תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

It might feem a matter not unworthy of divine interpofition, to fhorten, or at least to alleviate in fome measure, the extreme fufferings of fo excellent a perfon as our Saviour; and the wisdom of the world was fo much offended at the thought of a fuffering Meffiah, that in the early ages of chriftianity, great numbers could not be reconciled to the thought, and therefore maintained that our Lord fuffered only in appearance, when in reality, he felt no pain; and fome in modern times have fuppofed that he put an end to his own life, before he could have been releafed from his pains in the course of nature. But, according to the plaineft evidence of history, his death was as properly the natural effect of pain and torture, in the exhausted state to which he was previously reduced, especially by his agony in the garden, as that of any criminal who is now impaled, or broken on the wheel. And indeed the notion of our Lord's availing himself of his miraculous power, to alleviate or shorten his own fufferings, could not but have the very worft effect upon the minds of those who should

be

be called to fuffer in his caufe, and who must know that they were not poffeffed of any fuch advantage.

Laftly, God has been pleased to fuffer the christian religion to be exceedingly debafed by a mixture of heathen opinions and superftitions, and a power to be affumed in his church fo contrary to the genius of it, as to be termed, in the language of prophecy, antichristian, rather than interfere to prevent the operation of natural causes, tending to introduce thofe corruptions, and to establish that enormous power. And though the Divine Being has refolved to reform his church, to put a period to those abuses, and to overturn that ufurped authority, he does it only by means of natural causes; by providing, in the ufual course of things, a better understanding of the fcriptures, an increase of knowledge of various other kinds, and a jufter sense of men's natural rights and privileges. These causes have been operating fome centuries, and will, no doubt, at length accomplish the great ends for which they were provided,

But

But these means of reforming the christian church, and restoring it to its pristine purity, are, in all refpects, natural, and by no means do they come under the description of miracles. Yet we do, and ought to blefs God for the Reformation.

It will be faid that, according to the plaineft language of the fcriptures, God does work upon the minds of men, and that the fuccess of the preaching of the gospel is, in a particular manner, ascribed to it. Does not Paul fay, (1 Cor. iii. 6.) I have planted, and Apollos watered, but God gave the increase?

Í answer, that this representation is undoubtedly and most strictly true. The fuccefs of the gospel is certainly the work of God; but the question is, whether, in this, he works with, or without, natural means; and it is not the lefs his work, because he employs certain means adapted to answer hist purposes. His agency is juft as complete on one fuppofition as on the other. All the difference respects the mode or manner

C

of

of his operation; and it becomes us to look at all times beyond all second causes, to the ultimate and proper caufe of all good, which is God only. For ftrictly speaking, as our Lord himself obferved, There is none good but one, that is God; all other goodness being only the effect of his.

In this cafe, is not the gospel itself called the gospel of God, because he gave it? Was it not by his appointment that Paul preached it at Corinth, and that Apollos watered it there; and if, after this, the natural effect of the Corinthians hearing the gospel was their receiving and profiting by it, is not the whole to be ascribed to the God of Nature, and providence? Without that constitution of nature, by which their minds were dif posed to receive the truths of the gospel, and without the providential events of Paul planting the gofpel, and Apollos watering it, the Corinthians had been mere heathens ftill.

That this language is only the fame in which the pious writers of the fcriptures

defcribe

describe all the events of providence, overlooking all second causes, and regarding the primary cause only, is evident from numberlefs paffages. Does not the Pfalmift, (Pfalm civ. 27) represent all the beafts of the field as waiting upon God, that he may give them their meat in due feafon. That thou giveft them, says he, they gather. Thou openeft thine hand, they are filled with good.

But does God feed wild beafts by miracle, as he fed the Ifraelites in the wilderness? By no means; though the language, literally interpreted, would denote as much. His feeding them is in the common courfe of providence, by giving them natural powers for feizing their prey, and thus enabling them to provide for themselves. And very often, not being able to meet with proper food, or being disabled by accidents from feizing it, they actually starve and perish.

In the fame manner, therefore, we ought to interpret what is faid of God's giving the increase when Paul planted, and Apollos watered;

C 2

« הקודםהמשך »