SUBJECT:-The Two Spirits.

"Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."-1 John iv. 4.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Ninety-seventh.

I. THERE ARE TWO MIGHTY SPIRITS AT WORK AMONGST MANKIND. The truth of this is clear from the general belief of humanity, the conflicting phenomena in the moral world, the experience of the good, and the unequivocal testimony of the Bible. There is some correspondence between their operation. First: Both act uncoercively. There is no invasion of the principles of responsibility in either case. Secondly: Both act universally. The one is the "prince of the power of the air;" the other is in all hearts. Thirdly: Both act perseveringly. The one is like "the roaring lion, going about," &c.; the other ever striving with men. Fourthly: Both act productively. Both "produce fruits in their subjects." (Gal. v. 19-23.) Fifthly: Both act resistibly. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." "Ye do always resist the Spirit of God."

II. THAT WHILST THESE SPIRITS ARE BOTH UNIVERSAL IN THEIR INFLUENCE, THE SPECIAL SPHERE OF THE ONE IS THE "WORLD," AND THE OTHER THE "CHURCH." First: The Church cherishes the Spirit, and resists the devil. Secondly: The world cherishes the devil, and resists the Spirit. When either comes into the province of the other, it is in opposition to the wishes of the subjects.

III. THAT THE SPIRIT WHOSE SPECIAL SPHERE IS THE CHURCH, IS INFINITELY GREATER THAN THE SPIRIT WHOSE SPECIAL SPHERE IS THE WORLD. "Greater is He that is in you," &c. First: The one that is in the Church is absolutely independent; the one that works in the world is not so. The Holy Spirit can do whatsoever He please; Satan cannot

move without His permission. The devil cannot breathe or work a faculty without the help of the Divine Spirit ;instance Job. Secondly: The one that is in the Church sways His influence by absolute right, the other by usurpation. The Spirit of God has a right to rule the soul; Satan has not. Thirdly: The one that is in the Church works to save, the other to destroy. Any power can destroy ;-an insect, a breath of wind, may destroy a nation, but no power but that of God can restore the life of a blade of grass. Fourthly: The one that is in the Church acts through truth, the other through error. The first stone of Satan's empire-the foundation-stonewas a lie. What did he say to our first parents ?—what does he say to the world now? Is it truth? But the Spirit works by truth-regenerates, sanctifies, comforts, by truth, and truth alone. He is the Spirit of truth. Which is the greater, Truth or Error? Truth is eternal, error is not; truth is a necessity, error is a contingency; truth is mighty, error is weak. A lie has no power, only as it wears the garb of truth.

Conclusion.-First: The human soul is an object of stupendous interest. These two spirits are working for it. Secondly: The philosophy of human commotions is explained. Two opposite spirits are working in the heart of the world. Thirdly The ultimate triumph of goodness is certain. "Greater."

SUBJECT:-The Moral and the Positive in the Duties

of Life.

"Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together."-Deut. xxii. 11.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred- and Ninety-eighth.

On this passage I remark—

I. THAT IT EXHIBITS A 66

99 POSITIVE DUTY.

Positive, I

mean, in contradistinction to what is moral or spiritual.

Human duties have been divided by Theologians into two classes. Some are what they call moral, and some are what they call positive. By the former class are meant those which naturally and necessarily flow from the relations which exist between man and his Maker, and between man and man-righteousness, truth, equity, purity, and the like. These things are not right because God commands them, but God commands them because they are right. They have the same foundation as the Divine character-moral necessity. It is impossible, therefore, that they can be altered. They are of everlasting obligation.

But it is otherwise with positive duties; they do not naturally and necessarily flow from the relations which I sustain to God, eternity, and the universe. They depend for their authority upon the revealed will of God. Before they are expressly commanded, we are under no obligation to observe them; but when the command has gone forthwhen the thing is appointed and fixed-then, because God has spoken and ordained it, it becomes a matter of obligation, grounded on the will of God. But these are things which God may alter at any time: they may be binding in one age, and not so in another; they may be binding in one part of the universe, and not in another. Their existence may be temporary and local.

Of this class are the Sabbath, Circumcision, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, &c. Thus, too, with the precept of the text: it expresses a positive duty. The ground of this ordinance is to be sought for not in the nature of things, but in the will of God. We find, from the context, that the Jew was not to sow his vineyard with divers seeds; that he was not to plow his field with an ox and an ass together. And in the text, we are told that he was not to wear a linseywoolsey garment. After these things were prohibited, it would have been wrong in him to have done them; but before they were prohibited by positive enactment, there would have been no harm in his doing any or all of them;

simply because they were wholly dependent for their authority upon the known appointment of God.

I remark

II. THAT, AS THE INCULCATION OF A POSITIVE DUTY, THE PRECEPT OF THE TEXT WAS NOT SO BINDING UPON THE JEWS AS THOSE DUTIES WHICH WERE WHOLLY MORAL. We are not,

indeed, at liberty to exalt one command of God at the expense of another. There is an important sense in which we may say that all God's commands are infinitely binding upon us. We must not capriciously, or at pleasure, set aside any of the arrangements of the Almighty; yet, taking the whole circle of human duties, there are some of lesser, and some of higher, obligation. Our Lord clearly recognised this truth in His controversy with the Pharisees on the Sabbath question. (See Mark ii. 23-28.) Does not our Lord clearly teach that, where a man is placed in circumstances that he cannot observe both the ritual and the spiritual, and yet must observe one; the former must give place to the latter, the greater to the lesser, the moral must be preferred to the positive? So in regard to the injunction of the text. It is supposable that circumstances might arise where this precept might break down beneath the weight of moral duty. A Jew might be reduced to the alternative either of wearing no garment at all, or of wearing one woven of woollen and linen together. The preservation of health is a moral duty, and therefore more important than the observance of a ritual precept about the kind of coat a man should wear. This therefore, in the circumstances, would be sufficient to justify the Jew in putting on the garment of divers sorts, and so breaking the law.

I remark―

III. THAT WE, WHO LIVE UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION,

ARE NOT BOUND TO OBSERVE THIS PRECEPT AT ALL.

With a

multitude of other positive precepts, this has been abrogated.

We are not under law, but under grace. Christianity is not without positive institutions; but these are few in number, and of the most simple kind :—the Lord's Day, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. The simplicity of these institutions strikingly contrasts with the cumbrous and complicated system of Judaism. We are privileged to live under a far more free and spiritual dispensation than the Levitical. "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." Neither sowing your fields with wheat and rye together, nor plowing with horses and oxen together, nor wearing a garment of wool or of linen, or of divers sorts, availeth anything, but a new

creature.

I remark, however

IV. THAT WHILE WE ARE UNDER NO MANNER OF OBLIGATION TO OBSERVE THIS PRECEPT IN ITS LITERAL MEANING, STILL THE MORAL PRINCIPLE WHICH UNDERLIES THAT MEANING, AND WHICH IT WAS INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE, IS AS BINDING NOW AS EVER;—AS BINDING UPON US AS IT WAS UPON THE JEWSs. Every positive institution under the Levitical economy had a moral meaning. Many of these institutions seem arbitrary and capricious, but there is not one which did not adumbrate some great spiritual truth. The institution of the Sabbath-the setting apart of one day in seven for physical rest, and spiritual thought and services -taught the great truth, that man has wants which the riches of the whole material universe cannot supply. The sacrifices which bled on Jewish altars severally set forth the great principle, that "without shedding of blood, there is no remission" of sin. The rich and gorgeous garments of the Jewish high priest, sparkling with jewels and gold, were most significant. Those garments presented to the Israelites a beautiful representation of the great spiritual truths which, in more direct, because real and substantial, exhibition, are set before us in the office of our great High Priest―Jesus Christ.

Vol. V.

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