can death, whose chains he burst at his resurrection? Fears then there can be none, except from human weakness, to the faithful followers of Jesus. Nor can there be doubts, or lasting sorrow. What doubts can there be to that man, who hath God's word pledged for his salvation, and who has the promise of the Holy Spirit to teach him every necessary truth. As to sorrow, are we not expressly told that all things work together for good to them that love God? What room then to such blessed persons can there be for any lasting sorrow? Even that most incurable of earthly griefs, the grief for the loss of those who are gone before us, even of that St Paul speaks in these words: "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. iv. 13-18.)

The sum of the whole is this: though the nature of God must needs be mysterious to our understandings, there is no mystery in the benefits we receive from him, nor any darkness in the duty we owe him. Without comprehending how the three persons of the Godhead are united in one

eternal God, we may glorify each for his excellent greatness and goodness to man. We may glorify the Father, the original fountain of all things, who sent his only Son to work out our salvation. We may glorify the Son, who undertook and has accomplished that salvation. We may glorify the Holy Ghost, who is graciously present with the faithful in Christ, to write his words in their hearts, to comfort and succour them, and to lead them in the steps of their Redeemer to the gates of heaven which he has opened. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, were not revealed to us that we might be more knowing than the heathens. We were told of the Father, that we might obey the Father: we were told of the Son, that we might be delivered from our sins by the Son: we were told of the Holy Ghost, that we might welcome him into our hearts, and throw them open to receive him. to have heard of the Father, if we choose to be cast out for ever from his presence? what, to have heard of the Son, if we reject the atonement of his blood? what, to have been brought up in the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, if we despise his warnings, drive him from our hearts by our impurities, and remain, like Gideon's fleece, dry in the midst of so much moisture, unregenerate and unsanctified amid the largest offers of the freest and most over

What will it avail us

flowing sanctification? Do not deceive yourselves so fatally, my brethren: do not repeat the error of the Jews. Do not fancy that knowing is doing, that right notions make a saving faith. True faith and true love, the trust in God and the love of God,―a trust shewn by resignation to his will, a love proved by keeping his commandments,-these are the only things to rely on. Cling to them, and they will bear you through the world to heaven, where all mysteries will be cleared up, and all difficulties will be done away: for we shall be let into the presence of God, and shall see him as he is. And what is better, if possible, even than seeing and knowing God, we shall be ever growing more and more like him.

377

SERMON XXII.

THE FOOLISH MOCKERS.

PROVERBS Xiv. 9.

Fools make a mock at sin.

"BLESSED is the man, (says David at the beginning of the Psalms,) who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful." These words, it is plain, are meant to describe the course and progress of a wicked life, going on from bad to worse, until it arrives in the end at the most hardened and reckless impiety. Therefore to sit in the seat of the scornful must be a very dreadful state; inasmuch as it amounts, in the language of the Psalmist, to fixing oneself resolutely and boastfully in evil. In like manner the prophet Jeremiah, when speaking of certain per

in

sons from whose company and conversation he kept aloof, makes use of nearly the same expression: "I sat not in the assembly of the mockers." (xv. 17.) Now who are these scornful persons, these mockers, whom holy men of old were so careful to shun? They are the very persons of whom Solomon is speaking in the text, the fools, as he calls them, who make a mock at sin. If you bear in mind what sin is, that it is an open rebellion against the God of heaven, that it is a defiance of Him who is Almighty, you may know what you ought to think of persons who are daring enough to make a mock at it. To make a mock, is to speak lightly and slightingly of a thing, or, as we should say common English, to make a jest of it. But what must be the state of a man's mind, when he can make a jest of offending God? Can he be in his senses? He has lost the most precious of all senses, the sense of right and wrong. Therefore the Bible, which takes no account of any wisdom, except that which goes along with righteousness in this world, and leads to blessedness in the next, calls all such persons fools: "Fools make a mock at sin." Angels, we have reason to believe, mourn for sin, and weep, if they can weep, over the state of sinners. How foolish then must that man be, who can laugh at what angels weep at! A laugher at a funeral would be a wise man person.

to such a