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and depravity of our nature; which pas-dishonesty, which have a disturbing effect sionately repels this statement, and that too on the enjoyments of others, and these on its own consciousness of attainments others will still retain their kindliness for superior to those of the sordid, and the profli- the good-humoured convivialist,-and he gate, and the dishonourable; and is fortified will be suffered to retain his own taste, and in its resistance to the truth as it is in Jesus, his own peculiarities; and, though it may by the flattering testimonials which it gathers be true, that chastity, and self-control, and to its respectability and its worth from the the severer virtues of personal discipline various quarters of human society. and restraint, would in fact give a far more A just sense of the extent of claim which happy and healthful tone to society than at God has upon his own creatures, would lay present it possesses, yet this influence is open this hiding-place of security: would not so conspicuous, and heedless men do not lead us to see, that to do some things for look so far: and therefore it is, that in spite our neighbours, is not the same with doing of his many outward and positive transall things for our Maker; that a natural gressions of the divine law, many an indiprinciple of honesty to man, is altogether vidual can be referred to, who, with his distinct from a principle of entire devoted- average share of the integrities and the senness to God; that the tithe which we be-sibilities of social life, has stamped upon stow upon others is not an equivalent for a him the currency of a very fair every-day total dedication unto God of ourselves, and character, who moves among his fellows of all which belongs to us; that we may without disgrace, and meets with acceptance present those around us with many an of- throughout the general run of this world's fering of kindness, and not present our companies. bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service; that we may earn a cheap and easy credit for such virtues as will satisfy the world, and be utter strangers to the self-denial, and the spiritu, ality, and the mortification of every earthly desire, and the affection for the things that are above; all of which graces enter as essential ingredients into the sanctification of the gospel.

But this leads us to the second point of distinction between the judgment of man and that of God, even his clearer and more elevated sense of that holiness without which no man shall see his face, and of that moral worth without which we are utterly unfit for the society of heaven.

Man's sense of the right and the wrong may be clear and intelligent enough, in so far as that part of character is concerned which renders us fit for the society of earth. Those virtues, without which a community could not be held together, are both urgently demanded by that community, and highly appreciated by it. The morality of our earthly life, is a morality which is in direct subservience to our earthly accommodation; and seeing that equity, and humanity, and civility, are in such visible and immediate connexion with all the security, and all the enjoyment which they spread around them, it is not to be wondered at, that they should throw over the character of him by whom they are exhibited, the lustre of a grateful and a superior estimation. And thus it is, that even without any very nice or exquisite refinement of these virtues, many an ordinary character will pass;--and should that character be deformed by the levities, or even by the profligacies of intemperance, he who sustains it may still bear his part among the good men of society,-and keep away from it all that malignity, and all that

If such a measure of indulgence be extended to the very glaring iniquities of the outer man, let us not wonder though the errors of the heart, the moral diseases of the spirit, the disorganization of the inner man, with its turbulent passions, and its worldly affections, and its utter deadness to the consideration of an overruling God, should find a very general indulgence among our brethren of the species. Bring a man to sit in judgment over the depravities of our common nature, and unless these depravities are obviously pointed against the temporal good of society, what can we expect, but that he will connive at the infirmities of which he feels himself to be so large and so habitual a partaker? What can we expect but that his moral sense, clouded as it is against the discernment of his own exceeding turpitude, will also perceive but dimly, and feel but obtusely, a similar turpitude in the character of others? What else can we look for, than that the man who fires so promptly on the reception of an injury, will tolerate in his fellow all the vindictive propensities?—or, that the man who feels not in his bosom a single movement of principle or of tenderness towards God, will tolerate in another an equally entire habit of ungodliness?— or, that the man who surrenders himself to the temptations of voluptuousness, will perceive no enormity of character at all in the unrestrained dissipations of an acquaintance?-and, in a word, when I see a man whose rights I have never invaded, who has no complaint of personal wrong or provocation to allege against me, and who shares equally with myself in nature's blindness and nature's propensities, I will not be afraid of entering into judgment with him;-nor shall I stand in awe of any penetrating glance from his eye, of any indig

nant remonstrance from his offended sense | has foundations. Surrounded as he is by the of what is righteous, though there be made perishable admiration of his fellows, he is bare to his inspection all my devotedness altogether out of affection, and out of acto the world, and all my proud disdain at quaintance, with that Being with whom he the insolence of others, and all my anger has to do; and it will be found, on the great at the sufferings of injustice, and all my in- day of the doings, and the deliberations of difference to the God who formed me, and the judgment-seat, that as he had no relish all those secrecies of an unholy and an un- for God in time, so is he utterly unfit for his heavenly character, which are to be brought presence, or for his friendship in eternity. out into full manifestation on the great day of the winding up of this world's history. It is a very capital delusion that God is like unto man,-"Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."

It is said of God, that he created man after his own image, and it was upon losing this image that he was cast out of paradise: and ere he can be again admitted, the image that has been lost must again be formed on him. The grand qualification for the society of heaven is, that each of its members be like unto God. In the selfish and sensual society of earth, there is many a feature of

Man and man may come together in judg-resemblance to the Godhead that is most ment, and retire from each other in mutual readily dispensed with; and many an indicomplacency. But when man and God vidual here obtains applause and toleration thys come together, there is another prin- among his fellows, though there is not one ciple, and another standard of examination. attribute of the saintly character belonging There is a claim of justice on the part of to him. Let him only fulfil the stipulations the Creator, totally distinct from any claim of integrity, and smile benignity upon his which a fellow-creature can prefer, and friends, and render the alacrity of willing while the one will tolerate all that is con- and valuable services to those who have sistent with the economy and the interest never offended him, and on the strength of of the society upon earth, the other can such performances as these, may he rise to tolerate nothing that is inconsistent with a conspicuous place in the scale of this the economy and the character of the so- world's reputation. But what would have ciety in heaven. God made us for eternity. been the sad event to us, had these been He designed us to be the members of a the only performances which went to illusfamily which never separates, and over trate the character of the Godhead,—had which he himself presides in the visible he been a God of whom we could say no glory of all that worth, and of all that moral more, than that he possessed the one attriexcellence, which belong to him. He formed bute of an unrelenting justice, or even that us at first after his own likeness; and ere we he went beyond this attribute, in the exercan be re-admitted into that paradise from cise of kindness to those who loved him, which we have been exiled, we must be and in acts of beneficence to those who had created anew in the image of God. These never offended him? Do we not owe our spirits must be made perfect, and every taint | place and our prospect to the love of God of selfishness and impurity be done away for his enemies? Is it not from the riches from them. Heaven is the place into which of his forbearance and long-suffering, that nothing that is unclean or unholy can enter; and we are not preparing for our inheritance there, unless there be gathering upon us here, the lineaments of a celestial character. Now, a man may be accomplished in the moralities of civil and of social life, without so much as the semblance of such a character resting upon him. He may have no share whatsoever in the tastes, or in the enjoyments, or in the affections of paradise. There might not be a single trace of the mark of the Lamb of God upon his forehead. He who ponders so intelligently the secrets of the heart, may be able to discover there no vestige of any love for himself, no sensibility at all to what is amiable or to what is great in the character of the Godhead,-no desire whatever after his glory, no such feeling towards him who is to tabernacle with men, as will qualify him to bear a joyful part in the songs, and the praises of that city which

we draw all our enjoyments in time, and all our hopes for eternity? Is it not because, though grieved with sinners every day, he still waits to be gracious; that he holds out to us, his heedless and wayward children, the beseeching voice of reconciliation; and puts on such an aspect of tenderness to those who have not ceased from their birth to vex his Holy Spirit, and to thwart him every hour by the perverseness of their disobedience? This is the godlike attribute on which all the privileges of our fallen race are suspended; and yet against the intimation of which, nature, when urged by the provocations of injustice, rises in such a tumult of strong and impetuous re sistance. It is through the putting forth of this attribute, that any redeemed sinners are to be found among the other society of heaven; but into which no member shall be admitted out of this corrupt world, till there be stamped and realized on his own

person, that feature of the divinity to which i speak of the splendid career of beneficence he owes a distinction so exalted. And tell us, ye men who are so jealous of right and of honour, who take sudden fire at every insult, and suffer the slightest imagination of another's contempt, or another's unfairness, to chase from your bosom every feeling of complacency;-ye men whom every fancied affront puts into such a turbulence of emotion, and in whom every fancied infringement stirs up the quick and the resentful appetite for justice-how will you stand the rigorous application of that test by which the forgiven of God are ascertained, even that the spirit of forgiveness is in them, and by which it will be pronounced whether you are indeed the children of the highest, and perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect?

that he had run,-and in the recollection of the plaudits that had surrounded him, he could boldly challenge the inspection of all his neighbours, and of all his enemies, on the whole tract of his visible history in the world. He protested his innocence before them, and even so long as he had only heard of God by the hearing of the ear did he address him in the language of justification. But when God at length revealed himself,when the worth and the majesty of the Eternal stood before him in visible array,when the actual presence of his Maker brought the claims of his Maker to bear impressively upon his conscience, it was not merely the presence of the power of God which overawed him; it was the presence of the righteousness of God which convinced him,—and when, from the bright assemblage of all that was pure, and holy, and graceful in the aspect of the Divinity, he turned the eye of contemplation downward upon himself,-O it is instructive to be told, how the vaunting patriarch shrunk into all the depths of self-abasement at so striking a manifestation; and how he said, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and in ashes."

It is indeed a small matter to be judged of man's judgment. He who judges us is God. From this judgment there is no escape, and no hiding place. The testimony of our fellows will as little avail us in the day of judgment, as the help of our fellows will avail us in the hour of death.

But we must hasten to a close, and will, therefore, barely suggest some other matters of self-examination. We ask you, to think of the facility with which you might obtain the approbation of men, without be ing at all like unto God in the holiness of his character. We ask you to think of the delight which he takes in the contemplation of what is pure, and moral, and righteous. We ask you to think how one great object of his creation, was to diffuse over the face of it a multiplied resemblance of himself, and that, therefore, however fit you may be for sustaining your part in the alienated community of this world, you are most assuredly unfit for the great and the general assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect,-if unlike unto God who is in the midst of them, you have no congenial delight with the Father of all, in the We may as well think of seeking a refuge contemplation of spiritual excellence. Now, in the applause of men, from the condemare you not blind to the glories and the nation of God, as we may think of seeking perfections of that Being who realizes this a refuge in the power or the skill of men, excellence to a degree that is infinite? Does from the mandate of God, that our breath not the creature fill up all your avenues of shall depart from us. And, have you never enjoyment, while the Creator is forgotten? thought, when called to the chamber of the In reference to God, is there not an utter dying man,-when you saw the warning dulness and insensibility of all your re- of death upon his countenance, and how its gards to him? If thus blind to the percep- symptoms gathered and grew, and got the tion of that supreme virtue and loveliness ascendency over all the ministrations of which reside in the Godhead, are you not, human care and of human tenderness,in fact, and by nature an outcast from the when it every day became more visible, Godhead? And an outcast will you ever that the patient was drawing to his close, remain, until your character be brought and that nothing in the whole compass of under some mighty revolutionizing influ- art or any of its resources, could stay the ence which is able to shift the currency of advances of the sure and the last malady, your desires, and to over-rule nature with-have you never thought, on seeing the all her obstinate habits, and all her fond and favourite predilections.

These are topics of great weight and great pregnancy; but we leave them to your own thoughts, and only ask you at present to look at the vivid illustration of them that may be gathered out of the history of Job. In reference to his fellows, he could make a triumphant appeal to the honour and the humanity which adorned him, he could

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bed of the sufferer surrounded by other comforters than those of the Patriarch,when, from morning to night, and from night to morning, the watchful family sat at his couch, and guarded his broken slumbers, and interpreted all his signals, and tried to hide from his observation the tears which attested him to be the kindest of parents,-when the sad anticipation spread its gloomy stillness over the household, and

even set forth an air of seriousness and con- | teousness of God, and be made to acknow cern upon the men of other families,-when ledge, that those things which are highly you have witnessed the despair of friends, esteemed among men are in his sight an who could only turn them to cry at the abomination. When the judge and his atspectacle of his last agonies, and had seen tendants shall come on the high errand of how little it was that weeping children and this world's destinies, they will come from inquiring neighbours could do for him,-- God,-and the pure principle they shall when you have contrasted the unrelenting bring along with them from the sanctuary necessity of the grave, with the feebleness of heaven, will be the entire subordination of every surrounding endeavour toward it, of the thing formed to him who formed it. has the thought never entered within you, In that praise which upon earthly feelings How powerless is the desire of man!-how the creatures offer one to another, we behold sure and how resistless is the decree of God! no recognition of this principle whatever; And on the day of the second death, will and therefore it is, that it is so very differit be found, that it is not the imagination of ent from the praise which cometh from man, but the sentence of God that shall God only. And should any one of these creastand. When the sound of the last trumpet tures be made on that great day of manifesawakens us from the grave, and the ensigns tation, to see his nakedness,-should the of the last day are seen on the canopy of question, what have you done unto me? heaven, and the tremor of the dissolving ele- leave him speechless; should at length, conments is felt upon the earth, and the Son of victed of his utter rebelliousness against God with his mighty angels are placed around God, he try to find among the companions the judgment-seat,and the men of all ages and of his pilgrimage, some attestation to the of all nations are standing before it, and wait- kindness that beamed from him upon his ing the high decree of eternity,-then will it fellow mortals in the world, they will not be found, that as no power of man can save be able to hide him from the coming wrath. his fellow from going down to the grave of In the face of all the tenderness they ever bore mortality, so no testimony of man can save him, the severity of an unreconciled lawhis fellow from going down to the pit of con- giver must have upon him its resistless demnation. Each on that day will mourn operation. They may all bear witness to apart. Each of those on the left hand, en- the honour and the generosity of his doings grossed by his own separate contemplation, among men, but there is not one of them and overwhelmed by the dark and the louring who can justify him before God. Nor among futurity of his own existence, will not have all those who now yield him a ready testia thought or a sympathy to spare for those mony on earth will he find a day's-man bewho are around him. Each of those on the twixt him and his Creator, who can lay his right hand will see and acquiesce in the righ-hand upon them both.

SERMON VI.

The Necessity of a Mediator between God and Man.

"Neither is there any day's-man betwixt us, that might lay his hands upon us both.”—Job ix. 33.

IV. THE feeling of Job, at the time of his tuagint version of the Bible, that amongst uttering the complaint which is recorded in all our brethren of the species, not an indithe verses before us, might not have been vidual is to be found who, standing in the altogether free of a reproachful spirit towards place of a mediator, can lay his hand upon those friends who had refused to advocate his us both. It is, indeed, very possible, that all cause, and who had even added bitterness this may carry the understanding, and at to his distress by their most painful and the same time have all the inefficiency of a unwelcome arguments. And well may it cold and general speculation. But should be our feeling, and that too without the the Spirit, whose office it is to convince us presence of any such ingredient along with of sin, lend the power of his demonstration it-that there is not a man upon earth who to the argument,-should he divide asunder can execute the office of a day's-man be- our thoughts, and enable us to see that, twixt us and God,-that taking the com- with the goodly semblance of what is fair mon sense of this term, there is none who and estimable in the sight of man, all within can act as an umpire between us the chil- us is defection from the principle of loyalty dren of ungodliness, and the Lawgiver, to God-that while we yield a duty as the whom we have so deeply offended; or members of society, the duty that lies upon taking up the term that occurs in the Sep-lus, as the creatures of the Supreme Being,

as, in respect of the spirit of allegiance which government over the universe that he has gives it all its value, fallen away from, by formed. It is laying those paltry accomevery one of us, should this conviction plishments which give you a place of discleave to us like an arrow sticking fast, and tinction among your fellows, before that work its legitimate influence, in causing us God of whose throne justice and judgment to feel all the worthlessness of our charac- are the habitation, and calling upon him to ters, and all the need and danger of our connive at all that you want, and to look circumstances, then would the urgency of with complacency on all that you possess. the case be felt as well as understood by us, It is to bring to the bar of judgment the -nor should we be long of pressing the poor and the starving samples of virtue inquiry of where is the day's-man betwixt which are current enough in a world us that might lay his hand upon us both! broken loose from its communion with And, in fact, by putting the Mediator God, and to defy the inspection upon them away from you,-by reckoning on a state of God's eternal Son, and of the angels he of safety and acceptance without him, what brings along with him to witness the righis the ground upon which, in reference to teousness of his decisions. Sin has indeed God, you actually put yourselves? We been the ruin of our nature-but this respeak not at present of the danger of per- fusal of the Saviour of sinners lands them sisting in such an attitude of independence, in a perdition still deeper and more irrecoof its being one of those refuges of treache-verable. It is blindness to the enormity of ry in which the good man of the world is sin. It is equivalent to a formally anoften to be found,-of its being a state nounced sentiment on your part that your wherein peace, when there is no peace, performances, sinful as they are, and pollulls him by its flatteries unto a deceitful luted as they are, are good enough for hearepose. We are not at present saying how ven. It is just saying of the offered Saviour ruinous it is to rest a security upon an im- that you do not see the use of him. It is a posing exterior, when in fact the heart is provoking contempt of mercy; and causing not right in the sight of God, and while the the measure of ordinary guilt to overflow, reproving eye of him, who judgeth not as by heaping the additional blasphemy upon man judgeth, is upon him, or how poison-it, or calling upon God to honour it by his ous is the unction that comes upon the soul rewards, and to look to it with the complafrom those praises which upon the mere cency of his approbation. exhibition of the social virtues, are rung We cannot, then, we cannot draw near and circulated through society. But, unto God, by a direct or independent apin addition to the danger, let us insist upon proach to him. And who in these circumthe guilt of thus casting the offered Medi- stances, is fit to be the day's-man betwixt ator away from us. It implies in the most you? There is not a fellow-mortal from direct possible way, a sentiment of the suffi- Adam downward, who has not sins of his ciency of our own righteousness. It is ex-own to answer for. There is not one of pressly saying of our obedience, that it is them who has not the sentence of guilt ingood enough for God. It is presumptuously scribed upon his own forehead, and who is thinking that what pleases the world may not arrested by the same unscaled barrier please the Maker of it, even though he him- which keeps you at an inacessible distance self has declared it to be a world lying in from God. There is not one of them whose wickedness. There is an aggravation you entrance into the holiest of all would not will perceive in all this which goes beyond inflict on it as great a profanation, as if any the simple infraction of the commandment. of you were to present yourselves before It is, after the infraction of it, challenging him, who dwelleth there, without a Mediafor some remainder or for some semblance tor. There lieth a great gulf between God of conformity, the reward and approbation and the whole of this alienated world; of the God whose law we have dishonour- and after looking round amongst all the ed. It is, after we have braved the attribute of the Almighty's justice, by incurring its condemnation, making an attempt upon the attribute itself, by bringing it down to the standard of a polluted obedience. It is, after insulting the throne of God's righteousness, embarking in the still deadlier enterprize of demolishing all the stabilities which guard it; and spoiling it of that truth which has pronounced a curse on the children of iniquity, of that holiness which cannot dwell with evil,-of that unchangeableness which will admit of no compromise with sinners that can violate the honours of the Godhead, or weaken the authority of his

men of all its generations, we may say, in the language of the text, that there is not a day's-man betwixt us who can lay his hand upon us both.

What we aim at as the effect of all these observations, is, that you should feel your only security to be in the revealed and the offered mediator; that you should seek to him as your only effectual hiding-place; and who alone, in the whole range of universal being, is able to lay his hand upon you, and shield you from the justice of the Almighty, and to lay his hand upon God, and stay the fury of the avenger. By him the deep atonement has been rendered.

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