Sermon [on 1 Cor. xv. 57] after the funeral of Mrs. Angerstein

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Preface

The following short course of Sermons is, after considerable hesitation, presented to the public, simply from a strong persuasion on the part of the author, that the subject on which they treat is of great practical importance, and that, amidst the more exciting topics of the day, it is practically much neglected.

The position of the Christian, when rightly and comprehensively viewed, appears to him to be one, not only of the deepest humiliation in relation to God, but of commanding power in relation to the world. In the character, therefore, of the individual believer, as that character approaches the great pattern after which it is being moulded, there is a magnanimity which far transcends all that the world is wont to call by that lofty name. One glance at the serene and unmoved majesty, with which He who appeared among men as man, and left us an example that

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we should follow his steps, — encountered the assaults, rebuked the sin, instructed the ignorance, and silenced the cavils, of " unreasonable and wicked men," is enough to demonstrate the truth of the statement.

Of the passive power indeed of religion we are not without many examples, — the desire to be, and the cheerful willingness to suffer, what God has appointed, are seen in many a humble, patient follower of Christ. But the resolution to do all the will of God : Christian courage, and stedfast and consistent adherence to Christian principle: it is these which strike the mind as of far too rare occurrence.

Not only is it difficult, in the case of those of whom we have hitherto had no personal knowledge, to conclude with certainty that their practice will correspond to their profession,— their conduct to their expressed opinions, — their character to the testimony on which it has been received ; but instances are frequently occurring, in which expectations, formed upon what ought to have proved a sufficient warrant of experience of a man's conduct in many branches of duty, are suddenly disappointed by the result of its trial in a new one.

This is an evil of no common magnitude. Throughout society the conduct of the individual is necessarily influential on the moral condition,

PREFACE. V

and on the happiness of the whole body. And, more specifically, the faith which each man finds that he can place in the course which will be taken by his neighbour, is the measure of that hopeful energy with which he desires, and is enabled, to prosecute the common good. Every project, therefore, for the amelioration of mankind, or for the glory of God, which requires the cordial co-operation of numbers, is a trial of the strength and healthiness of this great principle, — this mutual dependence of individuals for the joint benefit of all. And great is the discouragement, and the distress, with which the sincere and earnest Christian is forced to witness the want or the weakness of it, in the continual defeat of the one grand universal plan of the all-wise and all-merciful Creator, for the perfect and everlasting happiness of his creatures.

If this be the case at all times, even when the comparative ignorance of the majority of mankind might seem to make it easier for those who, from their intellectual or ministerial position, are their natural guides, to control, and combine, and direct to one end, the yielding wills of many, — the evil would appear to be much increased in an age when knowledge is extensively diffused, when every man is learning to think for himself, and thus the sources of independent, and therefore, probably, of mutually opposing action are multi-

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plied. In this state of things, the light of an advancing civilization is too likely to be darkened and rendered useless or mischievous, unless the power which has been given us to meet and overcome the evil, be kept in active exercise.

This power is the influence of a divine principle in the hearts of men ; i. e. in the heart of each individual man. And it is the duty and the interest of those in whom, by the grace of God, it has been implanted, neither to think meanly of the power, nor to neglect its exercise, but to " stir up the gift that is in" them, and M to provoke one another*' to contend earnestly, " striving together" for the great cause, to which they are by their Christian profession solemnly pledged. And to promote this great and holy purpose, to suggest to the individual Christian more enlarged views of his responsibility, more confident views of his power, and more cheering views of the success which awaits that exertion of his talents to which he is called, is the object of these discourses.

When, more than once, the author was invited to undertake the office of a select preacher at St. Mary's, the invitation was accompanied by, — orrather founded on, — an expressed hope and belief that the line of controversy would be avoided : a condition with which on all accounts he was forward to comply. And he trusts that the reference,

PREFACE. Vil

*fl the first sermon, to some views of the use of Scripture, which have attracted much attention in these days, will be considered rather as an unavoidable step in the progress of the argument, than as in any degree inconsistent with the proper office of the preacher, as he has ventured to define it, in contradistinction to that of the Theological Professor.

It may be right to notice, that the sermons were originally intended to be preached ou the four Sundays of March ; and the subject was distributed accordingly into four discourses. But an intimation was conveyed to the author, that the gentleman whose turn it was, according to the Combination Paper, to preach at St. Mary's on the first Sunday in the month and whose place he had understood he was to occupy, would discharge the duty in person. From some misunderstanding, — certainly no intentional want of courtesy, — this intimation did not reach the author until he was in London on his way to Cambridge. The circumstance is not unprecedented, although, from the great distance of Dorsetshire from Cambridge, it was in this case accompanied with perhaps rather more than usual inconvenience ; and it may be hoped that in future means may be adopted to prevent the recurrence of such a misarrangement. It is mentioned here in order to draw to it just so much attention as may lead to this result, and

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at the same time to account for the unusual number of the present monthly course of sermons, and for any awkwardness which may be noticed in their arrangement and distribution.*

The notes are added partly to supply in some measure the omission of matter excluded from the text by the necessity of compressing four sermons into three ; and partly to give the reasons on which the observations in the first sermon, on certain imperfections of the received version of the Bible, were founded. On this point the author is most anxious not to be misunderstood. So far is it from being his wish to disparage the authorized translation, that, it will be observed, the whole force of his argument rests upon the general sufficiency of that version for the communication of Scriptural truth to the people. But exceptions are admitted, both because there are such, and because he would not expose this slight attempt to vindicate the sufficiency of Scripture, to the hazard of being further weakened by the objections which might so justly be founded upon an assumption, if he bad made it, that the word of God, as represented in our translation, is intelligible, iu every part, to the mind of every reader.

* One instance has been detected just as the last sheet has been sent to the press : — the irregularity and incompleteness of the numbers prefixed to certain divisions of the first sermon, which was the chief sufferer from the process of re-arrangement.

SERMONS.

SERMON I.

Matt. v. 16,

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

These well-known words were addressed by our blessed Lord, not to the twelve apostles only, nor to his disciples exclusively, who stood near him, but to the * great multitudes " who had followed him "from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." (iv. 25.) This remark, obvious as it may seem, has not always appeared so to every commentator ; and the further consideration of the particular precept contained in the text will show that it is not without its use.

Briefly expressed, the exhortation says, 'So live that your works, being good, may cause men

B to honour God.' But it is capable of expansion so as to comprehend all duties in every possible condition, and in every imaginable relation of life. " Let your light shine before men" — the light of your knowledge — the light of your purity — the light of your liberty — of your happiness. Their light is the character they possess as Christians, and they are required to take care that the full influence of that character be exercised among men, and directed to the grand object for which it was imparted to them, the glory of Him who made them.

In the mere abstract, this character — this light —is one of the most interesting objects that can occupy the thoughts of man ; a new and wonderful work of God, a re-creation out of the ruins of that pure original character which was impressed in Eden on our first parents. But when we remember that this object is not one upon which we are to gaze from a distance with cold unconcerned speculation, but that, if we are to be in reality what we are called, and profess ourselves, Christians, it must be seen within our own hearts, and inspire and actuate our whole conduct ; then it not only assumes an interest of the very highest importance, but suggests questions the most momentous and instructive. Some of these may be permitted to occupy our attention through more than one discourse ; and although no promise can be held out, as no presumption is entertained, that any new, or original, or striking views will be presented, yet a hope may be indulged that something may be said which may serve, perhaps, to "stir you up by putting you in remembrance;" (2 Pet. i. 13.) and to press more closely perhaps upon the conscience the great duty which the text enjoins, and especially the extent to which it can be discharged.

We do not forget that this is not the chair of the professor. We regard it rather as the place appointed for the simple, earnest, faithful ministration of the word of Christ ; and of that "word," not as affording grounds of controversy, but as containing in its declarations the bread of spiritual life. And we would humbly hope, and earnestly desire, to be enabled so to present that heavenly manna to a congregation, of which the intellectual rank so far exceeds the standard of other assemblies, that while their minds acknowledge the scriptural certainty of the doctrine taught, they may "feed on it in their hearts? The business of this day is, here as elsewhere, far higher in its character and in its results, than that which occupies the mind on other days ; less arduous, less exciting, demanding less that strain upon the mental powers which is so eagerly given to earthly studies, but far more elevating and far more worthy of the sober, concentrated, devoted

B 2 exercise of the highest faculties of man ; whilst at the same time the mysteries of this sabbath-day science, this divine philosophy, are not withheld from the comprehension of the less cultivated understandings of the less gifted of our fellow men. Of this truth we must not lose sight, in the examination of that question which we propose as the first to engage our attention.

I. How is the character of the christian disciple formed within him ? Whence does he derive his light ?

It is easy, and it is right to answer, that he is created anew by the Spirit of God ; he is " God s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works," those " good works" by which his Father which is in heaven is glorified. But in this spiritual operation means are employed : the old man is not put off, and the new man put on, by the divine energy of an instantaneous transformation, unconnected with any act of the mind in reading, or hearing, or remembering, or reflecting ; of which no account can be rendered, — no reason given. True, it is not for the creature to prescribe or set limits to the operations of the Creator. God might so act, though we are scarcely able to perceive the moral instructiveness (if the word may be allowed) of such a mode of conversion. It is as if a man had fallen asleep a sinner, and, unconscions of the change his soul was undergoing, awoke a believer and a saint. It is as if the lame, the halt, and the blind, had all at once been healed of their infirmities, unconscious of the existence, much more of the presence, the words and the operations of the Divine Physician.

But it is enough for us to know that this is not the ordinary way of God's proceeding. He works by means, which we can understand and reason about : and it is the duty and the commission of the teacher of the gospel to acquaint himself with those means, and to be prepared to apply them in aiding the formation of the christian character in the minds of men, — " to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." (Acts xxvi. 18.)

His business is to be fully and experimentally acquainted with the true source of spiritual light ; and so to direct its rays upon the mind and heart of the sinner, that they may be received there, and be effectual in giving light and life to what before was spiritually dark and dead.

It is true, again, that he cannot give this light and life. His office is but that of the careful and well-instructed electrician, who, as in a recent and most striking discovery, arranges the apparatus and adjusts the magnets and the medium which is to display the result of his experiment, and then excites the power which shoots in an instant the mysterious ray through the inert and passive mass : with this difference indeed ; in the physical operation the electric light is at the command of man ; in the spiritual it is not so : the arrangement may be correctly made, the object may be presented truly towards the ray, yet no immediate result may follow ; it is not of him that willeth, but of " God that sheweth mercy." {Rom. ix. 16.) (A.)

Where, then, is this fountain of renewing, transforming light ? All will agree at once that it is in God. But where are we to seek it ? How is it made sensible to us? How and where is it seen ? " No man hath seen God at any time,* {John i. 18.) u dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen or can see." (1 Tim. vi. 16.)

Here, again, all will acknowledge that we are permitted and enabled " to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. iv. 6.) We descend, then, from the invisible God enthroned in glory " too dazzling bright for mortal eye," to Him who, " being the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person," yet vouchsafed to lay aside his glory, and to veil his divine perfections in the form of man. {Phil. ii. 7.)

And we know that we lose nothing by the descent, for " in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" {Col. ii. 9.) and we may rest secure in the belief, that by looking to Him, with unveiled face " beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. iii. 18.)

So true is this, that, as we also know, the god of this world is ever " blinding the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospd of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Cor. iv. 4.)

This last quotation brings the great source of light one step lower and nearer. We see not the Lord God of heaven and earth : we, in our day, see not the Son of God in his bodily presence, but as manifested in the " glorious gospel," in which he is pourtrayed (wpotypatpti) "evidently set forth," as he was to the Galatians, " crucified among us." And the question now is, are we to descend lower ? * May we not draw out of this fountain ? Are we capable of looking — the apostle seems to say we are— -without a veil upon our minds, on the direct rays, the immediate manifestations of the "glorious gospel?" or is this glory of the inspired word too dazzling for our imperfect powers of vision ?

None will deny that it is of infinite importance that we receive the light in all attainable purity and fulness from the source ; and for this purpose that we approach as near to it as our finite faculties can bear. It has a mighty work to do ; the knowledge of God, " the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent," (Joh. xvii. 3.) cannot be too full, too clear and distinct. We need not fear lest we should too nearly, intimately, deeply, " acquaint ourselves with God."

But if indeed we cannot bear the light by which the holy character of God is immediately manifested to us in his revealed word, — his wisdom, his power, his love, his holiness, all in harmonious exercise, and engaged in the work of our restoration to his own image, in which man was originally created, — if we cannot, under the overpowering blaze of such effulgence, disentangle the truths, which, however essential to our salvation, are on this supposition not so much manifested as obscured by the light, we must withdraw to a greater distance, and try to gather a few rays, reflected or refracted to our minds by other media, — rays weakened and dimmed by the distance in the one case, and in the other coloured and confused and distorted by the manifold imperfections of the body through which they are transmitted,— and reverently hope thus to attain to some faint knowledge of God, and through that knowledge grow into some shadowy, vague, and imperfect likeness of Him.

There are doubtless in scripture " things hard to be understood ;" and it may be that our mental eye is not capable of distinct vision, if placed too near it. Yet it must be remembered, on the other hand, that when the apostle Peter uses this expression concerning the epistles of his " beloved brother Paul," he also says, that it is they that are unlearned (novices, babes in the gospel,) and unstable, to whom these difficulties are dangerous. His language seems to imply, not that such persons ought not to attempt to understand them, but that they should read them more, and so cease to be unlearned, (apaOeie.) In the same manner St. Paul complains of the Hebrews, (v. 11.) that they had grown, (ycyovarc, not tare, is the word,) had become dull of hearing. He does not demand of them more human learning, but greater diligence and attention to the word. " For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become (yeyovart again,) such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

We are not, therefore, to be deterred by this expression from the study of the word of God; and a little further consideration of the subject, (pursued in no spirit of controversy, which on all accounts we would deprecate in this place, and on tbis day,) will probably lead us to the conclusion that it is in the volume of the Book itself that we are to learn the truths whereby the christian char meter is to be formed in our hearts.

1. For, in the first place, we may ask, Are the difficulties of the inspired word so great as they are often represented ?

2. And, in the second, where is that brighter light which is to dissipate their obscurities ?

1. On the first of these questions, we admit at once that the difficulties of scripture are, to the mere intellect of man, insuperable. The mind, however originally acute, however cultivated and refined, however largely filled with literary and scientific stores, is in itself utterly incapable of so apprehending the language of Scripture, as that the heart should feel the truths which it contains, and the character be converted and transformed. The mind may see and admire the construction and beauty of the plan of salvation, while it remains blind to its own need of its remedial application, and the heart unaffected by its influence. " The natural man," even the most accomplished philosopher, " receiveth not," does not listen to, has no ear for, " the things of the Spirit of God :" for " to him,'' as to the philosophic Greeks of old, " they are foolishness ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.)

But these are not the kind of difficulties to which the question refers. Does the theory of the gospel present the obscurity of which so much is said?

Surely no candid mind, of ordinary powers, can carefully examine the inspired records, and have any doubt that the views they give of man s moral condition by nature, and of a great and wonderful plan devised and executed by God for his eternal happiness, are such as these : —

1. That man is a fallen, corrupt and sinful being ; originally designed to love and serve his Maker, but in reality having no such regard for God, and strongly bent upon the gratification of his own will, and devoting himself to the pleasures and pursuits of the world around him.

2. That this state of mind is not regarded with indifference by God, but " against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," " the wrath of God is plainly revealed :" that man is not left in ignorance of these denunciations : but is warned that after death there will be a judgment, and that " all they who have done evil," according to the estimate of a Just and Holy God, " shall go away into everlasting punishment."

3. Yet that a door to mercy is set open. " God is not willing that any should perish." " God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life."

4. That believing the certainty and reality of this ; that for him the Son of God bore all the punishment which Justice demanded for his offences ; and constrained by the sense of such mercy to love Him who thus suffered and died for him, man turns all his best affections in this direction ; he is drawn to the Saviour by the cords of grateful and adoring love, and not only " desires that which He doth promise," but even " loves the thing that He commandeth :" he now not only ceases to do evil, but learns and loves to do well ; he is a new creature. And

5. That in all the way from his former to his present character and condition he is conducted and supported by the Holy Spirit, working in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Who ever feels a difficulty, — who ever hesitates, — to lay these and the other essential truths of the gospel before the minds even of an unlettered assembly of rustic worshippers? or to prove them even to their comprehension " by most certain warran* of Holy Scripture ?" (Article 8.) Difficulty indeed there is, but either it is such as would equally attend the task of instructing rude and untutored minds in any branch of human knowledge, — or it is that to which we have referred already, and which is equally felt in conveying to the heart and conscience the simplest and the most complex truths of the gospel, " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." (1 Cor. ii. 4.)

The curious theoretical student of the Bible may often in his closet find his mind involved in difficulties such as are alleged ; but the man who is engaged in the practical duties of the ministry, sees ever before him, on the one hand the spiritual malady and the spiritual famine of his people, and on the other the only availing remedy, the only satisfying food, — and he applies them : carefully indeed, and with anxious discrimination, but, in dependence on the help of Christ, the great Physician, without doubt or fear or hesitation. He does not fear to commit the Bible to the perusal of men : nay, his great affliction is, that they peruse it not, — that they do not take the words of that Holy Book, and " teach them diligently unto their children, and talk of them when they sit in their house, and when they walk by the way, and when they lie down, and when they rise up:'' (Deut. vi. 7.) that every member of his flock has not even from a child known those " Holy Scriptures which are able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus :" (2 Tim. iii. 15.) in short, that " the word of Christ" does not " dwell in them richly in all wisdom." (Col. iii. 16.) He feels the need of its help \n all his attempts to instruct and convince them. His declarations they may distrust, his explanations they may question, his authority they may despise : but when he can support bis statements, his arguments and his appeals, by words which they find in their Bibles, or in their memories, and which they know to have come from God, his cause has a mighty advocate in their own breasts ; and would such a man, engaged in such a conflict with sin and Satan on the battle-field of his people s hearts, fear or refuse to secure the presence there of so potent an auxiliary ?

What is the Scripture ? — of the New Testament, for example? It is a body of doctrine, a collection of truths, communicated by God to man, in man's language. Any inherent difficulty, therefore, in the way of understanding it, can only arise from the imperfectness of the vehicle in which it is conveyed to our minds, or from some incompleteness in the series of the truths themselves.

All human language is imperfect, even that by which we attempt to communicate our ideas to the men of our own tongue and our own time : much more is the imperfection felt when the writings of one age and country are to be read and interpreted by the men of a subsequent age, and of a distant country. As far then as the language of the Scripture is concerned, we may admit that the apprehension of its meaning by a contemporary and fellow-countryman of the apostles, is likely to have been more correct than that of a modern scholar of equal intellectual power. The forms and turns of phraseology would be familiar to such a man ; perhaps even the train and cast of thought, or the habit or fashion of the reasoning. But then, assuming that a continuous commentary by such an expositor had been handed down to us, — and there is no such relic of the early church, — we are to remember, that after all it must have been clothed in the very language of the writings which it is supposed to interpret, and that therefore the difficulty would not be removed or overcome, though perhaps lessened : because, while much of the original might be remoulded and cast into simpler forms of expression, it is equally possible that some peculiarity in the style and reasoning of the expositor himself might throw a shade of obscurity over passages in the text, which in their native form were plain and easy.