excuse yourself with the reflection that the fault of a vain, worldly, godless household, lies not in you-lastly, then, I will shape the question so that neither as a citizen of this kingdom, or a member of any family, you can escape it and be deceived. How is it with yourself, your own soul, the world of your own affections, the household of your own heart-for this is the great point for you to weigh after all: for though your whole family, your whole country, the whole earth be found godless, if you only, like Noah, are found faithful in your generation, their concentrated iniquity and their sweeping destruction will not for a moment affect you; you shall stand unharmed, the only saved one, though they all perish around you. Would then the Son of Man, if his Advent were to-morrow, find faith in you. First of all, would he find good works? for without them he will find no faith. Would he find the outer man walking in holiness? for without it he will never find the inner man renewed by grace. Here make the first enquiry. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen are you living like a man who is an heir of immortality, with an eye to these things hoped for and unseen, for eternity rather than for time? You call Christ your Lord and master: if you have faith in him you will be like him and obedient to his commands; are you then endeavouring to imitate his example in yourself and towards others too? I have not time now to turn you to every act of your outer life, but this day reminds me of one which I would propose as a specimen whereby to judge of all the rest. You are invited on the approaching solemnity of your Lord's nativity to draw near to his table with true repentance and lively faith to eat his body and to drink his blood spiritually; you have often been invited before, were you found there on other occasions, or are you purposing to attend there on this? If neither, you need not go on to any further enquiry-this first one is quite enough; it convicts you of manifest disobedience, both already committed, and what is worse, purposed to be committed again: go your way if it be so, but go with this sad certainty, that the Lord has neither yet found, or is finding now this moment that faith which he looks for in you, and should now be the time of his Advent to you, you must risk your standing before his judgment-seat without it. Oh! may he in mercy delay that day for your sake, that you may not be the subject of so perilous an appearance, with this act of disobedience to his command, this proof of your deadness to his dying love, so fresh upon his record against you. But you tell me it is through fear-fear that you are not good enough. Are you invited because you are good enough? Are you to tell the Lord in that ordinance that you are good enough? No; for it is that whereby the repentant sinner is to be made better. So say no more of this fear, for it is just as vain a plea as if the sick man should send away his physician and refuse his medicine, and give as a reason, that he was not well enough to take it. Neither say it is fear on any other ground; for then fear is only another name for sin yet loved, or for unbelief in the Lord's promise. Go offer this plea to God in your solitude: first, tell him you are sorry for your sins-which I presume you are, if you are not hardened utterly and you are longing for their forgiveness; then hear Jesus inviting, Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you:-answer him that you are afraid, and you tell him that you disbelieve him. Or you are eager to forsake your sins, but apprehensive of a relapse; hear then his word, My grace is sufficient for thee:-answer him after this, "I am afraid," and you tell him you distrust his spirit's sanctifying influence in that means of grace. So that very plea, however humble and self-abasing, and even amiable, it may sound to man, hath its root in unbelief. Persist in it and I must remind you of your peril-the Son of Man findeth not his faith in you. But you are one, perhaps, who are minded to come, at person regular in your attendance here on the Lord's day, a man of uprightness, honesty, kindness, charity-in a word, of good report: dare I to question, with all these good works to testify, but the Lord is finding faith in you? I do it not C suspiciously, my brethren, but yet as these things may be, and yet faith possibly may not be, I must venture on a few enquiries, to see if all this obedience cometh of faith indeed. Were you then at this holy ordinance the last time you were invited? Perhaps not: were you the time before, or the preceding? When, then, was the last occasion? Perhaps on the last Church Festival. Perhaps you attend, and have attended for years (for I know such custom is) three or four times, the same three or four as regularly as the days have returned. Is it so? Then forgive me, but I must tell you, that I suspect in such a fixed and measured attendance, there very likely may be no faith at all. Do not be indignant, but stay yet a moment whilst, as the question is of faith and not of works, I propose to you a test. You come here sabbath after sabbath to confess yourselves miserable offenders, and sue for pardon and the renewing of your hearts; and here month after month you are invited to a more solemn appeal for pardon in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and the promise is, that eating and drinking there in remembrance of Christ's dying love, your souls will be strengthened and renewed by that means of grace. And yet you only come on two or three especial days. You complain of a continual sickness, and yet only take the offered medicine three times a year; and that, not as the soul's state may require, not when you feel most consciousness of sin and the assaults of temptation strongest, but when the marked days of your last year's communications return. How comes this? Are you more penitent, or need more grace at Christmas, and Easter, and Whitsuntide, and Trinity Sunday, than any other time? Brethren, the subject would be ridiculous if it were not too solemn. There must be, I fear, very much of rote and formality in such devotion, that is guided by the calendar rather than by the heart. Oh! can it be love that is only kindled at these stated periods, and remains unmoved at other times, when the same table of the Lord is spread, and the same blessed emblems presented-memorials of his body broken and blood shed? or does it not give cause for suspicion, that you come there hoping to satisfy God rather than longing to be satisfied yourselves; that you look on it as a duty only, a something that you ought to do; or as a necessity, a something that must be done, rather than as a privilege and a joy which your own souls desire to partake in; that it is not love for the heavenly feast that detains you, but a fear of provoking God if you always stay away? Christ, in that holy ordinance, invites you as the heavenly physician-you will not say you do not need him as such continually; and yet what would you think of a sick man, if complaining of his illness and offered medicine, he should turn to consult his almanack to see if he took it the same time last year? I leave you to apply your own answer; but for myself again testify, that I fear the Son of Man does not find the faith he looks for, in these limited and calculated attendances. And so I would warn you,-it may be in your other apparently good works, they may come of form and custom, with a view only to man's approval, or perhaps a cautious dread of incurring God's wrath; they may be done through a spirit of bondage and not of adoption-through fear only, and not through love: and then, forasmuch as faith ever worketh by love and love is the fulfilling of the law, there being no love neither is there faith, neither such obedience as the Lord requires at your hands.-Enquire of yourselves, brethren, I entreat you, touching these matters, and search yourselves beyond the outer man; remembering God demands truth in the inward parts, that is, heart-service, and finds faith only in that. May his Holy Spirit assist you in this search, that you may not be deceived with a form of godliness, whilst denying the power; but that your outward obedience to God's laws may be the index of your inward affection to his holy will, that so the Son of Man when he cometh may, at the least, find faith in you. Printed by W. & J. HEXTALL, |