that all godly motions in our hearts come from His Holy Spirit, and that He is ever ready to strengthen and comfort us. Indeed it is more dangerous to sin under the new law than under the old; much is given us, and much will be required. It is worse to bring ourselves under the law by disobedience now, than it was to disobey it when men had not the higher light; for if then every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation. The works of the flesh are manifesto, says the Apostle in the verse which follows our text, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But if we are led by the Spirit, that is, if we really do what the Spirit of God moves us to do, we shall do none of these things, and so shall not bring ourselves under the law, and shall look not to the fear of punishment, but to the glorious hope set before us. n Heb. ii. 2, 3. • Gal. v. 19-21. The law promised, he that doeth these things shall live in them, but the Lord promises, If a man love Me he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him, and again, because I live ye shall live also1. Such are His promises of present union with Him, and of future glory, that we can hardly believe they belong to such persons as we find ourselves to be. But this is indeed the truth as it is in Jesuss. The Eternal Truth of God, His Everlasting Word, not only manifested to our minds, but actually communicated to us, and made the principle of our new life, in Jesus, (the name of His incarnation). This most merciful and yet most awful dispensation at once places us above the ceremonial law, but with respect to the moral law it gives us no liberty except the best and purest liberty, a liberty, if one may venture so to speak, like that of God, Whose Being is the only law to His working, and Who yet can no more do evil than He can cease to be. This liberty we cannot have except by yielding our members to Him as instruments of righteousness, nay we are so P Lev. xviii. 5. Rom. x. 5. r John xiv. 19. ¶ John xiv. 23. S Eph. iv. 21. far exercising our liberty, and strengthening it towards its perfection, whenever we impose the law of Christ upon our own unruly affections and appetites. By doing truth alone it is that we can continue in Him Who is the Truth. The working of His Spirit is unseen, but we know what kind of works those are to which He moves us, and how we must act in order to be led by Him. We cannot do the things that we would, that is, all that we are inclined to do, because we have contrary inclinations, some from the flesh and some from the Spirit. The works of the Spirit agree with those of the law, and go beyond them in all matters of holiness. (For such is the meaning of those words in the Epistle for this day, as is evident to any one reading the original. The Apostle never meant to say that Christians were obliged to take the worse alternative, but on the contrary, that as they would hold their ground for Heaven they must take the better.) True it is we do fail, and our nature inclines us so to do, but * The authorized version of Gal. v. 17. must be taken in this sense if it is to agree with the context. The rendering that ye may not do whatever ye may wish has been suggested, which is closer to the Greek, and to the same purpose. it is not because grace were not sufficient for us, if we duly sought it. The Gospel gives no manner of licence or excuse for doing wrong, in any way or in any degree; it takes not away one jot or one tittle from the law of holiness. But so far as we may have already given ourselves up to Him, so far we have the law not over but within us. But above all things let us beware of thinking that we have any kind of liberty of acting otherwise than according to His law, and rather strive by daily dwelling upon, and endeavouring to imitate the actions, in which He has set forth to us the perfect law of liberty, to see more of His will, and to have such a communion with Him through His Spirit, that we may both live in Him ourselves, and that His life may be manifested in us. If it shames us to think and speak of this, there is but one remedy; Christ is the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. We must amend, we must be led by His Spirit, or we are none of His. SERMON XV. PREACHED AT BRADFIELD ON THE TENTH SUNDAY 1 COR. xii. 11. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. THE Epistle for this day relates to those wonderful gifts which the Holy Spirit conferred upon Believers at the first preaching of the Gospel. The persons to whom it was written had been followers of "dumb idols," and the Apostle feared that they might be led away from the truth by some one pretending to have the Spirit of God. He therefore did what a commander would do in war, to enable his soldiers to know friends from enemies. He gave them a watch-word-the truth that Jesus is the Lord-by which to discern who spoke by the Holy Spirit, and who by a false spirit. JESUS, you know, is the name, which belongs to our Lord as Man, and the enemy a 1 Cor. xii. 2. b 1 Cor. xii. 3. |