mocking infidel, the scoffing philosopher-all these in one undistinguishable host, all depraved, and all unhappy, and yet, all immortal, for ever and ever, attest in the regions of hell, what sin would do were it let loose on the universe, what sin would do in heaven itself; what sin would do, not merely within the petty range of time, but through the everlasting ages of eternity.

We may learn from this subject, the extreme folly of the Antinomian neresy. The Antinomian heresy consists in the avowal that, because Christ hath fulfilled the Law, and we receive, by his hand, the benefit of his obedience imputed to us, that, therefore the believer is exempted from obligation to the commands of the moral Law. A dangerous and unjust conclusion, from a most true and blessed doctrine. A foul perversion of a holy doctrine; and they are always foulest which are perversions of the fairest fountains. Christ hath suffered the curse of the Law-Christ hath redeemed from that curse all that believe, as it is set forth in the written word: "There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." But, I am willing to hope, that this error, is an error of the judgment, more than of the affection; an error, merely, of reasoning: but it is an unwarrantable conclusion from a doctrine inost true. Let us never forget, that he who is born of God, loveth God, and knoweth God; and that this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. In my view, there is but little reason to fear, that one who has wept at the foot of the cross, with tears of genuine contrition, should fall into a principle so totally opposed to the spirit of the Gospel. Sinful and full of infirmities, as the most faithful believers are, I do not hesitate to say, that, the universal character of the family of God is, that they are to be holy as God is holy; and that the prayer of the Catholic Church is, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: as thou art, so let us be."

From the contemplation of this subject, we may derive an additional argument for the truth of the Bible as a revelation from God. It is a refined argument, but it has a due proportion of strength. It is an additional thread to that complicated system of probabilities, which render it absolutely impossible that the Bible should be untrue. This divine Law has the stamp of divinity upon it in its simplicity. I state it on good authority that the Hindoo guide, for the moral conduct of the professors of Brahminism, consists of seventy thousand precepts, which have been thus multiplied in order to attempt to give a precept for every possible case; and every different case having different shades, there must be a new principle for each. It is so in the statute law of England, which consists of twenty volumes folio, and fifty volumes octavo, besides what is called the unwritten law. Now, all these constitute the labour of a life to learn; and, very frequently, after searching them through, you cannot find any parallel for the case respecting which you inquire. Behold the finger of God in the simplicity of the moral Law-"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets."

May each one present be led to contemplate this solemn truth, that we are living under moral obligation; that we are living under a divine and holy Governor, who takes cognizance of every thought; who is, by the necessity of his nature, induced to punish every violation of his Law. And let me point you, for it may be for the relief and comfort of some soul present, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. It is, you know, our attempt to

convince you-and it will be our attempt to convince you more systematically -that all have gone astray like lost sheep; and that God has laid help on one that is mighty. The Lord has laid on Christ Jesus the iniquities of us all and in Christ, the curse of the Law is removed, and we are entirely justified by the righteousness of God in Christ. Apply to Christ; study the character of Christ; launch forth, with every affection of your soul into the promises made over to dying sinners. It is a sure and never fading refuge; a tried stone, in whom whosoever believeth shall never be confounded, world without end. May it be your happiness, and mine, thus to believe on Christ; and, living, and dying, to be found in hin, not having our own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.

415

"THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE."

"THE resurrection and the life; these are thy magnificent titles, Captain of our salvation! And therefore we commit to thee body and soul; for thou hast redeemed both, and thou wilt advance both to the noblest and most splendid of portions. Who quails and shrinks, scared by the despotism of death? Who amongst you fears the dashing of those cold black waters which roll between us and the promised land? Men and brethren, grasp your own privileges. Men and brethren, Christ Jesus has abolished death.' will ye, by your fearfulness, throw strength into the skeleton, and give back empire to the dethroned and the destroyed? Yes, the resurrection and the life,' 'abolished death.' Ye must indeed die, and so far death remains undestroyed. But if the terrible be destroyed when it can no longer terrify, and if the injurious be destroyed when it can no longer injure; if the enemy be abolished when it does the work of a friend, and if the tyrant be abolished when performing the offices of a servant; if the repulsive be destroyed when we can welcome it, and if the odious be destroyed when we can embrace it; if the quick-sand be abolished when we can walk it and sink not, if the fire be abolished when we can walk through it and be scorched not, if the poison be abolished when we can drink it and hurt not; then is death destroyed, then is death abolished, to all who believe on the resurrection and the life; and the noble prophecy is fulfilled (bear witness, ye groups of the ransomed, bending down from your high citadel of triumph) O Death, I will be thy plagues; O Grave, I will be thy destruction.'

6

"I heard a voice from heaven-oh for the angel's tongue, that words so beautiful might have all their melodiousness-saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. It is yet but a little while, and we shall be delivered from the burden and the conflict, and with all those who have preceded us in the righteous struggle, enjoy the deep raptures of a Mediator's presence. Then, re-united to the friends with whom we took sweet counsel upon. earth, we shall recount our toil only to heighten our ecstacy, and call to mind the tug and the din of the war, only that, with a more bounding throb, and a richer song, we may feel and celebrate the wonders of redemption. And when the morning of the first resurrection breaks upon this long-disordered and groaning creation, then shall our text be understood in all its majesty, and in all its marvel: and then shall the words, whose syllables mingle so often with the funeral knell, that we are disposed to carve them on the cypress-tree rather than on the palm, ‘I am the resurrection and the life,' form the chorus of that noble anthem, which those for whom Christ died, and rose, and revived,' shall chaurt as they march from judgment to glory."-Rev. H. Melvill, A.M

THE HUMILITY OF JESUS A PATTERN TO HIS DISCIPLES.

REV. F. ELLABY, A.M.

PERCY CHAPEL, FITZROY SQUARE, MARCH 2, 1834.

"But I am among you as he that serveth."-LUKE, Xxii. 27.

THESE are the words of Jesus; and while he uttered them, his actions spoke more loudly than his words could do. Endeavour, if it be possible, my dear friends, to realize the scene which was present to the disciples to your own mind. See, at least by faith (for this is possible), the Lord of lords, and the Master of masters, becoming really and literally the servant of servants. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich:" and ye know that he is as he was, that one, and that only one, "which was, and which is, and which is to come, the Almighty;" "who being in the form of God, and who thought it not robbery to be equal with God," yet was himself of no reputation; took another form, even "the form of a servant, and appeared in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Now this is a blessed point: it is the humiliation of Jesus; it is the Eternal Son coming down to us; the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. And there follows another point, a blessed point, a grand point in divinity: it is the exaltation of Jesus; and the exaltation of Jesus is so sublime and glorious a topic, that our thoughts, and desires, and affections, should ascend where Jesus is exalted. But the point of the humiliation of Jesus, which is before us, and of which we must not lose sight, is especially meant for our instruction; and we so deeply need the instruction, that it behoves us to dwell often, and with great solemnity, upon it.

Now we read, in the twenty-fourth verse-" And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth." You see, beloved, it is the Lord's will against pride, against highmindedness, against a disposition which is common to men, and common to good men too, to be thought highly of, to be esteemed and lifted up among the rest of men. I am, therefore, first of all, to call your attention to this very remarkable reproof, and the remarkable way in which the Lord administered the reproof.

You perceive that his disciples were indulging vain thoughts, and you have read that the Lord saith, "I hate vain thoughts:" their conduct, therefore, to him, at this moment, must have been exceedingly trying, for they were examining and inquiring, which of them should be greatest. But look to the words, in order to discover the magnitude of this, which at first appeared to be but a little offence. Think of the time. It had been a grievous thing at any time, that disciples of the Lord should divide with one another to see which should be greatest; but at such a time as this-at the time immediately after the institution of the sacrament-at the time, a little before the Saviour's offeringat the very eve of his agony and his bloody sweat, his cross and his passion, his death and his buria'; can you conceive any thing more unsuitable, more to be deplored, than that such a strife among brethren should be discovered at such a time?

My friends, I feel reproved in my own soul this day, for having been led often to envy these men, who I perceive were vain in their imaginations, although disciples, and the first disciples, and who I perceive were rising up in pride one against another. Ah, I have sometimes groaned under a sense of unworthiness; groaned under a sense of manifold infirmities and great corruption, and many sins, and I have been ready to say, "Oh, had I but lived and been numbered with the Apostles! had I only been numbered with the martyrs and confessors! Surely, though at such a time as that, I might have shared in the hardships they were called to endure, yet I should have been delivered, as they were delivered, from those things which now so harass me, so beset me, and so overcome me. But I perceive that this thought of mine, this idea, was a very vain thought, a vain idea; for I remember, that among the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, there was a Judas, a thief who carried the bag, a traitor, one among the twelve who had a devil, at whose ear also, and whose heart, the great tempter, the master of the legions of devils, was ready and at hand, enticing and propelling him to commit the unpardonable sin. I perceive that not only was this the case with regard to one, but that this same tempter was busied among the Apostles, and that the Apostles were men of like passions with us; that the martyrs themselves were men of like infirmities, and that they were all prone, as it were, all tempted by the same things by which we are tempted, and subject to the same trials to which we are liable. I learn, therefore, that I, and every other man ministering in the Gospel, should rather receive the reproof which the Lord giveth in this present state, than that he should desire to be found in another. Oh, it is a better way to prepare ourselves for reproof, than that we desire to change our circumstances. There was a strife among the disciples, which of them should be greatest, which of them should be most caressed and most esteemed among men, and which of them should be most popular, most venerated, which of them should be most idolized. Oh, how natural, how common, my friends.

But think again, at such a time as this, when the Saviour was about to suffer; when the master was taking leave of his household to go his journey; when the friend was giving his love-tokens to his dear friends, whom he no longer called servants, but friends; when the brother was about to redeem the inheritance. oh, at such a time as this! What shall we say to it? Brethren, we sometimes hear of relatives and children, who are waiting for the places which their parents or their friends inherit; we sometimes hear of priests, or of statesmen, waiting and looking for the places which others now have: we find persons in 2 E

VOL. I.