Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Is not Paganism preferable to such a doctrine as this? Bring me to the Word of God, and there I find the statement of God the Father, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love;" and, as a proof of it, "with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." I go to the New Testament, and I read this expression of God the Son, in as positive terms, concerning all whom the Father gave into His hands" I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Did any man ever attempt to prove Jesus Christ a liar, by saying, "They can perish, and they may perish?" Go over to the herd of Atheists, if this is your character; you have no business to call yourselves Christians. When the Holy Ghost comes, He comes to abide. The Lord Jesus says, "He shall be in you, and abide in you for ever." We are told by Infidels in modern times, that the Holy Ghost may be turned out and vanquished, at the caprice of a poor worm. My hearers, I beg of you to read your Bibles, and on your knees to pray God to preserve you from the Infidels of the present age, and to give you to taste, and handle, and enjoy what eternal life is, in present possession and personal security. Then the other point is, eternal life anticipated by the soul. Loosing your grasp of things terrene, and "pressing forward to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," to "lay hold on eternal life," as well as "fight the good fight of faith." The happiest man in the world, whether old or young, rich or poor, diseased or in health, is the man who can live in the hourly anticipation of glory, longing, like Paul, "to depart and be with Christ, which is far

better.'

Oh! may the Spirit Jehovah apply this appeal to your hearts, give you to receive and enjoy these precious truths, and get a revenue of praise to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by affording mighty success, as a victorious crown to His own preached gospel, and His own dear name shall have all the praise.

HYMN.

No. 520 OF GROVE CHAPEL HYMNS.

Go forth, thou servant of our God,

Take as your theme atoning blood;
Tell how it saves from guilt and shame,
And glorifies Jehovah's name.

Go-trace it to the Father's love,
Secured in fix'd decrees above;

Tell how it flow'd from Jesu's side,
Tell how it is by grace applied.

Go-make Mount Calvary's triumphs known,

Wage war with sin and Satan's throne;
For truth, the truth of God, contend,

And God be with you to the end.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Sunday Morning, July 29, 1849, BY THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

"Mine eyes have seen thy salvation."-Luke ii. 30.

THIS exclamation is part of holy Simeon's heart-breathing unto God, upon the sight of the promised and new-born Messiah. He came unto the temple, under Divine direction, and took Him up in his arms and blessed Him, and then broke out into this sweet strain of acknowledgment to God. He had been looking for the coming of Christ; he had read the promises concerning it; his faith was anticipating it; and when he got a sight of this precious, glorious Christ of God, who is called by him here "the consolation of Israel," "he came by the Spirit unto the temple, and took Him up into his arms and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." It appeared to that dear old saint as if there were nothing worth staying on earth for; he had discovered all the promises fulfilled in this one blessed Babe-saw clearly the fact which Isaiah had been commissioned to set down, that He Himself was, and is, God's salvation to the ends of the earth. So that the sight of Christ was to see God's salvationall that salvation being concentrated in Him.

But, surely, this sacred delight-this heavenly discovery-this soulsatisfying view, was not designed for Simeon alone. Have there not been many Simeons? Are there not many now, of the same household of faith, that have had believing views of Christ, so surpassing-so captivating-so encouraging-so cheering-so satisfactory, that they have thought nothing else worth living for, and have been ready to cry out, Published in Weekly Nos., 1d., and Monthly Parts, 5d.

VOL. II.

[ocr errors]

with Simeon, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." But I would have persons be very careful how they use the language: not lightly-irreverently-as I have heard it uttered and muttered by multitudes, with their heads turned this, and that, and every way, without a single thought apparently of what they were say ing; and if I had told them afterwards that they had been praying for God to take them out of the world, they would have been stunned. For this is the signification, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace;" as though I had no more to learn -no more to wish-no more to long for. I have got His salvation in my heart, "The hope of glory," and why should I stay in this desert world any longer? "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." I take this to be the real design of the Holy Ghost in recording the language, as far as it relates to Simeon. Now let us take a little higher ground, and contemplate the language of my text, as it concerns you and me, that we may ask seriously the question, Have I seen God's salvation? because there are many systems made up in the day in which we live, that are supposed to be offers of salvation, and terms of salvation, and proposals of salvation, and invitations of salvation, and the like. I am sure I would not pass over the threshold of my door to see them all. But if I can get a view of God's salvation, it is worth travelling the length and the breadth of the land to get one spiritual glimpse of so glorious an object.

Without detaining you further in our exordium, let me invite your attention to three things, in a spiritual point of view, from these words -first, the object of vision, God's salvation; secondly, the nature of the sight, so as to constitute it a saving one; and thirdly, the effects that are sure to follow: for if you have seen God's salvation in the sense we are about to set it forth, sure I am that the results I shall name will not be wanting in your heart and experience.

I. First of all, then, let us speak to the point. God's salvation, as the object of view of which Simeon speaks, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." What is it? God's salvation. Then it must be worthy of Himself. Is it God's salvation? Then it is adapted to man's ruin. Is it God's salvation? Then it secures a whole revenue of praise and glory to His great name. Is it God's salvation? Then man has no hand in it. Is it God's salvation? Then it is like the altar which God commanded Moses to build-"If thou lift up a tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." Is it God's salvation? Then it originates with Him; it is accomplished by Him; it is imparted by Him; it redounds to His own glory; in the experience and eternal blessedness of those whom He

saves.

To detail a few particulars, let me remind you that God's salvation is settled in the council of peace, accomplished by the Prince of Peace, and is lasting, and will lead to the realms of peace; all infallible. I do not mean such an infallibility as the poor wretch at Rome has experienced. I mean an infallibility worthy of God. What! say you, a salvation settled, and settled by predestinating enactments in the council of peace? Yes, verily it is. I pray you do not lose sight of the phrase on which we commented a little in reading the chapter, that Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, would be the Saviour and the Redeemer of Israel— the God of the house of Jacob. You will recollect that we paused a

little, to comment on the order of the words Saviour and Redeemer. He does not redeem Israel to leave them to save themselves. He does not redeem Israel, and leave it a matter of uncertainty whether they will be saved or not. His redemption would, in that case, have been a worthless one. But He saves them first, and redeems them afterwards. He saves them in Himself, "with an everlasting salvation." That is according to our first idea. He has settled in the council of peace all that pertains to the salvation of His own Church; and I would never preach another sermon if I did not believe that: for so much do I see and know of the perverseness of man, and the pride of his free-will, and his rebellion against God's method of saving him, that I do not believe there is a child of Adam on the face of the earth that would accept of God's salvation so long as he is allowed to propose, and talk of, and try to effect one for himself. Our's is a settled salvation; and this is our only glory. There are three things included in this settlement, which I want your attention fixed upon for a few moments-the stipulation for it, the subjects of it, and the securities in it.

The stipulation of the terms by which man can be just with God— how God can save sinners, and yet not mar His own perfections and attributes-how God can and does save sinners, in a way that shall give equal honour to His truth, and justice, and holiness. As to His love, and condescension, and mercy, "I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion, and I will declare the decree," says the Father. And what is that decree, Lord? Why, that He shall ask of Me, and I shall give; there is the stipulation-"He shall ask of me, and I shall give Him the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession." Now, if in that stipulation there had been "if He shall ask, I will give," I would close my Bible at once, and never offer another word from Scripture. Put but one "if" in, and it ruins the whole race of Adam. It deposes the King of glory. It deceives poor, proud mortals, and gratifies none but the devil. But get rid of the "if," and let the stipulation of Jehovah, in the council of peace, run as He has it in His own words, "He shall ask," and "I shall give;" and there is no appeal from that-it is a settled matter.

Moreover, when our precious Lord goes on with the stipulation, He says, "Lo! I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me to do Thy will, O God"-offers up Himself, voluntarily, to do the entire will of God, and accomplish all that was requisite for the salvation of His own Church; adding, "Thy law is within my heart." Then, further on we read, that He should "magnify the law, and make it honourable;" and then pour out His soul unto death, and call upon the very sword of justice to awake and smite the Shepherd, that the sheep might go free. Oh, the importance of this stipulation! Hence the Book of Life is written, and all the names of His saints set down; and Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are pledged in solemn compact-pledged and bound in oath to each other for the entire salvation of the whole Church of God. Here I find a rock to stand on. Here I find a firm footing for my feet. Here I find my feet, as David says, "set in an even place," and can look around me without dismay upon the convulsions of time, upon the fooleries of free-willers, and upon the rage of the prince of darkness.

Moreover, there is not only a stipulation that our precious Christour covenant Head and Surety, should give satisfaction to law and

justice, vanquish the powers of darkness, and work out and bring in a righteousness that God should approve of, and which should be suitable for His people to wear at court; but there is a sacred settlement of the matter with regard to subjects. They are declared in His precious word to be "chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world," and, being chosen in Him, individually registered. Therefore, their dear Redeemer taught them to rejoice that their names were written in heaven, and Paul, taking up under Divine inspiration, the same grand sentiment, gives a long catalogue of those to whom He would send His Christian congratulations, adding, "whose names are in the Book of Life." And in the very closing up of the Scriptures, in John's vision upon the Isle of Patmos, he is told that the names are never to be blotted out from the Book of Life. Here, then, I find the subjects recorded, the sheep of Christ, the objects of electing love, belonging in vital union to the covenant Head, adopted into the Father's family from everlasting, designated "sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty," to be made manifest in the fulness of time; just as is recorded in the 139th Psalm, "In Thy book were all my members written, when as yet there was none of them which, in continuance were fashioned" according to God's order, and in God's time; so that salvation is a settled matter, not only for the stipulation, but for the subjects thereof.

Then a word about the stipulation for securities. What! have we indeed security for the entire salvation of the whole election of grace? Wherein are those securities to be found? I answer, in the attributes of Deity. Only let Jehovah be acknowledged to be God, and we have got our security. Is He who chose His sons and daughters the everlasting God the Lord? Then He must be immutable, and He cannot revoke His choice. Is He who undertook the Church's cause, and stood up as her covenant Head from everlasting, and afterwards "bore her sins in His own body on the tree"-is He God? Do you really believe what the apostle was taught to say of Him, "that He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever?" Then in the "yesterday" of His stipulation, and the "to-day" of His sufferings, and the "for ever" of His priestly exercise and character, He must be immutable; and until Jesus can cease to be Jesus His Church is secure. And then, again, do we believe that the Holy Ghost is God, and can we admit it? Nay, rather, can we reject it? That the dawn of life, the first manifestation of regenerating grace, the new creation, is His own work-that He begins in the poor sinner's heart, or the poor sinner would never begin with Him? Then do we credit the statement that "we are confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in us will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ?" Then I have the immutability of my Father's choice, I have the immutability of my Saviour's responsibility, I have the immutability of my Holy Comforter's eternal Godhead, to complete the work He has begun, as the securities of salvation, yet more in the glorious transactions of predestinating love in the covenant of peace. I find all the Persons of Deity bound in sacred compact, each to other, to accomplish the grand work. If the Son sees not "the travail of His soul," God the Father's will is violated, and He ceases to be God, for He has changed His mind. If the Father's will be violated, what becomes of the honour and glory of Christ, who undertook to do His will; and one part of that will is, "This is the will of

« ÎnapoiContinuă »