it; no man has a right, whilst he is doing occasional good, and yet indulging his vices and his passions, to strike a balance, as it were, between the good and the harm. This is not Christianity; this is not pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father, let the balance lie on which side it will; for our text declares (and our text declares no more than what the Scriptures testify from one end to the other), that religion demands both. It demands active virtue, and it demands innocency of life. I mean it demands sincere and vigorous endeavours in the pursuit of active virtue, and endeavours equally sincere and firm in the preservation of personal innocence. It makes no calculation which is better, but it requires both.

Shall it be extraordinary, that there should be men forward in active charity and in positive beneficence, who yet put little or no constraint upon their personal vices? I have said that the character is common, and I will tell you why it is common. The reason is (and there is no other reason), that it is usually an easier thing to perform acts of beneficence, even of expensive and troublesome beneficence, than it is to command and control our passions; to give up and discard our vices; to burst the bonds of the habits which enslave us. This is the very truth of the case: so that the matter comes precisely to this point. Men of active benevolence, but of loose morals, are men who are for performing the duties which are easy to them, and omitting those which are hard. They only place their own character to themselves in what view they please but this is the truth of the case, and let any one say, whether this be religion; whether this be sufficient. The truly religious man, when he has once decided a thing to be a duty, has no further question to ask; whether it be easy to be done, or whether it be hard to be done, it is equally a duty; it then becomes a question of fortitude, of resolution, of firmness, of self-command, and self-government; but not of duty or obligation; these are already decided upon.

But least of all (and this is the inference from the text which I wish most to press upon your attention), least of all does he conceive the hope of reaching heaven by that sort of compromise, which would make easy, nay perhaps, pleasant duties, an excuse for duties which are irksome and severe. To recur, for the last time, to the instance mentioned in our text, I can very well believe, that a man of humane temper shall have pleasure in visiting, when by visiting he can succour the fatherless and the widow in their affliction: but if he believes St. James, he will find that this must be joined to and accompanied with another thing, which is neither easy nor pleasant; nay, must always almost be effected with pain and struggle, and mortification and difficulty, the "keeping himself unspotted from the world."

SERMON XXII.

THE AGENCY OF JESUS CHRIST SINCE HIS ASCENSION.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.-HEBREWS, xiii. 8. THE assertion of the text might be supported by the consideration, that the mission and preaching of Christ have lost nothing of their truth and importance by the lapse of ages which has taken place since his appearance in the world. If they seem of less magnitude, reality, and concern, to us at this present day, than they did to those who lived in the days in which they were carried on, it is only in the same manner as a mountain or a tower appears to be less when seen at a distance. It is a delusion in both cases. In natural objects we have commonly strength enough of judgment to prevent our being imposed upon by these false appearances; and it is not so much a want or defect of, as it is a neglecting to exert and use, our judgment, if we suffer ourselves to be deceived by them in religion.-Distance of space in one case, and distance of time in the other, make no difference in the real nature of the object; and it is a great weakness to allow them to make any difference in our estimate and apprehension. The death of Jesus Christ is, in truth, as interesting to us, as it was to those

who stood by his cross: his resurrection from the grave is a pledge and assurance of our future resurrection, no less than it was of theirs, who conversed, who ate and drank with him, after his return to life.

But there is another sense, in which it is still more materially true, that, "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever." He is personally living, and acting in the same manner; has been so all along, and will be so to the end of the world. He is the same in his person, in his power, in his office.

First, I say, that he is the same individual person, and is at this present time existing, living, acting. He is gone up on high. The clouds at his ascension received him out of human sight. But whither did he go? to sit for ever at the right hand of God. This is expressly declared concerning him. It is also declared of him that death hath no more dominion over him, that he is no more to return to corruption. So that, since his ascension, he hath continued in heaven to live and act. His human body, we are likewise given to believe, was changed upon his ascension, that is, was glorified, whereby it became fitted for heaven, and fitted for immortality, no longer liable to decay, or age, but thenceforward remaining literally and strictly the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. This change in the human person of Christ is in effect asserted, or rather is referred to, as a thing already known, in that text of St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians wherein we are assured, that hereafter Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be like his glorious body. Now the natural body of Christ, before his resurrection at least, was like the natural body of other men, was not a glorious body. At this time, therefore, when St. Paul calls it his glorious body (for it was after his ascension that St. Paul wrote these words), it must have undergone a great change. In this exalted and glorified state our Lord was seen by St. Stephen, in the moment of his martyrdom. Being full, you read, of the Holy Ghost, Stephen looked up steadfastly unto heaven, and saw the glory of God *, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. At that seemingly dreadful moment, even when the martyr was surrounded by a band of assassins, with stones ready in their hands to stone him to death, the spectacle, nevertheless, filled his soul with rapture. He cried out in ecstacy, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." The same glorious vision was vouchsafed to St. Paul at his conversion; and to St. John at the delivery of the Revelations. This change of our Lord's body was a change, we have reason to believe, of nature and substance, so as to be thenceforward incapable of decay or dissolution. It might be susceptible of any external form which the particular purpose of his appearance should require. So when he appeared to Stephen and Paul, or to any of his saints, it was necessary he should assume the form which he had borne in the flesh, that he might be known to them. But it is not necessary to suppose that he was confined to that form. The contrary rather appears in the Revelation of St. John, in which, after once showing himself to the apostle, our Lord was afterward represented to his eyes under different forms. All, however, that is of importance to us to know, all that belongs to our present subject to observe, is, that Christ's glorified person was incapable of dying any more; that it continues at this day; that it hath all along continued the same real, identical being, as that which went up into heaven in the sight of his apostles; the same essential nature, the same glorified substance, the same proper person.

But, secondly, He is the same also in power. The Scripture doctrine concerning our Lord seems to be this, that, when his appointed commission and his sufferings were closed upon earth, he was advanced in heaven to a still higher state than what he possessed before he came into the world t. This point, as well as the glory of his nature, both before and after his appearance in the flesh, is attested by St. Paul, in the second chapter of his Epistle to the Philippians. "Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God." He did not affect to be equal with God, or to appear with divine honours (for such is the sense which the words in the original will bear), “but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and became

The "glory of God," in Scripture, when spoken of as an object of vision, always, I think, means a luminous appearance, bright and refulgent, beyond the splendour of any natural object whatever.

† See Sherlock's Sermons on Phil. ii. 9.

obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." "Wherefore," i. e. for this his obedience even to the last extremity, even unto death, "God also hath highly exalted him;" or, as it is distinctly and perspicuously expressed in the original, "God also hath more highly exalted him," that is, to a higher state than what he even before possessed; insomuch that he hath " 'given him a name which is above every name," that at, or, more properly, in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father;" exactly agreeable to what our Lord himself declared to his disciples after his resurrection," All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matt. xxviii. 18.) You will observe in this passage of St. Paul, not only the magnificent terms in which Christ's exaltation is described, viz. "that every knee should thenceforward bow in his name, and that every tongue should confess him to be Lord;" but you will observe also, the comprehension and extent of his dominion,-" of things in heaven, of things on earth, of things under the earth." And that we are specifically comprised under this authority and this agency, either of the two following texts may be brought as a sufficient proof. "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of you." (Matt. xviii. 20); which words of our Lord imply a knowledge of, an observation of, an attention to, and an interference with, what passes amongst his disciples upon earth. Or to take his final words to his followers, as recorded by St. Matthew: "Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the world," and they carry the same implication. And, lastly, that, in the most awful scene and event of our existence, the day of judgment, we shall not only become the objects, but the immediate objects, of Christ's power and agency, is set forth in two clear and positive texts. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God" (John, v. 25), not the voice of God, but the voice of the Son of And then, pursuing the description of what will afterward take place, our Lord adds in the next verse but one," that the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man:" which is in perfect conformity with what St. Paul announced to the Athenians, as a great and new doctrine, namely," that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."

Having shown that the power of Jesus Christ is a subsisting power at this time, the next question is, as to its duration. Now, so far as it respects mankind in this present world, we are assured that it shall continue until the end of the world. The same texts which have been adduced prove this point as well as that for which they were quoted; and they are confirmed by St. Paul's declaration, 1 Cor. xv. 24; "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father:" therefore he shall retain and exercise it until then. But farther, this power is not only perpetual but progressive, advancing and proceeding by different steps and degrees, until it shall become supreme and complete, and shall prevail against every enemy and every opposition. That our Lord's dominion will not only remain unto the end of the world, but that its effects in the world will be greatly enlarged and increased, is signified very expressly in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The apostle in this passage applies to our Lord a quotation from the Psalms: "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet;" and then draws from it a strict inference, "for in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that he did not put under him :" and then he remarks as a fact, "but now we see not yet all things put under him. That complete entire subjection which is here promised hath not yet taken place. The promise must therefore refer to a still future order of things. This doctrine of the progressive increase and final completeness of our Lord's kingdom, is also virtually laid down in the passage from the Corinthians already cited: "He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet;" for that this subjugation of his several enemies will be successive, one after another, is strongly intimated by the expression, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Now, to apprehend the probability of those things coming to pass, or rather to remove any opinion of their improbability, we ought constantly to bear in our mind this momentous truth, that in the hands of the Deity time is nothing, that he

has eternity to act in. The Christian dispensation, nay the world itself, may be in its infancy. A more perfect display of the power of Christ, and of his religion, may be in reserve; and the ages, which it may endure after the obstacles and impediments to its reception are removed, may be beyond comparison longer than those which we have seen, in which it has been struggling with great difficulties, most especially with ignorance and prejudice. We ought not to be moved, any more than the apostles were moved, with the reflection which was cast upon their mission, that since the "fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were." We ought to return the answer which one of them returned, that what we call tardiness in the Deity, is not so; that our so thinking it arises from not allowing for the different importance, nay, probably, for the different apprehension of time, in the divine mind and in ours; that with him a thousand years are as one day; words which confound and astonish human understanding, yet strictly and metaphysically true.

Again, we should remember, that the apostles, the very persons who asserted that God would put all things under him, themselves, as we have seen, acknowledged that it was not yet done. In the mean time, from the whole of their declarations and of this discussion we collect, that Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, is, at this day, a great efficient Being in the universe, invested by his Father with a high authority, which he exercises, and will continue to exercise, until the end of the world.

Thirdly, he is the same in his office. The principal offices assigned by the Scriptures to our Lord in his glorified state, that is, since his ascension into heaven, are those of a mediator and intercessor. Of the mediation of our Lord the Scripture speaks in this wise: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5. It was after our Lord's ascension that this was spoken of him; and it is plain, from the form and turn of the expression, that his mediatorial character and office was meant to be represented as a perpetual character and office, because it is described in conjunction with the existence of God and men, so long as men exist; "there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” Hitherto have asked nothing in my name." ye "At that day ye shall ask in my name." John, xvi. 24-26. These words form part of our Lord's memorable conversation with his select disciples, not many hours before his death: and clearly intimate the mediatorial office which he was to discharge after his ascension.

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Concerning his intercession, not that which he occasionally exercised upon earth when he prayed, as he did most fervently for his disciples, but that which he now, at this present time, exercises, we have the following text, explicit, satisfactory, and full. "But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood:" by priesthood is here meant the office of praying for others. "Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us." No words can more plainly declare than these words do, the perpetuity of our Lord's agency: that it did not cease with his presence upon earth, but continues. "He continueth ever: he ever liveth; he hath an unchangeable priesthood." Surely this justifies what our text saith of him: “ that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" and that not in a figurative or metaphorical sense, but literally, effectually, and really. Moreover, in the same passage, not only the constancy and perpetuity, but the power and efficacy, of our Lord's intercession are asserted. "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." They must come unto God: they must come by him: and then he is able to save them completely. These three heads of observation, namely, upon his person, his power, and his office, comprise the relation in which our Lord Jesus Christ stands to us whilst we remain in this mortal life. There is another consideration of great solemnity and interest, namely, the relation which we shall bear to him in our future state. Now the economy which appears

to be destined for the human creation, I mean for that part of it which shall be received to future happiness, is, that they shall live in a state of local society with one another, and under Jesus Christ as their head, experiencing a connexion amongst themselves, as well as the operation of his authority as their Lord and governor. I think it likely that our Saviour had this state of things in view, when in his final discourse with his apostles he tells them: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John,

xiv. 2, 3.) And again, in the same discourse, and referring to the same economy, "Father," says he, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me:" for that this was spoken, not merely of the twelve who were then sitting with Jesus, and to whom his discourse was addressed, but of his disciples in future ages of the world, is fairly collected from his words (xvii. 20); "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word."-Since the prayer here stated was part of the discourse, it is reasonable to infer, that the discourse, in its object, extended as far as the prayer, which we have seen to include believers, as well of succeeding ages, as of that then present.

Now concerning this future dispensation, supposing it to consist, as here represented, of accepted spirits, participating of happiness in a state of sensible society with one another, and with Jesus Christ himself at their head, one train of reflection naturally arises, namely, first, that it is highly probable there should be many expressions of Scripture which have relation to it; secondly, that such expressions must, by their nature, appear to us, at present, under a considerable degree of obscurity; which we may be apt to call a defect; thirdly, that the credit due to such expressions must depend upon their authority as portions of the written word of God, and not upon the probability, much less upon the clearness, of what they contain; so that our comprehension of what they mean must stop at very general notions; and our belief in them rest in the deference to which they are entitled, as Scripture declarations. Of this kind are many, if not all, of those expressions, which speak so strongly of the value and benefit and efficacy of the death of Christ; of its sacrificial, expiatory, and atoning nature. We may be assured, that these expressions mean something real; refer to something real; though it be something which is to take place in that future dispensation of which we have been speaking. It is reasonable to expect, that, when we come to experience what that state is, the same experience will open to us the distinct propriety of these expressions, their truth, and the substantial truth which they contain; and likewise show us, that however strong and exalted the terms are which we see made use of, they are not stronger nor higher than the subject called for. But for the present we must be, what I own it is difficult to be, content to take up with very general notions, humbly hoping, that a disposition to receive and to acquiesce in what appears to us to be revealed, be it more, or be it less, will be regarded as the duty which belongs to our subsisting condition, and the measure of information with which it is favoured: and will stand in the place of what, from our deep interest in the matter, we are sometimes tempted to desire, but which, nevertheless, might be unfit for us, a knowledge, which not only was, but which we perceived to be, fully adequate to the subject.

There is another class of expressions, which, since they professedly refer to circumstances that are to take place in this new state, and not before, will, it is likely, be rendered quite intelligible by our experience in that state; but must necessarily convey very imperfect information until they be so explained. Of this kind are many of the passages of Scripture, which we have already noticed, as referring to the changes which will be wrought in our mortal nature, and the agency of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the intervention of his power in producing those changes, and the nearer similitude which our changed natures, and the bodies with which we shall then be clothed, will bear to his. We read that he shall change our vile body, that it may be like his glorious body." A momentous assurance, no doubt: yet in its particular signification, waiting to be cleared up by our experience of the event. likewise are some other particular expressions relating to the same event, such as being "unclothed;" "clothed upon," "the dead in Christ rising first;" "meeting the Lord in the air;" "they that are alive not preventing those that are asleep," and the like. These are all most interesting intimations; yet to a certain degree obscure. They answer the purpose of ministering to our hopes and comfort and admonition, which they do without conveying any clear ideas and this, and not the satisfaction of our curiosity, may be the grand purpose, for the sake of which intimations of these things were given at all. But then, in so far as they describe a change in the order of nature, of which change we are to be the objects, it seems to follow, that we shall be furnished with experience which will discover to us the full sense of this language. The same remark may be repeated concerning the first and second

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