A SERMON.

ROм. II. 23.

Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonourest thou God?

It was the good pleasure of God to take one people out of the whole earth to instruct in his truth, when the rest of the world lay in ignorance and wickedness. It was not for any merit in the Jews that they were chosen to be his people; but God had made a covenant with Abraham, that, in reward for his faith, (a reward not of debt, but of grace) all the families of the earth should be blessed in his offspring; in other words, that of him should come the promised seed, the Redeemer of mankind. Now it was necessary that the people among whom that Redeemer should appear, should be prepared for his coming, that they should know him when he came, and be able to understand his doctrine. And therefore, or for other reasons wise and good, it was the pleasure of God to make himself especially known to the Israelites to give them a law which taught them how to love and obey him, and opened the way for the more spiritual disclosures of the gospel; which was a schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ;" showing them by its holiness the sinfulness of their hearts, (for by the law was the knowledge of sin;) teaching them by its ceremonies the need and nature of an atonement for sin, and of a mediator between God and man; and thus fitting them, when Christ should appear, both to understand and embrace his doctrine. When he came, indeed, the heads of the Jewish nation, and the majority of the people, rejected him; "not as though the word of God had taken none effect; it was no defect in the counsels of God; the law was fully equal to its purpose with those who accepted him-and, as the Jews were by that time scattered through all parts of the earth, and had their places of religious worship, they made way for the preaching of the Apostles, and for the spread of the gospel all over the world. And thus God fulfilled all his purpose. He made the free wills of evil men work out his great plan of the redemption of mankind; "both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined before to be done." While at the same time there was a remnant according to the election of Grace;"-there were many who received the promised Sacrament, and whom God graciously snatched from the ruin which his persecutors and murderers had brought upon themselves. And these were the means of making known his truth to the most distant nations of the earth.

The intention of the law was not then to benefit the Jews onlyit was intended to introduce the Saviour to all mankind, by making ready a people prepared for the Lord; by producing, even at the outset of the gospel, preachers trained to understand and to value

it, who, both in number and in accomplishment, should be equal to the great task they were to undertake. So that the Jew had no cause of boasting, as if he were the especial favourite of God; and even if he had been, this would still have been no matter for boasting; for it was for no merit or service of his own.

Yet the Jew, we find, did make his boast of the law. It is the Jew whom St. Paul addresses in the text: "Thou that makest thy boast of the law." And certainly, if the greatness of a blessing gave any title for boasting, no nation on earth had so great reason to boast as the Jews. God had been content to call himself their God, and them his people. “ He had not dealt so with any nation." Nothing was wanting to make the advancement of the Jews greater than could be claimed by the most favoured of the heathen world. To them pertained “ the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the services of God, and the promises;" theirs were the fathers, and of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.

It was nothing wonderful that the Jew should make his boast in the law. True, it was no merit of his that he possessed it—but what do we boast of that we have not received? And when persons boast of their outward accomplishments, or their riches, or their wisdom, or their knowledge, or their great achievements, which of these is not the gift or the work of God? The Jew, in boasting, sinned; but he sinned as other men-he did that which every heart is naturally bent to do to glory in itself rather than in the Lord. And he certainly boasted of a worthier distinction than birth, or beauty, or human wisdom, or buman renown-he boasted of the knowledge of God-all his privileges had something immediately divine-they were all connected with heaven and eternity-and if it was then considered matter of pride to be a citizen of Rome, the mistress of the world,-what a privilege to be a citizen of the kingdom of Heaven, the chief of all kingdoms, before which every other should be broken in pieces like a potter's vessel, when the kingdoms of the world should become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, and he should reign for ever and ever.

It was sinful, then, but not unnatural, that the Jew should make his boast in the law. But there was one thing which was more sinful, and might seem too, at first, unnatural; and this was that he should break the law in which he boasted, and dishonour the God in whose honour he gloried. The noble who makes his boast of his birth does not take his friends and associates from the prison. The woman who boasts of her beauty, does not mar and disfigure it. Those who boast themselves in their wealth or their wisdom, display the advantages in which they glory. But the Jew acted quite otherwise-he boasted of the law, and then broke it-broke it in the most wilful and decided manner for the chapter now before us speaks of theft, adultery, idolatry and sacrilege-acts which the most ignorant Jew must know to be forbidden in the law whereof he boasted. What was, in fact, the real superiority of the Jew over the Gentile ?-that he had a law which enabled him to have much clearer views of his God and his

duty, than the world. But if he neglected his duty, and dishonoured his God, this very same law pronounced against him the most terrific judgments; and if he did these things, and boasted of the law, he acted like a condemned malefactor, who should boast of the blessings of a free trial, whereby he had already been sentenced to die.

I have said this conduct of the Jew may appear unnatural as well as sinful. It is certainly very different from the conduct of all mankind in every thing else but the things of God. But the truth is, every thing that is sinful is but too natural; and such is the love of sin which belongs to our nature, that, rather than not have our sins, we will act against the plainest reason, act the very opposite of what we should do, in every conceivable case beside. And we may consider, not unprofitably, whether the sin which the Apostle charges on the Jew may not be charged on Christians likewise-at least on those who profess to hold, and in especial purity, the doctrine of Christ.

Many circumstances have shown, my brethren, beyond all pos sibility of question, that there is an immense preponderance of attachment to the Church, by God's blessing, established in this country. God grant that it may be a rejoicing, and not a boasting; or if a glorying, a glorying in the Lord only. For certainly we are as little indebted to ourselves for the spiritual blessings we enjoy, as the Jews were for theirs. It is no merit of ours that we were not born in the northern regions of the new world, where a minister of the gospel is not to be found within a circuit of one hundred miles; or in the south of Europe, where the Bible is a sealed book, and gospel truth mixed with profane fable; or in the eastern countries, where heathenism shares the empire of mankind with imposture. To the Lord be the glory that he has given us a Church, which has faithfully translated the Bible for every man of her communion to read in his own tongue the wonderful works of God-a Church which provides for the consecration of the sabbath-which affords her congregations prayers, thanksgivings, intercessions for every possible and conceivable circumstance in which they can be placed which calls their attention, in succession, to every truth of the gospel-which brings them with solemn warning, yet gentle encouragement to the table of their Lord-which receives her children from the cradle at the font of regeneration-which teaches them their belief and their duty in a Catechism drawn from the pure fount of Scripture-a catechism, which, while it opens the way for youth, contains the most valuable knowledge for maturity and age. To God be the glory that we have a Church which inculcates and ratifies the baptismal vow with all the most solemn and affecting circumstances-which gives the thankful mother language to express her gratitude for deliverance, her joy that a man is born into the world-which sanctifies the most endearing of relations, and chastens with instruction and warning the joy of the bridal-which applies to the soul the seasonable warnings of sickness, bringing instruction and truth to the bed of suffering and decay-which comforts the mourner even beside the grave, and teaches him where to look for support and consolation. To God alone be the

glory of all these things; he gave them, and through him alone can we keep them. Yet, certainly, if we might boast of any thing we have received, we might boast of our Church for all that the Jew possessed in the shadow of his law, we have in the substance of our gospel. But we must not boast-we may only be thankful.

The most important point, however, which connects this subject with the text, is the conduct of professing Churchmen. If we boast of our Church, how is it that we live so little in her spirit ?-Many a man is there who would start at the thought of wilfully destroying his Bible, who, nevertheless, scarcely ever looks into it; and many a one is there who would no less revolt from the thought of ruin to the Church of his country, and who yet lives as he would do in a land where there were no religious ordinances at all. "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." It is surely no very high degree of piety that contents itself with shrinking from acts like these. A man might as well take credit for beneficence because he did not torture and persecute his species. What is the true value of the Church ?-that which made the value of the law-IT BRINGS US TO CHRIST-it points the way to him, and supplies our fainting souls with strength for the journey. Now what if we never go this way? what are we the better for a pure and faithful Church? That Church is still pure and faithful, but are we pure and faithful members ?--for this is what we must consider. In what spirit do we use her services? They warn us, as often as we hear them, that "the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness," to "confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent and obedient heart,"-and that we ought "at all times," and not only in the public prayers of the Church, "humbly to acknowledge our sins before God." This is what the Church teaches-and if we confess not our sins in the sight of God, and feel their weight and their guilt, we are no true Churchmen. The Church teaches us to say-" the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable." Is this, my brethren, the feeling of our hearts? We pray that we may "live a godly, righteous, and sober life." Are we sincere in the pursuit of what we pray for? The Church tells us that God" desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live." That "he pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel." Gracious declarations these but do we turn from our wickedness, that we may live ?-do we truly repent, and unfeignedly believe God's holy gospel? If attachment to the Church is so general as it certainly is, and every Churchman truly repents, why does sin still stalk abroad in the world, without shame too, and in the light of the day? Drunkenness, with all the misery and vice attendant on it, is still widely prevalent, and even among those who do not altogether keep away from the messages of merey. If these persons would be Churchmen to any purpose, they must live as they profess. It is not attendance on the ordinances, but living in the spirit of our Church. What says God to the Jews? "Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods, whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name, and say, We