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SERMON IV.

LUKE. xi. 35.

Take heed that the Light which is in thee be not Darkness.

In the schisms and heresies of the early ages, to which in the close of my last discourse I adverted, we had occasion to see the spirit of ambition and of covetousness which is the presumed, and by the apostles declared original of all divisions in the church, operating indeed widely and among different sorts of people, but not assuming any great consistency of form, or acquiring any share of solid establishment. In succeeding times it pleased the Almighty, that to the temptations with which the church

was thus assailed from without, to the errones ous systems and the gaudy and complicated theories which were displayed to her view by those who had wilfully separated from her, another and a more severe trial should be superadded from within: that the false and corrupt doctrine by which the truth was to be obscured should proceed from those very persons to whom the oracles of God were in a special manner confided; that the flock of Christ should be led astray by those very rulers who were set over it for the express purpose of keeping it in the right path. This is what took place with the first appearance, and grew with the growth of the papal usurpations; till, at last, by the abominable and even impious tenets which came to be maintained by the church of Rome, almost the whole Christian world was reduced to the lamentable condition which is so forcibly marked out in my text. Thus it happened that "the light which was within them became dark"ness."

I need not, I should conceive, employ many words in shewing to you the propriety of this application; and that it is to such a state of things as I am describing that the words of Christ most particularly and distinctly refer. The parable or metaphor which is here used is sufficiently familiar in the New Testament to leave us no room to doubt its meaning. By

"the light" is every where meant the precepts or rather the benefits of the gospel. Thus the true believers are called the "children of light*;" and they are bidden to "walk in the light," "to "believe in the lightt." Of our Saviour it is said that he is "the true light which lighteth

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every man that cometh into the world." In the same sense the apostles also are said to be "the light of the world." Reasoning upon this we shall find that if that which according to the parable of our Lord we may call "the "mind's eye," if our understanding be pure and free from prejudice or false principles, we shall receive" the light," we shall embrace the great truths of his gospel as we ought, and be properly directed in the way. If, on the contrary, it be distorted, obscured or pre-occupied by false apprehensions of any sort, we shall run the most imminent danger of being misled; we shall see in the scriptures what they were never intended to convey. We are therefore naturally warned not to suffer ourselves to be led away into the entertaining of any corruption of doctrine. "Take heed that the light which is "within thee be not darkness." And in the parallel passage in St. Matthew the consequence of such an error is very strongly expressed. "If

♦ Luke xvi. 8. Ephes. v. 8.
‡ John i. 9.

+ John xii. 35, Mark v. 14.

36.

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"the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness*!" How deplorable indeed must have been the situation of mankind, when, as the Psalmist says, "the things that "should have been for their wealth, were unto "them an occasion of fallingt." If by the word "light" in this parable, any one should, as some do, rather suppose that nothing more than simply our reason or understanding is meant, even that will make no material difference; for it is certain that the tendency of the popish system was equally to cloud the understanding as to pervert the doctrine: indeed the one follows upon the other. In either case the sources of knowledge are obstructed or poisoned "the light which is within us becomes "darkness."

That this was really the effect produced by the usurped domination and corrupt tenets of the Romish church in what are called the dark ages, will hardly be denied me; but I must go farther, and notwithstanding certain opinions which are rather generally entertained, I must express my full persuasion that no material change has since taken place in that church with respect to those very abuses, against which a faithful witness was borne in this very place even unto death. Still I must think that that

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vigilance which was required on our part in former days, is not now to be laid aside. If, as I conceive the truth to be, the same spirit lives and is active, we are still to be guarded against it, though we should allow that its power to oppress the true believers be in some degree diminished. We must also labour, not by such odious means as were familiar to that church, but by those means which are not only lawful but prescribed to us in God's word, to prevent her influence from spreading. This is not only not contrary to the spirit of Christian charity, but it is even the most charitable work in which a Christian can be employed. For there is no labour which is so expressly enjoined to us as that of preserving the souls of men from error; as well as reclaiming and bringing them back to the truth whenever they have been led astray. Now there are no errors so thoroughly pernicious, or which have been the cause of so much mischief and of so much misery to mankind as those which are maintained by the see of Rome. That church indeed has this peculiar to herself, and which makes her, or made her in time past when men thought more seriously of these things, to be considered as the common and decided enemy of all other sects of Christians, however at variance among themselves in other respects, that she is most inveterately and determinately bent against the

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