^^^K|lj ii:7-''' . ^^H r "";■ ' ^ ^^H Kvv'' ' m } 'I : ■ ..' ; ;,;/ '^ PRINCETON, N. J. ffit Presented by A , Gr . Ca-m ero-n, r n U. Division Section sec '3>0OO Z"^^. J^^^ ^^^^^^ /J.-cJc-f^' /fe^'^^^ .^^t-^<^^ /^ , .^ ^^■- ^'-2^^C-^ li THE COMPLETE WORKS OF EDWARD PAYSON, D. D. MAR 11 1911 MEMOIR, ' • •."'.'n'T' •> SELECT THOUGHTS SERMONS OP THE LATE REV. EDWARD PAYSON, D. D, PASTOR OP THE SECOND CHURCH IN PORTLAND. BB:N3 OBASSE est bene BTUDTJISeE. LTSTHEK. COMPltED BY REV. ASA CUMMINGS, EDITOR OP THE CHRISTIAN MIRROR. IN THREE VOLUMES. — VOL. III. PORTLAND. HYDE, LORD & DUREN. BOSTON, CROCKER AND BREWSTER : NEW YORK, E. FRENCH : PHILADELPHIA, HENRY PERKINS. 1846. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of our LoiJ 1346, BY HYDE, LORD & DUREN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maine. stereotyped and Printed bf Thurston, Fosters Co. I'ortUnd, Maine. CONTENTS. SERMON XLIX. THE ORACLES OF GOD. What advantage then hath the Jew ? or what profit is there of circumcis- ion ? much every way ; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. — Romans hi. 1, 2. 11 SERMON L. THE GOSPEL, GLAD TIDINGS. The glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.— 1 Timothy i. 11. 34 SERMON LI. THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. — John xx. 28. 49 SERMON LII. TITLES OF CHRIST, Unto us a child is born ; unto us a son is given ; and the government ^ shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- sellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. — Isaiah IX. 6, 7. 62 SERMON LIII. Christ's joy in the church before his incarnatioa. Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. — Proverbs viii. 31. ---.-.. 72 SERMON LIV. Christ's priestly office. Now of the things which we have spoken tliis is the sum ; We have such an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in VI CONTENTS. the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices ; wherefore it is of necessity that this man have some- what also to offer. — Hebrews viii. 1 — 3. - - - - - 81 SERMON LV. CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. He is despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth ; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. — Isaiah liii. 3 — 7. . - - 92 SERMON LVI. CHRIST A KING. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule and all au- thority and power ; for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. — 1 Corinthians xv. 24, 25. - - - - - 104 SERMON LVII. Christ's ascension. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven .-■ This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, ^all so come in like manner as. ye have seen him go into heaven. — Acts 1.9—11. - - 115 SERMON LVIII. Christ's victory over sataw. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. — Luke xi. 21, 22. 124 SERMON LIX. 'cHRISt's lOVE FOR THE CHURCH. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish. — Ephesians v. 25 — 27. 136 CONTENTS. VU SERMON LX. PAGE. CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF THE LOST. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. — Luke "X- 10. - 148 SERMON LXI. CHRIST, god's best GIFT TO MAW. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. — 2 Corinthians u. 15. 159 SERMON LXII. man's treatment OF CHRIST. Having yet therefore one Son, his well-beloved, he sent him also, last unto them, saying, They will reverence my Son. — Mark xii. 6. - 170 SERMON LXIII. AN assembly CONVOKED AGAINST SINNERS. And I set a great assembly against them. — Nehemiah v. 7. - - 180 SERMON LXIV. WHY THE WICKED ARE SPARED FOR A SEASON. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. — Genesis xv. 16. - 191 SERMON LXV. LOVERS OF PLEASURE DESCRIBED AND WARNED. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. — 2 Timothy m. 4. - 202 SERMON LXVI.' THE sinner's MISTAKES EXPOSED AND REPROVED. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.— Psalm l. 21, 22. - 214 SERMON LXVII. THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. What meanest thou, O sleeper .' Arise, call upon thy God ; if so be God will think upon us, that we perish not. — Jonah i. 6. - - - - 224 SERMON LXVIII. JOY IN HEAVEN OVER REPENTING SINNERS. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth. — Luke xv. 10. - 235 SERMON LXIX. THE OPPRESSED SOUL SEEKING DIVINE INTERPOSITION. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. — Isaiah xxxviii. 14. - 253 Vlll CONTENTS. SERMON LXX. FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND WITH THE SON. PA6E. Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. -1 John i, 3. - - 266 SERMON LXXl. THE BLAMELESS PAIR. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the command- ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. — Luke i. 6. - - - 280 SERMON LXXII. CHILDREN TO BE EDUCATED FOR GOD. Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. — Exodus ii. 9. 294 SERMON LXXIII. HOW LITTLE CHILDREN ARE PREVENTED FROM COMING TO CHRIST. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not; for of such IS the kingdom of God. — Mark x. 14. 309 SERMON LXXIV. THE CHILDREN OF THE COVENANT, THE SAVIOUR's FIRST CARE. Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. — Acts hi. 25, 26. 322 SERMON LXXV. DUTY OF THE PRESENT TO THE COMING GENERATION. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. — Psalm cxlv. 1. 337 SERMON LXXVI. ANGUISH OF PARENTS AT THE PERVERSENESS OF CHILDREN. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went thus he said, O my son Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my eon ! — 2 Samuel xviii. 33. 352 SERMON LXXVII. THE GUILT AND CONSEQUENCES OF PARENTAL UNFAITHFULNESS. For I have told him, that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knoweth : because his sons made themselves vile, and he re- strained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. — 1 Samuel hi. 13, 14. - 362 CONTENTS. IX" SERMON LXXVIII. page. THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS VISITED UPON THEIR CHILDREN. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the chil- dren's children, unto the third and fourth generation. — Exodus xxxiv. 7. 375 SERMON LXXIX. AN EARLY INTEREST IN GOd's MERCY ESSENTIAL TO A HAPPY LIFE. O satisfy us early with thy mercy ; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. — Psalm xc. 14. ....-.--. 384 SERMON LXXX SIN AVOIDED BY CONSIDERATIONS OF GOD. How can I — sin against God .'' — Genesis xxxix. 9. - - - - 395 SERMON LXXXI. Solomon's choice. And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. — 1 Kings hi. 10, 405 SERMON LXXXII. CHARACTER AFFECTED BY INTERCOURSE. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. — Proverbs xiii. 20. 416 SERMON LXXXIII. CHARACTER OF DANIEL. 0 Daniel, a man greatly beloved. — Daniel x. 11. - - - - 428 SERMON LXXXIV OUR OBLIGATIONS TO GOD AND MEN. Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's ; and to God, the things that are God's.— Mark XII. 17. 440 SERMON LXXXV. PARTICIPATION IN OTHER MEn's SINS. Neither be partaker of other men's sins. — 1 Timothy v. 22. - - 450 SERMON LXXXVI. PRAYER FOR RULERS. 1 exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men ; for kings and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. — 1 Timothy h. 1, 2. - - - 462 SERMON LXXXVII. LOVE TO CHRIST INDISPENSABLE. Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these .' He saith unto him. Yea Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto hiin. Feed my lambs. — John xxi. 15. . . - . 47J VOL. III. 2 X CONTENTS. SEIIMON LXXXVIII. THE CHARACTERS WHOM CHRIST LOVES. PAGE. I love them that love me. — Proverbs viii. 17. ----- 480 SERMON LXXXIX. THE SAFETY OF RELIGION. He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely. — Proverbs x. 9. - - 493 SERMON XC. A DISSUASIVE FROM AMBITION. Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not ; for behold I will Dring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord ; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey. — Jeremiah xlv. 5. -------- 503 SERMON XCI. Christ's mission and return. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world : Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. — John xvi. 28, - - - . 517 SERMON XCI I. holiness TO THE LORD. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, holiness unto the Lord ; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of Hosts ; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and seethe therein ; and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts. — Zechariah xiv. 20, 21. - - - - 529 SERMON XCIII THE GLORT WHICH IS DUE TO JEHOVAH. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; bring an offering, and come before him ; worship the Lord in the beauty of holi- ness.— 1 Chronicles xvi. 28, 29. 539 SERMON XCIV. god's praises sung ; his works forgotten. They sang his praise ; they soon forgat his works. — Psalm cvi. 12,13. 553 SERMON XCV. THE CONDITION OF MEN WITHOUT THE BIBLE. If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised ; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. — 1 Corinthians xv. 16 — 18. - 569 SERMON XCVI. THE FINAL JUDGMENT. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. — 2 Corinthians v. 10. . - - 581 SERMON XLIX. THE ORACLES OF GOD. What advantage then hath the Jew ? or what profit is there of circumcision? much every way ; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. — IIomans hi. 1, 2. * With the history of God's ancient people, of his gracious in- terpositions in their favor, and of the distinguished blessings which he conferred on them; this assembly are, it is presumed, familiarly acquainted. None Avho are thus acquainted with it need be informed, that the works which he wrought for this highly favored nation were, emphatically, great. They were even so in his estimation ; for he frequently speaks of them as demanding and displaying, a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm. In the performance of these works, most of the establish- ed laws of nature were repeatedly suspended or counteracted ; and miracles became events of daily occurrence. Rocks poured out water, and waters were turned to blood ; the clouds rained bread, and the winds brought flesh ; rivers and seas divided, and the earth opened ; the regular succession of day and night was, in a part of the world at least, interrupted, and The sun and the moon stood still in their habitations. Important * DeUvered in Boston, Jan. 21, 1824, before the Marine Bible Society of that city and its vicinity. 12 THE ORACLES OF GOD. changes, changes the consequences of v/hich are still extensive- ly felt, were also effected in the political world. A powerful nation was nearly destroyed by an unexampled series of mirac- ulous judgments ; seven other nations were exterminated, or driven from their territories ; and a new nation, of a peculiar character, was formed, and planted in their room. Nor was this all. Events of a far more extraordinary nature, and of in- comparably deeper, and more awful interest than any which have yet been mentioned, occurred. Angels descended from their celestial abodes ; disclosed themselves to the eyes, address- ed themselves to the ears, and interposed, visibly, in the affairs of mortals : and even JehoA'^ah Himself, coming forth from that imapproachable light which he inhabits, visited and dwelt among men in a manner cognizable by their senses; went before his favored people in a pillar of cloud and fire ; conversed face to face with an individual of our species, As a man talketh with his friend ; and on Sinai, displayed his presence, his perfections, and his supreme legislative authority, with such attending cir- cumstances of grandeur and terror, as will never again be wit- nessed on earth, till the day of final retribution shall arrive. Now why was all this done? The all- wise God who does nothing in vain, and who never acts without an adequate mo- tive, must, surely, have designed to effect some most important object, by these unparalleled works of wonder and power ; of condescension and love. He did so ; and he has informed us what it was. He had set his love upon this favored nation ; he had chosen them to be his own peculiar people ; and he had promised, with an oath, to bestow on them distinguishing bless- ings. To glorify himself, by displaying his power, his faithful- ness, and the riches of his goodness in the fulfilment of this promise, was, as he repeatedly declared, the object which he had in view while performing these works. And what were these promised blessings ; the bestowal of which demanded and justified such a profusion of miracles ; such extraordinary interpositions and manifestations of Divinity 7 That they must have been great indeed, cannot be doubted. A brief enumeration of them will show that they were so. They included, the deliverance of the nation from Egyptian bondage; their settlement in a land flowing with milk and honey ; the formation of a national covenant between them and their God ; THE ORACLES OF GOD. 13 and the establishment of his worship, and of the true religion among them, while all other nations Avere enslaved by the gross- est ignorance, superstition, and idolatry. Such advantages had the Jew ; such were the blessings connected with circumcision. We have not yet, however, enumerated them all. '^I'he apostle mforms us in our text, that the chief blessings enjoyed by his countrymen, consisted in their possession of the Sacred Scrip- tures ; here styled, the oracles of God. It must be recollected, that in making this assertion, he expressed, not his own senti- ments merely, but, the mind of the Spirit, by whom he was inspired. We are, therefore, to regard this passage, as contain- ing the testimony of the Spirit of God, that is, of God himself, to the value of the Scriptures. We learn from it, that he view- ed them as the most valuable gift which he had bestowed upon the Jews; and their possession as constituting the principal advantage, enjoyed by them above other nations. Now consider a moment, my hearers, how much this implies. You have heard a brief statement, a statement which, you are sensible, falls far below the truth, of the wonderful works which God wrought for this people. You have heard that his design in performing these works Avas, to glorify himself, by bestowing on them corresponding blessings. And now it appears, that of all the blessings thus bestowed ; blessings, in conferring which God designed to make a grand exhibition of his perfections, and display the riches of his goodness to a favored people, the scriptures were, in his estimation, the greatest ; greater than their deliverance from the most cruel bondage ; greater than the pos- session of the promised land; greater than all their civil and political privileges ; greater, even, than all their other religious advantages. The passage before us, then, taken in connection with the facts which have been mentioned, evidently teaches that, in the judgment of God, the Scriptures are one of the most valuable gifts which he can bestow ; one of the richest blessings which men can possess. It is scarcely necessary to add, that, if they are so in his judgment, they are so in reali- ty ; since his judgment is ever according to truth. And if they are really thus valuable, we ought thus to value them. If they held the first place among the gifts, which God bestowed on his ancient chosen people, they certainly ought to hold the same place in our estimation, among the gifts which his Providence 14 THE ORACLES OF GOD. has bestowed on us. We ought to prize them above our tempo- ral possessions, our liberties, our civil and literary privileges ; and to regard their extensive dissemination among us as the richest blessing, which is enjoyed by this highly favored land. To the truth of the preceding remarks and conclusions, many of my hearers will, I doubt not, yield a ready and cordial as- sent. Some, however, may feel disposed to ask, why does God, and why should we, value the Scriptures less highly 1 To this question an answer may be found in the title, by which the Scriptures are here designated. They are styled. The Oracles of God. That we may perceive the full import of this title as used by the apostle, and understand what a volume of meaning it conveyed to the minds of his Gentile converts, we must turn our attention for a moment to the heathen oracles ; so frequent- ly mentioned, and so highly extolled, by the historians and poets of pagan antiquity. In their writings, the word here ren- dered, oracles, is used to denote the answers, given, or supposed to be given, by their gods, to those who consulted them accord- ing to a prescribed form. By a common figure of speech, the word, oracle, was afterwards applied to the temples or shrines where such answers were given. Whether, as is now general- ly supposed, these answers were forged by the priests, or v/hether, as some have contended, they were the results of dia- bolical agency, it is not necessary to inquire. Suffice it for our present purpose to remark, that though proverbially ambiguous and obscure, they were regarded with the most profound vener- ation, and relied upon with the fullest confidence, by a very large proportion of the heathen world. No enterprise of impor- tance was undertaken without consulting the oracles ; splendid embassies, ivith magnificent presents, were sent from far distant states and monarchs for this purpose ; the most costly sacrifices were offered, with a view to obtain a propitious answer ; and, in more than one instance, contending nations submitted to them the decision of their respective claims. With these facts the Gentile converts to Christianity were well acquainted : in these opinions and feelings of their coun- trymen, they had, previously to their conversion, participated. From their earliest years they had been taught, not only by precept, but by the far more impressive lessons of example, to THE ORACLES OF GOD. 15 venerate the oracles ; to rely upon them as infallible guides ; and to consider them as a tribunal, from whose decisions there was no appeal. The effects of these prejudices and feelings, thus early imbibed, thus deeply rooted, thus wrought as it were jpto the very texture of their minds, could not be wholly and at once obliterated, by their subsequent conversion to Christianity. The word, oracles, could scarcely fail to excite in them some of the ideas and emotions, with which it had been so long, and so intimately associated. It must still have retained, in their ears, a venerable and sacred sound. No title, then, could be better adapted to inspire them with veneration for the Scriptures, than that which is here employed by the apostle. It probably ap- peared to them, far more impressive and full of meaning, than it does to us. Nor would it appear less sacred, or less full of important meaning to the Jew. In their minds this title would be associ- ated with their once venerated Urim and Thummim ; and with those responses which Jehovah gave to their fathers by an audible voice, from the inner sanctuary, where he had formerly dwelt, or manifested his presence, in a peculiar and sensible manner. In our version of the Scriptures, this place is frequently styled The Or- acle ; and it was the only place which ever really deserved the name. The answers which God there gave to the inquiries of his worshippers, were full, explicit, and definite ; forming, in all respects, a perfect contrast, to the ambiguous and delusive or- acles of Paganism. These remarks will assist in ascertaining the ideas, which the apostle's language was suited to convey, and which we may, therefore, presume he intended it should convey, to the minds of his contemporary readers. By employing this language, he did in effect say to the Gentile converts. All that you once sup- posed the oracles of your countrymen to be, the Scriptures real- ly are. They are the true and living oracles, of the only living and true God. With at least equal force and clearness did his language say to the Jews, The scriptures are no less the word of God, and no less entitled to veneration and confidence, than were the answers which he formerly gave to your fathers, by an audible voice from the mercy seat. It can scarcely be nec- essary to add, that, though the apostle here refers to the Old Testament only, his expressions are equally applicable to the 16 THE ORACLES OF GOD. New ; for the same God, who in the former spake by the prophets, has in the latter spoken by his Son ; and by apostles, whom His Son commissioned, and His Spirit inspired. The New Testament is, therefore, no less than the Old, an oracle. Both united now compose, The Oracles of God. That this title is given to the Scriptures with perfect truth and propriety, no one who acknowledges their divine inspiration will, it is presumed, deny. They do not indeed, and it is one of their chief excellences that they do not, resemble in all re- spects the heathen oracles. They neither answer, nor profess to answer, such questions, as were usually proposed to them. Thf.y inform no man what will be the duration of his life, nor by what means it Avill be terminated. They will not predict to us the result of any particular private, or public enterprize. They will not aid the politician in devising, nor the soldier in executing schemes for the subjugation of his fellow creatures. They were never designed to gratify a vain curiosity ; much less to subserve the purposes of ambition or avarice, and this is, probably, one reason why many persons never consult them. P.ut though they give no answers to such questions as these passions suggest, they answer questions incomparably more im- portant, and communicate information infinitely more valuable. If they inform no man when or how his life will be terminated, they inform every man who rightly consults them, how both its progress, and its termination, may be rendered happy. If they inform no man how he may prolong his existence in this world, they will inform every man how he may secure everlasting life in the world to come. If they give no information respecting the result of any particular enterprise, they will teach us how to conduct all our enterprises in such a manner, that the final result shall be glory, and honor, and immortality. And while they inform individuals how they may obtain endless felicity, they will teach nations how to secure national prosperity. In fine, whatever a man's situation and circumstances may be, whatever oftices or relations he may sustain ; this oracle, if con- sulted in the manner in which God has prescribed, will satis- factorily answer every question, which it is proper for him to ask ; every question, an answer to which is necessary either to his present, or future well being ; for it contains all the informa- 'tion, which our most wise and benevolent Creator sees it best THE ORACLES OF GOD. 17 that his human creatures should, at present, possess. Indeed we have reason to beUeve, that should he now condescend to visit and converse with us in a visible form, he would answer all our inquiries by referring us to the Scriptures ; for when our Saviour, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, resided on earth, he pursued this course with respect to such questions, as had been already answered in the Old Testament. To such as proposed any of those questions his usual answer was, What saith the scripture 7 What is written in the law ] How readest thou 7 And if he pursued this course while the Scriptures contained the Old Testament only, we may presume that he would now pursue it exclusively ; since the revelation, which God designed for men, is completed by the addition of the New. In possessing the Scriptures, then, our country possesses every real advantage, that would result from the establishment of an oracle among us. where God should give answers to his worshippers by an audible voice, as he formerly did to the Jews. Indeed we possess advantages, in some respects far greater than would result from such an estab- lishment ; for wherever the oracle might be placed, it would unavoidably be at a distance from a large proportion of those who wished for its advice ; to consult it, a long and expensive journey would often be necessary ; and, in many cases of fre- quent occurrence, an answer, thus obtained, would come too late. But in the Scriptures we possess an oracle, which may be brought home to every family, and every individual; which may be placed in our habitations, in our closets, and consulted daily or hourly, without fatigue, expense or delay ; nay more which may be made the companion of the traveller on his jour- ney, and of the mariner on his voyage. In this oracle we pos- sess all, and much more than all, that was possessed by the ancient church in its Urim and Thummin, its ephod, and its sanctuary. By placing it in our closets, and consulting it aright, we may make them to us, all that the Holy of Holies was to the pious Jew ; a place where God will meet us, converse with us, answer our inquiries, and accept our offerings. In fine, we have in this oracle, the very mind and heart of our Creator. The thoughts and purposes of his mind, and the emotions of his heart, lie here in silence, waiting an opportunity to make them- selves known. Hence, whenever we open the Scriptures, we do VOL. in. 3 18 THE ORACLES OF GOD. in effect, open the lips of Jehovah, and the words of Eternal Truth burst at once upon our ears ; the counsels of unerring wisdom address our understandings and our hearts. It is true, that, owing to various causes which we shall presently notice, many, who have the oracles of God in their hands, are by no means aware of these facts. God speaketh once, yea twice ; but man perceiveth it not. It is also true, that in consequence of having been familiar from our childhood with much of the information which these oracles impart, we are generally far from being sensible, how deeply we are indebted to them, how great is their value, and how deplorable our situation would be rendered by their loss. If we would form just conceptions of these several particulars, we must place ourselves, for a moment, in the situation of a se- rious, reflecting, inquirer after truth, who has reached the merid- ian of life, without any knowledge of the Scriptures. Let us suppose such a man to have diligently studied himself, his fel- low creatures, and the world around him; and to have made use of all the assistance, which heathen philosophy can afford. Let us suppose, that he has pursued his inquiries as far as un- assisted human intellect can go ; and that he now finds himself bewildered in a maze of conflicting theories and enveloped by all that distracting uncertainty, perplexity, and anxiety, into which the researches of men unenlightened by revelation, inevi- tably plunge them. To such a man what would the Scriptures be worth 1 What would he give for a single hour's opportunity of consulting an oracle, which should return such answers to his inquiries as they contain? Would you rightly estimate the information which he might derive from such an oracle during that short period? See him, then, approach it, and listen while he consults it. Perplexed by the numberless questions which impatiently demand a solution, and agitated by an unde- finable awe of the invisible, mysterious being whom he is about to address, he scarcely knows how, or where, to com- mence his inquiries. At length he hesitatingly and tremblingly asks, " To whom are the heavens above me, the world which I inhabit, and the various objects with which it is filled, indebted for their existence ?"' A mild, but majestic voice replies from the oracle. In the beginning, God created the heavens, and the earth, and all that is therein. Startled by the scarce! y expected THEORACLESOFGOD. 1^ answer, but soon recovering his self possession, the inquirer eagerly exclaims, " Who is God — what is his nature — his character — his attributes?" God, replies the voice, is a Spirit : He is from everlasting to everlasting, without beginning of days, or end of years ; and with him is no variableness, nor shadow of turning ; He fills heaven and earth ; He searches the hearts, and tries the reins of the children of men; He is the only Wise, the Almighty, the High, and Holy, and Just, One ; He is Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin : but one who will by no means clear the guilty. A solemn pause ensues. The inquirer's mind is overwhelmed. It labors, it sinks, it faints, while vainly attempting to grasp the illimitable, incomprehensible Being, now, for the first time, dis- closed to its view. But a new, and more powerhil motive now stimulates his inquiries, and, with augmented interest, he asks. " Does any relation or connexion subsist between this God and myself?" He is thy Maker, returns the oracle, the Father of thy spirit, and thy Preserver ; He it is who giveth thee richly all things to enjoy ; He is thy Sovereign, thy Law- giver, and thy Judge ; in Him thou dost live, and move, and exist, nor can any one deliver thee out of his hands ; and when, at death, thy dust shall return to the earth as it was, thy spirit will return to God who gave it. " How." resumes the inquir- er, " will he then receive me ?" He will reward thee according to thy works. "What are the works," the inquirer asks. " which this Sovereign requires of me ?" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Every transgres- sion of this law is a sin ; and the soul that sinneth shall die. " Have I sinned?" the inquirer tremblingly asks. All, replies the oracle, have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The God, in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified." A new sensation, the sensation of conscious guilt, now oppresses the inquirer, and with in- creased anxiety he asks, " Is there any way in which the par- don of sin may be obtained ?" The blood of Jesus Christ, replies the oracle, cleanseth from all sin. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. "But to whom shall I 20 THE ORACLES OF GOD. confess them?" the inquirer resumes; " where shall I find the God whom I have offended, that I may acknowledge my trans- gressions, and implore his mercy?" He is a God at hand, re- turns the voice ; He is not few: from thee ; I, who speak to thee, am he. " God be merciful to me a sinner," exclaims the in- quirer, smiting upon his breast, and not daring to lift his eyes towards the oracle : " What, Lord, wilt thou have me to do?" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, answers the voice, and thou shalt be saved. '' Lord, who is Jesus Christ? that I may be- lieve on him ?" He is my beloved Son, whom I have set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood ; Hear thou him, for there is salvation in no other. Such are, probably, some of the questions which would be asked by the supposed inquirer ; and such are, in substance, the answers which he would receive from the oracles of God. That these answers contain but a small part of the information, which may be drawn from them, it is needless to remind you. Yet of this small part only, who can compute the value ? Who can say what it Avould be worth, to one who should rightly improve it ? To beings sit- uated as we are, — to immortal, accountable, sinful creatures, hastening to eternity, to the tribunal of a justly offended God; what is wealth, what is liberty, what is life itself, compared with such information as this ? compared with instructions, which make them wise unto salvation ? compared with that knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ, which is eternal life? To these remarks it may, perhaps, be replied, that, though to a man who had never seen the Scriptures, they might serve, in some respects, as an oracle, and even prove a gift of inestima- ble value, yet to us, and to others, who have long been familiar with their contents, they can answer no such purpose, and must, therefore, be of far inferior worth. Why, it may be asked, should we consult them as an oracle, when we are already ac- quainted with the answers which they will return ? But has the man who asks this, or has any man that ever existed, drawn from the Scriptures all the information which they contain ? He who asserts, or supposes that he has done it, proves only that he needs to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God ; for they assert that, If any man thinketh he knoweth any thing, if he supposes himself to have acquired sufficient knowledge of THEORACLESOFGOD. 21 any religious subject, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. It may reasonably be doubted whether any one present would have discovered that the declaration of Jehovah, I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, furnishes a conclusive proof of the existence of the human soul, during the period which elapses between death and the resurrection, had not our Saviour pointed it out to us. And how many times might we have read the declaration, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedec, before we should have suspected, that it involves all those important consequences, which St. Paul deduces from it in his epistle to the Hebrews 7 These in- stances render it reasonable to suppose, that many other passages contain proofs and illustrations of important truths, which have never been noticed ; and which yet remain, to reward the re- searches of future inquirers. However this may be, it is cer- tain, that he who but seldom consults the oracles of God, he who does not habitually repair to them as his counsellor and guide, will receive from them no satisfactory answers. He only, whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who medi- tates therein day and night, will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which bringeth forth its fruit in season. It may further be remarked in reply to the objection before us, that many of the terms in which the oracles of God arc ex- pressed, contain a fullness, a depth, or rather an infinity of meaning, which no created mind can ever fully comprehend. What finite mind, either human or angelic, ever fully compre- hended, or ever will fully comprehend, all that is contained in the names assumed by Jehovah, in the titles given to Jesus Christ, or in the words, eternity, heaven, hell, everlasting pimishment, everlasting life ? Now he who most frequently consults the or- acles of God, in the manner prescribed by their author, will penetrate most deeply into the unfathomable abyss of meaning, which these and other terms of a kindred nature, contain. He may, indeed, receive the same answers to his inquiries, which he had received on former occasions ; but these answers will convey to his mind, clearer and more enlarged conceptions of the truths which they reveal. His views will resemble those of an astronomer, who is, from time to time, furnished with telescopes of greater power. Or, to vary the figure, what at first seemed only an indistinct shadow, will become a vivid picture, and the 22 O li A CLES OF GOD. }iicture will, at length, stand out in bold relief. In fine, he will know more and more of those subjects, which, to use the lan- guage of an apostle, pass knowledge ; and will enjoy, in a cor- responding degree, all the benefits which the Scriptures are designed and adapted to impart. These remarks may be eluci- dated by a familiar illustration. The lisping child, and the most profound astronomer, uses the word, sun, to denote the same object. The child, however, means by this word, nothing more than a round, luminous body, of a few inches in diameter. But it would require a volume, to contain all the interesting and sublime conceptions, of which this word stands for the sign, or with which it is associated, in the mind of the astronomer. So different individuals may employ the same scriptural terms and phrases ; and they may employ them to denote the same objects. Yet wide, almost immeasurably wide, may be the difference be- tween the ideas, which these terms convey to their minds, or which they employ them to express. One man may see little, or perhaps, no meaning, in an expression, which shall fill the mind of another even to overfloAving, with the fulness of God. It may, perhaps, be farther objected to the views which have now been given of the Scriptures, that, as they do not speak in an audible voice, their answers to our inquiries can never pos- sess that life, that energy, that character of deep, impressive solemnity, which attend the responses of a living oracle, such as was formerly established among the .Tews. An epithet which is applied to the Scriptures by another inspired writer will assist in obviating this objection. He styles them the live- ly or living oracles. In perfect conformity with this language an apostle declares that, the word of God is alive and powerful. And another apostle asserts, not only that it is alive, but that it imparts life. Ye are born again, he says to believers, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible ; even by the word of God, which liveth, and abideth forever. Now what do these asser- tions mean? They doubtless mean something, for inspired writers make no unmeaning assertions. What they mean we may, perhaps, learn from our Saviour's language, The words that I speak unto you, are spirit, and they are life. They were so when he uttered them ; they are so still. And they are life because they are spirit; because the Living Spirit of the Living THEORACLESOFGOD. 23 God does, as it were, live in them, and employ their instrumen- tality in imparting life to all, who consult them in the manner which ho has prescribed. Take away his accompanying influ- ences, and the living oracles become, in the emphatic language of an apostle, "a dead letter." But he who consults them aright, does not find them a dead letter. He finds no reason to complain, that they do not address him with all the force and vivacity of a living speaker. On the contrary he finds, that the living, life giving Spirit, by whom they were inspired, and who still lives and speaks in every line, carries home their words to his understanding, his conscience, and his heart, with an enlight- ening, vivifying energy, which no tongue of man, or angel, could ever impart to language. The voice of God himself, bursting in thunder from heaven, could scarcely speak in accents more powerful, commanding, and impressive. Is this language too strong? What then means the interrogation of Jehovah? Is not my word like a fire, and like a hammer, which brcaketh the rock in pieces ? Indeed it is. It has been the instrument of breaking all the flinty hearts that ever were broken ; and every Iieart which it breaks, it heals again. Yes, The law of the Lord IS perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making v/ise the simple ; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And v/hat more can be expected of any oracle, what can man wish that any oracle should do more, than effect the illumination of his understanding, the conversion of his soul, the communication of wisdom to his mind, and of joy to his heart ? It is, however, readily acknowledged that thousands, who possess and peruse the Scriptures, derive none of these benefits from their perusal, and receive from them no satisfactory an- swers. But the reason is obvious. They do not consult them in the manner which God has prescribed. They do not consult them, as an oracle of God ever ought to be consulted. They do not, for instance, consult them with becoming reverence. They do not feel, when opening the sacred volume, that the mouth of God is about to open, and address them. They do not feel as they Avill acknowledge an Israelite ought to have felt, when approaching the Holy of Holies, to ask counsel of his Maker. On the contrary, they peruse the Scriptures with little 24 THEORACLESOFGOD. more reverence, than the works of a human author. They consult them, as they would consult a dictionary or an alma- nac. Indeed we are all, in this respect, criminally deficient. Permit me here to make a direct, but respectful and affectionate appeal to the consciences of my audience, and ask, had you seen an Israelite approach, and address the oracle of Jehovah, in the same manner, and with the same feelings, with which you have too often perused the Scriptures, would you not have expected to see him, instead of receiving a gracious answer, struck dead by a flash of that fire which consumed Nadab and Abihu, the irreverent sons of Aaron ? My hearers, if we would consult the oracles of God in a manner acceptable to him, and beneficial, or even safe, to ourselves, we must practically remember the declaration which he made on that awful occasion; I will be sanctified in all that approach me; and the language of our hearts, when opening the sacred volume, must be, I will now hear what the Lord my God shall say ; speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Nor is sincerity less necessary than reverence to one, who would rightly consult the oracles of God. By sincerity is meant a real desire to know our duty, with a full determination to be- lieve and obey the answers we shall receive ; however contrary they may be to our natural inclinations, our favorite pursuits, or our preconceived opinions. How useless, how much worse than useless, it is to consult these oracles without such a dispo- sition, we may learn from a divine declaration, recorded in the book of Ezekiel. Some of the elders of Israel, it appears, vis- ited the prophet, professedly with a view to inquire of the Lord. But the only answer which they obtained was this; Are ye come to inquire of me ; As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by yon. He also informs us what were the reasons of this determination. These men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face; and should I be at all inquired of by them 7 He then proceeds to declare, that if any man, of any nation, shall presume to consult him with idols in his heart, he v/ill set his face against that man, and answer him according to the multitude of his idols. My hearers, if we consult the oracles of God with a view to draAv from them an answer, which shall gratify our sinful inclmations, or justify our questionable pur- T H E O 11 A C L E S O F G O I) . 25 suits and practices, or support our favorite prejudices, we do, in effect, come to inquire of the Lord with idols in our hearts, and can expect nothing but a corresponding answer. The same re- marlc is apphcable to every one, who consults the Scriptures, while he neglects known duties, or disobeys known commands. Such a man has idols in his heart; idols which he prefers to Jehovah ; and why should he be favored with any further an- swers, while he disregards those which he has already received? We may see these remarks exemplified in the history of Saul. He had been guilty, he was still guilty, of known disobedience; and therefore, when he inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not. To a similar cause, the ill success of many, who now consult the Scriptures, without deriving from them any advan- tage, is, doubtless, to be ascribed. There are others whose want of success in consulting the oracles of God is owing to their unbelief. As no food can nourish those, who do not partake of it ; as no medicines can prove salutary to those, who refuse to make use of them ; so no oracles can be serviceable to those, by whom they are not be- lieved with a cordial, practical, operative faith. It must ever be remembered that though the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, it is only through faith in Christ Jesus. To those, in whom this faith does not exist, wisdom is not im- parted. Finally, many persons derive no benefit from the oracles of God, because they attempt to consult them without prayer. But without prayer, though they may be read, they cannot, properly spdaking, be consulted. Consulting an oracle is an act, which, in its very nature, implies an acknowledgment of ignorance, and a petition for guidance, for instruction. It is the act of a blind man, extending his hand to an unseen guide, and request- ing his assistance. He, then, who reads the Scriptures without prayer, does not really consult them ; does not treat them as an oracle ; and, therefore, shall not find them such. It is to him, who first humbly speaks to God, that God will condescend to speak. It is to him, who, with the temper of a little child, and with a heart which receives the truth in the love of it, consults the oracle upon his knees, and prays over every response, that God will unlock all his hidden treasures of wisdom and knowl- edge. He who, in this manner, daily consults it, shall be 26 THEORACLESOFGOD. guided as safely, as an all- wise God can guide him ; and con- ducted to heaven as certainly, as there is a heaven ; for if he who walketh with wise men shall be wise, how much more shall he who walketh with God 7 Whatever else we neglect, then, let us not neglect the Scriptures. Whatever else we con- sult, let us not fail to consult the oracles of God. Should we be guilty of this negligence, the queen of the South will rise up in the judgment, and condemn us; for she came from the utter- most parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; but wisdom, infinitely greater than that of Solomon, is here. Nay, the heathen will rise up, and condemn us ; for they spared no labor or expense in consulting their worthless oracles; but we have the living oracles of the living God in our hands, and may at all times consult them, without expense, and without fatigue. Who, then, will be so much his own enemy as to neglect them? When the Infinite, the Allwise, the Almighty God, stooping from his eternal throne in the heavens, condescends to address us as a father ; to place before us a transcript of his mind and his heart; to converse with us familiarly, as a man talketh with his friend ; to narrate the history of his past works, and of past ages; and to reveal to us future scenes, and events; and when the information thus communicated, involves the fate of the world which we inhabit, our own eternal destiny, and that of our fellow creatures ; who can be so insensible, so sottish, so impious, as to refuse attention ! Whosoever hath ears to hear, let him hear. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah ! Listen, O listen, when thy Maker speaks. But to consult the oracles of God is not the only duty imposed by their possession. Another duty, which we are no less sacred- ly bound to perform, is to place them, so far as we have ability and opportunity, in the hands of our destitute fellow creatures. An opportunity of performing this duty is now presented you. The object of the Society, at whose instance we are assembled, is, to furnish a numerous, valuable, and too long neglected class of our fellow citizens, with the sacred oracles ; and to persuade them, if possible, to consult these oracles in such a manner, as shall insure their present moral and religious improvement, and their final salvation. In the prosecution of this object, the So- ciety need, and request, your countenance, your aid ; and they will not, we trust, request it in vain. By granting it, you may THE ORACLES OK GOD. 27 place in the hands of a fellow immortal, at once, all the truth, which the Father of Lights was employed, for many ages, in communicating to mankind. You may confer on him, at a very trifling expense, those sacred oracles, which, at the expense of numberless miracles, God conferred on his chosen, favored peo- ple, as the most valuable gift which his providential hand could bestow. You may confer a blessing more valuable than wealth, than liberty, than life itself All your other possessions, without the Bible, would be a gift, incomparably less precious than the Bible alone. By conferring this gift on mariners, we shall assist in discharging a debt of no trifling magnitude, which has already remained too long impaid. To mariners we are indebt- ed, under God, for a considerable portion of those very oracles, with which we are now requested to furnish mariners. That several of the writers of the New Testament, and a still greater number of the apostles, belonged to this class of society, you need not be informed. We are, also, deeply indebted to them in a temporal view. They have long acted a humble, indeed, but a most important part, in extending the boundaries of human knowledge, in aiding the progress and diff"using the blessings, of civilization, and thus promoting the general interests of mankind. To them our country is indebted for its discovery, and its set- tlement. To them this city, in common with all other commer- cial cities, is indebted for its prosperity. Their direct, or indirect agency has erected, decorated, and furnished your houses, re- plenished your stores, and increased your wealth and population to their present extent. Take away seamen, and where is commerce 7 Take away commerce, and where is the prosperity of this city? They are the hands which she extends to the east, and to the west, to grasp, and bring home to her bosom, the rich fruits of widely distant climes. To them we are all indebted for the various foreign productions, which conjpose so large a part of the conveniences, and even necessaries, of civil- ized life. You can visit no town, you can scarcely find a cottage, in our country, to the support and comfort of whose inhabitants, mariners have not contributed. It must not be forgotten that, in procuring for us these advan- tages, our seamen have placed at hazard, not only their lives, but their eternal interests. Of this fact, as well as of our obligations to this neglected part of the community, most of us 28 THE ORACLES OF GOD. have, probably, thought too Httle, and too hghtly. While enjoying, at our ease, the fruits of their perils and labors, we have too often failed to recollect, that the men who procured for us these enjoyments, did it at the expense, of cutting themselves off from most of the comforts of civilized, social, and domestic hfe; depriving themselves, in a great measure, of the religious institutions and privileges with which their countrymen are favored; throwing themselves into the midst of snares and temptations, and jeoparding all that is valuable, all that ought to be dear, to an immortal, accountable being, advancing to meet the retributions of eternity. We have not sufficiently adverted to the obvious fact, that the mariner, while pursuing the voyage of life, is almost inevitably exposed to rocks, v/hirl- pools, and quicksands, incomparably more dangerous, and more difficult to shun, than any which he is called to encounter in navigating the deep. A very little reflection will convince us, that, while he continues to be exposed to these dangers without any safeguard, foreign productions must be obtained at an ex- pense, infinitely transcending their value ; an expense which no finite mind can estimate, and which no benevolent mind can contemplate but with horror. Did we view this subject in the hght of revelation, and feel in view of it as we ought ; it may well be doubted, whether we could enjoy the productions thus obtained, or even consent to make use of them. When David thirsted for water from the well of Bethlehem, whence he had often drawn refreshment in his youthful days, and some of his soldiers, at the hazard of their lives, broke through an opposing army to procure for him a cup of this much desired water, he refused to drink of it, but poured it out before the Lord, exclaim- ing. Be it far from me that I should do this ; is it not the blood of the men, who went in jeopardy of their lives ! He felt that water, thus obtained, was too precious for a mortal's lips: too precious for any other use, than that of being offered to the Lord of life. And who will deny, that this was the language, that these were the genuine feelings, of a noble, benevolent. pious mind? Yet how often do we forget to exercise similar feelings, in similar circumstances? How often do we, without reflection, eat, and drink, and wear, the price of blood, the blood of the soul ! How deeply dyed with this blood are foreign pro- ductions, before they reach our hands ! How many of our fel- THE ORACLES OF GOD. 29 low immortals have sunk, not in the ocean merely, but in the ' gulf of perdition, that we might be gratified with the fruits of other climes ! My hearers, were there no other remedy for these tremendous evils, were they necessarily and inseparably connected with commerce, every one who possesses a particle of that spirit by which David was then animated, or of that con- cern for immortal beings which glowed in the bosom of the Son of David, would say, that commerce ought to be at once, an^ forever, abandoned. Every one who has the feelings, I will not say of a Christian, but of a man, would exclaim, " Better, infi- nitely better, that we should be confined to the productions of our own soil, than that so many of our fellow creatures, our countrymen, should be exposed to such imminent danger of moral and eternal ruin !" But we are not reduced to this alter- native. A remedy for the moral evils to which our mariners are exposed is already provided, and may easily be applied. Let them all be furnished with the oracles of God. Let those by whom they are employed, whose advice they will, probably, respect, say something to them of the value of these oracles, and of the infinite importance of consulting them aright. Let measures be taken for enabling them to enjoy the full benefit of our religious institutions, during the short periods of their resi- dence on shore. In a word, let them be convinced, that we regard them as immortal, accountable creatures ; that we feel a deep solicitude for their present and future happiness; that we are willing to do all in our power to secure it; and that we be- lieve it can be secured by no other means, than those which the Scriptures reveal. Is this requiring too much 7 I will not olfer such an insult to the understandings and the hearts of this assembly, as to indulge a suspicion that they are disposed to reply, " It is." Some of the largest commercial cities in our own, and in other countries, have already practically said, "It is not requiring too much." The members of this Marine Bible Society, and many others among your fellow citizens, have, in the same manner, made a similar reply. They have made the most laudable exertions to meliorate the moral condition of your seamen, and to furnish them with an antidote to those evils to which they are peculiarly exposed ; and nothing, but a more extensive and efficient co-operation on the part ■ of those who employ them, is wanting to render these exertions successful. 30 ^ THE ORACLES OF GOD. And is it possible that, in an age like the present, and in a city like this, such a co-operation should continue to be wanting? Is it considered as important that no vessel should be sent to sea, without some medicinal provision for the health of its crew 7 and is it not, at least, equally important, that every vessel should be furnished with the remedy, which God has provided for the moral diseases, to which seamen are particularly exposed? Self- in'ferest alone, were there no other motive, should prompt the careful performance of this duty ; for these diseases, when suf- fered to become inveterate, prove, not only fatal to the subjects of them, but injurious to their employers. It is impossible to estimate, with any approach to accuracy, the losses which com- mercial men have sustained, in consequence of the negligence, the unfaithfulness, and the intemperance of those, to whom their property, while on the ocean, was necessarily entrusted ; but no one, who has attended at all to the subject, can doubt, that these losses have been great. Nor will any unprejudiced person doubt, that many of them would have been prevented, had proper attention been always paid to the moral and religious improvement of seamen. There is, probably, no merchant, whatever his religious sentiments may be, who would not think his property more safe, in the care of such as revere and consult the oracles of God, than of those who do not possess, and, of course, cannot regard them. Permit me to proceed a step farther, and inquire, whether that God, who so often constrains men to read their sins in their pun- ishment, and employs the vices, which their negligence has fos- tered, to scourge them, may not have permitted the numerous and shocking piracies which have been recently perpetrated, with a view to chastise commercial nations, and rouse them from their criminal insensibility to the religious interests of seamen? What else could such nations expect, either from his justice, or from the manner in which they have long treated this neglected portion of the community ? They commit the mariner to the ocean at an early age, before his character is formed, or his principles established. Inexperienced, unarmed, unprepared for the assault, he is there assailed by temptations, which it would require the full vigor of mature, and deeply rooted, virtuous principle to resist. Day after day, and year after year, the as- sault is continued, without intermission, and in almost every THE ORACLES OF GOD 31 conceivable variety of form ; while no friendly hand is extended to aid, no cheering voice is employed to encourage him in main- taining the arduous conflict. Can we then wonder, that, sooner or later, he is overcome? And when he is once overcome, whence shall he derive any inducement, or encouragement, to resume the contest ? He has, indeed, a conscience, and, for a time, it will speak. But though this monitor may reproach him for his fall, she cannot assist him to rise ; she cannot even inform him where assistance may be obtained. The oracles of God would give him this information, but he has them not- Destitute of this guide, the reproaches of an accusing conscience serve only to torment him. They become too painful to be en- dured ; how shall he silence them 7 There is one way, a terrible, a desperate way indeed, but he knows no other. Example points it out to him, and urges him to follow it ; and he obeys. He flies to the intoxicating bowl, drowns his reason and his conscience together, and by degrees, become a beast, nay, an incarnate fiend. What is now to restrain him from crime, from piracy, from murder? What is to prevent the remainder of his wretched life from being spent in the perpetration of every out- rage, which excites the abhorrence of earth, and the indignation of heaven? Suppose it, (the supposition is, alas! too often realized,) to be thus spent. Death, which comes to all, must at length come to him. It may come as the messenger of public justice; or it may come in the form of what we call a casualty, and hurry him to the bar of his offended God, in a fit of intoxi- cation, or with a half uttered curse upon his lips. My hearers, this is no fiction. It is the real history of hundreds, probably of thousands ; of many, too, who commence the voyage of life, with prospects no less bright, with hopes no less sanguine than your own. And who, that has the feelings of a man, can contemplate unmoved, ruin like this? ruin so complete, so ter- rible, so hopeless ! My hearers, it is from such ruin, that we now implore you to assist in saving your fellow creatures, your countrymen. We entreat you to furnish them with that volume, which a most wise and merciful God has given to lost, bewil- dered, guilty man, for his oracle, his solace, and his guide. Say not, the gift will avail them nothing. Facts do not warrant this assertion. In proportion to the seed sown upon it, the ocean has yielded as rich a harvest as the land. 32. THEORACLESOFGOD. It would be easy to enlarge on this fruitful topic to a much greater extent. It would be easy to suggest a multitude of con- siderations, suited to convince the understanding, and to affect the heart. But we purposely omit them. Why should we occupy your time, and weary your patience, with arguments and motives urged by mortal lips, when we have before us an oracle, which, in a few impressive words, will inform us, at once, what we ought to do 1 To this oracle we refer the sea- man's cause. To its unerring decisions we appeal; and in this appeal, we doubt not, you will cordially unite. It is presumed that the only question, relative to this subject, which any indi- vidual present can wish to propose, is this ; Is it a duty incumbent on me, to aid in promoting the moral and religious improvement of seamen? We may consider this question as having been proposed in the silence of the heart, and He who reads the heart has given this answer : — If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest. Behold, I knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it 7 and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it ? and shall he not render to every man according to his works? Is not this answer sufficiently explicit? Is it not as perfectly applicable to the case before us, as if it had been originally uttered with an exclusive reference to seamen 7 Are they not "drawn" by powerful temptations, as by a thou- sand cords, to that second death from which there is no resurrection? Are not many of them "ready to be slain" by their vices? enemies which kill, not the body only, but the soul. And if we neglect to furnish them with the Scriptures, do we not "forbear" to attempt their deliverance? Should anyone still consider this answer as inapplicable, let him impute the error, not to the oracle, but to the erring lips which gave it utterance, and listen to another response : Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thy hand to do it, but, as thou hast opportunity, do good to all men. Can any tiling more be necessary? Surely, no one will insult Jehovah by asking, whether it is doing good to seamen, to place his word in their hands. Surely, no one can doubt whether, should He address us from heaven, he would command us to furnish them with the Scriptures. Some may. however, wish to inquire, whether the efforts, which are now making to pro- THEOKACLESOFGOD. 33 mote the religious interests of seamen, will be crowned with ultimate success. To their inquiries this is the answer : The abundance of the seas shall be converted unto the church of God ; the ships of Tarshish shall bring her sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, even as the waters cover the seas. My hearers, we shall add no more. When God speaks, it becomes man to be silent. VOL. III. 6 SERMON L. THE GOSPEL, GLAD TIDINGS. The glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to iny trust. — 1 Timothy i. 11, Among the numerous burning and shining lights which our blessed Saviour has, at different periods, placed in his golden candlesticks to enlighten the church, during the long and gloomy night of his absence from the world, perhaps none have burned brighter, with a flame more vehement, or with rays more clear, or shone with more constant, bright and unclouded lustre, than the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Of all whose characters have been transmitted to us, either in profane or sacred history, he appears to have made the nearest approaches to the Sun of righteousness, and, in consequence, to have felt most powerfully the attractive influence of his love ; to have imbibed most plen- tifully his enlightening, life-giving beams; to have reflected most perfectly his glorious image; and to have moved with the greatest velocity in the orbit of duty. His life affords a striking verification of our Saviour's remark, that to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. As his devotional feelings were peculiarly strong and lively, so is the language in which he expresses them. It seems to hold a kind of middle rank between that which is employed by other Christians, and that which will hereafter be poured forth by saints and angels before THE GOSPEI, ^ GLAD TIDINGS. 35 the throne. Thoughts that glow, and words that burn, are every where scattered through his pages. One instance of this, among many which will occur to every pious mind, we have in our text. Never, perhaps, since the gospel was first promulgated to a dying world, has it been more justly or happily described, than in this brief but glowing passage, in which the Apostio styles it — the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. I need not inform you that the word, gospel, literally signifies glad tidings. Substitute these words for the term made use of in our text, and you have, the glorious glad tidings of the blessed God. What other sounds,, like these, ever vibrated upon mortal ears 7 What other combination of words could be formed, so full of meaning, of energy, of life and rapture, as this? Who but the fervent Apostle, or rather, who but the Holy Spirit, by whom he was inspired, could ever have formed such a combination? And who does not wish to miderstand and feel the full import of these divinely inspired, enrapturing words ? Wiiat ear is not erect, wiiat mind does not expand, what heart does not open and dilate itself, to drink in, the glorious glad tidings of the blessed God, committed to a mortal's trust? Would to heaven, my friends, you could on this occasion hear the import of these tidings fully unfolded ; their infinite worth and importance clearly stated. But this you will never hear on earth ; for here we know but in part, and, of course, can prophesy but in part; but when that which is per- fect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away. Till that day of perfect light shall burst upon us, the day in which we shall know even as we are known, you must be content to see the inestimable treasure of the gospel dispensed from earthen vessels, dispensed in scanty measures, and too often debased by the impurities of the frail vessels which contain it. In attempting to dispense to you a portion of this treasure on the present occasion, I shall, in the first place, endeavor to show Avhat the gospel of Christ is, by illustrating the description given of it in our text. From this description we learn, I. That the gospel of Christ is "tidings." This is the most simple and proper conception we can form of it. It is not an abstract truth, it is not a merely speculativ^e proposition, it is not an abstruse system of philosophy or ethics, which reason might have discovered or formed; but it is simply tidings, a 36 THEGOSPEL, message, a report, as the prophet styles it, announcing to us im- portant intelhgence, intelligence of a connected succession of facts ; of facts which reason could never have discovered ; intel- ligence of what was devised in the coimsels of eternity for the re- demption of our ruined race, of what has since been done in time to effect it, and of what will be done hereafter for its full comple- tion when time shall be no more. It is true, that, in addition to these tidings, the gospel of Christ contains a system of doc- trines, of precepts and of motives ; but it is no less true, that all these doctrines, precepts and motives, are founded upon the facts, communicated by those tidings in which the gospel essentially consists ; and that to their connection with these facts, they owe all their influence and importance. Perfectly agreeable to this representation, is the account given us of the primitive preach- ers, and of their mode of preaching the gospel. They acted like men who felt that they were sent, not so much to dispute and argue, as to proclaim tidings, to bear testimony to facts. Their preaching is styled their testimony, and the very word which we render to preach, literally signifies to make procla- mation as a herald. Hence St. Paul speaks of the ministry which he had received to testify the gospel of the grace of God; and St John, referring to himself and his fellow apostles, says, we do testify that God sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. The gospel of Christ, then, essentially consists in tidings ; and to proclaim these tidings and testify their truth in connexion with the doctrines and precepts, of which they are the basis, and with the consequences of receiving and of reject- ing them, is to preach this gospel as it was originally preached. 2. The tidings Avhich constitute the gospel of Christ are glad tidings ; tidings which are designed and perfectly adapted to excite joy and gladness in all who receive them. That they are so, is abundantly evident from the nature of the intelligence which they communicate. They are tidings of an all-sutiicient Saviour for the self-destroyed, of an offended God reconciled, of pardon to the justly condemned, of sanctification to the pollu- ted, of honor and glory to the degraded, of deliverance to cap- tives, of freedom to slaves, of sight to the blind, of happiness to the wretched, of a forfeited heaven regained, of life, everlasting life to the dead. And must I prove tliat these are glad tidings? Does the sun shine 7 are circles round? is happiness desirable? GLADTIDINGS. <>' is pain disagreeable? And is it not equally evident, that the tidings wo are describing arc glad tidings of great joy. But it may in some cases be necessary to prove even self- evident truths. To the blind it may be necessary to prove that the sun shines. And in a spiritual sense we are blind. We need arguments to convince us, that the Sun of righteousness is a bright and glorious luminary; that the tidings of his rising upon a dark world are joyful tidings. Such arguments it is easy to adduce, arguments sufficient to produce conviction even in the blind. If you wish for such arguments, go and seek them among the heathen, who never heard of the gospel of Christ. There, see darkness covering the earth, and gross darkness the people. See those dark places of the earth, filled not only with the habitations, but with the temples of lust and cruelty. Enter into conversation with the inhabitants of those gloomy regions. Ask them who made the world ; they cannot tell. Who crea- ted themselves 7 they know not. Ask what God they worship, they will point to a plant or animal, a stock or a stone. Ask how the favor of these miserable deities is to be obtained ; their priests, their temples, their religious ceremonies with one voice reply, by the performance of rites indecent, cruel and absurd ; by tormenting our bodies, by sacrificing our children, by acts of brutish sensuality and diabolical cruelty. Ask them where happiness is to be foimd, they scarcely know its name. Ask for what purpose they were created, they are at a loss for a reply. They know neither whence they came, nor whither they are to go. View them in the night of affliction: No star of Bethle- hem, with mild lustre, cheers or softens its gloom. Yiew them on the bed of sickness: No kind hand administers to them the balm of Gilead ; there is no interpreter, no intercessor to say. Deliver them from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom. Contemplate them in their last agonies. No atoning blood speaks peace to their guilty conscience ; no gospel brings life and immortality to their view; no blessed Comforter points to an opening heaven ; no kind shepherd goes with them through the dark valley which leads to the dominions of death ; no Saviour appears to disrobe the monster of his terrors, or de- prive him of his fatal sting, but they are left to grapple with him unassisted and alone. If in this awful conflict they ever seem to display courage and fortitude, it is only the fortitude of 38 THEGOSPEL, insensibility and the courage of despair. In a word, they live without God, tliey die without hope, their situation is, in many respects, more wretched than that of the beasts that perish. Yet such, my hearers, would have been your situation, were it not for the gospel of Christ. Who, then, will say that the tidings which it communicates are not glad tidings of great joy 7 Are any still unconvinced? Do you demand stronger eviden- ces of this truth 7 You shall have them. Come with me to the garden of Eden. Look back to the hour which succeeded man's apostacy : Bee the golden chain, which bound man to God, sundered apparently forever, and this wretched world groaning under the weight of human guilt and of its Creator's curse, sink- ing down, far down, into a bottomless abyss of misery and despair. See that tremendous being who is a consuming fire, encircling it on every side, and wrapping it as it were in an at- mosphere of flame. Hear from his lips the tremendous sentence, Man has sinned, and man must die. See the king of terrors advancing, witli gigantic strides, to execute the awful sentence, spreading desolation through the vegetable, animal and rational kingdoms, and brandishing his resistless dart, in triumph over a prostrate world. See the grave expanding her marble jaws to receive whatever might fall before his wide wasting scythe, and hell beneath yawning dreadfully to engulf forever its guilty^ Iielpless, despairing victims. Such was the situation of our ruined race after the apostacy. There was nothing before every child of Adam, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. There was but one road through this world, but one gate that opened out of it, — the wide gate and the broad way that leads to destruction. My friends, endeavor to realize, if you can, the horrors of such a situation. I am aware that to do this is by no means easy. You have so long been accustomed to hear the tidings of salva- tion, that you can scarcely conceive of what would have been our situation, had no Saviour appeared. But endeavor, for a moment, to forget that you ever heard of Christ, or his gospel. View yourselves as immortal beings, hastening to eternity, with the curse of God's broken lav/, like a flaming sword pursuing you, death with his dart dipped in mortal poison awaiting you, a dark cloud fraught with the lightnings of divine vengeance GLADTI DINGS. 39 rolling over your heads, your feet standing in slippery places in darkness, and the bottomless pit beneath, expecting your fall. Then, when not only all hope, but all possibility of escape seem- ed taken away, suppose the flaming sword suddenly extinguish- ed, the sting of death extracted, the Sun of righteousness burst- ing forth, painting a rainbow upon the before threatening cloud, a golden ladder let down from the opening gates of heaven, while a choir of angels swiftly descending, exclaim, Behold, we bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people ; for unto you is born a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Would you, could you, while contemplating such a scene, and listening to the angelic message, doubt whether it communicated glad tid- ings? Would you not rather unite with them in exclaiming, Glad tidings, glad tidings, glory to God in the highest, that there is peace on earth and good will to men? If this be not sufficient, if you still doubt, go and contemplate the effect which these tidings have produced wherever they have been believed. We judge of the nature of a cause by the ef- fects which it produces, and, therefore, if the reception of the gospel has always occasioned joy and gladness, we may justly infer that it is glad tidings. And has it not done this? What supported our trembling first parents, when sinking under the weight of their Maker's curse, and contemplating with shudder- ing horrors the bottomless abyss into which they had plunged themselves and their wretched offspring? What enabled Enoch to walk with God? What cheered all the pious antediluvian patriarchs through their wearisome pilgrimage of several hun- dred years? What consoled them in affliction? what supported them in death? Nothing, I answer, nothing but the precious words in which the gospel was first promulgated to a ruined world: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. This line, this little line, in which the glad tidings are so briefly and obscurely revealed, contains, so far as we know, all the con- solation which the children of God enjoyed for almost two thous- and years. Here the well-spring of salvation was first opened to the view of mortals; here the waters of life, which now flow broad and deep as a river, first bubbled up in the sandy desert; and thousands now in heaven stooped and drank and live forev- er, tasting the joys of heaven on earth. The next intimation of the gospel was given to Abraham in the gracious promise. In 40 THEGOSPEL, thee and thy seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. This passage is little less brief and obscure than the other; but what effects did it produce upon the mind of the venerable pa- triarch? Let our Saviour inform us: — Abraham earnestly de- sired to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad. Yes the dis- tant view of a Saviour through the long vista of two thousand years, was sufficient to fill him with joy. What then would he have felt, had he seen what we see, and heard the tidings which we hear 7 had he seen that grain of mustard seed, which he contemplated with rapture, expanding into a tree of life; whose branches fill the earth, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations 1 Nor did the gospel, darkly as it was revealed, pro- duce less happy effects on the minds of other ancient believers. Witness the case of Job. See him for the trial of his faith, de- livered into the power of him whose tender mercies are cruel. See him stripped of all his possessions, deprived of his children by a sudden and violent death, ridiculed and tempted by his wife, denounced as a hypocrite by his friends, covered from head to foot with ulcers as raging and painful as hell could make them, and his soul transfixed by the arrows of the Almighty, the poison whereof drank up his spirits. See him even then, when heaven, earth and hell seemed combined against him, when all God's waves and billows went over him, rising above them all, fixing the eye of faith upon the promised Messiah, and with unbroken confidence triumphantly exclaiming, I know that my Redeemer liveth, — that he shall stand at the latter day up- on the earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. But on this part of my subject I cannot farther enlarge; for time would fail me to tell of David, of Isaiah, of Daniel, of Zechariah, and of the many other prophets, kings and righteous men, who desired to hear the tidings which we hear, and rejoiced in the anticipation of a Saviour's birth. Never did the psalmist pour forth such enrap- tured strains, never did he strike his harp with so much of a seraph's fire, never did the prophets employ such glowing language, as when, "rapt into future times," by the spirit of prophecy, they contemplated and endeavored to describe the advent of that Saviour, whose incarnation, life, death, resurrec- tion, ascension and triumph the gospel announces. Suffice it to say, that all the religious joy and consolation, which was tasted GLADTIDINGS. 41 in this world for four thousand years, flowed from prophetic intimations of a Saviour's birth. Yes, to this event every pious eye, during ail those years, looked forward, striving to catch a glimpse of it through the gloom of ages; to hear predictions of this event every pious ear was open. At length, those who waited for the consolation of Israel are gratified. The voice of a herald is heard, exclaiming, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. He who was emphatically the desire of all nations, appears, and the joy occasioned by the tidings of his birth is such, as we should expect from the joy which expecta- tion of his birth had excited. See the wise men of the East, rejoicing with exceeding great joy, when they saw the star which guided them to the feet of their new born Saviour. See the shepherds rejoicing and glorifying God, while they beheld him lying in a manger. Hear aged Simeon, while with stream- ing eyes and an overflowing heart he held the infant Saviour in his arms, exclaiming, Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Hear the acclamations of joy. of wonder, of praise, which followed his steps, wherever he went about doing good. Mingle with the throngs that sur- rounded him on his entrance into Jerusalem. Hear a prophetic voice exclaiming. Rejoice greatly, and shout. Oh daughter of Jerusalem, — for, behold, thy King cometh unto thee, just and having salvation. Hear the whole multitude, in obedience to this command, breaking forth into joy, and with a loud voice glorifying God, while even the children cry, Hosannah to the Son of David ! blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Follow the progress of his gospel through the world. See great joy in the city of Samaria, because Philip had preached Christ to them. See the Gentiles of Antioch glad, because they heard that to them this Saviour was to be preached. See a multitude of believers, in almost all ages of the world, rejoicing in an unseen Saviour with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then look up, and see heaven sympathizing in the joy of earth. See angels desiring to look into these things. Hear them exulting over every sinner that repents. Listen to the song of the redeemed : Now unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and dominion forever. Hear the eternal Father of the universe justifying all these expres- 42 THE GOSPEL, sions of joy by exclaiming, Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it; shout ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, forests, and every tree therein ; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. Then pause and say, whether the tidings which excite all this joy are not glad tidings? Have patriarchs and prophets been deceived'? Were the apostles and primitive Christians mad 7 Are the angels of light infatuated or blind ? Is the all- wise God in an error? Does he call upon all his creatures to rejoice, when no cause of joy exists 1 You must either assert this, or acknowledge that the gospel of Christ is glad tidings of great joy. 3. The gospel is not only glad tidings, but glorious glad tidings. That it is so, is asserted in other passages, as well as in our text. St. Paul, contrasting the gospel and the law, with a view to show the superiority of the former, observes that it the ministration of death was glorious, the ministration of the Spirit must be still more glorious; for if the ministration of con- demnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of right- eousness exceed in glory. Glory is the display of excellence, or perfection. That the gospel contains a grand display of the moral excellencies and perfections of Jehovah, will be denied by none, but the spiritually blind, who are ignorant of its nature. But to give only a general view of this grand display of God's character in a single discourse, or even in a volume, is impossi- ble. With less difficulty might we enclose the sun in a lantern. We shall not, therefore, attempt to describe a subject, which must forever be degraded, not only by the descriptions, but by the conceptions, I will not say of men, but of the highest arch- angel before the throne. On no page less ample than that of the eternal, all-infolding mind, which devised the gospel plan ot salvation, can its glories be displayed, nor by any inferior mind can they be fully comprehended. Suffice it to say, that here the moral character of Jehovah shines full-orbed and complete : here all the fulness of the God-head, all the insufferable splendors of Deity, burst at once upon our aching sight : here the manifold perfections of God, holiness and goodness, justice and mercy, truth and grace, majesty and condescension, hatred of sin and compassion for sinners, are harmoniously blended, like the parti- colored rays of solar light in one pure blaze of dazzling white- GLADTI DINGS. 43 ness. Here, rather than on any of his other works, he founds his claims to the highest admiration, gratitude and love of his creatures: — here is the work, whicli ever has called fortli, and which through eternity will continue to call forth the most rap- turous praises of the celestial choirs, and feed the ever glowing fires of devotion in their breasts; for the glory which shines in the gospel is the glory which illuminates heaven, and the Lamb that was slain is the light thereof. To the truth of these asser- tions, all will assent, who can say with the apostle, God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. If any doubt respecting the character of the gospel still exists in your minds, it must surely vanish when you recollect that it is, 4. The gospel of God, of the blessed God. It is composed of tidings, of which God is the author, tidings which God himself first proclaimed in the garden of Eden to our ruined progenitors, which angels afterwards caught from his lips, and which his Spirit has since dictated to inspired messengers. They are the tidings, not only of God, but of the blessed God ; of a being unutterably happy in himself, and disposed to communicate his happiness to creatures. They are the effulgence of the God of glory; they are the overflowings of the fountain of happiness; they proceed from Him in whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore. If then we may judge of the stream by the fountain, or of any work by its au- thor, who can doubt that the gospel is glorious glad tidings, since it is the tidings of the blessed God. What that is not glorious can proceed from the God of glory? What that is not calculated to give joy to all holy beings, can proceed from the God of happiness and peace? Having thus attempted to show what the gospel is, I proceed, II. To consider its human administration. It was committed, says the apostle, to my trust. But why 1 I answer, the gospel was no more designed to remain locked up in the breast of its author, than the rays of light were intended to remain in the body of the sun. That its glad tidings might produce their de- 44 THEGOSPEL, signed effect, it was necessary they should fly abroad, and be made known to mortals. But by whom should they be com- municated 7 The importance of the message seemed to require, that Jehovah himself, or at least the most exalted of his creatures, should be the messenger. But this, human weakness forbade. It is evident from facts recorded in the Scriptures, that whenever Jehovah has spoken to man, either in person, or by the ministry of his angels, his hearers have been dazzled, dismayed and overwhelmed. They did not retain sufficient self-possession to understand or even listen to his words. And though, when Christ appeared as the Son of man, in a state of humiliation, his hearers were not thus affected, yet since he has re-ascended to his native heaven, the glories in which he is arrayed are too insufierably bright for mortal eyes to behold; as is evident from the effects which his appearance produced upon the beloved disciple, St. John. In condescension to our weak- ness, therefore, God has been pleased to commit the gospel to individuals selected from our own ruined race; individuals, who, having experienced its life-giving and beatifying power, are prepared to recommend it to their perishing fellow sinners. Of these individuals, the first to whom it was committed were the apostles; it was committed to them as a proclamation is com- mitted by earthly princes to their heralds, not to be retained, but communicated. For a similar purpose, it is still committed to ministers of an inferior rank ; for he who gave apostles, prophets and evangelists for the work of the ministry, has also given pastors and teachers for the same glorious work. The only difference is, that they received their commission and instruc- tions immediately from Christ himself, while we receive ours through the medium of their writings. Christ was their Bible, and they are ours. But notwithstanding this difference, every real minister of Christ, at the present day, may with strict truth and propriety say, I also am an ambassador of Christ, and his gospel has been committed to my trust. If any deny this as- sertion, and demand proofs of its truth, it is sufficient to reply, that God acknowledges us to be his ambassadors, and stamps his seal upon our commission, by the effects which he produces through our instrumentality. The gospel of Christ, when faithfully dispensed by its ministers, still produces the same effects as were produced by it when uttered by himself and his GLADTIDINGS, 45 apostles. In our lips, as well as in theirs, it proves a savor of life unto life, to all that receive, and of death unto death to all who reject it. In oar lips, as well as in theirs, it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. To this proof of a divine commission, St. Paul himself appealed, when it was denied. Speaking to those who were converted by his ministry he says, the seals of my apostleship are ye in the Lord. Ye are our epistle of recommendation, known and read of all men ; forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistles of Christ, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God ; not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart. To similar proofs of a divine commission, every faithful minis- ter of the gospel may still appeal ; for, blessed be God, none of them are without such seals of their ministry ; such epistles of recommendation from Christ, who hath made them ministers of the New Testament, not merely of the letter which killeth, but of the Spirit which giveth life. The view which has been taken of the gospel of Christ, suggests many highly important and interesting remarks; but the time requires me to omit them, and to proceed to the cus- tomary addresses. My fathers and brethren in the ministry, is the gospel, which has been committed to our trust, the glorious glad tidings of the blessed God? How delightful, how honorable, then, is our employment, and how unspeakable are our obligations to him who has called us to it ; who has allowed us to be put in trust with the gospel; that gospel, which was first preached by him- self to our first parents in paradise; that gospel, which it has been the highest honor and happiness of prophets to predict, of apostles to preach, of martyrs to seal with their blood, and even of angels to announce and celebrate ! Only to be permitted to hear this gospel, is justly considered as a distinguished favor. What then must it be to preach it? Those who experience its power to save, who are allowed to taste the blessings which it imparts, feel as if a whole eternity would be merely suliicient to pay their mighty debt of gratitude to the Redeemer. What then ought we to feel, through whom that saving power is exerted; by whose instrumentality those blessings are conferred, and who, receiving mercy of the Lord to be faithful, are ena- bled to save not only ourselves, but them that hear us! Well 46 THEGOSPEL, may each of us say with the apostle, I thank my God, for thai he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Well m.ay we with him count not even our lives dear unto ourselves, that we may fulfil the ministry which has been committed to us, to tes- tify the gospel of the grace of God. And well may we exhort each other in his language : Seeing we have received this ministry, to famt not, but to be instant in season and out of season. Heathen writers inform us of a soldier, who, when sent out by his general with tidings of a victory, would not stop to extract a thorn which had deeply pierced his foot, until he had deliver- ed his message to the Senate. And shall we, then, when sent by Jehovah with such a message, a message the faithful deliv- ery of which involves his glory and the eternal happiness of our fellow creatures — shall we linger, shall we suffer any per- sonal inconveniences, any difficulties, any real or fancied dan- gers, to interrupt or retard us in the execution of our work? Shall we, with the true water of life, the true elixir of immor- tality in our possession, sutfer our own private concerns to divert us from presenting it to the dying, and forcing it into the lips of the dead? Shall we, with Aaron's censer in our hands, hesitate whether to rush between the living and the dead, when the an- ger of the Lord is kindled, when the plague has already begun its ravages, and thousands are falling at our right hand, and ten thousand at our left? Shall we wait till to-morrow to pre- sent the bread of life to the famished wretch, who, before to-morrow arrives, may expire for want of it? Surely if we can do this, if we can be so regardless of our obligations to God, and of our duty to man, the least punishment which we can expect, is to be debarred from that salvation which we neglected to afford to others, and to be made answerable for the blood of all the souls who, in consequence of this neglect, perished iu their sins. Let us then, my fathers and brethren, never forget, that the king's business requireth haste, and that who or what- ever stands still, we must not. Let the sun pause in his course, though half the world should be wrapped in frost and darkness by his delay ; let rivers stagnate in their channels, though an expecting nation should perish with thirst upon its flood-forsaken banks; let long-looked for showers stop in mid-air, though earth, with a thousand famished lips, invoke their descent; but let those who arc sent with the life-giving tidings of pardon, peace, G L A D T I D I N G S . 47 nnd salvation, to an expiring world, never pause, never look or wish for rest, till their Master's welcome voice shall call them from their field of labor to everlasting repose ; to that world where those, who, as burning or shining lights, have turned many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars, and as the brightness of the firmament forever and ever. A few words to the assembly, and I. have done. Is it true, my hearers, that the gospel, which you have often heard, is the glorious glad tidings of the blessed God ? Then in every one by whom it is truly believed, it will infallibly excite holy joy, admiration and praise ; for every report which is thus believed must produce effects corresponding to its nature and import. If you hear and believe mournful tidings, they will occasion grief If you hear and believe joyful tidings, they will no less certainly occasion joy. If you hear and believe an account of any glo- rious enterprise, or splendid act of liberality, it will call forth admiration and applause. If then you really believe the glorious glad tidings of God, you must and will rejoice, yon will admire and bless the Author. Has the gospel, then, produced these effects upon you ? Do you know what it is to be filled with joy and peace in believing? Can you, do you unite with the uihabitants of heaven, in ascribing to Christ ail that heaven can give? In a word, do you feel that the gospel is glorious glad tidings of great joy? and is it the language of your hearts, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift? If not, it is most certain that you never believed the gospel; for the npostle assures us, that it does work effectually in all that believe; and we have already seen that it has, in all ages, filled the hearts of believers with joy, and their lips with praise. And if you believe not the gospel, how awful is your responsibility, your criminality, and your danger ! In your view, the Sun of righteousness has no beams. You see nothing lovely in that Saviour, whom all good benigs, on earth and in heaven, love with the most ardent affection. Surely then you are wrong, or they are. Either they must be deceived, or you must be blind. In your breasts the most delightful tidings, that ever vibrated on mortal ears, excite no joy. To you the glorious gospel of the blessed God, that gospel which is the wisdom of God unto salvation, that gospel whence flows all the happiness that ever will be tasted by man, on earth or in heaven, and which will, 4SS THE GOSPEL, GLAD T I D I N G fe . through elerniiy, excite the admiration and the praises of angels, appears httle better than foolishness. In vain, as it respects yourselves, have prophets prophesied; in vain have apostles preached ; in vain have martyrs sealed the truth with their blood; in vain have angels descended from heaven with mes- sages of love ; in vain has the Son of God expired in agonies on the accursed tree ; in vain has the Holy Spirit been sent to strive with sinners ; in vain has a revelation of all these wonders been given. You still refuse to believe, and by your unbelief practically charge the God of truth with falsehood; for, says the apostle, he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he hath not believed the record which God gave of his Son. Unhappy men ! To you the awful words of the apostle apply, in all their force : If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. On you the dreadful sentence falls : He that believeth not, shall be condemned. Your character and doom are described in the declaration : He who believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. " Woe to the wi-etch, who never felt The inward pangs of pious grief; But adds to all his crying guilt The stubhorn sui of unbelief! " The law condemns the i-ebel dead ; Under the wrath of God he lies; lie seals the curse on his own head, And with a double vengeance dies." And will you die under the weight of this double vengeance? Will you go to the regions of despair, from a world, which has been moistened by a Saviour's atoning blood 7 from a world which has resounded with the glad tidings of pardon, peace, and salvation? O, do not, I beseech 3^ou in God's name, and for Christ's sake, do not be infatuated; do not madly reject the glad tidings. Once more I proclaim them in your ears. Once more I declare unto you, that it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken ! for unto you, to each one of you, is the word of this salvation sent. SERMON LI. THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. J ohn xx. 28. What think ye of Christ? is a question, which ought to be proposed to all who bear the Christian name, and to which eve- ry one should be ready to give a clear and explicit answer ; especially at the present day, when so many seem disposed to think wrong, or not to think at all, on this interesting subject Whether the perilous times, foretold by the apostle, have arrived, when men shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, I shall not undertake to determine ; but it must be evident to every one, that professed Christians enter- tain not only different, but contrary opinions, respecting the character of our blessed Saviour, and the object of his mission: and it is equally evident that, while we thus think differently on these subjects we cannot all think right. Some represent the Saviour as truly and essentially God; others consider him only as a creature, more or less highly exalted; while not a few reduce him to a mere weak and helpless mortal, whose death was intended, not to make an atonement for the sins of the world, but to attest the truth of his instructions, and afford an example of patience and resignation. VOL. HI. 7 50 THE DIVINITY OFCHRIST. Now it is, I think, abundantly evident, that of these opinions some must be essentially and fatally wrong. I am aware, in- deed, that some deny this, and contend that all may be essen- tially right, though they differ in some points of little conse- quence ; and that it is no matter what a man believes, provided he be sincere in his belief, and his external conduct be good. But the character of our Saviour is not one of these points of little consequence, concerning which men may differ in opinion, and yet be right in the main. On the contrary, it is the very sum and essence of the gospel scheme of salvation, and if we are not right on this point, we are right in nothing. The divinity and atonement of our Saviour, are truths of such momentous im- portance, that either they who assert, or those who deny them must be guilty of a damnable heresy, if there be any such thing. This will, I trust, appear evident, from a moment's consid- eration. If Christ be not truly and essentially God, ihen they who worship him as such, are guilty of gross and abominable idola- try, in giving that glory and honor to a creature, which is due to the Creator alone ; and how a gross idolater can be a good Christian, it is difficult to conceive. On the contrary, we are told that he who denieth the Son, denieth the Father also ; that he who believeth not the record which God gave of his Son, hath made him a liar ; and that he who doth not honor the Son, honoreth not the Father. Now if Christ be God, then those who deny it, deny God the Father ; they make him a liar, and they do not honor him as God ; and how they can do all this, and yet be Christians, it is not so easy to determine. You see, therefore, that the doctrine of our Saviour's divini- ty is not a mere speculative or metaphysical doctrine, which may be admitted or rejected without any ill consequences ; but it is a doctrine which involves consequences of the utmost im- portance, and of which either the opposers or the favorers must be essentially in the wrong. Nor is it any breach of charity to say this. Charity has nothing to do with doctrines. It does not require us to represent truth and falsehood as equally right, or to suppose that every road will condnct men to heaven, as well as the strait and nar- row path pointed out by onr Saviour. But it requires us to love and pity and pray for those whom we think to be wrong, that THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 51 God may bring them to the acknowledgement of the truth. It does not require us to think, that the hearts of all men are nat- urally good, when the word of God plainly asserts the contrary. It does not require us to think those to be right, who differ from us in opinion, for this would imply a belief that we are wrong; but it requires that we should by no means revile, despise, or persecute them on account of their erroneous opinions, but be equally ready to do kind offices to them, as to those who adopt our own sentiments. In a word, it requires us to separate the person from the fault, to hate the sin, while we love and pity the sinner ; to shun and condemn the ways of error, but be kind and friendly to those who stray therein. He who does this, and he alone, possesses that charity which the gospel requires. In the passage which has now been read, as the subject of this discourse, we find Thomas, one of the apostles, addressing our blessed Saviour as his Lord and his God. To justify those who follow his example in this respect, and to enable them to give a reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear, I shall endeavor to show, in the following discourse, that .Tesus Christ is truly Lord and God, as well as man; or, in other words, that he possessed a truly divine, as well as human na- ture. Since this is a subject altogether beyond the limited sphere of our rational powers, it would never have been discovered, nor can it now be proved, but by a revelation from God toman. To the revelation, therefore, which God has given us, must we resort for arguments, to prove the proposition we are considering ; and if we find it there revealed, we are bound to receive it, though it may be involved in mysteries which we cannot comprehend. Our first argument in favor of our Saviour's proper divinity, will be drawn from those passages which intimate or assert a plurality of persons in the Godhead ; of which there are several in the Old Testament. When God was about to create man we find him saying, Let us make man in our own image. When man fell, God said. The man is become as oneof ?^5. When he resolved to confound the builders of Babel, he said, Let us go down, etc. Now it is impossible satisfactorily to account for this mode of expression, without supposing that there are more per- sons than one in the Godhead, and this supposition is rendered highly probable by various other passages, which plainly imply 52 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. the same thing. In a great variety of instances throughout the Old Testament, the word which we render God in the singular, in the original is Gods. Thns, in Deuteronomy it is said, in' the original, the Lord our Gods is one Lord. In Kings, we find the people exclaiming, the Lord, he is Gods, the Lord, he is Gods. And so likewise in Job, Where is God my Makers, who giveth songs in the night. To mention only two other instances of tlie many which might be adduced, we find it written in the original, Isaiah 54, Thy Makers is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name, and thy Redeemers the Holy One of Israel, the Gods of the whole earth shall He be called. So, in like manner, in Ecclesiastes it is written, Remember thy Creators in the days of thy youth. This doctrine of a plurality of persons in the Godhead, being thus intimated in the Old Testament, is openly and clearly taught in the New. Among other proofs of this, we find the apostles commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. But surely, our Saviour never would have thus joined his own name with that of the Father, in this solemn manner, had he not himself been God. To which we may add, that had the Apostle considered Christ as a mere creature, he would not have united his name with that of God the Father, in the benediction with which he concludes some of his epis- tles. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be witli you all. Amen. To place this point beyond all doubt or controversy, however, the beloved disciple informs us, that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one; and though the opposers of our Saviour's divinity have endeavored to prove that this text is an interpolation, yet they have never succeeded ; and any one may perceive, by reading the chapter, that the sense would be in- complete without it. Our second argument in support of the doctrine of our Sa- viour's proper divinity, is drawn from his own conduct and declarations while here on earth. Those were such, that unless he was essentially God, he must be considered as an impostor and blaspliemcr. as the Jews represented him. Though he knew how exceedingly prone the Jews were to idolatry, and how many rea!?ons they had for worshipping him as God, yet he took no THEDIVINITYOFCHRIST. 53 pains to prevent it, but on the contrary, seemed to encourage it by every means in his power. Instead of saying like the ancient prophets, Tiius saith the Lord, he ever says, Thus 1 say, and hence he was said to teach as one having authority. Wiien the propliets performed miracles, they always did it in the name of God; the apostles wrought them in the name of Christ, but our Saviour always wrought them in his own name, and by his own power. Whether he raised the dead, or cast out a devil, or calmed the tempestuous waves, it was always done in the same Godlike manner. The prophets, the apostles, and even angels, never allowed themselves to be worshipped on any pretence whatever; but he not only allowed it once and again, but expressly taught, that all men ought to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father, that he was the Sou of God, and that he and his Father were one. Now, suppose all this done by a mere man, or by any created being ; suppose such a being teaching with authority; working miracles in his own name, Ibrgiviiig sins whenever he pleased, suffering himself to be worshipped and addressed by the titles Lord and God ; nay more, clanning to be one with the Father, and to be honored as he was honored; and then say, whether he could be considered as a very meek, hiunble, and submissive being; say whether you should not consider him an impostor and blasphemer? It is evident that the Jews wlio heard him call himself the Son of God, supposed that lie meant to claim divine honors, and for this very reason they were about once and again to stone him, because, as they said, he was guilty of blasphemy, and though he was only a man, made himself God. Now here was a fair opportunity to rectify their mistake, if such it was, and had he not meant to be understood as claim- ing divine honors, he would most certainly, have immediately undeceived them. He would have shrunk with horror from the idea of making himself God; and have told the .lews plainly and instantly, that he was not God, but only a man, or at most, a created being. I?ut instead of this, we find him still claimiiig equality with God, and at length snllcring himself to be crucified for this very thing, for this very charge of blasphemy, founded on his calling himself the Son of God, which he might so easily have explained to their satisfaction. We might insist longer on this part of our subject, did our time permit; but we can only request any unprejiuliced person, to read the history of our Sa- 54 DIVINITYOFCHRIST. viour's life, and if he does not feel an irresistible conviction, thai he meant to be considered as something more than a creature, we know not the meaning either of his words or actions. A third argument, in favor of our Saviour's divinity, may be drawn from those passages in which all the attributes and per- fections of Deity are ascribed to Christ. Thus for instance, is God eternal ; so is Christ. I, says he, am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, who was, and is, and is to come. He has neither beginning of days, nor end of life ; but his throne is forever and ever, and his years shall not fail. Is God self-existent? So is Christ. He, we are told, has life in himself, so that no one has power to take his life from him; but he laid it down of himself. I, says he, have power to lay down my life, and 1 have power to take it again. [s God unchangeable? So is Christ. Jesus Christ, says the apostle, is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Is God om- nipresent? So is Christ. Wheresoever, says he, two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst ol them ; Lo, I am with you al ways, says he to his apostles, to the end of the world. Is God omniscient? So is Christ. Lord, says Peter, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Before Philip called thee, said he to Nathaniel, while thou wert under the fig tree, I saw thee. Does God search the heart? So does Christ. He knew, we are told, v/hat was in man ; and once and again he perceived the thoughts, both of his enemies and friends. Is God omnipotent? So is Christ; for I, says he, am the Almighty. Is God infinite in wisdom? Christ is the only wise God our Saviour. In a word, there is no attri- bute or perfection ascribed to God, v/hich is not in like maimer ascribed to Christ. Fourthly : The works and offices of Christ prove his divinity, since none but God, could do what he has done and must do. As he himself declares, whatsoever things the Father doth, these doeth the Son likewise. Did God make all things for himself? The apostle informs us, that by Christ the world was made; that he in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and that the heavens are the work of his hands. By him, we are also told, were all things created that are in heaven and in the earth, whether visible or invisible, all things were created, not only by him but for him; so that without him there was not any thing D I VINITY OF CHR 1ST . 55 made which was made. Does God preserve and overrule the world he has made? Christ, we are told, upholds all things by the word of his power; and in him all things subsist. Is it the prerogative of God alone to forgive sins? Christ forgave sins not only once, but often in his own name. Does God raise up and quicken the dead; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. Does God act the part of a father, a lawgiver, a shepherd, and a protector to his people? Christ is all this to his church. Does God reveal himself as the only Saviour? Christ is the Saviour of lost men. Is God the judge of the whole earth? Christ is the judge of quick and dead, who will one day judge the world. In a word, Christ is the Creator, Upholder, Gover- nor, Saviour, and Judge of the world, and consequently he must be God. Who but God could call all things out of noth- ing by the breath of his mouth, and uphold them by the mere word of his power? Who but God is capable of undertaking the great work of man's redemption? A creature, be he ever so exalted, owes all that he is to his Maker, and when he has done and suffered all in his power, he is still an unprofitable servant, and has done no more than it was his duty to do. Consequently he can perform no works of supererogation. He can do nothing to save others. The most he can hope for, is to save himself. Who but God is capable of acting the part of head to his church, and a shepherd to his people, scattered as they are over so many different parts of the world? Who bat he could listen to so many different prayers, as are daily and hourly offered up be- fore him, and send to each an answer of peace, — succoring the tempted, comforting the distressed, supporting the weak, reclaim- ing the backslider, enlightening the benighted mind, and caus- ing all things to work together for the good of his people? Who but God is capable of sustaining the character, and performing the office of the Judge of quick and dead? Who but the only wise and omniscient Jehovah, who sees the end from the begin- ning, could justly and accurately sum up the guilt of each indi- vidual, in such a manner as to assign to all their just recompense of reward? The being who could do this, must be intimately acquainted with the character, life and disposition of every one of the human race ; he must know precisely what advantages were enjoyed; what helps and what hindrances, what warnings and what temptations, fell to the lot of each one before him. 56 DIVINITYOF CHRIST. He must know, not only every thought, word and action, but the prmciples from which they proceeded, the motives which induced them, the time, manner and other circumstances by which they were attended, and the effects which they sooner or 'ater produced. Let any one pursue tliis chain of thought in his mind, and consider what is required to constitute a suitable judge of an assembled world, and instead of thinking that any being, less than divine, could sustain this office, he will wonder how even God himself can perform what it requires. Again: Another argument in favor of the divinity of Christ, may be drawn from the worship which was, is, and will be paid him. In our text, and in various other instances, we find him worshipped by men, and we have already observed that God requires all men to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. We find the devils also worshipping him, and deprecatiug his wrath in the humblest manner: Jesus, thou Son of God, Most High, we beseech thee that thou torment us not. Nor is this confined to men and devils ; for even the blessed angels them- selves, not only did, but do, and will continue to worship him. When God bringeth his first begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him. The apostle tells us, that to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess him Lord, unto the praise and glory of the Father. In the vision, with which the beloved disciple was favored, of the heavenly world, he saw in the midst of the throne of God, and of the four living creatures, and of the elders, a Lamb as it had been slain, and this Lamb was equally with God the object of their worship and adoration. The four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders, we are told, fell down before the Lamb, casting their crowns at his feet; and the apostle beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, crying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and wisdom, and riches, and glory, and honor, and blessing ; and every creature which is in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, heard 1, saying. Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him who sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. Now, who is this, that thus sits in the midst of the throne of God, and is worshipped equally with him by all the holy armies DIVINITYOFCHlllST- B7 of heaven? If you remember the solemn declaration of God, lam the Lord, that is my name, and my praise will I not give to another, you must suppose that he to whom the Father thus commits the glory of creating, governing, redeeming and judging the world, and of sharing with him the throne and the praises of lieaven, must be God himself; he must be co-equal and co- eternal with the Father. Meanwhile, if there be any who are condemned, as guilty of idolatry, for worshipping and honoring the Son even as they honor the Father, let them comfort them- selves with the rellection, that they are doing no more than is daily and hourly done in heaven, and no more than the rest of the children of God will do to all eternity. Lastly : That Christ is God. is implicitly and expressly assert- ed in very many passages, both in the Old and New Testament. The Psalmist informs us, that the Israelites tempted the Most High God in the wilderness ; but St. Paul, treating of the same subject, says, they tempted Christ. Christ, therefore, is the most high God. In our text, we find Thomas calling him, My Lord and my God ; and the elders of Ephesus are charged to feed the flock of God, which he purchased with his own blood. St. Paul speaks of Christ, as God manifest in the flesh; as God over all, blessed forever, and as the only wise God our Saviour. In the epistle to the Hebrews, as if he foresaw that the time would come, wlien Christ would be considered as chief of the angels, he asks, To which of the angels said God at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? Of his angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers aflame of fire. But, mark the diflerence; unto the Son he saith. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. To the same purpose the beloved dis- ciple declare?^, that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life; and that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And lest we should have any doubt who was intended by the Word, he adds, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. These high char- acters and titles of our Saviour, are perfectly agreeable to the prophecies which foretold his coming into the world. He shall be called, says one of the prophets, Immanuel, which is to say, God with us. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name VOL. in. 8 58 DIVINITYOF CHRIST. shall be called Wonderful, Couiisellorj the mighty God, the ever- lasting Father, the Prince of peace ; and of the increase of his government there shall be no end. But perhaps some will protend, that the word God is here used in an inferior sense, and that Jehovah, which the Jews called the incommunicable name of God, is never applied to our Saviour. In answer to this, it may be said, that the prophet, speaking of Christ, says, and His name shall be called Jehovah, our Righteousness. In the prophecy of Zechariah, Jehovah is introduced as saying, They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and mourn. If it be Jehovah who was pierced, then, beyond all controversy, Christ is Jehovah. So, in the same prophecy, Awake O sword, against the man who is my fellow, saith Jehovah. Now who is the man, where is the man, who can be the fellow, or as it might be rendered, the equal of Jehovah? Surely, it can be none but He, who was God and man united, even the man Christ Jesus. Once more; the prophet Isaiah tells us, that he saw in vision Jehovah, sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and surrounded by seraphims, who cried, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, and the whole earth is full of his glory. Yet St. John expressly assures us that it was Christ whom Isaiah then saw ; consequently, Christ must be Jehovah sabaoth, or the Lord of Hosts. Now, collect together what has been said, and say whether the doctrine of our Sa- viour's proper divinity, could possibly have been more clearly taught in the word of God, than it is; whether it can now be expressed, in more full, forcible, intelligible terms, than it is ex- pressed by the inspired writers. We may challenge any person who denies this doctrine, to tell how it could be asserted in plainer terms, or to find language more definite than has now been quoted from the sacred volume. But perhaps you will be ready to ask, Since this great truth is so plainly taught in the word of God, how is it possible that it should ever be called in question? and how do those who op- pose it support their cause? This is a very natural question, and to it we reply, that our Saviour's divinity never was called in question, for want of sufficient proof, but for want of a dispo- sition to submit to sufficient proof It was called in question, because we ignorant worms of the dust cannot understand it, and because our proud reason will not submit to believe God D I V I N I T Y O F C H R I S T . 69 himself, unless what he reveals is perfectly intelligible to our comprehension. It was called in question, because it is a maxim with the self-styled philosophers of the present day, that there should be no mysteries in religion, though the Apostle himself tells us, that, beyond all controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. If you ask what argu- ments can be brought against it by its opposers, I answer, they object, 1. That if Christ be God, there will be more than one supreme being, which is absurd ; and that we make three Gods, to be one God, which is a contradiction. But this objection is founded upon a mistake. It supposes that we make three Gods, instead of three persons in one God. No one ever pretended that three persons were one person, or that three Gods were one God, but that three persons are one God. This is indeed above reason, but it is not contrary to reason ; and if any one wishes to have it explained and understood, his wishes shall be gratified, when he vvill explain and understand God's eternity, his omniscience, his omnipresence, and his creative power; or even when he can explain how his own soul acts upon, and moves his body. If any one will meditate on these subjects, he will soon find they are as mysterious and unintelligible as the doctrine of three persons in one God. The truth is, every thing that respects God's existence, is and must be mysterious to finite creatures, because he is an infinite being, and as well might an insect hope to take in the universe at one glance of his eye, as we to com- prehend the manner of God's existence; and should any one pretend to give us a revelation of God, which contained no mysteries, but was perfectly plain to our limited capacities, it would be a sufficient reason for rejecting it; for if we cannot comprehend ourselves, much less can we hope to comprehend God. But, 2. All the numerous passages, which assert that Christ was a man, are also marshalled in array to prove that he was not God, while in reality they are nothing to the purpose, — for those who assert that he was God, allow that he was also man in the strictest sense of the word. They believe that he was God manifest in the flesh, and that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The same may be said of those passages which are so triumphantly quoted in opposition to the doctrine 60 DIVINITY OF CHRIST. of our text, in which Christ-declares, that he was inferior to his Father, that he knew not the period fixed for the day of judg- ment, that without his Father he could do nothing, and many others to the same purpose. We fully believe all this: We believe that, considered as the Son of man, as Mediator, he was inferior to the Father, and knew not the times appointed; but we also believe, with the apostle, that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God, and that in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The truth is, that all the pretended argu- ments, which are usually alleged to disprove our Saviour's divinity, prove just nothing at all, or at least nothing to the purpose. They only prove, what all allow, that Christ, in one sense, was a man and inferior to the Father. Indeed, in one sense they rather prove, that he was a divine person ; as for in- stance, where he says, The Father is greater than I. Now suppose any being but God to say this; suppose a man, an angel, or a super-angelic being saying, God is greater than I, — and consider how absurd such a speech would appear. Now of the things we have spoken, this is the sum. There are plain intimations in the Old, and positive assertions in the New Testament, that there is more than one person in the God- head, co-equal and co-eternal. When Christ came on earth, he gave great reason to suppose that he claimed divine honors as one of these persons ; and for this claim he was put to death without renouncing it. He was worshipped, both on earth and in heaven, by angels, men and devils, and all the attributes, perfections, names, and works of God, are ascribed to him, at least as often as they are to the Father. If this does not prove him' to be truly and essentially God, nothing can prove it. Con- sider then what has been said, and the Lord give us understand- ing in all things. I close with a brief application. Let none imagine that they truly believe in Christ, merely because they profess to believe that Christ is God : for even the devils themselves believed this, and trembled at the belief. It is one thing to assent to this with our understanding, and another to consent to it with our wills, and embrace it in our hearts. The apostle informs us, that no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. It is evident he did not mean by this, that none could say these words, — Jesus is Lord, — without divine assistance. But he meant that no one could cordially consent DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 61 to, and embrace the proposition contained in these words, with- out being enhghtened by the divine Spirit. He meant that no one could sa'y from the heart, that Jesus is God, without being divinely taught. Consequently it is evident, that those who deny that .Tesus is Lord, have not the Holy Ghost. Tiiey are not led by tiie Spirit of God, and therefore are not Ills children. They have not the spirit of Christ, and therefore are none of Ins, and the same must be said of those, who have only a specula- tive belief of this truth. It is not only a rational, but a cordial conviction, which is necessary; it is not with the head, says the apostle, but with the heart, that man believeth unto righteous- ness. Now every true Christian has tliis cordial belief He has had such a sight and sense of his own guilty, lost condition, that he sees and feels, that nothing short of an infinite, almighty Saviour will suffice to save him; he feels that he cannot trust to any creature however exalted ; he cannot put confidence in an arm of flesh ; he cannot trust in any thing less than God. And by the enlightening influences of the divine Spirit, he is made to see that Christ is God, that he is an almighty and all-sufficient Saviour, just such a Saviour as his perishing soul requires. Then, and not till then, he can say, Jesus is Lord : then he can believe and trust in him for salvation ; then he can say with the apostle, I know in whom 1 have believed, and that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day. On the contrary, he who never has been truly convinced of sin, who has never seen the guilt he has contracted, and the de- pravity of his nature, feels no need of an almighty Saviour: he has never been enabled to see the glory of God in the face ot Jesus Christ; he has never believed in him so as to rejoice with joy unspeakable; and consequently he cannot say from the heart, that Jesus is Lord. Not being able to say this, he cannot have that true faith, which works by love. Not having faith, he cannot perform any good works acceptable to God ; for \vith- out failh it is impossible to please God; and not being able to please God, he cannot be accepted of him. If then, my friends, you would perform truly good works; if you would have true justifying faith, by which you may serve God acceptably; if you would be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, let it bo your chief concern to obtain such conceptions of his character as shall lead you cordially to say with Thomas, My Lord and my God! SERMON LII. TITLES OF CHRIST. Unto us a child is born ; unto us a son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsel- lor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of tlie increase of his government and peace thei'e shall be no end. Isaiah ix. 6, 7. • In the preceding context the prophet, "rapt into future times " by the spirit of prophecy, and influenced by that faith which is the evidence of things not seen, not only foretells the incarnation of Christ, but speaks of that glorious event and of its happy consequences, as having already taken place: Tlie people that walked in darkness, says he, have seen a great light. They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. They joy before thee according to the joy of harvest; they rejoice as when they divide the spoil. But whence did all this light and joy proceed? I answer; the Sun of righteousness had arisen upon them with healing in his beams; for, says the prophet, unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. That the wonderful child, whose birth is announced and celebrated in these triumphant strains, was no other than Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, it is needless to remark. And as this is the day which has been considered by many, as the anniversary of his birth, it may not be nnproper to employ the time allotted to this discourse, T I T L E S O F C H R 1 S T . 63* in meditating on an event, which is no less interesting to us, than it was to the ancient church, for unto us, as well as to them, this child is born; unto us, as well as to them, this son is given. It may however be necessary, to remind you, that, if you wish to derive the smallest advantage from meditating on this passage, you must be in the exercise of a strong, and lively faith. You must sit at the feet of God, with the temper of a little child, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to savd your souls ; remembering that your minds are blinded and prej- udiced against the truth, by the influence of sin; and, that what appears impossible to you, is possible with God; that what is, in your view, an absurd and unintelligible mystery, may be, in his sight, perfectly plain and intelligible. In a word, you must have the temper which the wise men of the east, the shepherds of Bethlehem, and the aged Simeon possessed. They were told, that Christ the Lord, the king of the Jews, the Saviour of men, was born; and when they hastened to see him, they found noth- ing but a helpless infant, born of obscure and indigent parents, and lying in a manger. Yet instead of making cavils and objections, as their own prejudiced understandings would have led them to do, they believed and worshipped. Such is the wonderful power of faith. Thus does it triumph over every obstacle, and implicitly receive the word of God, however strange and incomprehensible it may appear. My friends, we warn you before hand, that if you do not exercise this faith, the present discourse will do you no good. You will say, it is impossible that a child born of a woman, can be prop- erly called the mighty God, the everlasting Father. Thus the Saviour who is precious to them that believe, will be to you a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, as he was to the un- believing Jews ; and his gospel, which is to them that are saved, the power of God, and the wisdom of God unto salvation, will appear in your view nothing but foolishness. O then, my hearers, if you wish to be saved, if you would not have the preaching of the cross prove a savor of death unto death, if you wish to profit by the glorious truths revealed in our text, pray fervently that God will increase your faith ; and if you find unbelief pre- vailing, cry to God hke the Jewish ruler, Lord, we would believe, help thou oiu' unbelief This being premised, let us now proceed to consider the names 64 TITLESOFCHllIST. and titles of this wonderful cliild, whose birth is foretoid in our text; whose birth Christians in different parts of the world, this day celebrate, 1. Our text informs us that this child shall be called Won- derful. In the book of Judges, we read that, wlien Manoah inquired the name of an angel of the Lord who appeared to him, the angel replied, why dost thou ask after my name, seeing it is secret? The word there rendered secret, is the same which is here rendered wonderful. It was doubtless the Eternal Word, who is frequently called the Angel of the Covenant, that appear- ed ou that occasion. The name which is here given him, signifies secret, mysterious, wonderful; and in each of these senses, it may properly be ascribed to Christ. He may be called secret, hidden, unknown; for we are told that no one knoweth the Son, save the Father. He may be called mysterious; for without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. Even the angels are represented as desiring to look into it. He may also justly be called wonderful; for his person, his character, his office, his birth, his life, his death and resur- rection, are all full of wonders. His person is wonderful ; for he is Immanuel, God with us, and in him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily. His character is wonderful; for it com- prises every thing that is excellent in the divine and human natures. His love is wonderful: for it passes knowledge. The riches of his grace are wonderful; for they are represented as being unsearchable. His birth is wonderful ; for what can be more astonishing than that the eternal Word, who was with God, and who was God, and by whom all things were made, should be born of a woman, a weak and helpless infant. His hfe is wonderful ; for it shews us God dwelling in flesh as a man; it shews us the great Lawgiver obeying his own laws; it shews us one who was in outward appearance, nothing but a poor, des- pised mechanic, controlling the laws ofnatnre, commanding the elements as his servants, banishing demons with a v/ill, a word, and forcing death and the grave to yield up their prey. His death was wonderful ; for we there see the Lord of life and glory, dying by the hands of his creatures; we see the Giver of the law, bearing the curse of the law; we sec the most innocent and perfect of beings, the delight of heaven and the ruler of T 1 T I, K .s O F CHRIST. 65 earth, treated both by heaven and earth, as the vilest of male- factors. His resm'rection was wonderful ; for what can be more so, than to see a dead person, having power to take his Ufe again, bursting the fetters of death and the bars of the grave, ascending from the depths of the tomb, to the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. These are but a part of the wonders which accompanied this wonderful child, but tliey are surely sufficient to show the propriety of the name given him in our text. 2. In the next place, we are told that the name of this child shall be called Counsellor. This name is also with strict pro- priety given to Christ. He is a counsellor, with respect both to God and to men. In the first place, he is a counsellor with respect to God. He is called the word and the wisdom of God; and with him the Father takes sweet counsel in reference to all his works. He consulted him with respect to the work of crea- tion. Let us make man says he, in our image, after our likeness. He consulteth him respecting his works of providence. Let us drive out the man from the garden of Eden; let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. He consulted him respecting the great work of grace, the plan of redemption. Speaking of the man whose name is the Branch, the prophet says. The comisel of peace shall be between them both; that is, between this man and Jehovah. Thus clearly does it appear, Christ our Immanuel is Jehovah's Counsellor. Hence we find him saying, counsel is mine, and sound wisdom, I am understanding, I have strength. Hence also the apostle informs us, that in him are hidden all the treas- ures of wisdom and knowledge. In the second place, Christ is a counsellor with respect to men. He is the great teacher, guide and counsellor of his people; the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness. He that believeth in me, says he, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Ught of life ; for I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known ; I will make darkness light, and crooked thmgs straight, before them; these things will I do, and not forsake them. He is also the great Advocate of his people, who pleads their cause for them in the court of heaven, and intercedes continually for the pardon of their sins, and the supply of their temporal and spiritual VOL. 111. 9 66 TITLESOFCHRIST. necessities ; for, says the apostle, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. 3. The prophet informs us that the child whose birth he predicts, shall be called the Mighty God. On this awful name, my hearers, it is needless to insist. You are already acquainted with its import. It represents Christ, not only as God, but the mighty God. We shall only add a few of the passages which show that the prediction was fulfilled, that this name was given to Christ. St. John informs us, that the word was with God, and was God; that Christ is the true God and eternal life. Thomas, one of the disciples, calls him, my Lord, and my God. St. Paul, speaking of the Jews, says, of them as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. He also informs us that he is mighty, or able to save, even to the uttermost. Whether therefore you believe or not, that Christ is the mighty God, you must allow that he is called so, by divine- ly inspired prophets and apostles, who were commissioned to communicate to ns every thing necessary to make us wise unto salvation, and who neither would, nor could deceive us. What- ever others may choose to think of Christ, to Christians he is the mighty God, and hereafter, when every eye beholds him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, they will joyfully cry, while others weep and despair, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us ; we Avill be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly. 4. This wonderful child shall be called the Everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity. Here again human reason will be ready to cry, we have already had enough, and more than enough of absurdity and contradictions. How can a child just born, be a Father, or everlasting Father, the Father of eternity? My friends, if you cannot answer this question, I suspect you would have been equally embarrassed with the question which our Saviour proposed to the Pharisees : How can David's son, be David's Lord? This question they could not answer; nor can any answer it, at the present day, in a satisfactory manner, Avho do not believe that Jesus Christ was God and man united. But those who believe this, can answer it with ease. They can reply, as God, Christ was David's Lord. As man, he was Da- vid's son. In another place Christ says, I am the root and the TITLESOFCHRIST. 67 offspring, or branch of David ; the root whence David sprung and the branch which sprung from David. So in our text. As man, he was a child born; as God, he was the Father of eternity. But tliere is still another, and very important sense, in which he may be called the everlasting Father, with reference to his divinity and humanity united. He, we are told, is the second Adam ; that is, he is the covenant Lord and the spiritual Father of all his people, as Adam was the covenant Lord and natural Father of the human race. All the true people of Christ, the real subjects of the kingdom of heaven, have been born again ; born into another family, and are heirs of a heavenly inheritance. Of this new birth Christ is the author, and therefore he is in a spiritual sense the Father, the ever living Father of the whole church in heaven and on earth. Hence the apostle represents him as the author or Father of eternal salvation. In the counsel, or purpose of God, he was from eternity the Father of his peo- ple; for he is represented as saying to them, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have 1 drawn thee. And as his love and his relation to his people were from everlasting, so they will continue to everlasting. With the utmost propriety, therefore, may he who was born of a woman, be called the everlasting Father. 5. The last title here given to this mysterious child, is the Prince of Peace. That our Saviour is a prince or king, the Scriptures every where inform us. Why he is called the Prinee of Peace, it is easy to conceive. He is the author of reconcilia- tion, and consequently of peace, between an offended God, and offending man. His kingdom, as established in the heart, con- sists in righteousness, and peace, and holy joy. His atoning blood speaks peace to the guilty, terrified conscience. He dispenses peace to his people in a sovereign way ; his commands enjoin perfect peace and love between man and man, and his religion restores peace and rest to the tumultuous, agitated, dis- tracted soul, by uniting its jarring powers and faculties to fear his name. Well, therefore, may he be called the Prince of Peace. Having thus briefly considered the names and titles of this wondrous child, we proceed to consider, n. For whom he was born. My friends, it was for mankind, for us. l^nto ns this child is born, unto us this Son is given. 68 TITLESOFCHRIST. It has been observed, that when angels announced his birth to men, they said. Unto you is born a Saviour. But when prophets, when men speak of this event, they say unto us a child is born ; for Christ took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Unto us also a Son is given. A Son of whom '] His birth shows him to be the Son of man. His titles, which we have already considered, and his works declare him to be the Son of God. He was both; and he was given to us both by his Father and by himself God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. In the fulness of time, God .sent forth his Son, made of a woman. Christ loved us and gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Nor was he given to us only that he might suffer and die for our redemption ; for the apostle farther observes, that God gave him to be head over all things unto his church. This leads us to consider a 3. Prerogative, which is predicted in our text respecting this child, viz. that the government shall be upon his shoulder. In the Revelation the church is figuratively represented under the similitude of a woman, and this woman is represented as bringing forth a man child, who should rule all nations with a rod of iron. The same may be said of the child whose birth is foretold in our text. All power is committed to him in heaven and on earth; and God's language respecting him is, I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion. I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel. The establishment and unbounded extent of this kingdom, are clearly predicted, and described in the prophecy of Daniel. In the days of these kings, says he, the God of heaven shall set up a king- dom, which shall never be destroyed; but it shall break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Ot this kingdom, our Saviour, who was born as a child and given us as a son, is appointed Sovereign, and hence he is styled the King of Kings, and the Lord of lords. This kingdom, which is usually styled Christ's mediatorial kingdom, includes all be- ings in heaven and hell, who will all, either willingly or by constraint, finally submit to Christ; for God has sworn by him- TITLESOFCHKIST. 69 self, that to Christ every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth; and thai every tongue shall confess him Lord. Agreeably, we see that even the devils were subject to him while on earth, and even to his disciples, through his name, and that they were constrained, once and again, to prostrate themselves before him, and to confess that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. In a similar manner will all wicked men and wicked spirits be compelled reluctantly to prostrate themselves before him, and confess him Lord at the judgment day; for we are told, that he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. Agreeably, our text informs us, that of the increase of his government there will be no end. He will go on conquering and to conquer, overturning heathen temples with their idol gods, until the trumpet of the seventh angel sounds. Then the mystery of God will be finished, and great voices will be heard in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. But in addition to this mediatorial kingdom of Christ, v/hich is set up in the world, he has another kingdom, the kingdom of his grace, which is set up in the hearts of his people. Here Christ reigns supreme, enthroned in the soul, casting down proud imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of himself This kingdom consists in right- eousness and peace and holy joy, and of the increase of this kingdom also, and of the peace which accompanies it, there shall be no end. This kingdom is compared to leaven hid in meal till the whole be leavened. Thus effectually and imper- ceptibly, shall the gracious power of Christ work in the hearts of his people, till the whole soul feels its influence, and is trans- formed into the image of Christ; for he will perfect that which concerneth us ; he will not leave unfinished the work of his own hands. Their peace shall be as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea. Even in heaven there shall be no end to the increase of their happiness; but their perpetually expanding souls shall be made capable through eternity of receiving larger and larger measures of glory and felicity, and shall be contin- ually filled by Him in whom dv/ells all the fulness of the God- head. Thus of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. 70 TITLESOFCHRIST. Application, Is it true, that unto our sinful race a child is born, to whom belong the wonderful names mentioned in our text, and to whom the salvation and the government of the world is committed ? Surely then, my friends, it becomes us to rejoice, and to commemorate this all-important event with the most lively emotions of thankfulness and praise. In this offering all mankind are called upon to join, since the gift is to the whole race of men ; for all people, and nations, and tongues, and languages, may cry. Unto us a child is born ; unto us a sou is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God. the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the in- crease of his government and peace there shall be no end. And the song commenced in one part of the earth at the dawn of this day, ought to be echoed round the world as the same day dawns successively on its different climes. Even the blessed spirits of the just made perfect in heaven, may be considered as rejoicing in the birth of the great Deliverer, who redeemed them from worse than Egyptian bondage, brought them into the glorious light and liberty of the children of God, and finally raised them to the blissful mansions which they now inhabit, and where the increase of their happiness will never end. Nay more, the blessed angels themselves, who sang glory to God in the highest, when they announced the Saviour's birth, may be considered as repeating the same song. Let it give intensity to our joy, that we may now celebrate his birth and his resurrection at once. And are there any in whose breasts these great events excite no joy ; any who feel no interest in those things which excite, justly excite so deep an interest in all holy beings in heaven and on earth ? Are there any who, instead of receiving with adoring wonder the great mysteries of Godliness, which we have been considering, regard them with indifference, or reject them as foolish 1 How plain is it they are entirely destitute of the tem- per of saints and angels ; that they have never embraced Christ as their Saviour, and that they have neither part nor lot in his salvation. They cannot say. Unto us a child is born ; unto us a son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the in- crease of his government and peace there shall be no end ; for TITLESOFCHRIST. 71 they reject him. My friends, is this the case witii any of you'? Consider a moment your awful situation. That Saviour who is precious to others, has in your eyes no beauty that you should desire him. He who is to others the author of eternal salvation, is to you only a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; a savor of death unto death, and not of life unto life. Will you still remain in this awful situation 1 If not, be persuaded to accept the Saviour without delay. Remember that in order to make a gift your own, two things are necessary. It must first be offered. It must next be accepted. Unless it is accepted, il is not yours. Unless you accept Christ therefore, you have no Saviour, no Advocate in heaven. Come then, accept him as he is offered. Admire him as Wonderful ; consult him as Coun- sellor ; adore him as God ; be born of him as your everlasting Father ; and submit to him as the Prince of Peace. Possessed of all these titles, he offers himself to you, and in return lie asks only for your heart. Come then, sinner, be persuaded to accept him. As on the birth-day of your friends, you present them gifts as tokens of your affection, so come now, on this birth -day of the Saviour, and present yourself to him, who is ready and anxious to become your almighty, everlasting friend, in return for your submission, love and gratitude. This is the gift he most desires, this is the only return he asks for his bound- less and innumerable mercies. Come then at this propitious moment, present yourself unto him, accept him as your Re- deemer, and then you shall be of the number of those who can say, Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. SERMON LIII. CHRIST'S JOY IN THE CHURCH BEFORE HIS INCARNATION. Rejoicing in the habitable pai-ts of the eaith, and my delights were with the sous of men. — Proverbs viii. 31. This chapter contains an authoritative and aflfectionate ad- dress to mankind, uttered by a speaker who is called Wisdom. It is evident from the language of this speaker, and from the description which he gives of himself, that he is a real, and not an allegorical personage: "I love them," he says, "that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me ; but pride, and arrogancy, and tlie evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was. When Jehovah prepared the heavens I was there ; when he set a compass upon the face of the abyss ; when he established the clouds above ; when he appointed the founda- tions of the earth ; then was I by him as one brought up with him, audi was daily his delight, rejoicing alv/ays before him; rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." « No attentive reader of the New Testament need be reminded how strikingly this language corresponds with what is revealed respecting the Word, who was in the beginning Avith God ; who is in the bosom of the Father ; of whom the Father said, this is chkist's joy in the church, etc. 73 my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, and who was made flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. Expositors are therefore doubtless right in saying, as they generally have done, that it is the eternal Word, or the divine nature of Christ, who speaks in this chapter, in the character of Wisdom. In the passage selected for our text, this divine per- sonage gives us an interesting account of his feelings and em- ployments previous to his appearance in the flesh : I was con- tinually rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. This, my hearers, is a very remarkable passage. Our Saviour, the eternal Word, in- forms us, that, as soon as the world was made, the habitable parts of it, or the parts inhabited by men, became the scene and subject of his rejoicing ; and that his delights (the expression is emphatical, denoting his chief delight) were with the sons of men. But had he not a heaven in which he might rejoice? Had he not myriads of holy angels in whose society and praises he might delight 1 He had ; and yet it appears that he rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, rather than in heaven ; that his chief delights were with men, rather than angels. This, surely, is not a little surprising ; and what renders it more so, is, that he knew the world in which he thus rejoiced would be wet with his tears, and stained with his blood. He knew that the fallen race in which he thus delighted, were ene- mies to his Father and to himself; and that they would requite his love with the basest ingratitude, put him to a cruel and igno- minious death, and persecute his friends with fire and sword. Why then should he rejoice in our earth, and delight in its hu- man inhabitants 7 It could not be simply because he created them, for he also created heaven and the angelic spirits. It could not be on accoimt of man's intellectual worth and digni- ty; for in those respects the angels are greatly our superiors. Still less can we ascribe it to any moral excellence possessed by men ; for, as has already been observed, they are fallen, sinful creatures. We must, therefore, look elsewhere for the reasons of the feelings and conduct here described ; and we shall find them in the plan of redemption. In the world, that plan was to be executed, and men were the objects of it. This, generally speaking, was the reason why the eternal 74 CHRIST SJOY IN THE CHURCH, Word rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and why his chief deUghts were with the sons of men. To be more jjartic- ular. He rejoiced in the world, rather than in heaven, I. Because it was destined to be the place in which he should perform the most wonderful of his works, obtain the greatest victory, make the most glorious display of his moral perfections, especially of his love, which is the essence of them all ; and in the most signal manner glorify his Father. All this he was to do, all this he since has done, in eflfecting the work of redemp- lion. We know but little of the work which he has performed in heaven. We know still less of what he may have done in the numberless worlds which appear around us. But we may ven- ture to assert that, whatever he may have done in heaven, or in other parts of the universe, he has never performed any work so great, so wonderful, so glorious to the Father and himself, and so productive of happiness, as the work of redemption. We are warranted to make this assertion by the declaration of Jehovah, who represents the work of redeeming love, as, of all his works, the most wonderful. We are warranted to make it by the fact that the blessed angels, who must be supposed to know what works he has performed, regard this as the most glorious of all his works, as the work into which they espec- ially desire to look, and which is the most worthy of their admi- ration. It is the work which in a peculiar manner calls forth the praises of heaven. It is the performance of this work which, in the view of the inhabitants of heaven, renders the Lamb who was slain peculiarly worthy to receive blessing, and glory, and honor, and power. Well, then, might our divine Redeemer rejoice in the world where the greatest of his works was to be performed. He had from eternity rejoiced in the plan of it, and in contemplating its execution. Still more, were it possible, would he rejoice to see the world which was to be the scene of its performance, start from nothing into existence ; to see preparation then making for the great work, and to mark the several parts of the earth in which the principal events connected with it would take place. II. Our divine Redeemer rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, because they were the destined residence of his then future BEFORE HIS INCARNATION. 76 church. Christ loved the church, says an apostle, and gave himself for it. He gave himself for it because he loved it ; loved it before it had a being. He calls the things which are not, we are told, as though they were. He could love the church before it was created, no less easily then than he can love it now. Agreeably, he says to it, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, that is with a love that has existed from eternity ; therefore with loving kindness will I gather thee. In consequence of this everlasting love to his church, he re- joiced in the world which was to be its residence, while prepar- ing for heaven, rejoiced to visit it, as we are pleased to visit the habitations of our children or friends. For this reason he rejoiced in all the habitable parts of the earth ; for they are all destined to be filled with his disciples. Every where churches are to be established. And to his omniscient eye, which saw the end from the beginning, every habitable spot on earth was made to appear interesting by some event connected with his church, of which it was to be the scene. As he walked invisi- bly through the world, immediately after its creation, he would say : Here the first martyr will seal the cause of truth with his blood. From this spot, Enoch, and from that, Elijah, shall be translated to heaven. Here Abraham shall pitch his tent, and build his altar, and rejoice in my gracious visits. There I will conduct my people through the wilderness ; on that mount I will appear, to give them my law ; at its foot, I Avill meet my servant Moses, and converse with him, face to face, as a maa talketh with his friend. And while he thus marked the future scenes of all the great events in the history of his church, innumerable other places would be rendered pleasing to him by the foresight of less important, indeed, but still highly interesting events. Here, he might say, some trembling penitent will begin to find relief in prayer. There, I will first reveal myself to some broken-hearted sinner, and listen to the joyful praises and thanksgivings which he will in consequence pour forth. On this spot, one of my ministering servants shall preach my gos- pel with power and success ; and on that, a temple shall rise, where many shall be taught to know and love me ; where a numerous church shall be trained up for heaven, where I will often meet and commune with them at my table. In this part of the world, also, though destined to remain 76 Christ's joy in the church, long uninhabited, and destitute of the gospel, he rejoiced. He saw all the temples which now adorn our land, all tlie churches which he here established. Nor did this house of God, or this church escape his notice. He knew of whom it would be said, this man was born to glory there. He saw this day, saw you, my Christian friends, listening to these truths, and meeting around his table ; entered every spot where you or any of his people would reside ; where habitations would be erected, in which prayer would be offered up in his name. He not only saw all his churches that now exist, but all that will exist here- after. He saw the Ethiopian stretch out his hands to God, and the isles waiting for his law. He saw the Jews coming in with the fulness of the Gentiles ; he saw the whole earth filled with the glory of God, as the waters fill the sea. All this he saw, for he enabled his prophets to predict it. And while he saw this, he heard all the prayers and praises which would be uttered by his people, in all ages and parts of the world, so that the whole earth, immediately after its creation, while all wat; solitary and still, resounded to his ear with praises, thanksgivings, and songs of joy. Is it then strange, that, seeing and hearing this, he should rejoice in the habitable parts of the earth, even more than in heaven; in heaven, which, if I may venture to say it, would appear comparatively empty, till his beloved people were brought in to share it with him. in. While our divine Redeemer thus rejoiced in our world, rather than in heaven, his chief delights and pleasures were with men, rather than with angels. They were so, 1. Because he intended, in the fulness of time, to assume our nature, and become himself a man. He is called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world ; because before the world was created, it was determined and foreseen that he should be slain. For the same reason, he may be said to have been a man, before the foundation of the world ; because it was determined that he should become so ; that he should be made flesh and dwell among us. In consequence of this, he felt, if I may so express it, related to man; felt that he was their bro- ther, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, — feelings which he could not, with equal reason, exercise towards angels. A heathen writer represents one as saying, I am a man, and there- fore cannot but feel interested in any thing which relates to man. BEFORE HIS INCAU NATION. 17 2. To great numbers of our race the divine Redeemer was destined to become still more nearly related. They had even then been given to him by his Father, and were appointed to compose his church, to be united to him in the most intimate and indissoluble of relations; for the church is styled his body, a body of which he was the constituted head, of which his Spirit is the animating soul. Hence the apostle, speaking of Christ, says, we are members of Christ's body, of his flesh and of his bones ; and he loves and cherishes the church, even as a man loveth and cherisheth his own flesh. The union between Christ and his church is to be eternal. Its members are destin- ed to share heaven with him, to live and reign with him for ever and ever. All this he knew from the beginning. He knew also that his church would, in process of time, return his love ; that all its members would love and praise him through eternity, as their deliverer from everlasting death, and the source of all their felicity. Hence he felt himself drawn to them by a most powerful attraction, and hence his chief delights were with the race from which his church was to be selected, and among which some of its members were in all ages to be found. 3. Another reason why his chief delights were with the sons of men, may be found in the disposition which prompted him to say, It is more blessed to give than to receive. In heaven, he could receive the praises of angels, but on earth he could give gifts to men. He could here exercise pardoning merc}^, and dispense spiritual blessings to his people. This he began to do at least as early as the time of Abel, and he continued to do it until the period of his resurrection. During all that time he ■was delightedly employed in instructing, protecting, and bles- sing the church which he was afterwards to purchase with his blood; and in making preparation for his visible appearance on earth. It was the Spirit of Christ, as St. Peter informs us, which inspired Noah to preach to the inhabitants of the old world, and the prophets to foretell his own incarnation, death and resurrection. From a comparison between different parts of the Scriptures, it appears that it was he who appeared to the patriarchs who commissioned Moses, who led Israel through the wilderness, who dwelt in the J'^wish temple, who said of Zion, This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, because I have desired it. We 78 Christ's joy in the church, need not wonder, then, that one who feels more happiness in giving than in receiving, should delight in visiting the sons of men, whom he could thus pardon and bless, and save, rather than in dwelling with angels, who needed no pardon or salva- tion ; or that he should rejoice more over one sinner that repent- eth. than over many of the inhabitants of heaven who needed no repentance. It would be easy to enlarge on these and vari- ours other considerations of a similar nature ; but leaving you to do this in your private meditation, I proceed to make some im- provement of the subject. And, first: How ungrateful and inexcusable does the treat- ment which Christ has received from men appear, when viewed in the light of this subject. He chose our world in preference to all the worlds around us, to be the scene of the most glorious of his works, and our race to be the subjects of it. No sooner was the earth formed, than he rejoiced in it, and chose to dwell in it rather than in heaven. No sooner were men created than he made it his supreme delight to visit and bless them, prefer- ring their society to that of the holy angels. When part of the angels sinned and fell, he did not assume their nature, or offer himself a sacrifice for their salvation. He took not on him, says the apostle, the nature of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham. Yet when, after the lapse of four thousand years, this friend of man, this divine philanthropist assumed our nature, and visited the world which he had loved, in human flesh, how was he treated? He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but it acknowledged him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Poverty, contempt, the crown of thorns, and the cross, were all which he received from the world in which he had so long rejoiced, from the ungrateful race in whom he had so long delighted. And we. my friends, though we condemn his murderers, treat him little better. We disbelieve him, disobey him, slight him, refuse to comply with his invitations, neglect his offered mercy and grace, and grieve him in a thousand different ways. Even in the house of his friends he is often wounded and crucified afresh. Surely those of our race who finally reject such a Saviour, will be as much distinguished by the severity of their punishment, as they have been by the greatness of their privileges and mercies. BEFORE HIS INCARNATION. 79 Again: Uid our Saviour, before his incarnation, rejoice in the liabitable parts of our earth, and dehgiit in visiting and blessing the sons of men ] Then we may be certain that he still does so ; for he is, yesterday, to-day, and forever, the same. Still he prefers earth to heaven ; still his chief delights are with the sons of men ; and while, as man, he intercedes for them in heaven, he still, as God, visits our world, to meet with and bless his people ; for his language is, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them to bless them. I will come to every one that loves me and take up my abode with him. I am he that walketh in the midst of the churches. And while he thus addresses his people, he says to sinners. Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. My hearers, shall we not all return, and love and serve this condescending, long tried, and unalterable friend, who has for so many ages rejoiced, who still rejoices in our world, and de- lights in doing us good 7 Shall we any more grieve and offend him by our neglect, or by indulging those shis which caused his death? Shall not we, my christian friends, who expect to meet him at his table, yield ourselves wholly up to him without reserve, subdued by his all-conquering love, and constrained by his grace to live henceforth, not unto ourselves, but to him who has so long loved us, who died for us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood] Surely, if he rejoices in our world the whole world ought to rejoice in him; if his dehghts are with the sons of men, surely the sons of men ought all to place their happiness in being with him. Lastly: How great, how inconceivable will be our Saviour's happiness, after the final consummation of all things ! Then the plan for which our world was formed, will be completed. Then every member of his church, for the sake of which he loved and visited our race, will have been brought home to heaven, to be with him where he is ; and if he loved and rejoic- ed and delighted in them before they knew and loved him, how will he love and rejoice in them, when he sees them surrounding his throne, perfectly resembling himself, in body and soul, loving him with unutterable love, contemplating him with ineffable so ClIHIS'r's JOY IN THE CHURCH, ETC. delight, and praising birn as their deUverer from sin, and death, and hell, as the author of all their everlasting glory and felic- ity. Then, O blessed, animating thought ! tl*en he will be amply rewarded for all his suiferings, and for all his love to our ruined race. Then his people shall cease to grieve and offend him ; then they will no longer degrade him by weak, confused, inadequate conceptions of his person, character and work ; for then they shall see {?s they are seen, and know as they are known. Then the whole church shall be presented to him a glorious church, without spot, or blemish, or imperfection, and shall be as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and as a royal diadem in the hand of our God. Then, O Zion, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Then thy sun shall no more go down, nor thy moon withdraw itself: but the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, and thy God thy glory: and the days of thy mourning, and of thy Saviour's sufferings shall be ended. SERMON LIV. CHRIST'S PRIESTLY OFFICE. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum; We have such an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices ; wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. — Hebrews viii. 1 — 3. An apostle informs us, that the Levitical law, with its taber- nacle, its priesthood, its altars, and its sacrifices, was a shadow of good things to come ; but that the body, or substance of which they were a shadow, was Christ. In other words, they resem- bled Christ, just as a shadow resembles the body which projects it. They exhibited a kind of outline of his person, character, offices and work. This truth is stated and illustrated at con- siderable length in the preceding chapters. In our text th6 apostle gives a brief summary of his statements respecting it : Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum : We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; a minister of the sanctu- ary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacri- fices; wherefore it is necessary that this man have somewhat also to offer. That we may understand the import of this passage, it is necessary to recollect, that the three principal things under the Mosaic dispensation, were the tabernacle, the priests, and the VOL. Ill, II 82 Christ's priestly office. sacrifices. On these every thing else depended. Take away these and nothing valuable was left. Now in our text the apostle intimates, that each of these three things was a type of Christ ; or that he is to his people, under the Christian dispen- sation, what the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the sacrifices were to the Jews. He is our tabernacle, our high priest, and our atoning sacrifice. Each of these assertions we propose to illustrate. 1. Jesus Christ is the Christian's tabernacle, or he is to his people, what the tabernacle was to the Jews. The true taber- nacle, of which the apostle here speaks, and which he informs us the Lord pitched, and not man, was the body, or human nature of Christ. The Jewish tabernacle, was pitched by men. But the body of Christ was prepared by God. He says himself to his Father, A body hast thou prepared me. And he said to the Jews, during his residence on earth, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. But, adds the in- spired penman, he spoke of the temple of his body. Now the temple, as you are doubtless aware, was of the same nature, and designed to answer the same purposes as the tabernacle, and differed from it only in being more permanent and substantial. Calling his body the temple, was therefore the same as calling it the tabernacle. By calling his body, the true tabernacle, the apostle intimates that the Jewish tabernacle was not the true one, but only a shadow or type of it. That he gives it this ap- pellation with perfect propriety, a moment's reflection will con- vince us. The Jewish tabernacle was the only place on earth where God dwelt in a peculiar manner ; the only place where he was accessible ; the only place where he could be found ; the only place where he could be approached on a mercy-seat ; the only place where he answered the inquiries of his worshippers ; the only place where offerings could be acceptably presented him. Hence the pious Jews, whenever they prayed, turned their faces towards the tabernacle, and afterwards towards the tem- ple; and they addressed their prayers to Jehovah, as to him that dwelt between the cherubim, that is the cherubim which overshadowed the mercy-seat in the most holy place. Now in all these respects the tabernacle was a type of Christ. In all these respects, his body or human nature is the true taber- nacle. In him alone God dwells; for in him dwelleth all the CHRISTS PRIESTLY OFFICE. JSS fulness of the Godhead bodily. God can be found, he can be approached acceptably, nowhere else ; for through Jesus Christ, says an apostle, we have access to the Father, and in him alone are we accepted. As the tabernacle was the appointed meeting- place between God and the Jews, so Jesus Christ is the appointed meeting-place between God and sinners now. As the mercy- seat was in the tabernacle, so, an apostle informs us, Christ is set forth or exhibited as a mercy-seat through faith in his blood. They, and they only who come to God in Christ, will find him on a mercy-seat, or, in other words, find him ready to show mercy. There is salvation, says an apostle, and of course there is mercy, in no other. And as from the tabernacle, God com- municated his will, so he now communicates it through Jesus Christ. He is the only true light. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and through him alone are they dispensed to mortals. As the Jews, when they prayed, turned their faces towards the tabernacle, so we are directed to pray in the name of Jesus Christ, looking to him by faith; and as Jehovah was then addressed, as one who dwelt between the Cherubim, so he is now to be addressed as the God who dwells in Christ. In fine, the substance of the gospel is, that God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself Well then may Jesus Christ, or his human nature, be called the true tabernacle. 2. Jesus Christ is the Christian's High Priest ; or he is all that to his people which the Levitical priests were to the Jews. This is repeated again and again in the epistle before us. Now the office of the Jewish high priest is thus described by the apostle: Every high priest is ordained for men in things per- taining to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sin. Accordingly we find that this service was assigned exclusively to the Jewish priests. They were, in an inferior sense, a kind of mediator between God and his worshippers. They only were allowed to approach him, and to offer up sacrifices. No other man, however holy or highly exalted, not even the most pious of the Jewish kings, was allowed to offer his own sacrifice, or to enter the sanctuary. Uzziah, in other respects a most exem- plary monarch, was struck with leprosy, for only attempting to do it. Especially was it the work of the high priest to make an atonement for the sins of the nation once in a year, by offering up a sacrifice and carrying the blood into the most holy place. 84 Christ's priestly office. and there sprinkling it before God. And not only the sin olfer- ings, but all other olFerings, were to be made by the priest alone. If one who had received any providential mercies brought a thank-offering to God, he was on no pretence allowed to present it himself, but the priest received it at his hand, carried it into the sanctuary and there presented it before the mercy-seat, to him who dwelt upon it. In all these respects, the Jewish priests were most strikingly types of Christ, and he is, as the apostle styles him, the great High Priest of our profession. He is the one great Mediator between God and sinful men, and there is no access to God, either for our persons, our services, or our prayers, but through him, nor can they be accepted unless offered up by him. I, says he, am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me. Hence an apostle informs us, that the spiritual sacrifices which Christians offer up, are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ; and another apostle exhorts us, whatever we do, in word, or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to the Father by him. It is also his work and prerogative alone to make atonement for sin. The Jewish high priest made a typical atonement for the sins of the Jews only; but Christ, says an apostle, is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. And as the Jewish high priest, after offering a sacrifice for atonement, went into the most holy place, in behalf of the nation, and as their representative, so Christ, as the apostle informs us, has entered, not into holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for his people. And as at the hour of prayer the Jewish high priest offered up incense in the sanctuary, while the people stood praying without, that their prayers, and the smoke of the incense, might ascend together, so St. John in vision, saw Christ as the great angel of the New Covenant, offer- ing up the prayers of all saints with much incense. It is owing to his merits and intercession alone, that the prayers of his peo- ple are accepted and answered; and he ever liveth to make in- tercession for them. The word " such" in our text refers to a previous description of what was necessary to qualify one for the office or work of our high priest. Such a high priest, says the apostle in the context, became us, or was necessary for us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and Christ's priestly office. 8B made higher than the heavens. And such a high priest we have, one who is perfectly holy in heart, harmless in his conduct, and undefiled or laispoited by the pollutions of the world, and who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high. It appears, then, that every service which the Levitical priests typically -performed for the Jews, Jesus Christ really performs for his people. Well then may he be styled and re- garded as our great High Priest. 3. Jesus Christ is the true sacrifice of which the Jewish sacrifices were only types. This is intimated in that clause of our text which says, it was necessary that he also should have somewhat to offer. What he had to offer, what he did offer, we are informed in the context, as well as in many other places. He ofiered up himself, his body his blood, his life. He was, says an apostle, sacrificed, or offered up as a sacrifice, for us. On the nature and design of the Levitical sacrifices, and the benefits which the Jews derived from them, we have often dwelt, and with them you are, we presume, acquainted. You are aware, that as the apostle remarks, all things were under the law purified with blood, the blood of the sacrifices, and that without shedding of blood, there was no remission of sin. If an Israelite was betrayed into any sin in consequence of which his life was forfeited to the divine law, he was permitted to bring a lamb as a substitute to die in his stead; and if he brought it in the exercise of repentance and faith, to be ofiered up by the priests, it was accepted, he was forgiven, and his life spared. And it was by carrying the blood of the sacrifice into the holy place, and then sprinkling it before God, that atonement was invariably made for the sins of the nation. These sacrifices were however only typical; they had no efficacy in themselves to atone for sin. They owed all their efficacy to their reference or relation to the great, meritorious, and efficacious sacrifice which was made by Christ, when he offered up himself on the cross. By this offering, he made a real, and not a typical atone- ment for sin. In consequence of this offering, every penitent believer, is freely and fully forgiven. He is justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. And as the blood of the sacrifice was presented and sprinkled before God in the most holy place, so Christ, says the apostle, not with the blood of bulls and of goats, but with 86 Christ's priestly office. his own blood, entered in once into the holy place, or into heaven, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hence in allusion to the Jewish sacrifices, his blood is called the blood of sprink- ling. Thus it appears that Jesus Christ is the true tabernacle, the true priest, and the true sacrifice of which the Jewish tabernacle, priests, and sacrifices were only types, and that as such he pro- cures for his people really all those blessings which these insti- tutions procured in a typical manner only for the Jews. I shall now proceed to make some improvement of these in- teresting and instructive truths. 1. From these truths, those who are tempted to despise or ridi- cule the Jewish rites and ceremonies, or to regard them as un- worthy of divine appointment, may learn their error. Many, there is reason to fear, are guilty of this irreverence, and even some serious persons consider the whole Levitical law, as a very uninteresting portion of the Scriptures. But if any think it such it is owing solely to their own ignorance. The fact is, that this part of the Scriptures is full of Christ; and if properly under- stood, will assist greatly in obtaining a right understanding of his gospel, and of the way of salvation by him. Of this no one can doubt, who attends to the use which St. Paul makes of it m this epistle. And permit me here to beseech you all, my hearers, for your own sakes, not to despise any part of Scrip- ture, because you do not understand it, or perceive its use. Surely reverence, humility, modesty, require us rather to sus- pect ourselves, than to censure the all- wise God. An apostle mentions some persons, who like natural brute beasts, made only to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things which they un- derstand not, that they shall utterly perish in their own corrup- tion. If we would avoid their doom, let us beware how we imitate their conduct. 2. This subject furnishes one proof of the divine origin, and consequently, truth of the Scriptures, and it shows us how exactly the Old Testament and the New correspond. The Old Testament teaches by types and shadows, what the New more clearly reveals; yet the men who wrote them, lived many cen- turies apart. Must not the writers of the Old Testament then have been inspired? Could they ever have thought of devising such a complicated system of rites and ceremonies ; a system too, which should so exactly shadow forth the character, offices chkist's priestly office. sit and works of a Saviour, who was not to make his appearance in the world till many ages after their death? It is impossible. He who can believe that they could do this, or that such a coincidence is the result of accident, may believe any thing. 3. Since God took care under the former dispensation, to shadow forth, in so many ways, the dwelling of the Godhead in Jesus Christ, his priesthood, sacrifice, atonement, and interces- sion, we have reason to believe that he regards these truths as fundamentally important. Nor is it strange that he thus regards them; for they compose the sum, the substance, the essence of the gospel. Take them away, and the gospel is gone. Take them away, and we have no way of access to God, no place in which we can find God, no pardon, no salvation. In a word, as the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the sacrifices, were all important in the old dispensation, so is Christ whom they rep- resent, in the new.^ Those then who reject his divinity, atone- ment and intercession, who deny that he offered up himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, reject the true gospel and give us another, which is a gospel in name only. This however many do. Some do it speculatively. A still greater number do it practically. As many of the Jews neglected the tabernacle, the priesthood and the sacrifices, which God had appointed, and built high places where they officiated as their own priests, and offered up their own sacrifices, so many nominal Christians neglect the priesthood, atonement, and intercession of Jesus Christ, come to God relying on their own merits, offer up their prayers in their own names, and hope to be saved by their own works and services. They justify themselves in their course by saying, so long as we worship and pray to the true God, it can- not be of much consequence in what manner we worship him. But the Jews might have said the same, respecting their high places. They might have said, we do not, like many of our countrymen, forsake the true God to follow idols. We still worship Jehovah alone, and offer our sacrifices to him, and we hope to be accepted, though we do not go up to the tabernacle and offer our sacrifices through the priest. But such hopes would have been groundless, such incense would not have been accepted. God woidd still have rejected and been displeased with their services, and the same may be said of the hopes, the incense, and the services of those who, instead of coming to 88 Christ's priestly office. God, relying on his merits, and presenting their prayers and services in his name, come in their own names, and rely on their own merits. A curse, and not a blessing will be their reward. 4. The subject is full of instruction and consolation to the real disciples of Christ, and to all who are willing to accept of him as their Saviour. Let such persons consider, in the first place, what encouragement and consolation the tabernacle was suited to give the Jews. They might say to themselves, since God has caused it to be raised among us for his special residence, since he dwells in it on a mercy-seat, since he has told us where we may always find him, and since he is there ready to dispense pardon, instruction and favor, he must be willing that we should approach him, he must be willing to receive us, to hear our prayers, and to accept our offerings. We will therefore go to him with confidence. So we may say, since God dwells in our nature, in the man Christ Jesus ; since he dwells there as a God of mercy and grace, and as a prayer-hearing God ; since through him he dispenses pardon and light and strength and salvation, and since he has done all this on purpose to encourage us to come to him, we will come, we will trust in him; we will seek God in Jesus Christ, and neither expect to find, nor seek to find him, any where else. Again, consider what encouragement and consolation the Jews might derive from the priesthood. They might say, we are too sinful, too much polluted, to approach a holy God with acceptance ; but we are not therefore wholly shut out from him. He has appointed an order of men, to act as mediators between himself and us, to take our offerings and present them before him, and to burn incense in our behalf Surely then, he is willing to admit us to some intercourse and communion with himself; he must be willing to accept our offerings, though worthless in themselves, when presented by his own appointed priest; we will therefore come, we will offer him our gifts and sacrifices, we will confidently hope for acceptance. Especially what an encouragement was it to them, at the hour of prayer, to see the priest enter the sanctuary by God's appointment to burn incense, while they stood praying without, and to see the cloud of smoke ascending upward from the golden altar. They might then say, though we are not permitted to enter the sanctuary ourselves, there is one appointed to enter it on our Christ's priestly office. 89 behalf, and to burn incense for us. The smoke of that incense offered by his own appointment, God has declared to be of a sweet savor, and our prayers ascending with it to heaven, shall find acceptance and obtain answers of peace. So we may say, though we are sinners, children of disobedience, children of wrath ; though we have wandered far from Gfod, and our moral pollution renders us unfit to approach him, or pray to him, yet we are not excluded from him forever. He has provided a great High Priest and Mediator for us, in the person of his own Son, whom he always hears, who is infinitely worthy, and who is ever ready to receive and present to the Father, our petitions and requests. Though we are not, as yet, permitted to enter heaven, he has entered it on our behalf, as our forerunner and representative; and while we stand praying without, he intercedes for us within, and causes our prayers and services to come up with acceptance, perfumed as with a cloud of incense. Even at this moment we have an advocate, a powerful, prevailing advocate of God's own appointment, pleading for us at the right hand of his throne. Surely then, we may hope for acceptance through him; we will therefore pray, will hope confidently for an answer of peace. God never would, at such an expense, have provided such a high priest for us, had he not been willing and desirous that we should thus approach him. Further, consider what comfort and encouragement a believ- ing Jew might derive from the divine institution of sacrifices. Without such an institution, when he had once sinned, he would have felt he was undone forever. He would have said, my life is forfeited, my blood is demanded by the law which 1 have violated, and I can never redeem the forfeiture ; nor can I hope that a holy, just, and true God will remit it. There is no hope, no escape for me. I must perish. But by appointing sacrifices, God did as it were say, No, sinner, there is hope ; you need not perish, I have provided a remedy ; bring a lamb without spot to be offered by my priests as a sacrifice, and I will accept it. Its life shall go for thy life, its blood for thy blood, and thou shalt be free. Just so, were it not for the atoning sacrifice of Christ, we as sinners could have no ground of hope, and a sin- ner convinced of his sin would entertain no hope, but sink down in utter despair. He would say, the language of God's law is, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. I have sinned, I must die, I VOL. III. 12 90 Christ's priestly office. cannot hope that a holy, just, and true God will sacrifice his justice and holiness, give up the honor of his law and violate his word, for the sake of saving me, a miserable sinner. How can I dare ask him to do it 7 How can he hear me if I do ? And even should I obey him hereafter, my life will still be for- feited for my past disobedience. There is no remedy, no way of escape. Hell must be my portion, there is nothing before me but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. But in the gospel of Christ, God does as it were say to such a sinner, No, sinner, thou needest not perish. Thou needest not go down to the pit, for I have found a ransom. My Son has offered up himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He has borne the curse of the law, and died, the just for the unjust, to make atonement for their sins. And now if, with penitence and faith, thou wilt trust in him, thou shalt be pardoned and saved for his sake. Surely this is gospel, this is good news indeed for sinners ; and as such, every one who has proper views of God, of his law, and of his own sinfulness, will consider it. Finally : How precious should the Lord Jesus Christ be, in our estimation ! He is the tabernacle in which God dwells, the only place where we can find him. He is the Mediator, through whom alone we can come to God; the High Priest, who alone can present our prayers and services with acceptance ; the atoning sacrifice, through which alone our sins can be forgiven. Surely then, he ought to be precious to us. To those of you who believe, he is precious. In your system of religion, in your hopes, he is all in all. But even you do not praise him by any means as you ought. Even you know not the thousandth part of his worth, his excellence. O seek and pray for more know- ledge of him. Like Paul, count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, And while you come around this table, look up and see what a high priest, what an advocate you have to plead your cause in heaven. See that very Saviour, the symbols of whose body and blood you are about to receive, seated on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high, where he ever liveth to make intercession for his people. Is he worthy? then all who trust in him will be so regarded. Is he accepted? then the persons and services of all who believe in him are accepted. Will the Father hear himl then he will hear all who pray in his name. O then, Christian, Christ's priestly office. 91 bless God for Jesus Christ, and take courage ; and since we have a great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who is passed into the heavens, let us hold fast our profession, without wavering, and come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. SERMON LV. CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of soiTows,and acquainted with gi'ief : and we hid as it were our faces from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Suiely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we Uke sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth ; he is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah liii. 3 — 7. In this chapter, my friends, we have a prophetic description of the character, hfe and sufferings of our Saviour. So full, so particular, and so clear is this description, so exactly does it correspond with the events which it foretells, that it seems to be a history rather than a prophecy; and had we not the most satisfactory evidence of its being penned some hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, we should be tempted to suspect that it was forged after his death, and that the writer only related the circumstances which he pretended to foretell. In that por- tion of this remarkable prophecr which has been read as our text, there are several particulars deserving of attention. A few remarks upon each of these particulars will compose the present discourse. CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. 93 I. It is here predicted, that Christ should be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That this prediction was Uterally fulfilled, no one, who has ever read the history of his sufferings, need be told. It may, however, be necessary here to correct a mistake, which has deprived this man of sorrows of much of that sympathy, which his unexampled sufferings would other- wise have excited. It has been supposed by many, that his sufferings were rather apparent than real ; or at least, that his abundant consolations, and his knowledge of the happy conse- quences which would result from his death, rendered his sorrows comparatively light, and almost converted them to joys. But never was supposition more erroneous. Jesus Christ was as truly a man, as either of us, and, as man, he was as really susceptible of grief, as keenly alive to pain and reproach, and as much averse from shame and suffering, as any of the de- scendants of Adam. As to divine consolations and supports, they were at all times bestowed on him in a very sparing manner, and in the season of his greatest extremity entirely withheld ; and though a knowledge of the happy consequences, which would result from his sufferings, rendered him willing to endure them, it did not, in the smallest degree, take off their edge, or render him insensible to pain. No, his sufferings, instead of being less, were incomparably greater than they appeared to be. No finite mind can conceive of their extent ; nor was any of the human race ever so well entitled to the appellation of the Man of Sorroivs, as the man Christ Jesus. His sufferings began with his birth, and ended but with his life. In the first place, it must have been exceedingly painful to such a person as Christ, to live in a world like this. He was perfectly holy, harmless, and undefiled. Of course, he could not look on sin, but with the deepest abhorrence. It is that abominable thing which his soul hates. Yet during the whole period of his residence on earth, he was continually surrounded by it, and his feelings were every moment tortured with the hatefid sight of human depravity. How much sorrow the sight occasioned him, we may in some measure learn from the bitter complaints which similar causes extorted from David, Jeremiah, and other ancient saints. They describe, in the most striking and pathetic language, the sufferings which they experienced from the prevalency of wickedness around them, and often 94 CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. wished for death to reHeve them from their sufferings. But the sufferings of Christ from this cause were incomparably greater than theirs. He was far more holy than they, his hatred of sin incomparably more intense, and the sight of it proportionably more painful. In consequence of his power of searching the heart, he saw unspeakably more sin in the world, than any mere man could discover. We can discover sin only when it displays itself in words and actions. But he saw all the hidden wickedness of the heart, the depths of that fountain of iniquity, from which all the bitter streams of vice and misery flow. Every man that approached him was transparent to his eye. In his best friends he saw more sin than we can discover in the most abandoned reprobates. He saw also, in a far clearer light than we can do, the dreadful consequences of sin, the intermi- nable miseries to which it is conducting the sinner ; and his feelings of compassion were not blunted by that selfish insensi- bility which enables us to bear with composure the sight of human distress. On the contrary, he was all sympathy, com- passion, and love. He loved others as himself, and therefore felt for the sufferings of others as for his own. If Paul could say, Avho is weak, and I am not weak 7 who is offended, and I burn not] much more might Christ. In this, as well as in a still more important sense, he took upon himself our griefs, and bore our sorrows. As he died for all, so he felt and wept for the sufferings of all. The temporal and eternal calamities of the whole human race, and of every individual among them, all seemed to be collected and laid upon him. He saw at one view the whole mighty aggregate of human guilt and human wretchedness ; and his boundless benevolence and compassion made it by sympathy all his own. It has been said by philoso- phers, that if any man could see all the misery Vv'-hich is daily felt in the world, he would never smile again. We need not wonder then that Christ, who saw and felt it all, never smiled, though he often wept. We may add, that the perfect contrast between the heavens which he had left, and the world into which he came, rendered a residence in the latter peculiarly painful to his feelings. In heaven he had seen nothing but holiness and happiness and love. In this world, on the contrary, he saw little but wickedness and hatred and misery, in ten thousand forms. In heaven he was crowned with glory and CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. 9S honor and majesty, and surrounded by throngs of admiring, adoring angels. On earth, he found himself plunged in poverty, wretchedness and contempt, and surrounded by malignant, implacable enemies. My friends, think of a prince, educated with care and tenderness in his father's court, where he heard nothing but sounds of pleasure and praise, and saw nothing but scenes of honor and magnificence, sent unattended to labor as a slave in a rebellious province, where himself and his father were hated and despised ; think of a person of the most delicate and refined taste, going from the bosom of his family and the magnificent abodes of a polished city, to spend his life in the filthy huts of the most degraded and barbarous savages, and compelled daily to witness the disgusting scenes of cruelty and brutality which are there exhibited ; think of a man endowed with the tenderest sensibility, compelled to live on a field of battle, among the corpses of the dead and the groans of the dying, or shut up for years in a madhouse with wretched maniacs, where nothing was to be heard but the burst of infu- riated passions, the wild laugh of madness, and the shrieks and ravings of despair. Think of these instances, and you will have some conception, though but a faint one, of the scenes which this world presented to our Saviour, of the contrast between it and the heaven he left, of the sorrows which imbit- tered every moment of his earthly existence, and of the love which induced him voluntarily to submit to such sorrows. Another circumstance which contributed to render our Saviour a man of sorrows, and his life a life of grief, was the reception he met with from those whom he came to save. Had they received him with that gratitude and respect which he deserved, and permitted him to rescue them from their miseries, it would have been some alleviation of his sorrows. But even this alle- viation was in a great measure denied him. Some few, indeed, received him with affection and respect, though even they often grieved him by their unkindness and unbelief; but by far the greater part of his countrymen he was treated with the utmost craelty and contempt. Many of them would not allow him even to remove their bodily diseases, and still greater numbers were unwilling that he should save them from their sins. Now to a noble, ingenuous mind, nothing is so cutting, so torturing as such conduct. To see himself despised, slandered and perse- 96 CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. ciited with implacable malice, by the very beings whom he was laboring to save; to see all his endeavors to save them, frustra- ted by their own incorrigible folly and wickedness; to see them by rejecting him filling up to the brim their cup of criminality and wrath, and sinking into eternal perdition within reach of his vainly-offered hand, — to see this, must have been distressing indeed. Yet this Christ saw. Thus he endured the contradic- tion of sinners against himself; and how deeply it affected him, we may infer from the fact, that though his own sufferings never wrung from him a tear, he once and again wept in the bitterness of his soul over rebellious Jerusalem, exclaiming, O that thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace ; but now they are hid from thine eyes ! Another circumstance that threw a shade of gloom and melan- choly over our Saviour's life, was his clear view, and constant anticipation of the dreadful agonies in which it was to terminate. He was not ignorant, as we happily are, of the miseries which were before him. He could not hope, as we do, when wretched to day, to be happier to-morrow. Every night, when he lay down to rest, the scourge, the crown of thorns, and the cross, were present to his mind ; and on these dreadful objects he every morning opened his eyes, and every morning saw them nearer than before. Every day was to him like the day of his death, of such a death too, as no one ever suffered before or since. How deeply the prospect affected him, is evident from his own language: I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am 1 straitened till it be accomplished ! Such, my friends, are the circumstances which prove that our Saviour was, during life, a man of sorrows. Of the sorrows of his death we shall say nothing. The bitter agonies of that never-to-be-forgotten hour, the torturing scourge, the lacerating nails, and the racking cross we shall pass in silence. Nor shall we now bring into view the tenfold horrors which overwhelmed his soul, rendering it exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. These we have often attempted to describe to you, though here description must always fail. Enough has been said to show the justice of that exclamation which the prophet utters in the person of Christ: Behold and see, all ye tiiat pass by, if there be any sorrow like my sorrow. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to pily, but there was none ; for comforters, but I found none. CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. 07 2. "We have in this prophetic passage an account of our Saviour's conduct under the pressure of these sorrows. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a shsep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Never was language more descriptive of the most perfect meekness and patience ; never was prediction more fully justified by the event than in the case before us. Christ was indeed led as a lamb to the slaughter. Silent, meek and unrepining, he stood before his butchers, at once innocent and patient as a lamb. No murmurs, no complaints, no angry recriminations escaped from his lips. If they were opened, it was but to express the most perfect submission to his Father's will, and to breathe out prayers for his murderers. Yes, even at that dreadful moment, when they were nailing him to the cross, when nature, whose voice will at such a time be heard, was shuddering and convulsed in the prospect of a speedy and violent death ; when his soul was tortured by the assaults of malignant fiends, and his Father's face hidden from his view; even then he possessed his soul in patience to such a degree, as to be able to pray for his murder- ers. My friends, we must attempt to bring the scene more fully to your view. Come with us, a moment, to calvary. See the meek sufferer, standing with hands fast bound in the midst of his enemies ; sinking under the weight of his cross, and lacerated in every part by the thorny rods with which he had been scourged. See the savage, ferocious soldiers seizing with rude violence, his sacred body, forcing it down upon the cross, wrest- ing and extending his limbs, and with remorseless cruelty forcing through his hands and feet the ragged spikes which were to fasten him on it. See the Jewish priests and rulers watching with looks of malicious pleasure the horrid scene, and attempting to increase his sufferings by scoffs and blasphemies. Now con- template attentively the countenance of the wonderful sufferer, which seems like heaven opening in the midst of hell, and tell me what it expressed. You see it indeed full of anguish, but it expresses nothing like impatience, resentment or revenge. On the contrary, it beams with pity, benevolence and forgiveness. It perfectly corresponds with the prayer, which, raising his mild, imploring eye to heaven, he pours forth to God; Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do! Christian, look VOL. m. 13 »8 CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. at your Master, and learn how to suffer. Sinner, look at your Saviour, and learn to admire, to imitate, and to forgive. But why, it may be naturally asked, why is this patient innocent sufferer thus afflicted 7 Why, in his life, in his death, is he thus emphatically a man of sorrows'? To this question our text returns an answer, and an answer which ought to sink deep into our hearts ; for in it we are all most deeply interested : He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Here, my friends, we see the true cause of our Saviour's unparalleled sufferings. He was cut off, says the prophet, but not for himself. He knew no sin, but he was made sin, made a curse for us. We have all strayed from the path of duty. Yes, you and I, and all our race, have forsaken the God that made us, and chosen the path that leads to hell. God's violated law condemned us to die. Justice demanded the execution of the sentence. There was apparently no remedy. It is true that God, as our Creator and Father, was sufficiently inclined to spare us; but truth and justice for- bade him to do it, unless a suitable atonement could be found. There was but one individual in the universe who could make such an atonement, and that being, prompted by infinite compassion, offered himself for this purpose. The Father, with equal love, accepted the offer. To carry it into effect, the Son assumed our nature, and appeared on earth; and the bitter cup, which the divine law condemned us to drink, was put into his hand, and he drank it to the last drop. We were condemned to live a life of sorrow and pain, and therefore he lived such a life. We were condemned to shame and everlasting contempt; and therefore he hid not his face from shame and spitting. We were condenmed to die under the curse ; and therefore he died the accursed death of the cross: We were condemned to lose the favor and endure the wrath of God ; and therefore Christ was forsaken by his Father in the agonies of death. We were condemned to perish without mercy ; and therefore Christ had no mercy, no pity shown him in his last moments. We were condemned to remain under the power of death, till by satisfy- ing divine justice we could restore ourselves to life; and CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. 99 therefore Christ remained in the grave till he had made full satisfaction, and then resumed the life he had laid down. Thus he bore our sins, or, what is the same, the punishment of our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead unto sin, might live unto God. Lastly, our text describes the manner in which Christ was treated, v/hen he thus came as a man of sorrows to atone for our sins. He is despised and rejected of men. We hid as it were our faces from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. How literally this prediction was fulfilled, we have already seen. Yet who but an inspired prophet would have predicted that such would be the reception of such a person, coming from heaven on such a design? We should naturally expect that he would be received with the most lively emotions and demon- strations of grateful joy, by the beings whom he came to save. Even after we were told that, instead of thus receiving, they rejected and condemned him, we should have expected that when they saw his lamb-like patience and meekness, and heard him praying for his murderers, they would have relented and spared him. And when this could not prevail, we should have hoped that the miracles which attended his crucifixion, and especially his resurrection from the dead, would convince them of their error, and cause them to relent. But none of these things, nor all of them united, could conquer the inveterate malice of his enemies. Living and dying, rising and reigning, he was still despised and rejected of men. Neither his miracles, nor his sorrovv^s, nor his meekness, nor his patience, could shield him from hatred and contempt. But what was his crime? What had he done? I answer, he was good; he dared to speak the truth; he reproved men for their sins, he testified to the world that its deeds were evil; above all, he bore the image of God, of that God whom sinners hate. These were crimes never to be forgiven; crimes, for which nothing but his blood could atone; crimes, which in their view rendered him unworthy of that commiseration which men usually feel for the vilest mal- efactors when in the agonies of death. Nor were those who treated him in this manner, worse than the rest of mankind. As in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. The truth of this assertion is abundantly proved by the manner in which all succeeding generations have treated Christ. He 100 CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. has always been despised and rejected of men; and he is so still. It is true, he has long since ascended to heaven, and therefore cannot be the immediate object of their attacks. But his gospel and his servants are still in the world ; and the man- ner in which they are treated, is sufficient evidence, that the feelings of the natural heart toward Christ are not materially different from those of the Jews. His servants are hated, ridi- culed and despised, and his gospel is rejected, and his institutions slighted. Wait but a few moments, my friends, and you will see many of this assembly treating him in this manner. You will see the passages leadmg from this house thronged, like the broad road, with persons who are crowding away from Christ, disobeying his dying command, refusing to commemorate his death; and thus proving that the Saviour is still, as formerly, despised and rejected of men, that the language of their hearts still is, we will not have this man to reign over us. I am aware that many will be displeased with this interpretation of their conduct ; but, my friends, it is impossible to interpret it in any other way. Every man, who voluntarily neglects to confess Christ before men, and to commemorate his dying love, must say, either that he does not choose to do it, or that he is not pre- pared to do it. Now if a man says, I do not choose to confess Christ, he certainly rejects him. If he does not choose to remember Christ, he certainly chooses to forget him. If he is unwilling to bind himself to live such a life, as a profession of religion requires, he certainly loves sin better than he does his Saviour. On the other hand, if any one shall say, I wish to come to the table of Christ, but am not prepared, he expressly avows himself an enemy of Christ, for all his friends are fully prepared to approach his table ; and those who are not his friends are his enemies ; for Christ has said. He that is not with me is against me. For a man to say, I am not prepared to come to Christ's table, is the same as to say, I do not repent of sin, I do not believe in or love Christ; I am not willing to live a prayerful, watchful, religious life. Nor are those who come to Christ's table without obeying his commands, less guilty of rejecting Christ. We find in the parable of the marriage, that he who came in without a wedding garment was excluded, as well as those who refused to come. To sum up all in a word, it is certain that all who do not receive the instructions of CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. 101 Christ with the temper of a little child, reject him, as a prophet. All who do not trust in his merits alone for salvation reject him as a Saviour; and all who do not habitually and sincerely obey his commands, reject him as a king. This being the case, the conduct of multitudes among us I'ully justifies us in asserting, that Christ is still despised and rejected of men. Application 1. Was Christ a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Then, my Christian friends, we need not be surprised or offended, if we are often called to drink of the cup of sorrows ; if we find the world a vale of tears. This is one of the ways in which we must be conformed to our glorious Head. Indeed, his example has sanctified grief, and almost made it pleasant to mourn. One would think, that Christians could scarcely wish to go rejoicing through a world which their Master passed through mourning. The path in which we follow him is bedewed with his tears and stained with his blood. It is true, that from the ground thus watered and fertilized many rich flowers and fruits of paradise spring up to refresh us, in which we may and ought to rejoice. But still our joy should be softened and sanctified by godly sorrow. When we are partaking of the banquet which his love has spread for us, we should never forget how dearly it was purchased. " There's not a gift his hand bestows, But cost his heart a groan." The joy, the honor, the glory through eternity shall be ours; but the sorrows, the sufferings, the agonies which purchased them were all his own. 2. Was Christ wounded for our transgressions; were the iniquities of all his people laid upon him; then surely, my Christian friends, our iniquities shall never be laid upon us. He has borne and carried them away. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Away then with all guilty unbelieving fears; and come, washed in the blood and clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and feast with him at his table. Come and see how your salvation was eft'ected; come and look at the fountain whence your pres- ent, your eternal happiness flows. In this ordinance you see Christ wounded, bruised, and put to grief for your sins. You see him groaning, sinking, dying under your guilt, under that 102 CHRIST A MAN OF SORROWS. curse which you deserved to have borne. Come then, sympa- thise with your sorrowing Master in his sufferings. Come and look at this great sight, till sin appears above all things hateful, till Christ appears most precious and lovely, till your hearts are broken with sorrow for sin, and the love of Christ constrains you to feel and live to him who died for you. And while you look, lest you should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, remember that he who is here set before you crucified as the Lamb of God, is now at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high; and hear him saying. Fear not. I am the first and the last. A word to those who are now about to depart, or as the prophet expresses it in our text, to hide their faces from Christ. You have heard, my friends, of the sufferings of Christ. You now see him set forth crucified before you in the symbols of his body and blood. And have you no concern in these sufferings? Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Nothing to you, that the Son of God has appeared on earth as a man of sorrows, and suffered and died for the sins of the world? Yes, my friends, it is something, it is much to you. Whether you are interested in the benefits of his death or not, you are in some measure the occasion of it. He was wounded for your transgressions, he was bruised for your iniquities ; and if you will now come and believe in him, you shall all by his stripes be healed. Will you view his sufferings unmoved? Will you persist in despising and rejecting him, and render his sufferings for you of no avail? Will you become accomplices with the betrayers and murderers of Christ, and by contuuiing to reject him, crucify to yourselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame ? O be not so cruel to Christ, so cruel to yourselves. Listen to us, while in the name and as the messenger of this man of sorrows, we attempt to plead his cause, and persuade you to receive him. See him for your sakes dragged as a lamb to the slaughter. Hear him praying for his murderers, and for you who neglect him, Father, forgive them. Hear him saying, O sinner, did I suffer all this for thee, and is this the return you make? Do ye thus requite your Lord, your Saviour, O foolish people and un- wise? O for your own sakes, for my sake, for the sake of all my sorrows and agonies, I beseech you not to destroy yourselves. My friends, do not your hearts begin to relent? Can you resist the pleadings of this man of sorrows ? Do not your CHIUST A MAN OF SORROWS. l(jQ sins begin to appear hateful? Do you not wish that you had confessed him ere this, and that you could now come and weep before him at his table? Do not your hearts begin to say, Lord it is enough. I will reject thee no longer. My hard heart has stood out against thine anger, but it cannot resist thy sorrows and thy love. If it is not too late, if thou canst receive such an ungrateful wretch, take me; for from henceforth I am wholly thine. SERMON LVI. CHRIST A KING Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; w^hen he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power; for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. — 1 Corinthians xv. 24, 25. Nothing can more powerfully tend to give us just and exalted conceptions of Christ, than a due consideration of the various names, titles and characters by which he is described in the word of God. These names and titles, which are more thaa two hundred in number, include every thing which is great or glorious, amiable or excellent in the estimation of mankind. It would not be easy, neither is it necessary on the present occa- sion, to enumerate them all, but we wish to direct your atten- tion particularly to one of them, viz., that of Ruler or King. By this title he is very frequently described in both the Old and New Testament ? Under this character it was predicted that he would make his appearance in the world, many years before his incarnation. Unto us, says the prophet, a child is born, unto us a son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called the Prince or King of Peace. A similar prediction was uttered by Gabriel, to the virgin Mary, respecting him, previous to his birth. The Lord God, says he, shall give unto him the throne of his Father David ; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever j and CHRIST A KING. 105 of his kingdom there shall be no end. Numerous predictions to the same purpose may be found scattered thoughout the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms of David, and the prophe- cies of Isaiah and Daniel. In perfect conformity with these predictions, we find our Saviour, while on earth, using the lan- guage and exercising the authority of a king. I appoint unto you a kingdom, says he to his twelve disciples, even as my Father has appointed a kingdom unto me. Similar language he used when arraigned at the tribunal of Pilate, though he knew that death would be the consequence. My kingdom, says he, is not of this world. Then said Pilate, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest I am a king; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world. The same truth was taught by the apostles after his resurrection and ascension to heaven. They represent him as being seated on the right hand of the throne of God, upholding all things by the word of his power ; acting as head over all things to his church. To the same purpose are the words of our text : He must reign, till all enemies are put under his feet : and then Cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, after he shall have put down all other rule, authority and power. This is confessedly an important and instructive, but at the same time a very difficult passage. In attempting to explain it, we shall aim to avoid being wise above what is written. Our design is, to describe, so far as the Scriptures enable us, the nature, origin, progress, and termina- tion of that kingdom, which Christ is here represented as deliv- ering up to the Father. I. With respect to the nature of this kingdom, we may ob- serve, that it is not a temporal or earthly kingdom ! Here lay the grand mistake of the Jews. The prophecies of the Old Testament had taught them, that the promised Messiah was to be a king ; and as they could form no conception of a spiritual kingdom, they fondly imagined that he would make his appear- ance on earth as an earthly monarch, and not only deliver them from the Roman yoke, but reduce the whole world under their authority. Even his own disciples fell into the mistake, and continued in it till after his resurrection ; for at that period we find them saying. Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the king- dom to Israel 7 It was not till the Holy Spirit, who was to VOL. III. 14 106 CHRIST A KING. guide them into all truth, had been poured out upon them on the day of Pentecost, that they began to form more correct opin- ions respecting the kingdom, which their Master came to estab- lish. They then learned that his kingdom was to be erected in the hearts of men ; that it consisted in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and that he was enabled to be a king and a Saviour, that he might give repentance and remission of sins to his people, and deliver them, not from temporal, but spiritual bondage. The kingdom which Christ is here represented as delivering up to his Father, is not that which he originally possessed as God. You need not be told, that he is God and man in one person, and that as God he is equal with the Father, and shares in that eternal, underived and uncontrollable authority, which he exercises over all the works of his hands. In this respect, he and his Father are one, and possess the same kingdom ; and this kingdom he neither will nor can resign, though he may for a time suspend the exercise of his divine authority. What then is the kingdom, which Christ is here said to deliv- er up to his Father. I answer, it is the Mediatorial kingdom, or kingdom of grace, tliat kingdom which, he holds as God and man united, and which he received from his Father in consequence of his under- taking the office of Mediator. That we may form clearer ideas of the nature of this kingdom, we must consider, as was pro- posed, 2. Its origin and design. We are told by the apostle that in the beginning, that is, before the world was formed, or the plan of redemption laid, the Word was with God, and that the Word was God. The Word then dwelt in the bosom of the Father, and shared with him the throne of the universe. As the apostle expresses it, he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God. God was then all in all. The names of Father, Son. and Spirit were unknown, though that mysterious distinction, on which these names are founded, then existed in the divine nature. There was no Mediator between God and his crea- tures ; for all creatures were then holy, and consequently needed no mediator to interpose between them and God. Sinners only need a mediator. Holy beings may approach God in their own CHRIST A KING. 107 names and plead for themselves. But when man sinned, and the plan of reden:ption was formed, a mediator became necessa- ry. This office the Word took upon himself, and was in conse- quence made flesh. The Father created a human soul, which the Word took into union with himself, and thus became the Son of God. In union with this soul, he entered into a human body, and thus became the Son of man. Thus, though he was orig- inally equal with God, and was God, yet he humbled himself and became of no reputation, took upon him the form of a ser- vant, and was found in the likeness- of sinful flesh. These and other similar expressions seem to imply that, when the Word nndertook the office of Mediator, he suspended for a time the exercise of his divine perfections, laid aside his equality with the Father, and emptied himself of all that infinite fulness which he originally possessed, and engaged to act as the Fa- ther's servant, and to do nothing but by his power and author- ity. In a word, he condescended to put himself into that state from which Adam fell, a state of trial and probation, to stand like him as the head and representative of his people, and to do every thing which was necessary to accomplish the salvation, and secure the honor of the law they had broken. He engaged to know nothing which the Father did not reveal to him, to work no miracles which the Father did not direct him to per- form ; to have no will of his own, and to make it his meat and drink to do his Father's will and finish his work. A suitable consideration of these things, which are all implied in Christ's humbling and emptying himself, will enable us to understand those passages in which Christ speaks of himself as inferior to the Father, as being the Father's servant, as doing nothing of himself, and as not knowing the day nor the hour of judgment ; for though as God he was equal with the Father, yet as Medi- ator he was his inferior, and could do nothing without him. A proper attention to these observations will also enable us to answer those objections against our Saviour's divinity, which are drawn from his having the Spirit of God given to him. We read that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, that he giveth the Spirit not by measure unto him, and that it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell. Hence it may be asked, if Christ be God, why did he need the assistance of the Holy Spirit 1 or 108 CHRIST A KING. how could God give it lo him? or how could it be owing to the pleasure of the Father, that all fulness dwelt in hirn7 But if we consider that Christ did, as it were, lay aside his own divin- ity, and empty himself of his own infinite fulness, we still see that he needed to be filled with the fulness of the Father, and to have the Holy Spirit to assist him; and if we consider that he acted as the Father's servant, we shall see the propriety of his praying to him, and receiving from him power to work mira- cles, to lay down his life and to take it again. Farther, if we consider that his human nature was in a state of probation, as Adam was, we shall see why he was tempted, why he is said to have been made perfect through sufferings, and to have learned obedience by the things that he suffered. Had he fallen in time of trial, as Adam did, his people never could have been saved, and his human nature must have per- ished. But it did not fail. He overcame the tempter ; perse- vered even to the end, and finally became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. As a reward of his sufferings, obedience, and death, the Father gave him that mediatorial kingdom which is mentioned in our text. This kingdom in- ckides all the creatures with which we are acquainted in heav- en, earth or hell ; for we are told that God hath put all things under him ; that all power is committed to him in heaven and earth, that he is King of kings, and Lord of lords, and that for this cause he died and rose, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Hence, the apostle informs us, that be- cause he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, God hath highly exalted him, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly place, far above all principality, and pow- er, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come ; and hath put all things beneath his feet, and given him to be head over all things to his church. In a word, God has resigned the whole government of the universe into his hands for a season, and given him authority to execute judgment, so that now the Father judgeth no man, having committed all judgment unto the Son. This unlimited power and authority God has bestow- ed upon his Son, in order to qualify him for executing the great office of Mediator between him and his rebellious creatures ; and to enable him to deliver those out of the snare of the devil, CHRISTAKING. 109 who are led captive at his will; to cast out the strong man armed from his palace in the heart, and save even to the uttermost all who come unto God by him. The laws of this extensive kingdom are recorded in the gospel. The subjects of it may bo divided into two grand classes, those who are obedient, and those who are rebellious. The former class is composed of good men and angels ; the latter, of wicked men and devils. The former serve Christ willingly and cheerfully. He rules them with the golden sceptre of love ; his law is written in their hearts; they esteem his yoke easy and his burden light, and habitually execute his will. All the bright armies of heaven, angels and archangels, who excel in strength, are his servants, and go forth at his command, as messengers of love to minister unto the heirs of salvation, or as messengers of wrath to execute vengeance on his enemies. Nor are his obedient subjects to be found only in heaven. In this rebellious world also the standard of the cross, the banner of liis love, is erected, and thousands and millions Avho were once his enemies, have been brought willing captives to his feet, have joyfully acknowledged him as their Master and Lord, and sworn allegiance to him as the Captain of their salvation. Nor is his authority less absolute over the second class of his subjects, who still persist in their rebellion. In vain do they say, We will not have this man to reign over us. He rules them with a rod of iron, causes even their wrath to praise him, and makes them the involuntary instruments of carrying on his great designs. He holds all the infernal spirits in a chain, governs the con- querors, monarchs and great ones of the earth, and in all things wherein they did proudly, is still above them. None are too small to escape his notice, none are too great to be controlled by his power. In vain do the people rage ; in vain do the kings and rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying. Let us break his bands asunder, and cast away his cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 110 CHRIST A KING. thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel. But this leads us to consider, 3. The progress of Messiah's mediatorial kingdom. By the progress of this kingdom, we do not mean the increase of Messiah's power; for, as we have just seen, this is already unlimited and universal ; but we mean the spread of the gospel, and the increase of the number of Christ's obedient subjects. In this respect, the progress of his kingdom has hitherto been comparatively small ; for though thousands and millions have submitted to his arms, yet many more millions are still in arms against him. Satan still apparently reigns as the prince and god of this ruined world. Darkness still covers the earth, and gross darkness the people ; and by far the greater part of our race are still the wretched captives of idolatry, vice and super- stition. But it shall not always, it shall not long be thus. The promise of him who cannot lie assures us, that it shall not. His word abounds with the most explicit and animating predic- tions of the future spread and approaching glories of Messiah's reign. The stone, which the king of Babylon saw in his dream, cut out of a mountain without hands, shall spread and fill the earth. In the days of these kings, that is, of the Roman emperors, says the prophet Daniel, in expounding this dream, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed ; it shall never be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. The fulfilment of these, predictions the same prophet elsewhere describes. I saw in the night visions, says he, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds, and came to the Ancient of days, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. In addition to this, the prophecies of Isaiah and the minor prophets are filled with predictions of the same import. We are there assured, that in the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established upon the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it; that the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth; that Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God, and that the Jews shall be brought in with the CHRIST A KING. Ill fulness of the Gentiles. It is however needless to insist on these predictions, for our text assures us, that Christ shall reign till all enemies are put under his feet ; and we are elsewhere in- formed, that Jehovah has sworn by himself, that every knee shall bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess that he is Lord. In vain will any strive to prevent the fulfilment of this declar- ation. Those who refuse to confess him cheerfully, shall be compelled to do it reluctantly ; those who will not bend shall break ; for God has declared, that he will overturn, overturn, and overturn, till he shall come whose right it is, and the do- minion shall be given to him, and that all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Nor will it be long, ere these predictions are fulfilled. Already is the banner of the cross unfurled. Already are the soldiers of Christ going forth to subdue the nations, with weapons which are mighty to the pulling down of strong holds. Already does a voice begin to be heard throughout the world, saying. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Already has Christ ascended the chariot of his salvation, and is riding forth, con- quering and to conquer, arrayed in meekness and truth, and righteousness, while God overturns, overturns, and overturns, the nations which oppose him, and dashes them in pieces against each other, like a potter's vessel. Already is the cry heard from Asia and Africa, Come over and help us; and soon will Ethiopia stretch out her hands to God, and the isles of the Southern ocean wait for his law. Soon will the cry be heard, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He who sits on the throne is exclaiming. Behold, I create all things new ; I create new heavens and a new earth. Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong arm, his reward is with him, and his work before him. Prepare ye then the w^ay of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. But what tongue can describe the happiness which is approaching 7 whocan paint the glories of Messiah's reign ? In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. His name shall endure as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him. and all nations shall call him blessed. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped ; then shall 112 CHKIST A KING. the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor learn war any more. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the falling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together. Thus that paradisaical state, which was destroyed by the first Adam, shall be restored by the Second ; and love, peace, and happiness, which sin had banished from the world, shall again return, under the mild reign of him who is emphati- cally styled the Prince of Peace. Who, in view of these glorious prospects, can avoid exclaiming, O long expected day begin; Dawn on this world of death and sin ! Come the great day, the glorious hour, &c. We proceed now, as was proposed, to consider, 4. The termination of Christ's mediatorial kingdom. How long this kingdom will continue on earth, before its termination arrives, is uncertain. We are indeed informed, in the Scriptures, that he shall reign on earth with his people for a thousand years ; but in prophetic language, a day is put for a year; and if we thus understand this prediction, the duration of his reign will be three hundred and sixty-five thousand years. In favor of this supposition writers have assigned various reasons. But whether they are right or not, in their conjecture, it is neither possible nor necessary to determine. It is however evident, that after the expiration of this period, the powers of darkness will make one more violent effort to destroy the kingdom of Christ on earth ; that a great apostacy will take place, and that the church will appear to be in imminent danger. But then will be seen the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. The day of judgment will break suddenly upon the world, the righteous go into heaven, and the wicked into hell. The transactions of the judgment will be the last act of Messiah's mediatorial reign. All his enemies Avill then be put under him. Death itself will be destroyed, or as the apostle expresses it, will be cast into the lake of fire, together with the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie. Then will a mediator between God and man CHRIST A KING. 113 no longer be needed. He will not be needed for wicked men and devils; for the day of grace will then be past, and they will have no more offers of salvation, no more opportunities of approaching unto God, Nor will God's people any longer need a mediator; for they will be then perfectly holy ; they will have no more sins to be forgiven, no more favors to ask, but will themselves be kings and priests to God, and live and reign with Christ forever. Then, therefore, will the end come. Then will Christ deliver up his mediatorial kingdom to his Father, together with his delegated power and authority, and reassume his own proper eternal divinity, together with that infinite fulness which he had laid aside. If it be asked, how this representation agrees with the twenty-eighth verse, where we are told, that then shall the Son also be subject to him that did put all things under him; I answer, in the language of Scripture, things are often said to be, when they manifestly appear to be. Thus it is said in one place, that the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. But v/e know that the Lord alone is as much exalted now, as he can be at any future day. The meaning, therefore, must be, that in that day the Lord alone will more manifestly appear to be exalted, than he does at present. So in this case, when it is said. Then the Son also shall be subject unto him, that did put all things under him, it implies, that Christ will then evidently appear to have been subject to his Father during the whole continuance of his mediatorial kingdom, and to have acted merely as the Father's servant. Then God will be all in all; that is, he will then cease to govern his creatures by a mediator, or any other delegated power, and will therefore ap- pear more clearly, than he does at present, to be all in all. In conclusion ; What an animating, encouraging subject is this to those of you, my friends, who have chosen Christ for your Lord and Master, and become the willing subjects of his kingdom ! Do you ask, how shall we know this to be our character? I ask, in return, do you love Christ's laws? Are you reconciled to his government? Are his friends your friends? Are his en- emies your enemies? Are you waiting and praying for the universal spread of his kingdom? If so, you are his willing subjects ; and we may venture to say to you, your Lord reignelh, and he shall reign till all his enemies and all your enemies are put under his feet. Because he lives and reigns, VOL. III. 15 114 CHRIST A KING. you shall live and reign also. He is for you ; who then can be against you? Come then, and renew your oath of allegiance at his table. Engage with fresh vigor and courage in your Christian warfare. Deny, mortify, crucify your sins. Labor to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Labor also to bring others into his kingdom. Do all in your power to fulfil the great law of his kingdom. Go preach the gospel to every creature. Fervently pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into his harvest. But be not content with prayers. Contribute cheerfully to the Lord of your substance. Other kings impose taxes on their subjects. But the tribute which he requires, is a free will offering. Hasten then to pay this tribute ; and while you are feasting on the rich fruits, which his bounty has provided, remember those who are perishing for want of the bread of life. To those of you who refuse to submit to Christ, this is an awful and alarming subject. You are the enemies of a being, whose enemies must be destroyed. You are contending with omnipotence. You are practically saying, that he shall not reign over you, who is appointed by God to reign overall. But it is not too late to repent. You are still at liberty to choose whether you will have the King of kings for an enemy or a friend; whether you will serve him voluntarily or by constraint. One way or the other you must serve him. God has sworn by himself, that you shall. Is it not then better to serve him wil- lingly, and be rewarded, than to serve reluctantly and be destroyed? Do any of you say, we are willing to serve him? We are willing, sincerely willing to take him as our Lord and Master? Then show your sincerity by serving him. Treat him as subjects ought to treat their king. Treat him as you wish your children to treat you, and all will be well. But if you refuse or neglect to do this ; if you persist in habitually disregarding the least of his commands, you practically say, We will not have this man to reign over us. SERMON LVII. CHRIST'S ASCENSION. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, wliich also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. AcTsi. 9 — 11 There are four events in the life of onr Saviour, which are peculiarly interesting to all his real disciples. They are his birth, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension to heaven. It is to this last event that our attention is now called. The description given of it in St. Luke's gospel contains some addi- tional particulars, which, though not mentioned in the passage before us, we shall notice in the prosecution of this discourse. We are there informed, that he lifted up his hands and blessed his disciples, and that while he blessed them he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. In meditating on this event, so interesting to all true Christians, and so suitable to the circumstances in which we meet, let us consider, 1. The ascension itself That we may look at this scene aright, it is desirable to view it as it appeared to his disciples. In order to this^ we must, by the aid of a lively imagination, 116 Christ's ascension. and a strong faith, place ourselves as it were, in their circles, and look at it through their eyes. Finding them assembled in Jerusalem, their Master, for the last time, calls them to follow him. They obey, and he leads them out of the city, to the mount of olives. There, standing on an eminence, where they could all see him, he gives them his last instructions and his parting promises. Then lifting up his hands, he pronounces upon them a blessing, and while he pronounces it, they see him rise from the earth, self-moved, self-snpported, and begin to as- cend. Reclining as on the bosom of the air, he rises higher and higher, with a gentle, gradual motion, his countenance beaming compassion and love, still fixed on his disciples, and his hands extended still scattering blessings on them as he ascended. Now he rises above the groves by which they were surrounded; now he mounts to the middle region of the air ; now he reaches ^the clouds, and still they see him. But there a cloudy vehicle re- ceives him, conceals him from their eyes, and rises with him. With eager eyes they still follow the ascending cloud, as it mounts toward the skies, lessening to their sight, till it becomes only a small speck, and at length wholly disappears, far away in the ethereal regions. But though their eyes could follow him no farther, we need not stop here. Borrowing the glass of revelation we may see him still ascending, reaching, and entering the wide, unfolded gates of heaven, sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God, far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion, and every name which is named, not only in this world, but in the world to come; and there receiving the sceptre of universal empire, and exercising all power in heaven and on earth. Assisted by revelation, faith may also see the employ- ments in which our ascended Saviour is engaged. She may see him appearing in the presence of the Father, as the Advocate of his people, and continuing to make intercession for all that come unto God by him. She may see him entering with his own blood into the heavenly temple and there presenting a full atonement for the sins of all who believe in him. She may see him receiving gifts for men, and sending down those gifts to the successive generations of mankind. Finally, she may see him fulfilling his dying declaration to his disciples: In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you. Christ's ascension. 117 Such were the purposes for which Christ ascended to heaven, such the employment in which he is now engaged, and in which those of us who are heirs of salvation shall find him engaged when we enter the mansions above. But leaving for the present the contemplation of these objects, let us return and consider, II. The manner in which his disciples were affected by this event. We may well suppose that on such an occasion, they would feel strange and various emotions. Their surprise and wonder would be raised to the Titmost by so strange and unex- pected a spectacle; their faith in the divine mission of their Master must have been greatly strengthened. They could not but rejoice to see him thus honored and exalted ; yet their joy must have been mingled with sorrow, when they saw one whom they so much loved, whom they had followed so long, and on whom they entirely depended, suddenly taken from them, and leaving them alone in a world like this. Under the influence of these and other powerful emotions, they stood gazing upwards, with their eyes fixed on that part of the sky where they last saw him, as if they were determined never to withdraw them, as if, after witnessing such a spectacle, there was nothing below the skies worthy of notice. Indeed, every thing earthly must have appeared very small and contemptible, to those who had just witnessed such a sight. A vision of Christ thus entering into his glory, stained all human glory, and they probably could not refrain from earnestly desiring to follow him to that happy world whither they had seen him ascend. But this they could not as yet be permitted to do. He had told them that they could not follow him then, but that they should follow him afterward. Before that time could arrive, they had many important duties to perform; and to these duties it was necessary that their attention should now be directed. Accordingly their ascended Master, who still saw them, though they saw not him, took measures for this purpose. While they were still gazing intently upon the heavens, their number was suddenly increased by two persons who in form, countenance, and language, appeared to be men, but whose white and shining apparel declared them to be angels. But this leads us to con- sider, III. The message delivered to them by these heavenly messengers. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up 118 Christ's ascension. into heaven 7 This language seems intended to convey a gentle reproof. It was as if the angels had said, Have you not other employment assigned you by that Master whom you earnestly follow with your eyes'? Have you forgotten the commission and instructions v/hich he gave you before his ascension? Have you forgotten that you are his witnesses, and that you are to proclaim to all nations what you have heard and seen? The time of in- active contemplation is passed, and the hour for action is arrived. Besides, you are henceforth to walk not by sight, but by faith. Though you have known Christ after the flesh, yet in this manner you will know him no more. You are now to endure as seeing him who is invisible, to be guided, animated and sup- ported by that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That something like this was the import of their address, seems probable from what follows. This same Jesus whom ye have seen go into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven; shall come, as he informed you, in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory to judge the world. This was, in fact, remind- ing them that it must henceforth be their great business, not to stand gazing after their ascended Master, but to prepare them- selves, and warn others to prepare, for his coming to judgment. Let us now attend, IV. To the conduct of the disciples after witnessing this event, and hearing this angelic message. In the first place, they worshipped him. We do not read that they worshipped the angels. Bright and glorious as these spirits were, they knew that it would be vain and idolatrous to worship them; nor would the angels have permitted it ; for when John, some years after this, fell down at the feet of an angel, he rebuked him, saying. See thou do it not. But though they could not worship angels, they worshipped their ascended Master ; for they believ- ed that though they could no longer see him, he still saw them ; nor did any voice from heaven, nor did the angels themselves charge them with idolatry, or forbid them to worship him. Indeed, who could, who can blame them for worshipping one whom they had just seen ascending by his own power from earth to heaven 1 In the second place, they spent much of their time in the public worship of Jehovah. They were daily, St. Luke informs CHRIST'S ASCENSION. 11® US, in the temple, praising and blessing God. This was while they waited for the effusion of the Holy Spirit from on high. Their Master had commanded them to wait at Jerusalem, until he should send down upon them this promised blessing, and they punctually obeyed his commands. In the third place, while they spent much time in public wor- ship, they spent still more time in private, social prayer. We are informed that, as soon as they returned from the Mount of Olives, all assembled in an upper room, and there continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. This earnestness and union in prayer seems to have been occasioned by what they had just seen. And well might what they had seen pro- duce such an effect. They had seen their Master, whom they knew to be most powerful, generous, and kind, and who had said, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do it, go alive into heaven. They knew, therefore, that they had in heaven a most powerful and affectionate Advocate to procure an answer to their prayers ; they did, as it were, still see his hand extend- ed to dispense blessings, and still hear him say. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. No wonder, then, that after returning from such a sight, they were fervent, con- stant, and united in prayer. No wonder that they persevered in such prayer for many days successively, until the day of Pente- cost, when the Spirit descended on them like a rushing, mighty wind, and they experienced the truth of their Master's parting words. It is expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. Having thus briefly considered our Saviour's ascension with its attending circumstances and effects, let us next inquire what we may learn from it. First : We may perhaps learn from it whether we do, or do not really believe the Scriptures. In order to ascertain this, let me ask each of you whether you really believe that the events which we have been considering actually occurred? do you really believe, that a person who appeared to be only a man, but who called himself the Son of God, was seen alive for forty days successively, after he had been put to death as a malefac- tor 7 that at the expiration of this time, he was seen in open day, by a competent number of witnesses, to rise from the earth, 120 Christ's ascension. and without any visible eftbrt or means of support, to ascend till he reached the region of clouds, and that there a cloud received hiin and concealed him from the eyes of beholders'? Do you really believe that while these beholders were still ga- zing after him, two angels appeared to them in a human form and said, This same Jesus, whom ye have seen go into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heav- en? Do you believe that these events actually took place in the world which we inhabit, and that they were seen by human beings like ourselves? If you do not believe this, if it appears to you more like a tale, a fiction, or a dream, than a reality, you do not believe the Bible. Or if it appears to you like an event which took place in some other world than this, or among a difterent race of beings from ourselves, you do not believe the Bible. But perhaps you will say, we do believe that all these things actually took place in our world. Then surely you regard them as most interesting and important events ; you read the book which contains them, and other wonderful facts, with deep interest, and you are affected by its contents, as you are affected by other important truths which you really believe. If not, you do not believe the Scriptures, whatever you may pro- fess. Your understandings, perhaps, assent to these truths, but in your hearts you do not believe them. These remarks, how- ever, are too general. We must be more particular, and our text enables us to be so, for we may learn from it, Secondly : In what manner those who really believe in Christ's ascension to heaven, and its attending circumstances, will be affected by it. It is, I presume, universally acknowl- edged, that facts and events which we really believe, affect us in nearly the same manner, though not in the same degree, as if we saw them. For instance, if we really believe that a parent or child, a husband or any other dear friend, has died in a distant place, it will affect us almost, though not, perhaps, quite so much, as if we actually saw him die. If, then, we really believe the events which have been described, we shall be affected in some measure as if we had seen them. How they were affected, you have just heard. They worshipped Christ. If, then, we actually believe that he ascended to heaven, there to reign till his second coming, we shall Avorship Him, that is, we shall address to him prayers and thanksgivings. They spent ckrist's ascension. 121 much time in the temple blessing and praising God. If vve beheve wliat the gospel relates of Jesus Christ, we shall do the same; for surely we cannot refrain from often praising God for providing such an Advocate and Intercessor for us, in heaven. Again : Those who witnessed our Saviour's ascension, were excited to fervent, imited, and persevering prayer. And surely, if we really believe that Jesus Christ has actually ascended into heaven, there to appear in the presence of God for all who call on his name, to obtain blessings for them, and to prepare a place for their reception when they leave this world, we shall be led to call on his name with frequency and fervency, and to imite with his praying people. Such are some of the effects which will result from a real belief of the events which have been described. If. then, these effects are not produced upon you, my hearers, it will prove that you do not believe the volume in which they are recorded. And if you, my professing hearers, who are assembled to commemorate the Lord Jesus Christ, have faith in present lively exercise, you will be affected in some measure as you would have been had you witnessed the events which have been described. They will be presented to your minds and hearts in the vivid colors of truth and reality ; this house will appear to you like the Mount of Olives, and you will almost see the Saviour, the symbols of whose body and blood are before you, rise from that table as from the grave, and re-as- cend his native heaven. God grant you all faith to see this. You will then go from this house, saying to yourselves and to each other, we have seen strange things to-day. But this is not all. If you believe that two angels really appeared to the disciples, and foretold the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, then, of course, you must believe that he certainly will come, come as he declared, to judge the world ; for those heavenly messengers would not assert a false- hood. And if it was a most wonderful and surprising thing to see him ascend alone to heaven in the form of a man, what a sight it will be to see him descending from heaven in the form of God, shining resplendent in all his Father's glories, and sur- rounded by thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand angels and arch angels, while at his summons all the dead arise and stand before him in judgment. This will be a spectacle indeed, such a spectacle as the world VOL. ni. 16 122 Christ's ascension. never saw. Bat if the Bible is true, we shall all actually see this spectacle, for its language is, Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. And if you believe the Bible, then you believe that you will see it, believe that you will be ac- tors in it, believe that you, as individuals, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and receive your doom from his lips. And do you believe this ? Are you living as if you believed it? If you do believe it, you are surely making it your great, your chief concern to be prepared for Christ's second coming, prepar- ed to meet your Judge in peace. And is this your great con- cern 1 Are you living like accountable creatures, who expect to be tried by the Word of God, and to be rewarded according to your works? If not, where is your faith, and what is your belief in the Bible? Nothing but a dream, nothing but a cold, barren faith, which being without works is dead. And if God has clearly revealed truths which are thus calculated to affect you, and the only reason why they do not affect you, is that you do not believe them, then surely you are without excuse. To conclude : subjects like those we have been considering, may be of admirable service to every Christian, if he knows how to use them aright. You are all aware, my brethren, that this world is your great enemy, that worldly-mindedness is in some form or other your besetting sin. You are also aware that this world has many scenes and objects which to our misjudg- ing minds appear splendid, many which appear imposing, many which appear attractive and interesting. By these scenes and objects your passions are often excited, your aflfections entangled, your minds thrown into a feverish state, which is exceedingly unfriendly to progress in religion. The great question is, how shall the pernicious influence of these worldly scenes and objects be counteracted? I answer, the world to come, the unseen, spiritual and eternal world, has scenes incomparably more grand, more imposing, more interesting than any which this world can exhibit. All that is wanting then, is to bring them clearly before the mind. Let it be a part of your daily employment to do this. Enter your closet, open the Scriptures, and fix on some one of the many interesting objects which they reveal ; the translation of Elijah for instance, or our Saviour's transfiguration, or his death, or his resurrection, or his ascension to heaven, or his sec- Christ's ascension. 123 ond coming. Fix the eye of your mind attentively on the object selected ; spread it before you with all its attending circumstan- ces ; call in the aid of imagination, or that power which forms images of absent, or invisible things ; pray for faith, and contin- ue to meditate, if possible, till you obtain some clear, realizing apprehension of the scene before you, or till your hearts are suitably affected by it. Then when the mind is filled and the heart occupied by such an object, you may, relying on the divine protection, venture out into the world, and all its wealth, its pomp and its pleasures will appear contemptible indeed, com- pared with the scenes which you have been contemplating. In this way, and in this alone, can you mamtain a successful combat with the world, and finally obtain a decided victory over it; for until your minds are pre-occupied by spiritual ob- jects, the world will find them empty and rush in upon them like a flood. Let me beseech those of you who have not already done it, to make trial of this method during the month on which you have now entered. Be not discouraged, should your first attempts prove unsuccessful; but persevere, and instead of faintly remembering Christ at his table only, you will remember him almost constantly ; you will feel in some measure as the apostles did, when they returned from witnessing his ascension; and fortified by the powers of the world to come, you will be enabled to tread the present world under your feet. SERMON LVIII. CHRIST'S VICTORY OVER SATAN. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. — Luke xi. 21, 22. For this purpose, says St. John, was the Son of God mani- fested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. In conformity with this gracious design, we find that he no sooner made his appearance on earth, than he began to cast out Satan, from his strong holds in the bodies of men, by healing those who were possessed, oppressed and vexed with devils; thus exhibiting a glorious and convincing proof of his power and willingness to save those, whose souls were enslaved by these powers of darkness. The Scribes and Pharisees, however, unable to deny the reality of these miracles, and unwilling to allow his divine authority, blasphemously pretended that he cast out devils by a power derived from Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. In answer to this, our blessed Saviour replies, that every kingdom divided against itself is quickly brought to des- olation ; and that, therefore, if Satan be divided against himself; if he thus cast out himself as they pretended, his kingdom could not stand, but must soon fall and have an end. Having thus answered these groundless and impious pretences, he proceeds in our text to spiritualize the subject, by employing it to illustrate the necessity, nature, and design of that deliverance and redemp- Christ's victory, etc. 125 tion, which it was the great object of his mission to accompHsh. In this passage he gives lis to understand, that the soul of every unconverted sinner is a palace, of which Satan, as a strong man armed, Ivceps an entire and peaceable possession; and that when sinners are convinced and converted, Christ, who alone is stronger than this strong man, strips him of his armor, casts him out and divides his spoils. To ilhistrate these particulars, and notice the instruction which they afford, is the design of the following discourse. In the prosecution of this design we would observe. That the hnman soul may be justly compared to a palace; for it is a most beautiful, noble and magnificent edifice; an edifice formed of imperishable materials; an edifice fearfully, admirably, wonderfully made. It is a house not made with hands, a building of God, the master-piece of the all-wise and all-powerful Architect, who formed and adorned it for his own use. It is sufliciently capacious to contain not only the whole creation, but even the Creator himself; for it was especially designed to be the earthly residence of that high and holy One, who fills immensity and inhabits eternity. Even now, debased, disfigured and polluted as it is by sin, it bears the evident marks of original grandeur and beauty ; and, as the poet observes of Beelzebub, is majestic though in ruins. Of this magnificent and stately structure, thus originally built and adorned for the habitation of God, Satan now, as a strong man armed, keeps possession. This proposition contains three particulars which deserve our attention : First, we may observe, that of every unrenewed soul, Satan keeps perfect and entire possession. Secondly, he keeps possession as a strong man. Thirdly, he keeps possession as a strong man armed. I. Of every unconverted soul, Satan keeps perfect and en- tire possession. This is a truth which, however mortifying it may be to our pride, is too plainly taught in the word of God, to be denied by any who acknowledge the divine authority of this sacred volume. We are there told, that all who live according to the common course of this world, live according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the children of disobedience. Hence it appears, that, as God by his Spirit works in Christians both to will and to do, accord- ing to his own good pleasure, so Satan, the father of lies, works 126 christ'svictory powerfully and effectually in the hearts of impenitent sinners ; causing them to listen to his suggestions, comply with his temp- tations, and fulfil his designs. Our blessed Saviour also told the Jews, that they were of their father, the devil, and that the lusts of their father they would do ; and to this he adds, that he who committeth sin, is the servant or slave of sin. When Christ called Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he gave him a commission to turn them from the power of Satan to God ; which evidently proves that in their natural state, they were subject to the power of this arch deceiver and apostate ; and that from this power they must be delivered, before they could receive an inheritance among them that are sanctified. St. Paul himself informs us, that all who oppose the truth are entangled in the snares of Satan, and are led captive by him at his will ; and that it is he who blinds the minds of all who believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel should shine in upon them. From other passages we learn, that it was he who put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ, and tempted Ananias and Sapphira to commit the crime which cost them their lives. In short, so absolute and universal is his control over sinful men, that he is often, both by our Saviour and his apostles, styled the prince, the ruler, and the god of this world. And, my friends, even if the word of God had been silent on this subject, would not reason and experience have led us to adopt this conclusion? Is it not evident that a large proportion of mankind, conduct as if they were the willing subjects of the father of lies? Are not his laws, which enjoin it upon us to hate our enemies, to revenge insults, to envy rivals, to love the world, to please ourselves, to slander others, to fulfil the desires of the flesh and the mind, to forget our Maker, neglect his word, transgress his commands and reject his Son ; incomparably more regarded, more obeyed, than the law of God, which commands us to love our Creator, to do to others as we wish them to do to us, to love him supremely, to forgive and pray for our enemies, to deny ourselves, to renounce the world, take up the cross and follow Christ 1 Should this foe of God and man publish a revelation of his own mind and will, issue his orders, and promulgate his decrees to mankind, would he not urge them to live just as they now OVER SATA'N. 127 do? Would he not tell the young to put off the thought of death, to neglect religion, to conform to the world, to give them- selves up without restraint to the pursuit of frivolous pleasures and amusements, serving divers lusts and vanities? Would he not charge the middle aged to seek first the good things of this life, instead of the kingdom of God and his righteousness; to lay up treasures on earth and not in heaven ; to rise early, sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness ; and put off religion to old age ? Would he not command all ages and ranks in society to spend the Sabbath in idleness ; in reading foolish, frivolous or pernicious books ; in transacting, or at least thinking of their worldly business; in unprofitable visits or useless con- versation; instead of employing it in attending to the great things which concern their everlasting peace? Would he not charge them when in the house of God, to let their thoughts wander after vanities, to neglect or forget the truth which is proclaimed, or to apply it to their neighbors instead of them- selves ? Would he not enjoin it upon them to neglect the word of God, and to trust in their own righteousness ; or assure them, as he did our first parents, that though they transgress and eat forbidden fruit, yet they shall not surely die? Would he not especially charge those who begin to think seriously of religion, to dismiss all such melancholy and superstitious fancies, and either to give themselves no concern respecting eternity, or at least defer it to a more convenient season ? In a word, Avould he not direct mankind to love themselves supremely, to do their own pleasure, obey their own inclinations, seek their own exal- tation profit and honor, and, without regarding what God has said, to cast off his fear and restrain prayer before him, walking in the way of their own hearts, and according to the sight of their own eyes? Yes, my friends, these are the secret wishes of Satan, these would be his commands, should he publish a code of laws ; and hence it is but too evident that mankind obey him, that he is the god of this world, and keeps entire possession of every unconverted soul. But, II. Of such souls he keeps possession as a strong man. This will appear evident if we consider that he can neither be re- strained, subdued, or driven out by any created power. 1st. By created power he cannot be restrained or subdued. In the story of the man among the tombs, who was possessed by an 128 Christ's victory evil spirit, we are told that he was often bound with chains and fetters, yet he easily broke all these bonds, so that no man could tame or subdue him. So it is with those of whose souls Satan keeps possession ; they can be bound or restrained by no laws or regulations, human or divine. Their language concerning the Son of God is, We will not have this man to reign over us. Let us break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from us. In vain does God present to their breasts the curse of the law, like a flaming sword; they rush upon its sharp point and are sure to perish. In vain does he place before them the fire that never shall be quenched ; they throw themselves headlong into its devouring flames. In vain does he endeavor to bind them with the bands of gratitude and the cords of love ; they break them, as Samson broke the cords of the Philistines, with which he was bound. In vain does he endeavor to restrain them by the warnings of conscience, and the remonstrances of his Spirit ; they regard them no more than the spider's web. If divine restraints are thus insuflicient, it cannot be expected that human laws will avail. Though by the aid of prisons, scourges and gibbets, external crimes may be partially prevented, yet where is the lawgiver to be found, who has been able to restrain wandering thoughts, to keep down the secret workings of envy, pride, selfishness and revenge; or even to chain up a false and slanderous tongue? And as neither divine nor human laws can restrain or subdue the strong man, who reigns in the sinner's breast, so neither can the sinner himself effect this, by any exertions of his own. It is true, indeed, he could do this if he would ; but alas he has no will to do it, for his will is entirely on the side of Satan, who has bound it in fetters, too strong to be broken. He is not only a captive, but a willing captive. He is pleased with his slavery, and fancies there is music in the rattling of his chains. Like the Jews, he is ready to say, I was never in bondage ; and, like them, he has no wish to be free: so that he alone who says to the roaring billows. Thus far shall ye come and no farther, is able to restrain the rage and malice of Satan, and lay his hand on the strong corruptions of the human heart. III. If no created power can bind or restrain the strong man who reigns in the sinner's heart, much less can this power pre- vail to cast him out. This the ministers of Christ too often find OVER SATAN. 129 by painful experience. They call upon sinners in the name of the Lord, to turn from their evil ways and live; but the god of this world, the strong man armed, blinds their eyes, stops their ears, and hardens their hearts, so that they call in vain. Like our Saviour's disciples when he was upon the mount, they charge this dumb and deaf spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ of Naz- areth, to come out : but he ridicules their authority, and laughs at their efforts. In vain do they employ threatenings and prom- ises, commands and entreaties, arguments and motives, prayers and tears. The strong man still keeps possession, notwith- standing their most vigorous oiforts. Without divine assistance, Paul and Apollos may labor in vain, and spend their strength for naught. Still less can the moralist or the philosopher force him from his palace. They may declaim eloquently and copiously on the beauty and fitness of virtue, and the deformity of vice; but it is like attempting to charm the deaf adder, who will not hear, or regard the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Even the sinner himself cannot cast out this powerful tyrant, who has obtained such complete dominion over him. True indeed, as we observed before, he is so well pleased with his bondage, that he seldom wishes for or seeks deliverance. But at times, conscience alarms him by her reproaches ; he finds that the ways of transgressors are hard ; he dreads what the end of these things will be ; and therefore forms some weak resolu- tions, and makes some faint efforts, to root out the tyrant of his breast, and recover his liberty. But if these efibrts are made in his own strength, they are always in vain ; and, like all ineffec- tual efforts to throw ofi' the yoke of oppression, they only render it more grievous and difficult to break. Even if the evil spirit appears to be cast out for a time, and an external reformation takes place, he soon returns, bringing with him seven other spirits, still more wicked ; so that the latter end of such a man is worse than the first. With the utmost propriety, therefore, may Satan, who thus keeps possession of the sinner's heart, be represented as a strong man. But, IIL He keeps possession, not only as a strong man, but as a strong man armed. He has his armor, both offensive and de- fensive; and with this ho defends and fortifies his palace in the soul, and attempts to make it strong against the Captain of our VOL. III. 17 130 Christ's victory salvation. This armor is directly the reverse of that Christian armor Avhich St. Paul describes, in his Epistle to the Ephesians. Instead of being girded with the girdle of truth, he girds the sinner with the girdle of error, falsehood and deceit. Instead of the breastplate of Christ's righteousness, he furnishes him with a breastplate of his own fancied righteousness, goodness and morality. Instead of the shield of faith, which the Chris- tian possesses, the sinner has the shield of unbelief; and with this he defends himself against the threatenings and curses of the law, and all the arrows of conviction, which are aimed at him by the ministers of Christ. Instead of having on for a hfelmet the hope of salvation, by faith in the Saviour's blood, Satan furnishes his subjects with a false hope of obtaining sal- vation at last, let them live as they please ; and instead of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, he teaches them to wield the sword of a tongue set on fire of hell, and furnishes them with a magazine of cavils, sneers, excuses and objections, with which they attack religion and defend themselves. He also builds for them many refuges of lies, in which, as in a strong castle, they fondly hope to shelter themselves from the wrath of God. Having thus shown that the unrenewed soul is a palace, of which Satan, as a strong man armed, keeps possession, we proceed to observe, IV. That while he thus keeps possession, his goods, or in other words, his subjects, are at peace. Not, however, that impenitent sinners now enjoy, or ever will enjoy true peace of mind ; for there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. No, they are constantly and anxiously seeking rest, and vainly inquiring, who will show us any good ? and their repeated dis- appointments, cares and perplexities, together with their unruly appetites, passions and desires, render their minds like the troubled sea which cannot rest. But the peace which the sub- jects of Satan enjoy, consists in these two particulars : (1.) They are seldom if ever much alarmed respecting their own salvation. Like madmen, who fancy themselves kings and emperors, the sinner thinks that he is rich and increased in goods, and has need of nothing ; and does not in the least suspect that he is poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. He has a good opinion of himself, suspects no danger, thinks little of death or OVER SATAN. 131 eternity ; or if he does, fancies that he is already prepared, and that there is no cause of anxiety or alarm. True he may, oc- casionally, notwithstanding his armor, be slightly wounded by the arrows of conviction, or he may hear the curses and terrors of the law proclaimed by God's ministers, when they lift up their voices as a trumpet, to warn him of his transgressions ; but he listens to them as to the noise of distant thunder, which, though it rolls over the heads of others, threatens no danger to himself, and is quickly forgotten amid the hurry and bustle of worldly pursuits. (2.) The sinner enjoys peace, because there is nothing in his soul to take the part of God against Satan, and thus produce intestine war and commotion. All his powers and faculties are leagued against God, on the side of sin, unless we except his conscience, and this soon becomes seared and stupefied, so that its voice is seldom heard. There is consequently in the sinner's breast none of that inward warfare which the Christian feels, no lusting of the flesh against the spirit, and of the spirit against the flesh. In this respect all is calm and peaceful within, but, alas, it is the calmness and peace of spiritual death. His understanding, his will, his affections and imagination are all chained up in spiritual bondage, darkness and death. The foe of God and man reigns supreme and uncontrolled on the throne of his heart ; all his mental and corporeal faculties are so many instruments of unrighteousness, to displease and dishonor his Maker ; yet he is careless and secure, suspects no danger, and, while hardening himself against God, hopes to prosper. Such is the deplorable situation of every una wakened, impenitent sinner; and such it ever will be, unless Christ, who is stronger than the strong man armed, by the power of his Spirit and grace, comes upon him, overcomes him, takes from him his armor, and divides his spoils. In the description here given of the great and glorious victory which Christ obtains over the god of this world, "when he casts him out from the soul of which he has taken possession, we may notice, in the first place, that he comes upon him unawares. Never does the sinner begin to seek Christ, unless Christ begins to seek the sinner ; for we are assured there are none who ever seek after God. But when our blessed Saviour comes with the godlike design of delivering the captive from the hand of the 132 Christ's victory mighty, lie girds on his sword, and rides forth prosperously in his chariot of salvation, arrayed in meekness, truth and right- eousness ; and in a moment when the sinner perhaps least expects or wishes it, he suddenly feels the arrows of conviction sharp in his heart. Then his false peace is at an end. Con- science no longer sleeps ; he no longer hears as though he heard not ; the blind eyes begin to open, the siony heart begins to melt. The Aveapons of Christ's ministers, which are not carnal hut spiritual, then become mighty, through God, to cast down all his high thoughts and imaginations, and he for the first time finds himself a poor, miserable, helpless captive, a wretched, self-condemned sinner ; and all within is remorse, anxiety and alarm. Again : In farther carrying on this glorious work, the Captain of our salvation takes from the strong man armed all the armor in which he trusted. He strips the sinner of the breastplate of self-righteousness, causes the shield of unbelief to fall from his hand, takes away the false hopes of salvation w^hich composed his helmet, quenches the fiery sword of an inflamed tongue, scatters all his magazines of cavils, excuses and objections, and beats down the refuges of lies in which he trusted. Once more : Satan being thus baffled and disarmed, the tri- umphant conqueror proceeds to divide his spoils. The soul, which was once his palace, is transformed into the habitation of Christ, and a meet temple for the Holy Spirit of God. All his mental and corporeal faculties are now transformed into instruments of righteousness, to serve and glorify God. His time, his talents, his property, himself and all that he has, are consecrated to the work of obedience and praise. This is the work, and these the spoils of the conqueror. My friends, what a glorious change is here ! That soul, which was once the palace, the castle and strong hold of Satan, the den of every unclean and hateful lust, is now the temple of God, and filled with the graces of his Spirit. The wretched slaves of sin, chained up in spiritual darkness and death, igno- rant of their danger, pleased with their situation, and not even wishing to be delivered, are now brought into the glorious light and liberty, and adopted as the children of God. The distracted sinner, who, like the man possessed among the tombs, once madly endeavored to wound and eternally destroy his own soul, OVER SATAN. 133 by his vices, now sits as a humble disciple at the feet of Jesus, clothed with his righteousness, adorned with his graces, and in his right mind. Surely none but God alone can produce a change as happy and glorious as this. Surely there may well be joy in heaven to behold it. Permit me now, by way of improvement, to remind you, my Christian friends, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, of the time when Satan, as a strong man armed, kept possession of your hearts, and led you captive at his will, while you were at peace and feared no danger. Remember how you were then pleased and satisfied with your bondage : how you loved dark- ness ; how long you resisted and grieved the Spirit of God ; how you were wont to say to him who came to accomplish your deliverance. What have we to do with thee 7 Remember these things and then consider what you owe to Him who has done such great things for you. Remember these things, and then consider how you ought to pity and pray for those miserable captives who are yet in that deplorable bondage, exposed to endless perdition, and yet are at peace and satisfied with their condition. Remember these things, and let the remembrance increase your humility, inflame your love, and animate your soul, and cause you to be as active, cheerful, diligent, and persevering in the service of God, as you formerly were in the service of Satan. From those who have been brought out of darkness and slavery, into the glorious liberty of the children of God, we would next turn to those who are still in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. You are perhaps ready, my friends, to pity, if not despise the Christian, on account of the restraints and obligations under which he is laid by his belief; but in reality, he has infinitely more reason to pity and weep over you. The service of the Christian is perfect liberty; for Christ's commandments are not grievous, but his yoke is easy and his burden light. His service also is honorable, and will receive a rich reward ; for he serves the King of kings and Lord of lords, who will give him a crown of glory and eternal life. But you, who boast of your liberty, are enslaved in worse than Egyptian bondage. You serve and obey the father of lies : you live just as he would have you, and he doubtless exults, with diabolical joy and triumph, to see his miserable victims, 134 Christ's victory whom he leads captive at his will, proud and pleased with their chains, and running thoughtless and secure the broad road to ruin. But his service, which you thus love is not only base and dishonorable, but ruinous and destructive ; for the wages he bestows is eternal death. Yet by his diabolical art he has so blinded your minds, that you believe not. You think there is no danger; the gospel is hid from you, as it is from those who are lost ; and unless the blessed Redeemer, who is stronger than the strong man armed, should see fit in infinite mercy, to come and open your eyes, and turn you from the power of Satan to God, you will continue careless and secure, conformed to the world, and pursuing its pleasures, riches and honors, till you open your eyes too late in eternity. From this state, my friends, we cannot deliver you. We cannot even convince you that you are in such a state, and probably many of you have heard the present discourse, without the smallest suspicion that it is a description of your own char- acter and situation. But this false peace and security, instead of proving that you are safe, only proves more clearly your danger. It proves that the strong man armed is not disturbed in his possession, but that he keeps you in peace. Another thing which clearly proves this, is, that even now you are using the armor of the god of this world, to defend yourselves against the truth which we are delivering. Some of you are putting on as a defence, the breastplate of self-righteousness, and pretending that you cannot possibly be so bad as is now represented. Others are holding up the shield of unbelief to defend them- selves against the terrors of the law, and resolving that they will not believe their situation to be such as has now been described, or that the word of God is literally and strictly true. Others again are putting on the helmet of a false hope of salva- tion, though they continue in sin; while some, perhaps, are ready to bring forward the magazine of cavils, objections and excuses with which the father of lies furnishes them. But, my friends, if any of you are trusting to this armor, you are trusting to the armor of Satan; and though it may defend you from the arrows of conviction now, yet it will not defend you, hereafter, against those bolts of divine indignation, which will fall, like blasting lightnings, on the head of the guilty. OVER SATAN. 135 There will be no unbelief in hell, for even the devils believe and tremble. Instead then of uniting with the foe of God and man to destroy your own souls, by madly hardening yourselves against God, and contending with the Almighty, let me entreat you instantly to throw down the weapons of your rebellion, and cry earnestly to Him who is able to save ; to deliver you from the strong man armed, who now keeps possession of your souls. This he is ever willing and ready to do ; for it was the great object of his coming on earth, as he himself declares : The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. Awake then to a sense of your situation; no longer indulge that false peace which will prove your destruction ; but awake ; arise ; make a struggle for liberty now, or expect to remain forever the slaves of Satan, prisoners in the regions of despair, under chains of everlasting darkness. Trust not however to your own struggles, but apply to Him who alone is able to overcome the god of this world. Look to Him for help, and you will not be disappointed, for his grace is sufficient for you. And you, my Christian friends, if you have relatives who are possessed by a dumb spirit, so. that they will not pray, or a deaf spirit, so that they will not hear, or who have been long bound as it were in fetters of brass, by the powers of darkness, bring them to Jesus. Cry unto him like the woman of Canaan, Lord Jesus have mercy and heal my friends, who are ensnared, en- slaved and vexed by an evil spirit ; and though he appear to heed you not, to treat you unkindly, or to give you no answer, yet be not discouraged. Continue to plead, and hope all things from his infinite compassion. SERMON LIX. CHRIST'S LOVE FOR THE CHURCH. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians v. 25 — 27. In his epistles to the Corinthians, St. Paul informs us that he determined to know or make known, nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Did he then intend so to confine himself to the doctrines of the cross, as to say nothing, in his preacliing, of moral duties? By no means. All his epistles prove that he did not. But he intended to illustrate and enforce moral duties in an evangelical manner, by motives and illustrations derived from the cross of Christ. A striking instance of this we have in the context, in which he explains and inculcates the duties of husbands and wives. We should be ready, at first view, to imagine that these duties have nothing to do with the doctrines of the gospel, and that they must be enforced by considerations derived from some other quarter. But the Apostle shows us that this would be a mistake. By alluding to the union between Christ and his church, he illustrates and enforces the duties of the married state in the most clear and striking manner possible. Wives, says he, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord ; for the husband is the head of the wife, even as chuist's love for the church. 137 Christ is the head of the Church. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own hus- bands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Thus, you see, that even while inculcating the duties resulting from the married state, the Apostle still adhered to his determination to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified. In the passage thus introduced we have four things which deserve our attention : I. The object of Christ's love ; the church. II. The j)roof of his love ; he gave kimself for it. HI, The design of his love ; that he might sanctify, cleanse and present it to himself a glorious and spotless church. IV. The means by which he effects this ; the ivashing of water and the word. A few reflections on these several particu- lars, will compose the following discourse. I. Let us consider the object of Christ's love; the church. By the church here, you are doubtless sensible is not meant any particular church, as the church at Rome, at Corinth or Ephesus, but the church universal. You are also probably aware that the church universal which Christ loved, and for which he died, does not include all the members of his visible church, who are united to him by an external profession; for the Scriptures clearly teach, and melancholy experience incontestibly proves, that many of these are insincere, and either wilfully deceive others, or are deceived themselves. It is therefore the real, invisible church which is here intended, including all who ever have believed, or who ever will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with a true and living faith ; all, in a word, who were given to him by his Father in the covenant of redemption. In this covenant God promised his Son, that if he would make his soul an offering for sin, he should have a seed, and a people to serve him, and that this people should be made willing to serve him in the day of his power. Of these persons Christ speaks, when he says, all that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. To VOL. HL 18 138 Christ's love these also he refers in his last prayer : I have manifested thy name to them which thou gavest me out of the world ; thine they were and thou gavest them me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Neither pray I for these alone, but for all them also, Vv'ho shall believe on me through their word. From these passages it appears, that the church, which was given to Christ, the church which he loves and for which he prays, includes all who did then believe, and all who should afterwards believe on him to the end of time. If any doubt this, and allege that Christ loves and prays for none till they actually become mem- bers of his visible church, we would refer them to the tenth chapter of John. We there find Christ saying, I am the good Shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, who are not of this fold. Them also I must bring ; and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd ; or in other words, one church and one head. Here Christ evidently speaks of some of his sheep, who had not yet been brought into his fold, or visible church ; and at the same time predicts that they shall be brought in, in due time. He does not therefore love persons, because they are members of his church ; but they become members of his church, because he first loved them as given to him by his Father. Agreeably we find him saying to his disciples, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And again he says to them, As the Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you. But he elsewhere tells us, that his Father loved him before the foundation of the world. If then he loves his disciples, even as the Father loves him, he must have loved them before the foundation of the world ; and he may justly say to all his real disciples, as he does to his ancient church, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And as this love of God to his Son is sincere, aident, constant and unchangeable, such must be the love of Christ to his church. This leads us to consider, as was pro- posed, II. The proof of Christ's love to his church; He gave himself for it. Observe what he gave ; not merely his time, not his ex- ertions, not his perfections, but himself, his whole self, without the least reserve. Such was the greatness, the intensity of his FOR THE CHURCH. 139 love for his church, that he devoted to it his body, his soul, his blood, his very life, to be disposed of as its welfare required. Observe too, to what he gave himself He gave himself up to disgrace and ignominy. Though he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet he humbled and made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and suffered himself to be despised and rejected of men. He gave himself up to the most abject poverty : Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he be- came poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich. He gave himself up to sorrow, suff'ering, shame and reproach. All they that see me, says he, laugh me to scorn : they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheek to them that plucked off" the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Behold and see, all ye that pass by, if there be any sorrow like my sorrow. He was indeed a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Ho gave himself up into the hands of his bitterest and most impla- cable enemies. This is above all things disagreeable and hateful to nature. Few things can be conceived of more abhorrent to our feelings, than to be delivered into the power of raging, insulting, blood-thirsty foes, who will exhaust all the arts of cruelty in tormenting us, and mock our dying agonies with scoffs, revilings, and the exclamations of savage triumph. What, my friends, could induce you to throw yourselves into a dark and loathsome pit, filled with deadly serpents, scorpions, and other poisonous and disgusting reptiles, all brandishing their envenomed stings, and eager to devour you 7 Yet this world, into which the Son of God voluntarily descended for our sakes, was far more hateful, dreadful, and loathsome to his holy nature, than such a pit would be to us; and the poisonous rage of serpents and scorpions, is far inferior in malignity and in the sufferings which it can inflict, to that rancorous enmity which exists in the hearts of sinners, to which Christ gave himself up. Nor was this all. He also gave himself up to the powers of darkness, who harassed and tormented his mind, incomparably 140 Christ's love ■worse than men could his body. The prince of this world, said he, Cometh. He saw him approaching ; approaching to till his soul with unutterable anguish, and fulfil the prediction that he should bruise Christ's heel, that is his human nature. We see in the case of Job what the powers of darkness can do, and how mispeakably they can torture aud distract the soul, even while controlled by divine power. What then must Christ have suf- fered from them, when they were permitted without restraint, to exert all their rage and cruelty to destroy him, if possible; and if not, to increase to the utmost his wretchedness. Yet to this Christ gave himself up for his church. But the proofs of his love do not end here. He also gave himself up to the wrath of God ; to the curse of his broken law. He surrendered himself up as a sinner into the hands of incensed justice; and while he thus stood in the sinner's place. God treated him as if he had been a sinner. He hid his face from him; set the terrors of his wrath in array against him, made him the mark of those arrows, the poison of which drinks up the spirits, and plunged the flaming sword deep in his inmost soul. In this, the very essence of his sufferings consisted. All that men and devils could do, he bore without a groan. But when the weight of divine wrath crushed him down, when his Father's face was hidden from his view ; and he beheld him only in the character of an awful, holy, avenging God, as a consuming fire to sinful creatures, then his anguish could no longer be concealed, but burst forth in that heart-rending ex- clamation. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ! Such were the sufferings which Christ endured for the sake of his church; such the proofs of love which he has given it. And what proofs can be conceived of, more strong or satisfac- tory? We think it a proof of love to perform acts of kindness to others, when we can do it without much personal suffering or inconvenience. Should we redeem a friend from slavery at the expense of our whole fortune, we should expect that his gratitude for such a proof of affection, would cease but with his life. And should we sacrifice our life to preserve his, it would be acknowledged by all that we had given the strongest possible evidence of our love; for greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. Yet all this would be nothing, and less than nothing in comparison with what FOR THE CHURCH. 141 Christ has done for his church ; with what he has done, not for friends, but for rebels and enemies. Well then may he commend the greatness of his love, in that while we were enemies, he died for us, — died such a death as no one ever suffered or can suffer. I am aware, however, that we are prone to evade these proofs of his love, by imagining tbat pain, shame, and death, were not so terrible to Christ, as they are to us. But this is a gross mistake. He had the same natural aversion to these evils, the same unwillingness to suffer them, which we have; and nothing but love, the most ardent and intense, could have conquered this unwillingness, and led him, patient and resigned as a lamb, to the slaughter. We proceed now to consider, III. His design in thus giving himself for his church. It was to sanctify, cleanse, and present it to himself a glorious and spotless church, without the least moral defilem.ent. You need not be told that love naturally desires the society of the object beloved. Since then Christ loves his church, he cannot but desire that it should be with him where he is; and agreeably, we find him in his last prayer soliciting this favor of his Father. But before his church can reside with him in heaven, it is necessary that it should be prepared for those holy mansions ; for we are told that nothing which defileth can enter there, and every member of his church is originally defiled by the pollutions of sin. He himself compares it, in its natural state, to a naked, polluted, helpless infant, cast out to perish in its blood. Such was the state in which he foresaw his church, when it first became the object of his love ; and from this state, it was the design of his sufferings and death to raise it. It is styled his body, his members, and he intends that this body shall be like the head, perfectly holy, harmless, and undefiled. It is also styled his bride, his consort, his spouse, and he intends that his bride shall be made worthy of such a husband. Every member of his church must therefore be perfectly freed from all corporeal weaknesses and infirmities; from all spiritual blemishes and imperfections. Their bodies must be changed, and made like unto his glorious body, and their spirits rendered perfect, even as their Father in heaven is perfect. The work by which this glorious transformation is to be effected, is already begun in the hearts of all who believe, and will in due time be fully accomplished. And the same work will commence, and be carried on to per- 142 Christ's love fection in the hearts of all who shall believe on him hereafter. And when his mystical body is complete, when every member of it is brought into his church, then the Lord of the world will come. Then Christ will appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The bodies of his people will be raised incorruptible and immortal, and be caught up by angels to meet their Lord in the air; where the whole multitude of the redeem- ed will be presented to him as a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, and perfectly prepared to accompany their Redeemer to heaven, and there live and reign with him forever and ever. Then will the design for which he gave himself up to poverty, pain, shame and death, be fully accomplished, and he will see the glorious fruits of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. This leads us to consider, as was proposed, IV. The means by which Christ accomplishes this great work. The apostle in our text mentions two, the washing of water, and the word. What is here called the washing of water, is in another passage styled the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. That the influences of the Holy Spirit are very frequently compared to water, you need not be told: and the reason of this comparison is, that as water cleans- es the body from pollution, so the Holy Spirit purifies the soul from the defilement of sin. By the washing of water, in our text, is therefore intended the purifying influences of the Holy Spirit, by which every real member of the church of Christ is renewed in the spirit of his mind, and sanctified or cleansed from moral pollution. Agreeably the apostle writes to the mem- bers of the Corinthian church. Ye are washed, ye are justified, ye are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. These sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit Christ procured for his church, by his sufferings and death. When he ascended on high, leading captivity captive, he receiv- ed gifts for men, and of these gifts the Holy Spirit was the prin- cipal. This gift he is constantly pouring out upon his church in showers of divine grace, to sanctify and cleanse it, agreeably to his promise in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel: Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthhiess, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. The instrumental means by which this great work is eflected, FOR HIS CHURCH. 143 is the word of God. His church are sanctified and cleansed with the Spirit, but by the word ; for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This word is the grand instrument by which the Spirit of God awakens the future mem- bers of Christ's church, from spiritual slumber, convinces them of their naturally sinful and miserable condition, and creates them anew, or regenerates them to a new life. Hence they are said to be born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrup- tible, by the word of God, which liyeth and abideth forever. The work of sanctification, thus begun by the instrumentality of the word, is carried on to perfection by means of the same word, agreeably to our Saviour's petition to his Father, Sanctify them through thy truth. The subject we have been considering is full of consolation to the church of Christ; but we cannot partake of this conso- lation, unless we have a well-grounded liope that we are real members of his church. We may be members of his visible church, and yet have no connection with his real church : and some present may be members of his real church whose doubts respecting their own character have hitherto prevented them from uniting with his visible church. Let us then improve this subject, 1. For self-examination, that we may ascertain whether we truly belong to the church of Christ or not. You have already been reminded, that Christ gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it from all pollution. If, then, you are real members of his church, he has already begun this glo- rious work in your hearts. He has awakened you from your slumbers, convinced you that you are guilty, miserable sinners, wholly polluted by the defilements of sin, entirely unfit to enter heaven, and justly exposed to everlasting condemnation, without any possibility of escaping it by your own merits. He has also renewed you in the spirit of your minds, caused you to hate, loathe, and repent of your sins, to embrace him as your only Saviour by a living faith, and to long, and pray, and strive after universal holiness. In one word, he has made you new crea- tures ; for if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Now if this great change has been effected in your hearts, you are real members of the church of Christ, whether you belong to his visible church or not ; and if you do not, you may, and you 144 Christ's love ought to unite yourself to it without delay; for Christ loves and has given himself for you. Hence, 2. Those who have reason to hope that they belong to the real church of Christ, may improve this subject lor their encour- agement and consolation. To all such it does indeed afford abundant cause for rejoicing. You may each one of you say, with confidence, Christ loves me. Yes, the Son of God, the Creator of the world, the brightness of his Father's glory, the chief among ten thousand in whom dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily, condescends to love me, a poor sinfid worm of the dust ; loves me better than I love my parents, better than I love my children, better than I love brother or sister or friend ; nay, better than I love myself; loves me with a love stronger than death and lasting as eternity. He not only loves me, but has given himself for me ; has died that 1 may live ; live forever with him in heaven. And is not this cause of rejoicing? If the most amiable and excellent of the human race w^ould be- come your friend and companion, would you not rejoice '? If this most amiable and excellent friend was also a powerful monarch, able to defend, enrich, and load you with honors, would you not rejoice still more. How then ought the Christian to rejoice in the love of Him who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is the perfection of uncreated excellence, glory, and beauty ; whose love knows no bounds, no interrup- tion, intermission or end ; who possesses unerring wisdom to guide, and omnipotent power to defend them. Surely, my Christian hearers, if you will not rejoice in the love of such a friend, you can rejoice in nothing. Well may the apostle call upon you to rejoice in the Lord, to rejoice in the Lord always, to rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. What if you are poor ? In possessing such a Friend, you possess all things. What if you have no other friends ! Is not such a Friend enough to satisfy you 7 Is he not worthy of all your affection, and will he not more than return it 7 Rejoice then in your eternal, almighty, unchangeable Friend, and begin now to sing the song of the redeemed, exclaiming, Now unto him that was slain, that loved us, and gave himself for us, and redeemed us to God by his blood, be ascribed riches, and honor and glory, and power and blessing. 3. While you thus rejoice in Christ's love, endeavor to return FOR HIS CHURCH. 145 it Strive to love with your whole hearts him who first loved you. Give your whole selves to him who has already given himself for you. Remember that you are no longer your own, for you are bought with a price. Glorify him then in your souls and bodies which are his; and let his love constrain you to live for him who died for you. Surely, if his love does not constrain you thus to live, it must be because you do not realize it. Surely, you cannot refuse to love and live to him, who is so infinitely lovely, and who loves you with such an intense and unalterable affection, notwithstanding all your unworthiness. His language to you is, as my Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you : continue ye in my love. 1 have not called you servants, but friends, and then are ye my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. O then, love, love and praise with all your powers this infinitely gracious, condescending and affectionate friend, who declares that though mothers should forget and cease to love their infants, he will not forget or cease to love his church. Let our love to him be equally unchanging. Though parents should forget their children, and children cease to love their parents; though the titles of brother and sister, husband and wife, should cease to excite affection ; though every other tie should be dissolved, and all other love banished from the earth, yet never let the church cease to love him v/ho has loved and given himself for it. 4. While you have this friend, be careful to trust in his love, to confide in him unreservedly without the least anxiety, doubt or suspicion. You well know that nothing grieves us more than the jealousies and suspicions of our friends, that we do not love them. Beware then that you do not grieve this best of friends, by indulging them. He surely has a right to be believed, when he professes to love his people, since he has already given them such strong and infallible proofs of his affection. His promises and assurances come to us sealed with his own life-blood • and if he loved us and gave himself for us Avhile we were yet enemies, how shall he not also with himself freely give us all things. We appeal to yourselves, would he who has freely given you his blood, his life; he who has suffered so much for your sakes; would he deny you more wealth, more friends, more temporal comforts, if he saw that they would prove really beneficial? Would he ever afflict you, if it were not absolutely VOL. III. 19 146 Christ's love necessary for your good? To die for you, cost him much; to give you mere temporal blessings would cost him nothing. Since then he has done the former, can he be unwilling to do the latter? If his love has led him to do that which was most difficult, will it not lead him to do what is most easy 7 And has he not prom- ised that he will withhold from you no good thing ? that he will cause all things to work together for your good 7 that he will never leave you nor forsake you 7 Why then, oh ye of little faith, why do ye doubt 7 Why do you distress yourselves and grieve him by needless anxieties respecting what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, or how you shall be carried through the trials and difficulties which are before you in your way to heaven 7 Banish, I beseech you, all your groundless fears and anxieties. Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you ; and while you love and praise him for all that is past, so trust him for all that is to come. 5. Did Christ give himself for the church with a view to render it perfectly holy, without any blemish or imperfection 1 How strong then are our obligations, and how great our encour- agement, to aim at universal holiness. What, oh Christian, do you above all things desire 7 Is it not to be holy as Christ is holy, and to be with him where he is 7 And does not he ardently desire the same 7 Did he not give himself for you for this very purpose, that he might sanctify, cleanse, and present you to himself, perfectly glorious and holy 7 And will he fail of accomplishing his purpose? No ; as certainly as Christ has died, so certainly shall every real member of his church, every one who truly hates and mourns for sin, be presented to him at last, freed from every spot and blemish. Arise, then, ye who are weak, wounded, and desponding, and renew the conflict with sin. While endeavoring to subdue it, you are fighting the battles of Christ; you are engaged in a cause which is dear to him; you are contending with his enemies, as well as yours; he has determined that they must and shall be conquered. Fight then courageously a short time longer, and tlie victory shall be certainly yours. The object of Christ's death must not, shall not, cannot be frustrated; but every member ot his real church shall be made perfectly like him, and see him as he is. Soon will the blessed day arrive, when he will present to himself the whole church of his redeemed, as a glorious FOB HIS CHURCH. 14T church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. In this number you will then be found, and sit down with him forever at his marriage supper in heaven. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, comfort and encourage one another in your Christian warfare with these words. Lastly, Does Christ thus love his church 1 How desirable then is it, my impenitent hearers, that you should become mem- bers of it, and thus share in his love. Mistake me not, however. We wish not to induce you to make a hypocritical profession ; for this would not render you members of his church. But we wish you to unite yourselves to his real church ; to join your- selves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Till you do this, you have no right to hope for a share in the blessings which Christ has purchased ; but having done this, you shall finally become members of the church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and be partakers of the glory that shall be there revealed. SEEMON LX. CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF THE LOST. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke xix 10. There cannot, my friends, be a more striking and satisfactory proof of our stupid insensibility to religions truth, than the indifference with which we naturally view the gospel of Christ Among all the wonderful things which God has presented to the contemplation of his creatures, none are so well suited to excite our deepest interest and attention, as those whicli this gospel reveals. We see that God, who is wise in counsel, and won- derful in working, constantly employed for four thousand years in making preparations for Christ's appearance on earth. We see many holy and divinely inspired prophets raised up in dif- ferent ages, to predict his incarnation. We see a person, born contrary to the common course of nature, employed as a har- binger to prepare his way. We see an angel sent from heaven to his intended virgin mother, to announce his approaching birth. We see a multitude of the heavenly host, sent to reveal the accomplishment of this event, and hear them shouting, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men. We see a miraculous star appearing in the East, to an- nounce the same event to distant sages, and guide them to the feet of the new-born infant. Finally, we see the lieavens CHRIST. THE SAVIOUR OF THE LOST. 149 opened over his head, the Spirit of God descending hke a dove to rest upon it, and at the same time hear the voice of the om- nipotent, eternal Father of the universe, exclaiming, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. By comparing the predictions of his birth, with other parts of revelation, we find that the child thus born, the son thus given and ushered into our world, is in fact the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, God manifest in flesh, God over all, blessed forever, by whom and for whom all things were made, and in whom all things consist. And what is the end and design of all these wonders 7 For what purpose is all this preparation made ? Why do we thus see heaven opened, its inhabitants descending, and behold God dwelling in flesh, living, suflering, and dying as a man? To these questions, our text furnishes the only satisfactory answer. It teaches us, that all this was done for our salvation. The Soa of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. In meditating on this passage, we are naturally led to inquire, I. What it is that is here spoken of as lost? It can scarcely be necessary to say, that it is the human race. Mankind are invariably represented by the inspired writers, as morally de- praved, ruined and lost ; and they are here spoken of as one, because they are all alike in the same lost condition, in conse- quence of their descent from the same parents. In Adam all die. As descendants from him, all are lost. In the first place, they are lost to God. He is our Creator, our Shepherd ; and we, as the Psalmist expresses it, are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. But, to use the language of the prophet, we have all gone astray like lost sheep, and have turned every one to his own way. Like the prodigal son in our Saviour's affecting parable, we have forsaken our Father's house, and wandered from him into a far country. These, and other passages which represent us as being at a distance from God, are to be understood, however, not in a natural but moral sense; for in a natural sense, it is impossible for any creature to depart from God, since in him we live, move, and have our being, and cannot go from his Spirit, or fly from his presence. But while we are thus constantly surrounded by God, we are far from him in a moral sense. To use the expressive language of Scripture, He is not in all our thoughts ; we live without 150 CHRISTj THE SAVIOUR him in the world ; we have lost his moral image, and he is become to us an absent and unknown God, so that it is necessary, as the apostle expresses it, that the sons of men should seek after the Lord, if perad venture they may feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. Should a man by any means be deprived of sight, he might be said to be lost to the sun, though this luminary would still shine around him, warm him with its beams, and produce the fruits which preserved his life. But he would have lost all views of its brightness, and of those objects which it discovers to others ; its light would no longer guide him, nor enable him to discern the dangers which might be in his path. In a similar manner are men lost, with respect to God. Though his glory shines around them, and his power preserves their lives and gives them all the blessings they enjoy, yet they realize not his presence ; they are blind to his perfections ; they see not his glory in his works ; they hear not his voice in his word ; they are not guided by his light, they discern not the objects which he reveals. In a word, the Father of lights, the great sun of the universe, has no existence in their apprehensions. And when they look up to heaven, all is dark and the eternal throne ap- pears empty. When they contemplate the visible creation, they see only a fair but lifeless body ; for of God, the animating, guiding soul, who fills, upholds, and directs every part, they perceive nothing. Even when they look into the volume of his word, it is to them only a dead letter, and they find there noth- ing of God, though he lives and speaks in every line. Having thus lost the knowledge of the true God, they turn of course to some created idol, and transfer to it that affection, confidence, and dependence, which belongs to him. Forsaking the foun- tain of living waters, they have hewed out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water. Thus they are lost to God, as this world would be lost to the sun, should it fly off into the regions of eternal frost and darkness. In the second place, being thus lost to God, mankind are of course lost to holiness. In forsaking him, they forsake the path of duty and become sinners. In forsaking him, they forsake also the author of all holiness in the hearts of creatures. Turn a mirror from the sun, and it ceases at once, to reflect his image. Place it in darkness, and it emits not a gleam of light. So OF THE LOST. 151 when a creature turns from God, he loses at once his holy im- age. Forsaking the fountain of good, he becomes whoUy destitute of goodness. Should the most perfect created spirit in heaven wander from God, he would cease to be holy ; he would become wholly depraved. He would be a devil. Agreeably, the Scriptures invariably represent mankind as by nature en- tirely destitute of holiness ; as alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts ; in a word, as dead in trespasses and sins, and of course as devoid of holiness as a dead man is of life. In consequence of being thus lost to God and holiness, mankind are consequently lost to happiness. God is the fountain of fe- hcity, the only source of real happiness to intelligent creatures. In his presence only is fulness of joy : at his right hand alone, are pleasures forevermore. His favor is life, and his loving kindness is far better than life. He is the proper element of the soul, as the ocean is the element of its inhabitants, and as well might the inhabitants of the ocean, be happy in the burning sands of Arabia, as man can be happy in a state of absence from God. As the prodigal, who wandered from his father's house, soon experienced the miseries of famine, and found that the husks on which he fed, could not satisfy his hunger, so man- kind, in their absence from God suffer a famine of happiness; they constantly hunger and thirst after satisfying pleasures, but find nothing of a satisfying nature. They often imagine indeed that they have found happiness, but painful experience soon undeceives them, and thus the miseries of perpetual disappoint- ment are added to those of constant hunger and thirst. Their situation, to borrow the language of the prophet, is like that of a hungry man who dreameth, and behold he eateth, but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; or like that of a thirsty man, who dreameth, and behold he drinketh, but he awaketh and behold he is faint. Thus do men often dream that they have found some real good, something that will satisfy the soul, and as often awake to the pains of disappointment and unsatisfied desires. In addition to this negative unhappiness, the sinful feelings, passions, and pursuits of men bring upon them many positive miseries. Instead of living together in love, as a band of brothers, as they would do, had they not wandered from God and holiness, they are almost constantly engaged in wars, strifes, 152 CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR and contentions, which not only disturb personal, domestic, and social happiness, but often spread desolation, wretchedness, and death over whole provinces and kingdoms at once. In short, sin has turned almost every man's hand against his brother, and even in the best regulated society, the petty jars and quar- rels of families, the clashing of opposite interests, the contentions of differing political parties, and the slanderous reports, whispers and insinuations which are publicly or privately circulated, greatly disturb its peace, and leave little of happiness but the name. These however are only the natural consequences of sin. If in addition to these, we consider its penal consequences, we shall be still more fully convinced that men are lost to happiness. By the penal consequences of sin, we mean those present and future miseries which the justice of a holy God has attached to its commission. Among these miseries maybe mentioned those guilty fears and reproaches of conscience, which, in a greater or less degree, all sinners experience. If you will look into your own breasts, my friends, and consider how much you suffer from fears of death, apprehensions of God's anger, and self- reproach ; if you reflect how often these things haunt you in secret, and how often they render you unhappy in society even, when an aching heart is concealed by a smiling countenance, you will feel convinced, that if other men are like you, they must feel much more unhappiness than they appear to feel, or than they are willing to confess. And, my friends, other sinful men are like you, and the mental sufferings which agitate your breasts, are a faithful counterpart to those which they experience; and never do these sufferings cease, till the sinner becomes holy, or his conscience is seared, and he is given up of God. In the next place, among the penal consequences of sin, may be reckoned death, with all the diseases, pains, and sufferings which precede it, and the heart-rending anguish which it often occasions, when it deprives us of our children and friends. By sin, death entered into the world, and it passes upon all men, because all have sinned. Were there nothing else to render sinful men unhappy, the certainty of death would alone be suf- ficient to do it; for the more happy they were in other respects, the more would their happiness be disturbed by a dread of that awful hour which must put an end to it; and if their happiness OF THE LOST. 153 depended on tlie enjoyment of friends, the uncertainty of their life would furnish new cause for anxiety and alarm. But these things, though sufficient to render men strangers to happiness, are not all the penal consequences of sin. On the contrary, they are but the beginning of sorrows, for the wages of sin is death, including not the death of the body only, but the death, the eternal death of the soul. By the broken law of God, all sinners are doomed to be cast into the lake of fire, which, says an inspired writer, is the second death; there to sink deep- er and deeper through eternity in the abyss of wretchedness and despair, lost, forever lost, to God, to holiness, to happiness and hope. Consider now the brief view which we have taken of the situ- ation of sinful man. See him at first created in the image of his Maker, perfectly holy and upright, a stranger to pain, sor- row, sickness and death, enjoying perfect peace of conscience, and power with God, breathing nothing but love to him and his creatures, constantly employed with delight in his service, tasting the purest felicity in communion with him, and perpetu- ally approaching nearer and nearer to that heaven which was his destined, eternal home. See the same creature, now deprived of the image and favor of God, wholly sinful and depraved, the slave of ungovernable passions and insatiable appetites and desires, a prey to guilty fear and remorse; exposed to sorrow, sickness and death in ten thousand forms; living for a while without God and without hope in the world, wholly neglecting the great end for which he was created, wandering farther and farther from the path of duty and happiness, with nothing before him but a fearful looking for of judgment, which will doom him to depart accursed into everlasting fire. Consider these things, and then say, is not this creature lost. Yet such is the natural situation of mankind ; such would have been the inevi- table, irreversible doom of all, had not the Son of God visited our world. To seek and to save this lost creature was the design on which he came; and this is the II. General topic to be considered in this discourse. In treating it, I remark, 1. The Son of man came to seek the creatures thus lost. In this passage, our Saviour probably alludes to his character of a shepherd, and to a parable uttered by him not long before, VOL. m. 20 154 CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR in which he compares himself to a man going into the wilder- ness in search of a lost sheep. You need not be told, that this animal, when lost, never of itself returns to its shepherd, but rambles farther and farther from his fold, and even often flies from him as an enemy, when he comes to seek and conduct it home. Thus it is with lost man. Having once forsaken God, he has neither the disposition to return, nor the ability to discov- er the path which leads back to him. It is the natural tendency of sin, under whose influence he is, to carry him still farther from God, to take away all disposition to seek him, and to ren- der him perfectly ignorant of the way in which he may be found. It leads the sinner to say to God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. It is therefore evident, that if these lost creatures are ever brought back to God, it will not be by their own exertions. God must seek them, or they will never seek him, and consequently will never find him. It is therefore necessary, that a guide should be sent from heaven to seek them and point out the way of return. Should this world, which now revolves round the sun, wander from it so far as |p lose sight of its beams, it is evident that it could never again find its way back to the sun. It could hold up no light by which to discov- er this luminary ; for the sun can be seen only by its own rays, and if the world should once lose sight of these rays, and be lost in the regions of eternal night, there would be nothing to guide it back, nothing to direct its course toward the sun. Then the only way to secure its return, would be for a ray of light proceeding from the sun to follow the lost planet through all its wanderings, and thus point out the way to the luminary from which itself emanated. Such is the situation of mankind with respect to God, the sun of the universe. They have wandered from him so far, that they have lost sight of his beams, all knowledge of his character and of the way to find him. Now Christ considered as the Son of man, is a ray of light from this Sun, sent to find and guide us back to God. This, we are told is the brightness, the eff'ulgence, the shining forth of his Father's glory, the true light which enlighteneth every man who Cometh into the world. To find lost man, he undertook a long and toilsome journey; even a journey from heaven to earth, and at his return to heaven, he pointed out the way, and command- ed, invited, and encouraged man to follow. Nor was it only to OF THE LOST. 156 the men who then hved on earth, that he thus pointed out the way to God, heaven, and happiness. No, he left infalhble directions recorded in his word; he sent his blessed Spirit to supply his place on earth as a teacher and guide, and appointed under-shepherds to go forth under his directions, to seek and find lost sinners, and conduct them to his feet. By his Spirit, his ministers, and his word, he is still seeking them, and is often found of them who sought him not, and made manifest to them that asked not after him; and whenever you read the word of God, whenever you hear it preached, and above all, when you feel something within, silently urging you to comply with it, you then hear the voice of Christ, and have a fresh proof that he is still seeking those who are lost; and when by any of these things you are convinced of your sinfulness, guilt and danger, and of your need of such a Saviour and guide as Christ, it is a proof that he has found you, and is calling you to follow him in the path which leads to heaven. 2. The Son of man came to save that which was lost. He seeks in ovdei^ to save, and if he did not save, it would be in vain for him to seek ; for as we have already observed, men are not only ignorant of the way to God, but unwilling to follow it when pointed out to them. In addition to this, they are held in captivity by the prince of darkness, who will not suffer them to return; they are defiled by innumerable sins, which render them unfit for the presence of God and heaven ; and by their apostacy, they have violated his holy law, whose demands they must sat- isfy, and whose curse, like a flaming sword turning every way, bars all access to the mercy seat. From all these things there- fore, from all the natural and final consequences of sin, they must be saved, or they can never return to God ; and to save them from these things, was the grand object for which Christ came into the world; for, it is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners; and with this declaration his name, Jesus a Saviour, per- fectly agrees. In conformity with these, and other similar declarations of Scripture, Christ has accomplished a complete salvation for all who will humbly and thankfully accept it ; and for his sake God has promised that all his chosen people shall be willing thus to accept it, in the day of his power. The way into heaven, the 166 CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR holiest of all, is now laid open; every bar which once closed it, is removed; a flood of light shines around us, to discover it to our view. The blood of Christ has taken away those mountains of guilt which once interposed between us and God, and cleanses penitent believers from all sin ; his Spirit sanctifies our polluted na- tures, and delivers us from the slavery of the world, the flesh, and the devil; prepares us for admission to heaven, and guides, sup- ports, and comforts us in our journey thither, through this vale of tears. In a word, the empire of satan is subdued, the power of sin is destroyed, the sting of death is taken away; the bars of the grave are broken; life and immortality are brought to light; the flaming sword is quenched, God is reconciled, the eternal doors of heaven are thrown open, that which was lost is saved, the world is redeemed, and man is happy and free; happy that is, if he knows his own happiness and embraces the Saviour and the salvation thus freely offered ; otherwise lost, more fatally, hopelessly lost, than ever. I close with a few reflections. 1. From our subject we infer that the word of God is of all books the most interesting, and would be so, even if we had no personal concern with its contents. Other books, even the most interesting, contain only accounts of human wars,terrestrial en- terprises, and expeditions for the conquest or deliverance of nations, and the struggles of the oppressed for liberty, or of the daring exploits, and perilous achievements, and hairbreadth escapes of the falsely brave. But the Bible, independently of many other most interesting subjects, gives us an account of a war between good and evil, between God and the powers of darkness; of an expedition undertaken for the deliverance of a ruined, lost, enslaved world, an expedition planned in heaven; devised in the remote ages of eternity, and finally accomplished in the most successful manner by the eternal Son of God. In this war, we behold sin and satan, and death and hell, with all the power of earth, marshalled on one side ; and on the other, the seed of the woman, the Son of man, going forth unarmed and alone to certain victory, and not less certain death ; to vic- tory which could be obtained only by his death; but which was completed by his triumphant resurrection and ascension to heav- en. As the prize contended for in this warfare, we see millions of immortal souls, the least of which is of far more value than this world, with the worlds around it ; souls whom the Son of OF THE LOST. 157 man is seeking to raise to heaven, while his foes wisli only to sink them deep in hell. Such is the war which the word of God describes, such the combatants, such the spoils of victory. How mnch more interesting this, than all that human histories relate. How still more interesting when we recollect that we were the cause of this war, the prize for which such combatants contended. Why then do we peruse this volume with so little interest? One reason only can be assigned. We do not be- lieve it. 2. How glorious, how amiable, how interesting does the Captain of our salvation appear in the light of our subject! You would contemplate with eager interest and admiration, a monarch who, reigning in perfect peace and prosperity over a coimtry extensive as his wishes, should go forth and jeopardize his life in the high places of the field, merely with the benevolent purpose of delivering an enslaved people from oppression. You Avould follow him to the field of battle, tremble at his danger, sympathize with him if wounded, rejoice in his success, recount with pleasure his victories, and follow his triumphant return with praise. All this, and more than this, has taken place in our day with respect to a now living monarch in Europe. Thus has he been admired and praised by thousands. Why then do so few admire, praise, and love the Son of God. He was great and glorious, and bappy in heaven to the utmost extent of his wishes, yet he cheerfully left it all to seek and to save a lost world, a world which was ruined, lost by ungratefully forsak- ing and rebelling against himself Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor. Though he was in the form of God, and equal with God, yet for our sakes he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and suffered himself to be despised, rejected, spit upon, buffeted, and finally crucified by his own creatures, when with infinite ease he could have avoided it all. In a word, to redeem us from the curse of the law we had broken, he consented to be made a curse for us. Why then, we repeat the question, why is he so little admired, praised and beloved by those whom he died to save? Why do so few comparatively commemorate his dying lov-^e? Why is he not extolled as much above all other deliverers, as he really is above them? The same answer must be again returned; it is because men do not believe. To believe that he has actually 168 CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF THE LOST. done this, and not to love, admire, and extol him above all beings, is impossible. The apostle believed it, and we know to what efforts and sacrifices it impelled him. What then shall we say, my professing friends, Ave who profess to believe that he actually has done this ; what shall we say, or rather what will be said of us, if we do not supremely love, admire, and praise the Saviour 7 May it not, must it not in that case, be said of us, that our faith is vain, since it does not produce love, and that, notwithstanding our profession, we are yet in our sins ? Lastly, did Christ come into our world to seek and to save lost sinners? Then it becomes us all most carefully to inquire, whether he has found and saved us. That he has found us, is evident, for the voice of his gospel, the voice of this great Shep- herd, even now sounds in our ears. But has he saved usl Have we felt constrained to obey his call 1 Surely, if he has saved us, if we have been made new creatures ; if we have passed from death unto life, we cannot but know something of it. Say then, have you found Christ? The pearl of great price, have you found it? And as you answer these questions, remember how much is implied in being lost, and how ample the provision for your deliverance, since the Son of man is come to seek and to save you. SEEMON LXI. CHRIST, GOD'S BEST GIFT TO MAN. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. — 2 Corinthians ix. 15. Perhaps there is nothing which would more powerfully tend to convince us how little we resemble the primitive Christians, than a comparison of our views and feelings respecting the gos- pel of Clirist, Avith those which they express in their writings. While we naturally discover in it nothing wonderful or excel- lent, listen to it with indifference, treat it with neglect, and per- haps consider it as little better than foolishness; they can scarcely mention or allude to it without feeling the strongest emotions, and breaking forth into the most rapturous expres- sions of gratitude, admiration, wonder and love. They style it the glorious gospel of the blessed God, speak of it as the most wonderful of all his wondrous works, and represent it as containing things unutterable and unsearchable, things into which even angels desire to look. An example of the glowing and energetic language which they were accustomed to employ in speaking of the subject, we have in our text ; in which the apos- tle, reflecting on the goodness of God in giving his Son to die for us, exclaims in the fulness of his heart, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift ! My friends, in obedience to long established custom, and to the voice of our civil rulers, we have this day assembled to give thanks to God. Perhaps some are ready to say. For what shall 160 CHRIST, god's best we thank him 1 Our fathers, who estabhshed this custom, had reason to praise him, for they were favored with peace and pros- perity. We too had formerly reason to praise him, for we once enjoyed the same blessings. But those days are past. Peace and prosperity are gone. We are involved in a war, of which we cannot foresee the termination. Our country is torn in pie- ces by poUtical dissensions, and contending parties seem almost prepared to imbrue their hands in each other's blood. Our pri- vate sufferings and embarrassments are also great. Our com- merce is destroyed, our business interrupted, our property, acquired in better days, taken from us ; our families look to us for bread, which we shall soon be unable to give them ; the prospect before us is dark and cheerless, and we fear that these days are but the beginning of sorrows. For what, then, should we thank God, or how attune our voices to joy and praise 1 I answer, were our situation more deplorable than it really is, were we stripped of every earthly blessing, Ave should still have cause for joy and thankfulness ; still have reason to praise God. We ought to rejoice that the Lord reigns, and we ought to praise him that we are not treated as we deserve, that we are not in the mansions of despair, that we are yet prisoners of hope. Above all, we ought to praise him for the unspeakable gift of his Son, and we shall do it if we possess the smallest portion of the apostle's temper. His situation was, in a temporal view, incomparably worse than that of any person in this assembly. Speaking of himself and his fellow disciples, he says, Even to the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and buffeted, and reviled and persecuted. We are made as the filth of the world, and the ofi-scouring of all things, unto this day. Yet in this distressed, oppressed condition, destitute of all the good things of lite, and liable every day to lose life itself, he could still cry, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Nay, more ; while he lay in the gloomy dungeon of Philippi, his body torn with scourges, and his feet fast in the stocks, we find him still thanking God for the gospel of his Son, and caus- ing his prison, even at midnight, to resound with his songs of joy and praise. And can we then, with justice, pretend that we have no rea- son to be thankful ? Ougiit not we, as well as the apostle, to bless God for the gospel of Christ ? Is it not to us, as it waste GIFT TO MAN. !€)! him, the gospel of salvation 7 Let us then banish from our minds every ungrateful feeling, every murmuring ihouglit, and unitedly cry with the apostle, Thanks be unto (jod for his unspeakable gift. That you may be induced to do this, I shall attempt to show, That Jesus Christ is the Gift of God to men : a Gift which may be justly called unspeakable : a Gift for which we should thank him with the most lively gratitude. I. Jesus Christ is the Gift of God to men. It can scarcely be necessary to remind you that a gift, or pres- ent, is something valuable freely offered to persons who have no claim to it, without receiving anything in return, and without any expectation that it will be restored. It must be something valuable ; for a thing of no value cannot properly be considered as a gift. It must be offered freely, or voluntarily ; for if wc are obliged to offer it, it is merely the discharge of an obligation. It must be offered to persons who have no claim to it ; for to those who can justly deserve it, it is not a gift, but ovAj their due. If they claim it as a recompense for some injury which we have done them, it is restitution. If they claim it in return for services which they have performed, or favors which they have bestowed, it is a debt. It must be offered without expect- ing anythmg in return ; for if we expect something equally val- uable in return, it is an exchange ; if we expect some lawful service to be performed, it is wages; if we expect anything unlawful, it is a bribe. Finally, it must be offered without any expectation that it will be restored to us ; for otherwise it is a loan, and not a gift. Now a moment's reflection will convince us that, in all these respects, Jesus Christ is, strictly speaking, a gift of God to man. Christ is something valuable; for, as we shall soon attempt to show, his worth is unspeakable. He is offered to us freely, or voluntarily ; for God was under no kind of obligation to make us such an offer. He is offered to persons who have no claim to such a favor, for we can justly claim nothing at the hand of God but destruction. We cannot claim the offer of Christ as a recompense for injuries received from God, for he has never injured us, but has done us good and not evil all the days of our lives. Neither can we claim it in return for services performed, or favors bestowed • for we have never done any thing for God, VOL. III. 21 162 CHRIST, god's best or bestowed the smelliest favor upon him. On the contrary, we have done him all t\e injury in our power. Nor does God offer his Son with the expectation of receiving any thing in return, for we and all that we possess are already his; and if we were not, we could give him nothing; for even if we are righteous, what do we give him, or what receiveth he at our hands? When we have done all in our power, we are but unprofitable servants, and have done no more than it was our duty to do. Nor, finally, does God ofier us his Son with any intention of resuming the gift; for, says the apostle, the gifts of God are without repentance, that is, irrevocable; he offers us his Son to be ours forever. Jesus Christ is, therefore, in the most strict and proper sense of the term, the gift, the free, unmerited gift of God to men. I am not ignorant, however, that some deny this. I am aware that it is thought and urged by some, that God was under obli- gations to provide a Saviour for mankind, and that it would have been cruel and imjust for him to create beings who he knew would fall, had he not previously intended to give his Son for their redemption, or to open a way for their restoration, by some other means. These persons then pretend, that the law of God, which requires perfect obedience, on pain of death, is much too strict and severe, for such weak, fallen creatures, as we are ; that it is unreasonable and unjust to require perfection of us, or to punish us for falling short of it ; and that God, finding he had enacted a law too severe, was obliged to send his Son to bear its curse, deliver us from its authority, and introduce a milder law, which should allow us to sin a little, provided we would not sin much. It is true, indeed, that few are to be found, who dare openly and directly avow such sentiments ; but, they are the sentiments of every unrenewed heart ; all men naturally consider the gospel as a kind of remedy for the too great severity of the law; and hence it is, in their view, little better than foolishness. And if this view of the gospel were correct, it would indeed be foolish- ness in the extreme; and God would no longer deserve our admiration, reverence, gratitude, or love. It would then appear that God was the offending, and we the injured party; that Christ died, not to make satisfaction for our traiisgression against God, but for God's too great severity to us; that he is offered to GIFT TO MAN. 163 US not as a free, unmerited gift, but as a recompense for the injuries we have received from our Maker, in his suffering us to fall, and threatening to punish us for our sins. Farev.'-ell, then, all the glory and grace of the gospel. Farewell, all ascriptions of praise to God, for his goodness, mercy and love. The won- drous plan of redeeming love, the unspeakable gift of God's eternal Son, dwindles down to the mere payment of a debt, a satisfaction for injury. But is this indeed the glorious gospel of the blessed God ? Is this that mystery, into which angels desire to look ; is this the wonderful scheme which filled the breasts of the apostles with admiration, love and gratitude ; and in which they professed to discover such heights and depths, such unutterable and unsearch- able things'? No, my friends, this is not the gospel; these are not the good tidings of great joy which angels delighted to bring from heaven. God's offer of his Son to guilty men is not the payment of a debt, or a recompense for injuries done them. No, it is a gift, a free, unmerited gift, an unspeakable gift, the worth of which we can neither describe nor conceive. God was under no obligation to provide a Saviour for our ruined race. He provided none for the fallen angels, nor was he any more obliged to provide one for us. With the most perfect justice, and with- out the smallest impeachment of his goodness, he might have left us all to perish ; and peopled the earth and filled heaven, with a new and holy race of beings. Agreeably, the Scriptures every where represent the plan of salvation as entirely of grace, free, sovereign, wondrous grace, from its commencement to its termination. They tell us, that Jesus Christ is the gift of God ; that he freely delivered him up for us all ; that when we were his enemies Christ died for us ; and that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Here is nothing said of the payment of a debt, or of recompense for injury. Nor do the blessed spirits of the just made perfect in heaven, view their salvation as flowing from anything but the most astonishing love and grace. Not unto us, they cry, not unto us, but to thy name give glory. Blessing and glory and honor and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. If, therefore, the apostles on earth or saints in heaven, or the Holy Spirit himself, knew anything of the plan of salvation. 164 CHRIST, god's best Jesus Christ is in every respect the free gift of God to man. And why was such a gift necessary 7 Because we are children of ignorance, and needed a Divine teacher ; because we are children of disobedience, and need a Divine sanctifier ; because we are children of wrath, and need a Divine redeemer, to make an atonement for our sins. We have insisted the longer on this part of our subject, because until we are fully convinced that Christ is such a gift, we cannot prize the gospel as we ought, nor truly thank God for this or any other blessing. II. I proceed to show, that this gift may be justly styled unspeakable. With this view we observe, 1. That the love which led God to bestow such a gift upon us, must have been unspeakably great. This our Saviour, when speaking of it, plainly intimates. Though he spoke as never man spake, yet even he could not describe it except by its effects. God, says he, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He does not say, God loved the world fervently, greatly, immeasurably ; for none of these expressions were sufficient to show the extent of his love. Nor does he say, God so loved the world that he preserves, supports, and fills it with his blessings ; for these proofs of his goodness, though great, are comparatively nothing. But he says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son ; thus intimating that his love could not be described, and leaving us to judge of its greatness by its effects. And, judging by this rule, how great must his love have been ! Say, ye who are parents, how must you love a person, before you could freely consent, for his sake, to give up an only son. to a cruel and ignominious death '? But as high as the heavens are above the earth, as far as God excels his creatures, so far does his love for his Son surpass that which the most affectionate parent feels for his offspring. We are told that God is love, and we find that he can even love his enemies, so as to load them with favors ; for he causes his sun to shine, and his showers to descend on the evil and unthankful. If then he can thus love his enemies, how infinitely must he love his innocent, holy, only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of his Father, and always does those things that please him ! And how must he love the world, since, for its redemption, he gave up CHRIST, god's best 165 this beloved Son to such agonies as Cln-ist endured. But in vain do we attempt to give you any idea of this love. We sink under the weight of our subject. We cannot describe what is indescribable. We can only say, with the apostle, What man- ner of love is this? Well may it be called an unspeakable love! 2. The gift of Jesus Christ may be justly called unspeakable, because his worth and excellence are unspeakably great. He is the pearl of great, of inestimable price. He is not only precious, but preciousness itself In him are hid all the treasures of MHsdom, and knowledge, and grace ; so that as the apostle informs us, his riches are unsearchable. Nay more, in him dwells all fulness, even all the fulness of the Godhead, In giving us Christ, therefore, God has given us himself and all that he possesses ; and hence, those who receive this gift, are said to be filled with the fulness of God. Had God given us a thousand angels to guard and attend us, or ten thousand worlds for our portion, it would have been comparatively nothing. It would have been nothing for him to give, for he could have created them with a single word. It would have been nothing for us to receive; for what are worlds, or angels, in comparison with the Creator of all worlds, and the Lord of angels. Nor is this all. In giving us Christ, God gave us all the other blessings which we enjoy. We are told, that every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights. We are also taught, that all these gifts come in and through Christ; so that he may be justly called, not only a gift, but the gift of God, that is, the gift which includes all others. If the earth is full of the riches of God's goodness, if its inhabitants are preserved, fed, and clothed, if God gives them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with peace and gladness, if they derive any pleasure from children, friends and social intercourse, if they are permitted to hope for still greater blessings beyond the grave, — in a word, if any happiness is or has been enjoyed on earth, more than in hell, it was all given by God, when he gave us Christ to be the Saviour of the world. In this sense it is, that Christ is said to be the Saviour of all men, including those who do not believe. He pleads for them as the dresser of the vineyard did for the barren fig tree, that it might not be immediately cut down as a cumberer of the ground. Thus he saves them from instantly suffering the agonies of death 106 GIFT TO MAN. and the pains of hell. He saves them from many of the present effects and consequences of sin ; he gives them to enjoy the day and means of grace, keeps back the curse which is every moment ready to blast them, and loads them with innumerable temporal and spiritual favors. Since then Christ is inestimably precious in himself, and since in him are included all the other gifts which God has ever bestowed on our race, he may be justly called an unspeakable gift. 3. Unspeakable as is the intrinsic value of Christ, he is, if possible, still more unspeakably valuable to us. You need not be told, that the value of a gift to the person who receives it, depends much on his circumstances. A sum of money may be a valuable present to any one ; but to a man on the point of being dragged to prison for debt, it is much more so. Medicine, or food may be valuable in itself; but when given to a man ready to perish with sickness or hunger, its value is very greatly increased. So Christ is unspeakably precious in himself, and had God given him to the angels as their portion, it would have justly been called an unspeakable gift. But how unspeakably more valuable is such a gift to us, who were on the point of perishing forever. Would you know the worth of the gift to creatures in our situation 7 Go and contemplate the fallen angels in the mansions of despair. See them enveloped in the blackness of darkness, bound in eternal chains, reserved unto the judgment of the great day, and expecting nothing but an eternity of unutterable, and constantly increasing wretchedness, beyond it. Would the gift of an almighty Saviour, to redeem them from this situation, be to them unspeakably precious 7 If so, Christ is an unspeakably precious gift to us; for what they are suffering was our just doom, a doom which would have been inevitable, were it not for the gift of Christ. A wretched and hopeless life, a still more wretched and despairing death, and an inconceivably more wretched eternity, were all that we could expect; for, being children of disobedience, we were children of wrath ; the fire prepared for the devil and his angels burnt to devour us ; the broken law of God had pronounced the sentence of our everlasting condemnation, and nothing but the gift of such a Saviour as Christ, could have prevented our suffering it; for the word of truth declares, that he who believeth not the Son of God is condemned already: that he shall never see life, CHRIST, god's best 167 and that the wrath of God abideth on him. But from this curse Christ has redeemed those who receive God's offered gift, by being made a curse for them, and they are delivered from wrath through him. Well then may the gift of such a Saviour to creatures in our situation, be called an unspeakable gift. Lastly, the gift of Christ may be justly called an unspeakable gift, on account of the spiritual blessings which are enjoyed by those who receive him. We have already observed, that even those who reject him are favored for his sake, with many tem- poral mercies; but these are nothing compared with spiritual and eternal blessings which he imparts to those who thankfully accept the unspeakable gift of God. He gives them the pardon of all their sins, and accepts them as if they had never sinned. He brings them out of darkness and ignorance into his marvel- lous light, and imparts to them that knowledge of God and himself which is eternal life. He instamps the holy image of God on their souls, and makes them partakers of a divine nature. He delivers them from sin and guilt, from fear and anxiety, and thus prepares them to enjoy peace of conscience, and favor with God. He withholds from them no good thing, and causes all things, without exception, to work together for their good. He gives them exceeding great and precious promises, and provides for them strong consolation, to support them under the evils of life. He suffers them to fear no evil, in their last hours and enables them to sing the song of victory over death and the grave. He receives and welcomes their departing spirits in the eternal world, raises their bodies incorruptible, glorious and immortal; acquits, acknowledges and rewards them, at the judg- ment day, and presents them, perfect in knowledge, in holiness and happiness, before the throne of his Father, with whom they shall live and reign forever and ever. In one word, he makes them heirs of God, and consequently heirs of all things; exerts to the utmost all the infinite perfections of the Godhead, to per- fect, perpetuate and increase their happiness. And, my friends, what could he do morel What could any being do more? What can creatures desire more? Should they employ their minds, through eternity, they would be unable to wish for, or conceive of any thing which the gift of Christ does not include. Who then can deny that it may be justly called an unspeakable gift ; since it raises those who accept it from the lowest depth of 158 GIFT TO MAN. wretchedness to which a creature can sink, to the highest pitch of glory and feUcity which creatures can reach? III. This is a gift for which we ought to thank God with the most Uyely gratitude. But, my friends, is it necessary to prove this? Is it not already evident ? The principal circumstances which render a gift deserving of thankfulness, are the motives which occasion it, its intrinsic value, its being adapted to our circumstances, and the benefits which we derive from it. But we have already shown that the love which induced God lo offer us the gift of Christ, his own intrinsic value, our perishing need of such a Saviour, and the benefits which he bestows on those who accept him, are alike unspeakably great. It therefore necessarily follows, that our gratitude to God for this gift should be unspeak- able. The gratitude of just men made perfect is so. Never have they been able, never will they be able, to express all the gratitude which they feel to God, for the gift of his Son. It is an inexhaustible fountain which flows, and ever will flow, in ceaseless praises and thanksgivings, throughout eternity. If then we possess any thing of the temper of heaven, if we hope ever to join in the employments of heaven, if we, in the smallest degree, resemble the apostle, we shall unitedly join with him in exclaiming. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift ! We shall partake of the food which God this day provides for our refreshment, with feelings in some measure similar to those with which the spirits of the just feast on the bread and water of life, at the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven, and our whole future lives will be one continued day of thanksgiving to God. If any still feel unconvinced, that we ought to thank God for the gift of his Son, we would ask them whether God can do anything for which his creatures ought to thank him. Can he bestow upon them any favor which shall entide him to their gratitude ? If so, he has done it already, in giving us his Son; for he can do nothing greater for any creature, he can give us nothing more precious than this. In giving us Christ, he has given us himself, and all that he possesses, so that he may now justly say to us. Unthankful, obstinate creatures ! what shall I do to excite your gratitude ; how shall I purchase that place in your affections, which ought to be mine, without purchase? I had but one Son; him I have freely given for your redemption; CHUIST, god's best GIFT. J 69 and now I have nothing more to offer. To purchase your grat- itude and love, I have made myself poor ; I have given you all I possessed, and if this is not sufficient, I can only come to you as a suppliant, and beseech you, for my sake, for my Son's sake, for your own sakes, to be reconciled to your heavenly Father, and accept with thankfulness my offered grace. Such is, in effect, the language of your gracious, condescending God; yet, astonishing to tell, there are hearts so hard as to be unaffected with this language, so stubbornly ungrateful as to refuse to thank him for the unspeakable gift. My friends, are not some of your hearts of this description? Are there not some among you who have, through life, requited God evil for good? Are there not some present, who never sincerely thanked God for the gift of his Son, and who would feel more joy and gratitude for the gift of a few thousands of pounds, than they have ever felt while hearing the good news of a Saviour? If there be any present of this description, let me entreat them to consider what they have done, what they are now doing. How hateful, how inexcusable, must such ingrat- itude appear in the sight of God ! How widely do you differ from him who uttered the words of our text, and from all holy beings! How impossible is it for you, with such a temper, to join in the praises of heaven, or derive any advantage from the gift of Christ. The gift is indeed offered to all, but it will benefit none but those who thankfully receive it. Be persuaded then, this day, to receive it with thankfulness, and let the good- ness of God lead you to repentance. While you feast on the bounties of Providence, remember that they were purchased by the blood of Christ. Should you do this, this will indeed be a thanksgiving day, the beginning of an eternal thanksgiving in heaven. SERMON LXII. MANS TREATMENT OF CHRIST. Having yet therefore one Sun, his well-beloved, he sent him also, last, unto them, saying, They will reverence my Son — Mark xii. 6. These words compose part of the following parable, address- sed by our Saviour to the Jews : A certain man planted a vine- yard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a wine-fat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And at the season he sent unto the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from them of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore, one Son, his well-beloved, he sent him also unto them, saying. They will reverence my Son. But the husbandmen said among themselves, this is the heir ; let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. The meaning of this parable, as referring to God's dealings with the Jews, and to their abominable treatment of his messen- gers, and of his Son, is too obvious to require explanation. Nor with its meaning, as referring to them, have we any personal concern. We are only concerned to inquire, how far it is appli- cable to ourselves ; and a little reflection will convince us, that many of the truths which it illustrates, may be applied to us man's treatment of CHRIST. 171 with no less propriety than to the Jews. We, and all other Christian nations, are now what they once were. To us, as well as to them, the prophets, and the Son of God have been sent ; for we have their words in the Bible, by which, they being dead, yet speak. He that receives those words, receives Christ, but he that rejects them, rejects Christ. But waiving a considera- tion of those and other truths, brought to view by this parable, I propose, at present, to confine myself exclusively to that part of it which has been read as our text. God is here represented as saying, with reference to those to whom Christ was sent, They will reverence my Son. We are not to infer from this expression, that God was ignorant of the manner in which his Son would be treated ; or that he really expected men would receive him with reverence ; for his sufferings and death were explicitly predicted long before his appearance in the world. But God here speaks after the manner of men. He is merely stating what reception it might have reasonably been expected would be given to his Son, by one who did not know or who did not consider the wickedness of the human heart. Such a person, on seeing Christ sent down from heaven to assist men, would have exclaimed, Surely they will receive him with rev- erence and affection. Though they have persecuted and slain God's servants, yet surely they will reverence his Son. The principal truth taught by our text then, is evidently this; it was reasonable to expect that, when our Saviour visited this world, he would be received by mankind with reverential affec- tion. To show that it was su, is my present design. I. It was reasonable to expect this, on account of the dignity of Christ's person. We learn from the predictions which fore- told his coming, that in person he was divine, and in dignity infinite. Behold, says the prophet, referring to this event, Jeho- vah God shall come with a strong hand ; his reward is with him, and his work before him. And again, speaking in the language of prophecy, which describes future events as having already taken place, Isaiah says. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Out of thee, Bethlehem Ephratah, shall he come, whose goings forth have been of old, even from everlasting. To the same purpose the angel who predicted his birth informed 172 man's treatment of christ. Joseph that he should he called Itnmanuel, God with us ; God dwelling with men. Hence, when John came as his harbinger to announce his approach, he cried, Prepare ye the way of Je- hovah ; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Agreeably to these predictions, we are informed that the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, was made flesh and dwelt among us ; that he is the true God and eternal life ; God over all, blessed forever. Now who that believed these predictions ; who that saw them fulfilled in the coming of Christ, would not have expected that he should be received with reverence and aflfection? Was it not highly rea- sonable to expect that when God came down to visit and dwell with men, he would be received by them in this manner ? Were you informed that God was again about to visit us in a similar manner, in a visible form, would not you expect him to meet with such a reception 7 You will recollect what preparations were made to receive the chief magistrate of these States, on his late tour ? Was it not reasonable to expect that at least equal preparations would have been made for the reception of the God and ruler of the universe? The reasonableness of such an expectation will appear still more evident, if we consider, II. The relation which subsisted between Christ and man- Jf ind previous to his coming. He was their Creator, the Creator of the world ; for by him, we are told, were all things created, and without him was not any thmg made that is made. He was in the world, and the world was made by him. He was also the preserver of men; for he supports all things by the word of his power, and by him all things subsist. As the Cre- ator and Preserver, he was the rightful possessor of all things ; for, we are told, that all things were made not only by him, but for him ; that he is appointed heir of all things, and that all things are his. He had also for thousands of years, been con- stantly showering down temporal blessings upon mankind, giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. In coming into the world then, Imman- Uel came, as the apostle expresses it. to his own. He came to his own world, to his own creatures, the work of his own hands, to his own dependants, the deeply indebted pensioners of his boun- ty. And was it not reasonable to expect, that men should tGceive such a being with reverence, gratitude and afl^ection ? man's XUEATMENT of CHRIST. 173 Every other part of creation knew and acknowledged its Crea- tor. Plants and animals, the winds and waves, diseases and death, and even the spirits of disobedience owned his authority, and obeyed his commands. Surely, then, it might have been expected that man, an intelligent creature, the most deeply indebted of his creatures, would receive his Creator and Bene- factor with at least equal tokens of reverence and affection. It might have been expected that every habitation should have been thrown open to hnn ; that every heart would have wel- comed him, that every tongue would be loud in praises and con- gratulations, and that all the treasures of earth would be laid at his feet, and all its honors poured upon his head. III. The design on which Christ came into our world, and the form in which he appeared, rendered it still more reasonable to expect that he would meet with such a reception. Had he visited us merely for his own pleasure, he ought, as our Creator and benefactor, to receive the most honorable, grateful, and affectionate welcome, which it was in the power of men to give. But he did not come to please or gratify himself. No, he came into the world to save sinners, to seek and to save those who were lost; to redeem those who had rebelled against him, griev- ed and insulted him, from the terrible punishment which their sins deserved. In order to this, he came as a teacher to restore to men the lost knowledge of God, to bring life and immortality to light, to be the sun of the soul, the light of the world. He came to be not only its light, but its life ; to give it life by lay- mg down his own ; and that he might for this purpose lay down his life, he appeared in our nature in the likeness of sin- ful flesh, and the form of a servant. That this was the design of his coming, mankind were previously informed by the pre- dictions which foretold it. They were told that he would come to be wounded for others' transgressions, to be bruised for their iniquities, to bear the chastisement of their peace, and to heal them by his stripes. Who, then, when they saw the Lord of life and glory appear on earth for such a purpose, and in such a form, would not have thought it reasonable to expect that all who had heard these predictions, all who knew the design of his coming, would receive him with every possible demonstra- tion of grateful affection. Who that has seen the almost idola- trous admiration and reverence with which men have often regar- 174 man's treatment of crkist. ded human teachers, and mere temporal dehverers, would not have expected to see this celestial Teacher, this deliverer from interminable evils welcomed with the loudest acclamations; to see men strivhig to make him some compensation for the glories of which he had stripped himself for their sakes, sympathiz- ing Avith him in all the sufferings which their sins had brought upon him, and weeping at his feet over the sins which occasion- ed them ? It has ever been allowed that there is something venerable, as well as atfecting, in the sorrows of suffering greatness ; and that a wise and good monarch reduced to poverty and distress is a spectacle which no man, not wholly devoid of feeling could contemplate without feeling emotions of respectful sympathy. How venerable, how grand, how dignified then, were the sor- rows and sufferings of the Son of God ! sorrows and sufferings brought upon him, not by his own misconduct or imprudence, but by his own boundless benevolence. Who, then, would not have expected, that these sorrows should have been held sacred'? Who does not perceive that God on the throne of the universe has, if I may so speak, less claims upon the reverence, gratitude and affection of his creatures, than God manifest in flesh in the form of a servant 7 Who does not see that God, appearing as Immanuel, God with us, has more numerous and more powerful claims i:-pon mankind than God in any other form? If, then, Jehovah is worshipped and adored with raptur- ous affection, by angels in heaven, much more might it be expected that he should be loved and praised by men, when for their sakes he appeared as a man of sorrows on earth. IV. The bright, unsulUed excellence of Christ's moral char- acter, and the various estimable qualities which were exempli- fied in his conduct, furnish another consideration which render- ed it reasonable to expect that he would be received with the highest affection and esteem. That goodness ought to excite affection, will not be denied. That magnanimity, courage, and fortitude ought to be regarded with veneration and esteem, is equally obvious. Now, in the character of the man Christ Jesus, goodness of heart and greatness of mind, were combined. He possessed in the highest possible degree every estimable, moral and intellectual quality. He was the only perfect man, which the world has seen since the fall. He exhibited human man's treatment of CIIKIST. 175 nature in the highest degree of perfection to which it can be raised. In hirn goodness and greatness were not only personi- fied, but, if I may so express it, concentrated and condensed. He was Hght and love clothed with a body. Qualities which are never seen united in men, and which seem almost incompat- ible with each other, were in him sweetly and harmoniously blended. Seldom indeed do we see the qualities of the lion and the lamb, of the serpent and the dove uniting together in the same person. Those who are distinguished for benevolence, gentleness, condescension, meekness, compassion, sympathy and sweetness of temper, are usually deficient in magnanimity, courage and fortitude. And on the contrary, those who are remarkable for possessing the qualities last mentioned, are usu- ally destitute of the mild and amiable virtues. But Christ pos- sessed them all. He displayed in the highest degree magnan- imity, firmness, courage and fortitude ; and those heroic virtues were shaded and softened by all that is mild and amiable and attractive. While he far excelled all the heroes, conquerors, and great ones of the earth in those qualities of which they boast, he rivalled the smiling infant in tenderness and sweetness of disposition. In a word, he was the lion of the tribe of Ju- dah, and he was the lamb of God. Here then was such a character as men had never seen before ; a character with which even the holy. Omniscient Judge of excellence ,was pleased and delighted. Surely then, it might have been reasonably expected that, when such a character was presented to the wondering eye of mankind, they would receive him with reverence and aflfection ; that all the praises which they had for ages lavished on far inferior excellence, would at once have been given to him. V. The interesting information which our Saviour communi- cated, and the excellence of the doctrines which he taught, and of the precepts which he inculcated, rendered it still more rea- sonable to expect that he would meet with such a reception. I need not tell you what respect, what honors have, in all ages and parts of the world, been given to extensive knowledge, to eminently learned men. I need not tell you what crowds of attentive, admiring disciples many philosophers have drawn after them, and with what despotic sway they have ruled the mindi; of men, even after they were laid in their graves. Ly- 176 man's treatment of christ. curgus, Solon, Confucius, Zoroaster, Mahomet, and many others, either have been or now are admired, followed, and almost worshipped by whole nations. Even the very Jews, who rejected the true Messiah, sacrificed their lives by thou- sands to every impostor who assumed his name, however absurd and groundless might be his pretensions. In addition to these facts we may remark, that mankind usually feel and display a strong degree of curiosity and interest with respect to any mes- sage or appearance that relates to the invisible world. Almost every idle tale of spectres and apparitions has power to engage the attention, for a time, even of those who disbelieve it ; and should a person with whom we had been acquainted, and whom we knew to have been dead and buried, revisit our world, you can in some measure conceive with what interest he would be regarded, and how eagerly men would press to learn from him the secrets of the grave. Now who, that was acquainted with facts, and with the pur- port of Christ's instructions, would not think it reasonable to expect that he should be received with every mark of eager and respectful attention. He came not merely from the grave, but from heaven, from the other world to this ; came to make that world and its inhabitants known to men ; came to tell them what shall be hereafter, to lift the veil which conceals eternity, to inform us wh^^t befalls the soul after its separation from the body, to describe the proceedings of the judgment day, and the future state of mortals, to reveal things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. In a word, he came filled with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and willing and able to impart them to others. In comparison with him, all other teachers and legislators were but as lamps to the sun. In comparison with his instructions, all the discov- eries of human wisdom were mere dreams and fables. Even his prejudiced townsmen could not but marvel at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth ; and his very ene- mies were constrained to cry, Never man spake like this man. Nor was this all. His instructions were delivered not as mere opinions, not as the deductions of reason, but as infallible truths, as a revelation from God, a revelation attested by numberless miracles, and thus sealed with the broad seal of heaven. Who then, would not have expected to see the world flocking around man's treatment of CHRIST. 177 him, and all its philosophers with their disciples sitting, like Mary, at his feet, to hear his words. But, perhaps, some will think it a sufficient reply to all this to say, The world did not know Christ, did not know what he was ; otherwise he would have been received in a proper man- ner. The apostle himself informs us, that none of the princes of this world knew Christ. I readily acknowledge that they did not know him. But why did they not ? They certainly might have known him; for the works that he did in his Fath- er's name, bore witness of him ; and they received many impos- tors as the Christ, without the thousandth part of the evidence which he exhibited. But not to insist on this, permit me to remark, that however strongly the excuse may be urged in favor of the Jews, it cannot be urged at all in extenuation of our conduct. If the Jews did not know Jesus to be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, we do. Every thing in the manner of his appearance which was dark to them, is explained to us. What was prophecy then is history now. We are clearly taught who Christ was, and for what he came and lived and died; and we are also taught, that he who taught the Jews on earth, now speaks to us from heaven; that he who receives hi.s word receives him, and he who rejects it, rejects him. Even then if it were not reasonable to expect that the Jews should have received him with grateful reverence and affection, it may still be reasonably expected that we should receive him in this manner ; that we should believe all his doctrines, obey all his precepts, trust in all his promises, and consecrate all we have and are to his service. He is still in the world, as really as he ever was. He still comes to us by his Spirit, still stands knocking for admission at the door of our hearts, giving us an opportunity to admit him. Who then, that forgets for a mo- ment the depravity of the human heart, would not expect to see all admit him? Who would not expect to find the Creator, Preserver and Saviour of the world regarded as all in all in his own world? Who would not expect to find him the chief sub- ject of conversation in every house, to find him regarded as the best and dearest friend of every family, to hear his name lisped by children as the first word which they were taught to utter; to see all knees bowing to him, to hear every tongue confessing him, and all ages and classes uniting to cry, Hosanna to the VOL. ni. 23 178 man's treatment of christ. Son of David ! blessed is he who came in the name of the Lord, to seek and save our lost and ruined race 7 In short, who that should hear Christian nations professing to believe that Christ died for all, would not expect to hear them add, with the apostle, this love constrains us to live, not to ourselves, but to him who died for us and rose again? My friends, I need not tell you how wretchedly one who should expect this would be disappointed. I have told how it was reasonable to expect Christ would be treated. I need not tell you how he actually is treated. I need not tell you how long a person might live in some of your houses, without hearing the name of Jesus men- tioned, except profanely, without hearing one expression, or see- ing one token of grateful affection for him. Surely, m.y friends, these things ought not so to be. Surely, a Saviour, a self-devoted, crucified Saviour, a divine Saviour ought not to be treated in this manner. Surely, he has a right to expect some better return from our race than he has yet received. And what has he done, that he should be treated in this manner. Many good works has he done for us ; for these shall we maltreat him? Well might we blush to belong to a race of beings who treat him thus, had we not each of us still more reason to blush for our own share in the neglect with which he has been treated. Let me entreat you to lay these things seriously to heart, to inquire whether Christ has among his treasures any token of grateful affection from you ; to re- member that if it were reasonable to expect that Christ should be received in the manner we have described, thus to neglect him is the most unreasonable and the most criminal sin of which we can be guilty. It was the sin which destroyed the Jews. They rejected and slew the prophets, and God punished them v/ith a seventy years' captivity. They rejected and cru- cified his Son, and after almost eighteen hundred years, still groan under the punishment of that sin. My friends, we begin where they left off. Their last sin is our first. Their last step in the career of depravity, the step which plunged them into perdition, is the first step taken by those of you who are still rejecting the Saviour. What, then, will your end be? If your infancy in sin equals their manhood, and even their old age, what desperate lengths may you be expected to go, in sinning against the Saviour, should yoiu* lives be spared ? O, then, man's treatment of CHRIST. 179 turn while there is hope ; turn before it is too late ; give to Christ the reception which he has a right to expect; and let your first step in sin be your last. To you, my professing friends, the subject is, if possible, still more interesting. If so much may be reasonably expected of others, what may not be expected of you? of you, who profess to know the Saviour, to hope that he loves, that he has pardon- ed and saved you 7 Are you loving and honoring and serving him in as great a degree as he desires ? Is your love for him great in proportion to the greatness and number of the sins which you hope he has forgiven? Do you wonder that you are bound to love and praise him, not only for yourselves, but for your unbelieving neighbors, to endeavor to pay their debt of gratitude as well as your own ? Were he now corporeally present on earth, and should all the unbelieving part of the town unite in neglecting or insulting him, would you not feel bound to exert yourselves to the utmost to atone for the neglect, to supply the deficiencies? The same reasons exist why you should do it now. O, then, be up and doing. Endeavor to ascertain what the Creator of the world deserves when lie. visits it in the form of sinful man, to die for its salvation; to calcu- late what you owe him for the sins he has pardoned, to estimate what the Saviour is worth to you ; and say if you can serve him with too great zeal, or persevere too long in his service. SERMON LXIII. AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED AGAINST SINNERS. And I set a great assembly against tliem. — Nehemiah v. 7. When Nehemiah came lo Jerusalem, with a commission from the Persian monarch, appointing hmi governor of Jiidea, after the return of the Jews from captivity, he found tliat many evils and abuses had crept in among them, which it required all his wisdom and firmness to rectify. But as he was a man whom nothing could daunt or discourage, he exerted himself vigorously to correct these evils, and succeeded. An account of tlie means which he employed on one occasion, for this purpose, we have in the chapter before us. After stating that he summoned the guilty persons before him, and reproved them for the evils to which they had been accessory, he adds. And I set a great assembl y against them. He seems to have adopted this measure, partly, because the persons implicated were numerous and pow- erful, and it was necessary to show them that still greater numbers disapproved of their conduct ; and partly, with a view to produce in them such a salutary shame and remorse, as might lead them to a voluntary renunciation of their criminal practices. The measure was successful. Although the crim- inals, relying on their numbers, wealth, and power, might have braved the displeasure of Nehemiah alone, they could not support the disapprobation of the numerous assembly he set AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED, ETC. 181 against them; and tljcreforc consented to renounce the gainful, but illegal practices, of which they had been guilty, and to make restitution to tiiose whom they had injured. My hearers, I wish to adopt, witli respect to the irreligious part of this assembly, a measure similar to that which was employed by the governor of Jiidea. I wish to show impenitent sinners, of every description, how great an assembly may be set against them ; how numerous are the beings, who regard their conduct with most decided disapprobation. It is the more necessary to do this, because there is nothing on which sinners so much rely, nothing which so much encourages and strengthens them in their neglect of religion, as the greatness of their num- bers. In this place, and indeed in every part of this revolted world, they have a great majority on their side. They are decidedly superior to the servants of God, not only in number, but in wealth, and power, and nifluence; so that were the great question, what is truth? to be decided by numbers, they could easily determine it in their own favor. Now among a race of beings so much influenced by custom, fashion, and example, as men are, the evils occasioned by this fact are prodigious. The very circumstance, that so large a majority of mankind are on the side of irreligion, tends powerfully to preserve a majority on that side ; for a large proportion of the youth, in each successive generation, will enlist under the banner of the strongest party. The same circumstance operates most powerfully to weaken the force, and prevent the success of those means and argimients, which God employs for the conversion of sinners. When the man who neglects religion, looks around him, and sees wealth, rank, power and influence, all ranged on his side, he secretly says, I must be right, I must be safe; the evils with which I am threatened cannot be real ; no danger can attend the path which so many pursue ; the arguments which are employed to eflfect a change in my sentiments and conduct cannot be founded in truth, and are therefore unworthy my attention. If I fare as well as the great mass of my fellow creatures, I shall fare well enough. This being the case, it is important to show sinners, that a great assembly may be set against them; an assembly, whose approbation is far more valuable, and whose example is far more worthy of imitation, than that of all the multitudes whom they are following. In attempting to do this, however, 182 AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED I shall address those, only, who assent to the truth of the Scrip- tures, and who acknowledge arguments drawn from them to be valid. If we cannot show sinners of this description, a greater assembly collected against them, than they can collect on their side, we consent, that from this time, they shall follow the world wherever it leads them. Among those, my irreligious hearers, who are against you, we may mention, 1. The good men now in the world. By good men, I do not mean professors of religion ; for many professors are on your side, and are perhaps more guilty than any of you. But by good men, I mean men really good, men whom God will ac- knowledge to be good. Now there is not one, no, not one such man among all the multitudes on whose numbers you rely. Look through the whole host of your associates, and you cannot find one good man. Even in Sodom, there was one. But in all the ranks of those who neglect religion, there is not one. All, all good men are against you. God has not a servant, Jesus Christ has not a friend on earth, who is not against you. Their example is agahist you, their testimony is against you. And although their number, in any particular place, may be small, yet were they collected from all parts of the world, they would probably form the most numerous assembly the world ever saw. And if thus collected, they woidd all, with one voice, testify against you and condemn your conduct. Yes, if all the good- ness which the eye of God now sees scattered in different parts of the earth, were here present, it would set itself in direct op- position to the course you are pursuing. My irreligious hearers, to have such an assembly as this against you. is not a small thing. To belong to a company, in which not a single good man can be found, is far from being desirable, however large that company may be. But perhaps some will reply, we differ in our ideas of goodness, and of good men. There are many on our side, whom you will not acknowledge to be good men, but whom we consider as such, and in whom we may justly boast. I answer, it is of very little consequence whom I consider as good ; for it is a small thing to be judged of men's judgment. But you will recollect, that I call those only good men whom the Bible, whom God pronounces to he good. And you surely will not pretend that any others liave a claim to the title. Nor will you pretend that God regards as good any man who neglects religion. AGAINST SINNERS. 183 I am willing, however, in this case, not to appeal to the Bible. I will meet you on broader ground, on ground where men of all religious denominations and opinions will consent to meet. I will take the due performance of one duty, the duty of prayer, as the characteristic of a good man. I mention this duty, because not only all denominations of Christians, but Jews, Mahometans, Heathens, and even many infidels, acknowledge prayer to be a duty. And they all acknowledge that this duty ought to be performed sincerely; and that no man, who does not thus perform it, is a good man. Allow me then to set all the persons in the world, who do pray sincerely, against those who never pray at all, or pray only in an insincere, formal manner. Tliose of you who neglect prayer, will still have the majority on your side, but of whom is that majority composed? Among them all, there is not one to pray, either for himself, or for his companions ; not one to implore the blessing of Heaven on your numerous host. From all that host, not one cry ascends to Heaven for mercy. All the prayer which ascends from the v/orld, ascends from that great assembly which is set against you. My hearers, you must choose which side you please ; but permit me to say, I would rather stand with only ten praying persons, against a prayerless world, than with a prayerless world, against ten men of prayer. Indeed, who, that believes the Bible, would not rather be with Noah, against an ungodly world, than with an ungodly world, against Noah 7 But all the good men who are now on earth, form only a very small part of the assembly which may be collected against those of you who neglect religion. I proceed to set against you, 2. All the good men who have ever lived in the world, and whose spirits, the spirits of just men made perfect, are now in heaven. These, it is obvious to remark, compose an assembly, far exceeding in number, all the good men who are now alive. In this assembly, stands righteous Abel, the first martyr ; Enoch, who was translated, that he should not see death ; Noah, who walked with God, when a world rose up in arms against him ; Abraham, the friend of God and the father of the faithful ; Israel, who as a prince, had power with God and with men, and prevailed; Moses, who chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; 184 AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED Elijah, who ascended alive into heaven, together with a long hst of other venerable names, of whom the world was not worthy. In this assembly we also see John the Baptist, than whom a greater was never born of woman ; the twelve apostles, and other immediate disciples of our Lord; the almost countless host of the martyrs, who in the first three centuries sealed the truth Avith their blood ; the reformers, who burst the iron bands of papal superstition ; the pious fathers of New England, who forsook their country, and braved the perils of the ocean and the hardships of a savage wilderness, that they might have the liberty of serving God according to the dictates of their own consciences. All these, and myriads more, composing an assembly which no man can number, I set against you. All the collected good- ness, which for more than five thousand years has adorned the world, and saved it from destruction, I array against you. I invoke the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, and the mar- tyrs; I invoke all the friends of God, and servants of Jesus Christ, now in heaven, to descend with their robes of light, their harps and crowns of gold, and repeat the testimony, which, while on earth, they bore against the sin of a God-denying world. I invoke the fathers of New England to appear, and rebuke the folly and impiety of their degenerate sons, who neglect the God of their fathers, and practically say of the Redeemer, in whom they trusted. We will not have this man to reign over us. And now, sinner, look at the heavenly host of God's elect, purified from all earthly stains, made perfect in knowledge, in wisdom and holiness, and shining resplendent with the glories of the upper Avorld, while with countenances full of celestial compassion, yet severe in grave rebuke, they array themselves against you. and reprove the madness of which you are guilty. Not one of them ascended to heaven from your ranks ; not one of them, should he revisit the earth, would enter your ranks. No, while they resided here as expectants of eternity, they ex- changed the broad crowded road, in which you are walking, for the narrow way which has led them to heaven ; and by their example, and their writings, they, though dead, still speak, and bear testimony against all who follow your path. It appears therefore, that not only all the goodness, which now exists in AGAINST SINNERS. ]85 the world, but all that ever has existed in it since its creation, is arrayed in direct opposition to you. In the same opposing assembly are found, 3. All the writers of the Old and New Testaments. We have indeed already mentioned them as good men, but we now speak of them as inspired men, and the fact of their inspiration is of such consequence as to entitle them to a separate notice. Indeed the authority of a single inspired man is sufficient to countervail the authority of the whole human race, for the authority of an inspired writer is, in etfect, the authority of God himself. Look then sinner, at this venerable band, which, though small in number, is more Ihan equivalent to the more numerous host. See the eternal Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, descending upon them, and teaching them what to say. Being taught by him they speak, and with one voice testify against you. With one voice they cry. Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him ! With one voice they denounce indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. To have this little band against you, is more dreadful than to face the indig- nation of a frowning world; for their words are the words of one, who has said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 4. Another part of the great assembly, which we array against you, is composed of the holy angels. Whether we con- sider the number, the character, or the intellectual rank of these pure, exalted intelligences, it will appear no small thing to have them arrayed against us. Their number is great. One inspired writer speaks of them, as an innumerable company. Another says, that they are ten thousand times ten thousand, and thous- ands of thousands. It is not improbable that they equal, or even exceed in number the human race. Their intellectual abilities and acquirements, are of the highest order. In comparison with the least of them, the wisest human philosopher is a child. Nor are they less distinguished by moral excellence ; for their holiness is perfect, spotless. And they are all, sinner, arrayed against you. They have their supreme delight in executing the will of that God, whom you neglect and disobey. They veil their faces before him, whom you treat with irreverence. They ascribe wisdom and 186 AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED Strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing, to that Redeemer, whom you refuse to embrace, of whose invitations you make light. Yes, all the angels of God worship him, who was cruci- fied on earth, and whom sinners do, in eflcct crucify afresh by their sins. How groundless, then, is the often repeated boast of worldly men, that talents, wisdom and knowledge are, almost exclusively, on their side. Against all their boasted philosophers, their learned infidels, their intellectual Goliaths, who defy the armies of the living God, we array the heavenly hosts, the cherubim, and the seraphim, the thrones and dominions, the principalities and the powers, of the upper world. We cannot think it a mark either of weakness or of ignorance, to imitate their example, — we cannot think it disgraceful to echo their ascriptions of praise to God and the Lamb, nor can we think it either wise or honorable, to neglect that gospel, whose myster- ies such minds contemplate with eager and delighted attention. But why do we speak of good men, of the spirits of the just made perfect, or even of the holy angels, as arrayed in opposi- tion to the course which sinners are pursuing/ Why do we waste time in assembling creatures to support our cause? How- ever holy or highly exalted they may be, they can give it uo additional lustre; it needs them not, for, 5. The Lord Jesus Christ, my irreligious hearers, is arrayed against you, and what can creatures add to the weight of his opposition] He is the leader of that numeious host, the Cap- tain of salvation, the Lord of angels and men, the appointed Judge, who will pronounce an immutable sentence on both. He holds the keys of death, and of hell; he possesses all power in heaven and on earth, and were all creatures on our side, it could avail us nothing while he is against us. And, my impenitent hearers, he is against you; he sets his face against the course which you are pursuing; every doctrine which he promulgated, every precept which he enjoined, every threatening which he uttered, every action of his life, is against you. Even his death bears testimony to the sinfulness of your characters, to the guilt and danger of your situation; for how sinful, guilty, and danger- ous must be the state of those, whose sin rendered his death necessary ! Every part of that religion which he revealed, cries, How can they escape who neglect so great salvation ? And you, my impenitent hearers, are neglecting it. The neglectors AGAINST SINNERS. 187 of tiiis salvation, are the very persons whom we address, and against whom we are collecting this great assembly. And all of this description, the Lord Jesus Christ meets full in their path, and says, Pursue this path no farther, on peril of your souls. He meets all the impenitent, and says, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. He meets the unbelieving, and says, He that believeth not, shall be damned. He meets all the un- holy, and says. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. He meets all the unregenerate, and exclaims. Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, except ye be born again, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And if any of these characters shall con- tinue till death in their present course, they will find him against them at the judgment day, prepared and disposed to execute upon them the sentence pronounced in his Avord. Finally, my irreligious hearers, God the Father is against you. Yes, sinner, the infinite God, the ever-living, almighty, and every where present God, the high, and holy, and just, and unchangeable God, is against you. He who sitteth on the circle of the earth, and counts all its inhabitants as nothing and vanity; he who holds all creatures and all worlds as in the hollow of his hand; He in whom you live, and move, and have your being, even he has revealed himself in direct opposition to the course you are pursuing. Coming forth from the unapproachable light in which he dwells, arrayed in all the majesty, and terrors, and glory of self-existent divinity, he discloses himself to view, seat- ed on the throne of the universe, with his immutable law issu- ing from his lips, and going forth to demand obedience from his creatures on pain of death. Casting a glance of severe and awful displeasure on the course which you are pursuing, with his own right hand he waves you back, and with his own au- thoritative voice of power, bids you turn, and no longer advance in opposition to your Sovereign. Let the potsherds, he exclaims, strive with the potsherds of the earth, but woe to him who striv- cth with his Maker. My hearers, while you neglect religion, you are striving with your Maker, and all the laws of his king- dom, all the perfections of his nature, all the dispensations oi his providence, all the contents of his word, are against you. And now survey once more and collectively, the vast assem- bly which is arrayed against you, an assembly composed of all the good on earth, of all the spirits of the just in heaven, of all 188 AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED the holy angels, with God's eternal Son, and the ever living Jehovah at their head'? Before such an assembly, what are yoii7 And whom will you array against it? You may indeed assemble all the wicked on earth; you may call for the de- parted spirits of all wicked men, who have gone to their own place; and you may add the spirits of disobedience, the apostate angels, to swell the throng; but these are all whom you can assemble. No holy angels, no good man, in heaven or earth, will jom your unhallowed host, or countenance you in dis- obeying or neglecting the Sovereign whom they love. Surely then, those of you who acknowledge the truth of the Scriptures, will no more boast of, or rely upon the number which swells yoiu- ranks. Indeed, methinks a view of those who are with you, can scarcely be more pleasing than a view of those who are against you. To see all evil beings on your side, is little less appalling, than to see all good beings on the opposite side. And remember that what you have now heard described, you will one day see. You will see all the different classes and beings, who have been mentioned, assembled at the judgment day. On one side, you will see all wicked men and wicked spirits; on the other, all good men, all holy angels, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the everlasting Father. And if you continue what you now are, you will see all the former arrayed on your side, and all the latter against you. And then, if not now, you will feel, that there is a great assembly against you, and that to have such an assembly against you, is indeed an evil above all things to be deprecated. I need not, my irreligious hearers, repeat remarks which 1 have often made respecting the pain which it gives me to address you in this manner. Nor need I again remind you, that my only object is to promote your happiness. The use which I wish to make of the subject is, to persuade you to leave the host to which you now belong, and to join the assembly which is arrayed against it. There is not an individual in the assembly referred to, who is not prepared to receive and welcome you with cordial affection. All the good on earth, would gladly embrace you as brethren; holy beings in heaven would rejoice over you, as they do over every sinner that repenteth. The Lord Jesus Christ is ready to receive you, and God the Father to forgive you, and adopt you as his children. All, all combine AGAINST SINNERS. 189 with one voice to cry, Come with us, and we will do you good. Do you reply, we would join yon, were there not so many hypocrites in your numher. My hearers, we are not inviting you to join us. We are inviting you to join the armies of the Lamb, the camp of God, to join an assembly composed of none but the truly good. Surely, in such an assembly, there are no hypocrites. All iiypocrites belong to the host which we wish you to leave. They will, as inspiration assures us, have their portion with unbelievers, for unbelievers they in reality are. If you wish to be separate from them here, and hereafter, you must join those who worship God in spirit and in truth. CJioose tlien, my hearers, choose your associates, and while choosing them, remember that you are choosing them for eternity. Re- member too that all the goodness in the universe is on one side, and all the evil on the other, "^rhere is not a good man among those you are invited to leave. There is not an evil being among those you are invited to join. The subject is well calculated to encourage and animate those of you, who are truly religious. You see to how numerous, and how glorious an assembly you belong. When you look around upon the state of the world, you perhaps sometimes feel, hke the prophet, as if you were almost alone. But if your eyes are opened to see the great assembly which has been described, you will see that there are more with you, than against you, more with you, than with your adversaries. You are come unto Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, and to an innu- merable company of angels, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And O. what an honor and privilege is it, to compose one of such an assembly as this ! What an honor and privilege would it be, were the assembly much smaller than it is! And if it be an honor and privilege now, what will it be at the great day, in which all shall be assembled before the judgment seat of Christ ! AVhat happiness to hear him acknowledge you as his, to hear him say. Come, ye bles.sed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You were not ashamed to acknowledge me in the midst of an ungodly world, and now I will ncit be ashamed of you. You have been faithful over a few- things, I will make you ruler over many things; enter ye, into the joy of your Lord. 190 AN ASSEMBLY CONVOKED, ETC. But remember, that if union to such an assembly be a great honor and privilege, it also imposes great obligations. What ought they to be, in temper and conduct, who profess to belong to such an assembly as this ! How white, how unspotted ought to be their garments ! How should their whole lives testify to whom they belong ! And how great and how just will be the punishment of those false disciples, who, while they pretend to belong to this holy assembly, only disgrace it by their ungodly lives, and appear as spots and blemishes in the midst of it. Not long shall they be permitted thus to dishonor it; for he, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, will come to purify his church, and to cast into outer darkness those who have assumed his name only to profane it, and professed his religion only to dishonor it. Then he will say to his church. Rejoice, rejoice, for from hence- forth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumsised and the unclean. Then he will present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or imperfection, or any such thing ; but perfectly holy and without blemish. What manner of persons then ought ye to be ! As he who hath called us is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because he hath said, Be ve holy, for I am holy. SERMON LXIV. WHY THE WICKED ARE SPARED FOR A SEASON. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. — Genesis xv. 16. These words were addressed by Jehovah to Abraham, when he first promised to give his posterity the laud of Canaan. While giving him this promise God informed him, that it would not be fulfilled till after the lapse of a considerable number of years ; and assigned the reason of this delay in the words of our text. In the fourth generation, says he, thy seed shall come into the land again ; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. As if he had said, The putting of your posterity in possession of the land of Canaan, will be attended with tho destruction of its present inhabitants, the Amorites ; but they are not yet ripe for destruction ; for the measure of their iniquity is not yet full. But when their iniquity is full, your posterity shall return hither, and the Amorites shall be destroyed. This passage, taken in connection with its attending circum- stances, teaches us the following important truth ; God waits until sinners have filled up a certain measure of iniquity, before he executes the sentence by which they are doomed to destruction; but when this measure is full, execution certainly and immedi- ately follows. To explain, establish and improve this remark is my present design. I. In explanation of this remark, I observe, 192 WHY THE WICKED AKE 1. That God is under no obligation to suspend the destruction of sinners until the measure of tlieir iniquity is full, or even to suspend it for a single hour. The life of every sinner is already forfeited. By the very first sin of which he is guilty, he trans- gresses the law of God ; and that law pronounces sentence of death on every transgressor. Its language is, the soul that sinncth shall die. This sentence God may with the most perfect justice execute, at any moment, on every sinner. Hence the prophet, speaking in the name of his countrymen says, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. This is the same as if he had said, Justice dooms us to be consumed ; we deserve to bo consumed ; it is mercy alone which spares us. This is equally true of all sinners. There is nothing but the sovereign, unmerited mercy of God, which keeps any of them one moment out of everlasting burnings. But God is not obliged to exercise this mercy. He may, if he chooses, adhere rather to the strict rules of justice. He may execute the sentence of a just law, whenever he pleases. He cannot, therefore, be under the least obligation to delay the punishment of any sinner, for a single moment. As in human governments, when a criminal is capi- tally convicted and sentenced, the supreme executive may order execution to take place immediately, or defer it for a week or a month ; so God may take the sinner's forfeited life this moment, or grant him a reprieve for one or for many years. Such a reprieve he usually grants, as he did in the case of the Amorites. We remark, 2. That when we say, God waits until sinners have filled up a certain measure of iniquity before he destroys them, we do not mean that he waits upon all, till they have filled up the same measure. In other words, we do not mean that all sinners are equal in sinfulness and guilt at the hour of their death. To assert this would be contrary to fact and daily observation. We very often see youthful sinners, and those not of the worst stamp, cut down and hurried to the retributions of eternity; while others, apparently much more guilty, are suffered to be- come old and hardened in sin ; and to fill up a much larger measure of iniquity. It is therefore evident, that God does not allow all sinners to live till they have tilled up the same measure of iniquity. In this, no less than in other respects, he acts like a sovereign. He determines with respect to each particular SPARED FOR A SEASON. 193 sinner, how long a season of probation shall be granted him, how large a measure of guilt he shall be allowed to fill up, before sentence of death is inflicted. But when the measure, he. it greater or smaller, is full, the sinner's destruction immediately follows. I remark, 3. That every impenitent sinner is constantly filling up the measure of his iniquity; and thus constantly ripening for de- struction. This is evident from the fact, that all the feelings, thoughts, words and actions, of the impenitent, are sinful. They are so, because none of them proceed from that supreme love to God, which the law requires. They are so, because none of them are prompted by a desire to promote the glory of God; at the promotion of which we are commanded to aim in every thing we do. Agreeably, the Scriptures assert, that the ploughing of the wicked is sin, and that even the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Since then, impen- itent sirmers are constantly sinning, they are constantly filling up the measure of their iniquities. There is not a day, not a waking hour, or moment, in which the dreadful work does not advance towards its completion. Hence the apostle, addressing impenitent sinners, says. Not considering that the goodness of God, that is, his goodness in sparing thy life, is designed to lead thee to repentance, thou, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works. Now sinners treasure up wrath, when they fill up the measure of their iniquities ; for since God will recompense every man according to his works, it follows, that those whose sins are most numerous and aggravated will suffer in the greatest degree the wrath of God. 4. Though the measure of every impenitent sinner's iniquity is constantly filling up ; it fills much more rapidly in some cases, and at some seasons, than at others. Some sinners appear to sin with great eagerness, boldness and diligence ; to sin with all their heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, as if they were determined to see how much guilt they can contract in a short space. Others, who are apparently much less vicious and abandoned, fill up the measure of their sins with equal rapidity, in consequence of enjoying and abusing great religious privi- voL. III. 25 194 WHY THE WICKED ARE leges, opportunities and means of grace. Indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, from which there are no exceptions, that the measure of every impenitent sinner's guilt fills rapidly, in proportion to the light, the conviction, and the means of moral improvement against which he sins. As the productions of the earth ripen most speedily where they enjoy in the greatest degree a rich soil, frequent showers, and the genial beams of the sun, so sinners ripen most speedily for destruction, when they are favored in the greatest degree with rehgious privileges and opportunities. When a sinner is visited by some dangerous disease; is brought apparently near to death; is in consequence awakened, alarmed, and led to promise, that should his life be spared, he will devote it to God; and when, on being restored to health, he forgets his promise, and returns to his sinful courses, he adds very largely to his former guilt ; more perhaps than he could have done in whole years of uninterrupted health. Sim- ilar remarks may be made respecting those who lose their possessions, their children, or near friends, without deriving any spiritual advantage from the loss. There are, perhaps, no threatenings in the Bible, more terrible than those, which are denounced against such as do not repent when under the stroke of God's correcting hand. To some who were guilty of this conduct, God says, Surely, this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die. But never do sinners fill up the measure of their guilt more rapidly, than when they sin against convic- tion; against the remonstrances of an enlightened conscience, and the influences of the Spirit of God. Sinners who are guilty of this conduct, who stifle or lose religious impressions, do more perhaps to fill up the measure of their iniquities, than they had previously done during the whole course of their lives. This, of all sins, approaches most nearly to the sin against the Holy Ghost, that sin for which there is no forgiveness. Having thus endeavored to illustrate, we proceed. IT. To prove the assertion, which was drawn from our text. 1. The truth of this assertion may be proved from other passages of Scripture. St. Paul informs us that the conduct of the JeW' s tended to fill up their sins alway : for, he adds, wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. By the mouth of the prophet Joel, God says. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe, for their wickedness is great. And, using the same figure, SPARED FOR A SEASON. 195 St. John informs us that he saw an angel seated on a cloud, having in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple of God, and said to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. These passages are of the same import with the remark drawn from our text. The angel with the sharp sickle, represents the instruments which God employs to execute his judgments upon sinners. This angel remained inactive until he received a command to thrust in his sickle and reap ; and the reason as- signed for this command was, that the harvest of the earth was ripe; or, as the prophet expresses it, that the wickedness of men was great. In other words, the measure of their iniquity was full ; and of course they were ripe for destruction. Then, and not till then, they were cast into the wine-press of the wrath of God ; a figurative expression, denoting the prison and the punishment which await impenitent sinners, when death shall remove them from the world. The same truths appear to be taught by the parable of the barren fig-tree. This tree was sentenced to be cut down, on account of its barrenness, but a reprieve of one year was granted, at the expiration of which period, if it still remained barren, the sentence was to be executed. So sinners are sen- tenced to die by the divine law, but they are spared for an ap- pointed time, till all means have been used with them in vain, and the measure of their iniquity is full. Then mercy ceases to plead for them, and death cuts them down, as fit only to serve for fuel to the fire of divine wrath. The axe, says John, is laid at the root of the tree ; every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. My friends, every impenitent sinner is a barren tree. The axe of divine justice is laid at its root, and at the appointed time the sentence will go forth, Cut it down ! why cumbereth it the ground 1 2. The truth of the remark under consideration is further proved, by the history of God's dealings with sinful nations and individuals. Thus in the days of Noah, the long-suffering of 196 WHY THE AVICKED ARE God waited while the ark was preparing; but when the ap- pointed hmit of one hundred and twenty years was reached, when the guilty inhabitants of the world had filled up the measure of their iniquity, the flood came and swept them all away. Another instance of the same kind we have in the his- tory of the Israehtes who came out of Egypt. They murmured, rebelled, and provoked God in various ways; but were still spared, till they reached the borders of the promised land. Then, just as they were ready to enter it, they rebelled again; and this last act of rebellion filled the measure of their iniquity to the very brim. In consequence, they were turned back into the wilderness, and all above twenty years of age were doomed there to perish, and never to see the land which they had despised; nor could any intercession prevail with God to revoke the sentence. Many similar instances may be found in the history of succeeding generations of the Jews, and of some of their kings ; and one, still more striking, occurred in the time of our Saviour. He declares that the generation then living, were filling up the measure of their fathers. Soon after this, it became full ; and the nation was destroyed without mercy. I proceed, III. To make some improvement of the subject : 1. From this subject you may learn, my impenitent hearers, why God spares sinners long after their lives are forfeited, and why he spares you. It is because the measure of your iniquity is not yet full. You may, as former generations of sinners have done, encourage yourselves in a sinful course on account of his delay. As the wise man expresses it, Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, your hearts may be fully set in you to do evil. You hear, indeed, the threatenings of God's violated law denounced against you, but you do not yet feel theii execution; and like those of old, who asked. Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain as they were, you may be asking in your hearts, Where are any proofs of God's anger against us to be seen ? All things pursue their course. The sun shines brightly over our heads ; the showers of heaven descend upon us ; the earth produces food in abundance for our support, and sickness and death do not invade us. It cannot be that God is angry, while he thus loads us with favors. SPARED FOR A SEASON. 197 But remember, just in this manner were former generations of sinners favored, and just in this manner they encouraged themselves in sin. For one hundred and twenty years before the flood, the sun rose daily, and pursued his accustomed course ; the earth brought forth its fruits in abundance, and nothing in nature foretold the impending ruin. Thus too it was in Sodom ; they ate, they drank, they married and were given in marriage, and kneu) not till the flood came and swept them all away. Remember our Saviour's declaration, that God causes his sun to shine, and his showers to descend on the evil and unthankful, no less than upon the righteous. Remember, that the wretch who is doomed to be blasted by a thunderbolt, just hears the thmider roll, and sees the vengeful lightnings spending their fury at a distance. He little thinks that the cloud which he sees, thus distantly rising, bears his fate in its bosom. Careless and thoughtless, he pursues his way, while the cloud rises, condenses, blackens, and passes over his head. At length, the destined, fatal moment arrives; the bolt falls, his blackened corpse lies prostrate on the ground, and his naked soul stands trembling before the tribunal of God. So you, my impenitent hearers, now hear the thunder of God's threatenings murmur at a distance. Its flashes daily strike some of your fellow sinners, the measure of whose iniquity is full ; but as yet, they strike not you. The measure of your guilt is, however, fast filling up ; the last drop which it can contain will soon fall into it, and then death, who is now kept at a distance, will instantly find you out. God says respecting sinners. Their feet shall slide in due time. Till that due, that appointed time arrives, your feet will seem to stand firm ; but then they will slide in a moment, and terrible will be your fall. Meanwhile, no sinner can form even a probable conjecture, how near the destined moment of his fall may be. He cannot see the measure of his iniquity. He cannot know how large a measure God may spare him to fill up. He cannot know how many more sins are wanting to fill it. All respecting it is dark- ness and uncertainty. One thing, however, is certain ; that the measure of every sinner's guilt fills much faster than he is aware. Who, says the Psalmist, can understand his errors ? That is, who can know how often, or how greatly, he oflends? Was there ever a spendthrift, or a man careless of his affairs, lUS AVHY THE "WICKED ARE whose debts did not increase far beyond his expectations'? Much more does the guilt of careless sinners increase beyond all their erroneous calculations. Hence the inspired writea-s inform us, that the ruin of sinners is often most near, when they imagine it to be at the greatest distance. While they are promising themselves peace and safety, says an apostle, then sudden de- struction Cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. And, my hearers, have not many of you, judging even by your own imperfect knowledge, and erroneous standard, reason to fear that your measure of iniquity is nearly full? Reflect a moment, how many days and years you have spent in constantly neglecting and offending God. Think of the sins of childhood, of youth, and of riper years; think of your sins in action, iu word, in thought, and in feeling. Think of your sins of omis- sion, as well as of those of commission; how many things you have left undone which you ought to have done. Remember, too, what privileges, opportunities and means of grace you have enjoyed; how many sermons, warnings, and invitations you have slighted; against what light and conviction you have sinned. For many years you have been in a situation peculiarly favora- ble for filling up the measure of your iniquity. Many, perhaps most of you have been visited with afflictions. Some of you have been brought near to death ; some of you have lost property, children and friends; and you have all seen sufficient to convince you of the transient, unsatisfying nature of every temporal object. All of you have lived in a day when religion is reviving, and its influences greatly extending, not only around you, but through the world. Many of you have felt the power of divine truth; your consciences have been awakened; you have been, in a greater or less degree, alarmed ; the Spirit of God has invited you, and you have seen many of your relatives, friends or acquaintances, yield to his influence. Consider all this, and you will, I think, find great reason to fear that the measure of your iii^quity must be nearly full. Cer- tainly, if it is not so, your appointed measure is exceedingly large, and, of course, your punishment will be proportionably great; for the cup of wrath which every sinner must drink, will be in exact proportion to the measure of guilt which he has filled up. To those of you who are far advanced in life, these re- marks apply with peculiar force. It is certain that according to SPARED FOR A SEASON. 199 the course of nature, you cannot have many years to live; it is equally certain, therefore, that your measure of iniquity must be, not only exceedingly large, but nearly full. And O how harrowing, how terrible is the thought, that you have spent a long life in doing nothing but fill up the measure of your iniquity, and of course in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Should death come, and find you impenitent, better, far better would it be for you to have died in infancy; nay, infinitely better had it been for you never to have been born. Perhaps the younger part of my impenitent hearers may abuse these remarks. Perhaps you may infer from them that your measure of iniquity is very far from being full; and that you may therefore safely spend a few more years in the practice of sin. But remember, the young die, as well as the old. Remem- ber that God may have determined to spare you, only till you shall have filled up a comparatively small measure of iniquity. It is a very ancient remark, a remark which has been verified by the observations of many centuries, that God sometimes makes very quick work with simiers. Or, to use the language of inspiration, he finishes the work and cuts it short in right- eousness. And should you live to old age, you may not become religious. You may live only to fill up the measure of your iniquity. The young, then, as well as the old, have reason to tremble and to repent. 2. From this subject, my hearers, you may learn the indis- pensable necessity of an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though you are constantly adding to your sins, to diminish them is beyond your power. You cannot take one drop from the cup of your iniquities. You cannot even refrain from filling it ; for while you continue to neglect the Saviour, you are con- stantly adding sin to sin ; your actions, words, thoughts and feelings are all sinful. Yet you must cease to commit new sins, and those which you have already committed must be blotted out, or you will perish forever. Christ alone can enable you to do either. His blood cleanses from all sin ; he is able to cast all your iniquities into the depths of the sea ; and he can renovate your hearts, and render you holy, so that you shall no longer treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. To him, then, every motive urges you to fly without delay. The delay of a single hour may be fatal. There must arrive a time when the 200 WHY THE WICKED ARE cup of your iniquities will be filled to the brim ; when the addi- tion of a single drop will cause it to overflow. With respect to some of you, that time may have arrived. A neglect of this warning, the loss of this Sabbath, may be the additional drop, which shall cause the measure of your iniquities to overflow. Then it will be forever too late. Then Christ himself cannot save you, will not plead for you, but will assent to your con- demnation. Now, then, while it is an accepted time and a day of salvation, look to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 3. There is an important sense in which many of the pre- ceding remarks are applicable to Christians. Those of you who have been such for any considerable time, have often, when contemplating your sins, and especially when in a religious declension, been ready to conclude that God would visit you with some severe temporal afiliction, as a mark of his displeasure. But instead of this, you have found him returning to you in mercy, healing your backslidings, and putting the song of sal- vation into your mouths. Having often found this to be the case, you may begin to conclude that it will always be so, and thus you may be insensibly led to become careless and slothful, t© think lightly of sin, and not to guard against the first synip- toms of declension. But if so, God will, in a terrible manner, convince you of your mistake, and make you to know experi- mentally that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake him. He remembers, though we are prone to forget, how often he has displayed the sovereignty of his mercy in pardoning us, when we deserved correction ; and sooner or later, when the measure of your backslidings shall be full, he will, by some severe tem- poral affliction or spiritual trial, bring all your sins to remem- brance, and teach you that even his children shall not offend him with impunity. It is to his professing people that he says, Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged, that is, because I have often healed thy backslidings, and cleansed thee from thy sins, and yet thou didst return to them again; — there- fore thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. And permit me, my brethren, to remind you, that should we abuse the present instance of God's sovereign mercy, we shall SPA 11 ED FOR A SEASON. 201 have reason to expect some such token of his displeasure. We had often forsaken him, and he had as often restored us. But, immindful of this mercy, we again forsook him, and departed from him farther than before. Yet he has once more restored to us the joys of his salvation, and visited us with his free Spirit. And now if we forsake him again after this, it will be strange indeed, if he does not visit our iniquities with stripes and our backslidings with a rod. VOL. III. 26 SERMON LXV. LOVERS OF PLEASURE DESCRIBED AND WARNED. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. — 2 Timothy iii. 4. These words describe a character which is, alas ! but too frequently found in this sinful world ; a character too, which most men are apt to regard with a partial and favorable eye, especially when it is met with among the young. If nothing worse is known of a man, than that he is rather too fond of what are commonly called the innocent pleasures and amuse- ments of life, he is considered by the bulk of mankind as a moral, amiable character, and almost good enough to be admitted into heaven; even though it may be evident from his whole conduct, that he is a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God. It is evident from the context, however, that St. Paul, or rather the Holy Spirit by whom he was inspired, did not view this character with so favorable an eye. On the contrary, he classes those to whom it belongs, with the grossest and most notorious offenders ; offenders, whose prevalence gives an aspect of pecu- liar danger to the age in which they live. This know, says he, that in the last days perilous times shall come ; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; without natural affection, despisers of them that are good, fierce, incontinent, false accusers, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. From the company in which these lovers of pleasure are here LOVi:US OF PLEASURE, ETC. 203 placed, WG may easily infer what the apostle thought of them, md what is thought of them by him whose message he brought. Whether the perilous times, of which he speaks, have arrived, or not, we shall not pretend, to determine ; but certain it is, that very many are to bo found among us, who, if we may judge ■from their conduct, are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. To show, by a few simple marks, who belong to this number, is our present design. I. This number includes all whose fondness for pleasure leads them to violate the commands of God. Nothing is more certain, or more universally known, than that men never willingly offend a person whom they love, for the sake of one whom they do not love. Equally certain is it, that when men are constrained to give up one of two things, they always give up that which they love the least. This being the case, it is undeniably evident, that all who provoke, or sin against God, for the sake of any pleasure whatever, do love that pleasure more than God. Now there are various ways in which men may sin against God in the pursuit of pleasure. In the first place, they may, like our first parents, sin by in- dulging in forbidden pleasures, in those pleasures which are in themselves sinful. Among these, must be reckoned the pleas- ures, if they may be called such, which result from gluttony, intemperance, and sensuality ; for these are all most pointedly forbidden by the word of God. Revellings also, or assemblies for riotous dissipation, are expressly mentioned among the works of the flesh ; and even foolish talking and jesting are forbidden by name. These, therefore, and all similar pleasures, which are expressly forbidden by the word of God, are in themselves, on all occasions and in all circumstances, sinful ; and those who pursue them are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. In the second place, pleasures and pursuits which are not in themselves sinful, or not expressly forbidden, may become sinful by being pursued in an inordinate, improper manner, and by leading us to neglect duties which are expressly enjoined. This is the case with all the pleasures of this life, even with those that are in themselves most innocent; such as the pleasures resulting from friendship, from literary pursuits, or from the enjoyments of the family circle. All these, though innocent in themselves, may and often do become sinful, in consequence of 204 LOVERS OF PLEASURE interfering with our duties to God and man, or of being pursued in an inordinate, unseasonable, or improper manner. For in- stance, we are expressly commanded to redeem the lime, to pray without ceasing, to glorify God in all that we do, to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Christ. Consequently, the neglect of any of these duties is a sin, a breach of the divine precepts, and therefore, if we indulge even in the most innocent pleasures, in such a manner as to waste our time, to lose oppor- tunities of glorifying God, to foster a spirit of self indulgencCj to encroach upon the season which ought to be allotted to prayer, or to unfit us for the performance of that duty, it is certain that we pursue pleasure in a sinful manner ; and if we allow our selves in such indulgences, if this conduct is in any manner habitual, it incontestably proves that we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. In the same number must be included, II. All who are led by a fondness for pleasure to indulge in amusements which they suspect may be wrong, or which they do not feel certain are right. When we love any person supremely, we are careful to avoid, not only those things which we know will displease him, but such as we suspect may do it. We always think it best, in such cases, to be on the safe side, and to avoid everything which we do not feel confident will not be displeasing. It is the same, with respect to God. Those who love him supremely will avoid, not only what they know to be sinful, but what they suspect may be sinful; they will abstain not only from evil, but from the very appearance of evil ; and if they are not certain that any proposed indulgence is wrong, yet if they do not know it to be right, they will reject it. They will say, there can certainly be no sin in not pursuing this offered pleasure, but there may be something wrong in pursuing it ; and thus God may be displeased, and we will therefore keep on the safe side, and not even incur the risk of offending him, for the sake of any earthly gratification whatever. If any are disposed to consider this as unreasonable and unnecessary strictness, we would refer them to the words of St. Paul, in the 14th chapter of the epistle to the Romans. He there solemnly assures us, that Whatsoever is not of faith is sin ; that is, as is evident from the context, whatever a man does, which he is not fully persuaded is right, DESCRIBED AND WARNED. 205 is sinful to him, even if it were not sinful in itself. And again he says, Whosoever thinketh anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean ; that is, if a man suspects any indulgence to be wrong, it is wrong to him, for in partaking of it he acts against his conscience, and feels self-condemned. All, therefore, who indulge in pleasures which they suspect maybe wrong; all whose consciences condemn them in the silence of the night, after returning from a party of pleasure ; all who are obliged to use many endeavors to quiet their con- sciences, and to persuade themselves that there is nothing wrong in their conduct, certainly pursue pleasure in a sinful manner, and are therefore lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; since they will pursue pleasure, though they do not know but in doing it they are offending him. Happy is he, saith the apostle, who condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. But these persons do condemn themselves, in the very things that they allow. And again he says. He that doubteth is damned if he eat; that is, he that doubts whether anything be right, and yet will practise it, is condemned by his own conscience, and will be condemned of God, unless he repents. in. Those are lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, who find more satisfaction in the pursuit and enjoyment of worldly pleasure, than they do in his service. That the more we love any object, the more satisfaction we find in its enjoy- ment, all will allow. This being the case, if we can ascertain in what a man finds the greatest pleasure, we can determine at once what he most loves; for no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures. To apply this remark to the case before us : If a man finds more delight in the service and enjoyment of God, than in earthly pleasures ; if he forsakes them all to retire into his closet and converse with his Maker and Redeemer ; if he finds no book like the Bible, no place like God's house, no day like the Sab- bath, no employment like that of prayer and praise, no society like that of God's people, then it is evident that he loves all pleasures less than God. On the contrary, if he finds more satisfaction in worldly than in religious pleasures; if he prefers a history, a play, or a novel, to the Bible; if he feels happier in a small select party, in a theatre or ball-room, than he does in his closet, or in the house of God; in a word, if he cannot 206 LOVERS OF PLEASURE seriously say to his Maker, Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee; then it is as evident as any thing can be, that he is a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God. There is no more doubt respecting his true character, than if he were openly immoral and profane, or than there will be at the judgment day. Lastly: All who are deterred from immediately embracing the Saviour, and commencing a religious life, by an unwilling- ness to renounce the pleasures of the world, are most certainly lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. That men are always ready to renounce any object, for the sake of something which they consider more valuable, all will allow. Consequently, when Christ invites sinners to come through him to God; when God seconds the invitation by saying. Come ye out from among them, and touch not the unclean thing., it is evident that all who refuse or delay to comply, from an unwillingness to renounce their worldly pleasures, are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. There is nothing but this preference of pleasure to God, that can possibly prevent them. Christ has opened the way for them to come to God ; he offers to lead them to his Father, and to plead in their behalf. But they will not comply, though heaven is the reward of compliance, and eternal wretchedness the consequence of a refusal. How very much then must they love pleasure more than God, since these powerful inducements cannot persuade them to forsake their pleasures and come to him. Having thus endeavored to show to whom the character mentioned in our text belongs, we shall proceed to show, in the next place, that, whatever may be thought of them by the world, or whatever they may think of themselves, they are in reality in a most sinful, guilty, and dangerous condition. That the apostle considered them as sinful, in no common degree, is evident, as has been already observed, from the com- pany in which he has placed them. It is still farther evident from the description which he gives of them in some of the verses succeeding the text. For instance, he there informs us, that such are persons of corrupt minds. That they must be so will be evident on a moment's reflection; for what can be a more satisfactory proof of a wretchedly corrupt state of mind, in a rational, immortal being, than a preference of unsatisfying, transitory, sinful pleasures, to his Creator; to a Being of infinite DESCRIBED AND WARNED. 207 loveliness, excellence and perfection, the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift 1 Those who are guilty of this are idolators in the worst sense of the term. Idolatry is a breach of the first and great command. Thou shalt have no other gods before me ; thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. Now these persons have another god before the true God ; they have an idol which they love more than they do him ; an idol, to which they sacrifice not only their time, their attention, their talents, but even their immortal souls; an idol, too, of the most worthless and con- temptible kind. Though they are urged and entreated bj^ the tender mercies of God, not to be conformed to this world, but to present themselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is their most reasonable service ; yet they obstinately and ungratefully refuse to comply, and choose rather to sacrifice themselves on the altar of worldly pleasure, thus robbing God of his due, and ruining the souls he has given them, for the loss of which the whole world can make no compensation. WelL then, may it be said, that they are persons of corrupt minds. In the second place, the apostle informs us, that they resist the truth. This they must do, for their deeds are evil. Christ as- sures us, that every one who doeth evil, hateth the light, neither Cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Such persons hate the truth, because the truth condemns and exposes their sinful but beloved pleasures. Its natural tendency is to separate them from their pleasures, and lead them to God ; but they resist this tendency; they refuse to give up their sinful pleasures, and labor in various ways to persuade themselves that they are innocent, and that no evil consequences can result from their pursuit. Hence they resist all attempts to turn them from the error of their ways, and all the convictions which at times arise in their minds ; the preached word does them no good ; they quarrel with those truths which condemn them, as unreasonably strict and severe, and the language of their hearts is, We have loved our idols, and after them we will go. Hence, thirdly, they are represented as despisers of good men They consider such men whose conduct reproves them, as the enemies of their happiness, and ridicule them as rigid, morose, superstitious or hypocritical persons, who are needlessly strict and scrupulous, and who will neither enjoy the world them- 208 LOVERS OF PLEASURE selves, nor allow others to do it. Hence, there are perhaps no characters who hate and despise the truly pious, more bitterly, than those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This is to be expected ; for the royal Preacher has long since informed us, that as an unjust man is an abomination to the just, so he that is upright in his way is an abomination to the wicked. The sensual, voluptuous Sadducees, those ancient lovers of pleasure, hated and despised Christ and his disciples, even more, if .possible, than did the hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisees. Lastly, the persons we are describing are represented as being dead in trespasses and sins. She that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth; and this is equally true of both sexes. They are dead, as it respects the great end of their existence; dead to every thing that is good, dead in the sight of a holy God, loathsome to him as a corpse is to us, and as unfit for the society of the living Jehovah, as the naturally dead are for the society of the living. You need not be told, that, however dear the persons of our children and friends are to us, while living, yet after they are dead, after the animating, life-supporting spirit has departed, we wish to bury them out of our sight. Tliey cannot then enjoy our presence, nor can we take the least pleas- ure in theirs; on the contrary, they soon become intolerably loathsome and shocking; and were we unable to remove them, they would soon render our habitations insupportable. Thus, though God loves his creatures as such, yet when they become dead in sin, he ceases to love them; they become exceedingly hateful in his sight, even as a corpse is in ours. Nor are they any more capable of enjoying him. To use his own language, his soul loathes them, and their souls abhor him. Never, there- fore, while thus dead in sin, can they be admitted into heaven. They are evidently unfit for it; they could not enjoy it; for there, none of their beloved pleasures will be found. Besides, God will no more suffer them to enter heaven, than we would suffer the finest apartments in our houses to be filled with the putrefying corpses of the dead; for heaven is the habitation of his holiness and glory, and he has solemnly declared, that noth- ing shall enter it that defileth. They, therefore, who love pleasure more than they love God, will not, cannot be admitted into heaven, unless they repent, and wash away their defilement DESCRIBED AND WARNED. 209 in the blood of Christ. And if they are not admitted into heaven, there is but one other place to which they can go at death, and that place will be their eternal habitation. Such is the character, and such will be the inevitable doom of all who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This being the case, it is surely of infinite importance, that we should ascertain whether this is our character. Permit me, then, with the utmost tenderness, and with a most anxious solicitude for your best interests, your true pleasure, to ask all of you, especially the young, Are not some of you lovers of pleas- ure more than lovers of God? Do none of you mdulge in pleasures which are in themselves sinful, which tend to ruin you for this world as well as for the next, and which are most clearly forbidden in the Avord of God? If not, and I would hope this is the case, do none of you indulge in the pursuit of what are called innocent pleasures, in such a manner as leads to sin, to sins of omission at least; in such a manner as leads you to waste precious time, to utter innumerable idle words, to neglect watchfulness, self-denial and prayer, and unfit you for the right performance of these duties? Are you not often in places and engaged in scenes, in which you would not wish the day of judgment or the hour of death to find you? In a word, do you not pursue pleasure in a way which is inconsistent with doing every thing to God's glory, with making preparation for death, with obeying the commands of Christ, and with securing the salvation of your souls? Do none of you indulge in pleas- ures which you suspect are not entirely innocent, for which your consciences reprove you after you return from them, and which you sometimes find it difficult to justify, even to your- selves? Do you not find more satisfaction in these pleasures than in the service and enjoyment of God; and are you not deterred from complying with your convictions, and immediately commencing a religious hfe, by an unwillingness to give up these fascinating, but pernicious and ruinous pleasures? Yes, my friends, you cannot but know, and I know that this is the case with some of you ; and I, yet not I, but the word of God declares, that all with whom it is the case, are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Yes, you love these irra- tional, transitory, unsatisfying pleasures better than the God who made you, better than the Saviour who died for you, better VOL. HI. 27 210 LOVERS OF PLEASURE than the salvation of your own souls, better than all the joys of heaven. Hence you are dead while you live, dead in trespasses and sins, dead to every thing good, dead to the great object for which you were created, dead in the sight of God, and utterly unfit for admission into heaven. Hence, also, you resist the truth. This is the reason that the preaching of the gospel does you no good. You are often in the house of God, you hear what is said ; you appear solemn, and perhaps at times, are affected by the truth, so that one would think you, like the young ruler, not far from the kingdom of heaven. But you go from the house of God. The world resumes its fatal power over your minds. Your love of pleasure revives. The enchantress waves her magic wand, and beckons you to some of the various temples where she is worshipped. You obey the signal. Your inclinations stifle the voice of conscience, and hurry you away. I see them carry you to some resort of pleasure, falsely so called; there I see some of you engaged in gay and trifling conversation, which banishes all serious thoughts from your own minds, and from the minds of those with whom you converse. I see others led to places where the gaming table is spread, where the sound of the viol is heard, where the circling glass is employed to drown reflection, and brace up the drooping spirits in the pur- suit of pleasure. I hear the plausible arguments, the entreaties, the sneers and sarcasms which are employed to overcome the firmness and banish the scruples of those, who are at first un- willing to join in the mad career. I see and no longer wonder, that the truth is resisted. I no longer wonder that a preached gospel is rendered ineffectual. I no longer wonder that so few are rescued from the whirlpool of pleasure, or that I see its fatal flood strewed with the wrecks of immortal souls. I rather wonder that any escape; that I see some who have reached the shore, and while with a joyful surprise, I hear them singing the praises of their great Deliverer, I am constrained to cry. Truly, this is the finger of God! For what power, short of his, can rescue any from these bewitching scenes, where the Tempter, in the mask of Pleasure, spreads his most subtle and fatal snares ! These are the scenes where he carries on, with the greatest suc- cess, the diabolical work of temptation and death. These are the places where thought is banished, where religion is forgotten, where God, and death and eternity are kept out of sight, where DESCRIBED AND WARNED. 211 conviction is stifled, where conscience is seared, where the heart is hardened, where the good resokitions, made in a serious hour, are broken; where the young and yet unhardened sinner is gradually trained up to vice and nifidelity; where the ruin of * millions of immortal souls has been finally sealed. This being the case, we appeal to yourselves, my friends, whether we ought to keep silence, when we see many for whose souls we watch, as one that must give an account, flocking to these scenes of temptation and ruin? No, we cannot, we dare not be silent. Though you will perhaps resent this attack on your favorite pleasures, and consider us as your enemy because we tell you the truth; yet whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, we must speak, and give you warning from God. Not that we hope that our unassisted endeavors or warn- ings will avail. No, we know too well the strength of your attachment to those pleasures, to hope this. We know too well the specious names by which their deformity is veiled, and the plausible arguments by which the application of these names is justified. Once we thought that these arguments were conclu- sive, that these specious names were properly applied; that pleasures which displease and dishonor God, waste precious time, and lead to the neglect of duty and the ruin of the soul, might be called innocent pleasures. Yes, with shame I confess that I once believed this. But it was all an error, a delusion resulting from that dizzy whirl of mind, that stupefaction of the nobler powers of the soul, which is produced by circling round, the vortex of worldly amusement. That Power who has convinced me of my mistake, is equally able to convince and save you. This is all my hope, all my dependence, and to this Power I look for aid, while from the shore of this fatal, irresis- tible whirlpool, I call to those whom it is still sweeping away. Help me, ye people of God, with your prayers. Hear and help thy servant, O thou prayer-hearing, wonder-working God, while in thy name he endeavors to pluck thy creatures as brands from eternal burnings. -. Ye creatures of the Most High ! ye immortal spirits ! ye pro- bationers for eternity ! listen to this call, to the voice of Jehovah. How long will ye continue to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? How long continue to circle round that vortex which draws its Avretched captives into the gulf that has no 212 LOVERS OF PLEASURE bottom; how long lie buried in slumber and death, dreaming or pleasure, while your Creator is displeased, while your Saviour is neglected; while death is approaching, while eternity is at the door, and your unprepared spirits are momentarily exposed to endless perdition ! What meanest thou, O sleeper ! to slumber while this is thy condition ! Is it a time for mirth, when the Judge stands before the door, crying, Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep ! Awake, then, thou that sleepest; escape for thy life; look not behind thee, renounce thy vain pleasures, deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Christ. Say not, my pleasures are too dear to part with. I know they are dear, dear to you as a right hand or a right eye. But what then? It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. Say not, if we renounce our pleasures, we shall never more be happy. Rather you will never be happy till you do renounce them, and seek happiness where alone it is to be found. Were the Samaritans unhappy when they had renounced sinful pleasures and embraced the cross of Christ 7 No ; there was great joy in that city. Was the Ethiopian nobleman unhappy, after he had believed on a crucified Redeemer? No; he went on his way rejoicing. Renounce your idolatrous love of pleasure, and this joy will be yours. Enter the ways of wisdom, and you will find them ways of pleasantness. Cease to drink at your broken cisterns which can hold no water, and you shall drink of those rivers of pleasures which flow forever at the right hand of God. Imitate the example of Christ, who began early to say, I must be about my Father's business, and you shall have that rest, that peace which he gives, and rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Do any say, we would gladly renounce our unsatisfying pleasures, and follow Christ, but we feel unable to do so. We fear that when the hour of temptation comes, we shall forget and break our resolutions, and return to the world ! My friends the power of Christ can render you victorious over the strongest temptations. His grace is sufficient for you; and if you can consent that he should take away that inordinate fondness for pleasure that enslaves you, he will do it. You perhaps recollect that, in the account we gave you last Sabbath, it was mentioned, that when the young were persuaded to renounce their vain DESCRIBED AND WARNED. 213 amusements, a glorious revival of religion soon followed. If you could be persuaded to imitate their example, perhaps the consequences would be similar. Will you not make the exper- iment, at least for one month ! Will you not for one month, one little month, say no, to every call of sinful pleasure, and devote yourselves to the pursuit of religion 7 Is this too much time to give to the salvation of your souls'? Too much to give to him who gave you being; too much to give to that Saviour, who gave his blood for your redemption, and whose language is. My son, give me thine heart. My dying, yet immortal hearers, will you not grant him this small favor? If you still hesitate, still feel undecided, let me entreat you when you go from this house to repair to your closets, and there lay open the Bible before you; bring to your minds the solemn hour of death, and the awful scenes beyond it, and with these scenes full in your view, survey your past lives, consider how you will wish they had been spent, when your last hour arrives; and then, with the eye of God upon you, and with your eye upon the judgment seat, decide whether you will follow Christ or your pleasures. SERMON LXVI. THE SINNER'S MISTAKES EXPOSED AND REPROVED. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Psalm l. 21, 22. The doctrine of a judgment to come is no new doctrine. It IS almost, if not quite, as old as creation. Though it is revealed with the greatest clearness in the New Testament, yet there are many intimations, and not a few explicit predictions of it in the Old. Indeed, it appears highly probable, that, under the ancient dispensation, mankind were favored with some predictions of this day, which are not recorded in the Scriptures ; for St. Jude informs us, that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who was afterwards taken alive into heaven, prophesied, saying. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his sahits, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly of their ungodly deeds. To the same great day Moses seems to refer, when he represents God as saying, A fire is kmdled in mine anger, which shall burn to the lowest hell, and consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Another clear, and very explicit prediction of a future judgment, we have in the Psalm before us. Our God, says the Psalmist, shall come, and shall not keep silence ; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round THE SINNEk's mistakes, ETC. 215 about him. He shall call to the heaven from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people; and the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Having inspired his servant thus to foretell an approaching day of judg- ment, God himself takes up the subject, and after a most solemn address to his professing people, turns to sinners, charges them with various crimes, and concludes with the words of our text, These things thou hast done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. In this passage we have, I. A description of the manner in which God treats impeni- tent sinners, during the present life. While they are going on in a course of sin, he sits as a watchful spectator of their con- duct, but keeps silence : These things thou hast done, and I kept silence. There is, indeed, one sense in which he is not silent. He is continually speaking to them in his Word, in- viting, counseling and warning them to repent and flee from the wrath to come ; nor does he fail often to speak to them in the same manner, by the voice of conscience. But, as a Judge, he usually observes the most profound silence. Scarcely ever does he openly manifest his displeasure against sinful individ- uals, or visibly punish them for their sins in the present life ; though he frequently sends his judgments on guilty nations. We are indeed told by the inspired writers, that his bow is bent to pierce, and his sword sharpened to cut off impenitent sinners, as soon as the day of grace shall have expired, and they shall have filled up the measure of their iniquities; but till that pe- riod arrives, the tokens of his anger are restrained, and nothing is done to show that he is more displeased with the wicked than with the good. The sun shines brightly over their heads, as it did upon Sodom an hour before its destruction ; the rain of heaven descends upon them, and they are permitted to enjoy all the blessings of providence and all the means of grace. Young sinners are suffered to rejoice in their youth, and to walk in the way of their hearts, and in the sight of their eyes ; and those that are farther advanced in life are suffered to pursue the world, and to glory in their wisdom, their riches and their strength; so that, in this life, there seems to be but one event to 216 THE sinner's mistakes the rigliteous and to the wicked, to him that serveth God and him that servetii him not. Thus while sinners are sinning and treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, God as a righteous Judge keeps silence ; but though silent, he is not an indifferent or inactive witness of their conduct. All their sins, all their abused mercies, all the warnings they receive in vain, are care- ftilly recorded by him in that book of remembrance which will be opened at the judgment day. If it be asked, why God thus keeps silence ; I answer, because this life is a season of trial and probation. Men are placed in this world, that they may show what is in their hearts, and thus discover their true characters. In order to this, it is nec- essary that they should be left in some manner to themselves; left at liberty to act as they please. It is evident that if the good were always openly rewarded, and the wicked visibly punished here; if the thunder always rolled, and the lightnings always flashed to blast the sinner at the very moment in which he sinned, this life would not be a state of trial. Men would be so much under the influence of a slavish fear, that they would not act as they pleased ; and, consequently, would not make a discovery of their true character. It is evidently no time to discover whether a servant is faithful or unfaithful, while he feels that his master's eye is upon him. If we would know his true character, let his master withdraw for awhile, and leave him to himself, and it will then be seen whether he is an eye- servant or not. Precisely in this manner God deals with mankind. He sets before them in the works of creation, sufficient evidence of his existence and perfections; he lays them under obligations to love and thank him by the blessings of his providence; he clearly prescribes their duty, and gives them directions for its perform- ance, in his word; he places conscience in their breasts, as an overseer, and monitor; and then, wrapped up in his own invis- ibility, sits silent and unseen, to notice and record, their conduct. His eyes run through the earth, beholding the evil and the good; he is present in all the scenes of business and amusement; he comes with sinners to his temple on the Sabbath; goes with them to their habitations when they return; is with them when they lie down, and when they rise up; and follows their steps through the day; but however they may provoke him, still EXPOSED AND REPROVED. 217 keeps silence. Thus he is prepared to bring every secret thing into judgment, as he Jias told us he will do at the last day. Even now, this invisible witness is present. Even now he hears my words, and reads your thoughts; his adamantine pen is even now in motion to record them; and it will be found when he judges the secrets of men hereafter, that not one thought or feehng has escaped iiis notice. II. We have in this passage the opinions which sinners form of God, in consequence of his thus keeping silence : Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself. We are not to understand the passage as asserting, that sinners sup- pose God in all respects to resemble themselves. They know that he is not like them, clothed with a body; that he is not mortal ; that he far surpasses them in power, wisdom, and other natural perfections. But it is their opinions of his moral char- acter, of his views and feelings with respect to themselves and their conduct, to which the assertion refers. In this respect every unawakened sinner supposes, or at least acts as if he supposed, that God is altogether such an one as himself. Feeling no immediate tokens of God's displeasure, he flatters himself that God is not displeased. Satisfied with his own character and conduct, he imagines that God is equally satisfied. Feeling little or no abhorrence of sin, he takes it for granted that it is not hateful in the sight of God, and that of course he will not punish it. Finding it easy to justify himself, and satisfy his own conscience, he fancies that it will be equally easy to satisfy God, and justify his conduct at his bar. But what most evident- ly shows that he thinks God to be such an one as himself, is the fact, that from what he should do, he infers what God will do. He says in his heart, I could not destroy so many millions as there are in the world, destitute of religion, and therefore God will not destroy them. I could not find it in my heart to punish any man with everlasting misery, and therefore God Avill punish none in that manner. I should save all men, were it in my power, and therefore God will save all, and me among the rest. Sometime or other, I shall be converted, if conversion be neces- sary, and if it be not, I am safe. That such are the thoughts and feelings of sinners is well known to all who converse much with them respecting religion; and in defiance of all God's declarations to the contrary, they will persist in supposing that VOL. HI. 28 218 THE sinner's mistakes He will do as they should do in like circumstances. When hard pressed, their hearts, if not their lips avow : — I can never believe that God will make any of his creatures miserable for- ever. Now in reasoning in this manner they evidently take it for granted, that God is altogether such an one as themselves ; that his views and feelings correspond with theirs, and that he will do nothing which they would not do, were they in his place. They forget that God has said, My ways are not yours : as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. They forget that God is the moral Governor of the universe, and, as such, is no less sacredly bound to punish the wicked, than to reward the good. They forget that he has most solemnly declared that, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished, and that he cannot break his word. They forget, that God is not man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent; that what he has said is as certain as if it were already done ; and fancy that it is as easy for God as it is for themselves to say and unsay, to do and undo, and to modify and change his purposes. III. We have in this passage an account of the measures which God will employ to convince sinners that he is not such an one as themselves : I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. This he will do as is evident from the con- text, at the judgment day. He intends, as an apostle informs us, that every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world made to stand guilty before him. To produce this effect, nothing more will be necessary than to bring into view the sins which men have committed, and the duties which they have neglected; or in the language of the text, set them in order. This, God here declares that he will do ; and that he is perfectly able to do it, is evident from what has already been said respecting Ihe silent, but particular notice which he takes of human conduct. But what, it may be asked, is implied by setting the sinner's offences in order before his eyes? I answer, it implies, In the first place, giving the sinner a clear and full view of all the sins of his life, in thought, word and deed, in the order in which they were committed. Such a view no sinner has of himself in the present life. He is guilty of ten thousand, thou- sand sins, which he does not even suspect to be sins. Of his EXPOSED AND KEPROVED. 219 sins of omission, which are by far the most numerous, he scarcely thinks at all. Blinded by self-love, and the deceitful- ness of his own heart, he views his character in a favorable hght, and calls many things virtues, which God will convince him were sins. Ignorant of the spirituality and extent of the divine law, he has no conception how frequently, how continu- ally, he violates its precepts. Of the sins of his heart, he is almost entirely unconscious ; though they are not only the most numerous, but perhaps the worst of which he is guilty. He does not consider that a wanton look is adultery, that covetous- ness is idolatry, and that hatred of his brother is murder in the sight of God. He does not consider that every waking moment, in which he does not love God with all his heart, and his neigh- bor as himself, he is breaking the two great commands on which hang all the law and the prophets. He does not consider that as often as he eats or drinks, merely to gratify himself, and not to glorify God, he is violating a most important gospel precept. He does not consider, that, during every day spent in unbelief, he has treated God as a liar, crucified Christ afresh, and grieved the Spirit of grace. He does not consider that to him who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Nor does he think anything of the innumerable evil consequences which result from his conduct during his life, and which will continue to flow from it perhaps after his death ; though he is accounta- ble for them all. And as every sinner is thus guilty of innum- erable sins of which he is scarcely conscious, so he very quickly forgets those sins which he knew to be such. The sins of each successive day efface the remembrance of the sins of the preced- ing day ; the youth forgets the sins of his childhood ; the man forgets the sins of his youth, and the grey-haired sinner forgets the sins of his manhood ; hence the sinner never has any full view of his sins ; and though he is every day increasing in guilt, and treasuring up wrath, he is not aware that he is more guilty now than he was formerly. But at the day of judgment he will have a clear view of the whole; then all his sins will find him out, and God will set them in order before him, to overwhelm him with amazement, shame and despair. All the duties he has neglected, all the sins he has committed, all his vain, foolish thoughts, feelings and desires, all his idle words, all his hidden works of darkness, all 220 THE sinner's mistakes, his wandering imaginations in the house of God, all the mischief which resulted from his example, all the unbelief, pride, wick- edness and rottenness of his heart, will then be brought to his view at once, and he will, however reluctantly, be forced to behold them. In the next place, setting the sinner's offences in order before him, implies giving him a view of all their aggravations. All the mercies he received, all the afflictions which were sent to rouse him, all the opportunities, privileges, warnings and means of grace with which he was favored ; all the sermons which he heard, and all the secret checks which he experienced from his own conscience, and from the strivings of God's Spirit, will then be set before him, to shew that he sinned wilfully and knowingly, against light and against love, and that he is, there- fore, without excuse. Thus it will appear that God would often have reclaimed him, but that he would not be reclaimed, and .that he is consequently the author of his own ruin. In the third place, setting his sins in order before him, implies giving him a full view of their dreadful malignity and crimi- nality. Of this sinners see nothing in this world. They do not see what an infinitely great and glorious Being that God is against whom sin is committed. They do not see what an infi- nitely precious, lovely, and all-sufficient Saviour they are reject- ing. They do not see the holiness, justice and goodness of the law. They do not see what a heaven they are forfeiting, nor into what a hell they are plunging themselves by sin. They do not realize how short is time in comparison with eternity, nor how worthless the body when compared with the soul. But at the judgment-day they will be made to see all these things. Then they will behold every object in its true light. They will then see what a being God is, and the sight will convince them that the least sin committed against him is an infinite evil and deserving of everlasting punishment. Then, too, they will see what a Saviour Christ is. He will then come, not in his own glory only, but in that of his Father and all his servants the holy angels ; and the folly, the madness and wickedness of rejecting such a Saviour, will, therefore, appear to be infinitely great. Then, too, time with its engagements will seem exceedingly EXPOSED AND REPROVED. 221 short and insignificant, for they will all be past; and olernity will appear long indeed, for it will be all to come. In a word, then, the nature and tendency of sin will be clearly seen. It will be seen that as one spark of fire, if placed in a favorable situation, and supplied with proper fuel, is sufficient to produce an universal conflagration, and destroy every thing that is des- tructible in the universe, so the tendency of the least sin is to produce universal disorder and misery, and destroy the whole created universe or turn it into hell. How terrible, how appall- ing, how overwhelming, then, must be the sight which will be presented to the sinner, when all his sins are set in order before him, with all their aggravations, all their malignity, and all their dreadful consequences ! Suffice it to say, that the sight will blast him like lightning: he will feel utterly unable to sup- port it, or to endure the abhorrent gaze of hisotfendedGod, and of holy beings, and will be eager to hide himself from it, and bury his shame, if possible, by plunging into the darkness of the bottomless pit. IV. We learn from this passage what imorovement careless sinners ought to make of these awfully alarming truths. They should be led by them to consideration: Now consider this, ye that forget God. It is owing to forgetfulnessof God, and to the neglect of considering these important truths, that sinners live as they do. They consider not in their hearts, says Jehovah, that I remember all their wickedness. My friends, is not this the case with respect to some of you 7 Do not some of you forget God; forget his laws, and forget your obligations to obey them; forget that you have a Master and a Judge in heaven, who, while he keeps silence, notices and remembers all your sins; who will hereafter bring every secret thing into judgment, and set all your sins in order before you? If any such there be, you are the very persons whom God here addresses. He speaks to you as directly as if he called you by name. Thus saith the Lord God, consider your ways. Consider that I am a constant though invisible spectator of your conduct. Consider that for all these things I will bring thee into judgment. Con- sider how thou wilt feel, what shame, confusion and despair will overwhelm thee, when I shall set all thy sins in order before thy face, in presence of the assembled universe, and doom thee 222 THE sinner's mistakes to depart accursed into everlasting fire. Such, O forgetful, care- less and impenitent sinner, is the language in which the Creator, thy Judge now addresses thee, and he also tells thee, Lastly, what will be the consequences of neglecting this warning: Consider this, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. Lest the terrible threatening should be unno- ticed or forgotten, if only once uttered, God, in different parts of his word, frequently repeats it. Speaking of sinners, he says, I will be to them as a lion and as a young lion ; I, even I, will tear, and none shall rescue them. And again, I will be to them as a lion, as a leopard who watcheth for the prey will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her young, and will rend the caul of their hearts, and will devour them as a lion. My friends, what a terrible emphasis is there in these words. It is God, it is Jehovah, it is that very Being whom you fondly fancy to be altogether such an one as yourselves, who says this. I, he says, even I will do it; I who am omnipo- tent, and therefore can do it; I who am true to my word, and therefore will do it; I who am just, and therefore must do it. And if it is Jehovah the strong God, the mighty One, who threat- ens to do this, well may he add, that none shall rescue, that there will be none to deliver them. My friends, it is, indeed it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; of that God who is a consuming fire. Can thy heart, he says, endure, can thy hand be strong, in the day when I shall deal with thee? I, the Lord have spoken, and will do it. Yes, if you do not consider and repent, God will tear you in pieces as a lion. He will send death to tear your souls from your bodies; he will tear your hearts with unutterable anguish, he will give you up to be devoured forever by the gnawing tooth of that worm which never dies, and by the merciless jaws of the great tormentor who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; and there will be none to deliver, no Saviour to save, to interpose, to plead for you. Even the wrath of the Lamb, who is now willing to save, will be hurled against you. Even the rock of salvation, on which you now refuse to build, will then fall upon you and grind you to powder. Will you not then consider these things, ye who now forget God? Will you still think him altogether such an one as yourselves, and believe your own fancies, rather than his declarations? O do not. EXPOSED AND REPROVKD. 223 I beseech you. do not, be so mad. Do not my sheep, my flock, do not refuse to hstcn to the voice of your Shepherd, do not follow the dangerous path, where the bear waits to tear you in pieces. Rather flee to the great Shepherd. He who will then tear, now offers to save you, and place you where you will be safe and happy forever. SERMON LXVII. THE SLEEPER AWAKENED Wliat meanest thou, O sleeper ? Arise, call upon thy God ; if so l)e God will tliink upon us, that we perish not. — Jonah i. G. In the preceding verses of this chapter, we are informed, that God gave a commission to the prophet Jonah, to go luito Nine- veh, the capital of Assyria, and denounce heavy judgments against its inhabitants, on account of the sins, of which they were guilty. Important and honorable, however, as such a commission from the King of kings ought to have appeared in the eyes of Jonai), he was, for some reason or other, unwilling to undertake it. This imwillingness probably arose, either from a dread of the labors and fatigues which would attend the per- formance of his duty; from a reluctance to see the heathen enjoying those prophetic warnings and instructions, which had hitherto been exclusively confined to the Jews; or from an ap- prehension that the Ninevites would repent, and be received into favor; and thus he would not only be considered as a false prophet in foretelling their destruction, but the obstinate impen- itency of his own countrymen in disregarding the multiplied warnings of their prophets, would be rendered more odious and inexcusable, by the ready submission and reformation of that idolatrous city. For these, or some other similar reasons, he resolved not to go to Nineveh, and supposing, in common with the rest of his countrymen, that the spirit of prophecy was THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. 225 confined to the land of Israel, he hoped to escape from its in- spiring influences, bj' flying into a foreign country. But, like all who endeavor to frustrate the designs, evade the commands, or flee from the presence of God, he found his hopes miserably disappointed. He, who maketh the winds his messengers, sent a storm to arrest the fugitive prophet, and bring him back to the path of duty. A mighty tempest arose in the sea, which entirely baflled the seamen's art, and threatened them with immediate shipwreck and death. But while the terrified mari- ners lightened the ship, and cried every man to his God for deliverance, Jonah, the cause of their distress, lay buried in sleep, ignorant of his danger, and insensible to the storm which roared around him. From this state of slothful security, he was roused to a sense of the horrors of his situation, by the pungent, alarming expostulation in our text: What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise and call upon thy God. My friends, this address of the shipmaster to the slumbering prophet, is equally applicable to all those of you who are yet in your natural, unregenerate state ; for your situation is far more dreadful and alarming than his. Like him you are exposed to the storm of divine wrath, which every moment pursues and threatens to overwhelm you ; like him you are asleep and insen- sible of your danger. To illustrate the resemblance between your situation and his in these two particulars, and to urge you without delay to rouse from your slumbers and call upon God, that you perish not, is my present design. I. Like the prophet you are exposed to the storm of divine wrath, which every moment pursues and threatens to overwhelm you. This, my friends, is a truth, which, however painful it may be for us to declare, and for you to hear, is too important to be concealed, and too plainly taught in the word of God to be either evaded or denied. We are there told, that mankind are by nature children of wrath, having no hope, and without God in the world ; that there is no peace to the wicked, but that God is angry with them every day ; that his curse is in their house, and that he will rain upon them snares and fire, and a horrible tempest, which shall be the portion of their cup. We arc told that they have been unmindful of the Rock that begat them, and forgotten the God of their salvation, and that therefore God VOL. in. 29 226 THE SLEEPER AWAKEI^ED. is provoked to jealousy and has kindled a fire in his anger which shall burn even to the lowest hell, where indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will be rendered to every soul of man that doeth evil. We are told, that those who will not hearken to the voice of the Lord their God to do all his commandments, shall be cursed in the city and in the field, cursed in their basket and store, cursed when they go out and when they come in. In a word, the wrath of him who is a consuming fire, and the avenging curse of his law, like a tempest fraught with lightnings and death, pursues the sinner through all his hiding places and refu- ges of lies, hangs even now suspended over his head, and only waits for permission from that mercy which he is abusing, to burst in thunder and sink him in endless despair. These, you will observe, are not the idle phantoms of a distracted brain ; they are not the declarations of a fallible mortal, which may be despised with impunity. No, they are the awful declarations of God himself; they are truths which he has revealed for our warning and instruction ; they are like so many peals of thun- der from Mount Sinai, to drive us for refuge to Mount Zion ; and wo be to that man by whom they are neglected, or treated with contempt ; for God has assured us, that if any man, when he hears the words of this curse, shall bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my own heart, to add one sin to another, then the Lord will not spare him, but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses which are written in this book shall be upon him ; and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. Do you ask, against whom are all these awful curses, woes, and denunciations levelled? My friends, if you are still in an unconverted state, they are levelled at you. It is you who are children of wrath ; it is you who have provoked God to jealousy ; it is you whom the curses of his law pursue : it is you with whom he is daily and hourly an- gry. Do you ask, why he is angry? I answer, he is angry to see rational, immortal, and accountable beings, spending twenty, forty, or sixty years in trifling and sin, serving divers idols, lusts and vanities, and living as if death were an eternal sleep. He is angry to see you forgetting your Maker in child- hood, in youth, m manhood, making no returns for all his ben- THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. 227 efits, casting off his fear and restraining prayer, and rebelling against him who has nourished and brought you up as children. He is angry to see you laying up treasures on earth and not in heaven, seeking every thing in preference to the one thing need- ful, loving the praise of men, more than the praise of God, and fearing those who can only kill the body, more than him who hath power to cast both soul and body into hell. He is angry to see that you disregard alike his threatenings and his promises, his judgments and his mercies, that you bury in the earth the talents he has given you, and bring forth no fruit to his glory, that you neglect his word, his Spirit, and his Son, and persist in impenitency and unbelief, notwithstanding all the means he employs for your conversion. He is angry to see you come before him as his people, and worship him with your lips, while your thoughts are perhaps wandering to the ends of the earth. He is angry to see you trusting in your own wisdom, strength, and righteousness, for salvation, instead of placing your depen- dence on Christ, the only name by which you can possibly be saved. These are sins of which every person, in an unconverted state, is guilty ; and for these things God is angry, daily angry, greatly and justly angry, and unless his anger be speedily appeased, it will most certainly prove your destruction. But perhaps some will be ready to ask, if God be in reality thus angry, why do we not feel the effects of his displeasure? If such a storm of wrath does indeed pursue us, why do we enjoy the calm and sunshine of prosperity 7 Why are we per- mitted to go on successfully enjoying life, health, property and friends? Surely this would not be the case, if our conduct were indeed displeasing to God. And have you then forgotten, that the prosperity of sinners destroys them, that they are not in this life plagued and troubled like other men, but their eyes often stand out with fatness, and they have all that heart can wish ? Have you forgotten that the goodness and long suffering of God, is intended to lead you to repentance, and that those whom it does not lead to repent, are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath ? Have you forgotten the rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, while pious Lazarus lay perishing for want, at his gate? or him, whose soul was required, at the moment in which he was rejoicing in the abundance of his wealth? Surely, my friends, if you have not forgotten these, 228 THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. and many similar instances wliich experience, and the sacred writings afford, you cannot imagine that worldly prosperity is any proof, that God is not angry. Whatever therefore your external situation may be, if you are still in an unconverted state. God views you with holy anger and indignation; his wrath abides on you, and his curse pursues you, nor will it cease its pursuit, till you are reformed or destroyed. In a word, my friends, this is your situation. You are embarked on the dangerous voyage of life in weak, frail, shattered vessels. On every side you are surrounded by rocks and quicksands, which your utmost skill can neither discover nor avoid. The clouds of divine displeasure frown dark and dreadful over your heads, and whether the approaching storm will burst this year, this day, or this hour, God only knows. If those of you, to whom these observations are addressed, have thought proper to listen with any degree of attention, you have doubtless heard them, in many instances, with perfect indifference, or consummate contempt. To you, these awful denunciations of vengeance, probably, appear to be nothing more than the dreams of superstition, the mere phantoms and chimeras of a disordered imagination ; and to be credibly assured that some trifling accident or calamity was about to befal you, would occasion more alarm and uneasiness in your breasts, than all the woes and threatenings which the Scriptures contain. What is the reason, perhaps some of you will disdain- fully ask, what is the reason we can see nothing of all these terrible evils which await us? why do we discover none of these impending dangers, why hear nothing of all these storms and tempests, which we are told every moment pursue, and threaten to overwhelm us 7 I answer, because you are, in a spiritual sense, asleep, like the prophet; and like him insensible of your danger. This was the second point of resemblance between your situation and his, which we proposed to consider, and to this we shall now attend. II. You need not be informed, that the inspired writers employ various figurative expressions to describe the character and sit- uation of impenitent sinners. Persons of this description, are represented sometimes as foolish, mad, or infatuated ; sometimes as blind and senseless ; sometimes as dead in trespasses and sins, and sometimes as slumbering or asleep. To show the THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. 229 justice, beauty, and propriety of this last metaphorical expres- sion, it would be easy to enumerate several particulars in which the state of unrenewed sinners resembles the situation of those who are asleep. Of these particulars, time will allow us at present to notice only the most striking. 1. Sleep is a state of insensibility. In many respects it re- sembles death. It entirely locks up the senses of those who are under its influence, so that they perceive nothing, and know nothing, of what is passing around them. Of their own situa- tion, they are perfectly unconscious. It may be safe, or dan- gerous, or critical in itself, but to them it is still the same. The day may dawn, and the sun arise on others, but he who is asleep, perceives not his beams. It may be a season of hurry and business, and his labor may be wanted; but he knows noth- ing of it. Place a mirror before him; he sees not his own image. Describe to him the character of the sluggard, he hears you not. Urge him to rise without delay; address him in the most moving and pathetic manner; invite or command, entreat or menace him, ply him with the most powerful arguments, the strongest motives, the most awful threatenings, or the most mag- nificent promises. It is all in vahi. The sound may strike upon his ears, but while he continues asleep, it makes no impres- sion. Place him in the midst of a dehghtful garden, where the morning hymns of the feathered choirs combine with fragrant odors, beauteous flowers, and blushing fruits, to leave no sense ungratified. It gives him no pleasure. Surround his couch with enemies and dangers, present a dagger to his breast, or poison to his lips; place him in a forest infested with wild beasts, or on the crumbling brink of a cataract ; still he sleeps securely and quietly as before. In a M'^ord, his family and friends may be perishing around him for want of his assistance ; his house may be wrapt in flames and threaten every moment to bury him in its blazing ruins ; or, like Jonah, he may be exposed to immediate shipwreck and death, and yet far from knowing or suspecting his danger, he may be amused and delighted with fancies and shadows ; for, 2. Sleep is a state of dreams and delusions. The nobler powers of the soul are then at rest, and imagination, a lawless, irreclaimable servant, embraces the opportunity to range and revel uncontrolled. Touched by her magic wand, every thing 230 THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. assumes a new and delusive appearance, and the bewildered sleeper forms strange, false and fantastic ideas of himself, his character, his situation and pursuits. The beggar dreams that he is heir to a throne, or possessor of immense wealth ; the mis- erable wretch dreams that he is happy ; the naked fancies that he is clothed; the hungry, that he is feasting; the thirsty, that he has found a refreshing spring; the ignorant, that he has become learned; the simple, that he has grown wise; and the criminal that he is innocent. While they are thus deluded with regard to themselves, they are equally deceived in other respects. Though entirely unaffected with the realities around them, whether pleasant or painful, yet they are much engaged by their imaginary pursuits, and are rendered by them very happy or miserable. One imagines that he is flying from some impend- ing evil, and another that he is following some flying good, and these fancied evils and blessings continue, so long as they are buried in sleep, to have all the force of realities on their minds. Now, my friends, how exactly does this representation suit the character and situation of the imawakened sinner. He is (1.) in a state of spiritual insensibility, a state which so much resembles moral death, that the word of God often describes him as actually dead. His spiritual senses are chained up un- der the power of that strong man armed who keeps his goods in peace, even the god of this world, who blinds the minds of those who perish, and works in all the children of disobedience. The sinner has ears, but he hears not; he has eyes, but he sees not ; he has taste, but he relishes not, the things of God. He knows nothing of the dangers of his situation; he is unconscious of what is passing around him; he sees none of the awful real- ities of the future and eternal world. The Sun of righteousness has arisen on the earth; but the sinner sees not his light, he feels not his warmth. The word of God, like a polished mirror, reflects most perfectly the sinner's moral image, but he does not perceive it. Describe to him his own character, call upon him instantly to rise ; tell him that life is the seed-time for eternity, that now is the accepted time and the day of salvation; that the night of death is fast approaching, and that he must be up and doing, or he will be miserable forever. He hears, as though he heard not. Set before him all the powerful motives and arguments which the word of God affords; reason, expos- THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. 231 tulate, urge, command, threaten, beseech, and entreat him; it is still the same. Place him in the house of God, where the awakened Christian finds a foretaste of heaven in communion with Christ and his members ; set before him the bowers of par- adise, the songs of angels, the golden crowns, the tree of life, and the water of life; invite him to partake of the gospel feast, spread with all the dainties which infinite wisdom, love and power, could provide; nay, set forth Christ evidently crucified before him, — all affords him not the smallest satisfaction; all is heard with the most perfect indifference and insensibility. And though his family and friends may, perhaps, be in danger of perishing eternally, for want of a good example, and suitable instructions from him; though he is surrounded by innumerable enemies, the weakest of whom could in an instant cut short the thread of life; though God, who has hitherto restrained them, is angry and threatens him with ruin, and that he is himself sus- pended as it were, by a single thread over the gulf which has no bottom, yet he is still unmoved, still the same. (2.) The state of the unawakened sinner resembles sleep be- cause it is a state of dreams and delusions. Imagination, pas- sion and appetite deceive him ; and though he is entirely unaf- fected with the things of his everlasting peace, and almost igno- rant of their very existence, yet he is wholly engaged and swal- lowed up by the dreams and vanities of the world. He consid- ers them as realities, and pursues or avoids them accordingly ; and at the very moment that he sleeps on the crumbling verge of the grave, and that the storm which has pursued him so long is about to burst and blast him forever, he may, perhaps, be dreaming that he has acquired a great estate, and has nothing to do but eat, drink, and be merry; or that he has ariived at the summit of power and applause, and is surrounded by crowds of flatterers and dependents. The drunkard dreams that he has grasped the cup of felicity ; he drains it to the very dregs, and finds too late that it is poison. The infidel philosopher dreams that he is about to become as a god, knowing good and evil ; but wakes and finds that he has been eating forbidden fruit. Thousands dream that they are pursued by some impending evil, such as poverty, contempt or pain, and in attempting to escape it, they fall into the hands of that God, who is a consum- ing fire. Others fancy that they are pursuing some fugitive 232 THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. good, but in the midst of their pursuit, stumble and fall to rise no more. Thousands and millions, who are in reality poor, and miserable, and guilty, and vile, and weak, and foolish, and sin- ful, and wretched, dream that they are rich, and happy, and innocent, and strong, and wise, and holy; and thus they are evidently in the broad road to destruction, yet fancy that God is their friend, and heaven their portion. In short, the life of every unawakened sinner is nothing but a series of dreams, and follies, and divers vanities, in which realities have no place. That this is, and always has been, the case, is evident from the word of God, and present experience. The inhabitants of the old world dreamed of safety and security, eating and drinking, and planting and building, till the flood came and destroyed them; so also it was with the Sodomites, who thought that Lot only mocked, when he threatened them with fire from heaven. And so our Saviour informs us it will be at the end of the world. We are assured in passages too numerous to mention particularly, that mankind are blind to the danger which threat- ens them, that their feet stand in slippery places, in darkness ; that when they promise themselves peace and safety, then sud- den destruction cometh upon them ; that madness is in their hearts, while they live, and that after that, they go to the dead. My friends, what a wretched, deplorable, and almost hopeless condition is yours, if you are still in an unconverted state. Yoii are hastening, with a swift and increasing pace, to irreparable ruin; yet you know not your danger, and what renders your .situation infinitely more dreadful is, that you do not wish to be told of it. The broad road in which you are walking, is so pleasant, and the society you there enjoy, so fascinating, that you cannot bear to give it up, nor to be told that it will lead you to destruction. You love darkness rather than light, and it is this which renders your situation in a human view, altogether hopeless. Did you see the storm which threatens you, there would be some hope that you might escape it. Were you even willing to have it pointed out to you, your case would not be altogether desperate. But since you neither see it, nor wish to see it, we see no hope for you, but in the free, sovereign, unmer- ited mercy of God. He has commanded us to cry aloud and not spare ; and though our arguments and calls can of them- selves avail nothing, yet we must obey the command whether THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. 233 slumbering sinners will hear, or whether they forbear ; and leave the event to him who sends us. In entire dependence, therefore, on his grace, and with a famt hope that he may now awaken some of you to a sense of your perishing, deplorable situation, I address each unawakened sin- ner here present in the words of the text : What meanest thou, O sleeper 7 Arise and call upon thy God. And, my friends, well may we ask what you mean, to sleep thus, when yoiu" souls are at stake, when such blackness, and darkness, and tem- pest hang over your heads, and when God himself is angry with you daily, even that God who holds you prisoners in the hollow of his hand ; whose eye is ever upon you, who surrounds you on every side, and whose persevering goodness alone keeps you for a moment out of everlasting wo. And have you then any time to waste in sleep and security 1 Will you still say a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep 7 Will you still delay repentance and preparation for death, when you know not but death is even now at the door, and will, this night, require your soul? So long as you remain unreconciled to God, all his creation are at war with you, and wait only his permission to destroy you in an instant. You have, therefore, no security for a single moment, and we sol- emnly charge you, in the name of God, to rise without delay, and call upon him in the name of his Son, that you may not perish forever. Awake thou that sleepest, arise, call upon thy God; if so be thou perish not. If you do not believe the word of God, we must leave you to sleep till you are awakened by the last trump ; but if you do acknowledge this word to be true, you cannot, without renouncing all claim to rationality, defer obedience a single hour. The madman who scatters firebrands arrows and death as in sport, or the criminal who jests and trifles under the gallows, are the wisest of philosophers, com- pared with those who sport with the wrath of God, and amuse themselves with trifles. From those who are still in a state of slothful and dangerous security, we now turn to those whom God has been pleased to awaken. We would remind such, that though they will not again be permitted to sink into the same profound repose as before, yet there is great danger lest, while the bridegroom tarries, they should slumber and sleep. Let me, therefore, call on them to ro- voL. in. 30 234 THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. member the often repeated injunction of our Lord to watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is. And permit me also to ask you, my Christian friends, whether you are not sinking into a drowsy frame ; have you not forgotten your first love 1 If so, I would call upon you, in the name of perishing neighbors, rela- tions, children and friends ; and say what mean ye, O sleepers, thus to sleep while we are perishing around you. Arise, call upon your God, if so be he will have mercy upon us that we perish not. My Christian friends, will you obey this affecting call 1 Will you not cry earnestly and unceasingly to God, to open their hearts to receive the truth '? I am willing indeed to hope that you do not neglect this, but I beseech you to abound more and more. Your prayers will not, shall not, cannot be lost. They may not, indeed, be answered immediately, but they will be answered, and they will bring down abundant bles- sings on your neighbors, families and friends. Redeem the time, then, from every thing, for this important duty. Remember that you are not your own, but God's, and he has not sent you here to rest, but to labor in season and out of season. Think of him who spent whole nights in prayer with strong cryings unto him that was able to save him from death ; and who Avept over rebellious Jerusalem when lie foresaw her doom. My friends, look at these perishing immortals before you. They are now, as you were once, in jeopardy. Have you no tears to shed for them, no prayers to send up in their behalf 7 Will you remain careless, and asleep, while multitudes of your fellow creatures are going down to everlasting death 1 SERMON LXVIII. JOY IN HEAVEN OVER REPENTING SINNERS. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that re penteth. — Luke xv. 10. Though eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have enter- ed into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, yet, for our encouragement and conso- lation, he has revealed them to us by his Spirit in his word. He there sets open before us the door of heaven, and invites faith to enter in, survey her future inheritance, and contemplate the joys and employments of those happy beings, to a participa- tion of whose felicity she is conducting us. Let us, my hear- ers, comply with this invitation. Let us look in at the open door, which the condescending goodness of our God has set be- fore us ; feast our eyes with a view of uncreated glories, and refresh our ears with the hallelujahs of the heavenly host. If we have that faith which is the evidence of things not seen, and which enables its possessors to endure as seeing Him who is invisible, we shall see the eternal King bending forward on his awful throne, and contemplating some object in this lower world with looks of ineffable complacency and delight. We shall see the Son of God, standing v/ith open arms and a coun- tenance full of invitation, compassion and love; — we shall see all heaven in a transport of joy, and hear its high courts re- sounding with the songs and praises of its blessed inhabitants. 236 JOY IN HEAVEN Is it asked, what occasions their joy 7 A sinner, perhaps some sinner in this assembly, has just repented. This is the object which God contemplates with complacency and delight ; for to this man, says he, will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word. This is he, whom the Son of God opens his arms to receive ; for, whosoever Cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. This is what fills heaven with new joy, and calls forth from angelic lips their loudest songs of praise ; for he who came down from heaven has assured us that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. This declaration of our Saviour, naturally leads us to inqiure who rejoice, and why they rejoice on such an occasion. I. Who rejoice ? In answer to this inquiry, I observe, 1. That God the Father rejoices over every sinner that re- penteth. That the infinite and ever blessed Jehovah, before whom all nations are as nothing and vanity, should rejoice in the repent- ance of a sinful worm of the dust, appears at first view, strange, and almost incredible. But however strange or incredible it may appear, it is evident, both from his declarations and his conduct, that such is the fact. It is evident from his declarations. His word informs us, that when he saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually, it repented him that he had made man, and it grieved him at the heart. But if he was grieved at man's apostacy, he cannot but rejoice when any of our apostate race repent, and return to him and happiness. Agreeably, we find him most solemnly declaring, that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live. After foretelling, by the mouth of his prophets, the repentance and return of his ancient people, who had forsaken him to worship idols, he says, — Then shalt thou be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal dia- dem in the hand of thy God ; for the Lord delighteth in thee and thy land shall be married ; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and my people a joy, and I will OVER REPENTING SINNERS. 237 rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. Sing, O daughter of Zion ; shout, 0 Israel ; be glad and rejoice with all thine heart, O daughter of Jerusalem, for the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; he will save ; he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love ; he will joy over thee with singing. These striking declarations, addressed by Jehovah to his an- cient people, are equally applicable to penitent sirmers in every age, and undeniably prove that he rejoices in their conversion. That he does so is farther evident from his actions. To glorify his grace in the salvation of sinners, has apparently been the great object of all his dispensations, from the fall of man till the present day. It would be easy to show, that for this purpose the world has been preserved, and the race of men con- tinued. For this purpose the various revolutions, wars and commotions which stain the page of history have been over- ruled. But these are trifles. For this purpose God gave up his only begotten Son, and sent down the Holy Spirit from heaven ; and for the same purpose he is still sending forth his ambassa- dors to beseech sinners in Christ's stead to be reconciled to himself That he rejoices when they comply with the terms of reconciliation, is evident from the manner in which he receives them, as represented to us in the parable of the prodigal son. No sooner does he perceive them returning from the service and ways of sin, than he hastens to meet and welcome them ; clothes them with the robe of his Son's righteousness; puts upon them the ring of his everlasting covenant ; causes their feet to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; feasts them with the bread and water of life, and calls upon all the inhabitants of heaven to rejoice with him, because his lost children are found. 2. The Son of God rejoices over every sinner that repenteth. Were it necessary to prove the truth of this assertion, we might remind you, that whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. We might remind you, that in the history of our Saviour we read of his rejoicing but once; and his joy was then excited by reflections on the sovereign grace of his Father in bringing sinners to repentance, and in hiding the great truths of the gospel from the wise and prudent, while he revealed them to babes. But it is not necessary to prove the truth of this assertion. It is not necessary to prove, 238 JOY IN HEAVEN that the friend of man, the compassionate Jesus, rejoices when simiers repent. His whole hfe was one continued proof of this. Is it possible that he who toiled, prayed, suffered and died for sinful men, should not rejoice in their conversion 1 Must not he who, once and again, wept at the sight of their miseries, and cheerfully poured out his blood for their salvation, even while they were his enemies, be almost ready to shed tears of joy over them, when by repentance they become his friends 7 Yes, he must rejoice, and he does rejoice over them with joy unspeak- able, a joy which he only can feel, and of which he alone can conceive. This was a principal part of the joy set before him, for the sake of which he endured the cross and despised the shame ; and it probably constitutes no inconsiderable part of the happiness which he now enjoys in heaven. Though there is no reason to doubt that the Holy Spirit participates in the joy of the Father and the Son, yet as the Scriptures are silent re- specting it we shall only add, 3. That the blessed angels rejoice over every sinner that re- penteth. That these benevolent spirits take an interest in our affairs, and feel tenderly concerned for our welfare, is evident from various parts of revelation. When they came to bring the glad tidings of our Saviour's birth, they joyfully ascribed glory to God in the highest, that there was peace on earth and good will to men. They are also represented as styling themselves our brethren and fellow servants ; as having a charge over God's people to keep them in all their ways, and as going forth to minister unto the heirs of salvation. From these and other passages we might have justly inferred, even if our Saviour had not assured us of the fact, that these happy beings rejoice over every sinner who repenteth. II. Why do the inhabitants of heaven rejoice over repenting sinners? So far as this inquiry respects the motives of Jehovah's con- duct, it becomes us to answer it with reverence and humility, lest we should darken counsel by words without knowledge. It is however certain, that God does not rejoice in the repentance of sinners, because it can add any thing to his essential happi- ness or glory ; for he is already infinitely glorious and happy, and so would continue though all the men on earth, and all the OVER REPENTING SINNERS. 2^ angels in heaven should madly rush into hell. Is it any profit to the Almighty that thou art righteous, or is it any gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect ? No, our goodness extendeth not to him, and when we have done all, we are but unprofitable servants. Why then does God rejoice when we repent ? He rejoices, 1. Because his eternal purposes of grace, and his engagements to his Son, are then fulfilled. We learn from the Scriptures, that all who repent, were chosen by him in Christ Jesus before the world began, and given to him as his people in the covenant of redemption. We also learn, that he has said to his Son, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. He therefore rejoices to see them repent, as we rejoice when our promises are fulfilled, and our favorite purposes accomplished. 2. God rejoices when sinners repent, because bringing them to repentance is his own work. It is a consequence of the gift of his Son, and is effected by the power of his Spirit. The Scriptures inform us, that he rejoices in all his works, and with reason does he rejoice in them ; for they are all very good. But if he rejoices in his other works, much more may he rejoice in this, since it is of all his works the greatest, the most glorious, and the most worthy of himself. In this work the image of Satan is effaced, and the image of God restored to an immortal soul. In this work, a child of wrath is transformed into an heir of glory. In this work, a smoking brand is plucked from eternal fires, and planted among the stars in the firmament of heaven, there to shine with increasing lustre forever and ever. And is not this a work worthy of God, a work in which God may with propriety rejoice ? 3. God rejoices in the repentance of sinners, because it affords him an opportunity to exercise mercy and show his love to Christ, by pardoning them for his sake. Christ is his beloved Son in whom he is ever well pleased. He loves him as he loves himself, with an infinite love ; a love which is as inconceivable by ns, as his creative power and eternal duration. He loves him not only on account of the near relation and inseparable union which subsists between them, but for the perfect holiness and excellence of his character, and especially for the infinite benevolence which he displayed in undertaking and accom- plishing the great work of man's redemption. As it is the 240 JOY IN HEAVEN nature of love to manifest itself in acts of kindness toward the beloved object, God cannot but wish to display his love for Christ, and to show all intelligent beings how perfectly he is pleased with his character and conduct, as Mediator. The in- exhaustible fountain of love to Christ, which fills his heart, is constantly seeking new channels in which it may flow out and display itself to creatures. As David asked. Is there yet alive any of the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan's sake 7 so we may conceive of God as asking, Is there yet any penitent sinner, to whom I may show kindness for the sake of Christ 7 And when such a sinner is found, God cannot but be pleased, because it affords him an opportiuiity to display his love for Christ, by bestowing pardon from respect to his atonement and intercession. The Scriptures also inform us, that the Lord delighteth in mercy. He must therefore be grat- ified when he has an opportunity to exercise it. But such an opportunity none but penitent sinners afford him ; for those who continue impenitent, will not ask for mercy ; they will not even accept it when offered ; they almost consider the offer itself as an insult. When told that God is willing to forgive them for the sake of Christ, they practically reply, what have we done that needs forgiving? We have injured no one. We are not like others, extortioners, adulterers or unjust. We can be saved without forgiveness through Christ. Insult us not then with offers of pardon, as if we were criminals, but carry them to sin- ners, to profligates, who have need of mercy. It is needless to remark, that God cannot consistently forgive sinners while they possess this self-justifying temper. But when they exchange this temper for a contrite heart, and begin to cry, God be mer- ciful to us sinners, he can with propriety gratify himself, and manifest his love to Christ, by exercising toward them that mercy which he delights to display. 4. God rejoices when siimers repent, because it gratifies him to see them escape from the tyranny, and from the consequen- ces of sin. God is light ; perfect holiness. God is love ; pure benevolence. His holiness and his benevolence both prompt him to rejoice, when sinners escape from sin. Sin is that abom- inable thing which he hates. He hates it as an evil or malignant, and as a bitter, or destructive thing. It is indeed both. It is the plague, the leprosy, the death of intelligent creatures. It OVER REPENTING SINNERS. 241 infects and poisons all their faculties ; plunges them into the lowest depths of guilt and wretchedness, and pollutes them with a stain, which all the waters of the ocean cannot wash away, which all the fires of hell cannot remove ; from which nothing can cleanse them, but the blood of Christ. Such is the malig- nity of its nature, that could it gain admittance into the celestial regions, it would instantly transform angels to devils, and turn heaven into hell. That this is no exaggerated representation, melancholy experience but too clearly evinces. Already has sin transformed angels to devils ; already has it converted this world from a paradise to a prison ; from a habitation of immor- tals, to an Aceldama and a Golgotha, a place of skulls and a field of blood. Already has it poisoned not only our bodies, but our souls; it has brought death into the world and all our wo, and, " in one hour, Spoil'd six days' labor of a God." Even now it stalks through our subjugated world with gigantic strides, spreading ruin and wretchedness around in ten thousand forms. Strife and discord, war and bloodshed, famine and pes- tilence, pain and sickness follow in its train ; while deatli mounted on his pale horse, with the grave and hell follow in the rear. Such are the miseries which sin has introduced into this once happy world ; such the evils which attend its progress here, notwithstanding the various restraints which are employed to check its career. Would we see these evils consummated, and learn the full extent of that wretchedness which sin tends to produce, we must follow it into the eternal world, descend into tho.se regions where peace, where hope never comes ; and there by the light of revelation behold sin tyrannizing over its wretched victims with uncontrollable fury ; fanning the inex- tinguishable fire, and sharpening the tooth of the immortal worm. See angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, stripped of all their primeval glory and beauty, bound in eternal chains and burning with rage and malice against that Being, in whose presence they once rejoiced, and whose praises they once sung. See multitudes of the hu- man race in unutterable agonies of anguish and despair cursing the gift, the giver and prolonger of their existence, and vainly VOL. 111. 31 242 JOY IN HEAVEN wishing for annihilation to put a period to their miseries. Fol- low them through the long, long ages of eternity, and see them sinking deeper and deeper in the bottomless abyss of ruin ; perpetually blaspheming God because of their plagues, and re- ceiving the punishment of these blasphemies in continual additions to their wretchedness. Such are the wages of sin ; such the inevitable doom of the finally impenitent. From these depths of anguish and despair, look up to the mansions of the blessed, and see to what a height of glory and felicity the grace of God will raise every sinner that repenteth. See those who are thus favored in unutterable ecstacies of joy, love and praise, contemplating God face to face, reflecting his perfect image, shining with a splendor like that of their glorious Redeemer, filled with all the fulness of Deity, and bathing in those rivers of pleasure which flow forever at God's right hand. Follow them in their endless flight toward perfection. See them rapidly mounting from height to height, and darting onward with in- creasing swiftness and unwearied wing, toward that infinity which they will never reach. View this, and then say, whether infinite holiness and benevolence may not with propriety rejoice over every sinner that by repentance escapes the miseries and secures the felicity here so imperfectly described. Why does the Son of God rejoice over every sinner that re- penteth ? I answer, 1. Why does a mother rejoice over her infant offspring? Is it not because she has given them existence and support 7 Why does a father rejoice over and press to his heart with new fond- ness the child, whom he has just rescued from the flames which consumed his habitation '? Is it not because he has saved the object of his affections at the peril of his own life ? So if it be asked, why Christ rejoices over repenting sinners, we reply, be- cause he has given them spiritual life and nourishment ; because he has redeemed them with his own precious blood from eternal wretchedness and despair. In the joy arising from other sour- ces he participates with his Father and the Holy Spirit ; but this is a cause of joy almost peculiar to himself It was long since predicted respecting him, that he should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied ; in other words, that he should see the effects of his sufferings in the repentance and salvation of sinners, and consider this as a sufficient recompense for all the OVER REPENTING StNNERS. 243 toils and sorrows Ihrough which he was called to pass. This prediction is daily fultilling. Our Immanuel sees the fruit of the travail of his soul in every sinner that repenteth, and re- joices that his agonies were not endured in vain. There are, we trust, not a few in this assembly, over whom he has thus rejoiced. And O ! with Avhat affectionate emotions must he re- gard them. You can in some degree conceive, my friends, what your feelings would be toward a trembling dove, that should fly into your bosom for protection from the talons of a vulture. You can form some conception of the feelings with which Da- vid contemplated the helpless lamb, which he had rescued at the peril of his own life from the paw of the lion and the jaws of the bear. But who can conceive of the emotions, with which the Son of David must contemplate an immortal soul, drawn to his feet by the cords of love, whom he has rescued from the roaring lion at such an infinite expense ? If we love, and prize and rejoice in any object in proportion to the labor, pain and expense which it has cost us to obtain it, how greatly must Christ love and prize and rejoice in every penitent sinner ! His love and joy must be unutterable, inconceivable, infinite. Com- pared Avith his, even a mother's love must be cold. My friends, for once I rejoice that our Saviour's toils and suflferings were so great, since the greater they were, the greater must be his love for us and his joy in our conversion. And permit me to add, if he thus rejoices over one sinner that repenteth, what must be his joy, when all his people are collected out of every tongue and kindred and nation and people, and presented spotless be- fore his Father's tlu-one ! What a full tide of felicity will pour in upon him, and how will his benevolent heart expand with unutterable delight, and swell almost to bursting, when contem- plating the countless myriads of the redeemed, he says. Were it not for my sufferings, all these immortal beings would have been throughout eternity as miserable — and now they will be as happy, as God can make them. It is enough. I see of the travail of my soul and am satisfied. My friends, how great must that joy, that happiness be, which satisfies the benevo- lence of Christ. 2. The Son of God, with his Father and the Holy Spirit, re- joices when sinners repent, because they then begin to return his love, and acknowledge, with admiriiig gratitude, the wisdom 244 JOY IN HEAVEN of his dispensations. You need not be *old, that it is the very nature of love to wish for a return of affection. You can easily conceive why a fond mother rejoices when her infant child be- comes capable of perceiving and returning her love. You can conceive why her joy increases, when the same child arrives at an age sufficient to see and acknowledge her wisdom and love, even in those corrections, which it once perhaps considered as indicating a want of affection. Should any of you be called to attend, for a series of years, some dear friend under mental derangement; and with unwearied love should spend many wearisome days and sleepless nights in promoting his comfort, and preserving him from self-destruction, while he regarded you as an enemy, considered your presence as irksome, and all your labors and precautions as needless and cruel, would you not rejoice, to see his reason returning; to see his eye once more sparkle with intelligence, and beam with affection; to hear him gratefully acknowledging and extolling your friendship, and to perceive in all his looks and actions that he returned it? And why may we not suppose that our compassionate Redeemer, and even our heavenly Father is capable of being affected in a sim- ilar way 1 They have loved all who repent with an everlasting love, a love stronger than death. But this love is never per- ceived or returned by the objects of it, while they continue impenitent ! On the contrary, they are then enemies to God, and often consider his laws, his dispensations, and even the very means which he employs to bring them to himself, as destruc- tive of their happiness. Similar feelings they exercise toward Christ. They see in him no form or comeliness, and when he comes to bless and save them, they are ready to say, like the man among the tombs, let ns alone, what have we to do with theeT But when they repent, the scene is changed. They then come to themselves, and sit at the feet of Jesus in their right mind. The love of God is shed abroad in their h(!arts, the spirit of adoption is given thein, they cry, Abba Father. The law and character of God appear to them perfectly excel- lent and lovely. The love of Christ constrains them to live not to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again; while the genunie language of their hearts is, Whom have we in heaven but thee 7 and there is none in the earth Me desire besides thee. Bless the Lord, O our souls, and all that is within OVER REPENTING SINNERS. 245 US, bless his holy name ; who forgiveth all our iniquities, who healeth all our diseases. Why do the angels rejoice over every sinner that repenteth ? They rejoice, 1. Because God rejoices. It is said respecting David, that whatsoever the king did pleased all the people. So whatever God does, pleases all the angelic hosts. His Spirit is the soul which guides and animates them all ; their wills are swallowed up in his; and his interest, glory and happiness, are dearer to them than their own, or rather are considered by them as their own. Hence his feelings govern theirs. Is he displeased ? they burn with holy zeal to execute his vengeance. Does he rejoice ? they cannot but participate and echo back his joy. Like the servants in the parable, they rejoice with our heavenly Father when his lost children are found, and stand ready to assist in affording them a welcome reception. They rejoice, 2. Because it is their disposition to rejoice in the happiness of others. They literally love others as they do themselves ; and since they know by experience the felicity which results from enjoying the favor of God, they cannot but wish that other creatures should possess it. They see in the fate of the fallen angels, the dreadful consequences of God's displeasure. They cannot therefore but wish that others should escape it. And since they know that repentance is the only way in which sin- ners of the human race can escape God's anger and secure his favor, they cannot but rejoice when any of them repent. 3. They rejoice when sinners repent, because God is glorified and his perfections are displayed in giving them repentance and remission of sins. The perfections of God are to be seen only in his works. His moral perfections are to be seen only, or at least principally, in his works of grace. There is more of God, more of his essential glory displayed in bringing one sinner to repentance, and forgiving his sins for the sake of Christ, than in all the wonders of creation. Agreeably, the psalmist informs us, that when the Lord shall build up Zion, that is, when he shall enlarge his church, the spiritual Zion, by bringing sinners into it, he shall appear in his glory ; in other words, shall appear peculiarly glorious ! He does so. In this work creatures may see, if I may so express it, the very heart of God. From this work angels themselves have probably learned more of God's 246 JOY IN HEAVEN moral character, than they had ever been able to learn before. They knew before that God was wise and powerful, for they had seen him create a world. They knew that he was good, for he had made them perfectly holy and happy. They knew that he was just, for they had seen him cast down their own rebellious brethren from heaven to hell for their sins. But until they saw him give repentance and remission of sins through Christ, they did not know that he was merciful, and they did not know that he could pardon a sinner. And O ! what an hour was that in heaven, when this great truth was first made known ; when the first penitent was pardoned ! Then a new song was put into the mouths of angels, and while with unutterable emo- tions of wonder, love and praise, they began to sing it. their voices swelled to a higher pitch, and they experienced joys unfelt before. 0 how did the joyful sounds, his mercy endureth for ever, spread from choir to choir, echo through the high arches of heaven, and thrill through every enraptured angelic breast ; and how did they cry with one voice. Glory to God in the high- est; on earth peace and good will to man. Nor is the mercy of God the only perfection displayed in this work. There is more power and wisdom displayed in bringing a sinner to repentance, than in creating a world; and therefore as the sons of God sang together and shouted for joy, when God laid the foundations of the earth, so with still great- er reason do they rejoice at beholding the wonders of the new creation in the souls of men. They delight to watch the begin- nings of spiritual life in those who had long been dead in sin; to see light and order breaking in upon the natural darkness and confusion of the mind; to see the image of Satan disappearing and to trace the first lineaments of the image of God in the soul. With inexpressible satisfaction do they see the heart of stone transformed to flesh, notice the first penitential tears which flow from the sinner's eyes, and listen to the imperfectly formed peti- tions, the infant cries of the young child of grace. With the utmost readiness do they descend from their blissful abode to minister to the new-born heir of salvation, and surround him in joyful throngs, celebrating his birth-day with songs of praise. Behold, they cry, another trophy of sovereign, all-conquering grace. Behold another captive delivered by the Son of David, from the bondage of sin, another lamb of his flock rescued from OVER REPENTING SINNERS. 247 the paw of the lion and the jaws of the bear. See the princi- pahties and powers of darkness foiled; see the strong man armed cast oat; see the kingdom of Jesus extending, see the image of our God multiplied, see another voice tuned to join in the halle- hijahs of the heavenly choirs. This, O our Creator, is thy work. Glory to God in the highest. This, O adorable Immanuel, is the effect of thy sufferings. Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessing and honor and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever. Inferences. From this subject we infer, 1st, the incalculable worth of the human soul. To say that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, is to say all that can be said or imagined on this subject. Our Saviour himself, who spoke as never man spake, could say nothing more expressive of the worth of the soul than this; for in heaven the real value of this im- mortal spark of intelligence is known ; and were it not a jewel of inestimable worth, never would its loss have grieved God at the heart ; never would he have given his only Son to redeem it; never would he rejoice, and call on all the heavenly hosts to rejoice with him on its recovery. It can surely be no trifle which excites so deep an interest in the hearts of celestial beings. It can be no trifle, the acquisition of which increases the already ineffable joys of heaven. Yet such is the wretched infatuation of mankind, that they almost universally neglect this precious jewel, and barter it for bubbles, vanities and dreams, though a thousand worlds so bought, were bought too dear. 2. From this subject we infer, that the consequences of dying in an impenitent state will be unspeakably dreadful. You can- not but be sensible, my friends, that the inhabitants of heaven knew perfectly well, what these consequences will be ; and did they not know them to be dreadful, unspeakably dreadful, would they thus rejoice over every sinner, who escapes them by repent- ance? If no punishment av/aits impenitent sinners in a future state, or if their punishment be short in duration, or trifling in degree, would celestial beings thus rejoice to see sinners repent ? When you see a mother transported with joy at the recovery of a sick child, do you not infer, that she considered the disease as very dangerous? So when we see the inhabitants of heaven rejoicing with new joys over a penitent sinner, must we not infer that they consider the punishment from which he has es- caped as inconceivably dreadful? 248 JOY IN HEAVEN 3. From this subject we infer, that all who repent will certainly persevere and be saved. Suppose, for one moment, that such may fall and perish 7 Would God, would Christ, would angels then rejoice to see sinners repent? To see them placed in a situation where they had nothing to support them, but their own faithfulness to grace received? Would they rejoice to see peni- tent sinners in a situation from which perfect Adam fell, and which holy angels failed to keep? No, they would rather weep to see a weak, frail creature placed in a situation from which he would immediately fall, fall into a state if possible, more help- less than that from which Sovereign grace had ra