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SERMON III.

CLASS I. DEFECT IN PRINCIPLE. SECTION II.

ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA.

"How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?" Acts v. part of ver. 9.

THE great secret of happiness and comfort in reli

gion is to have what the Scripture calls a good conscience.

It is to be brought through divine grace to this state of mind: that it is the sincere and honest desire of the heart, to be all that a person professes to be as a Christian believer, to have a really spiritual mind, to walk uprightly, to live innocently, and conscientiously, and to deal faithfully with God. So that we can find in ourselves as believers, all those marks of a good conscience which the Scripture speaks of: "a conscience void of offence towards God and man:" a "conscience purged from dead works,” “a conscience in all things willing to live honestly:" " a conscience that answers towards God:" "a conscience bearing us witness in the Holy Ghost."* In proportion as a person is enabled by Divine grace to have such a conscience, he finds happiness and comfort in seeking God. And in proportion as he loses it, and becomes secretly uncon

Acts xxiv. 16. Heb. ix. 14.-xiii. 18. 1 Pet. iii. 21. Rom. ix. 1.

scientious, he gradually loses that comfort, loses his hold upon religion, loses its relish and enjoyment, darkens his spiritual vision, weakens his faith, kills the principle of spiritual life in his soul, and wanders away from God and goodness.

It is true that the grace of God in the Gospel by which a sinner is saved, is a free provision for man as a sinner, as lost and guilty and unclean. It is true that our hope and dependance is only to rest on that provision of grace, and not on our own uprightness; that our comfort is all to be drawn from that and not from ourselves. But nevertheless, unless we have a good conscience, that provision of grace, and therefore the comfort and peace which it offers us, will be utterly in vain to us, and lost completely upon us. And this for two reasons. 1. First, because it is a part of this provision of grace, to give us such a conscience; to purge and cleanse us from the old deceitful leaven; to make our heart right with God, that we may wash our hands in innocency, and so come to his altar. And if therefore this is not done in us, if still we are unconscientious, then certainly we have not the evidence, that the grace of God in the Gospel has yet been received by us, or has yet done any thing for us. 2. And then, secondly, we cannot have the comfort of that provision of grace, unless we have a good conscience, because without such a conscience we cannot apprehend it, or keep our hold upon it. For it is by this, St. Paul tells us, that we hold the mystery of the faith, and by the lack of it that we lose it: "Holding the mystery of the faith" says he "in a pure conscience; which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck."*

In short, brethren, all the comforts of true religion are inbound and interwoven with such a state of • 1 Tim, iii. 9.-i. 19.

mind. By it we "draw near, and in full assurance of faith" In its "testimony," St. Paul says "he had his rejoicing:" And the Lord who desireth truth in the inward parts has promised and declared, That "no good thing will he withhold of grace or glory from them that walk uprightly."* But on the contrary, if persons lose such a conscience by unconscientiousness and secret sin, then these are the evils which the Scripture pronounces to come upon them. When they put away a pure conscience, it is said, they "make shipwreck of faith." When, as it is written of the Cretans, their mind and conscience is defiled, then it is said, "nothing is pure to them:" "They profess to know God, but in works deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate." And when finally their conscience is seared as with a hot iron, then it is declared, they are led by seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocricy:-and a strong delusion is upon them, to believe lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."+

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Now we have, in this chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, another of these affecting instances, besides that of Simon which we have noticed before, of the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, and of the awful end to which it comes. It is the case of Ananias, and his wife Sapphira. They wanted this upright conscience. They had forced themselves in amongst the spiritual followers of Christ, without the wedding garment of a sound profession upon them. They were deceiving his Church. They dealt untruly with his faithful ministers. They agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord. They lied to the Holy Ghost. And they were made a solemn example to all disciples of the just displeasure of AlPsalm lxxxiv. 11.

* Heb. x. 22. 2 Cor. i. 12.

+1 Tim. i. 19. Tit. i. 15, 1 Tim, iv. 1, 2. 2 Thess. ii, 11, 12.

mighty God. In the midst of the whole assembly their secret guilt was exposed and detected, and they fell down dead at the apostles' feet.

In making then the account of these two disciples the subject of this discourse, I shall have one object in view. It is to impress on our minds this conviction: That where there is allowed unconscientiousness in those who profess the religion of Jesus Christ, then there is imminent danger of its bringing the wrath of the Lord upon them, and, if it is not speedily repented of, of their finally falling away. Wherever it exists in the mind of professors of religion, it fairly authorizes the self-suspicion, that the original principle upon which the truth has been received by them is the defective principle we speak of, falling short of evangelical conversion; the result of external circumstances and not the work of the Holy Ghost.

Now concerning this habit of unconscientiousness, which there sometimes is in professed believers, we learn from the case of Ananias and Sapphira three things

I. The motives which commonly lead to it. II. The peculiarity of guilt which there is in it. III. And the necessity and therefore the certainty that the Lord will visit it.

I. First, we learn from this account, the causes which commonly lead to falseness and unconscientiousness, in those professors of religion whose heart is not right with God. They are chiefly three in number. That is to say, 1. There is a cause of such conduct which has reference to others. 2. There is a cause which has reference to themselves. 3. And, there is a cause which has reference to God.

1. In the first place, when persons are sometimes found in the Church of Christ, who are deceiving that church by a false and unsound profession, one of the causes which leads them to do so, is a cause which has reference to others. It is spiritual pride. is loving the praise of men more than the praise of God.*

It

The apostles, at the time when this circumstance happened, were receiving the contributions of the saints. It was a time of great unity in the Christian Church. The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. They had all things common, and a common purse was made for them. Many that had lands and houses, sold their possessions and laid the price of them at the apostles' feet.

Amongst those who did this, two are particularly mentioned; Barnabas and Ananias. And they serve to show us, how the very same act may be done upon two very differeut principles, and for two very different ends. Suppose that we had been amongst the by-standers, and had seen both of them come, Barnabas and Ananias, with their money in their hand, and lay it before the apostles. How could we have made a distinction between them? We must have given both of them credit for disinterested benevolence and self-denial and a spirit of Christian love. And yet Barnabas did it for love: Ananias, for pride and ostentation. Barnabas we are afterwards told, "rejoiced" at Antioch, at the work of God that was done by others: Ananias was only careful to magnify himself, and to publish his own liberality. Barnabas, we are told was a "good man, and full of the Holy Ghost:" Ananias sinned against him: he lied to the Holy Ghost: he agreed with his wife to tempt the + Acts xi. 23. Gr. Exagn.

• John v. 44.-xii, 43.

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