SERMON II. GAL. y. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you. WHATEVER may be the precise and appropriate meaning of these words as used by St. Paul in this place, it will not be denied me, that, in whatever way taken, they convey a most marked and severe censure upon the persons of whom they were spoken. Indeed if any doubt could subject, it would be taken remain upon the away by only referring to the paragraph almost immediately preceding. "you," says the apostle, "He that troubleth "shall bear his judg ment, whosoever he be," which is a denunciation of the most severe nature, whether the word there employed be taken to relate to a condemnation, or punishment in this world, or to the judgment of that which is to come. It cannot be disputed therefore that the apostle in this case reprobated and condemned, in almost as strong terms as can be devised, the persons whom he found occasioning and exciting divisions in the churches of Galatia. We have here then, upon the first view of the thing, the deliberate sentence of a teacher confessedly inspired by the Holy Ghost, declaring, in that particular instance at least, the guilt that attaches to schism, and that it is a sin of no common magnitude. If we find moreover, as we certainly shall upon due examination, that it is not only in this place, but also in the rest, I believe I may say in all, of his epistles that St. Paul holds the same language: if we find, further, that it is the language not of St. Paul only but of every other individual among the apostles, who has left us any memorial of his sentiments in writing: we shall be led to wonder where it is that men have discovered the authority upon which they justify, or recommend the holding of a variety of opinions in the church; or from whence it is that they have conceived that such a diversity, whether of discipline or of doctrine, was acceptable to God. To hear the arguments which are adduced by some of the advocates of non-con⭑ formity, one might be led to suppose that, when our Lord spoke of his bringing division upon the earth, he intended that it should be taken, not as an accidental circumstance arising out of the infirmity and wickedness of man, not as, what it is in reality, an obstacle, and a great one to the propagation of the gospel; but as if it had been a natural, and an approved consequence of his labours, one of the means. originally devised by God for the furtherance and advancement of his glory. We have even been told to look at the infinite modifications of matter, and to observe how surprisingly they differ from each other; and we have been asked, whether God must not have intended that there should be the same variety in the moral as in the physical world. An argu ment this which, if pursued to the utmost, would prove that because the earth is subject to storms and to tempests, so the human mind ought to be the sport of passion; which would make a change of temper, as natural and as proper, as the change of seasons: and which would undoubtedly require a heaven of a very different sort from that which is in reality set. before us. These are among the fancies in which men choose to indulge rather than look into the source of all wisdom. If they would only consult the scriptures, what, I repeat it, would they see in them? What, but every word and every act directed to bring us to that uniformity of thinking, which, according to this mode of arguing, is considered as foreign to our nature? What indeed is the end of that gospel, to which we are called, and of the discipline to which it has subjected us in this world, but that of "casting down imaginations "and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing "into captivity every thought to the obedience "of Christ*?" It is certain, I say, that the way held out to us in the scriptures as the only one proper to be pursued by us, is that of entire obedience; of perfect conformity to the will of God and this to be accomplished by subduing our passions, and measuring our actions by one fixed standard: certainly therefore not by every man's setting up his own private opinion as the rule of his conduct, or hastily departing from what he sees to have been established. Instead of encouraging in ourselves a prejudice against what we find to have been the practice of those who have gone before us, we are on the contrary directed rather to presume that what we find established is right, and to be followed. We are to "stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths; "where is the good way, and walk therein, "and we shall then find rest for our soulst." Again if we look to the end of our labours, to "the recompence of the reward," which is appointed for the just, the same conclusion will present itself to our minds. In that blessed state where the tears shall be wiped from all eyes, "where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor cryingt;" our happiness, as far as it is disclosed to us, will not consist in any variety of pursuit; still less in any indulgence of each man's particular fancy; in any refinements of our own, in any "doubtful dispu "tations';" but in the enjoyment and contemplation of the one Supreme Being, in adoration that will be as uniform, as it will be intense. What I mean to infer from this is, that the disposition, which is principally, and indeed, I may say, wholly required in a Christian, is that of being humble, teachable, and unpretending; The following quotation is hacknied, but yet so remarkable and so applicable, that I cannot but remind the reader, what class of beings it is that our Milton represents as amusing themselves in another world with abstract speculations. Others apart sat on a hill retir'd In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high PAR. LOST, B. 11. And Milton was a republican and a Calvinist ! |