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THE

BRITISH PULPIT.

SERMON I.

PREACHED ON BEHALF OF MISSIONS AT GREAT QUEEN STREET CHAPEL, LONDON

BY THE REV. T. RAFFLES, D.D. LL.D.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way.”—John xiv. 6.

obligation in the bonds that bind the creature to the Creator. He taught the spirituality, and purity, and perfection of the law of God. He threw a strong and steady light upon the regions of futurity, and surrounded his hearers with the dread transactions of the judgment-day, and the enduring realities of the eternal world.

"NEVER man spake like this man." | heart, he unfolded the foundation of moral Such was the testimony of persons who could not, for a moment, be suspected of partiality, and who would never have uttered this eulogy if it had not been wrested from them by an admiration, the expression of which they were utterly unable to suppress. "Never man spake like this man;" and so you would have said if you had heard him preach. Never mortal had such doctrines to deliver, and never mortal taught in so solemn and impressive, yet so tender and affectionate

a manner.

"Never man spake like this man." So Nicodemus thought, when, in reply to his complimentary address, he laid down the fundamental doctrine of his gospel, and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." So Nathaniel thought, when casting at him his mild and piercing eye, he said, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." So Zaccheus thought when he climbed up into the sycamore tree, because Jesus was to pass that way; and he turned unto him and cried, “Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy

The philosophers of antiquity-they only skimmed the surface of things; they talked about the loveliness of virtue and the odiousness of vice; they speculated about the immortality of the soul, and the life beyond the grave, and professed to look forward with mingled hope and fear to an hereafter concerning which none could speak with satisfaction or with certainty. And as for the scribes and pharisees, who sat in Moses's seat, they only sophisticated and polluted the purity of his morality by their adding to the cum-house." brous mass of rites and ceremonies, by which his dispensation was distinguished, innumerable traditions and enactments of their own. But this man-he went at once to the spring of action in the human VOL. I.-3

So Peter thought, when he would have reproved his Master; but the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those

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their mandate. No; but it was the power of light beaming upon the understanding it was the power of truth making its way to the conscience-it was the power of God speaking to mortals by his Son. And though eighteen hundred years have rolled away since he exercised his personal ministry on earth, and uttered the language of our text, yet, by the preach

that be of man." So the scribes and pharisees thought, when he took off the mask of hypocrisy by which they sought to impose upon the people, and exhibited their character in all its true, and odious, and disgusting colours, and thundered out the anathema, "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" So Pilate thought, when in reply to his ques-ing of his gospel, he speaks to you this tion-half, perhaps, in veneration, and day, and he demands that the testimony half in scorn, "Art thou a king?" he an- he delivers shall be received alike in the swered, "Thou sayest that I am a king." understanding and the heart; "I am the Thou hast announced my true and proper way." dignity; I am a king; but my kingdom is not of this world. I lead no conquering armies to the battle, I press not for thrones and palaces, through fields of carnage, and seas of blood: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."

But what does he mean?-The way to what?-The way to whom?-In what sense is Christ the way? My brethren, to answer these questions shall be the scope of our present discourse; and when I have put the answers in, I shall endeavour to found some pleas on them for the great cause which we are to advocate with you this morning.

No matter where-no matter when no matter what he said-whether in the This interesting declaration of the ditemple, surrounded by the doctors of the vine Redeemer occurred in the course of law, hearing and asking them questions, a conversation which he had with his or whether on the deck of the vessel, disciples, in which he informed them of surrounded by the fishermen of Galilee; his approaching departure out of this or whether in the towns, and cities, and world, his going to the Father, and that villages of Judea, healing the sick and the world should see him no more. And raising the dead; or whether at the tribu- he spoke as though he took it for granted nal of Pilate, the object of contempt and that they perfectly understood his meanscorn-"never man spake like that man."ing, "Whither I go ye know, and the There was a power, and an authority, and an influence in all he said that none could gainsay or resist. The grabbling scribes heard him, and they were confounded. The haughty pharisees heard him, and they were abashed. The frantic demoniac heard him, and he was still. The diseased heard him, and he felt impulses of health beat in all his veins. The dead heard him, and broke his silence and rose. "Never man spake like this man." And yet the power and authority with which he spoke was not that which thrones, and sceptres, and diadems could confer-it was not the power and authority of racks, and gibbets, and dungeons-it was not the power and authority of the princes and potentates of this world, who sending of the Saviour in the words of the their conquering armies to enforce their command, and hurl the thunders of their artillery against all who dare to resist

way ye know." But Thomas-who, more than all the rest of the disciples, seems to have been remarkably under the power of unbelief-Thomas said, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" We do not understand thy meaning; explain thyself; and let us know precisely what is the drift of thy discourse. And from this the Saviour takes occasion to speak of himself more at large, as the way, the divinely appointed way, the all-sufficient way, the sole, the exclusive way of a sinner's acceptable approach to God, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Thus you have a key to unlock the mean

text, and thus you perceive the drift and scope of our present discourse.

The language of the Redeemer, my

brethren, evidently implies that man, in his natural state, is at a distance from God. Adam, in his primeval state of innocence and purity, needed no such way as this he needed no intercessor between God and man, no mediator, no atoning sacrifice. He approached to God immediately, and communed with him without reserve, even as a man communeth with his friend. His spirit felt no dread, his heart was agitated with no terror; he heard the voice of the Lord God in the shades of the garden, in the cool of the day, and he flew with gladness to meet him; for he recognised in its tones the voice of his best friend. Ah, how altered is the scene when guilt pressed heavy on his spirit, and shook him with dread forebodings of the wrath of an avenging God! Then a sight was seen, and then a voice was heard, such as those peaceful and holy bowers had never witnessed before- | the person of man fleeing from his Maker's voice and arrested by his Maker's call: "Adam, where art thou?" And he said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid." "Why afraid?" "I hid myself because I was naked." "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die?"

tortures, and toils, and pilgrimages, and oft-repeated prayers; as he drops the sandals from his bleeding feet, and as the lash resounds from his agonizing limbsstill he must cry, "Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and how shall I bow myself before the high God?" This is the language of the savage, in his deadly incantations at the shrine of devils. This is the language of the sage, in all his researches after wisdom, and in all his literature and philosophy. This is the language of the papist, in his penances and invocations of the saints-in his confessions and fasts. This is the language of the pharisee, in his close adherence to the rites and ceremonies of the particular church to which he may be attached. All utter one cry, all breathe one intense anxiety, all express one ardent desire; and the desire seems intended to ascertain some principle-to devise some way by which the burden of guilt may be removed from the conscience, and man obtain pardon and peace with an offended God. But there is only one way, one allsufficient way, one divinely-appointed way, and that way is announced to you in the text, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me."

1st. Man being ignorant of God, Christ is the way-the only way-to an acquaintance, a sufficient acquaintance, with his character. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no

Will you allow me then, my brethren, by the induction of a few particulars, to enAnd, my brethren, a similar conscious-deavour TO ILLUSTRATE THE REDEEMER'S ness of guilt, a similar dread of punish- MEANING, AND SHOW YOU IN WHAT REment, has pressed heavily on every human SPECTS CHRIST IS THE WAY. spirit, from that period to the present hour; and man, in all his tribes, and through all his generations, in one form or other, has never ceased to utter this piercing cry, "Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, or how shall I bow my-man cometh unto the Father but by me. self before the high God?" This is the If ye had known me, ye should have language of the Jew, as he turns from his known my Father also: and from hencevile abominations and his inefficient sacri- forth ye know him, and have seen him. fices. When rivers of oil have flowed, Philip saith unto him (he caught at the and oceans of blood have been shed-language), Lord, show us the Father, and when the cedars of Lebanon have burned, it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, and the cattle upon a thousand hills have Have I been so long time with you, and been immolated-still he must inquire, yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” "Wherewithal shall I come before the Have I yet to tell you-have you yet to Lord?" For the burden is heavy on his learn-that the fairest, the brightest, the heart. This is the language of the pagan, loveliest, the most perfect exhibition of in his severe austerities and self-inflicted the character of God, is in my person,

my ministry, my miracles, my doctrines, my mediatorial work. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou, then, "Show us the Father?" In perfect harmony with this declaration of the Divine Redeemer is the language of St. Paul, when he says, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." Where? In the face of the sun, shining in the fulness of his strength ?— in the splendours of the starry firmament, in all the glories of a brilliant light ?-in the pure face of nature, its vast and infinite varieties, the revolution of the sun, and the sweet interchange of day and night? No; but "in the face of Jesus Christ," "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his per

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that if you had never heard this teacher sent from God-if God had never spoken to you by his Son-if you had never seen the light of his glory shine in the face of Jesus Christ-and if you had never consulted these lively oracles, your conceptions of the Deity would have been as gross, and the character of your worship would have been as horrid, as that of the pagans.

2d. Under the condemning sentence of God's violated law, Christ is the way to reconciliation and to peace, by virtue of the infinite merits of his atoning sacrifice. You may come to God without an atoning sacrifice for sin; but, if you do, you may be crushed beneath the weight of his avenging arm, and withered by the lightning of his indignation and wrath. The beamings of the Shechinah under the law, in the most holy place, were mild and And what, I ask, has man ever disco- gentle emanations to the high-priest, when vered with accuracy, with certainty, of he approached, once a year, with the the character of God, apart from the reve- blood of the appointed sacrifice; but, if lation that Christ has made? Has he he had dared to come without blood, or ever discovered the unity of his nature, with the blood of any other victim than the immateriality of his essence, the uni- that which was appointed for the purpose, versality of his presence, the purity of his the rash and impious mortal would have character, the rectitude of his government, perished for his temerity, and the Shethe spirit of his law? No; never, never-chinah would have darted on him conhe never has, he never will, he never can.suming fire. Why else was the wretched Witness the ten thousand times ten thou- Cain rejected, and given over a prey to sand pagan deities-their gods of marble and of wood that crowd the pantheon, that swarm in the mythology of the pagan world, wrought of materials the most base, and into forms and shapes the most monstrous, the most obscene, the most absurd, that man's polluted, degraded imagination can invent. Witness those wild, those horrible, those monstrous conceptions of the Deity, that scare the imagination of the wisest and the most venerable men; and those deeds of darkness, of cruelty, and of pollution, which are perpetrated by man as a part of his acceptable worship, and as under his express and positive sanction and command. Oh, when on these missionary festivals we tell you of the sad condition of the pagan world, and write the melancholy stories of their sufferings and their crimes, you can scarcely give credit to the recital! But, you may be assured, my brethren,

the demons of remorse and despair? Why else did the earth open her jaws, and ingulf Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? Oh, there is a justice to be satisfied—there is a justice to be satisfied, in the case of man, infinite in its requirements, inexorable in its demands! Every victim immolated upon the altar was only efficacious as it was offered up in faith on the great sacrifice for sin. Of such magnitude was the offence that was committed, that there was only one victim that could meet the requirements of justice-the infinite, the eternal Son of God. He was set apart, and set up from everlasting, both as the victim and as the priest. He was anointed with the holy oil; he arrayed himself in the garments of his priesthood-our degraded mortality-the vesture that was shortly to be dyed in blood. Amid the astonishment and the admiration of cherubim and seraphim, and the morning

stars of light, he left the royal mansions |gions of the untrodden desert, or to the of the celestial world, and came down to summit of the inaccessible mount-or our polluted earth-he engaged in the whether they lie deeply buried amid the functions of his priesthood-he pressed abyss of the ocean-or whether they forward to the high object of Mount Cal- slumber peaceably amid the hum, and vary; and there, nailed to the accursed bustle, and tumult of the crowded tree, as a spectacle to angels and to men, city-not a solitary particle essential to bowed down beneath the mighty load of the identity of the bodies of all his folhuman guilt, he saw every type, every lowers shall ever be lost; but he will shadow substantiated-he saw every guard it with a sleepless care, and the promise and every prophecy fulfilled-trumpet of the archangel will gather tohe saw every attribute of Deity harmo-gether again, by the magnetic power nized and illustrated in the great scheme which first created the fair system of this of human redemption he was dying to stupendous universe, all the myriads of accomplish, and with the voice of God atoms of which this system is composed. he cried, "IT IS FINISHED! and gave up How he will do it is a matter that never the ghost." And then the vail of the troubles me. "Tis only a fool who asks temple was rent in twain from the top to the question, "How are the dead raised the bottom by an invisible hand, to indi- up? and with what body do they come?" cate that the way of access was opened If, my brethren, I had not seen the lovely to the eternal throne, that mortals, guilty and divine character of spring burst, as at mortals, might approach and live. "I the present season of the year, from the am the way." coldness and the torpidity of winter-if I 3d. Cut off from our inheritance in had never seen the ripened harvest wayheaven, by reason of our apostasy from God, ing in the wind, and waiting for the we have a glorious resurrection and eternal reaper's sickle, from the grain that was life by Christ's resurrection from the dead. committed to the earth, and which, to all When man rebelled, the gate of Eden human appearance, had perished beneath was closed, and the cherubim, with a the clod-if I had never lifted up my eyes double flaming sword, was placed to to the starry firmament, and contemplated guard the avenues to the tree of life, lest suns, the centres of other systems in maghe should put forth his hand to eat, and nitude and beauty far surpassing ours, all live for ever. But, when Jesus died, sprung into being by the fiat of God's eternal life was rolled back again, and will, and preserved in perfect order by the cherubim sheathed his double flaming the exercise of his omnipotence-if I had sword in the Redeemer's breast. Hear never contemplated my own frame-the him, brethren; hear him, amid the ravages curious structure of my own frame, so of mortality; hear him, amid the dying exquisitely wrought in the deep retireof your kindred; hear him, amid the mel- ments of nature-if, in short, I had any ancholy symptoms of your own approach-doubt as to the divinity of Christ, or the ing decay; hear him and rejoice: "I am being of Christ, I should look with tremthe resurrection and the life (saith the bling apprehension to the day of death, Lord); he that believeth on me, though and distressing anxiety to the promised he were dead, yet shall he live: and who-resurrection morning. But, as it is, I soever liveth and believeth in me shall know that he who built this body at first, never die." "This is the will of him can be at no loss for power to bring it that sent me, that every one which seeth again into loveliness and glory from the the Son, and believeth on him, may have desolations of the sepulchre, and fashion everlasting life and I will raise him up it like unto his own glorified body, from at the last day." the wreck and ruin of the grave.

The ashes of the saints, my brethren, Thus, my brethren, I have endeavoured are the care of Christ; his eye is on their to illustrate the Redeemer's declaration sleeping dust; and whether they be scat- in the text, and have directed the attentered to the winds of heaven, to the re-tion of this assembly to Jesus Christ as

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