SERMON IX.

THE HIGH PRIEST OF OUR PROFESSION.

HEBREWS iv. 14.

SEEING THEN THAT WE HAVE A GREAT HIGH PRIEST, THAT IS PASSED INTO THE HEAVENS, JESUS THE SON OF GOD, LET US HOLD FAST OUR PROFESSION.

Ir has been said, with much truth, that the individual who shall thoroughly understand the Epistle of Paul to the Romans must of necessity understand the sum and substance of the whole Gospel. With equal truth, I think, it may be affirmed, that he who shall understand this Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, and make himself in some good degree master of its argument and of its spirit, will, in so doing, come to the understanding of the sum and substance both of the law and of the Gospel : for it is in this Epistle, more than in any other single part of sacred Scripture, that we find the law, with its various types and shadowy institutions, employed, under the immediate sanction and guidance of Inspiration itself, as a "schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ." The object of the writer evidently was, to confirm the converted Jews in the faith, practice, and profession of Christianity; and for this purpose he labours to show them, that, so far from having been losers by their transition from Judaism to Christianity, they were in every respect great and permanent gainers. He shows that there was nothing truly valuable in the dispensation from which they had passed, that is not retained, with abundant increase, in the dispensation into which they have been brought. The Jews were wont, for instance, to make their boast of Moses as a prophet and law

giver; but our apostle shows, in the first chapter of this Epistle, that we have a Prophet and Lawgiver superior to Moses. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." And, as the dignity of the Ambassador employed was superior, so much the more important must be conceived to be the object of the embassy itself.

But the Jews were also wont to make their boast of Aaron, their high priest, and of the advantages they derived from the exercise of the priestly office under the law by Aaron and by his successors. In the text, therefore, and in some following parts of this Epistle, the apostle goes on to show that in this second particular, as well as in the first, the Gospel has the advantage over the law-Christianity over the dispensation of Moses. We Christians "have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." We have therefore lost nothing, he means to say, by losing any interest we might have in the Levitical priesthood: we have gained by the superior advantages to be derived, if we are true Christians, from the priesthood of Christ. Let us, then, hold fast Christ and our Christian profession.

You perceive, my friends, that in the text thus introduced to you we have, first, an exhortation to steadfastness in Christianity; and, secondly, a motive to enforce that exhortation, derived from the priesthood of Christ. Let me invite your prayerful attention to each of these particulars.

I. We have an exhortation to steadfastness in our Christian profession.

By "our profession" we are sometimes to understand the

subject-matter of our profession, or that which we profess. Thus we read, in the first verse of the third chapter of this Epistle: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Here "our profession" plainly means the religion itself which we profess, including the facts on which it is founded, the doctrines which it makes known, the promises and privileges which it exhibits, and the duties which it enjoins. In other places, by "our profession" we are to understand not what we profess, but the act of professing. So in the tenth chapter of this Epistle it is said, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,"-plainly meaning the act of professing our faith; and this I apprehend to be the true meaning of the expression in the text. "Let us hold fast our profession:" let us continue, with steadfastness and courage, to make a profession of the Christian religion.

The subject of profession is copious and interesting. We may observe, for the illustration of it, that there are two kinds of profession, and therefore two classes of professors. The first class of professors includes all who call themselves Christians, whatever be their motives for assuming that name, and whether they be legitimately entitled to assume it or not. All nominal Christians are, in a general sense, professors of Christianity; and are bound, by the very act of their making even that nominal declaration of belief in Christ and of attachment to His religion, to conduct themselves according to its requirements. We find, indeed, that many of this class of professors seem to be utterly unaware that their profession is such as to imply any obligation to holiness. They take up that profession of Christianity from motives of convenience, or out of deference to established custom, or in compliance with the recommendations given them in their early life by those who had the guidance of their youth; and they do not seem to think that they ought to be restrained by it from anything which it pleases them to pursue. Nothing, therefore, is

more common than to hear this class of people, if you reprove them for anything unchristian in their conversation or conduct, justify themselves from your rebuke by saying that they "make no profession of religion." Now, in the first place, this language is exceedingly shocking and profane. What would you think of a man that should adopt similar language with reference to the duties of civil, and domestic, and social life?-if the man who was charged with violating or neglecting some of those duties which belong, for instance, to a kind parent, or a dutiful child, or an affectionate husband, or a loyal subject, or an honest citizen, should endeavour to justify himself by saying, "O, I make no profession of these things?" Would it at all extenuate his conduct? Is it to a man's credit that he makes no profession of such things? The man says— if you are to take him at his word-that he does not so much as profess to love his wife or children, to honour his parents, to render allegiance to the government that affords him protection, or do his duty to his fellow-citizens! If it is as he says, -if he really makes no profession of these things,—so much the worse; he ought to profess them, and to practise them too. And is it not just the same in reference to the duties of religion? What! do you say boldly, that you profess not to be religious? Then you do not even profess to fear the great God who made and will judge you! You do not even profess to love the Saviour that died for you! You do not even profess to be taking any care for your souls, or making any provision for eternity! Is it indeed so? And do you think it is any excuse for your actual and practical irreligion, that you profess no religion? It is rather an aggravation than an excuse. It is every man's first duty to be religious; it is every man's next duty to profess religion. Not to be religious is one sin, not to profess religion is another sin: the second does not palliate the first.

But this plea is generally as untrue as it is bold and impious. Many of those very persons who, when pressed to be religious, excuse themselves by saying they profess no religion,

are professors of religion, in an important sense, all the while. They profess to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that the Scriptures contain a Divine Revelation: and is not this, in a very serious sense, professing religion? Unless you are prepared to go to the most unequivocal lengths, and abandon your Saviour and Bible at once, you are professors of His religion,-professors of the truth and authority of His Gospel; and are bound, as such, to obey the reasonable and scriptural injunction, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."

But it is with the second class of professors that we have particularly to do; with those, namely, who profess to be religious, not in name and outward character only, but in deed and in truth. Such were those Hebrews to whom the text was addressed. They are spoken of as "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." Now, the profession of real Christians may be distinguished from the profession of merely nominal ones by three characteristic marks:

In the first place: An acceptable profession of Christianity is scriptural. It is founded on a careful examination of the Christian religion, as set forth in its own inspired and authenticated oracles. The profession of nominal Christians in general is not of this class: it rests rather on human authority, or what the schoolmaster or the nurse has taught. Not that a doctrine is the worse because it was taught to us by a nurse, or a schoolmaster, or a "priest." It is the senseless rant of infidelity that would condemn, for no better reason, everything that is taught us in our youth by those who providentially have had the guidance of our earlier years, or by those who have officially the opportunity and obligation of instructing us in righteousness. But, surely, when we come to years of maturity, and are capable of exercising a judgment of our own on the oracles of God, it becomes us all to give some better reason for believing even a good and true doctrine, than merely that it was taught us when we were young, or that it is the doctrine generally held in the country where