Author : John Henry Newman
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 660 pages
File Size : 34,57 MB
Release : 2016-10-18
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781333990046
Book Description
Excerpt from Parochial Sermons, Vol. 2 of 2 This needs insisting on; for a number of persons, who are not un willing to confess that they are slaves by nature, from some cause or other have learned to think that they are not bound to any real service at all, now that Christ has set them free. N ow if by the word slavery, some cruel and miserable state of suffering is meant, such as human masters often in ict on their slaves, in that sense indeed Christians are not slaves, and the word is improper to apply to them but if by being slaves, is meant that we cannot throw up our service, change our place, and do as we will, in that sense it is literally true, that we are more than servants to Christ, we are, as the text really words it, Slaves. Men Often speak as if the perfection of human happiness lay in our being free to do or not to do, to choose and to reject. Now we are indeed thus free, as far as this, -that if we do not Choose to be Christ's servants, we can go back to that Old bondage from which He rescued us, and be slaves again to the powers Of evil. But though we are free to make our situation worse, we are not free to be without service or post of any kind. It is not in man's nature to be out of all service and to be self dependent. We may choose our master, but God or mammon We must serve. We cannot possibly be in a neutral or intermediate state. Such a state does not exist. If we will not be Christ's servants, we are forth with Satan's; and Christ set us free from Satan only by making us His servants. Satan's kingdom touches upon Christ's, the world touches on the Church; and we cease to be Satan's property by becoming Christ's. We cannot be without a master, such is the law of our na ture; yet a number Of persons, as I have said, overlook it, and think their Christian liberty lies in being free from all law, even from the law of God. Such an error seems to have Obtained even in St. Paul's time, and is noticed in the chapter before us. Men seem to have thought that, since the law Of sin was annulled, and the terrors of the law of nature removed, that therefore they were under no law at all; that their own will was their law, and that faith stood in stead of Obedience. In Opposition to this great mistake St. Paul reminds his brethren in the text, that when they were made free from sin, they became the servants of righteousness. And again, sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, that is, the law Of nature, but under grace, or (as he elsewhere expresses it, ) the law of faith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."