1187* church, he noticeth their misery, or, according to the force of the original, their pitiful, or pitiable condition; as if he had said, Thou thinkest thyself an object of complacency to every beholder, but truly thou art an object of pity, and I do pity thee from my heart. Thou boastest thyself in thy riches, when, lo! thou art standing in slippery places, and ready to fall into the jaws of destruction. And so it ever is with a man who is all-sufficient to himself, or hath chosen his all-sufficient portion in this world. None so pitiable as he. The case of the remorseful murderer is more hopeful than his. The person whose conscience is driving him to despair, and who can hardly refrain from self-murder, is more hopeful than he who saith, I have need of nothing, whenas he is far removed from God, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There ever resteth on my mind, as I proceed, the greatest desire to speak home to the consciences of living men, and not to amuse myself or others with a piece of well reasoned or plausible discourse. I have my own soul, and the souls of my brethren to save, and therefore I am ever and anon pressed into the quarters of living men. Now, I make no doubt, that this condition of the Christian minister is that which I perceive to be around me, and more especially among those called Evangelical. I know how the mention of this word exposeth me to all manner of false charges and suspicions, but I love the people too well to mind much their reproaches, so that I can awaken them from that dream, and delusion, and selfsufficiency, in which they are spell-bound. The resentment which they feel to be told of any fault or failing, is the clearest proof that they are in the state of the Laodicean angel. Why this bitterness? why this resentment? why this suspicion, and these misrepresentations? if it so be that you conceive of yourselves to be as fallible and imperfect as other men? It is mere hypocrisy for a man to acknowledge his sins, when he will confess to no transgression; or to confess his shortcomings, when he will submit to no correction. Now, I declare before God who judgeth the heart, that on whatever subject I converse with the ministers of this generation, and especially of that denomination; be it of the love of God, in freely fully, and once for all forgiving a world saved in Christ,

and permitting the most guilty sinner at once to come into his presence as an unoffending and holy man, through the way of Christ Jesus;-be it of the humiliation of the Son of God, his conflicts, contentions, and controversies in the flesh; his agony, his heart-breaking, his abandonment by the Father, his sorrow, like no man's sorrow, his vileness like the worm, his trials and temptations of every kind;-be it of the work of the Spirit to cleanse the conscience, and make it full of light with no darkness at all, to take away the very conscience of guilt, to chase away fear, and to destroy doubt, to beget love, confidence and trust, and, in one word, to make the mind of man as the mind of God is, to make the heart of man see and feel, as God doth see and feel, to renew us in the conscience, or inward man, after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness;—be it of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, given to the various members of the body of Christ, for the manifestation of the manifold Spirit of God; -be it of the life of holiness, and perfect obedience, and complete service of God, in thought, speech, and behaviour;-be it of the present glory, and power, and right of the Son of Man over all kingdoms, and principalities, and powers;-be it of his glorious advent to judge the quick and the dead, of the resurrection of the saints, and their glorious kingdom;-be it of any subject whatever which concerneth God, or Christ, or the church, or the sacraments, or the one faith, that you discourse with the ministers of religion in these times, there is such poverty, disinclination, hesitation, back-drawing, and almost total blindness, as doth make me feel how true the word of the Lord is, in respect of them, "but thou art blind, and poor, and naked." But if, on the other hand, you speak of religious societies, of collections, of subscriptions and donations, of building churches, of continuing or taking away tithes, of the Established Church, or the Dissenting interest, of humane benefactors, of this and that minister, this and that missionary, this and that publication, this and that good work, this and that person's opinions, there is no end of their earnestness and volubility. God knows I do not exaggerate, I seek to state the simple truth; and that truth, in one word, is thus expressed: Thou, O Laodicean church; thou, O religious world, sayest "I am rich, and

increased in goods, and need nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and pitiable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

4. The Good Shepherd's Counsel.

How sweet it is to know that there is no disease in the church which the Head of the church cannot heal; that there is no case so desperate which he cannot minister to, and that this infallible Physician is not to seek, but ever standeth at the door seeking entrance to us for his sure and certain remedies. There is no God like unto our Saviour; and never, never was a people entreated as we are during this the day of our merciful visitation. You have heard the lukewarmness of this Laodicean minister; you have heard how loathsome was his spiritual estate to the heart of Christ, who was ready to spue him out of his mouth; you have heard how his soul boasted of his riches, and rested in his own sufficiency, and you have likewise heard how false and treacherous he had proved, both to his Lord, and to the flock of his Lord; hear now the grace and forgiveness, the counsel and earnest pleading of that rejected Master; and remember that he who thus speaks is the Lord of heaven and earth, the Almighty Ruler of the universe. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see" (iii. 18). He condescendeth to address him in the language of his own favourite pursuits, saying, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold that hath been purified with fire, that thou mayest be rich." This I consider the same as our Lord's exhortation, Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matt. vi. 20). And again; "Sell that ye have, and give alms: provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth (Luke xii. 33). And to this same heavenly treasure, the Lord referreth in the parable of the unjust steward, when he saith, "If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" (Luke xvi. 11.) As to the

expression," having been tried in the fire," while I look upon it as chiefly intended to complete the figure for expressing riches which will not corrupt, I think at the same time that it hath a real allusion to that fire of judgment which is to try every man's work of what kind it is (1 Cor. iii. 13); as the fire receiveth the earthy ore, and delivers forth the metal pure and precious, so the fire of judg ment shall purify all creation, and deliver it forth incor- ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. And in that world to come, I believe there will be things more precious than others, which shall be for beauty and for ornament, as is set forth in the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose foundations and gates, and very streets, are described as constructed of the gems, precious stones, and pure metals of the earth. Moreover we find that the angels include "riches in their sevenfold ascription unto Christ in the heavenly state, Rev. v. 12: “ Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." What they ascribe in adoration to Christ, we may not think beneath us to hope for a share of in glory; and therefore, when I hear the Lord counselling the Laodicean angel, to buy of him gold that hath come purified out of the fire, I am not ashamed to believe, that there is a real thing promised to him, if he will pay the price for it; which price is, to receive it thankfully and freely from the hand of Christ. But it may be said, What use of riches in the world to come? and in what will those riches consist? I answer, as I have often answered, It is not given to me to understand, nor yet to explain, in what way the Lord will constitute the details of his kingdom, but because I cannot reach unto this, I am not permitted to explain away as mere figures of speech, the precious promises of Christ. It is said in this very Book, concerning the new Jerusalem, "that the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it ;" and in divers parts of the Old Testament, it is prophesied of Christ in the age to come, that all the kings of the earth shall bring him tribute. "And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually, and daily shall he be praised" (Psalm lxxii. 15). And in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when the

Apostle would comfort the church suffering under spoliation by their enemies, it is by setting before them a better and enduring substance in the heavens, in the faith of which, they were able to make the sacrifices of earthly goods which God required of them. "For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in - heaven a better and an enduring substance" (Heb. x. 34). So I find it with respect to every thing else. If Abraham be required to leave his country, it is to look for a city whose builder and maker is God. If the Apostles are required to forsake all, it is that they may sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. These are not words without meaning, the inventions of a luxuriant fancy, to set forth the one truth, that we shall be happy. Such loose interpretations are fatal to God's word, and to our own salvation. Nor yet are they to be understood in the latter merely, as if they signified very gold and very silver, used for purposes of exchange and merchandize; but they are to be spiritually interpreted, and yet according to the letter, as signifying, that in the world to come there shall be varieties of dignity and preferment, varieties of possession and influence; one appointed over ten cities, another over five: in one word, varieties of reward and condition, which are purchased by the greatness of our self-denial for Christ's sake in this world, and have a certain correspondence with the dignities, possessions, and riches, which are enjoyed here, so that by means of the forms of present things, the forms of future things are capable of being expressed in words. Yet while the relations and proportions of the present world are carefully to be studied and observed, we would be wide of the truth, if we were to suppose that in the substances themselves, and the use of them, there will not be the greatest change for the better, yea and very perfection. When the Lord would exhort the young man to sell all, it is by the consideration of having treasure in heaven; when the Lord would counsel this Laodicean minister to remove his heart from worldly riches, it is by counselling him to buy gold tried in the fire which would make him rich indeed and thus I believe people with possessions ought ever to be addressed.