W). 
 
 
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 fJ/J 
 
j LIBRA^RY 
 
 OF Tllf: 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 BR 4 5 rff^rrg-^^^ ^' ^ - 
 
 
 Alford, Henry, 1810-1871. 
 
 
 
 The consistency of the 
 
 
 1 
 
 Divine conduct in revealing 
 
 
 
 tioolc, 
 
 ^ 
 
HULSEAN LECTURES 
 
 For the Year 1842. 
 
 REV. HENRY ALFORD, M.A. 
 
THE CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE CONDUCT 
 
 IN REVEALING THE DOCTRINES 
 
 OF REDEMPTION. 
 
 PART THE SECOND. 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 HULSEAN LECTUEES 
 
 For the Year 1842. 
 
 HENRY ALFORD, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OF WYMESWOLD, LEICESTERSHIRE, 
 AND LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. & J. J. DEIGHTON; 
 
 LONDON: G. F. & J. RIVINGTON. 
 
 MDCCCXLIII. 
 
CAMBRIDGKr 
 
 PRIKTKU BY METCALFE AND PALMER, TRIN ITV-STREE7 
 
GEORGE AECHDALL, D.I). 
 
 MASTER OF EMMAJfUEL COLLEGE, .VND LATE \^CE-CH.lx\CELLOR, 
 
 WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D. 
 
 MliVSTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 AND 
 
 RALPH TATHAM, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF ST. JOIIn's COLLEGE, 
 
 THESE LECTURES, 
 
 5Beltftcret( 65 t^tit Appointment, 
 
 ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
SUBSTANCE OF CERTAIN CLAUSES RELATING TO THE 
 HULSEAN LECTURESHIP. 
 
 In the Will of the Rev. J. Hulse, M.A., the Founder of that and 
 other offices in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 [Dated July 21, 1777.] 
 
 He founds a Lectureship in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 The Lecturer is to be a " Clergyman in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, of the degree of Master of Arts, 
 and under the age of forty years," He is to be elected 
 mmually " on Christmas-day, or within seven days after, 
 by the Vice-Chancellor for the time being, and by the 
 Master of Trinity College, and the Master of St. John's 
 College, or any two of them." In case the Master of 
 Trinity, or the Master of St. John's, be the Vice- 
 Chancellor, the Greek Professor is to be the third 
 Trustee. 
 
 The duty of the said Lecturer, as stated in the Will, 
 is " to preach " so many as " twenty sermons in the 
 whole year," as well as to print them in the same 
 period; and it having been found, in consequence, 
 that few were willing to undertake the office, application 
 was made to the Court of Chancery, with a view the 
 better to carry into effect the intention of its Founder. 
 The result was, that by an order of that Court (dated 
 21st December, 1830), the number of the Sermons was 
 reduced to eight, and the time allowed for printing 
 
Vm CERTAIN CLAUSES IN MR. HULSE S WILL. 
 
 them extended to the term of one year from the delivery 
 of the last of them. 
 
 The subject of the Lectures is to be, " the Evidence 
 for Revealed Religion ; the Truth and Excellence of 
 Christianity ; Prophecies and Miracles ; direct or col- 
 lateral Proofs of the Christian Religion, especially the 
 collateral arguments ; the more difficult texts or obscure 
 parts of the Holy Scriptures ;" or any one or more of 
 these topics, at the discretion of the Preacher. The 
 subject of the Lectures is 7iot to be " any particular 
 sects or controversies amongst Christians themselves ; 
 except some new and dangerous error, either of super- 
 stition or enthusiasm, as of Popery or Methodism, or 
 the like, either in opinion or practice, shall prevail." 
 " And in all the said twenty sermons," now eight, it is 
 stated that " such practical observations shall be made, 
 and such useful conclusions added, as may instruct and 
 edifv mankind." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following Lectures form a continuation of 
 those preached on Mr. Hulse's foundation in 
 the year 1841, and already before the public. 
 As in that course my object was to shew that 
 the dealings of God with His Church, be- 
 fore the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, 
 were eminently consistent with His announced 
 future purposes by the Gospel ; so in this, 
 I have endeavoured to derive evidence for 
 our holy religion, from the consistency of the 
 Gospel revelation itself with its own announced 
 and proclaimed characteristics. 
 
 1. Such an argument naturally divided itself 
 into two parts : one, in which the religion of 
 Christ should be shewn to be admirably fitted 
 for its professed work of renewing and sancti- 
 ■ fying the nature of man ; and the other, in 
 which the Scripture record of its Founder's 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 life, and the acts and writings of those who 
 followed Him, should be brought in proof that 
 its great spiritual objects were ever and con- 
 sistently kept in view during that part of its 
 history which it has pleased Divine Providence 
 to deliver to us under the impress of Inspi- 
 ration. 
 
 2. In my treatment of the first of these, I 
 have asserted the tendency of the Gospel of 
 Christ to enlighten, renew, and develope to- 
 wards the highest ends of our being, those 
 faculties wherewith w^e have been endowed by 
 our heavenly Father. Of these, I have espe- 
 cially treated of the Reason, the Affections, 
 the Moral Judgments, and the Understandmg : 
 not as comprehending in them the whole 
 spiritual being of man, but because they were 
 by far the most important, and in their most 
 pregnant meaning might be considered as in- 
 volving the rest. 
 
 3. It will be seen that I have here also 
 asserted, as necessary to any such argument 
 as that which I have undertaken — the ^\idc 
 and important distinction between the Reason 
 and the Understanding of man ; viewing these 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 as two separate faculties, conversant with diffe- 
 rent matters, and under different conditions : 
 so distinct indeed, that, if regarded in their 
 bearing on questions like that before me, the 
 former may properly be called the highest, the 
 latter the lowest, of the spiritual faculties. The 
 Reason lays down the necessary conditions of 
 thought, admitting of no variations in them ; 
 the Understanding is compelled to follow these 
 rules, and acquires knowledge in accordance 
 with them. The Reason overawes and con- 
 strains the Understanding ; so that our whole 
 active being is continually found engaged in 
 the service of the Reason, in matters of which 
 the Understanding takes no cognizance. 
 
 4. And it appears to me that the neglect 
 of this distinction, so prevalent even at this 
 day among English writers, cannot but prove 
 a fertile source of confusion in mental philo- 
 sophy, and in religious matters, of misappre- 
 hension and unbelief. It is easy to trace many 
 errors and heresies (I would name as an instance 
 the whole Socinian system) to the undue ex- 
 altation and idolatry of the Understanding. 
 Our most holy faith was never better described 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 than as 'Reason leaning upon God;' i.e. Rea- 
 son convinced by adequate evidence that it is 
 God who speaketh, and then performing her 
 high office in accordance with that Almighty 
 voice. In the subjection of our nature to the 
 teaching of God's Holy Spirit, the Under- 
 standing may be dormant, or it may be active; 
 the great work of man's salvation proceeding, 
 not"\vithstanding its inertness, and not beholden 
 to its activity. 
 
 5. But if the Understanding is not to be 
 idolized, neither is it to be set aside. If our 
 whole man is to be renewed after the image 
 of God, so vast and admirable a faculty cannot 
 but bear its part, and partake of its share, 
 amidst the work of renovation. And I have, 
 therefore, traced not only the exquisite adapt- 
 ation of the Gospel to the requirements of 
 our Reason, but also its merciful provisions for 
 the illumination of the subordinate faculty, the 
 Understanding. 
 
 6. Dependent on such an arrangement as 
 tliat here insisted on, will be found my treat- 
 ment of the other two great classes of faculties 
 wherewith we are endo^^•ed — our Affections and 
 
PREFACE. XIU 
 
 our Moral Judgments. Both these are subser- 
 vient to the dicta of our Reason, but inde- 
 pendent of the researches or advances of the 
 Understanding, and often baffling its endeavours 
 altogether. Both these are in fact but the 
 actings of the rational faculty, the one in our 
 social, the other in our moral being; and these 
 reacting mutually on each other, jointly produce 
 the decisions of the mind, which, through the 
 will, stir our physical and spiritual capacities into 
 action. And I have endeavoured to shew that 
 the influence of the Gospel of Christ upon 
 man proceeds in accordance with the consti- 
 tution of his spiritual being : exalting the 
 Reason and restoring to it its legitimate rule, 
 against which our lower faculties have rebelled 
 in the corruption of our nature ; stirring into 
 action the reasonable Affections, of Avhich in 
 our corrupt state the passions have usurped 
 the place ; rectifying the Moral Judgments, 
 which through evil desires and practices have 
 become perverted ; and raising us to higher 
 degrees of knowledge, by the enlightened, chas- 
 tened, and diligent researches of the Under- 
 standing. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 7. On my treatment of the second great 
 division of my subject, a few remarks must be 
 premised. Here the proposition which it has 
 been my object to establish is the follomng : 
 If the Gospel of Christ be indeed destined to 
 accomplish such high ends, then in the history 
 of the world and the Church must such its 
 purpose appear — over-ruling events, and pre- 
 siding over the words and actions of its 
 Founder and His Apostles. 
 
 8. I have therefore devoted one Lecture to 
 a summary of the popular evidence by which 
 it is shewn that a remarkable preparation was 
 made for the appearance of the Gospel, in God's 
 providential arrangements. The more imme- 
 diate part of this preparation, in the history 
 of the Patriarchal and Jewish Churches, has 
 already been detailed in my former course of 
 Lectures. It remained to trace in the general 
 process of events in the Gentile world, a cor- 
 respondent fitting of the state of the nations 
 for receiving the Gospel of tlic promised Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 9. To trace the spirit and design of the 
 Gospel in tlic life of Christ, the actions and 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 writings of His Apostles, has been my endeavour 
 in the three remaining Lectures. In this latter 
 part of my argument, it became necessary to 
 assign a determinate place and office to Tradi- 
 tion, as affecting the progress and ultimate 
 state of development of the doctrines of the 
 Gospel in the knowledge and practice of man- 
 kind. All that will be found on this head in 
 the following pages, is grounded on the his- 
 torical fact, that the traditional behef of the 
 Christian Church was at a set time summed 
 up, and is contained, in a statement of doctrines 
 implicitly asserted in Holy Scripture, educed from 
 it, and to he proved by it ; but nevertheless stated 
 not hypothetically but authoritatively, forming 
 an integral part of the great progress of Chris- 
 tian truth ; and as such raising us to an ad- 
 vanced ground, which we are not at liberty to 
 desert at will, but are called upon to maintain 
 and defend. To say that Holy Scripture is the 
 rule of Faith, seems to me to be using words 
 without meaning; but Holy Scripture is the 
 source of that rule, and has furnished it to the 
 Church: and as it is our duty not to insist on 
 any rule of Faith which cannot be proved by 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 certain warrants of Scripture, so on the other 
 liand is the traditional rule of Faith, when 
 grounded on Scripture, binding on Christian 
 men. I have ventured to compare this un- 
 folding of the conditions of Christian faith to 
 the correspondent process in the histories of 
 natural and intellectual philosophy, where, how- 
 ever much advance may be made by the an- 
 nouncement of general laws, men are still ever 
 referred for the proof of those laws, to the 
 original documents themselves, — the book of 
 nature, or the book of the human mind. 
 
 10. On resigning the office of Hulsean Lec- 
 turer, I must express my sense of the kindness 
 of Mr. Hulse's trustees, who have been pleased 
 to accept my services for a second year : and 
 my hope that these my labours may justify 
 the confidence which they have reposed in me, 
 by tending to the glory of God and the good 
 of His Church. 
 
 Wymeswold, January 11, 1843. 
 
?1 
 
 ^i«o®'^" 
 
 
 
 JSi-«i> 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE T. 
 
 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 1 John ii. 8. — The darkness is past, and the true light 
 note shineth. 
 
 Page 1. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 
 
 Hebrews viii. 10, quoted from Jeremiah xxxi. 33, — 
 This is the covenant that I xoill make icith the house of 
 Israel after those days, saith the Lord : I will put my 
 laics into their mind, and will ivrite them in their 
 hearts. 
 
 Page 22. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 THE PURE IN HEART. 
 
 1 John iii. 3. — Every man that hath this hope in him, 
 picrifieth himself even as he is jmre. 
 
 Page 41. 
 
XVIU CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 
 
 John xvi. 13. — TVheti He, the Spirit of truth, is come, 
 He will guide you into all truth. 
 
 Page 62. 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 
 
 Acts xvii. 26, 27. — God . . . hath made of one hlood all 
 nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, 
 and hath determined the times before appointed, and 
 the hounds of their habitation : that they shoidd seek 
 the Lord, if haply they tnight feel after him and find 
 him. 
 
 Page 82. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Hebrews vii. 26. — Such an High Priest became zis. 
 Page 103. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 IsAiAH V. 4. — What could have been done more to my 
 vineyard, that I have not done in it ? 
 
 Page 121. 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE EPISTLES. 
 
 St. Mark iv. 28. — First the blade, then the ear, then the 
 fidl corn in the ear. 
 
 Page 141. 
 
^^z.;;. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 1 John, ii. 8. 
 The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. 
 
 In a former course of Lectures from this place, 
 I endeavoured to set before you the consistency 
 of the Divine conduct in revealing the doctrines 
 of Redemption, before the coming of Christ in the 
 flesh. Viewing the Gospel of salvation as the only 
 remedy for the defects and miseries of our com- 
 mon nature, I took my stand on this proposition: 
 That, as far as these defects and miseries were 
 alleviated before that Gospel was manifested, it 
 was by no other method, than that which was 
 afterwards fully brought to light by Jesus Christ. 
 With this view, I traced a recognition of the 
 leading doctrines of the future Gospel in the 
 belief and practice of the early Churches. I 
 inferred from the patriarchal history, from the 
 received traditions of the Jews, and from expres- 
 
 B 
 
Z THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 sions used in the New Testament, the fact, that 
 great spiritual verities were acknowledged from 
 the first, and implied at least, in the popular 
 language, even as late as the coming of Christ. 
 I concluded that course with an attempt to assign 
 a place to the Mosaic laAv in the great spiritual 
 scheme of Providence; and to shew that its 
 promulgation was not inconsistent with the 
 results of my other enquiries, but on the 
 contrary strongly, confirmed them. 
 
 But if all this had been as completely, as I am 
 conscious that it has been insufiiciently accom- 
 plished, the most important, as well as the most 
 deeply interesting part of such an argument 
 would remain yet to be treated. 
 
 If it be an employment worthy of our earnest 
 attention to range the scattered and imperfect 
 revelations of ancient times in subordination 
 to the great unfolding of the Divine will in 
 Christ, much more are we called upon to ex- 
 amine that manifestation itself, and place it in 
 connexion with its professed object — the final 
 recovery of our nature from the power and con- 
 sequences of sin. If in the dim and uncertain 
 dawn we rejoiced to trace the approach of the 
 Sun of Righteousness, much more Avill our joy 
 be kindled when we behold his uprising, and 
 follow his heahng course, and in his Hght see 
 light. 
 
 I purpose then, in the present course of Lee- 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 3 
 
 tures, to endeavour to set before you the con- 
 sistency of the Divme conduct in reveahng the 
 doctrines of Redemption, at, and since, the ap- 
 pearance of Christ in the flesh. 
 
 In pursuing such an enquiry, we shall be 
 occupied first, and through a considerable part 
 of our course, in illustrating the method in which 
 Christianity, as set forth in the New Testament, 
 serves its lofty purpose of the recovery of man to 
 the image of God. We shall have occasion to 
 review the provision which is made by it for the 
 illumination of the reason, the winning of the 
 affections, the purifying the heart, and the open- 
 ing the eyes of the understanding. And in each 
 of these particulars, we shall strive to shew the 
 consistency of the Gospel with its own professed 
 ends, and with the constitution of the spirit of 
 man. But the historical evidence which is 
 auxiliary to these conclusions must not be over- 
 looked. The revelation of the truths contained 
 in the Gospel, as it has its beginning in the great 
 facts of Redemption, and the record of the written 
 word, so is carried on towards perfection during 
 the ages of Christianity by the te-uching of the 
 Spirit in the heart of man ; so that not only the 
 depositing of the wholesome and holy leaven, but 
 its advances in penetrating and sanctifying the 
 mass of mankind, — not only the laying of the 
 foundation, but the upward progress of the 
 building, should be the subject of his reflections, 
 
 b2 
 
4 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 who would vindicate the wisdom and consistency 
 of the Divine conduct in revealing, in the widest 
 sense, the doctrines of redemption. 
 
 This historical evidence will form the subject 
 of the latter part of tliis course. 
 
 And although in intellectual as in practical 
 pursuits, we are ever tempted to esteem dis- 
 proportionately that in which we are ourseh^es 
 engaged, I cannot forbear reminding you that 
 in the enquiry which I have announced, we shall 
 be standing on the highest ground, and aiming 
 at the loftiest ends. In natural things the master 
 science is that which can resolve the assemblages 
 of matter into their component elements, and 
 detect their latent affinities, and so approach 
 those causes to which life OAves its \itality, and 
 the universe its order; nor is it otherwise in 
 things spiritual. And here, as in the other case, 
 humility and caution are needful, that we may 
 tread lightly and breathe softly in the temple of 
 truth ; and depend continually on His teaching, 
 who alone can take of the things of Christ and 
 shew them to us. 
 
 But one wide difference between natural and 
 spuitual science must not here be forgotten ; he 
 who analyzes the processes of nature views from 
 without, that in which his being takes, it may be, 
 no part ; but he who pursues spiritual science 
 must be that which he contemplates, and must 
 himself partake in the process which he analyzes. 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. O 
 
 So that we require of you, and we earnestly crave 
 for ourselves, firm and consistent faith — the light 
 of inward purity, the ingenuous energy of a 
 spiritual understanding, and that heavenly and 
 peaceful temper of mind, which holy love to God, 
 and catholic charity to man, can alone beget and 
 maintain. 
 
 I shall in this first Lecture direct your atten- 
 tion to the nature of Christianity as the final 
 dispensation, distinguished from the other partial 
 and preparatory dispensations. 
 
 All revelations of the will of God, and all 
 ordinances of his Church, previously to the ap- 
 pearing of Christ upon earth, had an assigned 
 and determinate purpose, with the accomplish- 
 ment of which their mission expired. They 
 were messengers sent before his face to prepare 
 his way ; voices crying in the wilderness and 
 telling of Him who should come. And during 
 the fulfilment of their mission, as we have en- 
 deavoured to shew, the deep desires and spiritual 
 reachings of men were not directed to them for 
 satisfaction, but to the eternal and inexhaustible 
 well-spring of God's mercies in Christ, which 
 even then burst partially through the reluctant 
 soil, but which should afterwards spring up 
 abundantly and water the nations. 
 
 But when this final revelation of God to man 
 appeared, what did it promise, and how was it 
 destined to operate upon our nature 1 It pro- 
 
b THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 mised no less than the complete recovery of man 
 from the hateful and deadly disease of sin. It 
 was destined to operate upon his moral and his 
 intellectual nature; he. was by its means to be 
 renewed after the very image of God which he 
 had lost — in wisdom, in purity, in love, and in 
 power. It was to lead to the best and highest 
 employment of all the energies and faculties of 
 man, both speculative and practical. It was to 
 build him up into that goodly and perfect crea- 
 ture which should render glory to his Maker and 
 Kedeemer in thought, word, and act ; he was to 
 come, in the faith and knowledge of the Son of 
 God, to the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ. 
 
 And the character of this dispensation was to 
 be spiritual; the great agent in it being the 
 Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of creative, en- 
 lightening, and sanctifying power; and the sub- 
 ject on which this agent should exercise his 
 blessed influence being the spirit of man, as by 
 Himself constituted and endowed. This is re- 
 peatedly announced in the prophetic parts of 
 Holy Scripture ; still more frequently asserted 
 and enforced in the Gospel revelation itself. 
 And such declarations lead us to look for ar- 
 rangements in God's final spiritual economy 
 correspondent to our own internal constitution; 
 affinities whereby the Holy Spirit, with gentle 
 and persuasive advances, may work in us both to 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 7 
 
 will and to do of his good pleasure. And if, on 
 contemplating our spiritual nature as constructed 
 by the Author of our being, we find any one 
 faculty set by its very position and office in high 
 authority over the rest, so that the thoughts and 
 the springs of action obey its bidding, we may 
 expect to find that upon that faculty is the power 
 of God's Holy Spirit especially and primarily 
 received, and that He does by means of that 
 faculty spread his gracious influences over our 
 whole life, in thought and practice. 
 
 Now this highest faculty implanted in man 
 is the Reason. By this, in its proper and strict 
 acceptation, we are conscious of certain immu- 
 table truths, the recognition of which is a neces- 
 sary condition of our intelligent being. And 
 these truths thus recognized are the absolute 
 arbiters of thought and feeling within us. By 
 them the conditions of possibility are limited ; on 
 them the foundations of duty repose ; they come 
 before us with our first dawn of intelligence, 
 their confirmations and examples are commen- 
 surate with our experience ; in them we live and 
 move in this world, and by them we shall be 
 judged in another. 
 
 Now, in the highest estate of man, all appeals 
 made to him, all observances enjoined on him, 
 must find their answer and approval in the 
 reason. For all appeals which stop short of 
 this end, belong to states of our being which are 
 
O THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 preparatory and imperfect ; in which, for some 
 necessary purpose, men are kept in a specified 
 and limited condition, and where the full exercise 
 of their powers and faculties is authoritatively 
 forbidden, or from the nature of the case denied 
 them. 
 
 That such states did precede the final reve- 
 lation of God to man, we know ; and their 
 imperfections in this respect are continually 
 asserted in Holy Scripture, while the strongest 
 contrast is drawn between them and the future 
 manifestation of God's will. The usual symbol 
 whereby the Gospel is expressed is Light, as 
 distinguished from the previous darkness and 
 obscurity. Nor can we conceive a better repre- 
 sentation of its character, as dwelling and ruling 
 in the hearts of men, making all plain and 
 distinct, revealing and cheering at the same 
 time, leaving no darkness at all, no part of 
 the thoughts and motives unexplored or unar- 
 ranged. 
 
 This work of the Holy Spirit of God is carried 
 on in man by direct action upon the faculty of 
 the reason ; by enlightening and purifying, by 
 rendering worthy to reign, bringing back to its 
 lawful possessions, and setting on its rightful 
 throne, the power which sin had cast down, and 
 whose place error had usurped. 
 
 For we must not forget that the light which 
 is in men may become darkness ; that the reason 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 9 
 
 itself may be paralyzed, or misdirected, in an un- 
 healthy state of our moral being. The very fii'st 
 sin of man is represented to us in Scripture as 
 the consequence of following a secondary and 
 specious conclusion of the reason, instead of 
 listening to its primary and truthful verdict : 
 and the Apostle Paul connects the moral depra- 
 vity of the Gentile world with obliquity or 
 insufficient action of the reason, induced by 
 original corruption; while at the same time he 
 asserts the high and responsible office of this 
 faculty, and by its decision brings in the sinner 
 guilty before God. 
 
 The foolish heart of men having thus become 
 darkened, the evil desires having caused that 
 they did not like to retain God in their know- 
 ledge, the disorder and ruin thereby occasioned 
 was universal ; extending over the perception of 
 truth — by the reason, in the first place; then 
 over the affections; from them spreading out 
 upon the moral judgments, and thence upon the 
 habits and practices of life; disorganizing and 
 raising up into rebellion even the subordmate 
 conceptions of the understanding. 
 
 Now the Gospel of Christ, proposing to de- 
 liver us from this state of mental and spiritual 
 anarchy by the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
 has a twofold work to accomplish — to enlighten 
 the' reason, and to reinstate it in its dominion. 
 The first part of this its work consists in the 
 
10 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 revelation of eternal unchangeable truth in its 
 purest and loveliest forms; in simplifying and 
 disencumbering the search after truth, and re- 
 ducing those tests, whereby it is known, to their 
 primary and most easily applicable expressions. 
 The latter part is carried on by a constant appeal 
 to this highest faculty, in all its influences upon 
 human thought and conduct. 
 
 The method then in which truth is exhibited 
 to man in the Gospel, is that which first demands 
 enquiry. 
 
 And we shall best illustrate this by selecting 
 some few instances from the New Testament, 
 and placing them in contrast with the charac- 
 teristic declarations of the dispensation whicli 
 went before. 
 
 And if we observe a marked difi'erence in the 
 ways of propounding truth, such difi'erence, if 
 our view of the object and aim of the Gospel be 
 correct, will be this : — We shall find the asser- 
 tions of the former dispensation absolute and 
 unqualified, having no reference to the powers 
 or dispositions of those to whom they were ad- 
 dressed; not made for man, to subserve the 
 advancement and perfection of his being, as by 
 them to be furthered, but made to rule over man 
 and to compel his assent, and guard him until 
 the time appointed of God ; whereas, under the 
 Gospel, the revelation of truth shall be found 
 to have proceeded upon a condescension to that 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 11 
 
 mind of man which was to receive it, to have 
 been framed for man, and to contain in itself the 
 seeds of further advancement towards perfection 
 in hohness. 
 
 Let us examine whether these things be so. 
 
 I take as my first example such an assertion 
 as the following : " God is Love.'" I compare it 
 with the great announcement of the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation, " Hear, O Israel ; the Lord our God 
 is one Lord.'" And I see, in the character of 
 the two announcements, distinct reference to the 
 diversity of the dispensations to which they be- 
 long. " God is one." It is a revelation of a 
 great and primary and simple truth ; but it 
 stands before us in its bare objectiveness, re- 
 quiring our assent, but when assented to, having 
 accomplished its purpose, and belonging to a 
 revelation whose end was not the completion 
 of a building, but the laying of the foundation ; 
 not the depositing nor vivifying the seed, but the 
 casting down obstructions, and levelling the field. 
 But when the beloved Apostle, in the fulness of 
 the Spirit, tells me that " God is Love," I see at 
 once that a higher state of my being is addressed; 
 that my reason is appealed to, my sympathies are 
 awakened; that my moral and my social being 
 are taken up and included in that Gospel whose 
 revelation this is. " God is Love," and Love is an 
 aifection ; and the afi'ections are the ministers of 
 1 1 John iv. 9. ^ Deut. vi. 1. 
 
12 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 truth ill its purest and holiest form : and in 
 order to conceive in my understanding that Love 
 which God is, I must have recourse to my very 
 fii'st and purest convictions and perceptions of 
 truth ; I must disencumber my moral judgments 
 of all secondary and selfish regards ; I must 
 cleanse and hallow my imagination, even till 
 it can approach and look upon that which is 
 most beautiful and purely good, and without 
 fault. And to this end must I be myself pure 
 in heart, strong in faith, warmed by that love 
 itself which I am striving to conceive, and ani- 
 mated with glowing hope of beholding the pre- 
 sence of that holy Being, who is thus revealed 
 to me. And if such considerations Avere followed 
 out in their bearing upon my life and practice, 
 what a seed of the personal and social virtues 
 would such a truth become, deposited in my 
 heart. How would it take up and exalt and 
 absorb my being, even till I resembled God and 
 became like him — Love ; the possessor and the 
 difFuser of purity and happiness. Thus is it 
 that, though there were burning and shining 
 lights under the former dispensations, the least 
 in the kingdom of heaven is greater than they ; 
 greater, in being dealt with on higher and truer 
 grounds ; greater, in being called into the coun- 
 sel of God, and made not a servant but a friend. 
 But the same short announcement may serve 
 to illustrate another characteristic of the final 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT, 13 
 
 tlispensation — the asserting and exalting the 
 convictions of the reason. " God is Love," is 
 simply one of those fundamental maxims of the 
 reason which must necessarily accompany the 
 recognition of a Supreme Being. That none 
 hateth the work of his own hands, is an axiom 
 to Avhich consent cannot be refused. But in this 
 matter the reason had deserted its high office, 
 and the heart had become darkened. It was 
 observed, that emulation, and wrath, and strife, 
 were often the foundations of worldly power; 
 and that oppression and wrong went forth from 
 the high places of the earth ; therefore was the 
 God of their imaginations set forth as a hateful 
 and vindictive being, delighting to consume and 
 destroy. And the existence of evil in the world, 
 and the prevalence of e\il over good, led even 
 the wiser and more contemplative away from the 
 simple verdict of reason, and led them to con- 
 ceive malignant powers ruling the affairs of men. 
 Nor was this all false, or the reason would have 
 repudiated it at once : never man nor nation has 
 followed pure falsehood, — it is impossible from 
 the constitution of our nature ; but it was a 
 distortion of the truth. Evil seemed to prevail ; 
 therefore out of that which was prevalent, and as 
 agreeing with and fostering it, did the imagina- 
 tion conceive of its false deities ; thus much even 
 in error conceding to the truth, that the Creator 
 loveth and cherisheth that which he hath made. 
 
14 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 And it is very observable how the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation, far as it was from sanctioning error, 
 yet necessarily could but imperfectly exhibit this 
 truth ; how the sterner parts of the Divine cha- 
 racter were kept prominent; and while "that He 
 willeth not the death of a sinner" was proclaimed, 
 yet, to the latest of the prophets, the blackness 
 and tempest brooded over the mount, and even 
 at the dawn of the Christian day, the gloom was 
 not altogether rolled off, nor the lightnings yet 
 spent. 
 
 But from the darkness of error, and the par- 
 tial gleam which was shed on the mountains of 
 Israel, the bright rising of the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness turned the eyes of men to the Light of truth. 
 " God is Love," was the reassertion of that which 
 the heathen had forgotten ; the unveiling of that 
 on which the Jew was hardly permitted to gaze. 
 Mankind were referred, for the solution of the 
 great moral and physical difficulties of the world, 
 to a simple and universal truth, with which they 
 could not but agree, and which, coming upon 
 them from God himself as a part of his final 
 revelation, furnished them with a clue to his 
 dealings in providence and grace ; reassured 
 their trembling faith, and inspired them with 
 imbounded confidence, that however dark his 
 ways might appear, He would do all things well. 
 
 I would next direct your attention to our Sa- 
 viour's own announcement of the blessings which 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 15 
 
 He should confer on mankind ; and would set 
 them in remarkable contrast with the corre- 
 sponding announcements of the Mosaic dispen- 
 sation. There I find definite duties enjoined, 
 and definite and limited blessings annexed to 
 their performance. " It shall come to pass, if 
 thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of 
 the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his 
 commandments which I command thee this day, 
 that the Lord thy God will set thee on high 
 above all the nations of the earth ; blessed shalt 
 thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in 
 the field : blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, 
 and the fruit of thy ground, and the fi'uit of thy 
 cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of 
 thy sheep." ^ Here is a positive and definite 
 declaration, terminating in its present outward 
 fulfilment, annexing the blessing as to follow on 
 the performance of the duty. Now let us turn 
 to the Christian announcement : " Blessed are 
 the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of 
 heaven. Blessed are the meek; for they shall 
 inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in heart: 
 for they shall see God."^ Our notice is at once 
 directed to the difference of formal expression in 
 these latter. It is not, It shall come to pass that 
 if ye be poor m spirit, ye shaU possess the king- 
 dom of heaven : the w^ords are not a positive 
 proclamation; they are the enunciation of an 
 
 I Deut. xxviii. 1—4. 2 Matt. v. 3, 5, 8. 
 
16 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 immutable truth. They are the authoritative 
 assertion, on the part of the Son of God, of tlie 
 purest and loftiest axioms of the spiritually en- 
 lightened reason of man. Attempt to reverse 
 the terms of the INIosaic announcement, and the 
 difference will be still more plain. If it had been 
 said, "Blessed are they who obey these command- 
 ments and ordinances, for they shall be the first 
 among nations;" there is necessarily implied or 
 presupposed a positive promise, a covenant that 
 they shall have this temporal reward ; the con- 
 nexion between the fulfilment of a prescribed 
 routine of ceremonial obedience, and this world's 
 power and prosperity, is not a necessary one, nor 
 one which can go further back for its cause than 
 to the absolute will of God, ordering it thus for 
 that occasion. But in the other case, those habits 
 and circumstances are connected Avith those bles- 
 sings by the very constitution of the heart of 
 man, as related to his Maker and Bedeemer; 
 and the further our meditations on those simple 
 announcements are extended, the more shall we 
 ])crceive their foundation in eternal truth, and 
 that, under the dispensation of man's final re- 
 covery fi-om sin, it could not but be as they 
 declare. 
 
 But again; such assertions as these are not 
 the axioms of the reason on which the nations of 
 the earth founded their usual speculation and 
 practice before the Gospel of Christ appeared. 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 17 
 
 They inform and purify the perception of truth ; 
 they require and invite its highest exercise. 
 They pass by all the secondary, all the sensual 
 maxims of the darkened reason ; they belong- 
 not to the times of ignorance, but to the diffusion 
 of the clearest and broadest light of truth. Let 
 us examine with this view the first of them ; 
 " Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is 
 the kingdom of heaven." To such a maxim the 
 lower reason is opposed : but let us see how the 
 truth stands. Man is guilty, rebellious, polluted: 
 that revelation from God is being announced, 
 which is to pardon, to recover, to purify him. 
 And this, not as a mere material for the Divine 
 hand to work upon, but as a worker together 
 with God ; perceiving the need of, and desiring, 
 such pardon, such recovery, such purification. 
 Will he who is unconscious of guilt sue for 
 pardon? Will the proud unhumbled rebel re- 
 turn to allegiance 1 Will he who knows not his 
 pollution seek to be cleansed ] Therefore must 
 they who would inherit the blessings of the Gos- 
 pel be conscious of guilt, humbled on account of 
 their rebellion from God, aware of their need of 
 purification. But he who fulfils these conditions 
 must needs be poor in spirit; seeing in himself 
 all cause for abasement, and none for self-con- 
 gratulation. The enlightened reason cannot 
 then but embrace the truth of the assertion; 
 which is no less a revelation from God because 
 
 c 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 of this, but is ratlicr the very revelation which is 
 most consistent vdth. the purposes of the Gospel, 
 being the restoring to us of that right use of our 
 highest faculty, of which sin had deprived us ; 
 and the setting before us a proposition in the 
 treatment of which that highest use is required. 
 
 We may perceive the same consistency with 
 the end and character of the final dispensation, 
 in the methods of teaching followed by our 
 Saviour and his Apostles. We shall hereafter 
 have occasion to illustrate various branches of 
 our subject from the didactic parts of the New 
 Testament : but I now only speak generally, 
 viewing the Gospel as the exhibition of eternal 
 trutli to the enlightened and renewed reason of 
 man. Our Saviour's teaching is antecedent to 
 the great events which were to seal the accom- 
 plishment of the Divine purposes ; antecedent 
 also to the descent of the Spirit, whereby the first 
 great step in man's enlightening was to be taken. 
 It may therefore be compared to the first deposit- 
 ing of the seed, and the time of its endurance 
 w^as as that interval during which the seed lies 
 hard and seemingly lifeless in the ground, before 
 the mysterious impulse is sent from the great 
 Lord and Giver of life. And we find His teach- 
 ing in every way suited to such circumstances. 
 His discourses are full of the germs of the deepest 
 and most lofty wisdom, but are not expanded into 
 argument, nor accompanied with any explana- 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 19 
 
 tions which could at the time have been satis- 
 factory. What He said they knew not then, 
 but should know hereafter; and their mature 
 spiritual convictions continually derived strength 
 and energy from remembering how the Lord had 
 spoken. Thus did his teaching eminently befit 
 the seedtime of the Gospel; wherein the water 
 to nourish, the bands to support, the knife to 
 prune, were not deposited with the seed, but 
 reserved tiU the plant should be fit for their 
 application. 
 
 The same harmony with the purpose of the 
 Gospel may be traced in our Saviour's adoption 
 of the method of teaching by parables. A para- 
 ble is at once the lowest mode of instruction, and 
 from its nature possesses capabilities of conveying 
 wisdom of the very highest order. Its operation 
 on the hearer is, to shew him the footsteps of 
 sacred truth in the ordinary persons and matters 
 of life, and thence to lead him to range his 
 spiritual being under the same guidance: so 
 that, from the slow and uninformed mind which 
 cannot but recognize a general applicability, to 
 the highest searcher after hidden wisdom, who 
 compares the natural world with the spiritual, 
 does the parable extend its instruction. And as 
 the actual hearers of the parables were of the 
 former class, so, by their being recorded in the 
 New Testament, are they subjected to the con- 
 templation and scrutiny of the latter ; by whom 
 
 c2 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 their meaning has not yet been fully unfolded, 
 nor their depth of Avisdom exhausted. 
 
 If I now turn to tlie writings of the Apostles, 
 I find that which I might have expected ; no 
 longer the seeds of heavenly wisdom dropped 
 here and there, but the plants expanding into 
 life and symmetry. I find reasoning strict and 
 conclusive, founded uj)on the great doctrines of 
 which the incarnation, life, death, and triumph 
 of Christ had been the attestation ; I find the 
 high spiritual purpose of the Gospel dispensation 
 plainly asserted, and enforced as a motive of 
 thought and practice. And if we observe in the 
 writmgs of one Apostle what may seem an ex- 
 ception to this expanded character, it is just in 
 that case in which it can best be accounted for : 
 the beloved disciple had rested on the bosom 
 of his Lord, and hung enraptured on his heavenly 
 words ; it were likely therefore that in his Epis- 
 tles we should find continual traces of that simple 
 and sententious style which characterized the 
 discourses of Christ ; and, if I mistake not, many 
 fragments of those discourses themselves, unre- 
 corded in tlic Gospels. Yet even in the Epistles 
 of St. John, are there to be found some of the 
 plainest and the highest deductions of the en- 
 lightened reason : "We love him, because he first 
 loved us;" "If God so loved us, we ought also to 
 lo'S'e one another ;" " ^Yc know that we shall be 
 like him, for we shall see him as he is." And 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 21 
 
 none of the New Testament writers is more 
 explicit in declaring that to be the character 
 of the Gospel dispensation, which we are now 
 endeavouring to illustrate ; and in asserting, as in 
 our text, that " the darkness is past, and the true 
 light now shineth." 
 
 We have seen then that, if there be grounds 
 for supposing that a final revelation from God to 
 man would lead him to truth and holiness by 
 the purified use of the highest faculty wherewith 
 he is endowed, the Gospel of Christ, in its general 
 character and method of propounding truth, fulfils 
 such a condition ; — that the contrast between it 
 and the former economy is in this respect 
 marked and unquestionable; — and that in the 
 progress of its promulgation by its Founder and 
 his immediate followers, such an end appears to 
 have been steadily kept in view. 
 
LECTURE 11. 
 
 THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 
 
 Heb. viii. 10. quoted from Jek. xxxi. 33. 
 
 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of 
 Israel after those daijs, saith the Lord : I loill put my 
 laics into their mind, and will write them in their hearts. 
 
 I ENDEAVOURED to shew ill my last Lecture the 
 consistency of the method in which the Gospel 
 exhibits truth, with the constitution of the spirit 
 of man. If ^^'e are to be led as free and willing- 
 agents, if we are to be the subjects of a dispen- 
 sation whose symbol is light, and of which it can 
 be said that the darkness is now past; I con- 
 tended that the first great step in such leading 
 and revealing, must be the illumination and con- 
 viction of the Reason, our highest and governing 
 faculty. I attempted to shew that the Gospel 
 does proceed in such a manner ; that the teach- 
 ing of our Saviour and his Apostles furnishes 
 abundant example of the pure and simple state. 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 23 
 
 inent of everlasting truth, and appeal to man's 
 consciousness of it as such. 
 
 But much more than the mere exhibition of 
 truth, much more than the mere direction of 
 man's sight to the truth so exhibited, is required, 
 to effect that new creation in righteousness and 
 holiness, which is wrought upon those who are in 
 Christ Jesus. That blessed and healthful action 
 of the reason, the will, and the affections, which 
 is so admirably described in the expression ' faith 
 working by love,' is not produced at once, nor 
 but by a series of merciful condescensions to the 
 mutual relations, and even the derangements 
 through corruption, of each of these. 
 
 I proceed then to illustrate the further con- 
 sistency of the Gospel with its own announce- 
 ments in this its work of renewing and sanctifying 
 influence upon man. 
 
 I will dwell particularly this day upon that 
 feature which the prophecy cited in our text 
 declares to belong to the final dispensation : "I 
 will put my laws in their mind, and will write 
 them in their hearts." 
 
 Among the servants of man's highest faculty, 
 those which stand next in power and are deepest 
 in its counsel, are the Affections. They are ever 
 awaiting its conclusions, and ready to stir at its 
 promptings. And as the mandates of the Reason, 
 iii its highest and best estate, are taken up and 
 obeyed by the higher and nobler Affections ; as 
 
24 LECTURE II, 
 
 upon these wait the gentle eye of Love, and the 
 firm step of Hope, and hand in hand the mutual 
 ministerings of Joy and chastening Fear ; so on 
 its lower and degraded action attend the darker 
 shadows of the same, named from suffering and 
 violence the Passions ; unhallowed desire, pre- 
 sumptuous daring, envy, jealousy, and despair. 
 And the Apostle Paul has drawn in the gloomiest 
 colours the picture of man's life under the cor- 
 rupted reason, obeyed and carried out into prac- 
 tice by these its tp"ant ministers. 
 
 From such a bondage w^as the Gospel of Christ 
 to deliver us ; by reminding us of, and making 
 effective within us, that high consciousness of 
 everlasting truth, which through sin we had lost ; 
 that so love, and hope, and joy, and fear, might 
 go forth on their benignant mission, renewing 
 and refreshing the barren and thirsty ground of 
 man's heart and understanding. Thus, under the 
 Divine Spirit, the great Enlightener and Purifier, 
 the holy soul was to be brought into perfect 
 harmony with itself and with its Author; the 
 wild misrule of the passions was to be taken 
 away, and the peace which passeth understanding 
 to rule in and keep the heart and mind. 
 
 But of this high and heavenly agreement of 
 the reason and the affections, the former dispen- 
 sations speak not, or speak but seldom and 
 obscurely. The outward display correspondent 
 to a presumed state of the affections, was the 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 25 
 
 limit beyond which their enactments could not 
 reach. When they attempt to regulate the de- 
 sires, it is as matter of subjection and duty, not 
 of spontaneous and reasonable service. And if 
 we find them occasionally appeahng to the reason 
 as the prompter of the afi"ections, it is rather to 
 its secondary conclusions, grounded on present 
 and inadequate considerations, than to the great 
 first principles of truth to which our affections 
 are referred in the Gospel of Christ. If love and 
 obedience are enjoined, it is by the consideration 
 of deliverance from the land of Egypt, the house 
 of bondage ; if the social dispositions are regu- 
 lated, those temporal interests only or chiefly 
 are regarded, which induce a man to love his 
 neighbour and hate his enemy ; and all this 
 because of the hardness of the heart, the unfit- 
 ness of mankind as yet to receive the pure Gospel 
 of peace and love. 
 
 But how entire is the change in this respect, 
 when w^e direct our attention to the Gospel of 
 Christ. How is command turned to persuasion ; 
 how are eartlily motives exchanged for heavenly. 
 How are those sources opened from which the 
 aff'ections shall most freely spring, and those 
 channels drawn in which they may best pervade 
 and fertilize our being. 
 
 Let us take as a first instance, the adoption 
 by the Gospel, for its high purposes, of the most 
 widely spread and deeply rooted of the aff'ections 
 of humanity. 
 
26 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 If we review mankind in all ages and nations, 
 we shall find that the tie which has bound men 
 one to another most closely and most univer- 
 sally, has been that of natural relationship. And 
 in seeking for the reason of this, we find at 
 the outset of our enquiry a distinction between 
 ourselves and the inferior tribes of creation, 
 which precludes our ascribing the attachment 
 to an instinctive attraction merely. For while 
 in animals void of reason this instinctive attrac- 
 tion has place, we find it admirably adapted to 
 its present necessary end, so that the parent 
 guards its progeny, and the ofi"spring are at- 
 tached to the parent, no longer than the exigences 
 of physical support require ; after that, the tie 
 is broken, the relationship forgotten, and the 
 present ends of a mere temporal being predomi- 
 nate in the desires, and influence the actions. 
 But with ourselves the attachment is lasting and 
 imperishable ; physical support may be no longer 
 needed, worldly interests may be dissevered, all 
 considerations of utility, in the lower sense, may 
 have ceased to bear upon men ; but the love of 
 a parent, and the love of a son and a daughter, 
 and the love of brethren and sisters, endures 
 through danger and separation, through way- 
 wardness and unkindness, and even unto death 
 itself And here we may trace one of the simplest 
 and purest examples of the intimate union of the 
 reason and the aff'ections. The attachment of 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 27 
 
 which I have spoken is bound up with and fused 
 into the simplest and purest perceptions of the 
 reason. Spontaneously and unconsciously from 
 the very heart of a child flows forth the spring of 
 filial love, distinct in its nature, different in its 
 operation, from any result of the conscious expe- 
 rience: and when age shall have silvered the 
 parental brow, still the same glad river shall flow 
 forth from the mature being of the now reasoning 
 and acting offspring, to gladden and to refresh in 
 the decay of life. And this, because it is a reason- 
 able service ; because it is the open and insepa- 
 rable result of our first perceptions of fitness and 
 truth. 
 
 And when the nations, not liking to retain 
 God in their knowledge, have been given up 
 to a reprobate mind — a mind both judicially 
 rejected of God, and also having lost its power 
 of discerning truth, one sign of this fearful state 
 was, that they became without natural affection, 
 disobedient to parents. 
 
 Now in the very outset of our Saviour's teach- 
 ing, I find the terms of natural relationship 
 adopted, applied to our spiritual state, and used 
 to awaken our affections to God and to one 
 another. If He lays down, in words hitherto 
 unheard, the peculiarly Christian duty of loving 
 our enemies, and blessing them that curse us, 
 and thus regulates our affections; it is, that we 
 may be the sons of our Father in heaven. If He 
 
28 LECTURE II. 
 
 teaches us to pray, it is to our Father which is in 
 heaven ; if He warns us to forgive others their 
 trespasses against us, it is as our brethren. If 
 He directed men to expect the grace of God to 
 be vouchsafed in answer to prayer, it was by 
 inference from the analogy of the natural affec- 
 tions of those parents who stood and heard Him. 
 The time would fail us to enumerate the occa- 
 sions on which He used this method of explaining 
 our relation and enforcing our duties to God and 
 one another. But, as we saw before, the subject 
 is not expanded by the Lord himself, because 
 the time was not yet come, the cross had not yet 
 been uplifted, nor the Spirit poured out. It was 
 left for those who came after, to speak more fully 
 of this blessed relationship, and to apply it to its 
 several purposes, and to widen the foundations 
 on which it rests. In their writings we are de- 
 scribed as the sons of God, begotten of his own 
 will by the word of truth ; the Church, the body 
 and spouse of Christ, is our mother in the Spirit, 
 and we are all brethren, members of one body, 
 owing to one another forbearance, and sympathy, 
 and active self-denying love. We are represented 
 as no more servants, but sons ; and if sons, then 
 heu's — heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; 
 waiting for the final seal of our adoption, the 
 redemption of the body, but still possessing 
 the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, 
 Father. 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 29 
 
 What method of teaching could have been 
 pursued, which by a few simple words should 
 explain and reveal so much '? For by it, as w^e 
 saw in our former instances, not only are we 
 enlightened to the extent of what it actually 
 reveals, but we are put in possession of a key to 
 open boundless treasures of truth and spiritual 
 knowledge; and a guide, to whose unerring 
 conduct we may entrust the direction of our 
 heavenward affections, and our drawings near 
 to God. 
 
 What tone of exhortation could fall so power- 
 fully upon the universal ear of mankind, as that 
 which found a trembling string to answer it in 
 every human breast? What appeal could be 
 so effectual, as that which needed no explana- 
 tion of circumstances, no exercise of the mental 
 powers, that its force might be recognized ; 
 but which w^ould enter alike into the soul of 
 the philosopher and the peasant, of the ancient 
 and the child, reminding them of states in w^hich 
 w^e are all equally bound up, and duties which 
 no questioner has ever denied 1 
 
 The comparison of parental relationship was 
 indeed used under the former dispensation, but 
 it was sparingly, and in those waitings which 
 belong rather to the descriptions of the future 
 Gospel: wdiereas, in the appeals made to us by 
 Christ and his Apostles, it is the leading idea, 
 constantly kept in view and earnestly dwelt 
 
30 LECTURE II. 
 
 upon, whenever the deep springs of affection are 
 to be stirred within us. 
 
 I cannot but see in this a striking adaptation 
 to the ends and purposes of that revelation, which 
 was to be the final recovery of man to his high 
 estate of agreement with God, and likeness to 
 Him. T cannot but see an evidence to be gleaned 
 from this asserted analogy between the natural 
 and spiritual affections, for the Divine origin of 
 our holy religion : that He who founded it knew 
 what was in man; tliat by the same allwise God 
 who implanted in us our reason and our affec- 
 tions, have been revealed to us these their 
 spiritual employments and heavenly opportu- 
 nities ; that our faculties and dispositions are 
 destined to fulfil high purposes of eternal love, 
 and that they discharge their temporal offices 
 in lowly accordance with those great laws which 
 attract universal being round the throne of the 
 Father of Spirits. 
 
 I cannot but admire the consistency of that 
 revelation, which being destined for Jew and 
 Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, 
 grounds its appeal to the affections on the ac- 
 knowledged duties of a relationship in which 
 all these are equally involved. 
 
 But I perceive the same admirable consistency 
 extending throughout the method in which the 
 Gospel was repealed. We can imagine, doubt- 
 less, a manifestation of the eternal truths of 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 31 
 
 Christianity, as far as they regard God's recon- 
 ciliation to man, widely differing in outward 
 shape and procedure from that which has been 
 now set before us. We can conceive that a 
 gracious announcement might have been made 
 to mankind, that God was in Christ, reconciling 
 the world to Himself, not imputing their tres- 
 passes to them ; that by certain great events 
 accomplished in the Divine counsels before the 
 world began, a pardon had been provided for 
 sin, a way of holiness and salvation opened, and 
 eternal life assured to all who enter and accept 
 the terms of the covenant ; but that such an- 
 nouncement should stand alone, wrapped in the 
 mystery which must ever envelope the abstract 
 statement of the Divine acts and counsels. 
 
 Now, waving at present other considerations, 
 I enquire what effect would such a manifestation 
 of Redemption produce on the affections of man- 
 kind ] Doubtless there would be all reason why 
 we should love God, who had first loved us ; but 
 we must remember that, though our first percep- 
 tions of truth and fitness are independent of, and 
 above the things which happen around us, yet 
 the rendering practical those perceptions, and 
 embodying them in our habits, is effected by 
 means of the results of our experience ; that the 
 formation of habits is a gradual process, requiring 
 time, and frequent repetition of the same states 
 of feeling and desire ; and that this process is 
 
32 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 then most tedious, and requires most eonstant 
 refreshing and tending, when the habits to be 
 formed are those from which our nature has 
 degenerated, or is averse. Now of this 
 habituation in us of our j^erceptions of truth, 
 are the affections the working instruments, dis- 
 posing us heartily to beheve, and act in ac- 
 cordance mth, that which we cannot but ac- 
 knowledge. So that in the treatment of this 
 subject we are ever to take into account the 
 w^eakness and waywardness of man, whose disj)o- 
 sitions do not, for the most part, in his present 
 state, spring energetically forth from his first 
 percex^tions of truth, but require that these latter 
 shall have that in fact and experience whereon 
 to lay hold, and by which to work upon him. 
 Such a revelation then as I have supposed, would 
 be deficient in this great requisite, and would 
 fall comparatively powerless on the hearts of 
 mankind, producing, it may be, in some few of 
 the Avisest and best, a lofty gratitude and stoical 
 devotion, but not summoning into activity the 
 sympathies and affections of ordinary men. 
 
 But if I now turn to the revelation of our 
 redemption by Christ, I find no such deficiency. 
 The process and unfolding of the eternal pur- 
 poses is set before our eyes, embodied in certain 
 facts, whose record is based upon all the evidence 
 which can be required for any historical detail. 
 And these facts are manifestations of the Divine 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 33 
 
 love, eminently calculated to stir and aw^aken the 
 universal affections of mankind. The highest is 
 by them bound to the lowliest ; glory is linked 
 to suffering, powTr to weakness ; the eternal 
 counsels of Him whose mind none can fathom, 
 to the infirmities, temptations, and duties of our 
 human nature. And what can be better calcu- 
 lated to heal and to harmonize the distempered 
 and jarring affections, than the whole life and 
 teaching of that blessed and adorable Person, 
 who thus came to fulfil the will of his Father, 
 and to finish His work ] If philosophy, falsely so 
 called, had attempted before his appearing, or 
 should endeavour after his departure, to sever 
 the thoughts and desires from the objects of 
 sense, to cut man off from his social relations, 
 and mock his earnest affections with cold ab- 
 stractions ; He might best lead men to true 
 wisdom of heart, who took upon Him and hal- 
 lowed the relations of human society ; who has 
 taught us to look on our humblest daily duties, 
 as the work of Him who hath sent us, and the 
 path in wliich He walked who loved us, and 
 has taught us to draw from the springs of our 
 natural affections, deep di'aughts of purity and 
 holiness. 
 
 If man in his haughtiness and ignorance had 
 turned away from the works of God which were 
 spread around him, and dreamed of latent powers 
 of evil, and the malignity of the material world ; 
 
 D 
 
34 LECTURE II. 
 
 he might best recal the erring spirit to the 
 mercies and the marvels of the works of God, 
 who told of the all-sustaining care, without 
 which not the meanest creature falls, and 
 directed us in humble confidence to His pro- 
 viding hand, who clothes the flowers of the field 
 in glory. 
 
 And setting aside for the present the im- 
 portant actual results of that which He did and 
 suffered, — what course of events could be better 
 calculated to answer the end of exciting and 
 regulating the affections by their recital and 
 application ? If gratitude, the simplest and most 
 reasonable spring of affection and refresher of 
 motives to action, had almost ceased to flow in 
 the hardening of man's sinful heart, the teacher 
 of Christianity can point to the life and death 
 and triumph of Christ, and say, " Herein is love, 
 not that we loved God, but that he loved us ;" — 
 herein are no merely speculative deductions of 
 the Divine benevolence, no perplexing mixtures 
 of good and evil ; but a course of unvarying 
 self-sacrifice, a life of going about doing good. 
 From the disheartening contemplation of a world 
 full of contradictions and inconsistencies, was the 
 heart directed to a pure and unsullied exhibition 
 of the Divine love in the person of Christ : from 
 the endless disappointments of life, and the chil- 
 ling dissuasives from kindliness of spirit, was man 
 taught to look on Him whose love no enmity could 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 35 
 
 quench, whose gentleness no opposition could 
 exasperate. 
 
 But it might seem that by so high and spotless 
 an example the wonder of men would rather be 
 called forth, than the affections awakened. We 
 love not that at which we wonder : that which is 
 out of our sphere of duty and suffering, arouses 
 no dispositions within us, nor stirs us into action. 
 Wonder is a repulsive, a dissociative emotion ; 
 the attractive affection allied to it is admiration, 
 the union of wonder with sympathy. And as 
 the Gospel of Christ is destined to act upon the 
 affections, and not merely to excite the passing 
 emotions, so is the life of Christ not merely a 
 course of bright purity and unwavering love, but 
 all this is bound up with the weakness, suffering, 
 and temptation to which all men are liable ; so 
 that, instead of mere w^onder, we are stirred into 
 loving admiration ; admiration which prompts us 
 to reach out in action after the likeness of Him 
 who, in our nature, and amidst our sufferings, 
 and bearing our infirmities, hath set us so perfect 
 a pattern of gentleness and purity. 
 
 But in these sufferings of Christ I see yet 
 another proof of the consistency of the Gospel 
 revelation, in its approaches to the renovation of 
 the affections of mankind. In order for men to 
 become that which God would have them to be, 
 their dispositions towards various states of action 
 and endurance required great and radical alter- 
 
 d2 
 
3G LECTURE 11. 
 
 ation. For a long period had man's real great- 
 ness and true glory been forgotten and obscured. 
 With the majority of mankind, this world's 
 prosperity was the measure of happiness ; this 
 world's power the standard of greatness ; this 
 world's success the foundation of glory. The 
 very language of men had identified glory 
 with man's praise, and possession of this world's 
 goods with well-being.* Not only did suffering 
 and misfortune suggest contempt and aversion, 
 but humility and obscurity of condition were 
 cast aside, as disqualifications for a life accept- 
 able to God or beneficial to man. AVhatever 
 might be the differences between the various 
 schools of philosophers and theologians, all 
 agreed in tliis — that the mass of mankind were, 
 by ignorance and inactivity of mind, incapaci- 
 tated for the high purposes of our creation. 
 And if in some more enlightened schools it was 
 taught that the world's wealth and power could 
 not give wisdom, still that distinction was re- 
 served for the cultivation of the intellectual 
 powers, and the philosopher only was the man 
 who walked in the light of truth, or attracted 
 the benign notice of the Supreme Bemg. 
 
 Against this inadequate view of man's position 
 and endowments, was the Gospel of Christ to 
 assert to the world, that not by the temporal 
 differences between man and man, nor by the 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART, 37 
 
 accidents of mental cultivation, was the partici- 
 pation in its blessings to be measured: that the 
 world's estimate of these matters was false and 
 unfounded : that the great work of man's re- 
 newal was to be accomplished by the agency 
 of the Holy Spirit of God upon those affections 
 and judgments which were coextensive with 
 the ruin which sin had wrought. 
 
 Now vast, and almost hopeless, as may seem 
 the attempt, to turn the great current of the 
 thoughts of mankind, and to dispose the affec- 
 tions tow^ards those things which had no form 
 nor comeliness nor beauty that they should 
 be desired, the fact, that wherever the Gospel 
 has been fully acknowledged it has accomplished 
 this, is not more certain, than the method by 
 which it has been done is admirable and con- 
 sistent. The vSon of God himself adopted an 
 obscure station, and lived in the endurance of 
 contempt, " a man of sorrow^s, and acquainted 
 with grief." From a rank of life to which men 
 were unaccustomed to look for teaching, did He 
 cause all to wonder at the gracious words which 
 proceeded out of his mouth : from that temple 
 of God, where all were astonished at his un- 
 derstanding and answers, did He go do^^ai to 
 Nazareth, a despised place in a far-off country, 
 and subject himself in humble obedience to the 
 will of his earthly parents. There was no acci- 
 dent of outward circumstance to recommend 
 
38 - LECTURE II. 
 
 Him to public notice, no official dignity which 
 accompanied his teaching; the same words of 
 purity and truth W'hich extorted from the re- 
 luctant messengers of the Pharisees the confes- 
 sion that " never man spake like this man," were 
 gladly heard by the common people; the same 
 voice which discoursed to the teacher of Israel 
 of the mysteries of the new birth, invited the 
 little children to come unto Him, and forbade 
 them not, for of such was the kingdom of God." 
 And even into the dark and desolate places of 
 humanity did our gracious Lord condescend to 
 enter ; that He might brighten every obscurity, 
 and ennoble every suiFering, and heal every 
 disease : the bruised reed He did not break, nor 
 quench the smoking flax : publicans and sin- 
 ners, the outcast and the unclean, with these He 
 conversed and companied ; in his first pubhc 
 miracle He touched a leper ; in his last word 
 addressed to man on the cross. He spoke peace 
 to a dying malefactor. Into what greater depth 
 of shame hath man ever descended, than that 
 death of a slave before the assembled multitudes 
 of Israel 1 But in all this w^as there not one 
 passage of the life or the sufferings of our blessed 
 Lord which did not bring with it lessons of purity 
 and wisdom, and come upon the universal heart 
 of mankind with heavenly power. Out of weak- 
 ness brought He forth strength ; amidst the guilt 
 and wretchedness of man, did He speak holy 
 
THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. 39 
 
 reproof, and words of healing and peace; "He 
 w^as the trne Kght which Hghteth every man that 
 Cometh into the world :" and being the Saviour 
 of all, He was born for all. He lived for all, He 
 died for all; his sufferings were the sufferings 
 of all, that all might be partakers of his glory. 
 If then we Avish to illustrate the eminent 
 consistency of the Gospel revelation wdth the 
 purposes of that great revolution which was to 
 be wrought by it in the thoughts and affections 
 of mankind, we cannot anywhere see it more 
 plainly, than in the life and teaching of Christ 
 himself. There can be little doubt that this 
 revolution has been effected mainly, as far as it 
 has yet proceeded, by the simple force of the 
 Gospel narrative itself, accompanying the great 
 manifestation of the truth which it embodies ; 
 and when we consider what is the power of God, 
 and what the state of man in weakness, igno- 
 rance, and prejudice, I know not how we can 
 sufficiently admire the goodness of our Father 
 in heaven, in condescending to adapt the form 
 and method of the Gospel of redemption to the 
 wants and infirmities and even the guilt of his 
 creatures. I know not how we can depart from 
 such meditations as these, without hearing within 
 us the question, " How shall we escape, if we 
 neglect so great salvation V AVhen the Lord 
 Jesus has lowered Himself to us, that we may be 
 raised up unto Him, and become poor, that we 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 through his poverty might become rich, how 
 shall we avoid incurring his just vengeance, if 
 we receive not, nor acknowledge, such conde- 
 scension and love ■? Happy shall we be, if this 
 stern and accusing enquiry pass into that more 
 blessed one, " What shall I render to God for all 
 his mercies vouchsafed unto me ]" — if the time 
 past suffice us to have been unheedful and 
 careless, and henceforward the love of Christ 
 constrain us to yield ourselves, with firm con- 
 viction and unwavering devotion, a Hving sacri- 
 fice to Him, whose whole life, and working out 
 of our redemption, was a merciful sacrifice for 
 us. 
 
LECTURE 111. 
 
 THE PUKE IN HEART. 
 
 1 John, iii. 3. 
 
 Every man that hath this hope in him, purijietli himself 
 even as he is pure. 
 
 It is matter of experience, that our moral judg- 
 ments, springing primarily as they do from the 
 first principles of justice acknowledged by our 
 reason, are yet influenced in no mean degree 
 by our habits and our aflections. The habitual 
 prohibition or encouragement in a nation or 
 individual of a certain course of action, however 
 unreasonable, will, by means of the disposition 
 or affection awakened, gradually bring over the 
 moral judgment to approve or disapprove ac- 
 cordingly; and especially at that time of life, 
 or in that state of the mind, when the practical 
 reason is unfurnished or inactive. Again, the 
 tendency of the desires towards an object will 
 lead men to overlook blemishes, and suspend, 
 even till they lose, the use of their moral judg- 
 
42 LECTURE III. 
 
 ment with regard to them; whereas the tendency 
 to shun an object will on the other hand fre- 
 quently bring into active exercise the severer 
 moral judgments, which were before dormant 
 or unpractised. 
 
 And as these are undeniable facts in the 
 universal being of man, so, as far as we can see, 
 are they inseparable from such a state of being 
 as that in which we find ourselves ; an imperfect 
 and progressive state, in which desire prompts to 
 action, action brings experience, and experience 
 begets and matures new desires. It seems, I say, 
 necessary in such a state that the moral judg- 
 ments should be subjected to the same fluctu- 
 ations, that they should keej) pace with the 
 dispositions, and be in some degree measures 
 of the results of experience. Yet this is one 
 of those nice and subtle adjustments of our 
 inner being, which have been found to suffer 
 the easiest and most fatal derangement from 
 the corruption of the heart of man. If the 
 reason had deserted its high office, and forsaken 
 its intuitions of truth ; if the affections had given 
 place to the passions, and the desires had missed 
 their true objects, deeply and universally would 
 the moral judgments suffer in this wreck of 
 man's nature. The foolish heart would become 
 darkened: because man did not like to retain 
 God in his knowledge, he would be given up to 
 a reprobate mind ; lie would seek his own hurt, 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 48 
 
 and glory in his own shame ; and the end of 
 these things wonld be death — death spiritual, 
 that utter and final ruin of the soul in which 
 all desire for good, all power of self-recovery and 
 of energizing the recognition of truth, should be 
 for ever lost; a state in which a man might for 
 a time and partially cheat his misery by the 
 pleasures and occupations of the sense in this 
 world, but which must issue in eternal woe 
 when all such pastimes are removed, and the 
 consciousness of his perdition forced on him 
 in another life. 
 
 Now let us direct our attention to the holy 
 religion which we profess. We have seen it, 
 in its great work of the recovery of man to the 
 image of God, exhibiting truth to the reason 
 in its highest and simplest form; in admirable 
 consistency with its gracious purpose, awakening 
 the affections by means of those relations, and 
 that course of proceeding, which the reason of 
 mankind should universally recognize ; and 
 taking those means for inclining men's hearts 
 towards the states and practices which it re- 
 commended, than which it is impossible to con- 
 ceive any better calculated to operate universally 
 and permanently. Let us now endeavour" to 
 trace the same consistency in its method of 
 bringing the moral judgments back to their 
 true standard, and influencing them beneficially, 
 by means of the better afiections. 
 
44 LECTURE III. 
 
 And in order to this, it vnH be necessary to 
 say something respecting the true and highest 
 standard of our moral judgments. It will hardly 
 now be required of me to combat that theory 
 of morals -which would estabUsh principles by 
 the consideration of the probable results of cer- 
 tain courses of action : that which is popularly 
 termed expediency has been so far abandoned 
 as a standard of morality, that we may safely 
 assume the existence of certain fixed principles, 
 to which reference shall be made, irrespective of 
 their apparent and partial consequences ; for 
 apparent and partial only are the consequences 
 which we are able to take into account. 
 
 Again, it will hardly be required, after so 
 much has been said, and so ably, on this subject, 
 to make more than passing reference to that 
 which is popularly called the selfish system of 
 moraUty. I may venture to assume that these 
 fixed principles of which I have spoken are 
 standards of duty, irrespective of apparent per- 
 sonal advantage. At least it is a plain fact that 
 mankind agree in the assertion of such truths, 
 without reference to any present or probable 
 gain ; and that ingratitude, oppression, and in- 
 temperate self-indulgence, are the objects of our 
 aversion, without any consideration of our own 
 present or probable loss being involved in their 
 occurrence. 
 
 It is, I presume, acknowledged that there are 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 45 
 
 certain immutable truths of morality, assent to 
 which cannot be withheld ; and that the great 
 faculty which our Creator has placed within us 
 does reflect and shew forth these truths in such 
 a way that even the most abandoned stands self- 
 condemned, while the purest can at the same 
 time discern matter for abasement and amend- 
 ment. 
 
 That this testimony of the reason may by 
 means of evil affections and tendencies be prac- 
 tically overborne, I have already remarked ; and 
 we know that it has been so overborne by the 
 corruption of our nature. 
 
 In tracing then the great design of Christianity 
 of recovering our nature to its high estate of 
 purity, I see that a twofold work here, as before, 
 is required. Fii'st, the recalling us to our per- 
 ceptions of moral truth ; secondly, the furnishing 
 means for that truth being habituated in practice. 
 And towards both these I see that consistency 
 and fitness in the Gospel of Christ, which bespeak 
 it to have flowed forth from the same Being who 
 created the reason and desires of man. 
 
 Let us recur to that description of the new 
 creation in Christ Jesus given by Saint Paul, to 
 which I alluded on a former occasion. He asserts 
 it to be " Faith working by Love." In the first 
 word of this description is implied the enlight- 
 ening and purifying influence of the Holy Spirit 
 of God ; the removing of that film which sin had 
 
46 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 cast before our inner sight ; and in the words 
 ' working by love,' we trace the manner in which 
 the practical duties of our daily lives are reduced 
 into accordance wdth such inward enhghtening, 
 by means of holy desires after purity. 
 
 Let us attend first to that state of the spiritual 
 man which is here termed Faith. No word in 
 theology has been used so vaguely or so variously 
 as this ; which, reduced to its proper and strict 
 acceptation, seems to be the inward conviction 
 that the relation between God and ourselves is 
 such as we gather upon reasonable grounds that 
 He has revealed it to be. It is that state of 
 a man, in which the great announcements of the 
 Gospel of Christ are to him not merely undoubted 
 general truths, to which nothing can be objected, 
 but living personal realities, on w^hicli every thing 
 must depend. Now upon any view of such a 
 state, it will be plain that moral purity is abso- 
 lutely essential to its existence in man. We 
 cannot indeed say, except in a higher sense 
 than the words commonly bear, that moral purity 
 is the measure of faith ; but w^e can and must 
 say, that the absence of moral purity implies the 
 absence also of faith. For how can that man be 
 heartily convinced in his spirit of the personal 
 concern to him of the revelations of the Gospel, 
 who sets at nought those revelations, and acts as 
 if they had never been made ? But this moral 
 purity is not outward merely, for the anIioIc 
 
THE PURE IN HEART, 47 
 
 religion is spiritual, a matter of the heart, a 
 cleansing of the fountains of life themselves. It is 
 therefore a purity of heart. The polluted thought 
 is adverse to faith, as well as the polluted life : 
 injustice and dishonesty of scheme and design 
 are opposed to a hearty recognition of God, as 
 well as unjust and dishonest practices. These 
 latter, it is true, embody and fix the former, and 
 accompany them with actual consequences for 
 evil; but impure and unjust thoughts and de- 
 sires, besides predisposing the heart to actions 
 of the same kind, are in themselves just as 
 incompatible with faith as their corresponding 
 practices. The man who is convinced that God 
 is to him, and he to God, in such a relation as 
 the Gospel has revealed, feels himself respon- 
 sible in the sight of God for the exercise of his 
 thoughts and the direction of his desires. And 
 hence is the Christian morality of the highest 
 and purest order ; asserting a few very simple 
 and primary principles, which embrace in their 
 wide extent the whole course of human thought 
 and practice. AVe are the servants of God, 
 bound to do his will. If that will be declared 
 on any point, our duty is plain. If by men or 
 by circumstances we are drawn aside, we must 
 obey God rather than these. We are to cleave 
 to that which is good : our ends and our means 
 to those ends are to be alike pure and void of 
 offence. 
 
48 LECTURE III. 
 
 In Christian morality no secondary motives, 
 no inadequate conception of duty, no divided 
 or insincere service, can have place. All is 
 referred to one great central spring of action, 
 obedience to the will of God. Around tliis, 
 and connected with it, is man's moral system 
 arranged. It is that inward law of which it 
 was said, " I will put my laws in their hearts, 
 and on their minds "will I write them." In 
 accordance with this, and as brought into har- 
 mony with it by faith and love, are man's 
 dispositions and tendencies exercised. By it the 
 love of ourselves is regulated and preserved from 
 degenerating into selfishness ; by it our benevo- 
 lence is purified and directed into its highest and 
 most w'orthy channels. 
 
 So pure and simple, and yet so comprehensive, 
 is the exhibition of moral purity as required by 
 the Gospel. And who is there to whom the 
 nature and history of man has been a subject 
 of study, that will not confess, even at this stage 
 of our argument, the wisdom and consistency 
 of uplifting and making dominant, one central 
 ruling principle, under which the manifold 
 opportunities and circumstances of life shall be 
 ranged, and to tlie following out of which the 
 energies of man's being shall be devoted ] Who 
 is there that has failed to observe in the records 
 of the time before him, or in his own experience 
 of men, what power is conferred by simple devo* 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 49 
 
 tioii to one great object ; how by it the weak are 
 made strong; how men of great understanding 
 are often left behind in the race, because their 
 efforts are scattered and ill -sustained; whereas 
 others, from whom little was expected, have, by- 
 bending to some one point their concentrated 
 energies, surpassed themselves, and accomplished 
 mighty results ] These considerations may serve 
 to shew the wisdom of the Gospel in binding up 
 the various requirements of Christian morality 
 under one leading principle, and inviting the 
 believer in Jesus Christ to devote himself en- 
 tirely and singly to the service of his Redeemer ; 
 that so he may not be unstable and ill-assured, 
 beaten from his steadfastness by doubt and self- 
 distrust, but strong in the Lord, and the power of 
 His might. His moral judgment is thus disen- 
 cumbered, and every weight laid aside, that he 
 may run the race set before him ; he decides 
 with promptitude, resolves with well-grounded 
 determination, and executes with unwavering 
 courage. 
 
 But other illustrations may be given of this 
 simple and pure character of the morality of the 
 Gospel. As God is Light, and in Him is no 
 darkness at all ; so must that system of morals 
 which shall accompany the final declaration of 
 His will, be, in its details, full of light and 
 clearness. And if there be one characteristic 
 above another which distinguishes Christian 
 
50 LECTURE III. 
 
 morality, it is this: that the simplest and most 
 incontrovertible truths are stated by it broadly 
 and fearlessly, without secondary regards, and 
 without reserve. On these great princijoles it 
 rests its exhortations, regardless of their partial 
 or apparent consequences, and often at the risk 
 even of producing, by their development in 
 human conduct, results contradictory of its pro- 
 fessed objects. 
 
 We may take the following, out of many in- 
 stances which confirm this assertion. The Gos- 
 pel is a Gospel of Peace: its Founder is the 
 Prince of Peace ; and one of His first announce- 
 ments proclaimed a blessing on the peace-makers. 
 We are commanded to follow peace with all 
 men. And the duty of maintaining peace is 
 one of those which the reason of man cannot 
 deny: wrath and strife and en\7 and debate 
 are on all hands acknowledged to be the fruits 
 of the evil which is in the world; and the 
 ultimate subjection of evil will be commensurate 
 with the universal prevalence of good-will and 
 mutual kindness. 
 
 But it is no less one of the first great moral 
 principles of Christianity, that there is demanded 
 of us firm and unwavering adherence to the 
 truth. Our dearest earthly possessions and re- 
 lationships, if incompatible with this adherence, 
 are to be forsaken ; the deemings of those around 
 us are to be set at nought, however our interest 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 51 
 
 or affection may tempt us to regard them, if they 
 are opposed to the unanswerable convictions of 
 the truth within us: and this is no less accordant 
 with our reason than the other ; for if the object 
 of the final revelation from God be to bring us to 
 our highest estate of love and wisdom and happi- 
 ness, then nothing which interferes with its re- 
 ception, however otherwise recommended, ought 
 for a moment to be placed in comparison with it. 
 
 Now the manifest tendency of these two prin- 
 ciples of duty, when carried out in action, is to 
 interfere with each other ; and it is just the case 
 where a human lawgiver, or theorist on morals, 
 would suggest or enact a compromise, so as to 
 avoid the scandal or ill consequences which might 
 result from his system producing effects contrary 
 to its professed object. 
 
 But this is not done by the Gospel of Christ. 
 The two duties are broadly and fearlessly stated 
 wherever they are brought forward: nor can 
 there be an instance adduced in all the New 
 Testament Scriptures, where all reserve has 
 been more completely thrown aside, or where, if 
 reserve had been the practice of the Christian 
 teachers, we might more naturally have looked 
 for it. Nor has this been done in ignorance or 
 with concealment of the consequences. Our 
 Saviour himself states, " Think not that I came 
 to send peace upon the earth ; T came not to 
 send peace, but a sword:" and his Apostle 
 
 e2 
 
52 LECTURE III. 
 
 acknowledges the opposition of the two Uncs 
 of conduct when he gives as a direction to his 
 readers, " If it be possible, as much as lieth in 
 you, live peaceably mth all men." 
 
 Now it is plain that this opposition, with all 
 its consequences, results from the evil which 
 is in the world; and that any attempted com- 
 promise must therefore be a movement in the 
 direction of this evil. "VVe might perhaps, from 
 a human system of morals, or even fr'om an 
 imperfect development of the Divine Avill in 
 these matters, expect some such compromise ; 
 but the very idea of a complete revelation of 
 eternal purity and truth of God precludes such 
 a condescension to evil. And we cannot con- 
 ceive that such a revelation could otherwise 
 proceed, than by fearlessly insisting on and 
 holding up to man the great and primary truths, 
 which nevertheless the evil in the world may 
 have rendered in action incompatible with one 
 another. As such evil was by degrees put down. 
 and overcome, the two lines of conduct would, 
 by the removal of the barrier between them, 
 approach to unison ; till finally, in the full and 
 complete recovery of man, peace and truth would 
 be one and the same. 
 
 Another example of the same open and fearless 
 assertion of duties which our corruption has ren- 
 dered partially incompatible, may be found in 
 the fact, that the Gospel appeals to self-interest 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 53 
 
 as a motive of action, while it enjoins positively 
 the practice and discipline of self-sacrifice. And 
 in this case also, the two duties, in our renewed 
 and enlightened condition, virtually coincide. 
 
 In this way then of exhibiting these seemingly 
 incompatible duties, I see a manifest reference 
 to a better and higher state of man, and the plain 
 mark of a system whose object it is to bring 
 about such a state. 
 
 But again : supposing the Gospel to be the 
 instrument of man's final recovery to purity, its 
 standard of duty must not keep pace with only, 
 but surpass, the highest ideas which we possess 
 of moral perfection. For we must not regard 
 its precepts and enactments merely as a code 
 of laws, designed to retain a society of men in 
 a certain state, and to prevent its dissolution 
 and anarchy ; but as a pattern of purity, and 
 a measure of that which is well-pleasing to God, 
 which may continually adapt itself to the con- 
 tinually advancing state of the spirit of man : so 
 that the moral standard of the Gospel may be, 
 even in the highest imaginable approach to per- 
 fection on the part of man, yet above his reach, 
 and inviting him to fresh action ; so that he may 
 never count himself to have apprehended, but 
 forgetting that which is behind, may press on 
 to the mark for the prize of his high calling. 
 Yet at the same time our nature seems to re- 
 quire that such lofty purity should not at once 
 
54 LECTURE III. 
 
 be presented before its weakness and ii-resolution, 
 lest we should be utterly discoui'aged ; but that 
 it should be revealed in degrees, as we are capable 
 of hearing and being drawn to it. 
 
 Now, in stating these requirements, I have 
 been in fact describing the character of the moral 
 teaching of the Gospel of Christ. Both of them 
 are amply fulfilled in the simple precept of our 
 Lord, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in 
 heaven is perfect." Whereby an example of 
 purity is set before us, surpassing and l}ing 
 beyond our furthest advances in grace, but at 
 the same time suitmg itself to each man's mind, 
 according to his apprehension of the Divine per- 
 fections. And this short precept is but the 
 compendium of the whole Gospel system of 
 morahty ; tliis advance of the standard of purity 
 with our advance of spiritual perception, being 
 very fi-equently stated and insisted on. We are 
 told that " to him that hath shall be given ;" that 
 "if any man mil do God's will, he shall know of 
 the doctrine :" we are to be transformed by the 
 renemng of our minds, that we may prove what 
 is that good and acceptable and jjerfect will of 
 God. We are told, in words whose bearmg on 
 this matter is hardly to be mistaken, that " of 
 the fulness of Christ have we all received, and 
 grace for grace;"' new perception of, and desire 
 
 ' John i. 16. 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. DO 
 
 for purity and holiness, as the consequence of 
 purity and hoKness attained. 
 
 I see then here a truly admirable adaptation 
 of the Gospel to its great end — a particular in 
 which, while it accords Avith the constitution of 
 the human mind and the great moral laws of our 
 being, it differs essentially from all human sys- 
 tems or theories of morahty. 
 
 Such then is its exhibition of purity and duty 
 to the Reason ; such are the grounds on which it 
 would form the moral judgments : it is bold and 
 fearless, with no concession to, or compromise 
 with, the evil that is in the world ; having refer- 
 ence to that higher and better state to which 
 it promises to bring us ; and at the same time 
 capable of infinite expansion and advance, as 
 man himself is gradually transformed and re- 
 newed. 
 
 But we have yet to notice the consistency of 
 the Gospel with its professed object, in providing 
 for the habituation of its moral precepts in the 
 life and practice of mankind. The Gospel was 
 sent not to condemn the world, but to save the 
 world : and therefore it may be expected that, 
 besides its holding up the light of truth, it should 
 also be adapted to attract men to the light, and 
 to Avork upon those dispositions and affections 
 whereby the fountains of the will are stirred, 
 from which action flows forth. 
 
 And when with such an expectation I search 
 
56 LECTURE III. 
 
 the Book of the Gospel covenant, many as are 
 the excellencies of that system, and perfect as is 
 the beanty of truth therein exhibited, I know of 
 no one point which so deeply moves me to adora- 
 tion of the Divine wisdom, as the wonderful 
 provision which I there find, for drawing me 
 towards that which is lovely, and pure, and 
 honest, and of good report. If with one view 
 I look on the life of the blessed Saviour of men, 
 I see in it a complete fiilfilment of God's law for 
 and in the nature of man. As the second Adam, 
 He restored and built up that righteousness 
 which the first Adam had cast down and ruined ; 
 as the righteous Head of our spiritual nature. 
 He resolved and acted for and on behalf of the 
 body; and we are complete, looked on and 
 reckoned by the Father as in Him. As the 
 Son of man, the great including Representative 
 of our nature. He fought with evil, and wrestled 
 with the tempter, and we are more than con- 
 querors through Him who loved us. And if 
 with this view I attend to some of the deeper 
 sayings of the word of truth, I find great and 
 wonderful things spoken of this life of Christ 
 in purity and smlessness; things which seem 
 even for awhile to avert my earnest gaze from 
 his cross, and by reason of glory that exceedeth, 
 to dim the very brightness of his resurrection 
 morning. For our sakes He declares He sanc- 
 tified Himself, that we also may be sanctified 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 57 
 
 through the truth/ "If," it is written, " when we 
 were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the 
 death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, 
 we shall be saved by His life."" And of this again 
 I read, "As by the offence of one, judgment 
 came upon all men unto condemnation ; even so 
 by the righteousness of one the free gift came 
 upon all men unto justification of life ; for as by 
 the disobedience of one many were made sinners, 
 so by the obedience of one shall many be made 
 righteous."^ 
 
 So that, in looking on the life of Christ in this 
 view, I see in it the great work which He wrought 
 in its very highest exhibition ; I see that done 
 for us which we could not do, and that enemy 
 overcome who was too strong for us. And 
 when by this my gratitude is awakened, and 
 my attention strongly drawn to that Person 
 whose life, with all its actions and sufferings, was 
 of such high importance to my eternal interests ; 
 and I again re\dew the record of His life in 
 humble thankfulness for that which has been 
 wa'ought by it; I find another character united 
 with the Saviour, — I find the same Person the 
 teacher and example of mankind. AVhatever 
 action or suffering I contemplate, in order to 
 arouse my affections and awaken my sense of 
 that which has been done for me, I find in the 
 same the seeds of moral purity, of gentleness, 
 ' John xvii. 19. " Rom. v. 10. ^ lb. 18. 
 
58 LECTURE III. 
 
 self-sacrifice, and holiness deeply and thickly 
 sown. If I am desirous to approach Him nearer 
 and love Him better, I cannot accomplish that 
 desire by mere contemplation as of a human 
 character; nor am I dra^svn to it by the beauty 
 of purity itself, so that my aifection should be 
 speculative or depend on my power of abstrac- 
 tion ; but while I look on Him as my Redeemer 
 I must obey Him as my master ; I am not one 
 of his friends unless I do whatsoever He hath 
 commanded me. He who sanctified Himself that 
 I might be holy, and died that I might be for- 
 given, is raised up as my pattern and my guide, 
 and I become his follower : I desire to be like 
 Him; to let that mind be in me, which was 
 also in Him ; and having the hope in me of 
 inheriting the blessings which He hatli procured, 
 I am led to purify myself, even as He is piu*e ; 
 to receive his words as the rule of my life ; to sit 
 at his feet, and learn of Him. 
 
 I am then directed to the record of the life 
 of Christ, as the provision which is made in the 
 Gospel for the habituation of those high and 
 pure principles, which are by it exliibited to the 
 reason of man. And when I search that record 
 with this end in view, I am induced to admire 
 and adore that wisdom of God, which could, 
 in the narrative of so short a space of a human 
 life, and under so few aspects of outward change, 
 present me ^^dth so fidl and various du-ection 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 59 
 
 for my abiding in purity and truth. The highest 
 exercise of the highest moral principles is here 
 before me ; all that I could imagine or desire 
 to see exemplified is here made actual ; and the 
 radiance of that Divine perfection is made suffer- 
 able by its becoming flesh and dweUing among 
 us; and through my human aflections, them- 
 selves purified and exalted by the exercise, I 
 become a partaker of the nature of God, having 
 escaped the corruption which is in the world 
 by lust. 
 
 Thus it is that our faith, being our firm and 
 lively conviction of the truth of that which our 
 Saviour has done and suffered for us, works by 
 love in drawing us to follow the blessed example 
 of his most holy life ; so that by it He dwells 
 in our hearts — He is their pattern, and the object 
 to which their earnest yearnings are directed ; 
 by faith our thoughts are purified, our motives 
 sublimed, our judgments directed towards truth. 
 
 But the Saviour who dwells in our hearts 
 by faith, hath vanquished the enemy and led 
 captivity captive, and gone up on high before 
 the throne of God. The Spirit with which He 
 was anointed for his great work, hath He now 
 received as a gift for men, even for those who 
 believe on Him. And thus are we by faith 
 united not merely to One whose record is in the 
 Gospel, and whose life of purity and love is our 
 pattern, but to One who through the grave and 
 
60 LECTURE III. 
 
 gate of death hath passed to his joyful resur- 
 rection, and whose name is above every name. 
 
 Our conversation, our pohty, our home is there 
 where He is. His Spirit is our spu'it; we are 
 dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God; 
 and therefore do we mortify our members upon 
 the earth, and set our affections on that puiity 
 and peace which is above. 
 
 Thus that love, wherewith we love Him who 
 hath first loved us, constraining us to yield our- 
 selves to Him, and be hke Him, becomes a 
 mighty instrument towards the renewal of our 
 nature in purity of holiness. 
 
 Nor is hope inactive in this great work, but 
 accompanies and upholds love in its progress. 
 We have not only records of the Divine mercy, 
 but great and exceeding precious promises : we 
 are assured that our labour is not m vain in the 
 Lord ; that a day of glory and joy is before us ; 
 that then our anxious wishes shall be fulfilled, 
 our high endeavours cro'waied with success. We 
 look forward to the time when He whom we 
 love and follow shall come and see us again, and 
 our hearts shall rejoice. And treasures of untold 
 happiness lie beyond that joyful appearing; a 
 state in which the pure in heart shall see God, 
 and the nations of the redeemed shall walk in 
 the light of His presence; the high noon, of which 
 all tliat is joyous here is but the faint and clouded 
 dawn — that certainty of waking bliss, of which 
 we can now but fitfullv dream. 
 
THE PURE IN HEART. 61 
 
 Having then these promises, we cleanse our- 
 selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit ; 
 having this hope of appearing with Christ in 
 glory, we purify ourselves even as He is pure. 
 
 Thus, by the enlightening of the Spirit of truth, 
 are we made to perceive and to think such things 
 as are good ; thus, by the condescension of our 
 gracious God to our constitution and w^ants, are 
 we furnished with merciful guiding to perform 
 the same. Thus is the morality of the Gospel 
 the perfect law of liberty ; when man, having 
 his reason enlightened and convinced, being con- 
 strained by love, and pointed onward by hope, 
 presents himself a lively sacrifice to God, which 
 is his reasonable service. 
 
 Thus is that Gospel most consistent with its 
 object ; professing not to compel, but to per- 
 suade — not to govern, but to renew mankind. 
 
LECTURE lY. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 
 
 John xvi. 13. 
 
 When He, the Spmt of truth, is cotne, He will guide you 
 into all truth. 
 
 If the Gospel of Christ be indeed the provision 
 for the full and complete recovery of man to that 
 high estate of which sin has rendered him in- 
 capable, then must it have regard not only to 
 his practical and moral being, but also to his 
 speculative and intellectual faculties. 
 
 Nor is this left as matter of inference only; 
 but the New Testament abounds with announce- 
 ments of this part of the purpose of the final 
 revelation. " Unto you," says our Saviour, " is 
 it given to know the mysteries of the kingdom 
 of heaven.'" " Blessed are your eyes for they 
 see, and your ears for they liear."' He speaks 
 of the man who is instructed to the kingdom 
 1 Mark iv. 11. " Matt. xiii. 16. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 63 
 
 of heaven, and likens him to " an householder, 
 who brings out of his treasure things new and 
 old.'" 
 
 The increase of knowledge promised on the 
 increase of obedience, has place not only in the 
 individual, but in the progress of the Christian 
 Church towards fulfilling the will of God, and in 
 the influence of that progress upon the great 
 mass of mankind. The Spirit of truth is to 
 guide into all truth ; the whole body is to be 
 fuU of light. 
 
 And if we search those parts of the New 
 Testament which were written after the com- 
 pletion of the great process of Redemption by 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost, when now the 
 doctrines of the Gospel and its influence had 
 become matter of reflection and argument, we 
 find the same purpose still more openly asserted. 
 Saint Paul rejoices that they of the Roman 
 church are " filled with all knowledge, able to 
 admonish one another ;"^ that the Corinthians 
 " are in every thing enriched by Christ, in utter- 
 ance and all knowledge."^ And the same Apostle 
 strongly draws the contrast between the wisdom 
 of the world by which it knew not God, and this 
 new and higher msdom which the Gospel of 
 Christ was to teach. "We speak wisdom," he 
 writes, " among those that are perfect : yet not 
 
 ^ Matt. xiii. 52. ^ Rom. xv. 14. 
 
 3 1 Cor. i. 5 ; '2 Cor. viii. 7. 
 
64 
 
 LECTURE lY 
 
 " the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes 
 " of this world that come to nought. But we 
 " speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even 
 " the hidden wisdom which God ordained before 
 " the world unto our glory, which none of the 
 " princes of this world knew ; for had they kno^vn 
 " it, they would not have crucified the Lord of 
 " glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, 
 " nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
 " heart of man, the things which God hath 
 " prepared for them that love him. But God 
 " hath revealed them to us by his Spirit ; for 
 " the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
 " things of God. For what man knoweth the 
 " things of a man, save the spirit of man which 
 " is in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth 
 " no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have 
 " received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
 " Spirit of God; that we might know those 
 " things that are freely given to us of God. 
 " Which things also we speak, not in the words 
 " which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
 " Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things 
 " with spiritual. For the natural man discerneth 
 " not the things of the Spirit of God, for they 
 " are foolishness unto him; neither can he 
 " know them, because they arc spiritually dis- 
 " corned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all 
 " things, yet he himself is judged of no man."^ 
 ' 1 Cor. ii. 7—15. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 65 
 
 I have quoted at length this remarkable pas- 
 sage, because it contains a clear announcement 
 of the purpose of the Gospel to inform the under- 
 standing and give a right judgment in all things, 
 by means of an influence peculiar to itself, and 
 by producing a state of mind with which the 
 unchristianized nature of man has nothing in 
 common. I have also cited it, because the truths 
 declared in it form the common foundation, on 
 which rested the many systems of Christian 
 philosophy in the early Church, when the nature 
 of this wisdom was constantly brought into earn- 
 est debate ; which common foundation, rather 
 than any of the structures raised upon it, must, 
 by the very limitations assigned to these Lec- 
 tures, be the object of our present contemplation. 
 
 It appears then, both from the idea of a final 
 revelation from God for the recovery of man, 
 and by direct assertion in the course of that 
 revelation itself, that there belongs to the state 
 of man, as brought under the influence of the 
 Gospel of Christ, a capability and a promise of 
 high additions of knowledge ; an enlightening 
 of the eyes of the understanding ; a wisdom 
 which is from above. And it is my present 
 wish to trace the consistency of the Christian 
 revelation in the provision made for imparting 
 this knowledge. 
 
 The order which we have followed in our 
 treatment of this subject, must here again be 
 
 F 
 
66 LECTURE IV. 
 
 observed. We have seen the Gospel of Christ 
 acting by the Holy Spirit of God upon the 
 reason, the highest faculty of man ; exalting it 
 to new perceptions of truth, and providing 
 means for those perceptions to be effective in in- 
 fluencing the affections and the moral judgments. 
 Now from this point of our progress we turn 
 our attention to the understanding, the faculty 
 whereby knowledge is acquired. We desire to 
 ascertain its state as existent in the natural 
 mind. If we look back to the record of man's 
 fall, we find that the rebellion of the under- 
 standing was in him the first spring of evil ; 
 that this subordinate power, usurping the place 
 of the highest, and takiug to its aid the desires 
 of the fleshly mind, did, by its partial and in- 
 adequate conceptions, overthrow the moral being 
 of man. And if from this first record we look 
 downwards through the ages of the world, even 
 to the coming of Christ, we may aptly describe 
 the intellectual state of man in general, as the 
 reign of the carnal understanding. In some 
 cases the intellectual part, being more and more 
 brought into bondage to the animal passions, 
 with which it was allied, became at length in- 
 active and virtually extinct, as in the life of the 
 savage ; in others, the intellectual part of man 
 prevailed, refining and subtilizing the carnal de- 
 su'es, but totally poAvcrlcss over them, because 
 itself partook of them, and worked by them. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 67 
 
 So that we have in all its degrees, during 
 these ages of the world, the rebellion of the 
 carnal understanding. And in this time did 
 that faculty, so far as it could in its degraded 
 and unrenewed state, put forth all its energies, 
 and arrive at its very highest point of acquire- 
 ment and efficiency : its race was run ; its in- 
 adequacy to the office of a ruler and guide fully 
 demonstrated ; the very nations in whom it was 
 found in the greatest activity, and who bowed 
 the most implicitly to its sway, being found in 
 the lowest ranks of moral guilt and pollution. 
 
 Amidst this twofold aspect of mankind under 
 the dominion of the flesh, the intellectual situ- 
 ation of God's chosen people the Jews furnishes a 
 strong proof of the fitness, for their conservation, 
 of the system under which they were shut up by 
 Providence, hidden under the shadow of His wings 
 until the tyranny should be overpast. Among 
 them no encouragement was given for the exercise 
 of the understanding ; its very fountains were 
 sealed up. If they presumed to enquire or to 
 speculate, they went astray, "Lean not to thine 
 own understanding,"' was the command addressed 
 to them by the wisest among them. In the study 
 of their law, the veriest abasement of this faculty 
 was required of them. At every turn it was baffled 
 Jind humiliated. If it attempted to follow out 
 the humanized conceptions of God, Avhich were 
 
 ' Prov. iii. 5. 
 
 f2 
 
68 LECTURE lY. 
 
 sometimes presented to it, it fell into peril of 
 idolatry, the thing cursed above all others. If it 
 endeavoured to carry forward abstract notions 
 of the God of holiness and truth, it was in 
 danger of despising the carnal observances, and 
 loathing the bloody sacrifices, which were bound 
 up wdth the statutes and judgments so strictly 
 enjoined. 
 
 At length, in the fulness of time, the Gospel 
 of Christ appeared, and announced a new, even 
 a spiritual understanding. The carnal man 
 walked by sight and sense. The desires of the 
 sense were his guides ; by the horizon of the 
 sense, the range of his conceptions was limited. 
 But the spiritual man was to walk by faith ; the 
 affections which belong to faith were to be his 
 conductors; and only by the extent of that which 
 faith was able to receive, were his spiritual con- 
 ceptions to be bounded. Now by the very terms 
 of this statement, is the carnal understanding 
 brought into subjection by, and taken up into, 
 a higher and better form of the same faculty. 
 The rebellious power within man is reduced to 
 its true allegiance. The reason, enlightened by 
 the Holy Spirit of God, and overruling that faith 
 which is thus begotten in us, corrects the errors, 
 and guides the efforts of the understanding, suits 
 its conceptions to our spiritual state, and prevents 
 us from following it to our hurt. 
 
 Are we now conversant with humanized con- 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 69 
 
 ceptions of God ? does He speak to us as our 
 Father and our Friend? We need not fear to 
 contemplate Him in such characters : for we 
 have seen Him incarnate in our nature ; we look 
 by faith upon One who is the radiance of his 
 glory and the express image of his person, — One 
 who has lived and loved and suffered as man, 
 and has exalted this our nature to the right hand 
 of the Majesty on high. Do we now desire to 
 trace in the dealings of God the footsteps of 
 absolute Purity, Truth, and Love ; and to find 
 all our best desires satisfied in Him ? No exclu- 
 sive ordinances, no bloody sacrifices, now inter- 
 vene between God and the family of His love : 
 all is consistent, all is clear. 
 
 But, it may be objected, there are limita- 
 tions of the exercise of the understanding in 
 spiritual matters. We cannot reconcile the sove- 
 reignty of God with the free will of man, nor 
 the purity of God with the evil that is in His 
 world. But are not these limitations the very 
 conditions of our intellectual being'? and could 
 it be expected of any revelation Avhich should 
 be suited to that being, that it should overstep 
 them *? And it is the very virtue and perfection 
 of reasonable faith, that it satisfies the doubts, 
 and calms the struggles of the understanding of 
 man in these cases, by placing each of these 
 antagonist truths to its right account, and making 
 it efficient for good in his spiritual renovation. 
 
70 LECTURE IV. 
 
 So that the faithful man sees in the sovereignty 
 of God a pledge that all things shall work to- 
 gether for his best welfare ; by this he comforts 
 and encourages his di-ooping spirit; on tliis he 
 leans for the fulfilment of his hopes; wliile the 
 consciousness of his o\Yn. free agency moves him 
 to continual watchfulness, and earnest endeavour 
 to choose the right path — to strive to enter in 
 at tlie strait gate that leadeth unto life. 
 
 And so in the other case — God is pure, and he 
 is called on to be like God. This purity is the 
 object of his contemplation, the pattern after 
 which his endeavours strive, and according to 
 which his conceptions must be formed: in all 
 these must he be also of purer eyes than ^^'illingly 
 to behold evil. But evil is in and around him ; 
 and of this, in his daily walk and life, must he 
 not be unmindful; ever on the watch, ever 
 guarding against surprise, ever clad with the 
 whole armour of God. 
 
 And a most wholesome effect is produced on 
 the heart and life by this regulation of the un- 
 derstanding, by the soundness of judgment con- 
 ferred by reasonable faith ; an earnest practical 
 view of duty, a hearty reliance upon God's good- 
 ness as declared in his promises, a wise self- 
 distrust, and abstinence from matters too high 
 for the powers of man. It is this which 2)roduces 
 that balance and right adjustment of the com- 
 ponent elements of our spiritual being, which 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 71 
 
 answers, in its higher sphere of action and bles- 
 sedness, to the equilibrium of the physical frame 
 maintained in perfect health of the body ; when 
 the energies are unimpeded, and the nourishing 
 ]30wers able to assimilate that food which is con- 
 venient for them. 
 
 And if we examine the book of the Gospel 
 covenant, we shall find it admirably adapted to 
 serve this purpose of guiding and regulating the 
 understanding of man. For, in the first place, 
 the occurrences related in it are a manifestation 
 of certain great purposes in the Divine mind, in 
 subordination to which all conceptions must be 
 formed, and beyond which they cannot stray. 
 The redemption of man by Christ from an ac- 
 knowledged state of sin and misery, being the 
 one great end of the Gospel, and so much of this 
 wonderful process having been revealed by it, as 
 it is necessary for us to know, we are furnished 
 with a sufficient and unerring guide for our 
 meditations on Divine things. If we stray be- 
 yond the path in which we are thus led, we 
 enter on enquiries to which our present faculties 
 will not allow us to give an answer : but if we 
 walk in this path humbly and thankfully, we 
 walk safely and surely ; and faith, love, and 
 obedience will build up the soul in heavenly 
 wisdom. 
 
 But as the understanding of the spuitual man 
 can only be effective within these limits, so when 
 
72 
 
 LECTURE IT. 
 
 the life of the Spirit is active within, the reason 
 convinced, the heart warmed, and the hand moved 
 to good works for the glory of God, is there all 
 encouragement given for the exercise and per- 
 fecting of the understanding. The first effect 
 of the Gospel in its action on man is to cause 
 him to believe, and consequently to love, and 
 to act in accordance with those inward con- 
 victions and promptings: but the grace of his 
 heavenly Father does not leave him here. He 
 has been created with powers of thought and 
 speculation, the existence of which will not allow 
 us to conceive any high or blessed state of his 
 being into which the purified exercise of these 
 shall not enter. And though faith is not know- 
 ledge by itself, nor is love knowledge, nor is the 
 state of humble obedience necessarily a state of 
 ■wisdom ; yet do these united make up that 
 simple and earnest and childlike temper, which 
 is the lowly portal to the temple of heavenly 
 wisdom ; and on bending beneath which, the 
 glories of that temple are one by one opened to 
 our gaze. 
 
 Our understanding then being placed in due 
 subordination to the higher parts of our nature, 
 let us enquire what kind of encouragement is 
 given by Christianity for its exercise, and what 
 facilities for its education in heavenly wisdom. 
 
 We may conceive the love of God in Christ 
 to have been revealed to man in an authori- 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 73 
 
 tative and indubitable form ; so that the human 
 race might at once have been certified of the 
 Gosj)el having proceeded forth from God. We 
 may conceive some great physical event to have 
 been, and to continue, the standing record of the 
 Divine manifestation, or the presence of some 
 heavenly ambassador fixed among us, from whom 
 the words of truth should flow forth upon the 
 inferior race of man. And we are sometimes 
 tempted to think that such a revelation would 
 bring with it great advantages. We imagine 
 that we should be placed in a higher position, 
 by possessing evidence which the unbeliever 
 could not gainsay ; and that a Gospel written 
 on the heavens, or published by superhuman 
 authority on earth, would more befit the power 
 and goodness of God. If from time to time, 
 when fainting under our spiritual toil, we could 
 look up, and see the sign of the Son of Man above 
 us, we could refresh oiu' souls, and go on our way 
 rejoicing; if from the uttermost parts of the earth 
 we could but repair to hear the wisdom of one 
 who had seen what is to us in\isible, we could 
 not, we imagine, be in danger of forgetting or 
 misapprehending the things which belong to our 
 salvation. And then, we fancy, would the de- 
 pravity of man abhor itself and di'op from him, 
 and the disobedient would be turned to the 
 wisdom of the just, when celestial Purity should 
 display itself before them, and all flesh should 
 
74 LECTURE IV. 
 
 see the glory of the Lord. But his ways are not 
 our ways, nor are our thoughts his thoughts. 
 He, by his almighty power and infinite wisdom, 
 has constructed this our spiritual frame, and its 
 faculties and its infirmities are best known to 
 Him. But even to us are they sufficiently 
 known, to enable us to pronounce that the re- 
 sult of such a revelation as I have been sup- 
 posing, would not be such as to verify these 
 sanguine expectations. We know^ enough of 
 the human imderstanding to be able to testify, 
 that in its diligent and laborious exercise is its 
 excellence to be attained ; that while truth un- 
 doubted and unquestionable is displayed, through 
 the outward sense, to the inner reason, the un- 
 derstanding is paralyzed and dormant, its exer- 
 cise is precluded, its office superseded. We 
 know enough of the history of the dealings of 
 Providence with manldnd, to be able by them 
 to confirm this conclusion ; seeing that ages of 
 supernatural light have ever been ages of sub- 
 jection of the understanding; that the objective 
 rcaUty, or the subjective realization of the work- 
 ing of the finger of God, has uniformly checked 
 and overawed the progress of the understanding 
 of man. 
 
 I now turn to the times under which we live, 
 and the covenant which God has established with 
 us. Signs and wonders, and a mighty hand and 
 an outstretched arm, ushered it into this oiu- 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 75 
 
 world. One came whose birth was heralded by 
 the host of heaven ; whose word the winds and 
 seas obeyed, and the fiends of disease, and the 
 angel of death ; whose sufferings rent the earth 
 and darkened the sky ; whose triumph disarmed 
 the conqueror of our race, and broke the bands 
 of the grave. After Him were raised up men of 
 might in the Spirit, endowed with new tongues 
 to speak the wonderful works of God ; raising 
 the dead, healing the sick, casting out devils; 
 givmg freely what they had freely received from 
 Him. But this solemn pomp passed over the 
 stage of the world, and left no trace. The gifts 
 were withdrawn, the testimony ceased ; and 
 with the powers ceased also the desire for them 
 and expectation of them. Yet did God not leave 
 himself without witness to future ages. The 
 reign of the carnal understanding had not passed 
 by without contributing to His eternal purposes. 
 In those conventional symbols, by which man 
 communicates thought with man, was the Divine 
 Spirit pleased to clothe his meanings ; and there 
 was left to the Church of Christ a sufficient 
 record of the great events by which it had been 
 founded and propagated. And most carefully 
 did the Pro\idence of God keep watch over that 
 record, and adapt its form and fortunes to the 
 wants of our human understanding. If we are 
 disposed to require that testimony shall have 
 been borne to the history of our redemption by 
 
76 LECTURE IV. 
 
 more than one witness, inasmuch as by one 
 man's individual feelings might truth become 
 distorted, or by one man's unassisted memory 
 might it be betrayed ; we have several concur- 
 rent testimonies ; enough in unison, to testify to 
 the identity and truth of the things which they 
 relate, and to shew the guiding of the Divine 
 Spirit in their inditing ; enough dissimilar, to 
 prove that collusion was impossible, and that 
 they were, as they profess to be, the records of 
 separate and independent witnesses. 
 
 If in matters so deep and important we might 
 distrust the mystic and theorizing tendency of 
 the philosophy of the day, and require that there 
 should be a testimony borne by unsophisticated 
 men, who should simply and fairly set down that 
 which they had seen and heard; we have the 
 deepest sayings, and the most detailed discourses 
 of Him who was the wisdom of God, delivered 
 down to us by the fisherman of Galilee, the pure 
 and gentle and unlearned one, who leaned on the 
 bosom of Christ, and drank deeply of that spirit 
 of love which was in Him. 
 
 If again we might wish for the sober and well- 
 weighed summary of evidence which should be 
 arranged by a mind somewhat more cultivated, 
 collecting and judging on the narrations of 
 others ; we have the record of the companion 
 of St. Paul, himself not an eye-witness, but 
 digesting and putting forth the things which 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 77 
 
 were received in the Christian Church, that we 
 might know the truth of that wherein we have 
 been instructed. 
 
 And when it became necessary that the Gospel 
 should be spoken with power to Jews and Greeks, 
 then did God summon one to the work, not from 
 the beach of Gennesaret, nor from the seat of 
 custom, but fi'om the feet of Gamaliel, and the 
 studies of Hebrew and Grecian lore : and He 
 gave to him a holy fervour of zeal, a superhuman 
 insight into Divine truth, imparting to him the 
 facts of Eedemption, not by evidence of the sense, 
 but by intuition of the Spirit ; so that he received 
 them not of man, nor by man, but by revelation 
 from Jesus Christ. And having prepared that 
 person for his office, the Divine Spirit ordered 
 him to be separated and sent abroad on the 
 work. He stood before kings, and reasoned 
 with philosophers, and convinced Jews out of 
 their Scriptures. He rose up amidst the glitter- 
 ing temples of Asia, and preached Christ cruci- 
 fied. He gathered of the fruits of science, and 
 art, and conquest, and washed them in the 
 purifying blood of the covenant, and laid tnem 
 on the altar of our God. And into the very 
 strong holds of the carnal understanding did this 
 champion of the truth penetrate : he spoke of 
 purity in the wanton streets of Corinth ; in the 
 central fortress of the human intellect did he 
 preach of eternal judgment and the resurrection 
 
78 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of the dead. Nor was the imperial city herself 
 forgotten in this provision for the establishment 
 of the Gospel. With blessed increase did he 
 return her benefits, whose rights had ensured his 
 safety, and whither the exercise of those rights 
 had carried him. In all the palace were his 
 bonds known ; and in the household of the most 
 wanton and cruel of the wretched tyrants of 
 Home, were there those to whom his Apostolic 
 salutation might be sent. Never, till the secrets 
 of all hearts shall be laid open, can it be known 
 what a rich harvest of souls was reaped, what 
 a deep foundation for the Christian Church was 
 laid, by the raising up of this one man as the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles ; nor in all the testi- 
 monies to the consistency of Christianity with 
 its great end of the recovery of man, is there, 
 in my own opinion, one more striking than this 
 preparation of the instrument for the work, — this 
 condescension to the human understanding, in 
 order that it might be raised and purified, and 
 admitted to a sight of the wonderful spiritual 
 works of God. 
 
 But the teaching of this great Apostle and his 
 colleagues was not destined to pass away, but 
 w^as, by a series of providential orderings of events, 
 called forth in writings of rebuke, remonstrance, 
 encouragement, and persuasion, over which the 
 Divine Spirit ruled, and which the care of God 
 has preserved inviolate, even to our own times. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 79 
 
 I shall have occasion in another Lecture to call 
 your attention to the principal of these Epistles, 
 and to shew their admirable adaptation to the 
 state and wants of the Church of Christ. Let 
 it now suffice to have directed your notice to 
 that condescension to the understanding of man, 
 which is manifest throughout the method in 
 which the Gospel has been revealed; to have 
 been reminded, that all the cavils against our 
 holy religion as bringing this faculty into bond- 
 age, and discouraging intellectual exertion, are, 
 to say the least, uttered in ignorance of the very 
 characteristics of Christianity. 
 
 I have now concluded this first part of my 
 present course, in which it has been my desire 
 to set before you the strict agreement of the 
 Gospel of Christ with its announced objects, in its 
 conformity with and adaptation to the structure 
 of the mind of man. I say, with its announced 
 objects — those objects being, all the several 
 operations comprised in the building up of our 
 nature in the perfect image of God. And in 
 doing this, I have been putting Christianity to 
 a test which it challenges for itself, and col- 
 lecting evidence, which, if it be legitimately 
 derived, is of no mean importance. Such traces 
 of the Divine origin of the Gospel are not mere 
 coincidences, to be observed and forgotten again, 
 but powerful reasons for our embracing to the 
 utmost a remedy so propounded ; and on appre- 
 
80 LECTURE IV. 
 
 hending which, we become responsible for the 
 obeying of them. 
 
 Nor are the endeavours to obtain such evidence 
 to be discouraged, by being stigmatised as sa- 
 vouring of rationalism, popularly so called. In 
 fact they are the very best of all bulwarks 
 against this heretical tendency ; at least, if I 
 rightly understand it to mean, an attempt to 
 reduce every thing in religion to the present 
 measure and capacity of the human mind. I 
 need not, I trust, remind you, that to such a 
 tendency these Lectures have been uniformly 
 and strongly opposed; that the idea of Chris- 
 tianity as put forward in them has been, that of 
 a direct influence from Almighty God upon the 
 reason, affections, moral judgments, and under- 
 standing of man ; that I have nowhere made 
 these the measure of spiritual things, but have 
 everywhere exliibited to you Divine truth as 
 flowing forth from Him who worketh all things 
 after the counsel of His own will ; and who has in 
 His Gospel poured down upon us the unsearch- 
 able riches of His wisdom and love, taking them 
 fi'om a store to which we have no access, and 
 proceeding by a method, the final causes of which 
 are hidden in His own incomprehensible nature. 
 But seeing that this method is in Holy Scripture 
 announced as adapted in its form of procedure to 
 the nature and wants of man, and that we are 
 invited to make trial of it as such, 1 have collected 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 81 
 
 and laid before you these examples, praying that 
 He who disdains not to use the humblest instru- 
 ments for His purposes, may make them subser- 
 vient to your growth in grace and knowledge 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 G 
 
LECTURE Y. 
 
 PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 
 
 Acts xvii. 26, 27. 
 
 God . . . hath made of one hlood all nations of men for to 
 dicell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined 
 the times before apiiointcd, and the hounds of their 
 habitation : that they should seek the Lord, if haply 
 they miyhtfeel after him and find him. 
 
 In the former part of this course of Lectures, my 
 endeavour has been, to illustrate the consistency 
 of the Divme conduct in the Gospel revelation, 
 by shewing the aptitude of that revelation to 
 influence the reason, the affections, the moral 
 judgments, and the understanding of man. Re- 
 membering the announcements of the final mani- 
 festation of God to mankind, we have seen that 
 the method of that manifestation has been in 
 strict accordance wdth those announcements; 
 and have derived or strengthened, I trust, the 
 important conviction, that He who created the 
 mind and affections of man, has framed and 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 83 
 
 fitted to them that Gospel which we preach, 
 and ye beheve. 
 
 Tliere yet remains, however, one proof of the 
 Divine consistency, without w^hich our argument 
 would be incomplete. If it be true that there 
 is so admirable an adaptation in the Gospel of 
 Christ to the constitution and wants of mankind ; 
 and if we believe that the Author of that revela- 
 tion is the omnipotent God, who hath given his 
 blessed Son to be head over all things to His 
 Church, by whom kings reign, and princes decree 
 justice; who has, in the words of our text, deter- 
 mined to all nations the times before appointed, 
 and the bounds of their habitation ; we are 
 naturally led to look upon the course of Pro- 
 vidence in the government of the world, and 
 to endeavour to trace in it the preparations 
 which may have been made for the reception 
 of the Gospel, and for its efficiency when re- 
 ceived. 
 
 To the former part of this historical argument 
 I would direct your attention, and that of my 
 younger hearers especially, on the present occa- 
 sion ; reserving for our future Lectures the traces 
 of consistency with the great designs of Chris- 
 tianity, in its actual development, as far as it is 
 detailed to us in the Canon of Scripture. 
 
 I would premise a few remarks on the legiti- 
 macy of our present argument, and the spirit 
 in which it must be conducted. 
 
 g2 
 
84 LECTURE V. 
 
 I do not see how we can reasonably deprecate 
 such a search into the history of the world and 
 the Church, if our belief respecting God's pro- 
 vidential superintendence over them is such as 
 we find inculcated in Scripture. For there it is 
 openly asserted, that there has been from the 
 first, and shall be till the end, a convergence 
 of the dealings of Providence to one final point, 
 viz. the prevalence of the kingdom of Clu-ist, 
 and the exaltation of his power and glory : " He 
 shall reign, till he hath put all enemies under 
 his feet ; but we see not yet all things put under 
 him." 
 
 Now very remarkable, in connexion with these 
 assertions of Scripture, is the fact, that it has 
 pleased God to preserve to us, in historical re- 
 cords, the annals of the ancient world; that 
 while many of the fruits of the wisdom and 
 genius of mankind have perished in the ruins 
 of time, enough has been rescued from destruc- 
 tion to enable us to frame a continuous account 
 of those great events, which went before the face 
 of the Redeemer to prepare his way. 
 
 I cannot then doubt that such a search is 
 allowed and encouraged, nay, that it is part of 
 the use which will be required from us, of the 
 talents committed to our care : for while God 
 in his word has suggested to us the collection of 
 such e\idence. He has by his providence wonder- 
 fully furnished us with the means of collecting it. 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 00 
 
 But some caution is necessary in the temper 
 and spirit with which such an enquiry should 
 be conducted. We see but a part of God's ways, 
 and many of his doings are hidden from our eyes. 
 We are not capable of descending into detail, 
 and assigning a reason for the dealings of Pro- 
 vidence in the hearts and lives of individuals: 
 the fortunes of families and nations often appear 
 to us obscure, and their causes not to be assigned; 
 and even of those great events to which the minor 
 movements tend, a few only bear the visible mark 
 of the linger of God. We must be careful there- 
 fore to keep in mind this our deficiency, and on 
 that account we must not ^ find fault with the 
 supposed scantiness of the evidence, but compare 
 it with similar proofs as applied to other matters, 
 and enquire whether any of these are in character 
 so undoubted, or in number so important. 
 
 Again, we must remember that we are not 
 now looking back upon an accomplished scheme 
 of providential dealings, but are ourselves only 
 midway in the progress of God's purposes: — the 
 aspect of worldly aff'airs yet promises more 
 change ; prophecy is yet pregnant with undis- 
 closed meaning; He whose ways are in the 
 mighty deep, and whose footsteps are not known, 
 is yet underworking the designs of men, con- 
 founding the wisdom of the wise, and causing 
 the things which are not to bring to nought the 
 things that are : — so that we must judge nothing 
 
86 LECTURE V. 
 
 before the time, nor think hard things of God 
 for that which He hath not done, but humbly 
 search into that which He hath wrought, and 
 heartily praise Him for it. 
 
 And let it ever be remembered that we search 
 for this evidence as believers in Christianity ; to 
 strengthen our convictions, to excite our admi- 
 ration of the ways of God in the Gospel cove- 
 nant. While we mark well the bulwarks of 
 Zion, it is not as deserters from the fortress, 
 but as soldiers of the garrison. AVe look not 
 on our religion with carnal eyes from without, 
 but spiritually from within. We gain from the 
 Gospel itself the powers whereby we discern 
 its excellencies; nor are we in a position to 
 collect, or to estimate, that evidence which 
 Christianity might possess to an indifferent 
 spectator. To us it is as our life ; our joys 
 and our hopes are bound up with it; and against 
 doubt and fear, and ever intruding coldness and 
 irreverence, do we love to track its course and to 
 witness its glories ; to build ourselves up on the 
 deep foundations which God hath laid, that we 
 may never be moved. 
 
 What I speak therefore, I speak as a Christian; 
 as one who in humble hope has ventured all on 
 that Gospel, of which I invite you now to witness 
 the preparation ; and not as thinking that Chris- 
 tianity needs defence, or the Bible an apology ; 
 but as firmly convinced that the glory of Christ 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 87 
 
 is God's one great work in the world, and ex- 
 pecting to find in you the same firm conviction. 
 
 During the earlier ages, whose history we pos- 
 sess in the sacred volume, the Gentile world is 
 enwrapped in thick obscurity ; darkness covers 
 the earth, and gross darkness the nations. Oc- 
 casionally a ray of light struggles forth, as some 
 great national dispersion is testified by concurrent' 
 legends, or as one people and another become for 
 a while connected with the chosen race of Israel. 
 That race, originally sprung from the Chaldeans, 
 are providentially led down into Egypt, and so- 
 journ there during many centuries. Faint indeed 
 are the traces of the footsteps of Providence, at 
 so great a distance of time ; but I cannot help 
 noting these things as remarkable, in antici- 
 pation of what is presently to follow. The 
 Chaldeans, as we are compelled on many ac- 
 counts to infer, retained much of that primitive 
 traditional knowledge which we have observed 
 in the patriarchal church : the Egyptians also 
 had their sacred lore, not derived, I presume, 
 from their guests the Hebrews, inasmuch as it 
 was worthy of being taught to him who was 
 to be the Hebrew lawgiver and prophet. Even 
 in this early time I see God's hand laying, in 
 the darkness, the deep foundations of the future 
 spiritual temple. Chaldsea the unconscious mo- 
 ther, and Egypt the unfriendly nurse of God's 
 people, will again and again be heard of in the 
 course of their history. 
 
88 LECTURE V. 
 
 Of the four thousand years which preceded 
 the coming of Christ, .our historic age embraces 
 little more than half a millennium. If we survey 
 the Gentile world at its dawn, w^e see, of the four 
 great continents of which the habitable world is 
 composed, the largest, with many islands of vast 
 extent in other parts, entirely severed from the 
 commerce, and even the knowledge, of the other 
 three; reserved and set by, till the Divine pur- 
 poses should have been, in their appointed place, 
 brought to ripeness. Of those other three con- 
 tinents, vast portions are also unvisited and un- 
 known ; the stir of human interests is confined 
 within the narrow bounds of the few countries 
 which surround the sea, whose waters link the 
 three to each other. The first burden of legend- 
 ary history is, the mutual retaliation of European 
 and Asiatic warfare, accompanied probably by 
 just so much knowledge of one another's habi- 
 tation, language, and customs, as the wide dis- 
 persion of a great and ancient people would 
 preserve among them. It is at least remarkable, 
 that the intermingling of the inhabitants of the 
 two continents, by which the purposes of Provi- 
 dence were hei'eafter to be furthered, should be 
 the announced subject of the opening pages of 
 the father of profane history.' 
 
 Our attention is also drawn at tliis period to 
 the rudiments of civilization and art, wliose in- 
 
 ' Herodotus i. 1 — 3. 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 89 
 
 iluence is becoming plainly perceptible in the 
 south-eastern corner of Europe. We cannot 
 resist the concurrent testimony of ancient writers, 
 aided as it is by the evidence of language and 
 monuments, to the fact that these rudiments 
 were originally brought from Asia and Egypt. 
 But neither can we assign to those lands the 
 perfection, or even the high cultivation, of these 
 principles. They were planted in the more 
 genial soil of the European mind, and there 
 they brought forth their fairest fruit. This also 
 appears to be in accordance with the other parts 
 of the great scheme of Providence, who has 
 repeatedly transplanted the truths originally 
 so^vn in one land, to bring forth their harvest 
 in another ; thus subjecting them to the exami- 
 nation and disquisition of different races of men, 
 purging them of the intermixture of national 
 and local prejudices, and helping them in the 
 work which He has for them to accomplish. 
 
 Coincident with the dawn of the Gentile his- 
 toric age, is the captivity of the Jews in the land 
 of Chaldgea — an event wonderfully contributing 
 to the future purposes of Providence. That the 
 captive people were advanced to offices of trust 
 and power, we know from the Scripture nar- 
 rative: nor are we led to suppose that the 
 instances there mentioned were solitary ones. 
 So favourable a treatment of the people by the 
 Babylonian, and afterwards by the Persian 
 
90 LECTURE V. 
 
 monarchs, would naturally attach great numbers 
 of them to the land where most of them had 
 been born, and with which their interests were 
 now connected. And the accounts given by 
 Ezra and Nehemiah would by themselves lead 
 us to the conclusion, which the history of Esther 
 establishes as certain, that many of the Jews 
 remained and settled throughout the Persian 
 emj)ire. Hence, following the course of history, 
 we behold them carried with the armies of the 
 Persians into Egypt and Greece. The former 
 country had already been the resort of those who 
 went down into Eg)^t for help ; the latter, and 
 more especially that part of it over which the 
 flight of the vast invading armament took place, 
 would become the abode of many who would 
 remain in a state of captivity. Nay, we are not 
 driven to depend on mere probability in this 
 matter, for we find it said in the book of the 
 prophet Joel of the Phoenicians, " The children 
 also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have 
 ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove 
 them far from their border."^ And from what 
 we know of the Jewish people, we must infer 
 that some at least of those who were thus sent 
 abroad would carry with them the knowledge 
 and worship of the true God. Thus we already 
 find commenced that wide dispersion of Israel, 
 which was destined to be so important an instru- 
 ment in the hands of Providence hereafter. 
 ' Joel iii. 6. 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 91 
 
 But now this last-mentioned country demands 
 our attention for another reason. The age im- 
 mediately following witnessed the most remark- 
 able phenomenon in the intellectual history of 
 man — the rise of the Grecian philosophy. 
 
 Holy Scripture itself assures us, that one great 
 end of Providence in such a dispensation was, 
 that it might become manifest, that the world 
 by wisdom could not know God ; and this result 
 is amply confirmed by the utter and confessed 
 inadequacy of any philosophical system to reform 
 the lives of men, or free them from the bondage 
 of corruption. But this is not the only point of 
 view in which we must contemplate the ancient 
 philosophy. One consideration forces itself on 
 us before many others. By the demands of 
 thought, and subtlety of distinctions, which 
 accompanied the expression of this philosophy 
 in words, was that language in which the Gos- 
 pel was to be announced to the world, fashioned 
 into an instrument fitted to receive and transmit 
 Divine truth. By its usage on ethical and theo- 
 logical subjects, the doctrines of the Gospel found 
 terms ready for their expression. It was the 
 will of God that those doctrines should be 
 taught with demonstration of the Spirit, and 
 with power ; that the weapons of human rea- 
 soning should be employed in the warfare for 
 Christian truth. And though the Apostle Paul 
 expressly disclaims the founding the proof of 
 
92 LECTURE V. 
 
 his doctrines upon enticing words of man's wis- 
 dom, yet nowhere can we find better illustrated 
 than in his writings, the profitable use of that 
 wisdom towards the development and establish- 
 ment of the Christian system. 
 
 But while language was thus receiving its 
 fitness for its appointed work, the thoughts of 
 men were also becoming accustomed to be exer- 
 cised on topics approaching in importance to the 
 subject of the future Gospel. We know that 
 nothing is more difficult than to cause the 
 tlioughts of ordinary men to run in unknown 
 channels ; to summon their attention to a new 
 subject, with its new words, and abstractions 
 hitherto unrequired. But for this did the pre- 
 valence of philosophical inquiries prepare the 
 Gentile world. The highest good of man had 
 long been the confessed object of their search, 
 before Christ appeared. In the discussion of 
 this, every duty of man, personal and social, had 
 been the theme of contemplation : liis power of 
 freedom and knowledge had been earnestly de- 
 bated; and the faculties, judgments, and affec- 
 tions of our human nature had passed into the 
 thoughts and speech of men, as things well 
 known, and conventionally settled. There can 
 be no doubt that such residts were highly 
 favourable to the spread of Christianity. For 
 in these advantages not philosophers only, but 
 all the liberally educated, and, as influenced 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 93 
 
 by them, the whole frame of society, partici- 
 pated. 
 
 But another great work wrought by the 
 Grecian philosophy was, the subjective demon- 
 stration in the minds of its scholars of that great 
 result which the providence of God would ac- 
 comphsh by it in the economy of the world — • 
 the proof of its own insufficiency to purify, to 
 strengthen, to enlighten mankind. So that by 
 it was generated in men a desire for something 
 holier and better and more practical and more 
 powerful over the thoughts and aifections ; and 
 throughout the Gentile world this feeling greatly 
 contributed to the ready acceptance of the Gospel 
 of Christ, which in all these things amply ful- 
 filled their utmost requirements. 
 
 Again : the Grecian philosophy, though it 
 could build up nothing, acted as a destroyer 
 of heathenism, and thus prepared the way for 
 Christ's Gospel. The accounts given by the 
 heathen mythology of the state after death had 
 been rejected as frivolous and absurd : but the 
 yearnings of human nature could not be thrown 
 oiT with them ; and that religion which jorovided 
 a remedy against the fear of death, at once rea- 
 sonable and substantial, was eagerly embraced. 
 
 So that, while we cannot say with the Alex- 
 andrine Fathers, that, in the order of God's 
 providence, philosophy was to the Greeks what 
 the law w^as to the Jews; yet we cannot but 
 
94 LECTURE V. 
 
 regard its rise and progress as a notable pre- 
 paration, both by what it accompUshed, and by 
 shewing what it conld not accomphsh, for the 
 promulgation of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 As we advance, the two great continents be- 
 come more and more closely united, and the 
 events which pass under our notice assume more 
 immediate bearing on the great end to which we 
 believe them to have tended. We now approach 
 the career of a king, whose whole proceedings 
 had been made the subject of distinct prophetic 
 announcement. By him the arms and arts of 
 Greece were carried into the furthest parts of 
 Asia; and, which is even more important, the 
 language of Greece became known and sj^oken 
 as far as his dominion extended. But of all the 
 results of his conquests, the most remarkable, 
 as affecting our present purpose, is the degree 
 in which they contributed to the general dis- 
 persion of the Jews. Their settlement through- 
 out the cities of the civilized world, which we 
 have seen already begun, was, by the extension 
 of his empire, fully accomplished. In uncertainty 
 whence this arose, we can hardly forbear giving 
 some credit to the debated record of the favour 
 which he bore to the Jewish people ; which 
 relates to us that Alexander was made acquainted 
 with the import of the prophecies by which he 
 was himself so plainly designated, and thence 
 became fa^'ourably disposed towards Israel. IIow- 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 95 
 
 ever this may have been, it is at least certain that 
 in the new imperial city which he called by his 
 own name, and in which he would congregate 
 the pomp and the wisdom of the world, we soon 
 find a conspicuous place occupied by the Jews. 
 There, under the continued patronage of suc- 
 ceeding monarchs, their schools flourished; and 
 then first took place that union of the language 
 and tenets of Grecian philosophy with the belief 
 in the true God, which was destined afterwards 
 to produce such important results, for evil and 
 for good. There also was that version of the 
 Jewish Scriptures made, which formed the im- 
 mediate pattern of the diction and idiom of the 
 New Testament, and which is yet, in many 
 particulars, its best interpreter. At this distance 
 of time it is not easy nor obvious to estimate the 
 state of things which called for this version, nor 
 the very important consequences which must 
 have followed on its completion and publication : 
 but blind indeed must he be to the traces of the 
 Divine hand, who does not recognize them here, 
 and dull must that heart be, which does not 
 glow with thankfulness to Him, whose provi- 
 dence so ordered the ways of men as to cause, 
 even at this time, the sound of His word to go 
 forth into all lands. 
 
 During this, the Alexandrine period of Jewish 
 history, one important circumstance forces itself 
 on our notice; viz. the remarkable distinctness 
 
96 LECTURE V. 
 
 witli whicli prophecy points out every minute 
 particular of the wars between Syria and Egypt, 
 in which the Jewish people were to be so ma- 
 terially interested. So notable was this, that an 
 enemy of Christianity and revelation surmised 
 the book of Daniel to have been A\Titten after 
 the events announced, from its exact correspond- 
 ence with them; and in illustrating this latter 
 point, did eminent service to the students of 
 prophecy. This distinctness of the prophetic 
 word, at the same time that it assured the Jews 
 of the second temple of the continued care and 
 superintendence of their God, attached no doubt 
 to them many of the pious and enquiring heathen, 
 and tended to give them in the eastern world 
 that standing and importance, which indirectly 
 so much contributed afterwards to the spread 
 of Christianity. Nor must we pass over the 
 judicial purpose which such prophecies accom- 
 plished, of leaving without excuse those Jews 
 who might by them have been enabled to dis- 
 cover the time and manner of the coming of their 
 Messiah. 
 
 But as we are approaching the limit of our 
 present meditations, a greater and firmer power 
 than any which have yet aj^peared is casting its 
 mighty shadow over one and another nation, till 
 the whole known world is embraced under its 
 protection. And if we would admire the work- 
 ings of Ilini Avho ordereth all things for the 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 97 
 
 advancement of his own coimsels, we shall never 
 be more struck with wonder at his providential 
 wisdom, than when we contemplate the raising 
 up of this vast empire in connexion with the 
 appearance of the promised Saviour. Had the 
 eye of mere worldly wisdom looked on the dis- 
 jointed and quivering fragments of the Alex- 
 andrine empire, and glanced aside to the ancient 
 sayings and venerated prophecies, now so nearly 
 accomplished, what coidd it have foreseen, but 
 the career of some bright and swift conqueror, 
 who shoidd bind up again with a new spell those 
 broken parts, founding and arranging, and in- 
 fusing into the whole the elements of stability 
 and order? We know indeed that very similar 
 to this was the expectation of the Jews, and, we 
 may reasonably infer, of the great mass of those 
 who looked for a Deliverer of the human race. 
 Meanwhile an empire arises, extensive as the 
 most sanguine expectations could anticipate ; 
 binding together and ordering, wheresoever its 
 power extended. But this empire is distin- 
 guished by its marked defect in all the par- 
 ticulars which might be supposed to accompany 
 the career of a conquering Messiah. In its 
 constitution, at the time of Christ's life upon 
 earth, we observe no facilities for individual 
 exaltation, no encouragement afforded, and, which 
 is scarcely less important, no strong opposition 
 offered, to one mode of faith or worship as 
 
 H 
 
98 LECTURE Y. 
 
 compared with another. Its office was to break 
 down, to grind in pieces, to reduce to one level : 
 in political government it was rigid, in inspection 
 vigilant ; the peace which the fear and dread of 
 it spread over the world, was not outward only : 
 religion and philosophy also were in a state of 
 abeyance and suspense ; and till any new society 
 of religionists advanced its influence into political 
 consequence, it would be viewed by the ruling 
 power with indifl'erence, and its members pro- 
 tected in their just rights. 
 
 It is even such a state of the natural world 
 for which the anxious husbandman prays, when 
 now his seed has been committed to the ground, 
 and the tender plants are about to arise ; that 
 the fierce sun and the biting frost may be with- 
 held, that the winds may not blow, nor the floods 
 beat ; but that in the calm of heaven, and the cool 
 nurture of the earth, the precious blade may ad- 
 vance through its days of weakness and danger. 
 Even so did the All-wise God provide for the 
 coming of Him who was to spring up before Him 
 as a tender plant ; so ordering the unruly wills 
 and aflections of sinful men, that the state of the 
 outer world fostered, by its tranquillity and just 
 government, the being and increase of His inflmt 
 Church ; and the character of men's minds, from 
 many concurrent causes, was eminently adapted 
 to receive a new infusion of enhghtening know- 
 ledge and strengthening principle. 
 
PllOVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 99 
 
 Under these protective circumstances, we see 
 the dispersion of the Jewish people now directly- 
 preparing the way for the preaching of the Gos- 
 pel. In every chief place they have their syna- 
 gogue ; and everywhere devout persons among 
 the heathen join themselves, if not to the letter 
 of their ordinances, at least to the worship of the 
 true God, and the hearing and reading of the 
 promises of life by the expected Redeemer. In 
 all these places a continued intercourse is kept 
 up with the holy city : and, following the usual 
 course of human probability, we cannot doubt 
 that in many of them, the sayings and doings 
 of Jesus, during his ministry, were published 
 by the believers, the half-convinced, or even 
 the opponent, on their return to their homes 
 from time to time. Hence sprung a growing 
 desire to hear of, and to witness, the things 
 relating to so remarkable a person ; and thus was 
 that salvation prepared before the face of all 
 people, which was a light to lighten the Gentiles, 
 and the glory of God's people Israel. If these 
 seeds of desire had not been sown, the preaching 
 of the Apostles would not have met with that 
 ready reception, which in so many places awaited 
 it ; if it had not been a time of general peace, 
 and under one empire, this intercourse could 
 never have been maintained, nor could the word 
 by that preaching have been spread abroad. 
 And here I am only repeating remarks, which 
 
 h2 
 
100 LECTURE T. 
 
 have been often and triumphantly alleged by 
 the Fathers and Apologists of the early Church. 
 I -will cite one instance out of many. " The 
 " providence of God," says Origen, " prepared 
 "• the world for the teaching of Christ, by 
 " bringing it all under the Roman emperor ; 
 " for if there had been many kingdoms, and 
 " on that account less intercourse of nations one 
 " with another, it would have been difficult for 
 " the Apostles to fulfil theii* Lord's command, 
 " Go ye and make disciples of all nations. And 
 " uniformly," he proceeds, " before this time, 
 " there had been many kingdoms, and those at 
 " war with one another: so that the teaching 
 " of the doctrine of Jesus would have been 
 " hindered, men being busied in the defence of 
 " their respective countries. But, as it was, that 
 " teaching was spread over the world, when all 
 " were levelled (so to speak) by the Roman 
 " empire. How, again, could this peaceful re- 
 " ligion, which commands us not even to avenge 
 " ourselves on our enemies, have found place, at 
 " a time when men were actually employed in 
 " warf This he writes in answer to Celsus, 
 who had said that the Son of God, as the light of 
 the world, should, at his rising, have cast the 
 bright beams of that light on the darkness of the 
 nations. 
 
 Now if we cannot fail to recognize the hand 
 
 ' Contra Cels. ii. p. 81. 
 
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS. 101 
 
 of Providence in the state of tlie world which 
 immediately preceded and accompanied the first 
 preaching of the Gospel, let us reflect how many 
 differing events went to make up that state ; from 
 how distant a time its elements had been pre- 
 pared, and how long they had been contending, 
 before their complete fusion was accomplished ; 
 let us remember, that of all the empires which 
 have been, this one passed through the greatest 
 reverses and the greatest internal commotions, 
 and owed its establishment most clearly to what 
 would commonly be called the fortuitous con- 
 currence of circumstances with its own energy 
 and endurance and moral power. Lay all these 
 things together, and where shall we find 
 such a preparation for any empire as that which 
 we cannot deny to have been made for that 
 kingdom, which, by the prophetic word, the 
 King of heaven was to set up 1 If on the one 
 hand we look into the covenant which is the 
 charter of that kingdom, it runs thus, " In thy 
 seed shall all families of the earth be blessed :" 
 if on the other we look into the course of Provi- 
 dence, we see nations and continents at first 
 separate, brought together, by means the most 
 various, in arms, in arts, in laws, in language ; 
 if we look at the chosen people, we see the 
 sacrifice of the priest and the words of the 
 prophet, the whole lifetime and fortunes of the 
 nation, preparing the way of tlic Redeemer : 
 
102 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 if we survey the Gentile world, we see a pre- 
 paration being carried on, totally dissimilar, but 
 equally effective ; where, while the moral and 
 intellectual powers of man were weighed in the 
 balance and found wanting, by their ineffectual 
 endeavours, instruments are prepared and facili- 
 ties opened for the promised blessing to spread 
 over the world. 
 
 And when both these are made ready, and the 
 stir of warfare, and the trampling of conquest, 
 has subsided into universal peace, the Deliverer 
 comes forth from Israel ; and those arise out of 
 the east, for whom the empire of the world was 
 reserved. In the space of one century, the 
 sound of the Gospel has gone out into all lands, 
 and its words unto the ends of the earth. There 
 is no race of mortals, Greek or barbarian, where- 
 ever dwelling, or by whatever name known, 
 among whom are not offered prayers and thanks 
 to the Father and Creator of all, through the 
 name of the crucified Jesus.' 
 
 Truly it must be said, " This hath God done ;" 
 for all men shall perceive that it is His work. 
 
 ' Justin Martyr, Dial, cum Tryphone, p. 342, ed. Jebb. 
 
LECTURE YI. 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Heb. vii. 26. 
 Such an High Priest became us. 
 
 It is my desire, in this latter part of my course, 
 to vindicate the Divine consistency in the reve- 
 lation of the Gospel of Christ, by a general view 
 of the liistorical development which has been 
 assigned to it by Providence, and detailed to us 
 in the Canon of Scripture. 
 
 As introductory to this, I have found it neces- 
 sary to notice the preparation which appears to 
 have been made in the world for the reception 
 and effectiveness of the Christian religion. We 
 take up our enquiry at the appearance of the 
 Son of God upon this earth. 
 
 Of the fitness of the time when that appear- 
 ance took place, I have already spoken; and 
 have recalled to your minds the advantages 
 afforded by the then subsisting universal empire, 
 
104 LECTURE VI. 
 
 by the character and prevalence of that language 
 in which the Gospel records were written, and 
 by the general dispersion of the Jewish people ; 
 and the adherence of many of the pious and 
 enquiring Gentiles to the worship of the true 
 God. But before the religion of Jesus could 
 go forth into the world under these preparations 
 of Providence, it also had a course to run, and 
 a preliminary work to accomplish. And if we 
 consider what Christianity was itself to be, we 
 cannot fail, I think, to admire the Divine wis- 
 dom which shines forth from the life and actions 
 of its Founder, viewed as a preparation for its 
 general announcement. 
 
 In the person of Christ were those great facts 
 to take place, wdiich wrought out and testified 
 to the redemption of man. That those facts 
 should be observed and recorded, was of the first 
 importance. For this purpose He summoned to 
 attend Him men from a lowly station. They 
 walked with Him, but their eyes were holden 
 that they should not know his spiritual ofiSce 
 and work. During his life upon earth, they are 
 simply witnesses of his acts, and recorders of his 
 words. If He had seen fit. He might have en- 
 dowed them with such a portion of heavenly 
 wisdom, as to enable them to trace in his life, 
 death, and resurrection, the great work of re- 
 demption ; but the time was not yet. What He 
 did they knew not then ; but they should know 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 105 
 
 liereafter. This course of procedure rendered 
 them the best possible witnesses of the things 
 which they saw and heard; especially when 
 their attention and anxiety were aroused by the 
 promise, that, at a future day, light should be 
 poured on all which they now saw, but could 
 not intelligently discern. How would they be 
 careful to treasure up in their minds every word 
 and act of Him, who by the slightest allusion 
 might be reveaUng a mighty truth, and by the 
 most apparently trivial act might be achieving 
 a step in man's redemption. But meantime, 
 while by the very nature of this arrangement 
 much of the self-devotion to Him was lost, which 
 his disciples might have shewn had they been 
 gifted with spiritual discernment. He employs as 
 his great weapon of defence, and his present 
 proof of Messiahship, the exercise of miraculous 
 powder. I speak as a man, mindful of the dignity 
 and Divine majesty of Him of whom this is said, 
 but knowing also that during his stay among us 
 there was the hiding of his power, and He did 
 condescend to use human means for the further- 
 ance of his great work. Now I see, in the 
 exercise of miraculous powers by our Saviour 
 and his Apostles after him, a remarkable fitness, 
 and in the nature of those miracles wonderful 
 consistency with the character and object of 
 Christianity. 
 
 To any student of the New Testament Scrip- 
 
106 LECTURE VI. 
 
 tures, who is capable of forming from them an 
 intelhgent idea of the purpose of Christ's Gospel, 
 it must, I think, appear that miracles were not 
 destined by God to be permanent in his Church, 
 The gradually decreasing importance assigned to 
 them as we advance through the period of Church 
 history embraced by Scripture; the direct assign- 
 ment of them to their present purpose, — the proof 
 of the Messiahship of Christ and the divine mis- 
 sion of his Apostles ; the frequent allusion to 
 them as a sign to the unbelieving, and a bulwark 
 of defence for the first settlements of the mfant 
 Church ; and above all, the advance to maturity 
 of a sounder and deeper evidence, viz. the work 
 of the Holy Spirit of God, by his Church and 
 ordinances; — all these avert our eyes from the 
 signs and wonders by which they were attracted 
 in the earlier parts of the New Testament nar- 
 rative, and cause us no longer to crave for them. 
 
 And if we further enquire into this matter, 
 we shall find that there w^ere other reasons for 
 the performance and the cessation of miracles, 
 than the commonly assigned and valid ones, that 
 they were the proofs of Christ's Messiahship, and 
 the defences of the nascent Church. 
 
 A miracle is a direct appeal to the reason of 
 man. The principle that similar results will 
 follow similar causes, is one which we find ex- 
 tending through the whole range of human 
 thought and observation, from the highest to 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 107 
 
 the lowest, and upon it is founded the common 
 practice and sense of mankind. It is one of 
 those primary laws of thought, of which we can 
 give no account, further than that they are the 
 necessary conditions of our intelligent being. 
 This principle, unconsciously applied even by the 
 humblest mind, leads men to look for a con- 
 sistent sequence of outward events, and begets 
 a settled confidence in the permanence of the 
 visible and usual order of things. And on this 
 principle the understanding reacting, demands 
 for every phenomenon presented to the senses 
 an adequate cause. Now the phenomena in 
 the present case are disturbances of the order 
 of nature. By a word the lame is made to walk, 
 the blind to see, the dead to live. 
 
 It were adverse to fact, to say, that the occur- 
 rence of such events would at once turn the 
 thoughts of men to the Supreme Being as their 
 direct immediate agent; for we know that the 
 understanding has often interposed, and did, 
 especially in the age of which we are speaking, 
 interpose, a variety of insufficient causes, between 
 the event and its Almighty Doer. But allowing 
 this, and being fully aware how such fallacies led 
 away even the most vigorous and manly under- 
 standings, yet there remains this fact which 
 cannot be doubted: that such events, whatever 
 machinery might be interposed to keep out of 
 view the First great Cause, have at all times 
 
108 LECTURE TI. 
 
 produced the effect of arresting and fixing the 
 attention of mankind upon them in an extra- 
 ordinary manner. It has availed nothing that 
 there has been a wide-spread belief in the 
 power of magical arts, which, if consistently and 
 smcerely held, should deprive miracles of their 
 marvellous nature: no sooner is a sign or a 
 wonder reported, than the attention is aroused; 
 no sooner does a pretender to miraculous poAver 
 arise, than the wilderness is filled with the 
 multitudes, or the secret chamber with the 
 presence of princes: so powerful over the feel- 
 ings of men is any thing bearing the semblance 
 of a message from the Creator of their spirits. 
 
 Now I make these remarks, not to insist 
 merely on a fact so well known as the purpose 
 which our Lord's miracles served of arresting 
 the attention of mankind, but to introduce some 
 notice of the kind of attention excited by the 
 particular miracles which He A\^rought, and their 
 fitness for the furtherance of the great ends of his 
 Gospel. 
 
 It may be observed in general of the miracles 
 which are recorded in Scripture, that they have, 
 besides their present temporary effect, a perma- 
 nent didactic use. I need not specify instances 
 where they abound, nor hazard spiritual inter- 
 pretations, where an inspired Apostle lias in- 
 terpreted before. But an itli this view I turn to 
 the miracles of Christ, and ask, what manner of 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 109 
 
 works are these ^ He, the All wise, has adopted 
 this method, so usual on the page of history, of 
 saying to mankind, Look hither. But when my 
 attention is arrested, when, in reverence for such 
 power, and with that eager curiosity which is 
 part of our nature, I have left my home and 
 followed the multitude who are going afoot out 
 of all cities, what have I gone out to see ^. A 
 wretched maniac struggles and foams at my feet, 
 dwelt in, as was the burden of the time, by an 
 evil spirit, one of the enemies of the souls of men. 
 Jesus speaks the word, and the noxious influence 
 departs ; I see the victim delivered, the captive 
 rescued, sitting at Jesus' feet, clothed, and in his 
 right mind. 
 
 In the byways and solitary places, shame- 
 stricken and polluted, the leper shrinks from the 
 touch and gaze of mankind ; not for liimself, nor 
 for sanatory purposes only, judicially outcast, and 
 branded as unclean ; but a loathsome and hu- 
 miliating symbol of the disease which, by our 
 first corrupt head, we have all inherited in the 
 flesh. But to this Man alone, of all men, the 
 leper draws nigh; he who approaches none, 
 approaches Him ; emboldened, it may be, by 
 some unrecorded word of Jesus, or even of 
 keener spiritual sight by long practice in ad- 
 versity and abasement. "Lord, if thou wilt, thou 
 canst make me clean." Jesus puts forth his 
 hand and touches him, saying, " I will : be thou 
 clean." 
 
110 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The multitudes arc faint with hunger ; more 
 than once does His goodness sustain them with 
 bread; on each occasion the same symbolical 
 action is repeated : He blesses, and breaks, and 
 distributes, through his disciples to the people, 
 that which he had endued with larger extension 
 and new power of nourishment. Are these mere 
 works of wonder, mere proofs of power? If 
 I were dull enough to miss the spiritual meaning 
 of these things, yet cannot I do so any longer, 
 when I hear his own words commenting on his 
 mighty works; when from the feeding of the 
 multitude He takes occasion to tell them of the 
 true Bread of life which came down from heaven ; 
 " If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for 
 ever : and the bread that I will give is my flesh, 
 which I will give for the life of the world.'" 
 
 When I hear Him thus once and again making 
 his miracles the text of his discourses to the 
 people, I cannot but see that He who in word 
 taught in parables, condescended to teach by act 
 likewise: that his miracles were not mere acts 
 of mercy, but lessons of instruction. With these 
 works are many of the great doctrines of the 
 Gospel bound up. That we may know that the 
 Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
 was the sick of the palsy healed : the sickness of 
 Lazarus was not unto death, but for the glory of 
 God, that the Son of God might be glorified 
 ' John vi. 51. 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Ill 
 
 thereby, by being known to be the resurrection 
 and the life, and that he that beheveth in Him 
 though he were dead yet shall he live : and the 
 statement of the high and mysterious relationship 
 between the Father and the Son, and the dig- 
 nities of his mediatorial office, sprung out of the 
 Sabbath-day healing at the pool of Bethesda. 
 
 And it should not be passed over that our 
 Saviour, when the disciples of John came to ask 
 respecting his mission, after having cured many 
 of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits, 
 and given sight to many that were blind, com- 
 manded them to tell John the things which they 
 had seen and heard, enumerating among them, 
 "to the poor the Gospel is preached;"^ whether 
 it were that these miracles, like so many others, 
 were accompanied by spiritual teaching, or that 
 they were themselves the preaching of the Gospel 
 to the poor here intended. 
 
 It would seem then that we are not only to 
 view the miraculous works of our Saviour as 
 signs of power and proofs of his Messiahship, 
 but also as modes selected by Divine wisdom for 
 the representation of various spiritual offices of 
 Christ, and occasions made use of by him, to 
 bring forward in his teaching many great and 
 most important truths. And we might further 
 point out their suitableness for engaging the 
 sympathies and exciting the deep interest of 
 
 1 Matt. xi. 5. 
 
112 LECTURE YI. 
 
 those who should hear or read of them: the 
 touching scenes of human weakness recorded in 
 them; the strength or the failure of faith in their 
 subjects : the solitary grief of the widow at the 
 gate of Nain, or the domestic affliction which 
 weighed on the family at Bethany; and in all 
 these we might trace the gracious Saviour 
 moving through every character most attrac- 
 tive to the yearning heart of man : the comforter 
 of woe, the approver of faith, and gentle rebuker 
 of unbelief; binding up the wounded breast of 
 the widow, nor calling Lazarus forth with power, 
 till He had first wept over him incompassion : — 
 that it might be fulfilled which was sj)oken by 
 Esaias the prophet, " Himself took our infir- 
 mities, and bare our sicknesses."' 
 
 But this part of our subject has been already 
 particularly treated, when we spoke of the fitness 
 of the Gospel of Christ to arouse the affections of 
 mankind. 
 
 The miracles then of our blessed Saviour were 
 wrought by Him, and are by his providential 
 direction recorded and preserved, as forming to 
 us, from whom their immediate present efiect 
 has passed away, an integral part of the Scripture 
 revelation of the doctrines of the Gospel, Take 
 them away, and we shall not only lose the great 
 historical proofs of the power and majesty of 
 Him whom we trust, but many things to which 
 ' Matt. viii. 17. 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 113 
 
 we believe would be less sure ; in many of the 
 dangers of life should we be reft of our en- 
 couragements; and in many of the sorrows, of 
 our comfort. 
 
 Eminently consistent then are these miracles 
 with the design and purpose of Christianity, as 
 to be set forth and revealed by its Divine Founder. 
 
 Let us now turn to those actions of our Sa- 
 viour's life upon earth which were not miraculous. 
 Let us see whether his life was merely that of 
 a man whom one day leads on to another, and 
 before whom Providence unfolds its designs by 
 degrees ; or whether we find on his part that 
 careful shaping and fashioning his course of life, 
 that seeking one situation and event, and avoid- 
 ing another, which shall bespeak one having ever 
 before him that Gospel, which should in his name 
 be preached in all nations. 
 
 When, with the light which the Holy Spirit 
 has since shed abroad on the Church, we look on 
 the life of Christ, we expect to see in it the 
 working out of that perfect righteousness in our 
 nature and for us, to which our great High Priest 
 lays claim of his own right. In this very spirit 
 does the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 say, in our text, "such an High Priest became us, 
 " holy, harmless, undefiled, and sej)arate from sin- 
 " ners." Now if we seek for the studied exhibition 
 of this character in our Saviour's life, we shall 
 not seek in vain. Let us take one point in 
 
 I 
 
114 LECTURE VI. 
 
 particular. It was necessaiy, as we now know, 
 for the great work of human redemption, that 
 our Lord should fulfil as man the just and holy 
 law^ of God, which man had broken. This Pie 
 might have done in obscurity, and ^^dthout open 
 reference to it as an object of his life. Nor 
 would this have been otherwise than according 
 to the analogy of that nature which He had 
 taken on Him ; in which we have reason to 
 believe that the purest character, and most stcd- 
 fast in obedience, is generally to be found in 
 shyness and obscurity ; not courting observation, 
 nor holding up before men that bright thing, 
 which the breath of the world may light on and 
 pollute. Thus his great work of dying and rising 
 agam for man might have been accomplished, as 
 it was, in virtue of his spotless purity and Di\ine 
 power, however latent that purity had been, and 
 in whatever hiding-place that power had been 
 shrouded. But in that case we should have lost 
 at least one advantage. AATien we came to speak 
 of the life of Christ as the perfect fulfilment of 
 the will of God, we might be thus answered: 
 Prove to us that Christ himself thus viewed his 
 course on earth ; shew us some words of his 
 which have a reference to this your doctrine. 
 And, having no such profession on our Saviour's 
 part to allege, our faith would not only be dis- 
 commended in the eyes of our adversaries, but 
 would want entireness and consistency even in 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 115 
 
 our own. Many things, it might occur to us, 
 which were to be revealed by events not yet 
 brought about, would not unreasonably be al- 
 lowed to pass mthout notice by our Saviour; 
 but is it likely that the great end for which He 
 was living on earth would not be announced to 
 those who were to be the witnesses of his actions'? 
 But, praise be to God, such announcements 
 abound. They are scattered up and down 
 through his history, and sometimes appear 
 where we can clearly discern the hand of Pro- 
 vidence in their insertion in the Scripture record. 
 During the first thirty years of the life of Christ, 
 but one incident is recorded in which He is 
 personally an actor; and to those who are ac- 
 quainted with the spurious accounts of the same 
 period, the nature and bearing of that incident 
 cannot but be very strikmg. Instead of the 
 trifling and uninstructive miracles with which 
 the apocryphal writers have filled their pages, 
 we have what, at first sight of a casual observer, 
 is no more than an anecdote serving to shew the 
 early proficiency of its subject in holy laiowledge. 
 But considered more attentively, we find that 
 this narrative furnishes us with just what we 
 want to know, of the habits of that part of our 
 Saviour's life which was spent in obscurity, and 
 of his own sayings with reference to the object 
 of his being on this earth as man. We learn 
 from it, that He grew up in the regular and 
 
 I 2 
 
116 LECTURE YI. 
 
 stated performance of religious duty; that his 
 love for Divine things, and his -wisdom in dis- 
 cerning them, were not gifts of his baptism, nor 
 attendants on his public ministry only, but the 
 attributes of his whole life; and, above all, we 
 have from his ovvii lips, in his time of opening 
 youth, a direct announcement that his Father 
 had a work for Him to accomplish upon earth, 
 and that it was his earnest desire to be engaged 
 in it. And that a notice of the importance of 
 this testimony may not be wanting, we have it 
 recorded that it furnished matter of deep and 
 earnest reflection to his Blessed Mother, who, 
 Ave read, " kept all these savings in her heart."' 
 
 AVhen the public ministry of Christ is about to 
 commence, it is introduced by an assertion of his 
 own, that " it became Him to fulfil all righteous- 
 ness."' Again and again does He announce to 
 his disciples the purpose of his life. " My meat 
 is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to 
 finish his work."' " I must work the work of 
 Him that sent me while it is day ; the night 
 Cometh when no man can work."' " If ye keep 
 my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; 
 even as I have kept my Father's commandments, 
 and abide in his love."* And when about to 
 depart out of this world unto the Father, He de- 
 clares, in words not to be mistaken, seeing that the 
 
 ' Luke ii. 57. ^ Matt. iii. 15. ^ John iv, 34. 
 
 * John ix. 4. ' lb. xv. 10. 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 117 
 
 cross and the triumph were yet to come, " Father, 
 I have glorified thee on earth ; I have finished 
 the work which thou gavest me to do.'" 
 
 Nor shall we search in vain, in the record of 
 our blessed Sa\dour's life, for upholding and com- 
 forting allusion to that body of men, by whom 
 his name was to be worshipped, and his remem- 
 brance cherished, to the end of time. In his acts 
 and discourses, besides direct prophetic announce- 
 ments, there is continued reference to a work to 
 be accomplished by his Church, of long duration 
 and gradual progress : his disciples are the salt 
 of the earth : the Gospel is the slowly working 
 wholesome leaven, by which in time the whole is 
 to be penetrated ; it is the smallest of all seeds, 
 hereafter to become a mighty and broad shadow- 
 ing tree ; the world is the field, in which the 
 wheat and tares are to grow till the time of 
 separation come ; on the foundation of the Apos- 
 tles does He declare that He ^\ill build his 
 Church, Himself being the stone, the head of the 
 corner; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it. " He prays not for those alone who 
 were with Him, but for those who should believe 
 on Him through their word;^ and on his ascen- 
 sion into heaven, He promises his helping pre- 
 sence, even to the end of the world.* The power 
 of the Church as between man and man,* and as 
 
 ' John xvii. 4. " Matt. xvi. 18. ^ John xvii. 20. 
 * Matt, xxviii, ult. ^ Matt, xviii. 17. 
 
118 LECTURE VI. 
 
 between man and God,' is distinctly defined ; 
 the appointment and authority of the ministering 
 body in the Church is plainly laid down ;' the 
 divisions and errors which should arise in the 
 Church are announced as grounds of caution ; ' 
 the ordinances and observances of the Church 
 are instituted/ and their efficacy and dignity 
 unfolded/ And all this, while it enables us to 
 trace the hallowed practices of our beloved Mo- 
 ther in the faith, even in his words and acts who 
 alone had power to originate them, yet is not 
 so done, as to preclude the ordinary providential 
 unfolding of doctrine and observance, which could 
 not but accompany the advance of the Gospel of 
 light over the earth. 
 
 So that in the Hfe and words of the Lord Jesus 
 we have, as it seems to me, every possible accord- 
 ance with the character of the religion which He 
 came to establish; every intimation which we 
 could expect, of the future constitution of that 
 body of men among whom that religion should 
 be professed. 
 
 To those who are disposed to require more 
 than this ; who say to us. If this or that doctrine 
 be of such importance as you represent it, why 
 did Christ omit all mention of it in his teaching ] 
 we might make answer that God was pleased to 
 
 1 Matt. xvi. 19; John xx. 23. ^ n,. ^x. 19—23. 
 
 3 Matt. xxiv. 10—13. * lb. xxvi. 26—28; ib. xxviii. 19. 
 ^ John iii. 5; Mark xvi. 16 ; John vi. 53 — 56. 
 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 119 
 
 bring about the recognition of such doctrines by 
 other means, more accordant, as we conceive, to 
 the general analogy of his providence ; by order- 
 ing and arranging the great events on which 
 they rest as their proofs, and enduing his Church 
 with the Holy Spirit, to guide her into all truth ; 
 we might add that, before those events had taken 
 place in the world, all detailed exposition of 
 such doctrines would have been premature, and 
 must have been misunderstood ; and we might 
 moreover allege, that by implication our blessed 
 Lord does assert every fundamental doctrine of 
 our faith in connexion with the important events 
 just referred to, and quite as plainly as we can 
 expect, considering the time at which, and the 
 persons to whom, He was speaking. 
 
 Nor let it be forgotten, while we delight to 
 trace into particulars, and admire in its detail, 
 the consistency of our Saviour's life with the 
 great designs of his Gospel, that on the main 
 point not even the enemies of our faith are at 
 issue with us. It has been the practice of all 
 men, in all ages, to refer to the life and sayings 
 of Christ as the truest expositors of the religion 
 which bears his name ; and by none has this 
 been more pointedly done, than by those who 
 would set in supposed contrast the spirit and 
 precepts of the Head of the Church, with the 
 doctrines or conduct of its members. Often 
 have their words been unwisely spoken, their 
 
120 LECTURE VI. 
 
 inferences unjustly drawn; seldom has discern- 
 ment been shewn in comparing, or charity in 
 judging : but from the taunts of the adversary, 
 and the narrow sight of the partially instructed, 
 let us learn to take up the same thing in an 
 earnest truthful spu'it, and with the wide regards 
 of Catholic charity : and seeing that our blessed 
 Lord's life and words were so ordered as to teach, 
 to warn, to comfort us, let us take care on our 
 parts, that in the place Avhich we hold in the 
 order of Providence, we break not the harmony 
 of this great design ; that his firm reliance on 
 the Father, his persevering obedience, his con- 
 tinuing instant in prayer, his life of doing good, 
 be in our measure ours likewise; that herein 
 w^e may have boldness in the day of judgment, 
 because as He is, so are we in this world ; and 
 that, each in that state of life to which it hath 
 pleased God to call us, we may be earnest, dili- 
 gent, and worthy members of that Holy Church, 
 whicli He hath purchased with his own blood. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 Isaiah v. 4. 
 
 What could liai'e been done more to my vhieyard, that 
 I have not done in it ? 
 
 I TAKE up the history of God's providential 
 dealing with his Church, at the withdrawal from 
 it of Christ's bodily presence. I wish to shew 
 that during the time embraced by the rest of the 
 Scripture record, the Divine conduct in reveal- 
 ing, embodying, and securing the doctrines of 
 Redemption, was consistent with the announced 
 character and purposes of the Gospel. 
 
 Turn your thoughts to the Church of Christ as 
 it appears shortly after his ascension into heaven. 
 The number of names were about an hundi-ed 
 and twenty; and never did a band assemble 
 together, the depositories of greater designs, or 
 destined by God's providence to nobler conquests. 
 Already do we find the Apostle, whose weakness 
 
122 LECTURE VTI. 
 
 had been so prominent in the closing scene of 
 onr Sa^dour's life, speaking in that Holy Spirit 
 which had been breathed into him at his solemn 
 ordination by his Divine Master, announcing 
 plainly the character under which the Apostohc 
 body then appeared, that of witnesses to the 
 resurrection of Christ ; and, in restoring its in- 
 tegrity, asserting its distinctness from the rest 
 of the Christian society. Nor could we have 
 nor desire a stronger evidence of the importance 
 and destined permanence of the Apostolic office 
 in the Church, than this its first recorded act, in 
 this solemn interval of waiting for the promise of 
 the Father. 
 
 But in the address of the chief Apostle, I see 
 other marks of that superintending ^^'isdom of 
 God, which it is my object to trace and to admire. 
 We know that the disciples had been slow of 
 heart to believe ; we know that whenever Jesus 
 speaks to them of the prophecies which went 
 before on Him, they understood not these things. 
 But here one of their number stands up among 
 them, and makes that which before they would 
 have regarded merely as an act of private 
 treachery, the undoubted fulfilment of the pro- 
 phetic word ; already has the mantle of the great 
 Prophet faUen, and the spirit of Him who is 
 taken from them rests upon those who remain. 
 Not in vain had He said of them, " As my Father 
 hath sent me, even so send I you."' So that, 
 
 ' John XX. 21. 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 123 
 
 during this time of waiting in Jerusalem, there 
 was not silence in the Church; the Spirit had 
 not been poured out yet, as the great and crown- 
 ing work of Redemption ; but upon that chosen 
 ApostoHc band the Holy Ghost rests, bestowed 
 by the spiritual imparting of Him, in whom this 
 Divine Being dwelt without measure. 
 
 So that, besides the testimony, which we have 
 already noticed, to the distinctness of the Apos- 
 tolic body, we have clearly brought out by this 
 address the teaching and interpreting office of 
 the ministry of the Church, deduced immediately 
 from its Divine Head, distinct from, and inde- 
 pendent of, the general outpouring of the Spirit 
 upon the whole Christian society. The autho- 
 rity by which we do these things, is not any 
 supposed or real state of our own hearts and 
 lives as testified by Christian experience, or by 
 mental power fitting us for our work, however 
 desirable these qualifications may be in the 
 Christian minister ; but it is, above and beyond 
 these, that setting apart to teach and to preach, 
 of which this occurrence furnishes us with the 
 first example, and which shall consecrate and 
 enable the ministry of Christ's Church even to 
 the end of the world. When I see the multitude 
 of believers, under the command of their ascended 
 Head, humbly waiting in Jerusalem for the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise of the Father; with every 
 thought bowed down into absolute subjection to 
 
124 LECTURE VII. 
 
 His will — each bounding hope tranquillized — 
 standing still to see the salvation of the Lord ; 
 and observe my forerunners in the ministry even 
 then standing forward, teaching and preaching, 
 electing and ordaining ; all this too under the 
 superintendence of him to whom the solemn 
 office of Pastor had been tlirice committed, 
 whose very name, bestowed on him for no cha- 
 racter of his own, but in virtue of his sacred 
 office, was symbolic of firmness, and prophetic 
 of endurance ; — how can I doubt the origin, how 
 can I lower the dignity, of that ministry which 
 I have received of the Lord ] 
 
 Thus, before the work of the Christian Church 
 commenced, is that permanent body established 
 and in action, to whom was to be entrusted the 
 stewardship of the mysteries of Christ, the 
 guardiansliip and dissemination of sound doc- 
 trine, by the authoritative teaching and preach- 
 ing of the word of God. Thus is this, the first 
 record which comes under our notice, consistent 
 with the character of a religion which was to be 
 coeval with the world ; indicative of the wisdom 
 and power which should dwell in the authorized 
 teachers of the Church ; and suggestive of the 
 solemn duty which rests upon it in all ages, to 
 keep integral and unimpaired the office of those 
 who shall be witnesses to the truth. 
 
 But soon the promise is fulfilled : the Spirit is 
 poured down from on higli, accompanied by 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 125 
 
 signs and wonders ; witnessed by men of all 
 nations, and forming at once the inward com- 
 forter and the outward stay and defence of the 
 Church. 
 
 Here for awhile let us take our stand, and 
 meditate on that which happened, that we may 
 better estimate the nature and effects of the 
 occurrences of that day. We know that the 
 religion of Christ was destined to be a spiritual 
 religion. In the soul of man were its enemies, 
 and there also were its conquests to be achieved. 
 And of such paramount importance is this its 
 great work, that we may reasonably expect that 
 all circumstances of outward display which may 
 accompany its career in the world, shall be in 
 subordination to this end, and shall confessedly 
 subserve it. Nay, we may deduce even more 
 than this expectation from the acknowledged 
 spiritual character of the Gospel. We may 
 expect to find that any thing which shall out- 
 wardly and visibly recommend Christianity to 
 men, and seem as if able to erect its kingdom by 
 common influence on the external senses, shall, 
 after having served some present purpose in the 
 providence of God, pass away again, and only 
 remain effective so far as it has been taken up 
 into, or been accompanied by, the great work of 
 God the Holy Spirit, by the agency of the uni- 
 versal Church. 
 
 With such expectations I recur to the account 
 
126 LECTURE YII. 
 
 of the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of 
 Pentecost. At first sight, I see bestowed on the 
 whole body of the Church the power of working 
 miracles. Our Lord had foretold this before his 
 ascension, and this day seems to bring the fulfil- 
 ment of that promise. But, on closer attention, 
 several things contribute to modify this con- 
 clusion. It is true that this did happen, and it 
 is also true that it stands most prominent on the 
 Scripture narration. But in looking more deeply, 
 we must remember that this event was the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise of the Father ; as such, Christ 
 expressly referred to it, before He was taken from 
 us. Now if we seek for this promise, we must 
 go back to the first place where a pledge is given 
 relating to this day's occurrences ; for it is to its 
 first expression that men usually refer when they 
 speak of their promise. And I find that first 
 expression exactly answering in formal terms 
 to these words, " the promise of the Father." 
 " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
 " another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
 " for ever, even the Spirit of truth ; whom the 
 " world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
 " neither knoweth him ; but ye know him ; for 
 " he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."' 
 Now this promise refers to One who should abide 
 for ever with the Church ; who should not be 
 seen, nor known, nor received by the world, but 
 
 ' John xiv. 16, 17. 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 127 
 
 by the Church only. I cannot then regard the 
 outward gifts of the Spirit as the great boon 
 bestowed this day upon the Christian body: I am 
 constrained to see, beneath the surface of the 
 narrative, the deep, spiritual, and permanent 
 infusion of the Holy Ghost into the souls of the 
 members of Christ's Church, as the great event 
 which was then accomplished, I am constrained 
 to see then first begun in the Church of Christ, 
 that influence accompanying the means of grace, 
 which has never been suspended, but shall con- 
 tinue till the end. Nay, all this is not left to 
 ourselves to supply. There are many reasons 
 why the outward development of the gifts of the 
 Spirit should be the main burden of the sacred 
 Ecclesiastical historian. It was the undeniable 
 evidence of the fact of the abode of the Spirit 
 in the Church ; and the very description of the 
 inward gifts in the promise itself woidd tend to 
 withdraw them from a record written for general 
 information. But to those who read aright, the 
 traces of the fulfilment of the promise are not 
 obscure. The Apostle Peter himself asserts the 
 permanence and universality of it : " The pro- 
 " mise is to you and to your children, and to all 
 " that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our 
 '• God shall call."^ The ordinances of the (^'hurch 
 then commence their holy course of initiative and 
 supporting grace. Three thousand are baptized 
 ' Acts ii. 39. 
 
128 LECTURE TIT. 
 
 in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission 
 of sins; the whole company continue stcdfastly 
 attending to the Apostles' teaching, and in their 
 fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in 
 prayers. 
 
 Nay, on the whole face of this narrative is 
 there a depreciation of the outward sign itself, in 
 comparison with that inward and spiritual grace 
 of which it was the token. The gift of tongues 
 might have been merely employed ar; a sign and 
 a wonder, as it seems occasionally to have been 
 afterwards exercised; but we find it on this day 
 immediately made subservient as a means to the 
 end of preaching the Gospel, so that the mul- 
 titudes assembled at Jerusalem not only heard 
 the disciples speak in their own tongues, but 
 heard them in those tongues declare the wonder- 
 ful works of God. Jesus the Prince of life, and 
 the resurrection by Him, are the great subjects 
 of their proclamation ; no stress is laid on tlie 
 outward miracle, except as the demonstration 
 of the exaltation and power of Him who had 
 slied forth that which they saw and heard. All 
 here is consistent and in its place ; the carnal is 
 subjected to the spiritual, the temporary and 
 occasional to that which is fixed and permanent 
 in the Christian Church. And if we look on- 
 ward in the history of Christianity, we find the 
 Apostle Paul further asserting the transitory and 
 unsatisfying nature of these outward gifts ; com- 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 129 
 
 paring them to the things in which a child is 
 conversant, in comparison to the mature graces 
 of the Christian life, faith, hope, and love.^ 
 
 But soon another miracle follows, — a work of 
 healing, performed by the hands of two of the 
 greatest of the Apostles ; the first notable public 
 exercise of the power vested in them. And here 
 again I find all clear and consistent : I see the 
 Apostles not forgetting, in the exercise of mira- 
 culous power, the end for which that power was 
 given them, but broadly distinguishing between 
 the temporal and spiritual effects of the Gospel ; 
 not promising to the listening multitude sound- 
 ness of body like that of him whom they saw 
 standing healed before them, but appealing to 
 that miracle as evidence of the power of Him 
 who had been sent to turn every one of them 
 away from their iniquities ; and on their examin- 
 ation before the council, declaring to them that 
 there is no salvation in any other but this Jesus ; 
 for there is none other name under heaven given 
 among men, whereby we must be saved. And 
 again; " Him hath God exalted to be a Prince 
 and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, 
 and forgiveness of sins." 
 
 Now all this is a spiritual testimony to a 
 
 spiritual religion ; these are the words of men 
 
 who knew their position, and the nature of that 
 
 Gospel of which they were the guardians, and 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 32. 
 
130 LECTURE VII. 
 
 who, however necessary for the time of its be- 
 ginning might be signs, and wonders, and a 
 mighty hand, and an ontstretched arm, yet only, 
 according to their own confession, stretched forth 
 the hand of God to heal, that they might with 
 all boldness speak his word;* that they might have, 
 in the respect and admiration of the people, a safe 
 standing for their greater, their spiritnal work. 
 
 But our attention is now summoned once again 
 to the ministerial body ; if indeed that can be 
 said ever to have been out of our sight, when 
 the Apostolic order is ever so prominent, and its 
 authority so marked. A considerable portion, 
 it appears, of the believers consisted of persons 
 who, having embraced Judaism, yet retained 
 their own language, the Greek, assembling in 
 distinct synagogues, and using the Greek version 
 of the Scriptures. For the better investigation 
 of the circumstances of those who might be in 
 want among these persons, and for their regular 
 relief, a separate order of the ministry is estab- 
 lished, — concerning which we may observe, that 
 from the first it is evident, that the persons 
 admitted into it were not destined to attend to 
 this duty alone, but to form an integral part of 
 the preachers and teachers of the word, and to 
 be the administrators of one, at least, of the 
 Sacraments. My reason for noticing this occur- 
 rence is, the providential aspect wliich it assumes, 
 ' Acts iv. 29, 30. 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 131 
 
 when we reflect, that all these deacons appear to 
 have been of Grecian origm ; that we imme- 
 diately find one of them engaged in defending 
 the faith before the principal of the Grecian 
 Jews ; and soon after we trace another, preach- 
 ing and baptizing throughout a large district of 
 Palestine, with a mission, in one recorded case at 
 least, directed to a proselyte of a similar kind. 
 
 Surely, here is the working of His hand, who 
 was about to break down the middle wall of par- 
 tition between Jew and Gentile, and who sent 
 forth this body of his ministers to bind up and 
 knit together the believing Jews and Greeks, 
 and so to prepare the way for the fulness of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 And when now, in the counsels of God, the 
 time had arrived that that fulness should be 
 gathered in, the method of proceeding adopted is 
 worthy of earnest notice. Satisfied as ive are of 
 the universal nature of the blessings of the Gos- 
 pel of Christ, it may be difficult to place ourselves 
 in the situation of those to whom this was a new 
 and unwelcome idea. In their minds, the few 
 and hardly clear announcements which had been 
 made, of the coextensiveness of the Gospel with 
 the race of man, had been more than counter- 
 balanced by the uniform tenor of covenant pro- 
 mises and declarations of God, strictly confining 
 "his blessings to his people Israel. Nor, with all 
 the spiritual light which enabled the Apostles to 
 
 k2 
 
132 LECTURE VII. 
 
 apply the prophetic word to the sufFerings and 
 triumphs of Jesus, had they apparently as yet 
 learnt to understand an Israel according to the 
 Spirit, a heavenly Jerusalem, a temple of li\'ing 
 stones ; the Holy Spirit being here consistent 
 with himself in his other operations, in imparting 
 to them so much light of Divine wisdom as 
 should be sufficient for the time, and withholding 
 his further illumination till its season should 
 have arrived. At length one of those devout 
 persons, who, not being a proselyte, yet feared 
 and worshipped the true God, and shone brightly 
 in good works, is specially instructed to send for 
 the chief of the Apostles, by him to be taught 
 what he should do. That Apostle himself, mean- 
 time, is also specially instructed by a vision in 
 his duty with regard to the application about to 
 be made to him. Now the necessity for this 
 Divine interference must be abundantly proved, 
 when we reflect on the dissensions and disputes 
 on this point, into which the early Christians 
 fell, even with its testimony before them. But 
 the circumstance which I wish to dwell upon, is 
 the nature of the vision by which St. Peter was 
 informed of the Divine purposes with regard to 
 the Gospel, — and its keeping and consistency with 
 the great doctrines of the Christian faith. The 
 exclusive character of the Jewish economy had 
 not been only shewn in that separation which 
 it enforced between the favoured family of Abra- 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 133 
 
 ham and the nations of the world ; it had ex- 
 tended also over the regulations by which the 
 animal creation were allotted as fit or unfit for 
 the subsistence of man. A legal uncleanness Avas 
 pronounced upon certain parts of that creation — 
 an expansion of the curse, and a symbol of the 
 consequences, of the sin of man. 
 
 But in the new economy, the dispensation of 
 the fulness of times, " it was the will of the 
 " Father to gather together all things in Christ : 
 " and, having made peace by the blood of his 
 " cross, by him to reconcile to himself all things, 
 " whether they be things in heaven, or things in 
 " the earth, or things under the earth.'" Christ 
 having died and risen and revived, that He might 
 be Lord both of the dead and the living,' this 
 his work hath broken down all ceremonial inhi- 
 bitions, and brought in a new creation, in which 
 He is Head over all things to his Church, which 
 is his body, the fulness of Him that fiUeth all in 
 all.^ So that, not for licentious freedom, but for 
 lawful and expedient purposes, all things are 
 ours ; * the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
 thereof,* and He hath given it to his reconciled 
 children freely to enjoy. 
 
 Now by virtue of this same work of Christ, 
 is the whole human race called in to share the 
 blessings of redemption. As man. He was born 
 
 1 Eph. i. 10; Col. i. 20. ^ Rom. xiv. 9. 
 
 3 Eph. i. 23. * 1 Cor. iii. 21. '1 Cor. x. 26, 28. 
 
134 LECTURE VII. 
 
 into the world, and obeyed, and suffered, and 
 triumphed ; as man, He went up into the 
 heavenly places; as man, He intercedes before 
 the throne of God ; and as man shall He return 
 to claim and possess that kingdom which is given 
 Him of the Father. He entered into the root 
 of our common nature, and became its second 
 Adam, its righteous and unsinning Head, its 
 Almighty Redeemer. And therefore these bless- 
 ings are proclaimed to the ends of the earth, 
 and the Gospel is pubHshed to every creature, 
 because He, who brought in this salvation, is 
 every man's brother in the flesh, and every man's 
 Head in the Spirit : by which Spirit, the Lord 
 and giver of life. He creates anew to righteous- 
 ness the members of his holy Church through- 
 out the world. In Christ Jesus, therefore, there 
 is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, 
 bond nor free : circumcision availeth not, nor 
 uncu'cumcision ; but a new creation unto spiritual 
 life. 
 
 Now this great doctrine is opened to St. Peter 
 by inference, in the vision at Joppa. He was 
 there taught that every creature of God was 
 good, and to be received with thanksgiving ; and 
 hence he might, and indeed from his own words 
 he did infer, that he was much more taught, 
 that no man was common or unclean ; > that the 
 
 Acts X. 28. Ka\, ijuoi 6 OiOQ ei^ei^t /iTjMfa kou'op ij aVa- 
 dapioy Xeytir ayOpionor. 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 135 
 
 cleansing, or removing the legal uncleanness, 
 which it was announced to him that Gocl had 
 wrought on the lower tribes of creation, was 
 much more wrought on the souls of mankind, 
 before involved in the same ceremonial pollution. 
 
 The declaration then of this doctrine to the 
 Church of Christ, was made in a manner emi- 
 nently calculated to suit the difficulty of the case, 
 and also eminently agreeable to the whole pro- 
 cedure of Providence in the history of the Church; 
 furnishing us, in its revelation, with material for 
 deep and earnest thought; and while bearing upon 
 the matter in hand, so as to guide Him who was 
 to be its agent, containing in itself far more than 
 belonged to that which was then in question. 
 
 Glorious and wonderful indeed are thy ways, 
 thou King of Saints ; who dost not only teach 
 and enlighten thy servants as the unfolding of 
 thy Providence requires, but, in thy mercy and 
 wisdom, dost withdraw the veil even from thine 
 hidden counsels, that thy Church may see thy 
 goodness, and glorify Thee before the world. 
 
 But while the Church was thus enlarging the 
 place of her tent, and breaking forth on the right 
 hand and on the left, there were not w^anting 
 instruments of the designs of God, raised up and 
 prepared for the work opening before them, 
 Where among the Apostles could one be found, 
 fitted for the conversion of the Gentiles, as was 
 he, to whom God by special ordination com- 
 
136 LECTURE YII. 
 
 mitted it ? Where one, whose intimate acquaint- 
 ance with Jewish interpretations, and education 
 in heathen learning, fitted him for reasoning 
 wdth, and mightily convincing, both Jews and 
 Greeks ? And if we consider those persons who 
 were made choice of by the Holy Spirit, for the 
 work of the ministry at this time, we may trace 
 a special reference to this same object. Imme- 
 diately after the oj)ening of the door to the 
 Gentiles, we hear of men of Cyprus and Cyrene,^ 
 who came down to Antioch and spake unto the 
 Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus; shortly 
 after, we find Timotheus selected, the son of a 
 certain woman, which was a Jewess and be- 
 lieved, but his father was a Greek ; " and again 
 w^e find Apollos, a Jew of the Alexandrian 
 school, eloquent, and mighty in the Scriptures, 
 and fervent in spirit, publicly convincing the 
 Jews at Corinth that Jesus was Christ;'' and 
 watering that seed which the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles had planted.* 
 
 And if we foUow the footsteps of Providence 
 into matters of minor importance, we may even 
 now discover the bearings of events seemingly 
 unconnected with our enquiry, all tending to 
 extend, to consolidate, and to purify the Church 
 of Christ. And in the forefront of God's ad- 
 vancing army, wiiithersoevcr its steps are directed, 
 
 1 Acts xi. 20. 2 i]^ ^yi_ |_ 
 
 ^ xVcts xviii. 24'. ^ 1 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 187 
 
 are the same banners ever borne, and the same 
 watch-word given : righteousness, temperance, 
 and judgment to come — these are the subject 
 of their reasonings ; ^ repentance toward God and 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ — these are 
 the burden of their exhortations.^ Everywhere 
 and on all occasions is the religion of light and 
 purity set before men as such ; they are invited 
 to search, to reason, and to judge ;^ their affec- 
 tions are touched and awakened by the exhibition 
 of Divine love in the person of Christ ; their 
 moral judgments are cleansed and strengthened 
 by the record of His sinless example, and the 
 abiding influence of his holy precepts ; their 
 understandings are enUghtened by the inspi- 
 ration of God's Holy Spirit; and thus, by the 
 preachmg of the word, by the Sacraments and 
 means of grace, are they built up into the image 
 of God in righteousness and true holiness. 
 
 In all this history is there not one occurrence 
 which clashes with the harmony of this great 
 design of God in the Gospel : — all is consistent, 
 all is wonderfully adapted, as by the hands of 
 Him who knoweth the end from the beginning : 
 one step taken is made the means of displaying 
 yet higher steps to be taken : one truth revealed 
 opens the way to the apprehension of another, 
 more comprehensive, but hitherto unregarded 
 among the revelations of God ; ever, as we might 
 
 ' Acts xxiv. 25. ' lb, xx. 21. ' lb. xvii. 11. 
 
138 LECTURE VII, 
 
 expect in the first advancing days of the Church, 
 leading onward to that full and mature recog- 
 nition of the great doctrines of the Gospel, by 
 name and in specified terms, which should follow 
 in God's good time. 
 
 Here I would pause in my argument, and 
 dedicate the few moments which remain to those 
 who may be hearing the preaching of God's 
 word in this place now perhaps for the first 
 time.' 
 
 If, in the treatment of my subject, I have 
 brought before your minds the providential care 
 of God for his Church, and the consistency of 
 his proceeding with the great spiritual ends of 
 the Gospel of Christ, let the solemn impres- 
 sion rest upon each of your hearts, that you 
 come hither as members of that Church, and for 
 the attainment of those great spiritual ends. 
 You have the felicity to be brought for the fuller 
 cultivation of your opening powers, not only to 
 a school of learning, but also to a school of 
 religion. And as the greater end of your being 
 should ever gather up the lesser aims and en- 
 deavours into its service, so be you careful to 
 pursue human learning, and to strive for tem- 
 poral distinction, as members of Christ, children 
 of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. 
 Day by day will you be reminded of this your 
 state : day by day may you enjoy the advantage 
 ' This Lecture was delivered October 16, I842. 
 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 139 
 
 rarely offered elsewhere, of joining the assemblies 
 of Christian men, and participating in the public 
 prayers of the Church. 
 
 And little do they among you know, in whose 
 hearts a scornful thought may arise at the men- 
 tion of these our hallowed usages, how great 
 a blessing may be secured by the practice of 
 regular and serious attention to any spiritual 
 duty; how wholesome a provision is found for 
 the soul in those earnest and quiet Liturgies, 
 amidst the engrossing demands of worldly studies; 
 how they soothe the wounds of disappointment, 
 and abate the self-flattery of success ; and how 
 they may become the salt wherewith your life 
 may be seasoned, in this your day of danger of 
 corruption. For you have been also brought to 
 a school of temptation. Many restrictions, which 
 have hitherto preoccupied your choice, will 
 henceforth be removed, and you will be put on 
 your trial. Life and death, blessing and cursing, 
 good and evil will be before you ; either to serve 
 God humbly and honourably, each as He has 
 given you the power, in your generation; to 
 keep your lamp brightly burning against the 
 coming of the Bridegroom; or to waste away 
 in self-indulgence or restlessness, lighted it may 
 be by some flashes of human applause for a time, 
 but at length to sit down in darkness for ever. 
 
 And as it is a solemn trial, so will it be before 
 many witnesses. You will contend in the sight 
 
140 LECTURE VIT. 
 
 of those who have watched over you, and prayed 
 for you, and toiled for you, and who now^ look for 
 a grateful return of their cares and labours ; in 
 the sight of those who have taught and in- 
 fluenced you, and are now expecting the seed 
 which they have sown to spring up and bear 
 fruit. This land of your birth, never more in 
 need of men of godly lives and stedfast for the 
 truth, is full of hope concerning you; the Church 
 of Christ is waiting for you to redeem the pledge 
 under which you were received into her congre- 
 gation, and signed with the sign of her endurance 
 and triumph. And above all, the great Head 
 of the Church has ever his searching eye upon 
 you, who, when He has done for his vineyard 
 all that could have been done in it, will not 
 endui-e that when it should bring forth fruit unto 
 life, it should brmg forth the bitter fruits of this 
 evil world. 
 
 And if, as in his sight and in his strength, you 
 begin and endure in a course of humble and 
 earnest obedience, from all these sources shall 
 blessing and joy spring forth upon you. You 
 shall spend your days in honour, and the evening 
 of your days in peace, until the Lord take you 
 to the bright and unknown glories of his ap- 
 proved and triumphant people. 
 
LECTURE Yin. 
 
 THE EPISTLES, 
 
 St. Makk iv. 28. 
 First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. 
 
 In my last Lecture, I endeavoured to illustrate 
 the consistency with the great spiritual designs 
 of Christianity, which is manifest throughout the 
 acts and proceedings of the Apostles and their 
 helpers in the diffusion of the Gospel. For 
 further traces of the same, we look to those 
 Epistles which, under the guidance of God the 
 Holy Spirit, were written, some for the imme- 
 diate use and instruction of particular sections 
 of the Christian Church; some addressed to the 
 general body scattered throughout the world; 
 but all, for the idterior enlightening and edifi- 
 cation of those who should come after, even to 
 the end. 
 
 Now in these Epistles the doctrinal founda- 
 tions of the Church are laid. If the discourses 
 
142 LECTURE YIII. 
 
 of our Lord contained the germs of Christian 
 doctrine, and his death and resurrection set the 
 seal of truth upon that which He had taught, 
 and cast back light upon each one of his sayings, 
 it was the Holy Spirit specially given to the 
 Apostles for their work of teaching, which could 
 authoritatively educe from Scripture and the 
 facts of Redemption, that series of great truths, 
 which forms the creed of the Christian. And 
 of this work are their Epistles the great field 
 and course : in which the truth as it is in Jesus 
 is laid, not systematically, but by occasion, — not 
 detailed, but in substance, — before our eyes. 
 
 Now it is not my intention to trace each great 
 doctrine through the Epistles ; but to bring 
 before you some points in which the character 
 and form of those Epistles is eminently fitted 
 for their high purpose, as subserving the great 
 ends of the Gospel. 
 
 As introducing these, I venture to offer some 
 remarks on the nature of Christian doctrines, and 
 our reception of them. 
 
 The great object of the Gospel (I borrow the 
 language of one of the most thoughtful and 
 enquiring of modern theologians) is, " to bring 
 the alienated mind of man back to God, through 
 the srrace of the incarnate Messiah."' And 
 
 ti 
 
 as 
 
 such have I viewed it in the earlier part of these 
 
 Lectures, in its operation on man's reason, 
 
 ' A. Knox; Remains, Vol. ii. p. 63. 
 
THE EPISTLES. 143 
 
 affections, moral judgments, and understanding. 
 Now it must be obvious, to a reflecting mind, 
 that the Christian man may be contemplated 
 under two aspects with reference to this object : 
 first, as he is or is not reconciled to God by 
 faith, hope, and love, walking in active obedi- 
 ence and full membership of Christ's Church ; 
 and, secondly, as he has advanced more or less 
 in the state of Christian maturity, to which the 
 full influence of the Light and Power of the 
 Gospel of Christ is calculated to bring him. 
 And this twofold aspect belongs to man, whether 
 single or associated. In the case of the indi- 
 vidual, the first of these represents his state of 
 salvation before God ; the latter his state of 
 advance as compared with those around him, 
 and judged by his opportunities of progress. In 
 the case of the society, the first represents that 
 state of outward profession by which ostensibly 
 her members are faithful men ; her standing and 
 character as respects the Sacraments and the 
 other means of grace : the latter represents that 
 maturity of knowledge, to which she may at any 
 time have arrived, — her degree of apprehension 
 or recognition of doctrines, her place in the 
 great coiu'se of Providence, which lies before 
 her. 
 
 Now in the first of these, the profession and 
 character of her members, and the provision for 
 their spiritual birth and edification in the Sacra- 
 
14:4: LECTURE YIII. 
 
 ments and ordinances of grace, the Church of 
 Christ ever has been, and ever necessarily must 
 be, the same. Shortly after the day when our 
 blessed Saviour left this earth, his Church had 
 already received her form, and his ministers their 
 office : nor has the time which has since elapsed 
 effected any alteration in the one or the other. 
 Till the end of the world, the Sacrament of Bap- 
 tism is destined to receive the lambs into the 
 fold ; the Communion of the body and blood of 
 Christ to feed the riper members of his Churcli ; 
 the preaching of the word to instruct all, the 
 ministrations of his chosen servants to comfort, 
 exhort, and rebuke. Here is no advance, no 
 change : we labour, as the Apostles laboured, to 
 present every man perfect before God. And in the 
 great work of each man's salvation, we have the 
 same identity of procedure throughout. That 
 simple and truthful adoption of the Christian 
 state, and laying it out in practice, which we 
 know^ by the name of faith : this has ever been, 
 and will be till the end, the duty of the Christian 
 man ; he serves the same Master, is endowed 
 with the same dignity, is a member of the same 
 body, and an inheritor of the same glory, where- 
 evcr, in the long process of the ages of time, his 
 station may be appointed. 
 
 Now if we turn to the other aspect under 
 which the Christian life may be contemplated, we 
 find it, so far from presenting to us permanence 
 
THE EPISTLES. 145 
 
 and stability, affected with various phases of 
 change, according as the designs of Pro\'idence 
 are evolved in the history of the individual or 
 of the Church. The trust, the hope, the self- 
 devotion of a pious child or youth, are modified, 
 and the grounds on which they rest are altered, 
 by the accession of riper knowledge, and maturer 
 age ; the action of the reflecting and enquiring 
 mind brings out into form and prominence things 
 before believed unconsciously and by implication. 
 And even so has it been in the lifetime of the 
 associated Christian body : the grow th in grace, 
 and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, was not 
 recommended in vain by the chief of the Apostles. 
 For while in the earliest days of the Church all 
 the great doctrines of the Gospel were held by 
 implication, so that no Christian could say or 
 WTite anything in which those doctrines should 
 be impugned, yet it was reserved for the Provi- 
 dence of God in his dealings with the Church, 
 to bring about occasions whereby those doctrines 
 should become the objects of enquiry, and the 
 right enouncement of them a matter of high 
 import ; so that the Church was led to exercise 
 its high office of being the pillar and ground of 
 the truth, in the defence of the now recognized 
 fundamental doctrines of its faith. Now all 
 students of Christian antiquity well know, that 
 if we look in the writings of the respective 
 Fathers who lived before the settlement and 
 
 L 
 
146 LECTURE YIII. 
 
 announcement of one or other of the great 
 doctrines, we find, as we might expect, that 
 even those whom no man suspects of heretical 
 opinions, are vague in expression, and sometimes 
 capable of heretical interpretation. I say, as we 
 might expect, seeing that they did not apprehend 
 as definite objects of mental contemplation, those 
 particular forms of truth which the Universal 
 Church was afterwards led to assert. 
 
 Now I turn to the Apostolic Epistles, and en- 
 deavour to ascertain their place with regard to 
 the Church and to individuals, viewed under this 
 twofold aspect. I approach them with a distinct 
 recognition of them as forming a part of God's 
 revelation of the Gospel. I am not viewing 
 them ah eoctra^ to estabhsh their genuineness, 
 or by them to illustrate the history of their 
 writers : but by the light which they themselves 
 have given, I am seeking in them for beauty 
 and symmetry, and harmony with their own 
 design. 
 
 If then the state of a Christian, and of the 
 Christian Church before God, be thus uniformly 
 and permanently the same, I may expect to find 
 this prominently put forward and made the ob- 
 ject of attention in these Epistles. I may expect 
 to find that all temporary and occasional matters 
 will be made by God the Holy Spirit to subserve 
 these greater ends, and will be disparaged in 
 comparison of them. Faith, hope, love, these 
 
THE EPISTLES. 1-17 
 
 will be the burden of the Apostles' writings. 
 The standing of a Christian man before God by 
 the work of Christ made available in the Sacra- 
 ments and means of grace, this will be their 
 main subject. 
 
 And when I study the Epistles with this ex- 
 pectation, in which of them shall I be disap- 
 pointed] The Apostle of the Gentiles writes 
 to the Roman Church an Epistle, whose main 
 object is to uphold the efficacy of the righteous- 
 ness which is by faith of Christ, as fulfilling the 
 good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 
 If I search all writings which have treated on 
 the subject of the state of the Christian, nowhere 
 can I find its covenant privileges, its obligations, 
 its future glories, so plainly and so boldly as- 
 serted. That the members of the Christian 
 Church are buried by Baptism into the likeness 
 of the death of Christ ; ^ are therefore bound to 
 reckon themselves dead unto sin, but alive unto 
 God ;' that the walking after the Spirit, in 
 purity and holiness, and waiting for our full and 
 final redemption, is that state of freedom from 
 condemnation which we are called to energize 
 and enjoy :^ that it is our reasonable service to 
 present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accep- 
 table to God ; ' to cast off the works of darkness, 
 and put on the armour of light;* these are brief 
 
 ' Rom. vi. 4. ^ lb. vi. 11. ^ lb viii. passim. 
 
 ^ lb. xii. 1. '^ lb. xiii. 12. 
 
 l2 
 
148 LECTURE YIII. 
 
 summaries of tlie higli privileges and solemn 
 duties of the Christian, as stated in this Epistle. 
 It begins with the announcement of the grace 
 and apostleship which the writer had received 
 for obedience to the faith among all nations ; ' 
 it concludes with ascription of glory to that ever- 
 lasting God, by whose commandment the mystery 
 which had been kept secret since the world 
 began, was now made known unto all nations 
 for obedience of the faith. ^ Nothing can be more 
 explicit as to these permanent features of the 
 Christian character. 
 
 If, again, I examine the other Epistles of the 
 same great Apostle, written many of them to 
 correct particular errors of conduct and of judg- 
 ment, I ever find the same subject uppermost in 
 the writer's mind — the building up of man into 
 holiness by the same obedience of the faith. Is 
 he reproving the Corinthians for their divi- 
 sions ? it is because they shewed them to be 
 carnal,' glorying in man, and forgetting that they 
 were the temple of God the Holy Spirit.* Is he 
 rebuking them for the permission of deadly sin 
 among them'? by no mere arguments of ex- 
 pediency does he enforce his rebuke, but goes 
 at once to the high estate into which they had 
 been admitted : " the body is not for unclean- 
 " ncss, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the 
 
 ' Rom. i. .5. ' lb. xvi. 26. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. iii. 2. * lb. iii. 16. 
 
THE EPISTLES. 149 
 
 " body. Know ye not that your bodies are the 
 " members of Christ T'' Does he give them rules 
 for the regulation of their practice in apparently 
 indifferent matters I it is that, whether they eat, 
 or drink, or whatsoever they do, they may do 
 all to the glory of God.' Does he exhort them to 
 covet earnestly the best gifts 1 yet does he shew 
 unto them a more excellent way," even that of 
 pure and abiding Christian love. Does he trium- 
 phantly answ^er the cavilling questions of those 
 who said there was no resurrection of the body"? 
 yet even here the same great subject, the obedi- 
 ence of the faith, is ever before him ; "Therefore, 
 " my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmove- 
 " able, always abounding in the work of the 
 " Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour 
 " is not in vain in the Lord.'" In the second 
 Epistle to the same Church, we have a clear and 
 distinct statement of the office, the difficulties, 
 and the dignity of the Christian ministry; in 
 that to the Galatians, a vindication of the liberty, 
 and assertion of the high estate of the Christian ; 
 in those to the Ephesians and the Colossians, 
 a further exposition of the inestimable spiritual 
 blessings conferred by the state of membership 
 of the Church of Christ. And thus might we 
 proceed through all the Epistles of this Apostle, 
 and shew that, notwithstanding the high matters 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 13, 15. ' ll>- x. 31. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. xii. 31 ; xiii. 1. * lb. xv. ult. 
 
150 LECTURE YIII. 
 
 of argument with which he is constantly con- 
 versant, he never makes these his end, or the 
 estabhshing his present position the aim of his 
 writing ; but everywhere places all these things 
 in subordination to the strengthening of faith, 
 the assurance of hope, and the arousing of active 
 and self-denying love. The perfection of the 
 character of the individual Christian, and the 
 consistency with itself, the purity, the unity, the 
 efficiency of the Church, these are the results 
 for which he labours, the conclusion of all his 
 arguments, the points of convergence for all his 
 desires. 
 
 And the same spirit is also prevalent through- 
 out the remaining Epistles ; W'hether we read the 
 fervent rebukes of Saint James, the affectionate 
 remindings of Saint Peter, the short but deep 
 sentences of the beloved Apostle, or the prophetic 
 warnings of Saint Jude, — in all these it is not 
 the imparting of knowledge, nor the directing 
 attention to speculative points in religion, which 
 is the object, so much as the building us up on our 
 most holy faith, and teaching us to be in earnest 
 that which we are by profession, the sons of God 
 by faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 No one can look through these Epistles and 
 deny that their universal tendency is what is 
 popularly termed practical, i.e. bearing upon 
 actual relations in which w^e find ourselves to 
 God and one another. And of these relations 
 
THE b'PISTLES. 151 
 
 and the duties belonging to them we find in these 
 Epistles the plainest and the most copious ac- 
 count ; so far from having more fully expanded 
 the Christian state, or more exactly energized it, 
 hardly, if at all, has the Church found a member 
 who has once come up to the standard proposed 
 by the Apostles, and even asserted to have been 
 approached in their own persons. 
 
 And if we look for the great effective instru- 
 ments of this state in man, the Church of Christ, 
 her Sacraments and ordinances, we find their 
 operation and efi^icacy constantly brought for- 
 ward. Compare the language and assertions 
 which we are accustomed to hear in our own 
 days, mth the declarations which we find in 
 these Epistles, and they will seem to be but 
 feeble in energy, and temporizing in spirit. The 
 Church is here the body and the spouse of 
 Christ : ^ the most sacred relations of life are 
 but w^eak representations of that intimate union 
 w^hich subsists between the Head and the mem- 
 bers, the tree and the branches, the second Adam 
 and the renewed nature of man. In its outward 
 standmg and profession, the Church is admirable 
 and glorious ; a chosen generation, a royal priest- 
 hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, to shew 
 forth the praises of Him who hath called us out 
 of darkness into light.' In its iuAvard state, it 
 is the temple of God, who delights to dwell 
 
 ' Eph. i. 23 ; v. 25—33. - 1 Peter ii. 9. 
 
152 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 therein;* and as it is dignified with his high 
 presence, so is it fortified by the severest laws 
 against unbelief and impurity : "If any man 
 " defile the temple of God, him shall God de- 
 " stroy ;" for "judgment shall begin at the house 
 " of God : and if the righteous scarcely be saved, 
 " where shall the ungodly and the sinner ap- 
 " pear?"^ No less positive are the declarations 
 in these Epistles against division in this outward 
 and professing body of Christians. " Is Christ 
 " divided V'^ " There is one Lord, one Faith, one 
 " Baptism ; one body and one spirit, even as 
 " we are called in one hope of our calling."* 
 " Mark them which cause divisions and offences 
 " among you, contrary to the doctrine which ye 
 " have learned, and avoid them.'"" "Be ye all of 
 " one mind, and speak the same thing."® 
 
 And if we search these Epistles for the sayings 
 of the Spirit of God respecting the Sacraments 
 and ordinances of the great Christian society, 
 where can we find words so strong, assertions 
 so plain, as meet us wherever mention of these 
 things occurs 1 Are Ave enquirmg concerning the 
 Sacrament of Baptism 1 Have we found the 
 words and explanations of men unsatisfactory 
 and inconsistent, and do we betake ourselves to 
 Scripture to be enlightened and assured'? The 
 
 » 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. ^ 1 Peter iv. 18. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. i. 13. * Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 •^ Rom. xvi. 17. ^ Phil. iii. 16. 
 
THE EPISTLES. 153 
 
 simple and fearless declarations of the Church 
 respecting her baptized members are there 
 abundantly sanctioned. " How shall we that 
 " are dead to sin live any longer therein'? Know 
 " ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
 " into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 
 " Therefore are we buried with Him by baptism 
 " into death, that like as Christ was raised up 
 " from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
 " so we also should walk in new^ness of life."' 
 Everywhere we find this Christian state, this 
 newness of life, predicated of the persons ad- 
 dressed, and the Sacrament of Baptism regarded 
 as the birth, the admission, into it. 
 
 Do we, again, search these Epistles to discover 
 with what thoughts those who wrote them re- 
 garded the other Sacrament, the Supper of the 
 Lord ] Are we afraid that our ideas on this 
 matter are raised too high on subsequent in- 
 ventions of men, and do we betake ourselves to 
 the pure primitive record for more sober views'? 
 At least, no diminution of the dignity of this 
 holy mystery, and the great peril of the un- 
 worthy receiving thereof, will be incurred by 
 adhering closely to the testimony of these Epis- 
 tles ; "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink 
 " this cup, ye proclaim the death of the Lord 
 " until He come. So that whoever shall eat 
 " this bread or drink the cup of the Lord un- 
 ' Rom. vi. 2—4. 
 
154 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 " worthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood 
 " of the Lord.'" "The cup of blessing which we 
 " bless, is it not the participation of the blood of 
 " Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not 
 " the participation of the body of Christ?"" 
 
 Such expressions as these well befit those 
 writings to which Christians of all ages were 
 to appeal as the standard of faith and practice 
 with regard to the means of grace ; in which, 
 while points of advice are given arising out of 
 the circumstances of the time, and usages are 
 referred to, many of them temporary and evanes- 
 cent, the permanent grace and efficacy of the 
 Sacraments is asserted in terms which leave no 
 doubt as to their place among the very first of 
 the spiritual ordinances of the Church of Christ. 
 
 But let us now examine the Apostolic Ejjistles 
 as gifts of the Divine wisdom to a Church which 
 was continually to be growing in knowledge, and 
 presenting to itself one after another the great 
 doctrines of the Gospel, as objects of contem- 
 plation and articles of belief. Do we find their 
 spirit and their announcements in harmony with 
 such a view of the course of the Christian body ? 
 Are the great doctrines of the Gospel in these 
 Epistles systematically and formally asserted, — or 
 are they so implied, tlie approaches to them so 
 cleared, the negations to them so refuted, that 
 a wise and prudent householder, in arranging in 
 
 ' 1 Cor. xi. 26, 27. - lb. x. 16. 
 
THE EPISTLES, 155 
 
 his store the old things, shall with them educe 
 things new, new in their formal enunciation, 
 but resting on the old for their authority and 
 proof ? 
 
 I need not surely stay to answer this question 
 where so many of my hearers are diligent stu- 
 dents of Holy Scripture; where so many of them 
 are acquainted with the history of the holding of 
 the doctrines which we now believe. For ^ve 
 know that as the embodying and giving form to 
 these doctrines so as to make them objects of 
 apprehension to the minds of men, has been the 
 office of the Church of Christ, as error and 
 danger have caused her to throw up bulwarks 
 in various parts of her fortress ; so of the proof 
 of these doctrines Holy Scripture is the sole 
 depository, and every person is directed thither 
 for confirmation of those things which he has 
 been taught. So that it is as much a mistake to 
 imagine on the one hand that the great doctrines 
 of Christianity rest on traditional authority, as to 
 suppose on the other that each man with the 
 Scriptures in his hand could, unaided and un- 
 taught, deduce for himself the results at which 
 the Christian Church has arrived. And the 
 great laws by which the natural world is regu- 
 lated, are imparted and established, so far as 
 imports our present purpose, by a similar me- 
 thod : at a certain time, and by certain persons, 
 those laws were discovered and embodied in 
 
156 LECTURE VII T. 
 
 form, so as to become to us matter of appre- 
 hension : they are not our own deductions ; we 
 receive and are taught them. But the authority 
 of their promulgators is not the foundation on 
 which they rest; for proof of them we go whither 
 they went, to the appearances of the natural 
 world itself And for this proof of the great 
 doctrines of our faith will these Epistles be seen 
 to be admirably calculated, when we consider 
 of what sort that proof was to be, and to what 
 body of men these Scriptures were bequeathed 
 for a possession. The proof was to be the work 
 of diligent study, research, and comparison, 
 during which the better parts and powers of 
 our nature should be themselves exercised and 
 trained for the perfecting the whole man in 
 righteousness and true holiness ; the body to 
 whom this work was entrusted were not mere 
 children in the faith, nor servants in obedience, 
 required to see and believe, to hear and obey; 
 but men called to a high eminence, citizens of 
 no mean city ; who, while they should be firm in 
 their allegiance, and devoted in their obedience, 
 should yet ever be freemen of Christ, the pre- 
 sent beholders of the things relating to Him, the 
 future partakers of his glory, and admitted to 
 share such portions of everlasting truth as their 
 renewed nature is from time to time made capa- 
 ble of receiving. And in the a aried character of 
 these Epistles, the many forms of instruction and 
 
THE EnSTLES. 157 
 
 exhortation adopted, may we trace a reference 
 on the part of Divine Providence to the widely 
 differing individual or national minds, who should 
 hereafter look to them for edification in the faith. 
 And, lastly, in the upholding alike of truths ap- 
 parently antagonist to one another, besides this 
 former provision, we have also a caution adminis- 
 tered to Christians, by neglecting which they 
 have ever fallen into error ; so to hold the balance 
 between extreme doctrinal opinions, as not to 
 venture rashly on one or the other alternative, to 
 the undue subjection of other truths, and neglect 
 of those duties which ought to follow from their 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 I have now endeavoured, m two courses of 
 Lectures delivered from this place, to trace and 
 illustrate the consistency of the Divine scheme 
 of Redemption with its own announced character 
 and objects. In the first course I attempted to 
 shew that the procedure of Providence with the 
 Church before Christ's advent in the flesh, 
 while it was avowedly a preparation for that 
 advent, yet left not God's people without the 
 light and support of those fundamental truths, 
 which Christ's Gospel afterwards more fully re- 
 vealed : by many testimonies and . inferences 
 making it apparent, that redemption in the Old 
 as well as in the New Testament was offered to 
 mankind by Christ Jesus, and in virtue of that 
 work, which, though not yet displayed by Him in 
 
158 LFXTURE Till. 
 
 the flesh and on the stage of this world, was yet 
 considered as accomphshed in the eternal counsels 
 of God. 
 
 In my second course, I have been employed in 
 showing the consistency of the Gospel itself, as 
 revealed in Scripture, with its own announced 
 character, as bringing life and immortality to 
 light, and inducing on us its followers a reason- 
 able service. This has led me to speak of its 
 bearing on the faculties and aiFections of men ; 
 its adaptation to the necessities of our nature, 
 and its power to elevate, to strengthen, to purify, 
 and to enlighten us ; and in this latter portion 
 I have endeavoured to prove that the historical 
 development of the Gospel, as contained in the 
 Scripture record, has been in accordance with 
 these high objects, and eminently calculated to 
 advance them. 
 
 With the termination of this record I con- 
 clude my enquiries ; not as imagining that the 
 subsequent history of Christ's Church does not 
 furnish ample field for their extension, but as 
 conceiving that part of the subject better fitted to 
 another place than this, and another audience; 
 and principally because, during its treatment, we 
 become surrounded with difficulties, which do not 
 beset us wlien our foundation is a record of un- 
 disputed authority. 
 
 But in leaving untouched this which might 
 become an important part of the argument, I 
 
THE EPISTLES. 159 
 
 cannot but record my full conviction that the 
 whole process of the history of Christ's Church 
 does furnish abundant evidence that God's Pro- 
 vidence has been working consistently with the 
 great ends of the Gospel; that the leaven has 
 been spreading, the goodly tree advancing in 
 growth, the kingdom of God achieving mighty 
 conquests among us. AVho can look on the 
 recurring seasons of persecution and tranquillity, 
 corruption and purity, ignorance and knowledge, 
 through which God's Church has passed, and not 
 see in all of them His Hand visible as the agent 
 of His ever advancing purposes ; so that none of 
 these is like the preceding : men have changed, 
 the grounds of opinion have been shifted, mat- 
 ters of former debate have passed into general 
 acknowledgment, and new questions have been 
 struck out by the contact of new modes of 
 thought. I deny not, that to one accustomed 
 merely to look below on the things passing 
 around him, there may be in this stir and 
 change some ground for discouragement. All 
 seems to be moving away : division and strife, 
 doubt and mistrust, infinite diversities in senti- 
 ment and in life, may remove out of the sight 
 of such an one the great unity of purpose, ac- 
 cording to which all these things are tending 
 to the good of the Church of Christ. 
 
 Happy is he, who with the wider vision of 
 a spiritual mind, with firm reliance on the Al- 
 
160 LECTURE Till. 
 
 mighty and All-wise God, and with the deep 
 yearnings of Catholic love, can bnild up, and 
 establish, and comfort himself, by that evidence 
 of God's superintending wisdom and paternal 
 teaching, which, if my experience have not misled 
 me, may be gathered even from the darkest 
 portions of the history of the Church. 
 
 I conclude these courses with a fervent prayer 
 to the God of truth, that they may tend to the 
 stability and integrity of your faith : if not by 
 having elicited any evidence hitherto neglected, 
 at least by having employed your thoughts so 
 long on these important subjects : that he who 
 has found truth in them, may hold fast that 
 which he has heard; that he who has found 
 error, may, by its very refutation, be more 
 firmly grounded in the truth. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY METCAI.PE AND PALMER, CAMDRIUGE. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer ^'[J'^H' 
 
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