OBJECTION. "Doth not Matt. v. 10-12 contradict all this?— Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil things against you falsely, for my sake.' ANSWER. No: you must here distinguish, 1. Of men: ousness and good works. 2. Of righte 1. The men that we have to do with are, (1.) Ordinary natural men, corrupted by original sin; but yet not hardened to serpentine malignity, as some are. (2.) Or they are men that by sinning against nature and common light are forsaken and given up to malignant minds. 2. The good works which natural light and human interest can discern and commend, do differ from those which are merely evangelical, of supernatural revelation. (1.) Malignant persons, hardened in enmity, will scorn and persecute holiness itself, and even that good which reason justifies; and therefore are called "unreasonable, wicked men." (2 Thess. iii. 2.) Good works with these men make us odious, unless they are such as gratify their lusts. (2.) But there are natural men, not yet so hardened and forsaken, who are usually they that the gospel doth convert. And these have not yet so blinded nature, nor lost all sense of good and evil, but that they honour him that doeth good in all the twenty particulars which I have named, and think ill of those that do the contrary; though yet they relish not the Christian righteousness, and things of supernatural revelation, for want of faith. Let us briefly now apply it. USES. USE 1. This informs us what an honourable state Christianity and true godliness is; when God hath made us to be the lights of the world, to shine before men to the glory of his holiness, as the sun and stars do to the glory of his power. shall shine as stars (Dan. xii. 3; Matt. No wonder if in glory we in the firmament of our Father, if we do so here. xiii. 43; Phil. ii. 15.) This must not make us proud, but thankful; for our pride is our shame, and our humility is our glory. USE II. And what wonder if all the powers of darkness do bend their endeavours to obscure this sacred light? The prince of darkness is the enemy of the "Father of lights :" and this is the great war between Christ and Satan in the world :-Christ is "the Light of the world," and setteth-up ministerial lights for the world, and for his house; his work is to send them forth, to teach them, and defend them, and to send his Spirit to work in and by them, to bring men to the everlasting Light: and Satan's work is to stir-up all that he can against them, high and low, learned and unlearned; and to put Christ's lights, both ministers and people, under a bushel; and to make the world believe that they are their enemies and come to hurt them, that they may be hated as the scorn and offscouring of the world; and to keep-up ignorance in ministers themselves, that, the church's eyes being dark, the darkness may be great. But let us pray that God would "forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and turn their hearts;" and that he would " open our lips, that our mouths may show forth his praise ;" and, though his ministers and people have their faulty weaknesses, that he would be merciful to our infirmities, and grant that those things which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, may be brought to nought, and by the providence of his goodness may be dispersed; that we his servants, being hindered by no persecution, may give thanks to him in his holy church, and serve him in holiness and pureness of life, to his glory; through Jesus Christ." USE III. You may see hence how much those men are mistaken, who talk of the good works or lives of Christians, as that which must have no honour, lest it dishonour God; as if all the honour were taken from Christ which is given to good works, and the patient's health were the dishonour of the physician; when we are redeemed and purified to be "zealous of good works," and "created for them in Christ Jesus;" (as Titus ii. 14; Eph. ii. 10;) yea, and shall be judged according to our works. USE IV. This informeth you, that the good works or lives of Christians is a great means ordained by Christ for the convincing of sinners, and the glorifying of God in the world. Preaching doeth much, but it is not appointed to do all. The lives of preachers must also be a convincing light; and all true Christians, men and women, are called to preach to the world by their good works; and a holy, righteous, and sober life is the great ordinance of God, appointed for the saving of yourselves and others. O that the Lord would bring this close to all our hearts! Christians, if you abhor dumb teachers, because they starve and betray souls, take heed lest you condemn yourselves; you owe men the convincing helps of a holy, fruitful life, as well as the preacher owes them his ministry. Preach by well-doing, shine-out in good works; or else you are no lights of Christ, but betrayers of men's souls: you rob all about you of a great ordinance of God, a great means appointed by him for men's salvation. The world will judge of the scriptures by your lives, and of religion by your lives, and of Christ himself by your lives! If your lives are such as tend to persuade men, that Christians are but like other men, yea, that they are but self-conceited sinners, as carnal, sensual, uncharitable, proud, self-seeking, worldly, envious, as others, and so that Christianity is but such; this is a horrid blaspheming of Christ, how highly soever your tongues may speak of him, and how low soever your knees may bow to him. O that you knew how much of God's great work of salvation in the world is to be done by Christians' lives! Your lives must teach men to believe that there is a heaven to be won, and a hell to be escaped: your lives must help men to believe that Christ and his word are true: your lives must tell men what holiness is, and convince them of the need of regeneration, and that the Spirit of sanctification is no fancy, but the Witness of Jesus Christ in the world: your lives must tell men by repentance and obedience that sin is the greatest evil, and must show them the difference between the righteous and the wicked: yea, the holiness of God must be glorified by your lives: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the scripture, the church, and heaven itself, must be known much by our lives. And may not I say, then, with the apostle? 2 Peter iii. 11: "What manner of persons, then, ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness," when "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungod liness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world?" (Titus ii. 11, 12.) USE v. But, alas! what suitable and plentiful matter doth this offer us for our humiliation and lamentation on such a day as this! A flood of tears is not too much to lament the scandals of the Christian world. With what wounded hearts should we think of the state of the churches in Armenia, Syria, Egypt, Abassia, and all the oppressed Greeks, and all the poor deceived and oppressed Papists, and all the ignorant, carnal Protestants! O, how unlike are your lives to your Christian faith, and to the pattern left them by their Lord! Doth a worldly, proud, and fleshly, and contentious clergy glorify God? Doth an ignorant ministry glorify him, who understand not the message which they should deliver? Will the world turn Christians by seeing Christians seek the blood and ruin of each other, and hearing even preachers reproach each other, or seeing them silence or persecute each other? or by seeing the people run into many sects, and separate from one another, as unworthy of Christian communion? Will proud, ignorant, censorious, fleshly, worldly professors of religion ever draw the world to love religion? or will peevish, self-willed, impatient, discontented souls, that are still wrangling, crying, and repining, make men believe that their religion rejoiceth, blesseth, and satisfieth the soul, and maketh men far happier than all others in the world? Alas! what wonder that so small a part of the world are Christians, and so few converted to the love of holiness, when the great means is denied them by you, which God hath appointed for their conversion, and the world hath not one helper for a hundred or thousand that it should have? You cry out of those that put-out the church-lights under pretence of snuffing them, while yourselves are darkness or as a stinking snuff. O brethren and Christians all! I beseech you, let us now and often closely ask ourselves, "What do we more than an Antonine, a Seneca, or a Cicero, or a Socrates did, beyond opinions, words, and formalities?" What do you which is like to convert the world, to convince an infidel, or glorify God? Nay, do not some among us think that it is the height, or part, of their religion, to live so contrary to the world, as to be singular from others, even in lawful or indifferent things, and to do little or nothing which the world thinks well of? As if crossing and displeasing men needlessly were their winning conversation. O, when once we go as far beyond them in love, humility, meekness, patience, fruitfulness, mortification, self-denial, and heavenliness, as we do in opinions, profession, and self-esteem, then we shall win souls, and glorify God, and he will also glorify us! USE VI. And here we see the wonderful mercy of God to the world, who hath appointed them so much means for their conviction and salvation. So many Christians as there be in the world, so many practical preachers and helps to men's conversion are there appointed by God. And let the blame and shame lie on us, where it is due, and not on God, if yet the world remain in darkness. It is God's will that every Christian in the world should be as a star, to shine to sinners in their darkness; and, O, then how gloriously would the world be bespangled and enlightened! If you say, "Why then doth not God make Christians better?" that is a question which cannot be well answered without a larger opening of the methods of grace than we can now have leisure for, and therefore must be done in its proper season. USE VII. Those that honour God, he will honour; and therefore let us also give them that honour which is their due. The barren professors, who honour themselves by over-valuing their poor knowledge, gifts, and grace, and affecting too great a distance from their brethren, and censuring others as unworthy of their communion without proof, are not the men that honour God, and can lay claim to no great honour from men. But God hath among us a prudent, holy, humble, laborious, patient ministry, that glorify him by their works and patience; and he hath among us a meek and humble, a blameless, and a loving, and fruitful, sort of Christians, who imitate the purity, charity, and simplicity, yea, and concord, of the primitive church. These tell the world to their sight and experience, that religion is better than ignorance and carnality: these tell the world, that Christ and his holy word are true, while he doeth that in renewing and sanctifying souls which none else in the world can do. These show the world, that faith and holiness and selfdenial and the hopes of immortality are no deceits: these glorify God, and are the great benefactors of the world. I most solemnly profess, that, did I not know such a people in the world, who, notwithstanding their infirmities, do manifest a holy and heavenly disposition in their lives, I should want, myself, so great a help to my faith in Christ, and the promise of life eternal, that, I fear, without it my faith would fail. And had I never known a holier ministry and people than those that live but a common life, and excel Heathens in nothing but their belief or opinions and church-orders and formalities, I should find my faith assaulted with so great temptations, as, I doubt, I should not well withstand. No talk will persuade men that he is the best physician that healeth no more nor worse diseases than others do; nor would Christ be taken for the Saviour of the world, if he did not save men; and he saveth them not, if he make them not holier and better than other men. O, then, how much do we owe to Christ for sending his Spirit into his saints, and for exemplifying his holy word on holy souls, and for giving us as many visible proofs of his holiness, power, and truth, as there are holy Christians in the world! We must not flatter them, nor excuse their faults, nor puff them up; but because the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, we must accordingly love and honour them, and Christ in them: for Christ telleth us, that he is "glorified in them" here, (John xvii. 10,) and that what is done to them, his brethren, even the least, is taken as done to him; (Matt. xxv. 40;) and he will “be glorified and admired in them," when he cometh in his glory at the last; (2 Thess. i. 8-10 ;) and he will glorify their very works before all the world with a "Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." SERMON XXIII. BY THE REV. HENRY WILKINSON, SEN., D.D., SOMETIME CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND MARGARET PROFESSOR OF WHAT IS IT TO DO ALL WE DO IN THE NAME OF CHRIST? AND HOW MAY WE DO SO? And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.-Colossians iii. 17. : ،، THERE have been, and still are, many great and famous names in the world into which men have been baptized, according to which they have been called, and also walked in the world: Orouara avdpwrwv [ Names of men"]. (Rev. xi. 13.) "Men of great name," or men of renown." (Gen. vi. 4.) What a renowned name had the beast in the earth, that "the world wondered after the beast, and worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?" (Rev. xiii. 3, 4.) Pharaoh was a great name amongst the kings of Egypt, who were so called from their famous predecessors: so the kings of the Amalekites were called Agag, and of Tyre Hiram, and of Lycia Antiochus, of Pontus Mithridates, of the emperors of Rome Cæsars. And in the church, professors have affected to be called by the name of some eminent persons. (1 Cor. iii. 4, 5.) Some cried-up Paul, others Peter; and this was a growing evil in the church. (1 Cor. i. 12-14.) They ambitiously affected to be denominated from some eminent persons among them; as the Lutherans and Calvinists, and many others at this day, have been called and denominated from some great persons that have been famous in their generation. But here is a name in my text [that] is above all names in heaven and earth; and all Christians are called by this name, and call on this name. (Jer. xiv. 9; Amos ix. 12.) This name you must trust in, and boast in, beyond and above all names whatsoever. 'Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength and in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." (Isai. xlv. 24, 25.) See what a name is given to Christ, Isai. ix. 6, and bow to it: "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor ; and consider every letter of his name, and adore it. The apostle, according to his usual manner, in this epistle having spoken of the doctrine of the gospel, and how they received it, and the influence it had on them; (Col. i. 12, 13;) and concerning Christ, in whom they had redemption; (verses 14-19 ;) and of the excellency of his person, and of the riches of the glory of his grace, revealed in it; (verse 27;) then, chap. ii., he stirs them up to live such lives as becometh the gospel, and to beware of seducers. (Verses 16-19.) Then, chap. iii., he puts them in mind of several duties, throughout the chapter. He |