averse and contrary to them. Give him the glory of what he has begun; and oppose your temptations, fears, and doubts, with this argument, drawn from your own experience, as the wife of Manoah formerly reasoned: "If the Lord had been pleased to kill us, he would not have enabled and encouraged us to call upon him; neither would he at this time have shown us such things as these," Judges xiii. 23. SERMON III. OF THOSE FROM WHOM THE GOSPEL-DOCTRINES ARE HID. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.-Matt. xi. 25. THE judgments of God are a great deep. He does not give us a full account of his matters; much less can we by searching find out him to perfection; yet if we carefully attend to what he has revealed, and apply his written word with humility and caution to what passes in ourselves, and around us, we may by his grace attain to some considerable satisfaction in things which at first view seem hard to be understood. The subject of my text is of this nature. That God should hide things of everlasting consequence from any person, sounds very harsh; but I hope, when the words are explained, we shall see, that though he acts as a sovereign in his dispensations, his ways are just, and good, and equal. We have already made an entrance upon this attempt. Besides some general observations in my first discourse, I endeavoured to show you, in the second, 1. What the things are to which our Lord refers; 2. Where, and in what sense they are hid. I proceed now to consider, III. From whom they are hid,-the wise and prudent. It will, I think, be readily supposed, that the expression does not mean those who are truly so, and in God's account. He esteems none to be wise and prudent but those who are enlightened with his spiritual wisdom, who now serve and love him in Christ. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning (or, as the word likewise signifies, the head or principal part) of wisdom;" (Psalm cxi. 10;) and from such as these he hides or keeps back nothing that is profitable for them: on the contrary, that promise is sure, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant," Psalm XXV. 14. When our Lord said, "The children of this world are wiser in their genera tion than the children of light," (Luke xvi. 8,) he did not mean they were so absolutely, for their boasted wisdom is the merest folly, but only that they acted consistently with their own principles. The wise and prudent here are either those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight, or those who are generally so reputed by the bulk of mankind. And these two amount to the same for as the natural wisdom of man springs from the same fountain, self, and is confined to the same bounds, the things of time and sense, in all alike, (though there is variety of pursuits within these limits, as tempers and situations differ,) men are generally prone to approve and applaud those who act upon their own principles. We may take notice, then, as a key to this inquiry, that what is accounted wisdom by the world, is not only different from the wisdom of God, but inconsistent with it, and opposite to it. They differ as fire and water, light and darkness; the prevalence of the one necessarily includes the suppression of the other. See this at large insisted on by St. Paul, in the beginning of his first epistle to the Corinthians, the first, second, and third chapters. Who, then, are the wise and prudent intended in my text? May the Holy Spirit enable every conscience to make faithful application of what shall be offered upon this head. 1. In the judgment of the world, those are wise and prudent persons who are very thoughtful and diligent about acquiring wealth, especially if their endeavours are crowned with remarkable success. If a man thrives (as the phrase is) from small beginnings, and joins house to house, and field to field, so that he has lands to call after his own name, and large possessions to leave to his children, how is he applauded (though at the same time envied) by the most who know him! I do not deny, that a proper concern and industry in our secular calling, is both lawful and our duty; and I allow, that the providence of God does sometimes remarkably prosper those who depend on him in the management of their business; but I make no scruple to affirm, that where this is the main concern, (as some call it,) such wisdom is madness. Such persons are no less idolaters than those who worship stocks and stones. And if the things of God are hid from them, it is surely their own fault: they do not even complain of it as a hardship; they have their choice, their reward, and are satisfied. They are told that these things are in Christ, and there they are content that they should remain: they see no beauty nor suitableness in them, they have no desire after him; he might keep his heaven and truths to himself, if they could always have their fill of the world. They are told that these things are hid in the scriptures, but they have neither | word of God mightily grew and prevailed, leisure nor inclination to search there for Acts xix. 19. We may at least say, that this them. Their time is taken up with buying kind of wisdom is for the most part dangerous and selling, building and planting, &c. O, and blinding to the soul. beware of this wisdom! "What will riches profit you in the day of wrath," (Prov. xi. 4,) at death, or judgment? If you live and die in this spirit, you will bemoan your choice when it is too late. 2. Those are accounted wise and prudent, who think they have found a way to reconcile God and the world together. If a man should attempt to fly, or to walk upon the water, he would be deemed a fool. How is it that this endeavour, which is equally impossible (and expressly declared so by our Lord,) should be more favourably thought of? The deceitfulness of the heart and the subtilty of Satan concur in this point. You will have a sort of religion, but then you take care not to carry things too far. You are governed by the fear and regard of men. Something you will do to satisfy conscience, but not too much, lest you hurt your interest, disoblige your friends, or draw on yourselves reproach, or a hard name. I must tell you from the word of God, your attempt to halve things is an abomination in his sight. Would it not be treason by the law, to pay the king an outward respect, and yet hold secret correspondence with his enemies? The decisions of the word of God are to the same effect in this instance. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him," 1 John ii. 15. "Know ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God," James iv. 4. 1st, It tends to feed and exalt self, to make a person something in his own eyes. This we are prone enough to by nature. An increase of unsanctified knowledge adds fuel to the fire. 2dly, It engrosses the time and thoughts. Our minds are narrow, capable of attending to but few things at once; and our span is short, and will hardly admit of many excursions from the main concern. If we were to live to the age of Methuselah, we might pursue some things which at present are highly improper and impertinent, from this consideration alone. A man that is upon an urgent affair of life and death, has no leisure for amusement. Such is our situation. We are creatures of a day. Time is vanishing, and eternity is at stake. 3dly, The delusion here is specious, and not easily discovered. A person with these accomplishments is not always enslaved to money or to sensual pleasures: he therefore pities those who are, and comparing himself with others, supposes he is well employed because his favourite studies are a check upon his appetites, and prevents his selling himself for gold, or running into riot with the thoughtless. Yet an attachment of this sort equally blinds him with respect to his true interest. Will the knowledge of books, or men, or stars, or flowers, purify the conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? It is too plain that the truths of the gospel are hid from none more effectually than from many of this character. None cast a more daring or public slight upon the revealed will of God than some who are admired and applauded on account of their knowledge and learning. 3. A man is deemed wise, who has considerable knowledge and curiosity about natural things, and all those subjects which usually bear the name of science; if he can 4. Your nice and curious reasoners and talk of the magnitudes, distances, and mo- disputers, that will see (as they profess) the tions of the heavenly bodies, can foretell an bottom of every thing, and trust to their own eclipse, has skill in mathematics, is well read judgment and inquiries, independent of the in the history of ancient times, and can in- Spirit of God, are another sort of wise perform you what is found in books concerning sons from whom these things are often and the folly and wickedness of mankind who justly hid. And this character may be found lived some thousands of years ago; or if he in many, both learned and unlearned; for understands several languages, and can call many have good natural faculties, who have a thing by twenty different names. It is true, not had the advantages of learning and edu when these attainments are sanctified by cation. But this spirit is directly contrary grace, they may, in some respects, have their to that simplicity, dependence, and obedience use. But, in general, the best use a believer of faith, which the scriptures exhort us to will or can make of them, is to lay them seek after. Its effects are various: down at the foot of the cross. When a man, possessed of a great quantity of these pebbles, has his conscience awakened, and his understanding enlightened, he is glad to renounce them all for the pearl of great price, and to adopt the apostle's determination, "to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified," 1 Cor. ii. 2. This was the effect when the 1st, Some (and those not a few) are led to reject the word of God altogether, because it evidently contains many things above and contrary to their vain imaginations. And herein they contradict the most obvious principles of that reason which they lay claim to. A revelation from God can only be thought necessary or probable, but on the supposition that it is to inform us of something which we | they produce no fruit, but they wound and could not have known without it. There- tear. Yea, they are thorns in the eyes, (Josh. fore, to pretend to try the scripture-claim to this character by such criteria or marks as we possess beforehand, is the same thing in effect as to determine to reject it without any trial at all. 2dly, When the scriptures as to the letter, are acknowledged to be true, persons of this turn, presuming themselves sufficient judges of the sense, are helped by their ingenuity to explain away all the sublime doctrines of truth, so as to suit the prejudices and apprehensions of their own carnal minds. This, especially when joined with a smattering of learning, has been the chief source of all the errors and heresies which have pestered the church of God in all ages. This is a principal cause why the depravity of man by nature, the deity and atonement of Christ, the operations of the Holy Spirit, and all the doctrines of grace, have been denied by men wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight, though evidently contained in the book which they profess to receive as of divine inspiration. xxiii. 13,) which will prevent the great 2. What to pray for.-A simple child-like temper, that you may come to the word as to the light, and look beyond yourselves for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, without which your most laboured inquiries will only mislead you farther and farther from the truth. 3. How to examine yourselves,-Not by your notions and attainments in knowledge, for these you may have in a considerable degree, and be wholly destitute of true grace. The word of God supposes it possible that persons may have great gifts, (1 Cor. xiii. 1-3,) flaming zeal, and much success, and yet, having no true love to God, be in his sight no better than sounding brass or a tink state, examine by your prevailing desires. Are your notions of grace effectual to lead you in the path of duty! Do you hunger and thirst for an increase of holiness? Does the knowledge you have of Christ lead you to love and trust him? Are you poor in spirit? You know nothing aright if you know not yourselves. 4. Ye that are believers may see cause to praise the Lord for his dispensations towards you. 3dly, Even where the doctrines of grace have been notionally received, the same spirit of wisdom can still find occasion to work. When there is more knowledge in the headling symbal. But if you would know your than experience in the heart, many and various are the evils that often ensue. Disputes and hard questions are started, contentions and divisions multiplied, and people are more eager to perplex others than to edify themselves. Thus the name and counsels of God are profaned by an irreverent curiosity, and the clear, express declarations of his will darkened by words without knowledge. When this natural wisdom puts on a spiritual appearance, no persons are more fatally deceived, or more obstinately hardened. They 1st, Had you been wise in men's esteem, think they can learn no more, but are wise you might have continued fools to the end of enough to teach every one: they neglect the your lives. If the Lord has taught you the use of God's appointed means themselves, secret of them that fear him; if he has shown and despise then in others: they are proud, you the way of salvation; if he has directed censorious, obstinate, and full of conceit. your feet in the paths of his commandments; Take care of Satan at all times, but especial--then you have the true wisdom, which shall ly when he would transforro himself into an be your light through life, and in death your angel of light. There is reason to think the glory. Therefore, things of God are entirely hid, as to their power and excellence, from some who fondly dream that none are acquainted with them but themselves. The consideration of this subject may lead to a variety of improvement. It may teach you, 1. What to fear,-A worldly spirit. This in a prevailing degree is inconsistent with a work of grace, and in whatever degree it obtains, or is indulged, will proportionably retard and abate the light and comfort of our souls. The cares and pleasures of this life are by our Lord compared to thorns, (Matthew xiii. 22,) unprofitable and painful; 2dly, Be not grieved that ye are strangers to human wisdom and glory. These things which others so highly prize, you may resign contentedly, and say, Lord it is enough if thou art mine. Nay, you have good reason to praise his wisdom and goodness for preserving you from those temptations which have ensnared and endangered so many. 3dly, Do you desire more of this true wisdom? Seck it in the same way in which you have received the first beginnings. Be frequent and earnest in secret prayer. Study the word of God, and study it not to reconcile and make it bend to your sentiments, but to draw all your sentiments from it, to copy it in your heart, and express it in your conduct. Be cautious of paying too great a regard to persons and parties. One is your master, even Christ. Stand fast in the liberty with which he has made you free, and while you humbly endeavour to profit by all, do not resign your understanding to any but to him who is the only wise God, the only effectual and infallible teacher. Compare the experience of what passes within your own breast with the observations you make of what daily occurs around you, and bring all your remarks and experiences to the touch-stone of God's holy word. Thus shall you grow in knowledge and in grace; and, amidst the various discouragements which may arise from remaining ignorance in yourselves or others, take comfort in reflecting that you are drawing near to the land of light, where there will be no darkness at all. Then you shall know as you are known; your love and your joy shall likewise be perfect, and you shall be satisfied with the rivers of pleasure which are before the throne of God, world without end. SERMON IV. THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION, AND WHO ARE FAVOURED WITH IT. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.-Matt. xi. 25. WE proceed now to the more pleasing part of our subject. The great things of the gospel, though hid, are not lost: not hid as in the bottom of the sea; but he who hides them from the wise and prudent, is ready and willing to make them known to every sincere inquirer. This discovery, on the Lord's part, is a revelation, and the character of those who obtain it is expressed by the word babes. Of the five particulars I proposed to consider from the text, these two yet remain to be spoken to. IV. The saving knowledge of divine truth is a revelation. Our Lord uses a parallel expression, when he commends Peter's confession of his faith, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," Matt. xvi. 17. Peter had Moses and the prophets, so had the scribes and the Pharisees; and after their manner they were diligent in reading and searching them. But that he could acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, when they rejected him, was because the Father had revealed this truth to him, and given him a clearer knowledge of it than he could have received from the written word alone. But it may be proper to inquire into the meaning of this term. What are we here to understand by revelation ? Sometimes revelation is used in an extraordinary sense, as when of old the Lord made known to his servants, the prophets, those doctrines and events, which till then were neither heard nor thought of. Of this we are not now to speak, but of that which is common to all believers, and necessary to salvation. Now this revelation supposes the things to be revealed were real and certain before, but unknown, and not to be found out any other way. Revelation is not the creation or invention of something new, but the manifestation of what was till then unknown. The great things of eternity, the glorious truths of the gospel, are real and certain in themselves already, and do not begin to be when we begin to be acquainted with them: yet till God is pleased to reveal them to the heart, we have no more spiritual and effective knowledge of them than if they were not. Ignorance of things very near to us, and in which we are nearly concerned, may be from two causes: 1. From a want of light. Nothing can be perceived in the dark. If you are in a dark room, though it is richly adorned and furnished, all is lost to you. If you stand in a dark night upon the top of a hill that commands a fine prospect, still you are able to see no more than if you were in a valley. Though you were in a dangerous place, with pitfalls, and precipices, and thieves, and murderers all around you, still you might imagine yourself in safety, if you had no light with you. 2. It may be from some hinderance or obstruction between you and the object. Thus your dearest friend, or greatest enemy, might be within a few yards of you, and you know nothing of it, if there was a wall between you. These comparisons may in some measure represent our case by nature. God is near; "in him we live, move, and have our being." Eternity is near; we stand upon the brink of it. Death is near, advancing towards us with hasty strides. The truths of God's word are most certain in themselves, and of the utmost consequence to us. But we perceive none of these things; we are not affected by them, because our understandings are dark, and because thick walls of ignorance, prejudice, and unbelief, stand before the eyes of the mind, and keep them from our view. Even those notions of truth which we sometimes pick up by hearing and reading, are but like windows in a dark room; they are suited to afford an entrance to the light when it comes, but can give no light of themselves. I think, therefore, we may conclude, that God's revealing these things to us only signifies his effecting such a change in us by his Holy Spirit, as disposes and enables us to behold them. He sends a divine light into the soul; and things begin to appear so plain, we wonder at our former stupidity, that we could not perceive them before. By the power of his spirit he breaks down the walls which prevented and confined our views; and a new, unthought-of prospect suddenly appears before us. Then the soul sees its danger: "I thought myself secure; but I find I am in the midst of enemies. Guilt pursues me behind; fear, and the snare, and the pit, are before me; which way shall I turn?" Then it perceives its mistake While my views were confined, I thought there was nothing but the span of life to take care of; but now I see a boundless eternity beyond it." It obtains a glimpse likewise of the glories of the better world, of the beauties of holiness, of the excellency of Jesus. This light is at first faint and imperfect, but grows stronger by the use of appointed means; and as it is increased, every thing appears with a stronger evidence. constrains him to account all things which he formerly valued, as dross and dung, for the excellency of the knowledge of his Saviour. Nor does his faith stop here; he views him who once suffered and died, rising triumphant from the tomb, and ascending into heaven in the character of the representative, friend, and forerunner of his people. Having such a High-Priest, he is encouraged to draw near to God, to claim an interest in the promises, respecting the life that now is, and that which is to come. Thus possessing, in the beginnings of grace, an earnest of the glory that shall be revealed, a real, universal, abiding change necessarily takes place in the affections Now old things are passed away, and all things become new: the soul no longer cleaves willingly to the dust, or can be satisfied with earthly things, but thirsts for communion with God, and an increase of holiness. Sin is no longer consented to, or delighted in, but is opposed and watched against; and every unallowed deviation from the will of God excites the sincerest grief and humiliation, and leads to renewed application to the blood and grace of Jesus for We may more particularly illustrate this pardon and strength. Thus the will likewise work of the Holy Spirit, as it influences those is brought into an unreserved subjection and leading faculties of the soul, the understand- surrender to the power of Christ, and acts as ing, affections, and will. By nature, the will freely in his service as it once did against is perverse and rebellious, and the affections him. For that what is termed the freedom alienated from God: the primary cause of of the human will should consist in a susthese disorders lies in the darkness of the un-pended indifference between good and evil, derstanding. Here, then, the change begins. is a refinement, which, however admired and The Spirit of God enlightens the understand-applauded by many, is equally contrary both ing, by which the sinner perceives things to to sound reasoning and to universal expebe as they are represented in the word of God; that he is a transgressor against the divine law, and on this account obnoxious to wrath; that he is not only guilty, but depraved and unclean, and utterly unable either to repair past evil, or to amend his own heart and life. He sees that the great God might justly refuse him mercy; and that he has no plea to offer in arrest of judgment. This discovery would sink him into despair, if it went no farther; but, by the same light which discovers him to himself, he begins to see a suitableness, wisdom, and glory, in the method of salvation revealed in the gospel. He reads and hears concerning the person, sufferings, and offices of Christ, in a very different manner from what he did before and as, by attending to the word and ministry, his apprehensions of Jesus, and his understanding, become more clear and distinct, a spiritual hope takes place and increases in his soul; and the sure effects of this is, he feels his love drawn forth to him, who so loved him as to die for his sins. Beholding, by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, as bleeding and dying upon the cross; and knowing for whom, and on what account, he suffered, he learns to hate, with a bitter hatred, those sins which nailed him there. The amazing love of Christ rience. The will, in all persons and cases, is determined by the present dictates of the understanding, and the bent of the affections. By ascribing so much to the Spirit of God, I do not mean, as you may perceive by what I have just now said, to exclude his holy word, or preached gospel. All these truths and prospects are already contained in the word of God; but without the light of the Spirit they are not discerned. They are propounded to you in the public ministry. We testify again and again the things which we have seen and heard of the word of life: and when we are in some measure affected with their evidence, we are ready to wonder how any of you can possibly avoid perceiving them; till we remember how it was with ourselves, and then we know, by our own experience, that we must preach, and you hear in vain, unless the Lord is pleased to open your hearts. But observe, 1. The Spirit of God teaches and enlightens by his word as the instrument. There is no revelation from him, but what is (as to our perception of it) derived from the scriptures. There may be supposed illuminations, and strong impressions upon the mind, in which the word of God has no place or concern; but this alone is sufficient to discountenance |