All possible circumstances appear to con- | mony at this time would be economy ill cur in recommending to your notice a scheme placed indeed. Spare something in the magthus calculated for the preservation of life, the relief of indigence, the honor of marriage, the encouragement of population, and, as a consequence of all, the general welfare of society. It must be approved, as soon as known; and when approved, it will be encouraged. To these poor, but not the less valuable mothers, in the hour of their utmost distress and sharpest anguish, open your hands, and open them wide. Whatever you bestow, it will be well bestowed, and properly expended. In every sense truly respectable, honorable, and noble are the persons, who have been pleased to take upon themselves the superintendence of the expenditure. Parsi nificence of your houses and style of living, in the splendor of your furniture, the costliness of your apparel, the luxury of your tables, and your visits to public places; but in your charity spare nothing. On the receipt of your incomes, set aside immediately some certain portion for this purpose. When objects offer, there will be a fund to draw upon; you will give cheerfully, and without grudging; you will always be giving, you always have something to give and that which is so given will be returned to you, with increase abundant and eternal, when, in the sight of assembled nations, and all the hosts of heaven, the saying will be verified"Blessed are the merc this it appears, that since the establishment, in 1780, tain mercy." 9819 persons have been delivered. {The following Sermons do not appear in the English edition of Bishop Horne's Works. They are here published from separate pamphlet..] DISCOURSE LXXVI. THE SPIRIT OF MAN. PROV. XX. 27. he Spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord. THE text is an account of the soul, or spiritual part in man, which, as it is not an object of sense, cannot otherwise be described to us, while we are in the body, than by analogy, or comparison with something that is. The medium pitched upon by the Holy Spirit in this place is a candle, or rather, as it is in the margin, a lamp, for which the word is constantly used. The Spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, i. e. its operations and manner of performing them are similar to those of a lamp, and it is supported in them by Jehovah spiritually, as a lamp is in nature physically. Now in a lamp it is well known are these four things-1st, a vessel which contains the whole. In this is placed, 2ndly, a substance capable of being illuminated, though in itself absolutely without light, which is, in the 3rd place necessary to kindle it, and then, 4thly, must have constant recruits of oil to supply it, and keep it burning. My business therefore at this time shall be to show, that these four particulars are as spiritually true in the soul of man, as they are physically so in a lamp; which I apprehend will be the proper way of explaining the text, and showing how the Spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah. As the text thus opened will afford abundant matter for our meditation, I shall not detain you with any farther preface, but proceed to show in the Ist place, that the soul has a vessel in which it is inclosed and contained. And for this, I think, we should not have been at a loss, even though St. Paul had not told us it is the body, as he does, when he says -*God who commanded the light to shine | God distributeth sorrows-everlasting sorout of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, rows-in his anger.* The same says Soloto give the light of the knowledge of the mon-The light of the righteous-those glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; that are justified or made righteous by i. e. to illuminate our souls. But (proceeds Christ, their light-rejoices-flourishes and the apostle), we have this treasure, our souls increases more and more-but the lamp of so illuminated by the knowledge of Christ, the wicked shall be put out. And again in earthen vessels, viz. our bodies, in which,There shall be no reward to the evil man during the present state of things, the soul-no reward in another life, because he has is confined, and lets the light it has received his portion in this-on the contrary—the shine forth before men, through the lattices lamp of the wicked shall be put out. The of the bodily senses and faculties. When to this we add the passages, where our bodies are called vessels, which we are ordered to possess in sanctification and honor ;† when we recollect, that St. Paul was a chosen vessel to bear that word before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel, which was to be lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their paths;§ and lastly, that the church, the body of Christ, is called a candlestick, or vessel to hold out and dispense the divine light to a darkened and benighted world; it will not be thought necessary, I believe, to spend more time in the proof of this first point, that the body is the vessel of this lamp of Jehovah. II. Within this vessel of the body is contained the soul, which though it be capable of receiving illumination from God, and formed on purpose to receive it, is yet, in itself, absolutely dark, I mean it so in that fallen state, which is now become its natural state, or state of nature. For when Adam was created, it was given him a burning and a shining light, with continual supplies from God, to preserve it with him on earth, till, by translation, it should have been lost in the bright effulgence of that light in which God dwelleth. But at the fall, this heavenly lamp in him was extinished, and put out in obscure darkness. Of this the following texts of SS. I believe, will be thought sufficient proof. The light of the wicked (says Bildad in Job) shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his lamp shall be put out with him. T If any doubt should arise concerning this testimony, as it comes from one who had not spoken right concerning God, in some things, as his servant Job had, it may be confirmed by Job himself, who says -How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and, as the dreadful consequence, how often cometh their destruction upon them, even destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power Psalmist says to God-Thou wilt light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. § To which, I shall only add, that we subscribe every day, when in the form of our most excellent liturgy we pray to God, that he would enlighten our darkness, which is acknowledging, that our souls are naturally in a state of darkness, and stand in need of constant illumination from the Father of lights. From this evidence laid together, and duly considered, it appears, that the divine light infused by God into the soul of man, called in SS. a lamp, may be quenched and put out, and that the way to do this is by sin-The lamp of the wicked shall be put out. When therefore by that grand and original sin at the fall, the foundation and seed-plot of all other sins, big with the transgressions of ages and generations, the light that was in us became darkness, how great was that darkness!|| So thick and dismal it is, that the soul of man, when in this state of nature, unregenerated and unilluminated by the Word and the Spirit of God, is said in Scripture to be like the beasts that perish. Man, (says David) being in honor-or glory-did not continue in it—but fell from it, and so-became like the beasts that perish. Nay, St. Peter and St. Jude, speaking of those apostate heretics, who, after they had been enlightened, relapsed again into the state of origi nal natural darkness they were born in, say of them, they were as ta ahora (wa brutes without reason. Why the want of this reduced them to a level with brutes, both those apostles inform us, viz. because without that, they were confined to earthly things, to what they knew naturally,†† φυσικώς hot πνευματικως as brute beasts. Their wisdom was the wisdom that descended not from above, but is first earthly, without anything of heaven in it, then sensual, not having the Spirit, and then devilish, not leading the possessors of it to * Job, xxi. 17. † Prov. xiii. 9. Ps xviii 28. 1 Ps. xlix. 13. 12 Pet. ii. 12. Jude 10. †† Jud. 10. ‡‡ Jam. iii. 15. ** as tal, to bear that punishment. So divinely just and true is the idea given us of it by the Scripture image of a lamp, that it is indeed capable of illumiation, but that illumination is not essential to it; for the illumination may be withdrawn, and it may still continue in being as a soul, in the same manner as the light of a lamp may be extinguished, and yet the substance and frame of it be the same as before. * He is God and Christ, but to oppose and cavil at their gracious dispensations. For as man in this dark state of nature, with his lamp put out, knows only earthly things, and in those things he does know corrupts himself, so St. Peter tells us, he never fails to speak evil of those things he understands not,* the spiritual things of God. St. Paul gives us the reason-The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And again III. In this dreadful state of worse than -The natural man receiveth not the things Egyptian darkness, man, as he had brought of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish- himself into it, against full information, and ness unto him, neither can he know them, the express command of his God, which he because they are spiritually discerned. had power to keep, and no temptation to The spiritual discernment of things above break, but carnal pride and vain curiosity, and beyond the world, realized to the mind might, in justice, have been suffered to conby faith in the revelations of them, which tinue in this world, till he had been conis the very substance of things not seen, as signed over to outer and everlasting darkyet, by the bodily eye, this spiritual dis-ness in another. But here, as always, cernment, I say, spoken of by the apostle mercy rejoiced against judgment, and was in the New Testament, and expressed by over all the works† of the Almighty. Christ the word understanding in the Old, is the was sent, a light to lighten the Gentiles, grand characteristic of man, and seems to and the glory of his people Israel. constitute the essential difference between the true light, that lighteth the lamp of him and the beasts: for in many earthly every man that cometh into the world.§ things, and may I not say, in most of the Nor is it any objection to this, that he did economical, political, and social virtues, not come till very late in the world's durathose irrational creatures even seem to set tion; for as it was fore-ordained in the him a pattern, doing that by instinct, under highest heavens, before all time, that he the direction of an all-wise Creator, who should come, and God, with whom there is made them for the instruction as well as neither past nor future, calleth things that use of man, which he is to do upon the be not as though they were,|| the lamps of Christian principle of faith, which worketh those who lived before his coming were by love. And accordingly the dumb crea- lighted through his merits and intercession, tures are beautifully brought in by Isaiah as much as if what was only ordained, had as reproving an infidel people-The ox then been executed. For Zion's sake, from knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's the beginning, he did not hold his peace, crib; but Israel doth not know, my people for Jerusalem's sake he did not rest, until doth not consider. By the fall this most the righteousness thereof went forth as glorious excellency and perfection of our brightness, and the salvation thereof as a nature, spiritual discernment by faith, was lamp that burneth. When this brightness lost, and we became like the beasts; this and lamp of righteousness and salvation is difference only observed, that as a brute has kindled in the soul by the divine light, freeno free will that he can use, or abuse, he is will must choose whether it will retain it, or entitled to no reward, and liable to no pun- reject it-Behold, I have set before you life ishment, nor does he live in another state, and death, good and evil-choose ;** and being made (as St. Peter assurés us) to be wherever there is choice and free-will, they taken and destroyed.§ Whereas a man has may be abused. This therefore brings the a free will given him, to concur with Christ, matter to a twofold issue. When a lamp is or not, and if he abuses it, and finally re-lighted, and has no damps and vapors to jects all the offers of grace made to him, he will, with the false or unprofitable reasonings he has derived from mere nature, or the suggestions of the evil one, most assuredly be eternally punished in another world; and his soul, though the divine lamp be put out, and the heavenly light withdrawn, will still be preserved inmor 2 Pet. ii. 12. + 1 Cor. ii. 14. VOL. II. † Rom. viii. 7. § 2 Pet. ii. 12. 50 overwhelm it, it grows and spreads, until by degrees it gets the better of the darkness, assimilates it to itself, and turns the whole into light. Even so, Solomon tells us, The path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the per * Jam. ii. 13. Rom. iv. 17. ** Deut. xxx. 15, 19. † Psal. cxlv. 9 § John, i. 9. Isa. Ixii. 1. ous body, by that mighty working whereby he, as the divine light-is able to subduereduce, or conform-all things to himself.* After this speculation so delightful and comfortable to the mind of the believer, it may not be so agreeable to take a view of the opposite progress. But we must do it, that we may know what it is, and how to avoid fect day. When the lamp of Jehovah is lighted in the soul of man, and not overwhelmed by sensuality, it in the same manner conquers and triumphs over the natural darkness that is in us, subdues and conforms it to itself, and the whole becomes full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle giveth light. Then it is that the lamp of Jehovah (as the words following my it. When a lamp therefore is surrounded text speak,) searches all the inward parts with gross earthly vapors, they will clog of the belly, i. e. enters into and explores and impede its action, and after several all the hidden chambers and cells of the struggles finally put it out. Just so fares soul, purges them of every grain of sooty it with the divine light in the hearts of some darkness that lurks in them, and makes the men. For if once we receive into us the whole, like itself, manifest and transparent. foul Spirit of the world, even the devil, All which is exactly and beautifully de- who is the prince of it, with earthly and scribed by the apostle-For ye, says he, sensual, instead of heavenly and spiritual speaking to the Ephesians, were darkness, thoughts and affections, there must be a but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk struggle and contest. There is no fellowas children of light. And have no fellow- ship between Christ and Belial, light and ship with the unfruitful works of dark- darkness.† If darkness increases, light must ness, but rather reprove-or discover- diminish in proportion; and if it still conthem; but all things that are reproved, are tinues to increase, must at last be wholly made manifest by the light; for whatsoever put out, and withdrawn. When this is the doth make manifest, is light. This constitutes what we call a good conscience. When our thoughts and reasonings are directed by the Word and Spirit of God, we have a sure and infallible test whereby to try, when anything offers itself to us, whether it be good or evil, by seeing whether it squares with that. Our knowledge is sound and certain, because it comes from God; our faith firm and stable, because it is built upon that knowledge; and the soul by both is kept flourishing in a joyful and lively hope and love. When the divine light is the agent in the soul, the moment it meets with any darkness to impede and obstruct its operations, it at once recoils, and by that means admonishes us of it; after which it never rests, till it has either wholly expelled it, or conformed it to itself. Which explains another expression often made use of in the Bible, that of our being conformed to the image of God. This image of God is the lamp kindled by the divine light. Adam was created in it, but lost it at the fall, and had the dark image of the wicked one impressed upon his soul in its stead; but when the light was again given by Christ, that was defaced, and the other restored. We are now no longer conformed to this world, and the prince of it, but transformed by the renewing of our minds, from grace to grace, and finally from grace to glory, when Christ shall change our vile bodies also, as well as our souls, and fashion them like unto his giori† Luke xi. 36 Prov. iv. 18. case, man relapses into his natural fallen state of extinction and brutality, and is what he would have been, had there been no Christ, and no Redemption. He becomes earthly, sensual, and devilish. The spirit of darkness, which he has chosen, is suffered to take possession of him. It infuses itself into his soul, expels the light out of all the recesses and penetralia of the mind, takes it place, and thenceforward actuates and influences his judgment, and all his reasonings, thoughts, and imaginations. This constitutes a false, or erroneous conscience, judging. of good and evil no longer by the rule of God's Word and Spirit, but that of its own carnal conceits and imaginations, given it by the Spirit of the world, the flesh, and the devil: which therefore must judge and determine exactly contrary to that of God, since what appeared manifestly crooked when applied to the former rule, will appear as manifestly straight when applied to the latter, which, being itself crooked cannot discover the crookedness of anything that coincides with it, but will make that which is really straight seem crooked, because it swerves from it. A conscience of this sort keeps its owner in an absolute ignorance of every thing but what is bad, and either flatters and buoys him up with delusive expectations of he knows not what pleasures and advantages to be got by sinning, though he has tried them all over and over again, and always found them worse than nothing; o * Phil. iii. 21. † 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. On scatters his thoughts into roving and uncer- produce one passage more out of the Old tain imaginations of annihilation and ex- Testament, with the explanation of it in tinction after death, or blasts him with the the New, which I believe will be sufficient. intolerable feelings of guilt and horror at There is a treasure to be desired, says Solohis wickedness, considered in cool blood, mon, and oil in the dwellings of the wise; and despair of God's mercies, which, after but the foolish man spendeth it up. he had known them, having thousands and this divine Proverb our Lord has enlarged thousands of times rejected with scorn and in his parable of the ten virgins,† which is contempt, he cannot now bring himself to very apposite to our present purpose, as it accept. For they are offered to the last, contains in it, in brief, all the points I have and no man is lost, until infinite mercy has been laying down and proving. That you tried all its methods to save him, as every may see them all at one view, I will beg impenitent sinner will be forced to confess, your attention to a very concise and plain in fruitless tears, at the bar of his despised comment upon it. The bridegroom, then, and rejected Redeemer, now become his in that parable, is Christ. The ten virgins justly angry and avenging judge. How are the whole race of mankind, which often, when the unclean Spirit is working should have made up one church, and been its way in the wicked, does it meet with presented as a chaste virgin unto their some of the heavenly light, which seldom, Lord. They had all their lamps given them I believe, wholly forsakes a man until the last moment of his life. Then does it start, and give a most dreadful and tremendous alarm through the whole frame. This is designed as a merciful warning to the infidel, the reprobate, and the debauched: and happy is he if he takes it, and returns from whence he is fallen. But if he come to that pass, which our Saviour assures us it is possible for man to come to, to love darkness rather than light,* he only sets the evil Spirit on the faster to finish his work, extinguish what remains of the good one, and conform all to itself. The soul is transformed from sin to sin, and then from sin to torment; until the body being raised, and having suffered some diabolical change to fit it for the soul, both are cast together into blackness of darkness, though in the midst of devouring flames, for ever and ever. To prevent this dismal extinction of the lamp of Jehovah in everlasting night, let us consider, what was the lighted, their souls illuminated through him. Those that were spiritually foolish, took no oil with them-took not care, by making a proper use of their time on earth, reading God's word, and going on the ways of truth and righteousness, to secure to themselves the blessed Spirit of God to preserve them alive, which the wise did. During the night of this world, while the bridegroom tarried in heaven, they all slumbered and slept in their graves. At midnight, towards the dawning of the last day, a great cry was made, upon the sounding of the trumpet, by the voice of the archangel-Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out of your graves, to meet him in the air. At this awakening sound they all arose from the dead, and thought of trimming their lamps. But those of the foolish, alas, for want of the Spirit of God which had forsaken them went out the moment they laid down to sleep the sleep of death. They now wanted some oil, but the day of grace (which perhaps they had formerly laughed at) was over, it was too late, there was none to be had. They applied to the wise, but they had only enough for themselves, and had no works of supererogation to bestow upon their neighbors, and those who once sold, now sold no more. While they were making these fruitless searches, the bridegroom came, those who were ready went in with him to the marriage, and then those everlasting doors of heaven, which had lifted up their heads for the king of glory and his triumphant bride to enter in, were for ever shut. IVth Particular, the Spiritual oil necessary to preserve it, and keep it alive in our hearts. What this oil is, two texts, I think, will show us. St. Peter tells us in the xth ch. of the Acts, and 38th verse, that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost; and St. John 1 Ep. ii. 20, That we have an unction from the Holy One. The Holy Spirit then is the true divine oil which must feed and nourish our lamps. That was the oil which supplied the brightest lamp that ever shone, and kindled it into a sun, sufficient to enlighten the whole world; for God gave not the Spirit by measuref unto Christ's soul, while it resided on earth I have now done with the explanation of in the tabernacle of his body, the vessel the text, from which we may draw the fol prepared for it from the beginning I will John, iii. 19. ↑ John, iii. 34. * Prov. xxi. 20. 2 Cor. xi. 2. Matt. xxv. 1. |