An Estimate of the Morality That Is without Godliness

Jos ix. 30 — 33.

“If wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean: Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any day’s-man betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.”

To the people of every Christian country the doctrine of a Mediator between God and man is familiarized ‘by long possession; though to many of them it be nothing more than the familiarity of a name recognised as a well-known sound by the ear, without sending one fruitful or substantial thought into the understanding.. For, let it be observed, that the listfess acquiescence of the mind, in a doctrine, to the statement or to the explanation of which it has been long habituated, is a very different thing from the actual hold which the mind takes of the doctrine, — insomuch that it is very possible for man to be a lover of orthodoxy, and to sit with complacency under its ministers, a

SERMON IV. gg

and to be revolted by the heresies of those who would either darken or deny any of its articles, — and, in a word, to be most tenacious in his preference for that form of ‘words to which he has been accustomed; while to the meaning of the words themselves, the whole man is ina

state of entire dormancy, and delighted though

he really be by the utterance of the truth, exhibits not in his person, or in his history, one evidence of that practical ascendency which Christian truth is sure to exert over the heart and the habits of every genuine believer. In the midst of all this dimness, and all this indolence about the realities of salvation, it is refreshing to view the workings of a mind that is in earnest; and of a mind too, which, instead of being mechanically carried forward in the track of aprescribed or authoritative orthodoxy, is prompted to all its aspirations by a deep feeling of guilt, and of necessity. Such we conceive to have been the mind of Job, to whom the doctrine of a Redeemer had not been explicitly unfolded, but who seems.at times to have been favoured with a prophetic glimpse of him through the light of a dim and distant futurity. The state of his body, covered as. it was with disease, makes him an object of sympathy. But there is a still deeper and more attractive sympathy excited by the state of his soul, labouring under the visitation of a hand that was too heavy for him; called out to a combat with God, and struggling to maintain it; at one time, tempted to measure the justice of his cause with the righteousness of Heaven’s dispensations; at another, closing his complaint with the murmurs of a despairmg acquiescence; and at length brought, through all the

varieties of an exercised and agitated spirit,

to submit himself to God, and to repent in dust and in ashes. - biecn Sime SS ET

There is a darkness in the book of Job. He, at one time, under the soreness of his calamity, gives way. to impatience; and, at another, he seems to recall the hasty utterance of his more distempered moments. He, in one place, fills his mouth with arguments; and, in another, he appears willing to surrender them all, and to decline the unequal struggle of man oe with his Maker. He is: evidently oppresse throughout by a feeling of want, without the full understanding of an adequate or an appropriate remedy. Now, it does give a gher sense of the value of this remedy, when we are made to witness the unsatisfied longings of one wholivedinadarkand early period of the world, — when we hear him telling, as he does in these verses, where the soreness lies, and obscurely guessing at the ministrationthat issuited to it,- — nor do we know a single passage of the Bible which carries home with greater effect the necessity of a Mediator, than that where Job, on his restless bed, is set before us, wearying himself in the hopeless task of arguing with God, and calling for some day’s-man. betwixt them, who might lay his hand upon them both.

The afflictions which were heaped upon Job made him doubt his acceptance with his Maker. was the great burden of his complaint, and

recovery of this acceptance-was the theme of many a fruitless and fatiguing speculation.

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SERMON IV. Bb.

We have one of these speculations in the verses which are now submitted to you; and as they are four in number, so there is such a distinction in the subjects of them, that the passage naturally resolves itself into four separate topics of illustration. In the 30th verse, we have an expedient proposed by Job, for the purpose of obtaining the acceptance which he longed after: “If 1 wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean.” In the 31st verse, we have the inefficacy: of this expedient: “Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.” In the 32d verse, he gives the reason of this inefficacy: “For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.” And in the 33d verse, he intimates to us the right expedient, under the form of complaining that he himself has not the benefit of it: “Neither is there any day’s-man betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.”

I. It is not to be wondered at, that even a mistaken efficacy should be ascribed to snow water, in the country of Job’s residence, where snow, if ever it fell’at all, must have fallen rarely, at very extraordinary seasons, and in the more elevated parts of his neighbourhood. This rarity, added to its unsullied whiteness, might have given currency to an idea of its efficacy as a purifier, beyond what actually belonged to it. Certain it is,too, that snow water, like water deposited from the atmosphere in any other form, does not possess that hardness which

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is often to be met with in spring water. But however this be, and whether the popular notion of the-purifying virtues of snow water, — taken up by Job, be well founded or not, we have here an expedient suggested for making the hands clean, and the man pure and acceptable in the sight of God, — a method proposed within the reach of man, and which man can perform, for making himself an object of complacency to his Maker, — a method too, which is quite effectual for beautifying all that meets the discernment of the outward eye, and which is here set before us as connected with the object of gaining the eye of that high and heavenly Witness, with whom we have to do. This is what we understand to be represented by washing with snow water. It:comprehends all that man can do for washing himself, and for making himself clean in the sight of God. Job complains of the fruitlessness of this expedient, and perhaps mingles with his complaints the reproaches of a spirit that was not yet subdued to entire acquiescence in the righteousness of God. Let us try to examine this matter, and, if possible, ascertain whether man is able, on the utmost stretch of his powers and of his performances, to make himself an object of approbation to his Judge.

Without entering into the metaphysical controversy about the extent or the freedom of human agency, let it be observed, that there is a plain and a popular understanding on the subject of what man can do, and of what he cannot do. We wish to proceed on this understanding for the present, and. to illustrate it by a few examples. Should it be asked, if a man can keep his hands from stealing, it would be the unhesitating answer of almost every one that he can do it, — and if he can keep his tongue from lying, that he can do it; — and if he can constrain his feet to carry him every Sabbath to the house of God, that he can do this also, — and if he can-tithe his income, or even reducing himself to the necessaries of life, make. over the mighty sacrifice of all the remainder to the poor, that it is certainly possible for him to do it, — and if he can keep a guard upon his lips, so that not one whisper of malignity shall escape from them, that he can also prescribe this task to himself, and is able to perform it, — and if he can read much of his Bible, and utter many prayers in private, that he can do it, — and if he can assemble his family on the morning and the evening of every day, and go through the worship of God along with them, that all this he can do, — that all this lies within the compass of human agency.

Let any one man do, then, what all men think it possible for him to do, and he will wear upon his person the visible exhibition of much to recommend him to the favourable judgment of his fellows. He will be guilty of no one transgression against the peace and order of society. He will be correct, and regular, and completely inoffensive. He will contribute many a deed of positive beneficence to the welfare of those around him; and may even, on the strength of his many decencies, and many observations, hold out an aspect of religiousness to the general eye of the world. There willbe a wide and most palpable distinction of character between him, and those who, at large from the principle of self-control, resign themselves to the impulse of every present temptation; and are either intemperate, or dishonest, or negligent of ordinances, just as habit, or the urgency of their feelings and their circumstances, may happen to have obtained the ascendency over them. These do not.what they might, and what, in common estimation, they can do; and it is just because the man has put forth all his strenuousness to. the task of accomplishing all that he is able for, that he looks so much more seemly than those who are beside him, and holds out a far more engaging display of what is moral and praise-worthy to all his acquaintances.

if. I will not be able to.convince you how superficial the reformation of all these doings is, without passing on to the 3lst verse, and proving, that in the pure eye of God the man who has made the most copious application in his power of snow water to the visible conduct, may still be an object of abhorrence; and that if God enter into judgment with him, he will make him appear as one plunged in the ditch, his righteousness as filthy rags, and himself as an unclean thing. There are a thousand things which, in popular and understood language, man can do. It is quite the general sentiment, that he can abstain from stealing,and lying, and calumny, — that he can give of his substance to the poor, and attend church, and pray, and read his Bible, and keep up the worship of

God in his family. But, as an instance of distinction between what he can do, and what he cannot do, let us make the undoubted assertion, that he can eat wormwood, and just put the question, if he can alse relish wormwood. That is a different affair. I may command the performance; but have no such command over my organs of sense, as to;command a liking, or a taste for the performance. The illustration is homely; but it is enough for our purpose, if it be effective. 1 may accomplish the doing of what God bids; but have no pleasure in God himself. The forcible constraining of the hand, may make out many a visible act of obedience, but the relish of the heart may refuse to go along with it. The outer man

-may be all in a bustle about. the commandments of God, while to the inner man God is an offence and a weariness. His neighbours may look at him, and all that their eye can reach may be.as clean as snow water can make it. But the eye of God reaches a great deal farther. He is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and he may see the foulness of spiritual idolatry in every one of its receptacles. The poor man has no more conquered his rebellious affections, than he has conquered his distaste for wormwood. He may fear God; he may listen to God; and, in outward deed, may obey God. But he does not, and he will not, love God; and while he drags a heavy load of tasks, and duties, and observances after him, he lives in the hourly violation of the first and greatest of the commandments.

Would any parent among you count it enough 8 that you obtained a service like this from one of your children? Would you be satisfied with the obedience of his hand, while you knew that the affections of his heart were totally away from you? Let every one requirement, issued from the chair of parental authority, be most rigidly and punctually done by him, would not the sullenness of his alienated countenance turn the whole of it-into bitterness? It is the heart of his son which the parent longs after; and the lurking distaste and disaffection which rankle there, can never, never be made up by such an obedience, as the yoked and the tortured negro is compelled to yield to the whip of the overseer. The service may be done; but all that can minister satisfaction in the principle of the service, may be withheld from it; and though the very last item of the bidden performance is rendered, this will neither mend the deformity of the unnatural child, nor soothe the feelings of the afflicted and the mortified father. God is the Father of spirits; and the willing subjection of the spirit is that which he requires of us; My son, give me thy heart;” and if the heart be withheld, God says of all our visible performances, “‘l’o what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” The heart is his requirement; and full, indeed, is the title which he prefers to it. He put life into us; and it is he who hath drawn a circle of enjoyments, and friendships, and interests around us. Every thing that we take delight in, is ministered to us out,of his hand. He plies us every moment with his kindness; and when at length the gift stole the heart of man away from the Giver, so

SERMON Iv. eis

that he became a lover of his own pleasure, rather than a lover of God, even then would he not leave us to perish in the guilt of our rebellion. .Man made himself an alien, but God.was not willing to abandon him; and, rather than lose him for ever, did he devise a way of access by which to woo, and to welcome him backagain. The way of our recovery is indeed a way that his heart was set upon; and to prove it, he sent his own eternal Son into the world, who unrobed him of all his glories, and made himself of no reputation. He had to travel in the greatness of his strength, that -he might unbar the gates of acceptance to a guilty world; and now that, in full harmony with the truth and the justice of God, sinners may draw nigh through the blood of the atonement, what is the wonderful length to. which the condescension of God carries him? Why, he actually be- -

seeches us to be reconciled; and, with a tone more tender than the affection of an earthly father ever prompted, does he call upon us to turn, and to turn, for why should we die?. If, after all this, the antipathy of nature to God still cleave to us; if, under the power of this antipathy, the service we yield be the cold and unwilling service of constraint; if, with many of the visible outworks of obedience, there be also the strugglings of a reluctant heart to take away from this obedience all its cheerfulness, is not God defrauded of his offering? Does there not rest on the moral aspect ef our character, in reference to him, all the odiousness of ‘unnatural children? Let our outer doings be what they may, does there not adhere to us the

= or turpitude of having deeply revolted against that Being whose kindness has never abandoned us?

And, though pure in the eye of our fellows,.

and our hands be clean as with snow. water, is there nothing in our hearts against which a spiritual law may denounce its severities, and the giver of that law may lift a voice of righteous expostulation? “Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the - Liord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.”

It is not easy to lay open the utter nakedness of the natural heart in reference to God; or to convince the possessor of it, that, under the guise of his many plausibilities, there may {urk that which gives to sin all its hideousness. The mere man of ordinances cannot acquiesce in what he reckons to be the exaggerations of orthodoxy upon this subject; nor can he at all conceive how it is possible that, with so much of the semblance of godliness about him, there should, at the same time, be within: him the very opposite of godliness.. It is, indeed, a difficult task to carry upon this point the: conviction of him who positively loves the Sabbath, and to whom the chime of its morning bells brings the delightful associations of peace and of sacredness, — who has his hours of prayer, at which he gathers his family around him, and his hours of attendance on that house where.

Ran me 1 2 ee a pe eee el cn ewe >” kine * ‘ — S eee Me -:: i ee x, a i:.

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SERMON IV. Gay

the man of God deals out his weekly lessons to the assembled congregation. It may be in vain to tell him, that God in fact is a weariness to his heart, when it is attested to him’ by his own consciousness; that when the preacher is before him, and the people are around him, and the

professed object.of their, coming together is to ‘join in the exercise of devotion, and to grow in

the knowledge of God, he finds in fact that all is pleasantness, — that his eye is not merely filled with the public exhibition, and his ear regaled by the impressiveness of a human voice, but that the interest of his heart is completely kept up by the succession and variety of the exercises It may be in vain to tell him, that this religion of taste, or this religion of habit, or this religion of inheritance, may utterly consist with the deep and the determined worldliness of all his affections, — that he whom he thinks to be the God of his Sabbath is not the God of his week; but that, throughout all the successive days of it, he is going astray after the idols of vanity, and living without God in the world.. This is demonstration enough of all his forms, and all his observations, being a mere surface display, without a living principle of piety. But perhaps it may serve more effectu — ally to convince him of it, should we ask him, how his godliness thrives in the closet, and. what are the workings of his heart, in the abstract and solitary hour of intercourse, with the unseen Father. In church, there may be much to interest him, and to keep him alive. But when alone, and deserted by all the accompaniments. of a solemn assembly, we should like to know with what vivacity he enters on the one business of meditating on God, and holding converse with God. Is the sense of the all-seeing and ever-present Deity enough for him; and does love to God brighten and sustain the moments of solitary prayer? ‘The mind may have enough to imterest it in church; but does the secret exercise of fellowship with the Father bring no distaste, and no weariness along with it? Is it any thing more than the homage of a formal presentation? And when the business of devotion is thus unpeopled of all its externals, and of all its accessaries; when thus reduced toa naked exercise of spirit, can you appeal to the longings, and the affections of that spirit, as the essential proof of your godliness? And do you never, cn occasions like this, discover that which is in your hearts, and detect their enmity to him. who formed them? Do you afford no ground for the complaint which he uttered of old, when he said, “Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, and a land of darkness?” And do you not perceive that with this direction of your feelings and your desires away from the living God, though you be outwardly clean, as by the operation of snow water, he may plunge you in the ditch, and make your own clothes to abhor your; wy. e shall conclude this part of our subject with two observations. First. The efforts of nature may, in point of inadequacy, be compared to the application of snow water. Yet there is a practical mischief here, in which the zeal of controversy, bent on its one point, and its one principle, may unconsciously involve us. We are not, in pursuit of any argument whatever, to lose sight of efforts. We are not to deny them the place, and the importance which the Bible plainly assigns to them; nor are we to forbear insisting upon their performance by men, previous to conversion, and in the very act of conversion, and in every period of the progress, however far advanced it may be, of the new creature in Jesus Christ our Lord. We speak just now of men, previous to conversion, and we call to your remembrance the example of John the Baptist. Theinjudicious way in which the doings of men have been spoken of, has had practically this effect on many an inquirer. Since doing is of so little consequence, let us even abstain from it. Now the forerunner of Christ spake.a very different language. He unceasingly called upon the people to do; and this was the very preaching which the divine wisdom appointed as a preparation for the Saviour. “He that hath two coats,

let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.” — *“Exact no more than that which is appointed.” — Do violence to no man; neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages.” Was not John, then, it may be said, a mere superficial reformer? Had he stopped short at this, he would have been no better. His teaching could have done no more than is done by the mere application of snow water. But he did not stop here. He told the people that there was a preacher, and a preaching to come after him, in comparison of which he and Ins sermons were nothing. He pointed the eye and the expectation of his hearers full upon one that was greater than himself; and, while he baptized with water unto repentance, and call- -ed upon the people to fraine their doings, he ‘told them of one mightier than he, who was to “baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And, Secondly, That you may be convinced of the.utter necessity of such a baptism, let us affirm the inadequacy of all the fairest virtues and accomplishments of nature. God has, for the well-being of society, provided man with certain feelings and constitutional principles of action, which lead him to a conduct beneficial to those around him; to which conduct he may. be carried by the impulse of these principles, with as little reference to the will of God, as a mother, among the inferior animals, when constrained by the sweet and powerful influences of natural affection, to guard the safety, and provide for the nourishment of her young. Take account of these principles as they exist in the bosom of man, and you there find compassion for the unfortunate; the shame of detection in any thing mean, or disgraceful; the desire of standing well in the opinion of his fellows; the kindher charities, which shed a mild and a quiet lustre over the walks of domestic life; and those wider principles of patriotism and public usefulness which, combined with an appetite for distinction, will raise a few of the more illustrious of our race to some high and splendid career of beneficence. Now, these are the principles which, scattered in various proportions among the individuals ef human kind, give rise to the varied hues of character among them. Some possess them in no sensible degree; and they are pointed at with abhorrence, as the most monstrous and deformed of the species. Others have an average share of them; - and they take their station amongst the common-place characters of society. And others go beyond the average; and are singled out from amongst their fellows, as the kind, the amiable, the sweet-tempered, the upright, whose hearts swell with honourable feeling, or whose pulse beats high in the pride of integrity.

Now, conceive for a moment, that the belief of a God were to be altogether expunged from the world. We have no doubt that society would suffer most painfully in its temporal interests by such an event. But the machine of society might still be kept up; and on the face of it you might still meet with the same gradations of character, and the same varied distribution’ of praise, among the individuals who compose it. Suppose it possible, that the world could be broken off from the system of God’s administration altogether; and that he were to consign it,withall its present accommodations, and all its natural principles, to some far and solitary place beyond the limits of his economy — we should still find ourselves in the midst of a moral variety of character; and man, sitting in judgment over it, would say of some, that they are good, and of others, that they are evil. Even in this desolate region of atheism, the eye of the sentimentalist. might expatiate among beauteous and interest-

9 ing spectacles,-amiable mothers shedding their graceful tears over the tomb of departed infancy; high-toned integrity maintaiing itself unsullied amid the allurements of corruption; benevolence plying its labours of usefulness; and patriotism earning its proud reward, in the testimony of an approving people. Here, then, you have compassion, and natural affection, and justice, and public spirit — but would it not be — a glaring perversion of language to say, that there was godliness in a world, where there was no feeling and no conviction about God P

In the midst of this busy scene, let God reveal himself, not to eradicate these principles - of action — but giving hissanction to whatsoever things are just, and lovely, and honourable, and of good report, to make himself known, at the same time as the Creator and Upholder of all things, and as the Being with whom all his rational offspring had to-do. Is this solemn announcement from the voice of the Eternal to make no difference upon them? Are those principles which might flourish and be sustained on a soil of atheism, to be counted enough even af, ter the wonderful truth of a living and a reigning God has burst upon the world? You are just; — right, indispensably right. You say you have asserted no more than your own. But this property is not your own. He gave it to you. and he may call upon you to give to him an account of your stewardship. You are compassionate; — right also. But what if he set up the measure of the sanctuary upon your compassion?

and, instead of a desultory instinct, excited to feeling by a moving picture of sensibility, and hmited in effect to a humble fraction of your expenditure, he call upon you to love your neighbour as yourself, and to maintain this principle at the expense of self-denial, and in the midst of manifold provocations? You love your children; — still indispensably right. But what if he should say, and he has actually said it, that you may know how to give good gifts unto your children, and still be evil? and that if you love father, or mother, or wife, or children, more than him, you are not worthy of hin? The lustre of your accomplishments dazzles the eye of your neighbourhood, and you bask with a delighted heart in the sunshine of glory. But what if he should say, that his glory, and not your own, should be the constant aim of your doings? and that if you love the praise of men more than the praise of God, you stand, in the pure and spiritual records of heaven, convicted of idolatry? You love the things of the world; and the men of the world, coming together in judgment upon you, take no offence at it. But God takes offence at it. He says, — and is he not right in saying? — that if the gift withdraw the affections from the Giver, there is something wrong; that the love of these things is opposite to the love of the Father; and that, unless you withdraw your affections from a world that perisheth, you will perish along with it. Surely if these, and such like principles, may consist with the atheism of a world where God is unthought of, and. unknown, — you stand convicted of a still deeper and more

determined atheism, who, under the revelation of a God challenging the honour that is due unto his name, are satisfied with your

holding in society, and live without him in the world.