Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

himself loves, and for whom the Son does in a peculiar manner constantly pray.

3dly. As for you who sincerely love the Redeemer, and believe that he is come out from God, to you be longs all the comfort of these gracious words: Whatever you ask in the name of Jesus shall be freely given you; for the Father himself loveth you, and his blessed Son constantly prays for you. Whatever carnal men may think of this, yet surely it is a privilege of which I hope you know both the value and use. To be allowed access to God at any rate, is a prodigious favour; but to come before him hopefully, with good assurance of being accepted, this is a signal blessing, which is peculiar to yourselves. Lift up thy head, then, O sincere believer. Does thy conscience bear testimony that thou lovest Jesus, and believest that he is the sent of God? Apply then these gracious words to thyself. The Father himself loveth thee, and makes thee welcome to use the prevailing name of his once suffering but now exalted Son. In all thy difficulties come freely to him. "Be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make thy requests known to God." The Redeemer, too, enforces thy requests, and is more mindful of thee than thou canst be of thyself. He sympathises with thee in all thy infirmities and distresses; and when thou canst not utter thy desires, yet he understands the groanings of his own Spirit within thee. He forms thy petitions, and urges them with all their force; yea, thy very need has a language which he can interpret. He foresees the trials that are coming upon thee, when thou dost not. Thus, whilst Peter was glorying in his strength, his Saviour, knowing his weakness, and the malice of Satan, was praying for him that his faith might not fail. The like provident tenderness will be show to thee.

Even now, O believers, he is pleading on your behalf, whilst the Father listens with delight and approbation. He kindly accepts of this testimony of your love, in keeping up the memory of his bitter passion; and no doubt all your well qualified prayers have been this day powerfully enforced by your faithful High-Priest.

What shall I say more to you? Praise and thanksgiving is your duty at this time. Let your souls, and all that is within you, be stirred up to bless your heavenly Father, whose love was the fountain and spring of your happiness, and is still the foundation of your truest comfort.

Let your souls, and all that is within you, be stirred up to bless your gracious Redeemer, who hath ransomed you by his blood, and who, amid the exaltation of heaven, the splendour of his Father's right hand, still kindly remembers his humble followers, whose ears are ever open to their prayers, whose mouth is ever ready to plead their cause, and, as if it were not love enough to die for them, who also lives and reigns for them, yea, and even glories in being made head over all things to the church. Alas! our praises are so feeble and low, that we may blush and be ashamed to offer them.

But do you not long for heaven, that with a more elevated song than this dull state can admit, you may join in praising this object of your love? Continue yet a little longer-have patience for awhile, give some farther testimonies of your faith here, and he who intercedes for you will receive you to himself; and that you may not doubt of this, read and ponder these gracious verses with which I conclude, (John xvii. 24.) "Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold the glory which

[blocks in formation]

thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, be glory and honour, dominion and power, for ever. Amen.

SERMON LIX.

HEBREWS xii. 28, 29.

Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve GOD acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our GOD is a consuming fire.

THE gospel of our salvation, which contains the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, is expressly styl ed the doctrine which is according to godliness. It manifests the grace of God to sinners of mankind; but all who receive that grace are thereby taught effectually to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this present world. It abounds with great and precious promises; but all these promises have a practical tendency, that by the belief and im provement of them, we may be made partakers of the divine nature; having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust. Hence that exhortation, (2 Cor. vii. 1.) "Having therefore these promises, dearly be loved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." If we look through the whole of divine revelation, we shall find in every part, privilege and duty inseparably

connected, and the latter uniformly inferred from the former. This connexion is clearly established in the passage I have read to you, which contains,

I. The distinguishing privilege of believers in Christ. "We," saith the Apostle, in the name of all true Christians, "receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved."

II. An exhortation to duty, founded upon this privilege, and the motives with which it is enforced: "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire."

BOTH these subjects are so extensive, that each of them might furnish materials for many discourses. All I can at present propose is, to give some assistance to your minds when you meditate upon them in private, by weighing the import of the words in which they are expressed; every one of which appears to be strongly emphatical, and full of the most instructive and comfortable meaning.

1 begin with the privilege of believers in Christ Jesus, expressed in these words, "We receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved."-Where you will observe,

1st, The designation that is given to their portion. It is styled a kingdom, which, among earthly possessions is universally admitted to hold the first rank; but what is the highest dignity, and the greatest affluence that this earth can afford, when compared with the kingdom whereof my text speaks? Would you know the extent of it? you may learn it from (1 Cor. iii. 21, &c.) "All things are yours." And it must be so, for God himself is the portion of his saint; for as many as receive Christ, "to them gives he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name;-and if sons, then are they also heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ

Jesus." Accordingly they are said, by the apostle Peter, "to be begotten again to the lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Which last expression agrees with the description here given by the Apostle, where he calls it a kingdom that cannot be moved; and the stability of it is explained by Peter, in the passage I just now alluded to, 1 where he not only informs us, that this inheritance is reserved in heaven, beyond the reach of every adverse power; but likewise, that all who are begotten again to the hope of it," are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."

You will further observe, that believers are said to receive this kingdom. They have no natural right to it; on the contrary, by the fatal apostacy, they are children of wrath and heirs of destruction. They have no price to give for it; for they are not only wretched and miserable, but poor, and blind, and naked. It is a gift altogether free and unmerited on their part. "It is your Father's good pleasure," said Christ to his disciples, "to give you the kingdom ;" and eternal life is expressly said to be "the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Once more, you will observe, that this inheritance is not altogether future. The Apostle speaks of it as a present possession. He doth not say, We looking for a kingdom that cannot be moved; but, we receiving it in the mean time. This is perfectly agreeable to what he had said, (ver. 22.) "Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the

« PoprzedniaDalej »