author, in another place, "falls upon some which we meet with in the same author: quickly in the day time; it lies in wait for" If he who transgresses in the morning," some sins till the twilight; the longer it is says he, "is punished in the evening, you delayed, the severer the punishment; ac- will not say in this case, justice is slow; cordingly, some are consigned to eternal but to God one, or even several ages, are but night." as one day." How near is this to St. There are two difficulties, however, on Peter's saying on the same subject !+ this head, which are not easily solved: 1st, 2dly, The other point upon this subject The success that commonly attends the which perplexes men fond of controversy, wicked in this world, and the evil to which and is perplexed by them, is how to reconthe good are exposed. On this subject, even cile human liberty with Divine Providence, the philosophers, pleading the cause of God, which we have taken notice of before. But which, if we take their word, they thought to both these difficulties, and to all others a matter of no great difficulty, advanced a that may occur upon the subject, I would great many things. Seneca tells us, "There oppose the saying of St. Augustine: "Let is a settled friendship, nay, a near relation us grant that he can do some things which and similitude, between God and good men ; we cannot understand." he is even their father; but, in their educa- What a melancholy thing would it be to tion, he inures them to hardships: when live in a world where anarchy reigned! It therefore you see them struggling with diffi- would certainly be a woeful situation to all; culties, sweating, and employed in up-hill but more especially, to the best and most work, while the wicked, on the other hand, inoffensive part of mankind. It would have are in high spirits, and swim in pleasures; been no great privilege to have been born into consider, that we are pleased with modesty a world without God, and without Providence; in our children, and forwardness in our for if there was no Supreme Ruler of the slaves the former we keep under by severe world, then undoubtedly the wickedness of discipline, while we encourage impudence men would reign without any curb or impein the latter. Be persuaded that God takes diment, and the great and powerful would the same method; he does not pamper the unavoidably devour the weak and helpless, good man with delicious fare, but tries him; as the great fishes often eat up the small, he accustoms him to hardships, and," which and the hawk makes havock among the is a wonderful expression in a Heathen, weaker birds."§ "PREPARES HIM FOR HIMSELF."+ And It may be objected, that this frequently in another place, "Those luxurious persons, happens even in the present world, as appears whom he seems to indulge and to spare, he from the prophecies of Habakkuk ; but the reserves for evils to come. For you are prophet, immediately after, asserts, that mistaken, if you think any one excepted; there is a Supreme Power which holds the the man who has been long spared, will reins in the midst of these irregularities : at last have his portion of misery; and he and though they are sometimes permitted, that seems to have been dismissed, is only yet there is a determinate time appointed for delayed for a time," and a vast deal more setting all things to rights again, which the to this purpose. The same sort of senti- just man expects, and, till it comes, lives by ments we meet with in Plutarch: "God faith. Some passages of Ariston's Iambics takes the same method," says he, "with are admirable to this purpose. good men, that teachers do with their "A. Be patient: for God uses to supscholars, when they exact more than ordinary port worthy men, such as you are, in a reof those children of whom they have the markable manner and unless those who act greatest hopes."§ And it is a noble thought in a becoming manner, are to receive some *'Ροτη δ' επισκόπει δίκας Ταχεια τους μεν εν φασί, great reward, to what purpose is it, pray, to cultivate piety any longer? B. I wish that it may be the case: but I too often see those who conform themselves to the rules Inter bonos viros ac DEUM est amicitia, imo of piety and virtue, oppressed by calamity; necessitudo, et similitudo; imo ille eorum pater, sed while those who mind nothing but what durius eos educat: cum itaque, eos videris laborare, sudare, et arduum ascendere, malos autem lascivire, they are prompted to by private interest and et voluptatibus fluere; cogita, filiorum nos modestia profit, thrive and flourish much better than delectari, vernularum licentia: illos disciplina tristiori contineri, horum ali audaciam. Idem tibi de DEO we. 4. For the present it is so, indeed; liqueat, bonum virum deliciis non innutrit, experitur, but it becomes us to look a great way forward, indurat, et SIBI ILLUM PRÆPARAT. Eos autem quibus indulgere videtur, quibus parcere, molles venturis malis servat. Erratis enim si quem judicatis exceptum, veniet ad illum diu felicem sua portio. Et qui videtur dimissus esse, delatus est. SEN. de Gubern. Mundi. § Hanc rationem DEUS sequitur in bonis viris, quam in discipulis suis præceptores, qui plus laboris ab iis exigunt, in quibus certior spes est. Plut. IIg Tw βραδίως τιμωρουμένων. Si qui mane peccavit, vespere puniatur, tardum hoc non dices, at DEO seculum, vel etiam plura secula, pro die uno. 2 Pet. iii. 8. Demus illum aliquod facere, et nos non posse intelligere. § Pisces ut sepe minutos and wait till the world has completed its full And Homer's words are very remarkable: revolution; for it is by no means true, that "Jupiter," says he, " increases or diminishthis life is entirely under the dominion of es the valour of men, as he thinks proper; blind chance, or fortune, though many enter- for he is the most powerful of all." tain this wicked notion; and the corrupt And in another place, "Jove, from part of mankind, from this consideration, Olympus, distributes happiness to good encourage themselves in immorality; but and bad men in general, and every one in the virtues of the good will meet with a pro- particular, as he himself thinks proper."+ per reward, and the wicked will be punished] Let us, therefore, look upon God as our for their crimes; for nothing happens with- father, and venture to trust him with our out the will of Heaven."# all; let us ask and beg of him what we What the poets sometimes advance con- want, and look for supplies from no other cerning a Supreme Fate which governs all quarter. This the indulgent father in Tethings, they often ascribe to God; though rence desired, and much more our heavenly now and then they forget themselves, and Father. And surely every thing is better subject even the Supreme Being to their conducted by a dutiful love and confidence, Fate, as the Stoic philosophers did also than by an ignoble and servile fear; and we but possibly they both had a sound meaning, are very injurious both to him and ourselves, though it was couched under words that when we think not, that all things, on his sound a little harsh; and this meaning now part, are managed with the greatest goodness and then breaks forth, particularly when and bounty. It is a true test of religion and they celebrate God, for disposing all things, obedience, when, with honourable thoughts, by an eternal law, according to his own good and a firm confidence in our Father, we abpleasure, and thereby make him the Supreme solutely depend upon him, and serve him and Universal Governor, subject to no other, from a principle of love. "Be not," says but, in some respects, to himself, or to his Augustine, "a froward boy, in the house of decrees; which, if you understand them in a the best of fathers; loving him when he is sound sense, is all that they can mean by their fond of thee, and hating him when he gives QTATO, and their ro ausraßantov. The thee chastisement; as if, in both cases, he same judgment is to be passed with regard did not intend to provide an inheritance for to what we find said about Fortune; for thee." If we suppose this Providence to either that word signifies nothing at all, or be the wisest and the best, it is necessary you must understand by it the Supreme that, in every instance, our wills should be Mind, freely disposing of all things; and perfectly submissive to its designs; otherthis is very clearly attested by the following wise we prefer our own pleasure to the will excellent verses of Menander: of heaven, which appears very unnatural. "Cease to improve your minds, for the mind St Augustine, on the expression upright in of man is nothing at all. The government heart, which we frequently meet with in the of all things is solely in the hands of fortune; Psalms, makes an excellent observation: whether this fortune be a mind, or the spirit" If you cheerfully embrace," says he, "the of God, or whatever else it is, it carries all Divine will in some things, but in others before it; human prudence is but a vapour, a mere trifle," &c.+ And, instead of the terms fate and fortune, they sometimes used the word Necessity. But all these were but other names, though ill-chosen, for Providence. Euripides, having said a great deal coucerning fate necessity, at last resolves the whole into this: "Jupiter executes, with thee, all he had decreed before."§ * Λ. Θάρσει. Βοηθειν πασι τοισιν αξίοις † Παύσασθε νουν έχοντες, ουδεν γας πλέον - Πάντα τυχη και μοίρα, Περικλεις, ανδρι δίδωσα. Συν σοι του το τελευτα. Eurip. in Alcestide. or would rather prefer your own, you are crooked in heart, and would not have your crooked inclinations conformed to his upright intentions, but, on the contrary, would bend his upright will to yours."§ LECTURE XIV. Of CHRIST the SAVIOUR. IT is acknowledged that the publication Η Ζευς δ' αυτές νέμει ολβον Ολυμπιος ανθρώποισιν Ne sis puer Insulsus in domo optimi patris, amans patrem, si tibi blanditur, et odio habens, quando te Hagellat, quasi non et blandiens et flagellans hæreditatem paret. § Si voluntatem divinam in quibusdam amplecteris, in aliis tuam malles, curvus es corde, et non vis curvam tuam voluntatem ad illius rectam dirigere, sed illius rectam vis ad tuam curvam incurvare. perfectly answers its original name, which | plause, that it may be said to them, without pany of the heavenly host joined the angel, and in your hearing sung, "Glory to God in the highest."+ And, indeed, in the strictest truth, "A most extraordinary child was sent down from the lofty heavens," &c.+ In him all the treasures of wisdom and Whence also his name was sent down along knowledge are hid, and without him there is with him: "His name shall be called Jesus; nothing but emptiness; "because in him all for he shall save his people from their sins." fulness doth dwell." But what advantage "O sweet name of Jesus," says St. Bernard, can it be to us to hear these riches of our "honey in the mouth, melody in the ears, Jesus spoken of at great length, and to exand healing to the heart." This is the cellent purpose, or even to speak of them ourSaviour, who, though we were so miserable, selves, if, all the while, we talk of them as a and so justly miserable, yet would not suffer good foreign to us, and in which we have no us to perish quite. Nor did he only put concern, because our hearts are not yet open on our nature, but also our sins; that is, to receive him? What, pray, would the in a legal sense, our guilt being transferred most accurate description of the Fortuto him; whence we not only read, "that nate Islands, as they are called, or all the the word was made flesh;"§ but also, "that wealth of the Indies, and the new world, with He was made sin for us, who knew no sin;" its golden mines, signify to a poor man half and even, as we have it in the Epistle to the naked, struggling with all the rigours of cold Galatians, that he was made a curse,¶ that and hunger? Should one, in these circumfrom him an eternal blessing and felicity stances, I say, hear or read of these immense might be derived to us. The spotless Lamb treasures; or should any one describe them of God bore our sins, that were devolved to him in the most striking manner, either upon him; by thus bearing them, he de- by word of mouth, or with the advantage of stroyed them; and by dying for them, an accurate pen; can it be doubted, but this gained a complete victory over death. And empty display of riches, this phantom of how wonderful is the gradation of the bless-wealth and affluence, would make his sense ings he procured for us! He not only deli- of want and misery the more intolerable; unvered us from a prison and death, but pre- less it be supposed, that despair had already sents us with a kingdom; according to that reduced him to a state of insensibility? of the Psalmist: "Who redeemeth thee from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies."** What further enhances the misery of those who hear of this treasure, and think of it to no purpose, is this, that there is none of them I believe there is none so stupid or insen- who is not miserable by choice, "and a begsible, as to deny that these tidings are very gar in the midst of the greatest wealth ;" and agreeable and pleasing to the ear. But we not only miserable by choice, but obstinatemay, not without some reason, suspect of the ly so, from an invincible and distracted fondgreatest part of nominal Christians, who com- ness for the immediate causes of his misery: monly receive these truths with great ap-"For who but a downright madman would reject such golden offers ?"+ Luke ii. 10, 11. + Ibid. 14. Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto, &c. John i. 14. Gal. iii. 13. VIRG. Ecl. John i. 10-12. † Quis enim nisi mentis inops oblatum hoc respuat aurum? case: To give a brief and plain state of the this is delayed, we are the most abject slaves: To those that sincerely and with all when one has delivered himself up to Christ, their hearts receive him, Christ is all things; then and then only he is truly free, and beto those that receive him not, nothing. comes master of himself. Why should we For, how can any good, however suitable or wander about to no purpose? To him let extensive, be actually enjoyed; or, indeed, us turn our eyes, on him fix our thoughts, any such enjoyment conceived, without some that he, who is ours by the donation of the kind of union between that good and the Father, and his own free gift, may be ours person supposed to stand in need of it? "Be- by a cheerful and joyous acceptance. As St. hold,' says the Psalmist, "all those that Bernard says on these words of the prophet, are far from thee, shall perish." To be uni-"To us a child is born, to us a son is given :' ted to God, is the great and the only good of mankind; and the only means of this union is Jesus, in whatever sense you take it he ought truly to be called the union of unions; who, that he might with the greater consistency and the more closely unite our souls to God, did not disdain to unite himself to a human body. Let us, therefore, make use of what is ours," saith he, "for our own advantage." So then, let him be ours by possession and use,+ and let us be his for ever, never forgetting how dearly he has bought us. LECTURE XV. Of REGENERATION. The great business of our life, therefore, young gentlemen, is this acceptance of Christ, and this inseparable union with him, which we are now recommending. Thrice happy, and more than thrice happy, are they who are joined with him in this undivided union, which no complaints, nor even the day of THE Platonists divide the world into two, death, can dissolve; nay, the last day is the sensible and intellectual world; they imhappy above all other days, for this very rea-agine the one to be the type of the other, and son, that it fully and finally completes this that sensible and spiritual things are stamp. union, and is so far from dissolving it, that ed, as it were, with the same stamp or seal. it renders it absolutely perfect and everlasting. These sentiments are not unlike the notions which the masters of the cabalistical doctrine But that it may be coeval with eternity, among the Jews held concerning God's and last for ever, it is absolutely necessary scphiroth and seal; therewith, according to that this union should have its beginning in them, all the worlds, and every thing in them, this short and fleeting life. And, pray, what are stamped and sealed; and these are prohinders those of us that have not entered into bably near akin to what Lord Bacon of Verthis union before, to enter into it without de- ulam calls his parallela signacula, and symlay-seeing the bountiful Jesus not only re- bolizantes schematismi. According to this jects none that come unto him, but also offers hypothesis, these parables and metaphors, himself to all that do not wilfully reject him, which are often taken from natural things to and standing at the door, earnestly begs to illustrate such as are divine, will not be be admitted? O! "why do not these ever-similitudes taken entirely at pleasure; but lasting doors open, that the king of glory are often, in a great measure, founded in namay enter," and reign within us? Nay, ture and the things themselves. Be this as though he were to be sought in a far coun- it may, that great change which happens in try, and with great labour, why should we the souls of men by a real and effectual condelay, and what unhappy chains detain us? version to God, is illustrated in the Holy Why do we not, after shaking them all off, Scriptures by several remarkable changes, and even ourselves, go as it were out of our-both natural and civil, particularly by a deselves, and seek him incessantly till we find liverance from chains, prison and slavery ; him? Then rejoicing over him, say with by a transition from one kingdom to anthe heavenly spouse, "I held him, and would not let him go ;" and further add, with the same spouse, that blessed expression, "My beloved is mine, and I am his." And, indeed, this propriety is alway reciprocal. No man truly receives Jesus, that does not, at the same time, deliver up himself wholly to him. Among all the advantages we pursue, there is nothing comparable to this exchange. Our gain is immense from both, not only from the acceptance of him, but also from surrendering ourselves to him: so long as • Psalm xxiv. other, and from darkness into light; by a restoration from death to life; by a new creation; by a marriage; and by adoption and regeneration. Concerning this great change, as it is represented under the last of these figures, we propose, with Divine assistance, to offer a few thoughts from these words of St. John's Gospel, which we have already mentioned: "To as many as received him, to them gave he power, or the pri Puer natus est nobis, filius nobis datus est: Uta mur, inquit, nostro in utilitatem nostram. 1 Κτησι και χρήσεις vilege, to become the sons of God."* To-Spirits, in the same manner with those migether with these words of our Saviour in nisters of fire who are not confined to coranother place of the same Gospel, "Except poreal vehicles; concerning whom the oracle, a man be born again of water and of the having acknowledged one Supreme and DiSpirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of vine Majesty, immediately subjoins; " and God."+ we angels are but a small part of God." If, indeed, we consider the nature and the original of man, it is not without reason that he is called the son of God, according to that passage which the apostle, in his short, but most weighty Sermon to the Athenians, quotes from the poet Aratus, and at the same time approves of, "for we are all his offspring." Our first parent, in St. Luke's Gospel, is also expressly called the son of God, not only because he was created immediately by God, without any earthly father, but also on account of the Divine image that was originally impressed upon the human nature. And with regard to this principle which excels in man, which actually constitutes the man, and on account of which he most truly deserves that name, he is a noble and divine animal; and whatever some fanciful and proud men may boast concerning their families, "if we consider our original, and that God was the author of the human kind, none of Adam's race can be called ignoble."+ But if, on the other hand, we regard our woeful fall, which was the consequence of sin, we are all degenerate; we have all fallen from the highest honour into the greatest disgrace, and the deepest gulph of all sorts And this glorious title, which distinguish- of misery; we have given away our liberty es him from all other corporeal beings, he and greatest dignity, in exchange for the has in common with the angels, who are also most shameful and most deplorable bondage; so called in several places in the book of instead of the sons of God, we are become the Job. It is indeed true, to use the words slaves of Satan; and if we want to know to of St. Basil, "That every piece of work-what family we belong, the Apostle will tell manship bears some mark or character of us, "That we are children of wrath, and sons the workman who made it :"¶ for I should of disobedience."+ rather choose, in this case, to use the word But, as the overflowing Fountain of goodmark or character_than_likeness: but of ness and bounty did not choose that so noble man alone it is said, "Let us make him a monument of his wisdom should be entireafter our own image.' And this distinction ly ruined by this dismal fall; could any one is not improperly expressed by the school-be more proper to raise it up again, or better men, who say, as we have already observed, qualified to restore men to the dignity of the that all the other works of God are stamped with the print of his foot; but only man, of all the visible creation, honoured with the image or likeness of his face. And, indeed, on account of this image or resemblance it is, that he is in dignity very nearly equal to the angels, though made inferior to them. Here it is to be observed, that this inferiority is but little "Who was made," saith the Apostle, "a little lower than the angels: so that, with regard to his body, he is nearly related to the brute creatures, and only a little superior to them with regard to temperament, and the beautiful elegance of his frame, but made out of the very same materials, the same moist and soft clay, taken from the bosom of their great and common mother; whereas, to use the words of the poet, "The soul is the breath of God, which takes its rise from heaven, and is closely united to his earthly body, like a light shut up in a dark cavern."++ That divine part of the human composition derives its original from the Father of sons of God, than his own eternal Son, who is the most perfect and express image of the Father? Nor does this glorious person decline the severe service: though he was the son of his Father's love, the heir and lord of the whole universe; though he might be called the delight of his most exalted Father and of all blessed spirits, and now, with the greatest justice, the darling of the human kind; yet he left his Father's bosom, and, O wonderful condescension! became the son of man, that men might, anew, become the sons of God: whence he is also called the second Adam, because he recovered all that was lost by the first. That all who sincerely receive him, might be again admitted into the embraces of the Father, and no more be called the children of wrath, he himself submitted to the punishment due to our disobedience; and, by bearing it, removed our guilt, and pacified justice. He also went into the flames of divine wrath to deliver us from them; and by plentiful stream of his most precious blood, quite extinguished them. He likewise took effectual care that those who were now no * Μικρή δε Θεού μίξις αγγελοι ήμεις. † Si primordia nostra, Auctoremque Deum spectes, Nullus degener extat. Boeth. de Cons. Phil. lib. iji. met. 6. 'Tia arubuas as Teva os. Eph. ii. 2, 3. |