y He makes us His children, who by birth
were children of Adam, and slaves of the devil, gives us a new and
heavenly nature, implants His Holy Spirit within us, and washes away
all our sins? This is the portion of the Christian, high or low; and
all glories of this world fade away before it; king and subject, man of
war and keeper of sheep, are all on a level in the kingdom of Christ;
for they one and all receive those far exceeding and eternal blessings,
which make this world's distinctions, though they remain distinctions
just as before, yet so little, so unimportant, in comparison of the
"glory that excelleth," that it is not worth while thinking about them.
One person is a king and rules, another is a subject and obeys; but if
both are Christians, both have in common a gift so great, that in the
sight of it, the difference between ruling and obeying is as nothing.
All Christians are kings in God's sight; they are kings in His unseen
kingdom, in His spiritual world, in the Communion of Saints. They seem
like other men, but they have crowns on their heads, and glorious robes
around them, and Angels to wait on them, though our bodily eyes see it
not. Such are all Christians, high and low; all Christians who remain
in that state in which Holy Baptism placed them. Baptism placed you in
this blessed state. God did not wait till you should do some good
thing before He blessed you. No! He knew you could do no good thing
of yourselves. So He came to you first; He loved you before you loved
Him; He gave you a work which He first made you able to do. He placed
you in a new and heavenly state, in which, while you remain, you are
safe. He said not to you, "Obey Me, and I will give you a kingdom;"
but "Lo I give you a kingdom freely and first of all; now obey Me
henceforth, for you can, and you shall remain in it;" not "Obey Me, and
I will then give you the Holy Spirit as a reward," but "I give you that
great gift in order that you may obey Me." He first gives, and then
commands; He tells us to obey Him, not to gain His favour, but in order
not to lose it. We are by nature diseased and helpless. We cannot
please Him; we cannot move hand or foot; He says not to us, "Get well
first, and I will receive you;" but He begins a cure in us, and
receives us, and then says, "Take care not to go back; take care of
yourselves; beware of a relapse; keep out of danger." Such then is
your state, my brethren, unless you have fallen f