Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

profound and acute reasonings, which can claim no higher than a human origin, are uncertain and deceitful, almost as various as the fashion of their garments; and they, who feed upon them, are "as 'when a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty : or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite."* The most admired productions of mere human genius have this vanity written on them, that they fall short of the truth; and will therefore perish with the world, who can be satisfied with them. "But the word of our God" 'will survive the universal wreck of all that is in opposition to it, and "shall stand for ever."+ Receive it then, as one of the good and perfect gifts of God, with adoring gratitude to him that gave it. Take it as a lamp to your feet, and a light to your paths; and you shall hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. It will guide you with the very counsel of God, and bring you to glory.

I am thankful, that when I first came among you, the Lord had convinced me, that it was my duty, to preach his doctrine, and not my own. You can bear me witness, that I have been in the habit of appealing to the Bible, and very frequently of referring you to the chapter and verse, in confirmation of what I have taught you here. The tendency and design of my preaching have been to endear the word of God to you, that you might read your Bibles with understanding, and learn to live and walk by them, and escape the folly and

* Isa, xxix. 8. Isa. xl. 8. Ps. Ixxiii. 24

corruption, which surround you in the world. And now that I am about to leave you, I commend you again to the word of grace, being very desirous that you may with David make the testimonies of God your delight and your counsellors; and rejoice in them as in all riches.

I shall now endeavour to assist your recollection, and to give you information, by setting before you some of those great truths, so essential to the welfare of man, which I have taught you for a long course of years out of this divine and wonderful book.

Here you may learn to know yourselves, and the world in which you live. This book shews you what man is, because it does not, like other books, flatter man. Here the veil, which pride has thrown over our shame, is removed, and we are seen in our real character, fallen, corrupt, and guilty. Man, in consequence of the fall, loves sin, hates the truth, and despises God. The universal apostacy, impiety and wickedness of men are here written as with a sun-beam. "God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any, that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one."* The heart is still worse than the outward conduct, being the source of all the evils we see, and of all that history records. The testimony of Solomon is, that "the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live."+ "The heart," says Jeremiah, "is deceitful above all things, and despe

* Ps. liii.

Children of men; that is, men in their natural state, as they are born into the world. + Eccles. ix. 3.

rately wicked."* And a far greater than these, who knew perfectly what is in man, has thus described the outgoings of the heart. "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."+ To argue against this would prove the madness of the heart itself; for it is to argue against the truth of God, and against incontestible facts. You cannot open your eyes on what is passing around you without beholding the ruins of the fall. The history of nations and the newspapers of the day teem with the follies and crimes and misery of man. And if you can, or dare look at the workings of sensuality, or into the hiding places of deceit in your own bosom, with an impartial eye, you may perceive enough to convince you, that the testimony of Jesus in the whole scripture concerning your state by nature, is true. For what an innumerable crowd of foolish and idle imaginations, or of polluting and guilty desires are perpetually arising, and pleading, it may be, for indulgence! What pride, ambition, envy, jealousies, hatred, malice! What love of the world and restless hankering after more of its possessions, from the vain and foolish idea, that you would be more happy, if you had them! What fruitless attempts to cover these evils with a fair exterior; to hide them from others, and even from yourselves; to impose on the world by appearing to be what you are not ; and to live, as if you thought the Bible false; or that there was no God to notice the evil and punish

* Jer. xvii. 9. + Mark, vii, 21.

it! What presumption in breaking the divine commands, and pleading for liberty to do it, and in defending the ungodly practices of the world against the scripture which condemns them! There is doubtless universally among mankind (excepting of course the followers of Jesus) a marked aversion to take the holy scriptures as the only standard and rule of morals: and this fact alone, if there were no other, is a demonstration, that "the whole world lieth in wickedness."*

I have not told you the half of what might be said on this alarming subject, in which we are all so much concerned. The language of scripture is stronger than any I have yet produced. It declares that men (before they receive Christ, or his gospel) are "dead in trespasses and sins;" that the saints themselves "are by nature the children of wrath, even as others ;" and that "the carnal mind" (the corrupt mind of man ;-all that he has by his first, or natural birth) "is enmity against God." It is not possible, I think, to lay man lower than this, or to give a more degrading and terrific view of his disposition than to say, that it is enmity against the very Essence and Perfection of all goodness. These expressions are so extraordinary, that they are considered by many as unintelligible, or unworthy of attention and belief; they shun the places where the doctrine is preached with a scriptural faithfulness; or, if they hear it occasionally, endeavour to stifle their convictions, and to forget it as soon as they can. But they are not aware, that their opposition to the doctrine is a confirmation of its truth. They oppose it because it condemns them; and because they cannot

* 1 John, v. 19. Eph. ii. 1-3. Rom. viii. 7.

consent to part with their self-complacency, nor to relinquish those sensual and sinful gratifications, which they consider as their chief good, For either of the above-cited passages, taken in the plain literal sense, would disperse all expectations arising from confidence in their moral powers, or in the practice of imaginary virtues, like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.

The wickedness of the world, and the disorders consequent upon it, are greatly increased by the agency of evil spirits, another alarming doctrine taught us in the word of truth. Satan, the chief of the rebel angels, having accomplished the fall of man, these restless enemies of mankind take advantage of their corruption to instigate them to all kinds of criminal excesses, being anxious to involve them in the same hopeless torment with themselves. Thus satan is styled "the prince of this world ;" and "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience;" that is, in them who refuse to obey Christ, and who are elsewhere represented as being in "the snare of the devil, and taken captive by him at his will." He is also called "the god of this world, who hath blinded the eyes of them, who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." If they could see the state they really are in, they would doubtless be terrified: but he contrives to hide it from them, that they may be insensible of their danger till it is too late to escape. It is however certain, that the usurped power, of satan is, in all cases, restricted to the bounds which God himself, for the very best ends, has prescribed

* John, xiv. 30. + Eph. ii. 2. 2 Tim. ii. 26. §2 Cor. iv. 4.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »