THE
WORKS
OF
RICHARD HURD, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER.
VOL. VII.

Printed by J. Nichols and Son,
Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, London.

THE
WORKS
OF
RICHARD HURD, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER.
IN EIGHT VOLUMES.
VOL. VII.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND.
1811.

THEOLOGICAL WORKS.
VOL. III.

SERMONS
PREACHED AT
LINCOLN’S-INN,
BETWEEN THE YEARS 1765 AND 1776:
WITH
A LARGER DISCOURSE,
ON
CHRIST’S DRIVING THE MERCHANTS
OUT OF THE TEMPLE;
IN WHICH THE NATURE AND END OF THAT FAMOUS
TRANSACTION IS EXPLAINED.

SATIS ME VIXISSE ARBITRABOR, ET OFFICIUM HOMINIS IMPLESSE, SI LABOR MEUS ALIQUOS HOMINES, AB ERRORIBUS LIBERATOS, AD ITER CŒLESTE DIREXERIT. Lactantius.

CONTENTS
OF
THE SEVENTH VOLUME.

SERMON XXIX.
PREACHED MARCH 21, 1773.

Acts xxiv. 24, 25.

After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith of Christ. And, as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

This Felix, whose name is become so memorable in the Christian church, had been made Procurator of Judæa by the Emperor Claudius, and continued in that government during the six or seven first years of Nero: when he was recalled to answer for his oppressive administration before the emperor; who, we are told, would have punished him, according to his deserts, but for the interposition of Pallas, at that time Nero’s chief minister.

He was, indeed, in all respects a very corrupt and profligate man, as appears from the testimony of Tacitus[2] and Josephus[3]; from whom we learn, that he was more especially addicted to the vices of lust and cruelty; both which he exercised in the most audacious manner; vexing the people with all sorts of oppression, and rioting in his excesses, without restraint. Drusilla, too, is represented to us in a light, not much more favourable. For, though a Jewess, and the wife of another man, she had contracted a marriage, or rather lived in adultery with this pagan governor of Judæa; transgressing at once both a moral and positive law of her religion, for the sake of ascending to that honour.

One would wonder how persons of this character should have any curiosity to hear Paul concerning the faith of Christ. And, without doubt, they had no serious desire of information. It is likely they proposed to themselves some entertainment from questioning the prisoner; and the presence of Drusilla makes it credible that the entertainment was chiefly designed for her; who might be a bigot to her religion, though she scorned to live up to it; and therefore wanted, we may suppose, to insult Jesus in the person of his disciple.

However, let their purpose be what it would, such were Felix and Drusilla, before whom Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come.

Paul was not in the number of those complaisant preachers, who take a text, in which their hearers have no concern. He had to do with persons, who bade defiance to religion in all its forms; and his subject was well suited to the occasion. They expected an amusing tale of Jesus Christ: but the Apostle, who knew how unworthy they were of being instructed in the faith, as not yet possessing the fist principles of morals, took up the matter a great deal higher; and, discoursing to them on the natural duties of justice and temperance, which they had grossly violated, and on the natural doctrine of a judgment to come, which they had never believed or respected, gave them to understand, that they had much to learn, or practise at least, before they were fit hearers of what he had further to say concerning the Christian revelation.

Being taken at this advantage, we may easily conceive their surprise and disappointment: and, as the speaker knew how to give an energy to his discourse on these interesting topics, we cannot wonder, that one or both of them should be much discomposed by it. Of Drusilla the sacred text says nothing: she was, perhaps, the more skilful dissembler of the two; or her rage and indignation might, for the moment, get the better of her fears: but Felix had not the address, or the fortune, to disguise his feelings; he trembled before this plain, intrepid speaker.

This event is instructive, indeed, as it sets before us the power of conscience over the worst of men; and, at the same time, the meanness of guilt, which, in such place and dignity, could not help shrinking at the voice of truth, though speaking by the mouth of a poor dependant prisoner. But when we have made the proper use of these reflexions, on the case of Felix, we shall find a still more instructive lesson in the subsequent conduct of this affrighted sinner.

When the fit of trembling came upon him, he said hastily to the preacher: Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

How striking a picture of that fatal disposition which men have to put off repentance, even under the fullest conviction of guilt; and that too, on the most frivolous pretences! What Felix should have done instantly, when his conscience was so much alarmed, he omits to do: Go thy way for this time: and yet, to quiet that conscience, he would not be thought to lay aside all purpose of reformation: When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

With this famous example in my eye, I shall attempt to shew in the following discourse: 1. That PROCRASTINATION is the usual support of vice: 2. That false reasoning, or, what we may call, the SOPHISTRY OF VICE, is the great support of procrastination: 3. That a FINAL IMPENITENCE is the too common effect of this pernicious confederacy. And

I. Procrastination is the main support of vice; the favourite stratagem, by which the grand deceiver himself ensnares the souls of men, and maintains his empire over them.

There are few persons so desperately wicked but they resolve, secretly at least, and in their own minds, to amend their bad lives, at some time or other. But that time is rarely the present. They have other business in hand: some scheme of interest to manage, some project of ambition to pursue, some intrigue of pleasure to accomplish; in short, some darling sin or other to gratify, before they can be at leisure to execute this intended work of reformation.

Nay, there are seasons of recollection, in which the memory of their past lives afflicts and torments them; there are hours of melancholy, or ill health, in which the necessity of repentance seems pressing and instant; there are certain moments of terror, in which the final resolution is on the point of being taken: yet still, this delusive idea of to-morrow steps in: the memory, the necessity, the terror, are over-ruled: the ungrateful task is, for the present, deferred; to-morrow laid aside, and the next day forgotten.

This was the case of Felix in the text. When bad men are clothed with power, it is not easy for truth of any kind, especially for moral truth, to gain access to them. Yet it made its way to this potent governor, and with a force which nothing could resist. It borrowed the thunder of Paul’s rhetoric to speak home and loudly to his affrighted conscience. It shook his guilty mind with the sense of his crimes, his incontinence and injustice, his riot and rapine, his lust and cruelty; and still more, with the apprehension of a judgment to come, armed with terror, and ready to take vengeance of his multiplied iniquities.

You expect now, that, in this agony, he should take the part, which duty and prudence, his conviction and his fears, equally recommended to him. You expect, that he should apply to his instructor, who had raised this storm, to compose it; and that, leaving his chair of state, he should spring forth and accost his prisoner, as the honest jaylor at Philippi had done, on a similar occasion: What must I do to be saved[4]? But, no; it was not yet convenient to put that question. His pleasures, his fortune, his ambition, might be endangered by it. It was not the moment to take this decisive step. Better to think twice of it, and dismiss the preacher for this time.

And is there nothing in this case which we may apply to ourselves? Is there none here, whom the free remonstrance of a friend, an unexpected sentence in a moral writer, the admonition of a preacher, and, above all, the word of God, hath, at any time, awakened to a lively sense of his condition? A reproof from one or other of these sometimes falls in so exactly with a man’s own case, and goes so directly to the heart, that he is more than commonly disturbed and confounded by it. It flashes such conviction on the mind, and shews the sinner to himself in so just a light, that he stands aghast at the deformity of his conduct, and at the peril of it. In the agitation of this distress, he half resolves to repent: nay, he strives for a moment to enforce this good resolution: when, let but that dæmon, which every sinner carries about with him, whisper the word, to-morrow, and his conscience revives, his fears disperse, and this precious opportunity is lost, though at the hazard of never returning any more.

Not that he permits this idle insinuation to banish all thoughts of future repentance, or to prevail with him, for the present, in its true and proper form: No: to be thus far the dupe of his own folly, would disgrace him too much, and expose his prevarication too plainly: if it pass upon him, it shall be under the mask of wisdom. He turns sophister then in his own defence, and is easily convinced, “That his conduct is not altogether absurd or unreasonable.”

And thus, as I proposed to shew,

II. In the next place, this fatal procrastination, which supports vice, is itself supported by a READY AND CONVENIENT SOPHISTRY.

The case of Felix will again illustrate this second observation; and shew us the whole process of that preverted ingenuity, by which the credulous mind is made easy under its delusion.

He thought it not sufficient to say to Paul; Go thy way for this time. This abrupt dismission of the preacher was to be justified, in some sort, to himself, and to those who were witnesses of his consternation. He covers it, then, with this pretence; When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

The TIME, it seems, was not proper for his immediate conversion. To become a penitent just then; on the instant; to be surprised into a good life, had the appearance of too much facility and inconsideration. He must take a space to reflect on the grounds and reasons of what had been offered to him. He had, besides, other affairs, which pressed upon him at this moment: or, if not, to deliberate on the matter, would render his conversion more solemn and effectual.

The PLACE, too, we may believe, was as little suited, as the time, to this business. “What! in a public apartment of his palace! in the presence of Drusilla, whose tenderest interests were concerned in the case, and whose delicacy required managing! before his pagan courtiers, and many, we may suppose, of his Jewish subjects, who would be equally scandalized at this precipitate conversion of their master and governor!” These, and other pretences of the like sort, without doubt, occurred to him: and on the strength of these he concludes his procrastination to be fit, and decent, and justifiable, in a good degree, on the principles of virtue and prudence.

“But why, unhappy man (if one may presume to expostulate the case with thee) why this hasty and unweighed conclusion? Could there be any time more convenient for thy conversion, or any place more suitable, if thou wert in earnest to be converted?

Wast thou ever so prepared for this change as now? Was thy mind ever so convinced, or thy heart so affected? Didst thou ever hear and tremble till this day, and wilt thou expect such a miracle a second time? Can thy bad life be reformed too soon, or can it need an afterthought to justify such reformation? Can any other business come in competition with this? and can it deserve the name of weakness and surprise to give way to the powerful workings of thy own conscience? In a doubtful case, it may be well to deliberate: but can it be a secret even to thyself, that nothing is questionable here, but thy sincerity?

For what, let me ask, is that convenient season, which flatters thy present irresolution? Wilt thou find such a monitor, as Paul, in thy dependants? Will thy tax-gatherers preach righteousness to thee, and thy centurions, temperance? or, thy philosophers (if, perhaps, thou hast of these about thee, to grace thy provincial pomp) will they reason with thee, on a judgment to come?

But the PLACE is unfit; and thou wilt send for Paul to confer in private with thee.

Wast thou then afraid to expose thy honour by this step? And did it seem too much to give to God and truth, the glory of thy conversion? True penitence knows nothing of these punctilios. The example had edified thy unbelieving court; and might have had its effect on the insensible Drusilla. Thy injustice and incontinence had been open to all men. Was it not fit thou shouldst atone for this scandal by as public a reformation? Yet still thy pretence is, a convenient season! As if the first season, that offers for renouncing a bad life, were not always the most convenient.”

But I continue this address to the Roman governor too long, if you consider me as directing it to him only. Let me profess, then, that by Felix I mean every sinner at this day, who procrastinates in the affair of his salvation, and would colour that procrastination by a still more contemptible sophistry. For, let us be ingenuous. This miserable Pagan, after all, had something to say for himself. This was, probably, the only time that repentance had ever been preached to him. He still, perhaps, was acquainted with little more than the name of Jesus: for his teacher, as we have seen, insisted chiefly on the great truths of natural religion. If he then scrupled to take the benefit of this first and imperfect lecture, there is some allowance to be made for his folly. But what shall we say of those who possess every possible advantage of light and knowledge, who have grown up in the profession of Christianity, and are not now to learn either its duties or terrors? If such as these have sinned themselves into the condition of Felix, and yet resist the calls of grace, the commands of the Gospel, the exhortations of its ministers, the admonitions of their own conscience, all of them concurring to press upon them an immediate repentance; if there be among us such procrastinators as these, what topics of defence are there by which they can hope to excuse, or so much as palliate, their prodigious infatuation?

“Shall we say for them, or will they say for themselves, that they are young and healthy? that they have time enough before them, in which to grow wise at their leisure? that they wait till the boisterous passions have been calmed by reason and experience? that they expect a convenient season for repentance, in declining life, and the languor of old age? or that they shall find it, as others have done, on the bed of sickness, or on the bed of death?”

I have never heard that Christians have any better reasons than these for delaying repentance: and, if they have not, though the sophistry of Felix deserved to be laid open, the respect I owe to those who now hear me, will not permit me to imagine that such sophistry as this, can want to be exposed.

It will be to better purpose to set before you,

III. In the last place, the issue of this too natural alliance between procrastination and vice, in a FINAL IMPENITENCE; of which the case of Felix, again, affords us a striking example.

When I have a convenient season, says he to Paul, I will call for thee. This season came, and Paul attended; to what effect, we shall now understand.

When Felix dismissed him from his presence, he insinuated, nay perhaps thought, that he should have a disposition hereafter to profit by his religious instructions. But time and bad company quieted his fears: and a favourite vice inspired other motives for the interview, than those of religion. For he hoped, says the historian, that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.

The case, we see, is well altered. He trembled before at Paul’s charge against him of rapine and extortion: he would now exercise these very vices on Paul himself. Such was the fruit of that convenient season, which was to have teemed with better things!

But this is not all: For, after two years Portius Festus came into Felix’s room; and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

Felix then had his preacher within call for two whole years: time sufficient, one would think, to afford the opportunity of many a lecture concerning the faith of Christ. Yet, though he communed with Paul oft, it does not appear that his conferences with him turned on this subject. What he wanted to draw from him was, not truth, but money; and, when this hope failed, he was little concerned about the rest. Nay, the impression which Paul had made upon him was so entirely effaced, that he left an innocent man in bonds, for the sake of doing a pleasure to the Jews. But he had his reason still for this unwonted courtesy. For their complaints were ready to follow him (as indeed they did) to the throne of Cæsar; whither he went, at last, unrepentant and unreformed, to encounter, as he could, the rigors of imperial justice; just as so many others, by the like misuse of time and opportunity, expose themselves to all the terrors of divine.

Not but there is yet this advantage in the parallel on the side of Felix. He neglected to use the space of two years, which was mercifully allowed him for the season of reformation: but how many Christians omit this work, not for two only, but for twenty, forty years; nay, for the whole extent of a long life; and never find a convenient season for doing the only thing, which it greatly concerns them to do, although with the astonishing delusion of always intending it.

To conclude: We have seen that procrastination serves the ends of vice; and that vice, in return, is but too successful in pleading the cause of procrastination: leaving between them this salutary lesson to mankind, “That he who seriously intends to repent to-morrow, should in all reason begin to-day; to-day, as the Apostle admonishes, while it is called to-day, lest the heart, in the mean time, be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin[5].”

SERMON XXX.
PREACHED DECEMBER 19, 1773.

1 John v. 11.

And this is the record that God hath given to us, eternal life; and THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON.

We are indebted to the Gospel for the knowledge and hope we have of eternal life; this important doctrine having, first, been delivered by Jesus Christ, and only by him, on any proper grounds of authority. This then is the record, or the substance of what the Gospel testifies and affirms, That God hath given to us eternal life: and this life, adds the Apostle, IS IN HIS SON: that is, he procured this blessing for us; he is not only the teacher, but the author of eternal life.

This last is a distinct and very momentous consideration. Reason might seem to have some part in discovering, or at least in confirming, the doctrine itself: but the manner of conveying the inestimable gift of eternal life, whether immediately from the giver of it, or by the mediation of some other, this is a matter of pure revelation; and reason hath nothing more to do in the case, than to see that the revelation is, indeed, made, and then with all humility to acquiesce in it.

Being, then, to treat this sublime subject, the redemption of mankind through Christ, I shall do it simply in the terms of scripture, or at least with a scrupulous regard to the plain and obvious sense of them. The text says, eternal life is in the Son of God; and my discourse must be merely a scriptural comment on this declaration.

Now, the scripture teaches, that immortality was originally, and from the beginning, the free gift of God to man, on the condition of his obeying a certain law, or command, prescribed to him: whether that command be interpreted literally, of not eating the fruit of the forbidden tree in paradise, as we read in the second and third chapters of Genesis; or allegorically, of some other prohibition, expressed agreeably to the oriental genius, in these terms. This diversity of interpretation makes no difference in the case: whatever the test of man’s disobedience was, the will of the law-giver is clearly announced: If thou art guilty of disobedience, thou shalt surely die[6].

Obedience, then, had the promise of continued life; the penalty threatened to disobedience, was death: which was only saying, that the gift freely bestowed on a certain condition (and surely what man had no right to demand, might be offered on what terms the giver pleased) should be withdrawn on the breach of it. The loss, indeed, was immense; but to the loser no wrong was done: and of him who recalled the free gift, conditionally bestowed, and justly forfeited, no complaint, in reason, can be made.

But to what purpose, some will ask, to give that with one hand, which was presently to be withdrawn by the other? for the best reason, no doubt, whether conceivable by us, or not. However, the sad event was certainly foreseen: and, what is more, such provision was made against it, as to infinite wisdom and goodness seemed meet.

By contemplating the gradual steps of Providence, as we are able to trace them in the revelation itself, we understand, that it was in the eternal purpose of the divine Governor to restore life to fallen and mortal man, as freely as it had been at first bestowed, and on terms still more advantageous him. But the ways of heaven are not as our ways, nor to be regulated by our impatient wishes, or expectations. What man, in a moment, had wantonly thrown away, he was to recover once more; but in God’s good time; not instantly, but after a long succession of ages, and such a state of intermediate discipline and preparation, as might best serve to introduce the intended blessing with effect.

Man, then was to be reinstated in his forfeited inheritance: and the promise was made, though purposely in obscure terms, from the moment the forfeiture was incurred. In process of time, it was less, and still less obscurely signified; yet so as that the full discovery of what was intended, and, still more, the execution of it, was long deferred.

At length, Jesus Christ came into the world to fulfill and to declare the whole will of God on this interesting subject: and from him, and from those commissioned by him, we learn what the wisest men, and even angels, had desired to look into, and could at most discern but imperfectly through the types and shadows of the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations.

The great mystery, now unveiled, was briefly this: that God of his infinite goodness had, indeed, from the foundation of the world, purposed the restoration of eternal life to his unworthy creature, man; but that in his wisdom he saw fit to confer this unmerited blessing in a way, that should at once secure the honour of his government; and, if any thing could secure it, the future obedience and happiness of his creature: that he would only confer this mighty privilege at the instance, as it were, and for the sake of a transcendantly divine person, his only begotten Son, the second person in the glorious Trinity, as we now style him: that this divine person; of his own free will co-operating with the eternal purpose[7] of the all-gracious Father, should descend from Heaven; should become incarnate; should as man, converge with men, and instruct them by his heavenly doctrine; should taste deeply of all their sorrows and infirmities (sin only excepted); should even pour out his blood unto death, and by that blood should wash away the stain of guilt; and, on the condition of faith in his name, operating, as of course it must do, by a sincere obedience to his authority, should admit us, once more, to the possession of eternal happiness; of which, finally, we have a lively and certain hope, in that he who had laid down his life, had power to take it again, as was declared to all the world by his resurrection from the dead[8].

In this awfully stupendous manner (at which reason stands aghast, and faith herself is half confounded) was the Grace of God to man, at length, manifested: and thus it is, when we come a little to unfold the record, or testimony of the Gospel, that God hath given to as eternal life; and that this life is in his Son.

Curious men have perplexed themselves and others by inquiring into the nature of this astonishing scheme, and have seemed half inclined not to accept so great salvation, till they could reconcile it to their ideas of philosophy. Hence those endless altercations concerning merit, satisfaction, imputed sin, and vicarious punishment; in which it is hard to say, whether more subtlety has been shewn, or more perverseness; more ingenuity, or presumption. If most of these questions were well examined, it would appear, perhaps, that they are mere verbal disputes, and as frivolous as they are contentious. But, be the difference between the parties nominal or real, this we are sure of, without taking part in the controversy, that the scriptures speak of the death of Christ, as a ransom for many[9]; the price of our redemption[10]; a sacrifice for us[11]; a propitiation for the sins of the whole world[12]: that they speak of Christ himself, as dying for us[13], as bearing our sins in his own body on the tree[14]; as suffering for sins, the just for the unjust[15]; as tasting death for every man[16]; as giving himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God[17]; as justifying us by his blood[18]; and redeeming us by the price of it[19]: with a multitude of other passages to the same purpose. Now let men use what art they will in torturing such expressions as these; they will hardly prevent our seeing what the plain doctrine of scripture is, “That it pleased God to give us eternal life only in his Son; and in his Son only as suffering and dying for us.”

But in this consideration the whole mystery consists; how to be fully cleared up to our reason, men may dispute if they will, and they will dispute the rather, because the subject is out of their sphere, and beyond their comprehension. Whether God could accept such a sacrifice for sin as the death of his own Son, many have presumptuously asked. Whether he could not have given life to man, in another way, some have more modestly doubted: but the issue of all this arrogant or needless curiosity, is but the discovery of their own weakness, on the one hand, and the confession of this stupendous truth, on the other; That God did not see fit to bestow eternal salvation on mankind, but in his own appointed way, through Christ Jesus.

In this momentous truth, then, enough for us to know, let us humbly acquiesce, and leave to others the vanity of disputing the grounds of it.

But, though the reasons of this dispensation be inscrutable to us, the measure of its influence, some think, they have the means to discover. For it seems to follow from St. Paul’s assertion, that, as in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive[20]; and from the idea given us of the Redeemer, as of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world[21]; that the benefits of Christ’s death extend to all men, of all times, and are, in the proper sense of the word, universal. Only it is to be remembered, that, if all men have an interest in Christ, whether they know it or not, we who do know what our interest in him is, have infinitely the advantage of them, and are inexcusable, if we reject it.

Thus far then we go upon safe grounds, and affirm without hesitation, that God, through his mercies in Christ Jesus, is the Saviour of all men, but especially of them that believe[22].

Another consideration, and of the utmost moment, is yet behind. Though eternal life be now again bestowed on mankind, this gift is not one and the same thing to all, but is differently modified according to the different conduct of those to whom it is given. All shall live; but whether to happiness, or misery, and to what degree of either, will depend on the use of those advantages, whether of nature or grace, which every one enjoys. Not, that any degree of eternal happiness is, or can be strictly due to any man, but that the several degrees of it will be proportioned to our respective moral and religious qualifications. To have done otherwise, would have been to confound the order of things, and to appoint a scheme of salvation, which must utterly extinguish all virtuous industry among men. Hence, we are told, that the righteous shall shine out in different degrees of happiness, as one star differeth from another star in glory[23].

In like manner, they who shall be found worthy, not of happiness, but misery, will be sentenced to several allotments of it, by the same equal rule.

It may seem, perhaps, that, as our best works could not merit eternal life in happiness, so our worst cannot deserve eternal life in misery. But let us take care how we push our inquiries into this aweful subject. In rewarding obedience, the divine goodness is chiefly displayed; and who shall presume to set bounds to it? But, in punishing disobedience, the divine Wisdom, of which we conceive much more imperfectly, is mainly concerned: and what examples of severity in the punishment of incorrigibly impenitent offenders, after such means as have been devised to reclaim them, and for the support of his moral government over more worlds than we have any idea of, this attribute may demand, we shall do well, with all submission and modesty, to leave unexplored.

Still, what is just, that is, what is right and fit, on the whole, undoubtedly take place: but we are not, we cannot, be competent judges of what is fit and right in this instance. It will be safest to rely, without further inquiry, on the general declaration of him, who was not only our Redeemer, but shall one day be our merciful judge: These, says he, [that is, the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal[24].

What remains on this subject, is only to admonish you of those relations, in which we stand towards the Author of our salvation, and the correspondent duties they impose upon us. I can but just point out these relations and duties: though they deserve to be inculcated (as, in fact, they have been, by the sacred writers) with all the force of eloquent persuasion, that words can give.

With regard, to the supreme cause of all things, who is of himself only the source, and principle of deity, and the original author of our salvation, God, thus understood, is graciously pleased to present himself to us in the Gospel, under the idea of the Father, and to consider us in the tender relation of sons. We owe him, therefore, all possible filial love and reverence, and must so conceive of his part in the mystery of our redemption, as to refer all the fruits of it, ultimately, to the glory of God the Father[25].

In subordination to the Father, HE in whom we have eternal life, is our friend[26], and therefore entitled to our warmest love: he is our greatest benefactor[27], and therefore claims our utmost gratitude: he is our only master[28], and of course, must be followed with all observance: he is our redeemer, and sole mediator between God and man[29]; therefore he challenges an implicit, an exclusive trust and confidence from us: he is the appointed judge of the world[30]; therefore to be regarded with the humblest fear and veneration: lastly, he is the only begotten Son of God[31], nay our Lord and our God[32]; to whom therefore we are to pay transcendant honour, so as to honour, the Son even as we honour the Father[33].

These are some, the chief of those duties, which, as Christians, we are bound to perform towards the Author of our salvation. The relations from which they spring, could not be discovered by the light of nature; but, when made known to us by revelation, they require as certainly, and as reasonably, the several duties which correspond to them, as the relations in which we stand to God and man, as discoverable by nature only, require their respective duties.

You see, then, the sphere of a Christian’s duty is much enlarged beyond that of the natural man: and not in these instances only, for the gospel has made known another divine person, (so we are obliged to speak) the holy Spirit of God, who stands in a distinct relation to us; and to whom, therefore, his proper and peculiar honour is due. But of this divine person in the glorious Trinity, I shall find another occasion to lay before you, at large, what the scriptures have brought to light.

For the present, it may suffice to have put you in mind of what we are taught concerning the grace of God in his Son Jesus Christ; to the end that, religiously observing all the duties which this revealed doctrine requires of us, we may fully correspond to the gracious intentions of the revealer, by having our fruit unto holiness; and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin (be it ever remembered) is death: but eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord[34]: To whom be all praise, thanksgiving, and honour, now and for evermore. Amen.

SERMON XXXI.
PREACHED JUNE 12, 1774.

Gal. vi. 8.

He that soweth to the spirit, shall OF THE SPIRIT REAP LIFE EVERLASTING.

Without staying to point out the immediate occasion of these words, or to enumerate and define the several senses of the word spirit, in sacred scripture, it is sufficient to my present purpose to observe, that the text affirms a general and fundamental truth of the Gospel, more clearly and particularly explained elsewhere. It is this: That he who in this life conducts himself according to the rules and admonitions of God’s holy spirit, which the Apostle calls, sowing to the spirit, shall, through the influence of the same spirit, obtain, that is, in the Apostle’s figurative style, shall reap, life everlasting.

But, what! you will say, everlasting life is the gift of God through Christ: how is it then that we receive this gift at the hands of another, of God’s holy spirit?

To resolve this difficulty, and to open to you at the same time the Christian doctrine of grace, together with the concern which we have in it, I shall consider,

I. In what sense we are to understand the assertion, That everlasting life is of the spirit.

II. In what way this blessing is conferred upon us; under which head I shall have occasion to set forth the several offices and operations of the holy Spirit.

III. Lastly, what returns of duty, as corresponding to these offices of the Spirit, and as resulting from the relations in which we stand towards him, are, in consequence of this revelation, reasonably required of us.

I. To understand in what sense the scriptures assert everlasting life to be of the spirit, it will be necessary to form to ourselves a distinct idea of the divine œconomy in the whole work of our redemption; which (to sum up briefly what is revealed to us) appears to have been conducted in the following manner.

God the Father of his mere grace, purposed and willed[35], from all eternity, the restoration of life to man, after his forfeiture of it by disobedience: but he saw fit to make our title to this free gift depend on the death and sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ: and, lastly, to give the actual possession of it only through the ministration of his holy Spirit.

The whole of this process is full of wonder; but there is no contradiction, or inconsistency in its several parts.

However, to open the œconomy of this dispensation a little more distinctly, it is to be observed, that eternal life may be taken in two senses. It may either imply a mere state of ENDLESS EXISTENCE; and, in this sense, it is solely and properly the gift of God through Christ; for as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive[36]: Or, it may mean, what it always does mean in those passages of scripture, where it is magnified so much, a state of HAPPINESS, in that existence; and then only a capacity of being put into this state is procured for us by the Redeemer. But this capacity, this grace of God, may be frustrated by us[37], may even turn against is, if we be not duly prepared to enjoy that happiness of which we are made capable; and such preparation, is the proper distinctive work of God’s holy spirit.

Further, to see the necessity, the importance at least, of such preparation, we are to reflect, that, by the fall of man, not only life was forfeited, but the powers of his mind were weakened. Transgression had clouded his understanding, and perverted his will. He neither saw his duty so clearly as before, nor was disposed to perform it so vigorously. And this depravation of his faculties, we easily conceive, might, as an original taint, be transmitted to his posterity; nay, we certainly feel that it is so: yet, without any imputation on the author of our being, who might have placed us in this disadvantageous state, if he had pleased, from the beginning; and to whom we are accountable for the right use of the advantages we have, not of those we have not. Still, the purity of God’s nature might require what his wisdom has decreed, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord[38], and that Jesus should be the author of eternal salvation to those only, who, in a higher degree than our fallen nature of itself permits, obey him[39]. And this change in our moral condition from bad to good, from a propensity to evil to a love of righteousness, is called in scripture, a renewing of our minds, a new creation, a new man; in opposition to the former so different state of our minds, which is called the old man corrupted according to the deceitful lusts[40].

For the change itself, it is represented in scripture as proceeding, not from the virtue of our own minds, but from the influence of the Holy Ghost upon them[41]: and when it has taken place in us, then, and not till then, is our election sure, and we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life[42].

This extraordinary provision for restoring man to the image of God, to the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness[43], is what reason could not have hoped for, but, when made known by revelation, seems to have been expedient, may be conceived to have been even necessary, and is clearly an expression of the divine goodness, which, though it fill our minds very justly with wonder, well as gratitude, none of our natural notions contradict.

We see, then, in general, how the new man receives the gift of eternal life from the spirit. Let us now consider more particularly,

II. In the second place, in what way this new creation is carried on and perfected in us. And here we shall find all the marks of that wisdom and fitness, which are discernable in the thing itself.

For we are renewed in the spirit of our minds[44], by the teaching of the spirit of truth[45], through sanctification of the spirit[46], and comfort of the Holy Ghost[47]: that is, we have a new and better turn given to our minds, by the light derived into them from the spirit; by the good thoughts and purposes which he excites in them; and by the joy and consolation with which he rewards our endeavours to profit by the assistance thus graciously afforded to us.

That we very much want these helps and encouragements, we all know: that we are very much indebted to them, we Christians believe: and that they are not the less real, because, perhaps, not distinguishable from the workings of our own minds, now that revelation assures us of the fact, we have no scruple to affirm.

To this divine Spirit, then, the spirit of the Father[48], and the spirit of the Son[49], as he is equally styled, because proceeding from both; to this spirit, I say, enlightening our understandings, purifying our wills, and confirming our faith, we must impute all that is good in us, all that proficiency in true holiness which qualifies us for the enjoyment of heaven: and through this discipline it is, that they who sow to the spirit, are, in the end, enabled of the spirit to reap everlasting life.

These three characters might be further opened and distinctly considered; and then it would appear, that all the revelations of God’s will, chiefly with regard to the redemption of man, made to the patriarchs of old, to the prophets under the law, to the Apostles of our Lord, nay to our Lord himself, as the man Christ Jesus, and all the secret illuminations of the faithful in all times, are to be regarded as so many emanations from the spirit of God, THE ENLIGHTENER: that at the gradual improvements of our virtue, all the graces which first descend upon our hearts, and then manifest themselves in every good word and work, are the production of the same spirit, in his office of SANCTIFIER: and, lastly, that all the firmness and resolution we possess under every trial in this world, all the foretaste we have of future favour and acceptance, all our joy and peace in believing, are the signs and proofs of the COMFORTER, speaking to us, and, according to our Saviour’s promise, abiding in us.

It is very conceivable that all this diversity of operations may be justly and reasonably ascribed to the influence of the holy Spirit, without supposing that our own freedom is impeded or infringed. For influence is not compulsion; and we are every day induced by others to do that which we should not have done of ourselves, without feeling or suspecting that the least violence is offered to our free-will. A convincing truth clearly presented to us; a virtuous thought incidentally suggested; a gleam of hope or gladness, suddenly let in upon us; all this is no more than we frequently experience in the company of wise and good men, who yet would be much surprised, and would have reason to think themselves much injured, if we complained of any undue influence exerted by them. Yet thus it is, and thus only, that the holy spirit constraineth us: and the scriptures are so far from representing this constraint under the idea of force, or physical necessity, that they speak of it as the perfection of moral freedom: Where the spirit of the Lord is, says the Apostle, there is liberty[50].

Having, therefore, seen in what sense it is affirmed that the spirit giveth life; and in what way, consistently with the free use of our faculties, he dispenses this gift, and exercises a variety of offices towards us; it remains,

III. In the last place, to see what returns of duty, as corresponding to the several characters of the holy Spirit, and resulting from the relations in which we stand to him, are required on our part; in other words, what we are to do, before we can hope to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, under the influence of the holy Spirit.

One previous indispensable condition of our obtaining that influence seems to be, that we ASK it, that is, put up our petitions to God for it: a consideration, which, while it shews the utility, the necessity of prayer, sufficiently accounts, I doubt, to many of us, for the little or no effect which, as we pretend and sometimes lament, this renovating power of the spirit has upon us.

This duty of prayer being supposed; with regard to the holy spirit himself, in general, all the reverence, honour, worship, which his divine nature exacts from us, and all the love and gratitude which his gracious concurrence with the Father and the Son, in the great work of our redemption, so eminently deserves, are to be religiously paid to him.

More particularly, we are to consider, that to the several characters or offices, sustained by this divine person, and exercised towards us, several duties respectively correspond; which indeed are obvious enough, but must just be pointed out.

1. If a ray of light break in upon us, if a new degree of knowledge be imparted to us, if we see the truth of the gospel more clearly in any respect than before we had done, we cannot mistake in ascribing this additional information or conviction (which comes very frequently we know not how, and when the general bent of our thoughts, perhaps, lies another way) to the illuminating spirit within us; and we are to see to what further purpose that illumination may serve, and how far it may go towards dissipating the darkness of our minds in other instances.

2. If we feel (as at times we all of us do) a vicious inclination checked, a virtuous purpose encouraged, a moral or a pious sentiment suggested, these secret motions are, nay, must be, from the holy Spirit; and our duty is to entertain and to improve them.

3. Or, again, if we perceive our devotions to be quickened, our hopes enlivened, our faith fortified, though the present state of our temper or constitution may be instrumental in producing these effects, yet, if they go no father than scripture warrants, and right reason allows, we shall not mistake (having the express promise of our Lord and Master) in ascribing these consolations of peace and joy to the Comforter; we may regard them as the earnest and pledge of the spirit in our hearts[51]: and then, our part is so to cherish and use them, as to go on from strength to strength[52], till we arrive at perfection.

You see there is enough for us to do, though the spirit strive with our spirit[53], and in such sort that we derive the power to will and to do[54] what we ought, ultimately from him.

I know that this, and other things, which on the authority of scripture, I have delivered on the present subject, will appear strange to natural reason. But so that scripture has prepared us to expect they would do. For the natural man, says the Apostle, receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him[55]. And to the same purpose our divine Master himself, speaking of the spirit of truth; whom, says he, the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye, addressing himself to his disciples [that is, to men, who walk by faith, and not by sight] ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

On this assurance, then, we may reasonably believe what, by reason, we cannot understand. And the substance of what we are to believe on this whole subject, is contained in a single text of St. Peter, where the three divine persons, yet ineffably one God, “the Trinity in unity[56],” whom we adore, and their respective offices, are accurately distinguished. For in the opening of his first epistle, he pronounces the Christians, to whom he writes, ELECT, that is, entitled to salvation, according to the foreknowledge, or pre-determination[57], of God the father; through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience; and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.