No, my brethren, this obscurity is not such as to hide from you your great interest, to make a right choice doubtful, or render it matter of the least hesitation whether you should serve God or not. God has revealed enough, where the light of the gospel comes, to give men the clearest information concerning their eternal welfare; has set before them life, and has set before them death; has pointed out the broad and the narrow way; shown them the path of destruction, that they may avoid it-and the way of life, that they may walk in it. Jesus Christ has come to render these things so plain and obvious, that even "wayfaring men, though fools, may not err therein." Though, with respect to the constitution of his person, mysterious as his Divine Father, being "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person;" with respect to the practical purpose of his incarnation, the great design of his appearance in human flesh, he is "the Light of the world; whoso followeth him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." If you are earnest in seeking the salvation of your souls, you have all the evidence you can wish; you are distinctly informed, that a remedy has been provided, exactly suited to your case. Though you are guilty, the blood of Christ can expiate that guilt; though you are polluted, the Spirit of Christ can cleanse from that pollution. The gospel is every way adapted to your wants and misery. It has pleased the Father that in Christ all fulness should dwell. You are invited to come to him at this moment, to receive out of that fulness all spiritual blessingspardon, sanctification, and life everlasting. He has given you, in reference to these, "line upon line, precept upon precept." Jesus Christ has become the incarnate wisdom of God. No person now need perish for want of a profound understanding, since the method of salvation has been brought down to the level of the meanest capacity: "Wisdom stands at the corners of the streets, and cries, To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men." Surely these are the deep things of God, which the Spirit who searcheth all things alone has explored; which the wisdom of the world never knew, the tongue of human eloquence never proclaimed, the discoveries of human philosophy never approached: but now they form the very elements of piety, so that the meanest person cannot neglect them without living in a practical defiance of God, and contempt of his authority. He has thrown an air of obscurity over a thousand other things, but not over the things that make for your peace. You are not left in any uncertainty as to the basis of hope towards God. He has clearly taught you what you must do to be saved; how you may draw nigh to God, even to his seat; and through what medium you may pour out your hearts before him. "Behold," he says, "I lay in Zion a foundationstone. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. Him that

cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out." You know what is that path which will bring you to eternal blessedness. . . . . . that with shame and confusion of face, on account of your past transgressions, you "flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before you;" that he may "of God be made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." This is a plain path, open to all. "Secret things belong unto the Lord our God;" but these are things revealed, that belong unto us and to our children for ever."

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Among the things fully revealed is the placability of God, his readiness to receive the chief of sinners who repent of their sins and believe the gospel. He stands with open arms to receive returning prodigals. Though he condescends not to reveal the secrets of his wisdom, counsel, and government, he has opened the secrets of his heart, displayed the riches of his compassion and grace. He says, "Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." This is your wisdom; this is your happiness; this is the only way to everlasting life. Let us all apply our hearts and consciences to the plain undeniable declarations of revelation. There will be no excuse for any one who lives a sinful, careless, and worldly life, and refuses to enter into covenant with God by the sacrifice of his Redeemer, and to serve him, on account of the obscurity of the doctrine of salvation. That obscurity is not of such a nature as to darken its evidence, or render in the least degree doubtful any thing that relates to the duties and prospects of accountable immortal creatures. There is no knowledge of any value to you in comparison of this-the knowledge of Christ, and him crucified. You are called upon, by believing in him, to unite yourselves to his promises, and cleave to his unsearchable riches. Have you done this? have you believed in this Saviour, who is the Light of the world? Are you walking in the light; or treasuring up materials of accumulated condemnation, by saying to God, "Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways,"-though he approaches you, not in the character of a judge, but as the Father of mercies and the God of all grace, giving his "only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life?" Let not this be "your condemnation, that light is come into the world, but that you loved darkness rather than light, because your deeds are evil." But "walk in the light while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you." Submit to Jesus Christ; be guided by his holy truths and precepts; and you will attain that happiness which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man,"

III.

ON THE DUTY, HAPPINESS, AND HONOUR OF MAINTAINING THE COURSE PRESCRIBED TO US BY PROVIDENCE.

ACTS xiii. 25.-As John fulfilled his course.*

[PREACHED AT THE CHAPEL, MAZE POND, SOUTHWARK, MAY 26, 1811.]

THE life of every individual may be compared to a river: rising in obscurity, increasing by the accession of tributary streams, and, after flowing through a longer or shorter distance, losing itself in some common receptacle. The lives of individuals also, like the course of rivers, may be more or less extensive, but will all vanish and disappear in the gulf of eternity. While a stream is confined within its banks, it fertilizes, enriches, and improves the country through which it passes; but if it deserts its channel it becomes injurious and destructive, a sort of public nuisance, and, by stagnating in lakes and marshes, its exhalations diffuse pestilence and disease around. Some glide away in obscurity and insignificance; while others become celebrated, traverse continents, give names to countries, and assign the boundaries of empires. Some are tranquil and gentle in their course; while others, rushing in torrents, dashing over precipices, and tumbling in waterfalls, become objects of terror and dismay. But, however diversified their character or their direction, all agree in having their course short, limited, and determined; soon they fall into one capacious receptacle; their waters eventually mix in the waves of the ocean. Thus human characters, however various, have one common destiny; their course of action may be greatly diversified, but they all lose themselves in the ocean of eternity.

Few have appeared on the stage of action whose life was more important than that of the great prophet mentioned in my text. His course was a very extraordinary one, distinguished in some sense above all others, our blessed Lord himself only and always excepted. John was called to a very singular work; his ministry formed an epoch in the history of the church. It was the connecting link between the two dispensations. He first preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God was preached, and every man pressed into it."

The most extraordinary events began with the baptism of John, and continued until Christ was taken up into heaven. His peculiar office was to announce the Saviour of the world as then present in it: other

* Printed from the notes of W. B. Gurney, Esq.

His

prophets had spoken of him as to come; "but there standeth," says John, "among you one whose shoe-latchet I am not worthy to unloose." He was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord;" and while he was actually engaged in his commission, he was able to declare, “Behold, he standeth among you." commission was high: to reclaim an apostate people; "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just;""to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." His career, too, was extraordinary, and his character and course marked and different from all others. Much of the wisdom of Providence

appears in fitting the instrument to the work. The work appointed to John was to reclaim a nation from its departure from God, to rouse a people sunk in insensibility and impenitence, to preach repentance, to proclaim the approach of the kingdom of heaven, to usher in a higher economy, a new dispensation; and for all this he was admirably qualified. He was endued with the spirit and power of Elias. His spirit was undaunted and unyielding; he rebuked the pride of kings. He was indifferent and insensible alike to the charms of pleasure, the allurements of pomp, the smiles of power, and the frowns of greatness. His whole soul was concentrated in his object; he was su perior to the world,—its forms and fashions made no impression on his mind, and left no traces. He was austere in his manner, abstemious in his food, rustic in his apparel: he partook of the wildness of the wilderness in which he first made his appearance. "He had his raiment of camels' hair, a leathern girdle was about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey." These are lively images of his work. "Then went out unto him Jerusalem and all Judea, and the region round about Jordan; and were baptized of him, confessing their sins."

His ministry finished the legal, and brought in the evangelical dispensation. His voice was like the strong wind that bloweth-the whirlwind that maketh the earth to quake-the loud blast of that trumpet which was to wake the nations-the earthquake and the whirlwind which immediately preceded "the still small voice.". His career was brilliant, and his success extraordinary. A large portion of the Jews became his converts, at least for a time: even the scribes and Pharisees listened to him. "He was a burning and a shining light:" the apostles themselves were many of them first his disciples, and received from him those instructions which prepared them for the coming of the Messiah. By the authentic historian Josephus he is spoken of in terms of the highest encomium. It is remarkable, above all, that he was the only prophet born of woman who was himself the subject of prophecy.

As his course was short, so was his end violent and tragical. He fell a martyr to his fidelity, and the artifices of an intriguing woman. Having rebuked Herod on account of his incestuous intercourse with his brother's wife, he was sacrificed to her resentment. He disappeared soon: his course was hurried and impetuous; eager, as it were, to reach his destination, and to mingle his grand soul with its kindred elements in eternity. He was raised up for a particular service; and

when that was accomplished he was removed. He was not the light, but the harbinger of that light, the morning star that was to usher in the Sun of Righteousness. "He bore witness of the light, but he was not that light;" and no sooner did that light appear than he was withdrawn, that nothing might divide the great homage due to the Saviour, according to his own prediction-"He must increase, but I must decrease."

Having, perhaps, already detained you too long in contemplating the character and conduct of John the Baptist, I shall occupy what remains of our time in illustrating and inculcating two or three practical observations, founded on the words of the text.

I. That there is a prescribed course or sphere of action, appointed to every individual by the Author of our nature.

We are not a race of independent creatures abandoned to live without control; we are not sent into the world to follow the dictates of our own will. We cannot commit a greater mistake than to suppose that we are in any sense our own; we belong to another: even our limbs and faculties do not so much belong to ourselves as we do to our Maker. To do his will, to conform to his pleasure, to keep his commandments, to fulfil his designs, to serve the end of his government, and to promote his glory, these are the great ends of our existence; and to attain them ought to be the fundamental law of our being: otherwise we live in vain, worse than in vain; and it would have been better for us never to have had an existence.

There is one great principle of a holy life which is one and the same in all who live as they ought; and that is, conforming ourselves to the will of God, complying with his plan, doing every thing to please and glorify him. Thus our Saviour himself when in this world was devoted to his Father's will; this was his object constantly, even when observed by those around him. It cannot be better exemplified than in that beautiful saying of his, when he was requested to take refreshment at the well of Jacob-"I have meat to eat that the world knoweth not of; my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work:" and it is doing the will of God from the heart, which implies a careful attention to all the manifestations of it, and a reverential regard to all the discoveries of it, with a fixed and determined resolution to comply with it whenever and wherever it is known. This, as I said, is the end of our existence, the business of our life; and we live to no purpose, or to a bad one, but as we conform to it. But, although this is the universal principle by which all are to be actuated and guided, yet it admits of great and numerous variations in its practical application. The principle is the same; but when it comes to be acted upon by individuals, and imbodied in the experience and conduct of men in the several conditions of life, it gives birth to an endless diversity. To do the will of God, and to promote his glory, is the proper object and end of all: but the manner in which an apostle, for instance, was called upon to do this, is not that in which an ordinary teacher is to do it; nor the manner of an ordinary teacher that of a private Christian. The duties of a sovereign are extremely different