SERMON V.

PREACHED IN CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL, APRIL 6, 1840, FOR THE CENTRAL SCHOOL.

ACTS ii. 39.

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

It was thus that St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, offered to the enquiring Jews the covenant of baptism, with remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The promise was not only for themselves, but for their children too, and so no doubt it belongs not only to us, that once were far off, but now are made nigh by the blood of Christ, but to our children too. Accordingly we bring them, as we have been brought, to the Lord, and offer them to Him to be received into the same covenant, and to share the same blessings. And if we

rightly valued and used those blessings, we should know ourselves richer and happier in them than nobles and princes, we should rejoice more in a child as being made an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven, than if he were born heir to the richest inheritance on earth.

I will not speak now of the sad neglect with which too many of us treat their own eternal prospects. The occasion calls me rather to dwell upon those little ones, who have an interest in the kingdom of Heaven, having been born into it of water and the Spirit, and whom our Blessed Lord has bidden us take heed, lest we despise ©.

Now there is a great error into which we have fallen, and which tends very much to make us think less of those, whose Angels always behold the face of our heavenly Father. I say that we have fallen into it, for there are very few if any amongst us who do not err thus, even if they try to avoid it, for we cannot set ourselves right at once, in a thing which is worked into all our habits and feelings.

The error of which I speak, is thinking too lowly of the Christian life upon earth,

C

John iii. 5. Matt. xviii. 10. d Matt. xviii. 10.

We cannot think indeed too highly of that which God has prepared for those who love Him. Such things eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man. But he who has told us that it doth not yet appear what we shall be, has said also NOW are we the sons of Gode.

These words sound strange in most of our ears, and no wonder, for we do not live like the sons of God, and it is much if we shall be found among them at the last day.

The question is, whether we are to set such expressions down for mere strong words, meant to stir us up to holy feelings when we hear them, and to make us admire the grace of God in those great and holy men who spake them. Or are we rather to regard them as expressions of the plain truth about the kingdom of God, and about those with whom Christ has declared that all the Persons of the ever blessed Trinity would come and make Their abode. There can be no doubt which answer gives the more glory to God, therefore let Him be true, and every man a liar. Let us take all the glorious things that are spoken of His Saints on earth, to belong to that promise,

which is made to us, and to our children, though in so doing we most sadly condemn ourselves, for not being able to shew those blessings in our own life.

But remember that all these glories may be around you, and you may not see them. For a man who does not give his mind and will to heavenly things, can see no more of them, as their power appears in common life, than a blind man can of the colours that glow around him in the light of day.

First, then, let us consider the several states through which men have to pass, and in which Christians may enjoy the promised gifts of our Lord. It has already been observed that we are apt to think far too little of taking them for our best portion on earth, as though we should come to them in Heaven, whether we cared for them here or not. It will be well to remember also, that the promise is to us and to our children, and as it is not only to us when we depart this life, but to us NOW, so it is not only to our children when they shall grow up to be men, but now, while they are children. For the promise is not only of forgiveness, and of future glory, but of present grace. And if we forget this, we shall be apt to miss of the latter and greater blessing by

not using aright that which is now in our power.

After considering therefore the several states of men and of children in the kingdom of God, we shall proceed to notice briefly the means which may be provided in order that those whom God has placed under our care may pass well from the one of these states to the other, that they may be enabled so to use their years of childhood as to become well prepared for the life of Christian men upon earth, of heirs of glory waiting for their full redemption.

According to the order of the text, let us consider first, the state of Christians in general, as members of Christ's Church and kingdom.

And first, let us look at the great body of those who have been baptized into Christ, and have not so utterly forsaken Him as to deny the truth of His word, or to give up praying in private and attending the public service of the Church. Were any one to say of these in general, the glorious things that are spoken of the city of God in Holy Writ; to say to them, for instance, in the words of St. Peter, Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth