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dispensations of Almighty God: for in all the dispensations which we know here to be his, in all situations and conditions of life, there is ever judgment mingled with mercy. And assuredly also it is the same in the great work of our redemption. The God of nature is the God of revelation; and it is to him that wishes to repent and forsake sin and serve God, and to him alone, that mercy without judgment is reserved. And to thee, O vain and sinful man, who wouldst turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and persuade thyself that, because Christ hath put away ungodliness, the ungodly man may continue in sin-know thou, that there is judgment, deep and deadly, mingled with this mercy, which is so high and so great unto them that believe Christ truly, and to whom he is precious. We cannot exalt too highly the mighty things reserved for man. But what saith the Holy Scripture? To them that obey not the truth which they have received, and turn away from Him who speaketh truly, it speaketh thus. The Lord Jesus, from whom we have turned away, shall descend from that heaven to which they shall never come, taking vengeance on all them that obey not the Gospel of the Lord and they shall be punished with everlasting destruction, far from the presence of God and glory; destruction shall fall on them for ever, though not such as shall be the portion of the Mahomedan, or the Indian, or the savage. For if he that despised Moses' law died without mercy, and if he that sins only against the light of conscience and nature, must be judged without mercy-and who can doubt that such will be so judged?—of how much sorer punishment, think you, shall not that man be accounted worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God? Be not ye therefore like unto them who draw back unto perdition by iniquity, but like them that believe, and attain to the reward of faith, through obedience; for how can you escape the weight of God's wrath if you neglect so great a

salvation?

Finally then, brethren, let your song be of mercy and of judgment; and

sing you unto the Lord, because it is he that is the framer and author of these temporal and spiritual dispensations, which are at once so wise, so wonderful, and so good. You that be still in your sins-for though Christians assemble in the house of God, yet so much of their assembling springs from habit, so much from an imitation of the world and from worldly motives, that never can a minister address his congregation without being fearfully convinced that there are some among them that are yet in'their sinsyou that be still in your sins, and have not laid hold of Christ to the saving of your souls and the sanctification of your hearts, remember how many precious promises of mercy are mingled in the Gospel with the denunciations of judgment. Remember how the Lord is gracious, how he is long suffering, how he waiteth to be kind to you, how he hath sent forth his Son for you, giving him up for your sins, that you should not perish, but have everlasting life. Turn ye then, turn ye; for why will ye die, O house of God's spiritual Israel? You that have tasted how gracious the Lord is, trust not in the past for the fulfilment of the future. Forget not that there is heavy judgment mingled with unbounded mercy-judgment on those that fall away, as well as mercy to those that continue in well doing. For it is as just as it is true, that if we wilfully sin after we have received a knowledge of the truth, and continue openly in that sin, there remaineth no sacrifice for sin for us; but a fearful looking for of judg ment, and fiery indignation without mercy. But may God keep yon steadfast in his faith and in his holiness. May he present you blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus; and present you without spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, or any such thing, worthy members of the Church of Christ, meet inheritors of the kingdom of God, perfect and complete in Christ Jesus the Lord, before the throne of the Father, who hath thus mingled mercy and judgment here, and reserved mercy without judgment, and judgment without mercy, only for another and an unchangeable state.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. STRATTEN,

AT PADDINGTON CHAPEL, DEC. 19, 1830.

Ephesians, v. 14-16.-" Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Ir is a question which every sober and wise man hath many a time resolved in his own mind, Am I, or am I not, a responsible creature? Am I, or am I not, subject to a moral government? Are, or are not, the thoughts and actions, the works and ways of my present state, connected with my future and final destination? If any man can arrive soberly and calmly at the conclusion, that he is not the subject of a moral government, that he is not responsible to the Deity, that there is no connection subsisting between what he now is and what he shall hereafter be -then let that man live at his pleasure-let him seek whatever gratification in any course he can find let him adopt the profane and immoral maxim, Let me eat and drink though tomorrow I should die. But if logically, if accurately, if after a strict and rigid process of reasoning, this conclusion cannot be established-then every man who walks carelessly and indifferently in relation to God and to the future world, also walks foolishly, and is subject, whether he knows it or not, to a deep spell, to a moral captivation, to a profound spiritual enchantment. I apprehend that, by the strictest reasoning by all the analogies of life, as well as by the authority of God's revelation, the reverse of this conclusion will be arrived at-namely, that we are moral agents, that we are accountable creatures, that we are responsible to God, that the present mode of our thoughts, words, and actions, has, and will have, a most important bearing on our final destination. So that we are now, day by day, hour by hour, I might say, in thought by thought, in word by word, in action by action casting in that seed, the harvest of which we shall reap in futurity; and

it will be a harvest of sadness, sorrow, humiliation, and despair; or it will be a bright and blessed harvest of whatever is pure and glorious, of whatever is radiant and immortal.

The text insinuates that a great proportion of mankind are dead to these principles, asleep as respects these considerations, and that they have no more practical power upou them than if they were either dead or asleep, or, if it were possible, both. So that it is said, "Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." And supposing that we are vitally enlightened, that we are actuated hy these high and noble hopes, by these deep and glorious convictions, then we need to be awakened: for there is a tendency in our nature to fall back again into lethargy, insensibility, and deadness. Thus it may be alike for the advantage of saint and sinner to open these verses, and press home these admonitions. Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

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Here is, FIRST, The startling and electrical address—“ Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead.” SECONDLY, The gracious and benign promise-"Christ shall give thee light." THIRDLY, The circumspect and holy walking which will result from that illumination so imparted. FINALLY, A strong consideration by which to enforce it all-"The days are evil."

Here is, First, THE STARTLING AND AROUSING ADDRESS "Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead." There are two images employed-the one is Death, and the

other is Sleep. Let us take the stronger of them first.

Gospel, the gracious absolution which is published in the name of Christ Jesus, is, in the estimation of God's purity, in that sense dead. There is then a state of distance and alienation from God-that of which the father of the prodigal son is represented as speaking, when he justified his own rejoicing and the jubilee of his house, by saying, "This my son was dead, and is alive again"-he was forlorn, degraded in sin; he is restored to the dignity of my house, to the embraces of my family, to a better and nobler state of disposition and mind: he is alive again.

A man can be dead in one of three senses. The vital principle may have vanished from his body, and the body be undergoing the process of decomposition, either in the sepulchre or elsewhere: : or he may be morally and spiritually dead, in a state of insensibility to all the high considerations of God, eternity, and religion; which amounts to a moral death, and justifies | the employment of this strong image: or he may be under the power and penalties of the second death; he may be undergoing the punishment of the damned; briefly and in a word, he If I am speaking to any who are may be in hell. That we are not in insensible to God, who are obtuse as the sepulchre we all know that we it respects the light of revelation, the are not in perdition we have the great- consolations or the terrors of Chrisest reason to magnify God, to adore tianity-any one who feels himself far the riches of his grace that we are still from being justified, washed, sanctified in the land of the living, and in the in the name of the Lord Jesus and by place of hope. We must then under- the Spirit of our God-any one who stand the image in the second sense, in his conscience feels himself to be as importing the death which is spi- condemned, to be in a state of alienaritual. It is the custom of the Scrip- tion and ruin-the text comes home to tures to employ this image. "You such with its authority, and is strongly being dead hath he quickened." The to be enforced. In the name of God person who lives a pious and illumi- I say unto thee, "Arise-stand up nated life is admitted by the Apostle from the dead." Then some one into be, in the strict sense, alive; but terferes and says, Where is the use of he adds," he that liveth in pleasure is this?-of what avail is it to deliver dead while he liveth." She whose life exhortations and to address awakening is devoted to pleasure is "dead while words to so many corpses? My anshe liveth." "We know," says the swer is, that if you will take the image Apostle John, "that we have passed in its utmost extent-if you will refrom death unto life, because we love gard it as fact and not figure-if you the brethren." Antecedently, then, will assert, that, bona fide, men are there hath been death: and he that dead, and that I have entered this hateth his brother abideth in death." night into a congregation of the dead, The Church at Sardis is said to have and have to speak to so many positive a name to live while in reality they carcases-then I say, that, being comwere dead. The death, then, in the missioned and commanded of God, I text is insensibility, stupor, inertness, would come and deliver my messagesloth, as it respects Christ and God" Awake ye dead, stand up, and Christ and all the revelations of his word. shall give you light and life.” And I We may comprehend here the idea of should expect to witness exactly that condemnation; for every man who which the Prophet did in the vision of has not received the Gospel and em- the dry bones, when bone came to his braced the message of mercy by Christ bone, and sinew to his sinew, and Jesus is condemned already; he is there was a mighty shaking, and in dead in the sense in which a male- due season the living army with its factor is dead who is legally adjudged waving banners did appear. But men to execution, the time of execution stretch the image and overstrain the being fixed, but a few intervening metaphor: for while you are dead in hours or days transpiring between the one sense-that is, considered natusentence of punishment and its in- rally-you are alive in another. You fliction. Every man who has not have the beam of reason-you have availed himself of the indemnity of the intellect—you have understanding

you are capable of being urged; and, therefore, though dead in the sense described, we address ourselves to these faculties we make our appeal to judgment and to understanding-we press home the claims of Deity, the responsibility of your nature, the obligation and the blessedness of obedience to God. If this principle be not admitted, the most erroneous and false consequences arise out of the converse-namely, the utter neglect of all means; so that parents have left their children uneducated to wander upon the wide world, because forsooth they are dead. Brethren, we believe in the power and the agency of God as accompanying the means, as going along with the instrumentality; and so, while upon the authority of God and according to the dictates of his word, I address myself to your conscience, to your reason, to your judgment, in favour of truth and righteousness, it is in the hope and persuasion that God's appointed means being duly used, God's promised blessing will come along with them-that you will be pricked to the heart, and made alive indeed. This is not theory; for we see it exemplified and illustrated in a faithful and awakening ministry every day.

Now there is another image; not only, "Stand up from the dead," but, "Awake thou that sleepest." Sleep is sweet. " And so he giveth his beloved sleep." Sleep to every one is peculiarly pleasant. There is a mystery in our repose, and an incrutability belonging to our rest. No one can tell how it is, or why it is, that lying down at night, faint, exhausted, wearied, we wake in the morning strong like the morning beam, or fresh like young eagles, to serve the living God: but so it is. I called on one patient in the course of the week, and the physician says, "If she can sleep four hours she will do well." I called upon another, who told me, that once her father was dying, difficulties were pressing hard, her children were sick, and herself indisposed: in the midst of all she dropped asleep, and awoke again like a new creature, mightily relieved, as was supposed and believed, by the succour of heaven, and the grace and the goodness of God. In like manner, but on a nobler scale, shall we hereafter awake: our bodies shall awake from the slumber and

darkness of the grave, to the light, the beauty, and the blessedness of heaven, to all that is fragrant and all that is fair in the kingdom of our Father and of our God.

If a man may be asleep lawfully, he may also be asleep unlawfully: he may be asleep when it would be for his advantage to be awake. His house may be on fire, and he know it not. The Egyptians were asleep when the destroying angel came and smote every first born. True, had they been awake they could not have averted that visitation. What could an arm of flesh do against the arm of the angel of God? Samson was asleep in the lap of Delilah when the Philistines came upon him, and at last he lost his glory and his strength. The murderer mignt be asleep when the arm of justice was already at his heels, intense in vengeance, and ready to smite him to the earth. In like manner men may be morally and spiritually asleep, when the sword of God's justice is unsheathed, and the bow of heaven is bent to enforce its righteous and holy law.

I say then, Awake. If you are not in harmony with God-if you are not in concord with Christ—if you are not at peace with conscience-now is to be the time of your awakening. Awake to reflection. myriads are lost by inconsideration. It is the shame and the dishonour of vice that it subsists by the extinction of the intellect; bring the reason to bear upon it, and it is confounded and undone : just as it is the honour of virtue and the dignity of right principles of action, that it subsists in the light of reason, that it shines cloudlessly amidst the truth of God. Awake, I say, to repentance. Bethink yourselves— what have your sins been ?-do they endure and abide ?—is your guilt upon you? "Except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” "God commandeth all men every where to repent." "Awake, and call upon thy God;" and "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Awake, believe the testimony, and receive the record. "He that believeth on the Son of God shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Awake to righteousness, and sin not. The night is far spent-the day is at hand. Put off the works of darkness-put on the armour of light. Put on the Lord

Jesus Christ, and walk in purity and love. "Awake-stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." The text is in the singular numberthee, every one. If I could speak personally to each-young, old, rich, poor, learned, unlearned-I would say, Thou art the individual-awake-arise. It is unpleasant to be awakened; we do not like to be roused; we wish to slumber on. The sluggard will say, "A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep." But if the ruin is to be avoided, we must awake. If we could do it pleasantly, if we could do it melodiously, we would: and you are my witnesses, and God also, that I prefer the invitations of love to the threatenings, the terrors, the intimidations of God's word. If I could awake you melodiously I would do it. There is an especial sweetness, something unearthly, belonging to melody in the night. I have been awakened twice lately at midnight by the melody of persons going along the road: the men were caroling for Christmas; and I was, by their harmony, sweetly, pleasantly, gently awakened. I would that you were awakened by the melodious tones of salvation, by the soft, sweet, sonorous accents of Christ's Gospel. May he awaken us all, and give us all light.

And this is the next point-THE GRACIOUS AND BENIGN PROMISE. "Christ shall give you light"-Christ, the uncreated and everlasting lightlight, and no darkness at all; innocence, and no sin at all; love, and no malignity at all. There is a purity and transparency of light in some other latitudes and in other countries, far transcending our own. I read in the course of the weck a voyage to Rio Janeiro; and according to the description in the work, on the other side the line the Southern constellations shine with a glory, splendour, and brightness quite unknown to us; and the planet Venus rises in such majesty and power as like the moon to cast a shadow; and it made me almost long to be there. Christ is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person-the pure beam of the morning -according to the saying of David, "the clear shining after rain"—the light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the

glory of the people of Israel. This is the light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ-the light which relates to your present being, your fall by sin, your recovery by redemption, whatever relates to existing duty and your prospects in another state. All this knowledge, whatever is indispensable to your purity, safety, and happiness, Christ will give: and blessed is the man who has received this light. It is most effective as it is transfused through and over all the faculties. It is not like a cold moon-beam on the surface of a half-frozen lake on a winter's night; but it resembles the precious, warm, powerful beam of the meridian sun in the month of May, poured into a bud to make it beautiful, poured into a blossom that it may ripen and mature the fruits; making them beautiful on the one hand, and useful and advantageous on the other. "Christ shall give you light"-the vital, the effective light.

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There is a supply of light in justification. Darkness, sleep, and death are in the condemned state: the purest light, the most important and blessed beam, is that which regards the deliverance of the soul by the blood of sprinkling and the immaculate righteousness of our Lord and Saviour. There is light in liberty. Say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.” When he gives us light this is done; we come out to his effulgence, and our eyes behold his glory. Without the light that Christ Jesus brings, there may be noisy mirth, there may be frenzy, there may be joy "like the crackling of thorns under a pot;" but there is no peace, there is no true love, there is no matured benignity: all these things come with the illumination of Christ. Especially will he give us the light of immortality and incorruption, which is brought to us by the Gospel. And let me tell you, that the light which will enable you to die

the knowledge which shall shine around you and help you to act intelligently, holily, and with dignity in the hour of death, is above all the illumination that can be conceived or desired. I have seen men dying almost like beasts; and I have seen people die intelligently, knowing where they were, what God was about with them, what process was taking place, and

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