XI.]

ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE ZEALOUS.

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conscious feebleness and many fears, "To him that "overcometh will I give to sit down with me upon

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my throne; even as I also overcame, and am set "down with my Father on his throne. He then that "hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto "the churches."

SERMON XII.

MATTHEW, v. 16.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

OUR blessed Lord just before his ascension into heaven, thus addressed his apostles; "All power is given "unto me in heaven and in earth go ye therefore "and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost:

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teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I "have commanded you'." Hence we learn that there is a kind and measure of instruction which precedes an intelligent profession of the gospel, comprising the first principles of the doctrine of Christ: and that there is also a more particular and exact instruction, by which ministers should endeavour to form the judgment and direct the conduct of believers, in all the several parts of Christianity. This distinction ought to be carefully remembered; that we may not suppose, the practical exhortations given to believers supersede the 1 Matt. xxviii. 18-20.

XII.] CHRISTIANS THE SALT AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 257

necessity of regeneration, repentance, and faith in the Son of God, as numbers seem to think; nor yet deem it inconsistent with the purest evangelical views, to explain particularly, and inculcate most earnestly, the several parts of our duty to God and to our neighbour.

In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord first shewed in the several beatitudes, that happiness results from the state of the heart, and not from external circumstances and then addressing the disciples, in the presence of the multitude, he said, "Ye are the salt "of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour, "wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good "for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under"foot of men." Christians, scattered over the earth, ought to communicate a purifying savour of piety and righteousness, and thus to prevent the increasing depravity of the human race: but graceless preachers and professors of the gospel are the vilest and most hopeless of men. Ye are," says Christ," the light "of the world; a city set upon an hill cannot be hid. "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a "bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to "all that are in the house." True Christians, placed in different families, villages, streets, cities, and na tions, diffuse the light of divine truth, received from the Sun of righteousness, throughout the world. This also renders them conspicuous: their dispositions, words, and actions will surely be observed and exactly scrutinized. Nor were they enlightened from above, in order to be immured in cloysters, or to retire into deserts, like lamps put under a bushel: but it is the

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ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUBJECT.

[SERM.

Lord's will, that they should resemble candles placed on candlesticks in the midst of a room, to give light to every part of it. Therefore" let your light so shine "before men, that they may see your good works, and "glorify your father which is in heaven.”—It may be proper for us,

I. To consider the persons, to whom this exhortation is especially addressed.

II. To examine more fully its import, And

III. To state the object, which we should aim at in complying with it.

I. The persons to whom the words are especially addressed.

Some expositors seem to confine the exhortation to the apostles; or to the ministers of the gospel exclusively. But though the words are peculiarly proper and energetick in this application: yet it is evident that all Christians are, in their own circle and measure, "lights in the world ;" and all who profess Christianity may be exhorted to act consistently with their avowed character. In other parts of scripture similar exhortations are addressed to believers in general. The evangelical prophet, viewing the church as a disconsolate female sitting in darkness upon the ground, thus encourages her, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, "and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For "behold the darkness shall cover the earth; and gross

Xtt.] DOCTRINE CONFIRMED BY OTHER SCRIPTURES. 259

"darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon "thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee: and "gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the "brightness of thy rising'." When the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ illuminates the church; then she arises from the dust, reflects the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, and shines as a light to the gentiles. The preached gospel is sent "to give light to them that sit in darkness and the "shadow of death, to guide their feet into the way of peace:""To open their eyes, and to turn them "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan "unto God:" and when these effects are produced, men" are made the children of light and of the day," and are exhorted to a becoming deportment. St. Paul addresses the Philippians in words very similar to those of the text: "Do all things without murmurings "and disputings; that ye may be blameless and "harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the ❝ midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among "whom ye shine, (or shine ye,) as lights in the world; "holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice " in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, "neither laboured in vain." And St. Peter uses language to the same effect; "Ye are a chosen gene❝ration, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a pecu"liar people; that ye should show forth the praises of " him, who hath called you out of darkness into his "marvellous light'."

But we need not multiply proofs in so plain a case.

*-Isa. Lx, 1-3. 2 Luke, i. 78, 79. Acts, xxvi. 18. Eph. v, 8—14. 3 Phil. ii. 14. 16.

1 Pet. ii, 9.