SERMON XVII.

GROANS OF UNRENEWED AND RENEWED

NATURE.

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

ROM. viii. 22, 23.

"We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

HIGHEST and lowest are bound in one in Christ. God is One; One in Nature, although in the Blessed Persons of that Nature, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, distinct; and that oneness He impressed on His creation. Before the Angels' fall, all things in Heaven were one. Before man's fall, things on earth were one; uniform though multiform. They were one, by reflecting His Image Who is One; one, by

fulfilling His will. And when disunion was brought in by the fall of Angels and men, since all things are held in one, only as they are in Him, the One only God, He willed to knit all things which are in Heaven and which are in earth again in one, in His Coequal Son.

Passing by the fallen Angels, but taking the nature of man, and uniting our human nature with His Divine, He bestowed on us, of all the last, that ineffable closeness of union with Himself. Through us, the fallen from God, lost and far removed by sin, did He will to bring His rational creation into a nearness past all thought, the creature with the Creator, the finite with the Infinite, man with God. Thus willed He to seek out the one lost sheep in this our wilderness, and to bring it on His shoulders to the Heavenly courts. Thus willed He, that His elect, being made like unto the Angels, should with the holy Angels form one Church, to the eternal glory of His Holy Name; one, as being filled by Him Who is One; His Body, "the fulness of Him Who filleth all in all."

Elsewhere, Holy Scripture teacheth us, that the highest of the Heavenly hosts are interested in the mysteries of man's redemption, and "desire to look into the things" which relate thereto. It tells us, that "unto principalities and powers in Heavenly places is known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." Here, on the other hand, it reveals to us, that the very lowest have in some way suffered by man's fall; that they, too, shall in his restoration, gain in glory. Mysterious power of sin, that it Eph. iii. 10.

a

X

should so defile, not the sinner only, but the very creation which itself partakes not of it! Heaven and earth are spoiled by man's sin; and, as defiled, must pass away, and be changed into "a new Heaven and new earth," fit for righteousness to dwell therein. Through our Lord's holy Presence must the Heavenly places be purified from our sin; and this earth and all that is therein must be burnt up.

Mysterious efficacy of our Blessed Lord's Atonement, that all things which shut not out God; all, but they who, at the last, shall be found to have rejected Him, shall partake of the glory, which He hath purchased, and which floweth forth from Him!

For man's sake the earth was cursed. "God made not death." "He created all things that they might have their being, and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth. For righteousness is immortal. But ungodly men with their works and words called it to them." "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly."

66

Vanity of vanities," saith the Preacher, " vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Nothing comes to any perfection; nothing continues at one stay; things subsist but by renewal and decay all things, by change, foretell their own destruction, whereto they are hastening. "The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place whence he arose." He seemeth to rise, but to set; no sooner doth he reach his full glory in the height of Heaven, than he seemeth to sink towards his end. He shineth not in b Heb. ix. 23. c Wisdom i. 13-16. a Eccles. i. 5.

his full glory, but he thereby draws clouds around him; when he putteth forth his fullest heat, then we mostly feel that a change cometh; or, if it cometh not, his very brightness becomes the decay of that, for which he shineth. "The wind," says the Preacher again, "goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually." It does, as it were, and undoes its own work, going and returning; and when it resteth, it ceases, as it were, to be. "Thef rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour, man cannot utter it." All things bear about them strange tokens of good and evil. Each pictures to us some part of the glory of their Maker; each, of our vanity. They minister to us, only by their corruption; they live, only to die. Day dieth unto night, and night vanisheth into day. Summer seems to give way unwillingly to winter, and winter unto summer. Seeds grow not, but by perishing; when grown, they are our food through their destruction. Flowers turn not to fruit, but by the fading of their glory. All seems to toil; all changes; all decays; all, in one weary and restless round, seem to say "we abide not for ever; here is not thy rest." "The creature" then "is subject to vanity" through outward decay; itself perishable and serving to perishable ends.

But more! It was all formed " It was all formed "very good," to its Maker's praise; and now, through which hath not He been dishonoured? If beautiful, man loves and

e Eccles. i. 6.

f Ib. i. 7,

8.

"The enemy of God hath corrupted, together with man him

admires it, without or more than God, or worships it instead of Him. If any brings outward evil, man, on occasion of it, murmurs against its Maker. All were made to His glory; all, through man's sin, turn to His dishonour. Such was the condemnation of the heathen. "They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator Who is Blessed for ever." By love of them or displeasure at them, men alike forget God. When through them, God chastens them, they in fact upbraid Him. When He blesses them, they forget Him, or sin against Him, through His gifts. How is every object of every sense abused to vanity! Who, well nigh, escapes something amiss in his very daily food? how does it minister to excess and luxury, to self-satisfaction, and fullness, or undue pleasure, not to speak of gross and carnal sins!

66 Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked." "She did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." What, even now, is not, even by Christians, offered to some Baal of pride, or luxury, or "covetousness, which is idolatry?" Of what thousand thousand sins are the daily supplies of our daily food, the occasion! "Whose god is their belly." In unthankfulness or luxury, or daintiness, or hardself, the whole creation put in subjection to man for certain uses; whence also the Apostle saith that it was made subject to vanity, not willingly, being subverted first through vain uses, and then through such as were vile, and unrighteous, and ungodly." Tert. de Cor. c. vi. p. 168, and not. p. [Oxf. Tr.] where the interpretations on this text in the fathers are collected.

h Rom. i. 25.

i Deut. xxxii. 15.

* Hos. ii. 8.