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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON LXIV.

GOSPEL HOLINESS.

Phil., i., 8-11.-For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righ teousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

I AM fond of entering into the very spirit in which the apostle writes, that I may feel as he felt: it is always profitable, and perhaps the most effectual means, under the Holy Spirit, of causing the blessings, which he wished shed on them, diffused abroad. For want of this being attended to by modern preachers, we lose the spirit of primitive times! How solemn his asseveration: "God is my record!" I call on him to witness he is ever before me, and reads my heart: he is, then, my witness "how greatly I long after you all!" How ardent! He loved them with almost boundless affection!-The idea he wishes to convey is that of a woman in travail. I long-I am in pain for you all till you be safely landed:

"Far from a world of grief and sin,

With God eternally shut in."

"In the bowels of Jesus Christ." It is hardly possible to paraphrase this-the bowels, the compassion of Christ. Oh! the heart of Jesus! the yearning of his bowels over his children! Paul loved them with an affection like this; and let me observe, no man who has not felt the compassion of Jesus, who has not something of his benignity-of his heart, something of his sympathies, is qualified for usefulness in the Church of God! I speak to you, not as ministers, but as leaders of the flock of Jesus; the lambs you are appointed to lead into the tender grass and beside the still waters of comfort. Seek to have the sympathies of the God-man,

who "can be touched," and of his apostle, who says, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?"

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more." Doubtless this means your love to each other; but shall we say it does not also mean your love to the Supreme Good? Yea, rather let us say it means first your love to Him, and then your love to each other. Now, he prays that their love may abound! It, of course, implies that they had this love, this charity towards God. What is the foundation of this, love? "He loved me, and gave himself for me." When the soul believes that truth with the heart, it takes hold on God, for it is the marrow of the Gospel. And let a man feel this saving truth, and he will love the brotherhood; loving the Redeemer, he will love the redeemed. The heart of man is naturally hard; Divine love can soften it; and think not that the heavenly flame, thus kindled in the heart, loses itself amid its kindred fire burning before the throne of God and the Lamb, blending with his holiness; no, it acts upon that from whence it proceeds; the Divine heat softens the hard heart and makes it flow; it diffuses itself to all mankind.

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But Paul prays that it may abound" yet more and more." Here is the measure of his love! It is like the stone cast on the smooth sea; it describes first a small circle, it increases more and more, and perturbates all the water, and is only bounded by the measure of the wide abyss! So let this Divine charity find place in the heart of man: the circle is formed, perhaps among kindred spirits, or those joined by ties of friendship and affection; it widens; another and another circle is described; his feelings extend to alland knows no other measure than the wide extent of God's creation! Now it abounds more and more; it is the love of Christ; and till you can limit the illimitable love of Jesus, or bound his boundless compassion, you can never confine the love of the pious soul towards the children of men! "In all knowledge." Religion is not a mere excrescence, which grows out of a want of intellect; no; ignorance is not the mother of devotion. Feeling they lacked wisdom, they

had asked of God. It is Godly wisdom (Styles)—in "all knowledge;" yes, the more we know, the more we love; the more clear are our views of God in Christ, the more our hearts will glow towards him. Shame to hear persons complain of want of love; it is because they do not know Him enough.

"If all the world my Jesus knew,
Then all the world would love him too."

Luther said" every thing concerning Jesus is lovely to such a soul-the bloody head, hands, back, feet, heart of Jesus are all lovely-altogether lovely!" The cross of Christglory in it! (What is love? It is the effect produced by an object which appears to me altogether amiable; my mind draws the picture of his excellences in all their beauty, and produces in me admiration, delight, esteem.-) The more you know him, the more you love him: be not afraid of loving too much. I pity those who fear they can love too much. "Be not righteous overmuch; neither make thyself overwise; why shouldst thou destroy thyself?"-Wesley was not afraid of the doctrine of perfect love; this was the perfection he aimed at; not sinless perfection, but a being made perfect in love! This is being "filled with the fulness of God." The reason of our declension in the love of God is, we do not seek to know him enough. Do you often visit him? Do you often meet him in secret? Oh! he is lovely: he delights to meet with thee in private; he has things to reveal to thee which he does not unto the world. Go oftener to meet the object of thy love, and thou wilt love him more.

And let me observe concerning this love of God, it is boundless; there is not a creature under heaven who is not the object of it. If you deny, I put my hand upon the Bible and say, produce your reason. There is no being the offspring of his wisdom and power who is not the object of his love! If there were, I say there is a being who is under no moral obligation whatever to the Deity. If God have always had a hate to him, he is not bound by any moral obligation to God to love him. For what is the requirement?

And am I bound to "Ah," say you, " these

Love him because he loved thee! love that object whom God hates? are in God's eternal decrees, and he alone knows the unhappy sons of reprobation; but I am to love them, and leave the matter to him." And what is this? "I am to love more than God loves!!-I am not bound to love him, nor he to love God! He owes him nothing!" "Yes," say you, "he owes him obligation and gratitude; he has been called into being, and existence is a blessing." Existence a blessing?"Yes, if we were butterflies, ephemerons, creatures made to enjoy a summer's day and sink among the rottenness of decayed nature at night, I would say existence is a blessing. But a being who is eternal! whom God has passed by-and designed for eternal fire!—to say that existence is a blessing! -is the revery of madness-endless fire!" But perhaps you say, "I know those who hold these doctrines, and yet their piety is unquestionable." Thank God! I glory in it; it shows me that they have so much piety as prevents its being injured by noxious creeds; that their hearts are better than their heads; their lives than their creeds; it shows me that, when the love of God has affected the heart, it can forget the creeds of men, and extend its charity as boundless in its degree as is the nature from whence it came. But I wish you to be better instructed; we wish you to have all knowledge. *

"And in all judgment." The meaning is, in all spiritual discernment, that they may know things from things. Now there is an analogy in our minds to our bodies-the five senses are used as applicable to the mind. The man instructed now in all knowledge sees God! his faith, realizing the Divine truth-" He loved me, and gave himself for me"-sees it set before his eyes; Jesus Christ set forth crucified for me!-It hears him; the heart is susceptible of every word of God! He "tastes that the Lord is gracious." He smells the odour of the Word of Life-he handles, he touches; and the Divine touch thrills through every power of his soul! He comes into contact with the Deity. He meets God in his word, and he has a spiritual discernment in all things-"he now knows to refuse the evil and to choose the good!"

"That ye may approve things that are excellent."-First prove them, and then approve of the more excellent way. Awful fact, that few Christians choose the more excellent way; languor, indifference, &c., comes over them, and there is not a pressing, a following hard after God. Hence, they are scarcely saved; saved on a plank. Oh for the excellent way! My brethren, seek after it. It is not the fervours of human passion which would burn the body for a fellowcreature; but it is the pure flame of the love of God! having full, full possession.

"That ye may be sincere."—In love nothing can be analyzed; it is pure; no flaw, no sunbeam, &c.; "without of fence;" no stumbling-block.-Love was never a stumblingblock. Men have contended about faith and opinions, but the devil could never make love a rock of offence.-If I have the love of God I will not offend him; no, nor any who is the object of his love-no man willingly.

"Till the day of Christ'"-to my life's end.

SERMON LXV.

GOSPEL HOLINESS.

SECOND DISCOURSE.

Philippians, i., 11.—Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

In our last discourse we pointed out the Christian as distinguished by his ardent piety and unbounded charity; he cannot have too much charity. Who that loves can love enough? Here three things:

I. His experience, "filled with the fruits of righteous

ness."

II. The means whereby they are produced in him, by Jesus Christ.

III. The end of all, "unto the glory and praise of God."

I. His experience, filled with fruit; and it is mature

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