SERMON IX.

WHAT ADVANTAGE HAVE CHRISTIANS ABOVE THE GENTILES OF ANCIENT TIMES.

ISAIAH LX. 1, 2, 3.

ARISE, SHINE; FOR THY LIGHT IS COME, AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD IS RISEN UPON THEE. FOR BEHOLD, THE DARKNESS SHALL COVER THE EARTH, AND GROSS DARKNESS THE PEOPLE BUT THE LORD SHALL ARISE UPON THEE, AND HIS GLORY SHALL BE SEEN UPON THEE. AND THE GENTILES SHALL COME TO THY LIGHT, AND KINGS TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF THY RISING.

In the text, Isaiah, with his usual sublimity, foretells the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles. Not only he, but other prophets predict it; and it is a theme, on which the writers of the New Testament, and in particular St Paul, dwell with great delight. We have so long been a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that we now consider this privilege as our birthright, and are too often unmindful of the extent of the blessing. It is necessary therefore to direct our attention to it, that our hearts may be impressed with gratitude to God, and that we may show forth the praises of him, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Many parts of the world now enjoy the bright beams of divine revelation; but there was a time, when it was confined to one favored spot, and when darkness covered

the rest of the earth, and gross darkness the people. If we had not been graciously taken out of this state, instead of adoring with sacrifices of love the benevolent Father of the universe, we should be the terrified worshippers of Woden, Thor, and Friga, and the other barbarous gods of our Saxon ancestors. But let us arise and shine; for the light of the gospel is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us and we gentiles are come to the light of the sun of righteousness, and our kings to the brightness of his rising.

As God is good unto all, and his tender mercies are over all his works, the dispensation, by which one nation is favored with the knowledge of the truth, and all others are left in ignorance and error, is somewhat mysterious. The best solution of this difficulty, is derived from the consideration of what kind of being man is; and this is the solution, which the Scriptures give. Man is a free agent he has power to go right; and he has power to go wrong. There can be no doubt, that at the beginning the idolatry of the nations was voluntary; because God in no age of the world has left himself without witness. So St Paul teaches us. That which may be known of God, says he, is manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they [idolaters] are without excuse. These observations of the Apostle are reasonable; and they ought to stop the mouth of the objector.

Idolatry and all other sins originate from the wills of men; but they do not take place without the knowledge

of the Supreme Being. He has wise designs in permitting them to exist; and he mercifully educes good from the greatest evil. Pious and thoughtful men have pointed out many reasons, which rendered it expedient that one nation should be separated for a time from the rest of the world, and chosen as the depositary of the oracles of God. Of these reasons, that which stands preeminent is, that preparations were thus made for the coming of the Messiah, and satisfactory evidence afforded of the divinity of his mission.

Because a peculiar people was elected to preserve the knowledge of the unity of God, it does not thence follow, that all other nations were delivered over to the influence of Satan, or to the government of malignant demons: for this supposition cannot be true. The Supreme Being, though not exactly in the same sense, was the God of the Babylonians and Egyptians, of the Greeks and Romans, as well as of the Jews. He rewarded them for their virtues, or punished them for their vices, by prosperity or by adversity, in the same manner as he rewarded or punished the people, over whom he more visibly reigned. What has perplexed the understandings of some Christians, is a question, which is often asked, and which they think themselves unable to answer: Whether there is cause to believe that any of the heathen, who lived before the coming of Christ, and who were unacquainted with divine revelation, can be saved? To this question there are many Christians, in the present age, who do not hesitate a moment what answer to give. They say, that in every nation good men, who make the best use of the knowledge which they possess, are, whatever their external advantages may be, approved by Heaven, and will be rewarded in the other world.

Whilst it is a doctrine of the Bible, that God hath appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, it teaches that the way, by which men enter into this everlasting life, is not by believing in a mediator, of whom they never heard, and of whom it was impossible that they should hear, but by keeping the commandments. When every part of this divine book declares that God is merciful, that he forgives even the sins of men, and cannot therefore be supposed to punish their ignorance, we dare not to consign to everlasting flames the virtuous heathen of ancient times, who sincerely and diligently framed their lives according to the light of nature and the religions which they had received and which they professed.

The heathen, who, with the exception of a few enlightened men, were deprived of the knowledge of the true God, were incapable of attaining the perfection of virtue: but that they were not entirely destitute of correct notions of morality is manifest from their writings, which are still extant; and in which many examples of fortitude, of contempt of death, of patriotism, of chastity, of hospitality, of justice, sincerity, and the love of truth, of clemency in kings and loyalty in subjects, are exhibited to our view. The works of the ancient Greek philosophers, debased, it is confessed, with absurd theories, contain valuable precepts, from the perusal of which even Christians might derive advantage. Among the productions of the Romans, the Offices of Cicero, though it must be allowed to be inferior to the treatises of the moderns, who have enjoyed the light of the gospel, is yet an excellent system of ethics. I do not insist on the works of Epictetus, a Greek, and Seneca, a Latin writer, whose ideas of morals were still more complete; because both of them lived after the birth of Jesus; and though neither of

them mentions his name, yet possibly they might have been indirectly indebted for their more correct sentiments to the light, which the Christian religion had diffused over the world. But however this may be, it is a fact, which cannot be disputed, that the ancients in some measure comprehended the subject of morals, and faithfully performed many acts of virtue.

That they must of necessity have done so, is evident; because it is not possible to conceive, how a family, city, republic, or any society, whether large or small, can subsist without the knowledge and practice of morality. In a family there must be a husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters; from which relations necessarily arise the duties of filial obedience, conjugal fidelity, and parental and fraternal love. That the heathen sometimes neglected these duties, must be confessed; but unless they had been frequently discharged, families would soon have fallen to pieces, and the human race would have disappeared from the face of the earth. In like manner in a city, men in their intercourse with each other must have generally observed the rules of truth and honesty; falsehood and fraud must in ancient times, as they are now, have been rare and monstrous; otherwise confidence being destroyed, all mutual connexion would have ceased. In a republic also, the citizens in general must have been subject to the laws, and the magistrates in general must have administered them with impartiality and justice; otherwise there would have been an end of all government, and there could have been no tie to bind the several parts of it together. If therefore many of the heathen performed these duties, what right have we to say that they were not good men, and that they were not blessed by God in this world, and that they will not be rewarded in the other?