Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

distinguishing propensity. That he should behold the basest and the worthiest of his rational creatures with indiscriminate partiality is evidently inconsistent with his holiness and justice, which we can also ascertain to be essential to his nature. It is not, therefore, inconsistent with natural reason, that in the final acts of his providence, a distinction should be made: but that this distinction should be of the most permanent and important kind, and yet be made without any reference to their conduct is totally irreconcilable with those innate sentiments, which nothing can extinguish If, however, any man could proceed to this length, he must surely be shocked when told, that the wrath of God was vented entirely on the most meritorious being in his whole creation, and that nothing but his sufferings could pacify the most merciful of all beings. Reason, then, must necessarily prefer the opinion, that, instead of this inexorable and irrational fury, our heavenly Father beheld the errors of his children with compassion; and knowing, that they originated in ignorance of his will, or a perverse aliena. tion of mind, and rebellion against his authority; and must, by the essential laws of his immutable wisdom, terminate in their degradation and ruin, he sent his Son to reconcile the world to himself, "to pray and beseech men," in the earnest language of the Apostle of the Gentiles, to be reconciled to God, as a kind father would intreat a profligate

to give over his vicious and ruinous courses. In the same manner does the Lord plead with his chosen, but stubborn and rebellious, people throughout the Old Testament. "Repent (says he;) and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin: make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die, 0 house of Israel: for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; wherefore turn and live."*

This view of revelation is not only more rational than the former; but, I am bold to say, perfectly consistent with the purest principles of the most refined reason; nay superior to the sublimest speculations of the most admired philosophers; superior to every idea, that the wisdom, or even the presumption, of man ever dared to form of the transcendent benevolence of his God. Whoever ventured to form such a conception of the Deity, as that communicated by the parable of the stray sheep, of the piece of money mislaid, of the importunate widow, or of the prodigal son. Which of the Pagan religions represented their Jupiter as "long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" as surpassing the most affectionate parent in kindness to his offspring, in willingness to comply with their petitions, in anxiety for their

* Ezekiel xviii. 30.

welfare, and in a particular degree of solicitude for the comfort and improvement of the poor, who were despised under every other form of religion? From every part of nature, from every tender relation, that subsists among mankind, our Saviour continually culls endearing similitudes of the condescension of the Deity. All those af fecting illustrations reproach the folly of mankind în imagining, that the Gospel dispensation is only a sacrifice to the vengeance of that God, who declares, "that his goodness is his glory;" and punishment his strange work;" and styles himself" the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin."

66

The Hebrew Scriptures, even under the rigorous dispensation, which was necessary at that period of the world, abound in these elevated and tender representations of the Divine nature: thus the two revelations combine in teaching principles, consonant to reason, affecting to the best feelings of the human heart, yet more sublime than the boldest flights of the most daring philosophy. While the rest of mankind were abandoned to the degrading terrors of superstition; and while the most exalted geniuses of the most polished nations were wavering between inconsistent and puerile theories, the inhabitants of that ignorant and despised country, Judea, and

the disciples of an illiterate person in its most contemptible province were proclaiming a pure and holy, yet kind and gracious Deity.

But it is not my purpose at present to dwell on the truth, or superior excellence of Christianity in general. I would rather, if possible, impress you with a due sense of the divine doctrine, which I have selected for your edification, and induce you to walk worthy of it. To do this in any adequate degree, is, I fear, impossible: for how can I give you any just idea of the graces, with which this doctrine of reconciliation by Christ invests the Supreme Being; a Being whose nature, attributes and providence confound the reason, and overwhelm the imagination, at the same time that they extort the assent, of every thoughtful mind! If after the utmost stretch of fancy, we feel, that our conceptions of the Divine Being must be contemptible, in comparison with the reality of his transcendent perfections; what an amiable lustre does it throw around this inconceivable greatness, that the Deity should nevertheless adopt every endearing, every conde. scending, every alluring device, to regain our affections, to lead us to the knowledge of those truths, and the exercise of those virtues, without which it is impossible that we should be happy; impossible, not only in consequence of the unerring decrees of that Benevolent Wisdom, which sees the end from the beginning, and combines

the welfare of the whole, with the interest of every part, but, we have reason to think, impossible in the nature of things.

But whether this incapability be the result of necessity, or the appointment of infinite wisdom, we know, that a distinction will be made between the evil and the good: and though it were founded on the mere decree of the Almighty, who shall dare to arraign his justice? If there be any person so audacious, I shall answer his charge by the doctrine of my text. I shall reply to his impious impeachment of the divine justice, by displaying this unparalleled instance of celestial grace: I shall tell him, that God made him capable of knowing and performing his duty: that he allured him to it by the most powerful inducements; that when the human race had revolted from their allegiance, he sent his well-beloved to recal them to their duty, "to pray and beseech" them to accept of salvation, to lavish the exercise of supernatural powers, to submit to every degree of suffering, to rise from the dead, to do more than our own perverse and partial ingenuity could devise or require, in order to make known our duty and our happiness; to assure us of a future state, and to give undeniable evidence to every generation of man of the divine authority, which he was commissioned to exercise.

What noble incitements do those splendid views of the divine administration afford; or rather, to

« AnteriorContinuar »