SERMON XXX.
GRACE WELL-USED ATTRACTS MORE GRACE.

MONDAY IN WHITSUN WEEK.

Ps. cxix. 55. 56.

"I have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night season, and have kept Thy law: this I had because I kept Thy commandments."

WE know, by more than one expression of our Divine Lord and Master, that there is a sort of character, which, though it cannot entitle men to receive the Gospel, yet prepares and fits them for it. No man can possibly deserve so great a mercy: but some, by God's grace, are worthier to have it than others are. So Jesus Christ Himself teaches, where He says, that "no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." As much as to say, that the temper of mind which disposes men to be content with mere beginnings and good intentions, will never agree with the resolute self-denying spirit, which they had need have in them, who mean in earnest to take up their cross and follow Christ. Upon which it would seem to follow that the opposite disposition, the mind which urges men to be constant, steady, persevering, does on the contrary tend to make a man fit for the kingdom of God.

To the same purpose is the well-known and most gracious declaration concerning little children, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." It is prepared especially for trusting, affectionate minds: for those who cling fondly to their friends and parents, and love in every thing to resign themselves up to them, instead of pretending to choose in all things for themselves: to such the Gospel of Christ is especially suited, and they in a manner are suited to it.

By these two instances (to mention no more at present), we learn this lesson concerning the heavenly gift, in acknowledgment whereof this holy season is appointed, the indwelling of the Holy Comforter in the souls and bodies of believers, which is sometimes called the kingdom of God: concerning this best Gift, I say, we learn from such sayings as have been now mentioned, that although the grace and mercy of the Holy Ghost is indeed free, all-powerful, sovereign; blowing, as our Lord said, "where it listeth," there is yet a certain frame and temper, certain habits of conduct and behaviour, a certain disposition and preparation of heart and mind, which is likely, if not sure, wherever it is found, to draw down God's further blessing on him who has it. It is itself the good gift of God; and it prepares the way for other and better gifts.

There are sundry examples of God's dealing with His people of old, which tend to confirm this account of our Lord's meaning. Abraham pleased God, by following at once the voice which called him to leave his own country; and God rewarded him, by giving him grace to be willing, if need were, to sacrifice his son in obedience to the same voice.

Moses shewed a loyal and devout spirit, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and boldly interfering when he saw God's people oppressed: and God rewarded him by making him their great prophet and leader out of Egypt.

Samuel shewed himself a considerate and dutiful child, and God called him to bear the burthen and the strife of the people of Israel, in very trying times.

David, as a youth, was remarkable for courageous trust in the Most High, for kindness and generosity towards men, for boldness and fervent zeal in doing the duty of his calling; and he came to an exceeding height of thankful devotion, so that his Psalms are the Church's treasure of praise, and he is himself known constantly by the named, the man after God's own heart.

And perhaps it might be truly said, that the verse which I just now read to you out of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm, contains in it the rule or principle (as one should call it, speaking as a man) whereby God vouchsafes to order, as it were, His own doings, in encouraging generally the faint beginnings of goodness. "I have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night season, and have kept Thy law. This I had, because I kept Thy commandments." Keeping the commandments, as has been well said by a wise and pious Bishop of our Church, is rewarded by keeping the commandments. Because the Psalmist had so much piety in him, as in a general way, all day long, to do what he knew was God's will: therefore God gave him, as Job says, "songs in the night." He poured into his heart grace to think on His Name, to be full of holy meditations, in the night season, when few can any how serve Him. He enabled him to keep His law, during the hours which seemed most unlikely to have allowed a chance of such a sacrifice. Thus the Psalmist went from strength to strength: and thus in all the saints of God, a lower degree of grace and obedience, faithfully improved, is constantly rewarded by a higher one.

Now this rule and law of God's working is wonderfully illustrated by the manner in which the Gospel was first made known to the Gentiles, and the door of the kingdom of heaven thrown open, by the extension of the gift of the Holy Ghost to them also. This we read in the history of Cornelius, part of which is the epistle for this day. No one, with ever so little thought, can help perceiving what great encouragement that history gives to all endeavours to be good, be they but sincere, however faint and imperfect. With this view one may gather, as it were, into one, the several particulars related of him: the many disadvantages under which he served God; the sort of service which he rendered; how he was employed at the very time the gracious offer was first made him; how he improved that offer; with what special favours, one after another, it pleased God to crown more and more his faith and devotion. I will say a few words on each of these heads more particularly.

First: we see the sort of person whom the Lord delights to honour. When we look at Cornelius's condition and observe under how many drawbacks and difficulties, the like of which are too commonly found enough to discourage almost any one, he contrived (if I may so speak) to be an acceptable worshipper. He was not a Jew, but a Gentile; not one of God's people, but a heathen, Who can express the amount of this disadvantage? It may be comprehended, in some degree, by considering, how much we think is said in excuse of any particular sin a man falls into, if it can be truly stated of him, that his friends and parents were little better than heathens, and he was brought up such altogether. When this can be said, it is generally thought to go a good way towards apologizing for the errors and vices of any one. How much more in the case of a real heathen, brought up altogether as such, and only thrown among Jews, by God's Providence, as a soldier serving in their country, and at a time when they were so very degenerate, full of hypocrisy and iniquity!

Again, Cornelius was a soldier; a pursuit and way of life, not thought in general particularly favourable to the exercise of true devotion. He was a soldier in the Roman army, a set of persons remarkable for pride, and for contempt of all but their own will and pleasure.

Yet even this person, being stationed by the will of God among His own nation, the Jews, within reach of the Holy Scriptures and of the temple worship, was so impressed with the truth and goodness of the law and service of the Eternal God, that although it does not seem as if he had become a regular proselyte, he yet devoted himself to the worship of the Most High; he became a devout man, and used himself to serve God with all his house; giving much alms to the people, that is, to the Jews, (whom most Romans so greatly despised,) and praying to God always.

This leads us to say something, secondly, of the sort of service which Almighty God is likely to bless and approve, in persons unfavourably situated, as Cornelius was.

First, he was a devout man; that is, one who cherished in himself the holy and reverential thoughts, which came from time to time into his mind; and which, though he could not as yet know or dream of such a thing, were the godly motions of that good Spirit, which was preparing to come down and regenerate him, dwelling within that heart which shewed itself so ready to obey His calls from a distance. Cornelius was a devout man, and lived in a sense of God's Presence.

The next thing told of him is, that he served God, with all his house. He did not, as some do, think it enough to have pious wishes in his mind; according to the expression which I have heard more than once, when people were called to account for their open neglect of religion: I have heard them say, "Ah, nobody knows what good thoughts I have secretly in my heart." Cornelius did not so: he felt that merely wishing is nothing, and therefore he took care to serve God openly in his house: he strove to make his servants also religious. No doubt he brought on himself the wonder, and sometimes the laughter, of his associates in the Roman army; but still he went on praying himself, and teaching and encouraging his servants to pray.

Does not this teach us something, as many as live in a Christian country, and yet suffer any slight excuse to hinder them either in their own regular prayers, or in seeing that their families pray, morning and evening? And is it not the greatest encouragement to those, who put up with some little inconvenience, for the sake of securing a few minutes, for the daily sacrifice of prayer and praise to the Most High, in their own households, if they cannot attend His Church?

Observe, I say, the daily and regular sacrifice; for this, in particular, is noted of Cornelius, that he prayed to God, not by fits and starts, but always, He was glad when they said unto him, "Let us go into the house of the Lord: let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker." He was not, as we too often are, glad to have been to Church in the morning, because we think ourselves thereby excused from going in the afternoon. But, as it is recorded of a good and holy man of our own Church, and not far from this very neighbourhood, two hundred years ago, "he would have rejoiced to spend his life in that place, where the honour of his Master, Jesus, dwelleth." "He prayed to God alway;" that is, he never missed, if he could help it, the occasions and opportunities of solemnly worshipping Him.

And he added to his prayers both alms and fasting; the two wings, as they are called, of prayer. "He gave much alms to the people," preferring in his bounty those whom he had caused to think God preferred: according to the rule of S. Paul: "Do good unto all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith."

This was the general course of his life, under all his disadvantages. And to mark especially God's approbation of it, observe how he was employed at the very time the Angel came to him. He was keeping a solemn fast on a certain day, having taken nothing until the ninth hour, that is, until three in the afternoon; at which time he set himself to pray the appointed service, which God's people used at that hour in his house: for the ninth hour, that is, three in the afternoon, was one of the regular hours of prayer, constantly observed among the Jews, and afterwards also among the Christians.

Such was Cornelius's employment, when an Angel of God stood before him; called him by his name; assured him (O unspeakable reward for a whole life of self-denial!) that his prayers and his alms had gone up for a memorial before God; and told him where and to whom he should send, to receive instruction as to God's purpose of grace; and not only instruction, but admittance into the kingdom of heaven, the Holy Spirit coming down to dwell in his heart. And these blessings he was to receive, not for himself only, but, as the first of believing Gentiles, for all who from all quarters of the world should come in, and give their names to be servants of Christ. And to make the favour still more signal, the Holy Spirit at the same time instructed S. Peter, by a wonderful vision, that it was His will to break through, in the person of Cornelius, the partition wall which had so long separated the Gentiles from the people of God. And besides all this, when the Apostle had come and had spoken to Cornelius and his family, and they, (as they had no other thought) were listening with humble and obedient and believing hearts, the Holy Spirit Himself, in His visible signs, fell on them that heard the word; they began to speak with tongues, and to magnify God: and thereby S. Peter felt quite sure, that the Divine Spirit had chosen them for His inhabitation, as entirely as those who had before been called to be Christians from among the Jews: and no time was lost in baptizing them, that they might be regenerate, and have the Spirit, not only prophesying by them, but dwelling in their hearts, and uniting them to Jesus Christ.

Such is the rich, the unspeakable, inconceivable encouragement, which this history of the calling of Cornelius offers, to all who humbly endeavour to serve God under great worldly discouragements: setting out (as one may speak) from the spot whereon they now stand; favourable or unfavourable; and trying to keep themselves, by prayer, by fasting, and by works of kindness to their brethren, alive and open to the influences of the Holy Spirit.

It is a part of Scripture particularly meant for those, who for various reasons think religion nearly out of the question for them; for those who are very destitute and ignorant, living perhaps on the charity of others; for those whose whole time seems engrossed by hard work or by troublesome trade; who are made anxious by their families, or by the state of their health: to all such the word is gone forth, if they will but have the heart to receive it: "God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation," every condition, under every sort of disadvantage, "he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness," will surely be accepted of Him.

And when He says, "accepted of Him," it is no ordinary blessing that He speaks of, but it is the crown and sum of all blessings, the justification of a Christian man. It is that which our Lord promised when He said, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We" i. e. the Father and the Son, by the Spirit, "will come unto him, and make Our abode with him."

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