Page images
PDF
EPUB

brethren, the contemplation of so much hope, which, if persevered in, can end only in the irremediable bitterness of despair!

We remark yet again from our subject, how earnestly those who are strangers to the principles of which we have been speaking, should seek to be influenced by it! If you are governed by nothing better than a regard to self, to your own will and pleasure; by a principle of worldliness, and love of sin; death, instead of being your gain, will prove your inconceivable loss. You may, indeed, have gained more or less of this world : but, even though you had gained the whole of it, what would it profit you, when you come to lose your own soul? You may, indeed, have gained the good opinion of men : but what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he have gained thus much, when God taketh away his soul? As then you would not be driven away at last in your wickedness, but would have the hope of the righteous in death; let me persuade you, my dear hearers, to seek to be influenced by that principle which rules his life. Seek the influential knowledge of your danger, and your remedy; let the sense of the one urge you to embrace the other; seek pardon through the alone merits of Christ, and purity of heart through the regenerating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Thus

will you be led to that love of Christ which will constrain you to live to him; and then, and not till then, will you have evidence that death will be your gain.

... ·

Finally we remark, how earnestly those, who are in some measure actuated by this principle, should seek to be influenced by it in a still greater degree! Even St. Paul himself, eminently as it was to him Christ to live, yet was far from deeming himself perfect in this respect. "Not," says he, "as though I had already attained, either were already perfect : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark." (Phil. iii. 12—14.) But if he thus ardently aspired after larger measures of devotedness to the cause of the Saviour, whom he served with such singleness of heart, how earnestly should we, my beloved brethren, whose attainments at the best are, comparatively at least, so inconsiderable, nay, absolutely as nothing, give all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end! Laying then to heart how much Christ has done to promote your eternal interests; how little all you can do for him will amount to, and what a poor return it will be for his unspeakable love; how active Satan and his agents are to prevent the advancement of his kingdom in your

hearts, and in the world; and how abundantly Christ will at last requite every effort made in his service: actuated by such motives as these, seek, under the influence of his grace, to be more entirely devoted to him, and to live more entirely to his glory. Thus will you have progressively increasing evidence that death will be your more abundant gain; that, at that awful period, which shall put a final close to every hope of those who have lived without God and without Christ in the world, a more abundant entrance shall be ministered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. i. 11.)

274

SERMON XVI.

THE NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF A GOOD

CONSCIENCE.

1 JOHN iii. 20, 21.

"If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God."

THE advantage of having a good conscience is a point which is very generally admitted. It is acknowledged both by those who possess that inestimable treasure, and by those who are destitute of it. The one class know its value by the solid enjoyment which it confers: the other, very frequently, by the wretchedness with which the want of it is attended. Though, however, this be a point, which no one, it is apprehended, will venture to dispute; yet will you perpetually be meeting with several very prevalent mistakes

respecting it: mistakes these, which are dangerous in exact proportion to their prevalence, and to the importance of the subject to which they relate. This subject, then, is one which evidently deserves our most serious attention; and it is precisely that, to the consideration of which we are led by the words of the text: the term heart in this passage, by the general consent of interpreters, signifying the conscience.

In speaking to you on the subject thus presented to our consideration, I propose to make a few observations illustrative,

I. Of the NATURE of a good conscience; and,
II. Of the ADVANTAGES that attend it.

I. With regard to the NATURE of a good conscience, it is properly defined in the text as one which does not condemn us: "If our heart condemn us not." Here, however, it is proper to observe,

1. That there are those whose consciences do not condemn them, who yet cannot be said to have a good conscience.

Those persons, for instance, who are misinformed as to the line of conduct proper for them to pursue, and who, in consequence of such misinformation, are led to the commission of even the most fearful enormities, may, very probably, not be con

« PreviousContinue »