SERMON XLI.

JOHN, VIII. 31-38.

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest thou, ye shall be made free? Jesus auswered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth

not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

IN the close of our last discourse it was observed, that they who believed in our Lord in consequence of the words then delivered by him, escaped the guilt of crucifying the Lord of glory. This we may hope was the case; and that they will to eternity receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls. It does not however certainly follow. The faith of some of these men might be like that of the stony ground hearers. They might believe only for a time. Our Lord would not immediately pronounce them disciples for such a confession. He encouraged them, indeed, but did not at once buoy them up with a confident persuasion of the safety of their state. He intimated to them that their stedfastness must be proved by time and by obedience. They must continue in his words. If they did so, the principle, "To him that hath shall be given," would be realized in them. They should not only be acknowledged as disciples, but advanced to a higher state both in knowledge and in privilege. They should know the truth, and the truth should make them free.

It is worthy to be noticed, how often the figurative language used by our Lord was misunderstood. When he instructed Nicodemus in the necessity of a new birth, Nicodemus under

stood him of a natural birth. When to the woman of Samaria he spoke of living water, she thought he meant the water of the well at which he was sitting. When he told the Jews that unless they ate the flesh of the Son of man and drank his blood, they had no life in them; they understood him in a natural sense, and said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat." And when he guarded his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, they thought he spoke of the leaven of bread. So here, when in language which seems scarcely liable to be misunderstood, he promises knowledge of the truth and liberty to those who believed in him, provided they continued in his words, the bystanders conceived him to speak of civil liberty, and their national pride was immediately roused, “We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest thou, ye shall be made free?" Alas! this pride of theirs, as is the case with all pride, far outstepped the truth in its boasting. Were not their fathers the seed of Abraham who were in bondage in Egypt? Were not they the children of Abraham who were in captivity in Babylon? What meant they then by the argument, "We are Abraham's seed?" or what by the assertion, "We were never in bondage to any man?" Their boasting was vain. They were in bondage at that very time; they were under a Roman governor, and paid tribute to Cæsar.

Palpably false however as their statement was, our Lord contends not the point with them. He enters not into politics, but confines himself to spiritual instruction. He shews them that they entirely mistook the nature of the liberty which he intended; he spoke not of political, but of spiritual freedom, and of the servitude not of their bodies, but of their souls. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." This answer has always appeared to me somewhat difficult. We may seem indeed at the first view to catch a sort of general glimpse of its meaning. The tenor of the whole passage may seem to intimate that from the church, the house of the living God, the servants of sin shall be cast out, and the sons of God, and

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they only, remain in it. But when we want to see more exactly how the several clauses present to us this sense, then arises the difficulty, "He that committeth sin is the servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house for ever;" in what house? in the house of his master, one would suppose. But sin is the master of him who commits it. house of sin therefore that he does not abide ? the other hand, means the Son of God, abiding for ever in his own house, and giving a permanent abode there to those also whom he brings into a state of son-ship with himself, and thus makes free indeed. Are there then two houses spoken of in the text? or if not, how can the argument that the servant abideth not in the house for ever, be applied to a house to which that servant does not belong?

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Perhaps we may say, that our Lord merely states a general case, what commonly takes place among men, and leaves it to be applied to the servants of sin on the one hand, to the children of God on the other. In families servants have an uncertain continuance, while the children of a family still remain, many servants come and go. So it is in the case before He that committeth sin is the servant of sin; and as a servant he abideth not in the house for ever. The service and the pleasures of sin are but for a season. In a little time there will be an end of his rioting and drunkenness, of his chambering and wantonness, of his fraud and dishonest gain. He must quit the service of sin, and receive the wages of it in eternal death. Again, apply it to the sons of God. "The Son abideth in the house for ever; this is true of every child of God. The pleasures of sinners end with this life. When they are turned out of the world, they are turned out of all; but the joys and employments of the children of God which are begun on earth, are continued in heaven. The children of God who are in his house or church here, continue to be in his house still when they join the church of the first-born which are written in heaven. And though they are many who attain this privilege, they attain it through the merit of one. There is one who is eminently the Son of God; all the other children are made such by adoption in him. If he makes men free, they are free indeed, and possess a nobler

liberty than that to which the Jews falsely pretended when they said they had never been in bondage to any man. What this liberty is we shall see in the sequel. Let us at present attend to the continuation of our Lord's discourse.

"I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you." Our Lord admits that they were, in one sense, the seed of Abraham. They were his seed according to the flesh, but not the children of promise, nor interested in the blessing; for though they sprung from the loins of Abraham, they were not inheritors of his faith. The spirit which was in Abraham was not in them. Abraham believed the word of God, though it must have been very contrary to his love of ease, and to the suggestions of worldly prudence. The Jews disbelieved the word of God, and sought to kill him who delivered it to them, though God bore testimony to him by miracles such as Abraham never saw. The reason was, in Abraham there was a spirit which bowed to the will of God when signified to him; in them a spirit which resisted that will,—the words of Christ had no place in them. They were not of God, and therefore did not hear God's words; in vain did Christ speak to them what he had heard from his Father, they had no ears to hear. Their pride and their worldly lusts blinded them; they did that which they had seen with their father. They called Abraham indeed their father, but there was another who might more properly be called their father; whom they resembled, and under whose influence they acted. Who this was we must see in another discourse, and proceed to the improvement of what we have already been considering.

In doing this, the first thing which I would observe is, that all are not disciples indeed, who are disciples in name; and that it is not after the method of our Lord, for either ministers or others hastily to pronounce any man a disciple on a short profession. We may hope the best; we should be ready to believe the best; but after all, the tree must be known by its fruits, and time and trial are necessary to prove every man. The fairest appearances sometimes disappoint our expectations, and men who have run well for a time, have after a time ceased to obey the truth. Those only are the disciples of

Christ indeed who continue in his words. This is a large expression. It comprehends much. To continue in the words of Christ is to live under the habitual influence of them, of them all, of whatever kind, whether they be promises, or threatenings, or doctrines, or precepts; and to venture to live according to them, unmoved by the opposition of the world, or the dread of singularity. Alas! how many are there who are religious just as far as custom and fashion sanction, and are as much afraid of going a step farther as they are of committing a great sin. This is not to continue in the words of Christ, but in the words of the world. And those whose obedience toward him is thus taught by the precept of man, Christ will not own as his disciples at the last day. Those who thus follow Christ only as far as the world permits them, may find, if they will examine themselves, that even as far as they do go they are not influenced by the words of Christ, but by the opinion of the world. They would have been much the same men that they are if they had never heard any of the words of Christ at all.

And there is one thing which is always wanting in their character growth in grace. They make no progress. They are the same men year after year, improving neither in knowledge, nor in any one christian attainment. But this is not the case with those who continue in Christ's words. They advance both in knowledge and in holiness. Of them Christ says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Some knowledge of the truth they must have had already, from the moment of their believing, for what did they believe but the truth? But they shall know more. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit they shall come to that ripeness of knowledge, and that full assurance of understanding in the mystery of Christ, which shall deliver them from the bondage of sin, and, bringing them into the glorious liberty of the children of God, shall make them free indeed.

When I mention this freedom, my brethren, do I mention a thing which seldom comes into your minds? Does the word liberty generally bring to your thoughts national or civil liberty? Yes, even so it is with too many; you think and talk of political restraints, and political rights, such restraints as you