Parochial and Plain Sermons

GI. iii. 22. "'And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil.'"

T is plain that the temptation under wlfich man fell in paradise was this, an ambitious curiosity after knowledge which was hot allowed him: next came the desire of the eyes and the flesh, but the forbidden tree vas called the tree of kaowletlge; the Tempter romised knowledge; and after thc fifll Almighty God pronounced, as in the text, that man had gained it. "Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil." ¥ou see it is said, "man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil," because God does know evil as vell as good. This is IIis wonderful incommunicable attribute; and man soug'ht to share in what God was, but he could hot without ceasing to be what Goal was also, holy and perfect. It is the incommunicable attribute of God to know evil without experiencing it. But man  For Innocents' Day.

when he would be as God, could only attain the-shadow of a likeness which as yet he had not, by losing- the substance which he had already. He shared in God's knowledge by losing" /Iis ima.e. God knows evil and is pure frt»m it—man plunffed into evil and so knew it. Out happiness as .11 as duty lies in not g, oing" beyond out measure—in being eontented with what we are—with what God makcs us. Thcy who scck after forbidden knowledg'e, of whatever kind, will tind they have lost thcir place in the scale of beins in so doing5 and are cast out of the great eirclc of Gt,d's fiunily. If is, I say, God's ineommunieable attribute, as He did hot ereate, so hot fo experienee sin—and as permits if, so also to know it l to permit it without creating" if, to know it without experieneing" ita wonderfifl and ineomprchensible attribute truly, yet involved, peflmps, in the very circumstanee that He pennits it. For He is every where and in all, and nothing" exists except in and through Him. Mysterious as itis, the very prison beneath the earth, its chains and rires and impenitent inmates, the very author of evil himself, is sustained in existence by Gcd, and without God would çall into nothing. God is in hell as well as in heaven, a thought whieh almost distraets thc mind to think of. The awful God! "Whither shall I go ri'oto Thy Spirit, or whither shall I go ri'oto Thy Presence? If I elimb up into heaven, Thou art there; if I go down fo hell, Thou art there also." Vhere lire is, there is He; and though if [VIII]

 5 8 Iorazcc of vi/. be but tire lire of deathfle living death of eternI tormentHe is the prineiple of if. ud being thus inimnly preseu with the very springs of thouht, aud the first elements of ail being, being the sustaining cause of all spirits, whether flmy be good or evil, He is intilnatcly present wila evil, being pure ri'oto itand knows wllat itis, as being with and in the wretched atoms which origlnate it. If flmrc be flfis sort of connexion between God's knowlcdge and sufferance of evil, sec what an ambition it was in our first parents to desire fo know it without cxperiencing it; it was, indeed, io desire fo be as gods, to know the secrets of the prison-house, aud fo sec the worm that dieth hot, yet remain innocent and happy. This they understood hot; they desired something which they knew not that they could hot have, remaining as they were; they did hot sec how kuowledge and experieuce went t¢gether in the case of human nature; and Satan did hOt undeeeive them. They are of the tree whieh vas to make them wise, and, alas! they saw clearly what sin was, what shame, what death, what hell, what despair. They lst God's presence, and they gained the knowledge of evil. They lost Eden, and they gained a conscience. This, in faet, is the knowledge of good and evil. Lost spirits do not know good. Angels do not know evil. Beings like ourselves, fallen beings, fallen yet hot cast away, know good and evil; evil hot external to

IKuoracc of «il.  5 9 them, nor yet one with them; but in them, yet not simply of them. Sueh was the ri'uit of the forbidden tree, as if remains in us to this day. We do hot know in xvhat the duty and happiness of other beings eonsist; but at least this sms to lmve been man's happiness in Paradise, not fo think about himself or fo be eonseious of himselE 8ueh, too, fo reeur fo the parallel espeeially suggested on this day, seems fo be the state of ehildren, q'hey do hot refleet upbn themselves. Such, too, seems fo be the state of those orders of Angds whose life is said fo eonsist in eontemplationfor what is eontemplation but  resting in the thought of God fo the forgetfulness of self? Henee the Saints are deseribed as "Virgins who ]bllow tke Zamb whi[hersoe,er IIe ffoelh." Bu Adam, discontented with what he was, pined after a knowledge which he could not obtain ri'oto wiflmutwhich he could only bave ff'oto miserable experience withinfrom moral disorders within him, and ri'oto having his mind drawn t.o the contemplation of himself in consequence of those disorders. He obtained the wished for knowledge; and his first recorded act afterwards was one of reflection upon self, and he hid himself among the trees of the gurden. He was no longer fitted for contemplating glories without him; his attention was a.rrested fo the shame that was upon him. What is so miserably seen in the hiol T of our first parents has been lhe temptation and sin of their posterity ever since,—indulgence in forbidden, unlawfifl, hurtful, unprofitblc knowlcdge; as some instances will show. 1. I ought to notice in the first place hat el curioslty which stimu]aes young persons o in,rude into things of which it is fleir blessedness tobe ignorant. Satan ains our souls sp by scp  and his first allurement is the ];nowledge of what is wrong. Ho first tempts them to the knowledge, and flmn to the commission of sin. Depcnd on it tbat our happiness and out glory, in these mattcrs, is tobe ignorant, as well as o be guiltlcss. St. Paul says hat "it is a shame even fo speak" of those flings which arc donc by the sons of Belial in secret. Oh, thoughfiess, and worse, oh, cruel to your o sclves, all ye who rcad what ye should hot read, and hear what ye should hot hear  Oh, how will you repent of your fol]y afcrwards  Oh, what bitter feelings, oh, what keen pangs, will shoot through your souls bereafter, at the memory, when you look back, of what bas come of hat baneful curiosity  Oh, how will you despise yourselves, oh, how weep at what you lmve brought on you  At this dy surcly there is a speeial need of this warning; for this is a day when nothing is hot pled into, nothing is hot published, nothing is hOt laid belote alI men. £. In the next place I would obsee, that the pursult of science, whieh ehamcterizes these rimes, is very likely fo draw us aside into  sin of a particular kind,  we are hot on out guard. ]e read, in the book of Aets, of

Ignorance ot EviL 6 t many who used enrious,arts burning" their books; that is, there are ldnds of knowledg'e whieh are forbidden fo the Christian. Now this seems strane fo the world in this day. The only forbidden subjeets whieh they ean faney, are sueh as are hot lme—fietions, impostures, superstitions, and the like. dsehood they think wrong"; false religions, for instance, beca«,e fiflse. ]3ttt they are perplexed when told that there may bc branches of rem knowledgê, yet forbidden. Yet it has ever beên considered in the Chureh, as in Seripture, that soothsaying', consulting the stars, magic, and similar arts, are unlawful—unlawtul, even thoug'h hot false; and Seripture eertiuly speaks as if af least some of them were more thon merely  pretendê(l ]nowledgê and  prêtendêd power; vhereas meu now-a-days have got fo think that they are wrong, merely bêeuseframl« and imflo«ture«; and if they round them hot so, they would be very slo- to understand how still they are unlawftll. They bave hot mastered the ide that real kuowledg'e may be forbidden us. 3. qext itis obvious to speak of those melaneholy persons who boast themselves on what thêy eall their knowledge or  the world and of lire. There are men, alas hot u few, who look upon aequaintanee with evil as if t part of their edueatiou. Instead of shunning vice and sin, they try if, if for no other reason, simply for this that they may bave knowledge or  if. They mix with vtrious ela.sses or  men, and they throw themsel'es into the manners and opinions of ail in turn. 'Fhey are rea¢ly-witted perhaps, prompt and versatile, and easily adapt themselves so as to please and g'et acquainted with those they fall in with. They have 1o scruples of conscience hindering" thern from complying with whatever is proposed; they are of any form of rclig'ion, have lax or correct morals, according" to the occasion. They can rcvel with those that rcvcl, and they can speak serious thing's whcn their socicty is serious. They travel up and down the country pcrhaps, or they are of professions or pul-snits which introduce them to men of various languages, or which take them abroad, and they see persons of" opposite cree,,ls and prineiplcs, and whatever they fall in with they take as so many facts, rnerely as facts of human nature, not as thing.s rig'ht or wrong • according" fo a certain fixed standard independent of themselves. Now wlmtever of rclig'ion or truth remains in our falleu natnre is not on the surface: these men, then, stu¢lying • what is uppermost, are in fiet but studying ail tha.t is evil in nan, and in consequence they bave very low notions of man. They are very sceptical about the existence of principle and virtue; they think ail men equally swayed by vorldly, selfish, or sensual motives, thoug'h some hide their motives better than others, or bave feeling.s and likings of a more refined character. And having" g'iven in to sin themselves, they bave no hig'her principle within them fo counteract the effect of what they see without; all their notions of man's nature,

Zguora¢zce of Lvi¢. '6 3 eapabilities, and destinies, are derived from, and are measnred by, what goes on in the WOl-ld, and aeeordingly they apply all their knowledge to bad purposes. Whey think they kno%,and they do kllOW too truly on the whole, the motives and indueelnents whieh will prevail with men; and they use their knowledge fo overreaeh, deeeive, seduee, eorrupt., or swo r tllose with whom they bave fo do. 4. Another vcry diffcrcnt class of persons who study evil, and pride themselves upon if., and are degaded by it, are those who indulge thcmselvcs in contcmplating and dwelling on the struggle between right and wrong in their own minds. There lmve been Çroln rime to tilne men of morbid imaginations, of any or no religious ereed, who have so exereised themselves. Indeed there has been a large sehool of writers in very various departments, for years, I may say centuries past, though happily they are diminishing now, who delight in 1,ringing" out into open day all the weaknesses and ineonsisteneies of humau nature; nay worse, take pains to describe bad men, and how they feel, and what they sa.y; Mm interest the mind in bad men, nay in bad Angels, as if Satan miellé5 be tllought of otherwise than with shuddering. And there are others, mon of mistaken religious views, who think that religion eonsists in dwellin on and describing the struggle between grace and eornpt nature in the souk Christ has brought us light and lire, and would bave us put off what we are,

64 Ignorazcc of tvil. and follow Him, who knew no sin. But these men, far fi'om risin even fo the spiration after perfection, do no advanee in their notion of spiritual religion beyond the ide of deelaring and lamentin their wan of i. Confession is with them perfection; nay, i is almost the test of a Christin, fo be able fo diseourse upon his inwaM corruption. I is well fo eonfess sin in detzil with shame as an act of pcnitence; itis a snare to speak of it vauely and in public. 5. Lastly, evcn when used riglfly, Ihe knowledge of sin is hot without ifs danger. As mcdiciners would hot exist were Ihere no illness or disease, soit is mental disease which gives rise to casuists. Pain leads us to think of our bodies, and sin of our souls. ere our souls in perfect harmony, Ihey would act like an instrument in tune; we should with diculty divide the sounds, evcu if we would; but itis the discordance, the jar within us, which leads us to a. serious conIemplation of what we are. The smne remark obviously applies to a great deal of theologcal knowledge, on which men who have it are tempted to pride Ihcmselves; I mean exact knowledge of heresies and the like. The love of God alone can gve such knowledg its right direction. Thcre is the dangr lest men'so informed find themselves scrutinizing when they should be adoring, reasoning when they should be believing, comparing when they should be choosiug, and proving when they should be acting. We know two things of the

Angels—th.t they cry Holy, Hol D Hol D and tlmt they do God's biddin. Worship and service make np their blessedness; nnd sueh is out blessedness in proportion as we approaeh them. But all exereises of mind which lead us to refleet upon,ad,seert,in ont state; to know wh,t worship is, and why we worship; what service is, and why 'e serve; what out feelings imply, and what out words mean, tend fo divert out minds from the one thing leMful, unless we are practised and expert in using • them. Ail proofs of religion, evidences, proofs of pnrtienlar doetrines, scripture prooN, and the like,—these certninly nish scope for the exercise of great and admirable powers of mind, and it would be fanatieM fo disparage or disown hem; but it requires a mind rooted nd grouuded in love hot fo be dissipated by them. As for truly religions minds, the D when so engaed, instead of mere disputing , are sure to turn inquiry into meditation, exhortation into worship, and argument into teaching.

Reflections such as these, followed up, show us how different is out state from that for which God made us. Ite meant us fo be simple, and we are uureal; Ite meant us fo think no evil, and  thousand associations, bad, trifling, or unworthy, attend out every thought. Ite meant us fo be drawn on to the glories without us, and we are drawn bnck and (as it were) fascinated by the miseries within us. And hence if is that the whole structure of socicty is so artificial; n.o one trusts another, if he tan help if; safeguards, checks, and securitles are ever sought after. No one lneans extly what he says, for out words have lost their uatural meauing,, and even an Anel could not use thcm naturally, for every mind belng different flore evcry other, they have no distinct meaning. What., indced, is the very fimction of society, as itis af present., but, rude attempt fo cover the dcgradation of the fitll, and fo make men feel respect for themselves, and enjoy it in the eyes of others, withont rcturning fo God. This is wlmt we should especially guard against, beeanse there is so much of if in the world. I mean, not an abandonment of evil, hot a sweeping" away and cleansing out of the corruption which sin has brêd within us, but a smoothing if over, an outside dêlicacy and polish, an ornamentiug the surface of things while '" within are dead men's bones and all undeanness;" making the garments, which at first were given for dêcency, a means of pride and vanity. 'Ien give good namês fo what is evil, they sanctify bad principles and feclings; and, knowing that there is vice and error, selfishnêss, pridc, and ambition, in the world, they attempt, not to roof out these evils, not to withstand these errors;that they think a dream, the dream of theorists who do not know the world;—but fo cherish and form alliance with them, to use them, to make a science of selfishness, fo flatter and indulge error, and fo bribe vice with the promise of bearing with if., so that ib does but keep in the shade.

Ignorance of Evil.  6 7 But let us, finding ouvselves in the sate in whieh we are, take hose means whieh ah»ne are really le us, whieh alone beeome us. Adn.m, vhen he had sinned, and felt himself fllen, instead of honestly abaudoning wha be had beeome, would ftfin have hid himselç. He wen  sp further. He did no give up wha he now was, pa.rtly ri'oto dread of God, partly from dislike of wha he had been. He had learn  love siu aud fear God's justice. Bu Chris bas purelmoed tbr us wha we los in Adam, out grnaen of innocence. He bas bid us and enabled us fo become as little ehildren; He has purehased for us he graee of si»qdi«it, whieh, though one of the highes, is very little thoug'h about, is vevy little sough after. We have, indeed, a. eneral idea vha love is, and hope, and fith, and truth, and purity, thoug'b a. poor idea; but we are ahnost blind to what is one of the first elements of Christian perléetion, that simple-mindedness whieh springs fi'om the heart's being whole with God, entire, undided. And those who think they bave an idea. of it, commonly fise no hig'her han  misake for if a mere wekness and soness of mind, whieh is but ifs counrlçit. To be simple is fo be like the Apostles and first Chstians. Out Saour sa.ys, "Be ye harmless," or simple, dores." And St.:Paul, "I would bave you se unto that which is good, and simple concerd»g evil ." Again, "That ye may be blameless ad kar»dess, the sons of  Rom. xvi. 19.

68 Igwrauce of Fvil. God, without rebuke, in the midst of  erooked and perverse nation ." And he speaks of the "testimony of" his own "conscience, that in «iml»lieity and godly sineerity, hot with fleshly wisdom, but by the graee of God," he had his conversation in the world and towards his disciples. Let us pray God fo give us this great and preeious gift; that we may blot out from out memory 11 tiret offends Him; unlearn all that knowledge whieh sin lins tmg'ht us; rid ourselves of selfish motives, selfeoneeit,,nd vanity, littlenesses, envying, grudgings, meauuesses; turn ri'oto all eowardly, low, miserable wys; nd eseape from servile fears, the fear of man, vague anxieties of conscience, and supersfitions. 8o tlmt we may have the boldness,nd fi-ankness of those who are as if they h,-ul no sin, ri-oto having been eleansed ri-oto if; the uncontanfinated hearts, open countenances, and untroubled eyes of those who neither suspect, nor conceal, nor shun, nor are jealous; in a word, so that we may have confidence in Him, that we may stay on Hha, and rest in the thoughts of Him, instead of plunging anfid the thiekets of this vorld; that we may bear His eye and His voice, and know no knowledge but the knowledge of IIim and Jesus Christ crucilîed, and desire no objects but what He bas blessed and bid us pursue.  Ihil. il. 15.