First part of Sermon LVII. for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity.
If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things
which belong unto thy peace!—ST. LUKE
xix. 42.
When the Epistles and Gospels were ranged differently to what
they now are, the Epistle for last Sunday attached to the Gospel for to-day
added a peculiar force to it; for the Epistle gave warning of Israel in
the wilderness not entering into God’s rest, while this Gospel speaks of
the Israel of later time being in like manner wept over by their own Messiah,
and by Him cast out of His temple; and both for the same reason, on account
of God being forgotten in the love of this world. But our Epistle for to-day
has for us in store another lesson of edification. Let us endeavour to
read and ponder it with the light of God’s Spirit, and may His holy guidance
make it profitable to us.
Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
St. Paul is here speaking of a state of things different to anything which
we now experience; for when the Gospel was first being planted in the world,
the Holy Spirit made His Presence known by many visible tokens; and when
by Baptism He was received, being Himself invisible, He thus by sensible
signs gave evidence of His power, such as the weakness of men in the infancy
of the Church required. And first of all, St. Paul tells these Christians
at Corinth how they shall distinguish these manifestations of the good
Spirit from those possessions of devils, to which, as Gentiles, they were
accustomed; and he points out this distinction to consist at that time
in this, whether or no they confessed Christ. Ye know, he says, that
ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols even as ye were led.
When ye were possessed by those evil spirits, ye were forcibly dragged
away to the idols without having any will of your own: but not so with
Christians; they are influenced by the sweet compulsion of a gracious Spirit
leading them gently on with the love of Christ; and the acknowledgment
of Christ is the test, for this the evil spirit will not allow his votaries
to make. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by
the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; that is, can deny Christ
in the manner that the heathens require men to do. And that no man can
say that Jesus is the Lord, no one is able to make this good confession,
under such circumstances of persecution and martyrdom, but by the Holy
Ghost. St. John says the same : “Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.”
And again, there is another point; these miraculous gifts are of many
kinds, but you must take care not on that account to confound them with
the many false gods of the heathen; for in the Church all is union and
harmony, arising from the Divine unity, the Three Persons in One God. Now
there are diversities of gifts, which He bestows in this manifestation
of His Presence, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations,
by which we serve Christ in His Church, but the same Lord. And
there are diversities of operations; the ways by which God worketh in this
His kingdom of the Spirit are many and manifold; but it is the same
God Who worketh all in all. Whether they be gifts, or administrations,
or operations; though differing in name, yet all may be one in substance;
they are by the same Spirit, for the same Lord, of the same God; and These
being Three are yet One.
There is, further, another consideration; what is the end and object
of these miraculous tokens of the Spirit? it is one and’ the same in all,—the
diversity of them all, their measure and degree, is for what is profitable.
But the manifestation of the Spirit, by these outward and sensible
signs of His Presence, is given to every man to profit withal; they
are dispensed according to what is good for each to receive, both for his
own spiritual well-being, and for promoting that of others. And here St.
Paul affords a very interesting mention of what those miraculous powers
were, which God was then using in His Church for the conversion of the
world; they were not like graces of the Spirit, and the gifts of righteousness
which adorn the saints; but they were like natural powers, and endowments
of mind’ and body, such as did not necessarily make men better, but were
lent them by God as stewards of His gifts, which they might use for good,
or abuse. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, such
as St. Paul and St. John were so wonderfully gifted with. We “speak wisdom,”
says St. Paul, “among them that are perfect.” To another the word of
knowledge by the same Spirit. He speaks not here of that knowledge
of God which is inseparable from love, and in which is eternal life, but
of that knowledge of the things of God which may be without charity, and
as such puffeth up. To another faith by the same Spirit; that is,
the Spirit at that time gave to some a miraculous insight into the unseen,
with so strong an assurance in Christ’s Name that it could remove mountains,
as an evidence to others of the Spirit’s power; but this was not necessarily
that saving faith which is unto life, for this also might be without charity.
To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working
of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits:
“the knowing who is spiritual,” says St. Chrysostom, “and who is not; who
is a prophet, and who a deceiver ;“ for many were the false prophets which
then had gone forth; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another
the interpretation of tongues.
So rich and manifold were the gifts with which the Church of God then
went forth to draw the Gentile world unto her as it were by her beauty,
miraculously adorned “in a vesture of gold wrought about with divers colours,”
and saying, “Hearken and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine
own people and thy father’s house.” But, although so many and various were
these manifestations, yet, adds St. Paul, all these worketh that one
and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.
What, then, does this Epistle teach us of the present day? for it speaks
of a state of things which does not now at all exist; there are now no
supernatural signs which mark believers from unbelievers. It used to he
connected with the Gospel of the parable of the Pharisee and
Publican praying together in the same temple, and one despising the
other. [Note: Williams is assuming the Roman
Missal is correct, but in fact it was the Roman Missal that shifted all of the
Epistles off by one Sunday when they added a Gospel early in the season.
The Sarum Missal (and BCP) preserved the original Gospels and Epistles from the
Lectionary of St. Jerome (see the first
section of this paper for further information).] But as it now occurs with us in our Epistle for to-day, it seems
to contain this general lesson, that we are all of us at all times in a
state of probation and trial; that even in the early Church, warm with
her first love, when miraculous gifts were poured upon its members, these
very gifts themselves became a source of temptation, and served as a means
of trying their love to God. Some were puffed up by the possession of them
and despised others; some misused them; to others they became subjects
of envy because they had them not; others confused them with the powers
of possession showed by evil spirits. All these things the Apostle here
writes to correct, and shows that they were only given for the purpose
of edification, and ought in no way to be the causes of strife and selfishness;
for they were but different manifestations of one and the same Spirit,
dividing to every one as appears good to Him, precisely as different members
of the body have different powers and offices.
It is true we have not now these miraculous powers to profit by or abuse,—nothing
of this kind to separate one in pride and envy from another. Yet never
has been a time when Christians have thought so much of themselves, as
if separate and set apart from others; of their own gifts of spirit, of
mind or body, of nature or fortune, and so little of that one great Body
to Which they belong; and the reason of this has been because love waxes
cold. How often may the Apostle’s words occur to us with respect to all
those differences of gifts and diversities of office in which we are placed
to serve God; all these, what are they? “All these worketh that one
and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.”
Take, for instance, outward station,—we call it station in the world out
it is not really so with Christians,—it is outward position in the Church
of God. Why is one rich and another poor, with all the numerous inequalities
in condition? the answer and explanation is here given; it is merely such
as is given to each to “profit withal,”—that is, such as may serve by God’s
blessing for the spiritual benefit of himself and others. It is, indeed,
too often the case, that riches are the destruction of the rich man, and
poverty of the poor man; but the very contrary to this is intended by the
all-wise Disposer of our lives, “dividing to every man severally as He
will.” There are differences and diversities innumerable, but it is by
the same Spirit and for the same Lord. And the destruction of soul arising
in these cases, is in great measure from this,—that each is wont to look
on these things, not as ways of God and talents of His, to be used by us
for His honour, but as if they were things of our own; if lent to us we
are proud of them, and so misuse and abuse them; if lent to another, we
are envious and discontented at the sight, and covet the same for ourselves.
So is it with learning and reputation, and other such diversities between
man and man. So is it with means and powers of usefulness in the Church.
Whereas to be high-minded from having them, to desire them for their own
sakes, is to forget God and our own awful stewardship. They are given to
each “to profit withal,” and for no other purpose. Heathen idols were many;
and the evil spirits were many that led to their worship; and many their
vices, all leading to selfishness and hatred. But in the Church of God,
that is, among Christians, all distinctions are nothing else but the different
callings of the one Spirit, by which they are in love to serve one another
and to serve God; or different powers given to different members for the
benefit of each other, as all parts of that one Body, Which is Christ.
Now the effect of these two ways of looking on things, whether as in ourselves
and by ourselves, or only as members one of another, is as opposite as
light and darkness. So far as we consider the gifts of God as something
of our own, we are exalted in our own eyes; so far as we consider them
as parts of a stewardship for which we are accountable, we must be more
and more humbled under a sense of them.
This, then, is to us the day in which we have been called by the Householder
to work in His vineyard,—the day of our visitation, our accepted time,
and the season of grace.
.... (for the second part, on the Gospel.)
