SPIRITUAL LETHARGY. A SERMON, DELIVERED AT BERESFORD CHAPEL, WALWORTH. BY EDWARD ANDREWS, LL.D. LONDON. EBENEZER PALMER, 18, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCXXIX. the humbled soul, and I know also that they are not perfect before thee. O God the Father, let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand; upon the Son of man, whom thou madest strong for thyself. Again, “I know-that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." This, I apprehend, must be taken in a qualified sense; for the Lord speaks of "strengthening the things which remain ;" and again, "that are ready to die." Therefore this argues that the people of God have been sometimes found so far to defalcate in things spiritual as to have become comparatively dead: that is, apathetic, careless, supine before God, while yet there has been no visible falling off before man; so that openly they yet retained a name that they lived. It is to this disposition, or frame of mind, I would address myself this day; so that our subject now is-soul-lethargy; a most dangerous state. Not that God's people can finally fall: but that they lose much comfort by carnal security, and can have no good evidence, while that state lasts, that they are the elect. "Strengthen the things that are ready to die." Let us look at some of those circumstances that are unfriendly to the soul's health: ever keeping in mind that the quantity of spiritual vigour we possess, must depend on the agency of the sacred Spirit; yet as he may be grieved, as he acts by means, and sometimes hideth his face to chastise —as us for our folly,it will, I hope, be found profitable to consider at leisure some of those facts, which, if we be not quite infatuated, we must allow decidedly bear on the present question. May that Divine Spirit assist us while, in reference to the announced theme, we notice Causes,— Consequences,-Symptoms,-and Directions. I. Causes. the con I mean the secondary causes of soul-deadness and lethargy in the people of God. I speak to you now as to the regenerated elect, verted, the called by divine grace. Yet let it not be said I speak not to the world. Yes, I address them also, only in the way of contrast; for, in truth, if the saint be addressed, the contrary character is not unnoticed. If we speak of spiritual comforts, the worldling will feel that he has them not; of joys,—that he feels them not; of wishes, that he is not pervious to them; and if he be a man of some mind, and we speak so as to arouse and rivet his attention, he will at least perceive, that if we be right, he is wrong; and in this way we shall "give to every man a portion of meat in due season." Among causes of soul-declension, I would notice, 1. Impurity.-Impure imaginations, unhallowed thoughts, indulged. The Psalmist says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me ;" and certain it is, that a single vile thought harbored in the heart will be like a noisome snake rolling over a mirror, and leaving the contamination of its track. Our old divines used to speak of heart-sins. These are like the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment in the tent of Achan: for these things' sake, wrath goeth out on the camp. "Cleanse the thoughts of our. hearts we beseech thee, O Lord, by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit!" "For when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is perfected, bringeth forth death." "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Remember, every sin begins in a thought; and such thoughts as are impure and unholy have our natural depravity all on their side: the mind, în proportion as it reverts to the earth, and forgets heaven, becomes englobed in animal influences, imbruted, degraded, cleaving to the dust, and losing its dignity. How awful, for instance, is insanity! With what horror we look upon a lunatic! where reason wanders, or reels,-where the man is humbled and disgraced,-where the animal part rules over the mental, and the object of our contemplative pity has human limbs and a brute's passions! What better is he who in a moral sense acts the same part, without the same excuse? It is clear that the soul's original clement is holiness; all departures from this principle in the true child of God, who by con version is brought back to that original, will bring their own punishment. Let the mind be occupied with heavenly thoughts, that the plenitude of these may expel the contrary. Let not the arches, and galleries, and long-withdrawing vistas of the soul be filled with scorpions, and skeletons, and chimeras, dancing hither and thither in their own cloud and sulphur; but let the glory of the Lord rather fill that whole house of the Lord! Toy not with sin, even in idea: its fangs were not made to be played with, and its basilisk eyes have charmed, more than once, even a saint into follies which have made the church turn pale! Ah, Sirs! toss out the asp that lies hidden under the fruit! Death is a dear price for delight: it is madness to combat with the eloquence of sin, or to gaze on the pictures of passion. How often do we hear of dreadful accidents, of children crushed in the streets, or drowned in the rivers, when wandering from their parents, or running out, either unconsciously or openly, against advice, into forbidden ground. What can the child of God expect, if he will run out into calamity amidst the chariots of heaven, earth, and hell, on parapets of danger, or in rivers of voluptuous roll, where ten thousand flowers perfume the margin, and ten thousand demons lurk beneath the wave. 2. Theology. I do not mean that the study of theology is censurable; on the contrary, I recom |