and shall yet be brought in another life. Here you behold the high dignity of Him who condescended to undertake this great work; he is the Son of God, the Word made flesh, God manifested in flesh. Thence you admire the immense value of the ransom paid for the salvation of man. This cost God his own blood, the precious blood of the Son of God. At length you perceive, from all these things, the ineffable love of God to man, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; the extraordinary love of the Son, who, after he had laid down his life for us, sent also his Spirit to confirm and most effectually seal this great benefit. Here there is no need to inquire if there be a book, which, in the description of this work, may be compared with Scripture. They are all, without exception, silent respecting it. These things could never have been discovered by human skill; the Scriptures alone bring to us these glad tidings. What a strong inducement to the glorification of God is furnished by this inconceivable kindness of God! This mystery is indeed a mystery of godliness-that is, a most powerful incentive to godliness-a bond which binds us in the strongest manner to our God for ever; "that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life; that, being bought with a price, we should glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, which are God's." But as man, a proud being, is but little affected by the great kindness of God, while he supposes that he is indebted to himself for all that he receives from God, the Scriptures use every means to remove this obstacle, and to abase the pride of men. What is its object in doing so? That that vice which is so hateful to God may not hinder them from testifying gratitude to him; as the very thing which is matter of pride to others, is to the humble mind a matter of thanksgiving, and an excitement to the glorification of God, to which every one feels himself obliged, just in proportion as he acknowledges himself unworthy of the kindness of God.† If, however, man, notwithstanding all these considerations, continue unmoved and insensible, and can be induced to love God neither by his infinite excellence, nor by any of the favours, which he, though utterly unworthy, has received from him, other means are employed by Scripture to affect his mind. Will he whom equity cannot move be influenced by Advan * Luke i. 74, 75; 1 Cor. vii. 20. + Gen. xxxii, 10; Ps. viii. 5. tage? In that book the duty of glorifying God is represented as profitable for all things, as great gain, as having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. No good can be imagined which is not in it promised to those who piously worship God; and what is of chief importance in these promises, they propose to them God reconciled; and if He be for them, nothing can be against them—nothing can separate them from his love. He neither leaves nor forsakes his people, he gives them all things richly to enjoy, he makes every thing that happens to them work for their good. But the most important blessing promised to the pious in Scripture, is communion with Christ our Saviour, who is to them gain both in life and in death. This gift secures every other. "He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things."* "All things," it is said; nothing is excepted, not even God himself. He will give even himself to be enjoyed by the godly, he will give himself in some measure in this life, he will give himself more fully in another most blessed life, which shall endure for ever; and that nothing may be wanting in it, the body shall also be a partaker of happiness; for at the appointed season it shall, by divine power, be raised, and again united with the spirit. And what can the insatiable mind of man desire beyond this everlasting possession of an infinite good? To whom is this not sufficient, if he be disinclined to be disinterestedly pious? Does heathen virtue promise this? A few of the heathen who have heard something of a future life, either deprive it of all credibility by stupid fables, or speak of it as of some uncertain rumour or pleasing dream, which is rather delightful to hear of than fully ascertained. "O glorious period!" exclaims old Tullian, on the eve of death, "when I shall go to the divine council and assembly of souls, and depart from this scene of confusion and pollution." You might have supposed that it was a Christian who was speaking, if these words had not immediately followed: " If I err in supposing that the souls of men are immortal, I willingly err; nor while I live do I wish to be freed from this to me delightful error; and if, as some subtile philosophers suppose, I shall feel nothing after death, I have no reason to fear that any dead philosopher will ridicule my mistake." How much more clearly, and constantly, and confidently, do the apostles speak, not only of an eternal life, but also of a resurrection from the dead! They assert * Rom. viii. 32. † Cicero in Catone de Senectute. this as a matter altogether certain, revealed to them by God himself, confirmed by many miracles, for the prospect of which they were prepared to renounce all things, to do and to suffer any thing. To render these good things, moreover, which it promises to the pious, more desirable, the Scripture, on every favourable. opportunity, exhibits, in contrast with them, the vanity, the brevity, and the deceitfulness of every thing which the world promises; a subject which is treated of among others, not by some cynic, who would be thought to despise what he cannot attain, but by the most prosperous of kings, who had learned the vanity of the good things of this world, by possessing them all, and by enjoying them all to satiety. To his statements we may subjoin all those passages which portray the vanity of "the fashion of this world," especially its riches, and pleasures, and honours, and every thing which is highly esteemed by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." On the other hand, the same book most powerfully impresses on us the certainty, the severity, and the everlasting duration of those evils into which men are plunged by impiety and the neglect of God; to which we refer the many terrible threatenings, relating both to the present and a future life, against the ungodly, and the many dreadful examples of divine judgments with which the Scriptures are filled. What? do you ask. The histories, the prophecies, the doctrines, every part of this book is just designed to show that to glorify God is most advantageous, to despise or offend him most ruinous; and thus the Scriptures alone prove the truth of the paradox of the Stoics, that what is honourable alone is useful, and what is disgraceful alone is injurious. By the exhibition of motives so numerous and powerful, the Scriptures might enjoin on man any thing, however disagreeable or irksome. But there is no reason that any one should be deterred from the duty of glorifying God, by the unpleasantness of the work. A duty so equitable, so advantageous to us, is represented in this book as most Delightful; as an easy yoke, a light burden, as rest to the soul, as commandments not grievous; nay, as the business of angels, and the only pleasure of the blessed in heaven. And lest these things should seem empty declamation, we there see the example, and read the words of persons who sought their chief delight in glorifying God. "One thing," says David, "have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Rom. viii. 15; 2 Tim. iv. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 58. the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."*"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Whose soul does not long, when he reads these and many other sentiments of the same nature, to be a partaker of this pleasure? And what can be more delightful than at all times mentally to contemplate, and admire, and praise the infinite excellence of God and his love to us-than to walk with him, to converse with him in prayer, to rejoice in him, to rely on him, to cast all our cares upon him, and, in a word, by love to be intimately united with him? What can be more pleasant than to live on earth with God, as with a most benignant parent—with men, as with brethren? What can be more desirable than to possess a constant tranquillity of affections, to desire nothing but what God wills, to view both prosperous and adverse events as so many tokens of his love, and to preserve in all things a good conscience, which is a continual feast? How delightful mentally to meditate at all times on the glad tidings of our redemption by Jesus Christ, and our reconciliation to God, the pardon of all our sins, and our admission into the family of heaven; to feel within us the fruits and operations of the Holy Spirit; to enjoy that peace of God which passeth all understanding; to taste, even in this world, the joys of heaven, the very prospect of which renders the most bitter things sweet; and, replenished with this hope, gently to fall asleep in the Lord! Who does not see that this yoke, which the Holy Scriptures impose on the children of God, is more desirable than the yoke of unrighteousness and the service of sin? For they who serve it enjoy pleasures which are altogether transient and unsatisfactory, they never obtain what they desire, they are never safe from the gnawing of conscience, they can never think of death without horror, their tormentors are as numerous as their lusts which they cannot control, and therefore they have no peace, but are miserably tossed to and fro by those passions which enslave the soul, "like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt."‡ Now, these weighty motives, which are found in every page of Scripture, are efficacious in exciting men, not only to the glorifying of God in general, but to all the particular virtues and duties incumbent on man, which constitute a part of this divine worship. For, according to the religion of the Scriptures, it is not enough to cry Lord, Lord; we must do the will of our Father in Heaven, we must show our faith by our works; according to it, the duties of godliness and charity, and all others, are most intimately connected-and so connected that, if any man offend in one point, he is guilty of violating the whole law.* In this respect, the religion revealed in Scriptures is manifestly distinguished from all the religions of the heathen, which, as Lactantius appositely remarks, "contain nothing useful to the cultivation of virtue, and the regulation of the life." † But, in addition to these general motives, we find in Scripture also special motives applicable to every particular virtue. What can more powerfully persuade to justice than that golden rule, Do to another what you wish to be done to yourself?—To contentment, which is the parent of justice, than the consideration, Your heavenly father, who takes care of the lilies and sparrows, knows what you need?-To charity, than to learn to look on others as members of that one body of which your most loving Saviour, who died for others no less than for you, is the head? How powerfully are we, in this book, exhorted to forgive others their offences by him who so often reminds us of the number and the magnitude of the trespasses he hath forgiven to us; and to love even our enemies, by him who makes his sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust; nay, who displayed the greatest love to us even when we were enemies! Who is not excited to beneficence when he hears the Son of God saying, “ Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it to me?" Who can refuse to suffer any thing for God, when he considers what the Son of God has suffered for him? Who can regard with dislike meekness of spirit, when he contemplates him, who when he was reviled reviled not again, when he suffered threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously? Will he, whose members are called the members of Christ, whose body is denominated the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells, refuse to study temperance and purity? I might adduce innumerable examples of the same kind; but to sum up all in a few words, there is no virtue, no duty of men, whatever may be their age, sex, con† Institut. lib. iv. cap. 3. * James ii. 10. 66 |