SERMON III.

IN WHAT RESPECTS THE LORD'S PEOPLE ARE NOT TO BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD.

ROMANS XII. 2.

Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

THERE is nothing more clearly and positively revealed to us in the word of God, than the difference that exists between the Church of Christ, and what is commonly called "the world," i. e. the great mass of mankind in general. The line of distinction between these two bodies is most exactly laid down, both by the blessed Jesus Himself, and His Apostles. And it is a fact which our Lord seems to take peculiar pleasure in asserting, "that His disciples are not of this world." "If ye were of the world," He says to them," the world would love its own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And again, in His last prayer for His believing people, (John xvii.) addressing His Heavenly Father, he

says, “I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine." 66 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." And in another place he says to Pilate, "My kingdom (meaning His church) is not of this world." The Apostle Paul, speaking of himself and his fellow-Christians, says, "We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God." St. James moreover describes the effects of pure and undefiled religion to be this, "To visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." And again, (in iv. 4.) He says, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever, therefore, will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God." Once more St. John gives this important advice to Christians in general-" Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father abideth not in him, for all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." When we call to mind, therefore, these repeated declarations of the blessed Jesus Himself, and his Apostles, we cannot but regard it as an incontrovertible truth, that the "Church of Christ" and

the world," are two distinct bodies, widely and eternally separated from one another; insomuch, that they who are " of the world" do not belong to the Church of Christ, and those who are members of that " Elect, Redeemed, and Sanctified" Body, which the Son of God purchased unto Himself with His own blood, can no more be considered, in this sense of the words, as belonging to the world.

If we enquire into the reasons why it is necessary to draw this marked and total separation between the Church of Christ, and what is commonly called the world," an answer may be found in the 5th chapter of the 1st Epistle of St. John, and 12th verse, where he declares, that "the whole world lieth in wickedness." The whole world is, as it were, in rebellion against its Creator, and consequently obnoxious to the curse of His law, which the prophet Ezekiel represents under the figure of a "roll flying over the whole earth." For this reason it is, that the world is emphatically termed "evil," and the great end of our Lord's " giving Himself for us" declared to be, that He might "deliver us from this present evil world." For "evil," both natural and moral, has, in consequence of Adam's transgression, inundated the whole earth, like a second deluge; overwhelming in destruction both the souls and bodies of its wretched inhabitants. But the Church of Christ, ransomed as it is by His precious blood, floats triumphantly,

like the ark of old upon the surface of the troubled waters; and being upheld by the Spirit of the living God, guided by His counsel, and secure under His protection, affords a certain and complete salvation to every perishing sinner that flees to it for refuge. In this life it shields them from all the storms and tempests which "the God of this world" excites against them. And when the voyage of life is ended, it lands them in safety upon the "everlasting mountains."

These observations are naturally suggested to us by the words of our text, in which St. Paul earnestly cautions the Roman Christians against conformity to this world. "Be not conformed," he says, "to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Let us, therefore, my Beloved Brethren, humbly praying for Divine assistance, proceed to consider in what respects the Christian is commanded not to be conformed to this world.

And First, By "not being conformed to the world," the Apostle cannot intend that Christians should withdraw themselves from all intercourse or connexion with worldly or unconverted people; for in this case, as he himself says to the Corinthians, "They must needs go out of the world altogether." The spirit of Nonconformity to the world, which is so repeatedly set forth as a distinguishing characteristic of the Lord's

people, is far from implying that those who believe in Him should renounce their temporal business or pursuits; that they should neglect those various important duties which, as members of society, they undoubtedly owe to their families, their neighbours, their country, and mankind in general; or that they should shut themselves up in gloomy and morose seclusion from the company of all their worldly friends and acquaintances. If this were to be the consequence of a cordial reception of the doctrines of the Gospel, Christianity, so far from being a blessing to mankind, would, on the contrary, prove its greatest curse. It would rend asunder all the ties of friendship and affection, which bind man to his fellow men. It would root up the very foundations of domestic happiness and social order. It would, in a perverted sense of our Lord's words, 66 Set a man at variance with every member of his own household," and render him a sullen misanthropic monster, equally odious in the sight of God and man. And (what is still more important) it would invalidate those positive precepts so repeatedly enjoined upon the Lord's people, of "Doing good unto all men," " Loving our neighbours as ourselves," being dutiful and affectionate to our parents, our wives, our children, our domestics; and innumerable other injunctions of a similar import, which are all obviously founded upon the principle, that