masters of the art of healing, can they prevent or heal the gradual decays of nature? Can all their boasted skill heal old age, or hinder dust from returning to dust? Nay, who, among the greatest masters of medicine, has been able to add a century to his own years? Yea, or to protract his own life any considerable space beyond the common period? The days of man, for above three thousand years, (from the time of Moses at least,) have been fixed, by a middling computation, at three score years and ten. How few are there that attain to four score years? Perhaps hardly one in five hundred. So little does the art of man avail against the appointment of God! 5. God has indeed provided for the execution of his own decree, in the very principles of our nature. It is well known, the human body, when it comes into the world, consists of innumerable membranes exquisitely thin, that are filled with circulating fluids, to which the solid parts bear a very small proportion. Into the tubes, composed of these membranes, nourishment must be continually infused; otherwise life cannot continue, but will come to an end almost as soon as it is begun. And suppose this nourishment to be liquid, which, as it flows through those fine canals, continually enlarges them in all their dimensions; yet it contains innumerable solid particles, which continually adhere to the inner surface of the vessels through which they flow; so that in the same proportion as any vessel is enlarged, it is stiffened also. Thus the body grows firmer, as it grows larger, from infancy to manhood. In twenty, five and twenty, or thirty years, it attains its full measure of firmness. Every part of the body is then stiffened to its full degree; as much earth adhering to all the vessels, as gives the solidity they severally need to the nerves, arteries, veins, muscles, in order to exercise their functions in the most perfect manner. For twenty, or, it may be, thirty years following, although more and more particles of earth continually adhere to the inner surface of every vessel in the body, yet the stiffness caused thereby is hardly observable, and occasions little inconvenience. But after sixty years, (more or less according to the natural constitution, and a thousand accidental circumstances,) the change is easily perceived, even at the surface of the body. Wrinkles show the proportion of the fluids to be lessened, as does also the dryness of the skin, through a diminution of the blood and juices, which before moistened and kept it smooth and soft. The extremities of the body grow cold, not only as they are remote from the centre of motion, but as the smaller vessels are filled up, and can no longer admit the circulating fluid. As age increases, fewer and fewer of the vessels are pervious, and capable of transmitting the vital stream; except the larger ones, most of which are lodged within the trunk of the body. In extreme old age, the arteries themselves, the grand instruments of circulation, by the continual apposition of earth, become hard, and, as it were bony, till, having lost the power of contracting themselves, they can no longer propel the blood, even through the largest channels; in consequence of which, death naturally ensues. Thus are the seeds of death sown in our very nature! Thus from the very hour when we first ap pear on the stage of life, we are travelling towards death: we are preparing, whether we will or no, to return to the dust from whence we came! 6. Let us now take a short review of the whole, as it is delivered with inimitable simplicity; what an unprejudiced person might, even from hence, infer to be the word of God. In that period of duration which he saw to be most proper, (of which he alone could be the judge, whose eye views the whole possibility of things from everlasting to everlasting,) the Almighty, rising in the greatness of his strength, went forth to create the universe. "In the beginning he created," made out of nothing," the matter of the heavens and the earth :" (so, Mr. Hutchinson observes, the original words properly signify :) then "the Spirit [or breath] from the Lord," that is, the air, "moved upon the face of the waters." Here were earth, water, air; three of the elements, or component parts of the lower world. "And God said, Let there be light and there was light." By his omnific word, light, that is, fire, the fourth element, sprang into being. Out of these, variously modified and proportioned to each other, he composed the whole. "The earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit after his kind;" and then the various tribes of animals, to inhabit the waters, the air, and the earth. But the very heathen could observe, : Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altæ Deerat adhuc ! There was still wanting a creature of a higher rank, capable of wisdom and holiness. Natus homo est. "So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him!" Mark the emphatical repetition. God did not make him mere matter, a piece of enseless, unintelligent clay; but a spirit, like himself, although clothed with a material vehicle. As such he was endued with understanding; with a will, including various affections; and with liberty, a power of using them in a right or wrong manner, of choosing good or evil. Otherwise, neither his understanding nor his will would have been to any purpose; for he must have been as incapable of virtue or holiness, as the stock of a tree. Adam, in whom all mankind were then contained, freely preferred evil to good. He chose to do his own will, rather than the will of his Creator. He 66 was not deceived," but knowingly and deliberately rebelled against his Father and his King. In that moment he lost the moral image of God, and, in part, the natural: he commenced unholy, foolish, and unhappy. And "in Adam all died:" he entitled all his posterity to error, guilt, sorrow, fear, pain, diseases, and death. 7. How exactly does matter of fact, do all things round us, even the face of the whole world, agree with this account? Open your eyes! Look around you! See darkness that may be felt; see ignorance and error; see vice in ten thousand forms; see consciousness of guilt, fear, sorrow, shame, remorse, covering the face of the earth! See misery, the daughter of sin. See, on every side, sickness and pain, inhabitants of every nation under heaven; driving on the poor, helpless sons of men, in every age, to the gates of death! So they have done well nigh from the beginning of the world. So they will do, till the consummation of all things. 8. But can the Creator despise the work of his own hands? Surely that is impossible! Hath he not then, seeing he alone is able, provided a remedy for all these evils? Yea, verily he hath! And a sufficient remedy; every way adequate to the disease. He hath fulfilled his word; He hath given "the Seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's head." "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." Here is a remedy provided for all our guilt: He" bore all our sins in his body on the tree." And "if any one have sinned, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." And here is a remedy for all our disease, all the corruption of our nature. For God hath also, through the intercession of his Son, given us his Holy Spirit, to renew us both in knowledge, in his natural image ;-opening the eyes of our understanding, and enlightening us with all such knowledge as is requisite to our pleasing God; and also in his moral image, namely, "righteousness and true holiness." And supposing this is done, we know that "all things [will] work together for our good." We know by happy experience, that all natural evils change their nature and turn to good; that sorrow, sickness, pain, will all prove medicines to heal our spiritual sickness. They will all be to our profit; will all tend to our unspeakable advantage; making us more largely "partakers of his holiness," while we remain on earth; adding so many stars to that crown which is reserved in heaven for us. 9. Behold then both the justice and mercy of God!-his justice in punishing sin, the sin of him in whose loins we were then all contained, on Adam and his whole posterity;-and his mercy,in providing a universal remedy for a universal evil; in appointing the second Adam to die for all who had died in the first; that, "as in Adam all died, so in Christ all [might] be made alive;" that, "as by one man's offence, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one," the free gift might "come upon all, unto justification of life,"-"Justification of life," as being connected with the new birth, the beginning of spiritual life, which leads us, through the life of holiness, to life eternal, to glory. 10. And it should be particularly observed, that" where sin abounded, grace does much more abound." For not as the condemnation, so is the free gift; but we may gain infinitely more than we have lost. We may now attain both higher degrees of holiness, and higher degrees of glory, than it would have been possible for us to attain. If Adam had not sinned, the Son of God had not died: consequently that amazing instance of the love of God to man never had existed, which has, in all ages, excited the highest joy, and love, and gratitude from his children. We might have loved God the Creator, God the Preserver, God the Governor; but there would have been no place for love to God the Redeemer! This could have had no being. The highest glory and joy of saints on earth, and saints in heaven, Christ crucified, had been wanting. We could not then have praised Him, that, thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, yet emptied himself, took upon him the form of a servant, and was obedient to death, even the death of the cross! This is now the noblest theme of all the children of God on earth; yea, we need not scruple to affirm, even of angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven. "Hallelujah," they cry, "To the King of the sky, Hallelujah to God and the Lamb!" SERMON LXIII.-On Predestination. "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son-whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified," Rom. viii, 29, 30. I. "OUR beloved brother Paul," says St. Peter, "according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction," 2 Pet. iii, 15, 16. 2. It is not improbable, that among those things spoken by St. Paul, which are hard to be understood, the apostle Peter might place what he speaks on this subject, in the eighth and ninth chapters of his epis tle to the Romans. And it is certain not only the unlearned, but many of the most learned men in the world, and not the "unstable" only, but many who seemed to be well established in the truths of the gospel, have, for several centuries, "wrested" these passages "to their own destruction." 3. "Hard to be understood," we may well allow them to be, when we consider, how men of the strongest understanding, improved by all the advantages of education, have continually differed in judgment concerning them. And this very consideration that there is so wide a difference upon the head, between men of the greatest learning, sense, and piety, one might imagine would make all who now speak upon the subject exceedingly wary and self diffident. But I know not how it is, that just the reverse is observed in every part of the Christian world. No writers upon earth appear more positive, than those who write on this difficult subject. Nay, the same men, who, writing upon any other subject, are remarkably modest and humble, on this alone lay aside all self distrust, "And speak ex cathedrâ infallible." This is peculiarly observable of almost all those who assert the absolute decrees. But surely it is possible to avoid this: whatever we propose may be proposed with modesty, and with deference to those wise and good men who are of a contrary opinion; and the rather, because so much has been said already on every part of the question, so many volumes have been written, that it is scarcely possible to say any thing which has not been said before. All I would offer at present, not to the lovers of contention, but to men of piety and candour, are a few short hints, which perhaps may cast some light on the text above recited. 4. The more frequently and carefully I have considered it, the more I have been inclined to think, that the apostle is not here (as many have supposed) describing a chain of causes and effects; (this does not seem to have entered into his heart;) but simply showing the method in which God works; the order in which the several branches of salvation constantly follow each other. And this, I apprehend, will be clear to any serious and impartial inquirer, surveying the work of God either forwards or backwards; either from the beginning to the end, or from the end to the beginning. 5. And first, let us look forward on the whole work of God, in the salvation of man; considering it from the beginning, the first point, till it terminates in glory. The first point is the foreknowledge of God. God foreknew those in every nation, who would believe, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things. But in order to throw light upon this dark question, it should be well observed, that when we speak of God's foreknowledge we do not speak according to the nature of things, but after the manner of men. For if we speak properly, there is no such thing as either foreknowledge or after knowledge in God. All time, or rather all eternity, (for time is only that small fragment of eternity which is allotted to the children of men,) being present to him at once, he does not know one thing before another, or one thing after another; but sees all things in one point of view, from everlasting to everlasting. As all time, with every thing that exists therein, is present with him at once, so he sees at once, whatever was, is, or will be, to the end of time. But observe: we must not think they are, because he knows them. No; he knows them, because they are. Just as I (if one may be allowed to compare the things of men with the deep things of God) now know the sun shines; yet the sun does not shine because I know it; but I know it, because he shines. My knowledge supposes the sun to shine; but does not in any wise cause it. In like manner, God knows that man sins, for he knows all things: yet we do not sin because he knows it, but he knows it because we sin; and his knowledge supposes our sin, but does not in any wise cause it. In a word, God, looking on all ages, from the creation to the consummation, as a moment, and seeing at once whatever is in the hearts of all the children of men, knows every one that does or does not believe, in every age or nation. Yet what he knows, whether faith or unbelief, is in no wise caused by his knowledge. Men are as free in believing, or not believing, as if he did not know it at all. 6. Indeed if man were not free, he could not be accountable either for his thoughts, words, or actions. If he were not free, he would not De capable either of reward or punishment; he would be incapable either of virtue or vice, of being either morally good or bad. If he had no more freedom than the sun, the moon, or the stars, he would be no more accountable than they. On supposition that he had no more freedom than they, the stones of the earth would be as capable of reward, and as liable to punishment, as man: one would be as accountable as the other. Yea, and it would be as absurd to ascribe either virtue or vice to him, as to ascribe it to the stock of a tree. 7. But to proceed: "whom he did foreknow, them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." This is the second step: (to speak after the manner of men: for in fact, there is nothing before or after in God :) in other words, God decrees, from everlasting to everlasting, that all who believe in the Son of his love, shall be conformed to his image; shall be saved from all inward and outward sin, into all inward and outward holiness. Accordingly, it is a plain, undenable fact, all who truly believe in the name of the Son of God do now "receive the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls;" and this in virtue of the unchangeable, irreversible, irresistible decree of God,—"He that believeth shall be saved;""he that believeth not shall be damned.". |