Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

TERMS OF RECONCILIATION WITH GOD.

The unreasonableness and impiety of all the objections made by sinners against the provisions, terms and offers of the Gospel, are most manifest to any one who duly considers, that the conditions of every reconciliation ought naturally to come from the party offended, especially if he be a superior, and more especially if he stand to the offender in the relation of a lawgiver and sovereign. It is not for the offending subject to say, on what terms peace and harmony shall be restored between him and his offended sovereign. It is the sovereign's sole and unquestionable prerogative to ordain the terms. Favor is a thing that cannot be claimedit must be offered. To God, therefore, must we look for the terms of reconciliation between him and us.

In the case of those who have sinned against God, the Sovereign offended is the only being who can know on what terms it is fit and proper that he should be reconciled to his offending subjects. None but the lawgiver, whose law it is that has been violated, can say, under what circumstances it is safe and right that he should forgive the violation of his law. None but he has the means of judging what terms will best secure the honor of his government and the good of the offender. Thus our reason is unable to anticipate on such a subject, and is guilty of the boldest presumption in pronouncing, that on such and such terms God ought to be, and doubtless will be, reconciled to man. No

cherub or seraph ever was so daring, or so confided in his own powers. Inasmuch, therefore, as they must come from Him, and reason cannot tell what they ought to be, we see the necessity of a communication from God, revealing the conditions of human salvation.

The sovereign has evidently a right to exercise a great deal of authority in making his terms. His own good pleasure is a sufficient reason for any article that he chooses to introduce into the conditions of reconciliation. He is not bound to explain, why the conditions are such as they are. The offender ought not to ask an explanation. We allow thus much to earthly sovereigns and to human parents. A father may connect his favor and blessing with the performance of conditions by his child, the reason and propriety of which he does not explain, and which to the child may appear to be purely arbitrary. And may not God do the same? Is he bound to tell us why he connects our pardon and happiness with these conditions and not with others? May we call him to account for the terms on which he proposes to be reconciled to us, and suggest others which we think would have been more suitable, and refuse to do what he commands, until he explains why he commands it?

Another remark having a bearing on this subject, and one which can hardly fail of convincing all candid men of the unreasonableness of cavilling at the conditions of salvation and the positive institutions of the Gospel, is, that an Omnipotent Being has ordained them. When a feeble fellow creature prescribes a certain course for you to pursue, to secure a desirable object, it is your

right and your duty to ask why he prescribes that and not another, and what tendency those means have to that end. It is your right and duty, because there are certain established laws of nature, according to which all things act and all causes operate, and no man can control these causes. Every substance has its fixed qualities, whereby it acts in a particular manner on other substances, and every man may be equally acquainted with them. Consequently, when a man tells you that certain operations will produce certain results, you have a right to hesitate and to inquire whether it be in accordance with the known laws of nature, and the known powers and qualities of the substances concerned. The only case where you may properly decline such inquiry, is when, for want of previous research, or on account of present feebleness of body or mind, and the pressing necessity of immediate action, you either act yourself in blindness, or entrust your case to another, in whose skill or ability you confide rather than jeopard a longer continuance of inaction. Yet the exception proves the rule. But when it is God that prescribes, the case is altogether different. Man is the subject of nature; but God is nature's legislator; and the laws which he gave to her, he can repeal, or suspend, or modify, at his pleasure. The promise of God connects cause and effect more indissolubly than any law of nature can. God has suspended the latter; the former never. If that which

he commands us to make use of as a means, has no natural tendency to secure the end, yet his omnipotence can give it such a tendency. If a man should

tell

you that you may take fire into your bosom and not be burned, you are not to believe him, nor venture on the experiment; for it is a known quality of fire to burn. But if God tells you the same, you may fearlessly make the experiment; because he who gives you the assurance, gave to fire its consuming quality, and to make his word good, can temporarily withdraw this destructive quality. Let this distinction be apprehended. If, for instance, a man speaking in his own name, and at his own suggestion, had said to Naaman, the Syrian, "Wash, and thou shalt be clean," his refusing had been reasonable; but the prophet who spake thus to him was an authorized ambassador of God, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. Thus the direction came from a Being, who is able to heal by one set of means as well as another, and as easily without means, or contrary to means, as with them. Apply this great principle to the means and institutions of the Gospel. You say they are not naturally adapted to produce the results for which they were appointed. The answer is, no matter whether they are or not. The appointment of God gives them all the adaptation that any law of nature could. They must accomplish the promised effect, because He, under whose control all causes are, says that they shall. Ask you, of what use is the baptismal application of water to the body? answer is, of no use by virtue of any law of nature, but of much use by virtue of its divine appointment. Ask you, of what use is the solemn stated partaking of bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus Christ? The answer is, He that can connect a blessing with the

The

right partaking of it, and has enjoined it upon us, does bless it to us. Ask you, what pre-eminence has the hearing of a discourse in the public assembly, over even a better one read in private? The answer is,—it may have none naturally, but God has given it a pre-eminence; "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Say you, that ordinances, and doctrines, and external forms, are of no avail ? Grant it, if men be their author; but if they come from God, they possess the efficacy of the most active causes.

DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

There is in Revelations i, 5, 6, the highest ascription that can be made to- any being, of eternal glory and everlasting dominion; and Jesus Christ is the object of it. Would you not suppose, before instituting any inquiry into the dignity of the being to whom this tribute is rendered, that he was considered by the person rendering it, as really and essentially divine? If John had considered Jesus as a mere creature, would he have rendered unto him glory and dominion everlasting? What more could he render to the Creator? -to Jehovah? In what language would he express

« ZurückWeiter »