the prophetic instruction of Christ He God had made to their fathers, contained in that covenant-“ God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David." "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren"-he continues--he shows them how it is they are that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." The Apostle here is arguing upon the very point that occupies our present attention. When the Lord says, "I will establish my covenant," he says at what time he will do it. It is in the day of his righteous visitation : "when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done"-when I pardon thy sins-when I make over to thee the knowledge of my reconciliation, and that thou art reconciled to me then will I establish my covenant. "Be it known to you"says the Apostle Paul to the Christians at Antioch-"that through the name of this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins"-this was the day of their visitation-" and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Thus it is the Lord establishes his covenant with his Church and people. It is the day of their espousals-it is the day when personal mercy is manifested unto them-it is the day when Jesus Christ passes by and sees them in their pollution, in their blood, beholding the abject state and the misery in which they are. And when he says to any poor soul, Live-that is the day of his espousals, and that is the day when Jesus Christ the Lord establishes his covenant. He unfolds it to him-he teaches him what is comprehended in it-he developes the secret of it" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." Christ shows them all the secret that is contained in that covenant, as regards them individually. It is when under made to differ-he shows them what is the influence of his grace upon the heart and conscience, and he leads them to say, Grace, grace unto it—O, to grace, how great a debtor ! He shows them all-there is nothing he does not show that is needful for them to be acquainted with-he unfolds it all. He captivates them by the gracious discovery of himself-he causes them to love and to adore him, by the display of the character of the God with whom they have to do. He shows them what it is to be thus comprehended in the covenant of redemption, and he constrains them to say, Was ever love like unto this love? This is the way in which God reveals his saving mercy to the souls of all believers. It is in the day of their gracious visitation, when he comes home to them in the power of the everlasting covenant, when he comes home to them by virtue of the agreement made in that covenantthat is, by virtue of the love of the Father flowing through the love of the Son, in the agreement that is thereby ratified. It is in the fulness of time that Christ Jesus the Lord passes by-as he said to Saul—” Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" There he established his covenant with him. So it is with every other individual who is unconverted to God there must be a time for them to be converted-there is the gracious hour for God's visitation. Let us examine ourselves, and see whether we have any reason to believe that God has established the covenant of his grace with us. If he has, we are like-minded with him. Let us cause this to be the subject of our meditation and reflection. Let us pray over it, bring it before this covenant Jesus, and ask him to lead fusing into his people the blessings of his redemption. Taking up the observation of the Prophet Jeremiah, the Apostle Paul reminds the Church of the great and distinguishing privilege of Christianity. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord-I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will us to the important discovery. My namely, the manner and character in brethren, it is the one thing needful-which Christ Jesus the Lord is inonly conceive, then, how much joy there is in the result. It is sure to be productive of happy consequences, if you bring your burden to Jesus-if you are fearful you have not had the covenant of God established with you that you are not yet a partaker of the divine life-that your state is not yet safe that your soul is not yet brought within the precincts of his salvation. If, under the influence of God, you are thus brought to bring your case before Jesus, the result must be happy; because if you are wrong, so great is his mercy, he will be sure to put you right; and if you are right, he will convince you that you are so. What can be the result but inward comfort, and peace, and consolation? I can conceive no happiness under the sun superior to this-to live in the enjoy-be to them a God, and they shall be ment and under the smiles of the favour of God. How does it animate us to press forward through all the bustle of life! With what cheerfulfulness can we undertake any task! How is the countenance lighted up as it were, by the enjoyment of the favour of God! And why have we not this enjoyment? Not because it is not to be found in God; but because we seek too much of our enjoyment in ourselves—too much of our happiness in our own resources. We need to be living more out of ourselves, and more in the fulness of Jesus Christ: and when we are thus brought to live in him, we shall find the blessed consequences. This is the way the Lord establishes his covenant. Follow me while I make some few observations, in the second place, on THE CHARACTER IN WHICH HE THUS REVEALS IT. "Thou shalt know that I am the Lord." Thus to know the Lord is to know him as a covenant God-to know him as a God in Jesus Christ. Thus to know God, to be made acquainted with him in this endearing relationship as a covenant God, is the leading feature, the first principle of the Christian system; and for that reason it is, that we hear the Prophets, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, frequently alluding to that particular point, to that leading feature of the glory of the Christian system to me a people. And they shall not God revealed in the very character but God in Christ is all you can require. THE HEART BY THIS PARDONING MERCY. "That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord." Then observe the line of the pro.mise, "Then thou shalt know, that I who have established my covenant with thee-thou shalt know that I am the Lord, the covenant God in Christ Jesus, the Jehovah-Jesus, the Author If there is not a more pure, or a and Finisher of thy salvation." How, more exalted motive to obedience than beloved brethren? "I will establish the love of God, there is not a more my covenant with thee;" and then, powerful motive to walking in the when I have established my covenant, ways of God, than the assurance of thou shalt know that I am the Lord, his pardoning love and mercy. We and that I the Lord have done all. have it on the authority of the word of How shall they know it? They shall God, that divine wrath will not move know it powerfully-they shall know the heart of man-anger will not touch it feelingly-they shall know it per- him-threats will have no effect upon sonally-they shall know it experi- him. Calamities and affliction may mentally. How? By the effects that cast him down, but unless they are are produced in their hearts, and ma- accompanied by the sanctifying influnifested in their lives. They will be ence of the Spirit of God, they will found amongst those who were walk-leave the heart unbroken and unsubing in the valley of the shadow of death, where no light is, upon whom light hath arisen; and they shall know it is the light of the Lord. Then it is they shall be able to say, "Whereas I was blind, now I know I see-no one can convince me that my eyes are not opened, when I see before I was blind, I could perceive nothing-now I see every thing. The light that is communicated to their souls-the change which that has operated-the peace and the joy that is communicated these are the effects that are produced in the hearts of all those to whom Christ Jesus communicates the blessings of his salvation. They shall then not only be enabled to say, that God is in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself-but, God has reconciled me. They shall not only be enabled to say, that God, as a covenant God, hath pardoned iniquitybut, God hath pardoned my iniquity. They shall be enabled to say, Christ hath given me peace-this Christ is my Christ-this God is my God-because they have the enjoyment of that peace which they knew nothing of before, that joy which none can give but God, for it is joy unspeakable and full of glory. This is the character in which God reveals his pardoning mercy unto the souls of his people. I will establish my covenant with thee, and they shall know that I am the Lord." Let us notice in the third place, 66 THE EFFECT THAT IS PRODUCED ON dued. The Lord himself testifies The Lord says, founded, and never open thy mouth Is not this the feeling that brings you low before God, the feeling of astonishment-the feeling of love and gratitude-the feeling of an awful solemnity, that God should pardon your sins, freely pardon them, pardon them for ever-that he has declared he will remember them no more-that he has merged them in the depths of an everlasting forgetfulness-that, whatever they may have been, they are blotted out for ever and ever? Is not the thought an overwhelming thought, especially when you consider, that it comprehends not only the sins of your youth, but sins that are daily and hourly being committed against him, after you have come to the knowledge of him, after he has established his covenant with you, and after he has brought himself to you as your Lord and your God? That patience should still be prolonged-that pardon should still be multiplied-this is an overwhelming thought. "That thou mayst remember and be confounded"-it is accompanied by a work of humiliation -that you may remember and be confounded under the remembrance of your shame, like Ephraim of old, of whom the Lord said, "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus-Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." Then it is we begin to see the heinousness of our sins-then it is that we are overwhelmed with confusion, not so much with the remembrance of the heinousness of our sins, as with the infinite love that has been manifested in the pardon of them. "That thou mayst remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." Here is an exhibition of Christianity. The true Christian under all trials, and exercises, and afflictions, is the mute Christian. Let us contrast this with ourselves in former times. How did we deal with ourselves and our sinfulness then? Were we mute? No. How prone were we to endeavour to excuse ourselves! how prone to extenuate our offences! how prone to think sin to be a trifling thing! How ready were we to murmur against God, and to challenge his justice and his equity in his dealings with us! But when mercy is revealed unto the soul in the pardon of our sins, it closes our lips, we have nothing to say. It is this, beloved brethren, that elevates our hearts and our thoughts to God-leads us to form high thoughts of Him who has manifested such goodness and mercy. And in such proportion as our thoughts are high with regard to God, in that same proportion are they low with regard to ourselves, humbled in the dust of humiliation. The clearer ideas we have of the purity of God-the clearer discovery we have of the pollution of sinthe clearer notions we have of the equity and justice of God-the clearer do we see how much we are indebted to his mercy that we rebels should ever escape judgment and condemnation. The more, therefore, we see of God, the more we find to love himthe more we find to delight ourselves in him. Thus is human nature laid low in the dust, when our hearts are drawn out in admiration of the ways of God. When God, therefore, in his infinite mercy through Christ Jesus, brings home to the heart and to the conscience, a well-grounded assurance that our sin is pardoned, then it is we are silent before him-we are humbled under a sense of his mighty hand-we vindicate his ways-we rejoice with joy unspeakable and then have the loins of our mind braced and strung up, prepared for every duty, and for the discharge of every relative obligation. If such be the blessedness of obtaining at the hand of God a sense of his forgiving mercy, why is it you seek it? Is it not that you may obtain merely the pardon of your sins? For it is too generally the case, that, for the most part, Christians are content to rest here. They hear that God is good-that there is a fulness of pardon in Christ; and therefore they cast the whole of their hope and dependance on him, leaving it there undecided as to whether the pardon is obtained for their sin or not. But let us allow, for a moment, that it is true-still, they have not the enjoyment-they have not the abiding peace of it, nor the strong consolation of living upon it; and therefore they experience the loss of one strong nerve that would enable them to go on their way rejoicing, that would enable them to fight their Christian warfare with more success, with more confidence, and with more happiness. It is after this I would urge you to reach-not to be content with knowing that God is a God of mercy-but that you may know he is your convenant God in the pardon of your sin. Try the experiment-bring it before God in prayer-cast all your burdens upon your burden-bearer, Christ Jesus bring it to his cross, and there in humility argue the point before him, and declare what the desires of your soul are, that you may obtain at his hand the enjoyment of his pardoning mercy. Be not satisfied till you obtain it. If you go away empty it is your own fault. We frequently fail to obtain the enjoyment we should receive from the answer to our prayers, because we neglect to wait for it. Now, whatever be the burden, bring the case before Christ-be particular, enter into all the minutiae of it. It is the character of our Redeemer, that he will enter into the minutest points: There is no trifling circumstance which is not to him, as the Head is Church, of the weightiest importeer He knows how to enter into the feeling of your infirmities. Beseech him; then, that he would be pleased to tablish his covenant with you pardoning God and your Savio shall you know if you follow on to know the Lord. Thus, beloved brethren, be you ex horted to live in the strength of this confidence, in the strength of this joy. What a blessed thing would your religion become, were you to live on the strength of these daily communications with a throne of grace-to know that Christ is your's, that you are Christ's, and that Christ is God's. This will sustain you under all your sorrows and depressions by the way in which you travel-this will cause your heart to rejoice, while day by day you are drawing nearer to all this in the enjoyment of your God. Seek it-seek, and ye shall find-knock, and it shall be opened unto you. London: Published for the Proprietors, by T. GRIFFITHS, Wellington Street, Strand, and Sold by " Booksellers in Town and Country. Printed by Lowndes and White, Crane Court, Fleet Street. |