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legislate should be careful, in the first place, not to lay on too many impositions; and secondly, not to introduce any unnecessary restrictions. The utmost that human wisdom can achieve must be imperfect; under the best system of government, there must remain many cases of poverty and distress; but in the kingdom of Jesus Christ there exists an infinite plenty of all the provisions that can be desired for all the wants of the soul. None are neglected here: the poorest may be enriched beyond the most splendid opulence of this world, even with "the unsearchable riches of Christ;" as the apostles, "though poor, could make many rich,-though they had nothing, they possessed all things." For in Jesus Christ "all fulness" dwells, for the supply of spiritual destitution. "Fulness" of knowledge: knowledge is the great distinction of the mind, and here is all spiritual knowledge. Christ is himself the wisdom of God; to know HIM is to attain at once the highest knowledge; it is to have the Spirit which "searchęth all things, even the deep things of God," and ultimately to “know even as we are known." "Fulness" of holiness: holiness is the proper riches and beauty of the soul; and the subjects of Christ are created anew in holiness after His image. "Fulness" of consolation: the greatest comforts that ever visited the troubled heart of man are those which flow from Christ as their fountain; it is He who has brought to light consolations entirely new, such as had never before entered into the thoughts of men; and well might he say, "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in ME.” Fulness," once more, as it respects the inheritance in reserve ;-" an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away;" of which the saints have at certain seasons a present sense and foretaste, though the light of eternity is required to display its real extent, to display the accessible fulness of the present Saviour. These are durable treasures: they can never be taken away from us,-they form part of ourselves,they are carried about with us where we go; no moth corrupts, no thief invades. There can exist no distinction here between the rich and the poor; no room for the frown of pride, or luxurious excess on the one side, while we behold despised poverty and pining want on the other: all is equality and unity, the consequence of unlimited abundance,abundance commensurate with all the demands of a perishing universe. 4. A tendency to improvement in its social institutions is a fourth benefit which ought to accompany every well-ordered government. The best of those institutions are such as will be at once permanent and progressive, by their intrinsic wisdom and excellence, by their adaptation to all the varying circumstances of the nation,-by their power of providing for unseen and possible emergencies: they will gradually rise from security to convenience, and then exalt convenience into ornament-into just refinement and diffused illumination: such has been the aim of the greatest legislators. Under the scorching climate of despotism all the fruits of the mind are withered; a dull monotony prevails in the moral scene; the powers of men, unable to expand, attain only a dwarfish growth: while in a free state, where liberty of thought is allowed to all, the faculties and virtues have room VOL. III.-F f

for exercise, they flourish as in a climate congenial with their nature; and such, on the whole, is eminently the condition of this favoured and distinguished country.

But the difference between the most moral and the most flagitious of natural characters is less than the difference that subsists between the subjects of Jesus Christ and the children of this world; because the latter is the difference between the spiritually dead and living. "The wisdom of God" is discovered to those only who believe in Jesus Christ; all others sit in darkness: for, "after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." We see this verified in all the history of nations. Without pretending to determine how far human reason may proceed alone, it may be safely affirmed that the least instructed portion of every country in which Christianity is professed possess far juster views of the leading truths of religion,— such as the character of God, the nature of sin, the obligation of virtue, the eternal world,-than ever were entertained by the most inquiring pagans. The great abstractions of the gospel were never touched by man, they remained shut up in the bosom of Deity; and there they must have remained for ever, had not He disclosed them by Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. They surpass the natural mind in its widest excursions, its profoundest researches, its sublimest elevations. Yet these are the vital, essential principles of the soul,—these are the germs of all excellence and happiness, these, wherever they are known, are found to have a purifying and an exalting influence upon mankind, these effectually tend to moralize and beautify society. The gospel empire possesses in itself interminable energies, and tendencies to benefit its subjects. No other reason can be assigned why our country and Europe should differ so greatly from the ancient nations, and should so far excel the most cultivated among them, regarded in a moral estimate; no other reason than this, that the light of Jesus Christ has shone upon us like a finer Sun-the "Sun of Righteousness." All those elysian images of prophecy, which paint with so much beauty the latter days of the world, are nothing, in their substantial fulfilment, but the impress of Jesus Christ on the minds and manners of mankind, the image of Christianity imbodied in society, “the earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord," and righteousness dwelling in the new-created universe.

5. The fifth and last requisite of a well-constituted government is stability: this is the crown of all its other advantages. Nothing can be wanting to such a reign but that it should last; and this is what the text emphatically expresses," Thy throne shall be established for ever" as the Psalmist says of the Messiah, "He shall reign as long as the sun and moon endure." In this the kingdom of David was an emblem, however faint, of that which would be erected by Jesus Christ; wonderfully preserved as was the throne of Judah, while the greatest monarchies were marked by perpetual vicissitudes: the kings of Israel were ever changing in their line, while the descendants of David maintained a direct succession. No Roman emperor, with the

exception of Vespasian, was followed by his proper successor during a hundred and fifty years from the time of Julius Cæsar: they passed and chased one another like shadows. Here, meanwhile, "in the house of Judah," was a preternatural stability, destined as an image (though an imperfect image) of the fixed, indestructible empire of Jesus Christ. His throne has never been shaken for a moment; He has appeared without a rival in the field. Who has ever dared to question His pretensions? who has dared to challenge a comparison with Him in prophecies, in miracles, in virtues, in doctrines? Not a doubt has been entertained among competent judges of His being the true Messiah: all the servants of God have been ready, in reference to His dominion, to adopt the well-known exclamation of an excellent man, "Esto perpetua! Of His kingdom let there be no end. We may truly say, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the world stand up, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and his Messiah; but He shall break their bonds asunder, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." There has appeared on earth no other universal interest than this; none which has bound all hearts together as the heart of one man. In minor points we may follow a thousand different paths; but when the question is, whether JESUS CHRIST shall reign, whether the kingdom of JESUS CHRIST shall be extended,we are ready to forget all our distinctions, we are all united,-we are all one man. Not that the stability of His kingdom depends merely on human exertions: God has staked his character and all his perfections upon its establishment; He has pledged his word and oath for its success :-"The jealousy of the Lord of Hosts will do this, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

Nothing but the extension of this empire is necessary to change the wilderness into a paradise, and exalt the condition of earth into a resemblance of heaven. And we have reason to hope the destined period is not remote: our children's children may live to witness the cessation of wars under the sceptre of the Prince of Peace; to witness the expectation of eternity and heaven diffused among all the partakers of our nature. Lend your helping hand to the promotion of such an object. Convert base riches, "the mammon of unrighteousness," into the means of imparting spiritual treasure, the instrument of conveying "an exceeding and eternal weight of glory," into a link, an important link in the chain that connects earth with heaven. You are not called out to endure the burden and heat of the day; you are permitted, while sitting under your vine and fig-tree, to assist, in a way at once easy and effectual, the diffusion of the privileges and immunities of this heavenly kingdom over the whole world; the recovery of a vast neglected portion of our race to the happy condition of those who are the subjects of Jesus Christ.

* The last words of Paul Sarpi, expressive of his wish for the immortal glory of his country, to whose cause he died a martyr.

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XV.

THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE.*

2 Cor. vi. 13.-Now for a recompense in the same (I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged.

[PREACHED FOR THE BAPTIST MISSION, AT BROADMEAD, Bristol, august 6, 1824.]

THE Corinthian church was early infested by false teachers, who opposed themselves to the apostle Paul, and, forming their own sects and factions, endeavoured to substitute their corruptions of the faith for his pure and Divine doctrine. To the cure of this disease he had addressed himself in a former, and he pursued the same design in this epistle. In doing this, he found himself compelled, though the humblest of men, to remind the Corinthians of the extraordinary evidences he had given of the most devoted zeal in the cause of Christ, while he adverted to his manifold sacrifices and exertions. In the context he speaks in the affectionate language of a parent appealing to his children: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open to you, our heart is enlarged: ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same (I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged." Endeavour (as if he said) to meet me upon the same ground of affectionate attachment on which I desire to embrace you in Christ. In discoursing on these words, I propose, for our mutual advantage, first, to illustrate in what this enlargement consists, and, secondly, to enforce it.

I. With respect to the first point,-in what the enlargement mentioned in the text consists,-let it be remarked, first, that it is not to be understood as consisting in expansion of intellect, in that kind of mental enlargement which arises from the discoveries of science and philosophy: for this, however ornamental, or however useful it may be, is by no means necessarily connected with a Divine influence on the heart. Nothing can be more familiar to our knowledge or observation than the melancholy instances of those in whose character extreme deficiencies and blemishes of a moral kind form a striking contrast to brilliancy of intellect. It is sufficient, in illustration, to remind you of the examples which have been so abundantly furnished by a neighbouring kingdom. Probably, there may exist some remote tendency in intellectual enlargement to expand the heart in benevolent sensibility; but the connexion is not so close, nor the effect so certain, as to justify any great dependence; and those who infer from the improvement of reason a proportionate advancement in virtue will find their expectation too often frustrated.

There are others who flatter themselves that they possess superior

* Printed from the notes of the Rev. Thomas Grinfield.

enlargement of soul to most around them, because they entertain an equal indifference to all the vanities of human opinion in religious subjects, and feel no regard for any sect or creed. This would, no doubt, be a very cheap and easy doctrine to embrace: by those who are indifferent, concessions are easily made to almost any extent; and there can be no great liberality in sacrificing truth where no real attachment to truth is felt. In the apostle Paul we find the reverse of such a character: exactly in proportion as he became attached and devoted to "the truth as it is in Jesus," he exhibited the increase of his real benevolence and self-denying exertions. Genuine enlargement of charity consists in seeking the salvation of men,-not in complimenting them with a pretended candour. Nothing can be really more cruel, however varnished with a gloss of liberality, than the attempt to explain away the most clear and awful sanctions of Divine truth, when we are expressly assured, "He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned!" True spiritual wisdom is shown, not in such a promiscuous confusion of all parts of truth, but in proportioning our regard for every part to its own importance and magnitude.

On the positive side of the subject: the Christian enlargement recommended consists in a real benevolence to the whole church of Christ, as opposed to any selfish views of our own salvation, or of our own church, as exclusively concerned. The nearer we approximate to universal love, the higher we ascend in the scale of Christian excellence. There are some, though we would hope the number is small, who live solely to themselves; who are so perfectly absorbed in selfishness as to neglect all around them; who regard whatever does not conduce to their own immediate gain or pleasure as so much loss: -the proper sentiment we should entertain towards the spirit these exemplify is that of supreme contempt.

Others limit their benevolence to the circle of their own family, or of their acquaintance; these rise above the former, in proportion as they possess more of the enlargement we would illustrate; they mingle their affections with others, and identify their happiness with that of those who are most nearly connected with themselves.

Others advance far beyond this: they extend their benevolent interest over a much wider circle; they feel for every case of distress, and rejoice in every opportunity of benefit that falls within their view. Their emotions are of the same kind with the former, but, taking an ampler range, they proportionably raise the moral character.

But suppose the whole nation to be embraced by an individual; suppose him, forgetful of all merely personal or private interests, to devote himself entirely to the public benefit of his country: he holds the scales of justice, he allays discord, alleviates the wretchedness of want, exposes his very life in the service of the state; and in every respect acts under the impression of his forming only a part of the whole. Here is a far higher order of character; and the reason is, that it has more of the true enlargement recommended by the apostle. And this is the utmost extent of human benevolence, apart from the