happy or holy with those who "see as they are seen, and know as they are known." There is a limit to which it can never reach, but it may make nearer and nearer approaches to it. These things, on which the faith of a Christian is exercised, may be considered as twofold; consisting either of objects revealed which have a present subsistence, or promises of future good. The character and perfections of the blessed God, the office and work of the Redeemer, the dignity of his person, the efficacy of his blood, and the prevalence of his intercession, belong to the former. The light of faith makes this known to us; and this light is progressive, and by it we may attain to still higher and more transforming views of God and the Redeemer.* XXIII. SECOND DISCOURSE ON PRAYER FOR THE INCREASE OF FAITH. LUKE xvii. 5.-Lord, increase our faith. THE advantages resulting from an increase of faith. II. As they regard the Supreme Being. I. As they respect ourselves. It will have powerful influence in increasing our religious enjoyments. One grand design of Christianity is to make mankind happy by diminishing that portion of vexation of spirit which cleaves to all earthly things. "These things have I spoken unto you," said our blessed Lord, "that your joy might be full." But the degree of this joy will be proportioned to the measure of our faith. 1. An increase of faith will effectually deliver us from distressing doubts respecting our state. As light makes all other things manifest, so it makes itself. While faith is "like to a grain of mustard-seed,"‡ it may be difficult to be discerned; but when it becomes more matured, it will be easily perceivable. 2. The things of God are so transcendently excellent and glorious, that the more lively our apprehension of them, the more happy we shall necessarily be. The more we see of God in Christ, the more we shall be conscious of a surpassing beauty in those objects that will eclipse the whole world in our view. The all-sufficiency and unchangeableness, the goodness, holiness, and truth of the Great Eternal, viewed by faith, will fill the mind with the most exalted satisfaction. The glory of the visible heavens and of the earth is nothing more than the reflection, or rather the shadow, of this glory. If the contemplation of created truth and goodness, developed in the *This and the following sermon were preached in June, 1810. actions of man, affords so high a satisfaction,—if it is sufficient, in its brightest display, to excite rapture,-how much more [will the mind be] fired in meditating by faith on the original, unchanging, and eternal truth and goodness! If to trace the counsels of princes, [to observe] the masterly strokes of wisdom and address evinced in the management of the concerns of earthly kingdoms [give pleasure,] how much more ravishing to have laid open to our view the counsels of the King of kings, to be allowed to behold the deep things of God-the contrivance of that covenant which is ordered in all things and sure-the thoughts of his heart, which endure to all generations! How delightful to see the footsteps of divine grace in ancient times, the gradual preparations for the coming of Christ, the types and shadows of the law preparing the way for preaching the Cross, and the preaching of the Cross succeeded by the vision of eternal glory! If to contemplate some stupendous work of God fills the mind with admiration and delight, how much more to dwell by faith on the mediation of Him who is "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person,' assuming our nature, carrying our sins up with him to the cross, rising from the dead, sitting at the right-hand of God, ever living to make intercession, diffusing his Spirit and scattering his graces among the children of men. Who that knows any thing of such an object can be content without wishing to know more of him? Who will not be disposed to look on all things else as dross and dung when compared to such an object? 99 To feel the steady illumination of faith is to dwell in a calm and holy light; and if it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the natural light, how much more to behold this light of God, which sheds an incomparably sweeter ray; which reveals his face, brings near his love, and lays open the prospects of eternity! Guided by this light, you will be conducted to the abode of the celestial city, when a view will be opened into paradise, and you will hear, with John, "the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of harpers harping with their harps, and crying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever."t 1. An increase of faith will deliver us from the perplexity which springs from a state of mind unsettled in religion. 2. It will have an extensive influence on our sanctification. (1.) The joys of faith will diminish your sensibility of the pleasures of sin. The pure and certain satisfaction which springs from spiritual views will indispose you to relish the polluted gratifications of sense: the satisfaction to be derived from earthly pleasures will appear too light and airy, too transitory and inconstant, to bear a comparison with those richer enjoyments to which the soul has access by faith. (2.) As the gospel supplies the strongest motives to holiness, so faith brings the heart into contact with those motives. (3.) So important is an increase of faith to an advancement in the divine life, that all the graces of the Christian are represented as so Rev. xiv. 2; v. 13. Heb. i. 3. many fruits of faith, neither any further acceptable to God than as they spring from this principle. In their extent, perfection, and variety they are nothing more than the genuine practice of a lively faith: "Abide in me, and let my words abide in you."* Faith is a prolific grace; it produces and maintains every other; it "works by love;"t it purifies the heart.‡ II. In its aspect towards God. It is the grand instrument of glorifying him. In its essential exercises, apart from its external effects, it is eminently adapted to glorify God. It renders to him the glory due unto his name. It rests on him as the Eternal Truth, as the Rock of Ages: "Abraham, being strong in faith, gave glory to God."§ Directions for increasing Faith. I. Earnest and humble prayer: "Lord, increase our faith." Fall at the footstool of the Cross, crying, with him in the gospel, “Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief."|| II. Frequent and devout converse with the object of it. III. Watchfulness against the influence of those objects which have a fatal tendency to eclipse its light, to obstruct its operations, and impair its effects: namely, sensual pleasure, eager pursuit of the world, intimate converse with men of the world. XXIV. ON WISDOM. JAMES i. 5.—If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.P Of all the gifts which God is wont to dispense to the children of men, the most valuable is wisdom. Without this, the advantages we derive from every other are precarious and transitory, and are often more than overbalanced by the evils which result from their abuse. Wisdom is of incomparable value, as it instructs us how to use every other good; how to turn it to the best account, and make it most subservient to the true end of our being. The Scriptures extol the excellence of wisdom in the highest terms:-"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding: For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than pure gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her."** Wisdom is to be distinguished from knowledge; to which it bears * John xv. 7. ↑ Gal. v. 6. Rom. iv. 20. an affinity, but ought not to be confounded with it. There may be a large compass of knowledge acquired, the fruit of extensive observation and reading, accompanied with a quick perception and a capacious memory, where there is very little wisdom. A wretched misconduct may appear at the same [time] a series of imprudences, thoughtless prodigality, or intemperance, sufficient to invalidate the least pretension to wisdom. They are far more knowing than wise men. Talents of the highest order, and such as are calculated to command universal admiration, may exist apart from wisdom. Though wisdom necessarily presupposes knowledge, and it is impossible to exercise it in things of which we are ignorant, yet it ought to be something more practical, or rather more comprehensive: it ever bears a relation to the end; and, in proportion as it is perfect, to the highest and last end the agent can be supposed to have in view. It first judges of the end fittest to be pursued, and next determines what are the most fitting and suitable means of accomplishing it. Every other quality besides is subordinate and inferior to wisdom, in the same sense as the mason who lays the bricks and stones in a building is inferior to the architect who drew the plan and superintends the work. The former executes only what the latter contrives and directs. Now, it is the prerogative of wisdom to preside over every inferior principle, to regulate the exercise of every power, and limit the indulgence of every appetite, as shall best conduce to one great end. It being the province of wisdom to preside, it sits as umpire on every difficulty, and so gives the final direction and control to all the powers of our nature. Hence it is entitled to be considered as the top and summit of perfection. It belongs to wisdom to determine when to act and when to cease; when to reveal, and when to conceal a matter; when to speak, and when to keep silence; when to give, and when to receive; in short, to regulate the measure of all things, as well as to determine the end, and provide the means of obtaining the end, pursued in every deliberate course of action. Every particular faculty or skill besides needs to derive direction from this; they are all quite incapable of directing themselves. The art of navigation, for instance, will teach us to steer a ship across the ocean, but it will never teach us on what occasions it is proper to take a voyage. The art of war will instruct us how to marshal an army, or to fight a battle, to the greatest advantage; but you must learn from a higher school when it is fitting, just, and proper to wage war or to make peace. The art of the husbandman is to sow and bring to maturity the precious fruits of the earth; it belongs to another skill to regulate their consumption by a regard to our health, fortune, and other circumstances. In short, there is no faculty we can exert, no species of skill we can apply, but requires a superintending hand; but looks up, as it were, to some higher principle, as a maid to her mistress, for direction: and this universal superintendent is wisdom.* * The admirers of Cowper will, on reading the above, be naturally reminded of his graphic contrast of Knowledge and Wisdom, in the sixth book of the Task: To carry our ideas of it as high as possible, the wise man traces it up to its fountain, and contemplates it as it subsists in the breast of Deity. "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew."* But though we have taken occasion to speak thus far of wisdom in general, it is doubtful whether we are to take the word in that extension in the passage before us. If we turn to the context, we shall find St. James describing the happy fruits which result from a right temper under affliction and persecution. This epistle, as well as the two epistles of Peter, are supposed to have been addressed to the Jews under circumstances of persecution. St. James had exhorted Christians to count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of their faith worketh patience. "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." He then adds, "If any of you lack wisdom" (that is, the wisdom necessary to suffer right, the wisdom included in a right and becoming temper under persecutions and trials), "let him ask of God." In this view, the wisdom here mentioned may be considered as including two things. I. A knowledge of duty. A clear and just conception of what was duty was not always easily attained. A season of persecution for righteousness' sake would naturally be productive, in many cases, of great difficulty in determining how to act. "When they persecute you in one city," said our Lord, “flee ye to another." But what is the degree of danger, what the [serious advance] of the approaching storm, that will exempt flight from the charge of pusillanimity? What the just limits between a temporizing policy and imprudent rashness? There is, doubtless, a just limit between wantonly exposing ourselves to danger, and a cowardly shrinking from it; between that selfish timidity which will sacrifice truth to safety, and that undistinguishing fearlessness which will prompt us "to cast pearls before swine," though it be morally certain "they will turn again and rend us." A nice discernment of the true path of duty on such occasions can only be acquired by divine teaching. II. The wisdom necessary in such circumstances includes especially a right temper of mind towards God and our fellow-creatures. 1. Towards God. This temper very much consists in an humble acquiescence in his dispensations, in a readiness to suffer under his "Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, * Prov. iii. 19, 20. |
