be not difcouraged: you may be fure, if they are difficulties, they are not necessary to falvation. Thus, for instance, when you read, that the Son of Man came not to fend peace on earth, i but a fword, if you cannot explain the expreffion confiftently with that general kindness, and mild difpofition, which the chriftian religion ́every where inculcates, leave it for the present, and difquiet not yourselves with a difficulty, from which many have taken a wrong turn, and raised a fpirit of perfecution against their brethren. There is not, be affured, a falfer interpretation than this. Again, when you read that the potter hath power over his clay, to make one vessel to ho nour, and another to dishonour, do not suppose, as many have done, that fome are fated from their birth to falvation, and others to damnation; but if you cannot reconcile the paffage with the general tenor of the gofpel, which affures us, that all mankind may be saved if they are not wanting to themselves, proceed to the more eafy parts of fcripture. All that is neceffary, is plain; and take it for granted, that what you cannot understand can never be required:-But above all things take care not to be numbered among thofe who, as St. Peter tells us, wreft fuch parts VOL. IV. of of fcripture as are hard to be understood to their own deftruction; drawing from them fuch notions of God and religion, as are unworthy of both. The fcriptures are not understood at all, if they are fuppofed to contradict that gentlenefs, that goodness, that univerfal tenderness to mankind, which the gospel every where expreffes. Another rule I fhall give you, and one of the beft, to acquire from fcripture the words of eternal life, is to live up to what you know; and as you improve your knowledge, to improve your lives. He who improves what he has, even in this world, ftands the best chance of getting more. Subdue your paffions and appetites; repent of your fins, and amend your hearts; fupport your families, and instruct them; love your neighbour, and be kind to him; ferve God, and praise him ;-do all this, and you will find you understand the fcriptures better than you imagined. He that will do the will of God, faith St. John, shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. There is no better comment upon the fcripture than a good life: one throws a light upon the other. It was not the end of the gofpel to make men more learned, but more good; and he who grows better by reading the fcriptures, may expect God's bleffing upon his reading; and that God will vouchfafe him more and more light. He will understand the fcriptures more: he will feel, their true meaning is to improve the heart. The wicked man cannot feel them: they can only be understood in that spirit in which they were written. The laft help I fhall mention to you, is that of prayer. Without God's affiftance we can do nothing; and that affistance can only be obtained by prayer, and the ftrenuous ufe of our own endeavours. To make God's word effectual in our hearts, must be the work of the Spirit of God. Lighten our darkness-our Spiritual as well as natural darkness-is a prayer we have all occafion to use; and may the Holy Spirit of God affift us in feeing clearly the things which make for our everlasting peace-that we may know what is the perfect will of God-that we may feel the words of eternal life, which is the only way to understand them—the only way to make them the foundation of all our happiness here, and all our hopes hereafter. END OF THE SERMONS. |