whole of that structiire falsely called natural religion, and shewn what a bare and com- fortless view reason, justly exercised, must take of God's character and providence, proving what a nonentity natural theology is, and how to any theology revelation is absolutely necessary. But, granting the principles of their natural re- ligion, that there is one God who made the heavens and the earth, and the soul of man, who ruleth over all things after the pleasure of His will — what, I ask, is there here to produce love or obedience in the mind ? Power doth not beget obe- bience, but rather resistance in the mind. Dominion beget- teth fear not love, — awe, and perhaps timorous slavery, but never hearty and willing obedience. We know that the Emperor of China is absolute in his dominions, but we love him not the more, and have no disposition to obey him further than he can reach us. Before the mind will yield its aflections to a mind more powerful than itself, whether that power lie in wisdom, rule, or physical strength, it must know on what principles and for what ends it putteth forth its superior power ; if these ends be congenial to jus- tice and happiness, we naturally yield assent and admira- tion. And when the happiness is produced upon ourselves, we yield likewise gratitude and aifection. Here, therefore, is a previous question, to which the moralist must gird him- self, before we will yield him one tittle of advantage from the knowledge of God, the Creator and the Governor of the Universe — the question how this power and government are put forth. Now, if he address himself to this previous question which we have moved, he will find himself at a stand. For tliis world hath such mixed fates, and the men in it such various fortunes that nothing regular can be brought out of its confusion. And though I allow there is a tendency of things to run right, they are so marred by natural and moral accidents, by storms and revolutions, by contentions and wars, that it is beyond the power of any skill to reduce them into justice, or draw from them a Morality Borrows of Religion. 7 character of mercy. Hume, "who bad no favour for our cause, is the advocate of the iufereuce in later times ; in ancient times it was the conclusion of every school of philo- sophers. To what, therefore, serveth this God of reason, out of whose government reason can bring no principles of good order ? Not certainly to generate such an attachment as should bind upon the heart the rules of morals. And I fearlessly assert that there never is any such attachment upon the heart by this natural theology; on the other hand, I have found it removing God far out of sight, — sub- liming Ilim, as the Epicureans did, far out of our sphere, — multiplying His avocations among the various boundless orbs of space, so as to leave Him neither time nor care for our puny aiitvirs — and, in truth, making their theology work against their morality, rather than work in its behalf. These followers of nature, have, moreover — I know not whence derived, except in a crude manner from Scriiiture — this notion prevalent in their schools, that God, if He keep account, or is to hold a reckoning of human affairs, is very good and merciful ; and as Pie hath constituted us weak, will judge us as such, and allow for all our frailties ; which latter part of their theology fights directly against their morality, destroys it, and opens the door of all indulgences. They had better leave their theology alone, therefore, for it helps them not, but fights against them with both its hands. "What, then, have they left ? A morality without a theology, a code of laws without any power from whence they emanate, without any tribunal to look after their obedience. And when did ever such an unauthorised, misanctioned code find power to constrain unto its service the will and interests of men? Never since the world began. It will be obeyed while it suits our inclinations, or while custom sanctions it, or while interest is promoted by it, or the good graces of those we esteem secured. But power hath it none to penetrate into the heart, and divide the empire of the affections, and give light to the eye of the conscience, and command the reins of the will, and then the helm of conduct. To take such a sovereign seat 8 Ethical. in tlie inward man, is the prerogative of something which mxTst he otherwise sustained than any code of laws this world hath seen — sustained by gentle power and influence, like that which sustaineth the law of families, or the law of friendship, or the law of tender affection. And if we are not able to shew some such tender and powerful ties wherewithal to bind the Christian code upon the heart, we allow it likewise to be utterly ineffec- tual for the end of governing the inward parts. The Christian religion is more after the nature of an affection than of a command. It hath a command, but that command dependeth on love, not on sovereignty. It ab- horreth servitude, and favoureth hearty consent. Hence the apostle throws off with indignation the yoke of bond- age, and insisteth that we are not under the law, but imder grace. There is a sovereignty, doubtless, in God, whereby He could have compelled us to obedience, as He compelleth the winds and waves, and other elements of nature, and regulates the harmonious motions of the universe. But He chooseth not to proceed after that method. He ruleth not by might but by right. A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of His kingdom. Therefore, it is vain in your moral-preachers to think of schooling the people into Christianity by laying down the law to them, Sabbath after Sabbath ; instead of which they should enamour them of the nature of God, and so lodge the affection which will hunger and thirst for ways whereby to testify itself. And it is as absurd in the mystics to persuade to Christianity by holding forth the stern decrees and absolute sovereignty of God, which doth but revolt all the affections of the heai't, and paralyse the powers of the understanding. In which two methods of preaching we have another palpable instance of the meeting of extremes. But the true method in which religion in the Scriptures seeks to bind itself upon the heart and life of man, is by exhibitions of the most excellent, amiable, and generous character of God, His unceasing regard for man, His wonderful scheme for our Morality Borj'ows of Religion. 9 salvation, His preparation for our everlasting happiness and glory. They win upon the heart a surpassing favour for the Governor and Lawgiver, which doth outdo every adverse inclination, and by main pre-eminence of affection, bear down all opposition, take the helm of the soul, and gently steer it into the river of His pleasure. The morality of the Scripture it availeth not the world to possess, unless they will also lay their hand upon this its theology, and adopt into their breasts those various most affectionate views of the Godhead, which will create a divine loyalty within the breast, an allegiance to heaven, a fealty to the great liege Lord of the human race. While their imagination dresseth Him only in His sovereign attributes of power and wisdom and will, creatures so weak, ignorant, and lanstable as men will be rebuked far away from His confidence and love. Clouds and darkness will remain around Him, which the eye dareth not to pierce. We shall live without the sphere of His intluence ; into which if we were to come, while we imagine Him so sublime and terrible, we must come crouching and slavish. Therefore nature makes a stand for her own dignity, and abides aloof from a God while she knoweth Him only in such masterful moods. She is afar off — she needeth to be brought nigh. He is invisible from the radiancy that is around Him, and some one must come forth from His bosom and discover Him. Till you know of God more than this vague and mysterious idea. He will never come into favour with you, do what you may. W'ho loveth the sandy desert or wisheth to dwell therein, though it be the scene of many sublime commotions of the simoom wind, and hath at times the magic scenery of the mirage, and is always sublime in its very solitude and undefined, unob- structed magnitxide? Nevertheless we hasten across it under a painful sense of loneliness and helplessness, — we dare not venture on it alone, we must equip as it were a fleet of men, to keep the heart cheerful against the inva- sion of gloomy thoughts. We long for some oasis, some green island in the waste, where are things commensurate lo Ethical. with our minds, and objects upon whicli the affections of onr nature may be renewed. So it is with nature's appre- hension of God ; it is painful to dwell in, we avoid it, we skirt along its edge, we search not its profound and mys- terious vastness. There is a necessity for a revelation of the face and countenance of God, in order to bring Him into the midst of human sympathies, and have Him in the embraces of the human soul. THEOLOGY OF NATURE. The philosophical religion which at this day prevails — if any religion can be said to prevail among our lettered people — is derived from observations made upon the works of creation, in which they discover marks of design, and final ends of goodness and bounty. The richness, and beauty, and fertility of nature through all her chambers, the diffusion of lusty happy life in every creature beneath the sun, and the wonderful means for preserving, defend- ing, and continuing the golden line of being ; the various revolutions and decompositions of bodies, and their revert- ing back again, through circles of useful change, into their primitive forms ; — this good husbandry of all the elements of creation ; this wise composition of them, and as wise revolution of them, together with the signs of hap- piness and health which every sensitive creature exhibits ; — all this begets in the man of knowledge and taste a high idea of the power and goodness diffused through the whole. But the knowledge of these various changes and useful properties of things may or may not terminate in the idea of one God. And it doth not necessarily follow that a scientific observer of the works of nature shall be a believer in one great First Cause and one great Director of all. On the other hand, I have often seen the more knowledge of nature the less knowledge of God, until at length a practical atheism or a deification of nature Avas the result. Instead of a living God, the soul of the world, Theology of Nature. ii a power diffused over nature ; instead of a God at all times omnipotent, an abstraction of physical power ; instead of a God at all times wise and active, a generalisation of all philosophical laws ; instead of the holy Father of all intel- ligence, the ultimate root from which sprung and by which were sustained all those branches of nature with which they were conversant. And if I were myself to play the philosopher, I would say that this pantheism or soul of matter is the only accurate inference from their premises. When you have collected a number of properties in things, such, for example, as Paley hath done in his ' Natural Theology,' what can you infer more than this, that there is a separate wisdom in these things ? But how you infer that this wisdom is one, or that, being one, it is resident in a moral living agent, I confess myself unable to perceive. It is a plastic something everywhere diffused ; but that tliere are the volitions of an intelligent will, living and self-determming, and capable of arresting all, changing all, annihilating all, I see not by what process of sound reason- ing they can prove. And, in point of fact, few of them practically arrive at this conclusion, but, on the contraiy, whatever notions of God's actual existence, rule, goodness, and other moral attributes, they have been taught by their mother or their preceptor out of the oracles of God, they gradually throw aside, as they advance in the knowledge of nature, as childish and nui'sery fables, until they leam by degrees the perception and feeling of God as a moving, living, approving, and disapproving being, and pass into the apprehension of Him as a collection of physical causes, at best a cunning workman, of whose works we may know something, of whose design in His works we may appre- hend a little, but of whose nature or designs beyond these, of whose affections towards us, or ultimate design respect- ing us, we can apprehend nothing at all. And this, I take it, without any misrepresentation, is the loose idea of God which now prevails among the scientific of this country, which they have drawn from the mechanical philosophers of France; most assuredly not from the philosophers of 1 2 Ethical. Newton's scliool, the founders of experimental pliilosopliy in the world, whose notions were altogether opposite, as New- ton hath well manifested in the conclusion of his great work. This also is the spirit of much of the poetry of the pre- sent day, in which, if you have not the heathen mythology, yoii are sure to have in its stead an adoration of nature under the name of God, or of a God inherent in nature, and dwelling on nature's outward face, whose changes they sing of as the changing God : " These, as they change, are but the varied God." It is the nature of the poet's vocation to inspire every thing with the breath and soul of life, and now that he cannot give dryads to the woods, and nymphs to the rivers, and deities to the winds, and sovereign gods to the various elements, without passing the limits of the vulgar knowledge, he is fain to inspire them with a portion of the Divinity ; and so it happens that they seem very devout, when, in truth, they are only making the phases and changes of nature into the aspects and acts of God, doing homage to the creature instead of the Creator, and so obscuring and eclipsing and making obsolete the moral attributes which compose the high invisible nature of God, and which alone, as we shall shew, operates upon the soul of man. Such poets do thus bring into a poj)ular form and make attractive those notions which the men of science generally entertain, and help forward this idle and ineffec- tual gossip or prattle (it riseth no higher) about the nature of God. Then your critics and under labourers in litera- ture do ape their betters, steal their follies, and talk as if they knew about religion, and were competent to handle the counsels of our God ; whereas it is the philosopher's, not the Christian's God whom they make these words and indite these little thoughts about. And children in the nursery, fresh from the Christian lessons of their mother, were better judges than such of the reverence which is due and the reverence which is paid to the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To make the matter plain by a practical instance. Suppose you were taken into the workshop of a cunning Tlieology of Nature. 13 ■workman, say, a maker of machines : suppose there to be in his shop all the variety which you shall find in the model-room of the Society of Arts. You see nothing of the man himself; you know nothing of him, and you hear notliing of him, except what you gather from perusing the works of his hands. You do peruse and understand them ; their exquisite workmanship, their perfect adapta- tion to their ends, their elegance, their variety, and the various offices of life which they subserve. Having finished your survey, you are asked what you think of the man who made them. You answer, " His ingenuity, his skill, the variety of his knowledge, amazes me ; his invention, his execution, his inexhaustible resources are perfectly astonishing ; he is surely of the highest genius and the finest art." But you are asked further, " Do you love him ? Do you revere his goodness ? Do you stand in awe of his justice ? Would you trust his word? Would you give him j^our confidence ? Would you admire him as a father, as a friend, as a benefactor, as a man, as much as you admire him as a workman?" You answer, " These are altogether diff'erent questions, which I have no means of answering till I know him and try him in these various relations. The man may be a drunkard, dishonest, im- moral, and worthless in every respect, though his art and knowledge of art be so wonderfully extensive. I have no confidence or communion with him at present, save by his skill and execution. But when I know him in these several relations, I shall then be able to answer you." Kow what difi"erence is there between this case and the case of your scientific observers of creation, and poetical describers of the same, and critical disseminators who are, as it were, the carriers and retailers to the others, — the men, I mean, who affect ignorance and carelessness about vital religion, and take a kind of credit for the bravery of such an affectation, but talk loudly of the majestj"- and might of the God of natui'e, and with a high tone pass judgment upon Christians of whom they are as ignorant as the child unborn ? They are no further advanced than, 14 Ethical. if I may so speak, into the workshop of God. The}' hehokl His various creations performing their various functions, and they are competent to the question of His power and His wisdom; they can rise into the knowledge of His Godhead, as St. Paul says in the 1st chapter of the Romans — "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God- head." But beyond the apprehension of His power, as it is variously displayed, they cannot rise. They cannot trust in His friendship to them, or His favour for them. They cannot tell what things He approveth and what He disapproveth. They cannot feel towards Him the sentiments of the heart and soul, because they know not His feelings towards them. They can hold a communion of intellect with His works ; but with Himself, with His living self, they can have no sentiments kindred to those which bind the relationships of human life, — no filial reverence, no loyal subordination, no tender love, no confident trust, no fear, no hope, no religion. Ko wonder, therefore, that those classes who have thus come by what they call their religion, and stand thus related to God only by these remote and shadowy apprehensions, and have truly in their hearts no feelings towards Him, whatever knowledge they may have in their heads ; — no wonder that these classes, whose theology I am now endeavouring to present to you in its native barrenness, that you may know to be upon your guard against their affected offence at our Christian liberty, do very seldom if ever refer these various evidences of the Creator's power, with which they affect to be impressed, to one living intelligent being. They are content with them in their scattered variety ; they keep them diffn.sed abroad, and feign a devout regard upon beholding the wonderful or beautiful object, as if it were a limb, or presence, or function of the Divinity. They make no transference of the visible wonder to the great invisible Wonderful ; no transference of the visible bounty to the Theology of Nature. 15 All-bountifiil. They adore it as it lies before tlicm, thoy sing of it, tbey speak of it as if it Avere a superior existence, and not a piece of inanimate matter, held in being, wrought upon, and beautified by the good pleasure of the everlasting God. So that their God is nothing but a collection of qualities or properties. He hath no existence in their imagination or their heart, but only in their knowledge and their sense, and hath no effect upon their minds further than the properties of creation which they see and know. That is, they have no God. They pay their reverence to creation, but not to a Creator ; and if they may be said to have any religion, it is alto- gether materialism or the poetiy of materialism. If, instead of allowing these properties of tlie material universe to be abroad, dispersed, and disjoined, they referred them to one invisible agent, the Creator and Conductor of all, then indeed they might gradually come by the notion of an intelligent and a powerful God, of whom their mind might stand in awe, even when they beheld no images of His presence. For He would not only be the representative of so man}^ properties and works as they beheld, but He would be the representative of power and wisdom in the absolute, — self-existent and self-deter- mining. And they might stand in awe of Him as capable of putting forth that power in ways undisplayed before them, and at times and seasons to them unknown. Siich a conception of God as a living, intelligent workman of all we behold, and of ourselves, could not fail to induce upon the mind a habitual regard of some kind, and they might then lay claim to a sentiment of religion. But as it is commonly with these people, their notion of God hath no effect at all ; it is merely a generalisation of science, the law that expresses all creation and all change, — a regulated thing which keeps things in their courses, itself as much defined and regulated as that which it defines, — the Fate of the ancients, or the Nature of the moderns. Of which melancholy fact all their language indicates the certainty. They fcilk of the works of nature, the laws of nature, the 1 6 Ethical. phenomena of nature ; and if liaply tliey allude to anything above or beyond nature, it is by the name of the Author of nature. Now, supposing them to have made this step from the visible creation to an intelligent Creator, and that they did habitually, upon beholding nature, connect her forms and changes with a s^^perior Being, they are still remote from any apprehension of the Christian's God, and incapable of those affections which we feel towards the God who is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. They have evidences of immeasui'able power ; but power doth not beget love, other- wise absolute kings and conquerors of the earth would be the objects of love, whereas they are the objects of dread, and create around them only timorous, crouching slaves. And so it is that whoever fastens upon God's attribute of sovereignty or power, and placeth that chiefly before his eyes, becomes a timorous devotee, a superstitious feeble slave. So that the philosopher who knows only His power, were at every step ready to prostrate his spirit through fear, did he not defend himself with the idea mentioned above, that this powerful Being is somehow limited by the rules of nature, or subject to fate, as the ancients more honestly expressed it. They are not delivered from this dilemma of either constantly dreading or constantly limit- ing their God, by the perception of His wonderful wisdom and deep design in all things which He doth. For this wisdom is only another kind of power, rendering Him who possesseth it doubly armed, and removing Him still further from that neighbourhood within which our affections re- main. If, indeed, they could make out His goodness and tender merc3^ His grace and long-suffering, His love and forgiveness, and other attributes visible in the revealed and incarnate Word, — if they could read them upon the face of this fallen and suffering world, or discern them in this mixed and miserable constitution of human nature, then will I allow that their philosophical tuition might serve them for a religion, and bring them into some congeniality with Christian feeling. But, as it is, they stand remote Theology of Nature. ij from everytliing that can awaken towards God the pulsa- tions of gladness and atJection within the heart of man. For power begetteth only dread, as men all feel in the presence of powerful agents, as arbitrary kings, wily poli- ticians, amongst men ; as the cataract, the tornado, or the tempestuous ocean, in natural things. And wisdom far surpassing our o"wn, begetteth caution, unless we know that it is used only for good ends, which the distressed condition of the world doth not assiire us of. And to work affection towards God. nothing availeth save the knowledge of His affection ; to beget trust, nothing availeth but His proved honesty ; and to engender hope, nothing but His promises made and faithfully performed ; and to ensure complete devotion to His will, nothing prevaileth over our natural selfishness save the combination in one Being of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, love, and truth. Now, while men rest in this general, A^ague apprehension of the Divinity, cloudy, dim, and obscure, the influence of their faith in Him is nothing whatever. He is retired, He dwelleth unknowTi, nature pursueth her steady course, genei'ation succeedeth generation, and since the fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were. God passeth into oblivion. Nature supplanteth Him. Our souls are escaped from. His influence, and His blessing cometh not over them. And we are at the mercy of accident and change, even as if we knew not God. And accordingly you shall find these philosojDhical believers, who are full of affectation for the honoin- of the Godhead, and marvel at the fanatical freedom and cant of Methodists, and float away in idle speculations upon the majesty and might of the Eternal, how in every instance they will take His name in vain, indulge their thoughts in every range of malice and wickedness, and break every commandment without remorse. They are a sort of sentimentalists in religion. Words are the coin in which they pay the I'e- quirements of God, — censorious words upon those who live in familiarity of speech with the ]\Iost High, and compli- mentary speeches to their own cold hearted resen^e and c 1 8 Ethical. distance, which they would have to pass current for signs of their high regard. Such religion is utterly worthless. It is valued neither in heaven above nor in the earth below. In heaven all is heart and affection, and such dry salutations of the intellect have no currency. On earth they have no use, being compatible with the violation of every moral and religious duty. Yet these people take airs and affect importance, and would not for the world have themselves likened to any low, vulgar religionist. Wretched men ! they do but deceive their own souls, and harden them against repentance. For till they curtail the distance at which they stand, till they break down the barriers of formality which they have established betwixt themselves and God, and know Him in the familiar rela- tions of Father, and Friend, and Saviour, as well as those of Creator and Euler, they shall make no progress in the way that leadeth unto life eternal. ANALOGY BETWEEN NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL PROCESSES. Certainly it is not accidental, that the natural world should bear such wonderful analogies with, and afford so many emblems or similitudes for expressing, the spiritual world : for that we call accidental which happens but seldom and unexpectedly : that which exhibits itself regu- larly, according to a law or order of its own, we call of purpose and design. Now, the case before us is really such, that the natural world is used in divine revelation, not in one part, but in all its parts, as if it were the proper types for making the things which are not seen intelligible. And the question is. How cometh this to pass? The common resolution of the difficulty is, that the present aspect of the fallen creation is a rude representation of what it was in its oi'iginal beauty ; and doth, like a crumb- ling ruin, afford some faint and imperfect notion of its ancient magnificence. This observation, in itself, I believe to be true; but as a solution of the difficulty before us, it Natural and Spiritual Processes. 1 9 is inadequate and incomplete, and its incompleteness hath, given rise to a great deal of error. For, in the first place, though it well expro« eth the great obscuration and deteri- oration of all things, it does not meet the difficulty of explaining why the ru.ious creation was just left at that state of ruin in which ■ might serve to commemorate its primitive perfection. \\ hy stands it, like Tadmor and Palmj-ra, a monum»^nt of former grandeur ; and not rather, like Nineveh or habylon, which tell no tales of their for- mer glory'' Besides, it is a false similitude that fallen nature is like a ruin in its fall ; seeing it is not crumbling, nor unstable, nor covered over with the dust of ages, but a fol^-^ic firm and orderly, fresh and beautiful, standing to its ancient constitutions, and fulfilling the intentions of its Creator. There is a mighty power, there is an infinite variety, there is an unspeakable grace in all its operations and productions ; insomuch that it is ever stealing away the worship and the adoration of men ; and hath so charmed the minds of this scientific and tasteful generation, that by thousands, and tens of thousands, they are leaving the worship of Christ for the worship of nature. And, though doubt there can be none, that in all its parts nature is underlying the sore and grievous curse which M'as pro- noxmced upon it after the Fall, and hath shared the bitter portion, of its master; yet is it not a decayed and decay- ing ruin, but a firm and enduring structure, constituted under strong and sure laws, which preserve themselves unbroken until this day. So that the question still re- maineth, Plow is it that this sinful and anger-stricken work of God should contain in it the similitude of that perfect condition in which we at present believe, and hope here- after to be possessed of ? Moreover, to say that nature in. its fallen state carries a certain resemblance to the unfallen creation, which God pronounced very good, is a mere hypo- thesis at the best ; for we have no such records of the un- fallen creation as to enable us to compare them together : and if the hypothesis could be assured, it has nothing to do with the difficulty before us, which is uot how nature c 2 20 Ethical. should be like the first creation, but how it should shadow forth the regeneration, that perfect condition of things yet to be, at present believed in, and hereafter to be mani- fested, which we call spiritual and eternal. But, worse than all, it is a line of argument, or rather of speculation, which hath led into very great mischief those divines who have adopted it; giving rise to a notion of the revealed law, as if it were only a republication of the law of crea- tion, and had respect to the first Adam, shewing us what he was ; not to the second Adam, shewing us what he was to be. From which doating and dreaming about the re- vealed law as the picture of man's primitive condition, hath come the false and heretical notion, that if you make a good use of it you may set human nature upon its feet again ; as if we had power in ourselves to regenerate our- selves, and wanted only a model to do the work by, which model God had kindly afibrded us in the revealed law. To all such idlers I would say, " Go, try your hand at recti- ficat on upon some of the lower parts of the fallen universe : instruct the elements, for example, that they should do no harm ; the animals, that they should not kill each other ; the body of man, that it should not die : and when you have succeeded there, 1 will give you higher work, and advance you to set right the mainspring and master-movement of the whole, which is the will or spirit of man." Every account of the matter drawn from the retrospec- tion of the first estate of man rejecting, therefore, as crude and insufScient, which hath neither sound principle nor profitable end, I proceed to render what I conceive to be the only true resolution of the question : which is simply the statement of a doctrine, — that I believe God hath ordained nature in its present form, and established it according to its present laws, for the single and express puipose of shadowing forth that future perfect condition into which it is to be brought: so ihat from man down to the lowest creature, and from the animated creation down to the lowest plant, and from the vegetable creation Natural and Spiritual Processes. 2 1 fliroiighout tlie elemental and inorganic world, everything coutaineth the presentiment of its own future perfection ; hath been so constituted of God as to be prophetic thereof; and is bearing a silent witness to the redemption and resti- tution of all things which is yet to be ; is in a state of travail and great sorrow, groaning and wailing till it be delivered of its immortal birth, in the day of the manifes- tation of the sons of God. And herein lies the proper meaning of the word " nature," (iiatura, " about to be born,") that it is about to bring forth : not that it is anything, but that it is to become b}'- bearing something. ■ I conclude, that all the appointed laws and ordinances of God, whereby the earth is appointed to yield her fruits into the lap of man — the hardy tillage of the ground, the hopeful sowing of the seed, the long waiting-for of harvest, the unavoidable mixture of the tares and wheat, their careful separation in the time of harvest, the storing of the one in precious garners, and the consuming of the other with fire — will all be found to prefigure the beginning and the progress and the consummation of that more excellent husbandry, which the Lord is carrying forward over the face of all the fallen creation, and which is to end in the plentiful and joyful harvest of the Lord's coming. For why ? Are they not also a part of the redemption from death, which, being one in beginning and one in end, must be one in demonstration? From the same premises I would infer, that all which is found convenient and neces- sary for reclaiming man from the lowest condition of savage wretchedness, tending to moral death, and preserving him in peaceful and harmonious societies, tending upwards to moral life — such as criminal laws, punishments, and judgment-seats, the royal fountain of mercy, meritorious preferments of rank and honour, and the inviolate sacred- ness of domestic rights ; the whole ordinance of king and subject, nobles and people, judges and magistrates, crimes and punishments, whereby men are reclaimed and redeemed from that wretchedness in ivhich they are found in the state of nature — will all be found to shadow forth that divine 2 2 Ethical. government wliicli God exercisetli over His cburcli, and by which He pieservetli the peace and prosperity of Zion. And this same observation I would extend to every ordi- nance of God by which the health and well-being of the creatures are preserved : for they are only parts of that great work of redemption which was procured by the death of Christ ; and to what else then should they tend, but to declare and foreshew the work of redemption, which by His death was completed as to the purchase and the pledge ; which by His restin-ection was begun as to the operation of the Spirit ? — for I reckon that not the concep- tion of the fleshly body, biit the resurrection of the glorious body of Christ, was the beginning of the redemp- tion of the world. This idea of the natural world, as being merely the promise of a birth, forms the basis of what is called " natural religion ;" which is not, as they define it, to discover a religion distinct from Christianity or revela- tion, but to shew that nature, or rather the culture of nature's barrenness and the promotion of her well-being, is leally a lower revelation, a preparation for what hath been brought to light by Christ ; so that, as Paul saith, " the invisible things of God from the beginning of the world are clearly seen, even His eternal power and Godhead." This idea also contains the link between all natural sciences and the revelation of our redemption ; making nature the handmaiden of grace, and everything venerable in society to serve for the outward court of the Christian temple. * * * You may depend upon it, therefore, that the laws of all life, vegetable, animal, mental (soulal), and spiritual, are one and the same, though diiferent in degree ; and all derived from one and the same sacrifice of our blessed Lord and Saviour, ofiered from all eternity ; without which there v/ould have been no life, but an universal death. And you may rest assured also, that the lower is always typical of the higher ; and that the knowledge of the higher is best ascended into through the progression of the lower. We ought not to wonder, therefore, that the Nature Worship : Its Falseness. 23 Holy Spirit continually useth the emblems or symbols derived frijui vegetable and human life — the sowing of the seed and the harvest, the biith of the child and the full- grown man — to set forth spiritual things withal. And you ought not to say, they are finely chosen similitudes, but, they are rightly appropriated types. And, however much our men of taste and sentiment do laugh at the spiritualis- ings of our fathers, I dare to believe and to say, that to spiritualise nature is rightly to interpret nature ; and that the greater part of our Lord's discourses are nothing but divine exercises of this kind ; and so of His parables also. NATURE WOESHIP : ITS FALSENESS. There is no worse sign of the times we live in, no clearer proof of the debasement of the soul of man, and demonstra- tion of the ignorance of the world to come, than the many poems which are written, and the many songs which are sung, and the many journeys which are performed, in honour of certain lovely scenes and beautiful objects of nature. They will call me a Goth for saying so : but it is a Christian, and a Christian minister, who speaketh so ; and one who heretofore drank at this fountain as copious draughts as any of the nature-worshippers. But how can any one who is at all interested in the primeval state of paradise which he hath lost, or at all believeth in the millennial and the eternal glory of the world of which he is an heir, take delight and shout forth joyfully in con- templating the present misery of the lower world ; when he beholdeth the sandy wastes, the nigged mountains, the hoary forests, the inhospitable climates of beat and cold, the changeful accidents of thunderstorm and thunderbolts, the avalanches of snow and inundations of wasteful waters, the iron frosts, the drenching rains ; in one woi'd, the natural barrenness of the earth's bosom, and the evil con- ditions which £he underlieth since the Fall ? I speak not 24 Ethical. now of the partial deliverance which the well-bestowed sweat of man may give her from the rugged wilderness of her nature ; but 1 speak of her proper nature, and show you how ill-attuned to truth are those rapturous strains which they utter over the elemental world. If I speak of the element of air, which was made to nourish human life, what infinite variations is it not liable to, every one burdened with pain and death to thousands ! "What unwholesome vapours, what deadly blasts, what desolating storms ! Look, and behold how almost one half of man's care and labour is to defend himself from the ills with which the air is loaded. His clothing, his houses, his fires, and all his other shelters, cannot spin out to threescore years and ten that term of life which at the beginning was made to endure for a thousand. — If I speak of the element of water, which was made to sustain both vegetable and animal life, behold how it hath drowned more than half the world, swamped a goodly portion of the rest, gathered itself into wide-spread lakes, seas, and oceans, leaving great portions of the earth parched, barren, and blighted, for want of sufficient supplies. And though the labour of man hath made its streams and rivers both useful and ornamental, how little so they are by natural inclination is beheld in the mighty rivers of the western hemisphere rushing through the depths of hoar}' forests, and filled with every beast the most destructive of human life. And over that element how little has man the power, who cannot cross a brook or inland bay without peril of his life, and must bridge it over with laborious masonry, or boat across it with a continual risk of life ! — If I should speak of the element of earth, how it runneth to waste as fast as it can, and hasteth to become a wilderness inacces- sible to the tread of man ; giving itself up to be tenanted by the beasts of prey, or by the serpent's slimy brood ; what poisons it produceth, what cold damps it exhaleth, what interruptions to the going forth of man ; what toil it taseth him withal ; what long hours of labour, what long weeks and months of patient and watchful toil, yea, what Nature Wors/iip : Its Falseness. 25 generations of a laborious population, must be given to it before it will consent to produce in any abundance, or to support in any considerable numbers, the race of men. Before you can set an ordinary meal upon your table, how many hands must have laboured, how many brows sweat, how many careful hearts coml ined before it came thither; but if you would set forth a feast, how many lives must have been perilled, how many lashes of the whip endured, how much blood shed in desolating war, before the raw material of it can be brought to 3'our home ; how many ingenious men must have laboured in the shop, how many in the damp and darksome mine, how many broiled their faces over the oven, before it can be placed in a comely style upon our tables ; — and how we are foot-bound to little spots of the earth's surface, removing to and fro with infinite pains and toils : and this law of gravitation brings us plumb down if we would ascend to any elevation above the earth : and the laws of space and time set a fearful restraint upon the freedom of the human will, and the libert}'' of human action. — But it is endless and infinite to speak of the miserable plight into which that elemental nature hath been reduced, which was created to be the vital breath of our life, the wholesome nourishment of our body, the obedient servant of oiir will. Now, how men, looking upon the violent hands which sin hath laid upon these things, and the base servitude into which they are compelled by Satan, " the prince of the power of the air," and " the ruler of the darkness of this world," can do anj-thing but pity and lament their miser- able case, I greatly wonder. It seems to me little less than an insult to the poor sin-enthralled and suffering creature, to lift ujd in its ear a pasan of joy ; and it argues, in all who do so, either great ignorance and insensibility towards the creature, or great degradation and debasement in themselves. Indeed, I trace it to nothing else than Satan's having blinded our eyes to our own bondage under this same evil law, that we feel not the kindred bondage of our own body and mind ; are not taught to groan within 26 Ethical. ourselves, and cannot hear tlie groanings of all nature around us. AVe accept Satan's ofl'er of this world and its kingdoms, and fall down and worship them : we delight ourselves with them as they are ; we share not their burden, we pity not their slavery, we are not vexed that we should be defeated of their ministry ; we look not for any deliverance or emancipation for them ; we care not to hear of it : and so we are stolen away from the hope of Christ's advent to redeem the body, and all the creatures dependent upon the body, from their thraldom. These same views, which it is proper for a good and wise man to live under with respect to the ground which God hath cursed, it is proper for him to live under with respect to all the living creatures, or the whole animal creation, which are cursed along with it. Their birth in groaning agony ; their life in continual peril of one another; the absolute necessity, in order to live, that they should make war upon one another ; their continual tendency to the wild and savage state, and in that state their furious and inveterate destruction of one another ; the defensive attitudes which the beasts of the field must maintain against the winged creatures of the air, and these again against the beasts of the field, and both against the creeping things of the earth. And then, how man for his own defence must turn out, with all his faculties, and circumvent and slay the wild creatures which have made the earth their own ; and, in order to live, must for many generations feed on them almost entirely. And when he hath reclaimed the forest, and made it a fertile field, how still the sheep that clothes him must be led to the slaughter, and the bullock that labours his field must be stalled for the knife. It is very pitiful to look at a city full of peaceable and ingenious men ; to see what droves and flocks must pass into their gates for destruction; and at what a fearful expense of animal life human life must be supported. And you cannot mend it. It is a constitution of things which at the best is bad. For if you relax your bondage, the tamed beasts run wild again, and destroy the face of the Nature Worship : Its Falseness. 2 7 reclaimed ground: or if you cease to feed upon them, they multiply, and eject man from his right. And if you stand still or relax in the labouring of the ground, it returns to thorns and thistles, and noxious animals in- crease apace : vermin of every name, weeds of every description, and wild beasts which are able to destroy man at a blow : these all hang upon the rearward of civilisation, to cut us off if we fall back. We cannot stand still ; the feller must ply his work, the hunter must ply his work, the fattener must ply his work, the slayer must ply his work : for if man do it not according to a measure of humanity and wisdom, the beasts will do it themselves, without either humanity or wisdom. He that looks on these things and beholdeth not the bond- age of all creatures under the law of corruption, is indeed blinded by the god of this world : he that looks upon these things and feeleth not, is lost to all tenderness of feeling : he that looks upon them and hopes not and desires not the day of redemption, is indeed deprived of the sweetest con- solation of this our fallen and sinful estate. Do I say that we ought to weep and make continual lamenting, as your sensitive sentimentalists and shrinking men of feeling do ? No ! It is the ordinance of God for this sinful estate, to keep it from utter death and dissolution. It is death warded off to a distance. It is the blossoming of a life which the wasting winds are always nipping. But we cannot make a better of it : we cannot change it : we may humanise it — that is, bring it under the dominion of man, cultivate the earth, and tame the animals, and those that will not be tamed destroy ; the poisonous extirpate, the ravenous re- strain ; and seek to subdue all things to wholesome laws, and be ourselves subject to the same. This is all that is in our power : and, when thus the creature hath been improved to the utmost, look around you, in this very island, and behold whether the crimson dye hath been taken out of it. No, there it is ; kept out of sight as much as may be ; but defying all power beneath the moon to alter it. You might as well think to clear the aii- of tempests, or the sea of 28 Ethical. storms, or tlie earth of stubborn unwillingness to yield anything of herself better than thorns and briers, as think to cure or remedy the stern law of pain and death, and obstinate resistance unto man, under which the creatures have come. Yes, 1 will tell j^ou what more we can do after we have done all that British civilisation — and there is none so perfect in the world — hath brought about. We can under- stand the account which God hath given us of this the evil constitution of the creatures : we can search into His revelation concerning it ; and, finding that it was not so in the ^beginning, but came by sin, for the fault of man, we can hate sin the more bitterly; while we the more poignantly- repent of our sins, and drop a tear for this suffering creation ; and lead upwards to heaven's gate the doleful song of our common suffering ; and pray for that redemption in which we are taught to believe; and bless the Redeemer the more diligently ; and call upon the sun and moon and stars, whose brilliancy the thick clouds hath obscured ; and call upon the air, whose balmy sweetness Satan hath poisoned ; and upon the woods and the waters, which savage beasts have usurped, for a concealment whence to come forth against man, their sovereign lord ; and the earth, and every plant which drinks the dew, and every beast which crops the herb, and every thing that hath a being, can we, yea, ought we, and will we, when thus schooled, call upon to praise and bless the Redeemer, who preserved them from instant death, hath continued tbem in an embr^'o life, and will bring them into perfect, glorious, and eternal harmony and well-being for ever. And, of man, made to be the ruler of all these things whose desecration I have been setting forth, how great is the degradation in himself, and the hard inflexible law of evil under which he hath been bound ! Look at him, as you find him without the helping and healing hand of law ; behold him as he traverseth the deserts and roameth in the woods ; or look at him in a civilised state, when anything hath loosened the bit and bridle of government Nature Worship : Its Falseness. 29 with Avliicli liis mouth is held, as he was in France some thirty j^ears ago ; or look at him within the bounds of law, intoxicating himself, degrading himself beneath the brutes; fighting, raging, and rioting in every possible disguise ; or look at him when escaping the law, prowling about like the wolf, and more cunning than the fox, more fell than the tiger, and more diligent in tracking his prey than the stanchest of the bloodhoimd tribes. But, oh ! behold his wars; the fury of his onset, the stoutness of his battle, the havoc of his victory. For example's sake, behold a man who hath over-topped law, and reached the liberty of shewing what is in man, — a Napoleon, for instance, — see millions fall before him, and fall behind him ; his own eye unbedewed, his own cheek unblanched, his heart unconscious of a pang, while he lets slip the last pack of his bloodhounds. Oh! oh! surely man, the master of all, who hath fallen from the greatest height of all, hath also fallen to the greatest depth of all. Nor can this be helped : for if civilised states will not study war, and stand in an offensive attitude, then, as heretofore, the barbarous people, with which the earth teems, allured on by the scent of prey, will come down upon them like the wolf upon the fold, and cast the world long centuries back into the dreary waste of ignorance and lawlessness. It is as vain to talk of peace and peace societies, in the pi'esent dispensation, as to talk of a cloud- less sky and an untempestuous sea. And it is vain to decry the calling of a soldier, as if it were not as necessary to the well-being of any state as the calling of a hunter and a husbandman : the first, to bridle savage nations and arrest ambitious men ; the second, to clear the woods and coverts of destructive creatures ; and the third, to clear the earth of thorns and briers and bristly forests. These vain theories of a federal union of kingdoms to abolish war ; and of the gradual influence of the people over their rulers, preventing wars ; and of the common interest whicli commerce engenders gradually making war to cease, are all vague and unsound, and based upon a false assump- 30 Ethical. tion, that man is able to alter the iron conditions into which the Fall has brought him, and in which the Almighty Will doth keep him till the Eedeemer shall come to take possession of the purchased inheritance. So also are the theories, which in these infidel years have crept in, concerning crimes and punishments, and all legal restraints, as if they were cruelties and arbitrary imposi- tions upon the subject ; as if it were highly unphiloso- phical, as they are pleased to term it, to make man respon- sible for what his circumstances necessarily engender in him. As if man had no power to say / will not, as if he had no conscience to say / must not. And the philo- sophical destroyers have come the length of saying, that he is not responsible for his faith ; which truly is to say, that he is not responsible for knowledge, or feeling, or action, which all contribute in their spheres to a soil and atmosphere for faith. The reprobates have passed all bound ; they are ready to burst all barriers : they have become fanciful, notional, empirical, with respect to every reasonable principle of human well-being and axiom of human life. And ever and anon, as they destroy another timber in the structure, and pull down another stone in the foundation, they say, " See what discoveries we are making ! see what knowledge we have attained to ! Oh, what fools our fathers were ! oh, what wise men we ! Such an age of light it is ! Wonderful what achieve- ments of liberal principles! Surely the world will be perfected in our time ! " To me it is manifest, from these very occurrences, that the ship is breaking up, when, in the midst of a perilous voyage, (for this all allow,) the carpenters are giving her as thorough a repair as if she were in the dock. ( 31 ) INTELLECTUAL ATHEISM. Ah ! brethren, it is not your Humes and Voltaires and Paines, who make a people incapable of receiving the word : these men are creatures of the hour ; cast up by the current, like sandy islands of the sea, or floating substances, which the eddy of the current whirleth into a certain consistency and driveth at its will : but it is ignorance and sensuality, and intellect employed upon merely outward things, which makes men fall away by whole hosts from the belief of Divine truth. Our people are become altogether outward and unspiritual : be they learned, it is in outward knowledge ; be they political, it is for the greatest visible advantage ; be they of the unlearned classes, they are degraded with hard labour, re- lieved with sensual indulgence, and i-egaled with malici- ous speeches and schemes against their sttperiors. They are alike ignorant that they have a spirit immortal, to rule the sense, presently oppressed by the sense, and by Christ to be redeemed from the sense. Talk to them of their spirit, they will ask you to prove its existence ; as if a man should ask you to prove that he hath eyes, which if he have not yet discovered, you need not much trouble yourself with the proof: so these men, having no belief in the spirit, or the conscience, or the responsible will, but saying, I am as God made me, and caring not to know what God hath done or said to redeem them, do shew that they cannot understand the word of God, which speaketh to the spirit, and will not hold any converse with the sense alone, save to rebuke it for its base pre.simiption to set itself up to rule, nor with the understanding which judgeth by the sense, save to rebuke its preposterous pride in exalting itself above its place of servant to the spirit. And thus it cometh to pass, that multitudes cannot receive the seed of the word of Hod, because they under- stand it not, having oppressed tlie faculty which alone is competent to understand it ; upon whom it falleth like seed upon the arid and frequcnud highway, to be tram 32 Ethical. pled under foot or snatched away ; and well may it be said of such, " Eyes have they, but they see not ; ears have they, but they hear not ; neither do they under- stand." That this is the present character of our lettered classes, I have not ceased from declaring since it pleased God to call me to this ministry: and that they will use their influence, through their vile traffic in newspapers and magazines, and by schools of various sorts, to impress the same character upon the common people also, I have from the beginning perceived, and I am glad that at length my brethren in the ministry are beginning to perceive it like- wise. Now, where lies the cure ? I believe the cure would have lain in preventing it; and that when it is once established, there is no cure but in destruction : society must go to wreck for ever, or else one generation must must be well-nigh cut off. A nation never recovers gradually out of an unspiritual state, when it hath suffered itself to fall away from one that is spiritual. The disease bursts out in a running sore of revolution, and it is long, long before it heals. But Avhy is there no cure? For this reason, that when a people fear not God they will no longer regard the laws and ordinances of Juan. Eeligion is not a thing of the creed merel}^ though its foundation be there : the family rests upon it ; the marriage knot is tied by it, and all the social obligations ; the political bond is joined by it : every relation of superiors with inferiors hath its safeguard in religion, which is the reverence of invisible obligation. Make man disbelieve the invisible in the highest sphere of the Divine will, and he will soon disregard it in the lower spheres of the family, the house- hold, and the state. Even already it is come to be disre- garded with us among servants, who often see in their masters more to hate than to love : even now it is disre- garded in the state, which is more talked against than commended by the people. And what family ties aie there amongst our operative classes, I know, who have seen them in their best and worst conditions ; and am bold to declare, Intellectual Atheism. 'i^'^^ that in general parents make gain of their children, and children seek to be rid of their parents. Would to God this were the painting of my imagination ! I cannot say, with St. Paul, that I could wish myself accursed from Christ so that it were not so ; but I can say, I would give this life ten times over that it were but a dream of my own. But I have seen it all, and see it growing daily worse ; and I know it must be so in such a state of outwardness as we are come into. "But what is the cure?" I sa}', the only cure is Jehovah's right hand and outstretched ai'm, which will come in time. " But what is the part of the minister of the gospel in such a crisis ? " To tell that the wrath is gathering. " And no more ? " To tell the people to flee from it, and lay open the way of escape by repentance and tui"ning imto the Lord. " And no more?" Yea, no more. " May not you argue it with the people ? " Ay, argue it ; but this is the only argument they wdll bear : for they see nothing but their interest and pleasure, and they hear nothing but their pi'ofit and loss ; therefore the Lord is about to plead with them by blows and bereavements. " May we not condescend to argue it in the court of the intellect merely ? " I think not. " May we not dress out an argument of the political advantage?" I think not. " AVhen then?" Give forth the truth in a thundering peal of wrath : " Eepent, or ye shall all likewise perish : Repent and believe, or ye shall all likewise perish." So the question standeth with the idolaters of the sen- sible and visible, of the profitable and expedient, who in these times compose the great body of the people, both learned and unlearned, both high and low ; to whom Satan appeareth as the prince of the knowledge and power of the visible world ; wherewith he doth so take and captivate their senses, and occupy all the faculties of their mind (if mind it may be called) as to make them blind and deaf, and of little or no understanding to hear, discern, or apprehend the eternal truth, which is only spiritually discerned. This is his infidel form, dressed out in all the 34 Ethical. glory of natural science, and all the ornaments of the fine and mechanical arts ; as he now sheweth himself in this land, yea, in this age, leading an immense multitude away from the faith of the gospel, and scattering diverse tempta- tions into the Church ; which are taking effect and pro- ducing the affectation of science, and scientific language, and scientific methods of education, to which this age is so very prone. And connected with it you shall always find either refined or vulgar sensuality ; the ambition of bodily or household ornaments and indulgences ; the thirst for money to gratify the same ; the ambition of outward dis- tinctions and visible glories for vanity and ostentation, with a great quantity of furniture and apparatus of life unknown and desired in a simple and spiritual age which, if you would behold, look around you: whereby Satan not only hath led astray the whole faculty of the scientific men of Europe, with some one or two exceptions, but the great body of the undergraduates and day-labourers in this fraternity — that is, the artists and the artizans, tlie mechanicians and the mechanics— of whom by far the greater multitude you shall find veiy speedily, if they be not already, plucked away from the ordinance of preaching, and despising the word of God, which, amongst its other blessings, hath made us such a wise and skilful people. Wherein behold the black ingratitude of the child to the mother ; for the sj^iritual is that Avhich hath given to this land such mighty power over the mechanical, as now hath caught us and our rulers with its idolatry : for which ingratitude to His Church, when the Lord's long- suffering is exhausted, we shall be visited with those terrible judgments whereby alone the Lord is able to make a sensual and outward people to understand His voice. ( 35 ) THE NECESSITY OF FORMS, The twofold nature of man, body and spirit, maketli it necessary that eveiytliing by which he is to be moved shotild have an outward form. While yet it lives in spiritual essence alone, it is to him as if it lived not, and its life hath over his life no influence or control. Hence the great Father of Spirits hath given to all the attributes of His being an outward form and manifestation. The heavens declare His glory, and the earth sheweth forth His handiwork ; and the sun which circleth round the earth, is the tabernacle of His eflfulgency. The written law, which is holy and just and good, is the form of His holiness ; and the gospel of His Son is the form of His mercy and grace. Heaven is the outward form of His blessedness, and Hell of His fearful wrath against the rebellious. And every doctrine in revelation is a form to the intellect of some spiritual attribute of the Invisible ; — the doctrine of the atonement, of His justice ; the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, of His help. And to the most noble and capital truths or doctrines, He giveth not only a form for the intellect, but for the very sense of man. His incar- nate Son is the fleshly form of His glory, and the visible image of His person. The doctrine of our natural corrup- tion and gTacious purification by the blood of Christ, hath the sensible form of baptism. And the doctrine of our continued sustenance by His "Word and Spirit, hath the sensible form of the supper. And the doctrine of the creation of the world, and the resurrection of Christ, which is the re-creation of the world, hath the sensible form of the weekly Sabbath. And the visible Church is the sensi- ble form of the heavenly communion. And there is nothing in the being and purposes of God, which it might benefit man to know, that hath not a form of expressing itself to the soul of man through the intellect or through the sense, Ivow, in like manner as God hath given to His spiritiial being a constant form in revelation, so hath He appointed D 2 36 Ethical. nnto His servants to manifest ilieir spiritual being under some constant form. To every man in his station He hath appointed his duties ; to the servant and the master, the husband and the wife, the parent and the child, the ruler and the ruled ; which duties are the outward form which His Holy Spirit taketh in these persons and con- ditions. To a rich man, he hath given rules how to use his riches, and to a poor man, how to bear his poverty ; to a wise man, how to use his wisdom, and to a fool, how he may be cured of his folly ; to the strong, how to employ his strength, and to the sick, how to bear his affliction. And so to all the various gifts of nature, allotments of pro- vidence, and preferments of rank and power, hath God appointed a certain formulary for their right manifesta- tion in the sight of man; nor alloweth, without rebuke and chastisement, that these conditions should be other- wise occupied than for the ends for which He hath bequeathed them diversely, that they might rightly oc- cupy the diverse members of His great household, and bring out the common weal of the whole family. And while over every chamber of this world's variety He ap- pointed a spiritual servant to preside, He did also appoint an order of men superior to these, who should travel over the many chambers of the house, and see that each servant was rightly occupying till the great householder should come ; stewards who should neither occupy the treasuiy chambers, nor the attiring rooms, nor the bazaars of busi- ness, nor the museums of knowledge, nor the shops of art, nor the halls of judgment, nor the apartments of state and dignity, nor the saloons of grace and beauty, nor the awful places of throned sovereignty ; but who should travel over all these from room to loom, even from the dark and laborious ft)undations up to the stately elevations and gilded pinnacles of society, surveying the work and occu- pation of every inhabitant, and carefull3^ keeping them to the right and diligent performance of their several parts, that they may be able to render an account of their work when the Lord shall come to call the work of every man Necessity of Forms. 37 into jiulgmcnt. This watchful, careful office appcrtaineth to the minister of the gospel or the pastor of the souls of the people, iu which, if he faithfully travel, his shall be a great reward. But if he stoop to engage himself with any of the diverse traffics, and, meanwhile, for want of careful oversight and spiritual instruction, the souls committed to him go astray to serve other masters than the Lord, their blood shall surel}' be upon his head. Now, if the Lord our God hath taken to Himself a form in the Scriptures for the instruction of man, and hath instnicted each of us in His station to take a form for the edification of one another, and wherever His counsels are revered and obeyed, hath added the form of a minister, who, standing aloof from the several engagements and their temporal i-ewards, shall be His voice and messenger imto the people, satisfied with the singular dignity thereof; is it to be believed that He should have appointed no outward form to those chief and leading men, who were to carry abroad over the earth these celestial instnictions, and teach the nations to rule their character and set forth their works after the Avill and pleasure of their heavenly Father ; that giving to all others good and particular instructions, how they shall best and most happily fill their stations, He should leave the perilous apostles and missionaries of the whole institution no instructions as to the form which they should take, in order to move the nations and prevail on them to return to their rightful fealty to the Most High ? This were to build a ship, with occupations for a numerous crew, and berths provided for many officers and men, but to make no provision how she should be launched into the deep ; or, being launched into the deep, it were to fill her with plentiful supplies to some distressed colon}', and man her with able hands, but make no provision of a skilful pilot and good instructions to carry her through the strong currents and stormy winds which set adverse to her course. The thing is not once to be imagined of Him who is All-wise and All-provident, as well as All-good and bountiful. A priori, before any appeal to the fact, it may 38 Ethical. be concluded that tlie missionary, doubtless, will have his form, as well as the people whom it is his calling to inform after the will of God. And his form will be after the fashion of the minister or pastor, somewhat more devout and adventurous, as the discoverer and subduer of a country needeth to be more adventurous than he who keepeth it under regiment. The one fearless, the other watchful ; the one expedite and ready for all encounters, the other burdened with many charges ; the missionary a spiritual warrior, the pastor a spiritual shepherd. ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY. The first great end which is served by a revelation of the being and attributes of God is to recover the worship and homage of His children from those idols to which, in the absence of revelation, all men do naturally devote them- selves ; and the best evidence which any man can have that he doth rightly apprehend and appropriate the reve- lation which God hath given, is that the excellence and beauty thereof hath weaned him away from the particular, idol on which his love was set, and reigneth supreme over his whole heart and strength and soul and mind. For as no nation hath yet been found so low and degraded as to be without their idols, nor any nation before the time of Christ so civilised by sciences or arts — for example, Egypt, Greece, and Eome — as to be above the same prostration of the soul; so we hold that, since the coming of Christ, there is no nation, nor class of men, nor single man, let them call themselves Atheists, Deists, or Unitarians, who are delivered from idol-worship, neither can be saved but by the faith of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. This will seem a very bold and uncharitable asser- tion, if by an idol you understand only that which is fabri- cated of wood or stone or clay or precious metal, which truly is not the idol, but the image or symbol of the idol. The idol itself is the idea which the worshippers Origin of Idolatry. 39 form concerning his being and powers, and the Avorship of the idol is the subjecting of their faith to that idea which the}' have fonned. The statue or pictui-e is a reve- lation of the god to the sense, which the sense doth bow to and reverence ; but if there be any affection of the mind, as hope or desire, or pui-pose of any kind, engaged in the worship — which, indeed, there seldom is in image- worship — it pays its homage, not to the sensible object before the eye, but to the idea of power, of mercy, or of goodness residing in the being of which that image is the symbol. The essence of idolatry, therefore, con- sists in the mind worshipping its own conceptions and ideas, however exalted and enlarged, instead of the living and true God, who made the heavens and the earth, and all the creatures which are therein. And in this sense it is that we asserted above that no nation, nor class, nor individual, are free from idol-worship until they receive by faith that revelation which God hath given of Himself as Father, Son, and H0I3' Ghost. Into the consideration of which matter let us now enter at large. All idolatry hath its origin in the veiy highest regions of the mind, being nothing else than the strong effort of the mind to constitute forms of being more noble than itself, before whom it may confess the infirmities which compass it about, and of whom it may seek counsel and help in the midst of the perplexities which beset its course. It is the natural form of piety and reverence and religion towards that which is higher than we, and springs up in the mind spontaneously, as society doth towards our equals in being, and command towards our inferiors in being. ^Ve see without us a sphere of power so infinitely above the power of man, in the thunder and the hurricanes of wind, in the agitations of the deep sea and the still motions of the starry frame, — which mysteries of power the pro- gress of knowledge, far from unriddling, in its unlearned and ignorant conceit, doth at evejy step multiply the more, until every blade of grass and drop of dew is a woild of wonder within itself, and we feel within us ideas of ex- 40 Ethical. cellence in every kind beyond what we can attain nnto, or by our speech shadow forth — tnith so crystalline, purity so vestal-chaste, justice so unerring, charity so very vast, knowledge so full of light, speech so big with wisdom, motive so redolent of grace, and life so full of blessedness. All which mysteries of the inward conscience, like the mysteries of outward power, so far from being brought within our practical comprehension by progressive ad- vances therein, are widened and rendered measureless, so that the most conscientious, as the most knowing, men have by far the most clear discernment of their amplitude, and the most complete conviction of man's utter inability ever to possess them. These heights and depths and lengths and breadths in the world that is visible to the sense, and the world that is visible to the spirit, are without a people or nation to possess them, or to rule over them ; and man, by all his powers, doth only discover the more his incapacity to shake these spheres, or enjoy these very pleasant lands. He cannot think they should be without wise government and blessed possession when he perceives all the inferior provinces of nature under their several possession less or more intelligent — the sea given to the fish, the land to the tribes of beasts, and the air to the fowls of heaven, the very soil of the earth to the creeping things, and all sheep and oxen, fish and fowl and creeping things, given into the hand of man, each fitted and furnished for his several masterhood, and likewise for his several subserviency. Perceiving this in the visible, and per- ceiving likewise in the invisible that the spheres are filled by various powers of instinct, from the lowest animal up to the sphere of human intelligence, and thathiunan in- telligence is formed to discover an infinitude beyond it of nobler things, where there is no mastery or possession in the creatures, but, on the other hand, instinct to submit, reverence, and worship ; — what is left to him but to people this infinitude with nobler beings, who possess the mastery and enjoy the blessedness thereof? These are the gods of the nations, excelling one another in the greatness of their Origin of Idolatry. 41 attributes and the dignity of their forms exactly as the nations whoso worship they receive excel one another in the extent of their knowledge and the refinement of their spirit. Idolatry is, therefore, the mind's business in the ideal spheres above her, as society is her business in the real sphere around her, and power or mastery is her busi- ness in the spheres below her. And the nation which bath not devised for itself an idolatry is at the lowest and most hopeless ebb, having forgotten the faculties whereby the soul holdeth of religion. Idolatry, therefore, hath its origin in the honest faith and conviction of the mind that there is a form of being more noble than itself, and the character of the idol dependeth upon the nature of that idea which the mind hath formed concerning the most perfect forms of being. Amongst the Egyptians, who followed after the arts of peace and the culture of the earth, those were exalted into the rank of gods who had been the greatest inventors in agriculture and the arts, and under whose government the land had flourished most. Amongst the Greeks, who followed after the perfection and elegance of life, those were raised to the condition of gods who had reclaimed the earth from the power of wild beasts and savage men, and laid the rude foundations of the state. Among the northern nations, whose whole soul was bent on war, and who viewed it as a bondage to till the ground or labour in the arts of peace, the gods were invested with the fearful attributes of power and strength, and their blessedness placed in the strife of battle, the glory of revenge, and the red cup of victory. And it would be found universally, if we could trace the histoiy of idolatry to its sources, that the gods which the blinded nations worship were at first the deifications of men who excelled the rest of their kind in phj'sical and moral power, who afterwards became sym- bolical of whatever more enlarged and ennobled thoughts men afterwards attained unto in that class of the ideal region to which each of these personifications belonged. But while I thus endeavour to search out before you the 42 Ethical. origin of idolatry in the mind of man, and refer it to the high pLace to which it is entitled, let me beware of Tbeguiling you into the idea that it is a thing good in itself, or at all to be tolerated by Christian minds. It is, as we ^hall shew in the sequel, at the best but the mind's adora- tion of its own most excellent qualities — self-worship, productive of pride and selfishness, and hostile to true religion, of which the first lesson is humility, and the constant progress is charity. And when the idea becomes embodied in a sensible form, no nobleness in the thought or excellence in the workmanship can abate the debasing effect of subjecting the faith of religion to the mediation of the sense. It is putting the highest region of the soul in subjection to the lowest ; it tenants that unoccupied region with inanimate matter, and by the baseness of the inter mediiim brings the soul from its soarings down to grovel in the base substratum of the senses. God forbid that I should palliate that most hateful and wicked whoredom of the soul, against which His anger is ever kindled, and for the chastisement of which He hath armed His hand with more tenible judgments than for any other of mortal oftences ! Nay, my purpose is far otherwise ; and, if I fail not, it is a most righteous purpose, by gearching into the sources of idolatry to shew unto the men of this age, who most do pride themselves on their deliverance from idolatry', that they also are idolaters in their kind, and must continue so until they reverently submit to take lessons of simple faith, and receive those revelations which God hath made for the satisfaction of those high cravings out of which idolatry springs. To open which, the idolatry of these present times, permit me to enter a little further into the natural generation of this evil principle in the human breast. In the dawn and infancy of reason, when weakness and insignificancy of every kind compass us about, our parents become the objects of our idolatry, because we see in them a strength, and wisdom, and goodness which is ever looking with tenderness upon our ignorance and need of Origin of Idolatry. 43 help. Our strong affections leading our infant judgment, and aided by the instincts of nature and the constant presence of the object, fix upon them as the perfect fonn of being, and we render to them that homage and worship without which, as we have shewed, no spirit in an in- artificial state can ever exist. Hence in many languages the dut}^ of children to their parents is denominated by the same word — " piety " — which is used to denote reverence towards God. Of the first form of idolatry God is not jealous of the child, which, by the first of social com- mandments, He hath instructed to honour its father and mother, while by many commandments, which He hath exalted into a visible form in the rite of baptism, He hath taken careful order to instruct parents that they should take advantage of this early tendency of the infant mind to raise it to the true Father in heaven; which if they neglect to do, retaining to themselves the honour whereof they are unworthy, then it cometh to pass that their children, as they grow up and discern their miserable shortcomings in the clear-sightedness of a single eye, looking far over and beyond their worldly character into the ideal of perfection from which their parents have flinched back into base worldly measures, their better ideas having no other form or emblem to fix upon, grow roving and wandering, and clogging the affections or even the humours of their mind, they make unto themselves idols of their companions, or their mistresses, or their own selfishness, and follow after ambition, avarice, pleasure, or some fonn of wordliness, till they love the very faculty by which thej' held early communion with the perfect foims of the spirit, and sink into practical materialists or practical utilitarians, consulting only their sense and conveniency. When the intellect begins to develop itself, and to throw off childish thoughts, and we come to be introduced into the schools of knowledge, our idolatiy turns from our parents, if they have made no progress in this kind, and fixes itself upon our teacher, or our favourite author, or the most distinguished living character in that science which 44 Ethical. we follow after. Or if we be of an envious rather tlian of a generous turn, it fixes upon some one of the illustrious dead, amougst whose disciples we rank ourselves, and look- ing up to him as the real form of that intellectual perfec- tion of which we now are in quest, we pay our worship at this shrine until we see over him into another sphere, into which we look about for another idol of the intellect. And a book stored with the wisdom which we seek, or a monu- ment of art embodying the grace which we admire, or an abstract science, or one of the fine arts, or the presiding genius of them, will suffice for this cold idolatry of the intellect, which is called devoting ourselves to the Muses. But when the atfections come again into play in our manly frame, and the soul seeks about for those unions by which the misery of life may be comforted, — a friend closer than a brother, or a wife closer than a friend, — then the soul again wanders about for another living object of idolatry, and having found some one nearly expressing the idea which it has formed of perfect womanhood, it abandons itself to the idolatry of love, and adopts the very language of worship, and is guilty of all speeches and actions which others call extravagant, but which really are not extra- vagant when you remember that it is not to the real person, but to the ideal divinity to which it is addressing itself, not affection but religious worship, which it is bestowing upon that living creature which represents its highest conception of being. As we grow older and acquire more exact perceptions of the imperfect creatures we are surrounded with, — as we grow wiser, and discover the limited understanding and weak character of every human being that hath existed, we turn our idolatry away from the sons and daughters of men, and endeavour to create some visible good, or invisible abstraction, before which to bow the knee of our heart and soul. And that M^hich we fix upon is generally determined by the practical habits and customs of our life. If, like the multitudes, we live chiefly to the sense, and consider what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed, then the Origin of Idolatry. 45 sense usurping it over tlie understanding and tlio spirit, obligeth the whole man to bow down and worship the sensible forms of things, and chiefly money, which is the mediator of this religion, through whose intercession all requests to the material god must be addressed. These regard the creature as the creator, for to them it is the creator — viz., that which creates the sensations of pleasure and pain, which they have chosen to call the chief good of life and the chief end of man. And therefore they bow down to the creature, to the kindly fruits of the earth, the sweet odours, the distilled spirits, the most pungent essences, the most beautiful colours, the costliest dainties, the scarcest rarities, and whatever else is new, curious, substantial, and exhilarating in the visible universe. Such I reckon to be beneath the brutes, for the brute looketh up with reverence to man, while they look down with reve- rence to inanimate matter. ^Vhen the understanding hath been brought to perfec- tion by the training of our youth, — that is, the faculty of the spirit which knoweth and understandeth the creature, — then it sometimes asserteth its superiority over the sense, and maketh the sense do offices of observation for its sake ; but as often the sense getteth the superiority and maketh the understanding cater and refine things for its pleasant entertainment, and most frequently the two establish a good agreement and work to each other's hand, — and in every case, from the highest astronomer who scans the heavens and measures the motions thereof, down to the lowest cook who studies new comforts for the palate of man, they do become, every one of them who employeth no other f\iculty than this understanding of the visible, idolaters of the visible creation, some of the immaterial, some of the vegetable, others of the animal, and some of the heavenly forms of nature. I do not say idolaters of the objects themselves, but of the pleasures which they yield to the sense, or the harmonies which they shew to the intellect, either of the enjoyments or of the science, of nature's gift to affect the sense or her gift to afi'ect the 46 Ethical. intellect, or both. And if you ask the greatest savant for his notion of God, he tells you it is the universal power, the universal motion, — that is, the thing which is calculable or measurable, which casts up the different aspects and carries on the different motions of the universe. Nature is their creator : for why ? because nature creates those perceptions in the understanding and the sense, — for they are never separated, — ■ the science of which perception they have agreed to call their chief good and the only end of their being. Again, those who have turned their attention, not to the inferior natures of fruits and plants, and lower creatures, but to human nature, to men and manners, to politics, economics, and the other things included in the common weal of men, looking always to the outward vi'orking of the machine, and to the powers appointed to construct, govern, and adjust it, if they look not inward upon the soul itself, of which human society is but a bare function, it happeneth that they become worshippers of good society in one or other of its forms, — some worshipping merry companionship, others elegant society, others mercantile associations, others political governments, others adminis- trations of justice, and others expediency or economy in general. These classes devote themselves to the social principle which is implanted in the spirit of man, and make an idol of that form of society which satisfies their idea the best ; or they go a step higher, and apply, by the understanding resting upon experience, to the genei'al laws of society, and worship the science of outward well- being, or utility, in its various forms — police, legislation, jurisprudence, government, or expediency in general. If you ask such persons to give you a definition of their God, they quote you a chapter from the Unitarian confession of faith, saying that He is a God who hath created all things as they are, and governs them as we see them to be go- verned, who has instituted certain checks and counter- checks, and will raise all up to a general inquest, after which He will adjudge to every one just so much punish- Origin of Idolatry. 47 ment as will reform them, and so set the world up again in a state of good order, that the' machine thns read) nested may have another trial. Hell is the penitentiary of the criminals, heaven the city of the well-behaved, the earth the state of probation, the gospel the spirit of the statutes, and God the governor-general of the whole. There is still another form of idolatry, higher and nobler in its kind than any of the preceding, which is proper to men of more large and cultivated minds, who are not content with the enjoyments of sense, nor the results of understanding, nor the well-being of outward society, but look inward upon the dignity of the spirit itself, regarding the visible universe as its mansion to dwell in, and the matter of the universe as the furnishing of the house. These look upon the attributes of spii-it as spirit, its command over matter, its penetration into the mysteries of matter, its control over itself, its creative power of reason shewn forth in ideas and imaginations that have no out- ward form, its inward joys and distresses, its divine faculty of discourse with other spirits and most wondrous inven- tion of words and symbols, whereby to reveal all its secret cogitations and unembodied feelings, and considering what a noble thing a spirit is, they desire, in the God whom they frame unto themselves, that all these qualities of spirit should meet in an infinite degree and haimonise in unbroken communion. They require Him to be all-might}-, omnipresent, omniscient, of infinite wisdom, justice, good- ness, and truth. In a word, they take the form of the human spirit, magnify its proportions to an infinite size, and call this idea their God; the spirit making a perfect model of itself, an Apollo Belvidere of spirit, and bowing down doth worship it. This is the idolatry to which we Protestants are liable from our metaphysical inclination to render all revelation into the form of abstract propositions, and give definitions of God after the rules of logic; and out of it have grown the school of Unitarians and Deists, who, not restrained by the authority of the Scriptures, as the other Protestants are, have put them also through the 48 Ethical. distillation of logical methods, and so perfected this idolatiy of the human spirit. For I hold their God to be no better than an ideal perfection of the mind of man. They who rail against all the world as idolaters, are the idolaters of the mind ; they worship an imagination, the Catholics worship an image ; the one a spiritual, the other a sensual idolatry ; the one the breach of the first commandment, the other the breach of the fii'st and the second. All these forms of idolatry which have been described above are the productions of faith untutored and misguided. Were there no faith, each man would be an idol to himself, or the man who comes nearest to perfection would be his idol. But the faith that there is a more perfect still than any one hath reached, delivers men from the worship of themselves, or one another, into the worship of that stronger, wiser, better form of Being, which they feel to be possible, and cannot live without conceiving, and hope to be some- where or everywhere around them. But until the reality of its existence be demonstrated, this production of their faith will have no authority over them, and can be the object of no worship. It indicates the natural desire of the mind to have, and its propensity to create, an object of worship. But after it hath done its best to purify and exalt its ideas, and exerted its utmost powers of creation to give them form and being, it is even at the best but the worship of self under disguise. For who imaged the conception? I myself. Who gave it form? I myself. They do all create their God, as the Grecian metaph3'sician boldly announced to his students, and went about in a workman-like manner. It seems blasphemy, but it is blasphemy only in the wording, — in the idea it is truth. Every religion which resteth not on revelation, hath a god created by ourselves, fabricated to the form most pleasant to the sense, to the conception most consistent with the vmderstanding, or to the idea most noble to the reason, but in all cases self-fabricated ; and, therefore, self-exalting not self-humbling, self- concentrating not self-enlarging, producing selfishness not love, breaking up societ}^ not Origin of Idolatry. 49 cementing it, not religions, not real, not above us but in us, not of another spirit but of our own spirit. Yet they are all, as hath been said, the production of the natural faith in a nobler and a better, a more powerful and more wise, and none of them come of knowledge which concerns the real existent thing, the matter of fact, the fixed and certain verity. They come of that faculty of man which bodies the unknown, and gives to aiiy nothing a local habitation and a name ; of which faculty it may be said that it is to the mind what the leaves are to the tree, which inhale the life of the plant from the atmosphere, and transmute the atmospheric life into flowers and fruits, for in like manner by faith the mind doth gather in living, vigorous strength to act within itself, and profit by the outward world for the increase of its knowledge, — it being certain that if faith of higher things were to die, invention would fail, and all knowledge and art would stand still or retrograde, as in the East they have come down into the form of proverbial sayings and mechanical rules. There might be knowledge for use, but none would there be for growth. And even that for use would wear away unless faith, the great projector of the mind, were ever busy projecting its ideas and pre- senting its devices. For the advancement of knowledge, therefore, in all its kinds, the activity of this natural faith is most profitable, but for religion it is not profitable, except as it indicates the necessity of revelation, and somewhat prepares the way for its reception. It doth indicate the necessity of revelation by demon- strating, in a thousand ways, the tendency of the soul to cast its highest conceptions into the form of life, and construct of them a living being, though conscious the while that it is not a reality but a fiction; wherein the soul, by a holy instinct, doth play false with her sense and her knowledge. She hath such a reverence for human life, that holy of holies in the temple of creation, that she will bow down to nothing which hath not the human form. Either in body doth she chisel out her finest E 50 Ethical. fancies of a god, or in the workshop of the mind she doth the work, but still it is a form of the human spirit which she hath framed for herself. And though some nations, as the Egyptians, have worshipped the lower animals, which the Brahmins do still, think not, in this first projection, that it was the very brute that they meant the people to bow before, but some attribute of the Divinity thereby symbolised, as His generous nourishment of us by the cow, His glory by the sun, His pervading spirituality by the symbol of fire. And at this day, though the Catholics bow down to statues and pictures, these were at first designed as emblems of some high and holy saintliness to which they should offer their homage, though now to the gross sense of the people they have become, as in Egypt and India, real divinities. This uuiversal tendency of the mind of man to give the object of its natural worship the form of a living spirit, and even to embody it under the human form, doth loudly testify that the revelation which is suited to them ought to be the revelation of a living spirit having relations to the spirit of man ; and it doth also seem to require that this spirit should assume the form of man, to shew man that perfect form of human nature, that human type of perfection after which he is ever seeking to worship, — that upon this Emanuel, God with us, it may fix its single devotion, without the sin of idolatry, but to the help of the worship of ihe true God. I do think that so much may be inferred from the account which hath been rendered of idolatry, first, that the object of worship must be a living spirit; and se(!ondly, that it must have some very close relaticm to the form of the human spirit, to the adoration of which we have seen that man is drawn by all his highest instincts, to which he hath been addicted through all his history, and from which he is not exempted in these highly intellectual and refined times, as we are pleased to term them, I think even more inferences may be diawn from tlie matter of this discourse, that as tlieie are these three things to which man's idolatry is directed, — fii'st, his own form or Origin of Idolatry. 51 make of being as distinct from all the other creatures, that is, his own distinctiveness, that which he calls I, and which is no other than his liberty or will ; secondly, the created universe outward of himself, and the law of his own creation, which is reason, and the outward objects with which reason holds discourse ; thiidly, the society of man with man, or the spirit of communion, or the laws of human fellowship ; — I say, as these three must include all forms of idolatry — the idolatry of the will, the idolatry of the reason, and the idolatry of communion — it may, I think, be inferred that the revelation of the true God, in order to abolish all three idolatries by occupying the provinces in which they dwell, ought to present a three- fold aspect, and hold out threefold relations to the human spirit, in order that in the Godhead man may wholly live, and wholly move, and wholly have his being. So much, I think, may be gathered from the above inquiry into the common source and natural generation of idolatry in the soul of man. But into this matter I enter not at present, reserving much matter for future discourses, enough having been said to convey some most solemn warnings and most awful lessons to your mind, of which, in few words, take these following : — First, That every man is liable to idolatry of one kind or another, nay, is an idolater of some kind, unless he have fairly and fully submitted his fail.h to receive the true revelation which God hath made concerning Himself. Secondly, That in proportion as we endeavour to work the revelation which God hath made of Himself into con- sistency with our own conceptions, and, as it were, to cast it over again in the moulds of reason, we do so far forth mingle clay and the seed of men with the pure gold, and bring its glory into shame, its strength into weakness, and its beauty into baseness. Thirdly, That poetrj^ and philosophy, and science, and sentiment, and every other more noble function of the soul, cannot, in their own strength, exalt themselves into reli- gion,— can only attain unto more beautiful and perfect E 2 52 Ethical. forms of idolatry, but can never constitute over themselves any power which may be a restraint to wickedness, a help to weakness, or a comfort in affliction. They can discover the best in themselves, and worship it ; but a better than themselves they cannot make, so as to believe it real, and trust in it as real. Fourthly, That however much the Catholics and other idolaters of the earth deserve to be blamed, and loudly call upon our help, there is among OTirselves, appertaining to our proudest classes of intellectual men, idolatries which are as fatal to the soul, and only more grievous because they are more difficult to be demonstrated to their miser- able slaves. Lastly, That religion itself — I do not say the religion of the Unitarians, which I have said is pure idolatry, but the religion of many orthodox Christians, who little think it — is often mingled with idolatry, and that according as it rests upon the conceptions of other men embodied in creeds, and resteth not wholly upon the faith of the Divine testimony concerning Himself. SUPERIORITY OF DIVINE TO HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. To be brought into the secret counsels of the Almighty, Dy familiar teaching of one Himself almighty, is an exaltation of human nature only surpassed by the perfect satisfaction which it yields to her various conditions. To know things as they are to be, and have no perplexities about the future — this is the resolution of a thousand doubts which were wont to afflict the speculation of man. To have that future filled with life and immortality, honour and glory — this is the conquest of all earthly trials and troubles. To know what is best to be done in every predicament from the mouth of God — this is safety. To know, when we have done amiss, where to find forgive- ness— this is relief. To know in life's embarrassments where to look for sufficient help — this is assurance. In Superiority of Divine to Human Knowledge. 53 life's disappointments to know a haven to flee to, and in. life's griefs a Comforter to repose on ; — to have, in short, the faculties of our minds directed, and the ambiguities of our conduct cleared up, our prayers listened to, and our want supplied — this is unspeakable privilege, and the knowledge which unlocks it, is not only the eternal but the present life of man. Oh! why do men stop short, contenting themselves with the troublesome part of knowledge, but from this, in which lieth its true delectation, turning themselves away ? ITow many are content to know only the arts of their livelihood, as if the hands were all the faculties of man, and his body all his consignment from God. Ah! what comes of love, and devotion and ambition, and the other faculties of the inward man ! and with the hands what can the soul lay up for eternity ? Faith must supply her with a busy hand, and the Scriptures with a fei'tile field whereon to labour, which, being employed, she will speedily treasure up a sufficiency for eternity. Not less have the prime ministers and chosen favourites of knowledge departed from the fountain of intelligence. Becoming acquainted 'U'ith some chamber of nature's secrets, they think to find satisfaction there : and a satisfaction they find — the vulgar satisfaction of being honoured, flattered, and perhaps enriched. Equal satis- faction have the most ignorant, who happen to be bom affluent or noble; but wisdom's higher satisfaction, con- sisting in a soul enlightened, and disabused of prejudice and error, and contented with its sphere, it hath not been my lot to find amongst the wise of this world's generation. Their knowledge alters not their hearts, but opening new fields for gratifying temper, gives strength to the evil as often as to the good of human nature, making them more powerful either to good or ill ; and hence, according to St. Paul, it puflfeth up. But if, instead of resting in the blind adoration of nature, which, being uninspired with soul, cannot benefit their soul with its communions, they would rise to nature's God, and acknowledge Him not 54 Ethical. only as powerful to create and move the universe, but as condescending to visit and merciful to save His meanest creature, then would their travelling with knowledge bless them, and add no sorrow, but advance them into the fellowship of God's nature and blessedness. Such are the benefits which accrue to us from the know- ledge of the word of God, that nothing derived from any other kind of knowledge can compensate for its absence. Political knowledge carried to excess makes men proud, bitter, and contentious. Poetical knowledge carried to ex- cess disposeth men to be contemptuous of the wise and prosaic ordinances of customary life. Practical knowledge of affairs makes men worldly and artful. Knowledge of the Scriptures is the only wisdom which shall elevate a man's conceptions, while it purifies his principles and sweetens his temper, and makes his conduct bountiful and kind to all around. No matter what be your condition, you shall find direction how to dignify and adorn it, and make it large enough, for the sanctification of your spirit for heaven. MANS LIMITED KNOWLEDGE. How few things are we able to examine to the bottom, or see in their first principles, which yet we adhere to, out of that faith we have in the opinion of our brethren ; each man bringing his own share to the common stock of true opinion and righteous feeling ! This is the community out of which all communities spring, the community of belief and sentiment ; the mother of common customs, the mother of common laws ; and the parent of it is God him- self, who hath formed the minds and hearts of men alike. So likewise is it in the Church, which is the mother of saints and the community of the Holy Spirit ; to whose words, especially those which she caused to be written as her faith, we defer with a great reverence ; and to her customs also, until it be made manifest that they were rashly taken up, or gradually crept in through an evil Mans Li77iited Knowledge. 55 influence, and, as it were, a side-wind of Satan. The notion, of every man examining every matter for himself, is a poor, ignorant, self-conceited vagary, which Satan can palm only upon an exceedingly vain generation, but which he hath found this generation weak enough to adopt : whereby he hath loosed all reverence and dependence upon authority of every kind, and prepared men for jostling in wild confusion and strife, like the atoms of the primitive chaos. For what bindeth and knitteth men in social com- munities, and maketh them necessary to each other's well- being, but this very thing, that the one reposeth on the other for some help or ministr}^ which he cannot accomplish for himself. This also binds generation with generation, and maketh men progressive. Examine for thyself! Thou preposterous fool ! what is that thou eatest ? " Bread." Hast thou analj'sed it, and proved it to be good ? Go to, examine it : wouldst thou take thy daily food on trust, thou examiner and prover of all things ? And thy drink ! Dost thou know the composition of water and all liquors ? And thy knowledge ! young man. Dost thou know thy father or thy mother by memory ? or hast thou it on trust. And thy actions ! young man. Didst thou make the statutes and the customs ? or hast thou proved them all by Paine's ' Eights of Man ' ? And thy trade ! young man. Didst thou invent all its tools, and discover anew all its methods of using them ? or did thy master beat thee into it ? And, at school, didst thou enter into learned debate with thy teacher, why that mark should sound A, rather than B ; and his fellow B, rather than A ? O thou naughty boy, what a fool they make of thee ! what a conceited fool they do svvell thee into, with this maxim of proving all things ! " Ah, but religion ; religion, sir, is another matter ; and a man must not take that on trust, on any man's opinion." I grant thee thou must not; and therefore go to this night and begin thy study, but begin in a humble mood ; for the first lesson of it is, that of all enemies, thou hast most to guard against thine own deceitful heart. That natural man of thine is the stronghold of the enemy ; therefore, 56 Ethical. trust not to him. "To whom, then, shall I trust?" To thy Creator and thy Redeemer, and somewhat to every man who is by the Holy Ghost renewed in their image, and thyself when thou art so renewed. To show the utter arrogancy of man in thus seeking to set himself independent of his Maker, and to mark the small bounds of his power, he puts the question, " Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature ?" That is, to what amounteth all this care about the body, and its accommodations, and all the proud boastfulness consequent thereon ? Can you make it a cubit higher with all your thought ? Can you change the laws of life or of death, of health or of disease, with your thought and carefulness ? What a deep philosophy there is in this question, if men would but give it their study ! and how would it disabuse them of their pride in natural science, and bring them back again to the humility of faith and truth ! The lesson is this, that man, by all his resources of knowledge and art, cannot create anything new upon the earth, or give new properties to anything created, but merely work upon those properties which they have had since the world began. He doth not make the sun to shine forth in summer, but only provideth all things for his coming : he doth not give the earth or the manure of the earth their faculty of conveying the moisture of the heavens with kindly ministry to the roots of plants and herbs : he doth not give to the seed her quality of repro- ducing her kind : he doth not give to the wheat its faculty of nourishment, or to the grass its cheerfulness, or to the fleece its warmth, or to the body any organ, faculty, or power of various life. And why thy boasting, fool ! when thou art working in another's workshop, and forging with another's tools, and using his wonderful machines, whereof thou understandest not one, no not a single one, and thou callest them thine own, and boastest thyself as if thou wert the creator and deviser of them all ! Canst thou, by taking thought, add a cubit to thy stature ? I wish I could teach these recreant renegadoes called men of science this lesson. Christ ill Creation. 5 7 I would they would set to work and make us a little flesh out of bread and water, or quicken us a little which is dead, or do some feat of their own worthy of being talked about, with all their philosophy, mechanical and chemical. Why can they not help us in a famine, or create us a little gold for the starved currency, or do something worthy of a name ? And who helpeth them to that chief part of every operation in which they cannot help themselves ? It is nature. Well, then, let them give nature her due worship, and not take it all to themselves, the boastful crew. What temples build they to her ? what worship offer they to her ? They cheat her also. They would not only deprive us of our God and Father, but they will deprive their own goddess of reason, or nature, in order that they may have all to the credit of their own individual science and skil- fulness. CHRIST IN CREATION : THE CHURCH THE FIRST-FRUITS. Beside the animal creation, which was originally subject unto man, and is now subject unto him again in the person of Christ Jesus, there is the inanimate or elemental crea- tion also, which hath escaped from its subserviency, and become enslaved unto evil. The poisons which the earth produceth, the noxious vapours exhaled from the waters, and the deadly infections which the air scattereth abroad, the storms and tempests which devastate the face of the woild, — these, and all other violences, are the signs of that bondage into which sin hath brought all things, and out of which Christ by His righteousness hath redeemed all things. And when the fulness of the time is come for Him to appear again, He shall come as the Liberator of all nature from her thraldom. If, now, Christ have in hand power to redeem all nature out of the bonds of evil, and the Church have in the Holy Ghost a first-fniits thereof, she must possess the power of miracles, to arrest the evil course of things, and to turn them into that righteous course which they shall obsei-ve for ever; power she 2 8 Ethical. ought to possess over the laws of the world, such as was possessed by our Lord when He stilled the raging winds and calmed the tempestuous deep. And forasmuch as poisons are the most pregnant evidences of the evil con- dition of nature, Christ, by giving to him that beheveth power over the same to suspend their evil effects, doth thereby give unto His Church the best first-fruits of that power which He now possesseth, and she shall hereafter possess,— the power to press out from every plant, and from every element of nature, the various principles of death and destructiveness. For which reason it is, that in the Scriptures all nature is represented as rejoicing in the prospect of the Lord's coming ; as for example : " Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof ; let the field be joyful, and all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord : for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." (Ps. xcvi.) Disease of every kind is mortality begun. Now, as Christ came to destroy death, and will yet redeem the body from the bondage of corruption, if the Church is to have a first-fruits or earnest of this power, it must be by receiving power over diseases, which are the first-fruits and earnest of death ; and this being given to her, com- pletes the circle of her power. For in creation there is no more than these five parts : the pure spirit, the embodied soul of man, the body of man, the animal creation and the inanimate world : of all which sin hath taken possession, and over all which Christ hath obtained superiority, to reconstitute them in that way which shall for ever demon- strate the being and attributes of God. This superiority, this ownership, He now inheriteth in sole right and pos- session ; but, evermore willing to shew forth His dutiful- ness to His Father, not less on heaven's throne than in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, He doth wait upon the Father's will to determine the time when the day of complete redemption shall at length arrive; and the Christ in Creation. 59 Father, in order to gratify tho Son, and make known 11 is surpassing goodness and the riches of His glory, doth beget unto Him, out of sinful flesh, a body, the Church, unto whom He may communicate His fulness, and by whom He may express it unto all creation ; ruling and goveniing. by these His kings and priests, those innumerable worlds which He hath purchased with His blood, (for the heavenly things, as well as the earthly t lungs, were purified by His blood :) and meanwhile, until the day of the refreshing, until the restitution of all things cometh. He doth, by means of this Church, which the Father hath given to Him for a body, and which He hath informed with His own Spirit, communicate a first-fruits and earnest of that power which He is hereafter by their means to express in its fulness, and to hold for ever. And this He doth to the end that devils, and devil-possessed men, ma}' know the certainty of that doom which abideth ihem, and that the latter may cast in their lot with the righteous and be saved ; while to the bodies of men, and to all inferior creation. He doth make sure that redemption from the grave and from the curse which they shall surely obtain. This first-fruits of power, to cast the devils into hell, to raise the bodies of the dead, and to hold the superiority of all inferior creation, being possessed by the believing Church, doth continually demonstrate and signify unto the world who, and of what kind, their Redeemer is; who, and of what kind, is that man, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God hath constituted both Christ and Lord. This first-fruits and earnest of the inheritance of power and prerogative, which under Him we are yet to hold, is like- wise the Church's argument to men of their certain de- struction, if they come not forth from the world ; of their superlative dignity and honour, if they do come forth from it into the bosom of the Church. It is a sign of that which we preach Christ to be, — Lord of all. It is a sign of that which we preach Him as about to do, — to cast out devils, to raise the dead, and to liberate the creature. It is a sign of what we, the Church, are, in real uninterrupted union 6o Ethical. with Him, holding a real power under Him, — the arm of His strength, the temple of His presence, the tongue of His Spirit, the manifoldness of His wisdom, the kings and the priests of Christ for God. CHRIST THE FORESHADOWED OP NATURE AND SPIRIT. Thodgh there was a creation of angels, and likewise of men, before the bringing in of the Christ, or the revealing of the Man-God, it is constantly set forth in Holy Scripture that, to manifest Him, and in Him to manifest Himself, was the first beginning and great end of all the creation of God, for which all that went before was but the neces- sary preparation. For as the great idea of a master- builder discovereth not itself in the first stone which is laid, nor in the first scafiblding which is reared up, but in the progress, and often towards the completion of the work : so the system of the universal Architect, in creating being, though, from the beginning, it was beautiful, hath a unity, and design, and end, towards which it all pro- ceeded, and without which it was altogether incomplete; to wit, the personal manifestation of Himself in visible power and majesty. And as the physiologists, who study the various tribes of living things upon the earth, do tell you that the whole series of the creatures, upwards to man, are but, as it were, efforts of nature to produce the parts of which man's body is composed ; studies and mould- ings of the several fragments, which in him are all sweetly and harmoniously recomposed ; so do I say that the creation of pure spii-its in heaven, and upon earth of creatures made up of body and spirit, was but designing and making of the parts, and the preparations for the constituting of that divine form of being which in Christ Jesus appeared, and in Christ Jesus shall to eternity abide the most glorious Head for all creatures to conform and submit themselves unto, in the worship and service of the invisible God and Father of all. In angels we have pure and unmixed spirits Christ tlie Foreshadowed. 6 1 to give a manifestation of spirit, and of the functions of pure spirits ; such as understanding, righteousness, love, &c. ; but in man we have the functions of spirit made visible by being breathed into tabernacles of clay, in order therewith to make a manifestation of body also with its several properties of comprehending space, and possessing the material creation ; — the first being, as it were, a part of the second ; and the second but, as it were, the tj'pe of that Divine form of being which Christ was to be. For, as hath been set forth in the former head of discourse, " Adam was but the type of Him that was to come," that is, Adam was not the perfect work, but the type or fore- shewing of it ; even as the tabernacle was but the type of the Church which now is. And therefore the Creator said, " Let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness ;" by which word of God I understand, not a like- ness in respect to the moral righteousness of His Spirit merely, for this is possessed by the elect angels also ; but in respect likewise to the composite and mixed character of his person, made up of body and spirit ; to signify that he was the type, image, or likeness of that form of being in which God was hereafter to be revealed, and for ever manifested : and, accordingly, the Creator proceeded, after having spoken this word, to fashion him a body of the dust of the groimd, and afterward to breathe into his nostrils the spirit of life, and he became a living soul. So when the fulness of time was come, the Christ, or Second Adam, had at first a body prepared for Him from the woman's sub- stance, and a reasonable soul given unto Him by the Creator, according as it is in our Catechism, " He took unto Himself a human body and a reasonable soul." To which the Son of God, the eternal Word, having joined Himself in con-substantial union, He became the Son of man and the Son of God, in " two distinct natures and one person for ever." The Divine creature (creature as man) was composed, the end of creation accomplished, and God, the eternal and invisible God, made manifest in a person, to all creation, for ever and for ever. This idea 1 would 62 Ethical. impress upon your minds, as indispensable to the right con- ception of the glory which was brought to God by the Son of man upon the earth ; and indispensable to the under- standing of the Holy Scriptures, in which the same is often tauiiht. LIFE AND DEATH. " I^T the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The sentence was death, and death is the execution of the sentence. What, then, is life? Life we hold of the purchase of Christ's sacrifice made from the foundation of the world. \\ hether you regard the life of any individual, or the life of the race of men, or the life of animals, or the vegetable life of the world, it is all a fruit, a common fruit of redemption, a benefit of the death of Christ, from all eternity purposed, and so far as God is concerned accom- plished also. Nevertheless, like all the benefits of Christ's death which are common to all, it is not of the nature of a covenant, but of a grant at will ; not of a certainty, but of a possibility ; and, therefore, cannot be calculated upon for a day or for an hour. And though there be light diflused around, and every necessary of life, and the materials of much enjoyment ; still it is all in uncertainty ; a chaos, out of which something fixed and stable seemeth to be forming itself, but not the very thing; a life in death, and a death in life ; a hope, a promise, a po&sibility, but no more : the enemy being held at bay, but growling in the distance, and ever snatching his prey upon the right hand and the left, yet restrained : as it were, a respite, but not a reprieve ; an arena for certain trials and preparations previous to the sealing of the fixed and ultimate mandate. Such is life. But death is not such ; it is no promise or threatening, but the veiy reality; not a hopeful possibility, but a stern necessity : within the verge of which lies no repentance nor remission, nor change for better or for worse ; but fate, irrevocable fate. Death is indeed like the fulfilment of a vv^ord of God, it is so steadfast and im- Life and Death. 63 movable. It is not like sickness, ■which is fluctuatins; ; noi' like disease, which is curable ; nor like soirow, which is mitigable : nor is it the conflict of good and ill, of hope and fear ; but the consummation and perpetuity either of the one or of the other. Death is the execution of the mandate ; it is the curse effected ; the expulsion from the very hope and dream of Eden. Such is the difference be- tween life and death ; so gieat and comprehensive, that they are in human language used as the most direct of all opposites, and the most violent of all contraries. And yet even death hath received from Christ's sacrifice a certain benefit, which retardeth the evil day of the curse's con- summation, which taketh not effect until after the judg- ment in the second death. Meanwhile there is to the body a rest in the grave ; and to the separate soul there is a looking for and a waiting for of judgment : which con- ditions of rest and fearful expectation, even in the wicked- est, are nothing to be compared to the awful reality of woe and misery which cometh on in the second death ; and Avhich would doubtless have been the instantaneous effect of the curse, had it not been beaten off and postponed by the powerful mediation and intercession of Christ, slain for us from the foundation of the world. I sa}^ that, but for Christ and His righteousness, this earth had instantly, on the fall of man, passed into the condition of the lake that burneth, and man into the condition of the second death ; or.^ like the angels which kept not their first estate, he had been imprisoned in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day. Such is the common, such is the universal remedy of that offering, that it is by virtue of the redemption of Christ the sun shineth ujpon the evil and the good; by the redemption of Christ the rain descendeth upon the just and the unjust ; by reason of the redemption of Christ the body resteth in the grave ; and by rea^son of the redemption of Christ the separate spirits are in prison, and not in the lake that burneth, which is the second death. So that the curse doth not completely take effect until the day of judgment ; at which it will be 64 Ethical. found that this earth hath been redeemed gloriously, and the bodies of the innumerable saints have arisen gloriously from the dead, and the souls of innumerable saints have come forth gloriously from the paradise of the separate spirits to enjoy the heaven which Christ hath sanctified and blessed, and for the inhabitation of which He hath sanctified and blessed them. WHY THE NATURAL MIND CONCEIVES GOD AS HUMAN. It is most natural for the mind of man to transfer to other intelligent creatures the form, and feeling, and character with which he is so familiar in himself. If any one will examine what is his notion of an angel, he will find that it consists of human form, with human energies, and human affections. So also God was at first conceived to be of form and feature, and passion and action, similar to man, and was so sculptured by the ancient artists and set forth by their mythologists. The Jews were hindered from making an image of the Divinity, that they might derive their knowledge of Him, not from beholding with the sense a polished work of man's fingers, but from perusing the facts recorded of His ways, and the description given of His character, in their inspired books. Yet so prone is man to connect human form with intelligence, that they were constantly lapsing into idolatry and setting up images before their eyes. We Christians, at least wo Protestants, are delivered from the sensible imagery with which the ancients invested their idea of God ; but there is hardly any Christian whose conception of God is free from some ingredient of human nature. I consider that one great use of God manifest in the flesh was to give us a form of Godhead upon which we might concentrate the various atfections of our nature, and be joined to Him as humanity is joined to humanity ; and, therefore, I see no objections to artists putting forth their imaginations The Natural Mind conceives God as Human. 65 upon the person of Christ. This incarnation of the Divinity was designed to address man's compound nature through every avenue and by every winning method, in order that having won its loves, it might forward them to the adoration of the invisible God, who hath no form that it may be beheld, who hath no dwelling-place that it may be approached unto, but dwelleth evermore in light inaccesible and full of gloiy, hath His seat in every pious heart, and filleth all existence with life and joy. Christ, therefore, I regard as the avenue through which the soul reacheth to God. Christ's visible person I regard as the great preservative from idolatry, being the legitimate pre- sentation of the nature of God to all the faculties of man ; and, save through Him as the avenue, no one, it seems to me, can win his way to the unformed, incorporeal Godhead ; and, therefore, all Unitarian and Socinian doc- tiines are to be held as cutting asunder the bridge and pathway which God hath made for the mind to pass from the conception it is familiar with here below to the con- ception of Himself. They take the words God is painted with ; but what are words compared with life and gesture, with sight, touch, and living spirit. They take the cold words, but will not take the image God imj^ressed of Him- self upon clay ; and their religion will never come to have in it any heat, warmth, or affection. It is as if a man should conceive love from the description of a female form, and live upon that unsubstantial feeling, and refuse to see, or hear, or hold intercourse with the fair object of his entranced affection. But, by the way, I may remark, that however serviceable the incarnation be to prevent us from idolatry, I have observed it produce the opposite effects. I have witnessed a devotedness to the incarnate Deity, a resoluteness to rise no higher, or conceive no further, a fondness for the hymns that exalt His living attributes, a disrelish for those which set forth the Deity not incarnate, — in short, a limitation of all their sympa- thies to the manifestation of God in Judea for three short years, which, in my opinion, vergeth and inclineth to idol- F 66 Ethical. atry itself, and is tlie indulgence of that very corporeal taste in tilings divine which the ancients built their religion upon, and which the Jews constantly hungered after. There is nothing more to be guarded against than this investiture of God with human attributes, to which we are the more inclined from the images of fluctuating, imperfect humanity with which the inspired writers have found it necessary to shadow Him forth to our apprehension. They say, God is angry with the wicked; and we straightway fancy His nature to be ruffled with the afiection of anger ; but it means simply that the wicked shall experience the same effects from His providence and judgment as they would from one whom they had set on edge against them by their flagrant misconduct. The Scriptures say God re- penteth ; and immediately we fancy that He is unsteady in His mind, and revolveth in various directions according to circumstances ; and so we seek to steal a march upon Him, by flattery, by entreaty, by pertinacity, as we would do upon a mortal. But it means simply, that if we change our courses for the better, we shall have a corresponding improvement in all our treatment and experience, in the feelings of our own breast, and in all the happiness which human nature enjoyeth. So also He is said to hear and answer prayer, and we are commanded to fill our mouths with argiiments, and make him acquainted with our wants; and we straightway infer that the stronger we can make our case, the more frequent and pressing our solicitations, the more copious our petitions, and the more necessitous our whole condition, the more chance we shall have of a favourable hearing and a liberal reply. I woidd not, by what hath been said above, disrobe God of those human sympathies which the Scriptures have attributed to Him, and rebuke as criminal the imagination of these to reside in Him ; but I would rebuke the adding others of our own imagining. I think these afi'ections are neccessary to be imagined in Him, in order to awaken the kindred sentiments in our own breast ; that we must invest Him with the qualities of a Father in order to JV/iy Hcave7i has always been placedin the Sky. Gj approach nim with affection ; and with the qualities of a generous Benefactor, in order to appi'oach Flim with hope ; and with the qualities of a Patron of happiness, in order to approach Him with joy ; and also with the qualities of Almighty Governor, that our affection may not fall into freedom ; and, above all, with the qualities of the Searcher of hearts, that we may be driven from all untruth, and disguise, and deception. The perusal of His acts and promises is useful, as it enables us to build up within our minds these general conceptions of the God- head, and to create the moral and spiritual image of the Deity to which we render our homage : His paternal pro- vidence of all, testified through His Word, convincing us of His Fatherhood ; His unbounded liberality of promise and providence, convincing us of His generosity; His penetration through all disguises, and unravelling of all mystery, convincing us of His heart-searching and rein- trying knowledge ; His anticipation of all our necessities, convincing us of His perfect acquaintance with every want which our tongue can express. WHY HEAVEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN PLACED IN THE SKY. Mkx are so conscious themselves of the pollutions which defile the earth, and of the enormities which are transacted in its various comers, that in all their superstitions, even the most rude and barbarous, they have placed the habita- tions of their good deities away from its confused noise and unresting wickedness; while they have quartered their evil deities in the bowels of the earth, compressing them down to work their devilish works in the centre of that wicked orb, on the outside of which so much wickedness is transacted ; and when they would do their worship to the gods above, they chose the elevation of more high places and the deep silence of groves to bring them moro near to their habitation. The heavens — from the pure light with which they are filled by day, and the vast F 2 68 Ethical. magificence with which they are overspread by night, from the manifokl motion of the sun and moon and stars, all accomplished in silence and beauty, and from the boundless extent of the blue expanse to which the sense and the imagination in vain seek to find a limit — have become to all people the emblem of those higher and nobler ideas which the soul conceives concerning purity and peacefulness, order, and justice, and righteousness. And if these ideas have anywhere a reality, a local habita- tion and a name, the soul conceives it must be somewhere within the compass of the azure serene, where all looks so lovely and peaceful. Hither, therefore, she removes the better deities, which are the personifications and patrons of those more excellent things M'hich the soul conceives within herself, but nowhere finds exemplified upon the earth. Moreover, the earth is so dependent upon the heavens, and the heavens so masterful over the earth, bestowing upon her light and heat and fruitful influences, or laying her waste with whirlwind and storm; splitting her bulwarks with the lightning and the thunderbolt, or with the earthquake making her to shudder to her very centre, that the imagination of man hath placed in the regions above, the dwelling-place of all that is mighty and powerful, as well as of all that is just, orderly, and good. The heavens being thus to all nations, in all ages, the emblem of harmony and beauty, of peace and quietness, of vastness and infinity, and being, from their very nature, likely to continue the proper contrast to the disorder and jarring confusion of the earth, it hath pleased the Lord, in His revelation, to accommodate Himself to this condition of human thought, and represent Himself as having His throne and proper dwelling-place in the heavens, thereby encouraging men to follow after those ideas which are higher and nobler than the earth, and constituting Himself patron of every high and saintly desire of the soul. I dwell, saith He, in that place with which all your better tho'.ights are associated; and you dwell nearer to my JV/iy Heaven lias always been placed in the Sky. 69 presence according as you surpass the earth, and have your hopes and desires upon the things above. You canm.t come near me hy being earthly ; but by being heavenly in your thoughts you can come near to mine abode : whence, if you have lived in earthiness, you shall, after death, be debarred, and thrust down to the lower parts of the earth ; but if you have loved the higher aspirations, and sought the holier occuj)ations of the soul, you shall be disrobed from earthly vestments, and translated from earthly habitations to my own spiritual and blessed habita- tions. Now, it is to be observed that, in thus taking to Himself a local habitation, Jehovah did not knowingly deceive men into the idea of His limited presence ; for He at the same time taught them that He was everywhere, on the earth and in the lowest depths of hell — upon the earth, beholding the evil and the good, making the wrath of men to praise Him, and restraining the remainder of wrath ; in hell, holding the devils by His stern right hand from bursting abroad, and by the manifestation of His justice making them to believe and tremble. But He signified that heaven was His home, the abiding place of His presence, the seat of His glorious majesty, into whose gates nothing entereth that defileth or maketh a lie, where are fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore; and thus He did accom- modate Himself to the previous conditions of the human soul, and patronise what super-terrestrial thoughts dwelt amongst them, without abusing their minds by misrepre- sentation, or falsifying their conduct by error. Any one who is at all acquainted with the human spirit must know how helpful, if not necessary, to all its thoughts or outward things is the idea of place. It is the nature of a limited creature to conceive all things in some place. Hence the metaphysicians have said that space is the form of all our outward, and . time the form of all our inward ideas. But be this as it may, things seem but dreams or fancies until we have got them associated with place, and also with person. Justice, for example, 70 Ethical. though an idea common to the human kind, is of little or no service until it become? personified and placed in the lawgiver and the judge, in the tribunals and the awful seats of jiistice. Taste, also, though more delicate and shadowy, must be personified and placed in the works of the fine arts, in the ornaments of the person, and the beautifying of nature. Power and dignity also must have their outward form in the emblems and attributes of magistracy, and their dwelling-place in the palaces and thrones of kings ; and mercy also hath her dwelling-place by the side of power, and her emblem in the sceptre of power. And in all things we may claim and assert it to be of the nature of man, not a weakness, but in some sort a neccessity, thus to give a local habitation and a name to his most spiritual conceptions ; for otherwise he could not make them known to others, and but indistinctly conceive them to himself. Our speech to one another is a revelation by emblems of those invisible thoughts and immaterial feelings which are passing within us. The thought is not here, neither is it there ; but by putting it into words, we have, by the help of things here and there, given it a mani- festation unto others. This is poetiy, to make the emo- tions of the spirit manifest; and he is the greatest poet who maketh the greatest number of high aud noble emo- tions most distinctly manifest. Now, we represent our- selves by the finest and best aspects of things upon the earth : woman's beauty by the flowers of the field, and childhood's innocence by the lamb, the gentlest of the creatures which move upon the earth, and the dove, the most harmless of the fowls of heaven ; man's fortitude and strength by the oak, the stoutest tree of the field, or the lion, the noblest animal which roams over the wild. The infinite forms of nature, and the infinitely varied impressions which they make upon our senses, are all put into requisition in order to set foi'th the emotions of our spirit, and make them intelligible to the spirit of another man. But the emotions of the spirit have no resemblance to, nor proper dwelling-place in, these forms of nature, or Reverence and Irreverence. 7 1 impressions of the sense, which are not pictures, but only emblems and intermediate things, upon which the atten- tion of the other spirit is arrested, till it examine itself for the kindred emotion which is thus shadowed forth. When I explain the feelings of my soul to another soul, that soul looketh not to my words or images, which would mislead it altogether, but it looks in upon itself to see the eifect which these words or images are producing. And if they are producing no effects, nothing is understood ; if they are producing etfects, then let him shew the effect by his words and natural gestures ; and so, by comparing spiritual emotion with spiritual emotion, through the help of sensible visible things, or words which are ori- ginally the name of them, we come to understand what is passing within our souls. It is a necessity, therefore, rather than a weakness, which obligeth man to give to his spiritTxal conceptions "a local habitation and a name," And out of this necessity cometh, among the other wise adaptations of revelation, this one— that the Lord hath a place of abode assigned to Him in the lieavens, though He is everywhere, beholding the evil and the good. EEYERENCE AND IRREVEEENCE. " Every one of these good provisions, made by the God of providence in the constitution of the world for the fructification of the seed which His Son was preparing to sow, may be, yea, and is continually, pei^verted from their Maker's good intention and pui-pose by the perverseness of man, in appropriating them to the nourishment of his own pride and self-sufficiency; and being so perverted, they nourish nothing but rebellion against God, indifference to Christ, and independence on His Holy Spirit. The love of children to their parents, how often doth it become conceit of their good name, or delight in their high and honourable station ! The love of spouses, how often doth it become idolatry ! The love of family, how often doth it 72 Ethical. become clannish pride, and over-weening fondness ! And so also how often do companies, townships, cities, and kingdoms, forgetting the love of equality and the law of neiglibourly love, out of which they arose, become the fountains of envy, vain- glory, party-spirit, war, and blood- shed ! But this is the transgression of these good institu- tions of God, and their apostasy from the purpose and intention of the Creator ; for which they shall be judged. Hath God then, in all His providence, made no provision against this tendency of man to become proud, and boast himself in his possessions ; to become self-suificient and unkind, narrow-minded and uncharitable ? I answer, that He hath in a most remarkable way, provided the means of discountenancing and destroying this ungenerous, un- gracious principle, and creating a soil for the production of humility, reverence, and bountiful regard unto all ; which is the last thing in the constitution of man's social condition of which I would treat. This check and re- straint is found in the diversity of the orders, and ranks, and abilities, and gifts of men, which are so essential an ingredient of human existence, that if 30U were to break it all down to-morrow, before to-morrow ended it would begin to grow apace. For it is founded by God in the very constitution of men. Reverence of a superior, and kindness to an inferior, are as essential to the being and the well- being of a man, as is justice and equity to an equal. And why ? Because man was made to reverence God, and to exercise merciful sway over the creatures ? And how should he do the one or the other, without a principle of reverence and condescension implanted in his breast ? And is not man himself split into two parts ; man for conde- scending love, woman for reverent love r And these split again into parents and children ; parents for authoritative love, children for obedient love ? How then should it other- wise be, than that these the principles and properties of our nature should have a representation in the ordinances and institutions of the society which we compose ? Yea, God obligeth it : for one man cannot be all thinsfs. — But I Reverence and Irrevere7ice. 73 am not going to reason these things out, as if I were a lecturer in an infidel university, discoursing with great respect to an infidel class. I say, equity is not more of the well-being of a state, nor free trade of the wealth of a state, than diversity of rank is of the existence of a state. Equality is pride. Liberty, with equality, is licentious- ness. Oh I let us not envy ; let us, like wise men, pity the republics of the west, which would cut otii" precedence, and nobility, and royalty, in order to conduct government by hire. Oh ! oh ! how little do they know of the nature of man, how little do they know of the providence and grace of God, in the permission, yea, in the establishment of all these things ! These are the restraints against that very self-sufficiency, and pride of man, which turns the milk of human kindness into the sourness of malice and indifference, which breaks in upon the relative duties of servant and master, of tenant and landlord, of laity and nobility, of people and prince, of nation and king. They are the continual nourishment of reverence to a superior : they cultivate the principle of worship, which ever fights against the principle of selfishness ; they are alone capable of holding pride in check, and keeping the mind open to charity and love, which pride freezeth up. Like every- thing else, it will go to excess, and engender knee-worship, and hat-reverence, and every form of sycophancy. But laugh not these things to scorn : they are of a better nest than are arrogancy, and plebeianism, and slanderous con- tempt of a superior : they are good plants run to seed ; which nevertheless came out of a good bed. And here I cannot help recalling to the mind of many who are able to judge, how much sweeter, gentler, and opener to light, and to affection, the reverential spirit of the Scottish peasantry, and of the well-instructed part of the English peasantry, preserveth their souls, than doth the levelling, equalising, all-censuring, and all-judging spirit of our manufacturing people, taught in newspaper lore ; those political states- men, no longer choosing to be called peasantry, but opera- tive classes. What a difference there is between these two 74 Ethical. characters ! the character of a thoughtful reverent peasant, and the character of these self-sufficient loquacious fellows with whom our manufacturing towns are filled. Which cometh chiefly of this, that the one revereth all men in their places, and honoureth especially those to whose care the welfare of a nation is committed, is humble in his ideas of himself, never dreams of being able to judge those above him, to dispute it with a man of learning, or doctor of the Church, to handling state questions, or sit in judgment upon kings : to all which, and much more, the other thinking himself quite equal, becometh vainer and more empty than the peacock; chattereth like the magpie, and, like the mocking-bird, sitteth all day long mocking and mimicking every fowl of a deeper and sweeter song. This irreverence is the beginning of pride, pride the parent of cruelty, and cruelty of all destructiveness ; while, on the other hand, reverence of a superior in place, in person, in mind, in honour, and in dignity, is the beginning of meek- ness, of humility, of docility, and of every gracious disposi- tion. Nor is there any one thing against which this nation, against which mankind have now more to be on their guard ; no one thing which is so eifectually scourging the soil of the world, and maketh it spew forth the seed of the word ; which is so selling men to infidelity, and binding them over under strong indentures to Satan, as this spirit of irreverence, which in the region of the mind is called criticism and reviewing ; which in the region of politics is called radicalism; and in the region of the Church, thinking for one's self, where it produceth what is com- monly called personal, but is in truth selfish, religion — that is, no religion, but the religious esteem of ourselves. ENVY. Envy, and jealousy, and malignity, have their origin in the same evil principle which moves the thief to possess himself of our property, or the fraudulent to outwit us in Envy. 75 our dealings. It is a stealing of reputation and of good name. It springs from the conscioiisness of inferiority, and it is a confession of that inferiority. It hides a discon- tented mind ; and yet it cannot hide it, but divulges it. The envious are not only thieves, but they tell upon them- selves. Every one who hears their envious tale is their confessor, and would do well to give them pity, but not absolution. They deserve no absolution till they have the grace to perceive how much they need it. The thing, when looked upon nakedly, is the meanest, worst of knaveries ; and therefore it becomes necessary cunningly to hide it under various disguises. The most common is, an interest in our welfare. They profess to know how rich we are in the commodity they would deprive us of, and then they would sicken our enjoyment of it by shewing hovv- full of snares it is, and therein they do well act one part of friends, if they bear up the other part, which good men delight in more, of rejoicing with us in our joy, and bearing up our hearts against the envies of others, as well as bearing it down with their fears. If they shew confi- dence in our good parts, as well as distrust of our evil, then it is excellent friendship, and the more to be admired that it hath, in it counsel and warning, as well as congratu- lation. But, if this be the eternal cant — " I am no flat- terer, I am plain with my friends, I love you too well to flatter you, beware of vanity, beware of pride, beware of the world" — then I say, Down with it; it is rank envy, and proceeds from absence of kindness ; it is the satyr dis- guised and cloaked with friendship, and will cast the mask the moment you are found tripping ; it will bear you down with calumny, instead of aiding you with counsel. Call they this Christ's discipline, call they this charity, which rejoiceth in the good, not in the evil, which is the minister of hope, not of suspicion, the inspirer of joy, not of cold distrust? Away with it from our communion. Let friends rejoice with friends, speak tenderness, love with pure hearts fervently, and resei-ve suspicion, keep it far back, unwillingly advance it, never display it ; but weep 76 Ethical. over it secretly, and talk of it alone in prayer to God, that it may prove iinfonnded. Another way envy hath of shew- ing itself is by criticism, or a regard for truth. There is a noble love of truth, and a fearlessness of uttering it before friend and foe, which one of the most truth loving of English philosophers pronounced to be the seed-bed of every other virtue. This liberty of speaking truth one who means to take its full scope from the chair of truth should be the last to blame. Let truth be said, come what wilL But this noble virtue is one of the commonest cloaks of envy in these times. They stab through this veil private character, domestic charities, public virtues : whosoever hath any elevation, there are a thousand ready to assail and pull down. They take an error in a word to be the sign of a malignant heart, and a gesture of the bod}' to speak the darkest, deepest hypocrisy. It is painful to witness the many of this land who feed and fatten upon scandal, who lacerate and suck the blood of the worthiest men, giving full scope to their villanous weapons, for no end I can see, but because, being themselves in the sink of all vice and iniquity, cowardly and behind a screen they would diag down to the same abominable vileness the fair reputation and honourable purposes of the most unble- mished men and women. They play a game between truth and falsehood, between sincerity and sport ; they make no difference between things good and evil, calling bitter sweet and sweet bitter ; and, being themselves divested of virtue, of religion, of honour, broken in name, which therefore they dare not avow, ruined in prospects, they do wreak the malignity which the devil hath stocked them withal, in reward for their souls sold over to his service, upon all who have not the interests of their master, his hellish, interests of strife and malignity, at heart. Many other are the disguises, besides personal affection and love of truth, which malignity and envy do assume in order to gratify their wicked purposes. And I do exhort the people of my flock to be on their guard against their own hearts, lest they indulge under these or other forms Envy. yy this most wretcliccl passion against tlie fair name and good fortuno of others. I'robe deep, and put yourselves to seA'cre and painful inspection, lest this arch deceit may he lurking in your hearts ; for where it is present, the devil hath a friend sure and steadfast, and the Savioiir hath an enemy the most difficult to be cast out. And as all men of fair reputations and good success have this stealth and plunder to expect, I pray you to take the Baptist's way of meeting and defeating it. Do not give them the advantage by losing your temper; for, being thrown oif your guard, you may chance to do or say something of which they will make a handle to abuse you. But are we patiently to stand by and hear our good report blasted and blasphemed ? There is the mistake. They cannot blast or blaspheme your good report — which is good only while it stands with the good and with God, the author of all goodness. To stand well with the scum of men is no standing whatever ; to be well spoken of by all men is one of the four woes which Christ pronounced, " Woe unto j^ou when all men speak well of you. Blessed are ye who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye. This is your calling, to suffer for the sake of Christ." Take it well, therefoie ; take it all joy when ye fall into divers persecutions ; for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. The creatures are a sort of reptile which adhereth to the stem of noble plants, and hath its food from that which their bark and leaves can well enough spare. But the noble plant riseth not against the reptile that feedeth on it. Ko more do ye. But this lesson is more easily taught than practised. And the reason why it is of such difficult practice is, that we do not sufficiently remember from whom our various gifts of good name or good deeds proceed. We consider our distinction as our own, whereas it is God that maketli us to differ ; and having this touched, we feel as if our own were invaded, and make an effort to defend ourselves. Now, though I blame not self-defence, but consider it as a Christian privilege, yet that you may be guarded in the 78 Ethical. true defensive armour of the Baptist, I pray y(m. to remem- ber that God is your defence, and will bring you safety. Eemember that if God were to take away His restraining Spirit, ye would soon sink into all the evil conditions into which jj-our enemies would fain bring you. ITierefore separate not your confidence from Him who sustaineth you, but remember, in the extreme assaults of the enemy, that He is for you who is greater than all that can be against you. FEUITS OF ENVY. Not to feel envious of another's exaltation, but to rejoice in it, even when it interferes with our own place and brings with it our downfall, is a rare yet a necessary attainment of Christian life. For this world is the theatre of so much rivalry, and men, forgetting the interests of everlasting truth and universal love, do so attach themselves to their own personal advantage, as to account every one an enemy who trespasseth thereon, and crj^ " Away with him," with- out any regard to the humility of his conduct or the righteousness of his intention; and, on the other hand, there is so much emulation and endeavour to outstrip our fellows, so much ambition of high places, that, with a savage gladness, they delight to invade the good and established rights of those who have obtained the lead ; so that, between the resolution of those above to dispute, and, if possible, keep down the pretensions of others, and the resolution of those beneath to pull down those above and rise into their places, must discord, and bad feeling, and evil-speaking arise to trouble the happiness of life. First, feelings of jealousy, and envy, and rivalry are bred within the breast, and soon give birth to acts of wickedness, and malice, and malignity, out of which come strifes, and quarrels, and dissensions of various kinds, which occasions those agonising scenes and shocking crimes of which the world is full. These bitter and malevolent passions are the foes of faith, virtue, patience, temperance, brotherly-kijid- Fruits of Envy. 79 ness, and charity, and everything else which belongs to the discipline of Christ, and they are veils upon the under- standing, and keep out the light of truth. A man under the influence of malignant passions is at the opposite polo from truth, and is in darkness, and, if he be brought to believe, his faith is like that of the devils, and maketh him to tremble but not to obey. All this Cometh of too much devotion to our own selfish passions and interests, and too little regard to the feelings and interests of others ; and the only cure for it is to bring the latter more prominently forward, and to cast the former into the shade. By dwelling upon our sensations, and consulting for our own gratification, and keeping an eye to our own interests, we forget the rights and feelings of others ; and, on the other hand, according as we attend to the well-being of others we lose interest in our own. A bad temper is nothing but a succession of selfish feelings and selfish actions in small matters ; when it ascends to higher, it is called a bad heart and a bad life. And tyranny of rulers is another form of the same evil. They use the sacred power consigned to them by God and their country for their ovim private and peculiar gratification. And even the best parts of human nature may become tyrannical. An hospitable man may be a tyrant by his hospitality, and a generous man by his generosity, and one who loves you may, by the excess of his love, make you his slave. And this often occurs in human life, that the most selfish men, when unobserved, can do the most generous actions, and delight in their secrecy, as a miser delighteth in "his wealthy store, and will not bear even the acknowledgments of the party whom they have obliged ; so that this intense regaid to one's self corrupts even those parts of human nature which God hath implanted for the welfare of our neighbour, and converts acts of kindness into inflictions of self-willedness, and takes from them the power of propagating kindness in return. And this also I have found, that the spirit of this selfishness hath insinuated itself into things admired amongst men — into friendship, for example, which they 8o Ethical. value by its poverty, and esteem most highly when it is bestowed npon one alone ; in love, likewise, which they hold can exist in truth only between two hearts ; in clan- ship, which is thought more valuable by the strength of its antipathies ; in patriotism also, which they shew forth very often by their hatred and declamations against other lands. Which are all but refinements of that selfishness, jealousy, and rivalry; John the Baptist, in his person, exhibiting the most notable instance of pure and perfect freedom from all such evil dispositions. PKIDE. Of all the strongholds of Satan, pride is the strongest, which truly is more than ordinary error, being the boast and bravery of error. A proud man is not only hardened like the rest of this world, but he is annealed. He hath added to the hardness of the iron the temper of the steel ; and when others are bruised he will not yield, but will fly to pieces sooner. Also we are taught by this example, that of all the forms of pride, the pride of knowledge is the most insuperable ; the pride of riches in the publicans yielded, as also the pride of chivalry in the soldiers, when the pride of knowledge in the scribes and Levites did only gather fresh importance. Of which also the reason is most obvious, because knowledge is the eye of the mind, which, being blinded by error, leaves all passage im- pervious ; and when pride comes to the aid of such knowledge, it employeth our hands and all our faculties in withstanding any kind friend who would remove the veil, so that we are in darkness, and vain of our darkness, and barricaded in it till One stronger than ourselves do set us free. ( 8i ) PHARISAISM. The Pharisaical spirit, the love of outward and traditional things, hath afflicted every age, and afflicted this present age in no small degree ; and I question whether, in this state, Ave shall ever have it extinguished. For there is an opinionativeness which seems almost inseparable from faith, and which yet is not of the essence of faith. If indeed our faith cometh from hearing of men, or from tradition, or from any other source than the fruits of the Spirit wrought in our heart and life, this dogmatism will continue to attend it ; but if it spring from tlie proof of the thing, from the inbred conviction of its holy fruits, from the growth of heavenly temper, then that charity riseth up within the breast which thinketh no evil, is the death of all divisions and of all evil-speakings, and the true form of Christ's discipleship is manifested within us. In looking upon the outward, visible Church, it hath always appeared to me divided into two classes — one which held Christ in all charitableness, and another which held Him in all uncharitableness ; the former lying oiDcn to light, and trying every spirit with a kind experiment, and hoping the best, and hard to be convinced of evil — the latter, doubting and distrusting every one, weighing his every word with a critical exactness, and with all their ears listening to the report of evil ; the former intelligible, by their simplicity and singleness of heart — ■ the latter most confused and unapproachable, by reason of their bigotry to their church and favourite pastors, and their forms and other credentials ; the former most soft and touching, by their tender pity of yoiir frailties, and their kind counsels of your waywardness — the latter most repulsive by their firm and constrained fellowship, into which you can enter as a jiarty only through the needle's eye of their prejudices. In the one class you will find the school of Christ, in the other the school of the Pharisees; and I do exhort those who listen to my unworthy exhorta- tions to become of the former, Christians in heart, not G g2 Ethical. cliurclimen, nor sectarians, making no difference among the spiritual servants of Christ, and trampling under foot the little distinctions of outward form. For if you do not watch over this with diligence, if you allow your- selves to be all of this or of that sort, saying, " I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas ;" then you place a fence'around your liberty, and become the dupes of your favourites; if they be designing, the partisans of their falli- bility the reflection of their imperfect light, and, m short, anything within the limits of positive idolatry, if it go not ofttimes to that very extreme. MISCONCEPTIONS AS TO CHANGE OF NATURE. Theke are three delusions that men are under touching the alteration of their nature. The first, that we are o-overned by necessity, and can do nothing to change our- selves; the second, that we can change at will; the third, that we are the creatures of circumstances. I would divide the truth amongst all these three opinions, which, as they are commonly held apart, are every one of thema gross and a fatal error. We are governed by necessity, m as far as our conduct does not go at random, but is deter- mined by certain principles common to human nature, ot which the chief one is the desire to improve our condition, and reach the place that we judge it best to occupy; but this condition into which we would bring ourselves de- pendeth upon our knowledge of the various conditions which man hath been in, or can be in ; and the ability ot reaching that condition which we think the fittest depends upon the circumstances of our present condition, which is like the platform from which we have to arise. So that these three things concur— certain instincts leading us to remove inconveniences and attain well-being, knowledge how to do it, and instruments to do it withal. The in- stincts are unchangable and necessary to human nature, the knowledge is changeable, and the instruments are Misconceptions as to Change of Nature. 8 J infinitely various. It is vain, therefore, in the necessa- rians to say, that we must go on iniplicity, and can make no help for ourselves. If we had no senses to perceive things, no mind to understand things, or no wells of mind, which are books, to drink out of, — that is, if we were stocks and stones, — than we were necessary in that sense. But this idea of necessity is only the philosophic, the abstract philosopher's error, and I never heard of any one who fell into the practice of it except old Pyrrho the Greek, who went forth as the bird flies, and lost his life over a precipice. The common error arises from the second dogma, of free will, or the ability to change when we please. You may as well think to wash the negro white, or to bend the rooted oak and make it change its gnarled knotted growth into the flexible scion which grows around its root, as think to change yourselves at will. For your conduct is determined by your schemes and plans ; your schemes and plans by your wishes and ambitions ; your wishes and ambitions by your knowledge and your opportunities. AVithout making alteration upon these parts of your inward man, and upon j'-our outward circumstances, you will never change, but grow more and more inflexible till death. But if you set about increasing your knowledge, changing your company, altering your sensual indulgences, meditating upon your plans, lending your ear to counsel, and occupying your heart with wis- dom, and so make innovation upon the republic within the breast, and alteration of the outward circumstances that set it into motion ; then through the change of know- ledge and vision which are to the mind like food and air to the body, you shall work upon the inward structure of the mind itself, and upon the outward life. There is an inward structure and anatomy of the mind, as there is an inward structure and anatomy of the body. This is the necessary and unalterable part. As the eye must neces- sarily see, and the ear must necessarily hear, one part of the mind must necessarily hope, and another necessarily fear. Then there is a food proper to affect in every Avay, n 2 84 Ethical. wholesome and unwholesome, the inward organs of mind, as there is a food capable of affecting in every way, whole- some and unwholesome, the inward organs of the body ; which food of the mind, as hath been said, is the various kinds of knowledge, objects of sen.se and opportunities of action. Now, just as the body, when its inward parts are wholesomely acted upon by wholesome food, puts on healthy appearances and healthy actions ; so the mind having its proper food brings forth outwardly good fruits of virtue and honesty and piety. And as when the body looks sickly and feels feeble, you alter its diet or place of abode in order to effect a change, but never think of a change from mere willing and wishing ; so with the mind when it puts forth bad fruits of immorality and folly, and hath no aspirations after the noble and the good. If you wish to change, it is in vain, to think of doing so by a mere act of willing and wishing, — you must change upon it its food, give it new^ ideas, new views of things, new prin- ciples of action, new wishes, new ambitions, new objects of hope and fear, of love and joy. Therefore, Avhile men entertain the same opinions, and submit their minds and bodies to the same routine of excitement, the same plea- sures, the same company, the same habits of life, the same books, and the same topics of discourse, — so far from ex- pecting change, they need only expect confirmation of the present character. The longer they follow in the train the deeper will they get involved. They are under a necessity of their own bringing on, and every man as he grows older feels the necessity growing in him. The hope of alteration decreases with age, and the whole texture of the character becomes rigid and inflexible. Now take these two facts into account, — first the in- ability of the mind to strike out from its own natural darkness any light upon true religion, and the necessity, in order to change its condition and conduct, of new know- ledge and materials of action, — and you will perceive at once how intellectual people, as they grow in natural science, and improve in intellectual culture, do grow Natural Will and Regenerate Will. 85 darker and darker upon religion, and remove farther and farther from the beginnings of spiritual life. All other knowledge but revealed knowledge becomes an attraction towards some other thing than God, — the more knowledge the more attractions, the more attractions the more bond- age, and the less liberty to make that renouncement of self esteem and worldly preferences which spiritual life requires. NATURAL WILL AND REGENERATE WILL. With respect to the will of man, that which originates our actions and purposes, and directs us to the acquisition of knowledge and to the exertion of power, it is found in its natural state in a condition of bondage, not wdllingly obe- dient, yet obedient to some form of present good, from which it is not able to extricate itself into the obedience of God and the desire of everlasting good. For to the eye of natural men, the things unseen and eternal are either wholly in the dark, or do but loom indistinctly through a perpetual mist which oveihangs them ; and the things wliich are seen and temporal take such strong colours and press upon us with such present and urgent demands, Avhile the w'hole course and cui-rent of the world bears in towards them, and involves us irredeemably in the midst of thera, that the great multitude of us are moved with a com- bined desire to attain or to recover some of the good and pleasant things, and to occupy some of the ambitious and commanding places with which the world abounds. Hardly one in a thousand, by deep meditation upon his own in- ward being, discovereth that there is anything better than to eat, drink, and make merry while the day lasts ; and when the night cometh, they enter into its dark and eternal .shroud with as little true concern about the future things which lie hid therein as they had during their life. For man is not a creature to be conjured out of his former being by a deathbed sickness; nor are the spirits of the piince of this world which have ruled him to be east out 86 Ethical. by the parting prayer of a priest, or the holy sacrament, or the consecrated wafer, or any such ritual formalities. The Psalmist truly said, " The wicked have no bands in their death," because they die a brutal death, as they have lived a brutal life ; their will, which divideth them from the brutes, having been occupied and engrossed with things which differ not in kind, but only in degree fiom those things which occupy and engross the brutes. For what is a rich man's or a poor man's table better than the crib from which the nobler animal is fed ? what the luxu- rious dainties of the epicure, but the wash with which the filthier brutes do gorge themselves ? and what is man's habitation, though a palace, but the lair of the nobler animal ? and what his dress, though waited on by all the graces, but the shelter or ornament which the lower crea- tures need not ? And what trulj' are our riches and pos- sessions but the honey which the bee hath distilled, or the store which the ant hath laid up against the winter ? And what, moreover, is all the understanding by which these things are discovered, compounded, served up, and accu- mulated— I mean the harder handicrafts, with the natural and mechanical sciences — but the mere varied instincts of the animal which hath the lordship of the earth ? For which ends if a man wish and decree and scheme, then surely his will is in bondage to the eaith, and hath whollj'' lost, or never discovered, that it is spiritual and immortal, and hath nothing to do with the earth save to possess it like a master, and use it as a base instrument of his nobler ends ? But it is altogether otherwise with the will of him whom God hath redeemed from the bondage of the natural world into the liberty of the spiritual world, and which conti- nually desireth and continually presseth towards the mark of conformity to the will of God. For, dearly beloved brethren, as I have often tauo;ht you, this is our fall, to have a will out of harmony with the will of Him who created us ; and this is our recovery, to be brought back again into sweet converse with otir Father's will, and the Natural Will and Rcgeiiei-ate Will. Z^ divine order of our Father's lionse. Wherefore God first revealed His law or will with the gospel in its bosom, as a child promised, but hereafter to be born; signifying thereby that the gospel came in order to bring us back to the obe- dience of the law, or to the harmony of the will of God. And Christ, when Pie came to fulfil the promise which had been made unto the flithers, was careful, in the first place, to reconstitute the law in a purer, more spiritual, more enlarged form, according with the more enlarged and gra- cious form which the gospel was about to receive from His incarnation and death and resurrection, and dispensation of the Holy Ghost. So that he who hath tasted the good word of God hath his will raised to other desires, and stirred up with other concerns, than what he shall eat, and what he shall drink, and wherewithal he shall be clothed, even with the desiie of universal consent and continued har- mony with the Divine will, that whether he eat, or whether he drink, or whatever he do, he may do all to the glory of God. And truly to glorify God becometh the chief end of his being, and he no longer careth even to glorify himself; and he holdeth the world's wages as the first-fruits of hell, and the world's friendships as the ene- mies of God; and now he hath his ti-easures in heaven, and he glories in the riches of the grace of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. And, whereas he feels continually the opposite forces of a corrupt nature, and an evil world, and infinite temptations leading him away from the main drift of all his desires, and perceiveth that but for the strength which cometh from above he is also unable to stir one foot, or advance one step in the way of God's commandments, or to extricate his spirit in anything from its oppressors, instead of boasting and talking, instead of swaggering wilh big purposes, and building airy castles of high danger, he walketh in a lowly way, and observeth a humble de- meanour, and seeketh his strength from the Lord Jehovah, in whom is eveilasting strength, to whom his wish being wholly directed, with an eager longing of union, he boweth himself in prayer, he beseecheth with supplication, he 88 Ethical. attendeth with reverence, lie Avaitetli -witli hope, he ■under- taketh with a divine trust, and in every act of his devising and purposing and performing, hath a constant regard to a divine sustenance, so that the root and spring of his life is divine, his spirit is heavenward, his heart full of divine asjjirations, his eye full of divine researches and holy notices, his words full of Christian speeches, and his hand accomplished in gracious and divine acts of love. AN HONEST HEART. Is it what the world calls a good natural disposition, with which some men are born ? This it cannot be ; for if that were a preliminary requisite, then the gospel would only be for a pait of men, and the children of the kingdom would be born of flesh and blood, and the law of the flesh would not be contrary to the law of the Spirit. This notion we utterly reject ; for it is the very essence of the Arminian heresy, which gives a certain co-operative power unto the creature, and so filcheth all the glory from God. If, then, this co-operative, yea, and precedent principle, be not in the person of man, is it in his education? or is it in civilisation ? or, in general, is it to be found in his outward circumstances ? This I reject, because I have rejected the former; being well assured, that if the quality of pure and essential goodness be not found in any one man, it will not be found in any two men, nor in anj^ com- bination of men, nor in any of the works of men. For if good dispositions could in any way of nature be pro- duced in us, then the children of God were born of the will of men ; or if good works before God — that is, fruits of righteousness — could by any combination of means, discovered or discoverable, be brought to light, then what need were there for the regeneration of the Holy Ghost? Besides, it is such a preposterous thing to put man's cir- cumstances before man ! As if the circumstantial things — the climate of the heavens, or the qualities of the ground, Aji Honest Heart. 89 or the secret and subtle influences of tlie stars, or the mechanical arts, or any other conditional things — were made to rule over man, and man were not made to rule over them. As if he might be fallen from all blessedness, and lost to all good, and they not be so, but still retain some secret fire of heaven in them, and subtle prize of divine virtue, to those moral alchy mists who can work it out of them by co-operative societies, and mechanic schools, and infidel universities, and other mysteries of those adepts in moral aleh^-my, or jugglers in the service of Satan. But still the stone lies at the foot of the hill, and how is it to be rolled up or taken away ? The question resteth unresolved. But what is this soil of "a good and honest heart," which must be already in existence before the Sower of seed— that is the Son of Man, who j)reacheth the gospel of the kingdom — can receive any fruits into His garner ? Can it, saith a third, more orthodoxly and religiously disposed, be this outward visible Church, and the ordinances of religion, which we all know must be observed and diligently kept before any fiuit of righte- ousness will be produced ? But this will do no better than the others. For, first, I take it that the chief of the ordinances of religion — the ministry of the word and the sacraments — are nothing but the sowing of the seed : and the Church visible doth now the office which the Son of man did while on earth, who sent His apostles, and they their successors, and so on until our times, into all the world, to preach the gospel, and establish a Church for the preaching and full setting of the gospel. The "good and honest heart," therefore, ought to be some- tliing different from these, as the soil is different both from the seed and the Sower of the seed. Besides, how- ever sacred be the forms of the ordinances of religion, and however profitable their use w-hen connected with the spiritual substance and realit}^ thereof; they are not, when separated thence, of any profit to any one, but a hypocrisy, a profanation, a hardening of the heart to 90 Ethical. holy things, a tuniing away from the living waters of the fountain, and a great offence to the Divine Persons who have presented us with these most precious gifts : and, therefore, so far from preparing a soil, they do rather scourge the soil, and wholly disqualify it for receiving the holy seed. Witness the case of the Jews whom our Saviour addressed : how little their scrupulous adherence to forms did prepare them for receiving the seed of the great Sower of the earth ! And, therefore, I think this can as little be admitted for the right solution of the difSculty as the other two : and besides these three, my ingenuity can suggest to me no other ; for if this pre- requisite of " a good and honest heart " be not in the natural disposition, be not in the education and civil institutions of society, be not in the forms and ordinances of the visible Cliurch, where should it be ; for these seem to include the whole visible ordinances of God and man for the well-being of mankind ? I answer, it is in all of these, when rightly interpreted as ordinances of redemption and gifts of grace, and when rightly applied to us by the Holy Spirit of God ; and it is in none of them, when intei'preted merely as the law and course of nature, and used according to the inclinations of nature. The soil of " a good and honest heart " is produced by an operation of the Holy Spirit upon this our fallen nature through the means of those fallen things which are around us. As in the creation He did move at first upon the void and formless waters, before the Word said " Let there be light," in order to prepare them for receiving the forms which the Word had pro- posed to give them ; so in the regeneration He doth prepare for the seed of the Sower, which is the same word of the Son of God, by working upon the moral chaos of man's nature a readiness to receive the seed when it shall be cast into it. And as the same creating Spirit doth, by many previous processes of nourishment and health and growth, prepare every animal for con- ceiving seed, and bringing forth its kind ; so doth He, Tlie Sabbath and its Sanctions. 9 1 long before the seed of the word of God is sown iu the heart, prepare every heart with a relish, yea, and with a longing for the same. He maketh the appetite before lie bringeth the meat : and having brought the meat, Ho giveih })ower to digest it, and so reneweth the decayed face of nature. THE SABBATH AND ITS SANCTIONS. The Sabbath was made for man, not for God. We are to benefit from it. And the only part the Almighty hath in the matter is to interpose His authority against doing our- selves any harm. How can any one think the Almighty wrongs us in bestowing upon us a seventh day of rest? AMien He made the world, and gave man the care of it, He might have said, " Let th)' care never cease, prune the exuberance of nature, and rule over the living creatures without any remission. Every hour ye idle I will require it at your hand." Or when the world fell. He might say, '• NoAv, sweat on in your sultry toil, consume the sinews of your strength and the faculties of your mind Avithout any intervention of repose. Fight the fight of life till death bring you to a stand. Enslave each other, and exact your slavery at your will ; I take no more charge of you, and leave you to the play of j^our own free will." But instead of thus abandoning His creature to itself, He gave it statutes to preserve it from its own wilfulness, and this of the Sabbath He placed among the first. The Almighty perceiving that man would not be merci- ful in his power over his fellow-man, or over the cattle of the field, did thus enter His own voice against their total debasement and -degradation, and gave their body and mind a space in which no one could call them servant, iu which they might feel at pristine liberty to transact affairs with themselves and their God. Perceiving, also, that the world with its pleasures and engagements would encroach more and more upon man, and occupy all his time, and so 92 Ethical. banish all higher ihonghts and higher cares, ITe took the summary measure of setting off the seventh part of time, in -which it should not he lawful to do any work. And in His wisdom perceiving that the constitution of both body and mind would be thereby better kept up in strengtli, and the enjoyment of action be more relished after a rest, .and the strenuousness of action better sustained in the pros- pect of it. He interfered and constituted the Sabbath for our welfare. Perceiving also that the mind had faculties which wei'e best developed in quiet and retirement, and that in becoming acquainted with all things under the sun it might drop acquaintance with itself, and lose the high relish and entertainment which spring from a well-ordered breast. He did appoint us this season inviolable to muse and meditate and commune with our own souls. And wisliing to be remembered by His creatures, and not to be eclipsed by worldly objects, or forgotten in worldly cares. He made provision of time, and commanded cessation of care, that the soul might have communion and fellowship witli her God. Likew^ise desiring that the memor}' of its creation might never depart from the face of the earth, and that she should devoutly rejoice before the God who brought her beautiful and replenished from the womb of ancient chaos, He appointed this great commemoration of creation weekly to recur. And, finally, for us Christians, who are born again and created anew, and raised from death unto life : and from the slavery of sin to the inherit- ance of the saints in light. He caused it to be changed to the day for ever memorable bj' the triumph of our Lord and Saviour over death and the grave. * * * It is the part, therefore, of every wise man to delight in this day of recreation and refreshment; to defend it as one of the great rights of humanity, and as one of the bulwarks of our salvation. Therefore, brethren, leaving exhorted jo\x to set apart seasons of rest and repose upon your own accord, we cannot but be urgent that 3'ou should especially attend to this prescribed to you by the Lord. Saith the commandment, " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy The Sabbath and its Sanctions. 93 work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Loid thy God : in it thou !?halt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy sti'anger that is within thy gates." The work of our hands is first of all to cease, and the labours of our bodies ; and not of ours only, but of every creature over whom the Lord giveth us control. The preparing of our victuals, which is a necessary act, and the doing of merciful offices, our Saviour hath sanctioned by His own example, because the Almighty bringeth on that day, no less than on others, the return of our bodily wants, and the occurrence of unfortunate accidents". Man was not made for the Sabbath, otherwise every seventh day the laws of human nature would have stopped their course, and animal nature would not have needed his help. There would have been no offence of the elements or of savage creatures to have called upon him for his resources of defence. But these calls continuing as on other days, he is to answer them as on other days, and preserve his being in a healthy state, and also the being of those aronnd him. All Judaical observation of it, therefore, which would place the body upon short allowance, or leave the condi- tion of the sick unguarded, or not sufficiently provide for the comfort of the inferior creatures ; all ascetic inflictions, of fasting, of mortification, of discomfort, of confinement, or of suffering, are to be avoided as not only not called for, but corrupting the very purpose and intention of the holy day, which is a day of refreshment and restoration, not a day of penance and humiliation. But while the comfort and health both of the body and the mind are attended to, it is only the better to enable us to comply with the true spirit of the ordinance ; and there- fore this is not to be made a handle of for preparations of feasting, or vain adorning of the person, for excursions or pleasure, for assemblies of our kindred, or any other thing which would hinder us from reaping the advantages of the institution. In this I go so far that I would not have the rest of the Sabbath broken up even by ths too large de- 94 Ethical. inands of public worship, wliicli is instrumental to the rest of the Sabbath, and not a part of its rest, and which often becomes the laborious employment of the Sabbath instead of being part of its spiritual recreation. We should have time for both body and mind to come into a state of repose. Tranquil moods and sweet quiet thoughts should recreate our souls. We should allow its rest to come like oil over our troubled minds. And whatever tends to this solemn- ising, tranquil) ising effect should be adopted; whatever hinders it should be avoided in the employment of the day. But I depend chiefl}'' for the right enjoj^ment of the Sabbath's rest upon the exclusion of week-day concerns, which being well done, I think the soul instructed in the knowledge of God would find its way by itself to the right employment of the holy day. Now, first of all, it will not be denied that our calling should not be followed in whole or in part : that we should shut the doors and windows of our shops, and withhold our feet from the lesort of business, our tongues from discoursing, and our minds from being agitated with its cares and concerns. When we go to rest at night we shut out the light which lingereth in the heavens, and we bar out the in- gress of the world and compose our minds from irritating thoughts. So when we go to rest on Sabbath from weekly employments, we should not only close the door of our workshops, but, if possible, shut out the cares and thoughts which harbour about them. All letters of business, all messengers of business, and all conversation of business, and all books which treat df business, we should exclude ; all journeys for the prosecution of business, all visits of travellers come on that end, all their bribes and overtures to truck and barter we should utterly reject. Tor we do but cheat ourselves (God, who looketh to the heart, we cannot cheat) if, when we shut the doors and windows of our shops, we open an active speculation within our minds, and carry on in the chambers of thought those concerns which we have refrained from in visible places. And as the commandment is upon our servants and the True Idea of Education. 95 stranger witliin our gates, so wo should hinder our woi k- nien from doing anjthing on our account, and we should require nothing of them save what is necessary for our own health and the health of the cattle. Moreover, we should not bo instrumental to the work of others, and therefore we should not command our so'vant to buy nor buy our- selves. We should not encourage any traffic, nor employ any Sabbath vehicles. Our Sabbath journeys should be indeed Sabbath-day journeys ; and if we employ the ser- vices of our servants and cattle, it should be to them after Sabbath-day measvires, for health or refreshment's sake, by no means for labour or for profit. I do reckon it, there- fore, inconsistent with the ordinance of God to encourage the buying and selling of commodities, the plying of public vehicles, the attendance and labour of servants, and what- ever else hinders the rest of any lellow-mortal, or of any inferior creature. TRUE IDEA OF EDUCATION. It seemeth to me that the true idea of education is con- tained in the word itself, which signifies the act of drawing out, or educing ; and being applied in a general sense to man, must signify the drawing forth or bringing out those powers which are implanted in him by the hand of his Alaker. This, therefore, we must adopt as the rudimental idea of education ; that it aims to do for man that which the agriculturist does for the fruits of the earth, and the gardener for the more choice and beautiful productions thereof; what the forester does for the trees of the forest, and the tamer and breaker-in of animals does for the several kinds of wild creatures ; this same office in a higher kind, according to the higher dignity of the subject, doth education propose to do for the oti'spring of man, who is to be the possessor of the earth, and the enjoyer of its beautiful and fragrant fruits, the monarch of all the creatures, the possessor of knowledge, the subject of laws, and the wor- €)6 . Ethical. shipper of God. And that system of education alone can be regarded as liberal and enlarged, as complete and ca- tholic, which takes into the compass of its view all the powers and capacities which are given to man, and capable of being educed or brought forth by good and skilful husbandry. It is necessary, thei'efore, to consider and classify those powers which are given to human nature ; those original capacities of the soul of man, which all possess, though in different degrees ; the univeisal and catholic attributes of humanity, without which men were not to be regarded as men, nor allowed to carry on in the midst of men the vocations of human life. These capacities seem to be threefold, rising in the scale of dignity one above another. The first is, the capacity of knowing and understanding the propei-ties of those things which we see, and handle, and taste, and in the midst of which we are to pass our life ; that is, the knowledge of nature as it is STibmitted to our iive senses, and can be discovered, examined, and discoursed of by our understanding, which judgeth by the sense, and taketh means to an end. The second is, the capacity of knowing and understanding our own selves, of judging amongst, and rightly regulating, those thoughts and emotions of the soul which command the actions of the body, direct the observations of the senses, instruct the understanding to labour in this or that province of outward nature ; the capacity which unites us in families, in friendships, and in societies, enacts laws and forms of government, submits to them when they are enacted ; and, in short, produces all that inward activity of spirit, and outward condition of life, which distinguishes man from the lower creatures. The third is, the power of knowing, and worshipping, and obeying the true God; which, though it be a faculty lost and hidden in man by the Fall, is now renewed in him by the Word and Spirit of God, whereof assurance is given to all who believe the gospel, by the blessed sacrament of baptism, which declares, not by words but by signs, that from the earliest hour of life, True Idea of Educatio7i. 97 the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost implant the lost capacity of divine and spiritual life, which thenceforth education may consider as the third and noblest province of her kingdom. Now that education is liberal, catholic, and complete which embraceth this threefold capacity of human nature, and orderetli itself in such wise as to give to each its proper place in the scale of dignity ; and that again is narrow and sectai'ian, and hurtful, which em- braceth only a part, or disordereth the relative dignity and subserviency of the several parts. Two questions may here be started — whether man hath these three capacities of physical, moral, and religious education, and whether this is the proper order of their dignity. Nor is it to be expected that we should have a universal consent upon this subject, seeing there be some wi'etches who teach that man differeth only from the brutes in having a better constitution of senses, and who reject all his moral and religious distinctions, as the imagination of the superstitious, or the deceptions of the cunning. BiTt, setting these aside, who are generally of sxich a degi'aded type of man, as not worthy to be heard in any court holden upon man's proper dignity, we have, for the proof of this second division of man's capacities, the universal consent of all the Avise and virtuous, who have held self-knowledge far more important than natural knowledge, and self-com- mand far more excellent than command over the most hidden secrets of the three kingdoms of nature. "\\'e have also the whole body of civil histor}-, which is the narrative of the moral being of man : we have the whole body of law, the man}' forms of government, the world of his imagina- tion, the infinitelj' various records of his feelings, his dis- courses skilfull}' framed to move the feelings of others, the books of morals and of metaphysics ; and, in short, every foj-m of literature holds of man's moral being, save books of natural science and natural histoiy, which, though thev have made a great noise in the world of late, and in a manner deafened its ear, are to the books which record the phenomena of man's peculiar and moral being, as the small H 98 Ethical. tithe of poultry and of garden stuffs are to the exuberance of the whole earth. And, with respect to the reality and dignity of the third capacity, our capacity of divine know- ledge, it is real and it is dignified only to him who believeth in the revelation of Grod ; and to him who be- lieveth not, it is but a shadow, and an ineffectual doctrine. For the religion that is called natural, I consider but as a higher form of morals, and not entitled to any separate consideration ; but the religion which is called revealed, is so high and noble in its beginnings, so infinite in its ends, so real in its discoveries, so full of peace and joy and blessedness, to our moral being, that to one who knows it, and believes it, it is not necessary to exalt its pre-eminence over the other two ; and to one who knows it not, this is not the time to enter into the controversy, and hardly the place, seeing I understand myself to be discoursing before the believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have come hither to be instructed in His faith and discipline. But a matter of such vast practical importance as educa- tion should not be allowed to rest upon any individual's notion of the capacities of the human mind, or to be con- ducted according to any private judgment concerning the ends and objects of human life. And I reckon that the more novel and original any scheme is, which has educa- tion for its object, the less worthy it is of oiir regard. For, of a thing so common, so ancient, so fiill of anxiety to every one, and so full likewise of reflection to every one, men must surely by this time have got to know the first principles, and to practise the best rules. Therefore, I were willing to renounce both the classification which hath been given above, of the capacities of our nature, and the order of their respective dignity, if it should be found not to have received the common consent of men, or be not embodied in their practice, and required by their institu- tions. But when I see that in every well-ordered family, the first lesson of a mother to her children is of God and uf conscience, of religion and of duty, and that almost all True Idea of Education. 99 schools, academies, and universities of any standing, have heretofore generally arisen out of religion, and been so ordered as to cultivate both the knowledge and the practice of religion ; and that in all well-constituted states, religion hath had the first place and highest reverence, orders of luen being set apart to teach it as the principle of action, the root and stem of manly character ; and that, in the forms of our country, thereon rest the sanction of an oath, the sacredness of a covenant, the forms of law, the very foims of merchandise, the holy bond of matrimony, the qualification for an office, and everything, in short, which constitutes the nerve and sinew of the state ; I must not only keeji the place which I have taken for religion, above every other capacity of man, but call upon him who disputes it to enter into controversy with the universal judgment of those chosen men who have stamped the image of their mind upon the face of law and the constitu- tions of civil life. And that the moral duties of man to man come second in order, and rise far above the know- ledge and management of the material world, who will dispute that comprehendeth ought of his own, of his neighbours, or the common weal, which are not built up, as they fondly imagine, by contributions of physical science, and skill in arts, but by domestic and homely virtues, by female chastity and grace, by manly wisdom and virtue, by the good and wholesome administration of laws, by moderation and disinterestedness in those who govern, by industry, freedom, and loyalty in those who are governed, and by the other forms of moral character, whereof it would be endless to speak particularly. We live, indeed, in a time when the physical sciences have almost stormed the strongholds of morality and religion ; but I trust in God, though at times I fear, that His blessins: upon the ancient bulwarks of our Church, and our polity, will presei-ve them against the bravadoes of phj-sical knowledge, and the rude attacks of physical force. But if any one will ascend beyond thirty short years of time, and take the judgment of the centuries and ages which pre H 2 lOO EtJdcaL ceded tliis present generation of men, lie will find, tliat Ly universal consent the studies of nature were far postponed to the studies of man and the study of God, and the com- mand over nature's secrets rated far beneath the command over self, and ohedience to the holy, just, and good ordi- nances of the Most High. We have therefore the best right to conclude, that if education fulfil the rudimental idea which it names, and, indeed, the only catholic idea of it which can be taken up, it must address itself to unfold these three various parts of man's nature, in due subordination to one another, by all the helps and instruments which can be made subservient to that blessed end. Now all who believe in revealed religion, and have had any experience of its godly fruits, know well how utterly ineffectual is every other means to quicken religious life within the soul, save the revelation of His mind and will, which for that end God himself hath given to the children of men. The gospel of Christ, as it is unfolded there, in all its various forms of narration, of doctrine, of precept, and of example, of promise and rev/ard, and of prophecy and fulfilment, through four thousand years of time, is the only light which availeth to dispel the brooding darkness wherein the spirits of all the young and old are found involved, and hidden from all knowledge which concerneth God and immortality, the invisible world, and everlasting life. They have Avritten most beautifully concerning the light of nature, and the revelation of God contained in the material universe ; and very pleasant it were to believe ail which they have beaulifullj^ written ; but I have yet to find the man, either in the records of well-authenticated history, or in the circles of living society, who hath derived from that source any abiding consciousness of God's existence or revelation of His mind, a,ny deliverance from sin or practical government of life, any w^ell-groimded hope of immortality, any available consolation against affliction and death. Yet I blot not out of the scheme these the handiworks of God ; but be- fore they can be rightly perused I exact much previous Tnic Idea of Education. lOi knowledge conceniing Him whom they do but dimly represent, and concerning that sad calamity of the world which hath shifted every one of them from its centre ; and then witli such illumination both human nature and physical nature may be perused with much theological profit and instruction, which without it are a chaos of confusion, a book of riddles, a chain of paradoxes, and series of contradictions. That seminary of education, there- fore, from which the Scriptures are excluded, wherein the doctrines and the precepts of the Scriptures are not con- stantly inculcated, and in Scripturewise commended to the heart and conscience of the youth, is to be accounted a place for neglecting man's best and noblest, his everlasting capacity; for crushing to the earth that immortal spirit which should have soared to heaven ; for extinguishing and annihilating that divine spark which the Son of God came to kindle anew in every heart, and which the Spirit of God abideth for ever to watch over, and to nourish and presei-ve for everlasting. AVith respect to that second form and degree of our capacities which hath reference to the knowledge of our own intellectual and moral nature, gives us the command of the various feelings and affections lying in such disarray within our breast, and prepares us for discharging aright the various offices and duties we owe to ourselves, our neighbours, our kindred, and our country, and whereon personal happiness and the common weal chiefly dej^end : this faculty we Christians are of opinion is best cultivated by the knowledge of God, whose revelation, by universal consent even of its enemies, contains the best code of moral duties the world hath ever possessed. And we would have the authority of God employed to support that which the wisdom of God hath devised ; and therefore we think, that in a well-conducted education, the knowledge of ourselves should come out of the knowledge of God, which is set forth, not in the abstract, but in relation to human nature ; and morals grow out of religion, as the branches, and leaves, and flowers, and fruits, grow from the root and I02 Ethical. trunk of the tree. And I see not, indeed, liow in a Chris- tian state like Britain, where every moral and political duty is entwined with religion, in the very texture of society ; where our poetry, and our literature, and our philosophy, heretofore delighted to graft themselves upon the same venerable stem, and since they separated have produced nothing but sour, bitter, and poisonous grapes ; and where. Sabbath after Sabbath, moral duties are incul- cated on religious principles in our churches, and in our universities, and in our chief schools, and in the great body of our common schools ; — I see not how in this land, morals can be taught apart from Christianitj^, founded up- on classical traditions, or modern infidel doctrines, with- out distracting the very vitals of the land, and tearing to pieces that constitution of society which hath shewn its soundness by weathering the storms which have strewed the world with the wrecks of other states. But on what- ever founded, a system of moral duties of some kind ought to be exhibited, and enforced in every school, else will that second part of human nature which is the bond and blessing of society be left dormant as well as the first, and nothing be cultivated of the noble being of man, save those lowest and meanest powers whereby he converseth with the properties of matter, or with the brutes that perish. The late-sprung idea of having any art or science per- taining to the mind or body of youth taught apart from and independent of religion, is manifestly not only an un- christian but an antichrist ian idea, which gives up the false principle that there are talents and gifts which are not to be acknowledged as of God, and may be used with- out any view to His service ; and that men may innocently teach departments of human knowledge without any allu- sion to the Fountain of light, and our children may, with- out harm, be taught the same after that ungodly fashion. Now, I say, if there be antichristian, if there be atheistical doctrine, it is this ; and if there be a practice which will beget scepticism and unbelief, it is this. And to this may True Idea of Education. 103 be traced that almost universal scepticism which is en- twined with knowledge, and seated in our schools of knowledge, until it seemeth to be almost inseparable from them. Be it obsei"\'ed, therefore, that the point for which wo argue is not whether religion should be taught in the school or in the family, but whether, in a land professing to be governed on Christian principles, and to establish the Christian religion amongst its people, it be not a glar- ing inconsistency, a gross solecism in law, and so far forth the entire rejection of religion, that the schools where the ^•outh are taught should not recognise the authority of God and advancement of Chi'ist's kingdom, as constantly and unequivocally as the churches, chapels, or conventicles where the men are taught. I am not dividing the matter of religious education between the home and the school, be- tvt'een the parents and the teachers, but shewing that it is bej'ond the power of a Chi'istian parent to entrust the training of the spirit entrusted to him, to any one who is unprincipled in Chi-ist's gospel, and uncareful of its obli- gations : even as it is likewise beyond the power of a Christian government to constitute schools which shall not acknowledge, in the ordering of knowledge and the instructing of mind, the same authority of Christ, the universal Governor, which every Christian polity shoi^ld acknowledge in all its acts and ordinances. I take it, therefore, to be established upon broad doc- trinal principles, that it is a solecism in a Chi-istian govern- ment to authorise, and in Christian parents to patronise, an}' school for youth, be the subject taught in it what it may, when that subject is not taught with a view to the glory of God, the eternal salvation of the soul, and the Christian well-being of the land, Now, if any one say, " Oh, but we cannot trust the religion of our children to be under the tuition of those whom the Church and State," or, as it should rather be said, whom the belicA'ing nation, " hath approA-ed for that end ; " the answer is, No one obligeth thee to delegate thy child's education to any one : 1 04 Ethical. it is tHne own act to do so. Thou art tlie guardian of the spirit of thy child : do that which seemeth unto thee good. But do not thou hinder others from having the advantage which they may need; neither do thou set up such an anomaly and solecism in a Christian land as education without the acknowledgment of God's propriety in the bodies and minds of the children, who are His creatures, and by baptism His redeemed creatures. Our notion of human nature, as explained above, is, that it is fashioned and furnished for more excellent purposes than to turn the clod or handle machines, to transport the produce of the earth from place to place, or work in mines of gold and silver ; or to eat, drink, and make merry, over the indulgences which are by these means procured. And, therefore, those systems of education whose chief aim it fs to teach the nature of the physical productions of the earth, and the mechanical arts by which they are to be transported from place to place, and the chemical arts by which their forms and properties are changed, and the science of economy, or of turning our handiwork to the most account, are to me no systems of education whatever, unless I could persuade myself that man was merely king of the animals, head labourer and master workman of the earth. I can see a great use and value in these physical sciences, to enable a man to maintain himself with less brutal labour, to the end he may have more leisure upon his hands for higher and nobler occupations ; and in this respect T greatly admire them, as having bowed the stub- born neck of the elements to the spirit of man, and restored him that power over creation with which he was endowed at first. But if he is to be taught in his youth no higher occupation than this, no godlike recreation of his soul, no spiritual sciences ; and, if what he is taught of intellect be thus bound down, like Prometheus, to the barren earth, then have we an education which, however splendid in its apparatus, however imposing in its experiments, however fruitful in riches, and all which riches can command, is poor and meagre, low, mean, and earthly, altogether insuf- True Idea of Education. 105 ficient to satisfy man's estate ; wliicli doth but harness him for his work, Avhich doth but enslave and enserf him to the soil, but giveth to him no tokens, no hint, no inti- mation, of his reasonable being, — for I call not that reason ■which labours in the clay, — it is but the instinct of the noble animal, and not the reason of the spiritual being. Such education will depress a people out of manliness, out of liberty, out of poetry, and religion, and whatever else hath been the crown of glory around the brows of mankind. SOCIAL ^"f^ ~^%^< ^^ ^'X^<^ 1-4^%^ ^^^ l-^"^^ ^ SOCIAL CARES. AS we grow in years, and become the fellows and companions and servants and masters of a new generation, straightway, to the cares that come upon us from the generation that gave us birth, there are added the cares of this world's business and government, which our fathers resign into our hands ; and a little further onward in the journey of this mortal life, we become authors to ourselves of the cares of another generation, spning from our loins : and so it fareth with us from generation to generation, that we are burdened with the care not of ourselves, but of many others, from which we cannot escape by any act of stem resolution, or stoical pride, without turning the milk of our nature into sour- ness, or making our abode in the cold and solitaiy regions of pride, or sinking into the depths of indifi'erence and apathy towards our kind, unless, indeed, which is the only cure, we are enabled by faith to enter into the mysteiy of God's fatherly providence, and repose our souls with security upon His care. Oh, how intricate and interwoven is this net of care- fulness, in which the spirits of men are taken captive ! It reacheth unto all ; it is around all ; it is Satan's snare for no Social. catching all. If I look into my own breast, and observe what passeth therein continually, that is, to what my nature is ever inclined, I find from the opening of my eyelids in the morning, until their closing in unconscious sleep, that faster and more plentiful than motes in the sun- beam, cares succeed each other, and float about in the light of intelligence which is within me ; and Satan will not give me leisure for a morning or evening prayer, but he will be interposing, between the eye of my faith and the heaven of my desires, some phantom of worldly care or interest, the ghost of something past, or the shadow of something coming, or the substance of something present ; and yet I am not a man like many here present, loaded with worldly charges, but exempted from them by the nature of my calling, and desirous in my spirit to keep myself exempt : but I do find that my natural eye loveth not more the light, or an object to look upon, than my natural man loveth an object in this world to hope, or fear, or desire ; and I do moreover find that there is no deliverance in nature ; that the understanding hath its cares in the objects of knowledge : that the heart hath its cares in the objects of afiection ; that every profession is filled with worldly cares, which will not be kept out by the gratings of the convent, as our pious fathers vainly thought, which will not be kept out by the untrodden solitudes of the hermitage, nay, which will not be exor- cised from the closet by the voice of solemn prayer, but Daunt sick men's couches, and sit heavy upon the dying man's breast, and would seem almost to follow us into the grave ; and I wonder not at the superstition of the Eomanist, which feigneth that the fires of purgatory are needed to separate this earthly intermixture from the soul before it be fit to ascend into the pure abodes of the blessed. Seeing, then, that this subject toucheth us all so closely, revealing that troublous sea into which every man is cast at his birth to swim for his life, we do well, like men earnestly desiring to be delivered from these many waters Social Cares. 1 1 1 of evil, and planted upon a rock, to consider the causes Avhicli have brought us into this jeopardy of our life ; tho fotal issues of abiding therein ; and the only way of deliverance which the Lord, in His grace, hath revealed. And, as to the causes which entwine these cares with our natural being, I observe, that they are no less than the preservation, the well-being, and the happiness of this our present estate. It is not that the mind naturally loveth care on its own account, from which, indeed, it would rather be delivered, for the enjoj'ment of its own will and pleasure ; but that without care nothing will proceed well in the out^vard world, which is very obstinate and en- tangled, like the wild forest and the woody thicket, and cannot be brought into regular and productive courses, but by much husbandry and economy and care ; yea, and the soul itself, if suffered to grow according to its own wdll and pleasure, doth likewise become overrun with the weeds of idleness, and infested with the brood of evil and wicked passions. And what were a family without the care of a thrifty wife and industrious husband ? and what were any concena of business without the care of a head master and inferior servants ? and what were a state without the watchful care of its governors ? and what were laws without the diligence of magistrates ? and what were the rising generation without the labour and care of teachers ? and, in short, of what worth were the existence and well-being of society without the care to maintain it on the part of those who enjoy it? As the beautiful garden and well ciiltivated fields would, but for the hand of man, soon return under the dominion of the curse and become a sterile wilderness, so would the regu- larity and peace and concord of society, without the dutiful cares of men, retura to the rudeness and ferocity and wild disorder of savage life. The causes, therefore, of care are deeply seated and wide-spread in the natural wants and advantages of human life ; and while the objects of this world continue the chief or only objects of the soul, it were not only a vain but a very unwise thing to call upon men 112 Social. to suspend their cares, — for it could lead only to im- providence, waste, idleness, and disorder, against which the commandments of the gospel are set in direct oppo- sition. " He that will not work," saith the apostle, " neither should he eat," " He that provideth not for his own, especially those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." To him who hath no higher object than this world, care is the certain portion ; and, as it were, the present price with which its future goods are purchased : it is his pain, it is his penalty for want of faith on the providence of God, and the world unseen ; and while this faith is unpossessed, his soiil must have the tortures of anxiety, and the pains of disappoint- ment, and the sufferings of loss and defeat. The moralist may do his best to regulate, but he cannot deliver the soul of men from this evil agitation ; for while men have hope, it must look forward to something ; while they have desire, it must fasten upon something ; and if there be nothing assured to them by faith beyond the grave, and above the world, then upon this side the grave, and upon the world, their desires must rest: and if in my wife and child I know nothing immortal and eternal, whereon to fix my love, and in the fixed fellowship of which to defy time and change, what can 1 do but fix it upon that visible transient being, this natural existence, in the mysteries of which we have become acquainted together, and with all the un- certainties of which our acquaintances must be disturbed ? If there be a cure therefore for care, it is not in things visible : its remedy is not in the understanding, nor within the resources of man ; for, as hath been said, every- thing is full of care, and, as hath been shewn, nothing can proceed without it. 1 1 MARRIAGE. In the relation between husband and wife, it is the design of God to exhibit the most perfect union whereof two spirits living upon the earth are susceptible. He in- tendeth that there should be community between them in all things, individuality in none ; that whenever they differ they should find a common ground on which to agree, and not separate and recede into their proper provinces of thought and feeling ; but do their most diligent endeavour to be of one heart and of one soul. He meaneth it to be the perfection of communion, the masterpiece of affection, and the parent of all other associations — friendship, acquaint- ance, and society. And this, not for the sake of domestic happiness and prosperity alone, but for the sake of religion and spiritual blessedness. For in joining such a communion, it is manifest that both parties must surrender their per- sonality, and come forth from the magic circle of their self- love ; that their natures must become interwoven, each resigning self for something better, which is not self, but communion, which is not a thing seen, but a thing imseen ■ — something made from the union of the two, which hath no existence in either. Now, in this resignation of self, which Christian matrimony is intended by our Lord to be, the gieat step is taken towards religion. Communion is deliberately preferred to selfishness ; and if communion with a spirit of like infirmity with our own, how much more communion with the Father, and with His Son Christ Jesus ! When this community, not of goods, nor of person, but of purpose and design, and everything which is com- municable, hath taken place, and is in sweet operation, then it not only assisteth the parents to the higher and more perfect communion which religion is, but is to the children a constant emblem, as hath been said, of commu- nion in general, and from the earliest dawn of feeling, it maketh a streniious debate with the principle of selfish- ness, to which hiiman nature is so prone. They behold, from the first moment that their spirit can behold spiritual I 114 Social. things, a common interest as well as a self-interest. All that blessed family estate, of which they are a part, they perceive to come from the sacrifice of the personal, and tlie triumph of the common. Its regulation proceedeth alto- gether by consent, and whenever dissent comes, then come discord and every evil. The face of peace is marred, the harmony of the household is confounded with jarring interests, and the guardian genius of home departeth. But when communion returns, then with it the blessedness of the whole family is restored. In this way it cometh to pass that the married estate becomes a standing t^-pe or emblem of communion, a constant argument against selfish- ness, a constant incitement of the generous and pious parts of human nature in all the household ; and being so esta- blished, it is worth a thousand lessons to the heart; it is an atmosphere in which the heart lives, and breathes, and hath its being; and the blessing to the family of such a cordial union is not to be estimated. It is not to be esti- mated, because no one's consciousness can ascend so high into the rudiments of his being. There the dawn of thought and feeling God hath mysterious^ly hidden from us in the darkness of childhood ; like as, at the same period. He hid from us the prospective view of life. There our spirits grew, feeding upon smiles and embraces ; our morning of life dawned in the holy light of a father's and a mother's shining face. Joy was our frequent companion, Mnd carelessness went ever with us, hand in hand. If, instead of such an auspicious ushering into this world of care, we had been fed with the sour grapes of maternal fretfulness and paternal tj-ranny ; if our ear, for the dulcet and soothing sounds of a mother's fond love and a father's sprightly jo}^ had been accustomed to sharp quarrel and contentious discord ; if the comfort we had in our homes had been banished out of doors by feuds and contentions, and peevishness had usurped the place of sweetness, and stern command of loving-kindness, and contention of com- munion, and we had grown up under these storms and troubles of the domestic estate, rather than under its pacific Marriage. 1 1 ^ influences ; — then, just as in troubles of the political estafo every mind is a little shaken off its centre — simie unhinged, and many altogether deranged, and a s^pirit of wild specu- lation and factious dissension seizeth all the children of the state, — so in the family, it cometh to pass, is such anarchy, that all tlie springs of thought and chaiacter are troubled at their fountain, and a brood of discontented, disunited, ill-thriven children grow up fulfilling the terrible, yet true commination of the Lord, that He visiteth the iniquities of the parents ujx^u the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him and keep not His com- mandments. But, upon the other hand, when true commu- nity and harmony of feeling are preserved by the parents and guardians of the family, the children gi'ow up under the sweet influences of love and blessedness, and become unconsciously attached to home, — with how much strength they know not, until they are torn away from it, or some of its endeared objects are removed. They grow up as the subjects of a well-ordered state, in the midst of their pri- vileges and possessions, working, each one in his place, with diligence and contentment, holding no disputes or noisy brawls, and venting no wild patriotic effusions, but living upon those things concerning which your would-be patriots talk. Such people, though quiet and simple, are strong, and strongly united, and, being invaded or assailed, woe to those who stir them or wound their peace. They rise from their quietness, and thej' dash them in pieces, like the potsherds. Thus nourished in peace and unity, the tender shepherds of the tender flock have oft cnished and trodden upon the mailed and battled strength of armies that had swept whole portions of the earth. In such peace, in such love, and in such strong attachment to home, do children grow up who are nourished under the sweet con- senting sway of united and harmonious parents. I 2 ( ii6 ) CHILDREN : SACRED CHARGES : PARENTS MEDIUMS OF GEACE TO CHILDREN. Each babe is a gift from heaven, a gi'atuity from God, of an infinite value, and, little as parents think of it, is a greater treasure than an estate or a kingdom, and the care of it is more honourable than the royal sceptre, which, "with the honours and power, convej's also the care and trouble and endless fatigues of governing. But this little spirit, whereof the administration and management is de- legated to us, comes forth already linked by the invisible cords of nature to the hearts of its parents, a part of them- selves ; and we feel it as being of ourselves a part, grieving not so much in our own ailments as we sympathise in its trials, so that our rule over it is sweet as the rule which we have over ourselves. And a mother would rather starve herself than her child, and she would expose her own naked bosom to save her child. And in the incle- ment storm, a mother, when she could no longer maintain the struggle with the blast, hath been known to take the warm cloak from her own shivering frame, and having wrapped it around her infant, lay herself down in the drifting snow to perish, content with the hope that her child might thus haply be saved. Whosoever, then, hath been presented by God with a child, hath not only gotten something that shall outlive the world, and which doth in its Creator's eye outvalue the world, but this spiritual realm over which he hath been made the governor is so sweetly joined to himself, that to care for it is to gi'atify himself, to watch over it is to double his own well-being. Care here is sweetness, power is love, and trouble is pleasure. What, then, is a family of such ? — it is a little diocese of immortal souls ; and what are the parents but the diocesans thereof, not joined by outward ceremony of the Church, but by the inward harmonies of spirit with spirit? And for what end is such a diocese given unto any one ? — for their everlasting salvation. And why did Children : Sacred Charges. 1 1 7 God, the great Parent, link tlieir natures together? — that therehy the experience of the one might draw upon the inexperience of the other, the knowledge of the one upon the ignorance of the other. And why did Christ permit children to be presented in their earliest infancy at the holy font of baptism? — that the parents might know their child had an immortal soul, for which He died. And why did the Church, over the fountain opened for sin and un- cleanness, require obligations of these parents? — in ordei' to constitute them parents in the spiritual sense. Each father is thus a prophet and a priest unto his child, and the law constitutes him a king. So that he mystically represents to his family the threefold relation of Christ to His people — of prophet, priest, and king. Behold, now, into what deep waters we have come, pursuing the stream of this discourse. We began with a certain shallow notion of obligation, founded upon the wonderful providence which had, out of two young per- sons, made the little state with all its prosperity to arise. But what have we now? — consignment after consignment from Heaven of immortal souls, testimony after testimony by the sacrament of baptism that Christ hath died for their sakes, covenant after covenant before the Church that we will rear their spirits for immortality. In which there is a threefold obligation of an eternal kind : first, the obliga- tion arising from the intrinsic value of the gift ; secondh', the obligation to the Son of God for His death on its account ; thirdly, our own voluntary obligation to do for it those functions of a spiritual parent which before God and the Church we entered into at baptism. And we spoke of an infirmity arising out of fluctuating fortune, of uncertain health, of unregulated temper, out of tempta- tions and artifices of deceivers ; but what is that to the infirmity of the immortal soul, preyed against by all the arts of the devil, the world, and the flesh? And what a charge resteth upon those who were instrumental in hrinKing: these immortal creatures into the world, who Stood sponsors for their spiritual education at the sacra- 1 1 8 Social. ment of baptism, whose soul is all implicated with their souls, whose happiness dependeth upon their happiness, and whose salvation, if it depend not on their salvation, doth yet depend upon the prayers they have ofiered for their salvation, upon tire instruction they have given them concerning the things of their peace, and upon the pains ihey have taken in training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ! And, oh ! what an affliction, what a huge affliction, — affliction enough to darken heaven itself, were some essential change not wrought upon our nature, — that our children should be torn from us in judg- ment, and consigned to the miserable condition of the wicked ! I say not that heaven's joy will be afflicted with ttuy sadness, nothing doubting the plenary fulfilment of joy which is to be partaken there ; but left as this matter is under the veil, what a motive for parents to apply them- selves to the opening souls of their children, and, while they neglect not things convenient for their bodies, to be at pains to feed their souls, to nurse their souls for heaven, to be instant in season and out of season (if ever out of season) at the throne of Divine grace, — to watch as those that have to give a solemn account, — to sprinkle the door- posts of their house with the blood of purification, and to cany a censer of incense through all its chambers, — but above all, to give them the most healthful shelter of parents' piety, and the sweet recreating atmosphere of conjugal unity, — the audience of affectionate speeches between man and wafe, which will beget the feeling of union, the desire of it, the ensuing of it, until at length they find it in the union of their souls with Christ, M'hich, as hath been said, is the thing of which matrimonial union is an emblem, and for which the sight of matrimonial union doth discipline the expectation of the mind ! To give supreme dignity to the head of a famil}^ God hath chosen to Himself the name of Father, and therein given to the parental relation the highest and holiest place. And woman He hath exalted to the level of man, making her bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, in every respect, CJiildrcn : Sacred Charges. 1 1 9 of body and of mind, meet companion for man. And in order to double the liappiness of both, and lav the founda- tion of tlie dearest amity and the closest union, He hath formed the body and soul of the one to need and desire the help of the other. So that, being joined as He purposed, they might be one. Each nature maketh request for the natiire of the other, whereby it may be completed. And marriage is the completion of these designs of the Creator. And being the wedding, not of the body only, but of the heart and soul, marriage is followed not only by natural issue of the bod}^ but also by issue of the soul. And the children find already prepared for them a couch of affec tion in their parents' hearts. The heart, if I may so spcalc, becomes conceptive, and with its teeming afiections is ready to embrace the offspring which God may send. And as God, to dignif}' the station offlither, hath taken to Him- self the fatherly relation to His creatures ; so, to dignify the station of mother, His onl^^-begotten Son was made of a woman, and called her mother. And to sanctify the re- lation of the children to each other. He who sitteth on the right hand of God on high hath called Himself the Elder Brother of the family. And God hath said that children are His heritage, and that the fruit of the womb is His reward. And, oh, think you that He weaveth that fine Aveb of interlacing affections which a family is, only that all its life long sorrow may prey upon its weakness, and death at length riot in its dissolution ? No, no ; He weaveth that fine web of interlacing atlections which a family is, that He may make their hearts blessed and fruitful with mutual love ; He weaveth it weak and liable to calamity, that it may be taught to find its strength in the suflBciency of His grace ; He maketh it subject to the dissolution of death, that its dross and corruption may be purged awa}', — that its pure and pious affections may be put beyond the power of a scornful world, and beyond the fluctuations of time, which vexeth and afflicteth all things. Parents should guard themselves against partiality, and 1 20 Social. prevent their children from everything which might foster selfishness. Their diversity of natural gifts and tempers will always be enough to excite discord and disagreement : against which it is the very design of a common parentage, a common house, a common name, a common kindred, to work an effectual check. A father's justice and equity must stand umpire in all their quarrels ; and a father's righteous severity must chastise the offender, even though the offended should plead his cause. A father's wisdom must study their several talents, and approjDriate to them their several occupations corresponding thereto : they should be taught to labour, when they can labour, not for themselves, but for the little community which laboured for them. No separate purse, no separate interest, should be permitted under their father's roof : and when the time cometh that they go forth to serve another master, they should be taught that their first care is not for themselves, but for the family whereof they now are members. Jsor should the feeling of family unity be suffered to leave them when they are doing for themselves, and have a house and family of their own. Still they should remember their father's house, and their father's name, and be helpful to it for ever. I consider that this island, which is so signally favoured in its institutions, hath no mean blessing, amongst others, in the institution of clanship which exists in the north, and is as honourable to the domestic character of Scotland, as is the trial by jury to the judicial character of England. I never yet have found but that a religious family was remarkably united in itself, and sought about to trace out the scattered fragments of the stock from which it came. Whence I conclude, that this long remem- brance of kindred, and distant ramification of it, is a good characteristic of any people, and to be carefully preserved as another defence against the selfishness of our peculiar and proper nature. A father and a m.other have a duty to discharge, not only to their children, but to their children's children, to the furthest generation which they are per- mitted to see; and, in faith and piayer, and the other Duty to Parents. 121 offices of invisible affection, they have a duty to discharge to their utmost posterity. And a brother and a sister have duties to discharge, not to their own children only, but to all the children of their common father; and of their father's brethren, and of their father's name. And the more this gentle intercommunion of affection and cheap interchange of mutual love is fostered in private in a family, the more will it be prepared for entering into the mystery of the Church of Christ, and sympathising with the manifold conditions, and helping the manifold wants, of her various members. Therefore it is called the house- hold of faith ; and the members of it are called brethren ; and Christ, our Elder Brother, the first-born of the house, and heir of all. Which shows us that the privilege of the first-born is also a venerable ordinance, which God hath honoured, and which in all Christian kingdoms hath been established by the sanction of law. All these are types, in the natural constitution of things, most profitable for enabling the reason of man to recognise its own well-being and consolation in the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel. DUTY TO PARENTS. The honour in which we should live and move and breathe towards our parents includeth, if need should be, all that a sel•^'ant oweth to his master. Not that any father would willingly put a son into the condition of a servant, but rather, like God, adopt servants into the con- dition of sons ; according to St. Paul, " Henceforward we are no more servants, but sons, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ;" — but that, if b}' the adversities of life and through the infirmities of age our parents should be brought into straits, as oft they are, it is the duty, it is the honom-, and it ought to be the glory of children to turn out as labourers, yea, as bondsmen and servants, for their fathers' sake. And it is a stigma, a most gross stain 122 Social. "apon the sculclieon of any family that a father and a mothei' ibhuuld pine in want, or hang dependent npon charity, while their children have enough and to spare. And when this becometh prevalent in any country, it is time that they should take the state of sentiment of the realm into their thou^'htful deliberations, and take measures against the evil, by a more pure and plentiful diifusion of religion ; for there is a disease at work in the joints and ligaments of society which will dissolve its union, and make of it an un wieldly mass. Oh, who would refuse to lay down his hands, and work and toil, yea till blood started from his willing fingers, for the sake of an aged father and mother ! For laboured not that father soon and late for us, laboured not that mother night and day for us ? Whither is the strength of the one gone ? — in bowing himself for his children. And whither is the beauty of the other flown? — in much anguish for her children. Where are the fruits of their labour and anguish? — they went in bread for tlieir children. And to what served that bread purchased with a parent's strength ? — it went to nourish health and strength in their children. Strength was reared by strength. Health was bought with health. Are children their own ? Ko, they are Dought with a price, with the price of their father's and their mother's youthful labours. Let them redeem them- selves by labour in return, if God should so make it needful in His providence. In whom centred ail the early feelings of our parents' hearts? — in their children. For whom ascended their prayers unto God ? — for their children. AVhy do they grieve over their broken for- tunes ? — ^because of their children. And for whom had they destined all ? — for their children. For them ever}^ pound that accumulated was doubly dear; for them its loss is twice lamented. And can the children allow them — the stays and props of their childhood — to fall for M'ant of a stay and prop ? Can they allow these servants, these slaves of their youth to die, worn with cares, and gray with years, and yield them no service ? Can they allow Duty to Parents. 123 lliese ministers of all tlicir peace and blessedness to be in their old age single and uncomforted ? Then, veril}', upon them and theirs will the heaviest curse of Heaven descend, the curse of a broken-hearted father and a despairing mother. They shall have the inheritance of their own mockeries, and their own children shall inflict manifold upon their hearts the wounds which they deserve, by having inflicted them upon the undeserving, upon those who deserved smiles and caresses. A father's blessing in the religious homes of the patriarchs Avas a thing which children besought with tears, which they propitiated with the most grateful kindness ; because to have it they knew was propitious of all good — to have it not, ominous of all evil. And poor Esau, when he had been sorel}' defrauded, said, " Hast thou not one for me likewise, father ? " But a father's curse let no one abide it ; it is more terrible than exile or excommunication, and next to the curse of God the heaviest thing which falleth upon the head of any mortal. And, finally, into this mother afifection of honour towards our parents, there enter many other tender feelings which I have not time to treat particularly- : as the gratitude that we feel to benefactors is their due ; all the tenderness which Ave owe to most devoted friends is their due, for what friend sticketli by his children like a father? All that we owe to the most devoted servant is their due, for what servant eA-er waited upon her children like a mother? And if we have had religious parents, all the reverence Ave owe to the priest should alight upon them, for the}^ have sent up more prayers than any priest, and taught us more lessons of goodness, and gi\'en us more wholesome counsels, and administered to us more faithful rebukes. The heart of man is very capacious, and hath a chamber for every possible relation of life. For the relations of life are all offsprings of certain affections of the mind, Avhich jire- dispose it to unite itself in such relation to the beings Avith Avhom it is surrounded. Kow Avhatever is just and honourable, and true and praiseworthy, and aflfectionate and devoted, in the breast of man, duth commonly pour 1 24 Social. itself tipon tlie heads of children, fiom the frank and generous breasts of parents. For an unnatural parent is far less frequent than an unnatural child, though an unwise parent be more frequent. Therefore, in addition to all the obligations which have this day been discoursed of, it is the part of every child to recollect whatever more extraordinary attention he hath received, and to repay these with more extraordinary returns. And if any one render these extraordinary returns where there have been no such extraordinary gifts, such unpaid affection is well- pleasing to God ; and if any one render these extraordinary returns where there hath been neglect and mistreatment, it is the more acceptable to God, who maketh " His rain to descend upon the evil and the good, and His sun to rise upon the just and upon the unjust." THE ORPHANS CASE. It is not the occasional admonitions of a father, or the lessons of early piety dropped by a mother in the ears of childhood, whereof we lament the loss to the orphan ; these may, in some measure, be supplied by a good guardian and a pious teacher, which, alas ! are not often to be found in any rank — seldom in the lower ranks to be obtained at all ; it is not the control of a father's authority, or the admoni- tion of a mother's watchful affection, which also are hardly to be found a second time upon the earth, but it is the ever-present picture of a father working for his family from' break of day to evening-fall, from week to week, and from year to year ; his enduring of all weathers and encounter- ing all hazards for his wife and little ones, and the ever- present picture of a mother labouring in the house all the day, and often watching all the night over the objects of her unwearied solicitude ; and not the union of their hands only, but the xmion of their hearts, their consultations together by the evening fire over the interests of the little state, their fears, their hopes, their prayers, and all other demon TJie Orphans Case. i 2 5 gti-ations of their incessant care ; — that is what we lack and lament in a family which God hath bereaved of its natural heads. Those conditions are all gone frora the house which make it the nursery of affections in the children. It is home no longer ; no longer sweet home which contained the excitement of every tender feeling, and its reward when excited. A mother's smile no longer unlocks the heart, and a father's knee no longer unbends the tongue of the little prattler. And there is no commonweal round which their opening sentiments may concentrate ; no fatlier whose labours the sons may share so soon as their hand can form for itself labour ; no mother whose cares the daughters may divide so soon as their hearts can under- stand to feel. They look not on conjugal love and parental ■union, which, being present before the eyes of children, is, as it were, the practical representation of all those tenden- cies of the mind to unite with others, the actual demonstra- tion of that which brotherhood, and friendship, and religion aim to become. There is nothing to counteract the selfish, to which individual nature tendeth; nothing to represent the social and the common. The little ones bereaved are not drawn forth by the natural heat of parental affections, nor united by the cement of family bonds. They grow up lonely and divided, and are liable to divisions. And when divisions arise, there is none to heal them. There is no mark nor sign, no banner round which their affections may unite when they are broken and scattered abroad. And herein is sustained the most grievous loss, which it boots not to enlarge upon, but rather to set forth the cure which God hath provided for the same. In His word, which describes the redemption of this world out of suffering and mercy, it is revealed that orphans, though they be fatherless and motherless, and without a certain home or dwelling-place, are not therefore forsaken upon the face of the earth, but become members of His family who is the father of the fatherless, and the husband of the widow, and the oi-phan's help, and the refuge of all the destitute who put their trust in Him. And though they be cut off by the afflictinrui of 126 Social. Providence from tlie happy establiylimeiit. of liome, and liave lost their jior ion and inheritance of a father's in- dustrious arm and a mother's tender care, they are not removed from the watchfulness of that Eye which never slumbereth nor sleepeth, nor from the help of that ample Hand which dealeth out its portion to everything that liveth. And though they he unheeded and alone, and the step-dame world use them roughly, they are certainly of ' more value in the sight of the Lord than the lilies of the field, which He arrayeth in more royal robes than the monarchs of the earth ; and their immortal souls are dearer in His sight than the raven's brood, which He carefully nourisheth, or the wild sparrow of the field, which cannot fall to the ground without His notice and permission. The orphans may be cast forth and ejected from their father's tenement or farm, when they have no longer the scheming mind and busy hand of a father to pay the rent thereof to the needy or heartless lord. With the wrecks and frag- ments of their household, they may have to take their heavy way to crowded cities, or to foreign lands, or without the means to move themselves away, they may become burdensome to the charity of those around them, and lose the noble rank of independent men ; but though the worst should befall which cold poverty and helpless orphanage are heirs to, let them not despond or be cast down, for they are not one jot further removed from the kingdom of heaven than before, which cometh not with observation, neither consisteth in meat and drink, — which is independent of, and to be insured without help of, yea in opposition to, father and mother, and brother and sister, — which is before riches, or food, or clothing, yea, more instant that to- morrow's fare. For it is written, " Care not for to-morrow •, say not, \\ hat shall we eat ? or. What shall we drink ? or, "Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? but seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all things shall be added there- unto. After all these things do the Gentiles seek ; but your heavenl}' Father knoweth that ye have need of all these thinti-s." The Orphans Case. 127 "When an orplian comes to take knowledge of his state, and to compare it with that of others, whom God is rearing under more soft and favourable conditions, he is apt to shrink, and misgive, and grow timorous. The helpless boj', or more helpless girl, finding shelter under the roof of some kindly relation, cannot by all kindness be brought to forget the difference between itself and the rest of the children. This difference it discerneth, not so as to express it, or to comprehend it, but still it is shewn in its backwardness, in its timorousness, in its bashfiilness to take its rights, or to plead its cause when its rights are invaded. Biit how seldom does affection try to establish itself in an orphan's lluttering and unceitain heart — how seldom is affection in any form an orphan's lot ! They are sent to live at schools, with no parents' home to bind their aching hearts at time of holidays ; they are apprenticed out to masters, with no parent to protect them from a master's harshness; or brought up in asylums, where, let the best be done, there is small compensation for the loss of home. It is good when these asylums are under a man devoted to the Lord, because there the oi-phan is instructed in the Divine helps for these its natural ills. But when otherwise it happens, as for the most part it does, that no such instruc- tion is tendered to it, the little helpless thing, buffeted and beat about, under much authority and little affection, grows dissatisfied and distrustful ; and having no natural guar- dian to whom to unbosom its grief, it grow^s reserved and jealous, and loseth that noble sense of equality and resolu- tion to keep its own which is so necessary to the unfolding of a manly character. Often its spirit altogether droops; sometimes it sours ; and more frequently it worketh cheer- lessly on till something occurs to determine it to good or ill, though it wants that cheerful setting out, that morning sprightliness and buoyancy of hope, which so well be- cometh a young man entering life in the pride of his youth, and which is so good a promise of a successful issue to the journey. This constant feeling of their loss, and sense of their 128 Social. loneliness, which presseth clown the spirit of orphans, and being helped by the hard and niggard conditions into which they are thrown, hinders the fair development of their character, and makes their success to depend more upon fortuitous events and chance patronage than upon hopes fairly formed, and measures steadily pursued, is not to be removed save by some feeling as constantly present in the mind, to counteract that feeling of their rejected and forlorn condition which produceth the evil. And this considera- tion the Almighty has abundantly provided in the reve- lation of the gospel. For whereas things go on in the worldy estate of man by transmission from father to son, by family help, and by inheritance of one kind or other. He hath made it quite the reverse in the religious estate, which He doth promote independent of all these aids, by honouring the state of orphanage. So that it is a very condition of its success that we be able to forsake father and mother, and brother and sister. Eeligion rests upon the individual, and gives dignity to the individual, and is the only thing whereby the heart of the orphan can be sus- tained, and the inequalities of his condition made up, and the withering effect prevented which the solitude of soul in which he grows hath upon the bloom of his opening cha- racter. Here he is upon a level with the best-conditioned of his fellows, and he breathes the inspiration of perfect equality. Nay, more, he hath here the advantage. There is here a counterpoise, and more than a counterpoise to their earthly advantages. A DISTINCTION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN. Though the Baptist bore hardest against the affections of the monarch, the king had too much regard for him to sacrifice him to wounded affection. He did not imprison him out of revenge for his faithful admonition in re- spect of his brother Philip's wife, but to protect him from her vengeance. IS^ow, here I take a distinction between A Distinction Between Men and Women. 129 men aud women. There are stronger parts in man than his affections ; in woman there are none so strong. Herod bore John's assault upon his affections, and heard him gladly notwithstanding ; hut Herodias could not, Herod did many things at the Baptist's suggestion ; and Herodias feared he might also, at his suggestion, put her away, and therefore hastened to precipitate his death. In which difference in the constitution of man and woman, I pray you to observe the wisdom of the Creator again. Tlie woman being destined for the part of a nurse and a mother to the world, and the man for the father and governor of the world, the Almighty made affection strongest in the breast of one ; in the breast of the other, He made authority and command prevail over affection, when it so happens that they cannot be sweetly accorded. Woman was in- tended for the solacement of man, and to that end was bestowed upon him in Paradise at first ; and when she led him astray, her share in the sentence was, that her desire should be to her husband, and that he should rule over her. But to man the bitterest half of the curse did fall — that he should labour the ground, and win his bread with the sweat of his face. So that man was made the slave of labour, the tiller of the ground, the owner of the ground, the governor of the earth ; and woman was made the comfort of man in the midst of his many toilsome labours, and of his heartless supremacy. Therefoi'e, affection was made the strongest in the one, and in the other, understanding, rule, and strength — understanding to direct, rule to undertake, and strength to carry into effect, the management of this niggard earth, which the Lord yielded to his sovereignty. Now, in making these remarks, I am so far from dividing, that I do, in truth, unite the bond between man and woman, by pointing out the proper domain of each ; for upon the proper regulation of this rudimental relation of all society, its prosperity, in a great measure, dependeth. For exam- ple, in old Eome, when women nobly did the part of wives and mothers, what noble men were reared, patriotic, affec- tionate at home, and terrible abroad ; and in this cotmtrj^ K 1 30 Social. where these domestic virtues are equally prized, what a seed of pious and heroic men we have to hoast of. But when the ordinances of society go in this respect against the ordinances of God, to what unseemly conditions it leads. Amongst the American Indians, you have women in bondage to the men ; they bear the burdens, they work the work, they do everj^thing but hunt and carry on war ; and being thus abstracted from their natural oifice of sooth- ing and softening the man, it hath come to pass that the men are of an indomitable pride, — strength of will, cunning, and revenge being their chief characteristics. They have rejected the alliance of woman's heart, and see to what they have been brought ! In ancient Egypt, again, the opposite experiment was made. The woman had, by the marriage contract, the supremacy ; and see what effects it produced upon the people ! They became quiet, peaceable, lovers of justice and order — and so far it was well ; but they became soft and effeminate, and submissive to tyranny and misrule ; their understanding became debased, and their very senses fell from their proper use, when they anived at and became subservient to soft affection — the most miserable pass of meanness. They worshipped every timid creature, and paid them divine honours ; even cruel creatures they wor- shipped, for possessing that boldness which they wanted — loving the one, fearing the other. And all the idolatry which elsewhere had been rendered to the ideas of things, or to forms which represented these ideas, or to noble and useful men, was by them rendered to living creatures, whose brutal proneness of nature they beheld by outward sense. Much more might be said upon this subject, with regard to which, instances crowd upon our remembrance ; but we merely observe, that the affections being wounded in Herodias, set the whole course of her nature in arms ; Herod bore the wound, being controlled by higher faculties. ( 131 ) ANTIDOTE TO SELFISHNESS. The true and proper antagonist of the selfish feelings is not the social feelings, which are limit-ed or confined within the range and application of social institutions, and which at the ultimate make but a republic of men, each watched by his fellow, but the religious feeling, which at once destroys our own individuality, by making us a subject of the Most High, and subordinates our wishes and our interests to the revealed will and purpose of God. And not in proportion to the refinements of society is selfishness subdued, but in proportion to the progress of religion. And a country is civilised and happy according to the regard which it hath for the authority of God, not according to the subjection which it hath to the laws of men. The one eradicates, the other only opposes — the one removes, the other only restrains, the selfish and malignant passions of the heart. A man may be intensely selfish and malig- nant, yet a good subject and a reputable member of society. A man cannot be a Christian in the least, without being in the same degree delivered out of his own will into the will of God. And whatever of our own free-will we surrender, is surrendered into the hands of One who is wiser to guide, and more able to promote. And if we surrender all our will and personal interests into His hand then indeed we become a part of His family, His children, the brethren of Jesus Christ, His disciples and servants, and the active ministers of His Holy Spirit. We are nothing, He is everything. We love Him, and He loveth us, and He dwelleth with us : He in us, and we in Him. Exactly in proportion as this lesson is learned and acted on, we get delivered out of the power of selfishness, with all its anxieties, cares, jealousies, and malignant actions, into the power of faith and trust, with all their fruits of peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, patience, temperance ; and being now in confidence and communion with the Father of spirits, whose sceptre is a sceptre of K 2 132 Social. righteousness, we are not afraid of wliat man can do against ■us, neither are we afraid that the power of the wicked can prevail against the progress of the truth. " For He inaketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of his wrath He doth restrain." There ensueth a divine content- ment with our lot, a resignation to the evil, a temperate enjoyment of the good, and a thankfulness for all. The limitations of our faculties give us no distress. We are as God made us, and we shall be answerable for that only which He hath given us. And the higher gifts and ofSces of another do not grieve us. " To his God he standeth or falleth." We rejoice in what is true and worthy and righteous, wherever it is found. Every device of goodness we promote and hasten forward ; and we love those who love it, and we help those who strive for it. Truth and righteousness are to us the voice and footsteps of God, and we revere them for His sake who first manifested them in the person of His dear Son. And if we can promote good works in others, we delight to do so, and we delight to have good promoted by others in ourselves. We become absorbed in God's commonwealth : our citizenship is in heaven, and we do the works of our Father who is in heaven. For evil-doers we fret not ourselves ; and though they be high in power and spread like the green bay-tree, we only pity the more their speedy overthrow. We are not restless, timorous, or dismayed, because we know the Lord's hand is over them to restrain the excesses of their wrath. We scorn them not by day, we plot not against them by night. Our sweetness is not soured by their cor- ruption, because our confidence is in God, who dasheth the wicked in pieces like the potter's vessel. Our vocation is not to labour against them, but to labour for God ; not to hunt them through their labyrinths of error, but to push forward the interests of truth ; not to grieve ourselves with all the abominations of the earth, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. Thus the good that there is or hath been rejoiceth us, and the evil that there is or hath been doth not alarm or vex us. The one Tfie Four Offices of Friendship. 133 is the food of our joy, the other of our faith ; both of our steadiness and perseverance. A constancy of purpose, a tranquillity of sjjeech, a steadiness of execution, mark us to be the children of the God of order and of truth, around Avhom, though there may be clouds and darkness, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. ^\ here is envy, rivalry, and jealousy ? They have died of their own accord. Where is malice, cruelty, revenge ? They cannot live upon the soil of such devo- tion. We are become like the children of God, merciful and kind, to our enemies forgiving, because they are only our enemies according as they are His, and even upon His enemies He maketh His sun to arise, and His rain to drop fatness down. THE FOUR OFFICES OF FRIENDSHIP. The first great office of a friend is to \xy our thoughts by the measure of his judgment, and to task the whole- eomeness of our designs and purposes by the feelings of his heart. The knowledge upon which the mind works is such a compound of truth and error, and the mind hath naturally such a fond partiality for her own children, and the heart of the best man is so beset with straitening prejudice, that, conscious of our weakness, we no sooner commence any new thing than we long to discourse of it to our friend, that he may take hold of it with his judgment, and try it by his conscience of good and ill. And being approved by him, we have, as it were, an initial test and first experiment of the conception, which we are thereby encouraged to work into form, and bring out either by word or deed for the welfare of our fellow men. To fulfil this office will require that our friendly affections be subordinated to a sound judgment and an honest heart, otherwise we are not worthy the first and equal confidence of things, and fit only for the inferior station of partisans, bribed by affection into that service which our higher 1 34 Social. faculty of reason hath not yet approved. For this cause, 1 doubt not, it was that our Saviour sent His twelve apostles and seventy missionaries, two by two, to preach the gospel, that they might be to each other a counter-test of all they did and said. As this office of a good friend is to guard against the imperfections of our nature, and protect the world from the effects, and ourselves from the responsibility, of ovir folly, the next office of a friend is to protect us from the selfish and wilful and malicious part of our nature. To stand alone in a good cause, to be the first to strike out of the unknown and invisible some great idea or device, is the most royal pre-eminence which God bestoweth upon His creatures. But if the yearning of the soiil to communicate the same be resisted, and it remain buried in our own bosom, then, however good and generous in its first con- ception it might have been, it will grow full of selfishness, and in the end perhaps reveal itself in malice. It toucheth the soul's pride to possess a great scheme or idea all unto herself, it raiseth her pride of superiority, and exciteth her lust of rule. If no heart will be the partner of her thoughts, or no ear the hearer of her complaints, or if by her own peculiar nature she will confide neither in the one or the other, then let society be upon its guard, for it harboureth one that is dissocial; and let that one be on his guard against himself, for he is in a lonely place, which is cold and friendless, and he is on a high place which is giddy. He loses the capacity of fellowship from the want of it — he loses the capacity of friendship from his nourished selfishness and secrecy — he grows self-willed, submitting his will to no discipline of equality — he grows self-interested because he findeth none fit or worthy to take a part in it. He broods over his purposes alone, grows domineering, and for the execution of his purposes makes tools and instruments of men. Those that are around him he winds and works to his will ; he will receive only suppliancy or service, and those who will not give it he sideth from. And so, if he have strength given him, whether of intellect, The Foiw Offices of Frie7idship. 135 of taste, of persuasion, or of power, it all comcth under the sway of bis selfishness ; ho becomes the head of a school, sect, or party, which will breed disturbance with the things existent, and generally an evil disturbance (for selfishness and power are generally evil) ; and therefore such a man should be looked to by those who are interested in things that are already established. This self-collected spirit, which in the end becometh turbulent, a good friend or a band of good friends would have conducted down by degrees, and converted him into a benefactor ; and hence it is that good men do sometimes attach themselves to those evil beings like their good genius ; as if hopeful to conciliate them to good, or in the evil day to ward off the ill which they might bring to the commonweal. A third great office of friendship is to awaken us, and lift us up, and set us on nobler deeds. There is living in the heart of man a diviner light which is aye sparkling through the gloom of his benighted nature, and shewing him in the world the light of better ways, which it is the part of a friend to tend more carefully than the virgins of Vesta did the sacred fire, lest it be smothered by the car- nal and gross elements which we bear about in us, and its occasional gleam be swallowed by the darkness which covereth the earth, and the gi'oss darkness which covereth the people. There is not a man in whose soul schemes and purposes of a nobler life than he now liveth in the flesh are not ever budding, or rather I shoiild say, thoughts and ideas of a better life, which, if fostered, would form the rudiments of schemes, which schemes being perfected, would constitute a virtuous and pious man out of one Avho is herding with the vilest of the peojile. Oh, it touehcth one to the quick to see a mob or rabble of men, chance- collected, addressed by some wise and high-minded minis- ter of truth, held mute while he shews them pictures of excellence, answering with their brightened countenances, with their sighs, haply with their tears, to the true feeling of the noble things which his noble soul deviseth, thereby 1 36 Social. testifying that they have high faculties for scanning truth, that they can climb to the top of his high argument, and taste the proportions of his finest characters ; — I say, it toucheth me to see these men dispersing to wallow again in the trough of their sensuality, or labour in the service of their malicious passions, quarrelling, contending, and fighting for those wretched matters which are scattered upon the dunghill of this earth. Oh for wiser and purer mothers to rear iis in our childhood, for skilful masters to open upon our sight the path of virtue and true nobility, for pastors worthy of the name to feed the souls of the people, and friends to stand around them, and bear us faithful company towards things exalted and pure. Then should you see men, and the sons of men rise in the land, men like unto the sons of God, to contend with those chil- dren of the earth, earthy and devilish, which at present by far the greater part among us are found to be. Let it be the office of true friends to do for each other that function which may have been neglected by mothers, and teachers, and pastors those great functionaries of the commonweal — to bring to light every stifled purpose of good, to rally every reluctant faculty of well-doing, to awaken what is dormant, to chafe what is torpid, to point the way, and shew us wherein we may excel, not others, but ourselves ; not to shrink from shewing us our faults, to recover us, to reassure us, to extricate us from dilemmas of the judgment, to resolve us of the casuistry of the conscience, to work upon the irresoluteness of the will, to hold up the hands which hang down, to confirm the feeble knees, to make straight paths to the feet, and to pioneer the way of that great work which in this life it is given unto every one to do. The fourth good oflSce of a friend is to rally us when we are defeated in our schemes, or overtaken with adversity. And so much is the world alive to this office, as to have chosen it out as the true test ; it being one of our best proverbs that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Oh, but a man is well ofi" for friends while things flourish with Tlie Four Offices of Friaidship. 137 liim ! The great world is always ready with its friendly ministry for Avhatever he may need. Tlie great world will tlien become our friend, and serve us with a ready and willing ministry of whatever we need, — flattery for the ear, incense for the nostril, sweetness for the taste, beauty and elegance for the eye, rapture and ravishment to the soul. You, too, will take well with them, and they will take well with you while you are rising. They will filch the credit of your prosperity from God and become your patrons ; and when you can reflect honour, they will take you into their train, and seat you by their sides. But sure as David, who harped in the palace of Saul, and had Saul's daughter to wife, had to take the wilderness of Sin for his refuge, and the rock of Machpelah for his habita- tion, when the countenance of Saul turned against him, so surely shall the man whom prosperity hath exalted have to shift for himself, forlorn and abandoned, when adversity setteth in upon him. And his talents shall now be dis- covered to have been nought, and his accomplishments to have been nought, and his services to have been nought. All the cords which lifted him on high and held him in his place shall untwist full rapidly, and he shall find him- self solitary and unbefriended of all that fashionable crew who heretofore delighted to do him honour. Therefore let every man rising in the world's favour look to his ways, and deal faithfully by his former friends and associates, and most faithfully by his God, that he may have a hiding-place and a secure refuge when the time of his trial and the days of his darkness come. For then he will surely be deserted — the greater part pressing no farther good out of him, a better few Avilling to help but without the means, and those who have the means and are well disposed hardly knowing the way. A man in adversity is like a shipwrecked and dismantled ship upon the deserted strand — he needeth much reparation and outfit before he can be of use to any one ; a man in prosperity is like a ship full laden with costly goods, which is a prize to every one that is needy, and an honour to 138 Social. every one who batli in her any share or interest. A man who is rejected and despised of the world is like a ship that is not seaworthy, in which no one will risk an atom of his wealth, and which proves a clog upon the course of any free and fair sailing vessel; whereas a man whom the world embraceth with its favours, and who flourisheth in pros- perity, is like a convoy ship, under whose lofty and armed sides many sail in safety. AVho is he that hath had the world set against him, or whom the world hath dashed from his anchorage-ground, that hath not known, amidst these back-waters of the soul, the good and the strength of heart there is in a friend upon whom to fall back, and by whom to be received as into a haven, and fitted out again for another encounter ? Happy is he who hath one into whose ear his soul may tell its calamities, shew its weak- nesses, and lay open its wounds ; from whose lips it may receive the consolation and tender counsels it needeth ; at whose hand accept the help, and, if need be, the medicine which cures adversity, and whose bitterness is savoury when administered by the hand of a friend ! Eloquence might exhaust itself in speaking the praises of a man who can discern the value of a soul in its dismantled slate, stri^Dped of all outward embellishments, and struggling hard with its bristling ills and thick-coming trials ; who can say, Come to my home with a welcome ; come for a season and take shelter until the storm be overpast ; come, and I will make thee a chamber upon the wall, where thou shalt be free to go out and in unmolested, and share our bread and our water. I tell you of a truth, m}^ beloved brethren, the man who can so entreat a ruined man, is worth a whole streetful of visit-exchanging citizens. He is the good Samaritan whom Christ painted to the life for all His followers. Pie will stand in the judgment, because he took the stranger in, and clothed the naked, and fed the hungry, and gave the thirsty drink. There is immortality in these actions ; their memory never fails, and the remembrance of them delights the soul for ever. The Four Offices of Friendship. 1 39 And the fourfold nature of his office requires in a good friend a fourfold qualification for discharging the several parts of it aright. For the first, sympathy with our thoughts and pursuits, for where there is no sympathy there will be no communication ; and not only sympathy with them but xmderstanding of them, and a solid judg- ment and an honest heart to give us good counsel and true upon, all our plans. For the second, a generous nature which looks to the commonweal, and will not yield it to the pleasuring of a friend ; also a manly and tried mind, which will not veil truth and manhood, even before a friend, so as to give in to his wilfulness, but will be an equal friend or no friend at all. For the third, a high and heroic soul, which can strike out noble duties in every path of life, and behold in all classes, from him that sitteth on the thi-one to him that gi-indeth behind the mill, the elements of a heaven-born nature, and the destinee of an immortal glory; and perceiving them, will stimulate us thereto, however much against the stomach of our o"^^ti present inclination, or the spirit of our present life. For the fourth, a tender and a true heart, which keeps to its afi'ections, and as it is not beguiled into friendship by outward forms or conditions, so is not alienated by the absence of them, but loves the soul, the unadorned soul, for its own intrinsic qualities; and while it preserves them, will love it in good report and in ill report, in prosperity and in adversity, in life and in death, and for ever. According as these qualities meet in any one, he rises in the scale of friendship ; where they all combine together in one, they fonn a friend more precious to the soul than all which it inherits beneath the sun. ( I40 ) PEOSPEEOUS PEEACHEES. There is a tide in public favour, which some ride on prosperously, which others work against and weather amain. Those who take it fair at the outset, and will have the patience to observe its veerings, and to shift and hold their course accordingly, shall fetch their port with pro- sperous and easy sail ; those again, who are careless of ease, and court danger in a noble cause, confiding also in their patient endurance, and the protection of Heaven, launch fearlessly into the wide and open deep, resolved to explore all they can reach, and to benefit all they explore, shall chance to have hard encounters, and reach safely through perils and dangers. But while they risk much, they discover much ; they come to know the extremities of fate, and grow familiar with the gracious interpositions of Heaven. So it is with the preachers of the gosjDcl. Some are traders from port to port, following the customary and approved course ; others adventure over the whole ocean of human concerns : the former are hailed by the common voice of the multitude, whose course they hold ; the latter blamed as idle, often suspected of hiding deep designs, always derided as having lost all guess of the proper course. Yet of the latter class of preachers was Paul the apostle, who took lessons of none of his brethren when he went up to Jerusalem ; of the same class was Luther the reformer, who asked counsel of nothing but his Bible, and addressed him single-handed to all the exigents of his time ; of the same class was Calvin, the most lion- hearted of churchmen, whose independent thinking hath made him a name to live, and hath given birth to valuable systems both of doctrine and polity. Therefore, such ad- venturers, with the Bible as their chart, and the neces- sities of their age as the ocean to be explored, and brought under authority of Christ, are not to be despised, because they are single-handed and solitary, by the multitude of useful men, who wait upon those portions which some former adventures have already brought into the vineyard. I Prosperotts Preachers. 141 And long let this audience, ■which listens to the voice of a pastor,* who, without sacrificing the gospel of Christ, hath diverged further than any of his ago from the approved course of preaching, and launched a hold adventure of his o^^^l into the ocean of religious spectilation, bringing off prouder triumphs to his Eedeemer than any ancient pilot of them all — long may this the people of his pasture, give countenance to those in whom they discern a spirit from the Lord, and a zeal for His honour, however much they may hold of ancient and venerable landmarks, which, though they might well define the course proper to a former generation, may be quite unsuitable to the neces- sities of the present. Such adventures, under God, this age of the world seems to us especially to want. There are ministers enow to hold the flock in pasture and in safety. But where are they to make inroad upon the alien, to bring in the votaries of fashion, of literature, of senti- ment, of policy, and of rank, who are content in their several idolatries to do without pietj^ to God, and love to Him whom He hath sent? Where are they to lift up their voice against simony, and arts of policy, and servile dependence upon the great ones of this earth, and shameful seeking of ease and pleasure, and anxious amassing of money, and the whole cohort of evil customs which are overspreading the ministers of the Church ? Truly, it is not stagers who take on the customary form of their office, and go the beaten round of duty, and then lie down con- tent ; but it is daring adventiirers, who shall eye from the proud eminence of a holy and heavenly mind, all the grievances which religion underlays, and all the obstacles which stay her course, and then descend, with the self- denial and the faith of an apostle, to set the battle in array against them all. * Dr. Chalmers. ( H2 ) MR. IRVING AND HIS GLASGOW HEARERS. This place has been tlie cradle of my clerical character, whatever it may become — this coBgregation its nurse and fostering mother, God above all being its protector. Your indulgence has restored me to the confidence of myself, which had begun to fail, under the unsanctioning coldness of the priesthood, restored me to the Church from which despair of being serviceable had well-nigh weaned me, and restored my affection to this holy vocation, which I shall labour to fulfil, and by God's grace to magnify. Take, then, my acknowledgments in good part, they are all I have to offer, and they are well deserved by men whose good and honourable report hath borne down the misjudgments with which my opening ministry was assailed. But, in a still dearer sense, we stand related to the people of the parish than to the congregation, inasmuch as the indulgence of nature's affections is dearer than to discharge the duties of the highest office, or to inherit the honour of having discharged them well. Here, in the pulpit, we filled a station, and took upon us an official character, and played one part amongst the many which are played upon the stage of life. There in the parish we went forth in nature's liberty, consociating with the jDeople as man doth with man, or friend with friend ; a soother of distress, a brother of the youth, an encourager of the children, and often listener to the wisdom of the aged. We took no clerical state, assumed no superiority of learned, nor affectation of vulgar phrase, served ourselves with no imposing address ; but in the freedom of natural feeling, and speaking from the fulness of the heart, we wandered from house to house, depending on the gainliness of genuine nature, and the patronage of Almighty God, — which two staffs, nature and God, have sustained our goings forth, and brought us with great delight through the thousands of families in this parish, and failed us never. Oh ! how my heart rejoices to recur to the hours I Mj\ Irving and his Glasgow Hearers. 143 have sitten under the roofs of the people, and been made a paiiaker of their confidence, and a witness of the hardships they had to endure. In the scantiest, and perhaps sorest time with which this manufacturing city hath been ever pressed, it was my almost daily habit to make a round of their families, and uphold what in me lay the declining cause of God. There have I sitten, with little silver or gold of my own to bestow, with little command over the charity of others, and heard the various nairatives of hard- ship, narratives uttered for the most part with modesty and patience, oftener drawn forth with difficulty thap obtruded on your ear, — their wants, their misfortunes, their ill-requited labour, their hopes vanishing, their families dispersing in search of better habitations, the Scottish economy of their homes giving way before en- croaching necessity, debt rather than saving their con- dition, bread and water their scanty fare, hard and ungrateful labour the portion of their house, — all this have I often seen and listened to within naked walls, the witness, oft the partaker, of their miserable cheer, with little or no means to relieve. Yet be it known, to the gloiy of God, and the credit of the poor, and the en- couragement of tender-hearted Christians, that such appli- cation to the heart's ailments is there in our religion, and such a hold in its promises, and such a pith of endurance in its noble examples, that when set forth by our inex- perienced tongu.e, with soft words and kindly tones, they did never fail to drain the heart of the sourness which calamity engenders, and sweeten it with the balm of re- signation, often enlarge it with cheerful hope, sometimes swell it high with the rejoicings of a Christian triumph. The manly tear which I have seen start into the eye of many an aged sire, whose wrinkled brow and Ij-art locks deserved a better fate, as he looked to the fell conclusion of an ill-provided house, an ill-educated family, and a declining religion, which hemmed him in, at a time when his hand was growing feeble for work, and the twilight of age setting in upon his soul, — that tear is dearer to my 144 Social. remembrance than the tear of sentiment which the eye of beauty swims with at a tale of distress ; yea, it is dear as the tear of liberty which the patriot sheds over his fallen country ; and the blessings of the aged widow, bereft of the sight and stay of her children, and sitting in her lonely cabin the live-long day at her humble occupation — her blessings when my form, darkening her threshold, drew her eye — the story of her youth, of her family, and husband, wede away from her presence — her patient trust in God, and lively faith in Christ — with the deep response of her sighs when I besought God's blessing upon the widow's cruse, and the widow's barrel, and that He would be the husband of her widowhood, and the father of her children, in their several habitations, — these, so oft my engagement, shall be hallowed tokens for memory to flee to, and sacred materials for fancy to work with, while the heart doth beat within my breast. God above doth know my destiny ; but though it were to minister in the halls of nobles, and the courts and palaces of kings. He can never find for me more natural welcome, more kindly entertain- ment, and more refined enjoyment than He hath honoured me with in this suburb parish of a manufacturing city. My theology was never in fault around the fires of the poor, my manner never misinterpreted, my good intentions never mistaken. Chiirchmen and Dissenters, Catholics and Protestants, received me with equal graciousness. Here was the popularity worth the having — whose evi- dences are not in noise, ostentation, and numbers, but in the heart opened and disburdened, in the cordial welcome of your poorest exhortations, and the spirit moved by j^our most unworthy prayer, in the flowing tear, the confided secret, the parting grasp, and the long, long entreaty to return. Of this popularity I am covetous ; and God in His goodness hath granted it in abundance, with which I desire to be content. ( 145 ) A TRUE CHURCH. Tin: word church denotes a body of men living together, feeling and acting towards one another, under the influence of those principles of love and charity under which Christ acted to the world, which moved Ilim, though rich, for our sakes to become poor, though the equal of God, to make Himself of no reputation, to humble His heavenly state to come to the condition of the earth, to bow His head as a man, and endure the ignominious death of the cross, for not His equals, not His friends, not good men, nor even righteous men, but for wicked men, for the rebellious, for His enemies, for those very malefactors who with wicked hearts did crucifj' and slay Him. This spirit which He was of, hitherto unknown upon the eartli, this example, above the imagination of mortal men, this life of sacrifice beyond price, of humiliation beyond mea- sure, of beneficence beyond estimation of men or angels, — this spirit, example, and life, is constantly looked upon, studied, besought of God, attempted, practised by all His followers towards one another, and towards the world, the wicked and persecuting world. And in as far as this new spirit and life of Christ gaineth over the old spirit and life of nature, they become one with Christ and one with each other, one in heart and soul, and compose the church — and two such men are as much a church as two hundred or two thousand. For it is not the number of members, but the condition of being, — this interwoven and intertwined unity of nature, — which is designated by that most holy and heavenly name ; and the prosperity and. thriving of a church are to be judged of by the progress of this heavenly harmony and Christian spirit of charity. A few in such bonds of perfectness will do more for 1he cause of the church than multitudes who take the name but study not the pui-pose of the society. The name being nothing, as hath been said, if it be not significant of the purpose ; which purpose is no less than the glorious one of uniting the broken and divided earth in heavenl}' har- L 1 46 Social. mony again, bringing human life to be transacted after Christ's life, and human kind to be Christ's kind, and peace — outward and inward, private and public — to pre- vail over the world, and charity, such as no poet hath dreamed of in the silver or the golden age, but which prophets have sung of through the long and troubled vista of distant ages. I may take an illustration of this which hath been said from a subject dear and familar to us all. Liberty is to a nation what charity is to a church, — all its strength, all its activity, and all its greatness ; it denoteth that state of union in which people are most happy and powerful ; and where it hath been understood and esta- blished, it giveth to a few united men that energy and might which many otherwise united cannot have. Whereof ancient Greece is an example, which, cooped within limits hardly larger than a petty province, coped with and over- came as much of the world as could be numbered in arms against it, and held an empire of taste and of letters still unrivalled. Whereof we are as striking an instance, who, by the power of that political union called liberty, have cantoned the world with our fortified stations, and held its largest, finest territories under our sway, not of terror and tyranny, but of law and government ; and have, by our arts and sciences, subjected the whole face of nature to ourselves, and brought every production of the animal and vegetable kingdom in all parts of the world to do homage to our power. The ambitious man who sought the monarchy of Europe established no power like to this ; he established nothing at all; he subverted, like the thunderbolt and lightning, but he established nothing, because he had no image of liberty in his soul, no rever- ence or desire of it in others, but was selfish, and there- fore dissocial. The Autocrat of all the Russias, the Emperor of China, can lay the foundation of no empire like this ; this kind of power cometh only to men governed by the principle of free government. The Lord blighteth all tyranny with barrenness ; all true government He A True Church. 147 honoureth with productiveness and increase. And these rewards are everywhere awaiting the noble-minded and disinterested, who will be daring enough to break the yoke of others, and self-governed enough to guard against their own arbitrariness and misrule Now, as liberty, or a state of good and wise government, is the condition in which a nation is strong and happy, and as health is the condition in which the body of man is able for its work, and the mind for its cogitations— that is, in both cases when each member of the corporation worketh harmonious with the rest, and so raaketh up a united whole ; so, in a higher kind, charity, haraiony, and commonness of spirit is the condition in which a church is efficient and strong to produce its own well-being, to pro- pagate itself, to enlarge, to last and endure upon the face of the earth, where it hath so much to encounter and over- come. And the attainment of this Christian chai'ity, this conimunit}' of inward goods, I regard as the whole inten- tion and reward of our religion, so far as this world is con- cerned ; and the church or fellowship of Christians in which it is realised may consider that they have reached the mark of the prize of their high calling upon the earth, and that they have no further object than to seek to diifuse abroad the enjoyments of their condition to those who have not yet tasted the Goshen-peace of it, but are afflicted with all the plagues of the world. This communion and harmony of our souls with one another, my beloved brethren, is that for which our Lord praj-ed in His intercessory praj-er for His Church, the last act which He did for His disciples before the hour and power of darkness had dominion over Him. He prayed that they might be one, as He and the Father were one. Then, embracing a wider circuit of desire, He looked forward to all who should believe on Him through their word, and prayed that they might all be one, " as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US : that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given Ihom ; L 2 148 Social. that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world may know that thon hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." SOCIAL RELIGIOX. When religion hath so prevailed over the inward man as to possess it of the divine knowledge, the Christian law, and the principles of spiritual well-being, it cometh to pass that social religion groweth of its own accord, a wise and godly discipline is produced, the spirit of love and charity reigneth over schism and division ; humility and poverty of spirit in respect to ourselves, kindness and gentle- ness in respect to others, take the place of the envies and emulations and grudgings of the world ; outward decency is the expression of inward reverence ; the harmony of the voice of the attuning of the heart ; the oneness of prayer of the single-heartedness of the whole ; the stillness, the anxiety, and the eagerness become proofs of zeal ; faith cometh by hearing, conviction cometh out of reproof, the word of God is profitable unto all things, and the man of God is thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work. Not only would men, thus possessed with one common principle of religion, be diawn regularly to the house of God by an inward motive, and while there, held in a mood suitable to the various parts of the service, but over their ordinary meetings a spirit of order, and peace, and wisdom would prevail ; and for prayer and fellowship, and other recreations of the soul, express meetings would be held ; and the whole intercourse of life would be im- pressed with a spirit of truth and sincerity, and all hy- pocrisy and dissimulation would be done away with ; and in place of formality there would be affection ; and in place of ridicule there would be counsel ; for satire, kindly ad- monition ; for enmities, forgiveness ; for malice, benevo- lence ; and charity and love instead of unrighteousness. Por when religion hath been founded in the common, Social Religion. 149 wants and common benefits of our common nature, it is not possible that it should not form a bond of closest alliance between man and man. Being a principle of such extent, affecting, not a part of man, but the whole of man. and transforming every man into the common image of God, it cannot be but that it will produce the strongest fellow- feeling, and lav the foundation of the strongest social prin- ciple. Even though it had not been a part of its doctrine to extinguish envies and divisions, and to enforce love and unity, it Avould have had this effect by the natural influence of its common principles, — one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one hope of our calling, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. Any one of these, being really, nut formally present ; being felt, not professed ; being acted upon as a principle, not idly entertained as a matter of opinion, were sufficient to be the basis of a community : all together they produce the strongest bond by which the world is blessed. This will appear with great conviction if you will consider the effect which is produced by any one of these common sympathies when exhibited in those minor degrees which the world contains. One common sovereign, who loves his people and is worthy of their love, begets amongst them a loyal fealty, v/hich makes them forget their private con- venience to contribute to his royal state, aud, when need is, forget their private quarrels to fight for the throne of his fathers. Of which, let the history of the whole world bear testimony. One common law is the basis of a deeper and more enduring union still, the union of a free nation, which is more powerful still than the union of a lo^^al nation ; and when the two combine together, they render a nation almost invincible. How strong this sense of com- mon right becomes in a people, is best to be seen when it is threatened with any injury. What gatherings of the land when any point of constitutional law is threatened, — what remonstrances to the guardian authorities of the state, — what fearful demonstrations, which, being coolly and resolutely made by a whole people, no power on earth 1 50 Social. can witlistand ! And hence arisetli out of many divided hearts the heart of a nation, out of many contending powers is produced the power of a nation ; and so the character of a nation, the ])ride of a nation, the terror of a nation, and all that enters into that sacred name, the com- monwealth. These two principles of union both concur in Christians, for Christ is their Lawgiver and their King, whose laws and government inspire in those who have in truth submitted themselves to their gi-acious protection, a feeling of heavenly citizenship and of Christian rights, and therewith a bond of brotherhood kindred to that which is felt by the loyal subjects of the same wise and gracious prince, and the citizens of the same free and privileged community. This bond of union hath suggested to the minds of the apostles many beautiful expressions ; such as " Our citizenship," (for so the word signifies in the Greek,) " our citizenship is in heaven." " Ye are a chosen genera- tion, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, which in times past were not a people, but now are the people of God." The law we are under is called the per- fect law of liberty, the royal law of the Scriptures. And in these terms we are spoken to : " Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." So that religious men are a nation within a nation, or rather they are a nation scattered among all nations, who are not divided by seas nor borders, by rivers nor mountains, from each other's sympathy and love ; they live under one law and under one Lord, and have a common interest in each other. They pray for the common weal of all, and they act for the common weal of all ; they fight against the common enemies of Christ, the devil, the world, and the flesh, under a com- mon Captain of their salvation, and for a common inherit- ance in which they shall dwell together, see each other face to face, and know each other even as they are known by the Searcher of their hearts. Now, observe upon another side of the mind how common affections join men together, and form sweet associations in Social Religion. 1 5 1 the bosom of the same community — how families and kin- dred are united together in the tenderest fraternities, which, though far separated and disjoined, keep up the intercoui-se of kindness in defiance of every obstacle, find a thousand apologies to shake oft" business and meet together, and if they meet not face to face, meet oft in memory, in hope, in prayer, and in discourse, and keep up the best debate which the soul can make with the narrow conditions with which upon tlie earth she is invested. And wherever they go, they still remember home ; and however they may prosper in foreign parts, they still sigh for home ; and at length to home they direct their weary steps, though it were but to die, and be buried in the grave by the side of their fathers. Now if it be found a consistent law of human nature in all its states and conditions, that a common sentiment hath ever the effect of establishing to itself some form and body of outward communion and fellowship, interchanges of visits, words of politeness and friendship, meetings for sociality, academies for knowledge, associations for cha- ritable and benevolent purposes, insomuch that in science there is hardly a branch, in jurisprudence hardly a depart- ment, in philanthropy hardly a walk, in the large catalogue of human suiferings and wants hardly one genuine kind, for which, in this city, to its immortal honour be it spoken, there is not an association voluntarily formed of members the most diverse in rank, opinion, and disposition, and line of life, in everything save that particular case which asso- ciates them together, and causeth them to organise them- selves, to hold frequent meetings, to contribute time, thought, and means, — how should it be otherwise than that a number of men, who, not in one sentiment, or in one affection, or in one interest, but in all, or almost all, are identified, or striving to be identified, — how is it possible that such men, soul of one soul, and heai't of one heart, and mind of one mind, nay, I might say bone of one bone, and flesh of one flesh, — for are they not all of one body, whereof Christ is the head? — how is it possible that Christian men, 152 Social. embosoming siicli common feelings as I have above insuffi- ciently set forth, should not meet together, should not long to meet together, should not shun and forego everything to meet together, — how is it possible, save by holts and bars, and main force, they should be hindered to meet together or should be kept asunder ? The thing were the greatest anomaly in human nature, the most wonderful and unac- countable phenomenon which the history of mankind hath exhibited, — so wonderful that in all its vacillations, and oddities, and absurdities, human nature hath not, for eighteen hundred years, exhibited such a phenomenon. For the people of God hath alwaj's met together, and love to talk together, and to pray together, and to sing psalms together, and will continue to do so wdiile the bands of Christian truth and sympathy hold together, — ay, and until they are dislocated by bigotry, sectarianism, and schism. Those who feel these common principles and sentiments in their hearts, cannot keep asunder : their souls are bound by ties over which time and place and worldly interest have not any power. They are one by a thousand obliga- tions, any one of which is enough to join the associations of the present world. And that they who are so united shoidd keep asunder, is the most complete of all evidence that they have not, in this, the Spirit of Christ, and that, however they may profess, they are none of His. If the diversities of Christians keep them asunder in their hearts, and cause them to think and speak uncharitably of one another, that is proof enough that they are under ecclesias- tical pride, and not under Christian charity. If the diver- sity of rank keep them asunder, that is proof enough that they are under worldly pride, not under Christian humility. If the diversity of learning or wisdom keep them asunder, it is proof sufficient that they are under the dominion of intellectual conceit, not of spiritual humility. If the diver- sity of doctrine keep those asunder who hold Christ the Head, and engender sectarian pride, then are they under the paltry spirit of a religious corporation, not of the great household and community of saints. ^3 RECLUSEXESS OF SOUL, Eecluseness of the spiritual man often runneth into a visionary form. Into this form of the disease fell that soul of every excellence, the glorious Milton, who so dwelt in the ethereal regions of his poetry, and the empyrean of his refined religion, that all his busy life, in the most temper-tiying and frailty-revealing times, he could not learn to accommodate his ideas to the existing forms of man so as to worship with him. He saw illiberality in one class, and ignorance in another ; he was disgiisted with the pride and irreligion of a third, and with the intolerance and worldliness of all. And so he fell into the greatest of all intolerance, and for the latter years of his life dwelt apart within the temple of his own pious soul. " His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." Thus doth the Almighty, in various ways, punish the soul of man for contracting its sympathies, and shutting up its bowels of compassion to its kind. For as He, the possessor of all good, is likewise the author of all good ; He, the sole inhabitant of eternity, is the Father of all who dwell within the bounds of time. Therefore, brethren, I exhort as many of you as the Lord our God hath called with a holy calling, to hold intercourse with each other on all religioiis points in which you can conscientiously agree ; and these are far more numerous than those in which you differ. For I hold that this same recluseness of the soul, when it exerciseth not itself with the sad contemplation of the outer world, nor with the severe inspection of its own self, but cometh abroad to take a part in human affairs, hath always wrought wretched- ness and woe. Being shut within its own sanctuary, and brooding over its own thoughts and designs, taking little or no counsel of others, it worketh according to its own particular prejudices, i-ather than for the commonweal. And being conscious of honest intentions, and fully persuaded in his own mind, the spiritual bigot, whom power hath 154 Social. lifted up, "becomes a spiritual oppressor. Conscience armetli him against the consciences of others ; he hath not known his own imperfections by bearing the contradictions of others; he Lath not been taught to distrust himself by submitting to the schooling of opposite opinions. He thinks he alone is right, that God favoureth the right ; and so adding trust in God to natural foolhardiness, he rusheth like a horse into the battle, and generaly mangleth himself amongst the resisting weapons of men. So reigned, and so fell, one of the most injurious, and yet, so far as man can judge, one of the most pious, primates of England. Again, this recluseness of the spiritual man often runneth, as in the case of the glorious poet alluded to above, into an excessive puritanism too high for this earth. When the poet meets with the Christian, and the practical philanthropist combineth not with both to hold them in check, the result of the combination is to beget an over- refined life of the soul, which I might call its prophetic life. It surveys the possibilities, not the realities of things. And perceiving the glad consummation to which God is conducting all things, it vaults the intervening space, and devours the long interval necessary to the accomplishment of the vision ; by help of imagination, bodies it forth ; by hope possesseth it and enjoys it, and in these enjoyments the prophetic Christian lives. And these inhabiting his better being, having his citizenship in times long distant, and his tempers set thereto, when he cometh into actual contact with men, he is wounded and irritated on all sides; he complains and quarrels with the actual state of things, and being too far gone in the ethereal disease, he withdraws to his closet, and sings his royal fancies, laments that he hath fallen on evil days and evil tongues, calls for hearers fit though few, wonders if there be faith still left upon the earth, and, like Elijah, complaineth that he is left alone, when there may be thousands of true men known to God's more charitable eye. Which condition of the recluse soul I do rather pity than blame, for to himself alone is he harmful — to posterity one such enthusiast, one such Recluseness of Soul. 1 5 5 Christian hero, is often more profitable than perhaps a thousand of those more practical believers who have not bowed the knee to Baal, neither worshipped the images which are set up to him. Four forms of the recluse Christian spirit — the contemplative, the ascetic, the despotic, and the visionary — every one of us will necessarily fall under, unless, while we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we do also communicate freely with one another that light and spiritual understanding which is freely given unto us. The rule which, following myself, I recommend to each one of you, is to hold intercourse of speech and communion of soul with every Christian with whom you meet, upon those things wherein you can honestly agree. Discourse of the Christian temper, which all believe consisteth in meek- ness, gentleness, and love ; discourse of the Christian life, which all consider includeth good morals, agreeable man- ners, an upright and honourable spirit ; discourse of the wasdom of God's creation, and the bountifulness of His providence, and the exceeding greatness of His promises towards those who believe. Confess to each other your imperfections, and open up, according to your knowledge, how these may best be removed ; and though you cannot agree upon the exact measure of your Lord's dignity, or the exact end of His coming, certainly you can admire and praise Him, so far as you are agreed ; and where you differ, if you cannot agree to differ, you can be silent. The good breeding of the world requires as much ; and, sure, Chris- tian charity will not yield the palm of patience and forbear- ance to the spirit of the world ! So you can have infinite compass of sweet and improving discourse ; and if you wish to 3,ct together, there are regions unbounded. You can agree to disseminate the Scriptures, which is your common faith ; to dispel ignorance, which is your common enemy ; to limit the reigning of power ; to build up the tabernacle of peace in the midst of us; to succour the distressed, and recover the fallen : to save penitents, and pluck the wicked as brands from the burning ; to confirm the doubting. 156 Social. and to stay tlie marcli of unbelief; and to do works of mercy and loving-kindness towards all who need your help. INEFFICIENCY OF EDUCA.TION PUEELT PRIVATE. The experiment of leaving it to private interest to attend to the education of the youth, and giving it no patronage or superintendence of Church or State, hath been tried among the peasantry of England for three centuries ; and such is the apathy of an imeducated people, that till others interfered, they continued as ignorant as they were at the Eeformation. And for the last half century it hath been tried in the manufacturing towns amongst a people com- monly well supplied not only with the necessaries but with the comforts of life. But such is the power of present gain, that they rather choose to convert their children into ministers to their own extravagance, than part with any of their superfluities to have them instructed. ^Vhat educa- tion does spring up in a country upon this spontaneous principle, must always be of a very inferior kind, just enough to compass the interests which an unenlightened people can discern. And the teachers will also be of an inferior kind, such who will qualify them most readily and most cheaply for those short-sighted and narrow interests. Being wholly dependent upon the people, they cannot be expected to face out any popular prejudice, which they will be the rather disposed to minister to and perpetuate. There is no fellowship of a class or order to bear their spirit up. They have no standing with the law or the church, to give them importance. They are but servants of the public, and ministers to its pride and pleasure : and they will be found little elevated above the condition of the slaves who an- ciently were entrusted with the care of the education of the youth. You shall find such masters in the villages of Eng- land, meagi'e in their knowledge, mean in their conditions, and wholly depressed out of the dignity proper to one who is rearing souls for the life that is, and the life that is to Inefficiency of Edtication purely Private. 1 5 7 come. In Ireland, the condition of such schools is still more miserable, and the books usually taught in them con- tain superstition and barbarism in their grossest forms. In America, this experiment is making upon a large scale ; and although they have central colleges in most of the States for furnishing teachers, I am informed that the sys- tem is rapidly bringing the condition of schoolmasters into that of servants, who are hired j'carly or half-3'early, and removable at the pleasure of their employers. The princi- ple of supply and demand, which is the idol of these days, will not answer for anything beyond the most coarse and common bodily necessities of man. And being applied to our moral and spiritual necessities, it never faileth to bring them under the dominion of profit and loss It reducetli ever}' relation to calculations of interest, and makes money, which is but the medium for exchanging visible things, the medium also for the exchange of feeling, and affection, and duty. It hath already gone far to destroy the relation betAveen servant and master, and the respect due from inferior to superior ; as hath been well exemplified by the abolition of the combination laws, which hath afforded us an opportunity of seeing what effect this principle of sup- ply and demand hath had in abulishing those finer feelings of gratitude and mutual respect by which society is bound together. If the same experiments were made on educa- tion, as the economists recommend, the result would be the same — to destroy the reverence in which the teachers and instructors of youth have in all countries been held, to estimate them according to the profit, not the profitable- ness, of their instruction, and to bring into an inferior estimation all learning and knowledge which could not be converted into ready money. Those sciences would be taught which are marketable, and those teachers who fitted our sons most expeditiously for the market-jjlace would be in the highest repute. But, as for sound principles, en- larged views of duty, true manliness of character, reverence for the laws, and the king, and the authorities under him ; piety to God, faithfulness to Christ, and regeneration by 158 Social. the Holy Spirit, and all the other principles and effects of fjpiritual life ; these would remain nnregarded in the choice of schoolmasters, untaught in the schools, and consequently unpractised in the world, and be reputed so many vulgar errors, which every liberal man must renounce in private, and in public respect only so long as the public mind is not sufficiently enlightened to despise them. Let us next see how this important matter of superin- tending the schools might be entrusted to the representa- tives of law and government. In ancient times, when the governors of the State and the legislators were also the moralists and philosophers, who consulted for the well- being of the people, in the largest sense in which they could conceive it, the care and superintendence of the youth might well be entrusted to them. But, in these times, when statesmanship applies itself exclusively to piiblic concerns, and it is considered an infringement on the part of law to meddle with our familiar atfaii's, which are held sacred to every man, it were totally inconsistent with the division of power that they should take upon them the superintendence of the schools. The magistrates who represent the law in the country parts, and the deputies of government who watch over the peace, would conceive it foreign to their vocation to be burdened with such a charge, and would not be fitted to undertake it. Law and government, amongst the Gothic nations, include a much smaller scope of the private well-being of men, than they did among the classic nations ; and there is in the spirit of the people a decided aversion to their taking more upon them than the foreign policy and inward peace of the com- munity. If interest, therefore, be sectarian, and swallow up the higher and nobler desires of the soul, law is still more sectarian, aiid by its very nature confined to our out- ward and overt acts ; and therefore is altogether incom- petent to take charge of the practical education of the people, so as to select the proper persons, watch over the discipline, judge of the instructions, and give life to the whole interior organisation of the schools. And yet, Inefficiency of Education purely Private. 159 while I thus exclude both private interest and law as lieing sectarian and narrow-sphered, I do not wholly ex- clude either of them. Private interest should have an insight over everything, to take advantage of the schools or not ; there should be no compuLsion, there shoiild bo no bribe of any kind applied to it ; it should be left wholly at liberty to make its choice of that which it is not able to prepare, and perhaps not very well able to judge of, but of which, nevertheless, the judgment must not be taken out of its hand, lest evils of a greater magnitude should be introduced. And law should stand to the schools in the same relation in which it doth to other parts of the com- mon good, ready to see that ever}' man fulfilleth his cove- nant, and dischargeth his office, and, if complaint be made, ready to arbitrate the matter, and see that justice hath its rights. But neither of these two powers in a community is sufficiently enlightened in the character and working of the human spirit, in the fields which it hath for culture, and the chambers which it hath for containing stores, to •undertake to superintend the operation of cultivating and storing it. This can pertain only to religion, which is wide and ex- tensive as the human spirit, and carries its views of human well-being into the eternal as well as the tempoi-al estate ; which is soft, and applieth itself with no outward terrors, nor coarse and outward gains, but with the soft appliances of love and afi'ection to every soul, and seeketh to nourish and cherish therein a spirit of holiness, and of wisdom, and of the fear of God, and of the love of man. Our religion hath a special application unto children, and contemplates them as the types of what a man should be with all his strength and understanding about him. Their simplicity, their faith, their affection, their unworldliness, do all com- bine to make the human spirit, in its infancy and child- hood, the object of its beloved care. And when any mother shews a care of her children, and acquires a power over them, you shall always find that religion is the instiument by which she is working upon them. Indeed I see not T 60 Social. liow any education, properly so called, can proceed without religion ; because, though you may teach the lesson, how- are you to enforce the lesson? The fear of school discipline is, to the finer parts of education, what the fear of law is to the finer parts of society, never touching, never reaching them. There must be an unnoticed discipline, an invisible Master, who is prevailing by His gracious influences over the unnoticed and invisible workings of the soul within. Lessons of knowledge j'ou may teach without the help of this inward Minister, but lessons of morality, lessons of honour, lessons of truth and piety, lessons of manly and noble character, you never shall be able to teach. Do your best, unless you take religion to your aid, you shall but built the outward walls, and rougu-cast your hout^e, but you shall never get within its threshold to furnish its interior, or direct the operations, or preserve the peace and blessedness of the household. Religion is, therefore, by its very nature the mistress and superintendent of education. It is wide as its occasions, and profitable to them all ; full of helpful ministry, gracious encouragement, and assurance of reward. Therefore it hath come to pass in all the Gothic nations, and it was so among the ancient Britons, that the superintendence of education hath been left to the guar- dians of religion. In all Christian countries it hatli been so, and in the primitive Church, the rearing up of the cate- chumens was as great a care of the priest as the edification of the members of Chi'ist ; and all the universities of Europe have been conducted by priests, and still the greater part of them are so conducted ; and we owe the preservation of all our learning to the priests. And though now the spirit of infidelity is beginning to work strange revolutions in the seminaries of learning, it is only a recent innovation, whereof no materials for judging are yet properly before us ; but if we may judge from what hath passed around us, we will surely conclude, that a knowledge dissevered from religion, and serving no ends of leligion, will serve no ends of social nor private well-being : and though it may increase individual power, and bi'ing a short-lived harvest of indivi- Uses of Education. i6i dual and national vanity, and obtain command over tlio visible universe, and accumulate liches thence, it worketh not in the spirit, nor upon the spirit ; brings it no redemp- tion, allbrds to it no consolation, lays over it no sweet restraints of love, nor strong obligations of duty, — makes no provision for the sorrows, and troubles, and adversities of the soul, and hath no tendency to dignify and ennoble the mind in its high places, nor build up society in any of its strongholds. It is education resting upon religion, and superintended by religion, which hath made us what we are ; and let us beware of divorcing these two helpsmeet for one another, lest we become like other nations where they are divorced. USES OF EDUCATION'. If I know anything of Christian religior^ it is for the learned as necessary as for the unlearned, the same to bar- barians and Scythians, bond and free, bringing the method of redemption, and the means of regeneration, which all equally need. And, inasmuch as education draws out the various powers of the intellectual and moral being, it enables us to judge, by the mere tests of that religion ■which prescribes to them the rules, of their health and salvation. So that there can be no doubt, that the evidence of the Divine origin, and the blessedness of the enjoyments of religion, are heightened to the man of cultivated mind ; — just as the face of heaven shews more intelligent to the astronomer, and the face of nature shews more beautiful to the poet, and the face of men more expression to the artist, than to those whose faculties of obsei-vation have not been ■ developed. At the same time, there is not so much in this as might at first be imagined ; because, as hath been said above, the true face of religion is not discerned by the eye of the intellect, but by a spiritual faculty w^hich no human teaching can cultivate. Nevertheless, it must be allowed, that if the intellect have not been subjected to vanity or worldliness in our education, and if our moral being have 1 62 Social. not been submitted to sense or selfishness, that secondary evidence which is brought to nature must be stronger according to the number of the points upon which nature comes in contact with religion. But it is quite possible that education may become sectarian, and thereby fight against religion. It may attend to the mere giving and receiving of impressions of knowledge by words or diagrams, or models and moulds of art ; cultivating the intellect and the taste alone, without minding the culture of principles of duty, or the building up of an excellent and manly charac- ter. It may aim to prepare man only for the present life, cultivating in him the pnidences and addresses by which he is to work his way in the community, without turning his attention to the permanent parts of his nature, or giving him to know of the life which is to come. In which cases, by being sectarian, or addressing only a part of human nature, and that the lowest part, it unfits a man for religion, whose abject is to order man according to the scale of the true dignity of his faculties, not according to the scale of their present usefulness. But if education be so conducted as to fulfil the purpose which its name imports, of educing or drawing out the powers and faculties which are in human nature, there can be no doubt that it will qualify us better for serving every end imposed upon us by the revelation of God, which speaks not to the foolish but to the understand- ing, whose commandments enlighten the eyes, and whose testimonies make wise the simple. It is the part of false- hood and superstition to desire the ignorance and blindness of those whom they delude, to keep their orgies in the twi- lights of the soul, and to oppose the progress of knowledge amongst the people, for no other reason but because it makes them think and reason ; and the priests who do so are the priests of a superstition, and the statesmen who do so are the statesmen of an oligarchy, which standeth in the well-being of a few, and the detriment of the many. But, on the other hand, it is possible for the spirit of education to be sectarian and narrow-minded, as well as the sjiirit of religion and the spirit of policy; and, instead of educing Education most needed by the Poor. 163 and developing all the faculties of human nature, to culti- vate only a part, and to be conducted according to a theory, popular in the time and place, instead of being conducted by the old, and constant, and universally admitted princi- ples of our nature. In which case, it may be the duty both of sound religion and of enlightened policy to set themselves against the insufficient and vicious culture of the periple ; and to insist, not that the people should abide in darkness, but that their minds should be brought wholly and fairly into light. For, if those who educate the youth be not, or the books by which they are educated be not, in harmony with the spirit of religion, and of law, which are established in a country, and still more if they be opposed to it ; it must come to pass, sooner or later, that the con- trary spirits will manifest themselves, and strive together for the superiority. Give me the schools and the school- books, and in time I shall have both the churches and the courts of law. EDUCATION MOST NEEDED BY THE POOK. Forasmuch as letters are the great contrivance by which men have chosen to express their thoughts and feelings, aaid by which God hath made to man the revelation of His being and will, it is surely first of all necessary that reading should be given to all, as the key by which they are to open to themselves the knowledge of that which is recorded concerning the past, and revealed concerning the future. And to the end that this generation may be able to record unto the generations to come what hath occurred in its days, and that each man may be able to record the series of his own impressions and feelings, or communicate them to whom he pleaseth, so that the intercourse and communion of life may be preserved, there ought to be added, next to the faculty of reading the thoughts of others, the faculty also of recording our own thoughts, — that is, of writing. These are universals which ouglit to de taught to every man, because every man, whatever his u 2 164 Social. sphere and occupation be, hath the like need of them, and ■will derive from them much guidance and consolation of his life. And it seems to me, that the poor have the most need of the consolation and sustenance which these two arts afford; inasmuch as their life is more burdened and pressed with incessant toil, with everything to depress them to the earth, and little to elevate them above it, having no facility of moving to and fro, to catch the gales and cuiTcnts of improvement, to behold the various works of invention, and hear the sentiments which dignify the being of man. The poor who are bound to place, and insphered in the narrow prejudices of place ; who have no story, but a few traditions; no wisdom, but a few proverbs ; no hope higher than a poorhouse in their old age ; no ambition beyond a cottage : these, I say, so far from being excluded, have the best right to, by having the greatest need of, reading and writing ; those two wittiest inventions, and greatest heljis of man's condition, whereby the past may be made to pass over again before them, and the future to rise up in its glor}'- under their eyes ; the distant may be brought near, the learned made level to their capacities, the good introduced to their cottage fire- sides, the godly made accessible to their souls, and every admirable and heavenly quality which hath rooted and seeded on the earth made as free and blessed to the cottage as it is to the palace, the senate, and the uni- versity. If I might apply a Scripture quotation, less out of place than many Scripture quotations are, I would have it cried from the northern to the southern pole, and from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, — • " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he that hath no money come buy wine and milk, without money and without price." But let it be recognised and fairly stated out, lest our enthusiasm carry us too far, that reading is only the key by which the mind of others is directed to us, and writing the key by which our mind is discovered to them ; and that the interchange of mind with mind, which these Education most needed by the Poor. 165 inventions enable us to cany on, may be productive of evil as readily as of good, unless there be given there- with some criterion to know the good from the evil. The world of books is wide as the world of man's thoughts and fancies and feelings, full of poisons as well as of food and medicine ; whatever hath been felt of good and ill hath been written, and the evil hath its blazoning to the eye as well as the good, its rich garnish and savoury odour to the base appetites of the mind, and needeth not to be sought, but is presented before the face of all the people, cheapened down to their poverty, and pressed upon them with all assiduity. Wherefore, like putting a blind man into a wood where poisons grow as plenti- fully as fniits, and leaving him there to feed his body, is it to introduce our people to this chaos of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of religion and irreligion, of blessedness and misery, of heaven and hell, without having cultivated in them any principles by which to know the evil from the good, and to distinguish the wholesome from the unwholesome. For, let men talk of liberality as they please, no one is so wildly liberal as to say that everything which is written is right, and everything which is circulated amongst the people is good. If any man had the folly to say so, I would go to the place where his children were educated, and see whether indiscriminateness were the order of his nursery ; I would sit down at his table, and hear whether indis- criminateness were the order of his discourse. It is absurd. AMiy are these men so fierce for liberality, why so illiberally liberal, so passionately tolerant, so sarcasti- cally contented with everything ? DOCTRINAL M ^ ^i^^^5<^^ ^ m ^^k 1 \kf) ^^K^ %i) ^^^^ )^^ )^ K^^ )k^k> ^ K 'i:/^ S^''Si<^ %^ K^K^ V^^^^^ /sN/tS/ )vC '-AY )^> )K^K> )^K> •V/V ^' }i^_^ ^^5^5'$^ ^vi ^^^ 'N'2S^^/N^ :i(9vi>\ ^ vV^ z/c !^Vi^ y^v vJv^v i^lo ^. UXCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD. IF we could suppose anything to be added to God whicli was not in Him nor pertained to Him from everlasting, we must suppose that before such addition He Avas incom- plete, or is now. more than complete. If we could suppose anything to be recovered which was lost, or to be remem- bered which was forgotten, or to be reassumed which was rejected, to be reformed which was amiss, or to be changed which needed change, we must suppose mutation, or deviation, or disappointment in Him who is the Eock of ages and refuge of all distressed things, the stability and support of all being, the eternal and unchangeable I AM, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. So that, when words of this import and signification are applied in the Holy Scriptures unto our God, as that He repenteth, and removeth, and restoreth, and reformeth that which He hath already constituted and done, they are but significant of the changes which the mutable universe, and we a part of it, are passing through in this our outward and separate voyage, until we shall be safely brought back and recon- stituted in an unchangeable union to the Lord Jesus our Head. They are the words of human language, proper to 1 70 Doctrinal. express that imperfect and unstable condition in which all things at present are, and shall continue to be, until the days of restitution ; and being applied to God, they express not any change in Him, but in us who behold Him. As we speak of the risings, and the settings, and the revolu- tions of the sun, though he abideth steadfast in the heavens, or hath but a motion which to the eye is imperceptible ; as we speak of his being clouded and obscured and eclipsed, though he shineth with a constant brightness ; and as we speak of the irregularities of the heavenly motions, and the unsettledness of all sublunary things, though it be certain they do all obey a constant and invariable law, which neither is nor can be changed, save by the good will and pleasure of God ; — speaking in all these instances in accomodation to the appearances which offer themselves to the sense, and against the realities which we discover by the reason : so speaketh God in Holy Scripture concerning Himself, accomodating His word to that language which is necessary to man's present condition, and presenting Himself as full of repentance towards him that repenteth, pure to the pure, and froward to the froward, and upright to the upright ; yet is it most certain that within, and under, this popular form of speech, there is also in His word a deeper reve- lation concerning the oneness and unchangeableness of His being, concerning the harmony of all His operations, and the great end of all His works ; into which revelation of His steadfast and constant being He is ever seeking to draw men out of the changes and fluctuations in which He findeth them, and to which he doth assimilate and accom- modate Himself, in the first instance, by the only language which they are able to understand. As any discreet man who would teach astronomy to unlettered and ignorant "people must begin from the appearances of the heavens, and employ a language conformed thereto, until he shall have ascended with his disciples into the great principles of things ; of the heaven's rest, and the earth's rotation ; of the sun's central place, and the earth's revolution, and the Unchaiigcableness of God. 1 7 1 regular motions of all the planets; after which, he em- I^loyeth another language derived from the facts, and not fruui the appearances : so the teacher of Divine truth must proceed, as indeed the Holy Spirit in the declaration of Divine truth hath proceeded, beginning by the use of the popular language of God's repentance and changeableness towards us as w^e change towards Him, which is the Arminianism of Divine truth, mistaken bj' all the Metho- dists and the great body of our Evangelicals for the whole of it ; but truly it is only the popular accomodation thereof, in order to lead the people into the true principles of God's unchangeableness, and the eternal sacrifice of His Son, of the eternal constitution of the Church and election of all saints in Him, of their perseverance, their assurance, and certain gloiy, with all other the higher truths of the mystery of godliness, which are the truth, and alone entitled to the name of the truth ; discarded though they be at present as high Calvinism, and even decried as soul- destroying Antinomianism ; yea, and all the subsidiaiy and subordinate language of entreaty and promise and condition, is only adopted for the purpose of introducing our waywardness to the knowledge of His counsels, which are one in their purpose and regular in their progression, all leading to the one glorious end of manifesting nnto His creatures the wonders of His eternal being, and securing them in the blessedness of the same. This manifestation of Himself is the one end of creation, and of redemption, and of restitution ; and I may also add, it is the one end ot the permission of sin in the world, of an apostasy in the Church, and of reprobation through eternity, — 1 say the chief and only end of all is the declaration of the essential glory of the Godhead. RELATIONS OP THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY. As concerneth worship, or continual acknowledgment and seivice of the Creator, as the great first cause, and deep 172 Doctrinal. abysmal will, which is separate from the creature, yet the life of the creature, and the basis of its being ; this is a mystery which cannot be otherwise understood, than by perusing the Christ, who, though God, did not worship Himself, but did evermore worship the invisible Father, and yet He was God. But being God, united to the crea- ture, and seen only through the actings of the creature, it is most needful that nothing terminate in Him, but pass through Him into the region of the invisible : therefore, whenever the people were disposed to rest in Him, He did always refer them back unto the Father, saying, "Ye cannot come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw you." Now, I know well, that the ignorance of this time, upon the subject of the Trinity, passeth all igno- rance of any former time ; and therefore I do deem it of the more importance to draw your attention particularly to this part of the subject which concerneth worship. Christ's human nature, inhabited by the Holy Ghost, and from which the Holy Ghost never was and never shall be sepa- I'ated, was not an object of worship, and never shall be an object of worship ; and if Christ received worship upon earth, from those who were ignorant of His Divinity, He did receive it, not as man, but as God. This I hold to be a most important point of doctrine, and most necessary to preserve men from creature- worship, and, above all, from saint-worship ; for 1 believe that Christ's human nature is not distinct from, but most closely united to, and indeed the very support, yea, and substance, of the renewed nature of every believer. Whosoever by faith eats His body and drinks His blood, is one with Him, as He is one with the Father ; and that is one siibstance in diverse personalities. As by nature I am of the substance of Adam, and coequal with him in all pains and penalties of this fallen being, so by faith I am coequal in honour, and to be coequal in glory, with the human nature of Christ; one with Hira, I say again, as He is one with the Father. Such unity it is as all visible unity only resembleth, but doth never equal. Such unity giveth faith, as that it can be said, we are of Relations of tlic Persons oj the Trinity. / o His flesh and of His bones ; and is of tlie essence and sub- stance of faitli, and He who hath not this hath no life abiding in him. His human nature is inhabited by the Holy Ghost ; and our human nature is by the Holy Ghost likewise inhabited. If, therefore, inhabitation by the Holy Ghost makcth any creature-substance as the body of Christ to be worshipj^ed, then must it also make His membeis, which are of the same substance, and by the same Sj^irit inhabited, to be in like manner worshipped ; and so have 3"0U saint-worship introduced at once ; as, indeed, it was introduced into the Papal Church, and must ever be intro- duced, where the body of Christ is worshipped ; and it doth destroy the whole end of redemption, which is to get the creature separated from the Creator, and delivered from the worship of itself. Bi;t as the creature, in its redeemed state, is inhabited by the Holy Ghost, this would constitute it an object to be worshipped, if Christ's body, which is inhabited by the Holy Ghost, might be worshipped. "Wherein then consisteth that pre-eminent dignity of Christ above all redeemed creatures, which placeth Him at dis- tance infinite above them, though in substance most closely united with them? It consisteth in His Divine nature, with which His human nature mingleth not, though to it in one person united. This constituteth Him Head over all, though Brother of all the redeemed ; Brother by the community of the human substance, and the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost; Head by the solitary pre-eminence, by the Divine dignity of being the eternal and only-begotten Son of God. Nevertheless, though in His Divine person- ality He be a proper object of worship, like as is the Holy Ghost in His Divine personality ; yet, as the Holy Ghost inhabiting the creature doth cease from worship contem- plated therein, so the Son, taking the redeemed creature into union with His own person, and shewing the Godhead in the manhood, doth cease from being the object of wor- ship, being therein the great Leader of the chorus, the great Head of the worshippers. And who, then, is the proper object of worship ? I answer, the Father, the Son, 1 74 Doctrinal. and the Holy Ghost, one God; — not as inhabiting the creature, for then the creature would worship a Deity within itself; — not as sustaining the redeemed creature, for then the creature would worship its visible Head, and .still the object of its worship would be in and of itself : but the object of its worship is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, their invisible, incommunicable, indivisible being, represented in the person of the Father. Let no one start at this, as if it denied worship to the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Son and the Holy Ghost are one with the Father, who are worshipped when He is worshipped. The Divine person of the Son is not contained in His manhood : the ocean, the round immense of space, were better said to be contained within a household dish, than that the Divine nature of the Son should be contained in manhood. And to guaid against this error, is the very reason why divines rest so much upon the distinctness of the Godhead from the manhood. But, save through the manhood of Christ, God shall never be known to any creature, nor communicated to any creature ; and for this reason, that the fulness of the Godhead cannot thus, or in any way, be to the creatures communicated, most necessary it is, in order to the exist- once of true worship, that the Godhead, not in its mani- fested likeness and limited proportions, nor in its felt influences and operative powers, but in its invisible, in- effable, imcomprehensible fulness and essential separate- ness, from the creature, that is, in the person of the Father, representing the substance of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, should be worshipped. And this, verily, is the end of the whole mystery, That God should inhabit the creature in the person of the Holy Ghost, and yet not be worshipj)ed there : that God should sustain the creature, in the person of the Son, united unto man, and yet not be worshipped there, but be worshipped in the absolute invisible ]3erson of the Father : so that God supporteth all, inhabiteth all the redeemed creatures, and for the security and blessed- ness thereof, receiveth their homage out of and beside them Relations of the Persons of the Trinity. 175 all. Sucli is the true account of Divine worship, and such is the way in which it is attained. A\'hile, however, I argue, that the Godhead, in the per- son of the invisible Father, approached unto by the mani- fest Christ, through the indwelling Spirit, is the only ultimate object of worship from whom all petitions are to be sought, and all favours understood to proceed, I do not the less preserve unto the Godhead, manifest in the person of the Son, a superlative dignity above every visible crea- ture ; the King of all power ; the Priest of all holiness : the Heir of all possession ; the Eevealer of the Godhead ; the Light coming forth from the mystery of light, in which the Father dwelleth inaccessible ; the life, also, felt in all redeemed creatures, and the visible object of all their ho- mage, reverence, and obedience ; and so bound to, and submitted to, and in that sense worshipped by, all the angels of God : as it is written, " When he bringeth his Son the second time into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him : " and not the angels only, but every creature ; as it is written, " That at the name of Jesus every knee might bow." But still, while this supre- macy and lordship of God manifest may never be doubted, I argue not the less that Christ will suffer no worship to terminate in Himself, as an ultimate object, but will lead it up into the invisible and infinite Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; where again no worship is received, nor petition answered, which doth not come through the mani- fest Godhead as its way, and from the indwelling Spirit as its source : so that the end of the whole matter is, that the creature is taken into the circle of the intercommunion of the blessed Trinity, and therein consisteth its blessedness and its stability. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. Where a son is, there must necessarily be a father, the generation of a son is that which constitutes the relation 1 76 Doctrinal. of a father ; and therefore if the only-begotten Son was generated from all eternity, God who generated Him must from all eternity be the Father. Concerning the mystery of the eternal generation of the Son in the bosom of the Father, God forbid that I should speculate, or even ven- ture to think that I can comprehend it, or that I would liken it to anything in the heaven above or in the earth below. AVhile I reverently contemplate it, and meditate upon it as a mystery of the Divine Being hid within Him- self, and receive it implicitly as a matter of divine faith, revealed for our knowledge of God, and comfort and delight in Him, all that I would attempt in discoursing thereof would be to shew unto His Church the streams of consolation and grace which flow from this most secret and mysterious fountain. Dear brethren, the knowledge that the first act of the Godhead was to generate a Son in His own image and likeness, who should contain the fulness of Himself, and dwell within Himself the object of all His delight, is such a proof of fellowship and com- munion and divine affection, as should fill every creature with trust and confidence, and assure our hearts before Him. Were this Son a creature, then it would have quite the other effect of exciting env}^ and disgust in all other creatures to behold God lavishing such excess of fondness, and bestowing such amplitude of love upon one crea- ture, and exalting him by such immeasurable titles and unparalleled honours into His own immediate presence and fellowship and blessedness. I say that this Soci- nianism is the destruction and death of all confidence of the creatures towards God, and must of necessity beget distance and reserve when they behold such ravishment and blandishment, and exalted style and mighty prero- gative, bestowed upon one above the rest. But beiog that Christ is not a creature but the only-begotten Son of God from all eternity, in whom all that is to be created hath its reality, when the Father beholds it, and loves it, and delights in it, for that He sees it in His Son, the offspring and excellency of Himself, what a height of The Fatherhood of God. i *]*] honour, — oli, what an exalted birthplace and most noble stock doth it give to every creature, to me, to you, dear brethren, to think that we were seen of a long time, j-ea from the beginning of days, yea from all eternity, in the womb of the all-creating Word, and were loved and beloved of the Father before all time, as a part — an essential part — of His own dear Son ! It doth at this moment fill my heart with such high contentment and ' holy joy, as words cannot utter, to know, and assuredly believe, that I had heretofore my being in the Son, which was in the bosom of the Father, and that I came forth from them in order that I might serve the purposes of the Father to glorify Himself in presenting His Son before all creatures for their homage and adoration, and ever- lasting obedience. I say, it makes my soul swell with ineffable delight, it lifts my ignoble being into a high nobility, it linketh my solitary and divided substance into high alliance, thus surely to believe, that albeit I am fallen and sinful with my fathers, and by reason of my connexion with Adam have come into my present most pitiful and lowly condition ; j-et long before Adam was, and angels were, and sin was, I had a being, a blessed and a holy being, — I, even I, in the bosom of the Father, with that mirror and image of Himself, His spotless Son ; with that dearest object of His love, His onh'-begotten and well-beloved Son. And though I be very sinful and loath- some in my own sight, — how much more in the sight of God's holiness! — how comforteth it my soul to know that Ihe Son Himself, in whose bosom I was beloved ere yet I was fallen or had an outward being, hath Himself followed me, followed all His offspring into their wretched quarters and most grievous condition, lying under the curse of God, and subject to a law which the flesh was \ over-weak ever to think of keeping; that He xander the same curse should come and contend with that infirmity and wretchedness, and overcome it, in order to bring us back again into that most sure and perfect blessedness which He had, and which in Him we had, before the 178 Doctj^inal. ■world was ! I can conceive, dear brethern, the pains with which the Son parted with His children into an outward being and existence, the care which He took for the secnrity of their well-being, if it were possible to prevent the long era of apostasy and alienation from the Highest. But seeing such a thing was not jDossible, forasmuch as it was the eternal purpose to manifest the Son himself to take away sin, I can next conceive the care and exceeding skilfulness with, which He would construct their beina: and their habitation, in order to be to them the assurance that their Parent would yet come Himself and be the rock of their stability and the refuge of their loneliness, 0 brethren, creation, though doubtless very good, is no joyful subject of contemplation to my soul. It is full of foundling-nakedness. There is the child, but where are its parents gone? There it is, with eye and ear and every sense, but it looketh for its parent in vain, who is not yet become visible. It was a great comfort in such a plight to give x\dam an image of himself, taken from himself, in whom his soul might delight in beholding itself ; but yet that blessed garden with it is no compen- sation for the sight of that glorious and blessed face which might not yet be seen ; and though the inward conscious- ness of the soul beholding its own purity be a dear delight, it is not complete, because man is made to look, not upon himself, but upon the countenance of God. But when I look upon creation as the first step towards the manifestation of that countenance of God in Christ Jesiis, then indeed it doth content me well. For now I behold the poverty and the peril of it to be undergone for the glory of God and the good of all things, in the revelation of the visible Godhead to be the head and rock and unremoved strength of the creature. Methinks I could be content to endure the trials of this present life, and its unceasing sorrow and wretched incumbrances, not for threescore years and ten but for the age of an antedi- luvian, yea and for ever, to know that by bearing it I was ministering my part towards the glorious manifesta- TIic Fatherhood of God. 1 79 tion of tlio only-begotten Son of God. This slioiild liavo been the comfort and preservation of our first parents, to have knovm, (as doubtless they did know,) and to have borne in mind, that they -were only forerunners sent before to prepare the way of Him that was about to come, types to represent the form of His being, like the morning star which telleth of the rising of the Sun of righteousness upon the world. And having failed herein, it became necessary, for this as well as other reasons, that Christ should be His own morning star, or, as the second Adam in flesh, that He should typify and represent His own coming in glory, in that glory in which He would have come first and only had sin not entered into the world. And when our race had come mto this perilous and wretched condition of fallen and sinful creatures, it ought to have been their sweet consolation that they were not yet cast off from being witnesses of Him that was to come. But now, instead of being witnesses and types of His glori- ous kingdom, they were witnesses and types of His gi'ievous humiliation and painful sufferings. And now, dear brethera, that we have known Him, and do believe on Him, though we have not seen Him, as the sufferer, and also as the conqueror, — have seen Him, as the second Adam, do what the first failed in, and present the perfect and sufficient type, though in humility, of what He shall hereafter be in glory, — it ought greatly to content and delight us that we are called upon to follow His foot- stejDs, in order that we may hereafter be advanced to His crown ; and though we find ourselves come from the bosom of His Father where we dwelt with Him from all eternity, it is only to serve our little part towards the completeness of the great work, and for our service to be again brought into a constant and infallible union with the Son, and through Him with the Father, and bo monuments of their power and grace, and love and blessed- ness, for ever and ever. 0 brethren, what rich fountains of inexhaustible depth and plentiful refreshment do flow from the knowledge of X 2 i8o Doctrinal. this mystery, that from all eternity the Father generated His only-begotten Son, with all things present in Him, Himself complete in all things, and yet to be presented as the visible fulness of the Godhead ! In that first act of the all-originating will of God, whereby He constituted Him- self a Father, I do discern the eternal blessedness of His creatures for ever and ever, when the work now in progress shall have been completed. The holy creation shall be loved as that only-begotten Son was beloved. For why? Because they have kept the word of His testimony, and have not departed from their holy vocation of God. CHKISTS RELATION TO THE GODHEAD, I MUST, though reluctantly, disagree with the method in which many of the orthodox fathers, and reformers, and doctors, and ministers, are wont to speak, as if some actions of Christ were actions done in the Godhead only, and some others were actions done in the manhood only. And right glad am I that this, though current in the schools, and in sermons, hath not found its way into any of the standards of the Church ; for if this way of speaking were correct, it would lead necessarily to the making of two persons in Christ, or else of two ascendancies which in succession overrule His person, like the ascendancies of the flesh and the spirit in the person of a man, — which cannot be pre- dicated of a Divine person, who overruleth, and hath the ascendant, and is not overruled or acted upon by an ascen- dancy. It is, moreover, a false idea concerning the Divine nature, to speak as if it could do a finite action, let that be ever so stupendous, even as creation itself, without assum- ing a finite form. It is, moreover, to subvert the whole purpose of the Creator, and confidence of the creature, to say that the personality of the Son may ever go into action separate from, or by suspension of, the human nature. If the human nature of Christ were thus ever, though only once, put si\b silentio, it might be again and again, and for Christ's Relation to the Godhead. 1 8 1 ever, and so the whole mystery of a manifest Goclhead is defeated. I know from -what this mode of speaking hath arisen, even from a desire to find in Christ's life tliat evident manifestation of Godhead which Christ himself declareth that it contained not, when He said unto Peter, " Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." It is also a well-meant attempt to preserve the Godhead of Christ impassive, by giving to it the acts of power, and to the manhood the acts of sutfer- ing. But really, though well-meant in this respect, it doth but save the flimsiest appearance ; for in deed, and in truth, it is to the Godhead as disproportionate and unfit to suifer the pity and compassion of the mind which moveth to the healing of the sick, or the casting out of devils, as it is to suffer and abide the scourgings and buffetings of men ; both being proper only to manhood, and not predicable of God- head, except under a figure. This mode of speaking, concerning the life of Christ, as being part all Godhead and part all manhood, is not only attended with these evil eflfecis, but hath this moreover to answer for, that, first of all, it doth defeat the manifes- tation of the Holy Ghost in His manhood, which I affirm hath been almost forgotten to be a work of the Holy Ghost at all ; and from this is chiefly derived that aimlessuess, fancifulness, idleness, and unprofitableness, with which men speak of the Holy Ghost altogether. And besides this, it hath destroyed Christ's life from being the great t^-pe, both as respecteth suffering, and as respecteth power, of what every Christian's life, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, ought to be, for I believe, that we cast not devils out, and heal not the sick, and do not the other parts of Christ's life, simply and traly because we have not faith, and are responsible unto Christ's challenge and rebuke, with which He chid His disciples when they fell short of their privilege to cast devils out, saying tmto them, " O ye faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you?" All these evils, I say, come of this false way of representing the activity of the two natures of Christ ; and therefore it is 1 8 2 Doctrinal. not, as it were, a matter of iugenious speculation, but grave reformation of error, wlien I undertake a little to lay open the distinctness of the nature of Christ in the unity of person, and that in every word, action, and suffering of the same. As I said, the person acting and sufiering is the eternal and unchangeable Second Person of the Godhead. He is the / who was in the bosom of the Father from all eter- nity ; and in every action He is conscious God. "When He saith, " I will," it is the Godhead that willeth. From the infinite Godhead, therefore, is the origin of every volition and action of Christ. The fountain is there, in the infinite. And how proceedeth it into the finite ? It proceedeth into the finite by an act of self-humiliation and self-restriction, which is the peculiar, proj)er, and boundless condescension of the Son in His own self-existent personality. But no eye beholdeth it, no finite mind comprehendeth it, no word can utter it ; the greatness of this grace of self-humiliation on the part of the Son is known unto the Father only, whose bosom alone contained that fulness which is con- tracted into manhood's narrow limits. This Divine act of self-contraction is the Godhead part of every act of Christ. It is the continuance, it is the abiding and the eternal per- petuity of that one resolve which is written in the book, " Lo ! I come ; a body hast thou prepared for me." This is the nature of God ; what He doth, to do for ever ; He doth not exist in time. Time measure th Him not, as space comprehendeth Him not. That ;|)urpose of the Son, to humble Himself into manhood, did not cast His Godhead away. He did not become, in person, a mere man. He con- tinued to be in person the same Son of God, after as before He made this dedication of Himself unto His Father's glory, and unto the creature's good. He is God still, but God thus self-determined to act and suffer the man. He cannot cease to be Son of God, nor can He cease from His own willingness to become Son of man : and thus He is always to be by these words defined, Son of God willing to become Son of Man. The Divine nature, therefore, ever acts, and it ever finishes with acting, when the Son of man The Relation of Father and Son. iS o I gins to act. It is the Son of man, whose action is seen, 1 It, reported, discoursed of, imitated, and delighted in, by ilie creatures. The Son of Man only suffers, and the Son <'i man onlj' acts with poAver. His actions, and His words, ,ire like His countenance, such as man's are ; such as ivcry man's, who is full of the Holy Ghost, ought to be ; ;ind such, I believe, as mankind's will be, in the days of tlie kingdom. But, while thus I speak, I put no man into the level of Christ ; for that action of His self-contracting power, which belongeth to Him as a Divine and self- existent person, which is the action, and the only action, of the Godhead, and yet is present in all His actings, and yet not mingled with the human parts and appurtenances of them, is that to which no man may aspire. Because the sage hath, by his self-contracting power, brought himself to speak and act with the children of the nursery, the sage is not therefore to be eqiialled with the child, nor is the child to presume himself a sage. Yet is the sage, though appar- ently but a child, a sage still ; and by far the noblest part of his action is hidden in that previous self-contraction of his powers whereof the children have no consciousness at all. THE RELATION OF FATHEK AND SON. Take rip the notion, that Christ is a Divine person, the same in substance and equal in power and glory with the Father, but that He is not the Son from all eternity, but only from the day of His earthly generation, or from some higher date which is still in time ; and what have we whereby to know and assure ourselves of God's most gra- cious will ? In that case. Fatherhood is not essential unto God, but only circumstantial, and, as it were, accidental, deriving its origin from something that hath happened in time, and kno^vn only amongst the sons of men. For when you say that Christ is not Son from eternity, you say that God is not a Father from eteniity ; and when you say that Christ is Son only with relation to the work of 1 84 Doctrinal. redemption, you say that God is Father only with relation to the same. By defining a time and a place and a being, you exclude all anterior time, and all other place, and other beings. And the question is — If God be not known as a Father, save to fallen men, nor Christ as a Son, as what are they known? What is the essence of the rela- tionship, if it be not the love of Fatherhood and the in- heritance of Sonship ? The only other relation is that of Will and of Word. But I have shewn that, though Will doth represent the self-origination of God, and from Him of all things, and Word, in the Scripture sense of the Aoyo;, do represent the full expression of that Will, whereby the unity of the substance is well enough preserved in the dis- tinctness of the persons ; yet is there no love or parental care, no goodness, no grace, expressed by that mode of stating and apprehending the relation between the ever- lasting Persons. And so, by making the quality of Father and Son to be in time, and to originate in a train of acci- dents, you do merely deprive yourself and ail beings of knowing and delighting themselves in God as their Father. And whether that be a small matter, brethren, judge ye. Furthermore, if it be in time, and dependent upon this our fallen estate, then with this our fallen estate, when it is recovered, it must work itself out, and be no more existent for ever. So that even we who look for the redemption, must in the completion of it look to lose the knowledge of God as a Father. And as what then shall we know Him ? Surely not as less loving, now that we are perfected ; then as more loving — but what can be more loving than a Father ? And yet as a Father we must certainly lose the knowledge of Him, if this title and relation of Father were taken up only in time, and to com- pass a particular end. And who that hath known the grace and goodness and loving-kindness of the God and Father of our Lord. Jesus Christ, could bear that it should be abolished, and that we should return to know Him only as the Creator and Supporter of our being? And it were, methinks, a small recompense of the work of Christ, that The Relation of Father and Son. 1S5 t should only reveal the beams of the gracious countenance (if God for a limited period of eternity, and over a small part of the habitable world — that the manifestation was I luly made to man, and only to fallen man, and only for the lud of raising him to his former estate. This, indeed, is ihe common notion; but it is a very bare one, and clean contrary to the tenour of Scripture, which continually setteth forth the work of Christ as a work upon which the uni veise hangeth with expectation, and the angels look into with eager desire, making it an essential part of the mystery of godliness that God was seen of angels. Now take up the only other possible supposition, that Ho takes His name and office of Son from the eternal pur- pose of God, in which He gave Himself as an offering for sin — that it is not essential to Him as the eternal ^\''ord, but belongs to Him as a party in the everlasting covenant and all-inclusive purpose of God. This is the highest ascent to which they can arise who doubt or deny the eternal generation. But even this will not avail : for, though the purpose carry us upward, bej'ond the fountain- head of time, into eternity, and include within itself all events which haA-e been, which are, and Avhich arc to be, and so this last notion be saved from the absurdities which flow out of the other two ; yet doth it wholly change the character of the purpose itself, or at least destroy one of its essential features. For I assert that to the very existence of the purpose, His pre-existence as the Son of God is essential ; His pre-existence as the Word is not sufficient; to constitute the purpose as I find it written in all the Scriptures. For the purpose is not a purpose of will only, but it is a purpose of goodness, and of grace, and of mere}', and of bounty, — in one word, it is a purpose of love, ac- cording to the good pleasui'e of His will. If any one would deny Divine honour to the Son because the function He performeth in the creation and redemption of things is different from that of the Father, he wandereth very wide from all rules of right reasoning, — which would require him first to prove that the Father of Himself created 1 86 Doctrinal. or redeemed anything, tliat any creature is the single work of the Father ; for of whomsoever a creature is the work, to that being he oweth his homage and worship, Now, if these heretics will go to and shew me that the Pather created all things without the Son, or the Father and the Son without the Spirit, I will allow that the worship of that thing is due unto the Father alone ; or if they will shew me that the Father created the Son in order that with Him He might create the Spirit, that these two might afterwards create the worlds — as our great poet but small theologian hath feigned — then all the things which the creature Son and the creature Spirit created would owe their worship to the Father. But oh, what a notion it is that the Father should create a creature, in order that afterwards with His creature Ho might go art and part in creating another creature, and then afterwards retire far away from the scene of active affairs, and leave these two creatures to work the world into form and consistency, and redeem it out of sin and misery ! I utterly abhor and reject the base notion, that the Father is not present in all His works, whether of creation, providence, or redemp- tion ; and no one can deny that the Son and the Spirit are also all-present, and acting an essential part therein. What a notion this, that the Omnipotent should take into the fel- lowship of all His counsels, and the concert of all His plans, and the conjunction of all His operations, two crea- tures who, however dignified, are but creatures still, and more inferior to the Creator than any imagination can take in, or any similitude represent ! It were nothing to this that the potter should go to the vessel which he has just made and ask its help to make him a second, and do nothing afterwards without a consultation of the three. It were nothing to this that the will of man, instead of consulting with his intelligent reason and with his active powers, should go and consult with two statues of Minerva and Psyche which he had chiselled out of marble. These things are nothing so absurd as that base and crude scheme which our heretical divine but mighty poet hath invented for ex- The Doctrine of the Incarniation. 187 pressing the mj^stery of the Trinity. But if, brethren, it lie written, as it is everywhere written, that the Son and the Spirit perfonn an essential part with the Father in the creation, snbsistency, and redemption of all things which are in heaven and earth, then I say that all things in heaven and in earth owe their worship to the Father and the Son and the Spirit, from whom, and by whom, and in whom they live and breathe, and have their being. THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCAENATION. * The thing which we maintain is. That as Adam was the perfect man of creation, Jesiis was the perfect man of rege- neration ; perfect in holiness, by being perfect in faith ; perfect in faith, though all the created universe strove to alienate Him from God ; and prevailing to believe in the Father, against the universe, through the divinity of His person; which was thereby proved to be uncreated, and above creation, by prevailing against a rebellious creation, with which He clothed Himself, and under whose load He came. And we further maintain, that there is no other way of seeing His divinity in action save by this only, that His union with the Father by faith stood good against the whole creation, and prevailed to draw creation out of the hands of its oppressors back again, and to reconcile it unto God. All which is a dead letter, a fiction, a folly, if so be that His creature nature was not part and parcel of the fallen and rebellious creation, in reconciling which He reconciled all. This is the substance of our argrunent : that His human nature was holy in the only way in Avhich holiness under the Fall exists or can exist, is spoken of or can be spoken of in Scripture, namely, through inworking or energising of the Holy Ghost : not from the Holy Ghost mixed up with either the substance of body or soul — which [* In this extract we have gathered up in little the sahent points cf difference between Mr. Irving and the heads of the Scotch Church aneut the doctrine of the Incarnation ; and, though it is very closely reasoned and, at points, abstruse, it has been here reprinted as being in many ways a bold iuid memorable statement.] 1 88 DGctrinal. is to confound Godhead and manhood — Lut by the Holy Ghost, under the direction of the Son, enforcing His human nature, inclining it, uniting it to God ; even as the devil, likewise a spirit, without mixing in it, did enforce it away from God. And thus doth Christ in the salvation of every sinner resist, overcome, and destroy the devil's power and work. The common thing created by God in Adam, was created in His own image, after His own likeness ; and is, there- fore, our complete being, visible and invisible, flesh and reason, or, as it is commonly denominated, body and soul. This is what man was created : this hath not been added to, for creation never hath been added to : it was completed in the six daj'S. The community of man is therefore his compomid nature, body and soul, flesh and reason, God hath formed our hearts alike, as well as our bodies. Xow, where lies the individuality, the personality, that which we denominate, I myself ; that which God regards as re- sponsible ? I had not proposed this to myself as a question wlien I wrote my book upon the Incarnation, and when I wrote the earlier part of this tract ; Avhich are therefore both written under the common notion that the community is in the flesh, and the personality is in the soul ; while yet I perceived all along, that if there is not a commtmity in Christ's soul with us, the community in His flesh is really nothing but an appearance ; that is to saj^ if His flesh was not united to His mind by the same laws as ours is, He had no community with us whatever ; and for this I have always stood mainly, so that, however the metaphy- sical point of a man's personality be held by my reader, the doctrine which I maintain is not afi'ected by it. At present, from what study I have been able to give this sub- ject, I incline to believe that the personality is a property superinduced by God upon that community of body and soul which we inherit, being that which connects every man with Himself, as responsible to Him for that common endowment of body and soul and estate which He entrusts us with. For certain, Christ had a body and soul of man's The Doctrine of the Incarnation. 1S9 substance, without thereby having a human person ; and, therefore, we can assert the siufuhiess of the whole, the com- plete, the perfect human nature, which He took, without in the least implicating Him with sin; yea, verily, seeing ho subdued those properties which it had in itself, and made it holy, wo assert Him to be only Eedeemer of man from sin, I wish it to be steadily borne in mind in reading this tract, that whenever I speak of the flesh of Christ, I mean, except when the contrary is expressed, the whole creature part ; which is not a person, but a substance ; a substance which we must describe by its properties of sinfulness and dark- ness and deadness, in order to understand the wonderful work of redemption which Christ wrought in it. ^Vhat A\'as holy, was His person ; and from that came redemption into the nature ; what was powerful, was the person ; and from that came strength into the nature. Sin, in a nature, is its disposition to lead the person away from God ; sin in a person, is the yielding thereto. All creation is sinful, being in a state of alienation from God : it has one law in it, the law of sin ; and through all its parts this law binds it in one great sinful operation. The Person of the Son of God was born into it ; He restrained, withstood, overcame this co-operation of a sinful creation, conquered the con- queror, and won it back to God ; obtained power over all flesh. This is the great theme which we maintain. The precious truth for which we contend, is, not whether Christ's flesh was holy — for surely the man who saith we deny this blasphemeth against the manifest truth — but whether dui'iug His life it was one with us in all its infirmities and liabilities to temptation, or whether, by the miraculous generation, it underwent a change so as to make it a different body from the rest of the brethren. They argue for an identity of origin merely ; we argue for an identity of life also. They argue for an inherent holi- ness ; we argue for a holiness maintained by the person of the Son, through the operation of the Holy Ghost. They say, that though His body was changed in the genera- tion, He was still our fellow in all temptations and sym- 1 90 Doctrinal. patliies : we deny that it could be so ; for change is change ; and if His body was changed in the conception, it was not in its life as ours is. In one word, we present believers with a real life ; a suffering, mortal flesh ; a real death and a real resurrection of this flesh of ours : they present the life, death, and resurrection of a changed flesh : and so create a chasm between Him and us which no know- ledge, nor even imagination, can overleap. And in so doing, they subvert all foundations : there is nothing left standing in our faith of Godhead, in our hopes of manhood. THE TEUE IDEA OF THE INCAENATION. The doctrine concerning the incarnation, upon which the primitive Church was founded by the apostles, and to which the Reformers brought us back, and from which we are fast swerving again, is this — That it is a great purpose of the Divine will which God was minded from all eternity to make known unto His creatures, for their greater infor- mation, delight, and blessedness ; to make known, I say, to all His intelligent creatures, the grace and mercy, tlie forgiveness and love which He beareth towards those who love the honour of His Son, and believe in the word of His testimony. In order that thereby His children, comprehending more fully the beauty and loveliness of the Divine Majesty, might desire Him the more, and cleave unto Him with an entire fidelity. Which aspect, if I may so speak, of the Divine character, could never be beheld by a creature unfallen; forasmuch as grace, and mercy, and forgiveness, do necessarily presuppose and require guilt, and offence, and hatefulness, for the objects upon which to put themselves forth, as necessarily as the power, and wisdom, and order, and harmony of creation require a chaos, and confusion, and darkness which they may adorn, and order, and bless. And as God did not at once command the created world to come forth as we now behold it, but first permitted a chaos which was without form and void, [ I The True Idea of tJic Incarnaiiou. 191 in order that by successive acts of wisdom and goodness, IIo might order it into beauty and light ; so also did He permit that in the moral part of His works there should bo a rebellion, and darkness, and disobedience, in order that by successive acts of compelling grace He, might lead out the harmony and unity of all His chosen, " against the dispensation of the fulness of the times when He shall gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in the heavens and which are on the earth." And in thus proceeding, He doth manifest the grace or favour which He beareth even to sinners who honoiir His Son, giving His Son thereby a very great exaltation before the heavenly host, when they perceive that for His sake the Father of all can forgive sin. This, then, you will bear in mind, that the incarnation of His Son is the way hy which God xevealeth that more tender aspect of Plis being called grace — that part of the divine substance which could not otherwise have been made known. And therefore the gospel is called a mysteiy, because it was long hid to all, and is yet in a great measure hid unto all, being still only in the act and progTess of unfolding itself. Abraham had a distant prospect of it, and Moses had a material model of it, the psalmist a royal foretaste of it, and the prophets a national manifestation of it, which yet themselves under- stood not, though they believed ; and our Lord verified Abraham's distant view, substantiated Moses's shadow, answered part of the predictions of the psalms and the prophets, prepared the way of the Spint to open the mystery more perfectly to the apostles, and promised that He would come again to manifest, clear up, and accomplish what still lay shroxided in the mystery : and this we look for Him to accomplish against the dispensation of the fulness of the times. Take this, therefore, my beloved brethren, for the true principle of the work of the incarnation, that it was a purpose which God purposed in Himself, to make known by Jesus Christ, and by all who shall honour and cleave to Him, the riches of His grace and mercy to the chief of 192 Doctrinal. sinners. And taking this for the true account of the matter, be comforted and strengthened and edified, in knowing that there is nothing accidental nor circnmstantial in the work of your redemption, but that it is complete in Him in whom ye believe and trust ; — that as the men are carried •safe who cleave unto the lifeboat, while the men that rashly commit themselves to the billows are dashed to pieces, or, to keep to the sacred emblem, as the souls who believed Noah and took refuge in the ark were saved, while all the rest perished, so you have nothing to fear if ye cleave to Christ, and resign yourselves to the shelter of His brooding wings. Oh, our fathers knew the comfort of this doctrine of the unconditional, uncircumstantial, nnaccidental, the substantial, eternal, and unchangeable election in Christ Jesus ; and, receiving it, they grew into His similitude, and were strengthened to do works worthy of His lioliness. But we have confounded the security of the divine purpose which includeth the Church, and em- braceth every spirit which believeth in Jesus, and which is the argument for believing in Him, that we may be so kept in safety for ever ; this have we confounded by looking continually at the varieties of the moods and frames of the natural man, and changing conditions of the visible Church, which have no more to do with the constancy of that purpose in which we are wrapped up with Jesus, than this changing atmosphere and cloudy canopy over our heads hath to do with the fixed stars of heaven, and the constant liadit and heat of the cdorious sun. CHKIST THE EMBODIMENT OF GODS HOLINESS. Upon' that imagined offence which is done to our ideas of justice, by the doctrine of the Just suffering for the unjust, 1 have to observe that, though the fall must come first in ihe nature of things before the redemption, and, coming first in the nature of things, must also come first in the manifestation ; we are not, therefore, to suppose that that Christ the Embodiment of God's Holiness. 193 form of God's being and attributes revealed in the redemp- tion, which is grace, is not as necessary, and essential, and ancient a part of Himself, as that other form of severity and justice which is revealed in the Fall ; though the latter be anterior both in the idea and in the manifestation, We are apt to transfer the succession of time to the Divine mind, and so to confound all things. But, truly with the Lord all things are present from the beginning, and all appearances are but the unfoldiugs of His mighty purpose for the manifestation of that which is with Him from the beginning. And this is most necessary, and constantly to be kept in mind, in order that we may not give to the eternal Jehovah a succession of existence. He is all in all times and in every time, as He is all in all places and in every place. And this is the reason why ever}- siibstantial matter of our faith is by the apostles traced up to before the foundation of the world : and every mystery is said to be hid in Him before the world was. Bearing this in mind, to the question, Whether the scheme of vicarious suffering and imputed righteousness which we have unfolded, con- taineth in itself anything adverse to justice ? we at once answer. No, but everything prosperous to righteousness and truth. It is from eternity of the righteous and holy will of God to punish sin ; and it is so still, and whosoever believeth in Jesus hath a lively and most present sense of the heinous- ness of sin, and the eternal A^Tath which abideth on it. It is equally of the righteous and holy will of God to save the sinner, and to show forth His goodness and mercy and forbearance in his salvation; and every believer in Christ hath a most blessed hope and assurance through grace of eternal salvation. These two forms of the holy will of God being most consistent with one another, will mutually illustrate each other when they are manifested. And ac- cordingly w^e find it to be so. For the Word which revealeth the will of the Father, and in whom the Father doth ob- jectively' behold all His purposes, and is well pleased Avith them, doth embody in the one act of His eternal sacrifice the utmost perfection of the Father's holiness and of the 0 1 94 Doctrinal. Father's goodness ; of the former, in proving that the law was holy, and not tyrannical ; a right, good, and blessed constitution, for humanity in its fallen state ; and so reflect- ing from the mirror of ks purity the greatness and heinoiis- ness of our depravity. ^His holy life set against our wicked life, is the only adequate manifestation of our sin or of the righteousness of God. I say not but that in the conscience there is a certain sense of right, as in the understanding there is a certain discernment of truth ; but as the latter could not discover the light, so could not the former quicken the life, could not give it real form, or even ideal form, until the Lord manifested it in actual being. But in thus manifesting the holiness. He also manifested the love, and that in the most exalted and marvellous kind, as every one doth freely acknowledge, for it can be brought into com- parison witli, and tried by, the tests of human love?^ I consider it to be rather a low view of the Eecfeemer's work, to contemplate it so much in the sense of acute bodily suffering, or to enlarge upon it imder the idea of a price or a bargain, which is a carnal similitude, suitable and proper to the former carnal dispensation, and which should, as much as possible, be taken away for the more spiritual idea of our sanctification by the full and perfect obedience which Christ rendered until the will of God; thereby purchasing back, and procuring for as many as believe in Him their justi- fication and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, which is their conformity to the will of God, and reliance on His eternal purpose. For whosoever is brought into con- formity with the will of God is thereby included in his purpose. It was a great act of power in the Son — a de- monstration of His almighty power, to take up flesh and strengthen it against all the powers of hell — to take up flesh and purify it against all the powers of sin and corrup- tion. But no one will say it was impossible, for it hath been accomplised ; and no one will say that there was any violation of the principles of eternal holiness and justice, for the Son to do what was within His power, or for the Father to suffer Him to do it. With respect tc the com- Christ the EjJibodimejit of God's Holiness. 1 95 munication of the gift to others, we do not now entreat : at present we are considering only of the purchase of the gift ; and this, as hath been said, was by His obedience and perfect fulfilment of God's most holy law, which had been offended by our first parents and by all their posterity. And it was the offended law, or, in other words, God's imalterable, immitigable holiness, which perpetuated the punishment. If an}' one of Adam's children could have stood up and kept the law, he would, in virtue of his own innocency, have lived in it, and known neither suffering nor death. The man, Christ Jesus, did this, and, in virtue of His work, now liveth, it being impossible that He should be holden of death. By which life of obedience the law stood honoured : it was proved to be holy, it was proved to be jmit, it was proved to be good, and it was satisfied. I may say the holiness of God's law was never manifested upon the earth till now, because it was never kept. In the idea it was holy; but never in the reality, till Christ said, "Father, I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." 'The justice of the law might well be doubted, and its cruelty believed, at least its disproportion to human conditions : forasmuch as every man had smarted and suf- fered under it, and no one been able to attain unto the keeping of it. It might have been siipposed the law of a tyrannical, or arbitrary, or even a malicious being, inas- much as it had punished all and acquitted none. This was a great, a very great apparent stigma, which the perfect obedience of Christ in human flesh removed, proving un- equivocally that it was made for flesh, and would have blessed humanity had its gracious intention and adaptation not been crossed and prevented by the fall of our first parents, and the consequent apostasy of the will of man, and its alienation from every thing which is holy, and just, and good ; for the goodness of the law, — that is, its kind- ness and bountifulness, and fruits of blessedness, — were all contradicted by the fact of such long and universal miseiy as had been upon the earth. The Divine purpose in creating human nature, and putting it under His holy, just, o2 196 Doctrinal. and good law, seemed to be wholly frustrated; tlie veiy end of creation seemed defeated; there was no glory of God redounding from it, but glory to the enemy of God. The world had gone into chaos, and the great achievement was, out of the chaos to bring something more perfect than before. To justify the ancient constitution of law and government under which the world was established at first ; to retrieve, to do more than retrieve, the honour of the Creator, — to make it glorious. This was the first end for which Christ gave Himself to become man from the founda- tion of the world. THE BODY AND SOUL OF CHRIST. I BELIEVE in opposition to all fantastics, schismatics, and sectarians who say the contrary, that Christ took unto Himself a true body and a resonable soul; and that the flesh of Christ, like my flesh, was in its proper nature mortal and corruptible ; that He was of the seed of David ; that He was of the seed of Abraham, as well as of the seed of the woman ; yea, that he was of the seed of the woman after she fell, and not before she fell. Even the time for making known the truth that Christ in human nature was to come, did not arrive till after the Fall, because it was determined in the covinsel of God that He who was to come should come in the fallen state of the creature, and therein be cut ofi" — ■ yet not for Himself — to the end it might be proved that the creature substance which He took, and for ever united to the Godhead, was not of the Godhead a part, though by the Godhead sustained. Af He had come in the unfallen manhood, as ihese dreanifers say, and had not truly been subject i;nto death, but, for some lesser end and minor ob- ject, and as it were by intent, had laid aside the mantle of the flesh for a season, who would have been able to say that the manhood of Christ had not become deified — that is, become a part of the Godhead ? And if so, then not only He, but all His members likewise, who are to be brought into the yarj selfsame estate with Himself, must TJie Body and Soul of Christ. 1 9 7 also be deified, or pass into the Godhead; the creature become an object of worship ; the Creator be mingletl with the creature; the doctrine of God the soul of the world brought in, and all the other most wicked tenets of the Eastern superstitions of the earth introduced in the room of the most fruitful, most holy mystery of a personal God, separate from the creatxirc, yet supporting the creature by eternal union with, though in perfect distinctness from, Himself, in the person of the Son, and. through the in- dwelling of the Divine nature in the person of the Holy Ghost; to the end of worshipping the invisible Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, remaining hidden, and for ever to remain hidden, in the person of the Father. I say, and fearlessly assert, and undertake to prove that this great result and consummation of the Divine scheme could not otherwise be attained than by the fall of the creature, in order to reveal its non-divinity, or prove its creatureship ; so that, when the Son of God should come to take it unto Himself, it might, by the very act of dying, shew itself, though of Him, not to be the very God ; and when, taken up into that surpassing glory with which it is now crowned, it might be for ever known to be not human nature deified, but human nature uplifted and upheld by God. The fall of all creation, spiritual and material, was but a step unto the death of the body of Christ; even as the creation of all things visible and invisible was only a step to the creation of that body. It was because the Lamb slain, as well as the God manifested, was a pail of the Divine purpose, that death came into the world. Death knew not what death meant, until Christ died ; then the mysteiy of death was unfolded unto itself If the meaning of a fall is ever to be understood, it must be studied in the cross and tomb of Christ. For if Christ had stepped at once out of the in- finite and invisible into resurrection power and glory, and without dying drawn up the creatures into i:nion with the same, the creature would have worshipped itself, so clothed with might, adorned with beauty, and with stability in- vested; instead of worshipping the invisible God of heaven, 198 Doctrinal. out of the creature yet supporting the creature and inhabit- ing the creature ; therefore the object of the creature's de- pendence, and the subject of the creature's blessedness : but 3'et essentially separate from and advanced above the creature's noblest state, and therefore properly the object of the creature's continual worship. And this is the iirst point in the mystery of Christ's constitution, His taking the substance of the fallen Virgin Mary. With respect to the human soul of Christ I have next to speak. That Christ had a reasonable soul, as well as a true body, is a doctrine most necessary to be believed ; because, otherwise. He were not a man, but only the appa- rition of a man ; a siiperior being, who for a certain end and purpose had clothed himself with human form — as was often done before in manifestations to the Patriarchs and the Prophets — which is the fountain of Arianism with all its poisoned streams. Besides, if Christ had not a reasonable soul, His human feelings and affections were but an assumed fiction to carry the end which His mission had in view ; and His sufferings and His death were a phantasmagoria played off before the eyes of men, but by no means entering into the vitals of human sympathy, nor proceeding from the communion and love of human kind, nor answering any end of comforting human suffering, and interceding for human weakness, and bringing up again the fallen creature to stand before the throne of the grace of God : it is all but a phantasm and apparition, like that which appeared unto Manoah and his wife, and transacted wonderful things in their presence. This was the source of the Gnostic errors in the first ages of the church. Moreover, and most of all, if Christ had not possessed a reasonable soul, as well as a mortal and corruptible body (which yet saw not corruption, by the Father's special grace), the Divine nature of Christ must have been separated and divorced from His human nature during the time it hung dead upon the cross and lay buried in the tomb. If there had been biit two principles, a body, and the eternal person of the Son, united in Jesus of Nazareth, then when the body of Christ lay in the tomb, I ■i The Body and Soul of Christ. 1 99 the Divinity must Lave been separated fiom the humanity ; and this, though only for an instant suffered, woukl upset tlie whole coustition of God in Christ. For if once the Creator and the creature part of Christ, if once the Divine and human natures, have been parted, they may be parted again ; and where then were the assurance of creation's .stability in the Christ constitution for ever and ever? Essential it is to the purpose of God, that when the nature of the Godhead in the person of the Son had joined itself to the creature in the substance of manhood, that hyposta- tical union of two distinct natiu'es in one person should be established for ever and ever. Clearly, therefore, doth it remain, that there must be a part of human nature capable of subsisting separate from the body, which, when the body fell into the curse of death, might maintain the continuity of co-existence with the Godhead of the Son, until the time came for the Father to send the Holy Spirit into His mortal and corruptible body, and unite it in a glorified state unto the Godhead of the Son ; which hath the while preserved its creature-condition in connexion with the separate soul. And as I said above, that the Fall is to be understood by meditating that for which it came to pass — to wit, the dead body of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ; even so say I now, that the twofold nature of man, soul and body, invisible and visible, is both to be best understood, and most surely believed, by meditating upon the same great key of creation — to wit, the divinity of the Son sub- sisting in hypostatical union with the invisible soul of the man, while the visible body of the man was lying unin- formed with any conservative or vital principle, truly dead, truly corruptible but not to corrupt, until it pleased the Father to raise it, in reward of Clu'ist's faith and strone: cryiugs, with supplications and tears, that He might be delivered from death ; wherein, because of His piety, He was heard. Yea, more: this is to me the great assurance of a spiritual world of separate souls in life, though invisible at this time, and in all times since death began his work ; and it is to me the defeat of all those fantastics who 2 GO Doctrinal. dote and dream concerning the sleep of tlie sonl from death tinto the resTirrection ; and, moreover, of that more common, hut at the hottom not less pernicious, opinion, that the soul receiveth upon its being disembodied some aerial vehicle, some house of habitation, some tabernacle of very subtile matter, wherein to act and to discourse over God's creation : which I hold to be no better than refined and disguised materialism : making void a spiritual world, and also the doctrine of Christ's coming with glory, in visible, sensible humanity'', to reign with His saints, in the like humanity, over a purified kingdom of flesh and blood. Moreover, I can see how, for these great ends of putting to silence such manifold fanciful and heretical notions, it should have been so distinctly declared, and so prominently brought forward in the Apostles' Creed, that the action of His incarnation did not terminate at His death; but that He descended into the place of separate spirits, and did a work therein — concerning which I do not now enter, but only recognise it as a great head of doctrine, by means of which those deters concerning the sleep of the soul, and the new clothing of the soul during its separate estate, are to be baffled and befooled. EFFECTS OF CHRIST S INCARNATION. Besides the good effects, necessarily resulting from Christ's taking our fallen humanity, and of which not one would have resulted had He taken humanity in an unfallen state, there is another, to which divines of this age will be more alive ; which is, that there could otherwise have been neither reconciliation nor atonement between God and man. I Those, indeed, who consider atonement as a bargain, of so ' much merit on Christ's side against so much demerit on ours ; so much suffering in His person, instead of so much suffering in ours ; will see little or nothing in the line of argument which I am about to pursue. But those Avho consider, as I do, that this is a most insufficient, and, when taken for the whole, a most prejudicial view of the mystery; Effects of Chris fs Incartiation. 20 1 and who imclerstand atonement in its onlj' scriptural sense, at-one-ment, or reconciliation between the holy Creator and tlie unholy creature ; that which I am about to argue will appear of the greatest moment, and unanswerable. With respect to that burgain-and-barter hypothesis, I observe, that in order to make out of Christ's sufferings an infinite quantity to cover the infinite delinquency of His elect, they reason thus : It was an infinite person that suffered, and therefore His sufferings must be of infinite value. Now, with all sound theologians, and with all the doctors, I deny the possibilit}' of the Divine nature suffering. The God- head cannot be tempted, and how should the Godhead suffer ? The human nature of Christ alone suffered ; and that is not infinite, but finite. Therefore there is no in- finite amount of suffering to balance against the sufferings of the elect through eternity ; and so the account will not balance, and the base theory^ falls to the ground. Besides being illogical, how degrading is it to represent the great mystery as shut up in this, that the Father would have so much punishment, get it where He could, and so He took it out of His own Son ! That the Father did hide His face from His Son ; that He did say, " Awake, O sword, against Him that is my Fellow;" that it pleased Him to bnaise Him and to put him to grief, there can be no doubt — and any view of the mysteiy which wdll not give fair interpretation to these vindictive expressions of God's holiness cannot be received ; — but that orthodox and enlarged view which I have given of the Father's act, as bringing Chi-ist into the conditions of the fallen humanity-, doth well and truly appropriate every utterance which the Father hath uttered, aud every act which the Father hath done against sinners, to be spoken and done against Christ also : not by substitution merely, but by reality ; not by imputation merely, but in very truth. This, indeed, is what they cannot understand who consider imputation as containing the whole mystery of God ; whereof it is only a part, though a very important part: and it will prove utterly unintelligible, confusion worse confounded, to all those who consent to the sufficiency 202 Doctrinal. of tlie debtor-and- creditor tlieology; or have been sucked by Satan into the heresy that Christ had a humanity in some way diverse from ours. This most unsound view of the matter, as the other is most insufficient, doth in effect make altogether void the Father's activity in the sufferings and death of Christ, which we are at such pains to preserve. ■Qf, as these adversaries of the truth allege, Christ in His incarnation did apprehend an immortal and incorruptible substance, and not the very same mortal and corruptible which you and I inherit under the curse ; and if, by a mere act of power or will, He brought it into death, and laid it in the grave, and, as it were, rid himself of it for a season, then why may He not, by the same act of will and of power, rid Himself of it again for another season, and another, and another ? and why not rid Himself of it for aye, and use it as a mantle, according to occasion? and wheie is the security of the redeemed creature, that it may not again altogether fall out of union with the Godhead ?\But if Christ took upon Himself our fallen and corruptible nature, and brought it up through death into eternal glory, then is the act of the will of Christ not to lay down, but to assume or take up humanity into Himself; and the continuance of His act is to keep it in union with Himself, and not for any sake to dismiss it from Himself. He takes it. He loves it, He strengthens it, He sanctifies it. He immortalises it, He glorifies it. For His part He doth nothing but embrace it, and hold it fast unto Himself. It is the act not of the Son but of the Father, which makes the flesh drop off from His immortal being into death and the grave. This, I say, is the Father's act ; and it is the Father's act again to bring up that body in its changed and glorified state : not, indeed, without Christ's consent, but that con- sent given, when He consented to join Himself to the mortal and corruptible seed of the woman. He consented to be brought into the possession of an enduring body through the transition state of a mortal life, through the passage of death and the grave ; to which consenting, He consented therein to the act of the holy Father, which required the AtonciHcnt or At-onc-viciit. 203 coiTuptible and mortal creature-substance to ftxll ofi" from His immortal soul and divinity into death and the grave. And this is the meaning of that remarkable saying in John X. 17, 18 : " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay do^\^l my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it do\\'n of myself : I have power to lay it do%vn, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father," In these words Christ asserteth three things : first, that no one whatsoever, man or angel, had power to take His life from Him ; the second, that it was by Himself laid down ; and the third, that this was done by the commandment of the Father, These three things concur in His act of dying ; a commandment of the Father, His own free w'ill to obey that commandment, and His total independence of any third power or influence. Every act of his life was of the same kind ; done of free will, without constraint, in obedience to the absolute will of the Father. ATONEMENT OR AT-ONE-MENT. Those w^ho say that there is but one will in Christ, either make Him only God, or only man. There is the absolute will of the Godhead, and there is the limited will of the creature. These tw^o may be consentaneous with one another, which is holiness ; or they may be dissentient from one another, which is unholiness in the creature ; but the one cannot be the other without confounding two most opposite things, the Creator and the creature, and in- troducing the doctrine of Spinoza, the doctrine of Eastern sophists and Western savans ; that God is the soul of the world ; that He is diffused through the creatures, and that the creature is of Him a part. If, again, you say with Sergius, that the operation in Christ is neither Divine nor human, but a mixture of both, as he called it, Theandric or Godmanly, you do confuse the two natures of Cbrist, and make one between them, which is neither God's nature 204 Doctrinal. nor man's nature, but an ixnknown something lying be- tween them both, with which man hath no sympatliy, or rather no consubstantiality ; with which God hath no con- substantiality, and, tlierefore, which cannot be Mediator between God and man. Tliis also leads directly to the confusing of the Creator with the creature, in the person of Christ, and therefore to everj'thing evil besides ; and again bringeth out God to be the soul of the world, and the world a part of God. It is therefore, however little apprehended by our debtor-and-creditor divines, no less than to confuse and confornid all things, thus to permit such points of doctrine as this to remain in error, or even under silence. Now the orthodox doctrine is, that there were two wills in Christ ; the one the absolute will of the Godhead, which went on working in its infinite circles, the other a man's will, which was boimded by the limited knowledge, the limited desires, the limited affections, and the limited actions of manhood ; a Divine nature, and a human nature, God, and man. The orthodox doctrine holdeth, moreover, that from the incarnation onwards, and for ever, the Son of God never thought, felt, or acted, but by condescending out of the infinitude of the Divine will, into the finiteness of the human will ; in which condescension, the self-sacrifice, and humiliation, and grace, and goodness of the Godhead are revealed : without which condescension these attributes of the Godhead could never have been known unto the creatures. This condescension it is which giveth an infinite value to every act of Christ, — in the Father's sight, inasmuch as it makes him known, and obtains His great purpose of self-manifestation ; — in the creature's sight, inasmuch as it shews unto the creature the great free-will condescension of the Son, by which the Father is made known, and the Holy Spirit communicated. More- over, the attributes of thought, feeling, and action, under which the Godhead is represented to us in the Old Testament, before the incarnation, appertain not to the absolute will of the Godhead, which hath no limitation of Atonement or At-onc-mcnt. 205 epaco or time, no creature miud, nor creature will, but appertain to the Godhead, contemplating itself as ahout to be iniited to the manhood by incarnation of the Son ; so that all revelation is truly an anticipation by word, like as all creation is an anticipation by act of the great thing which was accomplished by the uniim of two wills or operations in Christ ; or, to express this truth in Scripture language, the Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. It is not to tell out the truth fully, to say that such ex- pressions as God changeth, God repenteth, are accomo- dations to man's way of speaking : they are anticipations of God's way of shewing Himself, by taking the nature of man into the personality of the Son, and through that nature acting the purposes of the Godhead by the creatures. And human language itself is a great, and, next to creation, the greatest, work of God unto the same great end ; and Christ the Creator is only worthy to be expressed by Christ the "Word. Be it so, then, that unto every thought, word, and act of Christ, there concurreth two operations ; an operation in the infinite Godhead, and an operation in the finite manhood ; and that these two operations are not the operations of two persons, but of one person only ; and what result and inference have you, but this most sublime, most perfect one, that the actings of the Godhead, all the volition, puiiDOses, and actings of the Godhead, are con- sentaneous with, are one with, all the volitions, all the actings, of the manhood of Christ ? For the Godhead never acteth but by the Son ; and the Son never acteth unto the creatures, but by the manhood, which, with His Godhead, formeth one pei'son. Wherefore, this sublime, this perfect truth is for ever incoi-porated in the person of Christ : that Godhead and manhood are not in amity merely, not in sympathy merely, not in harmonj- and consociation merely, but in union, unity, and unition, hypostatical or consubstantial. I would not give the truth expressed in these words of the Catechism, " Two distinct natures, and one person for ever," for all the truths that by human language have ever been expressed. I would 2o6 Doctidnal. ratlier liave been the humblest defender of this truth in the four oecumenical councils of the Church than have been the greatest reformer of the Church, the father of the Covenant, or the procurer of the English consti- tution. At-one-ment, or reconciliation, is a mere notion, figrn-e of speech, or similitude, until it be seen efiected in the con- stitution of the person of Christ, under these two wills or operations. I object not to the similitude taken from paying debts, nor to the similitude taken from redeeming captives, nor to the similitude taken from one man's dying in the room of another, nor to any of the infinite simili- tudes which St. Paul useth most eloquently and most fitly for illustrating and enforcing this most precious truth of the at-one-ment, or reconciliation ; but the similitudes are, to my mind, only poor helps for expressing the largeness, fulness, and completeness of the thing which is done by the Word's being made flesh, and which is exhibited as done, by the placing of the God-man on the right hand of the Majesty on high, visible Head, effective Euler of tbe created worlds, and of the intelligent creatures which possess them. This head actor of all things enacted, this being comprehensive of all beings created, great fountain of life, full ocean of animation, is in every thought, in every act, God and man, God's will and man's will, in one person united. Everything, therefore, thence flowing, circling wide as creation's utmost bound ; every occur- rence, every accident, every attribute, every act, every relation, eveiy change, every position which together con- stitute the variety of life in the creation redeemed and naled by Christ, is in very truth a demonstration of man- hood at one with Godhead, because it is all thought, spoken, and done by the Person, the One person, who in all His thoughts, M'Ords, and doings, is God and man. What reconciliation like this reconciliation, what at-one-ment like this at-one-ment ? ( 207 ) Christ's life the realization of the spirit's work. The work of the Holy Ghost in the human nature of Christ, from His conception unto His baptism, was to fulfil all the righteousness of the law ; and I think that word which He spake at His baptism, " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," is the amen with which He con- cluded that great accomplishment. The baptism of John was the isthmus which connected the fulfihnent of the law upon the one hand, with the opening of the spiritual and evangelical holiness iipon the other : to which our Lord alludes, in these words : " The kingdom of heaven suftereth violence from the baptism of John until now, and the vio- lent take it by force ;" giving them to understand that the baptism of John had initiated into the kingdom, as the bap- tism of Moses in the cloud, and in the sea, initiated into the law. From the anointing with the Dove, I believe that our Lord entered upon a higher and holier walk than mere law-fulfilling, giving to us the ensample of that spiritual holiness which knoweth no law but the law of liberty ; that is, the will inclined unto the will of God. Therefore it was that our Lord broke the Sabbath without offence ; and touched lepers, and otherwise offended the law ; and therefore, also, He went up to the feasts, or went not up, according to His mind. And many things besides He did, which are all expressed in these two similitudes, of which, when challenged for this neglect, He made use : " No man putteth new wine into old bottles ; no man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment ;" signifying that the spirit of His discipleship, of which He was then performing the novitiate, would not piece on to, much less be contained within, the old worn-out commandments of Moses. Besides, the works which He did by the Spirit were the self-same works which the Spirit in the apostles did : and it is con- tinually written. He set us an example that we should follow His steps, /isow, it is my conviction, from these and many other grounds which I cannot now enter upon, that our Lord enjoyed, during His public ministry, that mea- 2o8 Doctrinal. sure of the Spirit wliicli His Cliurch was to be endowed with after the resurrection, to the end that His life might be the model of every Christian's life who is regenerated with the Holy Ghost. He walked in liberty, He rejoiced in power. He triumphed in victory from the time He received the Spirit after His baptism, until the time He fell, as it were, plumb down from that elevation into the agony of the garden and the abandonment of the cross. Before entering upon which. He was strengthened with that voice out of the heavens, " I have both glorified my name, and I will glorify it again." Then came on that hour and power of darkness of which He said Himself, " Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ? but for this cause came I to this hour : Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorif}' it again." This, I think, brought on the great crisis, and put Him uj^on His probation to the very uttermost. And now openeth that scene of agony, that ocean of sorrow, concerning which it is not our present purpose to discourse, save to mark it as a grand epoch in the Eedeemer's life. /It is my conviction that our Lord's life between these two points of time, the descending of the Dove, and the bringing of the Greeks unto Him, when that fearful hour began, is truly the great realisation and prototype of the Spirit's work in every regenerate man, in order that his life might not only fulfil the law of Moses, but give the prototype and the ex- ample of all spiritual righteousness?^ The Father, when His Son had accomplished and fulfilled the law, did bestow upon Him a measure of that resurrection-life in the Sjiirit which He himself should afterwards be honoured and pri- vileged to bestow upon the Church. The Father baptized Him with the Holy Ghost, who was afterwards to baptize all the elect children ; and so He became an example unto us, and must have tasted a great enjoyment of His Father's countenance, far above and beyond what He enjoyed before, and in the removal of which I deem the misery of that agony and death to have chiefly consisted. He had the Chris fs Life Realizalion of Spit^it's Work. 209 Spirit lifting Him into a high communion with His Father, / to the end of shewing Ilim the regenerate Church, and what should be the measure of their enjoyment ; and this being accompliished, I say again, He was let plumb down into the former measure of the Spirit, to swim in the tem- pestuous ocean, which all the elements of moral disorder could raise around Him. Fearful chaos ! awful valley of the shadow of death ! season of the hour and power of dark- ness ! — Thus have we two measures of the Spirit : the first for law-keeping, to be in lieu of the obedience of those elect ones before, who had believed on Him under the law, or, as it is written, " for the transgressions that were under the first covenant;" the second measure of the Spirit being for an ensample unto us of that baptism of the Dove with Avhich we should be baptized. And there is a third mea- sure of the Spirit, which quickened Him in the tomb, with which also our bodies shall be anointed when we shall be quickened in the tomb. — And thus have we the whole . mystery of the Holy Ghost realised in the life of Christ. First, the mystery of law-keeping, done for the sake of those that were under the law, but not for us ; secondly, the mystery of the Holy Ghost, which the Churcli now enjoyeth ; and thirdly, the mj-sterj' of the Holy Ghost, Avhich shall constitute the New Jerusalem of the risen saints in the millennial kingdom. /And thus the work of the Holy Ghost is substantiated ana realised in the person of Christ ; is a fact, is a thing upon which faith may be rested by every poor creature of whose substance Christ hath taken a part. And thus is answered the only ques- tion wliich remained against the removal of the law : What model remaineth to us in its stead ? Christ's life from His baptism to His agony is our model of the liberty and power of the Holy Ghost. And let this sufiice for the subject of the removal of the lawy 2IO Doctrinal. CHRIST IN THE SEPARATE STATE. How absurd, how exceedingly absurd, to set forth the experience of the Lord's soul between death and the resur- rection, as an experience of rest and joyl'ulness, merely because He said unto the thief upon the cross, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise ! " But, dear brethren, God forbid that I should for a moment doubt the blessed estate of that thief, and all the saints who sleep in Jesus, ^ i while I maintain that Christ endured a most fearful conflict during His abode in the separate state.' I no more doubt the blessedness of the saints there, than I doubt their blessedness here. But by what means, in this life, do the saints come by the peace that passeth all understanding, and the joy of the Ibjly Ghost ? Was it not procured to us by the sufferings of Christ in the flesh ? Because we have joy in the days of our flesh, had He therefore joy also ? Yes, He had joy ; but did He not work it out by strong contentions and bloody sweat ? In like manner, while I doubt not the blessedness of the separate state, but most surely believe that the bodies of his people do rest united unto Christ, ready* to come with Him at His coming, I as surely believe that they enjoy this estate of rest and blessedness only in virtue of that conquest over death 1 and over hell which He achieved (by descending into ' death and hell.) And by how much the empire of Satan in death is stronger than the empire of Satan in life ; b}^ how much the corruption of the body by the worm is a more complete work of sin, than any sickness or sorrow in life ; by how much Satan's power over a disembodied spirit, shut out from the hopeful and somewhat cheerful world, is more mighty by far than his power over an em- bodied soul, with all the comforts of the earth and pos- sibilities of the regeneration around it; by how much hopelessness is more miserable than hope, and necessity more obdurate than possibility ; by how much, in short, the powers of death and hell, and the outer darkness of their dominion, is more terrible than any abode of settled Christ in the Separate State. 211 and confined misery upon the earth : even by so imich more fearful was tlic struggle, by so much more hideous wiUJ the front of battle, by so much more terrible the labours of the conflict, by so miich more glorious the achievement of the victoiy, w^hich the Son of man fought, endured, and achieved over death and hell, than was that which he fought, and endured, and achieved, over the powers of the world and the flesh. For Satan was the cause of both conflicts ; Satan and his host were the rulers of the fleshly and of the spiritual conflict which our Lord endured. Who, when He had overcome Satan in the world, and condemned sin in the flesh, did lay aside His fleshly mantle, and in spiritual nakedness descend into a spiritual battle with spiritual wickednesses, with the thrones and dominions and powers of darkness. And when He had overpowered them in their own strongest region. He re- turned, and took His body out of the hands of the hungiy grave, from the ravenous powers of corruption ; and, being once more clothed. He tarried with His Church until the day of His ascension into glory. And in token of His victory, He brought from the state of separate spirits as many of the saints as it seemed to him good ; who also took their bodies from the grave, \and went with Him into glory.) But the best trophy which He left behind Him in that separate state, is the blessedness in which the souls of His people abide, and the hopefulness in which their bodies rest ; being assured of, and earnestly looking forward to, the day of their manifestation : when from their present secret and unseen abodes they shall come forth, arrayed in the glory with which the Son of man shall then be adorned — if, after their resurrection, ^j^he}' be not appointed for a season to set the Church in order, and establish it tri- umphant over all the earth ;1 and thereafter to be brought by the Lord into the glorious presence of the Father. f2 212 ADAM S PROPERTY IN THE PROMISED SEED. The promise made iinto the woman of a seed, who should avenge their evil, and retrieve their loss, certainly seemeth to contain a hint of the mystery of God, even the Father and the Son; for why otherwise exclude Adam from all property in the promised seed ? And I am the more con- vinced of this from observing that ever afterwards, unto the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this promise of the seed was given to the man and not to the woman ; and so continued until the time of Isaiah the prophet, when the mystery of a Virgin's conception began to revive the long- lost hope and honour of womanhood given in paradise. Indeed, the more I consider that state of paradise, both as it was before and after the Fall, in the light of a type of Christ and His Church, the more complete does it seem to me. Before the fall, Adam was indeed the type of what Christ was in the eternal counsel to be revealed, as the Head and Lord of all. Adam, with Eve and all her chil- dren included in his side, was a notable type of what Christ was in the eternal counsel, with a Church chosen in Him from out of the apostacy which was to come in upon every form of creation. Eve, formed out of a rib from Adam's side to be his delight, was the emblem of the Church created by Christ and of Christ and for Christ. And Eve's being in the transgression, not Adam, and draw- ing him after her, as it would seem, out of no love to the tree, but of love to her, (" She gave unto me, and I did eat,") doth represent Christ drawn by the transgression of His spouse into the fellowship of her low condition, suffering for her in order to restore her. And, no doubt, as it was first in the purpose it shall be in the end. That is to say, Christ and His spouse chosen in Him shall be married, and brought into the full and complete sovereignty of all the creatures of God. When I see this type of that which is to come so complete in all its parts, I have the less doubt or hesitation in believing that in the promise to the woman of a Son who should bruise the serpent's head, there is con- Ma7i Pu7iished in his Nature. 2 1 3 tained the first hint of the mystery that He should not come by natural generation, but by the Holy Spirit, wlierefore he was called the Son of God, That destruction of the serpent's head which He was to accomplish, no doubt referreth to the destruction of death, which is the last enemy; of which victory the resurrection from the dead was the great beginning. Now, by the resurrection from the dead He was proved to be the Son of God with power; so that in this promise given to the woman of a seed, and in His destination, we find both that which after- wards entitled Him to be called the Son of God, and that which demonstrated Him before all on earth and in heaven to be actually the Son of God. But the light which shone in paradise, like the blessedness which was partaken there, was soon to be eclipsed with clouds, and broken to pieces by the dense atmosphere of sin. And from the time our first parents left the paradise of Eden, down till the time of David, we have no further hint of the mystery of the Father and the Son. But then it bursts out very brightly. MAN PUNISHED IN HIS NATURE. By punishing man in his nature, as it were, rather than in his will, it shewed that the will was under the stern bondage of intractable nature ; under the obstinate jDcr verse law of the flesh; and could not be recovered other- wise than by the smiting, judging, and destroying of that flesh, or natural man, which sin had made its stronghold ; that there could be no peace between the Creator and the creature until there was a redemption from the power of that natural law, which had overpowered the spiritual will and divine purpose under which the creature was formed at the first. And this is further shewn out to my mind by God's taking the lives of the unconscious brutes ; and taking as offerings the first-fruits of the earth in her seasons ; as if He would smite nature in her four corners, to demon- strate her universal and consummate wickedness ; — yea, 214 Doctrinal. and the first-born of man had to be redeemed with an offer- ing; and the Lord's right nnto every child's death was marked by the bloody rite of circumcision; — all which demonstrated an unextingiiishable variance and hatred between the creature and the Creator, between nature and Spirit, between the law of the visible creation and the will of the invisible Creator. And He who believes that nature is any way amended by the course of time, talks like a fool or an infidel : for, as the mother towards her delivery is more burdened and oppressed, and in her delivery is torn asunder with awful anguish ; so nature grows only more oppressive upon the creation as she draweth nearer to the birth and the manifestation of the sons of God ; in the act and article of which she shall be rent and torn up to her very centre. To talk of peace to any man, therefore, upon any grounds whatever, other than the incarnation of the Son of God, is the greatest of all falsehoods, being, in truth and verity, the denial of all which God hath said or done since the fall of man. For what saith the apostle ? " The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now : and not only they, but ourselves also, which have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to Avit, the re- demption of the body." Now, it is to be understood from all the Scripture, and indeed is of the very essence of the incarnation, that Christ took upon Himself the burden of this fallen nature, and bore it during His life, and carried it to His death ; that it was a part of Him which died with Him, but rose not with Him again. Sin, that slayeth all things. He slew ; by dying, He did destroy Him that hath the power of death. He carried the disabilities both of Jew and Gentile with Him to the cross, and by the cross He slew the enmity. There died not a man, but there died the Son of man. As in Adam was created, not a man, but man ; so in Christ died, not a man, but human nature in the general underwent, in His death, the penalty of the curse ; Adam being made the representative of all mankind in his probation, Christ was made their representative in the re- Christ's Mediatorhood. 2 1 5 demption j accordinpr as it is written, " As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life ; " and again, "As by man came death, so by man came also the resurrection of the dead." If it squareth with the goodness and justice of God, and the nature of sin, that for the offence of Adam sin and miserj'- should descend, as at this day we behold it ; then, in like manner, we should expect that righteousness and peace should likewise be derivable from one man, to all who are united to Him by living faith. CHRIST S MEDIATOEHOOD. The redemption doth introduce us to a new distinction, the distinction between the fallen creature redeemed, and its Divine redemption-head ; which distinction forms the basis of all our obligations unto Christ, and constitutes the inferiority and dependence of the redeemed creation upon Christ its Head. So that, while He is a creature. He is yet above the creatures ; while He is Head unto the Church, He is yet above the Church ; linking the whole creation untg Himself in firmest bond by His human nature, and by His Divine connecting it with the Godhead, — truly Media- tor between the invisible Godhead and the visible creature, the way unto the Father, and the Father's way unto us ! Now, to give this distinctness is another great end of the fall of the creatures. For being by their fall taught their wickedness and their weakness, they were thereby pre- pared to receive and acknowledge righteousness and strength in Him who should recover and restore them. But for the Fall, the eternal Son of God could not have been known by the creatures, in any of His offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King ; in any of His names, as Jesus, Christ, and Lord. So that the Fall is as essential for giving the God-man His dignity over and above the creatures, as it is for teaching 2i6 Doctrinal. the creature its distinctness from the invisible and incom- prehensible Godhead, Thus then have we established two great distinctions, and three great distinct substances. First, The invisible, infinite, absolute Godhead ; secondly, The manifest God- head in the Son of man ; and, thirdly. The redeemed crea- tures. And now I have to add a fourth, which is. The unredeemed creation, or the reprobate part of the crea- tures. The whole creation hath fallen, excepting only a part of the angelic form of being who are elect in Christ, and intended, in the Divine purpose, to shew the mighty power of the Christhead of creation, which should stretch its arms of salvation both ways, and sustain the infirmity of the creature in all its forms. The elect angoils, no doubt, looked forward to Him that was to come, and stood in that hope; they were His witnesses in the spiritual region of creation ; they are His trophy, won from that domain wherein sin was first conceived, because that domain was first in being. Besides these, the rest of creation hath all fallen ; and out of that fall, God hath from the beginning been signifying His purpose to take, by redemption, a part, and only a part. Tlierefore He separated the clean and the imclean of animals, and required the clean to be presented in sacrifice, in order to signify that the elected part should be made a sacrifice of, as was first shewn in Christ, and now is shewing in the Church. Then, from amongst the families of the earth, He chose one to bless above the rest, with His covenant; and now, from all the Gentiles, He is taking whom it pleaseth Him to take. The end of this mystery of electing only a part, is to shew forth God's sovereignty, and God's right over the creatures ; to establish the im- mutable distinction between God and the creatures still more effectually, and above all to mark out, for ever, the nature of guilt, the nature of sin. If the scheme of God had ended in the redemption of all the creatures, then it would have seemed but a great scheme for manifesting His own power and being, as the Three -one God ; for Christ's Mediatorhood. 217 distino-uishing Himself from tlie creature, and securing to Himself the worship of the creature, and unto the creature its own blessedness : but God being a holy God, tlio nature of holiness itself, the nature of sin, and the nature of atonement and satisfaction, the nature of priest- hood, which is an essential part of Christ, as the Head of the creatures, would have been for ever lost; for if sin, after any curve of aberration, or cycle of change, is able to aiTive at the same point with holiness, then, at that point, the difference between sin and holiness ceaseth for ever. It turns out that there is no essential and eternal difference between the obedience and the disobedi- ence of God, but only a temporary and expedient one ; and it further follows, that the creatures have only been in the hand of God like the men upon a chess-board, to perform a certain great exploit of purpose and forecast. I have no hesitation in saying, moreover, that this scheme of saving all at the last, doth destroy the very existence of a will altogether ; and a will is the substance of a spii-it, of an intelligent being : reason, without a will, is like a visible world without a sensible creature to possess it. The will is before reason, as the sense is before the sensible world, Now, if the fallen will should not manifest for ever its unchangeableness in itself, the demonstration would be wanting of what a will is, which would seem to be nothing else than a material substance which changed and changed again for ever. All this, and much more, I can see would flow from the universal redemption of all the fallen crea- tures. Eeprobation, eternal reprobation of a part, is the very ground upon whicii the nature of sin resteth, without which sin is but a change, ordained of God, whereof the creature must be patient; a circumstance of creation, which we must be content for a while to stand under, but which will soon betake itself away. The very possi- bility of understanding the true difference between obe- dience and disobedience, throughout eternity, would be destroyed ; government under Christ would be, what government under Christ's lieutenants on the earth hath 2l8 Doctrinal. at length become, on principles of expediency alone ad- ministered ; a frightful materialism would invert all things ; and God would be the world, and the world would be God. Besides this, it were to lose the whole end of God's scheme in bringing His purpose to pass, by a creation, and a fall, and a redemption, instead of bringing it to pass by one single act, were a part of the creatiire not left for ever in an unredeemed state. For, as hath been so often said, the great end of the scheme is to separate between the creature and the Creator, and, in bringing it up again from its fall, so to bring it up as that, while it stood infallibly, by standing in Christ, the Head, it should yet know itself not to be God, by knowing itself not to be its head, and by knowing even its Head not to be the infinite and invisible God, but only such a manifestation of Him as the creatures are competent to apprehend. If now, as the Universalists falsely assert, there should be no reprobation of the creatures, there would be no evidence of what creation is when standing out of God. liedemption would have no glory above creation, because creation hath no apparent inferiority beneath redemption. And as I believe that redemption and its glories, above creation and its infirmities, is the veiy principle with which God will go forth to people the spheres innumerable with which we are surrounded, I do hold it to be a most essential point, that the glories of redemption should be seen reflected from the dark background of a reprobate creation, existing under the conditions of the second death. For, if there be one principle which, from the beginning of the world until now, hath been declared at sundry times, and in divers manners, this is the principle, that the chosen and elected part is chosen of free grace, chiefly for the end of shewing forth the wickedness of the part not elected. In one word, without reprobation of the fallen creatures, helpless and irremediable, free grace is no better than an empty name. Grace is favour where no right remained, where Christ's MediatorJiood. 2 1 9 no far-distant possibility of reparation existed, where no law nor scheme of God comprehended restoration, and where restoration could not otherwise than by grace come to pass. Seeing, therefore, it is essential for every good and holy purpose of the Creator, that a part of the creation should be left in its fallen state, or rather brought up again by a resurrection, and be constituted in the estate of the second death, which is not annihilation, and which is not life, but the second death, in which the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, the question next occurs, by what means, and by w^hat mighty workmanship, is the ledemption of the part to be redeemed accomplished ? This is taught us in the redemption of the body of Christ, concerning which we have already discoursed. The fallen woman's substance was, by the Holy Ghost, sanctified, and preserved wholly, against all the powers of hell and death. The human will of Christ was, by the power of the Holy Ghost, preserved perfectly concentric with the divine and absolute will of the Godhead, so that the latter foimd the former always a vehicle for expressing itself intelli- gibly to the creatures : yet did the human will of Christ know temptation of the flesh, as we see by His tempta- tion, when He said, " Not my will, but thine be done ;" that is to say, the flesh which beareth our will to a side, away from its centre, and maketh it sinful, which is a will in bondage, was not able to carry Christ's will away, though nature shook, and shrunk, and quivered again, under the mighty power which held it unswerving from its rectitude. Ah that word, " My will," toucheth me to the heart, shewing me that Christ called human nature by the name I ! — and that His human nature would have swerved Him from His centre, but for the Holy Ghost, which abode in Him. ( 220 ) CHEIST THE EEDEEMER OF CREATION. If tlie end of God in creation be, to manifest Himself unto the creatures, which is indeed the only end that He hath declared ; and if His method of doing this be by bring- ing in His own Son, and setting Him np for ever, in the form of the Lamb slain and risen from the dead, or in the form of lisen God-man, and in that form to shew Him- self for ever and ever nnto the creatures which He proposed to create ; then is it never to be doubted, that He who woiketh all things to the praise of His own glory, and who leaveth no loose or open parts in His purpose, but maketh it to be altogether harmonious, and consenting unto the great end, would from the beginning of creation bring Himself into action under that form, which He was afterwards to assume : that is to say, everything would have an eye and aim to the risen God-man, everything would tell and foretell of Him, everything would have its origin in that idea or purpose, and have the definition of its being thereby determined. And this is what I under- stand, by all things being made for Christ, as well as by Christ. The Christ form of being, God and man in one person, was only an idea and a purpose until the incarna- tion, when it became a fact. The person of the eternal Son, I mean, did not become the Christ in very deed, until He took human substance of the virgin. Therefore, the only meaning that can be assigned to such expressions as that all things were made by Him and for Him is, that the person of the Son — not in His absolute infinity, which I have said I even believe to be impossible, but in the finite creature form which He was in the fulness of time to assume and to retain for ever and ever — did create all things visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or principalities, or dominions, or powers ; wherefore, also, He is called first-begotten from the dead, first-born of every creature. This, then, is the only ground of revela- tion anterior to Christ, that God might testify'' unto Him that is to come ; and creation till He come, is but that same Christ the Redeemer .of Creation. 221 testimony, from the strongest archangel down to the worm that crawleth on the ground, I believe there is no spor- tiveness, playfulness, idleness, extravagance, or waste of creation power, but one concatenated systematic testimony unto the Christ ; into whom, as all the disjected members are to be gathered up again into the head, so believe I, that in their present disjected state, the only end and pur- pose of their being is, to testify to Him of whom man is the only image, and Adam before his fall the only perfect type. Kow, the counterpart of revelation is faith ; and if the end of creation is to reveal Christ, then the object of all faith must be Christ. And all knowledge in the crea- ture subsisting, whether of itself, or of other creatures, or of God, is no true knowledge, until it hath turned to a testimony, is either incomplete or is false, until it hath revealed something concerning Christ, who is the end of all created things ; and therefore faith comes in where knowledge endeth ; or, I should say, knowledge is but as the needle that pointeth unto Christ, in whom I must believe : and the rivers of knowledge pour themselves into the ocean of faith ; for the end of knowledge is not itself, but something which is to be. And the word, being the communication of knowledge, doth, therefore, no more than set out Christ that I may believe upon Him ; and the preaching of the Word is the testimony of Jesus. But we have not yet arrived at the root of the matter, which is deeper still. The end of all things created by the Godhead being, as hath been said, the bringing in of the Christ, and that not at the beginning, but onward a good way in the procession of the purpose, the preceding pei'iod must necessarily be the season of faith, during which the creatures can live only by faith. For the thing visible is not the real thing that is to he for ever; but is to be changed into its eternal form, whenever the Christ in His eternal form shall be revealed. Seeing, then, that faith is the condition of all the creatures until Clirist come, they must be constituted fit subjects for faith : they must be constituted, also, fit sub- 222 Doctrinal. jects of hope, and altogether imperfect without hope : and these two principles of faith and hope must be wrought into the very vitals of their constitution. Now this is truly the condition of man ; who is born to believe, having no knowledge until he receive it from another ; and is born to hope, having nothing in possession to begin with, but nakedness, helplessness, hunger, and want of every kind. To a creature thus constituted, faith and hope become the elements of his being ; and therefore, in his very nature, man proveth himself a witness for something that is to come. And such a creature is proper to become the sub- ject of a divine revelation ; and through such creatures that divine revelation must be communicated to other creatures, who are not in like manner constituted ; even as the apostle expressly declareth, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, That it is by the Church the manifold wisdom of God is made known unto the heavenly hosts; and through the intelligence and power which man possesseth over the lower creatures, God expecteth of His piety, and of His diligence, that He would make them speak the praises of God their Creator, which is Christ, and make them prophesy concerning Him which is to come : so that, as God destined man to be the form which He should assume. He hath made man also to be the great witness unto His coming in that form. If all things then were created by the Son, in the as- sumed form of the Christ, or the risen God-man, then all things spoken by God unto man must be spoken by the Son in that same character. But it may be asked here, What need to speak at all ? I answer, Because when the crea- ture had fallen into sin and death, it necessarily became overspread with darkness, and ignorance, and error. And this was one reason of the Fall, even to negative that light of revelation which the creature possessed in itself; to shew that the creature was not the true light, but only a witness of the true light ; and that the witness might not be mistaken for the person witnessed of, it came to pass that darkness was permitted to cover the earth, and gross Christ the Redeemer of Creation. ^- J darkness the people. Yet, under this the chmd of dark- ness, the mystery lay shrouded ; but so shruudL-d as that tlie creature, in himself, should not be able to discover it. Aiid thus, during the fall-season of the creature, it is con- nected with the Creator by its very imperfectness ; having in itself the gi'ound of the truth of the promise of God, but yet, not being able of itself to read the lesson thereof; having a will, but in bondage ; having an understanding, but in darkness ; having a body, but under the law of sin and death ! having a world for a possession, but a world ever rising in arms against its Master ; having a being craving for faith, but ever falling into superstition ; having a being formed for hope, but ever falling into delusion, A miserable estate indeed, had it been cut off and separated from Divine teaching ! but, being connected with Divine teaching, the only state of being in which it was good for the creature to be during the preparatory and preliminary season before the coming of Christ. For, by these very defects, by these very unsatisfied cravings, it was taught its need of a higher Teacher ; which lesson, without such imperfections, the creature could never have learned. And thus the Fall becomes the ground of a revelation, such as we now possess ; that is, a revelation of words superinduced upon the marred revelation of creation. The Fall made the knot which no fallen being could loose ; which every one, by his own nature, should be craving to have loosed ; but could not otherwise have loosed, than from some one higher than himself. The Fall made the riddle, which no fallen intellect could resolve, and which might create a craving for superhuman intelligence ; and thus it is, that the fallen world, without a revelation, were indeed a sole- cism in the idea : but a fallen world with a revelation is a better state of the creation than its first or unfallen estate, because in this there existed nothing to distinguish it from God, and to teach it that it was not God in itself; no in- completeness, no mystery, no suifering, no evil, no apparent contradiction to be reconciled. But in the other state, the creature by its very want, fjom clothes of skin to clothing 224 Doctrinal. of righteousness, from succession of seasons to give him bread unto the preparation of the times and seasons for giving him bread from heaven, all from new-born babyhood unto the birth of the resurrection morn, is man in the fallen state of his being dependent upon the word of the revela- tion of God. Oh, what a mystery of goodness, as well as of wisdom, there is to be seen in the fall of man, which made way for the revelation of word and of ordinance, and enabled a Church to be preserved upon the earth, exclusive of none which should maintain the testimony, until He that is to come should come ! Thus was the creature linked to the Creator, by the very act of its falling away from Him, and hung in total depend- ance upon His gracious word, by the very act of disobeying His word : just as the infant, which with anguish is rent from its parent, becomes, in that very act of its birth, the object of its parent's tenderest care. It was no longer a creation out of God, but a creation that had been out of Him, brought into Him, and standing in Him by His gracious and faithful word. And not only did the fall of the creature thus make way for the revelation of the grace of God, but it did also, in a manner, render that revelation absolutely necessary, in order to maintain the completeness and accomplish the ends of the Divine pur- pose. Because now the creation being made subject unto vanity, and possessed with the spirit of a lie, wanting its high Prophet to interpret its ever misinterpreted mystery ; man himself having become subject to the deceiver, and being no more able to understand or prophesy the truth ; either the creation must fail from its high design of being and speaking and acting for Christ, or God himself must interfere with a Divine commentary and interpretation thereof. And forasmuch as we cannot believe that God is ever to be thwarted, or the testimony of Christ ever defeated, it doth necessarily remain, that a revelation shall be superinduced upon a fall ; and that God shall first ap- pear a Projohet, to gainsay the gainsayers, and to deliver truth from the jaws of the lion, before He becometh a High The Temptation. --'D Priest to purify and sanctify the whole lump, and a King of kings to nile over it in righteousness. In which cha- racter of the Prophet He shall scj^arate the truth from the lie, and preserve the testimony of the truth against the many witnesses of the lie. THE TEMPTATION. I BELIEVE that in the minds of many the edge of this mighty trial is taken off by a certain vague apprehension that Christ was helped to bear it by the new power which He had received from heaven : but this is a notion against which we protest, as totally unsupported by Scripture, and defeating one chief end of His coming in the flesh, which was to conquer eveiy form of wickedness and trial that could come against Him from the cradle to the grave, and to set us an example that we might follow His steps. If His humanity bore not His human encounter, but needed the aid of His superior faculties, then how serveth it as an encouragement or an example to us who are mere men, and have no such divinity to bear us up ? His humanity sus- tained Him against all earthly encounters ; and whatever His divinity served Him, it seiwed not to lighten the load which lay heavy upon His shoulders. I speak not now of the mere inward struggles which He had to maintain as the surety of mankind, which many sound divines have thought could not be of less amount than all the sufferings which all that believe in Him are saved from through all eternity. Neither do I speak of those unrecorded temptations of the powers of darkness which He had to sustain throughout His life, and of which we have a shrewd intimation in the expression with which this recorded temptation concludes, " The devil departed from Him for a season ; " nor of the hidings of His Father's countenance, nor of anything save the outward visible suf- ferings with which men can sympathise. It may be said many of His followers have endm-ed as much; but hath Q 226 Doctrinal. any one endured it without sin? To endure is nothing. The tortured Indian endures many crucifixions. Bed-rid patients endure whole years of torture, of which single nights have in them the materials of many a tragedy. Kature must endure what the hand of God layeth on, however great it be. But doth she endure without mur- muring, even what she cannot avoid enduring ? And Avhat is laid upon her by every wicked son of Belial, doth she endure without the resentment of a man ? But here is a man, a very man, by distinction the Son of man, enduring heaps of trouble and affliction from every outward and inward quarter, and carrying Himself under it, not like a man, but like a God. It is Adam, sent not into paradise, but into hell, for the trial of His faithfulness, and enduring all the tortures of hell with no defalcation of His faithful- ness. This was the trial, not that He should bear, but that He should bear as one who bore not; not that He should endure in a sinful world, but that without sin He should endure; that for all His cruel condition He should be able to challenge the severest inspection of that host of enemies He was surrounded with, and who had risen up against Him ; that He should bear the knowledge of Him who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the childi'en of men, and receive the testimony that He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Such was the heavy work which Christ undertook, and such the happy issue to which He had to bring it. Having before Him this yet unattempted work of con- quering in flesh and blood all the enemies of flesh and blood, both on earth and in hell, of preserving Himself immaculate though a man, perfect and sinless though a sorely tempted man, it was very desirable that He should have at the outset of such a perilous voyage some trial of His strength to endure its hardships. Having a human soul full of anticipation and feeling, as we see through all His life, especially in the garden of Gethsemane, He could not look upon the trial before Him without misgivings. If, after having proved His strength in this wilderness, Hoiu the Bonds of the Law aix Removed. 227 and tliroiigli all the scenes of His ministiy, sucli horrors overtook Him on entering the last scene of it, what anxie- ties and fears must have pressed Him at its oiitset, when, from being a private man, He nndertook so high a task ! Think not I take from His dignity thus to behold Him accessible to those troubles of the spirit. It doth but prove the more the tenderness of His humanity, and en- courage that fellow-feeling with Him which is the most genuine mark of His disciples. But take from your idea of His dignity or not, it is the truth that He had such mis- givings, and prayed His Father in His agony to let the cup pass from Him. We have been so much agitated with disputes about His divinity that we dare hardly trust our- selves to conceive of His humanity, lest we should trespass upon the integrity of the former. But this nervous deli- cacy must not be indulged either by you or by me; we must look upon His true humanity, and speak of it as ' the evangelists and the apostles likewise spoke of it. And 1 when need is, we must do the same of His divinity. These misgivings of the human soul of Christ, it was the purpose of this temptation to chase away: — to give Him, in the ver}^ outset and beginning of His undertaking, a proof that He was equal to its utmost perils ; that He might take courage and enter upon it with boldness; that in all His diflScult passages memory might have a spot to flee to, whereat He encountered this, and more than this. This temptation I consider to be one of three remark- able passages of the snme kind, which are recorded in His life. The other two are the transfiguration and the agony. HOW THE BONDS OF THE LAW ARE EEMOVED. Thehe is in the law suclv a purity and fitness for pro- ducing human well-being ; there is so much good sense in the Ten Commandments, so much right feeling, so much beauty of virtue and righteous judgment, that every good and wise man seeketh earnestly and desireth ferv^ently to Q 2 228 Doctrinal. put himself under such a goodly system of morality, which is at once the perfection of moral philosoph}^ the code of justice, the guide of affection, the sum of religion, the bulwark of society, and the stay of life ; insomuch that I know not what preternatural power is required to separate a man from this form of wisdom, which is all redolent with humanity, and with humanity's noblest forms. The only thing capable of divorcing between the moral law and hixman nature is the inexorable holiness of God, which will not be satisfied with an} thing short of its complete obedi- ence. If the law would relax a little to the infirmities of the flesh ; if it would be gentle, and tender, and gracious, and look not so much to our shortcomings as to our attain- ments ; or if it would tarry a while and wait the gradual progress of virtue ; or if it woijld forget the past transgres- sions in our present endeavour to do our best ; or if, more- over, it would quietly stand like a Grecian temple, or a Grecian statue, as the ideal, the beau ideal of moral beauty and perfection, and suffer us poor sciilptors to carry on the w^ork of moulding ourselves the best we can after the model of its beauty, then indeed it might stand and re- ceive the homage of all virtuous and well-disposed men. But it hath such a tongue of iron, and doth ring out again such thunders of revenge against every transgression, and every shortcoming it doth gauge Avith such exact rule, and such a mighty omniscient eye doth watch sleepless over its virgin purity, that while, on the one hand, it doth solicit and attract with its perfect form, on the other it doth repel with its chill and icy coldness. God's inexorable holiness, I say, is that which maketh the very beauty of the law, and its peifection, to be most horrible and most revolting unto the heart of a believer. But if we could but persuade ourselves that God's holiness would relent, and that He would soften and accomodate the law to our infirmities, all might yet be well ; and this trul}^ is the hope and belief of all those who aa'e making shift with the law for a rule of life. They do, in ver}- deed, believe that God is not so holy, but that He is able to forgive a transgression of the Holo the Bonds of the Laiu arc Removed. 229 law, and to overlook our shortcomings from its obedience. And this notion is so firmly rooted in men's minds, that nutliing but a great demonstration to the contrary could overcome it. Men have no right estimate of the evil of sin, of the holiness of God, of the inexorableness of the law ; and before you can wean human nature from the Ci jn- templation of its own perfection, and perfectibility in the law, you must have to offer unto them some indubitable demonstration and stupendous monument of the unalter- able holiness of God, the irreducible demands of the law, and the hideous nature of sin. If such a demonstration and monument of a lasting kind can be given, and es- tablished in some grand and conspicuous way, it may be possible ; but otherwise it never will be possible to divorce human nature from the high-minded affections which it beareth to the good, and just, and honourable law, and the easy hope with which it fiattereth its good nature, that God will never require of His poor creatures more than they are able in this state of sin and infirmity to perform, especially when He beholdeth in them a devout aspiration after the perfect and blameless righteousness of the law, together with a continual sorrow and repentance because of our many shortcomings and positive offences. But if, I say, it can be made to appear, beyond doubt and question, that he that offendeth in one point of the law is guilty of ail ; that heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled ; and that God cannot forgive a transgression, the slightest as the heaviest, without a recompense of an infinite price ; and that as one transgression brought the world and all its inhabitants into this misery and death, out of life and blessedness, so any one transgression will condemn the soul into the lowest hell for ever ; and that this is God's unalterable, unchangeable being and attribute ; — if this, I say, can be made clearly apparent, and undoubtedly true and unchangeable for ever, then men may be brought to see the law in another light, and to abhor it as a living man abhorreth the dagger of the assassin, or the axe of the 2 30 Doctrinal. executioner, or the grim face of death, or the corruption of the grave, or the pit of hell. Now, I ask, where, by what, hath God made this eternal demonstration of sin's horrid guilt, and His own inexpressible abhorrence of the sinner ; 1 answer, By sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh ; by making the Word flesh, by making Him consub- stantial with the sinner, and shewing how under this form God hid His face from His own Son, and bruised Him, and put Him to grief, and called for His sword to slay Him, and covered Him with the pall of death, and brought Him into the humiliation of the grave ; — all this, though He was without sin, and saw not corruption, merely because He had become consubstantial with the sinful creatures. Thus, and no otherwise, was that great demonstration made. And I stand in my place, as a preacher of truth, and say, that there is no demonstration of all this, if Christ did not become bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; if He were in any other state than the fallen humanity ; if He were in the likeness of sinless flesh, and not in the likeness of sinful flesh. The law bore its spite against sin in flesh : Christ con- demned sin in flesh : the law could not do it, Christ did it for the law ; or rather He did it for the Lawgiver, even His Father, of whose holiness the law is the bearing and the pressure upon sinful flesh. As the sin of Adam did not need to be done over again in every person of Adam's kind, but by the principle of imputation death passed upon all men, and the law appeared in due time to shew the abundance of the transgression ; so neither doth the work of righteousness, under the law, need to be done over again : but, being once done in Christ, is for ever done ; and the law being satisfied with Christ, giveth itself up to Christ, and saith. Thou, 0 man, art worthy to have, to hold, to exercise me, thou great Lord of law ! And Christ having become sole proprietor of the law, doth say, in His own right. Stand aside, thou grace-eclipsing law : thou hast had thy time ; and a better time awaiteth thee yet, when my throne of righteousness shall be established ; but Meanmg of the Sacrament. ■ 231 for tlie present, be thoii content to take thyself out of the Avay, that the grace of my Father, through me, may shine forth unto the ends of the earth. And now, j-e swift messengers, ye gentle ministers of grace, go forth and preach the good tidings of great joy unto all men ; preach the gospel of salvation unto every creature under heaven. This message hath been proclaimed unto the earth since the resurrection ; that men are no longer under the law, that God is gracious, that their sins are forgiven, and that God is love. This is the grace, this is the peace, which unto men, unto all men, is proclaimed ; and the world is under the law no longer, but under grace. And thus, by one man the law hath been satisfied, and by one man the grace of God hath been revealed from behind the eclipse which the Lord had brought upon it. For it was but an eclipse, because the promise was before the law, and the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, could not make the promise of none efiect. The promise was of grace, and not of merit ; of faith and not of works. Abraham believed, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. THE MEANING OF THE SACRAMENT. Our personality is not given to us by Adam, but by God ; and, therefore, we are responsible to God for all the actings of our personal will. But our substance is derived from Adam : we are of one substance with him, though difierent persons. Now, from this turn to the Antitype which it was all intended to shadow forth. Here is Christ the second Adam — a person such as none was ever, nor ever shall, nor ever can be ; being no other than the second Person of the Godhead — the Word made flesh. He, according to the Father's purpose, was appointed to be the father of a spiritual seed — the father of the eternal ; ay, He received power to beget sons unto God. " As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself," who quickeneth with eternal life 232 DocU'inal. wliom He willetli ; for lie willetli as the Father willeth, and as the Father and the Sou will, the Spirit efiecteth. Now, according to this purpose of the eternal Godhead, the Spirit from Christ proceeding doth quicken a new life in God's elect ones. And as life is opposite to death, He doth quicken the life by mortifying the death, — that is to say, the substance of life, which we receive from Christ, doth act against and overcome the substance of death, which we receive from a fallen creation ; which is a creation in death subsisting, yet not the second death, but the first death, over which Christ hath obtained power, and which, by the resurrection, He will wholly receive,— not in part receive, but wholly receive ; — one part to the resurrection of life, another part to the resurrection of judgment, which judg- ment is unto life, or unto the second and eternal death. Those living ones, therefore, whom Christ begetteth out of the creatures dead in Adam, He begetteth by an imparta- tion of that substance which He now enjoyeth in the state of redemption and immortality. But the substance which He communicates is not His own personality, His own self, but the Holy Ghost proceeding from Himself. The Holy Ghost is now His to give — the Holy Ghost doth now dwell in Him ; and that which proceedeth from Him is the Holy Ghost. Therefore, beyond, and apart from His own per- son, Christ is only known and felt through the operation of the Holy Ghost. Christ, therefore, is in the elect only in the substance of the person of the Holy Ghost. The Son is not personally united to the elect ; but the Holy Ghost personally doth dwell in them, as He also dwelleth in the body of Christ. It is the energy of the Son which claspeth unto and for ever embosometh in Himself the human nature ; but it is the energy of the Holy Ghost which joineth, and, I may say, claspeth the elect unto the human nature of Christ. The Son doth not proceed from Christ, but formeth Christ by enfolding the humanity. The Son's is an act of love, dwelling, and resting, and re- joicing over human nature. He doth not Himself go forth ; but He sendeth forth His human nature, the Holy JMcaniug of the Sacrament. 233 Ciliost, of whose substance His human nature is, as it were, the containing vessel, frum which the Spirit proceedeth at t he will of the Son, which is also the will of the Father, into and upon the elected people of God, who thereupon become members of Christ's body, and being taken to- gether become the body of Christ. And when thus explained, you will, I think, have little difficulty in dis- cerning the body of Christ in the bread and wine of the supper. We are of Christ's bodily substance as we are of Adam's bodily substance ; and yet we are different persons from Christ, though consubstantial with His body. We are consubstantial with His body, not merely by our com- mon holding of Adam, which is true of all men, but by a common operation of the Holy Ghost, which is distinct from His operation to create or to generate, and is His operation to create and generate anew. The energy of the Godhead put forth, in creating Adam, is a different thing from the energy of the Godhead put forth in creating Chi'ist ; and the energy of the Godhead put forth in generating from Adam, is different from the energy of the Godhead in regenerating from Christ. The former is the energy of giving existence to the creature, the next is the energy of giving salvation to the creature ; the one an energy unto a fall, the other an energy unto infallibility. There is no greater mystery, however, though there be a higher effect, in the one energy than in the other. And, as every one sees his unity of substance with Adam, and feels his dis- tinctity of person from another man, so ought we to believe that every regenerated man is of the substance of Christ, though distinct from Him, and far beneath Him in respect of personal attributes and powers. So much for the dis- tinctness of Christ from His body the Church, which, I think, the papal idea, that Christ's personal substance is given to us in the supper, doth subvert. Seeing, then, from what hath been said above, Christ's personal sub- stance cannot be extended beyond Himself, and that He doth not include us, as it were, within the limits of Him- self, and cast the mantle of His body over us ; seeing, also, 2 34 Doctrinal. that it is by the Holy Ghost proceeding from Him that all redemption and regeneration is accomplished, the question, what is meant by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, is not of difficult solution, but doth signify our being made partakers of that special work of the Holy Ghost, which was exercised in sanctifying, and redeeming, and raising from the dead Christ's very flesh. That Christ's flesh should not have fallen into the same sinfulness, and re- mained under the same corruption under which all flesh of Adam, save Christ's own, fell and remaineth, is due to a power of the Holy Ghost, which then, for the first time, was put forth. How to designate this action of the Holy Ghost, or rather this finished work of the Holy Ghost, we know not, save by saying that it produced Christ's flesh and blood. As we would designate the work of the Holy Ghost in creation, by saying that from it flesh and blood of man arose out of dust, out of nothing, with all the thought, purpose, and work which flesh and blood is capable of; so say we that the second forthputting of Holy-Ghost energy brought out of fallen flesh and blood the flesh and blood of Christ, which prevailed over death and the grave, and sin and hell, and is capable of the seat at the right hand of God, and the superintendency of all created things, visible and invisible. BAPTISM NOT A MEEE EITE. You will not err, brethren, as the formalists of this day do err, in supposing that the outward act of washing with water brings with it, as of necessity, any saving virtue, or worketh, as by magic, a cleansing of the corrupt soul ; for, on the other hand, as we have oft taught you, for a man without faith to have to do with these sacraments is an abomination to the Lord, and bringeth down upon his spirit some visitation of God, as sure, though invisible, as that which fell upon the profane, though otherwise exalted, king of Judah ; yea, and to his child no blessing descendeth from the diy fountain of his father's faithless act, but rather Baptism not a Mere Rite. 235 an inheritance of barrenness, and a visitation of wrath, according to the threatening of the Second Cunimandnient against iiloLitry ; for is there grosser idolatry within the Eoinish Church than that which is taught in this land of the sacrament of baptism, — that on that rite, discharged in due form, there is present a virtue to regenerate the soul of the little one, and to look for any other regeneration is but a vagary of idle and enthusiastic brains? But, nevertheless, though the parent who presented us at the laver of regeneration, and the priest who washed us therein, and the people who were witnesses thereof, had been all faithless and idolaters, and the little one made but a cold, unfathered, unbefriended entrance into the Church ; yet within the covenant it is now found, and being there found, it is an heir of all the promises which are the everlasting inheritance of the faithful disciples of Christ. So that I have no hesitation in saying, it is as fully privileged to enter in by faith into the riches of the inheritance as any other, however more favourably conditioned, and more dutifullj' introduced to the Church. There are rough in- clemencies which such a little one shall have to pass through — disabilities, disadvantages, and hindrances ; such as prayerless parents, ungodly acquaintance, an untutored childhood, an unspiritual ministry, infinite tempations of worldliness — accumulated upon its head in consequence, it may be, of a long line of ungodly ancestors, or by the withdrawing of God's candlestick from the Church, or from its being the day of His wrath upon the country ; and from a thousand other dispensations of His righteous government, over which we have no control. For it is a poor and shallow notion of God, that He is the God only of individuals, and not also the God of families, and the God of nations, and the God of generations and of ages. There is a scheme of justice and government ; there is a recompence of reward, and a recompence of vengeance, which reacheth far and wide, both over the Church and over the world. The Church hath her discipline of heaven, however much she may hold discipline cheap ; and she is 236 Doctrinal. suspended from her ministry of grace to the world, and her light is eclipsed, and she is stricken, smitten, and afflicted : she is excommunicated also, and given over to Satan to be accursed, if she forsake the testimonies of the Lord. The milk of her breasts being dried up, her children are left to pine and perish, and the land where she tabernacleth is defeated of its blessings, and scourged with every evil. All this happeneth, and hath happened, to every Church which hath existed in Christendom ; ay, and will happen to us, if we continue in our Laodicean condition, neither hot nor cold, full of boasting and self-suflSciency, and golden bravery, when there is no faith, or almost none, in the midst of us. And what were the Church without such government? — a house of all iniquit}^ and not the house of God ; Satan's temple, not the temple of the Holy Spirit ; another prison-house of slavery, instead of being the citadel of -the free ; dark and plagued as Egypt, and not peaceful and untroubled as Goshen. Truly, dear brethren, when these things we think upon, we may well mourn and weep, and rend our garments, and cast dust upon our heads, and be imclean until the evening. Ah, when I compare the silent steady working of an in- visible principle of an ever-felt obligation like that of baptism, setting in motion the hearts and minds of a whole people, linking into communion, and yet preserving in due subordination, the various ranks and degrees of men, regenerating the aifections of nature, and hallowing the re- lationships of kindred, sweetening the bitterness of adverse conditions, sanctifying all the offices of the Church, and displaying her as the true and liberal mother of all her chil- dren : — when this harmonious and effectual working of the Holy Spirit, through the institutions of Christ, I do com- pare with the present condition of the Church, concerning which there is such triumphant boasting: if I observe, first, the relaxation on the part of the rulers of the Church, and their indifference to the spiritual charge of their chil- dren, their ignorance of the state of families for which they are responsible, and the abuse, 1 had almost said profana- Baptism not a Mcvc Rite. 237 tion, of the sacrament itself, tlic profaneness, the privacy, llie indecent haste of its administration : the ignorance of its bonds and obligations, and the practical, if not open denial, that it involveth any: if I observe, next, the dis- cipline of families, how little system and order, how little instruction and discipline, how little worship, how the father hath ceased from the priesthood of his house, and. the children from the devout honour of their father ; how the mother hath ceased from the gentle office of kindly carrying into efi'ect the details of a father's plans ; and how the servants are kept without the family circle which our mild and gracious discipline bringeth into one : if I ob- serve, again, the state of the schools, in which these defects are intended to be supplemented, and witness the secularity and ostentation which run through them, insomuch that I regard the Sunday school, as it is ordinarily conducted, to be no Sabbath work, and likely to be of no advantage to the Church of Christ, having in truth little or no relation to the Church, and no reference whatever to the ordinance of baptism, as the origin out of which it grows, or to the com- munion, as the end to which it aims, or to the spiritual seed, as the material upon which it works, but being in truth little holier than our week-day parish schools : if next I observe the outward and visible machiner}- of the present religious world, as it well nameth itself; their endless, and often prayerless committees, their multitu- dinous, and often unhallowed meetings, their hustings and hustings-like harangues, their numerous travellers upon commission, their flaming, and often fallacious reports, with all the hurry, haste, and bustle of the evangelical and methodistical machinery ; can I be but grieved at the fall and declension of the Church's gloiy, and the common weal ? Can I be but indignant when they call themselves better than their fathers, and dare to say that a millennial age is beginning to dawn in those churches which are hastening to their downfall and destruction? Can I be but desirous to restore the spiritual meaning, and the spiritual power of the ordinances of the Church, and espe- 238 Doctrinal. cially of tliis the sacrament of baj)tism, which I may call the primum mobile, the moving power of the whole ? Brethren, you must bear with my zeal : it is not the zeal of a fanatic or enthusiast, but of one who has lived much with the fathers, and is stricken in spirit with the dege- neracy of the children ; of one who would fain turn the hearts of the children unto the fathers, lest God come and smite the earth with a curse. The end of that instruction which the sponsor, under the watchful e^'e of the Church, should impart, is the fitting of the baptized for sitting down at the Lord's table, which may never be permitted save to those who are of sufficient knowledge of the faith that is within them. When they have attained unto this degree in the Church, they are no longer under sponsorship, but free to become sponsors or catechists in their turn ; and therefore, every parent or sponsor should long for the time when he can tlius deliver up his burden into the hands of the Church : and the rulers of the Church should be most ready on their part to receive the burden from the shoulders of the sponsors, and to advance another child to the freedom of Christ's house : yea, the elders in their several wards should be diligent to travail with all the youth until they persuade them to seek admission to the table of the Lord ; and when it so happeneth, as in our city congregations it doth, that the youth are found separated from those who have the charge over them, there seems to me only two ways of answering the end and intention of baptism ; — the first, by the elders and deacons dealing with their several charges in the congregation ; the other, to restore the dis- cipline of the primitive Church, by appointing catechists from amongst the brethren : but these are only resources to be substituted in those cases where the youth are, in the providence of God, separated from their sponsors : wherever they are not, let the discipline of the Scottish Church, which hath been described above, proceed under the sponsor each Sabbath during the hours of intermission from public worship. Baptism 710 1 a Mere Rite. 239 The incarnation of the Son of God, which, being under- stood aright, is the key of all mysteries, openeth to my mind likewise the mystery of infant baptism ; for the Holy (ihost did not wait until His bai)tism, but took possession nf Him the moment of His conception. The Son of God united Himself to the woman's seed in the womb of the Vii'gin, and the Holy Ghost possessed the holy thing which was conceived of her and born of her, and the same Holy Ghost abode in Him during the season of unconscious infanc}', and was in Him, though there was no means of revealing Himself as yet in His power and holiness unto the knowledge of men. And so I say it is with every elect child of God, that they have the Holy Ghost from the first moment of their being — have Him in vii'tue of the Father's electing and of Christ's redeeming love ; and that the Church may be a fit manifestation of this, she ought to have, and cannot do without, her ordinance of infant bap- tism, whereby she may declare that the elect of God are separated by the Holy Ghost from their mother's womb, and that the work of the Spirit is as much a part of the eternal counsel as is the sacrifice of the Lamb which was slain before the foundation of the world. This is that which makes infant baptism proper, yea, even possible ; but we are not therefore to conclude that, becaiise the elect are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and blesssed in the Spirit with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, we are not particvxlarly to reverence the ordinance of baptism as signifying and sealing the same unto us in the sight of the Church, and opening unto our own experi- ence a new measure of the Spirit's influence, which also is shewn in the mystery of the incarnation, by the Spirit descending upon our Lord in the form of a dove, when He came up out of the waters of baptism. Neither do I argue from these premises that the time of the manifestation of the Spirit is at the birth or at the baptism of God's elect, or at any other particular time, — nay, the object of our argu- ment is to place the gift of the Spirit, out of all time and all circumstances, in the hand of the Father and the Son, 240 Doctrinal, and to place tlie manifestation of tlie S^iii'it at any time or in any circumstances which may seem to them most to their own glory ; so that it is no objection to say that the Spirit of God was not manifested till such a time, and therefore to conclude that He was not present before ; for as the seed of a royal people of kings and priests, yet to be manifested, has been present in the seed of Abraham dur- ing all their captivities and dispersions, and, to revert to my former instance, as the seed of the glorious Lord of all was present in the Creature born of the Virgin during all the period and in all the passages of His humiliation ; so I say that the seed of a glorified saint is present in every saint who eometh to glory through all the passages, how- ever sinful and however humiliating, of his present pil- grimage. BAPTISMAL KEGENEEATION. The error of baptismal regeneration consisteth, not in holding that the true children of God are regenerated at their baptism, and from thence should date their admission into the household of faith, which, with all my orthodox fathers in the Church, I hold to be the only true doctrine, but in holding, that every person who is baptized doth virtually thereby become regenerate and possessed with the Holy Spirit ; or, to speak the language of theologians, that the inward grace is so connected with, or bound to, the outward ordinance, that whosoever receiveth the one doth necessarily become partaker of the other. This is an error of the most hideous kind ; bringing in justification by works, or rather by ceremonies, destroying the election of the Father, the salvation of the Son, and the santifica- tion of the Holy Ghost, and exalting the priest and the ceremony into the place of the Trinity. This is exactly what the Papists have done, and against nothing have the Protestants more sedulously guarded ; and I am sure, that I have taken, more than a dozen times, a solemn protest against such a vile notion. I have struck at the very root Baptismal Regeneration. 241 of it, by shewing, that among the baptized there is a repro- bation as well as an election ; and I have endeavoured even to prevent the imputation of it, by shewing, that faith, true fiiith, the gift of the Father and the manifesta- tion of His electing love, is necessary to the receiving of an}' baptismal gifts, is necessary to the receiving of the ordinance itself. I have shewn, in many discourses, how the IIol}^ Spirit once given will never be recalled; and that the perseverance of the saints is as sure a doctrine as the unchangeableness of the Father's will or the suffi- cienc}' of the Son's salvation, being nothing else than the irresistibleness of the Holy Ghost expressed with reference to the subject of His possession. And if the Holy Ghost is irresistible, and there is a reprobation in the Church, how could I say that the Holy Ghost is necessarily tied to the ordinance of baptism, or to any ordinance whatever ? Yet, while thus we most steadfastly hold that God among the baptized hath His own pDeople, endowed with all grace, and Satan hath his, entirely destitute of grace, — for we allow of no secondary influences of the Holy Ghost, — Ave are not the less steadfast in maintaining!:, that it appertaineth not to us to make the distinction or division between them, which God only maketh, nor to speak of baptism otherwise than God speaketh of it. But because the Church is limited in her power of dis- cerning the efficacy of the ordinance, shall she, therefore, strip the ordinance of all efficacy whatever, and speak of it in a lower style than the Scriptures require her to do ? If so, she changeth the everlasting ordinance. We must still treat the baptized as the children of God, who have been brought into covenant witl* Him. If they have forgot their privileges and their engagements altogether, the more need have we to remind them diligently of that which God hath not forgotten, though they may. My brethren, what say you, if a man is forgetting the dignity of his name, and the honour of his station, is it friendly, or even honest in you, by silence, to acquiesce with him therein ; or, by diligently avoiding the subject, to indulge K 2A2 Doctrinal. him in his wicked forgetfulness ? But if his Father he waiting for him with all tenderness of affection, and earnestly desiring his return to the path of duty, ready to forgive, is it right of us to keep this matter hidden from such a one? Now, dare any one, who heareth me, declare that this is not the case with respect to any baptized person ? If so, with respect to what class of them, or what individual of that class? If you cannot answer me, tell me how you dare take upon you to speak otherwise of all and to all than as children of the covenant, to whom God is openly reconciled, and for whom Ho earnestly waiteth till he shall he converted? Therefore we dare not do otherwise than use the language quoted above It is a necessary consequence of our present igno- rance, and the invisibility of the Church. It is written, that baptism is for the receiving of the Holy Ghost ; and, therefore, we will ever hold up baptism as the ordinance in which the Holy Ghost is received by the faithful : and having baptised any one upon the ground of our belief in his faith, we will speak of him as one that hath received the Holy Ghost. If he should not, then we do continually convince him of his want, and of the exceeding danger of his estate of reprobacy. He may take it to heart, and repent of his great wickedness : he may harden himselt the more, and be given up to believe a lie,-that he is reo-enerate, when indeed he is not : what then? we cannot prevent the judgment of God, and have, for our parts, fulfilled our vocation. But even reason and common proverbs say, that putting a man in good company is one of the best ways to make him good ; and that to give Mm a bad name, or to suppose him bad, is the sure way to make him so. No one would say, that a society ot worthy men should change the purity and gravity of their discourse, because one or two foolish or ignorant fellows pestered them with their presence : but because we have o-ot amongst us those who are ignorant and foolish, they would have us to speak other language than that which Christ hath taught His disciples. The Lord forbid : I, lor Baptised Chi Id re Ji Members of the Church. 243 one, by the grace of God, will never consent to such an lunvise, unprincipled, and rebellious course. BAPTISED CHILDREN MEMBEES OF THE CHURCH. The parent is the medium through whom God will convey all needful gi*ace nnto the children, during the time of their own incapacity' of faith, and in what respects they continue incapable of faith, until by the Church they be judged worth}'- to sit down at the table of the Lord. It is of the substance, not to say of baptism, but of circumcision, and all the covenants and promises of God, that they should be unto the father and his children. It began to be so in the Fall, and it continueth to bo so in the Eedemption : yea, and it is of the very constitution and law of our being that it should be so ; for, if otherwise, then is there a period in the existence of every soul for which God hath made no provision, and of which man can render no account. I mean, from the first beginning of life in the womb until the time that we are capable of understanding and believing the revelation of God, or hearing the preaching of the gospel — which age, let me observe in passing, was not thought by the primitive Church to be so early as it is in these days. AVhat are we during that important period of existence ? Souls we have, and bodies we have ; therefore we are persons. And how stand we to God? What connexion have we with our Maker ? What purpose serve we amongst His creatures ? How are we responsible ? And how are we dealt with ? AVhen, moreover, it is remembered, that within this period more than the half of human souls are called away from their earthly sojourn, these questions are of a very large application, as well as of the most deep concernment. To these questions a Baptist can make no answer : he can neither say the child is a believer nor an unbeliever ; he can neither make it the subject of hope nor of fear. So far as the world to come is concerned, that E 2 244 Doctjdiial. child is a nonentity, or at best an isolated, solitary thing, without relation to God of any sort. And what state is this for a soul to be in ; an immortal, responsible soul ? This barrier, which ariseth in the mind of every person, is at once opened and set to a side, by the fourth head of doctrine which we have derived from the sacraments of baptism and circumcision; whereby it is concluded, that the parents, through whom God hath seen it good to bring that soul into the world, is by God regarded as verily and truly responsible for the souls which God hath given him, until they be capable of responsibility for themselves; unto which reason itself gives its assent, in the laws of all well- regulated States. And it is consistent with the very ordinance of nature that it should be so ; for if God honours two human beings so highly, as by means of them to bring into the world those immortal souls which He alone, can create, and which He alone doth give, is it to be wondered that He should honour them to convey to that soul the sustenance of His grace, through which alone it is capable of existing in a healthy and happy state ? No one, I suppose, will say that the law of generation concerneth more than our material part ; the soul, surely, is not linked to the body by a necessary law : otherwise we have one of two conclusions, — either that it hath no separate exist- ence after death, or that it sleeps away the time during which the body is dissolved ; either of which conclusions all orthodox divines and sound-minded men utterl}^ abhor. If, then, the soul is the gift of God, coeval and coexistent with the first pulse of life, which God, by the ordinance of death doth again separate, and call unto Himself, and retain apart till the resurrection of the dead, then is it after the nature of a trust unto the parents, of a bequest, of a great grace and honour, and may well stand connected with future acts of grace necessary to its well-being, with future supplies to those parents for the rearing up of the infant for immortal life, and with vows and pledges taken of them in token of their acknowledgment, designed for enlightening their minds concerning their charge, and Baptised Children Members of the Church. 245 for the assurance of their responsibility. Therefore marvel not that God should accept the parents as sponsors for this flis gift ; rather niar\-el if there should not be an ordinance to that eftect. This ordinance is infant baptism, •wherein is declared and taught unto the parent the whole mystery of this little creature's immortality, and of its rela- tionship to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. As a teacher of righteousness, I do instruct you all, dear brethren, that the openness of this ordinance to the uncon- scious babe, who hath no righteousness, nor faculty of any kind for receiving any ; who can work no work, set forth no prayer, and act no faith, but is wholly born in sin, is the clearest demonstration in the world of the freeness of Divine grace, and the willingness of the Father to bestow the Holy Spirit upon any age and upon all ages of human life. The only thing which is preferred before this gift is faith. If a parent have faith for himself, he may not, without a denial of God's promise, fail to have faith for his baptized child. And any one who hath been baptized may not, without casting dishonour upon his father, and upon the Church which judged his father worthy to receive the sacrament for his children's sake, doubt of his full right and title to this inheritance of the forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Ghost. And because many children are wont to puzzle and perplex themselves about the qxiestion, whether their parents had faith or not ; I say positively, that they take too much upon them to go about to judge a question which hath already been judged by the Church. Not that I infringe the right of private judgment, which I consider a most essential point of the protestation which we have lifted up against the Papacy, but that I will not peraiit a decision to be reviewed by private judg- ment, which God hath not left to private judgment, but fixed in the rulers of the Church. Your parent did not himseK take it upon his own private judgment to decide whether he was worthy to have his child baptized : he left it to the rulers of the Church, into whose hands the sacra- ments are committed, to decide to whom they should be 246 DocU'iiial. administered. The Church decided favourably lu your case, and then the thing resteth upon the Church's respon- sibility. For your part, ye may not doubt thereafter that you are freely admitted to all which the Church hath thus to share iu common among her members, be it much or be it little. The same say I, in answer to all doubts with respect to the minister of the Church by whom it was done, who is only a minister or servant of the Church, not the Church herself; whose gift ye received, whether it came through the hand of a dishonest or a true servant ; seeing, as is well set forth iu our Catechism, "the sacraments are made effectual, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them, but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of the Holy Spirit in them who by faith receive them." Eemember that I do not say the Holy Spirit is actually given to every baptized person ; for that dependeth upon the previous gift of faith, which is from a higher source than the Holy Ghost, even fiom the Father, and which the Father giveth to whom it pleaseth Him; — but that the Church having judged one to have faith, she may not refuse to judge that he hath righteousness imputed to that faith which she judgeth him to have, nor that his children have the fellowship of the same, nor that his bap- tized children are declared to have righteousness also, and the Holy Spirit. The first judgment involveth all the fol- lowing ones ; and in all her acts of discipline towards that baptized child, she ought to proceed towards him as to- wards one who is in covenant with God, and a privileged member of the Church. I hold it to be the duty, not of one man, the pastor, but of every man, the members of Christ, to watch for the interests of His house ; first of all for those for whom they are severally responsible— that is, these our children — whom they have brought into the great inheritance, and the equally great responsibility, of the Church of Christ ; and in those Churches which admit of sponsors besides the parents, it is the duty of the sponsors, and indeed the very meaning of the ofSce, to see that those for whom they have Baptised Children Mejubers of I he Church. 247 offered themselves in that responsive situation be made acquainted with the infinite privileges and awful sanctions of the Church of Christ, that they may lay hold of the one, and flee from the other ; and of every Christian church — that is, body of Christians worshipping in one place, for truly there is but one Church, — of every Christian commu- nity, it is the bounden duty to see that all the baptized of their body, that all the younger children, be reared up, and all the prodigals of the house bo brought back to their- Father's love, and to their Father's yearning bowels of com- passion. And this, let me say unto you, the catechists of my church, is your first office, to be, under your pastor, labourers for the sake of the younger members of our churcli, — you to be instructed by him, and the younger to be instructed b}' you. But we are not alone ; we are the brethren of all that are joined to Christ in the sacrament of l)aptism ; and if we be the brethren of all Christ's members, then ought we to feel a brotherly tenderness towards those who are around us, of every condition and of every name, who are entitled to the same j^rivileges, and amenable to the same judgment as we are ; one with us in the blessing of believing, or in the woe of rejecting the gospel. The little children of the poor who surround us cannot escape the painful sanctions of the covenant into which they have been brought. When the time for judging the professing foiTQal Church shall come, they shall share the judgment. It did not hinder the people of Israel from being destroyed that they lacked knowledge, or that their priests had faijed in their holy functions : no more will it hinder them from being destroj^ed that they lack knowledge. Their igno- rance is the beginning of their curse, and the beginning of their judgment. Ignorance is mental darkness ; ignorance is mental barrenness ; ignorance is God's judgment already revealed in the mind. Now, if these your neighbours were suffering in the fields by blasting mildew, and in their houses by famine, would you not feel it your duty to go foi-ward and relieve them? If the Lord had j^alsied the father of a family, if He had inflicted a universal plague 248 Doctrinal. upon the children, would not nature take pity upon them ? And shall nature's bowels be more melting than Christ's bowels ? Shall the desolateness that sight beholdeth be more grievous than the desolateness which faith beholdeth ? Shall the sufferings of a few years be more pitiable than the sufferings of eternity ? Shall the world be better and more friendly to its denizens than the Church of Christ to her members? If I thought, brethren of this flock, that we would be less pitiful of the children of the Established Church, or of the Dissenters from the Established Church, than of our own, I, who am a minister of an Established Church, would rebuke your evil, rather than commend your good example, before the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all. For, oh ! the sacrament of baptism entaileth upon all the same penalties of ignorance and dis- obedience. Were not our fathers of one Protestant Church ? Hold we not the same doctrines ? have we not the same sacraments ? Therefore, I say unto you, go unto the hedges, and the lanes, and the by-ways, and invite all to your feast ; instruct all, edify all, that it may not be said that, in a Christian land, with Christian neighbours, multitudes perish without ever knowing the glad tidings of salvation : for assuredly the judgment of God Avill come upon us, if we knowingly allow of such abominations. Wherefore, brethren, I say ye are yet under the spirit of the world in this work which 3-e have undertaken, if you execute it merely in the spirit of natural philanthropy or pity, as to children in a state of nature, and do not carry with you all these great truths of the Church of Christ, and act under them in the spirit of Christian love and brother- hood towards the strayed and prodigal, after whom the heart of the Father longeth so affectionately, that He maketh mirth and gladness beyond all measui'e when any of them returns, saying, " For my son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found." And when any of the sheep wandereth, He goeth forth into the wilderness, and patiently ploddeth over the weary waste, and returneth very glad that He hath found him. And when one of them The Lord's Stipper. 249 repenteth, there is more joy in heaven than over ninety and nine persons who need no repentance. And as our Father in heaven is, in His longings after them, so ought •we to be ; and as He is patient in His requests, so ought wo to be ; and as He is joyful in His success, so ought wo to be. ^Ve ought to go forth boldly and courageously ; wo ought to seek patiently; we ought to invite largely; we ought to threaten fearfully ; and when we succeed in bringing any back to the fold, we ought to return very cheerfully, and rejoice right gladly. And so, being filled with the doctrine and with the Spirit of Christ, we will not weary in our work, knowing that to us also there re- maineth a rest and a great and glorious reward ; as it is written in the prophet Daniel, " And they who turn many from darkness into light, shall shine as the stars in the fir- mament for ever and ever." THE LORDS SUPPER. Ix the Saviour's ministry of salvation there is nothing more remarkable than the suitableness of the word to the action, the propriety of time and place to both, and the harmony of all with the feelings of those who were addressed ; and which arose from His soul's being attuned by the deep relations of truth, unbroken in its perception, undisturbed in its emotions, rich in feeling and harmony, responsive to every secret association of nature, whereof He was the Creator, and acquainted with every deep and secret movement of the human soul, to whose mysterious sj^mpathies He was always ready, in his great grace, to accord whatever He had to say or do. In this sweet and haiTQonious spirit, having touched the souls of His apostles by these varioiis notes of warning. He proceeded to the institution of this holy service. He took bread, and gave thanks, and blessed it, which was the sign of a new and distinct service from that in which they had been engaged, and brake it, and gave xmto them ; and while their minds, already moved with the mysterious meaning of all that 250 Doctrinal. Lad been said and done during the snpper, burned for an explanation of this solemn commencement, He said, " This is my body which is given [or broken] for you : this do in remembrance of me. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament [or, this is the new testament in my blood], which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Such was the institution of the holy ordinance whereof we have taken in hand to explain the meaning, according to the principle formerly laid down, that every ordinance which is set forth by signs should explain itself by help of the ordinary signification of the signs and of the words pronounced over them. Tollowiug this rule of interpreting, with the elements in our hands, and the words in our mouths, we remark, with respect to the signs, that, as the element used in the sacrament of baptism is the emblem of purity, and the action of washing or dipping therein is the sign of purification ; so bread and wine, the elements used in the sacrament of the supper, are the emblems of strength and cheerfulness, and the action of eating and drinking is the sign of sustenance and nourishment. Bread is the staff of life ; and wine cheereth the heart of man. Also, to sit around the table of any one, and be permitted to eat of his bread and drink of the wine which he hath mingled, is, on his part, a sign of hospitality and friend ship, and on ours a pledge of faithfulness and truth. Which sentiment that our Saviour felt keenly is manifest from what He said of Judas : " He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verilj'', I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." " Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table." " One of you which eateth with me shall betray me." In which expres- sions it is manifest that He felt the criminality to be aggravated by the breach of that good faith which is signified in eating and drinking with a man at his table. Thus are these two things, therefore, the wavy face and ontward show of this ordinance : first, a pledge of friendship The Lord's Supper. 251 and faithfulness to Him around whose table we are seated ; and, secondly, that we are come thither for the sake of sustenance and refreshment. So much is discernible by the eye from the visible emblems and actions of the ordi- nance, which being taken along with what is gathered by the ear from the words that are appointed to be spoken, giveth its whole meaning and significance. Well, then, believing the total depravity and entire help- lessness of this visible estate of manhood, by virtue of its connexion with and laying hold upon Adam, our great head, we desire to know the hope which remaineth for creatures whose power of good, whose very power of life, hath thus departed from them. What shall wo lay hold upon in order to lift us out of this fearful pit and miry clay into which we have sunk, and in which our feet are holden fast? There is nothing which we can lay hold of for that great end of redemption and resurrection but the risen body of Christ : as it is written, " If Christ be not risen, then are we still in our sins." It is nothing that Christ was crucified and laid in the grave, unless He be also risen : for to die is the very consummation of our lives and demonstration of our helplessness, in which every one that shareth doth so far forth demonstrate his taking part with the rest of the fallen creatures. But if such a one as hath been born and lived and died like other fallen creatures, have likewise arisen from the dead and liveth for ever; then, indeed, there is a door of hope opened to every poor, mortal, corniptible creature who holdeth the same nature. On the other hand, again, there would have been no ground of hope if He had not died, but been translated like Enoch and Elijah ; because in that case it would not have been made manifest that He was bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, partaker in all respects of the substance of fallen manhood. He might have been an angel who had but taken human form and appearance in order to accomplish some errand and message of God, as the damnable Arian heresy feigneth. But being proved to be very man and partaker with man in his doleful 252 Doctrinal. condition, by His having borne it first and last, and all its sorrows and infirmities, and having risen incorruptible from the tomb, and entered into an eternal life and infinite power, all eyes and all hearts of mortal kind ought to be turned unto the risen body of Christ, as the great demon- stration of the possibility and of the fact of redemption and resurrection from this our low and lost estate. For what hope is there else ? The rest of mankind, all the children of Adam, lie mouldering in the dust : the worm hath fed upon them, and corruption hath devoured them. There is no memory of them, and their name is perished. They had no power against death while they lived, and when they came to die they were fain to yield themselves, and the grave closed her mouth upon them, and the}^ are not. To look for help from them is utterly vain ; they need a helper more than we, for we are still in the narrow strait and isthmus of life, but they are swallowed up in the gulf. But here is one Man who. His life long, prevailed against sickness and death ; who said that He had power to lay down His life, and that He had power to take it up again ; who entered into the house of death, and spoiled the strong man of the house, contending with him for His own body, and overcoming him, for it saw not cor- ruption. There it lay, the seed of the regenerated world, and death and Satan sought to destroy it for ever ; but it endured all their malignant power, and arose in glory and in strength into the possession of an eternal life at the rig-ht hand of the throne of God ; whence the risen Man shall come again to judge the world in the last day. If, therefore, the children of Adam are ever to be helped out of their present evil plight of sin and death, it must be through the power and prevalency of that Son of Adam who is now in the heavens, far above death and sin, and all principalities, and powers, and dominions, and every name that is named both in this world and in that which is to come. Here the resurrection of Christ is the tomb-stone of His divinity, whereby He was declared to be the Son of God with power : it is also the strong point of the gospel, The Lord's Supper. 253 to the preaching of Avhich the preaching of the cross is hut jDreparatory, to shew forth His true manhood, His being truly in the estate as Avell as in the stead of fallen manhood, in preparation for the shewing forth His resurrection, which is the proof that now fallen manhood hath been exalted from its lowly bed into the condition of risen and immortal manhood, and in that condition will take its superior place of primogeniture above all other beings, upon the right hand of the throne of God. These things being so, what have we in the supper but this risen body of Christ, this headship of risen manhood, unto which the eyes of all fallen creatures should be directed, and the hands of all creatures smking, drowning in death should be stretched out, and to which the supplications of all that fell with Adam should be lifted up ? This our risen and glorified substance Ave have presented to us in the symbol of the supper ; which, presenting us with bread doth say, " This is my body broken for you," and present- ing us with wine doth say, " This is the blood of the new covenant, which was shed for j^ou ; drink ye all of it." Christ doth as it were let down His body in this sacred symbol from its regal dignity to the capacity of the present weakness of man, and present it under a figure to all who have believed upon Him, and have their hopes directed upwards to that pole-star of the night, in order that their faith therein may be strengthened, and that they may re- cieve a pledge that they shall be pai'takers thereof. He doth not present His very body, which is in the heavens, far removed from mortal sight ; He doth not convert wine and bread into His glorious body, for that is to go quite beyond the mysteiy of which the end is in the day of the resuiTection, — to transubstantiate then the fallen substance of the believer into the true substance of Christ; but not to transubstantiate bread and wine into that most glorious substance. He doth not consubstantiate His body and blood with the elements of bi'ead and wine ; which dogma of obdurate Luther, left to teach us not to trust in man, hath indeed no touch of the mystery at all, which transub- 254 Doctrinal. stantiation hath, though out of all time and out of all sub- ject. For there is a time when there shall be a transub- stantiation, and there is a subject upon which it shall be. The subject which shall be transubstantiated into Christ's real body is the substance of fallen manhood in the believer; and the time at which it shall be done is at the resurrection of the just, before the setting up of the millennial kingdom, in which they are to reign as kings and priests upon the earth. But that baked bread and fermented wine were to be transubstantiated into the real body of Christ, now or at any time, is a beastly sensual foil}', which was never heard of amongst Christians till that mother of abominations made every holy thing abominable. But that anything is at any time to be consubstantiated with the body of Christ, as poor obstinate Luther, to punish his obstinacy, was per- mitted to hold with fierce contention against the Eeformed Churches, is an idea for which there is no foundation any- where. We, indeed, who believe and receive this pledge of the supper in true faith, shall be consubstantiated with Christ ; but that taketh not place through the conjunction of any other substance with His glorious substance, but through the changing of the substance of fallen manhood into the new state of the risen manhood, by the same change in the day of our resurrection which passed upon Christ in the day of His resurrection. But as to making this transubstantiation upon bread and wine, and making it now by the power of priestl}'- consecration, — which is never to be made but by the power of the voice of Christ extended upon His sleeping saints in the renewal of the Church, — it is a monstrous figment, which should be hunted out of the earth with the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the sword of the preached word of Christ. To the eye of fiiith, and to the handling of faith, and to the receiving of faith, there is indeed that present transub- stantiation of which they iguorantly and foolishly say that it is made unto the sense. Faith doth, indeed, behold, and handle, and eat, and feed upon the risen body of Christ, although invisible to the sense, and incomprehensible to Particular Election. 255 the understanding of the sense ; and we believe that Christ is truly and really present in the holy sacrament unto every believer, and is there and then partaken of in a high and spiritual sense, with which sight and reason have no- thing to do, but which is accomplished wholly by the Spirit through faith. And that faith may ascend as by a ladder unto the exaltation of Christ's body, He doth let down, from His high and holy place, this symbol from time to time unto His Church, to the very end that they may know and most assuredly believe that His absence, the absence of His body, divideth Him not from their care, neither divideth Him from their presence. PAETICL'LAR ELECTION. To talk of conditional election, is the most egregious folly, the most entire rejection of Christ ; the most wilful insurrection against the Father. First, to ask a condition over and above what is contained in Christ's work, is to disannul that work and to say to the Father, " Thy grace is not yet enough; I cannot tnist Thee yet." "What a speech, what a thought for a creature ! But what an awful speech, what a hideous thought for a creature who be- lieveth in redemption, who seeth the grace of God iu Christ, and will not trust Him ! Secondly, ^Vhat a defeat of Christ, what a renunciation of His work, which was nothing else but that He might obtain trust for His Father ! Talk to me of receiving Christ, and not believ- ing in unconditional election ! You know not what you say. Talk to me of living in doubt of this, and yet living by faith ! The thing is impossible. If you be living in the honour of Christ, you must be living in the honour of Him that sent Him ; and surely you will not be making conditions with your Creator, if you are honouring Him. Moreover yoix are making shipwreck of your own dignity; I may say, destroying your own personality, and sinking yourself in the community of the reconciled, if you thus 256 Doctrinal. make liglit of election, — for the reconciliation is common nnto many, bnt the election is peculiar imto one. No one can think of election without thinking of himself; no one can believe in election without contemplating God as trans- acting with himself. This is the true ground of a personal interest in Christ; and where this is not in estimation, there may be social and ecclesiastical religion, but personal there will be none. All dignities put together are nothing to this dignity of being regarded and beloved by God. "What will deliver you from priestcraft, from ecclesiastical domination, from the fashion of the religious world, from public opinion, is to come into communication with God, not uj)on the common ground of redemption merely, but upon the private, peculiar, and personal ground of election also. This is what will remove you from being an atom in a mass composed of many atoms, and make you to become an individual capable of assimilating individuals to your- self, and having in yourself an integral individual life. This is what makes every stone of the temple a living- stone ; this is what makes every member of Christ alive ; this is what constitutes the vitality of the Church, and differenceth between a papal mass, a religious- world mass, and a living body of living members; In one word, wherever this doctrine of election hath been duly prized by any church, as by the Church of Scotland, and by the Church of England until the days of Laud, it hath stirred up the might of men as individuals, and delivered them from the lethargic corruption of aggregate masses. And to this it is, far more than to all causes put together, that the children of the Scottish Church have so much indivi- dual prowess, and individual success, in all parts of the world ; because the personal hath been cultivated in them, b}^ the constant recognition of this doctrine of election, while the principle of community hath been preserved by the doctrine of the redemption, — into which, however, they have not generally so much insight, nor so much liberty of declaring it, as they have into the former. In one word, Is the invisible Godhead to have a plnce in our The Idea of Favouritism False. 257 creed, or is it not? If, as all Scripture teacheth, the invi- sible, incomprehensible Godhead hath the chiefest place in our faith, being the great object of our worship, then must election have the principal place in our creed, as repre- senting the intercourse between the soul and the invisible incomprehensible God. Is the unseen operation of the llol}' Ghost, whereby the invisible God communicates His invisible actings to the invisible soul, to have a place in our creed ? that is to say, are we to hope for special mani- festations and revelations of the Spirit ? Are we to know God as our God, to be taken into His pavilion, and to be filled with His love ? ai'e we to enjoy raptures, and seizures, and solitary sequestered enjoyments of the Divine presence, with which no other intermeddleth ? then must election stand, for election doth name that particular operation of God's Spirit which one only can partake of, by himself, and in himself, though he may be able to communicate, and tell somewhat of the same, for the encouragement of his brother. These two great doctrines, — the commonness of the redemption, the personality of the election, do stand, and projD each other up : they can only stand together, and where they are not maintained with equal foot, evil be- tideth both. The former without the latter degenerates into universal salvation; the latter without the former degenerates into blind and absolute fate, partiality, or favouritism. But where the two are held fast, they bo^ come the two poles upon which the goodness, and beauty, and solidity of the Divine purpose revolve. THE IDEA OF FAVOURITISM FALSE. Another prejudice upon the nature of God, and which is hardly less prevalent amongst good people, is, that He hath certain favourites amongst the human race. That a man is in favour with Him according to his worth and well-doing, and out of favour with Him according to his "wickedness, is as certain as that He governs the world s 258 Doctrinal. with equity, and will judge it in righteousness. At the same time, that there are great diflerences both in the moral and physical formation of men, and great differences likewise in their religious attainments, there can he no doubt ; but it is a great mistake to refer these differences to God's partiality for one and His dislike of another. These different gradations of place and natural gifts are necessary for fulfilling the various offices of the world, as, to use St. Paul's illustration, different vessels are necessary in a great house, and different members in the body of man ; and therefore they are to be accounted not an act of partiality, but an act of wisdom, in order that the affairs of the world may go on and prosper. It would be partiality if God, after distributing His talents unequally amongst men, required as great return from those who had few as from those who had many ; but when He hath de- clared, on the other hand, that of those to whom much is given much shall be required, and that a man shall be judged according to that he hath, and not according to that he hath not ; it is, on the one hand, most envious, discon- tented, and unreasonable to complain, — on the other, most ungenerous and thoughtless to exiilt. What hast thou that thou hast not received, and for which thou shalt not be accountable? The highest-born and most highly- favoured man is not entitled to exult, because God, who made him to differ, will make him to account for that dif- ference. Neither is the meanest-born and worst-condi- tioned entitled to complain, lest God take away his single talent, and confer it on the man with ten talents, against whose undue proportion he murmured. Now, it is not otherwise in religion, where equal differences exist. I shall not take it upon me to explain, as being a question far beyond the compass of a discourse, how it happens that whole nations know not God, and of those that do, whole hosts neglect to acknowledge Him, and that there be but a few who cleave to His commandments ; but while I pre- tend not to explain the diflSculty, I will take upon nie to resist every explanation which refers it to partiality and The Idea of Favoitriiisin False. 259 favouritism. Thus mucli I can perceive, that the progress of religion at home and abroad, and the progress of religion in ever}' bieast depends upon the use of human wisdom and human energy as much as the preservation of liberty, or the enlargment of fortune, or any other good thing under the sun. And while all men revolt from the idea that these natural things come by partiality in the Creator, they ought equally to revolt from the idea that religious things come of that partiality. 1 believe that God has given us not only the best scheme of religion, but the fittest for propagation that could be given ; and I attribute its im- perfect propagation at home and abroad not to any letting or hindering on His part, but to base neglect and shameless prostitution of the means which He hath revealed for its propagation. But waving these questions of how things might be, and taking things as they are, it is vain and delusory, nay, it is self-conceited and blasphemous, in any one to attribute his religious condition to an act of favouritism. It is an act of grace, but it is not an act of favouritism. An act of favouritism lies in exalting us at the expense of another, or over the head of another who hath laboured as well for the prize. An act of grace lies in having exalted us at all. An act of favouriti.sm would cease if all were equallj- exalted. An act of grace would only be made the greater. An act of favouritism reflects upon others. An act of grace does not. An act of favouritism springs from weakness, and engenders vanity ; an act of grace springs from goodness, and en- genders gratitude. While, therefore, eveiy one gives God the gloiy of all his religious exaltation, he should be care- \ fill lest he sully the Divine character with weakness, or gather upon himself the airs and conceits of a favourite, 1; and affect towards others the tone and manner of a superior. For every other to whom Christ hath been preached, by the use of the same means might have obtained from God the same grace, and therefore they are to be argued and remonstrated with, not superciliously treated. And by having reached that superior station, a man is not, as it s 2 26o Doctrinal. were, set free to range in larger liberty, or licentiousness of feeling, but to enjoy more strength and opportunity, that he may devote it to the more holy avocations. Paul, upon whose words this measure of God's grace is com- monly rested, was never found calculating upon his high place in the Divine favour ; and when, in self-defence, he was called upon to open up the grace that had been shewn to him, though it was in self-defence, and to establish his Divine commission, he three times calls himself a fool for his pains, and craves indulgence for doing what he con- sidered to be the part of folly ; not that I object to the use of such expressions as Scripture sanctions, — chosen of God, elect of God, people of God, holy nation, and royal priest- hood,— but that I will not allow them to strangle the life of other parts of Scrij)ture, or mar the proportions of the Divine character. It is thus, that the imperfection of lan- guage hampers the spirit of God, and that men pitch in each other's teeth passages of Scripture which it is their part to reconcile, not to set at variance. There are not two names of God which one might not find inconsistent with each other in a thousand things, as Sovereign and Father, Judge and Saviour, and so of any act or faculty ascribed to Him. But give your study, as we advised, to the living model of Godhead, Jesus Christ. Did He turn aside from the wicked, or instruct His disciples to do so ? Did He separate and divide Judea into two parts, the chosen and the reprobate, loving the one, abjuring the other ; keeping company with the one, abstaining from the other ? He did not so ; but there were those who did so — — viz., the Pharisees, against whose policy and princiiDles He directed a thousand weapons, and guarded all his fol- lowers ; but, for Himself, He kept with publicans and sinners. He spoke gently to the down-trodden, He took the part of the proscribed, He washed the feet of the meanest, and put forth His grace and power for the salvation of all. Kow, He is my pattern of the Godhead ; and until they will reconcile these notions of favouritism in God with His conduct, I hold them vain and idle as the empty chaff; The Idea of Favour it isiii False. 261 and until they reconcile their parting the populatioa asunder, and allocating the saints from the sinners, theii* cleaving to the one, and their forsaking the Ishmaelite tents of the other, — reconcile this with the practice of Christ, I hold it ungodly and unchristian. This notion of being God's favourites, against which wo argue, when it obtains a seat in the mind, works the most baleful effects on every side. Towards God it places us in a most unbecoming familiarit3^ We fancy Him to be all on our side — that He has fairly taken us up and will carry us through ; we identify our crudest conceptions with in- fallible inspirations of His Holy Spirit ; we join ourselves to those who are, in like manner, initiated into the Divine mysteries. A school is formed, a sisterhood, or brotherhood of ^devotees, not a church, of the living God. Everything held therein is right, — everything else is wrong, — we are the people, the people of God. And for the rest, they must be held as heathen men and publicans until they can adopt our discipline in whole and in detail. They are looked upon as people in whom God is not interested, nay, as a people for whom the Saviour has not died, whose prayers are an abomination to the Lord, This idea is the very seed-bed of persecution, which springs seldom from blood- thirstiness, sometimes from a love of power, but far more frequently from the idea that we are doing God's service. Our cause is thought to be God's catzse, and the end being always presumed holy, the means are less rigorously in- spected. Now, though the age has abhorred and abolished persecution for conscience' sake, — that is, violent forcible measures, — it consists with my observation that there exists a spirit of exclusion and suspicion towards all who do not think exactly alike with the leaders of the religious world ; which spirit is, to all intents and purposes, the same as persecution, — is, in truth, persecution carried as far as the age will allow it. The root of the evil is in supposing that we hold our opinions by a direct patent from God, and can by no means be wrong in any particular. Our scheme of doctrine and of duty, our scheme of religious sentiment and 262 Doctrinal. practice, is the approved infallible one, wliicli we never dream of being wrong any more than we dream of any other being right. Now, what difference is there m bemg so held to the infallibility of a fraternity, or to the infalli- bility of one man ? None that I can discern. This baneful prejudice of favouritism generally goes along with that of sovereignty. One who proceeds by blind will, puts forth the gentle parts of his nature which still sur- vive, in acts of favouritism. For favouritism is an act of will,' no less than cruelty. The one is reward put forth without desert; the other is punishment put forth without a cause. Now, truly, if God cannot consistently with His nature look out for objects worthy of His favour, and other objects deserving of His disfavour. He is not a fit Governor for the nature of man, which abhors more than death to be maltreated without occasion, and which is corrupted into every base and vicious form by having favours heaped upon it without regard to its deserving. If you would degrade a man to the very uttermost, make him the slave of a tyrant, or a tyrant's favourite. In the one case he sinks into the lowest ebb of humanity,— cunning, treacherous, vile and menial ; in the other case, he adds to these, mock-majesty, late-sprung greatness, mockery of the dust from which he hath been exalted, weakness, silliness, often the panderism of every vice, and the ministry of every vanity. Oh, if God is to be translated into such a Euler, I crave exemption for myself, and must be fain to put up without His govern- ment. But perish the thought ! be spurned for ever the horrid thought ! It never lived but in souls base-bom and base-bred, who would have licked the dust for the favour of princes, and been content to be trodden on by a royal foot. Eeligion is an awful thing ; and I believe it to be a most ennobling thing, for want of which the finest natural faculties suffer shipwreck ; but awful though it be, it is in- telligible, and the way in which it ennobles can surely be laid down. j ( 263 ) LOVE AND SORROW. The beginning of love and the beginning of sorrow are in believing without doubt that God hath granted unto us, in Jesus Christ, " that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Ilim, all the days of our life." No one who standeth in doubt of his being delivered from sin and misery, from guilt and condemnation, from the flesh, the devil, and the world, and lifted up into the condition of an adopted and accepted son, to be in God's bosom in what nearness Jesus lieth, and to be loved with what love He is beloved — no one who doubteth or disbelieveth his full and free admis- sion into the bosom of God by the side of Jesus, can love as Jesiis loveth, or sorrow as He sorroweth. Jesus is the fountain-head of sorrow — or, rather, God is the fountain- head, and Jesus the containing ocean, out of whose fulness it ever overfloweth in streams to moisten and mellow the heart of man ; for as water is to the parched earth, so is sorrow to the hard heart of man. It may seem strange to say it, but it is most true, that the tears which flow from the eyelids of a man are as needful to the fruitfulness of his heart as the dews which descend from the eyelids of the morning are to the thirsty ground. Now from Jesus sorrow floweth out ; and faith uniteth us to Jesus ; and being one with Him, the tide floweth without interruption. The heart of Jesus is ever full of sorrow over His heartless spouse, his thankless world, and above all His Father's outcast and dishonoured name : it lougeth to discharge itself into kindred bosoms : He wanteth those who will weep with Him ; through whom He may weep aloud in the hearing of the hard-hearted world. God's sorrow over the world ceased not with the agony of Gethsemane or the heart which brake on Calvary ; there is still a cause, there is still the same cause, for which He should be filled with sc rrow ; yea, there is a far more worthy cause, in that the 264 Doctrinal. boundless measure of His love to men is no longer hidden, but revealed in the glorious gift of the risen Jesus unto them : and, instead of being overpowered with the full dis- closure of God's unmeasured love, behold, the Church hath lost all sense, all memory, all knowledge of it, and goeth about to deny and doubt, and to hide under a bushel the excellent glory which was committed unto her keeping. Can God be but grieved at His heart to see His most honourable Son treated as an alien within the bounds of that creation which He made, redeemed, and longeth to glorif}^ all by reason of our unfaithfulness, ingratitude, folly, and pride ? The work of Christ in flesh is persecuted from the face of the earth as detestable iniquity ; His work in the Spirit contemned and derided as the most wild and wretched fanaticism ; and all the dear-bought inheritance of all spiritual blessings in tbe heavenly places cast away with execration as the most daring profanation, the most extravagant folly ! Ah me ! wanteth there a theme for sorrow ? And where are the mourners ? where is the living harp on which the wounded spirit of Jesus might ring out, in the hearing of heaven and earth and reckless men, the full measure of His lamentations ! 1 cannot tell how I wonder at the hardness of our hearts who believe in these things. Surely we are a remorseless and impenitent people. If love, then, be the door of entrance into sorrow — for how can a man grieve if he have no tenderness of heart to be wounded, no losses nor crosses nor widowed affections over which to weep ? — how, oh how shall we be lifted up into love, that we may be able to go down into sorrow, and make common cause with our God over the present most grievous state of His Church and His creatures ! In no other way can the region of love be entered, but by escaping out of the region of fear, where dwelleth nothing but sadness, trembling, and the shadow of death. And how shall we escape out of this, the region of the horrible pit, in which the conscience of man doth bind him down under the guilt of sin, and the present oppressive sense of Love and Soin'ow. 265 shortcoming and transgression of God's holy laws ? Oh, how otherwise, my brethren, but by receiving from the hand of Jesus the gift of a conscience cleansed by His blood, — of a law satisfied and made honourable by His righteous life ! Thou weariest thyself in vain, and dost but sink deeper and deeper in the mire, while thou seekest to clear thine own account with God, which Jesus hath cleared for all flesh, by that perfect righteousness which He wrought under the law, before His public acknowledg- ment in baptism as the Son of God, and entrance upon His free calling as a Son of God, to body forth the love of the Father, and all the Father's sorrow over His thankless children. If Jesus, though the eternal Son of God, and generated into flesh the holy child of God, must yet travel through thirty years of hard servitude under an earthly master, which is Moses, and acquit Himself to the full of all the obligations and arrears which God had upon flesh, before He could be avouched the Son of God, and receive the Spirit of adoption, and enter upon the heartbreaking sorrows of a Son, — how, I pray, shouldest thou expect, 0 man, to be brought into the same emancipation from bonds, the same commonness of heart with God, the same ovei-flowings of sorrowful love, until thou shalt have acted faith upon the work of Christ, for satisfaction of all God's claims upon thee, and clearing away of all thy guilt in His sight ? Thinkest thou to step up into the dignity of a son, without laying ofi" the bonds of the slave, the chains of the guilty culprit? And how shalt thou do this, othei-odse than by faith in the work of Jesus under the law, in that name Jesus, which saveth His people from their sins? Therefore put away thy fears, 0 heart-bound sinner, for Jesus hath done justice to thine offended God : thy Creator is satisfied with all flesh, — in respect of law-keeping its servitude is finished ; it is come of age, and needeth not to be under tutors any more. Your Father sendeth you your title of sonship ; why take you it not up ? He adopteth you into His famil}' from the place of a servant ; why go you not in ? He openeth to you His bosom ; why go you 266 Doctrinal. not forward to embrace Him? He stretchetli you out the golden sceptre, as to His queen ; why goest thou not forth to touch it, and seat thyself by His side in glorious majesty? What meaneth this burden-bearing bondage, these stripes of fear, this sadness, this despair ? Be done with this grief on thine own account : thy account is settled, and thy burden is cast upon the Lord ; come in, the Lord hath need of thy griefs ; but thou must first be assured that thou art His son, and as a son thou must lie in thy Father's bosom, and hear the whisperings of His love, the sighings of His sorrow, the heavings of His troubled heart, then go forth impregnated with the like generous disposition of loving and saving sinners, and begin to endure all things in order to bring thy God's love near to the ears of savage men. Thou must believe that Jesus hath made thy griefs His, and borne them all ; and now in thy turn thou must make His griefs thine, and bear them forth and sing them to the desert winds, if the hearts of men be too hard to hearken unto thee. To suffer is our calling, to have the full fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and to be conformed unto His death ; but no one can touch with his little finger this mighty load, unless he do first believe himself to be a son, and get quit of his own guilty fears. Every particle of suffering which ariseth from the sting of past guilt, or from the rankling pain of abiding roots of sin, or from the shame of exposure, or from the actual exposui-e of our crimes, is not suffering for righteousness' sake, is no fellowship of Christ's sufferings, but the punishment of unbelief and actual wickedness. Therefore believe thou, 0 sinner, that thy guilt is atoned for, and break off thy sins by repentance, and lead a holy life by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost ; and then shalt thou begin to suffer with Christ, and to bear the burden of the sorrows of God. ( 267 ) GRACE. "We, wLlo hold tlie doctrine of an election and a reproba- tion amongst the children of men, hold of necessity the universality of the presentation ' of the free grace of God; because it is by the acceptance of that grace the elect are made manifest, and by the rejection of it that the repro- bate are made manifest; which revelation of both classes could not come to pass without the presentation of it to all mankind. This mystery of election and reprobation is entirely dependent upon the universality of the free gift and ofier of grace, and preaching of the gospel unto all ; and Cometh out of it, dawning and clearing itself upon those who will be at the pains to read the Holy Scriptures, or who will have the patience to reflect upon what they already believe. You believe, do you, that the manifesta- tion of the grace is freely made unto all ? " Yes." And what cometh of those who reject it ? " They are repro- bates." And what cometh of those who receive it ? " They are elect." Well now, did God contemplate this issue of it, or another ; did He reveal this issue of it, or another ? Surely He must both contemplate and reveal the truth. Therefore His word speaketh of an election and a repro- bation as about to be manifested by the free preaching of His grace unto all men in Jesus Christ. And a very gra- cious, holy, and most necessary part of the revelation it is, teaching that salvation is not made easy by the gospel — w^hich is the root of all errors ; I may say, the practical error of all, save the election — but that men are by the gospel placed imder more awful sanctions, equipoised, as it were, between the top of heaven and the depth of hell ; the field on which the powers of heaven and hell are to contend for the victory ; the substance out of which a monument is to be built to the inexhaustible grace or inexhaustible severity of God. And those who, hiding the principles and the issues of election and reprobation, and at the same time preaching the gospel freely unto all, do their utmost to keep the world in the delusion that 268 DoctjHnal. salvation is made easy aud attainable at any time, do bring the Cburcb into a state of ease and inactivity, of sleep and death, such as vp'e now behold it to be in. And it is to preach only one-half of the glory of God impersonated in Christ; whereof the world hath had but the part of grace revealed at the former advent, and waiteth for the other part, of judgment and severity, against the advent yet to come. His birth in Bethlehem ushered in the day of grace ; His coming in the clouds shall usher in the day of judgment ; and these two make up the manifestion of God in Christ Jesus, the fulness of the Godhead in the body of the Son of man. If they will sum up the whole, and preach the result unto the Church, let them station themselves under the whole, let them understand the whole ; and from the consummation look back and tell what hath passed ; and see if they can include it all under these words, " Grace unto all." They must add, " The grace of election unto some, the severity of reprobation unto many ; " " God in Christ a God of mercy, and a God of justice ; " "a Father, and a consuming fire ; " " the Saviour of the Church, and the destroj^er of the world;" "the builder iip of heaven, and the builder up of hell " — all to His glory ; all to the glory of His holiness and truth ; and equally of the essence and substance of His being. Now, as I take it, beloved brethren, that the evening shadows of the day of grace are darkening around us ; and the temple gate, though loth, is ready to be shut, after which no one shall be able to enter ; and the night is thickening ; and the sword of the angel of judgment is in his hand ; and the snare of the tempter is spreading ; and the pit of the de- stroyer is widening its mouth ; and the time of the end is at hand ; we hold out, as it were, a last momentary invita- tion, and blow a final blast, mingled of entreating pity and warning, around the world, saying, " Kow or never; the day is far spent, and the night is at hand : haste ! haste for your lives ! enter, enter into the ark ! for the heavens are thick, and the hail is coming down upon the forest, and the city is low in a low place." Grace. 269 And, still a little higher to ascend into the nature of grace, I wonld obsei've, that it is not, as it were, the second term of a decreasing, but of au increasing series ; not of a descending, but of an ascending ratio : it is not the repairing of a breach, or the reforming of a mistake, or the remedj'ing of a disease ; but it is the further opening of the mystery of the Divine Being, and the exalting of the Divine handiwork into a higher region : not to place man where Adam was, but far above what Adam bad the idea of; to exalt the natui'e of man into consubstantial and eternal union with the nature of God, and in humanity to make God for ever manifest, and to lift the sons of men into the nearest link of the chain which hangeth from the throne of God. There is a gi'eat overestimate and exagge- ration of the work of creation, by transferring to it the spiritual ideas which we have obtained from the regenera- tion, and decking out the primitive estate of the first Adam with honours derived from the essential properties of the second Adam : but to me it is clear and manifest, that the second Adam, which is the child of the regenerating Spirit, is as much superior to the first Adam, which is the child of the creating Spii'it, as a quickening Spirit is to a living soul, as the spiritual body of the resurrection is to the natural body which we have at present ; as the prime place and prerogative of heaven is to the possession of a garden, and the sovereignty of the angels of heaven is to the sovereignty of the creatures of the earth. And by how much I believe the issues of the regeneration to be un- speakably more noble than the issues of creation were, by so much do I believe this second act of the will of the Godhead, which is revealed in grace, to be more excellent than the former act of creation was. It is a great step forward in the great work of self-manifestation ; it is a high advancement in the progress of the stability and blessedness of all things. The Father's grace is manifested in His being willing to become a Father to those who had already subverted themselves from His favour, and brought themselves under 2 70 Doctrinal. His wratli and curse : it was further manifested by His willingness to suffer His Son to go forth of His bosom, and take sinful flesh, and come under cursed conditions ; which was a thing never to have been imagined, nor ever to have been believed, had it not been performed ; and never to have been performed, had not the grace of God been able to surpass all limits, both of imagination and belief. For in every act of that humiliation of His Son, as in the first idea of it, the Father must be hidden in the righteous Judge ; and this, too, that He may be known as a Father. In order, I say, to be known as a Father to the rebellious, He must hide His fatherhood from the only-begotten and well-beloved Son: which, 1 say again, were a thing in- credibly paradoxical if it had not really been. And it never would have been, save to make known the infinite excellencies and profound mysteries of Divine grace ; how justice, and holiness, and most precious sacrifice and the suspension of tenderest love, how anguish, and tears, and groans, and the strongest torments, and the deepest abase- ment, must all be swallowed up in the amplitude of the signification and power of grace. I may call creation a pastime, if I call grace a work ; or if you will call creation a work, then I must call grace His strange work. His peer- less and surpassing work. The one is but as the formless chaos, upon whose heaving disorder and restless strife the glorious attributes of grace are to be engraven for ever, in the order and beauty and blessedness of an eternal and unchangeable world. INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES, The interpretation of tongues did not consist in their knowledge of the strange words, or the structure of the foreign languages. It was nothing akin to translation ; the Spirit did not become a schoolmaster at all ; but brought to the man's soul with the certainty of truth, that this which He was giving him to utter was the interpretation of the thing which the other had just spoken. This conviction Ititerpretation of Tongues. 271 might be brought to the spirit of the speaker himself, and then he was his own interpreter ; but it was more frequent to bestow that gift Tipon another. This provision of an order who should interpret, as well as an order who should speak with tongues, shews that the gift of tongues had a higher origin than from the variety of languages amongst men. If it had been merely for preaching the truth to people of other languages, an order of interpreters would never have been required at all. If it had only been given for conveying the truth to foreign nations, then why have so many in each church, like the church of Corinth ? If it be said, this was to stir them to go forth to those whose tongues they had received ; while I allow that this is so far forth good and true, it is by no means the whole truth ; for why, then, have an order of intepreters there also ? This shews that the gift was good for that Church in itself; that it was resident in the churches for home use, as well as for service abroad ; and that God saw such use in it, as to pro- vide another ministry for the purpose of making it avail- able to the uses for which it was given. If the circumstance of the language being foreign would have prompted them to go forth to the heathen, the interpretation being at hand would prompt them to remain with the Church ; and both being standing orders in the Church, we conclude that this gift of speaking with another tongue, and the other gift of interpreting what was spoken, are, being taken together, a constant accomplishment of the Church, necessary to her completeness wherever she is, and to be continued with her even though the whole world had been converted to the faith and the office of the missionary were done away with for ever. Let us consider this twofold ordinance as one, and see what it yieldeth. If there should be in our church an order of men, of whom the Spirit so manifestly took possession as to make them utter the mysteries of god- liness in an imknown tongue, and another order of men to whom the Spirit divided the power of interpreting the same, the first impression that would be made by it is, that verily God was in us of a truth, as truly as He was in the 272 Doctrinal. Shechinah of the holy place ; and the next, that He was speaking forth oracles for our obedience. The unknown tongue, as it began its strange sounds, would be equal to a voice from the glory, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts," or " This is my Sou, hear ye him ;" and every ear would say, " Oh that I knew the voice ;" and when the man with the gift of interpretation gave it out in the vernacular tongue, we would be filled with an awe, that it was no other than God who had spoken it. Methinks it is altogether equal to the speaking with the trumpet from the thick darkness of the Mount, or with a voice as thunder from the open vault of heaven. The using of man's organs is, indeed, a mark of a new dispensation, foretold as to come to pass after Christ ascended up on high, when He would receive gifts and bestow them upon men, that the Lord God might dwell, might have an habitation, in them. Formerly the sounds were syllabled we know not how, because God had not yet prepared for Himself a tent of flesh; which He accom- plished to do first in Jesus of Nazareth, and is now perfect- ing in His Church, who are His temple, in whom He abideth as in the holy place, and from whom He speaketh forth His oracles in strange tongues. The strange tongue takes away all source of ambiguity, proving that the man himself hath nothing to do with it, and leaves the Avork and the authority of the word wholly in the hand of God. And therefore tongues are called a sign to the unbeliever, 1 Cor. xiv. 22 : " Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not." Just as the voice given at Bethabara over the baptized Christ was spoken as a ground of faith to the unbelieving Jew, and the voice given before His passion was a confirmation to the faith of the inquiring Greek, and of all ^vho heard it : so these voices, spoken forth from the breasts of men, by a power not human, but divine, are intended to convince the unbelievers that God really dwell eth in the Church ; hath chosen the Church for His habitation ; and that, if they would find Him, they must seek Him tbei"e, for nowhere else is He to be found. The prophet Isaiah, to whom it Interpretation of Toiigties. ~/6 was given to forewarn men of this particular gift of tongues, doth so speak of it as a fresh evidence which God would give to men for a ground of believing, and which, alas ! they would also reject. I take the quotation as the apostle hath sanctioned it, the Holy Spirit's version of His own words : " With men of other tongues, and other lips, will I speak unto this people : and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord," (1 Cor. xiv. 21.) I cannot but look upon this gift of tongues as sealing up the sum of God's dealings with men for their obedience of faith. It is the very power of God, which to blaspheme is to blas- pheme the Holy Ghost. And witness what power it had on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were added to the Church. This is the " greater thing " which was to be done by him that believeth. No one could say that Jesus was the Christ, that God was in Him, but by the Spirit leading him into the truth of what He spoke, or con- vincing him of the Divine nature of the works which He did. God did not manifest Himself in Christ in this ^^n- equi vocal way; for Christ's life was not a witness to Him- self, but to the Father. Christ came to do the Father's will in our condition, that we in the like case might be assured of power and ability through Him to do the same. He was the prototype of a perfect and holy man under the condi- tions of the Fall, that we, under those conditions, might know there was power and will in God that we should all be perfect and holy. This being accomplished, and Christ ascended up on high, God sets on foot another work, which is to testify that honour to which man had become advanced in the person of the Son of man, and in all other persons who by faith should be united to Him. As God had shewn how far man had fallen in Adam, by the state of the world under sin and suftering and death ; so, by the Church would He shew how far man had risen in Christ, that all men believing in Him might be brought to that exceeding exaltation. Therefore in the Church He sheM's not man's identity with the fallen Adam, biit man's identity with the lisen Adam. In the incarnation, Christ's identity with T 2 74 Doctrinal. the fallen man was shewn, yet without sin : in the Church, Christ's identity with God is shewn, the power and glory of God in Him are exhibited, that all men might believe in His name. This gift of tongues is the crowning act of all. None of the old prophets had it ; Christ had it not ; it belongs to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the risen Christ : it is the proclamation that man is enthroned in heaven, that man is the dwelling-place of God, that all creation, if they would know God, must give ear to man's tongue, and know the compass of reason. It is not we that speak, but Christ that speaketh. It is not in us as men that God speaks ; but in us as members of Christ, as the Church and body of Christ, that God speaks. The honour is not to us, but to Christ ; not to the Godhead of Christ, which is ever the same, but to the manhood of Christ, which hath been raised from the state of death to the state of being God's temple, God's most holy place, God's Shechinah, God's oracle, for ever aud ever. OF PROPHECY. What is this gift of Prophecy, of which the apostle maketh such high account? It is evidently very different from what is commonly understood by prophesying, as the mere foretelling of future events, because it is "unto men for edification and exhortation and comfort." But if that vulgar idea of prognostication be meant to repiesent the true character of a prophet of the Old Testament, nothing is so insufficient. Is the office of Moses h, in all their forms : thou art a prophet to cry aloud to the Ninevites, to this Babylon, which, after enjo^'ing the light of God so long, is now beginning to deny that it was from Christ that light of God did come. For thy duties as a churchman, I refer thee to Christ's instruc- tions to the angels of the seven chiarches : and I proceed. Lastly, To speak to thee of thy duties as a man ; for this is the basis upon which all the other forms of character are built, and thou must give good heed to it. I speak not of u 2 292 Practical. the natural form of man which thon art of, for this thot; hast crucified with Christ, and it must live no longer ; hut I speak of those many functions which the new man hath to discharge towards those to whom we are related by other ties than the ministerial, or the pastoral, or the ecclesiasti- cal,— to friends and to acquaintance, to servants, to men in general, and to the society of which thou art a member, and to the civil polity of which thou art a subject. For the present, thou must dwell, like a wayfaring man, in a lodg- ing ; but I trust thou wilt soon be master of thine own house, to give thy people a pattern of household govern- ment, as Joshua resolved to do, and as every bishop and every elder is required to do. Thou wilt keep hospitality ; and accumulate riches at thy peril. Oh, if thou grow rich, — oh, if thou shouldst die rich, I will be ashamed of thee. Look at the hard hearts of rich men ; look at their vain self-importance ; look at their contempt of Christ ; and pray, oh earnestly pray, to be kept from that greatest snare. Thy cloak and thy parchments, brother, — that is, thy decent apparel and thy books, — ^be these thy riches, and then thou canst speak out against Mammon, and tell those men of thousands and tens of thousands, whom thou art surrounded with, what they should do with their treasures. If thou spare them, God will not spare thee. I give thee it in charge this day, that thou reprove them and their accumulations sharpl3\ Keep thou hospitality. Shew thou to lordly prelates what the word bishop meaneth. Shew thou to substantial citizens what the word hospitality meaneth. Shew thou to rich men what the word charity meaneth ; and to all, what faith meaneth. Go thou out as poor a man as thou came in ; and let them bury thee when thou diest. And if God should bless thee with a wife and children, put no money in the bank for them, but write prayers in the record of the book of life : be this thy bank of faith ; be this thy exchange, even the providence of God ; and let the lords of thy treasury be the prophets and the apostles who went before thee. 0 my brother, be zealous for the good primitive customs of the Church : abjure thou the Ordination Chat'ge. 293 prudential maxims of this metallic age. Oh, be thou a man far above this world, living by faith in the world to come like one of the elders who have obtained a good report. Be thou of a bold countenance and a lion heart, of a single eye and a simple spirit : otherwise Satan will soon hedge thee in and mow thee up ; he will come to thee as a counsellor, but we of the presbytery, whose voice I now speak, are thy counsellors : he will come to thee as a threatener; but who dare meddle with thee who are Christ's anointed minister? he will come to thee as a flatterer; be thou therefore honest and self-denied. If thou do thy duty, as I trust thou wilt, thy dearest friends will come to warn thee, and will exceedingly afflict thee by their apprehensions ; but thou art not to be seduced by friends, being this day charged by the whole Church of Christ to be ftiithful unto Christ, and to no other allegi- ance. The time is coming, yea, now is, when thou mayest have to testify against wickedness in high places, as did the fathers of the Church : and thou must, and then there will come about thine ears such a hurricane of stormy voices ; but, like Elijah, thou must stand in the cleft of the rock till it passeth by. But, if thou hast any floating interest, if thou hast any selfish end, canst thou stand all this, my brother ? no, thou wilt shrink and yield every limb of thee. If thou art not ready to die, get ready as fast as thou mayest ; for the soldier in the battle who is not ready to die hath two enemies to fight: and if thou be not ready to die for Christ, thou mayest have a hundred ; but if thou be ready to die for Christ thou hast but one, who is emphatically ilie enemy, against whom, that all thine energies may be collected, give this daj' all interests, all afi'ections, all gains, all talents, all things unto the Lord, and count them but as dung that thou mayest win Christ. What the Lord Jesus, who was followed by a multitude, did say to them indiscriminately, I may well turn round and say to thee His soldier, His captain of a hundred, yet, I trust, to be His captain of a thousand, — "He that would be my disciple must hate father and 294 PracticaL mother, and sister, and wife, and children, and house* and lands, and his own life also, — must take up his cross, and follow me." And now, what sayest thou ? Who is sufficient for these things ? Thou art, Christ strengthening thee ; and thinkest thou Christ will be wanting to thee ? No, verily. He never sendeth any one a warfare on his own charges. Thou mayest be wanting unto Christ, but never will Christ be wanting unto thee. But what assurance have I, dost thou say ? The same which the apostles had, the same which the seventy had, the same which Titus and Timothy and the primitive pastors had, — that Holy Spirit which de- scended at Pentecost, which hath been present in the Church, which is now present in it, and freely accessible to us all, for all the powers and offices which Christ's members in their several offices shall be accountable. And hast thou not this day been set apart by the highest symbol, even the laying on of hands? Is that a symbol sym- bolising nothing ? No ! it symboliseth every form of the Spirit which Timothy or Titus had. There is now a gift in thee as surely as there was a gift in Timothy, by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. And neglect it not, neglect not the gift of prL'phecy that is in thee by the laying on of our hands. Thou hast a Spirit this day sealed upon thee by the hoi}' ordinance of the Church, which Paul describe th unto Timothy to be, " not the Spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Thou are not one of the demi-infidels who believe that those ordinances of Christ's appointment are but naked signs. Thou knowest for what thou art this day made responsible ; thou knowest what a gift Christ hath this day bestowed upon thee. We have not laid hands suddenly on thee ; we have made full pioof of thy ministry, of thy doctrine, of thy life. W^e have this day observed the ordinance of the Church blamelessly. And we believe that Christ will honour His own holy ordinance, to communicate thereby those same gifts of the Spirit which he did communicate in the days of old unto His faithful bishops. Wherefore I Difficulties of a Moral Life. 295 1 have ptit thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of our hands. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things; and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession ; that thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukeable until the ap- pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in his times He will shew, " who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath im- mortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see : to whom be honour and power everlasting." Amen. DIFFICULTIES OF A MOEAL LIFE. "When I meditate upon the xmfavourable conditions with which moral life sits suiTounded in this fallen and con- founded world, it seems to me that no aim less poweiful than the arm of a God can extricate her and set her on high above all her foes. Pleasure, with all her siren daughters arrayed for temptation's ends, come in mazy dance, be- wraying the weakness of moral life, setting the blood on fire, and the heart into a gleeful mood ; and they bring in their hands each an intoxicating cup, one offering a draught to vanity, another to love, a third to fancy, a fourth to tendei'-hearted pity, a fifth to humanity; and so through the open portals of every feeling they insinuate into the soul poisonous drugs in the season of youth, when the mouths of natural affection are open and thirsty ; they charm the soul, they cheat it, they shave its locks of strength, they cast bands upon it, as Delilah did upon the might of Samson. And who is the grey-headed man hearing me, who is the strong man, who is the young man, whom these daughters of pleasure and joy have not at one time or other entrapped into their wiles, and for a season prostrated all his monJ 296 Practical. strengtli ? And if haply any one doth stand the softness of these joyous allurements, and by strength of nature be enabled to overcome, then come anon an assailing host of another kind, arrayed under the banners of human appro- bation. They come with each a reproachful word on their lips. Not able to endure the steadiness of our purpose where they themselves have yielded up the struggle, friends, fellow-companions come mocking our stoical humours ; they reproach us for unkindness, want of companionship, want of gallantry, of spirit, of youthful joy. They seek us in our retired stiidies, or our patient persevering industry ; they spread the banquet for our entertainment, they press us with kind hospitality to the feast, they bear down our purposes by the exceeding greatness of their regard, and we who would not yield to pleasure when addressing our selfish part, yield to the same pleasure invading us through the accessible avenue of friendship and society. And thus again are many more carried by a tide of solicitude from the rock of their moral resolution, and set adrift into the ocean of social enjoyment, no longer the masters of themselves. Then cometh ambition, and the noble desire to rise in life and wield a sceptre of influence and power. And now beginneth the tear and wear of manhood, — the game of policy, the strife of party, the tug of power, the opposition of principles, the gains and losses of various schemes. The vacuity of the mind which in youth besought the occupa- tion of fine sentiment under feeling and soft enjoyment, now beseecheth the occupation of business afiairs, schemes, wiles, stratagems, and arduous undertakings. All the tender brood of early life are unhoused to seek their domicile in minds of tenderer years, to cheer others, for we have weightier things to mind. Alas, alas ! we are cheated ; these tender occupants are the daughters of a softer, better stock than those ruffian passions and cool-blooded intriguing- policies which now have gotten the hold. Oh, I do pity moral life in this stage and trial of life, for it is a miracle if it keep above in the confusion which these ambitious thoughts do breed. I could describe its feeble resistance Difficii I tics of a Moral L ife. 297 aud its overthrow, its trampling under foot, and its grave. But what avails it to do so before men who live in the heat and heart of ambition's empire, and can remark everywhere its ruinous ravages upon well-principled and noble action ? Behold the young man arise all glowing with liberal and manly sentiment, breathing patriotism, and haranguing against corruption, upholding disinterestedness aud inde- pendence on every hand. Leave him alone for a few years, and what do you find ? The stripling patriot embracing and hugging that which he formerly denounced, and laughing at the new race of unfledged youth who are in the early stage of ambitious career. He laugheth at it as the in- experience of youth, or the hunting of place, and he opportunely casteth in the way lures and baits, never doubting to hook him and have him, and transfer him from the realm of his natural liberty into artificial places, where he maybe taught graceful and becoming movements. Now, what is the plain meaning of this revolution, and what is the real cause? It meaneth that the breath of noble-mindedness was in the youth at first, the power of virtuous discernment, and virtuous feeling, and virtuous speech, but that when it came to action, — when he must commit his interests for virtue's sake, his ambitions, his worldly advancement, he could no longer stand, but gave in where so many had given in before him. This is the secret of the apostasy from principle which they complain of in every rank — the weakness of the hand of moral life. These and so many other disadvantages have to be borne up against in the performance of what our conscience com- mends, that perhaps there is not one present who would not confess, without further demonstration, the point at issue, that moral life hath a weak hand to perform even that little which her eye discerneth. But if any one hesitates to confess, then without further ado I put it to the issue of a few categorical questions. Have not your hearts, while perusing the lives and heroic actions of noble men, burnt with approbation and resolved to walk in the same glorious footsteps ; and gradually, upon descending into the arena 298 Practical. of life, you have been witladrawn from jowc noble purpose into the tame commonplace virtue of the day, perhaps degraded into manj"- of its popular vices? If you have, this is a proof of nature's inability to perform what she is able to discern. Again, have you ever found it necessary to disguise from the world your real purposes, and conceal from them parts of your actual character ? As often as you have, you have confessed not only inferiority to your own ideal standard, but to the worlds actual standard, which is infinitely lower. Again, have you ever had to criminate yourself in your private moments, or to confess your faults into the bosom of your friend, or before him whom you had injured or neglected ? Such remorses are acknowledg- ments of feebleness to perform what conscience is con- vinced of, for where there is no conviction of conscience there can be no remorse. Again, have you never from the pulpit, or from the voice of virtuous friends, or from the press, or even fi'om the stage, had your soul fired against those forms of wickedness in which you indulged, and to which you returned to indulge again ? Nay, verily, have not you, in your places as guardians of others, as parents, as masters, as teachers, as governors, given forth law and judgment against your very selves ? But what avail eth further discourse upon the weakness of men's cha- racter, compared with their intellect and their conscience ? The thing is revealed in every conscious breast; every man hath it written on his forehead. Every life confesseth it in its lines and passages ; broken resolutions speak it, defeated wishes weep over it, all prostrate virtues cry out against it, all meannesses confess it, all vices rejoice in it, all hypocrisies live by it, all passions prosper from it. All secret indulgences, public misdemeanours, all backslidings, and false promises would go into desuetude and die away, that moment the character of man became of equal strength with his conscience to feel and his intellect to discern the way. Now, God knows, I have no cold-hearted or cruel inten- tion in exposing these evil influences of the world, and Difficulties of a Moral Life. 299 evil tendencies of human nature to comply therewith. But it is necessary to make an exposition of the true state of the case before inquiring into the applications by which it may be solved. Having laid the wound bare, I come now to seek for remedies ; and first, I ask the moralist, with whom I hold this friendly and free conference, what means he hath to propose for bringing the hand with which moral life acts into obedience of the heart with which moral life feels, or the eye with which she sees. His common reme- dies are good education of youth and good government of men. Good government, I acknowledge, is an excellent help, which the wisdom of society hath devised to make it the interest of men to walk orderly in those things whereof it is permitted governors to take cognisance. But, as we have already remarked, it is totally inadequate to the remedy of those interior evils of our condition, of which we at present treat. Governors and judges wait ixntil the evil within the breast, or the evil of outward conduct comes to a height, escapes from control, takes visible form, and makes head against another's rights, or against the common weal. Then it is their province to put forth their help and restrain the growing evil ; which evil, even then, they do not cure, but confine by force, or, by banishment or death, clean lop off from all hope of amendment. The fear of which fatal issue, I do allow, saves many characters from ruin, as the buoys planted upon the fatal rocks where vessels have split save many others from coming near destruction. But the helps we want are of a finer cast and a more frequent application. Something ever present, ever felt, something pouring vigour into the enervated framework of natnre, and arraying her in defence against the temptations of the world. Something within the sacred circle of freedom which law toucheth not, may prevail with the same fearful influence which law hath beyond that circle, and which, while it operates by punishment upon fear may operate by rewards upon hope, b}' stimulus upon ambition, by persuasion upon unwillingness and timidity. For it is not by great things and by great occa- 300 Practical. sions that the character of man is formed to worth or to worthlessness. Great crimes grow not at once, nor great virtues. The mind, like the body, grows strong by degrees, and parts not with its strength but by degrees. And being placed beyond the reach of outward accidents, it is more regular and slow in its progression to healthy or unhealthy conditions than is the body itself. It is the food which it feeds on daily, hourly, every instant that builds up or saps its strength, — the thoughts that come and go incessantly, the imaginations which flit aboiit within the soul, the airy schemes that have not taken form, but wait occasion, the loves that flutter in confinement until they find an object to rest on. The heart is the great continent of actions where they grow, and utter themselves into the ear, or before the eye of the world, as opportunity ofifereth. Therefore in this their sleeping embryo state, the giants of vice, the great anarchs of crime and confusion, are to be laid hands on, and bound in chains of good order. Give me a legislature, give me an executive, give me a monarch of good, and a senate of noble feelings, and an uncorrupted representative of all plebeian virtues, for the government of the heart, that by debate and counsel timously holden within the breast the good subjects may be encouraged, the bad ones kept in check, overawed, and never once allowed to lift their head ; — this is the government I seek for my purpose, and nothing less than this will avail a jot. I want a pilot to keep the course and have the crew in subjection, to keep the ship out of peril, to keep the ship in the fair- way, out of the neighbourhood of those dangerous places in the ocean of affairs which law hath buoyed and marked in its legislative charts. For this legislation of the heart and strengthening of the good powers within the breast, I ask the moralist again what he hath to offer ? Early edu- cation is his answer ; by which I understand tuition in the principles of moral conduct, and training in the ways of virtue. This is right. Now, may I ask him for his code ; of morality in which the youth are to be trained ; for be- sides the Scriptures and works founded thereon I happen Difficulties of a Moral Life. 301 to know no code of morals out of which children could be taught. The works of the ancients on offices and ethics are argumentiitive books, which it would puzzle most men to follow ; and modern books on moral philosophy and moral sentiment, which build not on religion, are equally- unfit for the present necessity. But suppose they had such a handbook as is wanted, I ask next upon what authority they are to enforce its precepts upon .the young. For with- out religion I see none adequate to the end. If it be upon advantage, then who is to be judge of that advantage, but the youth himself, whose judgments of advantage how weak they are against the present calls of inclination and occa- sions of evil every one doth know ! If you refer to the better instincts of nature, as kindness, gentleness, the sense of truth, the desire of order and of happiness, and endea- vour to feed into early maturity these good affections, and keep the evil ones down by discouragement, it is well ; but now I ask for teachers able to do so. You would require an anatomist of the soul in every village, and a perfect puritan in every village school, a philosopher, a moralist, a magician of the soul, able to charm its good parts out of their natural weakness, and lay in deep and hidden places the evil influences which most generally overule the inward state. But, granting that you had both such a handbook of morals and such divine moralists, I ask next what is to become of the youth when they leave such excellent tuition ? How are they to meet temptation, actual temptation, when it bears down upon them in all the gaudy colours and alluring forms of life? How aro they to stifle the affections which rise within to meet and embi-ace them? How are they to stem the popular cur- rents of vanitj'- and folly and vice which vary the surface of society like the waves of the sea, and agitate it beneath like the ground-swell and tossing of the deep ? A man's natural strength of character, I do declare, is as insufficient to stem the streams of custom, however he may hate them and strive against them, as the bare arms of the swimmer are able to contend against the Gulf Stream of the ocean. 302 Practical. The voice of solitary conscience is deafened by ilie popular outcry of approbation or disapprobation, as the voice of the sea-bird is in the womb of the rolling and roaring tempest. It would be most unfair to the feelings and interests of those who have heard these painful statements of an evil and an insiifficient cure to stop here, without stating for their comfort and urging for their salvation the remedy which there is in the revelation of Jesus Christ. This addresseth itself at once to the weak men within the breast, and brings them into life and strength. It ad- dresseth itself also to the strong men, and by main force binds them, or by persuasion converts them to good. The Lord hath entered into the field to moralise the life of men, and make it noble. For this end He hath laid down in His holy word categorical enumerations of the good and ill, not of actions merely, but of feelings and of thoughts, and written them so that he who runneth may read. To the one He hath promised to bestow all the welfare which this fallen world permitteth man to enjoy, and all the unbounded riches which the eternal world contains ; threatening upon the other indignation and wrath, tri- bulation and anguish. He hath given a code of penalties and punishments for the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and thereto He hath added a code of rewards and enjoyments, and set up the very system of inward legisla- tion which we besought the moralists to furnish us withal. A handbook we have, and authority of the Almighty to sustain its eveiy precept, — eternal blessing to reward the obedience, and eternal misery to punish the transgression thereof. To induce us to undertake repentance and reformation, He hath brought within our reach an amnesty for all the past, and to encourage us to persevere He hath opened up a divine sustenance and strength for all the future. He hath promised that His Spirit shall enter into league with our spirit, in order to urge on the heavy work of regeneration. He hath summoned eveiy affection of human natvire to her Saviour, by clothing that Saviour in Life merely the Means to Spiritual Life. 303 every useful and attractive quality. He hath, through the mediutQ of that Saviour, exalted every feeble affection of human nature to Himself, made the way open for the weakest to arise, and the most sinful to trust and rejoice before Him. There are remonstrances, there are argu- ments, there are soft persuasions, there are fears, there are hopes, there are high ambitions and deepest interests, there are consolations, there are recoveries, there are assurances of safety, — the whole artillery of human motives is brought into constant play in the page of divine revelation. After the ej'e of conscience hath thus been couched, and the heart set on fire to encourage the hand to perfoim, there is the divine example of Christ steering steadily through extremest perils a life of glory and honour, and the as- surance of the indwelling Spirit of Christ to work the same effect upon all His followers. In every difiBculty there is promise of direction, in ever}' want there is promise of supply, and in every infirmity of strength. The gate of heaven is opened wide to the earnest pi-ayer of every suitor ; the Lord of heaven hath stricken a league, offensive and defensive, with every humble servant of His, and the gates of hell He hath promised shall never prevail against him. LIFE MERELY THE MEANS TO SPIRITUAL LIFE. It was not to be expected, that, when the Spirit so dili- gently prepared the woild for the coming of Christ, He should neglect this preparatory work in the soul of man, for which the world was created, is preserved, and wrought upon. It is not to be believed, that, seeing there is a sea- son of human life in every one during which he is inca- pable of receiving the preached word, that the Spirit, who is the great Author of life, should not be occupied during the same in endeavouring to make a preparation for the coming of the Son of man. If the law of all life, vegetable and animal, be a preparation fur and a servant of the spiri- tual life, how much more ought the laws of human life 304 Practical. and human well-being to be subservient thereto ? In one word, what is human life, and all life, but a work of the Spirit, "the Lord and giver of life " ? And if so, for whom doth the Spirit work, but for Christ? and of whom doth He bear testimony, but of Christ ? It can in no manner be doubted, therefore, that life in man, and the laws of man's well-being, are indeed a work preparatory for the know- ledge of the gospel. And this not any particular act, but the honesty or dishonesty of every act, the good or evil course according to which our life has been sj)ent ; whe- ther we have followed after wisdom or folly ; whether we have walked in the ways of truth or of error; whether we have listened to the solicitations of evil, with which the world is filled, or to the continual suggestions of good, which are presented to our conscience ; whether we have tised our talents well, according to the light which God hath given us, or whether we have used them ill, accord- ing to the same light; whether we have obeyed ihe law of humanity towards the lower animals ; whether we have followed knowledge and industry towards the inanimate creatures ; whether we have followed honesty and upright- ness towards all men, and treated every one according to his place and station ; whether we have followed the law of chastity, continence, and temperance towards our body, — the law of sincerity and truth in our words, and of gen- tleness and graciousuess in our minds ; whether we have made a right use of all the advantages and opportunities which God hath given us; and, in short, whether we have sought to cultivate an honest, or give loose to the inclina- tions of a dishonest heart. THE PEEVERSION AND USE OF SUFFERING. So much is it the nature of suffering to perfect holiness, that in the ages which followed those of martyrdom, when men were not called to it in the ordinary providence of God, they made an artificial set of sufferings, and went into The Perve7'sio7i aiid Use of Sufferijig. 305 a voluntary exile from all the comforts and conveniences of life. This, if I may so speak, is the weakest side of Chris- tianity, or that upon which Christians are most apt to act — will-worship, a volnutary humility and neglection of the body, as the apostle calleth it. Our dispensation having been sown in suffering, and indeed founded on death, the death of the Lamb of God, and ever since the blood of the martyrs having proved the seed of the Church, and our most noble characters having come oiit of persecu- tion's school, and the whole of our dispensation breathing of self-denial and hard endurance, of mortification and crucifixion of the old man, it is always ready to be cor- rupted into a system of asceticism or of voluntary self- denial and suffering. Such expressions as these occuring — "That he who hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;" " Count it all joy, brethren, when ye fall into divers temptations ; " "I count all things but loss that I may know the fellowship of his sufferings;" "He who suffereth with Him shall also reign with Him " — it comes to pass that Christians are always falling into error upon the head of self-inflicted mortification. Amongst the Catho- lics it is one of the sacraments, and everywhere there is a yoke of observance, less or more, upon the necks of the disciples, which they submit to under the idea that they thereby do God service. Now, the only preservative from this, which I call the weak side of Christianity, — not that it is weak on any side, but that human nature hath shewn itself most disposed to err and mistake it on that side; — against this voluntary humility the only preservative is spiritual knowledge and understanding, with the progress of which formality decays and spirituality grows apace. As the inward man becomes enlightened, ho perceives that there is no need to make artificial suflering, and go into voluntary exile from enjoyment. As he is able to read his own thoughts, and estimate the many moods of his mind by the \\'ord of God, he perceives that there is a discipline of the spirit which will bring with it enough of trial and endurance to occupy the resolution of his mind ; and as X 3o6 Practical. he proceeds to set his spirit in order, he will soon find that his sayings, and his manners, and his actions, must work against the stream of the world, and meet with strife, struggle, and desperate encounters. And nature will al- ways go with the world, and friendship also, and the habits perhaps of his own home, so that he will find a combination against the Lord and His anointed which will| hold his graces and his instruments of spiritual warfare in. constant use. But to persevere and feel this requires spiri- tual discernment. A man's conscience must be alive to have this kind of j^recaution. It cannot have place in a formalist, or in a priest-guided mind, or in a darkened understanding ; and hence, just as ignorance and blindness of the mind prevail, will this superstitious prostration and voluntary humility come to life ; and to its destruction nothing is necessary but to have a priesthood who ad- dress the conscience of the people, and summon up their; thoughts, and give them not " ipse-dixits " of their own, or traditions and customs of the Church, by which to shape their obedience. Kevertheless, though there be enough of trial inwardly and outwardly in all ages to keep the soul in active life, and holy discipline, and progi'essive sanctification, yet when the Almighty thereto adds sore trials of His pro- vidence— bereavements, losses, crosses, persecution, perils, and sword — we are to regard them as so many fostering and nutritious measures to hasten ourselves into prema- ture perfection, and raise us to a preternatural purity ; and?S those who endure such afflictions patiently are to account themselves highly favoured of the Lord, and to reckon that His grace and His providence are working together for their o;oud. BLESSED AND UNBLESSED CHANGES. What hinders you fiom giving your souls to the di- vine institutions ? Early habits hinder, the world's cus- tomary fashions hinder, and nature's leanings the other Blessed and Unblessed Changes. 307 wav hinder, and passion liindcrs, and a whcile insurrec- tionary host of feelings musters against the change. Well, be it granted that a troop of joys must be put to flight, and a whole host of pleasant feelings be subdued. What is lost ? Is honour lost ? Is fortune lost ? Is God's provi- dence scared away? Hath the world slipt from beneath your feet, and does the air of heaven no longer sustain you ? Has life deceased, or are your faculties of happiness de- parted ? Change, the dread of change, that is all. The change of society and habits, with the loss of some few perishable joys. Change ! Is not that as great a change w^hcn your phy- sician chambers 5^011 up, and restricts your company to nurses, and your diet to simples? Is not that as great a change when you leave the dissipated city, outworn with its excitements, and live wdth solitude and inconvenience in your summer quarters ? And is not that a greater change w^iich stern law makes, when it mures up jour per- son and gives you outcasts to company with ? And where is the festive life of those who sail the wide ocean ; and where the gaieties of the campaigning soldier; and how does the wandering beggar brook his scanty life ? And if for the sake of a pained limb you wall undergo the change, will you not for the removal of eternal pains of spirit and flesh ? If for a summer of refreshment amongst the green of earth, and by the freshness of ocean, ye will undergo the change, will ye not for the rich contents of heaven ? And if at the command of law yc will, and if for gain the sailor will, and fur honour the soldier will, and for necessity the strolling beggar will ; men and brethren, will ye not, to avoid hell, to reach heaven, to obey the voice of God, to gain the inheritance of wealth and honour, and to feed your spirit's starved necessities — oh ! men, will ye not muster resolution to enterprise the change ? Bring manly fortitude to this question, I entreat you, and look it in the face ; compare these two alternatives — the world's principles and customs, Christ's principles and customs. When you entered into life you were equally X 2 3o8 Practical. jstraugers to both, predisposed to have your own will in everything, and reluctant to resign it either to the institu- tions of your ancestors, or to the institutions of Christ. By a greater aptitude of nature, and the neighbourhood of more examples, and the presence of more immediate rewards and punishments, and a youth of continual training, you have grown into the school of the world where you are enchanted and spell-bound, I know not with what ; but sure you are bewitched, or with thraldom worn down and mimanned. 'Tis not better fortune that holds you; that I deny : nor more accomplishments of mind, nor larger bounds of feeling, nor sublimer thoughts, nor more generous actions, nor more peaceful moments ; which I affirm to be all on the other side. What, then, is the mighty gain ? A few gay smiles of companionship, a few momentary grati- fications dear bought at the price of after-thoughts and after-depressions ; a few heady excesses of spirit, and extra- vagances of language, and irregularities of conduct ; this is merely the sum total of the benefit. Are you free ? Not a jot. You are the slaves of the customs, and dare not on your peril depart from one of them. You call religion a bondage ; yes, it is the bondage of angels strong and seraphs blessed ; nature's well-pleased bondage to her Maker, the creature's reverence for his Creator ; but yours, yours is a bondage to idle fleeting customs, narrow rules of men like yourselves, whose statutes enslave you. You have no privileges worth the naming. You have heaven for- feited. You have hell forestalled. Pitiful drudgery. And this is what you are in love with and cannot leave. So were the swinish herd enamoured of Circe's cup, forgetful of their former noble selves. I wish I could disenchant you, that you might perceive the blessed truth, and love it — which I see not, but I may, seeing God grants His blessing to the weakest instrument. Let me speak a moment of the nature of this change, and if ever, now God send me persuasive words. Ye take up the thing amiss when you think, as is too often represented, that it is a change to be succeeded in Blessed and Unblessed Changes. 309 npon the spur of resolution. A beginning it must have, and that must noticeable, when from leaving God's face and favour, you turn timorously to seek them again. But for its completion the age of Methuselah were insuflScient. Men are never converted, but always converting ; saints never built up, but always bixilding up. Kow, herein you do greatly err. Unless you change and master nature at once, j-ou give it up for hopeless, and fall down into the quietus of man's total inability and forlornness. This is the grossness of stupidest error. Knowledge of God's will is not had at once, cases of conscience are not settled at once, nor is the ability to overcome derived at once. The con- version is the new birth, but to be bom is not to be the man complete in feature and in mind, which groweth out of knowledge, experience, discipline of youth, observa- tion of life, and the thousand appointed steps between the almost unconscious babe, and the accomplished man. Even so, the new birth is but the first germ of religion in the soul, which hath to be cherished, nursed, guarded, trained, and taught by methods and means of grace as manifold as natural strength is reared by. Therefore, so that your souls are longing after God, your ears drinking in His coi:nsel, your feet moving, though faint, still moving in the path, be of good cheer, go on and prosper. Kay, so that you are losing conceit of sin by reason of better concep- tions, and waxing in fear of future issues, and meditating your moiiality more, it is symiitomatic of good, go on and pro^per. Despair not because you are not perfect, neither turn back because yoii frequently fall. And, ye advanced Christians, do not despise this day of small things in a younger brother, neither go to impose on him all your burdens, nor to minister to him the strongest meat which you feed on ; but give God-speed to any en- deavour after good, however small. His very aspirations despise not, his imperfections do not sorely rebuke. Strengthen the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees confirm. Strengthen by encouragement and support, do not by rebuke and censure drive him to distraction. ( 3IO ) PEACTIOAL FRUITS OF SIMPLE HONESTY. Above all things we should cultivate honesty and sim- plicity, truth and faithfulness, in ourselves and all with whom we have to do. Falsehood, fraud, and subterfuge permit at no rate : be jealous of wit and humour, and all equivocal foims of representing things. I have sometimes devoutly wished that I were so stupid as not to understand a joke, that I were honest enough to perceive nothing but the falsehood of what the French call a jeu d'esprit or playfulness of mind. I tell you, brethren, be honest in your dealings : take no advantage even of a child. Be conscien- tious in your bargains. Have a single eye, and a single heart. Seek not to be shrewd. Be not ashamed to be called simple. And let me tell you a secret, which ought not to be a secret, seeing it is written in the Scriptures, that your whole body will then be full of light ; and this in every kind : you will actually see further, and see clearer .<^ than shrewd and cunning men, and you will be less liable to be duped than the3% provided you add to this another part of character which is proper to an honest man — namely, a resolution to protect honesty, and to discountenance every kind of fraud. A cunning man is never a firm man ; but an honest man is : a double-minded man is always unstable ; a man of faith is firm as a rock. I tell 3'ou there is a sacred connexion between honesty and faith : honesty is faith applied to worldly things, and faith is honesty quick- ened by the Spirit to the use of heavenly things. In all that I have said upon this quality, I have not said enough of it. I have but given the clue to the proper way of discoursing upon it ; but I cannot be said to have discoursed of it. Meanwhile, let me press it upon you in the words of our old ballad, " 'Tis giiid to be honest and true." And that wherever we find an honest-heai-ted man, however sunk he may be in wickedness, we should have hope, and there drop the seed of the word of God ; and this may be extended to missionaries wherever they can find an honest-minded people, however stupid and uncivilised, What alone preserves the Church. 3 1 1 thither lot them go and preach the gospel with good hope. But as to all manner of political and double-minded people, wise in their own conceit, and prudent for this world, clever, intellectual, and active-minded though they be ; have more hope of a fool than of such a one. They are too knowing to believe ; they are too shrewd to be chari- table, they are too prudent to hope against hope : you may as soon expect corn to grow upon the sea-beach, as the seed of the word to take root there. Be on your guard, then, and remember you have been warned against these forms of character to which this age is so very prone. You cannot be of this character, and be after God's image : the thing is utterly impossible. Therefore, choose after which you will be conformed ; the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, eas}' to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, or after the wisdom that descendeth not from above, which is earthly, sensual, devilish. WHAT ALONE PRESERVES THE CHURCH. The only thing which preserveth the visible Church in being is the faith, that in its ordinances all the blessings of the invisible Church are held, as the water in a cistern, and through them conveyed to the lips of the elect of God. And because I believe that this is a great and fundamental truth, and that God will at no time dispense with the ordinances in the communication of His grace, save where tbey are not in existence, I know full well that when the ordinances are set light by, or when they are all over- looked for the single glorification of one of them, the written book, as is the case at present, we are near to be dissolved and broken up by death. I do the more earnestly, therefore, call upon every baptized person who now heareth me, to rest assured that, in possess- ing the ordinances of God from his youth, he hath possesiied the continually overflowing cistern, where is 3 1 2 Practical. contained the waters of the gospel ; — that you have been setting at naught the love of God in Jesus Christ, the affection of a Father to His children, whiich, ended, swalloweth up all fatherly aifection in its infinite com- prehensiveness, as the heavens include the earth and all the planets, and all the stars which softly move therein ; — that you have been setting at naught the infinite honour of being accounted a son of God, which is so great that the apostle upon that name alone inferreth Christ's superiority above the angels; and David was amazed that one of his loins should be honoured with that high degree ; — that you have been rejecting the infinite condescension and self-humiliation of the Son, who descended from the in- comprehensible dignity of the Only-begotten of God from all eternity, and forewent the boundless blessedness of inhabiting the Father's bosom, in order to find for 3'ou favour and forgiveness in the sight of God, which you, for your part, have for long years been declaring your total indifference and unwillingness to receive or partake ; — that you have been withstanding and effectually resisting the infinite diligence of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scrip- tures, and in all the ordinances of the Church, especially in the preaching of the word and the administration of sacraments ; whose condescension to reason with you, to remonstrate against your wickedness, to wait upon you soon and late, and in every way to insinuate Himself into your nature, by all its avenues of aftection, you have with- stood, and do withstand unto this hour. O, brethren ! doth this make no difference in your guiltiness? or, rather, doth it not make all the difference which is conceivable, and constitute the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light, their deeds being evil ? Is it no aggravation of a son's crime, that he hath broken the hearts of the ten- derest parents that ever lived ? Is it no aggravation of a servant's crime, that he hath betrayed the trust and pilfered the treasures of the worthiest master who ever breathed? of a friend, that he hath cast off the truest What alone preserves the Church. 313 friend ? of a lover, that he hath been treacherous to the faithfullest, truest lover? of every relative offence, that it is committed against the best and noblest, most genei'- ous and forgiving disposition in those who are offended against? Why, dear brethren, these are the very head and front of offences. It is not the quantity of dust that hath changed hands, it is not the piece of matter which hath got a new master, that makes the complaint ; but it is a rent heart, a violated trust, which crieth for vengeance. And if this be so, as you all know well how truly it is so, I affirm, that to have belonged to the visible Church, to have been baptized, and to have known God in the various relations of Fatlier, Friend, Lover, Master, Eedeemer, Saviour, and Lord, and whatever else is tender, reverend, and awful amongst men, and yet to have re- jected Him, to have turned a deaf ear to Him, to have defrauded Him of the kindred affection and service, doth heap upon our head the accumulated amount of the penal- ties which, in the statute-book, are found written against the various violated relationships of '.righteousness, and doth add to the amount thereof, all which poets have truly imagined, and sentimentalists have represented in the most romantic and incidental relationships, whereof the statute-book taketh no cognisance. Such is the nature of the guiltiness of a man in covenant with God : and do they call this nothing? Is this to be lost sight of, and not spoken of? Are men who have thus offended to be dealt with as the ignorant and unconscious, the supersti- tious and idolatrous heathen, called the world, and under- stood to be as if they had never known and never despised the knowledge of God? As the Lord liveth, while I have the privilege and the vocation of dealing truth from the pulpit of a Church established in these lands, I will never suffer such a thing to be said or thought without the most instant and urgent appeal to the law and the testimony of our God. ( 314 ) USE OF MONEY. Money of itself — that is, the silver and the gold which is usually so denominated — hath few intrinsic qualities for which it should be so desired and sought after, and few uses to which it can be rendered serviceable. In this respect, being compared with iron, or with brass, or even with wood, or with stone, it is a poor servant of man ; but being compared with bread and w^ater, and the other kindly fruits of the earth, it sinks into utter worthlessness ; and, therefore, there be very few who love it on its own account. And when this does happen, as with avaricious misers, it is only one particular foim of the passion of covetousness, which form it hath assumed gradually by a law common to all our passions, of transferring to the object by which they are gratified the love and j)leasures of the gratification itself. For, even wdth the miser, it is at the beginning as with all other men, that he loves and desires silver and gold, not for their hardness, or their weight, or their colour, or their brilliancy, or any other of their intrinsical qualities, but because, from their scarcity and durableness, and other conveniences, they have long .a been to man the means by which everything in the visible a world may be purchased and made our own. It is this quality of money for which the world prizes it so highl}^ and pursues it so earnestly, and it is this quality of money for which the apostle stigmatiseth it so sorely. It piir- chaseth everything that is sensual and visible, and it can purchase nothing that is spiritual and invisible. Every bodily desire it can gratify. It can minister luxury to every sense, and it can gratify every evil passion of the mind. Vanity cannot display herself without money. Ambition mtist have a key of gold to open the doors of that crooked labyrinth through which he winds his way to power and office. As the times go, j'ou cannot attain to any office of honour and trust, but by scattering abroad the arguments of money ; and \\'hen you have them, you cannot hold them without the qualifi-cation of money with which Use of JMojicy. 3 1 5 to raaintain their state, and satisfy tlio rapaciousness of your constituents, and of all men with whom you have to do. Base degenerate age ! with their feasts and their frolics and their fooleries, they have fairly cast out the honour of virtuous poverty, the nobleness of honest and upright service, the manliness, self-denial, and content- ment with little ; — it is all gone, it is all departed : thrifty housewives, blitnt and honest tradesmen, industrious chil- dren, homely comfort, independent citizens, trustworthy office-bearers, incorruptible senators, and magnanimous nobles, and whatever else did heretofore make this land amongst the surrounding nations fii'm and established as the rocks which girdle her round stand unmoved, and frown fearfully upon the boisterous waves. Money hath corrupted the nerves and sinews of our state, the well- braced framework of which lies all dissolved abroad in luxury and venality ; but it hath descended, as we said, to us all. In such extravagant customs have we been trained — amongst such indulgences to which our fathers were strangers — such a style of entertaining our friends — such costly dresses for appearing decently amongst them — such frippery and foolery of dress, as if we were chil- dren's toys instead of immortal souls — such costly furniture in our houses — such gilded wares for our tables, and orna- ments for our walls — such an outwardness, and unsnb- stantialness, and expensiveness in all the economy of life, that no man can escape from it so as to return back again to the simplicity of our natural wants. The style and fashion of living is so costly, and so far beyond the ordi- nary powers of industry, that men are forced either to make slaves themselves all the day and all the week long, or else they are tempted to launch out into speculations and adventures, or start ways of obtaining that supply of money which w^e now feel, as it were, necessary to our existence. It is thus that money hath become not only necessary for "providing things honest in the sight of all men," and the elements of contentment, which are food and raiment, 3 1 6 Practical. but likewise for Boiirisliiug those appetites of tlie "body •whicli should be restrained and denied, and those affections of the natural man which it is the part of a Christian to mortify and put to death. This comes of giving public opinion that influence over us which in these times it L.oldeth, instead of withstanding the world at every step as an enemy, and fearing most of all its overtures of friend- ship and alliance ; for the friendship of the world is enmity with God. At this day it hath become as indispensable for a Christian to guard himself against the accommodations of Christians as heretofore it was for Christians to guard themselves against the world. If indeed it has pleased the Lord to endue any of His servants with large substance, I think it is their part to live as becometh their rank in life ; but I steadily object that any Christian should adopt the worldly and ambitious maxims, the notions of living, the desii'cs of accumulation, the ideas of education and settle- ment to their children, which at present obtain in every rank and class of the community, — otherwise it will plunge them into the same sea of troubles in which the souls of the multitude are at present engulfed. Ye shall find it difficult enough, my brethren, to resist the tide that is flow- ing around you, even when possessed of all disposition to resist it ; but being under the influence of the same moving powers 3'e shall but swell the tide, and swim with it to the same gulf of perdition. Oh that I could tell as I can per- ceive, oh that I could withstand as I can tell, the cunning wiles of Satan to destroy the Church of Christ! But of them all this seems to me the most efficient which he hath constructed in the midst of sweet society, and under the canopy of honourable life, and by the sanction of continual custom. Oh, how I feel myself enthralled by it ! how fondly would I shake it off! How gladly would I become as a fisherman in the Galilean lake, or as a peasant of my native land ! How fondly I would escape the artifices with which Satan daily succeeds against me, arising out of the intricate forms of this artificial life ! — escape from the painful reflection of having neglected some of its forms, Religion the Root of all friiitftil Labour. 3 1 7 and from the self-complacency of having discharged them. Ah, I feel it to be like David going to encounter Goliath, encumbered with the armour which Saul gave him, thus to encounter iSatan -v^^ith all the expedient forms and fashions of the world hanging heavy around me. Kay, it is worse ; David's armour did only overweigh his strength, it did not open a way to his adversaries' weapons ; but this paltrj'' disguise of manhood, this mimicry of humanity which hath gotten the upper hand of this generation, is not only a weakening of the Church's strength, but contains in itself a poison to destroy her, like that garment by which it is said, in the deep mythology of the heathens, Hercules, that personification of manly virtue, was destroyed. EELIGION THE ROOT OF ALL FRUITFUL LABOUR. "What mean those idle and pestilent fellows by their doctrines of Eremites, and Stylites, and monastic orders, and other self-denying ordinances — self-denying in the letter, but self-adoring in the spirit? The cowards, the unpitiful churls, the unproductive sloths, is it for this that God sets men free from spiritual bonds, that they may build them prison walls, and naked cells, and addict them- selves to fleshly torments, and leave the wilderness a wilder- ness still, and make the city a waste, and the fertile field a desolate waste? Upon such abusers of the Lord's gifts, and perverters of His purpose. He will rain fire and brim- stone and storms of fur}'. And I discern the like spirit in a mitigated form, appearing amongst us Protestants, as it will always appear in every time of extreme ignorance like the present. That separation from certain of the honest customs of life, which is beginning to be introduced as parts of religious duty, the proscription of innocent mirth, and well-timed hilarity, the violent philippics against the sports and amusements of the field, the proscriptions of that free and easy discourse which our fathers entertained, the formation of a religious world different from the other o / 1 8 Practical. world, and the getting up of certain outward visible tests of a religious character, the proscribing of all books unless they expressly treat upon some religious subject ; also your Moravian establishments, and Methodist dresses, and many other things which I could name, savour to me of the same ignorance and misuse of the creature which the Papists carried to its perfection, as indeed they did every other abomination. In one word, all this is bondage, miserable bondage : the creation waileth to be liberated by liberated man. And shall redeemed man desert the redeeming of the creation? The creature luveth to be subject unto man, and shall man refuse its homage ? Then God will cut him short for his churlish heart, and leave him to pass from the prison of nature into the prison of his own will. Look around and behold this land in which we dwell, and which our fathers, by the might of God, wrested from these papal destroyers of the earth ; — behold how it blooms and blossoms abundantly ; — behold how full it is of all manner of tamed and industrious beasts ; — behold how full it is of horses and of chariots ; — behold how the wild and ravenous beasts have ceased from the land, the dragon and the crooked serpent ; — behold how creation is I'edeemed by the redemption of tlie Church, how the forest timber bears the burden, and the mine yields the implements of the nation's defence ; — behold how everything rejoiceth be- cause of that most enlightened and noble constitution of the Church, which our fathers set up. It was not in reli- gious parties, nor in religious meetings at taverns, nor in class-meetings, nor such like accomplishments of these lat- ter daj^s, that they went about their work of glorifying God : but in the palace, and in the court, and in the high parliament, and, above all, in the pulpit, in the congrega- tion of the people, and in the camp, and in the tented field. And the minister of the gospel did not separate a few from the rest of his flock or perish, to coax and cozen them into self-esteem and uncharitableness ; but he went about into every house, instructing every family, and examining the people, and enlightening them : and had any man better Religion the Root of all fruitful Labour. 319 gifts or Luger knowledge than his neighbours, then he was advanced to be an elder of the congregation : and was any- one of a good understanding in atfairs, and able to take the charge of God's household goods, then he was made a dea- con of the congregation; and another, who had skill in learning, and able to teach the youth, was appointed schoolmaster of the youth ; and another was a catechist, and another was a reader, and every father of a family was a sponsor for his family ; and so the Avork went on like a work of God, reclaiming and reforming the whole state of the i^eople. And forthwith the land began to yield its increase ; the mountains were covered with sheep, and the little hills with herds, and the valleys with corn: the in- genuity of man teemed with inventions, and the arts grew up spontaneous. And behold the blessed fruits of the whole in the well-watered garden of this northern island, which yoii may be convinced of by comparing it with papal Italy, or Spain, or France, or any other enthialled dominion of the apostasy. And for their men of war, they are as stub- ble to our bow ; they dare not, no one of the nations dare sustain our onset and charge of battle — the very cheer of our seamen is like the lion's roar in their ear, and turns their hearts to ciddness : and our soldiers, with a naked 'sword in their naked hand, coated with their woollen, clothes, can put to rout their men harnessed in burnished steel. Look, I say, on this island, and behold the redeem- ing power of a redeemed Church, in the redeemed crea- tures, and their obedient service to their kindlj- masters. Behold every plant of the field ministering to us either food, or clothing, or medicine. Oh ! behold how kindly the fruits of the earth have become, how generous and cheerful; — behold how beautiful they are; how large? juicy, and productive, when recovered from their natural wildness ; how they rejoice and sing for joy in the midst of us, because God hath made them glad. \\hich all Cometh of man's resuming his lordship over the creation, and redeeming it from tlie power of the enemy, according as God resumeth His lordship over him, and the law of the 320 Pj^aciical. Spirit of life maketh him free from the law of sin and death. Having obtained the victory through the operation of the Holy Ghost over the law of sin and death which is in his members, he cannot help communicating the victory to all the creatures which surround him. The fruits of the Spirit are produced in the understanding, which judgeth by the sense ; they are produced also in the sense ; and how shall they terminate there, and not extend to the crea- tures with which the sense holdeth continual communion? The gentleness which the Spirit worketh will extend itself to the creatures, towards whom it will be humanit}^ and mercy : the decency and order wliich the Spirit delighteth in, will shew itself towards the creatures in all good hus- bandry and beautiful assortments : the temperance which the Spirit worketh in every sense will place bounds to our enjoyment, and prevent the creatures from being degraded and misused by excess, and will work economy in all quar- ters ; the joy of heart and cheerful hospitality which the Spirit worketh, will prevent all niggardly hoardings of the creature, and avaricious covetings of it ; and, in one word, every talent which God hath given unto man for redress- ing, redeeming, and ruling over, and blessing the inferior creatures, having yet to be called into account by God, who suffers no hiding of it, but requireth it to be pro- fitably employed, will put forth its activity and power under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in order to accom- plish that good ministry unto all things for which it was originally given, and hath since been redeemed. And the eye is sanctified to the perception of heavenly beauty, before whose purified vision the concealed heaven on earth is unveiled, and all things make mentiou to it of God. God, who by faith is discovered, is by the holy eye recog- nised in all things : and it diseourseth largely over the creatures conceming the perfection of God, and the work- manship of God the Creator of all things ; yea, and the tokens of Christ the Eedeemer of all things are dimly per- ceived beneath the veils of sense ; and I may say that the sense of sight, that best interpreter of the visible, is made TV/iat may be Expected from PrcacJiing. 3 2 r subservient to the interpreting Spirit of God. And the ear is hallowed to hear the sound of the Creator and the Re- deemer's praise, in all soimds which are heard on the sur- face of the world ; the songs of birds, and the lowing of the cattle ; the roarings of the young lions, which, seek their meat from God; all storms and tempests, and raging winds, whose violence is restrained of God, do speak into the ear of the spiritual man the glory of God. The rain- bow in the heavens telleth of His covenant of peace, and the raging of the sea declareth His power, who saith, " Hitherto shall ye come, and here shall your proud waves be stayed." Everything is sanctified, every creature of God is made good by the sanctification of the holy word, and the dedication of devout prayer. War itself is made holy, and the man of war is converted into a minister of the holy purj)oses of God. The whole machinery of Divine providence is explained ; the mystery of the present dis- pensation is unfolded; and with the liberty of the Holy Spirit, which expresseth itself in the Psalms and the Pro- phets, the man of divine wisdom is enabled to expatiate over all the elements and over all the creatures, and to sing, as it is written in Ps. civ. and in many other psalms, of whose comfortable use the spiritual Church availeth herself but little in this her shrivelled dotage, " The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever : the Lord shall rejbice in his works. He looketh on the earth and it trembleth ; ho toucheth the hills, and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live ; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet : I ■will be iilad in the Lord." WHAT MAY BE EXPECTED FROM PEEACHIXG. FouASMUCH as the preaching of the word is all the means of converting men, which under this present dispensation we do hold in our hand, and the Word himself doth declare that it was to be effectual only to a very partial conversion X 32 2 Practical. of men, I judge it to be manifest that we are not yet furnished with the means for the universal conversion of the world ; and that we have reason to expect, before that great event promised in all the prophecies can take effect, some other instrument, more efficacious than any which we at present possess : and that, though the ministry of the gospel be universal in respect to the bounds over which it is commissioned, it is not universal in respect to the end which it hath to accomjilish ; but only partial, as was the ministry of the law and the prophets, which raised up a race of prophets and witnesses in one nation, whereas it is our higher province to raise up a race of prophets and witnesses for God over all nations. This is a most important conclusion, which the preacher of the gospel must ever bear in mind, otherwise he will wholly frustrate and pervert the intention of the great Prophet of our calling. If he take up the notion that the gospel is for univeisal conversion, he will be like to a man rushing into the battle with armour which he believes to be enchanted against the dint of hostile weapons, whereas the enchantment is only in his own Quixotic fancy, as he will prove at the first onset : and, finding that he doth not succeed, according to his fond expectation and false hope, in bearing down all opposition, he will next begin to imagine that this poor success ariseth from his own un- skilfulness; which he beginneth forthwith to amend by various sleights of tongue and cunning artifices, gracious accommodations and pious frauds, in order to bring about that universal triumph over wickedness, which was never intended to be the trophy of preaching under its present form. I have no doubt, though I cannot in this place spare time to demonstrate at length, that the greater part of the corruptions of preaching have sprung from this very error, of expecting the conversion of the whole world from the faculties with which Christ hath endowed the ministers of the word, instead of expecting merely the raising up of a race of witnesses, by whose patient testimony to condemn the world, and justify that great act of visible judgment What may be Expected from PreacJiiiig. 323 ■with wliicli this present dispensation is to be consummatet.1, and the universal dispensation is to be ushered in, at the second coming of the Lord. This remark is not less im- portant to hearers than to preachers of the word. Fur, while it delivers the latter from false expectations, and wicked endeavours to insinuate a corrupt and disguised gospel into the world, it teacheth the former that the very word which is unto salvation may fail to convert them — nay, will fail, and bj God is designed to fail — except on their parts they bestir themselves to activity, and watch against the enemies of the word, who contend against it so successfuly, and who shall surely defeat its efficacy, unless they be fellow-workers with the Spirit of God and the ministers of His holy word. The word of God is eyes to the blind, understanding to the simple, and very nigh unto us all. The truth of God is plain unto children, and His fear is the beginning of wisdom, and His praise is ordained even out of the mouths of babes and of sucklings. Mothers can testify how easy access the lessons of early piety findeth to the slender capacities of childhood ; and missionaries, who have ad- dressed the word to the rudest of heathens, have manifested how little the gospel dependeth for its success upon the previous culture of the mind. There is, indeed, no error more fatal to the heathen world than that we must wait the previous culture of literature and science before preaching the gospel unto them : and at home there is an error fast encroaching upon our schools, and shewing itself in our school-books, that years must be waited for, and the ripening of understanding before the faith can be received. And, among the many errors which adult baptism teudeth to, it is none of the least that it should favour this notion, that men are not competent to faith from their earliest youth, but must wait for maturity of 5'ears. But, to put all this beyond a doubt, our Lord hath said, when sj)eaking of the reception and rejection of His word, that it was " hid from the wise and the prudent, and revealed unto babes ;" which St. Paul hath confirmed in these words, Y 2 324 Practical. " Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." SUNSHINE CHRISTIANS. Until self lieth prostrate under the feet of Him who is love, it must ever come to pass that the pleasant and joyful religion, which easily accommodateth itself to circum- stances, and feels not the adverse stream of the world, nor the enmity of nature, will yield and give way when temp- tation Cometh. That cost they had not counted : evil report was what they had not dreamed of. They stept out of the good report of the irreligious world, at once into the good report of the religious world : they were shouldered by the religious mob, and their path strewed with palm boughs, as if they had already fought the fight and come to the triumph. The sandy foundation endureth the short cahn of approbation and admiration ; but when the wind blows, and the rain descendeth, and the streams flow, and beat upon the house, the house falls, being founded upon the sand. When self begins to be truly a loser in that quarter which they love, when persecutions begin to arise for the word, and the things seen begin to disappear, and nothing but faith remain eth, and the invisible things of faith, then these fall away ; their season is past ; they live in the sunbeam, and cannot endure the dark and troubled, conditions of the soul ; they are gone, they are not found. But when the sunbeam shall break forth again, and the heat of the sunshine breed the gay and beautiful creatures, they will ascend upon the wing again, and play their merry dance and mimicry of action, shewing also their little points of variegated light, and after a season they will pass again, and be no more seen nor heard. And thus it is that perse- cution is the purifying and building up of the body of Christ, and martyrdom is its crowning. Then it is you can discern the election from the woiid, the true veteian soldiers and hardy fighting men from the general cavalcade S'unsJiinc Christians. 325 and universal mnstcr wliicli in time of jieace come forth, at ihe call of shallow enthusiasm, and through the epidemic influence of a popular cause. A\ liilc so much of the spirit of society is engrafted into the Church, and the Chinch itself so defrauded of her doc- trines— 1 mean, such doctrines as election of grace, union ■with Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and the perseverance of the saints ; and while her sacraments are prostituted as they are upon the swine Avhich wallow in the beastly sty of this world, we shall continue to have such a ministry and such a community as the second part of the I)arable of the Sower describeth. Converts such as they are numerous enough, while strong men are utterlj^ failing from the midst of us : and no standard-bearers, no men of the spii'it of Caleb and Joshua, are found to spy out the land of the enemj', and report it practicable for the Lord's host to go in and possess it. Like the men of Benjamin, they will turn their backs in the day of battle : or, to prognosticate more tridy, they will never see any need for battle, because they believe that the enemy may be overcome by treaty ; that he is capable of being satisfied in his demands, of being soothed with sweet words, and cajoled with fair pro- mises, and won over by skilful arts to the friendship and the service of Christ : which is exactly at this day the popu- lar notion amongst us, that there is not to be w^ar for ever between Israel and Amalek, but that now the time is come for circumcising Amalek, and taking him into the bosom of the covenant. Such is the notion of the world which at tliis day existeth in the Church, that if you could but hire <_now of missionaries, and scatter abroad the leaves of enow of Bibles, no matter how adulterated, the naughty and bitter waters of nature would be healed. Such Christians, such theologians, I am ashamed of: you certain!}' are not 'f the seed of your fathers: and let your mothers, the * Lurch of Scotland and the Church of England, blush for you, because you are bastard children. And they call it a luvival : it is such a revival, such a transient gleam and mo- mentary brightening up as the dying man hath immediately oo6 Practical. befove the last strug-le with death;— so near to death do I believe the Gentile Church to be arrived ; and this I judge from the character of the revival. For while I saw the thews, and sinews, and mighty bones of the sleeping Pro- testant Church, I looked on amazed at his giant trame, and imagined that he might have piled Ossa on Pelion, and made war with the principalities of wickedness in hea- venly places ; but he awaketh, he reviveth from his sleep, and all my hopes evanish. His limbs he cannot erect, or even move, and hardly turn upon the bed : his voice is re- turned to childish infancy, and his feeble arm trembleth with age ; rheums infest him everywhere, and the breath of lifel-aileth, and his mighty proportions of body are his oppressions ; and I know that he will never stand to war acrain, or do exploits of battle. The revival of the Gentile C?iurch is such a demonstration to me of her close ap- proachino- end. The soil is thin, the seed can do no more than o-lve this hasty show of vegetation : the waters of the Spirit" cannot help the growth, but do only bring it more speedily to its premature bearing of empty husks ; and all because it hath no depth of soil. The sun will arise, a day of temptation will spring np, and they will wither down and become meet companions for the tares, to be eaten and to be trodden under foot by the cattle of the field. THE SEAKCH FOR NOVELTY. Theee is too much latitude allowed to this flighty fluctu- ating disposition, in what they call the religious world. For my part I know and will acknowledge no religious world. I know' only the Church and the world : but I know no religious world. You might as well speak of a bright dark- nes? or a bitter sweetness, or a righteous wickedness, as speak of a religious world. Yet so it is, we have such a name ; ay, and we have such a thing ; where, with de-' votedness to God's glory and the Church's good, and a o-reat mixture of excellent intentions of soul, there are pre- The Search for Novelty . 327 sent, at the same time, tlie love of show, the desiio of popular applause, the love of large assemblies, hunger and thirst for excitement, idle and nourishing talk, vapouring and vaunting speeches, idolatry of one another, self-com- placency, with much more which belongeth not to the Church of Christ, but is the staple commodity of the world. From which intermixture I augur no good. It is my office to warn you against all love of spectacle and from all hasting after novelties ; and to press upon you a grave sedate spirit, which loves communion with truth, seeks instruction and edification in righteousness, not pleasure and entertainment, and rejoices in simplicity and sincerity and truth ; because in such a spirit only will the word of God take deep root, and bring forth much fruit to the praise and glory of God. Therefore, I warn you, and diligently admonish you, in hearing the word from my lips, or the lips of other ministers, to weigh the matter, and ap- ply the matter, and bring it home to your conscience, and during the week to prepare your souls for it, by a most conscientious and honest discharge of every office, and ut- terance of ever}' thought, to hate the very appearance of falsehood, and on no account of jest, or courtesy, or com- pliment, or apology, to utter a lie : also to look into the spiritual properties of all things, their relation to God and the immortal soul; not to gaze upon the changing forms and convenient uses which they have. For men's minds in this day, by idleness and vanity, and the exaggeration of appearances, and neglect of realities, have grown into a volatile, versatile character, which cannot bear the spiritual matters and unchanging realities of the gospel, but Avould have it also translated into the conditions of space and time, made meet for the present passing life, and accommo- dated to the conveniences of the place in which we have our abode. Therefore I do require it of you, to be grave and sincere in all your discourses and dealings with one another, to be moved by spiritual considerations, and for spiritual ends ? and to measure the value of things by their godly uses ; and it shall come to pass that the doctrines of o 28 Practical. the word will take a deep root in your souls, and be of a continnal service in your lives, and be desired as meat and drink, and be needful as the light unto your eyes, and the lamp unto your path, a guide to your understanding, and a consolation to your heart ;_ your wisdom, your righteous- ness, your glory and salvation. DEFERENCE TO OPINION. I AM now exposing to your sight the most powerful of all Satan's temptations, the idol of the time, the idol of the place, I may say the terror of all men ; for I have met with very few, hardly one in a thousand, who can stand up in the face of public opinion and say, " I will do thus, say it or gainsay it who please." A sentence in a newspaper will cow a man's honesty more than an opened battery will his valour. It hath become the very necessary of men's life, to feed on the public opinion of their brethren. We are become an out- ward people, from the top to the bottom of the community; and therefore the word of God can make little or nothing of us. Can you make the unstable water change places with ., the immovable mountains, or the sands of the windy desert \ erect themselves into pillars of strength ? So soon shall you make that spirit stand attentive and steadfast before the unchangeable word of God, which is accustomed to give way in the daily affairs of life to the changeable and expe- dient world. Nor let any man go to take out an exception for himself, as if he were exempt from the temptation. The man who feeleth and acknowledgeth it, is the man of whom there is some hope : the man who hath not felt, and doth not acknowledge it, is the man of whom there is no hope for the present: and the man who addresseth himself to defend it is the man of whom there is no hope at all. I preach it solemnly and advisedly, on the authority of the Lord that there is no hope of any one who is given up to this outward authority and government of others. He hath no root in himself; he is a changeling: the seed of the word Deference to Opinion. 329 will as soon grow upon the salt sea as in his heart ; the foam of the waves of the sea will as soon prove a nourishing soil to the seed of corn, as his stony and harren heart, his wavering and irresolute will, will prove a soil for the word of God. He is as chaff driven before the wind, and he shall not stand in the judgment. Do you ask me what is the remedy ? I ask you in return, do you believe that the disease is mortal ? If you shuffle the question to a side, and will, not answer directly, that you do believe it to be a deadly disease, I hold no further intercourse with you. For I am not here to soften down my Lord's peremptory words, or to dilute ITis gospel to please a diseased taste : which were to make myself ob- noxious to the like condemnation ; to unteach the lesson in. the teaching of it ; to do you harm, and to do myself harm, and to dishonour the gospel of the Lord. But if you admit that the spirit of world-pleasing is a spirit of death, and desire to know how you may be delivered from its thraldom, then hear what I have to say unto you from the Lord who bought you with His blood from the world's oppressor. The world is to be destroyed, and the things that are therein, because they are altogether enmity to God. V\ hen Christ Cometh in judgment, its bulwarks, its towei'S, and its high places, its pleasures and enjoj'ments, the noise of its viols, the vanity of its attire ; its barns and store- houses ; its courts, and palaces, and chambers of revelry ; its pomp, and pride, and bravery, with all its flatteries, and lies, and dissimulations, shall be destroyed, along with every one who had pleasure therein : and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- ness ; and holiness unto the Lord shall be upon every person, and upon every object, and nothing shall enter thereinto which defileth or maketh a lie. Believest thou that in the regeneration all these things shall be changed, the impure alloy purged out of them by fire ; Satan, the spirit of corruption, who hath abused them, shall be cast out ; a gi-eater shall enter into his house and spoil his goods ; and that greater is Christ, who shall exalt in that ^2,0 Practical. day those who have overcome the world, and cast down into hell those whom the world hath overcome ? Believest thoii this ? I ask thee to believe it not as a figure, but as a reality ; that the principles which now govern the world shall be subverted, and the powers which now hold it shall be overthrown ; that righteousness shall be exalted, and the righteous shall have it in everlasting possession. And therefore thou art in love with death, thou art wedded to the grave, thou hast sold thyself to Satan, if thou abidest in the desire and love of the world as it now is. SPIRITUAL SUICIDE. I HAVE likened the apostasy from Christ, which pre- cliideth all hope of repentance, unto the act of suicide, which a man committeth against his own natural life, because I believe that every baptized person is brought into responsibility for a new life. Now, I cannot help making an observation which is suggested to my mind by this comparison. It is well known to j^ou that in inquests holden upon suicides, the great point to be ascertained is whether the act had been committed in a sound or an insane state of his mind — the latter being justly accounted no crime, the former a great one. This confirms by a solemn practice what most of you may have observed or read of, that when men fall into a state of insanity, they are very liable to do the act of suicide ; as, indeed, I have personally known in the case of two of the most holy and benevolent men ; and this action, being done in the absence of reason, is not looked upon as a crime for which they are responsible to the laws of men or of God. Now, it hath been af&rmed to me by the most competent wit- nesses, that there is nothing which so much prepares the way for insanity as indulgence of parents to the wilfulness of their children. I remember to have been told by a physician who had the charge of the asylum of the most populous county in the empire, that nine out of ten of all spiritual Suicide. 331 llie cases were cases of persons who liad been indulged •md spoiled in theii' cliildhood. Whether the disorder Mated in the constitution led to this wilfulness, or whether the wilfulness of the child produced the madness of tlie man, he took not upon him to say ; but he did solemnly assure me that the fact was as I have stated it above. Taking it, therefore, to be so, I have to observe that it casts much light upon the mysterious act of apostasy or spiritual suicide ; shewing us, first, that the madness which leadeth thereto doth begin in the resistance of the autho- rity and rejection of the love of our parents. And whom baptism doth constitute our parent the ordinance itself declare th : " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Being thus brought into the family of the Father, we testify the first beginnings of that spiritual malady which endeth in apostasy by reject- ing the love and refusing the commands of our Father which is in heaven. And what is His love, and what is His commandment? Is not His love the giving of His Son to be crucified for us ? " God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And what is His commandment ? Is it not to honour the Son, even as we honour the Father ? And how do we honour the Son but by keeping His commandments ? And is it not His dying commandment, " Do this in remembrance of me " ? In His death upon the cross, the love of the God- head shone most gloriously. In the holy supper, comme- morative of His death, the commandment of Christ is as it were centred and fixed. And methinks it is the last act of wilfulness in the children to set at nought this meat, which hath been prepared at so much cost, and is fraught with so much benefit and blessedness. It is as if a child should refuse the wholesome bread for which his father's brow hath sweat, and which his mother's hand hath carefully prepared. And truly as wise parents in such a case of frowardness are wont to act, by setting aside the despised meat, and suffering the little recreant to prove the pains of 332 Practical. hunger, and come to liis senses again, and tlien to present before liim tbat which he had rejected ; so doth the Church, your mother, patiently and lovingly put forward, from time to time, the manna from heaven, angels' food, the flesh and blood of Christ, which wnth so much cost the Father pre- pared, and serveth the Church withal, for the nourishment of His house. This meat, I say, which is meat indeed, and this drink which is drink indeed, we do set forth to you again and again ; which if you again and again reject, it will come to pass that the nourishment of life, the only nourishment of spii-itual life, being by you refused, starva- tion, death by starvation, will ensue ; which will not be the less wilful self-murder, becaiTse there hath been no other act of the will, no absolute voluntary renunciation of, and blasphemy against, the Holy Ghost. And thus truly it is that multitudes ]3ass into eternity guilty of the unpardonable sin of apostasy, who have never, by any actual renunciation, but by the neglect of the means and ordinances of life, brought themselves to that hideous perdition. But wherever an act of wilful apostasy doth supervene upon the neglect of ordinances, it can, like the suicidal act, most frequently be traced back to the rejec- tion of our heavenly Father's affection, and the refusal of His commandment to bear testimony to the death and resurrection of His Son fur our reconciliation and justifi cation. IDOLATRY OF SENSE AND ITS EFFECTS. When the mind of man hath made free with the revela- tions of God, which are to be entertained by faith alone, and devoted its worship and obedience to creatures of the imagination, or in its vanity subjected the revelation to reason, and counts as a vain thing every mystery, and every purity, and every spiritual doctrine and duty which the natural man in his pride or ignorance or sensuality gainsayeth; where either of these idolatries are, — which, truly, are one idolatry with a difterent object — the former Idolat)-y of Sense audits Effects. 333 of the ideal, the other of the rational ; the one of mere sense, the other of the richer gifts of the soul, — it will come to pass, after a season, that the senses of the body will come in for their share in the work, and insist on having some outward form or similitude of that divinity which the mind hath framed. In the rude and barbarous conditions of society, where the intellect is still in its embryo state, or cultivated only for the gratification of the sense, they begin by giving to their ideas of God a sensible form, being able to conceive of no abstract power, dignity, or beauty, save that which is embodied in a form; and because the human fonn is the most noble, their deities have that form, with exaggeration of those features wherein the chief virtue of the god is imagined to reside. And if the arts have kept pace with their ideas, as in ancient Greece, they do then call upon the artist to present to the sense the best effigies which he can make of that grace, strength, majesty, or loveliness which they have imagined in their god ; and there the idolatry of the sense keepeth pace with the idolatry of the imagination. But when a revelation hath been received by any people, — whether Avritten in a book, as amongst the Jews and Christians, or handed down by tradition, as amongst the Egyptians and the other nations which reach farther back and join hard to the patriarchal times, — then the idolatry of the sense hath a different origin and progress, and springeth out of the constant ten- dency of the sensible and carnal man to unspiritualise everj'thing, and to bring everything down to his own vile and vulgar service. The number of the people who are wholly occupied with sensible things so preponderates over those who are devoted to the spiritual things of revelation, that there is no possibility of supplying them with spiritual teachers in sufficient numbers, and the}^ act with such a dead weight upon the teachers themselves that in a short time both priests and people call for sensible forms by which to express those truths which are contained in the revelation. And you must either lose their reverence for, yea, their very knowledge of, the revealed truths, or you 334 Practical. mnst express tliem by some signs or symbols constructed to the perception of those sensible faculties, of which alone they understand the report. Hence, most frequently, out of a pious but fatal accommodation to the sensible tastes of the people, they are indulged with emblems of the Divinity taken from amongst the animate or inanimate creatures, which, for a while, remain in the twilight condition of em- blems ; but soon the shades of popular ignorance set in, and they become the very things for which they were at first substituted as a representation. And now the idola- try, being established in the popular mind, begins to react upon those who were appointed keepers of the revelation, and who have betrayed it to the carnal part of man, which is the stronghold of the devil. And they are fain to entrench the truth against the corruptions by various forms of secrecy — hieroglyphics in Egypt, mysteries in Greece, the Sibylline books in Eome, the secret and unwritten verses among the Druids ; — all which I regard not as arti- tificial blinds to hide truth from the people, but as good and wise contrivances to defend the spiritual truth against the idolatries of the people. And hence it is that whatever is known of these receptacles of truth which existed in an- cient times amongst the priests of all countries, and what- ever hath come down of their opinions in verses, in laws, or in fables, converge to one point — the knowledge of one God, who created and governs all things, of a future state of rewards and punishments, and the necessity of an atone- ment for the sons of men. The great heads of Christian doctrine are found at the foundation of all the ancient religions, the idolatries being but the accommodation to popular ignorance ; and how constant and true the force of popular ignorance is, is manifested by the Catholic superstition, which is no other than the ancient mythology of gods and goddesses with the new names of holy men and holy women, and their worship as perfect an idolatry ac any that hath ever existed upon the face of the earth. Such is the generation of sensual idolatry ; and if we give ourselves a little to consider the nature of man, we shall Idolatry of Sense and its Effects. 335 find tlie principles in his nature whose uniformity bringeth about this uniformity of result. The ancients wore wont to say that the mind of man was a microcosm, or little world; in which, as in all their philosophical sayings, there was shut up much wisdom and truth, for the world is reflected in the mind as in a mirror, and the eye of the body doth not more completely embrace the visible forms of things than the eye of the understanding embraceth the laws by which they are constructed, and changed in their forms, and removed from their places. And science is, as it were, the map which the mind hath constructed of the places, and the chronological table of the changes of all things ; and the end of science is to teach men where to ■ find them, and how to be prepared for them. Science is a revelation of the visible creation, and a prophecy con- cerning its future condition ; and the word of God is a revelation concerning the present condition of the spiri- tual creation, and a prophecy concerning its future state. There is a part of man which existeth for the outward M'orld, and which hath no discernment of a s^jiritual world, and can have none : this is the seat and origin of all sensi- ble idolatry. There is another part of man which hath no dealings with the visible world, but existeth for the spiri- tual world : this is the seat of true spiritual Avorship, if enlightened from above by a revelation made to faith. If not enlightened from above, it is the seat of the idolatry of the imagination ; or if it submit the revelation made of faith to reason, then it is the seat of the idolatry of reason or common sense. To the former part of man — that wliich communeth with the visible world — we must give our stud}', if we would discover the true cause of all sensible idolatrj', or image-worship, strictly so called. When the knowledge of man in whole or in part con- sisteth in sensible things, and the conceptions of his mind are chiefly or wholly of that which he hath seen, or tasted, or handled, or heard, and he is conversant with few ab- stract ideas or principles, then he is an idolater not only in religion but in everything, requiring always an image 33^ Practical. or sign or type of the thing concerning which you speak tc him ; and if there be no type, forming one in his mind before he can give utterance to any sane thought or speak with any intelligence of the matter. If it is of justice you speak to him, he conjureth up the recollection of an assize, and answers you according to its forms ; if it is of honesty, the market-place is in his mind ; if of truth, he conceiveth some fact accurately or falsely put into words ; if of human well-being, a siifficient table and a comfortable dwelling- j^lace is in his mind ; if of power, it is physical strength or mechanical contrivances ; if of duty, it is certain outward actions ; if of religion, it is forms and ceremonies ; if of heaven, it is the heaven of a Mohammedan ; if of hell, it is the hell of a pagan. Which types of spiritual things he regardeth as the things themselves, and as such doth wor- ship them, because the spirit within him is not quickened to desire the good of its life, and find it beneath the sur- face of all things, but the sense is always quickened to desire the good of its life, and hath found it upon the surface of all things. This is the Mosaic dispensation of human nature — the spirit under the veil of flesh; and the Mosaic dispensation is to be understood as designed for this infantine condition of the human spirit, and most wisely constructed, not to conceal the spiritual things, but to reveal the spiritual things by the only manner of revela- tion which was intelligible to the common mind of that sensible age. But as the spirit of the people came out of the cloud of sense, the dispensation brightened under the prophets, addressing itself to hope and desire rather than to sense. And the spiritual sun dawned not until both Jewry and Greece and Eome had become so emancipated from the sensible forms of the mind as to have schools of sceptics, which always betoken an intellectual condition of the mind. Notwithstanding Avhich it came to pass, that in the early ages of our spiritual doctrine the sensible forms of religion still clave to the people, so that in the primitive church the spiritual part of man was in childhood, and relapsed into complete idolatry until the Eeformation Idolat7'y of Setise a7id its Effects. 337 brouglit lis back again to spiritual religion. And now again the mind hath gotten into a sceptical mood with regard to the fonus of the Protestant churches, craving something more spiritual still, which makes me believe that we stand upon the eve of a new outpouring of the Spirit, the second coming of Christ, when the forms of our present revelation shall be in some manner cleared away, and we shall see more nearly face to face than at present Ave are able to do. The effect of sensible religion is to nourish the sense into new life, and strengthen with the bulwarks of iron the fleshly citadel of the devil, and to pour out over all the people a deluge of gross sensuality; to paralyse intellect, and if it spring up to root it out of the earth ; to beggar the moral enterprise of the soul, to subvert domestic purity, to prepare a people for the rod of tyranny here and for the pit of Tophet hereafter. It is to consecrate the bare prison of the soul, the brutal flesh which the very heathen knew to be its prison, to consecrate the vile clay into a sanctuary, to make its blind senses the conveyances of spirit, as if you would convey light by an aqueduct, or carry life in a transport ship. Oh, it doth make man's lamentable case most hideous and miserable ! His spiritual cajjacities it doth extirpate, and bring the people down as low as human nature will go, while the masters of the superstition do lash their bodies and their minds with every form of penance and torture. To have shaken off such a hopeless thraldom is the noblest, chiefest work of the human soul. And if the Protestant Churches would take a lesson how to recover their former vigour and purity, they must know it is only by the circulation of the word of God, — not the book merely, but in the voice of all their preachers, in the voice of fearless preachers, which being omitted, all socie- ties, articles, liturgies, schools, and places of worship, will stand them in no stead. It was by the foolishness of preaching that the gospel prevailed at first; by the foolish- ness of preaching it was recovered from a pit of supersti- z 33^ Practical. tion second only to the pit of hell ; and by the foolishness of preaching, of gospel preaching in all its life and enei-gy, will the Protestant faith keep its ground, or extend its blessed emancipation to papal lands. To the idolatry of the sense it is not necessary that there should be a statue or a picture, as is shewn in the supersti- tion of the Mohammedans, perhaps the most sense-cultivat- ing and spirit-destroying superstition which ever existed in the world ; yet hath it no image. But it is a religion of the sense to the very core of it. Their prayers are all said towards Mecca, and a prayer not said towards Mecca is no prayer; their hope of heaven is a carnal hope, and their fear of hell a carnal fear ; their law is no higher than a political law or system of police, and their religion no sub- jugation of the heart but of the sword, standing in ignor- ance and sense, and never to fall but by the progress of knowledge and reason, which will bring them into scepti- cism,— a state into which the Hindoos are coming; and this, before another evil power hath wraj)ped the people in its chains, is the time to diffuse amongst them the spiritual religion of Christ Jesus. Nothing is necessary to the idolatry of the sense but ignorance, or darkness of the mind, for the five senses always live, and are always active, and in a state of ignorance they have the whole man unto themselves ; and hence it is constantly held forth in Scrip- ture that the eyes of our understanding must be opened before we can have the fellowship of the gospel mystery, which is Christ in us the hope of glory. But when I say that a state of ignorance will always pro- duce the idolatry of the sense, you will not make a con- verse of the proposition, and infer that a state of knowledge will destroy the evil plant, or eradicate its odour of death. You do not destroy a plant by bringing it from the wilder- ness, where it grew in the untutored wildness of nature, into a garden, where it is treated with all the knowledge of husbandry, but, on the other hand, you enlarge it, make it of a monstrous and unnatural size, and greatly increase the variety and brightness of its colours, and the plentifulness Idolatry of Sense atid its Effects. 339 of its aromatic odour, and give it a new value and power over tlie sense of man. So there is a certain kind of know- ledge which doth as it were, cultivate this idolatry, and make it more attractive over the learned than it was over the unlearned condition of the mind. If the knowledge come in by the sense, as all natural knowledge doth, and the mind lay itself under to receive its impressions, whether of beauty, as the artist doth, or of harmony, as the musician doth, or of form and figure, as doth the mathematician, or of pleasure, as doth the epicure ; then the idolatry, far from being weakened by the increase of knowledge, is strength- ened and confi.rmed in exact proportion thereto. Insomuch, that I have ever found it more difficult to reveal a true spiritual and super-sensual perception in the mind of an enthusiastic naturalist than of a vulgar sensualist — the one being conceited of his form of sensuality, the other rather ashamed of it. And if I were called upon to say before which of these two congi-egations of men, an institute or royal society of savants, and a ring of wrestlers or pugilists, I would prefer to prophesy concerning the spiritual doc- trine of Christ, I would hope for more success witli the latter. From the former it is, " What will this babbler say ? " from the latter, " Leave us alone till a more con- venient season." From the former there is scoffs, satire, and ridicule ; from the latter, blows and wounds, which, being patiently borne, work softness and relentings ; whereas the former being patiently borne, work only more contempt and self-glory. The clown who supposeth his God to reside in the cathedral, and findeth Him at no time and in no place but when there, excited by all the visible emblems thereof, is not more an idolater than the artist who finds no frames of high devotion save when he looks upon the magnificent and picturesque forms of nature in the face of the heavens or the earth, or in the varying aspects of the ' countenance of man, the pictixresque groupings of his com- ' panions, or the remarkable action of his varied adventures. The one is as much an idolater of place and time, of sense and sight, as is the other. And the naturalist is no better z2 340 Practical, tlian either, who finds no more elevated frames of his being than when he discovereth another specimen of his art, or discerneth a new relation amongst those which are dis- covered to his hand. And I will advance a little further — that man who finds his highest emotions and desires in a well-governed state, or a prosperous family, or a high and nohle station, or an eminent power, or a successful policy, all those sorts of men who wed their noble spirits to some present and realised forms of things, are at the heart and in the sight of God, who regardeth the heart, idolaters as much as is he who taketh a root out of the wood, with part of which he warmeth himself, and with the residue maketh unto himself a god, even a graven image, and falleth down to it and worshippeth it, and saith to it, " Deliver me, for thou art my God." IDOLATEY OF INTELLECTUAL LIFE. m Intellectual or rational life I place in the cultivation of the powers and faculties of the mind, as I place sensual life in the cultivation of the bodily afiections. Its food is knowledge, learning is its discipline, and wisdom is its reward. Its business at home is with thought, its excur- sions abroad are with contemplation, its property is the sum total of recorded truth, and its legacy is the new truth which it can record for those that are to live after. It liveth in the recorded past, it liveth also with the unseen future, and it stretcheth its being over the world from pole to pole. There is nothing in nature more sublime than this life of the mind. It is the true distinction between man and the lower creatures, as sensual life is their com- mon tie. And it is a great recovery to draw a man from wallowing in the mire of sense, to purify himself at the fountain of reason and truth. It is a great advance in human nature when it can be enamoured of books, which are images of the soul, more than with the colours and beauty of outward forms. Intellectual pleasure, in what- ever it consists, whether in discourse, or in eloquence, or Idolatry of hitellechial Life. 341 in argument for truth, and from whatever source derived, from works of imagination, of taste, of pure reason, or of expei'imental science ; from history, from poetry, or from philosophy, — this pleasure is truly noble and honourable to man, and never fails to elevate and refine the pleasures of sense, and to make us in a considerable degree, sometimes altogether, independent of them. In ancient times this life of reason and thought was held in such high esteem that, for its sake, the wisest and greatest of men were content to set at nought the conveniences and luxuries of sensual life, and live on the most frugal fare : they became dead, or almost dead, to the distinctions of bodily pleasure and pain, and placed their enjoyments in the state of the mind w^ithin. They did in a manner elope from the body and the physical world, in order to wed themselves for life and for death to the company of the soul. And those stoics, and cynics who had such strength of purpose, and such devotion to their better part, are worthy of the highest honour, even from us Christians, seeing they knew not the true God to whom to offer their sacrifice, and in the absence of divine knowledge paid their deference and tribute to virtue and the perfection of the soul, which are the best similitudes of God that natural reason hath access to. But now that we know the most excellent attributes of the Divine Mind, its holiness, its bounty, and its unsearchable riches of mercy, — now that we know His most noble works of power and love, the populous earth, the wondrous deep, and the mighty host of the sky, the heaven of heavens, with all the spiritual essences which inherit these, — it indicates a sad degene- racy of taste, and bespeaks a debased tone of mind, to turn from the admiration and pursuit of His most worthy attri- butes, from the devout study and adoration of His being, and performance of all His will, from this to turn to the admiration of our own souls, and the adoration of that im- perfect knowledge and virtue which it is given man by his o-\\-n strength to attain to. We are not now as the ancients were ; our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, what they 342 Practical. desired to see and to hear, but were not permitted. We know the great Spirit of the universe, the perfection of all wisdom, and the fountain of all intelligence, whom they knew not, but eagerly desired to know. They sought the nearest re- semblance of Him they could find — the soul of man in its most perfect state ; they called it virtue, they honoured it as the chief good, and paid unto it the homage of their heart. And in preferring this to stocks and stones and obscene fictions of the Godhead, they proved themselves worthy of great approbation, and, I doubt not, had the ap- probation of God for their enlightened preference. But we have seen, or if we have not seen we are privileged to peruse, the image of the living and the true God, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person — the adorable and unchangeable Jehovah, who dwelleth in the light, who formerly dwelt in clouds and thick darkness. Nor are we ignorant of human nature and its imperfections, that we should any longer bow before it. We know how the gold hath grown dim, and the fine gold of primeval manhood is changed, is defiled, and mixed with the dross of sin and cori'uption, and we can look upon the best patterns of virtue the world hath seen, and mark off by the line of God's holy law their incom- pleteness in every proportion. How base, then, for us to forsake the Perfect One and adore the imperfect, fallen, and debased creature, — to neglect divine understanding and fol- low as the summit of our ambition mere human under- standing,— to prefer human nature to the nature of the invisible God ! Nevertheless it is the custom of intellectual men who give no heed to spiritual life thus to degrade themselves from the perception of God to the perception only of their own thinking selves. As the sensual man giveth his adora- tion to the objects of sense, or to his own bodily senses which perceive the same, and finds no place for God within his soul, and no evidence of God without, but is engrossed and benighted in corporeal darkness; so the intellectual man, who converseth with thoughts and imaginations of Idolatry of Intellectual Life. 343 ihe spirit, dotli generally become enamoured of these, or of the men %vho awaken them, or of the books wlicrein they are stored. And, alas! he thinketh little of God, who made the spirit capable of these intellectual relishes, and furnished giant spirits to dress out these banquets of the soul which books contain within their silent folded leaves. And oh ! the high priests of poetry and the princes of phi- losophy, the mighty masters of eloquence and the enchan- ters in the world of melody and song, the magicians of the arts, who with their tiny instruments preserve from obli- vion holy and heroic deeds, or fashion the forms of beautiful and noble nature, or lift up on high the roofs and domes of everlasting palaces and temples, — all these master-spints of the earth, who owe their Creator such exalted reverence for His distinguished gifts, are every one beset with the btrongest passion for self-exaltion ; they stand evermore upon the brink of self-idolatry, and rarely, most rarely, do they escape from plunging into that snare and condemna- tion of the devil. They form a beau -ideal, a certain immaterial idol of the mind, each in his several walk of genius, to which they breathe the aspirations of their glow- ing love, and devote the energy of their scheming ambition. And if haply in that province some mighty man hath arisen in the days of old, who sitteth in his lofty shrine overlooking the darkness and mist of antiquity which hath covered all his compeers, — a Homer, a Plato, a Demosthenes, an An- gelo, a Eaphael, a Palladio, — then they make them or their works the object of their idolatry ; they talk of them more than of God, they think of them more than of God, they prostrate their genius before them, which they prostrate not before God, and they acknowledge them as their masters, their inspirers, who breathed into them the soul of genius, acknowledging God no more than if He had no hand M'hat- ever in the creation and accomplishment of themselves or of the sage and great men whom they admire. Ah ! how I wander sad and melancholy among these lettered and glo- rious men, to behold their spirits drifted from their proper course and shipwrecked from their haven of rest. I have 344 Practical. dwelt in universities, and listened to the discourses of learned and scientific men, but I profess, before God, there was no breath of piety or acknowledgment rendered unto God in all their liberal and enlightened discourse. I have feasted my spirit with the poets of modern times, and excepting one or two, they are as undevout as those who wrote before the birth of Christ. Naturalists, that is they who explore the works of God, are as dry of spiritual refreshment as the hard and withered specimens which they bring from foreign parts. Your master-critics would be ashamed to have ado with religious cant. Your statesmen of note hold saint- ship in derision. Your artists think more of the Olympic Jove, of the Madonna and infant Saviour, than they do of God, and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. The temj^les in which they worshij) are no less various than the objects of their worship. Some pay their homage to that which they adore in the theatre, some in the museum, some in libraries of learning, some in picture galleries, some in ora- torios and dancing saloons. The Sabbath is a weariness to them, and the worship of the true God an idle ceremony, the Scriptures a clasped book, and prayer, if used at all, used as a form of words. I wish to heaven I could tell a better tale — I wish it consisted with duty to draw the veil over such an offensive and degrading statement ; I know how I make myself ob- noxious to the charge of sourness and incivility, and how all the affections which every intellectual mind hath to- wards these high objects of human understanding, will take alarm and turn against me, as if I undervalued those trophies which the power of mind hath won from the realms of ignorance or barbarism. But, in my own de- fence, I protest that I blame not these studies, which, on the contrary, I do highly admire, as the redeeming occu- pation of human nature ; but I expose their tendency, and by instances justify that exposure of their tendency to entrap the mind into an idolatry unworthy of itself, and to abstract it from the only true object of worship and source of contentment and happiness. And this 1 do not Idolatry of Intellechml Life. 345 out of a cruel anatomy of gi'eat men's failings, (far be that vulgar passion from this dignified place!) but out of sym- pathy for their xinbefriended condition, and inevitable de- struction from the presence of the Lord and the enjoyment of His blessedness. My friends, my brethren, my fellow- men, and men of highest promise and mightiest power in the intellectual world, I see mocked by the evil spirit, by him domineered over, starved of spiritual food, dead to spiritual life, their souls altogether lost and perished from the way — these, by the grace of God, I would do my en- deavour to reclaim, and teach how they may become spiri- tual men, and heirs of the promised inheritance, without in the least abasing their intellectual part. If there was any hindrance in the word of God to the research of truth — any bounds prescribed to the play of imagination — any limit set to the cultivation of art or . science — any impediment to the full development of hu- man reason or intellect, then I would give men credit for placing in opposition the intellectual and spiritual man. But when we are commanded to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good— when we are addressed as wise men, and commanded to judge what is said — when of poetry in every kind we have the noblest specimens in the Holy Scriptures, and of wisdom the highest reve- lation— when we have all the arts called into requisition to build the temple of God, and the picture of the new Jerusalem described with all the accuracy of science — when we have God himself by His Holy Spirit accompa- nying the first preachers of our faith with the gifts of all learning, and all wisdom, and all knowledge, and all power, which the world in that age did need or could entertain, who is he that will say he must abuse his rea- son, and undervalue his intellect, cramp and confine his natural faculties, seek no eminence and court no distinc- tion, if he once enter himself to the obedience of the spiritual life ? Nay but, 0 man ! who art thou that liest against God ? Hath not God written that to whom much is given of him much shall be required— that he who hath 346 Practical. ten talents will be judged according to tlie improvement lie hath made of his talents, and that we are stewards to be called to give an account of our stewardship ? The genius of the gospel, therefore, instead of being adverse to the culture of every rational gift, doth overlay them with a strong objection, and will not suifer them to be dormant without the most terrible risk. It is not, therefore, to the gospel that the calamity is to be traced, but alas ! it is to that fatal oblivion of God, and obscuration of His image within us and glory without us, whicli sat down at the fatal and calamitous fall. It is not by a process of reasoning that gifted men forsake the high and holy God ; it is not because God's precepts bear against the improvement of the human mind that they reject them ; it is not because spiritual life discourages intellectual life that intellectual life alone engrosseth them. Oh no ! they have no such plea. It is the necessity of their nature which drives them, no less than that of sensual men, — the fatal necessity of fallen nature, to fall from the living and true God, deeper and deeper into the dominion of evil. Shall we, then, be punished for a necessity ? No ; we shall not be punished for a necessity ; but we shall be punished for refusing the remedy against that necessity. I state it broadly as a necessity, in order that men may dream no longer of re- covering light in that darkness where they dwell, be it intellectual or be it sensual, but look to the foimtain of light in the word of God, and seek help from the Spii'it of God. We all obey our common impulse of nature to leave God — we all need to be taught by the word and Spirit of God — we have wandered every one into his own way, and we all need to return to the Bishop of our souls. If intellectual, sentimental, and poetical men, and men of policy and art, would be delivered from their present idolatrous and perishing state, they must follow the self- same course with the most ignorant and untutored peasant — ^bring their minds to this storehouse of revealed truth, and occupy them there in a teachable and humble dispo- Idolatry of hitellectiial Life. 347 sition. Do I degrade them by bringing them to this com- mon fountain ? Degrade them ! Are they degraded by seeing with the same light, speaking with the same voice, warming themselves with the same heat, feeding them- selves oflf the same earth with the common people ? De- grade them ! Are not all God's creatures honoured with a word from God's truthful lips? Is Christ unworthy of a philosopher or poet's company, Christ the Son of God, to whom every knee in heaven doth bow and every tongue confess ? Degrade them ! "Will a man be de- graded by getting to heaven from this troublous earth, and escaping hell, running from the devil's clutches into the embrace of all God's aflections. And yet I believe in my heart, nay, I know assuredly, from a thousand conversations I have held with most worthy and esteemed friends, that this submission to be taught of God in the same school in w^hich ignorant and vulgar craftsmen are taught, is a good part of their ob- jection, and hence they scout the idea of sending the Scriptures where the people are not civilised, as is if civi- lisation and culture of mind were a better thing, and a thing that must go before spiritual teaching. Now in truth they are two things altogether diverse. A nation neigh- bouring to us hath ever been esteemed so civilised and polished a nation as to set the fashions even to us ; yet it hath almost no spiritual animation stirring in its popu- lous frame. They are things diverse, altogether diverse, and I give intellectual men to wit that they will never be enlightened in spiritual things otherwise than by the means of God's word and Spirit, — the one of which is already given, the other promised to every one who will humbly and earnestly seek His coming. Locke is a stupendous instance of this : he travelled much with philosophy, with political science, and personal morality, and a more suc- cessful inquiry into these provinces the world hath never held — one so tinily great in the research and utterance of truth ; yet he himself confessed that he came to no know- ledge of God or godliness till he betook himself to the study 34^ Practical. of His word, and there lie cast the anclior of liis whole soul, and dwelt the last ten years of his life, giving glory to God and testimony to Christ by a spiritual walk and con- versation. So also did Newton do and testify, so also Pascal and Boyle. And four greater intellectual names the temple of Fame hath nowhere engraven upon its tablets. Did these men abase their intellects thereby ? No, they ele- vated them — they devoted them to God, to the study of their own soul, to its jiurification for heaven, and to its attainment of true happiness. Therefore, ye men of wit and understanding whom I address, be persuaded, by that very dignity which ye have achieved over sensual and brutal men, to climb a higher eminence of being. Ye have travelled with natural thought and natural knowledge, interpreting the works of mighty and honourable minds, and rifling the honey from those combs in which it descendeth from age to age, stored and preserved. And j^e have done well. Now do better; converse with the Divinity who createth the intelligent mind — createth those who bred that milk and honey of the soul wherein ye have delight. He hath builded a temple for knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, a temple of divine knowledge and divine action. Exercise your faculties therein; listen to the voice of your God, and seek His righteous Spirit, — then there shall be created within you a life of immortality, and your powers of intellect shall brighten into new effulgence, and shine like the stars of the firmament for ever and ever. IDOLATRY OF THE IMAGINATION. Idolatry also doth people the highest and superlative region of the mind, the region not of knowledge but of faith, with imaginary beings, who hold it not by any demonstration made to man of their existence and power, but by a constitution which he hath given them by tne creative faculty of his own imagination. Faith calls for Idolatry of tJie Imagiiiation. 349 objects, and tlie spirit declares she miist have objects for her faith, or else lose the nobler part of her being; and the spirit, unable to find the realities which faith requires, calls upon the imagination to body forth some of her infinite fonns, and present them to faith for her entertainment and satisfaction. And if the imagination hath framed these idols with a diligent respect unto the noblest forms of the human spirit whereof she hath any consciousness, and if she have gathered in the attributes of every better one which the world hach held, and pre- sented as it were an idealised portrait, or series of por- traits, of the best possible forms of humanity, she hath done her best to satisfy faith, and to improve the condition of the whole man. This, doubtless, is the noblest form of idolatry, and therefore we shall begin with the examina- tion of its efiects upon the spirit of man. I obsei've, then, that it cannot by any means raise man above himself. It is the mind turning upon its own axis, but making no progress into a higher condition of being. For these imaginations and creations of superior powers are but remembered forms of what man hath been, or con- ceived forms of what he may become. They are helps to the ambition, and objects to the imitation of the mind, which another human mind hath set before its fellows, as its own labours in the unknown and undiscovered sphere of our ideas. They may serve, like the machinery of the poet, to please the imagination, or, like the creations of romance, to inflame the ambition of the mind ; but never can faith admit them into the region of realties, so as to yield reverence to their commands, or to place trust upon their promises. The moment it did so, the whole man were crazed and disjointed, like the Spanish knight of romance, who came into the condition of believing his imagination, and following its objects as realities. Faith cannot, must not, dare not, yield herself to the imagina- tion of the mind, any more than to the intellect of the mind. If she yield to the intellect, her sceptre is broken, and she is faith no longer; if she yield to the imagination, 350 Practical. slie is bewitclied and befooled, and sold into slavery beyond redemption. Faith must not be possible in the intellect, and therefore not distract our knowledge ; and to the imagination she is a guide and conductor. The moment any one brings home the nan-ative of things which no one but himself hath seen, faith employs herself upon the matter, and perceiving no impossibility in the thing, nor no inconsistency with what she presently knows, she hath no grounds of doubt save what may be found in the person of him who brings the narrative, which is a question of man's credibility, not of the principles of be- lieving ; but no one of a sound mind would call his ima- gination to help him to a true faith of the matter, or suppose that because he can have an image of it in his mind, it is credible on that account. Then might you believe all monsters and chimeras true, all giants and dwarfs, all elves and fairies, with every spirit which dwells in air, earth, fire, or in fens, bogs, and waters. All poetry, all fiction, were in that case believed which is imagined by the writer, and by him described to the imagination of his readers. Nay, imagination must retire till faith hath come to a decision, and when she hath de- cided to believe, the imagination may occupy the ground, to construct further beautiful structures by which to invite the later and more reserved faculties of the soul. There- fore I say that these idols which imagination constituteth for the use of faith, true faith never accepteth, so as to yield them any authority, or forego for them any interest, or yield to shape according to their will any of her courses. When Columbus conceived the idea of a western world, it was an imagination ; and yet not altogether an imagina- tion, for he had some grounds of faith which his great mind could embody into an opinion. But to the coui'ts of Europe it was an imagination, and therefore he wan- dered in vain to get any help for his project. No one would adventure upon it the worth of a stiver. When at length one court, out of pity or personal regard, yielded him a ship, it was still an imagination to his crew, who Idolatjy of the Imagination. 351 were always ready to mutiny upon their commander ; so mucli doth it repent one to sacrifice anything, however small, to any imagination : for these men were sacrificing no money, being regularly hired, nor free will of their own, being under command of their king ; yet were they ready to mutiny against the very life of Columbus, out of the mere shame of yielding to an imagination. But when Columbus returned with tokens and evidences of another world, then it became a belief in the mind of Europe ; and forthwith all nations, and private persons who had the means, set on foot large and liberal expeditions, and made all sacrifices in the same cause, to which heretofore they would not risk the value of a stiver. Such is the mighty diiference upon the mind and conduct of men between an imagination and a belief. So I hold it to be with respect to the case in hand. That higher region of power and blessedness whereof the soul is conscious beyond her sphere, and whereof she seeks to discover the possession, that she may yield to it the reverence and worship for which she feels herself to be constituted, in the want of which her fair-proportioned being is crippled and disabled, is in the same condition to her as to our ftithers before Columbus was the great ocean which stretched from the western shores of Europe and the islands of the blessed, half round the globe to the shores of the Eastern Indies. And he who, by his imagination, doth people those upper spheres with forms of being how- ever powerful, wise, and blessed, doth no more to per- suade his brethren of their reality, or interest others in their existence, or find for them objects of reverence and worship, than would the cliart-maker of those days have induced our fathers to send out embassies, risk adventures, or appoint colonies, by filling from his own imagination the blank of ocean with islands and continents and nations, and publishing it to the world. lie might be taken up for a deceiver, or despised as a liar, or let go loose as a poor harmless visionary, but certes he would not be believed on, because with his pen he had scribbled over a blank 352 Practical. part of the cliart with, the outlines of imagined lands. Go into the cell of a madman and examine its walls ; yon shall find it written over with words and emhlems and signs, which to you are significant of his madness, hut to him significant of his real condition ; and there is all the diiference between a sane man and a madman, that the one believes his imaginations to be realities, the other doth not. And if no sane man believeth his own ima- ginations to be realities, shall others believe them for realities? Then are they twice mad to believe in those imaginations which have not even the slender privilege of belonging to themselves, but have been received from another, who himself was a madman if he believed them. There is need of no further discourse, therefore, to prove how totally ineffectual is the imagination of man to fill the circumjacent infinitude of the higher and more blessed spheres, so as to secure for them any reverence or worship, or induce over the mind any of the elevations or obligations of religion. They can do no more than Shakespeare hath done, better than any one, in the superstitions of his plays, which I mention here, as it may be thought a little out of place, because many of you doubtless have read them, in order to question you, if when your imagination hath been filled with the fairy figures in the "• Winter's Evening Tale," with the airy and earthy creatures in the "Tempest," or the hell-commissioned sisters in the tragedy of the Scottish king, you were disposed thereafter to look for creatures sporting in the fairy rings and elfin knolls imder the cold moonbeam, to hear the harp of Ariel in the air, or sacrifice an owl or some other unclean bird to propitiate the terrific powers of the three weird sisters who j^reside over the destinies of men? If you answer me nay, then I tell you that as little worship or obedience will ye yield to the god or gods with which the imagination of man hath peopled the infinite fields of power and blessedness which lie around the narrow sphere which we possess. Accordingly, the idolatries of the nations did not rest upon the imaginations of the poets, but upon the tradi- Idolatry of Preachijig. 353 tions of past ages, the books of the Sibyl, the nnrovealed secrecies of the mysteries, the hieroglyphics of the priests, and whatever else was embodied in their religious books, or given forth by their oracles as the revelation of God. They believed that such things had been revealed as were written in their fables, and being in the infancy of reason, both intellectual and moral, the}^ saw not the inconsistency of these revelations with one another, or their insufficiency to regenerate the natural reason of man, much less to exalt it to higher refinements and reveal to it new powers over its own well-being. Neither Zoroaster, nor Kuma, nor Mohammed, nor any other who have misled the nations, profess to come by their systems from the devices or imagi- nations of their own brain, but to have derived them from secret revelations made to them by those powers to whom they sought to gather in the reverence and obedience of men. It hath been left to this age to think they can be religious by nature without any revelation, nay, to go to and unmake this revelation, untwist all its harmonies of spirit, interpret all its mysteries, and reduce to reason all its revelations, and so despoil the superiority of the Being which human nature longed to worship, — in order to wor- ship Him, make His worship less, and so cut the knot which all wise men had been endeavouring to loose since the world began, and which the Lion of the tribe of Judah alone had the wisdom and the power to unloose. IDOLATRY OF TREACHING. The preaching of the word stands in exactly the same relation to personal sanctification as public worship does. These exercises upon the word, and the doctrine of the word, which we make from Sabbath to Sabbath, are either meant for the nourishment and instruction of those who already believe in Christ, and have the primary fonn of the Christian in their spirit and life, — or they are for the persuasion, and exhortation, and encouragement, and stir- 2 a 354 Practical. ^ ling up of those who halt "between Christ and the world, — or they are for the cutting off and condemnation of those who will not believe but continue obstinate in their sins ; for the nourishment of the Church, for its propagation or for its separation. And though there may be preaching < where there is no church, nay, and ought to be the more on that account, it is no act of religion in those who hear until there is a church, but only a declaration in their ears of that which they may hear or forbear to hear. So that hearing becomes a dutiful act of religion only to those who are already in Christ, or to those who are seeking to be- found in Him, not having their own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. To others it is an exercise of hearing and under- standing, an entertainment of taste or reason, an excitement of their affections, or a breathing of sweet thoughts over their souls — no solemn, dutiful occupation of their time and talents, for which they feel responsible unto God, and are therefore very careful how they hear. The hearing of the word, therefore, or of the preaching thereof, stands in the same circumstances as the other parts of public worship, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, only, tq those who by daily use have their spiritual senses exer- cised to discern good and evil, and who, by commerce with the unbelieving and idolatrous world, are so worn down and wearied out that they hunger and thirst for the sincere milk and strong meat of the word. And they are well pleased that the tides of time have a weekly rest, and the current of affairs a weekly cessation ; that there is a hal- lowed, sequestered, calm, and placid bay in the boisterous and troubled sea, which they an-ive at after weekly voyages of risk and hardship, and when they are refreshed with the good cheer, and furnished with the good instructions of an experienced master of the seas. Oh, how sweet do mariners feel it, so to find an open and a friendly creek wherein to thrust their crazy bark and preserve their weary lives ; so sweet do the people of God feel it to listen Idolatry of Preaching. 355 to the spiritually-replenished and divinely-enriched dis- course of a faithful minister. The times have been when the word of such seers of divine things was very precious, and when the people loved not their own lives for his sake. I know the solitary vale in my native land which was ransacked and spoiled by a troop of murderous horse- men, which the people patiently bore until their godly minister was driven with the rest of the spoil ; and I know well the proud eminence, the northern barrier of the valley, whereon the people, shrouded in the mists of the morning, gathered themselves to the rescue of the beloved man ; and when the cloud rolled its skirts from around the ministers of Heaven's vengeance, there the}' stood, to dispute it with the armed and embattled chivalry of hell, and broke them in their godly wrath as the potsherd is broken in pieces, and in their fur^' dashed the horse and his rider into the abyss which yawned beneath to receive the sons of Belial. It was not the man but the word of God which moved the people so. The Avord of God was very precious to their souls. For I have seen in the same valley the close amphi- theatre of rocks, whei'e they were seen to sit shrouded in twilight, with the stream rushing amongst their feet, to listen to their pastor's voice, their only earthly possession, which truly they would not part with, and see suffocated with a burning brand, but preferred rather to die. And the Lord delivered their enemies into their hands, and saved their beloved preacher. The same spiritual desires which draw the people of God into one place, that they may shew the voice of thanks- giving and tell of all His wondrous works, draw them also thither to be edified in their faith and quickened in their love by the ministry of His holy word. They desire to be taught by one who is experienced, and to be instructed of one who is called and holy. And this not apart but in company, that the unity of the doctrine, and the com- monness of the feeling, and the unction of true and holy discourse, may compose their troubled spirits, and bring into one their souls, agitated various waj's b}^ the variety 2 A 2 35^ Practical. of professions and the vicissitudes of life. And the Lord, to provide for this constant and necessary desire of His Church, hath not left it to be ministered unto by any upstart who may judge himself qualified for the same, but appointed men to be set apart to the holy office, and to give themselves wholly to the ministry of the word and to prayer ; who are the angels of the churches, the stewards of the mysteries of God, the stars which the Son of man holdeth in His right hand, whose ofQce it is to teach what- ever hath been imparted to them by the Spirit of God, and to whose discourse it is the part of the people to listen with an understanding and an attentive ear. Now, though one would think that the hearing of sound preaching, the mere hearing of it, were as bare a disguise as well could be, and as small a footing as well could be for idolatry, yet upon this narrow isthmus will idolatry found its empire, and by his practices pros]3er, to the annihilation of pure religion out of all the coasts. For there is a form of sound words which from the beginning the Church hath found it necessary, to adopt, containing the particulars of a true faith, which soon exalts itself upon the ignorance of the people into a symbol of all religion, the narrow way and strait gate which lead unto life. To hear which reiterated in their ears from Sabbath to Sabbath is the sweet music of the charm, and preaching thus becomes the sign of their idolatry, — orthodox preaching according to the standards of the Church. Beaten out of every refuge, idolatry hath his last hold in this ; and from this, that he can make war upon spiritual religion, is well evinced in certain Pro- testant parts of the Continent, where at this day, with the same doctrines which we hold, and the same simple forms, \ they rage in violent persecution against all who dare to meet for religious exercises anywhere, at any time, and in I any manner than that prescribed by the canons, yea, and push the pious and spiritually-minded to the extremity of imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and banishment from j their homes. ISow that this idolatry of orthodox preach- 1 ing, a bare and barren orthodoxy, prevails against the! Idolatiy of Preaching. 357 fruitfulness of true doctrine, and stands for the worsliip of the living and true God, I have no more doubt than that there is idolatry of saints in Eome, and idolatry of the liturgy in our sister Church. And from the preaching it passeth over to the preacher, upon whom, bare man as he is, the ignorance of a people will fix and fasten as an idol, that they may get the living feelings of their heart de- bauched from the living God away to a living man, whilo they debauch, the homage of their understanding away from the word of God to the airy stufi" which comes from the voice of a mere man to the uncircumcised ear of another man. Far be it from me to undervalue the worth, nay, the absolute necessity to salvation of an orthodox faith, while I utterly condemn and abominate as creed- worship the empty eulogy of the standards and frequent flattery of the forms of the Church. And in the adorning of the tombs of those who perished in their defence — (the same spirit of idolatry, as in our Lord's time, oft adorns the tomb which erewhile slew the martyr — first slaying him because he tore the idolatry down, then cunningly waiting until the ignorance of the times will allow the founders of the last venerable thing to be made into idols — first their names, then their venerable memorials, and their once-despised tombs) — I see the natural generation of idolatry. I see nothing but the light of the word and Spirit of God can keep us from running its course over and over again, like the ancient Israelites. It is there in the valley of ignorance. It lurketh in the twilight shades of the mind. It haunts, it hallows the place with a superstitious reverence ; and as the spirits of the people travel down into the valley, they come upon the enchanted ground, and cannot be helped off it again save by the redemption of Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit. Therefore am I zealous, my beloved brethren, over your souls, and I warn you against the idolatry of popular preaching and popular preachers which hath its seat amongst us. Honour that priest whose lips keep knowledge, and be ready to receive the law at his 35 S Practical. mouth, because it is the Avord of God; but that talk of ministers, and hasting after favourite preachers, and wrangling of their several merits, and quoting of their scenes and instances, which hath grown so rank in the un- pruned garden of true religion, let it not once be named amongst you. Be ye men in understanding, and treat the voice of 3'our minister as a man, — a man of God, — a man faent from God to bear testimony of Christ. IDOLATRY OF THE BIBLE. Idolatry of the written word also expresseth itself in the holy — but I call it imholy — notion which they have taken up concerning inspiration : that the very words are in- spii'ed, and the writei's were but as organs of voice for that word. Where, then, were the sanctification of the writers, if their soul were not in their words ? And you will hear shrewd suggestions that even the act of translation hath a certain divine sanctity in it. Thus the Jews proceeded to honour the letter of the sacred book, counting the words and very letters of it, and holding that there was a mysterious sacredness in their very form. And for their idolatry they were permitted for ever to lose the Spirit, which they sought not to find, and were slain by that letter on which they had such reliance. And in the same spirit they require of you at once to believe the book as the word of God, by one act of ftiith to adopt it, then to read it and bow down before what you read. That is to make the book an idol, and then prostrate j'our soul imto it. And by so doing you shall make your soul a timorous creatrure of superstition, or a blind worshipper of sounds and sentences, but never a child of the Spirit of God. Such notions flow not from orthodox doctrine, which saith unto every man, Eead this word with what persuasion of its divine authority you presently have, and affect not more than you really have, for that is falsehood or super- stition, which God abhorreth. Bring to it the faculties of Idolatry of the Bible. 359 mind Avliicli you presently have, and j^eruso it with the desire to be enlightened in the deep things which it con- taineth, and the Spirit will open your soul to understand it more and more, and dispose your heart to receive it more and more, and constrain your will to obey it more and more ; and as your soul grows into its confirmation more and more, you will believe it more and more, and your faith in its inspiration will grow with your spiritual o-rowth, and strengthen with your spiritual strength. AVhat portion of the Holy Spirit is in the written word, he only shall be a judge of who hath the same inspiration wdth Himself. It is the Spirit in us w^hich discerneth the Spirit in the word. And then it is not letters and sounds that we discern, but the things signified, the ideas revealed, which beget in us such mighty revolutions. This also, like the others, is an effort to infix, in the outward object of the written word all that is necessary to our salvation, to con- crete the Spirit into matter, if I may so speak, and have the whole efficacy of the Godhead under our eye, or our understanding, or some other of our proper faculties, and to make religion consist in the right use of that outward thing. But, no ! The Lord hath better determined that it shall never be so, and hath kept the finishing of salva- tion still with Himself, in oi-der that He may have a pur- chase over God-avoiding man, to draw him to the only por- tion of his blessedness. Therefore He will not concrete His Spirit in the matter of a book, nor make Him subject to any given formula of man's resolution, simple or subtle ; but as the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth, so hath He resolved that it shall be with His Spirit, that men may leani to draw near unto His throne, and entreat the perfection of His gifts from that grace from which they have derived so much. And all that He hath done for our race is but the argument and assurance that He will do more, and will not stay till He haA-e completed the work ; but as the former part hath been done to the world in general, the latter pari re- 360 Practical. mainetli to be done for each, man in particular, and T\-e must apply ourselves to Him as those that would be saved, in order to receive to ourselves the personal application, and full possession, and perfect blessedness, and infinite profit of that which now hangeth shining over the whole race as a common dispensation — a great sign of mercy sus- pended in the heavens, more glorious than the rainbow, which telleth to all posterity that the seed-time and the harvest-time of spiritual fruit, shall never cease to bless the generations of man. There are to our minds many more manifestations of the tendency of this generation to magnify the importance of the written word, and undervalue the importance of the Spirit's application thereof, from which cometh that dex- terity in quoting the letter of the Scriptures, and poverty in its spiritual interpretation, which mark the preachers and the believers of these times. Where are the rich outpourings of doctrine — where the large manifestations of varied truth — where the unfoldings of the deep mysteries of texts — where the endless discourses, endless because the soul of the preacher was boundless of spiritual thoughts and feelings — where the huge volumes of fat and savoury food to the spirits of believers, Avhich rejoiced the former ages of the Church ? and yet there are tenfold more Bibles circulated, and tenfold more talk about the Bible ; but it is the book, the volume of the book, which hath filled us with these declamations — not the glory of the Angel of the book — not the eternal Word, of whom the written word is but the outward form for all the species, but who must dwell with the soul of each of you with His Spirit, and conform you in such wise as that His written word shall be to you spirit and life. The written word is but the raw food, which the indwelling Word and Spirit giveth us spiritual power to feed upon, and enableth us to speak out of the fulness of a refreshed spirit, and to rejoice in the enlargement and activity of a free and immortal spirit. Doubt therefore, brethren, have I none that we are in the way of converting the outward written word into an Idolatry of the Sacraments. 361 idol, as the Jews converted their outward written law iuto an idol, and that this evil hath heavily pressed, and is even now heavily oppressing the Protestant Churches ; and that from this it hath arisen that so much store is set in these times by the circulating and translating of the word, and £0 little to the stout and able preaching of the word ; also that so much importance is given to the edu- cation of children in the Scriptures, and so little to the convincing of full-grown men by the mighty power of the preaching of the word, of which it is well said in our Catechism that it is the chief means in the hands of the Spirit for the convincing and converting of men. If I were to characterise the present great and noble exertions of the Protestant Church, I would say of them that they were a world of plans and expedients to make the word effectual to the salvation of men, but which seemed in no propor- tion to their extent, because it was never intended by God that His word should bo so effectual. But when I shall witness as strenuous and sedulous endeavours to seek out children of the Spirit for preaching the word, as much boldness to speak against the children of the world who usurp the high places of this ministry, — when I shall hear not in word, but see in deed, that the Holy Spirit is looked to for all the increase, and that in this dependence all expediencies, prayers, and managements, and solicitations of the high and noble, and tralfic with the vanity and self-importance of men, and human wit and wiles, are supplanted in all our works by spiritual trust, then shall 1 bo sure that the way of the Lord is mightily preparing, and that He is going forth as a man of war to convert the nations. IDOLATRY OF THE SACRAMENTS. For want of solemn declarations of the truth concerning the sacraments, and for want of care to exhibit the distinc- tion of the visible Church from the world, innumerable eiTors have sprung up amongst us, and the sacraments have 362 Practical. come to be regarded as having in themselves a mysterious virtue to take away our sins. The sacrament of baptism, upon the one hand, is regarded as equivalent to regeneration, or the new birth. That is, the new birth of the Spirit is made to inhere in an outward sign, and can at any time be brought to any one at the bidding of a regularly-ordained minister of the Church ; after which, confirmation strength- ens the infant life of the soul ; after which, the sacrament seals it, and being from time to time regularly partaken the work of our salvation is completed and done. Such is the practical faith of thousands amongst us; to overthrow which the short and easy method is simply to declare, that without living faith these sacraments are not only no bene- fit but a great evil to the soul. And if you be asked what faith meaneth, you can tell them that it meaueth something different from honesty, from lionour, from respectability, from formality, from almsgiving, even a heart and soul and life devoted unto God, and an inward being which the w^orld cannot know, and cannot but persecute. Set a fence around the ordinances, and write up the perils of breaking through the fence. Shew the spiritual meaning of it, the exalted faith, the holy discij)line, the heavenly discourse of those who partake it. And not only speak thereof, but act thereon, and debar, by the high authority of a minister of the sacraments, whosoever with unclean hands would lay hold thereof; and if they will oblige you to admit such, resign your ministry rather than in your hands it should become futile, faithless, and injurious. For these indiscriminate mobs which come together to handle the emblems of our Lord's body are far more hurtful than profitable to the true Church. I would rather see churches of a dozen or a score in private houses, as in the apostolic times, meeting toge- ther in a pure mind to partake of the communion, than see every splendid cathedral in the island filled with the in- discriminate population of the country to go through the ceremony of the sacrament. For virtue the sacrament hath, else it would never have been instituted so strictly and manifested sensibly. Every one knows that it hath Idolatry of the Saci'aments. 363 virtue of some kind or other, and seeing it is tlie most solemn of all Christian ordinances, they consider rightly that it must have the highest virtue of all. JS'ow if this virtue be not connected with inward spiritual condition, and removed from outward visible circumstances, the unin- formed people must conclude that it is connected with the outward in some way or other ; and having done their alms, or maintained their fasting days, or abstained from some of their indulgences, or done that outward thing M-hich they conceive the most religious, they come in the full and sure expectation of deriving that high grace and heavenly virtue which they conceive to reside in the sacraments rightly and regularly performed. And hence the reason that at the high festivals of the Church the communion is thronged, because the additional holiness of the outward time addeth to the necessary holiness of the act, which is enhanced thereby and will count further. And hence the desire to receive the sacrament as the pledge of reconciliation be- tween friends, as the pledge of loyalty to the Church, as the preparation for death, and on every other outward occasion in which a little more religiousness is present. Do I allude in these things to any Church ? Xo ; I allude to all Churches. It is in our Church; it is in our sister Church ; it is in all dissenting Churches. For it is the natural idolatry of the human heart, the pharisaical for- mality of all worldly religion, the aversion of the mind to spiritual worship, nay, our total incapacity for it until we are born again of the Spirit. But though it be present in all Protestant Churches as a pi'actical evil, it is not present in them as a principle. In order to disclaim it our Church hath taken a form to herself, and begins every communion by fencing the table with a distinct account of those who should and those who should not partake the ordinance. And no one is admitted to partake thereof who hath not a token to shew that he hath been judged worthy by the minister and elders of the Church. Our sister Church dis- claims it, and her communion service is one of the most perfect expositions of the sacrament which is to be found. 364 Practical. And all the bodies which have dissented from us have generally made the laxness of onr communion one great jDrinciple of their dissent. What remains, therefore, to protect the Churches from inroad of the world, and to pro- tect the world from eating and drinking judgment to itself, hut that we the ministers should be faithful to our Saviour, and to the Reformers of our several churches, and present boldly the true elements of the sacraments, and carry into effect that which we preach, by exhorta- tion, admonition, instruction, and, if need be, remonstrance and hindrance. SECTAEIANISM OUR BANE. By sectarian, I mean one who hath taken up with a part of the Divine word, and resolveth within himself that it is the whole of it, and that whatever passes beyond or diverges from this his well-shapen pattern, must be error, and not for a moment to be believed. To which tempta- tion of Satan we all lie so open, and are so naturally in- clined, that I wonder not so much that Satan hath so easy a prey of us, as that we are not iipon our guard against him. Its plentiful occasion ariseth in our seliish hearts, and conceited minds, and ambitious wills, which would fain set each man up as the rule of right unto himself and the measure of right unto others. Whereas the word of God is large, liberal, and perfect truth, universal charity, and submission of the will unto the will of our Father which is in heaven. And therefore it hath no less a purpose than to bring men's minds into union with Christ, the common reason ; men's hearts into communion with the Spirit, the common love ; and their wills into harmony with the eternal will of our heavenly Father ; and so to bring about imiver- sal peace and concord upon the earth, and to establish that form of blessed society which is called the Church. But this, it is manifest, can only be accomplished b}'' the common consent of our souls to be instructed, taught, and disciplined in all things by the word of God. Kenunciation of selfish- Sectarianism our Bane. 365 ness lies at the root of it ; abstinence from pride aud vanity ; the viewing of our gifts as a stewardship, of our condition as an election of the Lord for the purposes of His own glory ; the forsaking of all in order to be Christ's disciple, the loving of our neighbour as ourself, the sitting down as children at His feet to hear, the cutting oft' the right hand and plucking out the right eye at His command, the spending and being spent for His sake, and whatever else is most willing and devoted to Him who died for us and rose again. And not only so, but a perfect contentment with that condition to which it may please Him to advance us ; whether to keep the door or to sit upon the throne of His house ; whether as one of the dishonourable or honourable vessels thereof; whether servants of many or of few talents in the administration ; whether in the body we be active hands, or humble burden- bearing feet, guiding eyes, or watchful ears. For the Chm-ch is not a republic, as they say the co-fraternity of letters is, but a various community, in which are masters and servants and slaves, parents and children, husbands and wives, and every other relationship of life which existeth in the world ; j-et so existing in the Church as to be devoid of pride, envy, malice, hypocrisy, and division; but all exercising the various gifts and graces of God's Spirit for the fulfilment of their various offices : so as to be bound and compacted together by the need of mutual help, as well as by the fond desire and ever-present ability to be helpful to one another. Now, he is not a sectarian, but a true catholic Christian, who hath submitted himself as a child to the teaching o^. Christ Jesus, being born again of the Holy Spirit ; and hath and doth desire the sincere milk of the word, that he may grow thereby into the full stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus ; aud who, the more he attains, the more he desireth to attain ; never resting, as if he had attained, or were al- ready perfect, but pressing onward to the mark for the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus. He is not a sectarian, but a catholic Christian, who grows more perfect, by grow- ing more convinced of his own natural sinfulness and alien- ation from the love of God ; more meek and gentle before 366 Practical. the Lord and all men ; more patient of tlae sins and infirmi- ties of his brethren, and more set against sin itself, whether l^resent in his own members or the members of the Church. He, finally, is not a sectarian, but a catholic Christian, who loves the whole word of God, and yields himself to be moulded by it ; gives it free course over his soul to order and govern it ; and seeks conformity with the image of God in Christ Jesus, ever praying to be made like unto the Son of God, and to be under the sweet influence of His blessed Spii'it, If you have caught the idea which I have given of a Christian who is not sectarian, you will easily perceive how great an attainment it is, and how sweet an inclination it must give to the preacher's voice; what a readiness to receive his word of doctrine, rej^roof, correction, or instruc- tion in righteousness ; and, on the other hand, it must be manifest to you how apt we must be, under the address of Satan, to take on partial forms of Christian character and adopt partial views of Christian truth, and so to become prejudiced against whatever opposeth, differeth from, or passeth beyond, that which we have set our heart upon to call it perfect and right and wanting nothing. For, first, our natural spirits are different — some generous, others just, and others selfish ; some heroical, others moderate, and others mean ; some grave, others gay ; some enthusiastic others slow ; some fiery, others mild ; — and these varieties of man will be apt to feed upon that part of the holy word which is congenial to them : the generous seizing upon those parts which hold forth God's universal bounty, the just apprehending those which manifest His holiness, and the selfish delighting in those which set forth His special love unto His own peculiar people ; the heroical applying itself to the noble and exalted in character and sentiment, the sublime in action, the terrible in word, and the un- daunted in suffering, which are to be found written of and by God's exalted servants ; the mean-spirited, plodding even amongst the household duties and daily offices, the proverbs and counsels, and prudent admonitions of the Holy Scriptures ; the grave turning self denial into mortifi- Sectarianism oitr Bane. '^^6'^ cation, ami duty iuto correction, substituting moroseness, for seriousness and a downcast countenance for a humble heart ; the gay catching at all the contentment and peace and joy which belong to the divine and renewed nature, in order to feed its own inclination therewith; — and so on, through the yarious spirits of which men are found to be naturally possessed each will be apt to look into the word of God, and convert to its own colour all upon which it fastens ; and for the rest, pass them slightingly by, and at length forget that they are there. Now, this being a matter of which I have meditated much, and am well assured, I make bold to say, that Satan, having enamoured every man of that type and form of spirit which peculiarly belongs to himself, doth use the Scriptures to foster and increase the same, and vex it the more with every other form of our evil and corrupt nature. And when he hath succeeded, he hath made that man worse than be- fore, having in a manner sanctified all the predilections of the flesh and the mind, and confirmed them by the belief of a Divine sanction ; so that he thinketh God is of him and with him, of no one and with no one who difters from him. ^V hence cometh that violence between sects in all ages of the Church, whereby Christ is blasphemed of the world, and Satan twice honoured of the professing Church ; to guard against which nothing availeth, but our necessity of being taught of the Holy Spirit in the Divine word, and not taught of our own natural spirit ; the former leading to community, the latter to distraction, and difference. For though there be a unity and consent in the natural under- standings, and also in the natural hearts of men — for God hath formed our hearts alike — yet our entire preference of self doth so w^arp us from that point of communion, and Satan doth so aggravate our several interests, that truly we never come into true union with one another by this natural means. And, therefore, there is no such fertile source of sectarianism, as setting man to study by the light of his own understanding the word of God, and to compose out of it a system of truth for himself, and a system of character 368 Practical. f>^r himself ; which is the rage of this day amongst us Protestants. Each man will read the Bible for himself, having a hearty contempt for creeds and confessions and orthodoxy. And fine work they make of it ! And they call themselves Bible Christians ! Which men I have found so self-opinioned, so prejudiced against the most venerable forms of the Church, so mighty in their own conceit, and so fond of innovation, that I have got an instinct of abhor- rence towards them, and would rather hope to have com- munion with a superstitious church-ridden Papist, than with one of these self- instructed, self-guided Bible Christians, as they are wont to call themselves, in their high contempt for all who have anj^ reverence for the authority of the Church. They are exactly in religion, what your weaver statesman and shoemaker political economist are in civil affairs. Whereof the cure is, not to submit with slavish deference to the Church's authority, but with the guidance of the orthodox creed, as the common sense of the Church, to search the Scriptures, praying continually the Holy Spirit to lead you out of the infinite mazes and perplexities of your own deceitful and deceivable heart, into the open and plain and enlightened and peaceful paths of catholic truth and perfect righteousness. The number of our sects is our shame ; for the Christian Church was intended to be one ; and of which the evil is, . that we are all so full of our own peculiarities, and saj nourish them in secret, if for certain ostensible ends we be forced to hide them in public, that it is hardly possible for any one born in their bosom not to be reared up with a great pride and favour for this which is our shame. They have each their periodical publication ; they have each their famed preachers; they have each their great society and tlieir favourite schemes, upon which they talk until they have hampered within the pinfold of their sect, it may be of their conventicle, that spirit which ought to have been expanded into the full form of orthodox truth, and ripened into the fulness of catholic love, which ought to find its kin- dred and commimion everywhere in the Christian Church. True Charity, 369 And it is not to be told what a hindrance this is to tho preaching of the word. One will not have a moral duty inculcated, another will not hear a prophecy explained ; one is impatient of instruction, and will rise and go away if you do not excite his feelings, which excitement another decries as enthusiasm ; another cannot receive the matter if it be read, and another dislikes that it should be spoken. You may not tell masters their duties lest ye should offend them; and if you preach of duties to rulers, you are political ; and if you shew the errors of the times, you are setting yourself up for a judge of others ; and if you bring forth former times in the experience of the Church, you go beyond the knowledge of the people ; and unless you harp upon every man's single string, you do not preach Christ. These things 1 do not imagine, but have sadly experienced, to my own personal wounding; yea even, to what I trust is far dearer to me — to the wounding of the truth and honour of Christ. TRUE CHARITY. Our charities, like our devotions, or our acts of faith, should be personal things as much as possible, and public things as little as possible — offerings to need which we have taken pains to ascertain to be free from all imposture, tributes to our merciful Saviour who died for miserable sinners, ; and acknowledgments to God who hath made our basket 1 and our store to superabound. And to this end time is demanded of us, and personal knowledge, which must always precede hearty feeling, and visitation to the dis- tressed such as our Saviour paid, and consolation such as He bestowed in order that our heart may be made better by the vision of mercy, aud our gratitude quickened to the Most High, and our dependence upon Him bound more closely, and all our Christian graces revived and re- freshed ; — in order, on the other hand, that the poor may be cheered with a counsellor for Heaven, and improved in the hour of their temptation, and led to God by the presence 2 B 370 Practical. and bounty of His servants, and instructed in tte provi- dence of God, and the riches of a gracious Saviour; — in rrder, also, that the rich and poor may meet together, and their mutual dislikes be removed, and the gospel may have free course and be glorified over all ranks of the people. If ye would imitate the example of your blessed Saviour and be to the downcast and misei'able what He was to the sons of men when they were low and lost, be at charges to humble yourselves to those of poor estate ; and for that end divest yourselves of all the attributes of place and rank, as our Lord divested Himself of His divine attributes. Take under your superintendence certain portions of op- pressed and miserable men, as He took under His superin- tendence the whole fallen race of Adam ; humble yourselves as He humbled Himself; engage yourselves with all your afiections as He did, and the blessing of God will rest upon you, and the little ye bestow will be amply refunded. So may the Lord enable you, that when you come to judgment ye may be found with all your other works to have possessed this the only qualifica.tion which will pass the bar of judgment, and introduce us to life eternal. I know no one that is to do this greatest charity for the needy but the charitable, the truly charitable. This is the first duty. It is like delivering a man out of the spoiler's hand before you feed him. It is like breaking the fetters of a slave before you advance him. Nay, it is delivering a whole race, which we have always with us, and our Lord says are to have always with us, delivering them from the oppression of the oppressor before we proceed to take further cognisance of how their state may be improved. Therefore the man that shieldeth himself from charity on this score is a sophist — a sophist to his own heart, for it is only another argument for charity. It is charity moving to a deed of justice. It is justice and charity combined, which is the noblest pair that can meet in a human breast. Do you ask me how this just office is to be done for the sake of charity. I would not legislate to you, but I would advise. First, for the conviction of those who come forth True Charity. 371 out of doors to solicit, I commend to you the support of tlie Mendicity Societ3% which undertakes on a large scale the inquisition of those characters whom no private in spection could wind through all their deceptive haunts. Their tickets will relieve your charitable feelings when they are excited by street-petition ; their inspection will take care tliat your charitable feelings are not cast away upon the undeserving. But it is not street-solicitors, but misery in its thousand retiring forms of shame, poverty struggling hard to keep its head above the wave, worth pining in neglect, iniquity trampled over by necessity, shame waiting fur foi'giveness, heart-sick vice longing for virtue's paths, dishonour too severely punished, virtue too severely tried, health prostrated through over-exertion of body and over-anxiety of mind, disease preying upon famished frames, the wants of nature unsupplied, souls unevangelised, children uneducated, wives and families de- serted or borne down by graceless husbands and unaflec- tionate fathers. These, and a thousand other forms of misery', which harbour unseen, and cry to Heaven for re- dress ; and Heaven crieth to men in this holy book, but men hear not, and the abject miserables perish for evermore. Ohon ! ohon ! a fancy cometh upon my brain which I dare hardly utter, lest it overwhelm the feeling of this assembly, and unman myself into unbecoming weeping. I fancy in Bome sad abode of this city, upon some un visited pallet of straw, a man, a Christian man, ])ining, perishing, without an attendant, looking his last upon nakedness and misery, feeling his last in the pangs of hunger and thirst. The righteous spirit of the man being disembodied, I fancy to myself arising to heaven, encircled by an attendance of celestial spirits, daughters of mercy, who waited upon his soul when mankind deserted his body — this attended spirit I fancy rising up to the habitation of God, and reporting in the righteous ear of the Governor of the earih how it fared with him amidst all the extravagance and outlay of this city. And saith the indignant Governor of men, " They had not a morsel of bread nor a drop of water to bestow 2 B 2 372 Practical. upon My saint. Who of My angels will go for Me where I shall send ? Go, thou angel of famine ; break the growing ear with thy wing, and let mildew feed upon their meal. Go, thou angel of the plague, and shake thy wings once more over the devoted city. Go, thou angel of fire, and consume all the neighbourhood where My saint suffered unheeded and unpitied. Burn it ; and let its flame not quench till their pavilions are a heap of smouldering ashes." Say not, we give to this charity so much and to that charity so much more. God wants not mone}' alone — the silver and gold are His ; but He wants your heart, your feelings, your time, your anxiety. He curseth these mere money charities, making them engender poverty in far- greater abundance than they annihilate it, and scourging them with the means of those who giTidgingly bestow it. The mere mammon works mammon's work ; divine charity worketh God's work. A Christian may as well give oveM his faith into the hands of a piiblic body, and believe what they appoint to be believed, and think that he thereby satisfieth God, as cast his charity over to a public body, yea, or to a private individual, and think that he thereby satisfieth God. Our right hand is not to know what our left hand doeth. It is with the heart, and soul, and strengths and might, that He is to be worshipped and served. Instead of hunting the shops and bazaars for refinement of ornamental dress and furniture, or buying from foreign collectors objects of virtu and antiques, and ranging the round globe for its idle and exquisite singularities, we shoidd seek the alleys and lanes of this city, where the abject and miserable dwell, and the melancholy prisons into which the wretched are cast out of sight and out of help ; seek there to refit shipwrecked fortunes, and right disabled and diseased frames, and comfort sore affliction, and pour the oil of consolation into wounded spirits, and give the oil of joy for mourning and the gaiment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Often, very often, I conld weep amidst the emblems of smiling fortune, enshrined in chambers and antechambers and loftv saloons. Like old Diogenes, \ T}'uc Charity. 373 I could leap and trample iipon silken couches and massy tables, in no cynical pride, but in Christian indignation, when from out the windows of these chambers I look upon the unpitied, unattended, unbefriended habitations of the wretched poor. Out upon the votaries of state and equipage aud fashion ! They care for nothing but self indulgence and vanity, and have no pity of their kind, but would turn pale and wax sick of sentiment to behold that misery which flesh and blood as good as theirs is fain to endure in its feverish veins and filthy habitations. Away, away with such unsubstantial men and women — their hollow hearts let fumes of vanity fill, their silly heads let intoxication of excess continue to sicken ; their vain routine of life let vanity continue to drive in his airy chariot; let age plant its wrinkles upon their dissembling faces, and ennui con- sume the years of their old age ; and let there be no moui-ning over their death, nor tears dropped in their grave, nor broken-hearted mourners to visit it in the shadowy twilight; but instead, let cold marble entomb their colder I hearts, and unfeeling stone be the bearer of their memory. ' Away with them ; they are good for nothing, except to i flutter in the train of some greater personage than them- * selves, or themselves to lead out the train of splendid triflers. God convert them with some voice as terrible as the voice of him that cried in the wilderness. I speak to other men, to honest men, to men in whom nature is not shipwrecked, and in whom, happily, a better ■ nature hath come to birth or maturity. To you I speak, t my Christian flock, over whom the Lord hath appointed f unto me the oversight. I guard you, yoimg men, whose I guide for life and eternity I am honoured to be ; and to 1 you, domestic men, who are the strength of this flock; \ and to you, elderly men, who are its counsellors. I warn you against the invasion of the pomp and circumstance of human life. I warn you against the parade and retinue of state. I warn you against luxurious meals and splendid fetes, I warn you against the wine-cup when it sparkles, and against beauty when it wreathes itself in the Avitchery 374 Practical. and encliantment of its smiles. I warn you against the many inventions of luxury and convenience, which are the links of a chain that girdles the mightiest of the earth in ignoble bondage — the fuel of a fire that consumes the world's myrrh and frankincense befoie the shrine of Belial, and in the end catches and consumes the very heart that ministers at his altar. And I counsel you to expend your thoughts upon the nobler offices of humanity, to be a father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow, and the orphan's help and the stranger's friend. I am not ignorant of the difficulty of carrying into effect in this unprincipled city these exhortations, for I have felt that difficult}^ ; every day of my life I feel it. There are locusts that prey upon the generous, and grub up all that they can catch from Christian benevolence, idlers, deceivers, wretched spendthrifts, and contemptible souls, who steel 3 one against giving, and draw do^vn upon one the character of a mere novice in London life. But, if to be an adept in London life is to shut one's purse to charity, and open it to gaudy shows, then Heaven keep all my flock in a constant noviciate. For, after all, let the greatest novice yesterday imported from the most innocent and unpolluted simplicity of rural life, gratify all the freshness of a Christian and benevolent heart for one j'ear, and, when the year is over, cast a reckoning, and, after deducting from his whole ex- penditure the necessaries, examine what part of the residue went to liberality, what part to please the world's fashions, which in his heart he doth nnuseate and despise, and I •mistake if he shall not find a result tvirn out which shall silence into shame any talk about being duped into over- liberal giving. But it is not my part to recommend a clothing of all the backs of the thriftless, and a feeding of all the mouths of the dissolute. I know that too much clothing, systematic clothing, charity-school clothing, is carried to excess in those parts Avhich makes men of a northern training blush for the paltry meanness of those who receive, and the thoughtless squandering of those who bestow. ( 375 ) CONFLICT NOT CONTINUOUS. It is not natural to be always in a state of conflict with an enemy. Conflict, indeed, implies the purpose and desire of conquest and victory ; and if we expect upon the arrival of a certain one to have the assured victor}^ with what earnest expectation will his arrival be expected ! As in the great battle which suppressed the first struggle of the infidel power, our brave troops and their brave general waited, in the heat of conflict, with the utmost longing for the arrival of their confederates in arms ; so ought the Church, with eager outlook, with stretching out of the neck, to be looking for the arrival of the Captain of her salvation and the heavenly host ; by the brightness of whose coining all her enemies are to be destroyed. And I perceive that if this consolation be not expected and con- tinually borne' in mind, one of two things must come to pass ; — either we will give in to worldly accommodations, and lay down the spiritual weapons of our warfare, and so sink down into formal professors of Christ ; or else we will be fretted and galled, and wearied out with much ineffectual and painful resistance, which will sicken the soul, and rob it of its tranquillity and peace ; — and so, on the side of temper, Satan will take us captive, working in us the sharpness and keenness and violence of reformers, instead of the soft, meek, and patient assurance of apostles. And let me tell you, brethren, that in my opinion, the great heat and asperity which is charged, not without some cause, upon the age of Reformers, arose, as I conceive, chiefly from their not having present in their thoughts, this great hope and expectation, which alone can calm and compose the soul under all agitations and afflictions. For the care of this world is the beginning of impatience, and anxiety, and disquietude of soul ; and the care of the world to come is the beginning of faith and trust, and peace and blessedness. ( 376 ) CHRISTIAN PEUDENCE. Now is the time for Christian courtesies of manner, for graces of behaviour, for gainliness of speech, for meekness, gentleness, and all the arts of pacification. Now is the time for argument, eloquence, and fearless urgency. Take now unto yourself all calculations of foresight, strengthen yourself with all friendly advice and aid, and even of your fears take friendly counsel. Afterthoughts and calculations of consequences are not for determining the thing to be done, but the way to do it most effectually — therefore not the inward counsellors and advisers of the mind, but the outward ministers and servants who execute her counsels. It may do well enough for a Jesuit or an ambitious courtier, but it is not for a Christian, who has line upon line, and precept upon precept, to run a calculation of chances, and out of the future, more uncertain in its issues than the public lottery, to draw forth a very doubtful probability, and make of it a rule to influence, if not to counteract, the uneiTing rules of God's revelation. And where is faith, if thus we are to travel by sight ? This prudence is the death of faith ; it leaves it nothing to do whatever ; for when all is seen and calculated to a certainty, where is there any more trust in God? A Christian's life — a Christian minister's life — is one great series of imprudences. It courts not the world's favour ; then it is imprudent. It standeth not for its rights, but forgets and forgives and comes by loss ; then it is imprudent. It careth not anxiously for to-morrow — it hoardeth not — it is open-handed — it sj^eaks truth which is despised. Imprudence ! It is unpolite often, and often offensive. In short, it is a life of loss and resignation ; • and jixst in proportion as it is so, it is a life of faith, which looketh at the things unseen and eternal. Ay, I mistake ; it doth calculate, but it calculates for the whole -scope of existence, not for the period merely that is on this side the grave. It taketh in all the future consequences, and not a few only — therein it is prudent ; but in respect to the world, it is little better than a long list of imprudences. M Christian Prudettce. 2>77 Think not that I cut off prudence, wisdom, and discretion from the life of a Christian as of another man — I do but assign to them their secondary place. There are these three — conscience, wisdom, and faith — which do each preside over a separate province of Christian life ; or rather, to every Christian action they contribute each a part. Conscience I consider as the eye and voice of the soul, which being guided by the Word and Spirit of God, belu)lds and tells the thing that is good and wise to be done. This prime minister of the inward man works best alone. If you bring to his side considerations of usefulness, of practicability, or of outward seemliness, you confuse his judgment, or tamper with his faithfulness ; and according as you silence advocates from withoitt, and make stillness within the breast, to hear the •suggestions of reason — God's gift — and of reason's two helps — the AVord and Spirit of God — you are the surer of au honest and upright judgment. The purpose being resolved within the heaven-determined conscience, it then comes to action : and now, as hath been said, is the time for prudence, discretion, and wisdom, which are handmaidens for exe- cuting the counsels of reason and of God. These are not to bring down the lofty decision of the soul, to divest it of heaven's plumage, and make it creep by the earth. Nay, though it should not only be unwise but foolish, if it be heaven-suggested, " the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man." Though it should not only be foolish but dangerous — not only dangerous, but fatal to be carried into effect — still, being counselled as above, it must not be for- saken. "What is to keep our courage up, then ? V» hat is to recompense us ? What is to divide us from foolhardy and violent men ? Faith is that which is to keep our courage up, and recompense us, and distinguish us from foolhardy and violent men — high trust that what God hath counselled, God wil> prosper and finally reward. Faith stands in stead of present utility. The world to come brings out its glories to countervail present losses ; and the more that, for the sake of faith, is resigned of renown, reputation, and advantage, the more is that faith perfected, and the more is conscience 37^ Practical. cheered in lier divine dictatorship. The doctrines of faith and of present utility are the antipodes of each other. A\ here all is done for utility there is no faith. Now, prudence is the philosophy of present advantage. " Faith is the sub- stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Is wit-dum then excluded? No; but a Divine wisdom Cometh instead of a human wisdom. The conscience is guided by the oracles and Spirit of God. Now the Word of God is surely wiser than all books, and the Spirit of God wiser than all men. So that the fountainhead of wisdom poureth itself into the springs of action. Conscience is to the stream of life like what the ancients fabled of their rivers, that each river had a guardian god who resided in the solitiide and caverns of its fountains, guided the useful course of every streamlet, and presided over the majestic flow of their united waters, and entered on its majestic wave into the full court of the ocean god, where he had a seat of dignity in proportion to the tribute which he brought to Neptune's watery domain. So conscience sits and reigns supreme at the fountainheads of action, and holdeth counsel of the Lord, and directeth her various courses according to Divine admonition, and, gathering force, rideth upon the full stream of a Christian life, which is not lost among the shifting sands of human policy, but is borne, a noble testi- monial, into the ocean of eternal good, to contribute its part to the great and good ends of the Almighty counsels ; and the good conscience, which presided so well over its ap- pointed trust, is in very truth received into the court of God, with honour in proportion to the tribute which it hath brought to the universal good, over which God appointeth every man a guardian, and to which He honoureth every man to be in some sort a contributor. EVILS OF PEOSPEEITY TO CHRISTIANS. For one saint who is tried with adversity bej'ond what he can bear, there are hundreds and thousands si3oiled by the plentifulness of the Lord's bounty. Not that the Lord Evils of Prosperity to Christians. 379 would ruin any of His saints, but that He is very bountiful. He giveth liberall}'', and upbraideth not. And we are not enough aware of the lurking enemy, that cannot bo tho- roughly cleared out of any visible gift till Christ shall come and cast him out, and bind him in the bottomless pit. Therefore rather fear the full than the scanty hand of the Lord. But fear neither ; rather love both, saying, " The Lord is wisest, and knoweth what is best for me and mine. His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." But go not to forget Him because He is bountiful. Because He hath increased your store and filled your home with children, and with other wealth, go not to forsake Him and cleave unto the world, and unto the sense, and unto the great and vain ones of the earth. Ah, that is ingratitude indeed ! A worldling who has been paying his court to the harlot world may well dally in the Delilah's lap ; but you who have sought for God, and been by God enriched, to forsake His people, and abide with the Philistines, and dally in the Delilah's lap, is fearful apostasy, and will cost you first the shearing of the locks of your strength, the darkening of your eyes to heavenly light, shameful labour in the mill of bondage, and basest mockery of the God whom you wor- shipped ; and they will end by making of you a toy to sport in honour of their gods of silver and gold. Time permitteth me not to take all the advantage which I might take of the great principle which I laid down ; and I have but to exhort you once more, as 3'ou value your c.-hildren, not to be tempted away from God to the world. For Avhat fatherless and orphan children were they then, when you had become worldly ! ^Vhat fathers, what mothers, of Christian, of baptized children were jou then ! Say you reaped the harvest of a thousand fields, and counted your gold by thousands, what were that to the starving and starved souls of your children ? Can you purchase prayers ? can you buy grace and mercy, bribe justice, and by great moneys take enfeoffment for them or for yourself of an estate in the kingdom and world to come? O brethren, these are conceits and follies which I would not insult you with, had 380 Practical. they not been sanctified by false priests and erroneous doctrine. But ye hold none of those things. CLAIMS OF GOD S WORD. There was a time when each revelation of the word of God had an introduction into this earth which neither per- mitted men to doubt whence it came, nor wherefore it was sent. If, at the giving of each several truth, a star was not lighted up in heaven, as at the birth of the Prince of truth, there was done upon the earth a wonder, to make her children listen to the mej-sage of their Maker. The Almighty made bare His arm ; and, through mighty acts shewn by His holy servants, gave demonstration of His truth, and found for it a sure place among the other matters of human knowledge and belief. But now the miracles of God have ceased, and nature, secure and unmolested, is no longer called on for testimo- nies to her Creator's voice. No burning bush draws the footsteps to His presence-chamber; no invisible voice holds the car awake ; no hand cometh forth from the obscure to write His purposes in letters of flame. The vision is shut up, and the testimony is sealed, and the word of the Lord is ended, and this solitary volume, with its chapters and verses, is the sum total of all for which the chariot of heaven made so many visits to the earth, and the Son of God him- self tabernacled and dwelt among us. The truth which it contains once dwelt undivulged in the bosom of God ; and, on coming forth to take its place among things i-evealed, the heavens and the earth, and nature through all her chambers, gave it reverent welcome. Beyond what it reveals, the mysteries of the future are un- known. To gain it acceptation and currency, the noble company of martyrs testified unto the death. The general asseml)ly of the first-born in heaven made it the day-star of their hopes, and the pavilion of their peace. Its every sen- tence is charmed with the power of God, and powerful to the everlasting salvation of souls. Claims of God* s Word. 381 Being filled with these thoughts of the primeval divinity of revealed W'isdom when she dwelt in the bosom of God, and was of His eternal self a part, long before lie piepared the heavens or set a compass upon the face of the deep ; re- volving also how by the space of four thousand years every faculty of mute nature did solemn obeisance to this daughter of the Divine Mind, whenever He pleased to commission her forth to the help of mortals ; and further meditating upon the delights which she had of old with the sons of men, the height of heavenly temper to which she raised them, and the offspring of magnanimous deeds which these two — the wisdom of God and the soul of man — did engender and bring forth — meditating, I say, upon these miglity topics, our soul is smitten with grief and shame to remai k how, in this latter day, she hath fallen from her high estate; and fallen along with her the great and noble character of men. Or if there be still a few names, as of the missionary Martyh, to emulate the saints of old — how to the com- monalty of Christians her oracles have fallen into a house- hold commonness, and her visits into a cheap familiarity ; while by the multitude she is mistaken for a minister of terror sent to oppress poor mortals with moping melancholy, and do a deadly office upon the happiness of human kind ! For there is no express stirring up of faculties to meditate her high and heavenly strains — nor formal sequestration of the mind from all other concerns on purpose for her spe- cial entertainment — nor pause of solemn seeking and solemn waiting for a spiritual frame, before entering and listening to the voice of the Almighty's wisdom. \\ ho feels the sublime dignity there is in a saying fresh dchCended from the porch of heaven ! Who feels the awful weight there is in the least iota that hath dropped from the lips of God ? Who feels the thrilling fear or trembling hope there is in words whereon the eternal destinies of himself do hang ? Who feels the tide of gratitude swelling within his breast, for redemption and salvation, instead of flat despair and everlasting retribution ? Or who, in perusing the word of God, is captivated through all his faculties, transported 382 Practical. througli all liis emotions, and through all his energies of action wound up ! To say the hest, it is done as other duties are wont to be done ; and having reached the rank of a daily, formal duty, the perusal of the word hath reached its noblest place. That is the guide and spur of all duty, the necessary aliment of Christian life ; the first and the last of Christian knowledge and Christian feeling hath, to speak the best, degenerated in these days to stand rank and file among those duties whereof it is parent, preserver, and commander. And to speak not the best, but the fair and common truth, this book, the offspring of the divine mind, and the perfection of heavenly wisdom, is permitted to lie from day to day, perhaps from week to week, unheeded and unperused ; never welcome to our happy, healthy, and energetic moods ; admitted, if admitted at all, in seasons of sickness, feeblemindedness, and disabling soiTOW. That which was sent to be a spirit of ceaseless joy and hope, within the heart of man, is treated as the enemy of happiness and the murderer of enjoyment ; and eyed askance, as the remembrancer of death, and the very messenger of hell ! Oh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrongs, then might this book well exclaim — Hear, 0 heavens ! and give ear, 0 earth ! I came from the love and embrace of God, and mute nature, to whom I brought no boon, did me rightful homage. To man I came, and my words were to the children of men. I disclosed to you the mysteries of hereafter, and the secrets of the throne of God. I set open to you the gates of salvation, and the way of eternal life, heretofore unknown. Nothing in heaven did I with- hold from your hope and ambition ; and upon your earthly lot I poured the full horn of divine providence and con- solation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held no festivity on my arrival : ye sequester me from happiness and heroism, closeting me with sickness and infirmity ; ye make not of me, nor use me for your guide to wisdom and prudence, but press me into your list of duties, and with- draw me to a mere corner of j^our time ; and most of ye set me at nought, and utterly disregard me. I came, the Claims of God's Word. 383 fulness of the knowledge of God : angels delighted in my company, and desired to dive into my secrets. But ye, mortals, place masters over me, subjecting me to the dis- cipline and dogmatism of men, and tutoring me in your schools of learning. I came not to be silent in your dwell- ings, but to speak welfare to you and to your children. I came to rule, and my throne to set up in the hearts of men. Mine ancient residence was the bosom of God ; no residence will I have but the soul of an immortal ; and if you had entertained me, I should have possessed you of the peace which I had with God, '' when I was with him, and was daily his delight, rejoicing always be- fore him. Because I have called and you 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 and mock when your fear cometh : when your fear cometh as desola- tion, and your destniction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they cry unto me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." Christians are prone to preoccupy themselves with the admiration of those opinions by which they stand distin- guished as a church or a sect from other Christians ; and instead of being quite unfettered to receive the whole counsel of the divine will, they are prepared to welcome it no further than as it bears upon and stands with opinions which they already favour. To this prejudgment the early use of catechisms mainly contributes, which, however ser- viceable in their place, have the disadvantage of presenting the truth in a form altogether diflferent from what in occu- pies in the word itself. In the one it is presented to the intellect chiefly, (and in the catechism of our Church to an intellect of a very subtle order;) in the other it is pre- sented more frequently to the heart, to the affections, to the imitation, to the fancy, and to all the faculties of the soul. In early youth, which is applied to with those com- pilations, an association takes place between religion and 384 Practical. intellect, and a divorcement of religion from the other powers of the inner man. Which derangement, judging from observation and experience, it is exceeding difficult to set to rights in after life ; and so it comes to pass that, in listening to the oracles of God, the intellect is chiefly awake, and the better parts of the message — those which address the heart and its affections, those which dilate and enlarge our imaginations of the Godhead, and those which speak to the various sympathies of our nature — we are, by the injudicious use of these narrow epitomes, indisposed to receive. And in their train comes controversy, with his rough voice and unmeek aspect, to disqualify the soul for a full and fair audience of her Maker's word. The points of the faith we have been called on to defend, or which are re- putable with our party, assume in our esteem an importance disproportionate to their importance in the word, which we come to relish chiefly when it goes to sustain them; and the Bible is hunted for arguments and texts of controversy which are treasured up for future service. The solemn stillness which the soul should hold before her Maker, so favourable to meditation and rapt communion with the throne of God, is destroyed at every turn by suggestion of what is orthodox and evangelical — where all is ortho- dox and evangelical ; the spirit of the reader becomes lean, being fed with abstract truths and formal propositions ; his temper ungenial, being ever disturbed with controversial suggestions ; his prayers undevout recitals of his opinions ; his discourse technical announcements of his faith. Intel- lect, cold intellect, hath the sway over heavenward devo- tion and holy fervours. Man, contentious man, hath the attention which the unsearchable God should undivided have ! and the fine, full harmony of heaven's melodious voice, which, heard apart, were sufficient to lap the soul in eestacies unspeakable, is jarred and interfered with ; and the heavenly spell is broken by the recurring conceits, sophisms, and passions of man. Isow, truly, an utter degradation it is of the Godhead to Claims of God's Word. 385 have His word in league with that of any man, or any council of men. What matter to me whether it be the Pope, or any work of the human mind, that is exalted to the equality of God ? If any helps are to be imposed for the understanding, or safe guarding or sustaining of the word, wh}' not the help of statues and pictuies for my devotion ? Therefore, while the warm fancies of the Southerns have given their idolatry to the ideal forms of noble art, let us Northerns beware we give not our idolatry to the cold and coarse abstractions of human intellect. To minds untuned to holiness the words of God find no entrance — striking heavy on the ear, seldom making way to the understanding — almost never to the heart. To spirits hot with conversation, perhaps heady with argu- ment, uncomposed by solemn thimght, ruffled and in up- roar from the concourse of worldly interests — the sacred page being spread out, its accents are drowned in the noise which hath not yet subsided within the breast. All the awe, and pathos, and awakened consciousness of a divine approach, impressed upon the ancients by the procession of solemnities — is to worldly men without a substitute. They have not solicited themselves to be in readiness. In a usual mood, and a vulgar frame, they come to God's word as to any other composition — reading it without any active imaginations about Him who speaks; feeling no awe of a sovereign Lord, nor care of a tender Father, nor devo- tion to a merciful Saviour. Kowise depressed out of their wonted independence, nor humiliated before the King of kings — with no prostrations of the soul, nor falling at His feet as dead — with no exclamation, as of Isaiah, " ^Voe is me, for I am of unclean lips ! " nor earnest suit, " Sen me," nor fervent ejaculation of welcome, as of Samuel, " Lord, speak, for Thy servant heareth ; " they come to the word, feeling towards it as if it were the word of an equal. Ko wonder it should fail of liappy influence upon spirits which have, as it were on purpose, disqualified themselves for its benefits, by removing from the regions of thought and feeling with which it accords, into other 2 G 3^6 Practical. regions, which it is of too severe dignity to affect, otherwise than with stern menace and direful foreboding! If they would have it bless them, and do them good, they must change their manner of approaching it ; and endeavour to bring themselves into that prepared and collected and re- verential frame which becomes an interview with the High and Holy One who inhabiteth the praises of eternity. Go, visit a desolate widow with consolation and help and fatherhood of her orplian children, — do it again and again — and your presence, the sound of your approaching footstep, the soft utterance of your voice, the veiy mention of your name — will come to dilate her heart with a fulness which defies her tongue to utter, but speaks by the tokens of a swimming eye, and clasped hands, and fervent ejacula- tions to Heaven upon your head ! No less copious acknow- ledgment to God, the author of our well-being and the father of our better hopes, ought we to feel wdien His word discloseth to us the excesses of His love. Though 9, veil be now cast over the Majesty which speaks, it is the voice of the Eternal which we hear, coming in soft ca- dences to win our favour, yet omnipotent as the voice of the thunder, and overpowering as the rushing of many waters. And though the veil of the future intervene between our hand and the promised goods, still are they from His lips who speaks and it is done, who commandeth and all things stand fast. With no less emotion, there- fore, should this book be opened than if, like him in the Apocalypse, you saw the voice which spake ; or like him in the trance, you were into the third heavens translated, companj'ing and communing with the realities of glory, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. Far and foreign from such an opened and awakened bosom is that cold and formal hand which is generally laid upon the sacred volume ; that unfeeling and unim- pressive tone with which its accents are pronounced ; and that listless and incurious ear into which its blessed sounds are received. How can the sons of men, thus unimpas- Claims of God's IVord. 2>'^'j fcioned, bold communion with themes in which everything awful, vital, and endearing to the heart of man, do meet together? Why is not curiosity, curiosity ever hungry, on edge to know the doings and intentions of Jeho^•ah, the King of kings ? W hy is not interest, interest ever awake, on tiptoe to hear the future destiny of yourselves ? AVhy is not the heart that panteth over the world after love and friendship, overpowered with the full tide of the divine acts and expressions of love ? Where is nature gone when she is not moved with the tender mercy of Christ ? Methinks the aifections of men are fallen into the yellow leaf. Of the poets who charm the world's ear, which is he that inditeth a song unto his God ? Some will tune their harps to sensual pleasures, and hy the en- chantment of their geniiis well-nigh commend their unholy themes to the imagination of saints. Others, to tlie high and noble sentiments of the heart, will sing of domestic joys and happy unions, casting around sorrow the radiancy of virtue, and bodying forth, in undying forms, the short- lived visions of joy ! Others have enrolled themselves the high priests of mute nature's charms, enchanting her echoes with their minstrelsy, and peopling her solitudes with the bright creatures of their fancy. But when, since the daj-s of the blind master of English song, hath any poured forth a lay equal to the Christian theme ? Nor in philoscjphy, "the palace of the soul," have men been more mindful of their Maker. The flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their unwearied devotees, crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and making devout pil- gi'images to every region of nature, for offerings to their patron muse. The rocks, from their residences among the clouds to their deep rests in the dark bowels of the earth, have a most bold and venturous priesthood ; who see in their rough and flinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed countenance of God. And the political welfare of the world is a very Moloch, who can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims. But the revealed sapience of God, to which the harp of 2 c 2 388 Practical. David and the prophetic lyi-e of Isaiali were strung, the prudence of God, which the wisest of men coveteth after, preferring it to everj'- gift which heaven could bestow, — and the eternal intelligence Himself in human form, and the unction of the Holy One which abideth, — these the common heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be charmed withal. The word is not for the intellect alone, biit for the heart, and for the will. Now if any one be so wedded to his own candour as to think he doth accept the divine truth unabated — surely no one will flatter himself into the belief that his heart is already attuned and enlarged for all divine affec- tions, or his will in readiness for all divine commandments. The man who thus misdeems of himself, must, if his opinion were just, be like a sheet of fair paper, unblotted, unwritten on ; whereas all men are already occupied, to very fulness, with other opinions, and attachments and desires, than the word reveals. We do not grow Christians by the same culture by which we grow men, otherwise what need of divine revelation, and divine assistance ? But being unacquainted from the womb with God, and attached to what is seen and felt, through early and close acquaint- ance, we are ignorant and detached from what is unseen and unfelt. The word is a novelty to our nature, its truths fresh truths, its affections fresh affections, its obedi- ence a new obedience, which have to master and put down the truths, affections, and obedience gathered from the apprehension of nature, and the commerce of worldly life. Therefore, there needeth, in one that would be served from this storehouse of truth opened by Heaven, a disrelish of his old acquisitions, and a preference of the new, a simple, childlike teachableness, an allowance of ignorance and error, with whatever else beseems an anxious learner. Coming to the word of God, we are like children brought into the conversations of experienced men ; and we should humbly listen and reverently inquire : or we are like raw rustics introduced into high and polished life, and we should unlearn our coarseness, and copy the habits of tha Claims of God's Word. 389 station : — nay, we are like offenders caught, and for amend- ment committed to the bosom of honourable society, Avith the power of regaining our lost condition, and inheriting honour and trust — therefore we should walk softly and tenderly, covering owx former reproach with modesty and humbleness, hasting to redeem our reputation b}- dis- tinguished performances, against offence doubly guarded, doubly watchful for opportunities, to demonstrate oixr re- covered goodness. The natural powers of man are to be mistrusted, doubt- less, as the willing instruments of the evil one ; but they must be honoured also as the necessary instniments of the Spirit of God, whose operation is a dream, if it be not through knowledge, intellect, conscience, and action. Now Christians, heedless of this grand regeneration of the mighty instruments of thought and action, at the same time coveting hard after holy attainments, do often resign the mastery of themselves, are at once taken into the current of the religious world — whiiling around the eddy of some popular leader — and so drifted, I will not say from godliness, but drifted certaii^ly from that noble, manly, and independent coiirse, which, imder steerage of the word of God, they might have safely pursued for the dignity and salvation of their immortal souls. Meanwhile these popu- lar leaders, finding no necessity for strenuous endeavours and high science in the ways of God, but having a gather- ing host to follow them, deviate from the ways of deep and penetrating thought — refuse the contest with the literary and accomplished enemies of the faith — bring a contempt upon that cause in which mighty men did formerly gird themselves to the combat— and so cast the stumoliiigblock of a mistaken paltriness between enlightened men and the cross of Christ ! So far from this simple-mindedness, (but its proper name is feeble-mindedness,) Christians should be — as aforetime in this island they were wont to be — the princes of human intellect, the lights of the world, the salt of the political and social state. And till they come forth ■ from the swaddling bands in which foreign schools have ] 390 Practical, girt them, and walk boldly upon the high places of human understanding, they will never obtain that influence in the upper regions of knowledge and power of which unfortu- nately they have not the apostolic unction to be in quest. Nor will they ever become the master and commanding spirits of the time, until they cast off the wrinkled and withered skin of an obsolete age, and clothe themselves with intelligence as with a garment, and bring forth the fruits of power and of love, and of a sound mind. STUDY OF THE BIBLE A PRIVILEGE. Against the two methods of commiming with the word of God, whereof the one springs from the religious timidity of the world, the other from the religious timidity of Christians — the one a penance, the other a weakness — we haA'^e little fear of carrying your judgment, but you will be alarmed when we carry our censure against the common spirit of dealing with it in the ordinary sense of a duty. Not but that it is a duty to peruse the word of God, but that it is something infinitely higher than that word gene- rally imports. Duty means a verdict of conscience in its behalf. Now, when once the Bible is received as the word of God, conscience is not an independent power, for the bidding of which it waits to be opened, and at its forbid- ding to continue sealed ; but the word, let conscience bid or forbid, stands forth to the whole soul, dressed in its own awful sanctions, "Believe and live" — "Believe not and die." Its argument is its constant necessity. If conscience at a time check us for the neglect, or admonish us of our oliligation, it is well ; but the absence of this check or admonition will not justify to God our neglect of that which we believe to be His revealed will. When my Maker speaks, I am called to listen by a higher authority than the authority' of my own self. I should make sure that it is my Maker who speaks, and for this let every faculty of reason and feeling do its part; but being assured that it is no Study of the Bible a Privilege. 39 1 other than His voice omnipotent, my whole soul must burst foiih to give Him attendance. There must be no demur for any verdict of any inward principle. Out of duty, out of love, out of adoration, out of joy, out of fear, out of my whole consenting soul, I must obey my Maker's call. Therefore I argue, and shall shew at length, a higher and more steadfast principle upon which this duty of duties rests. And this is not a metaphysical distinction which I make, or an argument of words. For after I shall have developed my conception, I care not if the name of duty remain, though because of the universal application of that word to every kind and degree of obligation, I should prefer that this first and last, this greatest and strongest of all obli- gations should be called by the name of a spiritual necessity. Duty, whose cold and artificial verdict the God of infinite love is served withal, is a sentiment which the lowest relationships of life are not content with. Servant with master — child with teacher — friend with friend — when it comes to the sentiment of duty, the relationship is near its dissolution ; and it never thrives or comes to good but when it rests upon well-tried tnist and hearty re^-ard ; upon a love to our persons, and a confidence in our worth. And in the ties of nature, to parents, to children, to brethren, to husband and wife, to be listened to out of cold constraint of duty, argues nature gone well-nigh dead. There is a prompter consent, a deep sympathy of love, an overstepping of all the limits of duty, a going even unto the death, which hardly satisfies the soul of such affections. "What, then, shall we say of that closest of all relations — creature to Creator — which hath in it the germ of every other ; the parental, for He formed us ; the patronal, for He hath upheld us ; the friendly, for in all our straits He hath befriended us; the loyal, for our safety is in His royal hand ; and, which addeth the attachment to very self, " for we are ourselves His workmanship ! " Duty, in truth, is the very lowest conception of it — pri- vilege is a higher — honour a higher — happiness and delight a higher still. But duty may be suspended by more press- 392 Practical. ing duty — privilege may be forgone and honour forgot, and the sense pf happiness grow dull ; but this of listening to His voice who plants the sense of duty, bestows privilege, honour, and happiness, and our every other faculty, is before all these, and is equalled by nothing but the stub- bornest necessity. We should hear His voice as the sun and stars do in their courses, as the restful element of earth doth in its settled habitation. His voice is our law, which it is sacrilege to disobey, sacrilege worse than rebellion, worse than rebellion against our earthly father. He keeps the bands of our being together. His voice is the charter of our existence, which, being disobeyed, we should run to annihilation, as our great father woidd have done, had not God in mercy given him a second chance, by erecting the platform of his being upon the new condition of probation, diiferent from that of all known existences. Was it ever heard that the sun stopped in his path, but it was God that commanded ? Was it ever heard that the sea forgot her in- stability, and stood apart in walled steadfastness, but it was God that commanded ? Or that fire forgot to consume, but at the voice of God ? Even so man should seek his Maker's word as He loveth His well-being, or, like the unfallen creatures of God, as he loveth his very being — and labour in obedience, without knowing or wishing to know aught beyond. But while we insist that the Scriptures should be perused out of the sense, not of an incumbency, but of a strong necessity, as being the issued orders of Him who tip- holdeth all things — we except against any idea of painful- ness or force being therewith connected. We say necessity, to indicate the strength of the obligation, not its disagree- ableness. But, in truth, there is no such feeling of dis- agreeabless, but the very opposite, attached to every neces- sity of the Lord's appointing. Light is pleasant to the eyes, though the necessary element of vision. Food is pleasant to the body, though the stable necessaiy of life. Air is refreshing to the frame, though the necessary ele- ment of the breathing spirit. What so refreshing as the Study of the Bible a Privilege. jvo necessaiy element of water to all animated existence ? Sleep is the very balm of life to all creatures under the snn. Motion is from infancy to feeblest age the most recreating of things, save rest after motion. Every in- stinct necessary for preserving or continuing our existence hath in it a pleasure, when indulged in moderation ; and the pain which attends excess is the sentinel in the way of danger, and like the sentinel's voice upon the brink of ruin, should be considered as the pleasantest of all, though withdrawing us from the fondest pursuit. In like manner attendance on God's law, though necessary to the soul as wine and milk to the body, will be found equally refresh- ing; though necessary as light to the eyes, will be found equally cheerful ; though necessary as rest to the weary limbs, will be foimd equally refreshing to our spiritual strength. A duty which is at all times a duty is a necessity ; and this of listening to the voice of God can at no time be dispensed with, and therefore is a stark necessity. The life of the soul can at no time proceed without the present sense and obedience of its Maker's government. His law must be present and keep concert with our most inward thoughts ; with which, as we can never dissolve connexion, so ought we never to dissolve connexion with the regu- lating voice of God. In all our rising emotions, in all our opening purposes, in all our thoughtful debates, holden upon the propriety of actions, in all the secret cotinsels of the bosom — the law of God should be consentaneous with the law of nature, or rather should be umpire of the council, seeing nature and nature's laws have receded from the will of God, and become blinded to the best interests of man. The world is apt to look only to the executive part of conduct — to the outward actions, which come forth from behind the curtains of deliberate thought ; and as these have stated seasons, and are not constantly recurring, it hath come to pass that the word of God is read and entertained chieflj- for the visible parts of life ; being used as a sort of elbow-monitor to guard our conduct from 394 Pi^actical. oflence, rather than an universal law to impregnate all the sources of thought and action. Kay, but, doth the hand ever forget its cunning, or the tongue its many forms of speech, or the soul its various states of feeling and passion ? Is there an interval in the wakeful day when the mind ceases to be in fluctuating motion, and is bound in rest like the fi'ozen lake ? I do not ask, Is it always vexed like the troubled sea? but doth it ever rest from emotion, and remain steadfast like the solid land ? Doth not thought succeed thought, impression impression, recollection recol- lection, in a ceaseless and endless round? And before this pleasant agitation of vital consciousness can compose itself to I'est, the eye must be sealed to light, and the ear stopped to hearing, and the body dead to feeling, and the powers of thought and action, done out, must surrender themselves to repose. And even then, under the death- like desertion of all her faculties, and the oppressive weight of sleep, the mind in her remoter chambers keeps up a fantastical disport of mimic life, as if loth for any instant to forego the pleasures she hath in conscious being. Seeing, then, not even the sleep-locked avenues of sense, nor the worn-out powers of thought and action, nor slum- ber's soft embrace, can so lull the soul that she should for a while forget her cogitations, and join herself to dark oblivion ; seeing that she keeps up the live-long day a busy play of thought, feeling, and action, and during the night keeps vigils in her mysterious chambers, fighting with the powers of oblivion and inertness a battle for existence ; — how should she be able for any instant to do without the presence and operations of her Creator's laws — from which, being at any instant exempted, she is a God unto herself, or the world is her God ? From their autho- rity being detached for a season, however brief, she is for that season under foreign control, and rebellious to the Being of whom her faculties are holden, and by whom her powers of life are upheld. His laws, therefore, should be present in our inward parts, yea, hidden in our hearts, that we oifeud Him not. I Study of tJie Bible a Privilege. 395 They should be familiar as the very consciousness of life. Into the belief being received, they should pass into the memory, grow incorporate with the hidden sources of nature, until the array of our purposes and actions learn to display itself under the banners of the Supreme ; and instinct, blind instinct himself, have his eye opened and purged by the light of heaven, and come forth submissive to heaven's voice. They should prove and purify all the sentiments which bind the considerations of life, as affec- tion, friendship, patronage, citizenship, and the like. They should prove and purify all the feelings which instigate the actions of life, as self-interest, generosity, hospitality, duty, and the like. They should bridle the wit, and humour, and levity, and licence of speech, till our words come forth in unison with the word of God. And, in short, they should people the whole sovil with that popula- tion of new thoughts and new affections which the word reveals concerning God and man, concerning the present and the future world. Christians too frequently permit themselves to come pre- possessed with controversial and doctrinal opinions ; so now I am forced with equal plainness to remark what loss they suffer by reading under the influence of their pre- possession. These are what they call doctrines ; as if every moral precept, eveiy spiritual gi-ace, every divine example, every hope, every promise, and every threatening were not a doctrine : and these doctrines which they exalt into pre- eminence are sacrificed to in all religious expositions, and have grown into popular idols, and frown excommunication upon every one who would doubt their pre-eminence, or insist for a declaration of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing bxit the truth. These doctrines should be like the mighty rivers which fertilise our island, whose waters, before escaping to the sea, have found their way to the roots of each several flower, and plant, and stately tree, and covered the face of the land with beauty and verdure — spreading plenty far and wide for the sustenance of man and beast. So ought 396 Practical. these great doctrines of the grace of God in Christ, and the lielp of God in the Spirit, and our need of both — to carry health and vitality to the whole soul and surface of Christian life. But it hath appeared to us, that, most unlike such wide-spreading streams of fertility, they are often, as it were, confined within rocky channels of intole- rance and disputation, where they hold noisy brawl with every impediment, draining off the natural juices of the soil ; and, instead of fruits and graces, leaving all behind naked, barren, and unpeopled ! TRUE CHRISTIAN PRAYER. All forms of prayer which begin from conceptions of God as the God of nature, the soul of the universe, and wind themselves through high-wrought and long-drawn periods concerning the infinite enlargement of His attri- butes, and power, and works, however expedient the}' be for raising the soul to a high temper of adoration, want the essential character of a Christian prayer, and speak rather the man of science or the poet than the humble and faithful believer in Christ ; and all forms of prayer and schemes of doctrine which uphold God in the character of a sovereign doing His will and dividing amongst men according to His pleasure,— some advancing and blessing, some reprobating and cursing, for the pleasure of His will, — however expedient they may be to restrain the self- confidence and humble the vanity of men, are essentially Jewish in their character, and out of place in the Christian temple, whereof the gate is open to all, where there is no longer any middle wall of partition, but all of every nation are welcome who fear God and work righteousness. The spirit of a Christian prayer is to regard God as the most bountiful of fathers, who out of the greatness of His grace hath given His Son to open the barred gates of His house unto the children of men, and bring the chief of sinners even to His royal presence to kiss the end of His sceptre, True C/irisiian Prayer. 397 and in that blesssd aspect regarding Him, to come unto Him as children to a father able and ready to help them in the time of need, — never to doubt, never to misgive, but to rest assured that as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Our prayers, therefore, should be from the heart, — copious effusions of aftectiouate hearts towards Him who first loved us ; not invocations of fear, nor beautiful disportings of fancy among the wonderful works of God, nor high- wrought eulogiums of His goodness and grace, but breathings of tenderness, expressive of true aftection to Him whom we love, of penitence towards Him we have offended, of praise towards Him whose praise is recorded in the experience of our soul, of assixred trust and confidence as of children to the most long-suffering and patient of fathers. Our hearts should open themselves in prayer to God for their many wants, as the infant openeth its hungry mouth and lifteth up the cry in the ear of its mother ; and as that infant, being filled and satisfied, smiles in the face of its mother, and spreads its little hands to embrace her in token of the gladness of its heart, so ought our spirits, being filled with the answers of their prayers, to feel an inward joy and thankfulness to the Father of spirits, and call upon the lips and hands, and every other obedient member, to express with songs and attitudes of praise the emotions with which they overflow. Piety is always in that excess which entitles it to the name of superstition when it checks our exertions, or hinders us from the use of lawful and appointed means. The captain who would throw up the helm in a storm, the seamen who would betake them to their knees for a continuance, and allow the opportunities of deliverance which God is sending to pass unimproved, are as unpar- donable as the captain who in such a crisis gives his orders with an oath, or the seamen who go about their duty with imprecations. The praj'er to God is as easily uttered as the hasty profanation of His holy name, and the silent ejaculation of prayer is as speedily said as the bold and bloody invocation of Ilis wrath ; and, in my esteem, it doth 398 Practical. \ bespeak as brave a man to adopt the one course as to adopt the other; and any one who hath been in such risks, will agree with me in thinking that the cool, collected state of a devout man, is fitter to take the necessary measures than the hot and heady state of a blasphemer. In our countrymen the devout doth seldom carry it over the active ; but amongst Catholic seamen, who repose such con- fidence in vows and the number of their prayers, it is most usual in a storm for all hands to betake themselves to their images, when they should betake them to God with their trust, and to their business with all their resources. It is so, also, amongst the Mohammedans, who are siich strict Predestinariaus as to strike to the fates, when they fancy they discern them drawing near. And so also, I believe, with the seamen of the East Indies, who in the midst of a storm can with difficulty be kept to their posts. These are all instances of piety setting action to a side, and becoming ignorant and fatal superstition. The same tendency exists in pious people everywhere by land as well as sea, in Protestant countries no less than in Catholic ; and against falling under it we ought constantly to be upon our guard. For instance, the same misuse of God's foreknowledge which enervates or rather annihilates the Turk, produces the same effect upon multitudes amongst ourselves who have a desire after religion, but fancy that they are powerless, incapable of helping themselves, till the angel of ^q Lord move the waters. It hath been my lot a thousand times, when pressing the subject of reli- gious duties upon men, to have in reply, "You know we can do nothing of ourselves ;" which I hold paramount with the Turk's saying he can do nothing to save his ship. Paul, when he was tempest-driven in Adria, had revelation from the angel of God that there should not a soul be lost of all that were on board. Yet when the seamen would have come by the boat, to leave the rest to their shifts, Paul told the centurion to hinder them, for " unless these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved ;" thus demonstrating that even the issue, when known, did not prejudice nor True Christian Prayer. 399 affect in any way the use of the proper means. But not only among those who are upon the outside of the holy temple of religion, and take no means of entreaty or activity to obtain admission, looking for a door to open by invisible agency, and themselves to be transpoMed at once within the wall, — not onl}^ among these deluded bystandei-s, but amongst the religious themselves, doth this preponderance of piety over wisdom and action manifest itself. If they were as wise as they are pious, and had studied the means of grace as well as they know the fountain of all grace, they would not feel loath to tell a sinner what steps to take, — nor fondness to impress him with the idea of his inef- ficiency,— nor constantly conclude every discourse of active dut}' with the saving clause, that we can do nothing of ourselves ; which method of proceeding doth cut the throat of all thought and action, and impede all jirogress, as much as if the captain of the ship should preach in the hour of need to his seamen how vain it was for them to put forth any endeavour. I reckon the separation of the religious from the company of worldly men to be another evidence of the same preponderance in this age of piety over well-directed and strenuous activity ; otherwise they would embrace intercourse and free communion as the best instrument for serving the good cause which they have at heart. Also, the deafness of the religious towards the free and manly sentiment for which their predecessors have been evermore distinguished is a proof of the same overwhelm- ing force of the pious sentiment over the active measures, otherwise they would know how much every thing that is free, and manly, and liberal serves the ends of pure and tindefiled religion. But we thank God that this state of things is rapidly giving way, and that human agency is coming to display in the religious world its wonted mighty power when conjoined w^ith divine tnist. You will perceive that I hold the promises to be the guides of our actions as well as of our prayers, seeing it cannot be that we are enamoured of anything without endeavouring what in us lies to possess it ; so that if we 400 Practical. thirst after the things promised by God, we will take steps to obtain them, seeing that His promises make them not only hopeful, but even certain to those who follow them with a sincere desire and in the appointed way. The whole of a Christian's transactions, from morning to nigLt, should be an endeavour after some good thing held up by God as the prize of his holy industry. His labours, mechanical or mercantile, literary or political, should be pursued with the hope of obtaining that daily bread which the Lord, in permitting ns to ask, has permitted us to expect ; or, if daily bread be already ours, then, for ends of benevolence or charity, to win some more substance than we need in our own household, that we may devote it to God's glory. Every Christian I regard to be like the bee, sucking sweet- ness from sourness and turning poisons into wholesome food. Whatever he accumulates is so much stored from the enemy, which the enemy would have consumed on lust, or ostentation, or wickedness. It is a conquest made from debateable ground, and being in our hands can be turned to godly purpose. Thus the hours of labour, which make such encroachments upon our disposable time, may be peopled with holy intentions, which will effectually banish from the details of business all meanness and fraud. Thus we fulfil the commandment of the apostle, to be " active in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Likewise, at home, our walk and conversation, the rearing " of our children, and the well-ordering of our house, our hospitality to acquaintances and entertainment of strangers, our residences and our removals, should all be regulated so as to obtain for ourselves, our families, and our circle of friends, those personal graces and those social excellences which God hath promised to His i:)eople. Our public and political interests no less — our debates, our speeches, our associations, whether in religious or social bodies, and our behaviour there — should all have a straight intention to uphold virtue, and honour, and religion, and every other pillar of the public weal ; so that, from morning to latest evening, at home and abroad, in the closet, in the street, Zl: Faith and Works. 401 and the various rendezvous of active men, we may, nay, should, have it in our eye, to select some landmark of pro- mise erected by God to guide our undertakings. FAITH AND WORKS. Whereas that Divine revelation is not like the narrative of a traveller concerning things of which we have no know- ledge or similitude already in our minds, but is a most various discourse addressed with Divine wisdom and grace to every facultj^ of the human soul — the sense of justice, the love of truth, its desire of blessedness, its delight in liberty, its desire to see those embodied in a person, its longing after a perfect human being who might love it, and whom it might love, who might instruct and help it, and to whom it might yield its revenue and its coinage, ad- dressed to every other inward principle, sentiment, taste, and affection of the soul ; so I judge that the faith by which we lay hold and embrace this most various record of divine and spiritual things, is not, as they have been doting and dreaming for the last century, like the faith which we 3'ield to a traveller's straightforward tale, or to a witness's decla- ration of what he has seen and heard, but that it is a faculty in the receiving soul somewhat proper to, and commensu- rate with, that which is given it to receive ; a hand delicate and comprehensive enough to handle that which is pre- sented to it ; an eye capable of being entertained with the glories of that glorious vision which is presented to it ; a mind capable of apprehending the variety and beauty, and truth and application of that which is submitted to it. And here is the work of faith, to bring the spiritual faculties, be- numbed by the torpor of disuse, and overlaid with a farrago of earthly knowledge, into a state of aptness and liberty to ap- prehend and occupy and use the infinite variety of spiritual matters which are submitted to it in the records of the reve- lation of the word of God, who is our wisdom, our righteous- ness, our sanctification, and redemption, the revealer of the mysteries of heaven and earth, the discloser of the grace and 2 D 402 Practical. - trutli which dwell with God from everlasting, unsearchable and unknowable ; the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person, in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Oh that I could speak aright of faith! Oh that I could redeem it from that paltry conceit into which our wretched evidence-writers have reduced it ! Oh that I could give j'ou Paul's idea of faith, the idea of the Fathers, the idea of the Eeformers ! Then would I shew that career of the soul's faculties com- pared with which the highest scientific research is as earth compared with heaven ; for which poetry and philosophy are but, as it were, the sharpening of the tools, and which hath no kindred with any other of the soul's various oc- cupations ; being the ingathering of all her powers, the husbandry of all her exertions, the resurrection of all her might, the enjoyment of all her delights in the study, and meditation, and appropriation, and application of all the divinest things which the Son of God was able to reveal for the exaltation of the being of man into the heavenly place of the Divine nature. There should be no more de- bating or disputing about faith and works, if men did but know what faith was, to which outward works are like the lipping shore to the mighty ocean : for as the ocean doth lie with her many arms and bays around the earth, and convey the blessings which are borne upon her breast, or brought forth in her hidden womb, to all the people who people her manifold shores ; so is faith like the great ocean of spiritual thought and feeling, which breedeth infinite good and worketh with mighty motion in itself, and beareth outv/ard a plentiful tide of good and charitable works to all the people and places with which it hath intercourse in the 1 communion and fellowship of human life. Works are but the hem of the garment of faith, which waves abroad to the liberal observation of men ; but the soft and warm sub- stance of the garment, which enwrappeth the tender frame of our own being, and protecteth. it from inclement wea- ther and rude wintry blasts, that is faith. Now the will ._M Faith and Works. 403 being inclined heavenward, and being supplied with a con- stant energy from the Father, doth summon into activity all the faculties of the mind to hold communion with the word of God, and these faculties, not of understanding, which affecteth the sensible, but of mind, which affecteth the spiritual, do grow apace by the food on which they feed ; the nectar of heaven, presented in the earthen vessel of human language, doth convey divine activity to the soul, and worketh within it an everlasting vitality of holiness and goodness, and the whole inward man is changed from a crooked thing, dwarfed and bowed down with a grievous load of flesh and worldliness, into a giant of mighty bone, who shouteth as by reason of wine, and rejoiceth to run his unwearied and endless course. Oh that I could speak of the operation of faith upon the most meagre and ill- infonned mind ! Say they that learning can make a man's soul pure? they lie. Say they that high life doth make a man's soul gentle ? they lie. Say they that the natural sciences maketh a man liberal, or that the tongues make him human ? I testify unto you, what I do know and have seen, that there are not more ignoble spirits in the land than in seats of learning, and that the masters of the sciences are ofttimes mere crawling worms in respect to true life of soul ; and that the ranks called graceful are in general full of selfishness, or of the hypocrisy of wanting it. But, mark you, that a man of faith is a noble man, and a gracious man, and a high-minded man, and a charitable man. Find him in a cottage or in a palace, in an oc- cupation of honour, or in an occupation of disgrace, a man he is to give the law to other men, and to sustain the highest men by his spotlessness, and the learnedest by his wisdom. And they have even done exploits, and borne perils, and subdued obstinate resistances, and will do to the end of the world; for as the jewelled crowm is among the ornaments of the head of men, so is faith among the ornaments of the mind of men ; and as a sceptre in the hand of kings is to the staff in the hands of other men, so is faith among the other powers and authori- 2 D 2 404 Practical. ties of the immortal soul — the prince, the potentate, the ruling and presiding genius of the whole. Which will to convert from its hereditary and headstrong rebellion to an afiectionate obedience unto God, which faith to work in the enlarged and all-embracing word of God, and to carry into operation and effect the new bent and inclination of the mind, thus steered, thus charted intonew courses, and freighted with new and more precious burdens unto all men and things, is the office of the Holy Spirit ; for, as we have ofttimes taught you, while it appertaineth to the Father alone, out of the deep recesses of His incom- municable will, to originate all things, and to the ever- obedient Word forthwith to reveal all things as they originate there, so it appertaineth to the blessed Spirit to bring that which hath been declared into being, and main- tain it thus to the praise and the glory of the Father and the Son, from whom He proceedeth, the last in act, but the equal in dignity, the same in substance, and equal in power and glory. For whoever willeth, however zealously, and undertaketh, however sincerely, to become willing and obedient unto the law, or enravished and entranced by the gospel of Christ, his will concentred in the Father's will, his little light of reason taken up into the light of universal reason, which lighteth angels and men, — whoever thus thinketh to accomplish in his own might, alas ! he shall find himself defeated of his thought, and ere long strewed in wreck, — the sport and contempt of his most masterful and cruel foes. For why ? Because he would move earth to heaven in his own strength, and distil out of it the curse which hath impenetrated all creatures, and remove the cherubim sword which encircleth Eden with unapproach- able fire, and navigate the impassable gulf, and restore him- self'to his lost^'cstate ; which it is not in the power of man to accomplish, being a divine work, divinely executed by the action of "the Holy Spirit in every energy of the will to return, in every act of the mind to know the mysteries of revelation, in every act of the power to perform actions becoming godliness. For there is a threefold life, as we -I ,..,jfi; Discipline as related to Doctrine. 405 said, — tlie life of om* will, llie life of our knowlodge, and the life of our power, — which are entwined with one another, making a sort of trinity of man's soul ; of which life every part presently inheriteth in an earthly and sin- ful basis, and needeth to be transplanted to a heavenly basis, whereby it becomes eternal life, being for the pre- sent only temporal life. Therefore the Holy Spirit is present with us, and helpful to us in every effectual resolution of the will, in every act of appropriating faith, and in eveiy demonstration of outward godliness ; and when He is not present there is backsliding and defection. So, then, there is a continual divinity present in our humanity ; we are heavenly always, though we be always labouring on the earth, and we look at all times for heavenly help, though we be at all times stirred up with all our proper thoughts, even in the spirit of prayer, in the spirit of faith, and in the spirit of activity, having always the spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. This is to be redeemed — this is to be saved — this is to be made partakers of life everlasting. DISCIPLINE AS RELATED TO DOCTRINE, Christian discipline includeth not only all that man owes to man, and brother to natural brother, but ail, moreover, which one son of God owes to another son of God, and one member of Christ to another member of Christ, — the whole scope and range, indeed, of Christian love, from washing a disciple's feet to the laying down of our lives for the brethren. It beareth to Christian love the same relation which law beareth to justice, the one being the spirit, the other the outward form and expression of the spirit. Christian discipline being, therefore, understood to signify all that is included in the duty of one disciple unto another, we intend in this discourse to open a little the source of discipline, the nourishment by Avhich it grows, and the 4o6 Pi^adical. strength in which it standeth ; for if this can be discovered, the Church will do its best offices for discipline when it noxirisheth this the principle of its life. The seed and germ of discipline, and its nourishment through all the stages of its life, is no other than sound doctrine, and without the constant presence and power of sound doctrine discipline cannot long endure in its genial and blessed spirit, but falls away, and declines into for- mality, and, in a state of ignorance and superstition, hardens into tyranny. For discipline is but the outward form of Christian love, and Christian love which is in the heart can only be generated by the knowledge of that truth which Christ taught His disciples. The faith of sound doctrine is that which makes the selfishness of the natural man open into the community of the Christian, which melts the heart of stone into the heart of flesh, and unfoldeth all the generous sympathies of the spirit, teach- ing it to feel kindness and to do good, and to part with one happy condition for the sake of another's well-being, upon the same disinterested principle which moved Christ, though rich, for our sakes to become poor, that we through His poverty might become rich, and to give His life a ran- som for the sins of men. Till the entering in of faith there is nothing present in the heart but nature, out of which cometh the fruits of nature, which are pride, im- piety, self-idolatry, ostentation, malice, and such like ; but upon the entering in of faith, there entereth along with it into the heart the light of divine knowledge, which con- verteth it from its idolatries to the service of the living and true God, and from the love of self to the love of its neigh- bour as itself, and to the love of the brethren as Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. But there is no such spirit of Christian love in a man until he loveth the sound doctrines whereby we are redeemed out of the vain conversation of the world, and renewed in the image of God ; not only loveth them, but liveth in them as the element of his breath, liveth on them as the elements of his life. Discipline as related to Doctrine. 407 But of all the doctrines of Scripture, that which is most conducive to the growth of discipline, and in which indeed the Church standeth as a community distinct from everj- other community, is the doctrine of election, not as it is contemplated by most theologians, under the form of an eternal decree, but as it is contemplated in the Scriptures, under the fonn of a fact. The doctrine of election under the form of a decree is a doctrine into the belief of which men grow according as they grow spiritual ; but which being believed — or being imagined as believed, for believed it cannot be — by any man of himself from the first, would go far to arrest and altogether put an end to his spiritual progress. And therefore to endeavour to enforce the faith of it upon men is an idle and, I think, an unprofitable work. Its evidence is not had through demonstration to the intellect, but through experience of the grace of God, through manifestation of the Divine Spirit within us, through the attainment of Chi'istian graces, through the progress of our redemption from the midst of the world's evil conditions, and the assurance that we are coming into a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. If therefore you would persuade a man of the tnith of the doctrine of election as a decree and purpose of God regarding himself, the way by which to proceed is to say nothing of it what- ever, but to lead him onward into the ways of godliness and the experience of the divine life ; and when you have got him far into the bowels of the land, then from some eminence of faith and holiness make him to face about and look back upon the ten-itory of the King which he hath been brought over by the ministry of the King's good Servant, and by the constant guidance of the King's only- begotten Son. Then let him doubt, if he please, of his being one of the King's chosen ones. But if he still doubt, the only remedy is to proceed further and still further onward, till you reach a more inward region, a more intimate neighbourhood to the King's privileged places, and stand further within the arch of the royal immunities. By such a progress from faith to faith and from grace to 4o8 Practical. grace tlie most faithless and dispirited will grow into tlie belief of election, as a decree and purpose of God regarding himself. But if, while yet beyond the King's territory, in the hostile land, or hardly within the barriers of salvation, while staggering and reeling upon the border line and debateable land, you would seek to persuade a man of his being one of the King's most choice and beloved and most faithful servants, he must be a fool if you succeed, and you do him wrong to make the attempt : for if you succeed, you delude him and stop his progress ; if you fail, you prejudice him against the sovereign whose favour is had at so cheap a rate. Therefore, I say it again, the doctrine of election under the form of a decree must be left to grow upon us, or rather we grow into it, just as we grow into the knowledge and experience of divine things within our soul. But not so of the doctrine of election conceived under the form of a fact, or as it might be called, the doctrine that the people of God are separate and distinct from others. This is the doctrine which must ever be held up before a Christian church — that in all things they are diverse from the world, separated from the world by lines and barriers, not of place nor language, nor dress nor outward visible forms, but by lines and barriers of the Spirit, by new principles of action and new ends of action, by new desires of well-being and purposes of well-doing, by a new faith, a new holiness, and a new truthfulness. But it is separation without being distance, it is division without being discord ; for though the Christian be diverse from one who is not a Christian, and from himself while yet in an unchristian state, so much as to be called a new man, still he is divided from none of his former affections, except in so far as they were malicious and evil. He is a more united husband ; his friendship is tenfold more true ; his enmities are shewn in forgiveness ; his indignation is under the helm of love, and the divisive selfishness of humanity is ejected, and the conjoining love of Christ is bestowed in its stead. His relations to all men are now joined by Discipline as related to Doctrine. 409 different ties than heretofore, and his distinctiveness con- sisteth in the diversity of these tics, not in the weakness of them. Convinced I am, having had the proof and experience of no cold, secret, or reserved, but rather of what the world were wont to call a warm, open, and generous nature within myself, — convinced, I say, I am, from many years' knowledge of myself, and some short knowledge of another self than that self which was born of my mother, of this, that till the doctrines of the gospel penetrate the heart it is closed and conti-acted towards God and towards the things which are of God, towards man and the things that are of man. I do not say that it is altogether contracted ; nay, there is a humanity in man, and the humanity of one man draweth to the humanity of another man ; but Christian discipline consisteth not in the converting of our humanity, but in the converting of the divinity within us, which is not quickened by natural instinct, but which is born again of water and of the Spirit, and nourished by the grace of God. And when this divinity cometh to be born within the soul, nature is not quenched, her milky juice and sap is not dried up, her fire of love is not put out, nor is her humanity contracted towards the humanity of another, nor her being shrivelled up ; nay, every expansion of the soul is twice expanded, and every wrinkle of selfishness is un- folded, the bud of human nature is full blown under the new heart and life of affection which breathes upon it from the Spirit of God, and new uufoldings that here- tofore were knit up in the secret parts of the soul open themselves. This is the form of that doctrine of election or separation, which being insisted upon will give birth to discipline, which being shunned or slighted will abolish it from the Church. For if the people be not taught the principles of their faith, which distinguisheth them as a people ; if they be allowed to soil their raiment with earthly and sensual contacts, and to corrupt their spirit with ambitious or ostentatious or worldly inspirations, and be not constantly 4IO Practical. guarded from these as the poisons of their new life, and the old bondage from which they were redeemed ; if they be not reminded that they are a distinct people, a people dis- tinct in all their principles, and ends, and motives, and distinguished for the purpose of shewing unto the world the attributes of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light, in order that the world beholding their good works may glorify their Father which is in heaven ; — if this idea be lost, or seldom treated of, then it must inevitably come to pass that communion within the Church will be like society in the world ; that the name of brethren may remain, but the meaning of it is lost ; that the name of church, or iKKXrjo-La, or election, may abide, but that it hath become an election without any reason of pre- ference, an elected body whose election serveth no good end of the common weal, or to their own private and pecu- liar blessing. In truth the Church may become a set of doctrines, as it is here ; or a set of forms, as it is in Eomish places ; or a set of respectable moralities, as it is in Socinian places — it may become anything or nothing, but never will it become the unblemished bride of Christ, His betrothed spouse, whom He shall yet lead in His hand and offer to Plis Father in her glorious beauty, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Oh, what I would give to hear this doctrine of election, which hath become the watchword of every hare-brained spiritual Quixote, become again what it was in the hands of our fathers — the holy name which sig- nified in one word the Church's harmony within herself, and mercy towards them without ! Then would she become again like a cottage in the wilderness for the wayworn tra- veller to lay down his weary limbs and be refreshed ; she would become as streams of water in dry places, as the shadow of a gi-eat rock in a weary land. I pray the Lord to bring His people back from their vain disputations and profitless janglings about this word, and to abolish the ideas grafted on it by intellectual disputants, and to bring them at length to discern that it is but the name for all that which separates and distinguishes the new man from the I Topics of Tcrro}'. 411 old man, the disciple of Christ from the disciple of Belial, the image of God renewed in the soul in righteousness and tnxe holiness, from the image of Satan, his pride, his malice, his lust, whereto we are born by natural birth. TOPICS OF TERROR. Topics of terror, it is very much the fashion of the time to turn the ear from, as if it were unmanly to fear pain. Call it manly or unmanly, it is nature's strongest instinct — the strongest instinct of all animated nature : and to avoid it is the chief impulse of our actions. Punishment is that which law founds upon, and parental authority in the first instance, and every human institution from which it is painful to be dismembered. Not only is pain not to be inflicted without high cause, nor endured without much trouble, but not to be looked on without a pang : as ye may judge, when ye see the cold knife of the surgeon enter the patient's flesh, or the heavy wain grind onward to the neck of a prostrate child. Despise pain, I Avot not what it means. Bodily pain you may despise in a good cause, but let there be no motive, let it be God's simple visitation, spasms of the body for example, then how many give it licence, how many send for the physician to stay it? Truly, there is not a man in being, whom bodily pain, however slight, if incessant, will not turn to fury or to insensibility — embittering peace, eating out kindliness, contracting sympathy, and altogether deforming the inner man. Fits of acute suffering which are soon to be over, any disease with death in the distance may be borne ; but take away hope, and let there be no visible escape, and he is more than mortal that can endure. A drop of water incessantly falling upon the head is found to be the most excruciating of all torture, which proveth experimentally the truth of what hath been said. Hell, therefore, is not to be despised like a sick bed, if any of you be so hardy as to despise a sick bed. There 412 Pi^actical. are no comforting kindred, no physician's aid, no liope of I'ecovery, no melancholy relief of death, no sustenance of grace. It is no work of earthly torture or execution with a good cause to suffer in, and a beholding world or posterity to look on, and a good conscience to approve, with scornful words to revenge cruel actions, and the constant play of resolution or study of revenge. It is no struggle of mind against its material envelopments and worldly ills, like stoicism, which was the sentiment of virtue nobly downbearing the sense of pain. I cannot render it to fancy, but I can render it to fear. Why may it not be the agonj'' of all diseases the body is susceptible of, with the anguish of all deranged conceptions and dis- ordered feelings, stinging recollections, present remorses, bursting indignations, with nothing but ourselves to burst on, dismal prospects, fearful certainties, fury, folly, and despair ? I know it is not only the fashion of the world, but of Christians, to despise the preaching of future woe ; but the methods of modern schools, which are content with one idea for their Gospel and one motive for their activity, I willingly renounce for the broad methods of Scripture, which bring out ever and anon the recesses of the future to upbear duty and downbear wickedness, and assail men by their hopes and fears as often as by their affections, by the authority of God as often as by the constraining love of Christ, by arguments of reason and of interest no less. THE STATE AND RELIGION. The ordinances of the Church though intended primarily for " the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven," are yet of such a diffusive and blessed in- fluence, that like the ordinances of heat and cold, light, and health, and fruitfulness, they extend with a divine generosity their good effects, even unto those who are not under their saving influence; and in them do prepare a The State and Religion. 4 1 3 Boil, are continually preparing and renewing the soil, which doth produce unto God the peaceable fi-uits of righteousness. The worship of the living and the true God is so acceptable, in the midst of this world's idolatry, that the nation which setteth it up never faileth to grow great and prosperous, and to dwell salely in the face of all its enemies. They talk like fools, and enemies of their country, who talk as if it were not the duty of the govern- ment of a country to intermeddle with religion : I say that the goveiTD.ment which will stand neutral between Christ's gospel and the Papal apostasy, or the Mohammedan im- posture, or the Unitarian, abomination, or other forms of antichristian doctrine, is essentially an atheistical govern- ment, which hath cast off allegiance to Christ, " The Prince of the kings of the earth," and to God who ruleth over the nations, to give them to His Son in full inheritance : and that king or government which afifecteth such indiffer- ence, much more those which shew a preference to the unbelievers, will soon be cut off in the frown of God, and consumed in the hotness of His wrath. I am grieved because of the opinions which are possessing my country- men upon this great question of statesmanship ; and I fore- see, if the tide of indifferency to Christ be not stemmed, we also shall " go down to the sides of the pit : " and what a fall will that be from this transcendent power and glory with which God hath encircled this little island of the sea ! The Lord raise up men mighty to save. When the ordinances of God's worship are reverently conducted throughout the parishes of a land, in the face and with the consenting hearts of the assembled people, that nation will be exalted very high : where the ordinance of preach- ing is in full and vigorous action, freely handling the doctrines of Christ, and largely expounding the will of God for our salvation, trying every condition of the com- munity, and measuring every relation of man to man, by the rule of God's commandment, there will spring up such a sense of God's fear within the hearts of men, and there will descend such a blessing of God's grace from above, 414 Practical. as will make itself to be felt and acknowledged in the experience of every one. Oh ! if I were the rightful king of these realms, instead of being his free-born and loyal subject, I would have a hundred eyes over the land, to pick me up the youth whom God had blessed with large and gracious faculties. I would seek for them as for hid treasure : every schoolmaster should be at liberty to cor- respond with my secretaries concerning the extraordinary endowments of the mind, and every minister of the Church, concerning the extraordinar}'' outpourings of the Spirit upon any youth ; and from my own privy purse, I would have them instructed for ministers of Christ's gospel : yea, and when my purse failed, I would pawn the jewels of the crown, that the work might not slack ; and, when regularly licensed to preach, the gospel by the priestly stewards of that office, I would give to every one of them my royal warrant and commission, my sign manual, to go forth and preach in all corners of the kingdom, let bishop or arch- bishop, presbytery or synod, say what they pleased ; and I would revive and extend the old motto of the city of Glasgow, "Let Great Britain flourish by the preaching of the word." And in effect, this is exactly what Edward the Sixth of blessed memory did, when he chose some fifteen or more, and gave them this large commission ; of whom Bernard Gilpin was one, and, I am proud to say, John Knox was another. GRACE RUNS THROUGH ALL. I AM bold to assert that it is only half a gospel which, doth not preach the redemption of creation and provi- dence, as well as of the soul ; and it is a robbery of Christ not to combine in Him the Creator, the Provider, and the Redeemer. Therefore, wherever this gospel of the king- dom is preached, it should be made known, that since the Fall every faculty of the mind and power of the body, every gift and endowment of natural life, and dispensa- 1 Grace runs through all. 4 1 5 tion of Providence, prosperous or adverse, is a talent be- queathed to every one of us, according to the number of which will be our responsibility, and according to the improvement of which will bo our reward. And it is a miserable conceit and most slender system of truth, to set forth all before conversion, as not in the account of grace, and even to give a reflected glory to their notion, according to the maxim, " The greater sinner, the greater saint ; " which is a strange jumble and confusion of the wicked slander upon the apostle's doctrine, that we should do evil that good may come. And it has the bad effect of con- tenting people in their sins, until some great event shall occur in the providence of God, sufficient to work the mighty work for which they are folding their hands in idle expectation. But I say iinto you, iS'o ; not by any means to conceive so false an idea of the gosj^el of Christ, which hath made known to all men that the Lord is governing the world according to a gracious purpose of redeeming it, seeing it hath been piirchased back from the curse by the death of Christ, who now in heaven is governing and over- niling all things to the one end of destroying the works of the devil, of clean subverting them, and sweeping them away from the face of the earth. HISTORICAL AND PROPHETICAL 2 E *'■(§> «® ® «® @ ®'^ (§) «® (g)."® (D *» @ «® (D ®» '^ A . O' & '=> (% II THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE CHDRCH. THERE hath always been these two things in the world — a visible church, now constituted in a family, now in a nation, and now in a confraternity of all kindreds and tongues, united by oneness of faith and baptism ; and an invisible or elect church, continually gathering out of the former, but known only to God, and essentially hidden fium the discernment of men. And these two will con- tinue in the world after the coming of Christ, with these two differences: first, that the visible church shall now include the whole earth, with Jenisalem as its metropolis, tlie temple in Jerusalem as its shrine, and the Lord of hosts in that temple as the object of universal worship, insomuch " that whoso will not come up of all the families of tlie earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain." And this is the temple which the Son of David who is to reign for ever shall build unto the name of the Lord, where He shall inhabit and reign for ever. The second difference is, that the church invisible, which hath been gathering tinder the dispensation of gracious promise, shall now become visible when that New Jerusalem cometh down from heaven in which there is no temple, and the taber- 2 E 2 420 Historical and Prophetical. uacle of God is witli men ; or in other words, when Christ Cometh with all His saints. It is- to the real worldly Jerusalem that all prophecy adverteth in the first instance, though no prophecy telleth out its burden, or accom- plisheth its meaning save in the latter, that is, the glori- fied condition of the saints ; which truly is the end of all revelation, the object of all predictions, the consummation of all dispensations, and the exposition of all types and symbols. So that this our glorious hoj)e liveth not by dissolving the letter of any pi'ophecy,' or evacuating the meaning of eveiy type, but by preserving all the things which God hath given to represent and prefigure it, and using them all in the interpretation of the same. Now that there will be a real Jerusalem on the earth, such a city, only more pure and holy, as we now behold cities on the earth, I believe ; and that there will be a temple in that Jerusalem, because of which kings shall bring presents into them, I truly believe ; while at the same time I believe there will be a New Jerusalem with no temple but the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. WHAT THE PEOTESTANT CHUKCH HAS NEGLECTED. Since the Eeformation little else has been preached be- sides the baptismal and eucharistical gift, the work of Christ's death unto the justification and sanctification of the believer. The dignity and office of the Church, as the fulness of the Lord of all, hath not been fully preached, or firmly held, and is now almost altogether lost sight of. Church government, bickerings about the proper form of polity, and the standing of the civil magistrate to the Church and in the Church, have been almost the only things con- cerning the Church which have come into question among Protestants ; and there hath been no holding of her up to the heathen as the holy place of God, but, on the contraiy, the presentation of a Book in the stead thereof. Not but the Eeformation was the beginning of a great and a Kood I What the Protestant Church has Neglected. 421 work ; but that, so far from having made progress towards completion, it has gone a great way backward, and in our hands is a poor shred of what it was in the hands of Luther, and Hooker, and the like. But things are taking a turn. Let the Church know that things are taking a mighty turn. There is a shining forth of truth in these subjects beyond former days. The power and glory of a risen Lord, as well as the holiness of a Lord ia flesh, is beginning to be understood and discoursed of; and the enemy would spread a curtain of thin sophistry between the Church and the bright dawn : he might as well hide the morning by drawing before our eyes the spider's cobweb, or the frost- work of the night, which the rising sun quickly dissipates — and so, I trust, may these poor men, who write their nnsober and uncharitable revilings in their several parcels of periodical abuse, be themselves like the frost-work of the morning, absorbed into the glorious light which the rising morn is shedding around them. But be this as it may, now that the inward work of apprehending the glory of Christ is begun, and proceeding apace, we may surely expect that the outward means of convincing the world that it is no cunningly contrived fable, will be afforded to the Church; and that she will have her full dignity re- stored to her of testifying not only to a holy Lord in flesh crucified for all men, but of a risen Lord in po\\er and gloiy, crowned for His Church, and in His Church put- ting forth unto the world a first-fruits of that power and government over all creation which in her He shall ever exercise over all creation. These gifts have ceased, I would say, just as the verdure and leaves and flowers and fruits of the spring and summer and autumn cease in winter, because, by the chill and wintry blasts which have blown over the Church, her power to put forth her glorious beauty hath been prevented. But because the winter is without a green leaf or beautiful flower, do men thereof argue that there shall be flowers and fruits no more? Trusting to the Word of God, who hath created every- thing to produce and biing forth its kind, man puts out 42 2 Historical and Prophetical. his hand in winter, and makes preparations for the coming year: so, if the Church be still in existence, and that no one denies ; and if it be the law and end of her being to embody a first-fruits and earnest of the power which Christ is to put forth in the redemption of all nature ; then, what though she hath been brought so low, her life is still in her, and that life will, under a more genial day, put forth its native powers. Will God be baffled in His own most perfect work, in that work which He hath wrought for the honour of His Son ? I trow not. The Church is in the con- dition of a man faint, and sick, and apparently dead, who putteth forth neither manly voice nor vigorous action, and is even incapable of thought, and almost beyond feeling ; but let the man revive again, (and we know the Church never dies,) and he will both hear and see and feel and act the man. So, if the Church reviveth, she must act as the Church; which is not in the way of holiness merely, but in the way of power, for the manifestation of the complete- ness of Christ's work in flesh, and the first-fruits of the same work in glory. The Church is like a man who has been fed upon sloes, without fruits and husks, without kernels, refuse which the swine should eat : and she is grown lean and w^eak and helpless ; and, moreover, she has grown de- graded in her ideas — she has forgotten the nobility of her birth, and the grandeur of her destination ; but what then? give her proper meat, give her nourishing drinlv, feed her with marrow and with fatness, and she will put forth her might again, and rejoice in her high places. The question is, whether that be the endowment of the Church which we have laid down above ? If so, then rest assured that when she revives again she will embody the law according to which she was made, and shew forth the beauty and put forth the power with which she was endowed in the day of her birth. Therefore, with all patience, as one who is working for a master the work that his master hath set him to do, have I endeavoured to exhibit at large the Church's endowment of Her great Head, consisting of two parts : the first, the WJmt tJie Protestant Church has Neglected. 423 inheritance of His complete work wrought in the flesh; the second, the first-fruits of the work which lie is to work when He comes again. The former consisteth in perfect holiness, through the renewal of the soul; which is strength- ened to subdue the innate propensities of the flesh to evil, to cnicify the world, and to overcome the evil one. This we have served out to us in the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; in the one of which we receive cleanness of conscience, and in the other participation of Christ's sanctified flesh and purchased inheritance. But none of these go further than to possess us of what He purchased in the flesh : " This is my body, given for you ; this is my blood, shed for the remission of sins : " His body, given for the life of the world ; His blood, shed for the putting away of all sin. The Church hath perfect holiness ministered to her iu these two ordinances : Christ doth thereby dispense that gift of the Spirit which was dispensed to Him by the Father in the days of His flesh, and by the faithful use of which He " sanctified Himself." And we, having in these most comfortable ordinances that blessed fellowship of holiness, should sanctify ourselves, that Ave may holy as He is holy. This is the work of the Spirit uniting us unto Christ ; taking out of us our unholi- ness and grafting us into Christ. There is a power in the Spirit to wash the Ethiopian white. It is not in man, but it is in God, to do so ; and the element with which to do it He hath in the blood of Christ, which cleanseth away all sins. Every man baptized into the Church is answerable for a life of spotless, stainless holiness. What though no man hath yielded it ? So miich the more is the sinfulness of our nature proved, and the divinity of Christ shewn, who did present mortal flesh sinless : and let Him be glorified, and every man be a liar. MISSIONARY i '^l?^'^Sf6^'i^'ff^\'Pff^ A contkast: kings ambassadors and heavens MISSIONARIES. WHEN kings send out ambassadors to represent their persons and their interests in foreign courts, they choose out from amongst the people, men of high name and reputation, well skilled in the ways of the world and the policy of states ; whom, having clothed with powers plenipotentiary, and appointed with officers and servants of every kind, they send forth, accredited with royal letters to all courts and kingdoms, whither they may come, furnished with grace and splendour to feast the common eye, and laden with rich gifts to take the cupidity or con- ciliate the favour of those with whom they have to do. Also, when a nation fitteth out a journey or voyage of discovery, they choose out men of fortitude, humanity, and skill, upon whom to bestow a valorous and steady crew, who will not be daunted by the dangers, nor baiBed by the difficulties of the work ; and having called in the whole science and art of the country, to fortify and accom- modate the danger-hunting men, they launch them forth amidst the hearty cheers and benedictions of their country. And when a nation arrayeth its strength to battle for its ancient rights and dominions ; or when a noble nation 428 Missionary . armetli in the cause of humanity to help an insulted sister in the day of her need, as we Britons have often heen called upon to do, the nation is shaken to her very centre with commotion, and every arm and sinew of the land straineth to the work. Fleets and armies, and munitions of war ; the whole chivalry, the whole prowess, strength and policy, and oft the whole wealth of the land muster in the cause ; and the chief captains forsake their wives and children, and peaceful homes ; and the warlike harness is taken from the hall where it hung in peace ; and the bold peasantry come trooping from their altars and their household hearths ; and " the trumpet speak etli to the armed throng : " they gather into one, and descend unto the shores of the surrounding sea, whither every fleet ship and gallant sailor have made ready to bear them to the place where the rights of the nation, or the insulted rights of humanity cry upon their righteous arm for redress ; — and their kinsmen follow them with their prayers, and their wives and children, their fathers, and the households of their fathers, with the assembled congregations of the people, commit them and their righteous cause to the safe conduct and keeping of the Lord of Hosts. But, when the King of heaven sendeth forth these twelve ambassadors to the nations, fitteth out these discoverers of the people that sat in darkness and the shadow of death, and furnisheth forth this little army to subvert the thrones, dominions, principalities and powers of darkness which brooded over the degenerate earth, to bring forth the lost condition of humanity, and establish its crown of glory as at the first; he took men of no name nor reputation, endowed with no Greek, with no Eoman fame, by science untaught, by philosophy unschooled, fishermen from the shores of an inland sea ; the class of men, which of all classes is distinguished for no exploit in the story of the world ; Galileans, a people despised of the Jews, who were themselves a despised people. As at first, when God wished to make a man in His own image, after His own likeness, He brought not the materials from heavenly A Contrast. 429 regions, neither created a finer quintessence of matter for the high occasion, but took from the ground a handful of dust, thereon to impress His divine image, and thereinto to breathe the spirit of lives : so the Sou of God, himself a sei-vant, despised and rejected of men, when He chcj.sc vessels to bear His name before Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel, preferred that they should be empty of human greatness, without any grace or comeli- ness in the sight of man, without any odour of a good name, or rich contents of learning or knowledge ; — that the treasure being in earthen vessels, the praise might bo of God. Such men having chosen, for subverting the ancient thrones of darkness, and recovering the world from the per- dition of sin and the night of the gi'ave, He sent them forth, destitute of all visible sustenance, and of all human help, and forbade them to be beholden unto any. " Take nothing for your journey ; neither staves nor scrip, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats a-piece : provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither have two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, and salute no man by the way." No means of any sort did He permit for procuring the neces- saries of life, or purchasing the helps of their journey ; no store of provisions, nor even a scrij) for containing what might be offered them by the pity or piety of the people : no raiment or vesture, with the change of which to comfort their weary and way-worn limbs, besides what was suffi- cient for nature's modesty and her present necessity. Without staff, without shoes, they fared on their way two by two : their sandalled feet exposed to dust and sultry heat ; their bodies to every blast of heaven ; their natural wants to man's precarious charity. The most defenceless bird that flies athwart the heavens, the weakest, most per- secuted beast that cowers beneath the covert, or scuds along the plain, are better provided with visible help than were these apostles of the Highest ; for the birds of the air liave nests to which to wing their flight at even-tide, and the 430 Missionary. beasts of the earth have holes wherein to screen themselves from pursuit ; but the founders of the spiritual and ever- lasting kingdom had not where to lay their head. Whom having thus divided from the resources "which human weakness hath in the storehouse and armoury of nature, he next divided from the resources which she hath in the power and patronage and friendship of men. They are to compose no speeches for the ears of prince or governor, but to speak as the Spirit of Truth gave them utterance ; they are not to go from house to house making friends against the evil day, but to abide where they first halted, so long as they are welcome ; they are not even to salute a friend, acquaintance, or neighbour by the way. And if, in spite of these preventions, it should come to pass that the people they conferred with, well disposed to them for their word's sake, should take pity upon their impro- vided estate, and offer them money to help them on their way ; lo, they have no purse for containing it ! if they should offer them provision to be their viaticum from town to town ; lo, they have no scrip wherein to bestow it ! They cannot possess, they cannot accumulate, they are cut off and separate from all fixed and moveable wealth which the world holdeth within its fair and ample bound. What will preserve life, they are to take upon the credit of their universal message, without feeling obligation, for the labourer is worthy of his meat, and they are wholly obliged to another cause. In no earthly shape can they benefit from their labours under the sun ; to no account can they turn the children of men, from whose liberality they can profit no further than to live. Like Jonah, commissioned with the burden of Nineveh, they are to gird up their loins and make speed ; they are to hie from house to house, and hasten from town to town, inquiring after the spirits of immortal men ; to tell their tale, and hurry onward : as the heralds of the northern chiefs were wont to hasten from house to house, and from village to village, when rousing the mountain-clans to war. — And cause truly see I none, why they who hold the commission to make peace should A Co7iti'ast. 431 not be as fleet as those who hold the commission to levy wai", and the messenger of salvation fly with as hasty a wing as the messenger of death ; why servants should not be found to do as much, and to do it as hastily, for tho King of heaven, as for the lordly chieftain of a mountain- clan, or the throned monarch of a mighty land. Thus disfumished of resources from nature's storehouse, and hindei'ed from ploughing with human help, do you ask if these first missionaries of the gospel had promises of wel- come everywhere, and went forth on a flourishing and popu- lar cause? if the way was prepared for them in every city? and a hospitable home made ready for them in every house ? Hear what their Lord saith to them at parting : " Go your ways, behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, and the brother shall deliver up the brother, and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against the parents and cause them to be put to death, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." Such was their heavy parting. No missionary that ever went to the heathen, fared forth on his way with so gloomy a foreboding, BO cheerless a farewell. Let no one object, in the face of these predictions too truly fulfilled : " But these are not men like us, open to every want; they are inspired miracle- working men who had nature under their control." Their miracles, which saved many, protected not themselves; their inspirations, which blessed many, could not bless themselves from every haiTU and sorrow which patient nature can endure. They are to be placed at the bar of civil law, to be hunted out with religious persecution ; against them the tender aflections of life are to rise in arms, and the soft and downy scenes of home are to bristle like the iron front of war : the tender hands which are wont to pluck the thorns of sorrow from our feet, are to guide the weapons of their death ; of all men they are to be hated for His name's sake : they are to be hunted like 432 Missionary, the partridge on the monntains, and every refuge upon thoiJ earth is to be hidden from their sight. Go, said He, myi chosen ones, go like the defenceless lamb into the paw of the ravenous wolf : the world thirsteth for your blood, and is in arms against your undefended lives. Nevertheless, go. You are without weapons of defence, no bribes are in your hands, nor soft words upon your tongues ; and you go in the teeth of hatred, derision, and rage. Nevertheless, my children, go. They are launched into a stormy sea, a sea of storms and shipwreck is before them, and their frail bark is not fenced or fitted out for any storm, or furnished for any voyage. So the world would say, because so it seemeth in the eye of the Tvorld, which looketh but upon the visible and tem- poral forms of things. It is madness, they would say, moon-struck madness, to think thatof such should come any speed ; it is not in the nature of things they should exist a week in any region of the earth, and in barbarous regions not a single day : no policy of insurance would do their risk at any premium : they are shipwrecked, cast-away creatures, doomed to death, and destined to effect no good, even if they should outlive their first outsetting. Men must have a livelihood before they can speak or act : they must have protection to cover them from the tyranny of power, and law to save them from the riots of the people : they must be well paid, if you would have them work well; for if a man have no comforts his life is miserable. What ! such mendicants as these convert the world ! say the well- conditioned classes; vagrant, vagabond fellows, they are fitter for the stocks or the common jail. Such illiterate clowns, such babblers as these, instruct mankind ! say the learned classes ; away with them to their nets and fishing- craft. And, say the political classes, it is dangerous to the state ; they cover plots under their silly pretences, and must be dealt with by the strong hand of power. Methinks I hear, in every contemptible and arrogant speech which is vented against the modern missionaries by worldly and self-sufficient men, the echo, afler two thousand yearS; of A ConirasL 433 those speeches which wore wont to be poured upon the twelve apostles and sevent}'^ disciples, when they began to emerge out of the foundation of society, into the neigh- bourhood and level of its higher ranks. But the Wonderful Counsellor, in whom dwelt all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, and who knew what was in man, did not without good and sufficient cause divorce the human desii'es from those objects on which they naturally rest. He knew that if He gave the messengers of His kingdom, which is not of this world, and against which this world conspireth, to expect any ray of hope, any shadow of consolation, or scantling of support from the things of this world, it would be only to disappoint them in the end : for though He foresaw that fair weather would dawn, and much enjoyment be partaken in the progress and towards the latter end of the work, He saw, hanging over its first beginnings in every region of the earth, storms and tempests, and terrific commotions, out of which the eclipsed light of truth, was to come forth, and the day of peace to be established ; He knew that in every realm His truth was to make way against the edge of the sword, and, like the j)hoenix, to procreate itself in the fiame of fire, and that His servants were to be heard from the paw of the lion and from the horn of the unicorn ; wherefore it booted not to amuse those who were to plant the plant, and those who were to propagate the plant, with the enjoyments which were to be partaken under its future shade ; and He spoke plainly unto them, and said. If ye have not a heart for the extreme of human suffering, and a soul above the fear of man, ye need not undertake this work, — more perilous than war, more adventurous than a voyage to " regions of thick-ribbed ice," and more important to the earth than the most sacred legation which ever went forth in behalf of suffering and insulted humanity. But, while He cut them off from the power and virtue of gold and silver, which, they say, will unlock barred gates, and scale frowning ramparts ; while He denied them the 2 F 434 Missio7iary . scrip, and therewitli hindered the accumulation or use of property in any form ; while He forbade them change of raiment, that is, pleasure and accommodation of the person ; and with their staff interdicted all ease of travel and recre- ation of the sense by the way ; and in hindering salutations hindered the formalities of life and the ends of natural or social affection ; all these the natural motives to enterprise, and the sweet rewards of success, while He cut asunder, because, as hath been said. He foresaw that whether Tie did so or not, the world would soon do it for them : Pie did not leave their minds in a void state, without motive or in- ducement, or hope of reward ; but proceeded to fill each several chamber thereof with the spirit of a more enduring patience and a more adventurous daring ; to give to faith what He took from sight ; what He interdicted in the visi- ble to supply from the invisible ; what of temjDoral things He spoiled them of to repay with things spiritual and eternal." Thus went forth the first messengers of the kingdom, commissioned to the most pure and benevolent and worthy part of the people, and they approached them upon the side whereon a good man liketh best to be approached, of kindness and humanity : for it is more blessed to give than to receive. Yet, to keep their character clear from all associations of mendicity or meanness, there is no scrip nor purse, nor obsequious demeanour allowed them, nothing that might take from the heavenly condition of the men ; no de- mand for food or raiment; what is set before them they par- take of ; and the spiritual knowledge and power which they possess they as freely give in return. If none is worthy, they pass on : if they are persecuted, they escape away, as it were, fishing the land, and taking in their spiritual net the worthiest and the best thereof; establishing the ever- lasting covenant between God and good men, between heaven and whatever is best upon the earth. They are kept in close dependence upon God's assistance, and cannot move a step but in the strength of faith. They are de- livered out of the conditions of policy, out of the conditions *! A Contrast. 435 of force, out of the conditions of gain, out of the conditions of selfishness and of ambition ; fur I defy any one maxim which appertaineth to these four spheres of human activity to help them one jot in fulfilling their instructions : and they are delivered into the spiritual conditions of the spiritual kingdom which they went about to propagate. In prayer and communion with the Spirit of God they sail along upon an unseen and unpiloted course. They are living models of what they teach; moving epistles of the Spirit of God ; incarnations, each one in his measure, of the divine nature ; instead of the Scriptures to those who have them not, and commendations of the Scrijitures to those who have them. And if, as hath been said, the Bible is its own witness, these men who personified all its truth that can be personified, and with their lips spoke the rest, must be their own witness. And by being hindered from worldly interests and worldly attachments, they are hin- I dered from worldly discourse. They address only the immor- j tal part of the people ; they confer upon no news but the j good news of the kingdom ; they touch no interests but I the interests of eternity ; speak of no country but heaven, [ in no authority but the name of God. Which four things, ; wisdom to address the worthiest people, entire dependence I upon God, exemplification of the doctrine, and constant debate with the spirits of men, are surely four of the great principles in the propagation of the gospel. And it is incredible from how many altercations, from how many aberrations of purpose, and strivings of passion, and oppo- sitions of interest, they are cut oft". For if they are brought into debate, it must be for some spiritual sake, and spiri- tual truth must be elicited. If they are mistreated, it must be in the face of justice and innocency, which makes friends to the injured ; and, doubtless, whatever happeneth, good or ill to them, good must come out of it to a cause thus implicated with no earthly interests and devoted wholly to spiritual ends. 2 F 2 ( 436 ) THE APOSTOLICAL MISSIONARY. Though a missionary in the first instance should go forth stocked like a trader, fitted out like a discoverer, accredited like a royal envoy, and three times armed with prudence like a hostile spy, when he cometh into close communication with the Spirit of God and the spirit of the people, in order to be the mediator between these natiiral enemies, he will, if his mind be open to light, be taught the utter helplessness of all these helps, the utter uselessness of all these useful things, to that work in which he hath embarked : that, though they may com- mend him to the proud and worldly part of the people, and gain for him a place in their regards as a man of some consequence and reputation, they are so far from bringing him into contact with their spiritual feelings, which alone he careth or ought to care for, that they set him more remote from thence, and induce a mistake with respect to his imearthly purpose, which it will require him much time and labour to correct. And if he be a true man, and a man of spiritual discernment, I think that a transmutation will speedily come upon the outward estate of this well-furnished missionary. He will by degrees divest himself of all those things which withdraw the people from the word of his mouth, or hinder them from apprehending the simplicity and sincerity of his spiritual purpose. He will adopt their dresses, follow their manner of life, eat with them and drink with them, and seek access to them at all their uugiiarded moments, that he may be always at hand to drop his words seasonably into their ear, and manifest constantly before their eye the influence of his faith over all the conditions of man, instead of merely addressing them now and then with set speeches and ab- stract discourses against the very time, form, and place of which, their minds are already in arms. And he will not scruple to take favours at their hand, if that will bring him into closer confidence of their souls, which it doth fixr more frequently than otherwise ; and if not, he will work I The Apostolical Missionary. 437 to them for his meat, teach tliem the arts of his country, do anything that may bring him and keep liim in close and frequent conta,ct with their personal affections: and he will learn to be of no country, that he may remove political hindrances out of the way, and he will learn to carry no temptations about with him ; his wealth, which maketh him to be envied, and perhaps endangereth his life, he will cast into the first brook which he crosseth, or diligently hide it from the people, (but how shall he hide it from his own heart !) his equipage of travel he will put aside ; and, like Bernard Gilpin, the Reformer of the North, he will give his horse to the first poor family which hath need of one to earn their bread ; and, like that most noble of parish priests, however full-handed the missionary may set out on his expedition, he will, if his mind be open to light, and his heart to love, return from his excursion, not only empty of all things, but beholden to the w^orthy men who had compassion upon him by the way. So that, according to the argument, the spirit which prevaileth wdthin the missionary's breast, will never fail to bring him into that very condition of nakedness and depend- ence, I should rather say, fulness of faith and spiritual plenty, which the great Coimsellor and Founder of the missionary cause, in the plenitude of His wisdom, ordained as the proper condition, not to end with, but to set out with, in this faithful and spiritual adventure. It is not that we attach any importance to the outward costume of a missionarj^, which also may be assumed. Under the coarse frock of a friar lay oft more pride and cunning than beneath a cardinal's hat; and the triple crown hath not covered more ambitious pui-j)oses than lay within the cowl of the Jesuit who exposed himself to every blast of heaven. The pride of human nature may make • noble-minded men to dwell like Diogenes in a tub ; the disappointments of the world may drive them like Timou to the woods ; and racking remorse may send them unprovided pilgrims over untrodden deserts, or attach them to the coarse fare and bare walls of a hermit's 43 S Missionary. cell; the forms of poverty and meanness are endless, which the spirit of man may assume for its own parti- cular gratification, without any regard to the well-being of others, or the propagation of the kingdom of Christ ; and therefore no form is to be taken as a sure test of the true spirit of a Christian missionary. Nevertheless, as hath been proved above, there is a form which, beyond others, is expressive of a heavenly mind and a disinterested mission, — that which Messiah chose for Himself when coming into the world, and which He laid upon all who would travail with Him for the redemption of the world. It is not indispensable to the true missionary spirit, but the true missionary spirit doth love it, and cannot without self-denial be brought to lay it aside ; it is not unequivocal to those without, but it is least liable to be misinterpreted ; it is not a capital crime against the laws of the spiritual kingdom to lay it aside for an occasion, as it is not a capital crime against our naval laws for a captain to lose his ship, but as in the latter case so in the former, he ought to be put upon his trial, and make appear before the statutes of our king, that it was for the best interests of the kingdom that it was set aside. What are missionaries but the prophets' order enlarged from the confines of the land of Israel, to roam at large over the world ? God's messengers to the nations, telling them their several burdens if they repent not, and shewing them salvation if they repent. Each a Jonah to the several qiiarters of the heathen world ; not servants of this or that association of men, but Heralds of Heaven, who dare not be under other orders than the orders of Christ. It is a pre- suinption hardly short of Papal, to command them. They are not missionaries when they are commanded. They are creatures of the power that commandeth them. Up, up with the stature of this character ; it is high as heaven : its head is above the clouds which hide the face of heaven from earth-born men : its ear heareth the word of God continually, and continually re-echoeth what it heareth to the nations. The missionary is the The Apostolical Missionaiy. 439 hollow of that tnimp which resotmdeth the voice of God liet lis reverence him, he is above tis all, he is above the world, he is an ethereal being, and careth not for the con- cerns of time. I wonder how anj" one can be so impious towards God, so cruel towards men, as to wish to oblite- rate one feature of his celestial character. Though none of those who at present respectably bear the honours of the name come near to it, still let it stand, that, being ever in their eye, they may approach it more and more near. Though none of this generation can bear the palm of it away, some of our children may. And though none of our children should reach it nearer than their fathers, some of our children's children may. Some favoured one may be raised up of God. who, like another Paul, may give it full and complete vitality. And when he shall arrive, rest assured that, like another Paul, he "will convert half the nations. For well am I convinced that the gospel waiteth only for such spiritual men, in order to burst its present narrow bounds, and the Spirit waiteth only for these neces- sary conditions to fill the inward soul of any man, and make him a chosen vessel, a royal stately ship to sail in all seas, and bear the treasure unto all lands. I feel, that in pleading for the perpetuity of the missionaiy form of manhood, I am pleading the cause, not only of the uncon- verted nations, but the cause of Divine power and truth, which is hindered from descending to tabernacle with mor- tals only by our low-thoughted cares and worldly occupa- tions. Martha, who was burdened with many things, is the genius of the human race ; Mary, who had chosen the one thing needful, is the genius of the missionary band, Avho, not out of the greatness of their gi'ief, but the greatness of their love, have become careless of all those things, save that good pai-t which shall not be taken from them. Who is he that talks of change ? The missionarj^ ordi- nance can never change, for the missionary work doth never change. His work is still to overthrow the prince of this world, seated upon the beauty and pleasantness. 440 Missionary. upon the magnificence and glory of the visible creation, and to deliver the souls of men into the worship of the invisible God. Kingdoms may imdergo every vicissitude, and be found under every form of civil polity ; nations may exist in every degree of culture or barbarism ; they may be noble, high minded and proud ; sordid, base, and given over to gain and sensual indulgence ; vain-glorious, pomp- ous, and fond of a thousand spectacles ; they may be gi'ovelling in superstition, sunk in ignorance, abandoned to sloth and effeminacy, or fierce, fiery, and uncontrollable ; but never will a kingdom or nation be found possessed of the knowledge of the true God, devoted to the faith and pursuit of spiritual objects, or living in the practice of Christian precepts. The maxims, the spirit of the laws and policy, the motives and principles of private conduct, the whole tenor of their society, and influence of their reli- gion, have to be counteracted and overthrown in these times, as entirely as in the days of the apostles. There is no relaxation of the oppositions, there is no mitigation of the difficulties of the work, which never changeth. And the gospel which the missionary hath to preach, the king- dom which he hath to propagate, is still the same spiritual kingdom which flesh and blood cannot inherit, whose King hath no communion with Belial nor with Mammon, in whose sight iniquity cannot stand, and to whom the proud heart and the high look are an abomination. This gospel, which hath toleration for no natural form of humanity however excellent, and condemneth every living man, which beginneth in soitow and repentance for the past, proceedeth by the faith and preference of things unseen, and is perfected in a thousand acts of self-denial and self- discipline, is not now more agreeable to the nations than it was when first revealed by our Lord and Saviour. And if the gospel, after two thousand years, is still as imaccom- modating to the world, and the world is still by nature as averse from its faith and discipline, how should the manner of its propagation be altered in any respect from what was laid down and followed at the first? If the first mission- The Apostolical Missioiiaiy . 44 1 aries were made spiritual personages, in order to exhibit practically to the jieoplo that preference and all-sufficiency of spiritual things which they preached ; if they were men of faith alone, in order to exhibit that principle which they sought to magnify over sight and sense, why should they not be so likewise in these times, in which the heathen are still as devoted to things seen and temporal, as they were in the days of Paul ? Even supposing the present mission- aries had more divinity of nature than the apostles, and that they could possess purse, scrip, and all other accom- modations without being thereby uuspiritualised, how shall they hinder the evil intei-pretation of the heathen, who see them hired, paid, accommodated, befriended, and in all outward things better conditioned than themselves? They speak to us of faith ; let them show us their own. They speak to us of the providence of God ; but they ventured not hither without every security. They tell of Christ's disinterestedness to us; but what lessons give they us of the same ? And so forth through every particular of their condition, by which Christ intended that they should evi- dence the doctrince which they taught. I cannot under- stand, therefore, in any way, how the condition of the mis- sionary work should be changed, when the work itself remaineth the same ; or how the instruction which Christ gave for the propagation of His kingdom should now be null and void, when it is the same kingdom that is to be pro- pagated, and the difficulties and impediments are still the same, over the head of which its propagation is to bo efi'ected. Therefore I say, let this type of the missionary stand, that he is a man without a purse, without a scrip, without a change of raiment, without a staff, without the care of making friends or keeping friends, without the hope or de- sire of worldly goods, without the apprehension of worldly loss, without the care of life, without the fear of death; of no rank, of no country, of no condition; a man of one thought, the gospel of Christ ; a man of one pui-pose, the glor)' of God ; a fool, and content be reckoned a fool, for 442 Missionary. Christ ; a madman, and content to be reckoned a madman, for Christ. Let him be enthusiast, fanatic, babbler, or any other outlandish nondescript the world may choose to de- nominate him. But still let him be a nondescript, a man that cannot be classed under any of their categories, or de- fined by any of their convenient and conventional names. / When they can call him pensioner, tiader, householder, citizen ; man of substance, man of the world, man of science, man of learning, or even man of common sense, it is all over with his missionary character. He may inno- cently have some of these forms of character, some of them he cannot innocently have ; but they will be far subordin- ate, deep in the shade, covered and extinguished to the world's incurious gaze, by the strange incoherent and un- accountable character to which, he surrendereth himself mainly. The world knoweth the missionaiy not, because it knew Messiah not. The nature of his life is hid with Christ in God ; he is not a man, but the spirit of a man ; he is a spirit that hath divested itself of all earthiness, save the continent body, which it keepeth down and usetli as its tabernacle, and its vehicle, and its mechanical tool for sjieech and for action. The standard is a high one, and suiteth not an easy and prudential age, and we that are bred in peaceful places may stumble at it, and some of our self-sufficient spirits may scoff at it. But our fathers held it in reputation when they suffered the loss of all things, and counted them but as dung, that they might win Christ : and the missionaries who came to our fathers were accustomed to it. And what is a missionary who shrinketh at it? Can he stand the stake or the cross who cannot bear hunger, thirst, and nakedness? Was any man a martyr who could not be a hungered for Christ ? What are purse, staff, scrip, raiment, and friendship, but the help and sustenance of life, taking their value from the love we have of life ? And if we are prepared to scuttle the ship, are we not prepared to sink the timbers, and cordage, and tackle of the ship ? This un- earthly dimension of the missionary character is in such I The Apostolical Missiona7'y\ 443 keeping with the rest of the Christian dispensation, as to commend itself to our mind on that voiy account. Had it not been perfect in this its beau -ideal, had it been accom- modated to prudence and practice, a plausible, reasonable, fair-looking specitlation like that which it seems hasting to become, I for one would have said, This is not like a cha- racter of Christ's delineation ; it wanteth the touch of the Divine hand ; it hath not the supernatural air. It is of the earth, earthly : it is not of the heavens, heavenly : it is born of flesh, it consorteth with Mammon and hath fellow- ship with Belial." SCRIPTURE PORTRAITS DAVID. There never was a specimen of manhood, so ricli and en- nobled as David, the son of Jesse, whom other saints haply may have equalled in single features of his character, but such a combination of manly, heroic qualities, such a flush of generous godlike excellences, hath never yet been seen embodied in a single man. His Psalms, to speak as a man, do place Mm in the highest rank of lyrical poets, as they set him above all the inspired writers of the Old Testament, — equalling in sublimity the flights of Isaiah himself, and revealing the cloudy mystery of Ezekiel ; but in love of country, and gloryings in its heavenly patronage, surpassing them all. And where are there such expressions of the varied conditions into which human nature is cast by the ac- cidents of providence, — such delineations of deep affliction, and inconsolable anguish, and anon such joy, such rap- ture, such revelry of emotion, in the worship of the living- God ! Such invocations to all nature, animate and inani- mate, such summonings of the hidden powers of harmony, and *)f the breathing instruments of melody ! Sino-le hymns of this poet would have conferred immortality upon any mortal, and borne down his name as one of the most favoured of the sons of men. 44S Scripture Portraits. But it is not the writings of the man which strike us with such wonder, as the actions and events of his wonder- ful history. He was a hero without a peer, hold in battle, and generous in victory ; by distress, or by triumph, never overcome. Though hunted like a wild beast among the mountains, and forsaken like a pelican in the wilderness, by the country whose armies he had delivered from disgrace, and by the monarch whose daughter he had won, — whose son he had bound to him with cords of brotherly love, and whose own soul he was wont to charm with the sacred n ess of his minstrelsy, — he never indulged malice or revenge against his unnatural enemies. Twice, at the peril of his life, he brought his blood-hunter within his power, and twice he spared him, and woiild not be persuaded to injure a hair upon his head — who, when he fell in his high plans, was lamented over by David, with the bitterness of a son, and his death avenged upon the sacrilegious man who had lifted up his sword against the Lord's anointed. In friend- ship and love, and also in domestic affection, he was not less notable than in heroical endowments; and in piety towards God he was most remarkable of all. He had to flee from his bed-chamber in the dead of night, his friendly meet- ings had to be concerted upon the perilous edge of captivity and death — his food he had to seek at the risk of sacrilege — for a refuge from death, to cast himself upon the people of Gath — to counterfeit idiocy, and become the laughing- stock of his enemies. And who shall tell of his hidings in the cave of Adullam, and of his w-anderings in the wilder- ness of Ziph ; in the weariness of which he had power to stand before his armed enemy with all his host, and, by the generosity of his deeds, and the affectionate language which flowed from his lips, to melt into child-like weeping the obdurate spirit of king Saul, which had the nerve to evoke the spirits of the dead! King David was a man extreme in all his excellencjes — a man of the highest strain, whetlier fur counsel, for expres- sion, or for action, in peace and in war, in exile and on the throne. That such a warm and ebullient spirit should have David. 449 given way before the tide of its afifections, we wonder not. We rather wonder that, tried by such extremes, his mighty spirit should not often have burst control, and enacted right forward the conqueror, the avenger, and the de- str(.>yer. But God, who anointed him from his childhood, had given him store of the best natural and inspired gifts, which preserved him from sinking under the long delay of his promised crown, and kept him from contracting any of the craft or cruelty of a hunted, persecuted man. And adversity did but bring out the splendour of his character, which might have slumbered like the fire in the flint, or the precious metal in the dull and earthj- ore. But to conceive aright of the gracefulness and stiength of king David's character, we must draw him into compari- son with men similarly conditioned, and then shall we see how vain the world is to cope with him. Conceive a man who had saved his country, and clothed himself with grace- fuhiess and renown in the sight of all the people, by the chivalry of his deeds won for himself intermarriage with the royal line, and by unction of the Lord's prophet been set apart to the throne itself; such a one conceive driven with fuiy from house and hold, and, through tedious years, deserted of every stay but heaven, with no soothing sym- pathies of quiet life, harassed for ever between famine and the edge of the sword, and kept in savage holds and deserts : and tell us, in the annals of men, of one so disap- pointed, so bereaved and straitened, maintaining not forti- tude alone, but sweet composure and a heavenly frame of soul, inditing praise to no avenging deity, and couching songs in no revengeful mood, according with his outcast and unsocial life ; but inditing prai.ses to the God of mercy, and songs which soar into the third heavens of the soul : not, indeed, without the burst of soitow, and the complaint of solitariness, and prophetic warnings to his bloodthirsty foes, but ever closing in sweet preludes of good to come, aud desire of present contentment. Find us such a one in the annals of men, and we yield the argument of this con- troversy. Men there have been, driven before the wrath 450 Scripture Portraits. of kings to wander outlaws and exiles, whose musings and actings have been recorded to us in the minstrelsy of our native land. Draw these songs of the exile into comparison with the Psalms of David, and know the spirit of the man after God's own heart : the stei'n defiance of the one, with the tranquil acquiescence of the other ; the deep despair of the one, with the rooted trust of the other ; the vindictive imprecations of the one, with the tender regret and for- giveness of the other. Shew us an outlaw who never spoiled a country which had forsaken him, nor turned his hand in self-defence or revenge upon his persecutors, who used the vigour of his arm only against the enemies of his country, yea, lifted up his arm in behalf of that mother, which had cast her son, crowned with salvation, away from her bosom, and held him at a distance from her love, and raised the rest of her family to hunt him to the death ; — in the defence of that thankless, unnatural, mother-countr}^ find us such a repudiated son lifting up his arm, and spend- ing its vigour, in smiting and utterly discomfiting her enemies, whose spoils he kept not to enrich himself and his inthless followers, but dispensed to comfort her and her happier children. Find us among the Themistocles, and Coriolani, and Cromwells, and Napoleons of the earth, such a man, and we will jdeld the argument of this controversy which we maintain for the peerless son of Jesse. But we fear that not such another man is to be found in the recorded annals of men. Though he rose from the peasantry to fill the throne, and enlarge the borders of his native land, he gave himself neither to ambition nor to glory ; though more basely treated than the sons of men, he gave not place to despondency or revenge ; thpugh of the highest genius in poetry, he gave it not licence to sing his own deeds, nor to depict loose and licentious life, nor to ennoble any worldly sentiment or attachment of the human heart, however virtuous or honourable, but con- strained it to sing the praises of God, and the victories of the right hand of the Lord of Hosts, and His admirable works v/hich are of old from everlasting. And he hath David. 451 dicssed out religion in such a rich and beautiful garment of divine poesy as boseeiueth lier majesty, in which, being arrayed, she can stand up before the eyes even of her enemies, in more royal state, than any personification of love, or glory, or pleasure, to which highly-gifted mortals have devoted their genius. The force of his character was vast, and the scope of his life was immense. His harp was full-stringed, and every angel of joy and of sorrow swept over the chords as he passed ; but the melody always breathed of heaven. And such oceans of affection lay within his breast, as could not always slrmaber in their calmness. For the hearts of a hundred men strove and struggled together within the narrow continent of his single heart : and will the scornful men have no sympathy for one so conditioned, but scorn him, because he ruled not with constant quietness, the unruly host of divers natures which dwelt within his single soul? Of self-command surely he will not be held deficient, who endured Saul's javelin to be so often launched at him, while the people without were ready to hail him king; who endured all bodily hardships, and taunts of his ene- mies, when revenge was in his hand ; and ruled his desperate band like a company of saints, and restrained them from their country's injury. But that hs should not be able to enact all characters without a fault, the simple shepherd, the conquering hero, and the romantic lover ; the perfect friend, the innocent outlaw, and the royal monarch; the poet, the prophet, and the regenerator of the Church ; and, withal, the man, the inan of vast soul, who played not these parts by turns, but was the original of them all, and wholly present in them all ; oh ! that he should have fulfilled this high priesthood of himianity, this universal ministry of manhood without an error, were more than human. With the defence of his backslidings, which he hath himself more keenly scrutinised, moi-e clearly decerned against, and mere bitterly lamented than any of his censors, we do not charge ourselves, because they were, in a manner, necessary, that he might be the 2 G 2 452 Scripture Portraits. full-urbed man ^v•llicll was neei^ied to utter every form of spiritual feeling : but if, when of these acts he became con- vinced, he be found less true to God, and to righteousness ; indisposed to repentance and sorrow, and anguish ; excul- patory of himself; stout-hearted in his courses, a formalist in his penitence, or in any way less worthy of a spiritual man in those than in the rest of his infinite moods, then, verily, strike him from the canon, and let his Psalms become monkish legends, or what you please. But if these penitential Psalms discover the soul's deepest hell of agony, and lay bare the iron ribs of misery, whereon the very heart dissolveth, and if they, expressing the same in words which melt the soul that conceiveth, and bow the head that uttereth them, then, we say, let \is keep these records of the psalmist's grief and despondency, as the most pre- cious of his utterances, and suro to be needed in the case of every man who essay eth to live a spiritual life. For, though the self-satisfied moralist, and the diligent Pharisee, and all that pigmy breed of purists, who make unto them- selves a small and puny theory of life, and please their meagre souls with the idea of keeping it thoroughly, smiting upon their thigh, and protesting by their unsullied honour and inviolate truth, and playing other tricks of self-sufficiency, will little understand what we are about to say, we will, nevertheless, for truth's sake, utter it; that, until a man, however pure, honest, and honourable he may have thought himself, and been thought by others, discovereth himself to be utterly fallen, defiled, and sinfiil in the sight of God, a worm of the earth and no man, his soul cleaving to the dust, and bearing about with it a body of sin and death; and until, for expressions of his utter worthlessness, he seek those Psalms in which the psalmist describes the abasement of his soul, 3'ea, and can make them his own, that man liath not known the beginnings of the spiritual life within the soul : for (let bim that readeth understand) a man must break up before there is any hope of him ; he must be contrite and broken in spirit, before the Lord will dwell with him. I David. 453 Of all the delusions with wliich Satan hills man into sweet security, this of our completeness and integrity is the most fatal. ^Vhile we dwell in the idea of our rectitude, our unsullied purity, our inflexible honesty, our truth, our moral worth, and think that we implement any, the lowest of God's commandments, (but they are all equally high,) we are like the hard and baked earth, whose surface haply some sward of greenness may cover, but which will not wave with the rich and fruitful harvest, until you bury that first crop of nature under the share of the plough, and turn up the black rough mould to the heat of the sun, and the genial action of the air, and, the ancient roots being scorched up, sow it anew with precious seed, and wait upon the same with diligent husbandry. AMien this soul-tillage hath taken place, and the integTity of selfishness is broken up, and the poisonous weeds of selfishness are cut down, and our shallow and insuflScient righteousness trodden under foot ; when the old man hath broken into pieces, and we feel ourselves murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars, in the sight of God, then shall we come to use, and thank God that we have at hand, the penitential Psalms of David ; the confessions, the groanings, the languishings of the deso- late king of Israel. It booteth not that Ave have not committed the acts, we wanted power, we wanted opportu- nity, we wanted means ; but ah ! we wanted not will. It was in our heart, out of which proceed murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness. It hath been all the while in our heart, and we knew it not. It was rooted there, and we fostered it. Ay, and it will cause us bitter groans, ere it will leave the place of its roots. But to return from these rebukes of the sconiers, to the instruction of the Christian Church upon the fitness of David to be their psalmist. — ^Vhy were such oceans of feeU ing poured unto David's soul, such true and graceful utter- ance of poetry infused into his lips, and such skill of music seated in his right hand ? Such oceans of feeling did God infuse into his soul, and such utterance of poetry He placed between his lips, and such skilful music He 454 ScriptzLre Porti^aits. seated in his right hand, in order that he might conceive forms of feeling for all saints, and create an everlasting psalmody, and hand down an organ for expressing the melody of the renewed soul. The Lord did not intend that His Church should be without a rule for utteiing its glad- ness and its glory, its lamentation and its grief; and to bring such a rule and institute into being, He raised up His servant David, as formerly He raised up Moses to give to the church an institute of Law. And to that end He led him the round of all human conditions, that he might catch the spirit proper to every one, and utter it according to truth ; He allowed him not to curtail his being by treading the round of one function, but by every variety of functions. He cultivated his whole being, and filled his soul with ■wisdom and feeling. He found him objects for every affec- tion, that the affection might not slumber and die. He brought him up in the sheep-pastures, that the gi'oundwork of his character might be laid amongst the simple and uni- versal forms of feeling. He took him to the camp, and made him a conqueror, that he might be filled with noble- ness of soul and ideas of glory. He placed him in the palace, that he might be filled with ideas of majesty and sovereign might. He carried him to the wilderness, and placed him in solitudes, that his soul might dwell alone in the sublime conceptions of God, and His mighty works ; and Lie kept him there for long years, with only one step between him and death, that he might be well schooled to trust and depend upon the providence of God. And in none of these various conditions and avocations of life, did He take away from him His Holy Spirit. His trials were but the tuning of the instrument with which the Spirit might express the various melodies which He designed to utter by him for the consolation and edification of spiritual men. It was the education of the man most appropriate for the divine vocation of the man. John the Baptist being to be used for rough work, was trained in the rough desert; Paul being to be used for contentious and learned work, was trained at Gamaliel's feet : Daniel being to be used for yohn the Baptist. 455 judgment and revelation, was trained in the wisdom of the east ; Joseph being to be used as a providence to Egypt and his father's house, was trained in the hardest school of providence ; and every one hath been disciplined by the providence of God, as well as furnished in the fountains of his being, for that particular work for which the Spirit of God designed him. Therefore, David had that brilliant galaxy of natural gifts, that rich and varied education, in order to fit him fur executing the high office to which he was called by the Spirit, of giving to the Church those uni- versal forms of spiritual feeling, whereof we have been endeavouring to set forth the excellent applications. And though we neither excuse his acts of wickedness, nor im- pute them to the temptation of God, who cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth any man, we will also add, that by his loss the Church hath gained ; and that out of the evil of his ways, much good hath been made to arise ; and that if he had not passed through every valley of humilia- tion, and stumbled upon the dark mountains, we should not have had a language for the souls of the penitent, or an ex- pression for the dark troubles which compass the soul, that feareth to be deserted by its God. So much for the fitness of the psalmist to have been made the organ of spiritual feelino; unto the Church." JOHN THE BAPTIST. John was to pioneer the way for the grand proclamation of peace and goodwill on earth. He was first to face the rugged wastes of moral nature, and lift up his voice through all its desolation, commanding the valleys to be filled, and the high places to be abased, and the crooked places to be made straight, and the rough places to be made plain : that is, he was to summon every obstruction to Messiah the Prince to give way and surrender; he was to rebuke the proud elevations of human life which might resist Him; lie was to raise and comfort the depressed conditions of life 45 6 Scripture Portraits, which had cast away hopes of Him ; he was to rebuke the uneven and crooked policies of men, which woukl eye Him askance, and wilfully mistake Him; and the rough severi- ties and unpeaeeful tempeis of life which would tear the Saviour's dove-like affections, he was to tame and smooth for His coming. For the moral world was then a wilder- ness, whereon grew at pleasure eveiy rank and noxious weed, and wherein raged every excessive passion and brutal lust. There was a hot warfare of every interest — people struggling with princes, and princes with each other ; knowledge making f(jr itself a place, and obliged thereto to shut itself up in the strong tower of stoical apathy. But especially had the daughters of impurity possessed the l^eople ; and liberty lived no longer upon the world, save amongst the recesses of the north and east, where it lived by the strength of the desolation Avhich frowned around it. The wroiid was a waste howding walderness, in which no repose of peace, nor voice of happiness was heard, and spe- culation wearied out, and hope sickened to death, had fled the breasts of all, save a few who Avere persecuted out of life. It was no easy ministry to enter unbefriended into this hot warfare of lust and pride and passion, and meet it in the face, and struggle with it single-handed and alone. To rebuke the soldier in his fiercest moods, to discover the priest in his most hidden and secret hypocrisies, to bridle kings in the race of their powerful wickedness, and in the breasts of oppressed and degraded people to kindle the spark of hope and feeling anew, — such was the Baptist's office in that wilderness, into which, for five hundred years, no pruning, reforming hand had been sent by Heaven. It was the sublimest and the most terrible posi- tion into wdiich a frail man could be put by the Almighty, and I much question whether another mortal hath ever occupied a similar position. Christ afterwards sent out twelve, then seventy, in bands of two, to cultivate the ground the Baptist had bi'oken up ; but the Baptist was alone upon the ground. Elias, whom the Baj^tist much yohii the Baptist. 457 resembled, was left alone among the proiihets ; but Elias was the remnaiit of many whose example he had before him. John was the beginning of a new race. Elias fled from the face of the i)erseciitor ; John fled not, but bearded power in its very palace. Elias had a miraculous Hand to sustain his words with signs; John did no miracle, but had to stand in his own defenceless humanity. He was to attack the universal customs and likings of men, and all his armoury was his voice. Samson the Nazarite had a work to work, and the strength to perfonn it was placed in his hair. John had a greater work to work, and the power to perform it was his voice. "What art thou?" said the I'harisees. " I am the voice of one crj'ing in the wilderness," replied the Baptist. To educate him for this terrible office, (for the Lord doth not despise the education of His ministers, as do many modem upstart sects,) he was subjected to the rite of the Xazarite, by which no razor could come upon his head, and no strong drink pass his lips, and no luxurj' soften the severity of his holy ofBce. Such should ever be the ritual of a true refoi-mer and missionary. And he who cannot keep his body under, and put it, when need is, upon the shortest, hardest allowance, is not worthy to talk to others of restraining and restricting their present indul- gences of power and pleasure within narrow bounds. And the Baptist had his habitation in the wilderness ; he fared upon locusts and the wild honey, and he girdled his loins With the hair of the camel. " The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert till the day of his shewing unto Israel : " that is, till his thirtieth year. ^A'hat he communed with, or how he spent his time, God hath not informed us ; but, as hath been said, it was a noble tiaining for the rebuker and reprover of a Morld, for a greatly endowed and virtuously disposed mind hath nothing to fear from solitude. Our Saxon Alfred came forth from his shepherd concealment recruited by medita- tion with his own soul, with nature, and with nature's God, and refreshed for the deliverance of England. Gus- 458 Scripture Portraits. tavus Yasa of Sweden came forth from his concealment amongst the miners of Dalicarlia, and overthrow, in the strength of severe virtue, the oppression of the Dane. Hoflfer, whose name is holy in the bosom of oppressed ones over the face of Europe, before he made his demon- stration for the Tyrolese, retired to the loneliest moimtain of the Alps, and dwelt many days apart from men, feeding upon the milk of a goat, his only companion, and then came forth purified from all sinister intention by com- munion vv^ith his Maker, to vv^hom, unlike our home-bred patriots and reformers, he did devote his whole soul ; and he ceased not from the work to vi^hich he had girded up his soul until the earth beneath his scaffold drank the blood which no bribes of the iTsurper could corrupt. And so also of religion it hath been found ; for religion and free- dom are twin -sisters, which may never be parted without risk to both. Christ, after His baptism and setting apart, we have no account of for three years, during which He doubtless counted the cost of His undertaking. Paul being called, retired three years no one knows whither, and came forth to shatter the theology and customs of Judaea, Greece, and Eome. Luther came forth from his temporarj'" concealment, like a lion from his den, to roar in the teeth of all his foes. Knox meditated with his noble soul his pious work of reformation while he was lashed to the oar like a convict upon the rivers of France, and from his place of banishment he blew the first blast of his trumpet ; after which he returned, like a flame of pure fire, to set his country in a blaze of religious ardour, and, like a pillar of fire, to guide them in their most glorious work. And what is there good that cometh not out of suffering r and what is there great that cometh not out of self-denial ? what is there new in knowledge or in virtue that cometh not out. of solitary thought? and what is there noble and lasting in purpose that cometh not out of long nursing and strengthening in the secret chambers of the mind ? Now John, as hath been said, had given unto him the most terrible office of attacking everything in society's 'Jo /ill ike Baptist. 459 customs wbicli might impede the progress and success of Him that was to follow after. It was needful, therefore, that he should bo armed at every point to meet opposi- tion, that he should have nothing to love but his life, and nothing that he cared for but the end and object of his mission. Therefore, he was taught to brave life's hated extremities ; abstemiousness was his highest feast, and I doubt not hunger and thirst and nakedness were his familiar friends. And looking upon the wild beasts of the desert, he would not fear tlie face of an infuriated man or a blood-thirsty woman. ^Vhat to him was a scowling Pharisee, or a mocking Sadducee, or a fawning publican, or a rough soldier, or a riotous mob ? — these were jocund, cheerful sights to one who had roamed amongst the roaming denizens of the desert, and in the midst of them laid his head down under no canopy and with no defence but the canopy and defence of the pro- vidence of the Most High. And what lessons of Provi- dence he would learn during these trials and troubles of his forlorn estate ! For without many such interferences, he must have perished utterly. And what time for conning the Word of God, and holding communion with Him that was with His people forty years in the wilderness ! And what a nursery for schooling the young Nazarite into contempt of those stately forms and cunning disguises in which sin doth prank herself, the vanities, the affectations, the pomp and circumstance, and painted decorations, under which wickedness hides her shocking head and vile deformed person ! What a school for the severe and terrible moods of the Spirit which he was called to utter ; what a rough training for a rough prophet ! He was to weep with no lamentation, like Jeremiah; he was not to ride in the chariot of the sublime, like Isaiah ; or clothe himself with the cloudy mysteriousness of Ezekiel, nor flee like Jonah ; but he was to strike home at every thrust the point blank of his rebuke, was to shake and shiver and demolish the retreats of self-esteem. He was to lay every man a wreck upon tJie waves, and disappoint him thoroughly of all his 460 Scripture Poriraits. braveiy, and bring all to one common confessional, and make them passive under the same rebuke, and submit them to the same humiliating rite of washing and cleans- ing. He was to spare no living wight ; the portals of the palace were not to be sacred against the spiritual leveller, nor beautiful women to be sacred from his uncivil tongue. If such a preaclier was to appear again even here in this Christian island, leaving rule aside, and striking into the bosom of eveiy corruption the land groaneth under, why, the religious would disown him, saying that he was no preacher of the peaceful Jesus, and the irreligious woiald wag their heads at him in scorn, and power would libel him, and a prison or Avorse would be his certain doom. What an ungracious orator was this John the Baptist — a very firebrand, a most unguarded man. He joined himself to no party ; he entered into no paction with any one ; he sought no backing ; he trusted to the truth he had in com- mission to make its own way. His was to give it voice, God's to give it success. And behold how successful he was withal ! He excited a sensation, and, as is usual, roused the jealousy of the vested interests. They sent to know what or who he was, and in what right he spoke. He answered that he was a voice, and no more ; that his speech was all he was good for, and all he wished to stand by. To that he referred them, leaving them to digest its severe sentences as best they might. Now it seemeth to me that the Baptist is the type of eveiy herald of salvation. AVe have to do with the same overgrown wilderness of moral life. There are the same towers of pride and mountains of vanity to be brought low; the same hollow hopelessness and deep despair to be filled with consolation and assurance; the same rough asperities of character to be shorn smooth; the same crooked and intriguing policies to be made straight, that the gospel of Christ may have free course and be glorified ; there is the same gate upon the heart to be lifted up ; the same bolted, barred gates have to lift up their heads, that the King of glory may enter in. I do therefore con- yoJm the Baptist. 461 sider the Baptist as our pattern and permission to take xtrono- weapons of argument, and terrible denunciation, wherewithal to clear away these obstructions, and malco a highway for the descent of our Lord. Christ came not until the Baptist had come. The gospel of salvation Cometh not until the fear of condemnation and ruin hath seized us. The Baptist rested his lever upon the instant coming of Christ, and from that fulcrum took his purchase upon the present. The preparation took its character from that which was to be prepared for. The usher and fore- runner made his address and approach as beseemed the character of Him who was to follow. From which I con- clude that this previous debate, this work of the pioneer before the main battle, should by the preacher have a Christian bearing and intention. The uncivil epithets, and harsh upbraidings, and gloomy forebodings of the Baptist had the effect, not of alienating and disalFecting the people, but of making them gentle and docile, because they perceived in him the spirit of the ancient prophets. The dulness and monotony of forms, and the wearisome traditions and customs, had not so degraded the voice of nature within the breast of the people, that she should not know and acknowledge the force of truth. In the views and doctrines of one who had studied in the desert and perused nature in her severest mood, and derived his theology fresh from the ^Vord and Spirit of God, there must have been an originality and freshness of divine unction highly relishable to one who had been led with the stale and unspiritual traditions of men. In the inward principle of repentance, a change of feeling, a change of soul, as well as a cliange of life, there is some- thing infinitely nobler than in the eternal drudgery of out- ward observances. The spirit becomes her own master. The streams flow from an inward fountain. The life and the heart are in union, and there is no master between them, save the invisible mastery of God. Kature speaks for this self government, she desires to be set right in- wardly by divine teaching and reformation, that she may 462 Scripture Portraits. be outwardly right. She liateth, by blind prescription of any man, or any positive rules, to be watched and con- strained into the proper course. The Baptist's style of preaching, though severe, commends itself to nature's highest and noblest moods; and when we add to this the Baptist's jDersonal accompaniments, we shall not wonder at the sway which he wielded over every class of men, the most hardened and the most fierce. Around a man who can despise accommodations and conveniences, and deal with nature in ancient simplicity and independence, and move amongst her social and religious institiitions, like a traveller from another world, free to judge, and censure, and approve, as having himself nothing at stake, — around such a man there is a moral grandeur and authority to which none but the narrowest and most bigoted minds will refuse a certain awe and reverence. And when such a personage assumeth to himself divine commission, and publisheth new truth with divine authority, and rebuketh all wickedness, and scorneth all consequences, he taketh by the natural right of the wiser, the bolder, and the better man, a high place above those who feel themselves en- slaved and shackled by customs which they despise. Therefore, not w^ithout sufficient cause, it came to pass that people of all descriptions, and also of various nations, Jews and Gentiles, excommunicated publicans and soldiers of old Kome, levied from every quarter of the earth, over- awed and tamed, came to this wayfarer of the desert, asking him with humility and simplicity what they ought to do. " What shall we do then ? " Oh, it is a noble triumph which this forerunner of Christ achieved, to lay prostrate before the edge of truth the distinctions of society, and the pride of the heart and the pride of life, and every other thing which exalte th itself against Christ — raising the valleys, levelling the mountains, straightening the crooked- ness, and smoothing the roughness of the people ! For here they are of every class beseeching to know what it behoved them to do against that terrible coming whereof lie spake. First came the people, by which you are to I ( jfoJin the Baptist. 463 nnderstand the mixed and indiscriminate assemblage ; after them came the publicans, -vvho were a hated and excom- municated tribe, because they ministered to the rapacious- ness of the conqueror ; after them the soldiers, who were the conquerors themselves. These three classes came in turns, according to their moral rank — first, the people who Avere living txnder the law, and whose, by right of many promises, was the Messiah whose advent was proclaimed ; then the publicans, who, though of the nation, were held as traitors to the heaven- bestowed law and constitution of the country ; finally, the soldiers, who had brought the country into subjection, and might fear the severest treat- ment from such a union. They came humbly praying to be informed what it became them to do. And the Baptist, who yesterday was a solitary dweller in the desert, and to- day is a counsellor of multitudes, dispenseth to each rank and class of men that advice, and openeth up that walk of repentance and reformation, which became their several vocations in the community. All this mockery of pride on the part of Herod, John doubtless encountered in the outset ; for as we see by the sequel, Herod was one of the proudest of men. And all this he withstood. He had the advantage of being feared as a just and a holy man. There could be no accusation of ambition or of advantage brought against one who bore all his wealth on his person, and held all his influence in his voice — who made no head for himself but for Another who was afterwards to arise. One so disinterested, one so ad- vanced upon the vantage-ground of his disinterestedness, never appeared upon the earth, as John the Baptist. And to this he owed no small part of his success in every quar- ter. And if we priests in the latter day would compel men by the awful voice of truth, not hunt them out by the soft words of policy, we must take our stand upon the same vantage-gTound, and care for nought that is valued, that is told and talked of under the sun. The earth, and all it holds, must be to us as nothing — our food the plainest, our raiment the simplest, and everything awarded to an earth- 464 Scripture Portraits. despising mind. I do not say positively that we slioiild be reduced to houseless wanderers, but we should have a spirit in us ready fur it. We should suffer, yes, I say we should suffer the dignities, the honours, the splendour, the very conveniences and comforts of life ; we should suffer them for the sake of the times and the feelings of our friends, and for their usefulness sake, (if I may use that most unclerical word, never used in the New Testament to a pastor, though now the only one that is used ;) but we should be ready to resign our all when we are staked against a point of conscience, and to go forth upon the wide and wild world, like the two thousand non- conforming priests of England, and the six hundred covenanting priests of Scotland, at the era called glorious era of the Eestoration. Herod heard him gladly or sweetly. The eloquence of the Baptist, nursed in deserts, the wild costume of his lan- guage, his oration like an old prophet's woe-denouncing burden, or like an Indian orator's song of lamentation and revenge, the harmony of gesture, and the desert-like array of his person. — all this was, as a spectacle, one of the most fresh and racy things which could pass the threshold of a court. And I figure to myself the gay gallants of the place making merry with the rude bearing of the wanderer, and the silver-tongued courtiers inwardly shaking their sides at the bold truthfulness of this man, and the false women trembling for some unmannered exposure, and the heart- less enviers hoping for the exposure of all but them- selves. It was, doubtless, no small pleasure to them all to hear the Baptist preach and talk — the novelty and fresh- ness of the whole exhibition, and the great entertainment which there was in it. But the Baptist was of other metal than to stop short at these impressions. His discourse was not a spectacle ; his doctrine would not turn a joke ; his rebukes would not be repaid v/ith a smile; nor his services with salutations or applause. These are current coinage for vain ostentatious performers at a theatre ; btit such newspiipei-, pamphlet, and courtly applause or censure hath no nourishment for a yohn the Baptist. 465 man of God, It touchetli, it movetli hiin not, except to shew him that he hath not yet reached his mark. There- upon he setteth his arrow on his bow again ; he wingeth it anew, and sendeth it with a double strain, that it may strike through these courtly coverings and trappings of vanity into the inner man of the heart. He stands to his post; he spies out the vulnerable parts of the van host; he lieth in wait for them ; he findeth his occasion, and sendeth his bolt into the quick. So did the Baptist to Herod, who, with all his faults — and they were many — was a proi^d and resolute man, far beyond the sphere of vanity and ostentation ; a self-deter- mining man, who knew to value manly qualities in ano- ther, and valued them in the Baptist ; a clear-headed man, who knew truth when he heard it even against himself ; and a man of counsel, who could discei-n that the Baptist's way of it was the best, though bearing against his own through- out. And I doubt not he listened to the Baptist with honest conviction, and purposed to listen to him longer, and either to yield to him or to make the Baptist yield. And fain, fain would I have seen the issue of the con- test; but an incident occurred, to mar it in the midst of its operation. Yet Herod heard him sweetly, and was exceeding sorrowful to put him to death, and never afterwards could wipe the memory of him from his con- science. " It is the Baptist risen from the dead." It haunted him, and would not give him rest. When Christ's fame arose, he sought to see him, that he might be satisfied it was not the Baptist. Such way had this servant of God made upon this arch-servant of the devil, that he had not only sway in life, but in death domineeied over him. From his ashes he spoke to the tyrant. His blood spoke loud from inmost dungeon of the palace into the ears of the prince ; it planted thorns upon his unholy court ; it slew his enjoyment with his mistress, and rankled like poison in his breast ; and he said, when he heard of any extraordi- nary person, " This is John the Baptist : he is risen from 2 H 466 Scripture Portraits. the dead." "John have I beheaded, but who is this?" Such is the influence which a man of God with truth upon his lips, may gain over a man of Belial, cunning as the fox, proud as Lucifer, and blood-thirsty as the tiger. CRITICAL xxxxxx:--:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'XXXXXXXX'XXXXXXXXX xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl THE PSALMS OF DAYID. As in political aflfairs the enlightened Scottish patriot and statesman, in order to work upon the people, asked for the songs of a nation, rather than its profound and laborious literature ; and, in ecclesiastical affairs, the politic churchmen of Eome apprehended more danger to their craft and mystery from Luther's spiritual songs than from all his writings of controversial and popular theology ; so, in spiritual affairs, it is to be believed that no book of the sacred canon seizeth such a hold upon the spiritual man, and engendereth in the Church so much fruitfulness of goodness and truth, of comfort and joy, as doth the Book of Psalms, We say not that the Psalms are so well fitted as the pure light of the Gospel by John, and Paul's Epistles, which are the refraction of that pure light over the fields of human well-being, to break the iron-bone, and bruise the millstone- heart of the natural man ; but that they are the kindliest medicine for healing his wounds, and the most proper food for nourishing the new life which comes from the death and destruction of the old. For, as the songs and lyrical poems of a nation, which have survived the changes of time by being enshrined in the hearts of a people, contain the true form and finer essence of its cha- 470 Critical. racter, and convey the most genial moods of its spirit, whether in seasons of grief or joy, down to the children, and the children's children, perpetuating the strongest vitality of choice spirits, awakened b}'' soiil-moving events, and holding, as in a vessel, to the lips of posterity, the col- lected spirit of venerable antiquity : so the Psalms, which are the songs and odes, and lyrical poems of the people of God, inspired not of wine, or festal mirth, of war, or love, but spoken of holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, contain the words of God's Spirit taught to the souls of His servants, when they were exercised with the most intense experiences, whether of conviction, penitence, and sorrow, or faith, love and joy ; and are fit not only to express the same most vital moods of every renewed soul, but also powerful to produce those broad awakenings of spirit, to create those overpowering emotions, and propagate that energy of spiritual life in which they had their birth. Be it observed, moreover, that these songs of Zion ex- press not only the most remarkable passages which have occurred in the spiritual experience of the most gifted saints, but are the record of the most wonderful dispensa- tions of God's providence unto His Church ; — containing pathetic dirges sung over her deepest calamities, jubilees over her mighty deliverances, songs of sadness for her captivity, and songs of mirth for her prosperity, prophetic announcement of her increase to the end of time, and splendid anticipations of her ultimate glory. Not, indeed, the exact narrative of the events as they happened, or are to happen, nor the prosaic improvement of the same to the minds of men ; but the poetical form and monument of the event, where it is laid up and embalmed in honourable- wise, after it hath been incensed and perfumed with the spiritual odours of the souls of inspired men. And if they contain not the code of the Divine law, as it is written in the Books of Moses, and more briefly, yet better written, in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, they celebrate the ex- cellency and glory of the law, its light, life, wisdom, con- tentment, and blessedness, with the joys of the soul which I The Psalms of David. 471 keepeth it, and the miseries of the soul which kecpcth it not. And if the}' contain not the argument of the simple doctrines, and the detail of the issues of the gospel, to reveal which the Word of God became flesh, and dwelt among us ; yet now that the key is given, and the door of spiritual life is opened, where do we find such spiritual ti'easures as in the Book of Psalms, wherein are revealed the dejith of the soul's sinfulness, the stoutness of her rebellion against God, the horrors of spiritual desertion, the agonies of contrition, the blessedness of pardon, the joys of restoration, the constancy of faith, and eveiy other variety of Christian exjierience ? And if they contain not the narrative of Messiah's birth, and life, and death ; or the labours of His apostolic servants, and the strugglings of His infant Church, as these are written in the books of the New Testament ; — where, in the whole Scriptures, can we find such declarations of the work of Christ, in its humi- liation and its glory, the spiritual agonies of His death, and glorious issues of His resurrection, the wrestling of His kingdom with the powers of darkness, its triumph over the heathen, and the overthrow of all its enemies until the heads of many lands shall have been wounded, and the people made willing in the day of His power ? And where are there such outburstiug repi-esentations of all the attri- butes of Jehovah, before whom, when He rideth through the heavens, the very heavens seem to rend in twain, to give the vision of His going forth, and we seem to see the haste of the universe to do her homage, and to hear the quaking of nature's pillars, the shaking of her foundations, and the horrible outcry of her terror ? And oh ! it is sweet in the midst of these soarings into the third heavens of vision, to feel that you are borne upon the words of a man, not upon the wings of an archangel ; to hear ever and anon the frail but faithful voice of humanity, making her trust under the shadow of His wings, and her hiding-place in the secret of His tent ; and singing to Him in faithful strains " For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is 472 Critical. from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from lis. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." So that, as well by reason of the matter which it contains, as of the form in which it is expressed, the Book of Psalms, take it all in all, may be safely prounounced one of the divinest books in all the Scriptures ; which hath exercised the hearts and lips of all saints, and become dear in the sight of the Church ; which is replenished with the types of all possible spiritual feelings, and suggests the forms of all God-ward emotions, and furnishing the choice expressions of all true worship, the utterances of all divine praise, the confession of all spiritual humility, with the raptures of all spiritual joy. If now we turn ourselves to consider the manner or style of the Book, and to draw it into comparison with the lyrical productions of cultivated and classical nations, it may well be said, that as the heavens are high above the earth so are the songs of Zion high above the noblest strains which have been sung in any land. For, take out of the lyrical poetry of Greece and Eome the praises of women and of wine, the flatteries of men, and idle invocations of the muse and lyre, and what have we left? What dedication of song and music is there to the noble and exalted powers of the human spirit — what to the chaste and honourable relations of human society — what to the excitement of tender emotions towards the widow and the fatherless, the stranger and the oppressed— what to the awful sanctity of law and government, and the practical foiTas of justice and equity ! We know, that in the more ancient time, when men dwelt nearer to God, the lyre of Orpheus was employed to exalt and pacify the soul ; that the Pythagorean verses contain the intimations of a deep theology, a divine phi- losophy, and a virtuous life ; that the lyre of Tyrtteus was used by the wisdom of Lycurgus for accomplishing his great work of forming a peculiar people, a nation of brave and virtuous men : but in the times which we call classi- cal, and with the compositions of which we imbue our youth, we find little purity of sentiment, little elevation The Psalms of David. ^.y^ of soul, no spiritual representations of God, nothing per- taining; to heavenly knowledge or holy feeling : but, on the other hand, impurity of life, low, sensual ideas of God, and the pollution of religion, so often as they touch it. But the songs of Zion are comprehensive as the human soul, and varied as human life ; where no possible state of natural feeling shall not find itself tenderly expressed and divinely treated with appropriate remedies ; where no con- dition of human life shall not find its rebuke or consola- tion : because they treat not life after the fashion of an age or people, but life in its rudiments, the life of the soul, with the joys and sorrows to which it is amenable, from concourse with the outward necessity of the fallen world. Which breadth of application they compass not by the sacrifice of Ip-ical propriety, or poetical method : for if there be poems strictly lyrical, that is, whose spirit and sentiment move congenial with the movements of music, and which, by their very nature, call for the accom- paniment of music, these Odes of a people despised as illiterate, are such. For pure pathos and tenderness of heart, for sublime imaginations, for touching pictures of natural scenery, and genial sympathy with nature's •various moods ; for patriotism, whether in national weal or national woe, for beautiful imagery, whether derived from the relationship of human life, or the forms of the created universe, and for the illustration, by their help, of spiritual conditions : moreover, for those rapid transitions in which the lyrical muse delighteth, her lightsome graces at one time, her deep and full inspiration at another, her exuberance of joy and her lowest falls of grief, and for every other form of the natural soul, which is wont to be shadowed forth by this kind of composition, we challenge anything to be produced from the literature of all ages and countries, worthy to be compared with what we find even in the English version of the Book of Psalms. Were the distinction of spiritual from natural life, the dream of mystical enthusiasts, and the theology of the Jews, a cun- ningly devised fable, like the mythologies of Greece and 474 Critical. Rome, these few Odes should be dearer to the man of true feeliug and natural taste, than all which have been derived to us from classical times, though they could be sifted of their abominations, and cleansed from the incrustation of impurity which defiles their most exquisite parts. The reason why the Psalms have found such constant favour in the sight of the Christian Chiirch, and come to constitute a chief portion of every missal and liturgy, and form of worship, public or private, while forms of doctrine and discourse have undergone such manifold changes, in order to represent the changing spirit of the age, and the diverse conditions of the human mind, is to be found in this — that they address themselves to the simple instinctive feelings of the renewed soul, which are its most constant and permanent part, whereas, the forms of doctrine and ■ discourse address themselves to tlie spiritual understanding, which differs in ages and countries according to the degree of spiritual illumination, and the energy of spiritual life. For, as those instincts of our nature, which put themselves forth in infancy and early life, towards our parents, and our kindred, and our friends, and derive thence the nourishment upon which they live, are far more constant, than those opinions which we afterwards form concerning society, civil polity, and the world in general ; and, as those im- pressions of place, and scene, and incident, which come in upon us in our early years, are not only more constant in their endurance but more uniform in their eflect upon the various minds which are submitted to them, than any which are afterwards made by objects better fitted to affect us both permanently and powerfully — so we reckon that there is an infancy of the spiritual man, which, with all its instincts, wanders abroad over the word of God, to receive the impressions thereof, and grow upon their wholesome variety into a maturity of spiritual reason, when it becomes desirous to combine and arrange into conceptions, and sys- tems of conceptions, the manifoldness and variety of those simple impressions which it hath obtained. During those days of its spiritual infancy, the soul rejoiceth as a The Psalms of David. 475 little child at the breast of its mother ; feeds upon the word of God with a constant relish ; delights in the views and prospects which open upon every side, and glories in its heavenly birthright and royal kindred : and cousidereth w4th wonder the kingdom of which it is become a denizen, its origin, its miraculous pi-ogress, and everlasting glory ; and as the infant life opens itself to the Sun of Eighteous- ness, it delights in its activity, and exhales on all around the odour of its breathing joy. To this season of the spiritual mind, the Psalms come most opportunely as its natural food. We say not that they quicken the life, to which nothing is so appropriate as the words of our Lord recorded in the Gospels, but being quickened, they nourish Tip the life to manhood ; and when its manly age is come, prepare it for the strong meat which is to be found in the wi'itings of the prophets and the apostles. But ever afterwards the souls of believers recur to these Psalms as the home of their childhood, where they came to knov/' the loving-kindness of their heavenly Father, the fatness of His house, and the full river of Plis goodness, His pastoral carefulness, His sure defence, and His eye that slumbereth not, nor sleepeth, with every other simple representation of divine things, to the simple affections of the renewed soul. Therefore are these Psalms to the Christian what the love of parents and the sweet affections of home and the clinging memory of infant scenes, and the generoiis love of country, are to men of every rank and order, and employment ; of every kindred, and tongue, and nation. There hath grown up in these lean years a miserable no- tion, that the Psalms are not so appropriate for expressing the communion of the Christian Church, for the reason that they contain allusions to places and events which are of Jewish, and not of Christian association. And some have gone so far as to weed out all those venerable associations, by introducing modern names of places in their stead. Why do they not upon the same principle weed oiat the Jewish allusions of the four Gospels, and the Epistles ? But it is as poor in taste and wrong iu feeling, as it is daring in 47^ Critical. the thoiiglit, and bold in the execution. In doing so, they consult for the liomely feeling of the natural, not of the spi- ritual man, because the liome of the spiritual was in Jeru- salem, and Mount Zion and the temple of God, with which the soul connects her anticipations, no less than her recol- lections, being taught that the new Jerusalem is to come down from heaven like a bride, decked for her bridegroom, and that those who are sealed are to stand upon Mount Zion with the Lamb of God. Every name in the Psalms, whether of person or of place, hath a mystical meaning given to it in the Christian Scriptures. Jerusalem is not the Jerusalem that was, nor is Babylon the Babylon that was, and even David hath lost his personality in the ever- lasting David. Judah and Israel mean not now the cast- away root, but the branch that hath been grafted in. Be- sides, we hold at pi'esent only one cycle of the revolution of God's purpose ; the Jews shall yet be brought in, and Jeru- salem become glorious, and the dwelling of God be again with men. Why, then, should any part of everlasting Scripture be made the property of an age or place, which suppose every Christian nation to do, and where were the community of the Christian Church? It is heady innova- tion, and leanness of spirit which hath brought this to pass, for no end that we can see, save to gratify national vanity, and connect religion in a strange league with patriotism; thereby breaking the continuity of God's dispensation ; and destroying all lyrical propriety. As if you would render the odes of Horace into English, with English names of men and places, in order to make them more edifying to the English reader. But more need not be said upon this blunder in piety, which will disappear when the lean years are over and gone. If we take not our forms for expressing spiritual patriotism, from those inspired songs through which, in the old time, the Church breathed the spirit of her high privilege, and separate community, where shall we obtain them of like unction and equal authority, in the experience of times during which no prophet hath arisen in the holy city ? For though the Church hath been as Tlie Psalms of David. 477 sorely tried under the Gentile, as under the Jewish dispen- sation, it hath not pleased the Lord to bestow upon any of her priests or people, the garment of inspiration, with which to clothe in spiritual songs the depths of her sorrow, or the exultation of her joy. And we are shut up to the necessity, either of responding to the voice of the Spirit in the ancient psalmist, or to re-echo the poetical effusions of uninspired men, — either to address the living God in the language of His own word, or in the language of some vernacular poet, whose taste and forms of thinking, whose forms of feeling, yea, and forms of opinion, we must make mediators between our soul and the ear of God, — which is a great evil to be avoided, whenever it can be avoided. For Christians must be forms of the everlasting and common Spirit; not man- nerists of mortal and individual men. But to return. Not only do the personal instincts, and the social instincts of the child of God, find in these Psalms the milk and honey of their existence, a cradle and a home where to wax and gi-ow, and a multifarious world of imagery to awaken and entertain its various senses ; but also those instinct of pity, and compassion, and longing charity, which it hath towards the enemies of Christ, not indeed as His enemies, but as the hopeful prodigals of the human family, which He loveth in common with the rest, and would, in like manner, save. The true disciples of the compassionate and tender-hearted Friend of sinners, adopt the language of Israel's king, when he pours out his soul in anxious longings for the salvation of the wicked, deprecat- ing their stout-hearted rebellion against the King of kings, and exhorting to be timely wise, lest they fail of their final and everlasting rest. The new man in Christ Jesus, the regenerate, adopted child of the second Adam, who, under the sweet and enlightening influence of many newly- awakened feelings, perceives himself to be linked in new and constraining bonds of sympathy with every kindred soul in Christ, is, nevertheless, not so absorbed in the joy- ful consciousness of those newly- formed relations into which he hath been introduced by grace, as to forget that 478 Critical. he is still -united by many dear and tender ties to his brethren in the flesh. His original descent from the first Adam, he does not cease to recollect; and the conviction that in virtue of this descent, he was by nature a child of wrath even as others, stimulates his zeal in behalf of those who appear to be less highly favoured than himself, ard will not suffer his love towards them to fail. If, to the inexpressible peace and consolation of his soul, he finds himself to be now under the royal law of liberty, he grieveth to behold his kindred, his friends, his neighbours, the world at large, still oppressed with the yoke of bondage, heedless of their degradation, and careless to take up their purchased redemption. If the law of God be precious to him, and he discover in it a beauty, and excellence, and a goodness ever commending it to the love and admiration of his enlightened spirit, how doth he weep and mourn on account of those by whom it is ignorantly set at nought and utterly despised ! He adopteth the language of Israel's king, " Horror hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law. Eivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron : thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Beware now, therefore, O ye kings ; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." There are many passages in the Psalms which seem to breathe an opposite spirit of hostility and revenge upon the personal enemies of the psalmist, and to heap upon their heads all the curses which are written in the book of the law of God. Concerning this, and many other points, it is well stated, that thoiigh the gospel law be " charity out of a pure heart," this charity doth manifest itself under various forsm, some pleasant, but most of them painful to the natural man. Kebuke is a form of charity ; and cen- sure, and excommunication, yea, and total abandonment for a while. Truth is always a form of charity ; or, to speak more properly, truth is the soul of which charity is I Tlie Psahis of David. 479 but the beautiful, graceful, and lovely member. Charity, therefore, is not to be kno^vn by soft words, and fair speeehes, and gentle actions, which are oftener the form of policy and courtesy ; but must be sought in the prin- ciple of the heart, out of which all our words, speeches, and actions come forth. It is love to God producing love to all His family, by which we are moved ; then it is charity, be its form commendation or blame, mildness or zeal, the soft and gentle moods of mercy, or the stem, inflictions of justice, or the hasty strokes of hot and fiery indignation : and wisdom must determine the form which is proper to the occasion. Is not God a God of love ? and how diversified are the moods of His providence even to His own beloved children ? Christ brought mercy to the earth, and in the gospel builded for her an ark, in which she might swim over the deluge of cruelty which covereth the earth. Yet how tei-rible is that gospel in its revela- tion to the wicked, how unsparing of the world, how cruel to the flesh, how contemptuous of good-natured formality, how awfully vindictive against hypocrisy ; taking every one of its children, and swearing him upon the altar to be an enemy, till death, against the world, the devil, and the flesh ! Against the various forms, then, of the devil, the world, and the flesh, we are sworn ; and, in order to their destruction, must make war with the two-edged sword which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Word of God. Of these strong actings of the soul against the wickedness of the wicked, the psalmist's language of curs- ing is but the breath. The world is the heathen whom he prays God to break in pieces. And for ever let the Christian exercise himself with that warfare, else he shall never know the fellowship of the Eedeemer's sufferings. It is the capital principle of all sound doctrine. That the world is to be destroyed. It is the deep-rooted source of all heretical doctrine. That the world is to be mended. And to keep the one in mind, the other out of mind, it is most necessaiy that no mean portion of the devotion of a Christian Church should be to express the desires of their 480 Critical. soul on this belialf. Charity being nnviolated ; j'ea, charity being edified ; for, until the sceptre of the world is broken in pieces, charity can find no room, but is fain to flee into the wilderness. Out of the same charity, therefore, ought the Christian to adopt these expressions of his hatred to the form and fruits of wickedness, that he expresseth his longing desire that the souls of the wicked should be set free and saved. The symphonies which the Church singeth with Christ out of this book are not all a fellowship of suffering. For, not only by the shedding of His blood did Messiah make propitiation for her sins, and destroy her writing of con- demnation, and put a new song in her mouth — " Who is he that condemneth," but also for her hath He purchased the raiment of an everlasting righteousness, and the beauties of holiness, and the spirit of a perfect obedience, which, by precious justifying faith, she claimeth as her own, and over which she singeth other symphonies of gladness : "I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. Tor all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. There- fore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteous dealing, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight." And in the greatness of her loyal love, how many a song singeth the daughter of Zion, touching the things that belong unto the King, when her tongue is as the pen of a ready writer : " Thou art fairer than the children of men ; grace is poured upon thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Bless the Lord, O my Suul, and forget not all his benefits, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving-kind- ness, and tender mercies." And what with a brave pulse of glory doth her heart exult towards the accomplishment of Messiah's kingdom, and the fulness of His power ; when all lands shall call upon His name, and all nations shall bow before Him, and there shall be given to Him of Sheba's gold, and His name shall endure for ever, and last like the The Psalms of David. 48 1 sun, and men sliall be blessed in Him, and all natiims shall call Ilim blessed ! Then His people sing in high symphony with their triumphant King, and all-cunqnering Lord, in whom each one feeleth himself to be a conqueror and a king, seated on His throne, and sharing in His royal sovereignty, " Thou hast made me the head of the heathen ; a people whom I have not known shall serve me ; as soon as they hear of me they shall obey me. The strangers shall submit themselves unto me." For what are the conquests of David, or the greater con- quests of David's everlasting Son, over the kingdoms of the earth, but a shadow of that inward conquest which Christ worketh over His enemies within our soul, which is more valuable than the earth, and to conquer which is a higher achievement than to subdue the kingdoms of the earth ! The history of the church is such a shadow of soul- history, as creation is of the omnipotent Spirit which made it. The soul is a thing for the Son of God to conquer, the world is for Caesar, or the Son of Philip. The soul, the boundless world of the soul to recover, to reconcile its warring powers, to breathe the life of God over its chaotic wastes — this is a work whereof all outward works are only fit to be the emblems ; a work, in the execution of which every spiritual man feels the going forth of his Saviour conquering and to conquer. And he hath every outward action of holy w^-it realised inwardly — ever}' groan of the conquered, every struggle of the conqueror, His toil. His sweat. His wounds. His death, His resurrection. His second going forth in the plenitude of the Spirit, His unconquered lesolution, His long-abiding labour, the turning of the tide of battle. His sword upon the neck of His enemies, the shout of victory, the treading of the nations in the wine- press of his fur}', His shivering them with His iron sceptre like a potsherd. His driving them with death, and the grave, and him that had the power of death, into the bottomless pit. His reign of peace, its joy, full content- ment, and perfect assurance, what are they all, but letters, words, and similitudes, whereby the believer may better 2 I 4^2 Critical. understand, and better express the spiritual work whicli is going on with his own soul, by the casting down of imagin- ations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every tliought to the obedience of Christ? If a company of musical and melodious soxals feel in unison with the sounds which flow from chords touched by the hands of a master musician, and a company of rich and poetical souls feel in harmony, while the drama of a master poet is rehearsed with true action in their ears, shall not the sbids of spiritual men be in harmony, while perusing the outward action, whereof they are the subject ? Be in harmony ! ay, in tiuest harmony. For they are the end of it all, the meaning of it all. In them it hath its reality, and till realised in them, it is an incomprehensible world to words and images, a hieroglyphic with no interpretation; a mu- sical instrument, with no hand cunning enough to bring out its infinite streams of liquid music. This Book is to be regarded as a spiritual world, with which the new-born spirit may converse, and acquire the knowledge and use of its faculties, as well as the know- ledge and use of those objects which are revealed therein. And hence it hath a charm which it can never lose, being associated with the simple and true afltections of the spirit, and with the joy and satisfaction which attend the revela- tion of any new faculty within us. And this charm must grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength ; for according as we increase in spiritual strength, we are able to make more of those feelings our own ; and tlie more we become acquainted with dialectic methods, the more we discern their difficulty and uncertainty, and desire to return to the simple impressions made upon the soul by the words of the Holy Spirit. And we reckon also that the more we advance in divine life, the simpler our discourse will be- come, and the more delivered from the forms of human learning, into the forms of the Spirit's teaching, until in the end, if by reason of extreme age or languor, we can say no more, we will say, as is reported of the apostle John, The Psalms of David. 48 3 " Little cliildren, love one another;" and when speech is denied as to titter anything, we will occupy our spiritual musings with some simple forms of divine truth, as the learned Baxter is reported to have said upon his death bed, that he h;id been meditating all night long upon the great wisdom of the Lord's Piayer and the Ten Commandments. So that we very much question if these Psalms, which have the charm of having unloosed to us the secrets of our own spiritual selves, may not, like a true and faithful friend, continue to add to their first loveliness and value nnto the end. For, as was said in the beginning, and hath been amply illustrated, the part of our being which they take hold upon, is not our opinions or our reasonings, or any of our peculiarities, but those universal feelings of the spiri- tual man, which being constant in all, we have denomi- nated s'^'mtual instincts; in the abiding of which is the abiding of spiritual life, and upon the experiences of which all spiritual knowledge is built up. The universal Church of Chiist hath therefore given its witness, that these Psalms are not made for one age, but for all ages ; not for one place, but for all places ; not for one soul, but for all souls ; time, place, and person, being only so far present in them, as to associate them with that generation to which they were first given, not to dissociate them from an}' other generation of spiritual children which, in after ages, was to be born to the same Spirit by the seed of the word, which liveth and abideth for ever. The temptations of David's soul, and its expe- riences under them, are as much the property of eveiy saint, and of every age of the Church, as are the discourses, remonstrances, parables, and instructions of our Lord to His untoward generation — as are the arguments, and de- monstrations, and Epistles of Paul to the early churches which he planted or watered. The}' are all equally per- sonal, (for the Son of God himself was a person,) and the personal runneth like a thread of humanity through the heavenly hues of their discourse. They are all equally secular, and the conditions of the age are the 2 I 2 484 Critical. framework npoii wliicli the tissue of the weh is woven. Which presence of the personal, and intermixture of the temporary, instead of taking from the force and j)ower of the revelations, do onl}' apply them with the more force and power to the personality of every other saint, and the peculiarity of every other age. For, had the revelations not breathed of the man who spoke them, and told of the condition of the age to which they were given, the former would have been an automaton, and the latter a looker upon the wonders which the automaton spoke ; neither the one nor the other feeling any interest or con- cern in the marvellous display of divine art. But God wished both prophet and people to take heed, and to stand in awe of fearful issues, if they heeded not; therefore He moulded His man to His purpose, and cast him into the conditions which suited His ends, and still he was a man, acted on by course of nature, and manifest to the people as a fellow-man, through whom, indeed, they heard soul- stirring truths, uttered with ear-piercing words, and, when need was, sustained by attention-rivetting works ; but still suited to their case, and thrust in their way, and spoken to their feelings, and pressed on their consciences, and rivetted there by the most mighty sanctions of life and death, present and eternal. But they are not the less spoken to us. Ko, not the less, on that account spoken to us. Yet, that we might have no shadow of excuse, nor shield of self-delusion, the Lord appointed a race of pro- phets, or ministers, to abide until His coming, who should be gifted of His Spirit to apply the universal and uncliangc- ahle, in all His revelation, to the condition of every time, place, and individual ; and so far from abandoning the peculiarity of the revelation, to xxse that no less than the other, wherever it will accommodate itself to the case in hand, and to bring it home with tenfold force by the appli- cation of the parable, " Thou, even thou thyself, art the very man " — this, even this, is the verj' season — this, even this in which we live, is the very condition to which this revelation was given. 1 The Psalms of David. 485 In those Psalms wbicli have been applied in the New Testament unto Christ, it is found difficult, if not impossi- ble, to separate the psalmist's personal expeiience from that of Christ, or to find how, without mucli violence, they can be wholly appropriate to Messiah. Now, with as little straining of interpretation, they judge that another and another, and at length all may be applied to Christ, in a typical, or in a real signification. But this is to eiT from ignorance of the prophetic Scriptures. Except the pro- phecies of Daniel, and the prophecies of the Apocalypse, and one or two of the visions of Esdras, (especially that of the three-headed ten-feathered eagle,) the other prophecies are always of a mixed character, belonging partly to the times, and partly surpassing the conditions of the times, and occasionally glancing through to the ver}'' end of time. So that in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets, even in our Lord's prophecies of Ilis second coming, and the apostles' constant i-eference thereto, you cannot by any endeavour make a clear separation belAveen that which was then fulfilled, or hath been since fulfilled, and that which still standeth over to be fulfilled. The reason of which, doubtless, is explained by our Lord, that the times and the seasons the Father hath kept in His own power, so that even the Son Himself was not permitted to reveal them. And Peter saith, that the prophets inquired deligently, but could not discover what and what manner of things the Spirit which was in them did signify. And I doubt not that the apostles might themselves be as ignorant of the time of the second coming of Christ, as the prophets were of His first coming. AVhich taken together is an illustra- tion of this great law, which maybe gathered from the very • face of the prophetic writings, That they arose by the sug- gestion of some condition of the Church, present in the days of the prophets, as the particular case, but passing beyond this in time, and passing beyond it in aggravation of every circumstance, they give, as it were, a consecutive glance of all the like cases, and kindred passages in the history of the Church, and bring out the general law of 486 Critical. God's providence and grace in the present, and in. all the future parallel cases ; — yet with such mark of different times interspersed as may be sufficient, by a skilful compa- I'ison with the exact and historical prophecies of Daniel and the Eevelation, to draw the attention of the wise to their coming, and suffice to the conviction of the nnwi^e when they are past. Of this great law of prophetic writing, the confusion of David and Messiah in the Psalms referred to, are only one instance. David's prophecies of Messiah, which are personal, arose by suggestion of the Spirit, from his own personal experiences, and include it. His prophecies of Messiah, which are royal and kingly, arose out of his kingly experience, and the two persons are interwoven with one another in such a manner as not to be separable, just as in the other prophecies, the first, and second, and third events to which they have reference, are, in like manner, interwoven. Which so far from being an evil, is a great beauty in the Psalms ; so far from being an inconvenience, is a great a " ntage to those who understand aright In connecting David with Messiah, it connects the Church and every particular saint who adopts David's feelings with Messiah, the children with their parent, the subjects with their king ; so that we cannot sing his praise or his triumphs, but we must take ourselves in as a part, and be embraced in the very praises of our great Head, and are not permitted to separate ourselves from Him ; but at once are we constrained to worship the objective Saviour, who is at the right hand of God ; and the subjective Saviour, who is in its ; the objective Saviour who humbled Himself to the cross, and the suh- jective Saviour who humbled Himself to behold and redeem His servant ; the objective Saviour wiio ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, and the subjective Saviour who in us hath triumphed over death, and raised us to newness of life, who liveth with us and is seated in the throne of our hearts. Which happy blending of our spiritual nature, suffering or enjoying with Christ suffering or enjoying, we should have lost, had we been able to separate between The Psalms of David. 487 David and Christ in those Psalms which have a reference to Christ. For atone time we should have sung objectively of Clu ist, and at another subjectively of ourselves, as repre- sented in David, and so lost the intermarriage of the object with the subject, which is the true propagation of religion in the soul ; — a loss this which the Christians are beginning to experience in those modern hymns which aie coming into use, and those metrical versions which have the boldness to paraphrase the Psalms, and new-model them to the present times (a most daring innuvation upon a book of Scripture.) — Theref jre, while we reject the puerile conceit, and most mischievous dogma which would make eveiy word of these Psalms to be applicable to Christ, we feel greatly indebted to any commentator, who, preserving sound principles of intei'pretation, can find the Saviour present in the Psalms, vfhich is to give not only more sacredness and spirituality to them, but to increase that happy blending of subjective and objective religion, which is the best condition for true and spiritual worship. THE END. LOJtDOS : PEDtTED BT VnlXIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAUPOIiD STEKBT, AXD CHABtNG C£OSS. Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries , 1 1012 01195 4437 p