Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SERMON CXCVIII.

GOD'S FAMILY, A SCHOOL OF GOOD WORKS.

FOR THE SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT.

TITUS ii. 13, 14.

"The great GOD and our SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, who gave HIMSELF for us, that HE might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto HIMSELF a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

As the Church draws nearer and nearer to Advent, the solemn season which she has set apart for meditation on CHRIST's second coming, she becomes more and more earnest in pressing on every Christian soul the absolute necessity of good works. She would have the thought of a terrible judgment to come, we know not how soon, she would have this thought sink deep in all our hearts, and set us on preparing ourselves in good earnest, by hearty amendment while we are yet on our trial. For it will be too late to repent, and promise improvement, just as the sentence is going to be passed. Like a kind considerate guardian, therefore, the Church warns you to get ready, that you may not be ashamed before HIM at His coming.

And in to-day's Collect, more especially, she presses upon us immediate repentance, in consideration of what you owe to her. She speaks to you, and teaches you to pray, as one of God's own faithful people. She bids you recollect, that as a Christian you are a member of a holy society, a body of men chosen out of the world by our LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, expressly for the

VOL. VI.

T

"We are

purpose of serving HIM in all good and devout works. His people, and the sheep of His pasture," His own household, His children and servants. A Christian, by GoD's ordinance, is no longer allowed to consider himself as standing alone in the world, but as one among many in a holy family. And this puts all his duties in a peculiar point of view, not always regarded as it ought to be, even by serious and well-meaning men.

This piece of instruction is conveyed in the text by the words "peculiar people." The title was at first applied to the holy seed, the children of Israel, when GOD had redeemed them to HIMSELF by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. He gathered them together round Mount Sinai, and declared from heaven that He had chosen them out of all the kingdoms of the world, to be a "peculiar treasure" to HIм: "a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." The HOLY SPIRIT, by St. Peter, has taken up the expression, and applied it to all Christians. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of HIM who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." And here we find St. Paul, in a letter of most serious advice and exhortation to one whom he had ordained to be a Christian Bishop, giving no other account of the very purpose of our Blessed SaVIOUR in being made man, and dying for us: HE " "gave HIMSELF for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto HIMSELF a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

than

The natural condition of all mankind is no better, you see, a slavery, out of which we needed to be bought and redeemed, before we could be capable of the mighty blessings which GoD in His mercy had prepared for us just as the Jews needed deliverance from Egypt, before they could be brought into Canaan. This slavery the whole world, both Jew and Gentile, were continually making worse, by the bad habits in which they indulged, and the power which they allowed evil spirits to gain over them. To use the expression of the holy Apostle, the world was "carnal, sold under sin." And it was quite impossible, and out of the question, that men should do any thing for their own deliver

ance.

But what sinners could not do for themselves, the eternal and ever blessed Son of GOD graciously undertook to do for them:

[ocr errors]

He gave

and that at the cost of His own precious blood. HIMSELF for us, that He might redeem us"-not, observe, from the punishment of sin only, but also from the habit and temper of sin. CHRIST died to redeem the sinner from those chains of evil custom, which have wound themselves so round him by length of time, that he feels as if shaking them off would be losing a part of himself. CHRIST died to redeem the drunkard from his drunkenness, the impure from his debauchery, the unkind from his malice, the godless and careless man from his love of this present world. All these and all other sins, with which in time past men's consciences have been stained, the ALMIGHTY FATHER is willing to pardon, for His dear and only Son's sake: and for His sake also in time to come, HE offers to all who truly repent the heavenly assistance of the HOLY SPIRIT, to keep them from their old sins, and make them go on in such good works as He has promised to reward in Heaven. Thus our Blessed LORD on His Cross is made unto us complete Redemption, both from the power and punishment of sin.

Observe now, to what purpose the Son thus made us free. Not to leave us in such a condition as many seem to delight in imagining, the moment they hear of freedom and liberty-not to turn us out into the world, loose and independent of all restraint-but to make us more dependent on HIM, more closely confined within His laws, for every day and hour that we live as Christians. If you listen to your natural blind notions, they will represent it as a noble and desirable thing to have one's own way in all things, to please one's self without asking any one's leave : but look into the Word of God, seek the true meaning of the death of CHRIST, and you will learn a very different lesson. God's service, you will learn, is perfect freedom : the way to have your own will is to resign yourself up to the ALMIGHTY, and try to have no will but His. This lesson, learned perfectly, is the temper of blessed spirits in heaven. And in such measure as you, by the grace of GoD crowning your prayers and hearty endeavours, are enabled to have this mind, so far your life even here on earth will be indeed holy and heavenly. So far, having been, by the Cross of "delivered out of the hands of your enemies," your SAVIOUR, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, you will serve HIм, as HE

invites you, "without fear, in holiness and righteousness before HIM, all the days of your life."

In a word, the peculiar, chosen people, whom CHRIST VOUCHsafed to redeem to HIMSELF, were meant, above all things in the world, to be always" zealous of good works;" not only rather good than evil, such as might pass well enough in the world, but

[ocr errors]

zealous," eager, earnest in good; every man striving and trying to be every day better than he was yesterday. And this is what our Collect means by " plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works," and what is there proposed as the only way for us to be at last " plenteously rewarded" of GOD.

And in order that each particular Christian might answer the better this intention of our gracious REDEEMER, HE has not left us to stand, as it were, separate and apart from one another, but has appointed that all who believe in HIм should make up one people, one household, one body; should feel a deep interest one in another, as if their welfare were bound up together: so that "whether one member suffer, all the members should suffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all the members should rejoice with it." The whole plan of the Christian Church is, in short, as entirely opposite to the natural pride and self-sufficiency of man, as any thing can well be imagined. It will not let you for a moment dream that you can stand alone, and be independent.

This, as well as the Church's constant purpose of keeping you steady and zealous in good works, will appear more and more evidently, the more you consider, one by one, the methods of GOD in providing for that His family; the way by which HE admitted you into it, the way by which He maintains you in it, the government set by HIM over His Church, the privileges offered to obedient members of the family, and the punishments in store for the froward and wicked.

As to the way in which it has pleased GOD to admit men into His household, the Church, it is, as you know, by having them baptized with water in the name of the Holy Trinity: to which baptism His providence called you, being yet helpless children; and thus taught you, at the very beginning, how vain it is to depend on one's self, since this first step of all, which put you in

a way towards happiness, had to be made for you entirely by others. The charity of Parents, of Sponsors, of Ministers, and of the whole Church of GoD, helped to introduce you to these blessings. You never could have attained them alone.

And when you were so introduced, care was taken to pledge and bind you, as far as an infant could be pledged and bound, to every kind of good work. Think seriously of that promise, "To keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of your life:" that is, in other words, to take God's will and word for your rule, to resign yourself to Him as to your best friend, and make it the business of your life to please HIM. If any be tempted to the irreligious fancy of saying, "they never made the promise; others made it in their name, and they cannot be bound by it;" certainly it is in their power, if they will, to disavow and break their word given to GoD: but let them remember, that at the same time they cast away all the privileges of their Christian calling. They can no longer plead God's promise to be their GOD, to help them with His grace in answer to their earnest prayers. Refusing to be bound by the covenant of their baptism, they refuse to be members of CHRIST, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven; they make themselves, as far as they can, such as the unbaptized heathen were," having no hope, and without GOD in the world." In a word, the agreement must be taken, all or none: you cannot suppose yourself at liberty to choose which part you will keep, and which not; you cannot expect the privileges of God's household, if you will not try to perform your part of its duties.

If all this be clear on considering the first sacrament, by which our SAVIOUR admitted us into His family, it is still plainer, when we pass on to the second, by which he maintains and feeds us from time to time; like a kind father providing for his children that nourishment which they most need. Immediate communion with JESUS CHRIST, His own blessed Body and Blood, is the true support and sustenance of faithful souls; and this is what no man can provide for himself; the mercy of GoD provides it for him in the Church, by the hands of His chosen Ministers. God requires you to come, meekly and humbly, renouncing all claims of your own; not pretending to be any thing by yourself, but resting all your hope altogether upon your being one of CHRIST'S holy

« AnteriorContinuar »