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tentedness, where it was not given. When Jesus said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. . . . . Many of His disciples. . . . said, This is a hard saying: who can hear it? . . . and from that time many went back, and walked no more with Him. . . . Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Here is the trial of faith, a difficulty. Those "that believe not "fall away; the true disciples remain firm, for they feel their eternal interes's at stake, and ask the very plain and practical, as well as affectionate question, " To whom shall we go, if we leave Christ ?"*

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At another time our Lord says, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent, (those who trust reason rather than Scripture and conscience,) and hast revealed them unto babes (those who humbly walk by faith.) Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."†

Our Saviour

5. Now what do we gain from thoughts such as these? gives us the conclusion, in the words which follow a passage just read to you. "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given him of my Father." Or, again, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him." Therefore, if we feel the necessity of coming to Christ, yet the difficulty, let us recollect that the gift of coming is in God's hands, and that we must pray Him to give it to us. Christ does not merely tell us, that we cannot come of ourselves, (though this he does tell us,) but He tells us also with whom the power of coming is lodged, with His Father, that we may seek it of Him. It is true, religion has an austere. appearance to those who never have tried it; its doctrines full of mystery, its precepts of harshness; so that it is uninviting, offending different men in different ways, but in some way offending all. When then we feel within us the risings of this opposition to Christ, proud aversion to His Gospel, or a low-minded longing after this world, let us pray God to draw us; and though we cannot move a step without Him, at least let us try to move. He looks into our hearts, and sees our strivings even before we strive, and he blesses and strengthens even our feebleness. Let us get rid of curious and presumptuous thoughts by going about our business, whatever it is; and let us mock and baffle the doubts which Satan whispers to us by acting against them. No matter whether we believe doubtingly or not, or know clearly or not, so that we act upon our belief. The rest will follow in time; part in

At length when our

this world, part in the next. Doubts may pain, but they cannot harm unless we give way to them; and that we ought not to give way our conscience tells us, so that our course is plain. And the more we are in earnest to" work out our salvation," the less shall we care to know how those things really are, which perplex us. hearts are in our work, we shall be indisposed to take the trouble of listening to curious truths, (if they are but curious,) though we might have them explained to us. For what says the Holy Scripture? that of speculations "there is no end," and they are "a weariness of the flesh;" but that we must "fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

SERMON XVII.

THE SELF-WISE INQUIRER.

1 COR. iii. 18, 19.

"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own crafti. ness."

AMONG the various deceptions against which St. Paul warns us, a principal one is that of a false wisdom; as in the text. The Corinthians prided themselves on their intellectual acuteness and knowledge; as if any thing could equal the excellence of Christian love. Accordingly St. Paul, writing to them, says, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world," (i. e. has the reputation of wisdom in the world,) "let him become a fool, (what the world calls a fool,) that he may (really) be wise." "For," he proceeds, (just as real wisdom is foolishness in the eyes of the world, so in turn,) "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."

This warning of the Apostle against our trusting our own wisdom, may lead us, through God's blessing, to some profitable reflections to-day. The world's wisdom is said to be foolishness in God's sight; and the

Eccles. xii. 12, 13.

end of it, error, perplexity, and then ruin. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." Here is one especial reason why professed inquirers after Truth do not find it. They seek it in a wrong way, by a vain wisdom, which leads them away from the Truth, however it may seem to promise success.

Let us then inquire, what is this vain wisdom, and then we shall the better see how it leads men astray.

Now, when it is said that to trust our own notions is a wrong thing and a vain wisdom, of course this is not meant of all our own notions whatever; for we must trust our own notions in one shape or other, and some notions which we form are right and true. The question, therefore, is, what is that evil trusting to ourselves, that sinful self-confidence, or self-conceit, which is called in the text "the wisdom of the world," and is a chief cause of our going wrong in our religious inquries?

These are the notions which we may trust without blame; viz. such as come to us by way of our Conscience, for such come from God. I mean our certainty, that there is a right and a wrong, that some things ought to be done, and other things not done; that we have duties, the neglect of which brings remorse; and, further, that God is good, wise, powerful, and righteous, and that we should try to obey Him. All these notions, and a multitude of others like these, come by natural conscience, i. e. they are impressed on all our minds from our earliest years without our trouble. They do not proceed from the mere exertion of our minds, though it is true they are strengthened and formed thereby. They proceed from God, whether within us or without us; and though we cannot trust them so implicitly as we can trust the Bible, because the truths of the Bible are actually preserved in writing, and so cannot be lost or altered, still, as far as we have reason to think them true, we may rely in them, and make much of them, without incurring the sin of self-confidence. These notions which we obtain without our exertion will never make us proud or conceited, because they are ever attended with a sense of sin and guilt, from the remembrance that we have at times transgressed and injured them. To trust them is not the false wisdom of the world, or foolishness, because they come from the All-wise God. And far from leading a man into error, they will, if obeyed, of a certainty lead him to a firm belief in Scripture; in which he will find all those vague conjectures and imperfect notions about Truth, which his own heart taught him, abundantly sanctioned, completed, and illustrated.

Such then are the opinions and[feelings of which a man is not proud. What are those of which he is likely to be proud? those which he ob

tains, not by nature, but by his own industry, ability, and research; those which he possesses and others not. Every one is in danger of valuing himself for what he does; and hence truths (or fancied truths) which a man has obtained for himself after much thought and labour, such he is apt to make much of, and to rely upon; and this is the source of that vain wisdom of which the Apostle speaks in the text.

Now (I say) this confidence in our own reasoning powers not only leads to pride, but to "foolishness" also, and destructive error, because it will oppose itself to Scripture. A man who fancies he can find out truth by himself, disdains revelation. He who thinks he has found it out, is impatient of revelation. He fears it will interfere with his own imaginary discoveries; he is unwilling to consult it; and when it does interfere, then he is angry. We hear much of this proud rejection of the truth in the Epistle from which the text is taken. The Jews felt anger, and the Greeks disdain, at the Christian doctrine. "The Jews required a sign, (according to their preconceived notions concerning the Messiah's coming,) and the Greeks seek after wisdom, (some subtle train of reasoning,) but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness."* In another place the Apostle says of the misled Christians of Corinth, "Now ye are full" of your own notions, "now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us;" i. e. you have prided yourself on a wisdom, "without," separate from, the truth of Apostolic doctrine. Confidence, then, in our own reasoning powers leads to (what St. Paul calls) foolishness, by causing in our hearts an indifference, or a distaste for Scripture information.

But, besides thus keeping us from the best of guides, it also makes us fools, because it is a confidence in a bad guide. Our reasoning powers are very weak in all inquiries into moral and religious truth. Clear-sighted as reason is on other subjects, and trust-worthy as a guide, still in questions connected with our duty to God and man it is very unskilful and equivocating. After all, it barely reaches the same great truths which are authoritatively set forth by Conscience and by Scrip ture; and if it be used in religious inquiries without reference to these divinely-sanctioned informants, the probability is, it will miss the Truth altogether. Thus the (so called) wise will be taken in their own craftiAll of us, doubtless, recollect our Lord's words, which are quite to the purpose: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, (those who trust in their own intellectual powers,) and hast revealed them unto babes." those, i. e. that act by faith, and for conscience-sake.

ness.

+

* 1 Cor. i. 22, 23.

+ 1 Cor. iv. 8.

+ Matt. xi. 25,

The false wisdom, then, of which St. Paul speaks in the text, is a trusting our own powers for arriving at religious truth, instead of taking what is divinely provided for us, whether in nature or revelation. This is the way of the world. In the world, Reason is set against Conscience, and usurps its power; and hence men become "wise in their own conceits," and "leaning to their own understandings," "err from the truth." Let us now review some particulars of this contest between our instinctive sense of right and wrong, and our weak and conceited

reason.

It begins within us when childhood and boyhood are past, and the time comes for our entrance into life. Before that time we trusted our divinely-enlightened sense of duty and our right feeling implicitly; and though (alas!) we continually transgressed, and so impaired this inward guide, at least we did not question its authority. Then we had that original temper of faith, wrought in us by baptism, the spirit of little children, without which our Lord assures us, none of us, young or old, can enter the kingdom of heaven.*

But when our minds became more manly, and the world opened upon us, then in proportion to the intellectual gifts with which God had honoured us, came the temptation of unbelief and disobedience. Then came reason, led on by passion, to war against our better knowledge. We were driven into the wilderness, after our Lord's manner, by the very Spirit given us, which exposed us to the Devil's devices, before the time or power came of using the gift in God's service. And how many of the most highly-endowed then fall away under trials which the sinless Son of God withstood! He feels for all who are tempted, having Himself suffered temptation; yet what a sight must He see, and by what great exercise of mercy must the Holy Jesus endure, the bold and wicked thoughts which often reign the most triumphantly in the breasts of those (at least for a time) whom He has commissioned by the abundance of their talents to be the especial ministers of His will!

A murmuring against that religious service which is perfect freedom, complaints that Christ's yoke is heavy, a rebellious rising against the authority of Conscience, and a proud arguing against the Truth, or at least an endurance of doubt and scoffing, and a light, unmeaning use of sceptical arguments and assertions; these are the beginnings of apostacy. Then come the affectation of originality, the desire to appear manly and independent, and the fear of the ridicule of our acquaintance, all combining to make us first speak, and then really think evil of the supreme authority of religion. This gradual transgression of the

* Matt. xviii. 3.

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