and those His servants who were its earliest preachers, from the charge of requiring things impossible, of holding up a picture of perfection and of happiness, which must ever be an unattainable dream. I have but explained the words of the Apostle, and though I may seem to have spoken of a state of things too fair to be ever reached by man, yet such is the state to which the inspired servant of God invites us, and into which God Himself, who knows what we can do, and what is too hard for us, has exhorted, has implored us to enter. It is the state, indeed, of the kingdom of God; and though we may refuse to enter into it, still we may be sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come unto us, that it is amongst us every hour, and that its doors are continually open, however much we may shut our eyes in wilful blindness, and deceive ourselves by saying that to go into them is impossible.

LALEHAM,

September 30th, 1827.

SERMON IV.

ROMANS VIII.

ROMANS, viii. 9.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you; but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.

AT the conclusion of what I said last Sunday, I endeavoured briefly to show how it was that true Christians were enabled by the Gospel to walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh. I said that certainly the state in which we were actually living, was one very different from that described by St. Paul; but that so in all probability was the state of Christians in general, even at the time when he wrote it, yet that he had still thought it right to describe the true and just effect of the Gospel means of grace, when fairly used, rather than the faint effect produced by them when they are scarcely used at all. That St. Paul did not suppose in point of fact that all men who had embraced the Gospel would really enter into the spirit of it, the words of the text sufficiently show: "Ye are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of

God dwelleth in you: but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." So again, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, he says, "I declare unto you the Gospel, which also you received, and in which you stand; and by which you are also saved, if you keep in memory the word which I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain." It seems, then, that he was fully aware of the possibility of their believing in vain; that is, of their not having the Spirit of Christ, and walking according to the Spirit. This must be kept in mind when we read that warm and rapturous language in which he concludes the eighth chapter, and in which he seems to judge of others by himself,—or rather to say that they must feel and act so and so,—to show how monstrous a thing it would be if they felt and acted otherwise. So in that famous passage which has been called the golden chain of God's mercy, where he says, that "those whom God foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed unto the image of His Son; and whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified;" and to which he adds directly, "What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who shall be against us?"—in this passage, so full of the most lively faith, and thankfulness, and joy, it were indeed most fatally to misinterpret it, if we were to suppose St. Paul to mean that this chain would of necessity always remain unbroken, and that all those who were called and once acquitted, would certainly enter at last into glory. But he does regard it as something so shocking that it should be otherwise, that he is willing to look upon it as impossible. And we should do better to regard it in this light, and

therefore to be careful not to let it happen in our own case, than to rest in any fond notions that God's word has pronounced it to be impossible, while our evil lives and low and selfish affections declare aloud that it is not only possible, but has actually befallen us.

The sum of the latter part of the eighth chapter is in short no other than this: that God's love to us in Christ must produce such an answering love of Him in our minds, that nothing will be strong enough to overpower it. In all things, he concludes, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us: and then at last he expresses his assurance that no dangers, or sufferings, or labours, how great soever, will ever be able to shake his deep-rooted love and devotion to God, which had been excited by the mercies displayed in his redemption. It is very true that where this love has once taken root in the heart, it is almost impossible to shake it; but our misfortune is, that with too many of us it has never taken root in us at all. And therefore that rejoicing and triumphant tone which finishes the chapter is to many of us altogether inapplicable: it speaks of a state of mind to which we are utterly strangers. Now, then, let us inquire why this is so? Why is it, that having received the glorious message of salvation, it seems to affect us so slightly? Why are so many of us now proposing to turn their backs in a few minutes on the table of the Lord, and thus declaring that they do not wish to be Christians in earnest, that they cannot make up their minds to count the cost, whether they have sufficient to build and finish their tower or no?

The first and chief cause is doubtless their unbelief; their unbelief at least in the Scripture sense of the term; although in another sense they may be said to

possess belief. But Christ's words are here exceedingly to be remembered: "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and it should obey you." If you had faith, the temptations which surround you would be removed and cast down, and should not be able to overpower you. We do not believe enough in our own badness, nor in God's goodness; and therefore we cannot feel towards Him as we should do, if we believed in each of these things aright. Why, when Christ was dining in the Pharisee's house, did the Pharisee who entertained Him sit at the table unmoved, and even neglect to show some of the ordinary courtesies of hospitality to his guest, while the woman who had come in, fell down at His feet, and washed them with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head? Because she believed that she herself was very unworthy, and that God was very merciful to her, and therefore she loved God much; while the Pharisee, on the contrary, did not believe either the one or the other, and therefore he loved God little. is all very easy to say the Creed, and to believe as a matter of history that "Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried;" but this is very different from what the Scripture calls faith; that is, a strong sense of our own faults and unworthiness, and of God's infinite holiness and mercy. Now it is very evident that too many persons, while they talk very much of God's mercy, seem to take it as a thing of course, and therefore as something which does not excite in them much gratitude. They say that God is merciful to the infirmities of His frail creatures; but instead of feeling that, because there is mercy with Him,

It