this appointment is a part of the good tidings contained in my text. Proclaim it from the tops of the mountains, that there is forgiveness with him. Say unto Jerusalem, Behold MESSIAH, Behold your God! He comes to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself*. He can do it, for he is God; and he will do it, for he has taken on him our nature for this very purpose. "Be"hold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of "the world!" 2. Alienation of mind. Not only is it true that we have sinned against the Lord, but a principle of aversion from him is deeply rooted in our hearts. Therefore one part of our natural character is, "haters "of God." This is thought a hard saying. Many who will admit that their conduct is blameable, and that they are not altogether what they ought to be, will by no means plead guilty to this charge. If they fall short of their duty, and in some instances transgress his commandment, they say, it is their infirmity; they are sorry, and hope to do better some time or other. However, they are willing to think that their hearts are tolerably good, they mean well, and are shocked at the idea of hating God. They rather presume that they love him, though they are not so careful to please him as they should be. I do not assert that we hate God under that character which our vain imaginations form of him. If we can persuade ourselves, in direct contradiction to the testimony of Scripture, that he is not strict to mark what is amiss; that he will dispense with the strictness of his law; that he will surely have mercy upon us, because we are not openly abandoned and profligate in our conduct; that he will accept of lip *Heb. ix. 26. +2 Cor. v. 21. Rom. i. 30. worship in which the heart has no concern, reward us for actions in which we had no intention of pleasing him, permit us to love and serve the world with all our mind, and soul, and strength, while we live, and make us happy in another world, when we can live in this no longer; if we forin such an image of God, it is too much like our own to provoke our enmity, for it is destitute of holiness, justice, and truth. But "the carnal "mind is," and must be, "enmity against God," according to the character he has given of himself in his word. We have an inbred dislike to all his moral attributes, to the rule of his government, and to the methods of his grace. We cannot, that is, we will not, propose either his glory as our chief end, or his favour as our chief good. The proof is plain. The ends which we actually pursue, and the supposed good which we deliberately prefer, are utterly inconsistent with the plan which he has prescribed for us. His ways, though truly pleasant in themselves, appear unpleasing to us, and we think we can plan better for ourselves. We do not like "to retain God in our thoughts," which is a sure sign of enmity. Nay, this enmity is so strong in us naturally, that we cannot bear others should think more highly of God than we do, or be more attached to him than we are. This was the ground of the first murder. Abel loved God, and God was pleased to testify his approbation of Abel, and therefore Cain killed him. This has been the great cause of the opposition and ill-treatment which the servants of God have met with from the men of the world in all succeeding ages: a cause which still subsists, and will continue to operate upon posterity yet Rom. viii. 7. VOL. IV. ↑ Rom. i. 28. 1 John ini. 12. unborn. Can we show a stronger mark of dislike to a person, than by hating all who profess a regard to him, and when that is the only cause of our resentment? Such is the prevailing enmity against God. For how often do we see that when his grace enables a sinner to forsake the spirit and practice of the world, his former friends are immediately offended; and, perhaps, those of his own household become his inveterate enemies? But, "O thou that bringest good tidings, lift up thy "voice." Say to poor sinners, "Behold your God!" He comes to take this enmity away! The cross of Christ subdues it, when every other expedient has been found ineffectual. The heart, too hard to be softened by a profusion of temporal benefits, and too stout to be subdued by afflictions, is melted by the dying love of a Saviour, and by that discovery of the divine perfections which is exhibited in redemption. We have a striking instance of this effect, in the case of Saul of Tarsus*. His misguided conscience, under the influence of prejudice, persuaded him, "that he ought to do many "things against Jesus of Nazareth." Instigated with rage, and not satisfied with the injuries he had offered to his disciples at Jerusalem, but "still breathing out threatenings and slaughter," he journeyed towards Damascus, designing to harass and persecute them wherever he found them. In this temper of mind, he was suddenly arrested on his way, by a light, and a voice from heaven. He fell to the ground. But Jesus, whom he had ignorantly persecuted, instructed him in the knowledge of his person and love, pardoned his sin, and commissioned him to preach the faith he had laboured to destroy. How sudden, how evident, how *Acts ix. 1--20. abiding, was the change which then took place in his heart and in his conduct! From that moment he accounted" all things loss and dung, for the excellency " of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord*." Unwearied by labour and hardship, undismayed by opposition and danger, he spent the remainder of his life in the cause of his Master; and, like Caesar, accounting nothing done while any thing remained to do, his active and intrepid spirit was continually meditating new services t. And, though he knew that bonds and afflictions awaited him in every place, he was always upon the wing, to publish to his fellow-sinners the grace and glory of him whom he had so long opposed, only because he knew him not. And although the circumstances attending the apostle's case were extraordinary, the case itself, as to the substance, is not singular. I trust many persons in this assembly have been the subjects of a like change. The doctrine which Paul preached, has enlightened your understandings, has inspired you with hopes and desires to which you were once strangers, and given a new direction to the conduct and aims of your life. You were once afar off from God, but you are now brought nigh by the blood of Christ. You once lived to yourselves, but now you feel that you are no longer your own, and have devoted yourselves to him who died to save you from the present evil world, and from the wrath to come. 3. Misery. If we are guilty in the sight of God, and alienated from him in our hearts, we must be miserable. Guilt entails a burden, and a foreboding of evil upon the conscience. And our alienation from the fountain of living waters, compels us, (for we are in Phil. iii. 8. † Acts xix. 21, Jer. ii. 13. sufficient to our own happiness,) to seek our resources from broken cisterns, and pits which will hold no water. Further, sin has filled the world with wo. The whole creation travails and groans; and natural evil is inseparable from moral, as the shadow from the body. Though the earth be filled with tokens of the goodness, patience, and forbearance of God, it likewise abounds with marks of his displeasure. I think we have sufficient reason to attribute earthquakes, hurricanes famine, and pestilence, to sin, as their original and proper cause. We can hardly conceive, that if mankind had continued in that happy state of love and obedience to God in which our first parents were created, they would have been exposed to such calamities. When God at the beginning surveyed every thing that he had made, "behold it was very good*." All was beauty and harmony, till sin introduced disorder and a curse. But far worse than what we suffer immediately from the providence of God, are the evils which we bring upon ourselves and upon each other. The dreadful consequences of war, rapine, discord, hatred, ambition, avarice, and intemperance, furnish part of every page in the mournful history of human life, and are felt in every nation, city, village, and family. Want, cares, and diseases, prey upon individuals. Disappointment, dissatisfaction, vanity, and vexation of spirit, are experienced by persons of every rank, and in every stage of human life. How much more desirable would it be, were it not for the hope of the Gospel, to share with the brute creation, than to bear the name of man in his fallen state! The brutes have few wants; their propensities, and the means of gratifying them, are suited Gen. i. 31. |