Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

when applied by his Spirit, enables them, to bear the image of the heavenly Adam.

Finally, This is the object to be promoted by all their afflictions. The apostle represents himself, and his fellow-laborers, as enduring a great fight of afflictions; as tried, distressed, perplexed, and persecuted; but, he adds, "always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body;" and God is daily teaching his saints to glorify him in the fire. Often are the trying exercises of his servants the happy means of furthering their resemblance to Christ, and of promoting within them the life of faith upon him. When our imperfections and sins would render the possession of this blessed image doubtful to ourselves or to others, those afflictions are sent again to discover it, and to impart to it fresh lustre and excellence. When our afflictions have answered their designed end, we leave the chamber of sickness, or the scene of our sorrows, wherever it be, to evidence more strikingly our possession of the image of the heavenly Adam.

Permit me now, having finished the discussion of my subject, permit me to ask you, my hearers, Whose image and superscription do you bear? I shall not ask you whether you bear the image of the earthly Adam, because I know it well; for here" every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." But we wish you to be concerned to ascertain whether or not a new and Divine impression has been made upon your souls? Are you, then, daily departing from all iniquity, hourly aspiring after conformity to Christ? Some men carry the mark of the beast, and bear the image of the devil; not only do they

show us their connexion with Adam, but their alliance with the powers of darkness. We speak this to their shame. O that they may be confounded before God, and led to pray that, instead of their being the very vassals of Satan, they may be numbered among the friends of Immanuel !

What thanks are due to the Redeemer, for the restoration which he hath made of peace and happiness to man!

My text shows us how the great Saviour has triumphed over human depravity and satanic force; and how, by his own grace, he hath restored the image of God in his own soul, and directed our hopes to a better world, where this image shall be perfect, this resemblance inimitably correct. And has he indeed done all this? then,

"Praise flow forever, (if astonishment

Will give thee leave,) my praise forever flow;
Praise ardent, cordial, constant, to high Heaven
More fragrant, than Arabia sacrific'd,

And all her spicy mountains in a flame."

O Saviour! stamp thine holy image upon our souls; there let it appear; there let it shine, in life, in death, and forever! Amen.

DISCOURSE XX.

GOD'S GRACIOUS REGARD FOR THE PENITENT.

PREACHED JULY 10, 1811.

"He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light."

[blocks in formation]

How desirable a thing is genuine penitence; it appears eminently so, from the attention God pays to it; from the salutary and holy feelings it calls into exercise; from the blessed effects which arise from it to the penitent individual, for "they that sow in tears shall reap in joy ;" from the pleasure it occasions in heaven, for "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." All this you may see in the testimony of God, and in the experience of every true penitent. O, that you may see it in your own!

We will endeavor now to gain instruction upon this subject, from the passage I have read to you, a passage replete with consolation, and fraught with the richest truths. O, that while we meditute upon it, its goodness and suitableness to our case, its kind report of the mercy of the Lord Jehovah, may dissolve our hearts in thankfulness, and melt our eyes to tears!" He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he

will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light." Observe here, how this text,

I. Presents to us the extent of the Divine inspection," He looketh upon men."

II. Unfolds the language of genuine repentance," I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not."

III. Discovers the triumphs of reigning grace, "He shall deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light."

And all these things are closely connected together; for the truth of my text is, that God, in surveying the different ranks of men, beholds a penitent individual, hears his earnest cry, and forgives him the iniquity of his sin. We say, then,

that our text,

I. Presents to us the extent of the Divine inspection.

"Jehovah looketh upon men." God's omniscience ought to make us adore and tremble; for He confines not his observation to the heavens, in which he more particularly dwells, but he also looketh upon men. Though he surveys the bright armies of saints and angels, who are ever before him, "hearkening to the voice of his word," yet he also looketh upon men. Mortals are beheld by The inhabitants of the earth are looked upon as grasshoppers, yet not one escapes his notice. He watches over their actions, and there is no darkness, or shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from his eye.

him.

The text teaches us that he looketh upon men universally, and at once, I say, he surveys men universally. He looks upon all the tribes and conditions of men, from the helpless babe to the hoary

sage; he sees them all. Every one of the human race must exclaim, "Thou God seest me!" For "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Thus he does "from his throne behold all the dwellers upon earth;" and here the wise and the illiterate, the righteous and the wicked, the just and the unjust, meet together; the Lord is the observer of them all. Also he surveys them at once. He looketh upon men, he sees them all at one glance, in one view; his eyes behold all that is done upon the face of the earth, and the darkness and the light are both alike to him. At once the Lord looketh from heaven upon the children of men, “for the ways of man are always before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.' The eyes of the Lord are at one moment in every place, beholding the evil and the good. "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and the earth, saith the Lord?" "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Yet are there, amongst the numerous objects which engage his notice, some particular ones that attract his special

« AnteriorContinuar »