“Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot; and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Cast him, from the lighted chamber, to the darkness of the night without, where he shall bitterly regret the pleasures he has so foolishly lost. Sad emblem of that state, whose sadness can be known, here upon earth, only by emblematical representation, only by such figures as “outer darkness,” as the “worm that never dies,” and “the fire that never shall be quenched;” a darkness of mind, in the utter regions of despair, without a ray from heaven to cheer it; the worm of anguish preying upon the soul; and a fire burning, whether without or within, or both; raging yet not consuming. God grant, that we may hear only of this wretched state “by, the hearing of the ear;” that our eyes may never behold it; that none of us may be consigned to this abode of unredeemed and unredeemable misery: and, that we never may, let us “walk worthy of our vocation;” of the Lord of that heavenly feast, of which we are professing to partake. Put on, my brethren, the wedding garment of the gospel; put it on, or intrude not into the presence-chamber of your Lord; dread the doom of the hypocrite and the despiser; pretend not to partake of the heavenly feast, to expect any of the blessings of the gospel, unless ye consent and seek to be clothed with the raiment provided by your King; with all those christian graces and virtues, which He will enable you to obtain.
If indeed it depended upon ourselves, “miserable and poor and naked” as we are, to provide a suitable covering; if the sinner were required to produce, from his own store, the raiment of holiness and righteousness, and thus make himself acceptable to his Saviour and his God; then would he have much reason to urge for his unworthiness and deficiency: for he has no means of making any such provision; he has not “wherewith he shall come before the Lord:” his heart is corrupt; his character is unholy; and he has no power to change them. But the provision does not depend upon ourselves; what the Lord commands us to be clothed with, He has mercifully prepared: He gives His Holy Spirit, to change the heart and reform the character; to enable us to “put off the old man with the deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” This spiritual clothing the Lord offers to all His followers; and woe be to those, who refuse or slight it: for this is a contempt of His divine mercy; a defiance of His authority and command: the expectation of His favour, on such terms, is adding insult to presumption. If we do make a profession of belonging to Him, let us not thus foolishly cast away our hope; let us not deceive ourselves by imagining, that we can possibly maintain a title to the privileges and blessings of the gospel, whilst we are living in the neglect of those ordinances and laws, which the Lord has graciously appointed as the means of our acceptance with Him. They who neglect the means, will assuredly lose the end; will be numbered among the despisers of their Saviour’s mercy.
And in order to keep alive in our minds that deep concern, which so momentous a subject demands, frequently let us be meditating upon that awful hour, when the King shall come in to visit and inspect His guests: His eye shall be upon every one, and every one’s eye upon Him; imagine yourself then in the guest-chamber without a wedding garment; ready and desirous to sink into the earth; but there will be nothing to cover your guilt and shame: though you have entered in with the other guests, and taken your station at the feast, you will be called out from among them, and everlastingly separated from the goodly company. A garment you would then, no doubt, most willingly accept; but it will be too late; it should have been accepted when offered; the season of grace will be past; the time for judgment will be come.
My brethren, you have professedly accepted the invitation of your Lord; you have entered into the guest-chamber; and if you be not already clothed with the spiritual apparel, provided by His grace and mercy, delay not an instant to apply for it: the King may come sooner than you expect; I pray that He come not, before you are ready to meet Him. And where is this garment to be found? Seek His Holy Spirit; search His Holy word: you will then not fail to find it, and He will dispose you to put it on. Repent and believe; love and obey: “cease to do evil, learn to do well;” thus “adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things.” And then you will finally be admitted to the heavenly feast; to the marriage supper of the Lamb; to the company of angels; in the courts of uncreated light—“for the glory of God doth lighten them, and the Lamb is the light thereof;” [251a] “In whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” [251b]
SERMON XIV.
WALK WORTHY OF THE LORD, BE FRUITFUL, AND INCREASING.
Col. i. 10.
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the know ledge of God.
One of the great objects of St. Paul, in writing his epistles, appears to be considerably overlooked by the christian world at large: it was, to lead those churches and communities, in which the true foundation of Christianity had been laid, to build upon it a corresponding character and life. Certainly, a great portion of the epistles is occupied in the assertion and explanation of christian doctrine; and this, principally, with a view to remove certain errors and prejudices, which the members of some churches had entertained; and upon which they had requested the apostle’s decision. But well knowing how apt the human mind is to rest satisfied with speculative views and persuasions, he never omits to remind his converts, that much more was necessary than the profession of a true faith; that in vain would their opinions be rectified, unless their heart was also changed; that though they had “all faith and all knowledge,” it would “profit them nothing,” unless the graces and virtues of their holy religion were signally manifest in their lives.
There is scarcely an epistle, in which the apostle does not labour, with the most intense desire, with the most full and repeated and peremptory injunctions, to press upon them this momentous consideration: there is not, in the word of God, a more complete digest and code of christian duty, than in the writings of St. Paul; and yet they are, by many, almost exclusively regarded as an exposition of deep and mysterious doctrines; as if this were the sole end and purpose for which they were composed. Well would it have been for the christian world, if as much attention had been paid to the practical, as to the theoretical subjects in these divine oracles: we should not then have witnessed so many disputations, in which charity has been lost sight of, nor so much of the “form of godliness without the power;” so many religious terms and denominations, of which the ignorant have understood little but the name: we should have had less of sect, of party, of invidious distinctions of any kind; and more of vital religion amongst us. But it is now, as it ever was, with fallen and degenerate man; he is fonder of exhibiting the powers of his understanding, of exciting his feelings, and of displaying the pride of spiritual knowledge, than of reforming his principles and regulating his conduct: he has therefore directed his view to the mystery of the foundation, and overlooked the directions for raising and completing the superstructure.
Not that the various revelations of doctrine, in the writings of St. Paul, are by any means to be lightly regarded; nor that they do not demand the most reverential attention and profound enquiry: it is of high importance for us to attain a “right judgment in all things:” yet doubtless it would tend more to the edification of Christians in general, if they took greater heed to the rules and precepts of the divine law, to the evidence and fruit of their faith; and to all that neglect them, we would say, “these things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others undone.”
The passage of scripture, from which we are now discoursing, will exemplify these remarks. St. Paul, in the very opening of his epistle, assures the Colossians, that since the day he heard of their conversion, he did “not cease to pray for them and to desire that they might be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”