Page images
PDF
EPUB

absurdity knew not where to stop, they repre sent every sin committed by finite beings to be each an infinite evil, to afford him an opportunity of shewing his great aversion to sin and sinners, and to gratify his vindictive justice in punishing them throughout eternal ages. If they are criminal who traduce the characters of their fellow mortals, how much more criminal must they be (agreeably to their own standard) who misrepresent the moral character of the merciful par ent of the human race!

Archbishop Tillotson (than whom none better understood human nature) says, that "according as men's notions of God are, such will their religion be. If they have gross and false conceptions of God, their religion will be absurd and superstitious. If men fancy God to be an ill-natured being, armed with infinite power, who takes delight in the misery and ruin of his creatures, and is ready to take all advantages against them, they may fear him, but they will also hate him; and they will be apt to be such towards one another as they fancy God to be towards them; for all religion doth naturally incline men to imitate him whom they worship."

Doctor Scott, to root out all such injurious notions as derogate from the goodness of God, very justly observes, that "God being infinitely good in his own nature, it is impossible we should conceive him to be better than he is ; and therefore every false notion we entertain of his goodness, must detract from it; and so much as we detract from his goodness, so much we detract from the principal reason and motive of our loving him."

There is scarcely a more self-evident truth in nature, than that it is impossible that any rational being who does not love God, can be happy; and as impossible, that the being who fears and hates God, should not be miserable. They are therefore enemies to both God and man, who insinuate that God is a cruel, partial, passionate, vindictive being, that has dragged millions of souls into existence which he positively knew would be eternally miserable; which might have been prevented either by omitting to create them, or by reforming them, as he had done with many thousands as bad as those whom he rejected; for no created being can resist his will. Christ advises us to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, and pray for those who persecute

t

us.* And inculcates these godlike principles as corresponding with the disposition and moral character of our most merciful Father.

But many of our teachers (who call them. selves orthodox) tell us, that there are vast numbers of God's enemies that he never will forgive, but will pursue them with the most implacable vengeance throughout eternal ages (as they pretend) to satisfy divine justice, which will never be accomplished; and all this cruelty is exercised because the sinner did not perform what they acknowledge he was never able to do: that is, he could not work out his own salvation by his own righteousness; and the perfect righ teousness of Christ had never been imputed to him, by which alone any human being can be saved. For it is Christ "who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." It is certain that no hu man being can be received into Heaven until they are redeemed from all iniquity, and purified to such a degree as to render them zealous of good works. But it is also as certain, from scripture, that they cannot redeem and purify themselves: for we are told by Christ himself,

* Luke vi. 27.

† Titus ii. 14.

that "no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God, &c."*

Christ, to evince the entire dependence of every created being upon his Father, declares explicitly, both in the 19th and 30th verses of the 5th chapter of John, that he of himself could do nothing. If this was the case with Christ, how much more so must it be with us poor, weak, ignorant mortals? Although it is absolutely necessary that we should come to Christ, he tells us, that no man can come to him, unless the Father draw him, and he will raise him up at the last day; but they will not be left in this helpless condition; forheassures us in the next verse, that they shall all be taught of God; alluding to "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; (which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:) But this shall

• John vi. 44, 45.

be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."* "In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve."†

This is properly termed the covenant of grace, in contradistinction to the covenant of works. This, St. Paul tells the Hebrews, is a better covenant than the other, being established upon better promises.

Under this new and better covenant, the Lord himself hath promised to instruct us in a way in which we cannot mistake his meaning; when the Lord shall write his law in their hearts, then shall the illiterate children of men

* Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, 33, 34.

† Jer. 1. 20.

« PreviousContinue »