Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

receive, the more hath he to account for, as to the improvement of them; for " to whom much is given, of them much fhall be required."

2dly, Instead of defpifing others that are not come your length, ftudy to be helpful and serviceable unto them. The veffels of cups are ordinarily filled out of the flagons; so study to impart and communicate of your grace, of your faith, love, hope, knowledge, and other graces, unto thofe that are weak in grace. The ftrong children in a family are helpful to the young and weak. Thus it is in the natural body, the ftrong member is helpful unto the weak and infirm; fo ought it to be in the mystical body of Chrift. And when you see any fall through weakness, do not triumph over them; but ftrengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees; fay to them that are of a fearful heart, Be ftrong; restore such an one with a spirit of meekness.

3dly, Whatever grace you have received, be not ftrong or confident therein, like Peter; but be ftrong in the grace that is in Chrift Jefus, and let the life you live be by faith in the Son of God. Grace received will foon give way in a day of trial and temptation. An innocent Adam, left with the stock in his hand, foon turned bankrupt, and ruined all his pofterity. And therefore, I fay, do not truft to the life or grace you have in hand, but in the grace and life you have in your head Jesus Christ, the glorious Manager and Steward of his Father's house. Still remember, that all the veffels hang upon him; and therefore let all the weight lie where God has laid it.

3. A word of advice unto veffels of all sizes, whether they be veffels of cups, or veffels of flagons.

ft, Adore the riches of divine grace and mercy, that put a difference between you and others, for naturally you were as bad as others.

2dly, Let every one poffefs his veffel in fanctification and honour. Do not debase or defile the veffel of thy foul or body, by proftituting it unto the service of fin, Satan, or any abominable luft. You was once lying in the miry clay of nature, but God has washed, juftified, and fanctified you; and therefore ftudy to keep yourself clean and holy in heart, life, and in all manner of conversation. If you defile yourselves with fin, the Manager of the houfe will be fair to caft you into a furnace of affiction, or, like Jonah, to plunge you inta deep waters, till you acknowledge, "Mine own iniquities correct me, and my backflidings do reprove me."

3dly, When you find any defilement of fin cleaving to you

(which you will never mifs while in the body, flee to the fountain opened for fin and for uncleannefs in the house of David. Be often bathing thy foul in the blood of Jefus, which cleanseth from all fin.

4thly, Come to the fountain for fupply under all wants, that you may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. "Out of his fulness do all we receive, and grace for grace." Let thy veffel juft lie under the flowing of t is bieffed fountain, that it may never be found empty when the midnight cry is made, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye. forth to meet him."

Lastly, Pray for a plentiful outpouring of the Spirit, according to the promise, If. xliv. 3. "I will pour floods upon the dry ground," that fo all the empty veffels of the land, that are deftitute of the waters of God's grace, may be filled; and those that are hanging upon the first Adam, and under the curfe of the law, may, by the power of grace, change their holding, and hang upon the nail that God has faftened in a fure place.

A ROBBERY COMMITTED, AND RESTITUTION MADE, BOTH TO GOD AND MAN *.

A SERMON,

PREACHED UPON A THANKSGIVING DAY, AFTER THE SACRAMENT, IN DUNFERMLINE, MONDAY, AUG. II. 1746.

PSAL. Ixix. 4.-Then I reftored that which I took not away.

Tis abundantly plain, that there are feveral paffages in this pfalm applied unto Chrift in the fcriptures of the New Teftament; particularly that in the 9th verfe of the pfalm, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up," we find it applied

I have perufed the following notes of my fermon, preached at Dunfermline Auguft laft, taken from my mouth in the delivery. My other work cannot allow me time to tranfcribe it. However, I have corrected and amended what I thought might mar the fenfe. If the doctrine of the gospel here delivered be understood, I am not anxious about the wisdom of words, left the gospel should be of none effect. Stirling, Dec. 27. 1746.

[ocr errors]

E. E.

plied to Christ, John ii. 17.; and likewife that immediately following, "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me," Rom. xv. 3. ; fo likewife in the 21st verse, "They gave me alfo gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," applied to Christ, Matth, xxvii. 48. and Mark xv. 23. But I need go no further to prove this, than the firft word of the verfe where my text lies, "They hate me without a caufe," Chrift applies it to himfelf, in John xv. 25. We find our Lord here, in the verse where my text lies, he is complaining of his enemies; he complains of their caufelefs hatred in the first claufe of the verse, "They hate me without a caufe;" he complains of their multitude, 66 They are more than the hairs of mine head;" he complains of their implacable cruelty, "They that would deftroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty." Now our bleffed Lord is thus treated by the world, whom he came to fave. When there is fuch a powerful combination of hell and earth against him, one would have been ready to think, that he would have ftopped, and gone no further but he did not faint, nor was he difcouraged, for all the oppofition that was made against him; for you fee, in the words I have read, what he was doing for loft finners, when he was meeting with harsh entertainment from them. Then, even then, fays he, I refiored that which I took not away.

In which words you may notice thefe following particulars. (1.) You have here a robbery difclaimed; a robbery was committed, but it is disclaimed by the Son of God; I took not away. There was fomething taken away from God and from man; by whom it is not faid, but it is easy to say, that furely an enemy did it. But then, (2.) We have a reftitution made of that robbery that was committed: Ireflored, faith Chrift, I reflored what I took not away. The work of man's redemption, it is a reftitution both unto God and unto man of what was taken away by fin and by Satan. When once the work of redemption is completed, there will be a reftitution of all things; for we read, A&s iii. 21. of the “ fitution of all things." Again, (3) We have an account of the perfon reitoring. Who made the reftitution? It was I, faith the Lord; I restored what I took not away. I who fpeak in righteousness, and who am mighty to fave, I the child born, and the fon given to the fons of men, whose name is "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, and The Price of peace;" I, even I restored what I took not away. Again, (4.) You have the voluntarinefs and frankness of the deed. No man is obliged to make resti

re

tution of what is taken away by another, unless he does it of his own accord, Well, fays Chrift, though I took it not away, yet I made reftitution of the robbery and stealth that was committed; I engaged to do it in the council of peace, "Lo, I come: I delight to do thy will", &c. Again, (5.) We have here the time when our glorious Immanuel made this reftitution of what he took not away. It was, Then I restored what, &c. when his enemies were deftroying him; when they were robbing him of his name, and robbing him of his very life, he restored what was taken away by robbery from men. You will fee how low our bleffed Lord defcended to make this reflitution, and when it was; it was, in the firft verfe, when the waters of God's wrath were coming into his foul, even then, fays he, I reftored that which I took not away. Now, from the words thus briefly opened, the doctrine that I take notice of is fhortly this.

DOCT. "That it was the great defign of the Son of God, when he defcended into a state of humiliation here, in this lower world, to make restitution both unto God and unto man, of what he never took away." For as there was a robbery committed upon God and upon man by fin and Satan; fo our glorious Redeemer, he makes a reftitution of the ftolen goods, he reftores both to God what was his due, and unto man what he had loft.

Now, in the prosecution of this doctrine, if time and Atrength would allow, the method that I propose is,

I. To premife two or three things for clearing of the way. II. To inquire into the ftolen goods, what it was that was taken away both from God and man.

III. I would make it appear, that our glorious Immanuel, he makes reftitution of what was taken away both from God and from man; he reftores unto God his due, and unto man his lofs.

IV. I would fhew when it was that our Lord did this; for it is faid here, Then I refiored.

V. I would give the reasons why Chrift made this reftitution, when he was under no manner of obligation to it, but his own free will. And then,

VI. Lafely, I would make fome application of the whole.

I. The first thing propofed is, to premife two or three things for clearing of the way. For clearing of it you would confider,

1. That

1. That when God made man, he made him a rich man he bestowed all manner of goods upon him, that were neceffary to make him live comfortably here, and to make him eternally happy hereafter.

2. You would confider, that Satan, by this time, having fallen, like a star, from heaven to earth, when he lighted upon this world, upon this earth, he prefently faw man standing and acting in the capacity of God's viceroy, bearing his image, and having the whole creation in fubjection to him. This filled the enemy with envy, and therefore he enters into a refolution, if it were poffible, to commit a robbery upon man, and to strike at God's fovereignty through man's fide; and accordingly,

3. Satan prevailed upon pur firft parents, and beguiled them into an eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God had difcharged them to eat upon the pain of death; and thereby the paction betwixt God and man (I mean the covenant of works) was broken.

4. The covenant of works being broken, and man having entered into a rebellion against God with the devil, he justly forfeited all the fpiritual and temporal goods that God beftowed upon him, and likewise loft his title to a happy eternity, and became the enemy's vaffal; and thus the enemy robbed him of all the goods that God bestowed upon him.

5. Lastly, The eternal Son of God having a delight in the fons of men, and beholding them in this miferable plight, he enters upon a refolution that he will take on man's nature as a coat of mail, and that he will in man's nature be avenged upon that ferpent that hath beguiled our first parents, and fpoiled them of their patrimony. And accordingly, in the fulness of time, he comes, and is manifested to deftroy the works of the devil, and to recover all the ftolen goods; he fpoiled principalities and powers, and triumphed over them in his cross, and then divides a portion with the great, and the fpoil with the ftrong; and, with a view to this, it is faid in this text, Then I reftored that which I took not away. And fo I

come to,

II. The fecond thing I propofed, and that was, to inquire a little into the robbery that was committed by fin and Satan, both upon God and upon man.

And, firft, To begin with the robbery that was committed upon God. It was the devil's great drift, by tempting man to. fin ag na God, to rob God of his glory. God made all things for hogy, and for his pleafure they are and were crea whole earth, before fin entered into it, was full of

ted.

« AnteriorContinuar »