ANALOGY BETWEEN THE WORK OF CREATION & FUTURE GLORY. 255 of the principle of popular election in God's word; but finding, however, sufficient proof of the adoption of the system among Christians of the earliest ages; and seeing, too, a choice of evils, which Mr. James himself admits to exist on both sides, has wisely left the question undecided. Popular elections are not unknown in the establishment; and had other parishes chosen to do what some have done, namely, purchase the advowsons of their rectories, popular elections might have been frequent among us. We know not whether on the whole, this would have been likely to have proved beneficial or otherwise. Nor have we space to discuss abstract questions of this kind. The church, as we have already said, has not expressed an authoritative opinion, on the point we have been discussing. Dissenters, indeed, decide the question without hesitation; but in our view, they decide it without the warrant of scripture. ANALOGY BETWEEN THE WORK OF CREATION AND FUTURE GLORY. WHO has not found, in searching the Scriptures with a mind ready to receive their sacred truths, that the Holy Spirit, shining "as a light in a dark place," has cleared away many a long impending cloud, and revealed many a connexion between different parts which enhances the value of the whole to the sinner's soul, and exalts the glory of God manifest in the flesh?" According to the Hebrew manner of speaking, which is to express a thing by its two limits, "He who inhabiteth eternity," "who was before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were formed, even from everlasting to everlasting," calls himself by the mouth of his servant Isaiah, "The first and the last." (xliv. 6; xlviii. 12.) The same manner is assumed by our blessed Saviour in his revelation to the beloved disciple; he says, (xxii, 13.) "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last;" thus conveying to The following are some of the In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God called the firmament heaven. God called the dry land earth. chap. i. 1, 8, 10. ་ our finite understandings some idea of his infinite nature. In that blessed book which has God for its author, and salvation for its end,' there is a striking analogy between its beginning and its end, between the description of the first creation, and the first inhabitant of the earth, and that of the "new heavens, and new earth," and their inhabitants; while the intervening subjects form the links of that golden chain, by which the "prisoner of hope" is bound and drawn to God; the rounds as it were of Jacob's ladder by which we ascend to the author and finisher of our faith." The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit," and God hath" taken away the first, that he may establish the second." In the word of God, 66 'The beginning and the end of all 'I can discover; Christ the end of all, 'And Christ the great beginning; he my head, 'My God, my glory, and my all in all." coincidental passages alluded to. I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. chap. xxi. 1. 256 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE WORK OF CREATION & FUTURE GLORY. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. chap. i. 27. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. chap. i. 28. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. chap. ii. 9. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. chap. ii. 17. And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. chap.iii. 22, 23, 24. Cursed is the ground. chap. iii. 17. EXTRACTED FROM A FAST SERMON BY THE REV, EDWARD ANDERSON, B. D. RECTOR OF HICKLING, NOTTS, MARCH 21, 1832. people: and he put on incense, And he stood between the dead And behold the plague was begun among the THESE words refer to the atonement which Aaron was required to make for the children of Israel during the plague, which came upon them in the wilderness, after the matter of Korah. To persons unacquainted with the desperate wickedness of the human heart, it would seem almost incredible, that after so remarkable an instance of divine judgment as that which had been lately manifested with regard to Korah and his company, when the earth opened and swallowed them up alive for their rebellion, the Israelites should instantly have been led to murmur against the divine chastisement, and even to accuse Moses and Aaron of having destroyed the people of the Lord. Yet so it is, when the mind is unhumbled; the most awful warnings serve only to harden the heart still more. Impenitent sinners blaspheme God so much the more on account of all their plagues. While on the other hand, continued impenitence prolongs the divine displeasure; and renewed instances of rebellion call down upon the infatuated people a series of desolating judgments. The Israelites had not taken the warning which the destruction of Korah was designed to afford; and now God threatened to consume the whole congregation as in a moment. And it is immediately added, that "wrath went out from the Lord, and the plague began." The Lord indeed is so merciful, that even in the midst of judgment he remembered mercy, and was on this occasion graciously pleased to accept the intercession of Moses and Aaron, and the atonement which JULY 1832. the latter presented. But while that atonement availed for the rest it did not bring back again from the dead those that had perished. K They that died of the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred: " these were not benefited by the mediation of Aaron :while he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed." In applying this portion of sacred history to ourselves, and particularly to the present state of our own country, I would remark, that pestilence is the peculiar infliction of divine providence upon a nation: that the reason of its infliction is the punishment of particular national sins: that the intercession of the righteous is the most probable means of its removal: and that we must beware of those sins, which have brought down this just judgment upon ourselves. I. Pestilence is the peculiar infliction of divine providence. There are other judgments with which at various times and for just and wise purposes, the Almighty is pleased to afflict the nations; such as war and famine. But then the suffering, occasioned by these, is through the medium of second causes. Of course even second causes are all dependent upon the will of Almighty God: because in all events, whether national or individual, God is the prime agent, the first great cause and the disposer of all. But what I mean is, that during a period of war and of famine, the evils which we may have to suffer, arise from outward difficulties, which we can explain and may in some measure avert. 2 L In war, we behold an enemy; we engage in battle, we may disconcert his measures, we may prove victorious, and the calamity may be at once removed by a successful negociation, although the terms of peace may be oppressive and difficult. In famine, we suffer from the privation of wholesome and nutritious food, and that suffering also would cease by the supply of provisions, though perhaps brought from a distant quarter at an exorbitant price. Not so in pestilence; we cannot foresee, we cannot avert the danger. There is no visible enemy to grapple with; none with whom to negociate. No supply of food or of medicine, however costly, can effectually ward off the danger and the suffering. The place where we live may be the same as usual, our habits of life the same, the climate not subject to more variation than usual, and yet still "the pestilence walketh in darkness." One city is visited, and another left, without any apparent cause; and the inhabitants, in full health to day, are carried to their graves to-morrow. And how is this, my brethren, but from the over-ruling providence of God? It is he that killeth and maketh alive.. If there were any remaining doubt on this head, the matter is settled at once by holy scripture. To say nothing of the instance in the text, where the plague began, as soon as ever the Lord had threatened to consume the congregation,-observe the language on this head, which is used by the prophets: "I have sent the pestilence among you after the manner of Egypt," saith the Lord, by the prophet Amos. So in Ezekiel, "If I send pestilence into that land and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast." The same mode of expression is adopted in the answer of the Lord to the prayer of king Solomon:" If I send pestilence among my people." There is there fore no room for any further reasoning:-this is the usual language which God is pleased to adopt. He himself tells us that he sends the pestilence, and it is consequently the peculiar infliction of divine Providence. And, my brethren, to what other probable or rational cause can we attribute that grievous disease which hath lately visited England? -There has not been any plague in this kingdom since the reign of Charles the Second, more than one hundred and sixty years ago. And it was confidently believed that since that period, this nation had improved so much in the arts and civilization, that the recurrence of such an event was very improbable, if not impossible. Our houses are better ventilated than in those times;-our food is better prepared, and of a more nutritious quality; -our clothing is formed of better materials; the supply of fuel and of water is much more commodious and plentiful; -we have advanced greatly in habits of cleanliness and in medical science ;whence is it then that a new disease hitherto unknown should spring up amongst us, which, whether contagious or not contagious, baffles the skill of the most approved physicians,-spreads with fearful rapidity wherever it gains a footing, and hurries away into eternity persons in the very midst of life, without respect to age or sex, who the moment before showed no symptoms of any premature decay? Must we not answer in the words of the Egyptian Magicians, when they could not stand before Moses, "This is the finger of God!" II.—Our next remark is, that the reason for the infliction of pestilence is the punishment of particular national sins. The first plague that we read of in holy scripture, was the death of the first born in the land of Egypt, and the cause of that pestilence was the refusal on the part of Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go-and his retaining them in slavery. The next plague of which any record remains, was at Kibroth Hataavah-upon the Israelites themselves. There it is said they loathed the manna, which was given them from heaven, and they desired meat for their lust. That desire was granted-quails were given-but in consequence of their inordinate desire, as a punishment for their intemperance, "the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague, and there they buried the people that lusted." The plague in the text we have already said, was for a spirit of rebellion against the Lord, for murmuring against his righteous dispensations, and against his servants Moses and Aaron. About twenty years afterwards the plague once more broke out amongst them, and slew 24,000 men; because they had been beguiled by the Midianitish women into the sins of whoredom and idolatry. In the days of king David, three days' pestilence were sent upon the land, and there died of the people 70,000 men as a punishment to the king for numbering his people, and trusting in an arm of flesh. And was it not the pride of Sennacherib, when he boasted that by the multitude of his chariots he had come up to the tops of the mountains, which caused his whole army to be smitten in one night by the destroying angel? My brethren, I am persuaded that the like causes still produce the same effects in our own time. The scourge of pestilence hath broken out amongst ourselves— and wherefore? Have we not, like the Egyptians, too long neglected the cause of the oppressed, and to say the least, been tardy in proclaiming liberty to the captive negro? Besides the infliction of pestilence at home, the wretched state of the West-Indian Islands, in consequence of the late hurricane and insurrection abroad, may well serve as a warning voice to our country on this head. Again, have we not, like the Israelites at Kibroth-Hataavah, loathed the provision which God hath made for us, and sought our happiness in forbidden objects, in idolatrous affections, and sensual desires;lewdness, intemperance, drunkenness ? Has not this latter sin, in fact, been greatly increased and sanctioned by the additional number of our public houses? Or to come to a still closer application of our text, has there not been in the land, a remarkable spirit of discontent, and of murmuring, and of infidelity, as if the servants of the Lord had taken too much upon them, in declaring the whole counsel of God? Or, once more, has there not been an unholy independent spirit amongst us, like that of David, in counting up his worldly succours; and still more like Sennacherib, relying wholly on his own might and counsel ? So far as we are ourselves convicted, either as individuals or nations, of those crying sins, which in former times brought down the divine chastisements upon the people, so far, it is reasonable to argue, we are now the manifest cause of the judgment, which is at present suspended over the land. We have seen that a spirit of tyranny, licentiousness, discontent, infidelity, pride, was the cause of the pestilence in former ages; and therefore we may fairly conclude, that the pestilential cholera with which we are now threatened, is sent upon ourselves as a national scourge, for the same national offences. Indeed, some of the sins alluded to, have in their own nature an obvious tendency to produce serious disease. This was remarkably and awfully verified in the numerous deaths |