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"Lovest thou me ?" said Christ to Peter.

-feed my sheep."

"Feed my lambs

2. Love to the brethren, raised to sympathy by a recollection of their own circumstances, binds recovered Christians to strengthen their brethren. This is the best way in which we can testify our regard to them. What would we think of a person who had nearly lost his life by falling over a precipice, and yet should neglect to warn others of the danger? or of one who had been cured of a dangerous disease, and refused to communicate the remedy to those who were afflicted in the same manner in which he had been?

3. A recollection of the dishonour which they did to Christ, and the injury which they inflicted on their brethren, will excite them to make reparation, so far as it may be in their power. The fall of Peter must have had a great effect in staggering his brethren, considering the boldness which he had all along discovered in confessing Christ: they must have felt as soldiers "when a standard-bearer fainteth." He considered it, therefore, to be his duty, by every means in his power, to re-establish and comfort their minds. "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.” "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” *

4. The experience which they have acquired is a gift which they are bound to lay out for the public good. "As every man," says Peter, "hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Here all the qualifications already noticed, by which the recovered believer is peculiarly fitted for the service of strengthening his brethren, might have been adduced to enforce the duty. He has not been humbled, merely to teach himself circumspection, or graciously lifted up, merely to increase his gratitude to his deliverer; his experience has

* 2 Peter, i. 10-15,

qualified him for the task of strengthening others, and lays him under strong obligations to the discharge of it, that they also may be " partakers of the benefit."

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From this subject we may learn, in the first place, that the Scripture doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is not inimical or unfriendly to holiness. You see, from the example of Peter, that the perseverance of the saints is consistent with their falling into sin, and consequently with exhortations and warnings on the part of God, and with caution and watchfulness on their part. Some represent this doctrine as calculated to make persons careless, and others scruple to preach it lest it should have this effect. Our Lord had no fears or scruples on this head; for he tells Peter, before he entered into temptation, that he had prayed for him, that his faith might not give up the ghost. Let us not attempt to be wiser and more prudent than our Lord. A state of grace does not secure against falling into sin, but it secures recovery from it, and this recovery is brought about in such a way as not only to strengthen the good principles implanted in the heart of the individual, but also to fit and dispose him to strengthen others. To imagine that the Christian who has fallen and been mercifully recovered, will be induced to fall again from the prospect of a similar interposition, is as preposterous as to suppose that a man who had, through carelessness, broken a limb, will expose himself to the same calamity, merely because he had experienced the skill and attention of the surgeon in healing it.

2. See again, my brethren, the wisdom of God in overruling the falls of believers for the best and holiest ends. "Out of the eater came forth meat, and sweetness out of the strong." Not only does grace superabound when sin abounds, but sin is shown, and seen, and felt, to be "exceeding sinful;" and one sin is made the means of preventing the commission of many sins. Among the many lessons which Peter's fall inculcates, this is not the least, that it is an evil thing and a bitter for a saint to depart from the Lord. Yet from its bitter, and in themselves noxious and poisonous ingredients,

divine grace can extract a balm, which shall impart health and vigour to multitudes. Who so successful and honoured in winning men to Christ, and in confirming the souls of the disciples, as the miraculously converted persecutor, and the twice-converted fisherman? We are apt to perplex our minds by curious enquiries as to the origin of moral evil, and the entrance of sin into the world; but while we may rest assured that nothing could enter into God's world without his knowledge and permission, would we not be more profitably employed in contemplating the wisdom which educes good not only from "seeming," but from real and great "evil ?"

3. Learn the evil of selfishness in religion. Say not with the first murderer, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Christ does not merely say to Peter, "When thou art converted-sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee," but "strengthen thy brethren." And let none of you think that because you occupy a private station in the church, you may be excused from this service, and devolve it on her public overseers. "None of us liveth to himself. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification."

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4. If, however, it be sinful for us to neglect this duty, how much greater must be the sin of throwing a stumblingblock before others! If it be our duty to "strengthen our brethren," what a grievous offence to weaken, shake, and overthrow them—and then, perhaps to rejoice over their fall! Through thy knowledge shall thy brother perish for whom Christ died ?" Wouldst thou destroy him whom Christ died to save ? "It is impossible but that offences must come; but wo to that man by whom the offence cometh! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Finally, let us learn a lesson of caution and circumspection. The eyes of the church and the world, Christian, are upon you. The eyes of Satan are upon you. And the eyes of God are upon you. See then that ye walk circumspectly. Be humble. Live near the Lord. Live by faith. O beware of what will dishonour God, bring discredit on your profession, wound your consciences, grieve your friends, and gratify your

enemies! "Ye beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life." "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

SERMON XVII. *

THE SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT.

ISA. xxviii. 5, 6.

IN THAT DAY SHALL THE LORD OF HOSTS BE FOR A SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT TO HIM THAT SITTETH IN JUDGMENT."

NEXT to the enactment of just and wholesome laws, the due administration of them is of the highest importance to a community. This has accordingly engaged the particular attention of every people who have attained to any considerable degree of civilisation. The most enlightened nations have separated the judicial from the legislative authority, rendered judges, in the discharge of their functions, independent of the supreme executive magistrate in the state, and adopted other precautions, with the view of keeping the channels by which justice is dispensed through all the departments of society pure and uncorrupted. Nor is the jealousy which they manifested on this head to be censured as excessive, By the wise and impartial administration of justice a people have been reconciled to the rule of a usurper, and tyranny itself has become tolerable; whereas the neglect or perversion of justice has made them unhappy and discontented under the best form of political govern

ment.

The salutary effects of righteous judgment are not confined to the securing of individual rights, the repressing of the bad, and the protecting of the good and peaceable. Under its fostering shade every useful art and every liberal science flourish; the honour of the laws being preserved unsullied, a cheerful obedience is yielded to their authority; morality is promoted by an exhibition of the connexion which subsists be

* Delivered at the opening of the Synod of Original Seceders, Edinburgh, September, 1829.

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