macy with him; they had liberty at all times, and in all places, to converse with him, to propose their doubts, and to ask for his instrucions; they were at the source of wisdom, truth, and life. St. Peter had these advantages not Only in common with the rest of the apostles: out he, with James and John, were chosen rom the rest of the apostles to accompany the Saviour, when, on particular occasions, he aid aside the veils which concealed him from he rest, and when he displayed his divinity n its greatest glory. A faith produced in such xtraordinary circumstances, was not the work of flesh and blood, it was a production of that lmighty grace, that ineffable love, which Wrought the salvation of St. Peter. My brethren, although we have never enoyed the same advantages with St. Peter: yet, t seems to me, those whom God has estabished in piety, may recollect the manner in which he has improved some circumstances to 2001 orm the dispositions in them that constitute t. Let each turn his attention to the different conditions through which God has been pleased to conduct him. Here I was exposed o such or such a danger, and delivered from by a kind of miracle; there, I fell into such or such a temptation, from which I was surprisingly recovered; in such a year I was connected with a baneful company, from which an anexpected event freed me: at another time, I met with a faithful friend, the most valuable of all acquisitions, whose kind advice and asistance, recommended by his own example, "were of infinite use to me: some of these dangerous states would have ruined me, if the projects, on which I was most passionately bent, had succeeded according to my wishes; for they were excited by worldly objects, and I was infatuated with their glory; and others would have produced the same effect, if my adverse circumstances had either increased or continued. I repeat, it again, my brethren, each of us may recollect circumstances in his life in which a kind Providence evidently interposed, and made use of them to tear him from the world, and thereby enabled him to adopt this comfortable declaration of Jesus Christ, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.” 2. Let us remark the efforts which preceded faith. God has been pleased to conceal the truth under veils, in order to excite our arduous industry to discover it. The obscurity that involves it for a time, is not only agreeable to the general plan of Providence, but it is one of the most singularly beautiful dispensations of it. If, then, you have attended to the truth only in a careless, indolent manner, instead of studying it with avidity, it is to be feared you have not obtained it: at least, it may be presumed, your attachment to it is less the work of Heaven than of the world. But if you can attest you have silenced prejudice to hear reason, you have consulted nature to know the God of nature; that, disgusted with the little progress you could make in that way, you have had recourse to revelation; that you have stretched your me ditation, not only to ascertain the truth of the gospel, but to obtain a deep, thorough knowledge of it; that you have considered this as VOL. I.-21 the most important work to which your attention could be directed; that you have sincerely and ardently implored the assistance of God to enable you to succeed in your endeavours; that you have often knocked at the door of mercy to obtain it; and that you have often adopted the sentiments, with the prayer of David, and said, "Lord open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law!" Ps. cxix. 18. If you can appeal to Heaven for the truth of these practices, be you assured, your faith, like St. Peter's, is not a production of flesh and blood, but a work of that grace which never refuses itself to the sighs of a soul seeking it with so much vehement desire. 3. The evidence that accompanies faith is our next article. People may sincerely deceive themselves; indeed erroneous opinions are generally received on account of some glimmerings that hover around them and dazzle the beholders. The belief of an error seems, in some cases, to be grounded on principles as clear as those of truth. It is certain, however, that truth has a brightness peculiar to itself; an evidence, that distinguishes it from whatever is not true. The persuasion of a man, who rests on demonstration, is altogether different from that of him who is seduced by sophisms. Evidence has its prerogatives and its rights. Maintain who will, not only with sincerity, but with all the positiveness and violence of which he is capable, that there is nothing certain; I am fully persuaded that I have evidence, incomparably clearer, of the opposite opinion. In like manner, when I affirm that I have an intelligent soul, and that I animate a material body; when I maintain that I am free, that the Creator has given me the power of turning my eyes to the east, or to the west; that while the Supreme Being, on whom I own I am entirely dependant, shall please to continue me in my present state, I may look to the east or to the west, as I choose, without being forced by any superior power to turn my eyes toward one of these points, rather than towards the other: when I admit these propositions, I find myself guided by brightness of evidence, which it is impossible to find in the opposite propositions. A sophist may invent some objections, which I cannot answer; but he can never produce reasons, that counterbalance those which determine me; he may perplex, but he can never persuade me. In like manner, an infidel may unite every argument in favour of a system of infidelity; a Turk may accumulate all his imaginations in support of Mohammedism; a Jew may do the same for Judaism; and they may silence me, but they can never dissuade me from Christianity. The religion of Jesus Christ has peculiar proof. The brightness of that evidence, which guides the faith of a Christian, is a guarantee of the purity of the principle from which it proceeds. 4. Observe the sacrifices that crown the faith of a Christian. There are two sorts of these: the one comprehends some valuable possessions; the other some tyrannical passions. Religion requires sacrifices of the first kind in times of persecution, when the most indispensable duties of a Christian are punished as atrocious crimes; when men, under pretence of religion, let loose their rage against them who sincerely love religion, and when, to use our Saviour's | advantage, nor that we adopt the maxim of style, they think "to do service to God," John those who put sin among the "all things which xvi. 2, by putting the disciples of Christ to work together for good to them that love God," death. Happy they! who, among you, my Rom. viii. 28. Ah! if sin be an advantage, brethren, have been enabled to make sacrifices may I be for ever deprived of such an advan of this kind! You bear, I see, the marks of tage? May a constant peace between my Creathe disciples of a crucified Saviour; I respect tor and me for ever place me in a happy incathe cross you carry, and I venerate your wounds. pacity of knowing the pleasure of reconciliaYet these are doubtful evidences of that faith tion with him! It is true, however, that we which the grace of our heavenly Father pro- may judge by the nature of the falls of good duces. Sometimes they even proceed from a men of the sincerity of their faith, and that the disinclination to sacrifices of the second kind. very obstacles which the remainder of corrup Infatuation has made confessors; vain glory has tion in them opposes to their happiness, are, produced martyrs; and there is a phenomenon properly understood, proofs of the unchange in the church, the cross of casuists, and the ableness of their felicity. most insuperable objection against the doctrine St. Peter fell into great sin after he had made of assurance and perseverance; that is, there the noble confession in the text. He commitare men, who, after they have resisted the ted one of those atrocious crimes which terrify greatest trials, yield to the least; men who, the conscience, trouble the joy of salvation, having at first fought like heroes, at last fly and which sometimes, confound the elect with like cowards; who, after they have prayed for the reprobate. Of the same Jesus, to whom their persecutors, for those who confined them St. Peter said in the text, "Thou art the Christ, in dungeons, who, to use the psalmist's lan- the Son of the living God;" and elsewhere, guage, "ploughed upon their backs, and made we believe, and are sure, that thou art that long their furrows," Ps. cxxix. 3, could not Christ, the Son of the living God;" of the prevail with themselves on the eve of a Lord's same Jesus he afterwards said, "I know not the supper-day to forgive a small offence committed man," John vi. 69; Matt. xxvi. 72. Ye know by a brother, by one of the household of faith. not the man! And who, then, did you say, There have been men who, after they had re- had the "words of eternal life?" Ye know not sisted the tortures of the rack, fell into the silly the man! And with whom, then, did you prosnares of voluptuousness. There have been mise to "go to prison and to death?" Ye know men who, after they had forsaken all their am- not the man! And whom have you followed, ple fortunes, and rich revenues, were condemn- and whom did you declare to be "the Son of ed for invading the property of a neighbour, the living God?" Notwithstanding this flagrant for the sake of a trifling sum, that bore no pro- crime; notwithstanding this denial, the scanportion to that which they had quitted for the dal of all ages, and an eternal monument of sake of religion. O thou "deceitful, and des- human weakness; in spite of this crime, the perately wicked heart of man! O thou heart salvation of St. Peter was sure; he was the ob of man! who can know thee!" Jer. xvii. 9. ject of the promise, "Simon, Simon, behold SaYet study thy heart, and thou wilt know it. tan hath desired to have you, that he may sift Search out the principle from which thine ac- you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that tions flow, content not thyself with a superfi- thy faith fail not," Luke xxii. 31, 32. And cial self-examination; and thou wilt find, that" Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona," was not want of courage to make a sacrifice of the last kind is sometimes that which produces a sacrifice of the first. One passion indemnifies us for the sacrifice of another. But to resign a passion, the resignation of which no other passion requires; to become humble without indemnifying pride by courting the applause that men sometimes give to humility; to renounce pleasure without any other pleasure than that of pleasing the Creator; to make it our meat and drink, according to the language of Scripture, "to do the will of God; to deny one's self; to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts; to present the body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God," John iv. 34; Matt. xvii. 24; Gal. v. 24; Rom. xii. 1, these are the characters of that faith which flesh cannot produce; "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6, but a faith which sacrifices the flesh itself, is a production of the grace of the "Father which is in heaven." 5. To conclude, St. Peter's faith has a fifth character, which he could not well discover in himself, before he had experienced his own frailty, but which we, who have a complete history of his life, may very clearly discern. I ground the happiness of St. Peter, and the idea form of his faith, on the very nature of his fall. Not that we ought to consider sin as an only true but infallible. The very nature of his fall proves it. Certain struggles, which precede the commission of sin; a certain infe licity, that is felt during the commission of it; above all, certain horrors which follow; an inward voice, that cries, Miserable wretch! what hast thou done? A certain hell, if I may venture so to express myself, a certain hell, the flames of which divine love alone can kindle, characterize the falls of which I speak. This article is for you, poor sinners! who are so hard to be persuaded of the mercy of God towards you; who imagine the Deity sits on a tribunal of vengeance, surrounded with thunder and lightning, ready to strike your guilty heads. Such a faith as St. Peter's never fails. When by examining your own hearts, and the histories of your own lives, you discover the characters which we have described, you may assure yourselves, that all the powers of hell united against your salvation can never prevent it. Cursed be the man who abuses this doctrine! Cursed be the man who poisons this part of Christian divinity! Cursed be the man who reasons in this execrable manner! St. Peter committed an atrocious crime, in an unguarded moment, when reason, troubled by a revolution of the senses, had lost the power of reflection: I therefore risk nothing by commit ing sin coolly and deliberately. St. Peter disruised his Christianity for a moment, when The danger of losing his life made him lose light of the reasons that induce people to conMass their Christianity, then I may disguise mine or thirty or forty years together, and teach my amily to act the same hypocritical part; then may live thirty or forty years, without a hurch, without sacraments, without public worship; when I have an opportunity, I may oudly exclaim, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;" and when that confession would injure my interest, or hazard my fortune, fr my life, I may hold myself always in readiless to cry as loudly, "I know not the man;" may abjure that religion which Jesus Christ t breached, which my fathers sealed with their olood, and for which a "cloud of witnesses," Heb. xii. 1, my contemporaries, and my brethten, went, some into banishment, others into lungeons, some to the galleys, and others to the stake. Cursed be the man who reasons in ahis execrable manner. "Ah! how shall I bless whom God hath not blessed." I repeat it again, such a faith as St. Peter's ever fails, and the very nature of the falls of uch a believer proves the sincerity and the exellence of his faith. We would not wish to ave him banish entirely from his soul that ear which the Scriptures praise, and to which hey attribute grand effects. A Christian, an Established Christian I mean, ought to live in be perpetual vigilance, he ought always to have these passages in his mind, "Be not high-minded, but fear. Hold that fast which thou hast haps I may be so again! Perhaps I may forget all the resolutions I have made to devote myself for ever to God! Perhaps I may violate my solemn oaths to my sovereign Lord! Perhaps I may again deny my Redeemer! Perhaps, should I be again tried with the sight of scaffolds and stakes, I might again say, "I know not the man!" But yet, I know I love him! Nothing, I am sure, will ever be able to eradicate my love to him! I know, if I "love him," it is "because he first loved me," 1 John iv. 19; and I know, that he, "having loved his own who are in the world, loved them unto the end," John xiii. 1. O my God! What would become of us without a religion that preached such comfortable truths to us? Let us devote ourselves for ever to this religion, my brethren. The more it strengthens us against the horrors which sin inspires, the more let us endeavour to surmount them by resisting sin. May you be adorned with these holy dispositions, my brethren! May you be admitted to the eternal pleasures which they procure, and may each of you be able to apply to himself the declaration of Jesus Christ to St. Peter, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, who is in heaven." God grant you these blessings! To him be honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XVIII. that no man take thy crown. When the right- THE LITTLE SUCCESS OF CHRIST'S eous turneth away from his righteousness shall hehe live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned, in his sin he shall die," Rom. xii. 20; Rev. iii. 11, and Ezek. MINISTRY.* ROMANS X. 21. viii. 24. From these Scriptures, such a Chris- All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. THE object that St. Paul presents to our view in the text, makes very different impressions on the mind, according to the different sides on which it is viewed. If we consider it in itself, it is a prodigy, a prodigy which confounds reason, and shakes faith. Yes, when we read the history of Christ's ministry; when the truth of the narrations of the evangelists is proved beyond a doubt; when we transport ourselves back to the primitive ages of the church, and see, with our own eyes, the virtues and the miracles of Jesus Christ; we cannot believe that the Holy Spirit put the words of the text into the mouth of the Saviour of the world: "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." It should seem, if Jesus Christ had displayed so many virtues, and operated so many miracles, there could not have been one infidel; not one Jew, who could have refused to embrace Christianity, nor one libertine, who could have refused to have become a good man: one would think, all the synagogue must have fallen at the feet of Jesus Christ, and desired an admission into his church. tian as I have described will not infer conse- * The style of reasoning which runs through this sermon, and the whole of its moral character, must place the author among the first of preachers, and the best of J. S. But when, after we have considered the unsuccessfulness of Christ's ministry in itself, we consider it in relation to the ordinary conduct of mankind, we find nothing striking, nothing astonishing, nothing contrary to the common course of events. An obstinate resistance of the strongest motives, the tenderest invitations, interests the most important, and demonstrations the most evident, is not, we perceive, an unheard-of thing: and instead of breaking out into vain exclamations, and crying, O times! O manners! we say with the "That which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun," Eccles. i. 9. wise man, vate the arguments which we have taken from the theology of their ancestors, they themselves cannot help preserving proofs of their truth. I would compare, on this article, the Talmud of the Jews with the mass-book of the church of Rome. Nothing can be more opposite. the doctrine of the gospel, and to that of the reformation, than the Romish missal: yet we discover in it some traces of the doctrine of the primitive church; and although a false turn is given to much of the ancient phraseology, yet it is easy to discover the primitive divinity in this book, so that some authors have thought the missal the most eligible refu tation of the worship prescribed by the missal I have insensibly laid out, my brethren, the itself. We consider the Talmud, and other plan of this discourse. I design, first, to show writings of the modern Jews, in the same you the unsuccessfulness of Christ's ministry light. The ancient Jews, we see, took the as a prodigy, as an eternal opprobrium to that prophecies which St. Paul alleges, in the three nation in which he exercised it. And I in-chapters that I have quoted, in the same sense tend, secondly, to remove your astonishment, after I have excited it; and, by making a few reflections on you yourselves, to produce in you a conviction, yea, perhaps a preservation, of a certain uniformity of corruption, which we cannot help attributing to all places, and to all times. O God, by my description of the infidelity of the ancient Jews to-day, confirm us in the faith! May the portraits of the depravity of our times, which I shall be obliged to exhibit to this people, in order to verify the sacred history of the past, inspire us with as much contrition on account of our own disorders, as astonishment at the disorders of the rest of mankind! Great God! animate our meditations to this end with thy Holy Spirit. May this people, whom thou dost cultivate in the tenderest manner, be an exception to the too general corruption of the rest of the world! Amen. J. Let us consider the unbelief of the Jews as a prodigy of hardness of heart, an eternal shame and opprobrium to the Jewish nation, and let us spend a few moments in lamenting it. We have supposed, that the text speaks of their infidelity. Christians who regard the authority of St. Paul, will not dispute it: for the apostle employs three whole chapters of his Epistle to the Romans, the ninth, the tenth, and the eleventh, to remove the objections which the casting off of the Jews might raise against Christianity, among those of that nation who had embraced the gospel. One of the most weighty arguments which he uses to remove this stumbling-block is, the prediction of their unbelief in their prophecies; and among the other prophecies which he alleges is my text, quoted from the sixty-fifth of Isaiah. in which the apostle took them, and like him, understood them of the infidelity of the Jews in the time of the Messiah. St. Paul, in Rom. ix. 25, quotes a prophecy from Hosea, "I will call them my people, which were not my people." The ancient Jews took this prophecy in the apostle's sense, and we have this gloss on the words of Hosea still in the Talmud: "The time shall come, wherein they, who were not my people, shall turn unto the Lord, and shall become my peo ple," chap. ii. 23. St. Paul, in Rom. ix. 23, cites a prophecy from Isaiah, "Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone," chap. viii. 14. The ancient Jews took this prophecy in the same sense, and we have still this gloss in the Talmud; "When the Son of David shall come," that is to say, in the time of the Messiah, "the two houses of the fathers,” that is, the kingdom of Israel, and that of Judah (these two kingdoms included the whole nation of the Jews,) "the two houses of the fathers shall be cast off, according as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone." The apostle, in Rom. x. 19, alleges a pas sage from Deuteronomy; "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people," chap. xxxii. 21. The Jews, both ancient and modern, take this prophecy in the same sense, and one of their books, entitled, "The book by excellence," explains the whole chapter of the time of the Messiah. Our text is taken, by St. Paul from Isaiah's prophecy, "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." The ancient Jews took the words in the same sense, as we can prove by the writings of the modern Jews. Aben Ezra quotes an ancient Rabbi, who explains the It is worthy of observation, that all the prophecy more like a Christian_than a Jew. other passages, which the apostles cites on These are his words: "I have found the na this occasion from the prophets, were taken by tions which called not on me: but, as for my the ancient Jews in the same sense that the people, in vain have I stretched out my hands apostle gives them. This may be proved from unto them." St. Paul proves that the hardthe Talmud. I do not know a more absurd ness of heart of the Jewish nation was forebook than the Talmud: but one is, in some told by the prophets, and the Jews, in like sort, repaid for the fatigue of turning it over by manner, have preserved a tradition of the inan important discovery, so to speak, which fidelity of their nation in the time of the Mesevery page of that book makes; that is, that siah: hence this saying of a Rabbi, "God whatever pains the Jews have been at to ener-abode three years and a half on Mount Olivet the me not." in vain; in vain he cried, Seek ye the Lord! | their societies, retreating into the deserts, deand therefore am I found of them who sought voting himself for whole nights to meditation and prayer, and for whole weeks to praying We have, then, a right to say, that my text and fasting. Sometimes he addressed himself speaks of the unbelief of the Jews in the time to them by a graceful gentleness: "Come unto of the Messiah. This we were to prove, and me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, to prove this infidelity is to exhibit a prodigy and I will give you rest. Learn of me, for Í of hardness of heart, the eternal opprobrium am meek, and lowly in heart. O Jerusalem, and shame of the Jewish nation. This is the Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and first point of light in which we are to consider stonest them which are sent unto thee, how unbelief, and the smallest attention is sufficient often would I have gathered thy children toto discover its turpitude. gether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matt. xi. 28, 29; xxiii. 37. At other times he tried them by severity, he drove them from the temple, he denounced the judgments of God against them; he depicted a future day of vengeance, and, showing Jerusalem covered with the carcasses of the slain, the holy mountain flowing with blood, and the temple consuming in flames, he cried, Wo, wo to the Pharisees! Wo to the scribes! Wo to all the doctors of the law! ver. 13, &c. Consider the pains that Jesus Christ took to convince and to reform the Jews. To them The consecrated the first functions of his ministry; he never went out of their towns and provinces; he seemed to have come only for them, and to have brought a gospel formed on the plan of the law, and restrained to the Jewish nation alone. The evangelists have remarked these things, and he himself said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Matt. xv. 24. When he sent his apostles, he expressly commanded them "not to go into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans to enter not," chap. x. 5. And the apostles, after his ascension, began to exercise their ministry after his example, by saying to the Jews, "Unto you pfirst, God sent his Son Jesus to bless you," me Acts iii. 26. Consider, farther, the means which Jesus 7 Christ employed to recover this people. Here a boundless field of meditation opens: but the limits of these exercises forbid my enlarging, and I shall only indicate the principal articles. What proper means of conviction did Jesus somit in the course of his ministry among this people? Are miracles proper? "Though ye believe not me, believe the works," John x. 32. Were extraordinary discourses proper? "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin," chap. xv. 22. Is innocence proper? "Which of you convinceth me of sin" chap. viii. 46. Is the authority of the prophets necessary? "Search the Scriptures, for they are they that testify of me," chap. v. 39. Is it proper to reason with people on their own principles? "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me," ver. 46. "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" chap. x. 34-36. Consider again, the different forms, if I may be allowed to speak so, which Jesus Christ put on to insinuate himself into their minds. Sometimes he addressed them by condescension, submitting to the rights of the law, receiving circumcision, going up to Jerusalem, observing the sabbath, and celebrating their festivals. At other times he exhibited a noble liberty, freeing himself from the rites of the law, travelling on sabbath-days, and neglecting their feasts. Sometimes he conversed familiarly with them, eating and drinking with them, mixing himself in their entertainments, and assisting at their marriage-feasts. At other times he put on the austerity of retirement, fleeing from Jesus Christ, in the whole of his advent, answered the characters by which the prophets had described the Messiah. What characters do you Jews expect in a Messiah, which Jesus Christ doth not bear? Born of your nation,in your country,-of a virgin, of the family of David,—of the tribe of Judah,-in Bethlehem, after the seventy weeks,-at the expiration of your grandeur, and before the departure of your sceptre. On one hand, "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted; wounded for your transgressions, bruised for your iniquities; brought as a lamb to the slaughter, cut off from the land of the living," as your prophets had foretold, Isa. liii. 3-8. But on the other hand, glorious and magnanimous, "prolonging his days, seeing his seed, the pleasure of the Lord prospering in his hand, justifying many by his knowledge, blessed of God, girding his sword upon his thigh, and riding prosperously on the word of his truth," as the same prophets had taught you to hope, ver. 10, 11, and Psal. xlv. 2, 3. What Messiah, then, do you wait for? If you require another gospel, produce us another law. If you reject Jesus Christ, reject Moses. If you want other accomplishments, show us other prophecies. If you will not receive our apostles, discard your own prophets. Such was the conduct of Jesus to the Jews. What success had he? What effects were produced by all his labour, and by all his love; by so many conclusive sermons, and so many pressing exhortations; by so much demonstrative evidence, by so many exact characters, and so many shining miracles; by so much submission, and so much elevation; by so much humility, and so much glory; and, so to speak, by so many different forms, which Jesus Christ took to insinuate himself into the minds of this people? You hear in the words of the text; "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." The malice of this people prevailed over the mercy of God, and mercy was useless except to a few. The ancient Jews were infidels, and most of the modern Jews persist in infidelity. Is not this a prodigy of hardness? Is not this |