salvation, as Simeon did, we shall be able to say with him, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!" We shall know," that to depart and be with Christ is far better;" we shall be "ready to depart," waiting for the joyful summons; unfurling our sails, ready to catch the breeze which shall waft us to heaven! Thus is death destroyed and "abolished" in Christ. Even to little children is the dominion over the last enemy given; for hundreds of them have departed in peace by faith in this salvation: nor shall one of Christ's little ones be swallowed up by death; "for," saith he, "he that believeth in me shall never die!" (John xi. 26.) Oh! who can tell the holy joy and peace that dwells in the bosom of the departing saint, whose eyes are full of Jesus?

Here let all inquire whether their eyes have seen this great salvation?

1. Seasons of mercy like the present have often been vouchsafed to you :

at Christmas, Easter, and similar blessed festivals, Christ is set before you more vividly: have you seen him? have you beheld his glory? have you fled to him, and felt your great need of him? If not, these seasons will but increase your condemnation! "This child is set for the fall," as well as "for the rising again," of many in Israel. (ver. 34, with Isaiah viii. 14.) He ever has been "a stumblingblock" and an "occasion of falling" to many: oh, beware; mercy so often offered, and so often rejected, becomes accumulated wrath-augments our just condemnation and eternal misery! Repent ye, then, and look to this infant of Bethlehem, and draw out of him the salvation of your souls. 2. Let none be satisfied except with the same knowledge of Christ which the aged Simeon required.

Seek after Christ in his word and ordinances, until you find him as your Saviour, your friend, your brother: wait for him, and on him, until the Spirit imparts a consolatory view of him-until you are satisfied in him, and supplied with his fulness. When you can say, "My beloved is mine, and I am his," (Cant. ii. 16); "He has loved me with an everlasting love;" "I have known and believed the love which God hath to me-God is love," (1 John iv. 16);— when, from your inmost heart, you can say, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation," then you will be satisfied to live and die; for you will live in peace, and die in peace, possessed of that which the world can neither give nor take away!

XLIX.

POPULARITY OF ERROR.

John viii. 45. Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

PROFOUND and sententious are the doctrines which were taught by our Lord in these discourses with the cavilling Jews, as recorded by St. John. They might be called primitive truths, unmingled with even the innocent infirmities of human nature, springing, as primary formations, from the bosom of Eternal Wisdom itself! yet are they replete with unpalatable dogmas, and such as the world has ever exploded; and some persons have laboured to escape their application by confining them to the particular individuals to whom they are addressed: whereas it is palpably evident, that among the crowd who listened to our Lord, there were samples of all the different classes of men, in every country where human nature is found.

Thus, the solemn affirmation of our Lord in the text is opposed to a favourite maxim of men: He says, "Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not ;" the world says, "Truth is great and will prevail." In science, natural philosophy, and in secular pursuits, there may be some foundation for the world's proverb, because ignorance, and prejudice, and even self-interest, must eventually give way before the discoveries of practical science; but in religion. it is not so here it is exactly the reverse; and, for reasons which will appear, truth is less likely to prevail among men than error. But let us examine this interesting point; and may the Lord give the Lord give us wisdom to discern the truth, to embrace it, and to obey it! I proceed—

I. TO EXAMINE, ILLUSTRATE, AND CONFIRM THE ASSER

TION OF OUR LORD.

II. TO DRAW FROM IT AN OBVIOUS INFERENCE.

I. LET US EXAMINE THE AFFIRMATION OF OUR BLESSED LORD: "Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me

not."

1. Here we must first inquire, What is truth? or, What is the truth of which our Lord here speaks?

(a) There is a definite sense to be attached to this word. In

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the Old Testament the expression-"the truth," is rarely used for the revelation of God; and where it does occur, (chiefly in the Psalms,) it refers generally in a prophetic sense to the Gospel. But in the New Testament its meaning becomes more precise: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ;" He " of grace and truth," (John i. 14, 17); "Ye sent to John, and he bare witness to the truth," "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth;" "I came into the world to bear witness to the truth." (John v. 33; xiv. 16; xvii. 19; xviii. 37.) This is "the truth which was to make them free." (ver. 32.) All these expressions point to Christ and his Gospel as "the truth." And subsequently the word is constantly used in the epistles definitely for the Gospel, which is "the truth"-"the way of truth"-" the truth of Christ"- "the truth as it is in Jesus." (Ephes. iv. 21.) (b) This truth then is the Gospel of our salvation: the doctrine of human ruin, loss, guilt, corruption, sin, and misery; this is truth, though unpalatable truth, in its full extent. The doctrine of redemption, through the blood of Jesus, and the righteousness of Jesus freely imputed, without any of our works and deservings-this is truth. The doctrine of the Spirit the work of grace on the heart, converting, renewing, sanctifying, comforting, and preserving the soul to eternal life; and all this of free, undeserved grace-this is truth with all the present and future promises appended thereto; this is the truth which Christ and his Apostles preached.

2. There has ever been a disposition in man to reject this truth, simply because it is the truth.

"Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." There is a natural antipathy in man's heart to the truth of God: it has been so ever since man believed the "father of lies" (ver. 44) in paradise. Under darker dispensations the same truth was discerned and hated of men. The antediluvians saw and hated the truth preached by Noah, and perished in their sins! The inhabitants of Sodom rejected Lot's warning and perished. When God took to himself a nation, its successive teachers complained-"Who hath believed our report?" "They say of me, Doth he not speak parables?" The prophets of the Lord "sat solitary." And when truth was preached by Truth itself, it was received with more bitterness and enmity than before: "Ye have both seen and hated both Me and my Father," was one sad testimony, among many, by Jesus himself! "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned, and ye have not wept!" And in every visible Church of Christ, from that day to this, a large, and generally the larger portion of its

nominal professors, have ever rejected this truth! "Many are called, but few chosen."

3. The cause of this rejection of truth :

(a) It cannot be any deficiency in the truth itself. Here is no want of evidence: proofs of its Divine origin are multiplied and increasing. Here is no deficiency in beauty; for God has clothed his word with sublimity, pathos, and elegance of language. Nor of holiness and virtue: for they breathe in every line of scripture. Nor of tenderness and love: for mercy is its characteristic. Nor of adaptation to man: for it is suited to all, in all lands, at all times! We ask then, (ver. 46,) "If we tell you the truth, why do ye not believe

us ?"

(b) The cause is hidden deep in the human heart. Let others impute deficiency or imperfection to God's word, and prescribe ancient nostrums to supply its lack of truth, because men will draw error from it: we will argue more justly, and impute this to the wickedness of man's heart, which will extract poison from the most wholesome food, and pervert the Scriptures, and much more the Church, into fountains of error! Man's heart and will and mind are at enmity against God, and therefore he hates the truth, and is predisposed to reject it: he is by nature a rebel; and the truth is that against which he rebels: as a traitor he tears up the proclamation of his lawful sovereign. Thus, the infidel rejects revelation, not for want of evidence, but to gratify his pride, by rising superior to the fears and hopes of the common herd of mankind; or because he knows the book condemns his conduct, and therefore it is easier to dispute its authority than to yield to its injunctions. The self-righteous reject Gospel doctrines, because their pride is humbled by them, and their merit denied. The busy and the idle men of the world refuse to believe, because this revelation requires a renunciation of worldly lusts and pleasures; and they hate its messengers," because they do not prophesy good concerning them but evil." (1 Kings xxii. 8.) "The world hateth me," said our Lord, "because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John vii. 7.) "They will not come to the light of truth," &c. "but hate it," &c. (John iii. 20.) Nay, even Christians themselves are often impatient of it: "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Gal. iv. 16.) They would not "suffer the word of exhortation." (Heb. xiii. 22.)

The assertion of our Lord is, as it must be, universally true: "Men will not believe," simply "because we tell them the truth." Proceed we therefore

II. TO DRAW AN OBVIOUS INFERENCE FROM THIS ASSER

TION:

-if men are disposed to reject truth because it is truth, they will be equally disposed to embrace error because it is error; there will be found in the human mind an adaptation to, and a facility in the reception of false doctrine, as there is an indisposition to receive the true! The text alone might not be a sufficient base for this argument, but coupling with it other scriptural evidence, and the testimony of facts, the inference will be established.

1. Scripture affirms it :

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;

-“I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own name, him will ye receive!" (John v. 43.) They were predisposed to error: Many false spirits are gone out into the world; they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." (1 John iv. 1, 5.) Those who hate the truth, will assuredly cry, "Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." (Isaiah xxx. 10.) "When the prophets prophesied falsely, the people loved to have it so!" (Jer. v. 31.) And when God withdraws his Holy Spirit, and leaves men to themselves, they always are ready "to suffer delusion and believe a lie!" (2 Thess. ii. 11.)

2. The whole history of the world illustrates the same sad truth:

-Whether among the Jews who had revelation, or among the Gentiles who were destitute of it, no religious error was ever broached which did not spread with rapidity and ease! See the world as it is now: how immense the countries which are sunk in the follies and crimes of heathenism, and the Mohammedan imposture! How large the portion of Christendom itself that is oppressed with a hateful superstition, or distracted with multiplied schisms! How few comparatively believe God's word in simplicity, and obey its holy commands fully! The rapidity with which delusions the most absurd, and doctrines the most wicked and licentious, can be propagated in this christian land, (as Socialism, Socinianism, and Mormonism,) must be an inexplicable enigma to some, and is deeply humbling to all. But the point I am arguing explains this: error, and every corruption of truth, is palatable to man's heart; they are suited to his fallen nature, please him, gratify his pride and unbelief: they are indigenous, spontaneous, and therefore we should not wonder that they are easily disseminated. The world, the flesh, and the devil, are on their side. Let no one be