THE BEST WISDOM; A SERMON PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY WOOLNOTH, ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1787, THE DAY OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE POOR. -He that winneth souls is wise.-Proverbs, xi. 30. ONLY he, who redeemed the soul by his blood, is able effectually to win it to himself. The work is his, and they who know him will render the praise to him alone. But in this respect, as in many others, there is an analogy between the natural and the moral world. In both, he displays his power and executes his purposes by an instituted course of means and instruments. In both, he often so conceals his operations under the vail of second causes, that to a common and inattentive eye, he seems to do nothing, when in reality he does all. The manna with which he fed Israel in the wilderness, though more immediately and visibly, was not more certainly the effect and proof of his providence and goodness, than the bread by which we live. It is he who giveth the earth virtue to produce corn; (Psalms civ. 14;) the discretion of the husbandman who prepareth the ground and soweth the seed is from him; (Is. xxviii. 24-29;) and the influence of the sun and the rain, so necessary to ripen the grain, and to clothe the fields with plenty in the season of harvest, (Matt. v. 43,) is the influence of him who worketh all in all. In this process, the blessing which secures the desired event, is wholly from the Lord, though the labour of man and the use of means are indispensable, because his appointment has made them so. Thus in the great concern of winning souls, though God, whose thoughts and ways are as far above ours, as the heavens are higher than the earth, may, sometimes, as in the instance of the apostle Paul, (Acts ix. 6,) affect and win the heart by an immediate and instantaneous exertion of his power; yet this is not his ordinary, method. Though fallen, we are still rational creatures, and he is pleased to treat us as such He proposes consideraVOL. II. 3 F tions and motives in his holy word, which though ineffectual, considered merely as means, and without the concurrence of his agency, yet have, in their own nature, a moral tendency and suitableness to awaken our attention, and to convince us of our sin and misery, and to recal us to our original state of dependence upon his goodness, and obedience to his will. For the proof of this I may appeal to the consciences of many persons: the force of truth has compelled them to tremble, like Felix, and perhaps, like Herod, to do many things; and though their depravity has been too obstinate to yield to conviction, they have understood and felt enough, to leave them without excuse. The Lord God usually employs those whom he has already won and subdued by his grace, as instruments of winning others; and there are none of his people, however weak their capacities, or however low their situations in life, but may hope for a share in this honour, if they are faithful to the light he has given them, and live according to the rule of his word.-But he has instituted the office of the gospel-ministry with a more especial view to this important service. The proposition in the text is simple and plain; and the principal division of my subject is suggested by the appearance of our present assembly. I never had an opportunity before of preaching to so many of my brethren in the ministry, and perhaps I never may again. And at my time of life, it becomes me, whenever I stand in the pulpit, to consider seriously, that it is, at least, possible, it may be the last time, and that you, to whom I am now about to speak, may see my face no more. Were I even sure of this, how could I more properly close my public services, 409 than by aiming with my latest breath, to im- | adorable method of adjusting the demands of press upon you, my friends and brethren, this weighty aphorism, "He that winneth souls is wise?" May it be written upon my own heart while I live! may it be written upon all our hearts! Let the scholar, the philosopher, the politician, settle their several claims to wisdom among themselves; but may this wisdom be ours. The man that winneth sours is truly and emphatically wise. I shall, in the first place, point out the principal acknowledged characteristics of wisdom, and show, that they are all exemplified in the spirit and conduct of the minister who is duly qualified for the service of winning souls. T do not say that all faithful ministers are influenced by this wisdom in the same degree; but unless it has an habitual and prevailing influence on the plans and practice of a public teacher, we need not wonder if he be neither faithful nor useful. My chief design is to elucidate and confirm this first point; but towards the close of my discourse, I shall, secondly, address myself to private christians, and remind you of your common interest with us in this concern, and the advantages and opportunities you have of showing yourselves wise, by contributing your endeavours to promote the great design of winning souls. I. The minister who winneth souls is wise. 1. Wisdom is discovered in the choice of a fit and valuable end. If a man has great talents and abilities, we do not account him wise, unless he employs them properly; a life whiled away in low and trivial pursuits, implies a want of wisdom. But he who aims at winning souls, proposes an end which well deserves his application, and will, so far as he succeeds, richly compensate him for all that he can do or suffer in so good a cause. The grand object of his life, in subordination to the will and glory of God, is the recovery of souls. We often use the word win, in a sense which the Hebrew term suggests; as to win a battle or a fortress. The soul, in its fallen state, separated and alienated from God, is, by his righteous permission, under the power of Satan, who rules in it as a strong one armed in his own house or castle, Luke xi. 21; Eph. ii. 2. Were the effects of this bondage contined to the present life, an attempt to free the soul from that misery, mischief, and madness, with which the world is filled, would be honourable and important. But God, who formed the soul originally for himself, has given it such a vast capacity, that nothing short of himself can satisfy its desires; and * is likewise, by his constitution, immortal. This capacity of being exquisitely happy or niserable, and that for ever, renders the soul so valuable in the judgment of its Creator, that he gave the Son of his love to redeem it from sin and misery, by his obedience unto leath, even the death, of the cross. By this his justice and the honour of his government, to the purposes of his mercy, his wisdom and glory are more eminently discovered to his intelligent creatures, than by all his other works. If the only wise God commends to us his gracious design of recovering souls from the dominion of Satan, and of winning them to himself, as the highest instance of his wisdom and goodness: then, certainly, he who proposes it as the great end of his life, that by serving God in the ministry, he may be an instrument of winning souls, is truly wise, so far as concerns his leading aim and object. 2. Wisdom directs us likewise to a consideration and choice of means proper to the attainment of a proposed end. To attempt what is impracticable, however desirable it might be thought, upon a supposition that it could be accomplished, is a mark, not of wisdom, but of folly. A man, without being chargeable with rashness, may undertake to move a stone of several tons weight, and even to raise it, if needful, to the top of a tower; or to force open the strongest gate of a castle; but then the application of mechanical pow. ers would be necessary. If he were unac quainted with these, or disdained to employ them; if, without estimating or considering the resistance to be overcome, and relying solely on his personal strength, he should attempt to move the enormous stone with his hands, or to burst the gates of brass and bars of iron asunder with his feet, his utmost efforts must issue in weariness and disappointment, and no one would think him wise. The experience of ages has demonstrated all en deavours to win souls, to free them from prejudice, to reclaim them from the love and practice of sin, by the mere force of human arguments and moral suasion, to be equally chimerical and unsuccessful. The heathen moralists laboured much in this way, but they laboured in vain. Some of them felt and acknowledged that human nature was depraved; but not knowing the root, nor the extent, nor the proper remedy of the disorders they wished to cure, their best sentiments, however specious in theory, made little more impression upon the hearts of their admirers, or even upon their own, than the falling snow makes upon a rock. If the ancient sages could do but little, the modern philosophers, as they choose to be called, have done, if possible, still less. What a poet observed of the former, is, at least equally, applicable to the latter: Virtus laudatur et alget. Virtue is defined, described, recommended, and praised, but wickedness and folly rapidly increase under their instructions; and while in their pompous declamations they propose liberty to others, (1 Pet. ii. 19,) they are themselves the servants, the slaves of corruption. The gospel of Christ, the glorious gospel of the blessed God, (1 Tim. i. 11,) is the only ex fectual mean for reforming mankind. To the man who possesses, and knows the use of this grand, this wonderful machine, if I may be allowed the comparison, what is otherwise impracticable becomes easy. The gospel removes difficulties insuperable to human power. It causes the blind to see, the deaf to hear, (Isa. xxxv. 8; Matt. xi. 5;) it softens the heart of stone, and raises the dead in trespasses and sin to a life of righteousness. No force, but that of the gospel, is sufficient to remove the mountainous load of guilt from an awakened conscience, to calm the violence of tumultuous passions, to raise an earthly soul from grovelling in the mire of sensuality or avarice, to a spiritual and divine life, a life of communion with God. No system but the gospel can communicate motives, encourageinents, and prospects, sufficient to withstand and counteract all the snares and temptations with which the spirit of this world, by its frowns or its smiles, will endeavour, either to intimidate or to bribe us from the path of duty. But the gospel, rightly understood and cordially embraced, will inspire the slothful with energy, and the fearful with courage. It will make the miser generous, melt the churl into kindness, tame the raging tiger in the breast, and in a word, expand the narrow selfish heart, and fill it with a spirit of love to God, cheerful unreserved obedience to his will and benevolence to mankind. I shall not trespass upon your time, by delineating at large my idea of the gospel. Yet it may be proper to mention three points, which, in my judgment, are essential to it. they thought of him before, when they know themselves, they cannot entrust their souls to the power, or care, or compassion of a creature; and therefore rejoice that they are warranted and encouraged to commend themselves to him, as to a faithful creator, 1 Pet. iv. 19. The second grand peculiarity of the gospel is the doctrine of an atonement: That Christ in his state of humiliation, by his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, made a full, proper, and perfect satisfaction for sin (Phil. ii. 8;) that is, his sufferings unto death, the torments which he endured in his body, and the agonies of his soul, inconceivable to us but by their effects (his bloody sweat in the garden, and his astonishing complaint upon the cross, that God had forsaken him,) exhibited a striking and soleinn proof to the world, to the universe, no less to angels than to men, that God, in affording mercy to sinners, still shows his inflexible displeasure against sin, and makes no relaxation in the awful demands of his holiness, justice, and truth. A substitution capable of manifesting the justice of God in the highest exercise of his mercy, that he might appear just in justifying the ungodly, (Rom. iv. 5,) was of such vast importance to the honour of God's character and government, that if it could have been effected by any inferior means, Christ died in vain, Galat. ii. 21. The interposition of a mere creature, even if voluntary, (but what creature would dare to draw upon himself the displeasure of God due to the sins of men?) could not have displayed the full-orbed glory of all the divine perfections, as it now shines forth in the person of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 6. None in heaven or in earth were able or worthy to interpose. Therefore the Son said, "Lo I come!" He himself, his ownself, bore our sins in his own body upon the tree, (1 Pet. ii. 24:) he who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. 21. The first respects the character of Jesus the Saviour: That he is very God, and very man, God manifest in the flesh: that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: that this divine Word assumed our nature into a personal union with himself, lived and died in behalf of sinners, and now reigns upon the throne of glory, over all, God blessed for ever, (1 Tim. iii. 16; John i. 1, 14:) that he is the There is a third point, which is peculiar to proper object of our worship, supreme love, the religion of the Bible, and which discrimitrust and adoration: that it is he on whom nates it from all religious systems of human the eyes and expectation of sinners, sensible institution. There are few of these but conof their wants and miseries, are fixed, and tain some important truths. In general, they out of whose fulness they all receive life, inculcate a degree of attention to the practice strength, comfort, and grace, to help in time of social virtues. But no other system ever of need, Psalm xxxiv. 5; John i. 16. This proposed to all persons, and as a general truth, doctrine is the pillar and ground of truth, the necessity and certainty of supernatural 1 Tim. iii. 15. They who have a right sense influence and agency; an agency, which, of the guilt and power of sin, of the holiness from the greatness of its effect, and the uniand majesty of God, and of the hosts of ene-versality of its proposal (being promised to all mies combined against their peace, must sink without exception who desire it,) must be into despair, unless supported by the know- divine. The bodies of believers are the temledge of an Almighty Omnipresent Saviour, ples of the Holy Ghost, (1.Cor. vi. 19,) that who is always near, a very present help in God dwelleth in them by his Spirit, that they trouble, and who can discern the thoughts of have received the Spirit of God, that they are the heart, (Rev. ii. 23;) for often their most led by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and have trying and dangerous exigences are beyond communion with the Holy Spirit, (Rom. viii. que reach of a creature's eye. Whatever 4; Galat. v. 18, 25; 1 Cor. xiii. 14;) these truths are either expressed or strongly im- | Christ crucified; Christ the wisdom and pow plied in almost every page of the New Tes tament. er of God, (1 Cor. i. 23, 24 ;) the unsearchable riches of Christ, (Ephes. iii. 8;) Christ the Man who shall judge the quick and dead, (Acts xvii. 31; xxvi. 28;) Christ as God, who purchased the church with his own blood. As a wise master-builder, he laid this foundation, and declared, that other foundation can no The gospel then is a message from God. It stains the pride of human glory, and without regarding the petty distinctions which obtain amongst men with respect to character or rank, it treats them all as sinners in the sight of God, and under the power of de-man lay, 1 Cor. iii. 10, 11. He preached the pravity strengthened by habit. As such, it points them to a Saviour; it invites and enjoins them to apply to him, to submit to him, and to put their whole trust in him; to renounce all pleas of their own, and to plead his name and his atonement for their pardon and acceptance; and promises to all who thus plead, that the Holy Spirit of God will visit them, dwell in them, and abide with them, to enable them by his gracious in-ness, in the beginning, 2 Cor. iv. 6. These fluence, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. atonement, that Christ made peace by the blood of his cross, died for us while sinners, and that we are justified by his blood, Col. i. 20. He preached the agency of the Holy Spirit as absolutely necessary and powerfully efficacious, and ascribes that operation by which Christ in his true character is revealed to the heart, to the same power which commanded light to shine out of dark truths were the weapons of his warfare, 2 Cor. x. 4. He went forth conquering and to conquer, not by the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the spirit of demonstration and power. I need not tell this auditory what were the doctrines which shook the pillars and foundations of Popery at the Reformation, and diffused a knowledge and practice becoming the profession of Christianity, among many nations which had been long involved in the darkness of ignorance, superstition, and wick I omit other particulars, nor shall I at present attempt to prove these, farther than by an appeal to observation and experience. I trust, my brethren, we all desire to win souls. It is a good desire, it is a noble, a glorious ambition. I hope we are likewise apprised of the nature of the undertaking, and are too wise to attempt it, or to expect success, by any power or exertion of our own, unless we faithfully and humbly make use of the instrument which God has appointed for the pur-edness. In our own land, it was not very long pose. This instrument is the gospel-message, before the principles of the Reformation were the principal parts of which I have stated to severely discountenanced. Particularly in you. This is the rod of God's strength, the reign of Charles II. they were opposed by which, like the wonder-working rod of Moses, methods which the good providence of God when held up in his name, though wielded at length effectually restrained, by favouring by a feeble arm, can perform miracles. And us with a succession of Princes of the House I will venture to affirm, without hesitation, of Hanover. If the lives and conduct of and without exception, that no man, what- those who endured fines, stripes, imprisonever his abilities and qualifications may be in ment, and death for conscience sake, be comin other respects, though he had the zeal of pared with the spirit and temper of those who a martyr and the powers of an angel, will be inflicted or approved them, I think a candid able to force the strong-holds of Satan, to cast and attentive inquirer will be at no loss to down the lofty imaginations of men, and win determine on which side the advantage lay, souls to holiness and happiness, without it.in point of real religion and sound morality. But if he be called and taught of God to preach The spirit of our present excellent constithis gospel, he will do great things; he will tution and government allows us a degree of be honoured and successful: he will win religious liberty unknown to our forefathers, souls; he will be numbered among the wise. for which we cannot be sufficiently thankful; Let us appeal to facts. The apostle Paul and the doctrines of the Reformation and of was eminently successful in winning souls. the apostles are still preached. Nor have we He planted churches in many different and reason to fear that sanguinary laws, and the distant parts of the Roman empire. Where-iron hand of arbitrary power, will be emever he went, power from on high accompa- ployed to silence us. Yet the doctrines nied his word, and made it effectual, accord- themselves are far from being generally acing to the commission he had received from ceptable. The spirit of opposition is awake, the Lord, to open the eyes of the blinded and active as formerly, though the method of Heathens, to turn them from darkness to its attack is varied. But great is the truth, light, and from the power of Satan unto God, and will prevail. It has triumphed over vioActs xxvi. 18. Can we propose a better ex-lence and rage; it is equally superior to the ample for our imitation? Would we know the arts of subtilty and refinement. We are subject-matter of that preaching which pro- not afraid to repeat the apostle's challenge: duced such extensive and salutary effects?" Who is he that overcometh the world, but He gives us full information. He preached he hat believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John v. 5. Which is the scheme of religion in the present day, which produces the most conscientious reverence to the holy name of the Lord our God, the most habitual and devout observance of his holy day, and of family-worship? What kind of preaching evidences itself to be a doctrine according to godliness, by the most numerous and notorious instances of persons reclaimed by it from habits of gross licentiousness, and effectually taught to fear the Lord and depart from evil? What are those principles, which by experience, are found most suitable and most powerful to support the soul under the pressure of great afflictions, or upon the near approach of death? I know there are people under afflictions, who, like Pharaoh, harden themselves yet more; who value themselves upon a proud stoical resolution, and deem it a weakness to complain. But christian fortitude is a very different thing. It is the temper of a humble pardoned sinner, who has entrusted himself and his all to the Saviour, and, believing that he condescends to direct all his concerns, subunits to his appointments, not by constraint, but willingly, sensible that the wisdom and love of him in whom he confides will choose better for him than he could possibly choose for himself. I know, or have read, that the American Indians, when put to death by their enemies, in the midst of the most excruciating tortures that cruelty can invent, will sing their war-songs, and insult their tormentors, without uttering a groan or shedding a tear; and I have likewise read of philosophers, who, to confirm their admirers in a persuasion that infidelity had freed them from all fear of death or its consequences, have jested in their dying hours. What a contrast to these is the relation we have of the death of Stephen, who with the utmost composure, committed his departing spirit into the hands of his Saviour, whom he saw ready to receive him, and employed his latest breath in prayer for his murderers! Acts vii. 55-60. When a believer in Jesus is about to die, he does not express the fiendlike phrenzy of a savage, or the ill-timed levity of a buffoon; he is serious and recollected. Conscious of his unworthiness, but knowing whom he has believed, he rejoices with a joy unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Pet. i. 8. There is often a dignity and energy in the language of plain people in dying circumstances, far superior to what might be expected from their former habits of life: they seem to have new ideas and new faculties; heaven opened to them, and opened in them, while yet in the body. Ignorant and profane persons, who are sometimes spectators of such scenes, have been astonished at effects which, though they could not account for, have for the moment secretly extorted from them the wish of Balaam, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his," Num. xxiii. 10. By these effects on the lives and deaths of those who cordially receive it, the gospel which we preach, the doctrine of the cross, approves itself to be the power of God unto salvation, the sure and only mean of winning souls to his favour and image. If I have taken up too much of your time with this second particular, let the importance of it, and the state of religion amongst us, plead my excuse. Thus far we have advanced-If it be wisdom to aim at a great design, and to adopt the most fit and proper means for the accomplishment, the man my text speaks of is wise. His end is great-to win souls. The mean he employs is the gospel, which God has revealed and instituted for this very purpose, and with which his power and blessing are surely connected by promise. 3. Yet the knowledge of a worthy end, and of the means by which it may be attained, is not sufficient to denominate a man wise. If he be truly wise, and his object of great importance, he will not suffer himself to be easily diverted from it, but will rather hold and manage every inferior concernment in a due subservience and subordination to his main point. Sir Isaac Newton, when a child, might possibly have amused himself, as many other children have done, by blowing up bubbles in soapy water with a pipe. But it was not a childish amusement in the hands of this sublime genius, when he applied it, among other experiments, to discover and establish that theory of light and colours, by which, in his admirable System of Optics, he enlightened the world. But if we speak strictly, the most important employments and discoveries of which mankind are capable, if directed no higher than to the concerns of the present life, are trivial and worthless as the sports of children, or the wretched amusements of lunatics, to an immortal, who is soon, very soon, to pass unto the unseen world, to appear before the judgment-seat of God, and to be fixed, according to his righteous award, in a state of endless happiness or misery. The desire of pleasing God, and of doing all to his glory, which should be the ultimate end of a rational creature, and will be, if he feels his dependence and his obligations, this, like the fabled philosopher's stone, turns every thing into gold, sanctifies the most common actions of life which belong to the situation in which Divine Providence has placed us, and gives them a sublimity and dignity. Consecrated by this intention, they become acts of devotion. They have a very low idea of religion who confine it to what we usually mean by devotional exercises. The truly religions man does indeed bow his knees in secret before the Most High God, he carefully con |