DISCOURSE VIII.

THE PECULIAR PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS, AND HOW THEY OBTAIN THEM.

1 PET. ii. 4-10.-To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

To unfold the nature and illustrate the value of the numerous "exceeding great and precious" privileges, which the peculiar people of God have in present possession, and in certain expectation, is one of the most important, as it is one of the most delightful, duties of the public Christian instructor. Such illustrations are calculated to serve many valuable purposes. They honour the Saviour, from whom all these privileges are derived, by displaying the ardour and tenderness of his love, the efficacy and value of his sacrifice, the prevalence of his intercession, and the munificence of his liberality. They tend to the conversion of

sinners, by showing them that it is their obvious interest, as well as their undoubted duty, to yield to the claims of the Saviour's authority and love; and they greatly conduce to the consolation and joy of the saints, by fixing their attention on the number, and variety, and value, and security, of their distinguishing blessings; and to their holiness, by calling forth into vigorous, sustained exercise, that gratitude for these unspeakable gifts, which is the most powerful stimulant to Christian obedience. The more accurately the Christian apprehends the intrinsic excellence, the more fully he appreciates the inestimable worth, of his privileges, the more deeply must he feel his obligations to him, to whose sovereign love he is indebted for them all; and the more readily will he embrace every opportunity of manifesting his sense of this kindness, by actively doing, and patiently suffering, his will.

From these remarks it is obvious, on the one hand, that an enlightened preacher of Christian privilege is one of the best friends of practical religion; and, on the other, that the public Christian instructor who confines himself exclusively to what may be termed the moral part of Christianity, neglects the principal means with which that divine system furnishes us, for reclaiming the vicious and improving the pious, for converting the sinner and edifying the saint, for making the bad good, and the good better.

Such plainly were the views of the Apostle Peter, who in that Epistle, of which our text forms a part, insists largely on the peculiar privileges of Christians, representing them as at once a perennial, exuberant source of abundant consolation and good hope, amid all the trials and afflictions of the present state, and an inexhaustible store of (to a Christian mind) irresistible motive to perseverance and activity in the discharge of all the varied obligations of religious and moral duty. One of those exhibitions of Christian privilege, obviously brought forward as intended and calculated to serve these practical purposes, lies before us in the interesting and beautiful, though highly figurative and somewhat compli

cated paragraph which we have chosen as the subject of this discourse.

At first view, the paragraph may appear, to a considerable degree, disjointed, and on that account obscure; but on a narrower inspection we will find it to be just a beautiful expansion and illustration of the sentiment stated in the words which immediately precede it, and which embodies one of the Apostle's powerful enforcements of the duties, with the affectionate injunction of which this chapter of the Epistle commences: "Ye," Christians, "have tasted that the Lord," that is, your Lord Jesus Christ, "is gracious," kind. You have obtained, you enjoy, important, invaluable, blessings in consequence of your connexion with him. What these are the Apostle states in our text.

In consequence of coming to him, they had been brought by him to God, his Father and their Father. From a state of alienation from God, a state necessarily of deep degradation and misery, they had been brought into a state of most intimate relation to God, a state necessarily of the highest honour and the richest felicity. This is the leading idea; but it is brought out by a variety of figures borrowed from the facts of the Jewish economy, peculiarly calculated to be interesting and instructive to those to whom the Epistle was originally addressed.

By becoming connected with him, they had become in one point of view constituent parts of a great spiritual temple, infinitely more glorious than the temple at Jerusalem; and in another point of view, ministering priests in that temple, possessed of a more dignified office, and engaged in holier services, than Aaron or any of his sons. They had become the true circumcision, the spiritual Israel, the possessors of those spiritual privileges of which the external advantages of Israel, according to the flesh, were but the imperfect figures; they had become in a sense far superior to that in which their fathers had ever been, "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, the people of God," the objects of his distinguishing

love, his sovereign choice, his most complacential delight. Having come to Christ, the living stone, the divinely appointed and the divinely qualified foundation of the great spiritual temple, they had, from union to him, become living stones, fit materials for the sacred spiritual edifice; and on him they had been built up, made a part of this mystical building, become devoted to the rational service of the great Father of Spirits; a sentiment repeated under the plainer figure of their having been constituted "a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Christ Jesus."

The Apostle, according to his manner, seeks in the writings of the Old Testament, illustration both of the privileges, in the enjoyment of which those to whom he wrote had the evidence in themselves that the Lord is gracious, and of the manner in which they had obtained this spiritual connexion with him, arising out of faith in him. The prophet Isaiah, in the 28th chapter of his prophecies, in an oracle plainly belonging to the time of the Messiah, uses these words; "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste." The Apostle quotes this passage apparently from memory, as his citation does not verbally correspond either with the Hebrew text or the Greek translation, though it accurately enough expresses the common meaning of both. In your experience,' as if the Apostle had said, 'this glorious prediction has been fulfilled, "He that believeth shall not be ashamed," that is, he shall have no reason to be ashamed. Not shame, but honour shall be his portion. He who, by believing in the sure foundation, is built up on him, shall not be ashamed, he shall be honoured. "To you, then, who believe, there is," according to this ancient oracle, "honour" (for this is the literal meaning of the words rendered, not very happily, "To you who believe he is precious;" a very delightful truth, no doubt, but a truth which the words do not naturally signify, and which have

no direct bearing on the obvious object of the whole paragraph). "To you, then, who believe, there is honour, but to them who believe not, or are disobedient," there is shame and ruin; for "the stone which they as builders reject, is," notwithstanding their rejection, "made the head of the corner." And more than this, "this stone," which to them who build on it is honour and security, to them rejecting it "is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence," an occasion of their stumbling and falling, and being broken to pieces, a doom long ago denounced against them, appointed for them, as disobedient, as appears from the ancient oracle referred to in the 8th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, verses 14, 15. But while thus, to these unbelieving disobedient ones, not building on, but stumbling at, this foundation, there is shame and ruin, to you who by believing build on it, there is honour; for, in consequence of your connexion with this living stone, ye are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye may show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: who in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

The coherence of the passage is now, I trust, quite evident, as well as the bearing of every part of it, on the illustration of the general thesis, "Ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." In the privileges which ye possess, so inestimably valuable and dignifying, ye have abundant experimental proof that the Lord is kind.

We are prepared now for entering on a somewhat more particular consideration of this view of the peculiar privileges of Christians, as a manifestation of the Lord's kindness to them; and I do not know that the whole truth can be brought before our minds more fully and impressively, than by attending in succession, I. To the view which the

1 The construction is ανακολουθον. It is equivalent to λίθος όντος αν απεδοκίμασαν οι οικοδομούντες, αυτός εγενήθη εις πεφαλήν γωνίας just as 1 Cor. x. 16. Τον αρτον εν κλώμεν ουχί κοινωνία, κ T. λ. for ουχι

αρτος, οι κλωμεν, κ. τ. λ.