mind; let us endeavour to think of the blessed angels as the Church instructs us to think of them; to check ourselves by the recollection of their presence in lesser faults and irregularities, and want of selfrespect when we seem to be alone. There are many such things which seem hardly grave enough to be ordered by appeal to the Presence of the Most High God Himself, yet they amount in course of time to a serious evil and hindrance in Christian perfection; and it is well in respect of such things to supply the want of earthly witnesses by the remembrance of those who are heavenly. They who are thus careful to behave themselves so as that the blessed angels shall approve of their doings when alone, they may encourage themselves in their solitary sufferings and in their solitary labours also with the angelic presence, as with other consoling promises of Scripture; yet all the while worshipping God only, and putting their trust in Him alone for every one of His heavenly and saving mercies; and so endeavouring to join with them, though unworthily and under their feet, in that divine hymn wherein now as of old they lead the unceasing devotions of the Church of God,-Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole heaven, and the whole earth, is full of the majesty of His glory.

HURSLEY,

St. Michael, 1837.

SERMON XXXII.

IT

ST. LUKE xviii. 8.

"When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on
the earth?"

is sometimes said, when people are speaking of the difference between the Gospel and the Law, that it lies chiefly in God's making Himself known by fear in the Law, and by love and mercy in the Gospel, as though there were no promises in the Law, no wonderful deliverances and examples of mercy both to persevering saints such as Abraham, and to penitent sinners such as David; as if, on the other hand, there were no terrors in the Gospel, no judgment to come foretold, no mention of a worm undying and a fire unquenched, no wrath of the Lamb threatened, no declaration that our God also, as well as the God of the Jews, is a consuming fire. All things considered, it would perhaps be wise and true, should we say that all the warnings of the Law, both in the way of promise and threatening, are extremely, infinitely heightened in the Gospel. For example, what does the fifth Commandment offer us? Long life in the land of Canaan. What is it will answer to this in the New Testament? Everlasting life in the kingdom of heaven. As is the difference between Canaan and heaven, long life and everlasting life, such is the difference between the condition of believers before Christ came and after. And the condition of unbelievers or apostates now must be proportionably

F f

more awful, as the Apostle directly teaches; He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God! In a word, both the sunshine and the lightning of the Gospel of Christ are infinitely keener in their kind, than those of the Law.

I wish now to draw your attention to a remarkable instance of the greater awfulness of the Gospel; the tone, namely, of our Saviour's prophetic warnings, as compared with those of His servants. The Lord of all, the Prince of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Master, and Owner, and Ruler of the great work which was just going to begin upon earth, is far sadder, yet calmer, in His forebodings regarding the end of that work, than any of His human disciples and messengers. Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, St. Paul, St. John, all had their visions of glory as well as of decay; but our Lord's predictions, as far as the world is concerned, seem uniformly to point to such a state of things as the text evidently describes; a condition in which it will seem doubtful whether there will be such a thing as true Christian faith anywhere on earth to meet the Son of Man at His coming. Again, Jeremiah, St. Paul and the rest, seem astonished and indignant when they speak of such general apostasy, as though it were something too bad, and beyond expectation; Jeremiah expostulating, Why art thou become as a stranger in thine own land? and St. Paul mentioning in a tone of surprise, that on a certain occasion no man stood by him, but all men forsook him; whereas our Lord, as being indeed He who trieth the reins and the hearts, who declareth to man his thoughts, and knows the words of our tongues

before they are spoken; our Lord, as knowing to the bottom, the depth of that evil which lurks in the heart of man, foretels calmly the degeneracy of Christians, and the falling away of great part of His Church. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the greater part shall wax cold. Days shall come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and shall not see it. As it was in the days of Noe, and as it was in the days of Lot, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. And here in the text, after providing those who would receive it, with encouragement against those evil days, He adds, if one may so speak, mournfully, Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? That He is speaking especially with reference to the last days, the days when the Church, as it should seem, must expect to be more afflicted and persecuted than ever, there can be little doubt, since His words answer so exactly to the vision of His Apostle St. John, who saw under the altar the souls of those who were beheaded for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ; and they cried, and said, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not pity and avenge our blood of them that dwell on the earth? Surely this is the very picture of the elect of our Lord in His parable, crying day and night unto God that He would avenge them of their adversary.

God bears long with them, takes time before He punishes those who despitefully use them and persecute them; and so in the vision the saints were weary of waiting, and cried out, O Lord, how long? But again, the assurance in the parable, He will avenge them speedily, comes to the same as those under the altar being bidden to rest yet a little while, until their