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in this regenerated universe-that if rejoice in the erection and establishthey tread not the scene of their former ment of Messiah's sovereignty over the pilgrimage, and revisit not the home wide-spread tribes of the human poof their former mortality, purified pulation. from the corruption with which sin hath stained God's workmanship, still they shall bend down from those abodes of peace, in which they await the body's resurrection, and contemplate with unspeakable gladness the fresh and fair face of this earth's new scenery, when it shall have been transformed into a radiant theatre for the display of the Mediator's triumphs. In this hope we repose ourselves. If indeed, as the Apostle expresses it, we are children of the resurrection, then may we believe that, in all which is yet to arrive of illustrious allotment to the church, we, too, in one way or other, shall obtain a share. And, even if the body still slumber, awaiting the trumpet summons of judgment, yet shall the spirit scan, and survey, and

Brethren, remember that Christ Jesus, of the seed of David, has been raised from the dead. Remember that your own interests in that sublime event can be demonstrated by no other proof than that of a present resurrection from the death of sin, and a vigorous walking in newness of life. There must be, at all events, this first resurrection, whatever the disputes, whatever the decision with regard to any other. If through grace we are partakers hereof, we may, without too curiously prying into things on which scripture speaks most obscurely and enigmatically, leave ourselves in the keeping of a covenant Father, assured that when Christ shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. STRATTEN,
AT PADDINGTON CHAPEL, AUGUST 15, 1822.

Romans, vi. 22.—“ But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

Ir is a very humiliating view which the Apostle gives of sin in the foregoing verse. Sin is declared to be degradation, and the individual who is led by it is in a way of misery, remorse, and sadness. And what shall the final fruit be? "The end of those things is death;" not only the death of the body, but the perdition of the soul-the everlasting exclusion from the light of heaven and from the love of God. Has any man entered this sanctuary to-night an alien from God, in a state of ignorance as it respects the gospel, a state of prayerlessness and indevotion, which his conscience knows and testifies against? Let me call upon him at once to consider his insecurity to open his eyes upon his peril-to reflect upon his jeopardy-to break his bonds-to call out for the assistance of heaven, that he may be rescued from the imminence of his dan

ger-be brought into the fold of Jesus, and guided into the way of peace.

The verse which I have read as a text is in contrast with the one that precedes it: for as sin is degradation and misery, so the knowledge of the gospel, and intimacy with God's truth, is freedom, satisfaction, and joy; it is peace, and purity, and pleasure. While we live the fruit is unto holiness, and the end shall be everlasting life. I am addressing very many who know the gospel, and love it: and I say to you, Abide in the things to which you have attained; hold fast that which you already have; and endeavour to grow in grace, and in illumination, and in conformity to the will of God, that you may be prepared for the everlasting life that awaits you in the skies.

The text is so plain as to be incapable of illustration; it shines so clearly and cloudlessly in its own light that it

wants no interpretation. All that I have to do is, to take the words in the order in which they stand, and to show in what sense we are free from sinthat being free from sin we are necessarily and at once the servants of God -that as we serve God the fruit is holy, and beautiful to look upon-and that as we are fruitful to God in this life we shall be glorified with God in the world to come.

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IN WHAT SENSE MAY WE BE SAID TO BE FREE FROM SIN? First, by the gospel we are made free from the pollution and the defilement of sin. It is obvious to all those who are acquainted with the Scriptures, that they uniformly speak of sin as of loathsomeness, as of turpitude, as of deep and malignant delinquency. It is figuratively spoken of as a pestilence, as a leprosy, and as wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. There is a pollution which sin brings into a man's conscience, and a moral defilement with which it clothes his entire person. And how shall he be delivered? Praised be God, the answer is ready but the very answer of relief and deliverance implies the turpitude of the disease. There is a fountain open-for what? For sin and uncleanness. It is open at this day; and every defiled and polluted soul may wash in it, and be clean. This brings to my mind the language of David-" Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow :"-apply to me the appointed sacrificial rites-apply to me the precious blood of sprinkling, of which they were the emblem and the type, and I shall be delivered from all my transgressions. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith God: though your sins be as scarlet and as crimson, I will make you appear like wool and like snow." There is, too, that amazing proposition-that proposition which shines in surpassing intensity and celestial power-" The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin." This is just the intelligence of the gospel, and the information that we would publish through the world—first, that man is guilty and fallen-and secondly, that there is restoration from his ruin, perfect recovery, the most consummate relief, by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. "We are free from sin."

We are made free from its condemnation and its curse. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." All the curses uttered in the word of God are not ineffectual, but are effectual; they have come to pass. There is a power and energy in God to accomplish the purposes of punishment as well as the purposes of his mercy. He said after the first offence"Thorns also and thistles shall the earth bring forth unto thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." I go into the fields at this day, six thousand years after the utterance of the words, in this remote part of the earth, prodigiously distant from the land of Eden, and I see the curse of God taking effect. It was said, again, as the punishment of sin, " In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." I behold it every where in the countenances of my neighbours and fellowmen.

Even Noah, without, as appears, any immediate and direct warrant, said, "Cursed be Canaan;" and I behold the children of Ham cursed, servants of servants unto this day. It was threatened to the Jews, that if they acted contrary to God's law and his requisitions, they should be "a scorn, and a hissing, and a reproach;" and I behold them every where as the objects of derision, with the malediction of heaven upon them taking its full effect.

So it is at the last: the greatest and the heaviest curse of Deity is not for mere purposes of intimidation-it is not to alarm us where no danger is; but it is intelligence of a heavy penalty, which, if it be not legitimately escaped, and according to the honourable principles revealed in the gospel, will come down in all its power and wrath. I read that "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us." It was from something terrible that this substituted agency of Jesus Christ delivered us. If the curse of the law came upon the substitute, met the innocent but unsheltered head of Jesus, and wrought the anguish, and the intense suffering in his person which it did; what will it do when it shall meet the proper delinquent-when it shall alight upon his head unmitigated; and having, in

addition to its native and intrinsic | cendency, and it is the flesh which is force, this immense aggravation-that held in subjection. This is just the the sinner hath rejected the gospel, distinction between the believing and and neglected the great salvation? But the unbelieving man. The believing we are free from the curse. "There man has sin in subjection and reigns is now no condemnation"-no curse over it; and so it is we shall never whatever-no penalty of any kind come under its bondage any more; it "There is now no condemnation to is broken and destroyed for ever; and them who are in Christ Jesus, who very speedily we shall be delivered walk not after the flesh, but after the from the least guilt and stain of its Spirit." "Being justified by faith"-contamination and defilement; and and justification is, of course, opposed shall enter as pure as in the beginning to the curse and to the penalty, man was made when he came from his “being justified by faith"-entirely Maker's hands-enter as pure and perdelivered, possessing the most absolute | fect into heaven as the angels in their and complete freedom-" we have blessedness already are. peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

We are free from its remorse and its bitterness, from its sting, and from its harassing convictions. These always follow sin: they must do so it is the inevitable law of God, the law of our nature, that when we transgress there should be inward darkness, confusion, and dismay. Some have felt this to an intense and very awful degree. “If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works"-take away all the bitterness and the sting of sin-" that we may serve the living and the true God." As we understand the principles, and receive the peace and the freedom of the gospel, instead of confusion there is confidence-instead of dismay there is delight-there is beauty for ashes→→ the oil of joy, and not of mourning— the garment of praise, and not the spirit of heaviness. And it is simply by believing, we accept the testimony, we receive the doctrine, and we stand

We are free from the tyranny aud despotism of sin. Every man must know that there is a kind of violence accomplished upon his person by iniquitythat he is led, in a great degree, against the remonstrances of his own mind, and the convictions of his own judgment-that he is enslaved as he is in the act of transgressing against God. So the Scripture speaks of it as sin reigning, as sin having dominion over a man, sin playing the tyrant upon a man. But when we believe in Christ, and receive his gospel, it has dominion, it accomplishes the usurpation, it effects the tyranny upon us no more. For bring to me a believer, and I hold up before him the law, and I ask which of the ten commandments is it that he voluntarily and deliberately breaks? and the answer is, Not any one of them. Sin, therefore, does not any longer tyrannize and domineer. I show the condensation of the ten commandments in the two given to us by Christ: and this man aims to love God with all his heart, and does love God, as he is influenced by the grace of the gos-cloudless and unaccused before God; pel, and the power of the Holy Spirit; and he looks around with a malicious temper and an evil mind upon none, but breathes unfeigned good will and benignity to all. He is not any more enslaved by sin-he is set free.

and the conscience within is as tranquil as the countenance of Deity without.

Finally, we are free from all the ruinous consequences of sin. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is I am quite aware that in this matter the law; but thanks be to God, who there is a conflict and a struggle. giveth us the victory through our Lord There is what the Apostle denominates Jesus Christ." It is the victory-not the old nature and the new; and the the evasion, nor the escape, but the two contest perpetually one against positive triumph-the triumph in the the other-the flesh lusting against the last battle-the triumph where there spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. was the least probability of its being But it is the spirit that gains the as-achieved. As you believe in Christ, and

have his presence with you, you shall pass harmless-nothing whatever shall transpire but the dissolution of your animal frame, the simple breaking up of the existing economy, of the earthly nature, in order to its being rebuilt in beauty, and restored in incorruption. The mind unharmed shall gently and tranquilly go into its rest and joy; and before it is aware, and in a manner it cannot understand, shall find itself in the inheritance and in the possession of everlasting life. "We are free from sin." Thus it is that the man who calmly and deliberately believes this-with whom it is matter of reason and judgment, who has explored the Scripture and pored over it before God -this man is the happy, the humble, and the spiritual servant of God. What can we desire more than to be delivered from all burdens, and to see the path-way plain into God's everlasting kingdom.

HOW ARE WE EMANCIPATED? We are said in the text "to be made free;" which evidently implies a power exerted upon us, an energy of which we are the objects, distinctly and independently of any volition of our

own.

me," says David, "by thy free spirit." Thus the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost conspire in this great work. It is by the accomplishment of the counsels of the Father, it is by the mediation of the Son, and the truth applied to the understanding by the Holy Spirit. These ministers like Paul are said to open the blind eyes, to turn men from sin and Satan unto God. We are said to be "made free by the truth;" and "sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace." The very doctrine of grace itself, the light and power of its manifestation, are instrumental in effecting the freedom of men. It is also ascribed to the promise of God, by the means of which we are made partakers of the divine nature. Thus the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-the ministry of the word, and the truth of God, all the revelations of mercy, especially the promises of grace that are made to us, unite in effecting the liberation of the enslaved. Aye, and all liberty is sweet; but the sweetest, purest, truest liberty of all is the liberty of the soul before God.

No man sees the enormity of sin, no man has such views of the vileness and degradation of his state while he continues an offender. See the man who, by the merits of Christ, and the grace of God, and the light of the Holy Spirit, comes into the freedom and felicity of the renewed and the restored state. I would have you to be as familiar with these facts and doctrines as the school boy with the first rudiments of his grammar, or the examples of his arithmetic. You must understand them in order to have peace; you must hold them fast for the pre

It seems there can be no doubt but that the power of God in this manner does come upon a man as upon its passive subject. The instant it touches the man it breaks his bands, and he rises emancipated, in order that he may exert his faculties, and be the free servant of the living God. It hinders not but that, being commissioned and commanded of Christ, we go in among the enslaved, publish the message of Christ, and say, Awake, arise, stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give you life. This is ascribed in Scripture to the Father:-"Giving thanks to the Fa-servation of your joy. Nothing less ther which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son." It is ascribed to Christ, who was given for a covenant to the people, that he might " say to those in darkness, Show yourselves, and to those in the prison house, Come forth :" and he commenced his ministry, publishing in his own name liberty to the captives. It is referred also to the Holy Spirit: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." "Uphold

can enable you to live holy and happily. By this doctrine only can you die, and enter into the rest of Heaven. If you lucidly understand it, and carry it up and down and along with you in the reading of the scriptures, it will shed a surpassing light around you at home and every where.

(To be continued.)

London: Published for the Proprietors, by T. GRIFFITHS, Wellington Street, Strand; and sold by all Booksellers in Town and Country.

Printed by Lowndes and White, Crane Court>

Fleet Street.

No. 3.]

SERMON BY THE REV. J. STRATTEN.
SERMON BY THE REV. T. DALE.
SERMON BY THE REV. J. H. EVANS.
SERMON BY THE REV. C. BENSON.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1830.

[Price 3d.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. STRATTEN,

AT PADDINGTON CHAPEL, AUGUST 15, 1830.

Romans, vi. 22.-" But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

(Continued from page 32.)

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hast loosed my bands"-the very si-
militude of the text-My bands are
loosed; I am become a free and feli-
citous servant of God. Paul said in
the midst of his shipwreck, "Whose I
am, and whom I serve."
"James, a
servant of God and of Jesus Christ."

Then, BEING MADE FREE FROM SIN WE BECOME THE SERVANTS OF GOD. This word, I would observe, is exceedingly ennobled by its application to Jesus Christ. "Behold my servant, whom I uphold." It is borne by him, it is one of his titles, it stands in the midst of the emblazonment of his dignities." Peter a servant of Jesus Christ." "My servant shall deal prudently.' But it is common to all believers. "As He was the Son of God, but he took free," it is said, "yet not using your upon him the form of a servant, in liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, order that we, who are servants, and but as the servants of God." In the had been enslaved to sin, might be- vision of the Revelations, the plagues come children, and be made free. Under were stayed until the servants of God that name and title what a service did received the enstampment in their forehe fulfil-what an obedience did he heads. We are made free in order that accomplish. A transcendent, a divine we may be the servants of God. righteousness did he work out, ade- How does it come to pass? First, quate to the restoration of us all from we accept the grace, we receive the the ruins of our delinquency and of gospel, we take the indemnity. It is a our transgression. "For if by one settled and deliberate matter with us man's disobedience many were made that all past sin is not to be imputedsinners, so by the obedience of one that every thing up to the time of beshall many be made righteous." It is lieving is to be as if it never had been by the immaculate, splendid, and amaz-—and that in the place of the imputed ing service of Jesus Christ, that our imperfect and blemished services and persons become acceptable before God. Then, again, it is ascribed in scripture to those who have been distinguished by their office in the church, and their labours for the good of men. We read, in the Revelations, of the Song of Moses the servant of the Lord. David says, "O Lord, I am thy serrant, the son of thy handmaid; thou

VOL. 1.

sin, there shall be a transferred righteousness. As we receive this doctrine the enmity fails, the natural dislike of God is extinguished; there is such a view of his benignant grace and love as awakens corresponding principles and emotions in our renewed nature. Love is the fulfilling of the law; and as we begin to love God, to delight in his perfections, and to understand his ways, it leads to devotedness; we yield

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