{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_64716/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_64716","id":"gutenberg_64716","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64716","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Ecclesiastes III, 1 -- Sermons","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church of England -- Sermons -- 19th century","Farewell sermons","Sermons, English"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1842 J. G. F. & J. Rivington edition by David Price.\n\n\n\n\n\n                                    A\n                             FAREWELL SERMON,\n\n\n                                DELIVERED\n\n                    ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, A.D. 1842,\n\n                         AT THE PARISH CHURCH OF\n\n                      ST. MARY ABBOTTS, KENSINGTON.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                               BY THE VEN.\n                          ARCHDEACON POTT, M.A.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n               PRINTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE PARISHIONERS.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                   PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,\n                         ST.  PAUL\u2019S CHURCH YARD,\n                      AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  1842.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    TO\n                             THE PARISHIONERS\n                                    OF\n                        THE PARISH OF KENSINGTON,\n\n                         THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE,\n\n               WITH EVERY FERVENT PRAYER FOR THEIR WELFARE,\n\n                              IS INSCRIBED,\n\n                            BY THEIR FAITHFUL\n\n                        AND AFFECTIONATE SERVANT,\n\n                                                               J. H. POTT.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                          A FAREWELL SERMON, &c.\n\n\n                             ECCLES. iii. 1.\n\n     \u201cTo every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under\n                                 the heaven.\u201d\n\nWHEN time draws on to a close with us, the last opportunities should be\ncarefully regarded and applied to some such purpose as may show what has\nbeen the chief aim and the main design of past endeavours.\n\nA sad thing it would be, indeed, if the last portion of our time were to\nbe reserved for some single effort: for who can accomplish at one step\nthat which a daily progress only can effect?\n\nThey who enjoyed long lives of old time, indulged, it must be owned, in\nsome complaints which showed more of the weakness of our common nature,\nthan of that proficiency for which the loan of life, whatever may be the\nterm of its duration, is bestowed.  The good king Hezekiah poured his\nlamentation, when it should seem he had much cause to be contented with\nwhat God had wrought for him in his day.  He called that \u201cthe cutting off\nhis days,\u201d which it may be thought he might have met with more\ncomplacency of mind, from the contemplation of the benefits which God had\nenabled him to procure for Israel: but if there was any token of\ninfirmity in this, it was coupled with a pious mind, and the suit was\ntherefore heard and granted.  If David, too, seems sometimes querulous in\nhis pleas for the enlargement of his days, yet he added a good and\nbecoming reason for it, that he might show the power of God to that\ngeneration in which his eventful lot was cast, and make it known to those\nwho were to come.\n\nBut we may remark in general, that we do not form a right judgment of the\nProvidence of God, if at any time we speak with disparagement of the term\nof human life, as too short for the accomplishment of things which form\nits proper end.  We should consider, rather, that in all cases the gift\nof life is made capable of some sufficient share of the mercies and\nsalvation of the Lord.  It becomes so for all who partake a common\nnature, where they put no impediment to the current and communication of\nDivine Grace.  Let us weigh this point with care: it has a seasonable\napplication at this moment, since it will prevent undue regrets when any\nportion of the loan of life may cease to serve the purposes to which it\nmay have been conducive whilst the season for its exercise endured.\n\nIf, then, it is the child who is called hence to an early grave, he goes\nwith the seal of grace upon him; and what was wanting here, the bud, the\nblossom, and the ripened cluster, will thrive in a happier soil, and\nflourish in a more propitious climate.  The thread of life, which, in\nthis case, was so soon severed from the parent\u2019s bosom, was fastened to\nthe throne of heaven, and death has no power to dissolve it.  The\nConqueror of Satan, who brought life and immortality to light, will not\nexclude those little ones, whom He once called into his presence, from\nthe rescued train of countless multitudes who shall hear that glad word\nof introduction, \u201cBehold, I and the children whom God hath given me.\u201d\nThe privileges of the Gospel stood pledged to them in this life to render\ntheir change blessed to themselves, and to leave that consolation, in the\nday of sorrow, for surviving friends.\n\nIf the call hence comes in somewhat of maturer years, though still in the\ndays of youth, the young man will have lived long enough to have learned\nthe rudiments of saving knowledge, and to have practised the first\nlessons of Christian faith and Christian duty; and thus the best end for\nwhich the loan of life was given, will have found that happy earnest of\nits future fulness.\n\nIf, again, the thread of life shall have been continued to later periods\nof its course, no doubt the opportunities for all those advantages to\nwhich life can minister, will render it at all times a blessing and a\nboon.  Nor will you wonder, in comparing the longer with the shorter term\nof life, that the suit of supplicating parents in our Lord\u2019s days,\nwhether for the child or for the youth, was so often granted by a\nrestoration to a more protracted term of life.  You will not wonder that\nour Blessed Lord should so mark the value of the life which now is, and\nits connexion, by a right improvement of it, with the life of glory.  We\nare bound, indeed, to bless God for all the dispensations of his hand,\nfor they all serve for good; but we must not reverse the language, not of\nnatural feeling only, but of more just conceptions of the purposes for\nwhich life is given, or be led to think that death is the boon, and that\na return to this life could be no blessing.  When did our Lord make that\nanswer to the mourner\u2019s suit? or when did He reprove the tears and\nsorrows of survivors with that cold reply?  So little ground is there,\namong the singularities of dress and manners in which some have placed so\nmuch of their religion, for refusing to put on the mourning weed for the\ndeparted.  There is but a single instance in the Sacred Volume of a\nprohibition so enjoined; and then it was designedly portentous, denoting\nthe last extremity to which offences had grown up in Israel, and the\npunishments which were to follow.\n\nIf now the term of life runs on, and the seasons are prolonged, old age\ncomes forward, and not without its burdens and privations.  Will you\nplead here with old Barzillai, to whom David gave a gracious invitation,\nto mark the sense he entertained of the value of past services, proposing\nthat he should return with him when he was restored from exile, and\nbrought back in peace and honour to Jerusalem?  The old man\u2019s answer was\nnot entirely the most proper and becoming: \u201cand Barzillai said unto the\nking, Can thy servant taste what I eat, or what I drink? can I hear any\nmore the voice of singing-men or singing-women?  Wherefore, then, should\nthy servant be yet a burden unto my lord the king?\u201d  But Barzillai, if\nthis was ill spoken, showed a prudent spirit in what followed, for he\nputs in a prompt plea for his son: \u201cBehold,\u201d said he, \u201cthy servant\nChimham; let him go with my lord the king, and do with him what shall\nseem good unto thee.\u201d  Now David might, no doubt, have replied, \u201cI want\nyou for the council-board, where your sage experience may yield me better\nservice than this youth can furnish.\u201d  But David had a due regard to the\nprivileges of descent, and to the preference to be shown to the children\nof deserving parents who may spend their lives in the service of their\ncountry, and frequently can find no reward in this life, but in the\npersons of surviving children.  It is the plain stamp of barbarism which\nrests upon those governments which do not recognize this principle, and\nwhere the hand of power makes one only testament for the frail possessor\nafter all his services.  David formed a different judgment; he accepted\nBarzillai\u2019s tender of his son; he followed the same course which he had\npursued with poor Mephibosheth, the son of the princely, noble-minded\nJonathan, who preferred the known will of God, and his love to David, to\nthe crown of one who had incurred the forfeiture of what he had so\nill-sustained.  David placed Mephibosheth at his own board, although he\ncould neither serve him in the field, nor attend him in his exile.  The\nfirst order made upon the king\u2019s return, after receiving Mephibosheth\u2019s\nexcuse, was to confirm to him the grant which had before been made in his\nbehalf.\n\nThus have we traced the several stages of the life of man, and in each of\nthem we have found that life might be a blessing, and the ground of every\nblessing; and that God, ever gracious, ever merciful, might crown with\nsome word of benediction the closing days of each such term or period of\nthe life of man, just as He did the six glorious days of the creation.\nThe morning and the evening (for so we reckon time) were followed by a\nsolemn benediction, but with a special blessing for the Sabbath-day, the\ncrown of all that stupendous work, the day sanctified by the Creator\u2019s\nrest; the day claimed for Himself, with a marked reserve, such as the\ntrue Proprietor of all that He had made, and of all the bounties which\ndistinguished man\u2019s first abode in Paradise, was pleased to attach to one\ntree in the garden, by which the first pair might be reminded of the\nhomage due to God, and might fulfil it by a strict regard to his\ncommandment.\n\nThe Sabbath-day!  With what joy must its regular returns have been hailed\nin the first scenes of an unblemished world; and how good and gracious\nwas the Author of that first hallowed institution, so that in the day of\nforfeiture, not only was the first pledge of salvation given, but the\nwelcome respite from increasing labours by returning Sabbaths was\ncontinued.  It had no limitation or exception in its first appointment,\nnor should we presume to put such; much less was there any intimation\ngiven in that hour that the appointment of this day, with its solemn\nbenediction, was but an anticipated notice of the Jewish Sabbath,\ntogether with what was indeed peculiar to it, when, after long\nintermissions or neglects, it was revived.  Can we think that when \u201cfor\nevery thing there is a season,\u201d there was to be none more especially\nprovided, in all times, for religious observation? and that, too, when\nthe Sovereign Lord had set his seal to such provision, without one word\nwhich could affect its perpetuity?  Accordingly we find a set time for\nreligious exercises mentioned in that new scene of discipline and trial\nto which man was removed; for, indeed, he was not cast out as an alien\nand an enemy, a wanderer and a wretch.\n\nIn this hour of closure for my pastoral care among you, it may not be\nunseasonable to advert to things which have found their turns in hours of\nteaching and persuasion.  Let me then entreat you to remember those first\nacts of grace, the early grounds of good hope, which made life itself,\nwith all its seasons, a blessing, and, if rightly husbanded, the\nseed-plot of all blessings to the sons of men.  Nothing but a new\napostasy could destroy that hope, when the term of life was continued\nwhere it might have been cut short, in which case the human race would\nhave been extinguished, and that triumph would have been given to the\ncommon foe to God and man.  Nothing but a new apostasy from God would\nrender man, in his state of promised rescue and encouragement and in the\nnew term of his probation, an enemy to God.  Before that horrible\ndesertion from his worship, the Most High made his visit to the\npatriarchal altar, and gave that memorable declaration of his will, \u201cIf\nthou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?\u201d  The ground was laid in\npurpose and effect for that acceptance; and surely the assurance thus\nadded was not for one family.\n\nThus there is a Sabbath still set apart for a welcome day of rest, and\nfor religious exercises; a day, the joy of which I have so often shared\nwith you in these happy seasons of religious worship and communion.\nRemember the well-timed distinctions which He who was Lord also of the\nSabbath-day, as the partner of his Father\u2019s glory, prescribed for the\nright observance of the day, divesting it of its legal strictness and\npeculiarities, and still more protecting it, by an open vindication of\nits essential objects, from Jewish scruples and from Jewish\nsuperstitions.\n\nO look well to the duties of the Christian Sabbath!  We want no\ntraditionary warrant for its transfer to the glad day of the Redeemer\u2019s\nresurrection.  The Scriptures furnish plain and indubitable vestiges of\nthat change.  Look well to its salutary obligations, bound upon us by the\ntwofold cogency of precept and example.\n\nRemember who it was, who, after the scene of his ministerial labours,\nkept his last Sabbath in the grave, and crowned with perpetual glory the\nday of his triumphant resurrection.  Well might that day become not only\nthe day of rest from labour, but a day of gladness and release from\nworldly cares and occupation, and, above all, the happy emblem of a rest\nfrom every evil work, a respite from a bondage worse than that of servile\nEgypt, a rest too from the galling yoke and ruling power of sin, which is\nthe privilege of faith.\n\nAmong such topics as may now claim a seasonable repetition, I may again\nremind you how much it behoves us, in consulting the written word, the\nrule of faith and duty, to avoid all partial views, by which restriction\none truth would exclude another; or, what is worse, a wrong conclusion\nmay be joined with what is only true in some respects, and both the truth\nand the fallacious inference may thus gain currency together.  The\nneglect of this rule has brought more strifes and divisions into the\nChristian world than almost any thing that can be named.  Take an\ninstance if you think fit; there is more joy when that which is lost is\nfound again, than for that which was never lost.  This is true in that\nrespect; but will you strain the matter farther, and say that the\nrecovered sheep is of more worth than the whole flock to which it is\nrestored?  Will you say that the piece of silver which was missing, and\nwhen found creates much joy on that account, outweighs all that the\npurse, from whence it dropped, contained?  Will you say, that the\npardoned son, who returns to the right path by a true repentance, and\nfills his father\u2019s heart with well placed and unwonted joy, is in all\nrespects to be preferred to the son who never left the right path from an\nearly day?  The forgiving father\u2019s answer will convict that\nmisconception:\u2014\u201cSon, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is\nthine.\u201d  If the elder brother may be thought to have lost his preference,\nit could only be because of his envious temper and his ill-timed\nremonstrance.  In avoiding partial views and misapplications of what is\ntrue, the more numerous and more general and plainer testimonies, and\nthose which admit but of one construction, will be the guiding light for\nreconcilement and consistency\u2014not for preference, for that would still be\nbut a partial view.\n\nI may here add a necessary caution (oftentimes suggested, for it\nfrequently proves needful), to give heed to the native idioms or forms of\nspeech, which were in use, and rightly understood, by those to whom the\nword of treaty and persuasion was first addressed.  The use of learned\npains will thus appear, as well as of every method of right reasoning in\nthe study of the sacred Scriptures, the rule of faith and duty for which\nwe have to bless God daily.\n\nI may now touch upon the best and only safe ground of trust which we have\nto take in any season of review, when past portions of our lives are\nrecalled to our consideration.  We may look, now, to the hope of pardon,\nand allowance for things done amiss, or things left undone; and blessed\nbe God that ground has been laid, or who could stand in judgment in the\nlast account?  Certainly not the boastful and punctilious Pharisee;\ncertainly not those who have keener eyes for the faults of others than\nfor their own defects.  Excellent are the words of our Lord\u2019s apostle,\nand now most seasonable in their application; thus he marks it for a\nruling principle of charity, that it \u201cthinketh no evil,\u201d and is not,\ntherefore, apt to censure or condemn.\n\nIt is but in some respects, that we can speak well of those whom we are\nleast inclined to censure, and most ready to regard with favour;\u2014and with\nthat remark I shall fairly take leave of what concerns myself in this day\nof valediction.\n\nBut I am well aware that the season of departure from accustomed scenes\nof duty is a proper season for advice, and to this last tribute of\nsincere affection and regard, I will now address myself.\n\nWe stand much for authority, for rights of station, and the sacred\nwarrant of the pastoral commission\u2014and we do well, for without them there\nwould be no order in the world, no joint progress in a common path; no\npeace, no security.  When every man in Israel did what was right in his\nown eyes, and nothing by direction or consent, it was a day of trouble\nand disaster, of ruin and confusion.  They who will own no guide in the\nway they have to tread, had need be well acquainted with the road.\n\nIt would be well if such men, who despise all guides, would be content to\ngo alone\u2014but was it ever so seen in all the world?  Are not such the men\nwho strive most eagerly to press others into their train from all\nquarters where they can obtrude themselves and spread their pestilent\nopinions, and lay their destructive snares?\n\nBut the rules of pastoral advice derive their obligation from the\nsimplest forms of truth; were it otherwise, how would they meet the\nvaried calls for choice and resolution which come forward in the course\nof human life?  If the truth itself has no special period for the height\nand measure of its growth in human breasts, yet it has for its perpetual\nstandard God\u2019s own eternal attributes.  In those perfections of the\nDeity, the sure test of truth is established.  Our Lord\u2019s apostle takes\nthis ground; \u201cHe that cometh to God, must believe that he is;\u201d\u2014and\nobserve what follows, \u201cand that he is a rewarder of them that diligently\nseek him;\u201d\u2014in which two particulars, the existence of God, and the\nnever-failing characters of truth, wisdom, equity, and goodness in such\nexpressions of his favour, the sure foundations of his moral government\nare laid, as well as the sum of every moral and religious obligation.\nThis appears in all the articles of faith, and in all the acts of duteous\nservice; it appears in all that God hath done for us in the great work of\nour redemption more especially, and in all that he requires of us in\norder to a future recompense.\n\nLet no vicissitude in things by which men are tried, but with a sure\nrefuge under all events for the dutiful, tempt you for a moment to forget\nthat the \u201cways of God are equal:\u201d it was his own challenge to backsliding\nIsrael, and the last result will not fail to confirm it.  Let no light\nconceit at any time induce you to suppose that the great truths, upon\nwhich the hope of our salvation is built, may be regarded as things\nindifferent, for which another season may be found; or that such things,\nwith all their convincing proofs and trains of evidence, are placed\nbeyond our reach.  Can we think that our Lord\u2019s word is not verified,\nthat, \u201cWisdom should be justified of her children?\u201d  And with respect\nmore particularly to disingenuous pleas of difficulty, do we find the\nrules of faith and duty things so hard to be ascertained?  Have we no\nsufficient traces of them in the light of conscience; in the bright\ntokens and communications of God\u2019s own grace and solemn declarations, in\nthe powers of right discrimination, without which there could be no\nreasonable choice of any thing that best deserves our compliance?  Have\nwe not (blessed be God!) the sacred, never-erring Word, which has been\nwritten for our learning, and for our sure direction in all things\nneedful to salvation?\n\nIt is much to be observed, in such general statements, that the Apostles\nof our Lord never failed to add to their reasonings with Jew or Gentile,\nscribe or sophist, such comprehensive testimonies of the grounds of faith\nand the fruits of holiness in those who continue true to their\nengagement, as will leave no room for uncertain tests or bold opinions,\nfor endless fluctuations in the mind and conduct, with doubts and\ndifficulties of our own creating.  It is true, that in the revelations of\nGod\u2019s will there are things which no human faculties, or even those of\nthe purest of created beings in the realms of light, could penetrate,\nuntil the Most High so graciously revealed them,\u2014things which relate to\nhis own Essence, with his purposes and counsels for the redemption of\nmankind; but is it so hard to understand that when all was forfeited, God\nshould send a Saviour from the throne of glory to become the new Head of\nmankind, by taking flesh, and in that nature, which He by his Divine\nprerogative had power to assume, to fulfil all that wherein our common\nsire had failed?  Was not this a nobler exercise of Divine wisdom, than\nthe creating a new race, and leaving that triumph to the common foe to\nGod and man, that one such race was lost?  Is it so hard to be\nunderstood, that to vindicate the credit of God\u2019s Holy Law, there should\nbe one sufficient satisfactory atonement, one sacrifice never more to be\nrepeated or renewed? or that, by the prevailing intercession of the same\nDivine Redeemer, the gates of Heaven should be set wide to a rescued\nrace, whose own exertions should from thenceforth be well employed, in\nspite of all the force and all the artifices of the common adversary?\nThe glory of Divine grace is thus exalted, when the first gifts of God\nare again directed to their proper ends.  To raise children unto Abraham\nof the stones of the desert, had been, no doubt, an easy task to the\nAlmighty; but would it have served so highly to his glory, as the\npreservation and recovery of the first formed race?  Is it so hard to\nperceive how signally the conspiring attributes of God, his justice,\ntruth, and mercy, were thus illustrated and made to meet together in that\nwork of redemption, which was accomplished in Christ Jesus?  Does it\nrequire much scope of argument or pains of study to enable us to see,\nthat to redeem mankind was an object no less worthy of Divine\ninterposition, than to create them from the first?\n\nAgain, could we safely remain strangers (as some would gladly seem to do)\nto the several branches of all moral obligations, when they have been\nconfirmed anew, and drawn out into manifest example, and set before us so\nexpressly for our imitation, in our Lord\u2019s own life?\n\nSt. Paul\u2019s brief enumeration of faith, hope, and charity, forms the sum\nof what in other places he sets forth with a large detail of things\nrequired of us, all serving to the same end and intent: only, remember\ncarefully what that end is,\u2014it is not the same for which Christ wrought\nand suffered, and He only could sustain; yet is it the \u201creasonable\nservice,\u201d or \u201cliving sacrifice of the whole man,\u201d which is required, in\norder not only to our own improvement, which could not thrive without it,\nbut in order to a promised recompense, which, together with the freedom\nof the Gospel state, were procured for us at so rich a cost.  The ransom\npaid, the heritage obtained, by one only righteous Mediator, how widely\ndo they differ from the promised recompense for the faithful and sincere!\nand yet how consistent are these things in their whole effect!  There is\none judgment-seat for both, and one form of judicial sentence, though in\ndifferent respects, is applied to both; but how different is the language\nin which the same Apostle speaks of each.  There is no need to call in\nthe suffrage of a fellow-witness to correct his view, for both he and his\nfellow-witness, when they speak of the same things, use the same\nlanguage, and declare the same consistent judgment.\n\nAnd what, then, is our Lord\u2019s compendious draft of things required of us\nin the days of our probation? it is \u201cto love the Lord our God with all\nthe heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the\nstrength; and our neighbour as ourselves.\u201d  Will you strain a flight\nbeyond this, and regard the care for yourselves as too low a pitch for\nyour wishes to excel, or for the native worth of what is good?  Do but\nconsider that the welfare and the happiness of his reasonable creatures\nformed the first object and design of the Creator, and can never cease to\nbe his purpose; consider, too, that any kind of moral goodness which\nshould not be good for us, would want just so much of real goodness, and\nof its proper and essential excellency.  It was one of the vilest errors\nof the heathen world, and one which prevailed much, as their earliest\nhistorian tells us, that there was envy towards man among the gods; and\nno wonder, if the rule of Providence could be placed in such hands as\nthey feigned for its administration.\n\nAgain, as the truth itself is always true, and virtue, which is its\nimage, is no less uniform and constant, most groundless and injurious\nmust be those restrictions which would shut out any one real virtue or\nits exercise from the Christian pattern; for in so doing we should\ndetract just so much from its integrity.  You may reverse the proposition\nif you think fit, and say, with truth, that every virtue puts on the\nChristian character, not from any date of their adoption, but as they are\ncherished and enhanced by new motives and inducements, and strengthened\nby the bond of unity and concord in the Christian household.\n\nCan I forget at this moment, befriended as I have been in the past scene\nof my labours, that among the virtues which some would leave to the\nheathen, together with the patriot spirit and the courage to maintain it,\nFriendship has been made to share the sentence of exclusion?  At this\nrate the noble-minded Jonathan could not be added to the list of\nworthies, to recount which St. Paul found the day too short.  But the\nglowing pen of David has inscribed the name of his generous and\never-constant friend with the sons of faith, in characters which no time\nshall efface.  And what then?  Had our blessed Lord no family of friends\nwhich brought him even weeping to the grave of Lazarus?  Was it for\nnothing that it was then said, \u201cBehold how he loved him?\u201d  Had our Lord\nno disciple who was laid in his bosom at the paschal feast; to whom also\nHe gave his last charge concerning her who should be blessed among women?\nMost gladly, therefore, shall I pay the debt of friendly obligation on my\nremoval from among you, and cherish that good property of mind which has\nso many moral motives for exciting its first growth, and brings forth so\nmany moral fruits in its maturity which may be stored in everlasting\ngarners.\n\nBut as strange as that distinction is which would cast out real virtues\nfrom the Christian code, I may now warn you from an opposite extreme.\nThus have words of _counsel_ been exalted above the word of the\n_commandment_.  Let us weigh this also for a moment; it has been, and\ncontinues still to be, the nurse of many fond conceits.\n\nIf you strive to put more into a vessel which is already well\nreplenished, will you not displace some of its contents?  And if this be\ndone where the hand of the Lord hath filled the vessel, that we may drink\nand thirst no more, but live for ever, the loss (not to name the\nsacrilege) will outweigh the gain a thousand-fold.  The boastful young\nman, who would not accept the word of the commandment at our Lord\u2019s lips\nas a full reply to his inquiry, but said, \u201cAll this have I kept from my\nyouth up; what lack I yet?\u201d did not receive, in answer to this\npretension, a word of counsel.  Our Lord showed him plainly what the true\nbreadth of the commandment was.  Thus he required no more of him than\nthat which became the bounden duty of many in the days of trouble which\nsucceeded.  Many were made to feel the force of that never-changing\nprecept, which demands the sacrifice of all things sublunary, where the\nbond of Truth cannot otherwise be kept.  There was no sacrifice, then,\nproposed to this aspiring youth, nothing counselled, beyond the verge of\nthe commandment; and the test to which he was put was but the fruit of\nhis overweening zeal.\n\nWhen some of the early Christians were not contented to wait the coming\nof the fore-named obligation, but sought martyrdom of their own accord,\nalthough our Lord enjoined them when persecuted in one city to flee into\nanother, the Church interposed, and set a mark of public censure upon\nsuch rash exposures of the lives of faithful men.  Will you say, then,\nthat St. Paul put forward words of counsel for which he acknowledged\nthat, in advising what was best for those days of peril, he had no\ncommandment?  He did so; but as he had received no commandment, so did he\nimpose none.  He left his converts free to follow his advice according to\ntheir own discretion: he laid no bond upon them, no vow, no snare, no\nscruple; for, indeed, he was the steady foe to things unbidden.\n\nAnd what, then, are the general and never changing precepts which no\nflight of zeal can surpass?  We have already taken one such comprehensive\nrule from our Lord\u2019s lips; but to enlarge a little on a theme so\nseasonable at all times, we may remark, that the word of precept requires\nus to weigh and esteem things according to their real worth; to seek the\nkingdom of God first, and his righteousness; to prize that pearl of price\nabove all other things; to take readily, as St. Paul showed in his\nexample, what God giveth, with a thankful and becoming use of the welcome\ngift, but with a just sense that what may be bitter and distasteful, if\nsuch be the cup, will serve for good to those who love God; we are thus\nenjoined to be content with such things as we have, to keep under and to\ncombat every evil inclination, for there lies the place and proper\nexercise of self-denial; it will prove unfit and injurious when pressed\nbeyond its uses.  It was the aim of the apostle to set free to all things\nlawful and becoming, but not to be brought under the power of any; which\nshows at once the misery and inconvenience of an iron chain, whether\nforged by others, and imposed upon us in their names, or adopted by our\nown devices.\n\nHe who will set up better rules than these, must not expect his word to\nbe taken for them; he must prove them by the known declaration of the\nwill of God, or by sufficient reasons, tried by the sure word of the\n_commandment_.\n\nThere were not wanting, we may now remark, many who passed the season of\nattendance before the coming of the promised Mediator, with some profit\nto themselves and others.  We have noticed this with respect to the\npatriarchal age and to the Israel of God; and it holds good, in some\nmeasure, with relation to the Gentile world.  There were those even where\nthe hideous darkness of idolatry prevailed, among whom truth found its\nseasonable culture.  There were those who sustained in some sort the\ncredit of the human race.  They sought a refuge in their own reflections\nfrom false worship, and delusions gross, impious, and far below the\ncharacter of man.  They betook themselves accordingly to some sound\nprinciples of moral truth and moral wisdom.  Thus the faculty of right\ndiscrimination, and the power of conscience, when not drowned in vice and\nsuperstition, exhibited some lines, and showed some traces of the great\nCreator\u2019s image.  They reduced the rule of life and of well-doing to some\nfixed points; prudence, justice, fortitude, the love of truth, the scorn\nof falsehood or deceit, self-government, with other noble qualities,\nexhibited plain characters of man\u2019s first resemblance to the Author of\nhis being.  Thus things which are always true and always good, kept their\nplace in some fair examples, and sustained the claim which such men had\nto be the teachers and the monitors of others, although without authority\nto teach or to direct\u2014that want remained to be supplied, as the wisest of\nthem fairly owned.\n\nOur blessed Lord, who came to bind the bruised reed, and to fan the least\nspark of the smoking flax, never turned with scorn from such tokens of\ngood disposition and right judgment, or failed to give his word of\ncommendation when they came before him.  \u201cI have not found so great\nfaith, no not in Israel,\u201d were words which embraced the qualities of mind\nwhich were always found to be most favourable to prepare the heart (the\nseat of every moral property) for any seed of truth which should be cast\nupon it.  Such was the good ground of which our Lord made mention in his\ninstructive parable of the Sower and the Seed.  A rational\nacknowledgment, with a just esteem for what is good, is the soul of\nfaith, of which the tenth leper left a memorable proof.  Without such\nmoral properties faith might be the hand for receiving any benefit, but\nwhere would be the mind to understand its value, and perceive the nature\nof its obligations?  Let the nine lepers who were healed, but returned\nnot to give thanks, supply the answer.  But if the Gentile sages showed\nindeed sound judgment in reducing rules of ethics to fixed principles,\nour blessed Lord with the full warrant of divine authority formed the\ndraft of faith and duty, sometimes compendiously, and sometimes with\nparticular enumerations.\n\nBut again, with these main principles and never-changing objects of\nregard, there is another word which has its special season\u2014it is that of\npastoral entreaty; and it remains for me to press it at this time\u2014it\nresults, indeed, from the whole view which has been taken.\n\nNever then, I beseech you, my beloved brethren, consent to yield the\nprofession or the practice of the rule of faith and duty, for fear or\nfavour; for any flattering bait or treacherous inducement, never lose\nsight of what is due to God, to your fellow-creatures, and\nyourselves;\u2014only remember that if we neglect to take thought for others,\nthat is not the care for ourselves which we are enjoined to extend to\nothers.  And here I cannot sufficiently commend the manifold attentions\nof the prudent and sincere, which have been paid to the needs of many in\nthis vicinage.  O! let that care continue for your poorer brethren\u2014let it\nmanifest itself in the religious instructions which your schools provide\nfor their children, and in a thousand instances of kindness which the\nsuccours which the law requires cannot supply.\n\nAnd yet again, amidst all these incumbent obligations, there is still\nroom for the words of Solomon, \u201cto every thing there is a season;\u201d and\nthe present moment constrains me yet once more to conjure you to bear\nthese things in mind, to keep them as the treasure of your hearts.  If\nsuch shall be the purpose and endeavour, it matters less at what period\nthe foot is stayed, provided it be found in the right path when the day\nof travel or of any special charge shall close.  But in such case, when\nwe can no longer walk together as companions, there must be the word of\nexhortation for those who have to go forward\u2014let it then be the word of\nthe apostle\u2014to \u201cwalk worthy of your vocation wherewith ye are called,\nwith all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one\nanother in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond\nof peace.  There is . . . one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope\nof your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of\nall, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.\u201d\n\nTo us who have walked long together, there is another cheering word on\nseparation, when most happily the new guide, with every hopeful\ncommendation, is at hand and ready to succeed.\n\nThere is but one word more, one which cannot be amplified, for it\ncontains the sum of every good wish, every grateful sense and\nrecollection of past kindnesses\u2014there remains but the little, yet\nsignificant and comprehensive word\u2014farewell; \u201cand this I pray, that your\nlove may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment; that\nye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere, and\nwithout offence until the day of Christ.\u201d\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 THE END\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                     GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,\n                            ST. JOHN\u2019S SQUARE.","title":"A Farewell Sermon: delivered on Sunday, October 23, A.D. 1842, at the Parish Church of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":6438}