nature have been capable of falling, still it is marvellous God did not interfere, and not suffer him to fall; I only remark, that the objection comes with a singularly ill grace from philosophers, who are of all men most tenacious for the freedom of the will: for if they deem it a kind of heresy to represent fallen creatures as nothing but machines, why should they make an unfallen creature nothing but a machine? Had God prevented Adam from eating the forbidden fruit, he must have destroyed his free agency. So that whatever difficulties may attend God's permission of evil, they are nothing in comparison with those which throng the prevention of it. We that compassion was extended to fallen | though Adam must from his very man in virtue of the atonement which the Redeemer had covenanted to make: and whether or no you be prepared distinctly to recognize the energies of the Mediator's work in God's immediate dealings with our fallen ancestor; still, stern and unrelenting as justice must have been in the procedure under review, as we see it to have been abundantly illustrious, must we not confess that mercy was therein? When angels sinned, and rebellion was introduced amongst the hosts of God, the apostate spirits were not only driven out from the heavenly paradise, but were hurled into an abyss of woe and darkness: they were driven from glory, and they were driven to despair -from all that was holy, to all that was hopeless. But not so the transgression of Adam. He might have been driven to instant death; he might have been driven, cheerlessly and wretchedly, to toil without deliverance, to agony without alleviation: whereas he was sent forth with the promise of a deliverer, with the promise that from his seed there should arise a mighty conqueror who should repair the ruin which transgression had wrought. He had been driven from a garden; but he was not driven to a desert; there was fruitfulness in the soil on which he was treading: and though bidden to till the ground from whence he was taken, yet it was a labour on which blessings would follow, and the toil of digging would issue in the joy of harvest. And it is from contemplations of the wonderful loving kindness which attended the footsteps of the exiles, that we derive our best arguments against a wayward and captious philosophy, which professes to marvel that God should have permitted what he might have prevented-the entrance of evil into this our creation and to ask, why Adam was not formed so as to be incapable of forfeiting his allegiance, is the absurd theory of a child who understands not that the very nature of the creature pre-supposes only finite capacity of resistance; and that the creature who could not fall whatsoever the temptation to which he might be exposed, would cease to be a creature; the power possessed being infinite, and yet the possessor denominated finite. And if it be argued that, al : But while we look to the whence we forget the whither: we mourn over that from which man was driven; we throw out of sight that to which he was driven. I know it to be easy to dress up with all the power of melancholy language, the wretchedness and ruin consequent on the fall of Adam. may talk together of the blow beneath which the earth has grown withered; and we may speak movingly of the desolations which have gone forth over her length and breadth; and then with contemptuous incredulity we may demand, how it may consist with the mercies of God, that such an assemblage of wreck and confusion should be allowed to form any province of his domain. But all this while, as though we were slaves to a reckless infidelity, we keep out of sight the cross of Christ Jesus, which denounces that evil has entered, which denounces that the devastations have been tremendous, which denounces that its ravages have been those of an iron-footed tyrant, trampling and crushing all that God had made so well that he had pronounced it to be good. Is it not blasphemy to say, that God looked on unmoved and unconcerned, while this terrific moral scourge was let loose on creation? Who can be impious enough to proclaim, that, secure in his magnificence, and surrounded by his own happiness, it mattered nothing to the Maker of the universe that one soli.. tary planet should be thus riven and scathed, or that one race of intelligent beings should be given up to terror and despair? Behold the immense wisdom in the will which permitted | slay victims, and taught him the im man's ruin: for however bold you may pronounce the hypothesis, I suppose that had evil been utterly excluded, and had generation after generation walked in their innocency and in their uprightness, then the mightiest display of the divine attributes must have been wanting; and God would comparatively, never have been known in his holiness, his goodness, his love, and his wisdom. The fall made way for redemption. Though you may say, God permitted this globe to be hurled, as it were, into one general grave, yet did he not pour through this huge excavation the ocean of his loving kindness? Did he not use it as a scene for the majestic display of his mercy? Where, then, is the justice of the complaint that arraigns the provision that evil should be permitted to cleave this earth in twain, seeing that God in rivers of blessedness will roll himself through the tremendous chasm? The divine dispensations are not to be viewed separately. Much which, when viewed alone, would be pronounced rude and mis-shapen, contributes to the greatness and symmetry of the whole. And he is but a petty caviller who shows most mournfully the whence man has been driven, and explains not how far the whither introduces a counter-balance. portance of these rites; and pointed out to him the perfect oblation which, in the fulness of time, should be presented by the Redeemer. Thus you observe, in driving him out from Paradise, God was consulting the exigencies of his condition. Paradise, as I have already stated, must be regarded as having been a species of sanctuary. It is the saying of a Jewish Rabbi, But I would meet this our second enquiry with somewhat of greater precision. Whither, or to what, was man driven? I answer, He was driven from Paradise, and driven to Calvary. Adam went forth with this promise to cheer him "The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent." He was driven out as one unworthy of the holy converse of the garden of the Lord-as one incapable of rendering his Maker those services which he claimed in this his peculiar dwelling. Whilst he was thus driven from the home of righteousness, he was also driven to the blood of atonementfrom the presence of the Father to the sacrifice of the Son-from the light of the countenance of the First Person, to the splendours of the intercession of the Second. We suppose, that no sooner had God driven out the man than he instructed him in all the mysteries of patriarchal religion: he commanded him to build altars, and to Know, that in the trees and fountains and other things of the garden of Eden, were the figures of the most curious things by which the first Adam saw and understood Spiritual things; even as God has given to us the forms and figures of the tabernacle and the sanctuary and all its furniture, for types of intellectual things, and that we might from them understand heavenly truths." But although Paradise might thus have been a temple of the living God, it could not have been a temple in which a fallen creature could worship. It might have its sacramental service; and adorable mysteries might have been represented in its rivers and fountains; and man in his pristine innocence might have read his religion in these figures, and be taught therein the worship which it behoved him to render to his Maker: but there was nothing in this sanctuary which suited the sinner-nothing which had to do with remission and forgiveness of sins. It was a temple for one already holy but there was nothing in its ritual which could provide for those who sought to be cleansed from pollution. Therefore in much mercy God drove out the man, for whose service he was incapacitated, into a holy temple which might have its altars, and its mercy-seat, and its sacrifices; and in which a Priest should minister who could be touched with the feeling of his infirmities, being made like unto himself in all points, sin only excepted. Thus, if I might briefly sum up our argument, I should say, that God drove out man from Paradise in order that man might be fitted to enter into Paradise: he drove him out in the strictness of justice, rather than in the fierceness of wrath. And if it savored not too much of what is fanciful, I might affirm, that when the angel with the flaming sword was placed to stand as centinel, and to keep the way of the tree of life, there played upon his features a radiant smile at the intimation he had gathered in the courts of the firmament, that a period would arrive when he should be bidden to sheath the fiery flame, and to leave unobstructed the gate to a countless throng of the very race who had justly been driven out from Paradise. "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Behold the expulsion-behold the restoration: far off by nature-brought nigh by grace. | There is an intimation of something forcible in the expulsion. "So he drove out the man." There must correspond to this something forcible in the restoration. "The kingdom of heaven"thus it is said in the gospel-" suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Dispossessed by force-driven | out: reinstated by force-suffereth violence. There must be boldness-eagerness-labour; the nerve must be stretched-the sinew must be strained -the mind must put forth its intenseness for after all, God alone can drive out the old man-God alone can implant the new. I wish I could make you anxious in respect to the soul-anxious concern ing death, judgment, and eternitythe young amongst you more especially. I would that I could move you -startle you-arouse you. Oh, it is so hard while the blood flows gaily in the veins, to realize the fact that it soon must freeze there. But, indeed, indeed heaven and hell are no play things; though one would think they were, to see the baubles you prefer to heaven, and the hair-like risks you run of falling into hell. Strive, strive to enter in at the straight gate; for many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. There shall be a thrill run through the unconverted when this text shall be pronounced. You have not began even to seek: you may seek, and fail. He who would enter must strive: he must wrestle-struggle— agonize for admission. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence." It must be besieged by prayer—it must be assaulted by repentance. The city must be compassed the trumpets must be blown; and then shall the walls fall flat, and we shall enter into the inheritance from which the Lord hath driven out the Hivites, and the Hittites, and the Perezzites: which may God in his mercy grant, for Christ's sake. Amen. A Sermon DELIVERED BY THE REV. T. MORTIMER, AT ST. MARK'S CHURCH, CLERKENWELL, SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 31, 1830. Colossians, i. 28, 29.-" Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." I HAVE often been thankful to God, my brethren, that in his holy word, we not merely have directions in the way to heaven, and in the comforts and privileges of the Gospel; but we have, in many of these letters written by the Apostles of the primitive church, we have those feelings under which they laboured, and those exercises which they knew in their own experience, simply and plainly set forth before us. So that if a man wishes to know how the Apostles preached, he may know it; if a man wishes to I know how the Apostles laboured, and how they prayed, he may know both the one and the other; and if a man further wishes to know what it was that sustained them-that comforted them-that supported them-that strengthened them-that bore them through every obstacle in their work, he may know it all. He has only to turn to the Bible, and he will find all there. Now, you have in the text, a pattern of what a minister ought to be. Do not mistake me; I did not give it out as meaning to say, that this is what I am; but God knows it is what I wish to be; he knows it is what I long to be and pray heaven to grant, that forming our ministry after the apostolical model, we may be favoured by apostolical success in the conversion of sinners, and in the edification, consolation, and salvation of believers. Look then at the text. See the blessed Apostle St. Paul, a man of exquisite modesty, one who well knew his own infirmities and imperfections, yet telling us plainly what was his grand object-how he felt in respect of ithow he laboured to secure it; and then letting us into the all-important secret, that it was owing to the divine agency-that it was owing to spiritual influence that he worked in his ministry, because God the Holy Spirit worked in his heart. "Whereunto I labour," says he, " striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." In considering this text, that we may not lose any time whatever, in prefatory remarks, let me at once proceed to notice these four things. FIRST, the labourer. SECONDLY, the object he had in view in that labour. THIRDLY, the ardour with which he followed his object. And FOURTHLY, the secret and invisible mainspring of all this. It was the Lord working in his heart-it was a secret and an invisible, but an omnipotent influence working in him, and leading him to work for others. This is the secret of all ministerial influence, that which gives us the clue to all his success. It was not on account of the eloquence of Paul, or the learning of Paul, or the diligence of Paul; but it was the mighty grace of God the Holy Spirit, communicated by the Divine Saviour Jesus Christ, who has the Spirit without measure. He it was, that was influencing St. Paul to feel as he did, and blessed his work, and made that work so successful as it was. Consider first, then, THE LABOURER. Who is it that thus speaks? He once laboured in another work. He gives rather a singular account of himself"I verily thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus Christ." Then how came he to write such a passage as this? Surely, you say, it could not be the same man. But it was the same; the same man under a very different influence; the same man, but a very different heart. Who was the labourer? Who was he that thus wrought in the work of the Gospel? A man who had once been a bitter and a bloody persecutor. He opposed Jesus of Nazareth, but Jesus of Nazareth was stronger than Saul of Tarsus; and Saul of Tarsus was conquered-fairly beaten by the love of his Lord and Master-fairly conquered and overcome, and made to bow, and bend, and stoop, and submit, and fall in the dust, at the feet of his Lord and Master. Now why do I advert to this? Because there are some of you who are as yet unconquered. You are not conquered by grace. Neither the terrors of the law frighten you, nor the allurements of the Gospel charm you and draw you. The truth is, that you have not got, as yet, ears to hear, or hearts to feel. May that Saviour, who wrought effectually in Saul of Tarsus to his conversion, work effectually in you. Behold the Lamb of God. Look to him. There are some this night before God in this church, who have often heard these things before, and who expect to hear them a great many times again. But stop-you may be mistaken-you may never live to hear them again. I could tell you something— I will tell you something I ought to tell you something, which, though I heard it only a short time before I entered this pulpit, made a very deep impression on my heart. You say, you shall live to hear a great many more sermons. You think so take care how you conclude that so it will be. If I am correctly informed, this very day, not in this church, but in another church where I frequently proclaim the word of God, a person dropped down dead. What do you think of it? What does it say to some of you who expect to hear many more sermons, and who think you have time enough yet? Oh that accursed cry-Time enough yet! Time enough yet! Oh, the millions that it has ruined! Oh, will you bear with me if I say it-I will say it-the millions that it has damned for ever! Yes-time enough yet-time enough yet; and thus the poor wretched sinner goes on his evil course till God says to him, There shall be time no longer-and he is called away. Oh, my brethren, delay not till another day what ought to be begun at once. "Seek you the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near." What a happy thing for the person so taken away, if she was prepared for her eternal rest. What a happy change-in a moment to feel herself having done with earth and got to heaven. My brethren, what a happy state, if she was truly prepared. "Be you also ready; for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh." This you will say had nothing to do with my sermon; but it has something to do with your souls; therefore I rather make a digression than omit to notice it. Then having considered the labourer here spoken of, notice his OBJECT.What was the object he had in view in all this labour? Was it to become rich? Was it to become great? Was it to stand in honour and dignity? Ah, blessed man, he thought very lightly of the gold of this world, and more lightly of the honours and dignities of this world: and he gloried in the cross of his Saviour, and cared not for earth, or what earth could give, or what earth could take away. Now what was his object-he had one? Take the words before, and you will see his object directly. That we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour." The preceding verse gives the object of his labour, that he thus laboured that he thus agonized, with all his heart and soul that he might preach Christ crucified -that he might teach every man, and warn every man, and at last might present every man perfect and complete in Christ: this was his object. Brethren, what do you think is our object? Is it to gather a great many persons together to entertain you for half an hour-to amuse you to please you to say smooth things to heal the wound of the daughter of God's people slightly-to prophesy peace when there is no peace-to make you all satisfied with yourselves-is that our object? If that were our object it had been better for us that we had never been born. Our object is the same with that of the Apostle. It is to preach Christ—it is to warn every man-it is to teach every man in all wisdom-it is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. I dwell not on these points, because some time ago we made them the subject of a distinct discourse. Be it known unto you, however, that these are always our objects. We do not wish to please you, except for your edification. We do not wish that you should merely have to express your approbation of our message: we would rather send you home with a tear in your eye, and a prayer in your heart, than praising the sermon or the preacher; nay, we would rather that nineteen out of twenty of you were offended with us, could we but save that one, and bring him in the simplicity of faith to the foot of the cross, than we would have you all go away delighted, indeed, with what you heard, but delighted only one day, and forgetting it all the next. Our object then is to present you faultless, to present you at the last, every man of you, perfect in Christ Jesus. There is a great deal to be done before that. There are many in this church who have not taken the first step in the way to heaven; and what is worse, they have no inclination to take that step. Ah, my dear hearers, I often think you come and sit here as God's people sit, and hear the words of truth and righteousness; and to use the words of Ezekiel, they seem to you like the sound of a pleasant instrument, and you hear them, but you do them not; and then sometimes you go away from church, light and trifling, and careless and thoughtless; and what on earth are you the better for what you have heard. Bear in mind, then, our object is to fit you for heaven; we shall have something more to do with you by and bye; we must give an account of our ministry, and you must give an account of what you have heard. Our object is to present every man perfect in Jesus Christ. We shall not have done with our ministry altogether when we lay our heads in the dust. No, no; we shall meet again-we shall meet before God. Oh, may the Lord grant, that in that day we may have to say, "Lord here are we, and the children whom thou hast given us." How many out of the congregation now present, under |