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How desirable is the happiness here described! How venerable, how lovely the holiness! This is the spirit of religion; the quintessence of it. These are indeed the fundamentals of Christianity. Oh that we may not be hearers of it only!" like a man beholding his own face in a glass, who goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.' Nay, but let us steadily "look into this perfect law of liberty, and continue therein." Let us not rest, until every line thereof is transcribed into our own hearts. Let us watch, and pray, and believe, and love, and "strive for the mastery," till every part of it shall appear in our soul, graven there by the finger of God; till we are "holy as He which hath called us is holy, perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect!"

SERMON XXIV.-Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount.

DISCOURSE IV.

"Ye are the salt of the earth: hut if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven," Matt. v, 13-16.

1. THE beauty of holiness, of that inward man of the heart which is renewed after the image of God, cannot but strike every eye which God hath opened,—every enlightened understanding. The ornament of a meek, humble, loving spirit, will at least excite the approbation of all those who are capable, in any degree, of discerning spiritual good and evil. From the hour men begin to emerge out of the darkness which covers the giddy, unthinking world, they cannot but perceive how desirable a thing it is to be thus transformed into the likeness of him that created us. This inward religion bears the shape of God so visibly impressed upon it, that a soul must be wholly immersed in flesh and blood, when he can doubt of its divine original. We may say of this in a secondary sense, even as of the Son of God himself, that it is the "brightness of his glory, the express image of his person;" aravyaoμa rns doğns aur8,-the beaming forth of his eternal glory, and yet so tempered and softened, that even the children of men may herein see God and live; xaganτng TNS UTOSασews aurs, the character, the stamp, the living impression of his person, who is the Fountain of beauty and love, the original source of all excellency and perfection.

2. If religion therefore were carried no farther than this, they could have no doubt concerning it; they should have no objection against pursuing it with the whole ardour of their souls; but why, say they, is it clogged with other things? What need of loading it with doing and suffering? These are what damps the vigour of the soul, and sinks it down to earth again. Is it not enough to "follow after charity;" to soar upon the wings of love? Will it not suffice to worship God, who is a Spirit, with the spirit of our minds, without encumbering ourselves with outward things, or even thinking of them at all? Is it not better,

that the whole extent of our thoughts should be taken up with high and heavenly contemplation? And that, instead of busying ourselves at all about externals, we should only commune with God in our hearts?

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3. Many eminent men have spoken thus; have advised us to cease from all outward action;" wholly to withdraw from the world; to leave the body behind us; to abstract ourselves from all sensible things; to have no concern at all about outward religion, but to work all virtues in the will; as the far more excellent way, more perfective of the soul, as well as more acceptable to God.

4. It needed not that any should tell our Lord of this master piece of the wisdom from beneath, this fairest of all the devices wherewith Satan hath ever perverted the right ways of the Lord! And oh! what instruments hath he found, from time to time, to employ in this his service, to wield this grand engine of hell against some of the most important truths of God!-Men that "would deceive, if it were possible, the very elect," the men of faith and love; yea, that have for a season deceived and led away no inconsiderable number of them, who have fallen in all ages into the gilded snare, and hardly escaped with the skin of their teeth.

5. But has our Lord been wanting on his part? Has he not sufficiently guarded us against this pleasing delusion? Has he not armed us here with armour of proof against Satan "transformed into an angel of light?" Yea, verily he here defends, in the clearest and strongest manner, the active, patient religion he had just described. What can be fuller and plainer, than the words he immediately subjoins to what he had said of doing and suffering? "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

In order fully to explain and enforce these important words, I shall endeavour to show, First, that Christianity is essentially a social religion; and that to turn it into a solitary one, is to destroy it. Secondly, that to conceal this religion is impossible, as well as utterly contrary to the design of its author. I shall, Thirdly, answer some objections; and conclude the whole with a practical application.

I. 1. First, I shall endeavour to show, that Christianity is essentially a social religion; and that to turn it into a solitary religion, is indeed to destroy it.

By Christianity I mean that method of worshiping God, which is here revealed to man by Jesus Christ. When I say, this is essentially a social religion, I mean not only that it cannot subsist so well, but that it cannot subsist at all, without society,-without living and conversing with other men. And in showing this, I shall confine myself to those considerations which will arise from the very discourse before us. But if this be shown, then doubtless, to turn this religion into a solitary one, is to destroy it.

Not that we can in any wise condemn the intermixing solitude or retirement with society. This is not only allowable, but expedient;

nay, it is necessary, as daily experience shows, for every one that either already is, or desires to be, a real Christian. It can hardly be, that we should spend one entire day in a continual intercourse with men, without suffering loss in our soul, and in some measure grieving the Holy Spirit of God. We have need daily to retire from the world, at least morning and evening, to converse with God, to commune more freely with our Father which is in secret. Nor indeed can a man of experience condemn even longer seasons of religious retirement, so they do not imply any neglect of any worldly employ wherein the providence of God has placed us.

2. Yet such retirement must not swallow up all our time; this would be to destroy, not advance, true religion. For, that the religion described by our Lord in the foregoing words, cannot subsist without society, without our living and conversing with other men, is manifest from hence, That several of the most essential branches thereof can have no place, if we have no intercourse with the world.

3. There is no disposition (for instance) which is more essential to Christianity than meekness. Now although this, as it implies resignation to God, or patience in pain and sickness, may subsist in a desert, in a hermit's cell, in total solitude; yet as it implies (which it no less necessarily does) mildness, gentleness, and long suffering, it cannot possibly have a being, it has no place under heaven, without an intercourse with other men: so that to attempt turning this into a solitary virtue, is to destroy it from the face of the earth.

4. Another necessary branch of true Christianity is peace making, or doing of good. That this is equally essential with any of the other parts of the religion of Jesus Christ, there can be no stronger argument to evince, (and therefore it would be absurd to allege any other,) than that it is here inserted in the original plan he has laid down of the fundamentals of his religion. Therefore to set aside this, is the same daring insult on the authority of our great Master, as to set aside mercifulness, purity of heart, or any other branch of his institution. But this is apparently set aside, by all who call us to the wilderness; who recommend entire solitude either to the babes, or the young men, or the fathers in Christ. For will any man affirm that a solitary Christian (so called, though it is little less than a contradiction in terms) can be a merciful man,—that is, one that takes every opportunity of doing all good to all men? What can be more plain, than that this fundamental branch of the religion of Jesus Christ, cannot possibly subsist without society, without our living and conversing with other men?

5. But is it not expedient, however, (one might naturally ask,) to converse only with good men,-only with those whom we know to be meek and merciful,-holy of heart and holy of life? Is it not expedient to refrain from any conversation, or intercourse, with men of the opposite character, men who do not obey, perhaps do not believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? The advice of St. Paul, to the Christians at Corinth, may seem to favour this: "I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with fornicators," 1 Cor. v, 9. And it is cerainly not advisable so to company with them, or with any of the workers of iniquity, as to have any particular familiarity, or any strictness of friendship with them. To contract or continue an intimacy with any such, is no way expedient for a Christian. It must necessarily expose

him to abundance of dangers and snares, out of which he can have no easonable hope of deliverance.

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But the apostle does not forbid us to have any intercourse at all even with the men that know not God: "For then," says he, "ye must needs go out of the world;" which he could never advise them to do. But he subjoins, "If any man that is called a brother," that professes himself a Christian, "be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner," 1 Cor. v, 11; now I have written unto you not to keep company with him; with such a one, no not to eat." This must necessarily imply, that we break off all familiarity, all intimacy of acquaintance with him. "Yet count him not," saith the apostle elsewhere, as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother," 2 Thess. iii, 15; plainly showing that even in such a case as this, we are not to renounce all fellowship with him. So that here is no advice to separate wholly, even from wicked men. Yea, these very words teach us quite the contrary.

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6. Much more the words of our Lord: who is so far from directing us to break off all commerce with the world, that without it, according to his account of Christianity, we cannot be Christians at all. It would be easy to show, that some intercourse even with ungodly and unholy men is absolutely needful, in order to the full exertion of every temper which he has described as the way to the kingdom; that it is indispensably necessary, in order to the complete exercise of poverty of spirit, of mourning, and of every other disposition which has a place here, in the genuine religion of Jesus Christ. Yea, it is necessary to the very being of several of them; of that meekness, for example, which instead of demanding an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth," doth "not resist evil," but causes us rather, when smitten "on the right cheek, to turn the other also;❞—of that mercifulness, whereby we "love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us ;"—and of that complication of love and all holy tempers, which is exercised in suffering for righteousness' sake. Now all these, it is clear, could have no being, were we to have no commerce with any but real Christians.

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7. Indeed were we wholly to separate ourselves from sinners, how could we possibly answer that character which our Lord gives us in these very words; "Ye" (Christians, ye that are lowly, serious, and meek; ye that hunger after righteousness, that love God and man, that do good to all, and therefore suffer evil; ye)" are the salt of the earth :" It is your very nature to season whatever is round about you. It is the nature of the divine savour which is in you, to spread to whatsoever you touch; to diffuse itself, on every side, to all those among whom you are. This is the great reason why the providence of God has so mingled you together with other men, that whatever grace you have received of God, may, through you, be communicated to others; that every holy temper, and word, and work of yours, may have an influence on them also. By this means, a check will, in some measure, be given to the corruption which is in the world; and a small part, at least, saved from the general infection, and rendered holy and pure before God.

8. That we may the more diligently labour to season all we can, with every holy and heavenly temper, our Lord proceeds to show the desperate state of those who do not impart the religion they have received; which

indeed they cannot possibly fail to do, so long as it remains in their own hearts. "If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men:" If ye who were holy and heavenly minded, and consequently zealous of good works, have no longer that savour in yourselves, and do therefore no longer season others; if you are grown flat, insipid, dead, both careless of your own soul, and useless to the souls of other men; wherewith shall ye be salted? How shall ye be recovered? What help? What hope? Can tasteless salt be restored to its savour? No; "it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out," even as the mire in the streets, "and to be trodden under foot of men," to be overwhelmed with everlasting contempt. If ye had never known the Lord, there might have been hope,-if ye had never been "found in him :" but what can you now say to that, his solemn declaration, just parallel to what he hath here spoken,-"every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he [the Father] taketh away. He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit." "If a man abide not in me, [or do not bring forth fruit,] he is cast out as a branch, and withered; and men gather them [not to plant them again, but] to cast them into the fire," John xv, 2, 5, 6.

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9. Towards those who have never tasted of the good word, God is indeed pitiful and of tender mercy. But justice takes place with regard to those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and have afterwards turned back" from the holy commandment [then] delivered to them." "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened;" Heb. vi, 4, &c; in whose hearts God had once shined, to enlighten them with the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ; "who have tasted of the heavenly gift," of redemption in his blood, the forgiveness of sins; "and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost," of lowliness, of meekness, and of the love of God and man shed abroad in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost which was given unto thein; and "have fallen away;"-xas TagαTEσovras, (here is not a supposition, but a flat declaration of matter of fact,) "to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

But that none may misunderstand these awful words, it should be carefully observed, 1. Who they are, that are here spoken of; namely, they, and they only, who were once thus enlightened; they only, "who did taste of" that "heavenly gift, and were" thus "made partakers of the Holy Ghost." So that all who have not experienced these things, are wholly unconcerned in this scripture. 2. What that falling away is, which is here spoken of: It is an absolute, total apostasy. A believer may fall, and not fall away. He may fall and rise again. And if he should fall, even into sin, yet this case, dreadful as it is, is not despeFor " we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins." But let him above all things beware, lest "his heart be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin;" lest he should sink lower and lower, till he wholly fall away, till he become as salt that hath lost its savour: for if we thus sin wilfully, after we have received the experimental "knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."

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