nothing of Moses, of Mount Sinai, of the bread from Heaven. Had not David been persecuted by Saul, the sweet Psalmist of Israel would not have shown that blessed temper of unwearied forgiveness, nor known of those consolations, and of that Tower of strength, on which he ever delights to dwell. It was the bonds and imprisonment of St. Paul, and the hate of the Jews against him, which sent him to Rome to make known Christ crucified in the capital of the world, and the palace of the Roman emperor. In a word, it was the persecution and enmity of the Jews which occasioned the death of Christ, and the redemption. of the world. And thus it is ever the case that, by the malice and cruelty of the wicked, God in wonderful ways works the greatest good; and therefore well may St. Peter say, "Who is he that will harm you?" "Be not afraid of their terror." Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and all will be well, infinitely well. If God be for us, who can be against us? "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?"

1

Why then, it may be asked, do we pray that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered, that His Church may joyfully serve God in quietness; if this joyfulness in God may be in the midst of persecution, and He may be served in quietness amidst the storms of the world? The fact is, that this distraction of heart, which hinders us from the true service of God, does not so much arise from troubles and enemies that are without, as from the fear of them; and it is by prayer to God that we get rid of such fears.

We pray for peace, and we seek for peace; we would "live peaceably with all men," and would at all times be

1 Job xxxiv. 29.

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peacemakers," as followers of Him Who was the Prince of Peace; and it is thus that He sheds in our hearts His

own peace.

The saints of God in the Book of the Revelation, who in the last days are to overcome all the armies of evil men and evil spirits with which they will have to contend, are described as being without arms, without sword, or spear, or shield, following the Captain of their Salvation, "in linen white and clean," which is said to be "the righteousness of saints;" and that righteousness is described to consist in meek forbearance and patience. "They have

washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb;" it is Him they follow, the Lamb of God, the patient Victim of all endurance; it is by His arms that they conquer; all their strength consists in this, that as He was, so are they in this world.

2 Rev. xix. 14.

G

SERMON LIII.

The Sirth Sunday after Trinity.

Rom. vi. 3-11. St. Matt. v. 20-26.

BROTHERLY LOVE AND THE LIFE IN CHRIST.

Now if we be dead with CHRIST, we believe that we shall also live with Him.-ROM. vi. 8.

THE

THE beautiful Collect for this week consists of a devout aspiration for those joys which are with God, and a prayer for that love which alone can prepare the heart for that rest. As a flame rises upwards, so the love of God in the soul naturally aspires to those joys and that rest which is with Him. But as a tree cannot live and grow, cannot bear flowers and fruit, and expand itself towards Heaven, unless it be first rooted and buried in the ground, so neither can the love of God in the soul, unless that which is earthly be dead and buried with Christ in His death. It is therefore at Baptism that this love is by the Holy Spirit planted within us; it is then that we are buried with Christ, in order that we may live with Him that life which is in God, in holy affections now, and in fulness of joy hereafter. Such, therefore, is the subject of the Epistle. But as this love of God within the heart

can only be known by its fruits, and as these its fruits upon earth consist in the love of our brother, therefore this becomes very properly the lesson of this day's Gospel. For the joys of Heaven and the love of God are things high and spiritual; and when our Lord speaks of them, He turns our attention to those practical duties of love, without which we may deceive ourselves.

But Baptism first is at the root of all, on which St. Paul thus speaks. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? The Christian dwells in continual contemplation on the cross and death of Christ; it is there his heart and affections are fixed; it is there he finds a remedy against sin and strength against temptation. And as we naturally become like that on which we contemplate, it is to him an expressible satisfaction to reflect, that by his very Baptism and new birth he is himself there dead with Christ and buried, in order that he might find in Him a better life; that the very strength and life of his Baptism consists in his being thus made conformable unto Christ's death. "Out of the strong comes forth sweetness,' "1 out of death life; and to resign earthly hopes, pleasures, and advantages, does require that the heart hath found something better, the treasure of new affections, which it values more. And so it is set forth in what follows.

Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection; that is, shall hereafter put on a new

Judg. xiv. 14.

body; in the mean while having, says St. Paul, a life of a hidden nature with Christ in God, which life shall appear when He appears. Even as the life of a tree lies for a while concealed in the seed which seems to die away in the earth; but wait a little while, and in all its fulness it shall appear, spreading in the summer skies. And all these expressions, on which St. Paul delights to dwell, intimate the very strictest union and incorporation of ourselves with Christ in His death, by which we derive continually and draw life.

Knowing this, he proceeds, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. The natural man, the old Adam, is to be dead in the Christian with its sinful desires; dead in that it is continually being mortified, because it is incompatible with that life which is in the new man. For so far only as we are dead to sin are we free from its dominion now or its penalty hereafter. It sounds, indeed, in itself a hard saying; so much so, that it must fall on the heart utterly cold and profitless, and all in vain, to say that we are to be thus dead to ourselves and alive to God, were the doctrine to stand alone; it is from its connexion with Christ that it derives all its power and living efficacy. And we may observe that St. Paul never states anything of the kind except with reference to Christ; every expression of it begins and ends with Christ; it is in Him, from Him, with Him, by Him; this the Apostle always keeps in mind. Christ's example, His sacrifice, His mediation, His grace, His life and death, the memory of Him, the being part of His Body, the living and dying with Him,

Col. iii. 3, 4.