And this farther shows, how unreasonably men object against the mysterious wisdom of the gospel, since all that the gospel prescribes to us as our duty is plain and evident; all that is mysterious is on God's part, and relates entirely to the surprising acts of divine wisdom and mercy in the redemption of the world. Consider the gospel then as a rule of action, no religion was ever so plain, so calculated upon the principles of reason and nature; so that natural religion itself had never more natural religion in it. If we consider the end proposed to us, and the means used to entitle us to the benefit of it, it grows mysterious, and soars above the reach of human reason; for God has done more for us than reason could teach us to expect, or can now teach us to comprehend. Let us then do our part, which we plainly understand, and let us trust in God that he will do his; though it exceeds the strength of human wisdom to comprehend the length and depth and breadth of that wisdom and mercy, which God has manifested to the world through his Son Christ Jesus our Lord." Nor does God's word teach any different doctrine. In fact, it fully supports these views. Paul said: "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Let us love all that God has spoken. If it fills us with reverence and godly fear, if it humbles us in the dust, if it awakens pious wonder, if it stirs us up to diligence in looking into these things, it must be of excellent use. But to carp at God's word, or any portion thereof, is both criminal and dangerous. Let every man beware, lest Christ and his salvation, be to him for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence; for a gin and for a snare; for many among men shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. * * 6. What madness it is for any creature to be found fighting against God. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. He hides himself, and all nature stands aghast. He passes by, and a great and strong wind rends the mountains, and breaks in pieces the rocks. He utters his voice, and the earth melts. He wills it, and a world arises. He frowns, and the pillars of heaven tremble. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations are before him as nothing." "He bringeth princes to nothing." "He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." Before him, the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers. Who can resist such a God? Some have fought against him, but who ever conquered him or escaped a certain overthrow? Was there ever a company of more consummate fools than Pharaoh and his great men, although they thought to "deal wisely.' Behold the horse and his rider, the warrior and the chariot, sunk like lead in the mighty waters. "The Lord is a man of war. He hath triumphed gloriously. * Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" Let every * * * * * man know that the Lord, he is God, and that to put one's self in array against him is to advertise the whole universe that he is a fool, bent on his own eternal undoing. A feather can never resist the fires of a furnace, the elements cannot withstand the intense heat of the last day; neither can a worm of the dust stand out against God. Sin is as foolish as it is criminal. If, in temporal affairs, any man violated the laws of his existence, as in spiritual affairs every wicked man does, any court would pronounce him a madman, and subject him to the restraints of a lunatic asylum. Wisdom says: "Whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." To think of God's wrath is fearful. To taste it is worse than a potion of wormwood and gall. To endure it is intolerable. A drop of it fell into the conscience of Belshazzar, and his knees smote together; of Herod, and he gave up the ghost; of Judas, and he turned suicide. A few drops of it have sent the voice of wailing along every valley and over every mountain in a great nation. A sprinkle of it fell on sinning angels, and, in a moment, they shrivelled into devils. A vial of it broken on our globe will yet send it blazing through the universe. The fierceness of that wrath will cow the spirit of devils, and make sinners of our race wish they had never been born. "Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath." 7. With so great a God, great sinners may hope to find great mercy. He punishes, but He also pardons, like a God. He shows compassion to the chief of sinners. His loving-kindness reaches to the heavens. If any of us shall not be saved, it will not be because God is not merciful; but because we are proud, rebellious, and self-righteous. Sometimes we think our sins too great to be pardoned by the Lord. But this is because of our wicked unbelief. Hear his own words of love; "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Such offers ought to silence all our cavils, and put to shame all our unbelief. If we knew more of God, we should be less apt to distrust him. He, who has spent all his days among the mountains which lift their brows above the clouds, and has never seen any body of water greater than the mountain torrent, may naturally doubt whether there is water enough on earth to cover the peaks of his native land. But let him once cross the Atlantic, let him put down his lead thousands of fathoms, let him find that it is three thousand miles wide and yet greater in length, and he will see how all his native mountains could be buried in the sea. So our sins are great, truly as great as we ever thought them to be. But God's mercy is greater than we have ever imagined. Let us explore it and meditate upon it, till we see how He can pardon iniquity, pass by transgression, delight in mercy, have compassion on us, and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 8. The true glory of churches is the presence and blessing of Jehovah. The great difference between the two houses that Solomon built was, that one was his own domicil, while the other was an habitation for the Lord. The great difference between a saint and a sinner is, that one is the temple of Belial, and the other the temple of the Lord. In monarchical governments, it is esteemed a great honor to live or to worship in the same house with the king. But wherever churches are animated with real love to God, the King of kings blesses the place of their meeting with his presence. This is honor indeed. What a glorious promise is that, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." The fulfilment is as certain as the blessing promised is inestimable. How foolish are we when we put our confidence in means and men, in singers and preachers, to make the sanctuary a delight. They may provide for the proprieties of things. Even a corpse may be decently arrayed. But if the place of meeting is to be made to our souls the house of God, and the gate of heaven, if we, who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins, are to be made alive unto God, it must be by the gracious presence of Him whose we are, and whom we serve. Let God's people never weary of looking to Him, who is the glory of his people Israel. Let them never vainly imagine that they are anything, or can do anything as of themselves. Without him they can do nothing. That was a wise prayer of Moses, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." If God go before us, our enemies shall be scattered. If he be our rereward, our enemies shall not overtake us. If he be our portion, we shall not want. If he be our glory, we shall be eternally illustrious. 9. What a capital error is that which teaches that God can be fitly represented or worshipped by images. To bow down to the sun, moon, and stars, and worship all the host of heaven, or to "change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things," ought to be by all people held and declared idolatry. In his being, perfections, works, and ways, God is incomparable. Among the gods, there is none like thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works." "Who in the heavens can be compared unto the LORD; who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD ?" "To whom will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" The greatness of the sin of worshipping images, or of worshipping God by images, arises from these facts: It is positively forbidden in many portions of Scripture; it is contrary to God's spirituality; it degrades all our conceptions of Jehovah to a depth of debasement intolerable to God. "We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." The spirit of the first and the letter of the second commandment forbid such worship. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the ini quity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." In his address to Israel given us in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses greatly insists upon the exclusion of images from religious worship. Besides, "God is a Spirit, and they that wor ship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." God is not in any way personally connected with matter. He is an uncreated, immaterial substance. He is an active, intelligent, infinite spirit. The Belgic confession well says: "We believe in heart, and confess with the mouth, that there is one only and simple spiritual essence, which we call God, eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, who is wholly wise, and a most plentiful well-spring of all good things." We cannot too carefully guard God's worship against all corruptions, all admixtures of human inventions. Image worship is abominable idolatry. The Most High is not like the gods of the heathen. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Because he fills heaven and earth he cannot be placed in a niche or on the altar of any house. Nor can any true image of him be made or conceived. The most exquisite piece of art is no more like God, and is no more suited to give us just ideas of him, than the most unsightly daub, or the rudest block of wood or stone. 10. How amiable is the whole character of God. Love to him is as reasonable as it is obligatory. When a scoffing infidel thought to perplex a pious little girl, by asking, "How big is your God?" she replied, "He is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, yet he is so kind as to dwell in this little heart of mine." He dwells with all his people. He walks in them. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." What matchless love is here! He who is over all God blessed forever, condescends to take up his abode in our hearts. "The tabernacle of God is with men." He that is higher than the highest, does not despise our low estate. How hateful is the arrogant littleness of man, compared with the condescending greatness of God. Our God is in the heavens, and yet he is the great comforter of man. If this is so, how we should love and fear, serve and obey, praise and adore him. "We should give him the same place in our hearts that he holds in the universe." We shall never be able to pay the debt we owe him. Let us give him all. Even that is but little; yet he will receive it. Maker! Preserver! my Redeemer! God! Whom have I in the heavens but Thee alone? On earth, but thee, whom should I praise, whom love? By thy Omnipotence; and from thy grace PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW HAVEN, CONN. CHRIST ALONE. "I have trodden the wine-press alone."-ISAIAH lxiii. 3. THE passages in connexion with the text present to our view a grand and glowing picture of a triumphant, glorious conqueror. The scenes of the battle, and the victory, are described with the vividness of dramatic interest and power. The whole, as some suppose, has a literal reference to the victories of Jehovah over his enemies in the land of Idumea; and he is represented as returning from the field of conflict, and complete conquest, in great majesty and might, covered with the blood of battle. As the grapes in the wine press are crushed beneath the feet of him who treads it, and are unable to resist the pressure, so had the enemies of God been crushed by his strength, and in his fury. These passages have also been thought to contain a prophecy concerning the future triumph of the Redeemer, in the destruction of anti-Christ, and the foes of his kingdom; and to refer to the same events that are spoken of in the book of Revelation, where the appearance of the conquering Saviour and his vengeance upon his enemies are alluded to in similar terms. "And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." But if we turn our attention to the work of Christ in the great plan of atoning mercy, we shall find that there was an object |
