155

XX.

THE GREAT SALVATION.

(Preached on Sunday Evening, December 28th, 1845.)

And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.-I JOHN iv. 14.

THIS, brethren, is a very plain text, but a very important one, and we may transfer to it the attributes which the Apostle has ascribed to a similar passage, where he says, "It is a faithful saying." What is common report but falsehood? What is a great part of history but fabulous? What are the promises of men but lies? "I said in my heart, all men are liars." But this is a "faithful saying;" it is a true saying, it is truth itself, and it will not deceive you. All that is important must be true, but all that is true may not be important. But here the importance equals the truth; therefore it is not only a "faithful saying, but worthy of all acceptation;" and worthy the acceptation of all, whether rich or poor, or high or low-of prince or peasant. It is worthy of all acceptation, worthy of all your desires, of all your hopes, of all your joys, of all your affections, of all your expectations. It is worthy of all your thanksgivings and praises which can be experienced and called forth in embracing it. "He," therefore, "who hath ears to hear, let him hear," for "we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." Now we are not going to draw several doctrines from these words, or to treat them textually even, but in a way of inference, and there are six things which naturally and necessarily result from them.

I. The first inference is this: If the "Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world,” then was the world in a lost state. "God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions." "By one man sin came into the world, and

death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all hath sinned." Adam begot a son in his own likeness, and the earth was soon filled with wickedness. We read that "every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually," and the "flood came and took them all away," except the few who were preserved in the ark: from these afterwards the earth was replenished. But David tells us that when God looked down again upon the children of men, He said, "They are all gone out of the way; they are all become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." This was the testimony of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans, in which he proved that both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin, and both guilty before God. Thus, as sinners, all are condemned, for "cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the law to do them ;" and "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Thus all were sinners, and all depraved, and as such are strangers to peace, the vassals of corruption, tyrannized over by these passions," serving divers lusts and pleasures," and ready to perish. And what is that perdition to which they are exposed? It is expressed by various images employed by the sacred writers, anyone of which is so dreadful as to be enough to drive any man out of his senses or out of his sins; compared with which all the sufferings of life, all the horrors of conscience, and all the rage of despair, are only the beginning of sorrows.

Now, can this state of human nature be denied? Let men turn their thoughts inward and examine their own experience. Surely every man is conscious that he has a tendency to evil, to malice, to pride and ingratitude; and when he examines himself, he cannot fix upon a period when he began to feel these evil tendencies; the reason is, they are collateral; they grow with his growth, and strengthen with his strength. Now, if there were a tree which was known to bring forth only bad fruit, in every age, in every climate, and in every soil, and under every kind of cultivation, should we hesitate to consider it a bad tree, for every tree is known by its fruit? And what has man been always, and what has man been everywhere, in all stations, and under all circumstances? What is the testimony of all history? Observe the most polished and cultivated state of society. Regard it according to the declarations of historians and travellers. Take their religion, and oh, how evil and licentious is their worship! Why, among them vices were not only not forbidden, they were encouraged and enjoined; gluttony, drunkenness, and lewdness, were even made parts and acts of their devotion. We are frequently censured

for defaming human nature. But who is it that asks, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" Who said, "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Who was it that testified, "For from within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within and defile the man." And who is it that says also, "We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness?" Such, then, is the state of human nature. If it were otherwise, if we were not sick and dying, why send for the physician? If we were not in bondage, why need a Redeemer? If we were not lost and undone, what need have we of a Saviour? If therefore it be true that "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," it is equally true that the world was in a lost state.

II. The second inference is this: If the "Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" then their salvation is a matter of importance. God does not trifle with you, my hearers: His aim and His end always justified, and more than justifies, His actions and His doings. We should not indeed think very highly of this salvation, if we were to judge of it by the lives of men. They are alive to their temporal welfare, to the safety of their property; as to their bodies they show anxiety enough, they are willing to make any sacrifice to escape from floods and flames, from the dagger of the assassin and pestilential distempers; they are grateful when a disorder is removed, and when they are snatched from the borders of the grave; but they do not value the salvation of which our text speaks, because it is a spiritual salvation, and a holy salvation; it regards those evils which they neither feel nor fear. Hence they make light of it. They make sacrifices as to their farm and their merchandize, for their worldly aggrandisement, for their vanishing honours, and for the pleasures of sin which are but for a season; but were we to judge of the salvation of which we are speaking by the endeavours of many of you to obtain it, we should consider it as a thing of nought. Yet how will you view it by-and-by? How will you view it in a dying hour? and when you stand before the judgment-seat of Christ? And how would you view it immediately, if now you were convinced of sin, and if now you perceived the wrath of God ready to fall upon you as the children of disobedience? Would not your cry be then-not, "What shall I eat, or what

shall I drink?" but "What shall I do to be saved?

How shall I come before the Lord? or bow myself before the Most High God?" What did the Apostle think of it? He calls it "so great salvation"-so unspeakably, so inconceivably great. It is a salvation for the soul, a salvation for eternity, a salvation rescuing us from all evil, and conferring upon us all possible good. What do the spirits above think of it, as every moment they are crying, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God His Father, unto Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen?" What do the angels in glory think of it? Do they not "desire to look into these things," and come to the Church to learn "the manifold wisdom of God"? Do they not rejoice over every sinner that repenteth? What said the angels to the shepherds? "Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peoples, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." And what was the subject of the praises of the multitude of the heavenly host? They came down, saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

But again we repair to our inference. We behold the worth of salvation from the importance God Himself has attached to it. He cannot err; He could not have been mistaken; He knew the value of souls, and the misery to which we were exposed as sinners; He knew the full meaning of the terms "everlasting punishment" and "life eternal." And it is here you must study the subject, in the manger and upon the cross, while you behold "God manifest in the flesh." "Because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He also took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death." Follow the Saviour through His history, see Him descending from the throne to the cross, and ascending from the cross to the throne, and "ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it."

III. The third inference is this: If the "Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," then this salvation is no easy achievement. No, my brethren, the scheme involved in it difficulties which He alone could remove. We deduce this from His wisdom and His perfections. Let us explain a little.

Men often degrade themselves by the means they employ to accomplish their purposes. Sometimes they employ unsuitable means, and thus become laughing stocks; and sometimes they employ inadequate men and thus fail in their enterprise; and sometimes they employ more means than is necessary, and then they shew their ignorance. What would you think of a man who would put himself to great expense in constructing a machine to crush a fly? or who would employ a thousand hands when one was enough? But if you were to see a skilful builder, and one in whose judgment you could confide, bringing together a vast number of workmen, and an immensity of materials, you would infer that an extensive work was to be going on, and one that was neither trifling nor easy. My brethren, we have defective notions of sin, and defective notions of the holiness and the righteousness of God, and therefore are not aware of the difficulties found in the way of our recovery; but God was perfectly aquainted with them, and He does nothing in vain. What he does, He Himself deems necessary, and His judgment is always " according to truth." What then has He done whose understanding is infinite, and who is liable to no error? He delivered the Jews from the land of Egypt, "with a strong hand, and a stretched-out arm." He often saved them from their enemies; He brought them back from the Babylonish captivity, and restored them to their religious privileges. But behold a new thing in the earth and something surpassing every previous dispensation. "Behold the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." "A body was prepared for Him, and He suffered, He died, and He rose again, and He now sitteth on the right hand of God, as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins." For 4,000

years prophets predicted Him, sacrifices prefigured Him, and saints expected Him. And, brethren, what do we again infer from this? We are never so liable to err as when we come forward and determine what God should do, or what He should not do, in particular cases. But if God Himself comes forward, shewing us that He was under a kind of necessity—we use His own language-to do so and so, surely it becomes us to acquiesce; and has He not told us that "it became Him, by whom are all things, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." Has He not told us that Christ ought to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? That "it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for