Sermon 30: Upon Our Lord’s Sermon On The Mount, Discourse X

01:466 An Introductory Comment [to Sermons 21-33]

The unifying theme of these next thirteen ‘discourses’ on the Sermon on the Mount, with all their variations and nuancings, is the Christian life understood as the fruit of justifying faith. But given such faith, what follows? Wesley’s answer is given in this extended exposition of the Christian life based on the locus classicus of evangelical ethics, ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ (i.e., Matthew 5-7). Since Tyndale, this ‘sermon’ had been understood as ‘the epitome of God’s laws and promises’ for Christian believers; cf. Clebsch, England’s Earliest Protestants, p. 184; see also William Burkitt, Expository Notes…on the New Testament (eleven editions between 1700 and 1739), Preface to chapter 5: ‘Christ’s famous Sermon on the Mount comprehends the sum and substance of both the Old and New Testaments.’

Taken together, the following sermons are not a thirteen-part essay, tightly organized and argued. Instead, they are separate sermons, drawn from materials running back to 1725, arranged in a triadic pattern that seems to have been original with Wesley. Each is a discourse in its own right; yet the series is designed so that each appears as a part of a whole. This means that the sermons may be read singly or together, but with an eye on their shared aim: ‘to assert and prove every branch of gospel obedience as indispensably necessary to eternal salvation’; cf. Wesley’s open letter (Nov. 17, 1759) to John Downes in reply to the latter’s abusive Methodism Examined and Exposed (1759).

Many of the great and near-great commentators of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had devoted their talents to the interpretation of Matthew 5-7 as the principal summary of Christian ethics, or, in Henry Hammond’s phrase, as ‘an abstract of Christian philosophy’; cf. his Practical Catechism (1st edn., c. 1644), II.1, in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (1847), p. 83. Chief among these earlier works, in the order of their influences upon Wesley’s thought, were Bishop Offspring Blackall, ‘Eighty-Seven Practical Discourses Upon Our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount’, Works, I.1-561; II.609-939; 01:467John Norris, Practical Discourses; the American, James Blair, Our Saviour’s Divine Sermon on the Mount in IV Volumes (1722; 2nd edn., 1740, with a preface by Daniel Waterland); John Cardinal Bona, Guide to Eternity… (six editions in English between 1672 and 1712); and Henry Hammond, op. cit. Echoes of all these are scattered along the way, together with lesser borrowings from Bengel, Poole, and Henry. This makes it all the more remarkable that Wesley came up with a model of his own, both inform and substance. This series thus reminds us, yet again, of Wesley’s ready appeal to tradition—even while he maintains his own originality and independence.

Benjamin Ingham records in his Journal that ‘during the voyage [to Georgia] Wesley went over our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount’ with the ship’s company aboard the Simmonds. There are also other records of his preaching, very early on, from one or another text in Matthew 5-7. For example, his second sermon was preached at Binsey (near Oxford), November 21, 1725, on Matt. 6:33. A first draft of the sermon which appears here as ‘Discourse VIII’ seems to have been written out in 1736. Later, it was the example of the Sermon on the Mount that encouraged Wesley to break out of his High Church prejudices in Bristol, April 1, 1739: ‘In the evening (Mr. Whitefield being gone) I begun expounding our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (one pretty remarkable precedent of field preaching, though I suppose there were churches at that time also) to a little society which was accustomed to meet once or twice a week in Nicholas Street;’ cf. Journal entries for this whole story of the unplanned outbreak of the Wesleyan Revival.

The records show that, between 1739 and 1746, Wesley preached more than one hundred sermons from separate texts in the Sermon on the Mount. There is, however, no recorded instance of his having treated that Sermon as a whole anywhere else. Evidently, he was prepared to allow this series, once published, to stand as his sufficient comment on the subject.

In his introduction to ‘Discourse X’, §§1-3, Wesley repeats his explanation (cf. ‘Discourse I’, Proem, §10) of how he had conceived the design of Matthew 5-7, according to its three unfolding themes: (1) ‘the sum of true religion’; (2) ‘rules touching that right intention which we are to preserve in all our outward actions’; and (3) ‘the main hindrances of this religion’. He then adds a clarifying summary: ‘In the fifth chapter [of St. Matthew] our great Teacher…has laid before us those dispositions of the soul which constitute real Christianity…. In the sixth [chapter] he has shown how all our actions…may be made holy, and good, and acceptable to God, by a pure and holy intention…. In 01:468the former part of [ch. 7] he points out the most common and fatal hindrances of this holiness; in the latter [part] he exhorts us, by various motives, to break through all [such hindrances] and secure that prize of our high calling [of God in Christ Jesus]’ (cf. Phil. 3:14).

The thirteen discourses are divided almost equally over the three chapters of St. Matthew: five for chapter five, four each for six and seven. Of the first five, Discourse I is devoted to the first two Beatitudes; Discourse II to Beatitudes three through five (with a hymn to love based on 1 Cor. 13); Discourse III to the remainder of the Beatitudes; Discourse IV turns to Christianity as ‘a social religion’ in which inward holiness (our love of God) prompts outward holiness (love of neighbour); Discourse V is a balancing of law and gospel. Discourses VI-IX are based on chapter six: VI to the problems of purity and holiness of intention (to the ‘works of piety and of mercy’); VII to fasting; VIII to a denunciation of greed and surplus accumulation; IX to the mutually exclusive services of God and Mammon. Discourses X-XIII turn to various hindrances to holy living and to their avoidance: X to ‘judging’ (contrary to love), ‘intemperate zeal’, ‘neglect of prayer’, ‘neglect of charity’; XI to the noxious influences of ill-example and ill-advice with which the world deludes us; XII to false prophets and unedifying preachers (and yet also our duties to attend church nonetheless and to avail ourselves of all means of grace); XIII is an inevitable comment on the parable of the houses built on sand and rock. Discourse XII was also published separately in the same year that it appeared in SOSO, III (1750), under the title, ‘A Caution Against False Prophets. A Sermon on Matt. vii. 15-20. Particularly recommended to the People Called Methodists’. This went through seven editions during Wesley’s lifetime. For a stemma delineating the publishing history of that sermon (‘collected’ and ‘separate’) and a list of variant readings, see Appendix, ‘Wesley’s Text’, Vol. IV, see also Bibliog, Nos. 130 and 13o.i.

Obviously there is no interest, in any of these sermons, in critical textual problems or in the historical context. Everywhere it is assumed that in St. Matthew’s text we are dealing with divine ipsissima verba—i.e., with a direct address from ὁ ὤν, ‘the self-existent, the Supreme, the God who is over all, blessed for ever’ (§9 below). The Sermon on the Mount, in Wesley’s view, is the only Gospel passage where Christ designed ‘to lay down at once the whole plan of his religion, to give us a full prospect of Christianity’. What matters most in our reading, therefore, is an awareness of Wesley’s sense of the wholeness of the message he is interpreting, of his conviction of the honest integration of an evangel profoundly ethical with an ethic that is also vividly 01:469evangelical. Maybe more than anywhere else in SOSO this particular bloc displays Wesley’s distinctive concern for integration and balance—between the faith that justifies and the faith that works by love.

01:650 Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount,
Discourse the Tenth

Matthew 7:1-12

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

For everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent?

If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him!

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

11. Our blessed Lord, having now finished his main design, having, first, delivered the sum of true religion, carefully guarded against those glosses of men whereby they would make the Word of God of none effect; and having, next, laid down rules touching that right intention which we are to preserve in all our outward actions, now proceeds to point out the main hindrances of this religion, and concludes all with a suitable application.

201:6512. In the fifth chapter our great Teacher has fully described inward religion in its various branches. He has there laid before us those dispositions of soul which constitute real Christianity; the tempers contained in that holiness ‘without which no man shall see the Lord’;

1

Heb. 12:14.

the affections which, when flowing from their proper fountain, from a living faith in God through Christ Jesus, are intrinsically and essentially good, and acceptable to God. In the sixth he has shown how all our actions likewise, even those that are indifferent in their own nature, may be made holy, and good, and acceptable to God, by a pure and holy intention.

2

Cf. No. 26, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VI’, §1 and n., for other comments on holy living understood as purity of intention.

Whatever is done without this he declares is of no value with God; whereas whatever outward works are thus consecrated to God are in his sight of great price.

33. In the former part of this chapter he points out the most common and most fatal hindrances of this holiness. In the latter he exhorts us by various motives to break through all and secure that prize of our high calling.

3

See Phil. 3:14.

44. The first hindrance he cautions us against is judging: ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged.’ Judge not others, that ye be not judged of the Lord, that ye bring not vengeance on your own heads. ‘For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again’—a plain and equitable rule, whereby God permits you to determine for yourselves in what manner he shall deal with you in the judgment of the great day.

55. There is no station of life, nor any period of time, from the hour of our first repenting and believing the gospel till we are made perfect in love, wherein this caution is not needful for every child of God. For occasions of judging can never be wanting. And the temptations to it are innumerable; many whereof are so artfully disguised that we fall into the sin before we suspect any danger. And unspeakable are the mischiefs produced hereby: always to him that judges another, thus wounding his own soul, and exposing himself to the righteous judgment of God; and frequently to those who are judged, whose hands hang down, who are weakened and hindered in their course, if not wholly turned out of the way,

4

See Heb. 12:13.

and caused to draw back even to perdition. Yea, 01:652how often when this ‘root of bitterness springs up’, are ‘many defiled thereby’;

5

Cf. Heb. 12:15.

by reason whereof the way of truth itself is evil spoken of,

6

See 2 Pet. 2:2.

and that worthy name blasphemed whereby we are called.

66. Yet it does not appear that our Lord designed this caution only or chiefly for the children of God; but rather for the children of the world, for the men who know not God. These cannot but hear of those who are not of the world; who follow after the religion above described; who endeavour to be humble, serious, gentle, merciful, and pure in heart; who earnestly desire such measures of these holy tempers as they have not yet attained, and wait for them in doing all good to all men, and patiently suffering evil. Whoever go but thus far cannot be hid, no more than ‘a city set upon a hill’.

7

Cf. Matt. 5:14.

And why do not those who ‘see’ their ‘good works glorify their Father which is in heaven’?

8

Cf. Matt. 5:16.

What excuse have they for not treading in their steps? For not imitating their example, and being followers of them, as they are also of Christ?

9

See 1 Cor. 11:1.

Why, in order to provide an excuse for themselves, they condemn those whom they ought to imitate. They spend their time in finding out their neighbour’s faults,

10

Cf. this condemnation of fault-finding with No. 65, ‘The Duty of Reproving our Neighbour’.

instead of amending their own. They are so busied about others going out of the way, that themselves never come into it at all; at least, never get forward, never go beyond a poor dead form of godliness without the power.

11

See 2 Tim. 3:5.

77. It is to these more especially that our Lord says, ‘Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye’, the infirmities, the mistakes, the imprudence, the weakness of the children of God, ‘but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?’ Thou considerest not the damnable impenitence, the satanic pride, the accursed self-will, the idolatrous love of the world, which are in thyself, and which make thy whole life an abomination to the Lord. Above all, with what supine carelessness and indifference art thou dancing over the mouth of hell! And ‘how’, then, with what grace, with what decency or 01:653modesty, ‘wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye’—the excess of zeal for God, the extreme of self-denial, the too great disengagement from worldly cares and employments, the desire to be day and night in prayer, or hearing the words of eternal life—‘And behold a beam is in thine own eye!’ Not a mote, like one of these. ‘Thou hypocrite!’ who pretendest to care for others, and hast no care for thy own soul; who makest a show of zeal for the cause of God, when in truth thou neither lovest nor fearest him! ‘First cast out the beam out of thine own eye.’ Cast out the beam of impenitence. Know thyself.

12

Cf. No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, II.1 and n.

See and feel thyself a sinner. Feel that thy inward parts are very wickedness,

13

Ps. 5:9 (BCP).

that thou are altogether corrupt and abominable,

14

See Ps. 53:4 (BCP).

and that the wrath of God abideth on thee.

15

See John 3:36.

Cast out the beam of pride. Abhor thyself. Sink down as in dust and ashes. Be more and more little, and mean, and base, and vile in thine own eyes. Cast out the beam of self-will. Learn what that meaneth, ‘If any man will come after me, let him renounce himself.’ Deny thyself and take up thy cross daily.

16

See Luke 9:23.

Let thy whole soul cry out, ‘I came down from heaven’ (for so thou didst, thou never-dying spirit, whether thou knowest it or no) ‘not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.’

17

John 6:38. Note this identification of the Christian with Christ; still another accent on ‘participation’.

Cast out the beam of love of the world. Love not the world, neither the things of the world.

18

See 1 John 2:15.

Be thou crucified unto the world, and the world crucified unto thee.

19

See Gal. 6:14.

Only use the world, but enjoy God.

20

Cf. Pascal, Pensées, ed. H. F. Stewart (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950), pp. 304-5 (French text with Eng. tr.). In the Modern Library and Everyman’s Library edits., cf. Pensée 570. The translation Wesley knew, of course, was that of Basil Kennet, Thoughts on Religion; cf. 2nd edn., 1727, p. 79: ‘For there are two principles which divide the wills of men, covetousness and charity. It is not indeed impossible that covetousness should subsist with faith, or charity with temporal possession. But here’s the difference: the former imploys itself in using God and enjoying the world; the latter in using the world and enjoying God’. Cf. also, St. Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, I.3.3-35. 39; De diversis quaestionibus, LXXXIII.30; De civ. Dei, 15:7; and De Octoginta-tribus Quaestionibus, XXX. See also St. Francis de Sales, Devout Life, III. xxxix. See also Nos. 108, ‘On Riches’, II.12; and 142, ‘The Wisdom of Winning Souls’, II.7, and Wesley’s letter to Mrs. Pendarves, Feb. 11, 1731, where he attributes the aphorism to Pascal.

Seek all thy happiness in him. 01:654Above all cast out the grand beam, that supine carelessness and indifference. Deeply consider that ‘one thing is needful’,

21

Luke 10:42.

the one thing which thou hast scarce ever thought of. Know and feel that thou art a poor, vile, guilty worm, quivering over the great gulf! What art thou? A sinner born to die; a leaf driven before the wind; a vapour ready to vanish away, just appearing, and then scattered into air, to be no more seen!

22

See Luke 16:26, and Wesley’s Pref., §5: ‘I am a spirit come from God and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf, till a few moments hence, I am no more seen.’ See also Wisd. 5:9-14.

See this. ‘And then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.’ Then, if thou hast leisure from the concerns of thy own soul, thou shalt know how to correct thy brother also.

88. But what is properly the meaning of this word, ‘judge not’? What is the judging which is here forbidden? It is not the same as evil-speaking, although it is frequently joined therewith. Evil-speaking is the relating anything that is evil concerning an absent person; whereas judging may indifferently refer either to the absent or the present. Neither does it necessarily imply the speaking at all, but only the thinking evil of another. Not that all kind of thinking evil of others is that judging which our Lord condemns. If I see one commit robbery or murder, or hear him blaspheme the name of God, I cannot refrain from thinking ill of the robber or murderer. Yet this is not evil judging: there is no sin in this, nor anything contrary to tender affection.

99. The thinking of another in a manner that is contrary to love is that judging which is here condemned; and this may be of various kinds. For, first, we may think another to blame when he is not. We may lay to his charge (at least in our own mind) the things of which he is not guilty—the words which he has never spoke, or the actions which he has never done. Or we may think his manner of acting was wrong, although in reality it was not. And even where nothing can justly be blamed, either in the thing itself or in the manner of doing it, we may suppose his intention was not good, and so condemn him on that ground, at the same time that he who searches the heart sees his simplicity and godly sincerity.

23

2 Cor. 1:12. Cf. Nos. 2, The Almost Christian, I.9 and n.; and 12, ‘The Witness of Our Own Spirit’, §11 and n.

1010. But we may not only fall into the sin of judging by condemning the innocent, but also, secondly, by condemning the guilty in a higher degree than he deserves. This species of judging 01:655is likewise an offence against justice as well as mercy; and yet such an offence as nothing can secure us from but the strongest and tenderest affection. Without this we readily suppose one who is acknowledged to be in fault to be more in fault than he really is. We undervalue whatever good is found in him. Nay, we are not easily induced to believe that anything good can remain in him in whom we have found anything that is evil.

1111. All this shows a manifest want of that love which οὐ λογίζεται κακόν, ‘thinketh no evil’;

24

1 Cor. 13:5; see above, No. 22, ‘Sermon on the Mount, II’, III.11 and n.

which never draws an unjust or unkind conclusion from any premises whatsoever. Love will not infer from a person’s falling once into an act of open sin that he is accustomed so to do, that he is habitually guilty of it. And if he was habitually guilty once, love does not conclude he is so still; much less that if he is now guilty of this, therefore he is guilty of other sins also. These evil reasonings all pertain to that sinful judging which our Lord here guards us against; and which we are in the highest degree concerned to avoid if we love either God or our own souls.

25

Cf. this generous spirit of reserved judgment with Wesley’s harsh judgments heaped upon Oxford in Nos. 2, The Almost Christian, and 150, ‘Hypocrisy in Oxford’; see also Charles Wesley’s critique of Oxford in No. 3, ‘Awake, Thou That Steepest.’

1212. But supposing we do not condemn the innocent, neither the guilty any farther than they deserve; still we may not be altogether clear of the snare; for there is a third sort of sinful judging, which is the condemning any person at all where there is not sufficient evidence. And be the facts we suppose ever so true; yet that does not acquit us. For they ought not to have been supposed, but proved; and till they were we ought to have formed no judgment. I say, till they were; for neither are we excused; although the facts admit of ever so strong proof, unless that proof be produced before we pass sentence, and compared with the evidence on the other side. Nor can we be excused if ever we pass a full sentence before the accused has spoken for himself. Even a Jew might teach us this, as a mere lesson of justice abstracted from mercy and brotherly love. ‘Doth our law’, says Nicodemus, ‘judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doth?’

John 7:51.

Yea, a heathen could reply, when the chief of the Jewish nation desired to have judgment against his prisoner, ‘It is not the manner of the 01:656Romans’ to judge ‘any man before he that is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.’

1313. Indeed we could not easily fall into sinful judging were we only to observe that rule which another of those heathen Romans affirms to have been the measure of his own practice. ‘I am so far’, says he, ‘from lightly believing every man’s or any man’s evidence against another, that I do not easily or immediately believe a man’s evidence against himself. I always allow him second thoughts, and many times counsel too.’

Go, thou who art called a Christian, and do likewise, lest the heathen rise and condemn thee in that day.

1414. But how rarely should we condemn or judge one another, at least how soon would that evil be remedied, were we to walk by that clear and express rule which our Lord himself has taught us! ‘If thy brother shall trespass against thee’ (or if thou hear, or believe that he hath) ‘go and tell him of his fault, between him and thee alone.’ This is the first step thou art to take. ‘But if he will not hear, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ This is the second step. ‘If he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church;’

either to the overseers thereof, or to the whole congregation. Thou hast then done thy part. Then think of it no more, but commend the whole to God.

1515. But supposing thou hast, by the grace of God, ‘cast the beam out of thine own eye’, and dost now ‘clearly see the mote or the beam which is in thy brother’s eye’; yet beware thou dost not receive hurt thyself by endeavouring to help him. Still ‘give not that which is holy unto dogs.’ Do not lightly account any to be of this number. But if it evidently appear that they deserve the title, then cast ye not ‘your pearls before swine’. Beware of that zeal which is not according to knowledge;

for this is another great hindrance in their way who would be ‘perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect’. They who desire this cannot but desire that all 01:657mankind should partake of the common blessing. And when we ourselves first partake of the heavenly gift, the divine ‘evidence of things not seen’, we wonder that all mankind do not see the things which we see so plainly; and make no doubt at all but we shall open the eyes of all we have any intercourse with. Hence we are for attacking all we meet without delay, and constraining them to see, whether they will or no. And by the ill success of this intemperate zeal, we often suffer in our own souls. To prevent this spending our strength in vain our Lord adds this needful caution (needful to all, but more especially to those who are now warm in their first love), ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under foot, and turn again and rend you.’

1616. ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.’ Beware of thinking that any deserve this appellation till there is full and incontestable proof, such as you can no longer resist. But when it is clearly and indisputably proved that they are unholy and wicked men, not only strangers to, but enemies to God, to all righteousness and true holiness;

‘give not that which is holy’, τὸ ἅγιον, the holy thing, emphatically so called, unto these. The holy, the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, such as were ‘hid from the ages and generations’ of old, and are now made known to us only by the revelation of Jesus Christ and the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, are not to be prostituted unto these men who know not if there be any Holy Ghost. Not indeed that the ambassadors of Christ can refrain from declaring them in the great congregation, wherein some of these may probably be. We must speak, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. But this is not the case with private Christians. They do not bear that awful character; nor are they under any manner of obligation to force these great and glorious truths on them who contradict and blaspheme, who have a rooted enmity against them. Nay, they ought not so to do, but rather to lead them as they are able to bear. Do not begin a discourse with these upon remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost; but talk with them in their own manner, and upon their own principles. With the rational, honourable, unjust Epicure, ‘reason of righteousness, temperance, 01:658and judgment to come’. This is the most probable way to make ‘Felix tremble’. Reserve higher subjects for men of higher attainments.

1717. ‘Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.’ Be very unwilling to pass this judgment on any man. But if the fact be plain and undeniable, if it is clear beyond all dispute, if the swine do not endeavour to disguise themselves, but rather glory in their shame, making no pretence to purity either of heart or life, but working all uncleanness with greediness;

then ‘cast’ not ‘ye your pearls before’ them. Talk not to them of the mysteries of the kingdom; of the things which ‘eye hath not seen, nor ear heard’; which of consequence, as they have no other inlets of knowledge, no spiritual senses, it cannot enter into their hearts to conceive. Tell not them of the ‘exceeding great and precious promises’ which God hath given us in the Son of his love. What conception can they have of being made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ who do not even desire to ‘escape the corruption that is in the world through lust’? Just as much knowledge as swine have of pearls, and as much relish as they have for them, so much relish have they for the deep things of God, so much knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel, who are immersed in the mire of this world, in worldly pleasures, desires, and cares. ‘O cast not’ those ‘pearls before’ these, ‘lest they trample them under their feet’, lest they utterly despise what they cannot understand, and speak evil of the things which they know not. Nay, ’tis probable this would not be the only inconvenience which would follow. It would not be strange if they were, according to their nature, to ‘turn again, and rend you’; if they were to return you evil for good, cursing for blessing, and hatred for your goodwill. Such is the enmity of the carnal mind against God and all the things of God. Such the treatment you are to expect from these, if you offer them the unpardonable affront of endeavouring to save their souls from death, to pluck them as brands out of the burning!

1801:65918. And yet you need not utterly despair even of these, who for the present ‘turn again and rend you’. For if all your arguments and persuasives fail, there is yet another remedy left; and one that is frequently found effectual when no other method avails. This is prayer. Therefore whatever you desire or want, either for others or for your own soul, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’

The neglect of this is a third grand hindrance of holiness. Still we ‘have not, because we ask not’. O how meek and gentle, how lowly in heart, how full of love both to God and man, might ye have been at this day, if you had only asked! If you had ‘continued instant in prayer’! Therefore now, at least, ‘Ask, and it shall be given unto you.’ ‘Ask’, that ye may throughly experience and perfectly practise the whole of that religion which our Lord has here so beautifully described. ‘It shall’ then ‘be given you’ to be holy as he is holy, both in heart and in all manner of conversation. ‘Seek’, in the way he hath ordained, in searching the Scriptures, in hearing his Word, in meditating thereon, in fasting, in partaking of the Supper of the Lord, and surely ‘ye shall find.’ Ye shall find that pearl of great price, that faith which overcometh the world, that peace which the world cannot give, that love which is the earnest of your inheritance. ‘Knock’: continue in prayer, and in every other way of the Lord. Be not weary or faint in your mind. Press on to the mark. Take no denial. Let him not go until he bless you. And the door of mercy, of holiness, of heaven ‘shall be opened unto you’.

1919. It is in compassion to the hardness of our hearts, so unready to believe the goodness of God, that our Lord is pleased to enlarge upon this head, and to repeat and confirm what he hath spoken. ‘For everyone’, saith he, ‘that asketh, receiveth;’ so that none need come short of the blessing; ‘and he that seeketh’, even everyone that seeketh, ‘findeth’ the love and the image of God; ‘and to him that knocketh’, to everyone that knocketh, the gate of righteousness shall be opened.

So that here is no room for any to be discouraged, as though they might ask or seek or knock in vain. Only remember ‘always to pray’, to seek, to knock, ‘and not to 01:660faint’. And then the promise standeth sure. It is firm as the pillars of heaven. Yea, more firm; for heaven and earth shall pass away; but his word shall not pass away.

2020. To cut off every pretence for unbelief, our blessed Lord in the following verses illustrates yet farther what he had said, by an appeal to what passes in our own breasts. ‘What man’, saith he, ‘is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone?’ Will even natural affection permit you to refuse the reasonable request of one you love? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?’

Will he give him hurtful instead of profitable things? So that even from what you feel and do yourselves you may receive the fullest assurance, as on the one hand that no ill effect can possibly attend your asking, so on the other that it will be attended with that good effect, a full supply of all your wants. For ‘if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven’, who is pure, unmixed, essential goodness, ‘give good things to them that ask him!’ Or (as he expresses it on another occasion) ‘give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him!’ In him are included all good things; all wisdom, peace, joy, love; the whole treasures of holiness and happiness; all that God hath prepared for them that love him.

2121. But that your prayer may have its full weight with God, see that ye be in charity with all men; for otherwise it is more likely to bring a curse than a blessing on your own head; nor can you expect to receive any blessing from God while you have not charity towards your neighbour. Therefore let this hindrance be removed without delay. Confirm your love towards one another and towards all men. And love them, not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

‘Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets.’

2222. This is that royal law, that golden rule of mercy as well as justice, which even the heathen emperor

caused to be written 01:661over the gate of his palace: a rule which many believe to be naturally engraved on the mind of everyone that comes into the world. And thus much is certain, that it commends itself, as soon as heard, to every man’s conscience and understanding; insomuch that no man can knowingly offend against it without carrying his condemnation in his own breast.

2323. ‘This is the law and the prophets.’ Whatsoever is written in that law which God of old revealed to mankind, and whatsoever precepts God has given by ‘his holy prophets which have been since the world began’,

they are all summed up in these few words, they are all contained in this short direction. And this, rightly understood, comprises the whole of that religion which our Lord came to establish upon earth.

2424. It may be understood either in a positive or negative sense. If understood in a negative sense the meaning is, ‘Whatever ye would not that men should do to you, do not ye unto them.’ Here is a plain rule, always ready at hand, always easy to be applied. In all cases relating to your neighbour, make his case your own. Suppose the circumstances to be changed, and yourself to be just as he is now. And then beware that you indulge no temper or thought, that no word pass out of your lips, that you take no step which you should have condemned in him, upon such a change of circumstances. If understood in a direct and positive sense, the plain meaning of it is, ‘Whatsoever you could reasonably desire of him, supposing yourself to be in his circumstance, that do, to the uttermost of your power, to every child of man.’

2525. To apply this in one or two obvious instances. It is clear to every man’s own conscience, we would not that others should judge us, should causelessly or lightly think evil of us; much less would we that any should speak evil of us, should publish our real faults or infirmities. Apply this to yourself. Do not unto another what you would not he should do unto you; and you will never more judge your neighbour, never causelessly or lightly think evil of anyone; much less will you speak evil. You will never mention even the real fault of an absent person, unless so far as you are convinced it is absolutely needful for the good of other souls.

2601:66226. Again: we would that all men should love and esteem us, and behave towards us according to justice, mercy, and truth. And we may reasonably desire that they should do us all the good they can do without injuring themselves; yea, that in outward things (according to the known rule) their superfluities should give way to our conveniencies, their conveniencies to our necessities, and their necessities to our extremities.

Now then, let us walk by the same rule: let us do unto all as we would they should do to us. Let us love and honour all men. Let justice, mercy, and truth govern all our minds and actions. Let our superfluities give way to our neighbour’s conveniencies (and who then will have any superfluities left?); our conveniencies to our neighbour’s necessities; our necessities to his extremities.

2727. This is pure and genuine morality. This do, and thou shalt live.

‘As many as walk by this rule, peace be to them, and mercy;’ for they are ‘the Israel of God’. But then be it observed, none can walk by this rule (nor ever did from the beginning of the world), none can love his neighbour as himself, unless he first love God. And none can love God unless he believe in Christ, unless he have redemption through his blood, and the Spirit of God bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God. Faith therefore is still the root of all, of present as well as future salvation. Still we must say to every sinner, Believe in the Lord 663Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved now, that thou mayst be saved for ever; saved on earth, that thou mayst be saved in heaven. Believe in him, and thy faith will work by love. Thou wilt love the Lord thy God because he hath loved thee; thou wilt love thy neighbour as thyself. And then it will be thy glory and joy to exert and increase this love, not barely by abstaining from what is contrary thereto—from every unkind thought, word, and action—but by showing all that kindness to every man which thou wouldst he should show unto thee.