III.

ON THE DUTY, HAPPINESS, AND HONOUR OF MAINTAINING THE COURSE PRESCRIBED TO US BY PROVIDENCE,

ACTS xiii. 25.-As John fulfilled his course.*

[PREACHED AT THE CHAPEL, MAZE POND, SOUTHWARK, MAY 26, 1811.]

THE life of every individual may be compared to a river: rising in obscurity, increasing by the accession of tributary streams, and, after flowing through a longer or shorter distance, losing itself in some common receptacle. The lives of individuals also, like the course of rivers, may be more or less extensive, but will all vanish and disappear in the gulf of eternity. While a stream is confined within its banks, it fertilizes, enriches, and improves the country through which it passes; but if it deserts its channel it becomes injurious and destructive, a sort of public nuisance, and, by stagnating in lakes and marshes, its exhalations diffuse pestilence and disease around. Some glide away in obscurity and insignificance; while others become celebrated, traverse continents, give names to countries, and assign the boundaries of empires. Some are tranquil and gentle in their course; while others, rushing in torrents, dashing over precipices, and tumbling in waterfalls, become objects of terror and dismay. But, however diversified their character or their direction, all agree in having their course short, limited, and determined; soon they fall into one capacious receptacle; their waters eventually mix in the waves of the ocean. Thus human characters, however various, have one common destiny; their course of action may be greatly diversified, but they all lose themselves in the ocean of eternity.

Few have appeared on the stage of action whose life was more important than that of the great prophet mentioned in my text. His course was a very extraordinary one, distinguished in some sense above all others, our blessed Lord himself only and always excepted. John was called to a very singular work; his ministry formed an epoch in the history of the church. It was the connecting link between the two dispensations. He first preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God was preached, and every man pressed into it."

The most extraordinary events began with the baptism of John, and continued until Christ was taken up into heaven. His peculiar office was to announce the Saviour of the world as then present in it: other

* Printed from the notes of W. B. Gurney, Esq.

prophets had spoken of him as to come; "but there standeth," says John, among you one whose shoe-latchet I am not worthy to unloose." He was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord;" and while he was actually engaged in his commission, he was able to declare, “Behold, he standeth among you." His commission was high: to reclaim an apostate people; "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just;""to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." His career, too, was extraordinary, and his character and course marked and different from all others. Much of the wisdom of Providence appears in fitting the instrument to the work. The work appointed to John was to reclaim a nation from its departure from God, to rouse a people sunk in insensibility and impenitence, to preach repentance, to proclaim the approach of the kingdom of heaven, to usher in a higher economy, a new dispensation; and for all this he was admirably qualified. He was endued with the spirit and power of Elias. His spirit was undaunted and unyielding; he rebuked the pride of kings. He was indifferent and insensible alike to the charms of pleasure, the allurements of pomp, the smiles of power, and the frowns of greatness. His whole soul was concentrated in his object; he was superior to the world,—its forms and fashions made no impression on his mind, and left no traces. He was austere in his manner, abstemious in his food, rustic in his apparel: he partook of the wildness of the wilderness in which he first made his appearance. "He had his raiment of camels' hair, a leathern girdle was about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey." These are lively images of his work. "Then went out unto him Jerusalem and all Judea, and the region round about Jordan; and were baptized of him, confessing their sins."

His ministry finished the legal, and brought in the evangelical dispensation. His voice was like the strong wind that bloweth-the whirlwind that maketh the earth to quake-the loud blast of that trumpet which was to wake the nations-the earthquake and the whirlwind which immediately preceded "the still small voice." His career was brilliant, and his success extraordinary. A large portion of the Jews became his converts, at least for a time: even the scribes and Pharisees listened to him. "He was a burning and a shining light:" the apostles themselves were many of them first his disciples, and received from him those instructions which prepared them for the coming of the Messiah. By the authentic historian Josephus he is spoken of in terms of the highest encomium. It is remarkable, above all, that he was the only prophet born of woman who was himself the subject of prophecy.

As his course was short, so was his end violent and tragical. He fell a martyr to his fidelity, and the artifices of an intriguing woman. Having rebuked Herod on account of his incestuous intercourse with his brother's wife, he was sacrificed to her resentment. He disappeared soon: his course was hurried and impetuous; eager, as it were, to reach his destination, and to mingle his grand soul with its kindred elements in eternity. He was raised up for a particular service; and

66

when that was accomplished he was removed. He was not the light, but the harbinger of that light, the morning star that was to usher in the Sun of Righteousness. He bore witness of the light, but he was not that light;" and no sooner did that light appear than he was withdrawn, that nothing might divide the great homage due to the Saviour, according to his own prediction-"He must increase, but I must decrease."

Having, perhaps, already detained you too long in contemplating the character and conduct of John the Baptist, I shall occupy what remains of our time in illustrating and inculcating two or three practical observations, founded on the words of the text.

I. That there is a prescribed course or sphere of action, appointed to every individual by the Author of our nature.

We are not a race of independent creatures abandoned to live without control; we are not sent into the world to follow the dictates of our own will. We cannot commit a greater mistake than to suppose that we are in any sense our own; we belong to another: even our limbs and faculties do not so much belong to ourselves as we do to our Maker. To do his will, to conform to his pleasure, to keep his commandments, to fulfil his designs, to serve the end of his government, and to promote his glory, these are the great ends of our existence; and to attain them ought to be the fundamental law of our being: otherwise we live in vain, worse than in vain; and it would have been better for us never to have had an existence.

There is one great principle of a holy life which is one and the same in all who live as they ought; and that is, conforming ourselves to the will of God, complying with his plan, doing every thing to please and glorify him. Thus our Saviour himself when in this world was devoted to his Father's will; this was his object constantly, even when observed by those around him. It cannot be better exemplified than in that beautiful saying of his, when he was requested to take refreshment at the well of Jacob-"I have meat to eat that the world knoweth not of; my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work:" and it is doing the will of God from the heart, which implies a careful attention to all the manifestations of it, and a reverential regard to all the discoveries of it, with a fixed and determined resolution to comply with it whenever and wherever it is known. This, as I said, is the end of our existence, the business of our life; and we live to no purpose, or to a bad one, but as we conform to it. But, although this is the universal principle by which all are to be actuated and guided, yet it admits of great and numerous variations in its practical application. The principle is the same; but when it comes to be acted upon by individuals, and imbodied in the experience and conduct of men in the several conditions of life, it gives birth to an endless diversity. To do the will of God, and to promote his glory, is the proper object and end of all: but the manner in which an apostle, for instance, was called upon to do this, is not that in which an ordinary teacher is to do it; nor the manner of an ordinary teacher that of a Private Christian. The duties of a sovereign are extremely different

from those of his ministers and officers of state; and those, again, from the duties of inferior magistrates; and of magistrates, from those of private subjects. Of the rich it is required to do good and to communicate, to sustain the cause of God and truth in the world, to support public institutions of a charitable and beneficial nature, and freely to distribute of their abundance to the necessities of their fellow-creatures; of the poor, to be prudent, diligent, careful; and so on.

Thus the several conditions and relations of individuals have their respective duties, in which they are to do the will of God, in " "fulfilling their course;" but in each and all, the same care and attention ought to be maintained to the one grand principle of which we have been speaking: one spirit should animate the whole; one great end, under whatever variety of form and mode.

In the principles of human nature, and in the powers and faculties of our bodies and senses, there is a general agreement: yet no two individuals of the human race are alike; and the same variety exists in moral arrangements. In the elements which compose the principle of holiness, the essential ingredients are the same; but when they come to be applied and imbodied in a right course of action, they often seem widely different. Although the end is the same in all, yet the manner in which this end is viewed will be various: the rays of light when blended in day are simple and of a uniform colour; but when they are refracted through a prism they exhibit all the colours of the rainbow. Such, my brethren, are the principles of holiness, and their diversified action in individuals: but, I repeat it, it is doing the will of God in all; this, this is the object, the grand vital principle, that animates good men in all ages, in all circumstances, of all classes and denominations. This is the true catholic spirit, which unites all the members of the true church; and in proportion as men live well, and live for eternity, this is the ruling and governing principle,—to glorify God.

II. We observe that there is a set and limited time allotted to that` sphere and course of action: "There is an appointed time to man upon earth." The course of man is not indeterminate, but has its limits, and they are narrow: "Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time." If we had not the testimony of Scripture on this point, it would be reasonable to conclude, from our observation of nature and the world around us, that the termination of human life is not left in uncertainty, but that it is directed by the wisdom of Him who himself is the Author of existence. If "a sparrow falleth not to the ground without his knowledge," much less can the death of a human creature take place without his interposition. Whether we fall premature victims to disease, or perish by what men call accident, or sink under the burdens of age, still it is according to the will of God," whose counsels shall stand, and who will do all his pleasure."

This course is not only limited, but it is short. It is but a little time that we spend on earth: "Behold," says the Psalmist," thou hast

made my days as an handbreadth, and my years are as nothing before thee." Whether we drop in infancy from the cradle to the grave, or are cut off in youth; whether we attain to manhood, or even to old age; still we soon arrive at the boundary, we soon reach the end of our course, and often without passing through its intermediate stages. “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee!"

The stream of human existence is rapid and impetuous; its waves follow each other in quick succession, and many are ingulfed alinost as soon as they appear. Early in infancy the stream glides away like a summer brook, and leaves the fond parent mournfully to recall the pleasure he received in contemplating its unsullied purity and its play. ful meanders. Of those who set out with us in this journey of life, how many have disappeared from our side! what changes have taken place in the circle of our connexions since we began our course! how few can we now number of those with whom, in the earlier period of our lives, "we took sweet counsel!" Every year makes great changes. How great are the changes, my brethren, which have been made in the face of this congregation! Where are many of our friends in whom we delighted? They have finished their course; they have passed through the gate that opens into the invisible world; they have completed their probation, and appeared at the tribunal of Infinite Majesty; they have done with the converse of mortals, and have seen and heard things which it is impossible to utter; they have for ever finished their course.

III. Our happiness and our honour consist entirely in completing the course which God has assigned to us. In filling up the sphere of action which he has prescribed, and which his providence has marked out to us, there are two great mistakes into which we are liable to fall, in our views of this subject.

1. That there is some other happiness and honour than that which is to be found in fulfilling our course, or, in other words, occupying that sphere of duty which God hath been pleased to assign us. Some are looking for their satisfaction to the pleasures of sin; others to the gratification which the world affords; some attach their notion of happiness to some external situation not yet found, and imagine it is to be met with there. Settle it in your minds, my dear friends, that the only happiness worth seeking,-that which will live in all circumstances, and abide the vicissitudes of life,-our only real and proper good, consists in fulfilling our course, conforming to the Divine will, imitating the Divine perfections, obeying God's commands, walking in the light of his countenance, and being at peace with him. The prescription of this as the way to happiness is among the fixed laws of our nature: it is "founded among the floods, deeper than the foundations of the everlasting mountains.". It forms a part of the constitution of heaven itself. It was among the original decrees promulgated by God in the silence of the universe. Eternal truth has declared, that "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding." Could you ask the children of men,