CONTENTS. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask MATT. vii., the 13th and three following verses. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and nar- row is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to SERMON I. 1 COR. X. 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. CHRISTIANITY, like every other system, has its own end and object; and this end and object is identical with that for which the universe was formed the promotion of the glory of God. For this the Father created the world, for this the Son redeemed the world, for this the Holy Ghost still abideth with the church to sanctify its members. Such is the unity of design which pervades the works of nature and the words of revelation, a unity of design which we should expect, a priori, when we remember that both proceed from the same divine source, the one and only God. And this, too, becomes the aim, the object, the design of every man, who, renewed and sanctified by the eternal Spirit, is a partaker of the divine nature-his ultimate end, B his peculiar work, his χριστιάνικον ἔργον, is not mere individual happiness, nor even the benefit of society, but that which is superior to these ends, because it comprehends them both, the promotion of the glory of God. I say that this end comprehends the other two, because in what can the glory of the Creator, as Creator, consist, except in the perfection of the creature? and in what does the perfection of the creature consist? in what, but in fulfilling the purpose of his creation by implicit obedience to the will of the Creator? By breaking the law, says the Apostle, we dishonour God'; and, therefore, by keeping the law we honour him. And it is because man in his fallen state is unable to keep the law, unable to render implicit obedience, unable to answer the end for whieh he was first formed in God's own image; it is on this account that the human race is condemned. If, by a stretch of the imagination, we could conceive the heavenly bodies endued with reason and freedom of will, and the sun were to wander from the centre, the moon to refuse her light, and the spheres to neglect their wonted motions; if, in short, they were, in some way or other, incapacitated for the various purposes for which 1 Rom. ii. 23. |