What with divers miracles and gifts of the O, brethren, let us look at our rights and immunities, thus distinguished—thus "revealed;" and if you have a spark of intellect-if you have any ability to investigate-if you are at all capable of comparing things that differ; then will you cheerfully, gladly, willingly, give the palm to your religious immunities. We have heard much of "the rights of man," a great deal has been said and written on the rights of people and the rights of princes: but, without denying that these rights have their importancean importance which should never be taken from them-there are no rights which concern us as immortal creatures as men destined to live for ever-as those which are made known to us by divine revelation. These are the rights to which the text refers; those rights which have been revealed by such a grand apparatus of means, and all of which are characterized by so much grandeur, simplicity, importance, and authority. I say again, if we are capable of comparing the various objects that are presented to our minds, we shall rejoice to hear that "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but the things which are revealed belong unto us.” And we will endeavour to ascertain, speak in an intelligible manner. certainty does it impart to them! are not the doubtful deductions of human reason of gigantic intellect of enlarged stores of erudition. No: they are a revelation from God. It is to this cause we trace the failure of all other hypotheses, however splendid; they failed, because they wanted the essential character of a revelation from God. What grandeur, too, does this imprint on our rights! They have features of simplicity, it is true, but of dignity also. They are the word of God-God speaking to men! God himself, bringing the charter of our privileges in his own hand! God, proclaiming his will concerning us, from the excellent glory! And from the moment that God caused his voice first to vibrate on the ears of man-in all the promises he has made in all the predictions which his prophets uttered, in the voice of the harbinger of the great Messiah-in the voice of Christ himself when he sojourned on our earth, and in the voice of all his apostles and preachers-we have proof that all our privileges are characterized by all that is great by all that is dignified. Nay, what authority is imparted to them by this circumstance! The revelation of God! Yes; this was what all the hypotheses which have been made known to men wanted-namely, authority. But our privileges are revealed, and they bear the stamp and seal of the King of kings and Lord of lords. They are all They "belong unto us;" so it is said marked as announcements to man of the in the text. But what is the ground of will of the everlasting God. Wherever our claim to the things that are revealed? we turn, “Thus saith the Lord" vibrates It cannot be natural to us, considering us on our ears; and we fall down and adore, abstractedly, as men. It is true, indeed, while it is said, "Therefore we ought to that there began to be a system of revegive the more earnest heed to the things lation and communication from the first, which we have heard, lest at any time we to sinless and innocent man. But the should let them slip. For if the word things which are revealed to us contain spoken by angels was steadfast, and every much, certainly, which was not adapted transgression and disobedience received a to man in his first state. This revelation just recompense of reward, how shall we could not belong to man, then, as he was escape, if we neglect so great salvation? created. And though we are sinners, and which at the first began to be spoken by this revelation is made to us as sinners; the Lord"—the Lord incarnate! and after still, the fact of our sinfulness could give its authority had been thus established, us no claim to such a revelation; no claim "was confirmed unto us by them that to a revealed God-to a revealed Saviour heard him; God also bearing them wit--to a revealed heaven-to a revealed immesa, both with signs and wonders, and mortality. No; we can support no elaim, Secondly, THE VALIDITY of our CLAIMS TO THESE IMMUNITIES. the brute creation; though good men have entertained such an idea. All these things are ours, because "the word which was with God, and which was God, was made flesh, and dwelt among us; so that we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." But, besides this, we have other and collateral grounds of claim. In proof that the things that are revealed belong unto us, I would appeal, either natural or meritorious. How then | point. Nor is there any reason for supare these things ours? Simply simply posing that its blessings will extend to because of the sovereign will of God. That will has been employed in reference to us. Guided by infinite wisdom, prompted by infinite love, its determinations have issued in the birth of a Saviour, and, through him, in the repurchase of our former inheritance. It was given to us by God himself: first, in promise; then in the oath by which he confirmed that promise; ultimately, in the gift of Christ: and this gift of Christ himself was the pledge that all which God had promised should be ours. God "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all," and will therefore, with him, freely give us all things." We take our stand here, then; we have a right to these things because God has bestowed them on us, in covenant-by his mercy-by free donation. Looking on the world in its hell-deserving condition, while travelling on to damnation, he entered into gracious covenant with Christ, and all the world; "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus: who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Jesus Christ was not merely the fountain of revelation, but the head: by his voluntary sacrifice of himself in our behalf, he acquired a right for us; so revelation and all its blessings became ours. Now, among all the creatures God has formed, whether residing in heaven, or the inhabitants of planets discovered or unknown, where shall we find a people that can lay claim to these things equally with ourselves? He by whom they were bought, is "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh," the Son of God and the Son of man. Christ is ours, and the things which reveal him are ours; the sun is ours, and all the rays of that sun are ours; the fountain is ours, and all its streams are ours; "Emanuel, God with us," is ours; and hence all else is ours also. Revelation itself does not warrant any other beings to lay claim to its truths, but us. There is no intimation that it was designed for a superior race of beings, but rather on the contrary; though men have often speculated curiously upon this 1. To their astonishing adaptation to our circumstances. There is, in this respect, a striking connexion between the mercy announced, and the state of human beings. Take a summary of revealed truth, and bear it to human beings wherever you find them; let but the light beam upon their minds, let but the truth be revealed to them, and it finds something in the heart, and conscience, and understanding, which responds to it; something which forms a collateral argument that the things revealed belong to them. This is not theory, but fact. Wherever the gospel is borne, on whatever wind of heaven, there we find darkness chased by lightguilt met by its Saviour uncertainty done away by the life which it brings to light-all incompetency met by the power of the gospel-and those who listen to it raised to the level of intelligent and redeemed men. We appeal further, 2. To the legitimated means of their transmission. God has not left the truths of revelation to themselves, to make their own way, and subdue the world to obedience. Men may talk of the force of truth, and say that it is great, and must ultimately prevail; yet truth, in order to its final triumph, has to contend with all the corruptions of the human heart. God has not left the truth to find its way, without making provision for its communication to the beings for whom it was designed; and all the means which he has employed cast a light upon the fact that they belong to us. Where the truth effects the conversion of an individual, that individual makes the change known to another; a church is formed; the members of that church are removed in various directions; | defenced city a ruin;" the truth which and thus God causes his truth to make its way throughout the whole earth. Again: God has not left his truth to float on the stream of tradition, liable to be injured or impaired; but has given it the tangibility, shall I say?—the certainty, the palpableness, of a written revelation. God has caused his will to be recorded in a written form, and so handed down from man to man. What shall I say of a standing ministry, to explain and enforce these various truths in the hearing of men from time to time? What shall I say to the injunction given to parents to teach these things to their children; "that the generations to come may know them, who shall arise and declare them to their children; that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." Look at the nature of these divinely instituted means, and say, if you have not proofs that the things which are revealed belong to man. I refer you, 3. To the wonderful preservation of these things. How wonderfully has God taken care to preserve his truth pure and unadulterated, notwithstanding the prevalence of error-the tyranny of passionand the cruelty of persecution. Think of the numerous foes that have been raised against the truth-pagans, who have aimed to destroy it, and papists, who have monopolized it. Think of popes and of devils-of some who have held fast the key of knowledge, and others who have corrupted it according to their own fancies. What do we see, but God himself holding the charter of our liberties in his own hands, and causing even the fire of persecution to induce us to retain our grasp of his revelation more firmly. What has not died away? Nations and empires have been overthrown-the thrones of princes have been undermined; they have fallen, and great has been the fall. Philosophers and their systems have vanished away. The world has been one continued scene of change, alteration, and destruction: but the word of God has remained the same. While whole nations have passed away; while "the city has become a heap, and emanated from God has been preserved, and has shone brighter and brighter. The stream which, at the first, bubbled up at the foot of the eternal throne, has rolled silently on, increasing in majesty as it passed along, gathering strength from the very means employed to obstruct its course; now gliding unseen through subterraneous channels-then proceeding, softly and slowly, like the waters of Shiloah-and anon bursting forth like an American cataract, and rolling on with a mighty rapidity, bearing down before it each opposing barrier; declaring to the astonished children of men, that while “all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, the word of the Lord endureth for ever." While men have stood upon its brink, and been compelled to exclaim, "We have seen an end of all perfection!" it still flows on, fertilizing and blessing all its banks. "The word of the Lord by the gospel is still preached," furnishing a miraculous proof that "the things which are revealed belong unto us.' And what if I conduct you, in further proof of this point, 4. To the influence of these things upon the nature of man. I often think on what would have been the state of the world, if these things had not been revealed. O, brethren, our living in the light of this truth makes it as familiar to us as our A, B, C; and tends to make us forget the condition of those who are destitute of it. O, what a region approximating to that of hell-what a wilderness of sorrow and of wo-would this nation have been, if God had never illuminated it with his revelation! This may be inferred from the state of those who have but a portion of this truth, in comparison with that of those who are altogether destitute of it. Look at the influence of the things that are revealed on the intellectual-the political-the domestic-the religious relations in which men stand. On the intellectual condition of men. The things that are revealed have enlarged the sphere of knowledge. Religion has expanded the intellect, even where it has not changed the heart. It has a tendency to refine, where it does not save. I will not undertake to say what have been its effects on science, and literature, and the liberal arts; but it is enough to offend one, to see the votaries of intellect and literature strutting in peacock dignity, when it could be clearly proved that all the knowledge which they possess is derived from the things that are revealed. They have stolen fire from the altar of God, and have astonished others, while they have never been ingenuous enough to confess the theft. They have paraded in pomp before their fellow mortals, forgetting that the fairest feathers which they have ever worn have been those plucked from the bird of paradise. But for this, they would have had nothing-they would have been nothing. If God had not spoken from heaven, and revealed his will to men, they would still have been in gross intellectual darkness. What shall I say of its political influence? What has not revelation done for the establishment of genuine liberty! From the mountain of revelation, the sweetest breezes of freedom have been wafted. The tree of liberty, beneath whose ample shadow we have lived, and by whose fairest fruit we have been fed, was sown by God himself in his revelation; and it owes its elevation and grandeur entirely to the truth which he has made known. Think of its influence on the domestic relation. And all that is sweet in the name of home; all that is connected with the names of father, child, husband, wife, master, servant; all that is considered desirable to meet with in our intercourse with men, in our communion with each other; is derived from the things which God has so graciously made known to men. Look upon the religious state of man. O God! who but thyself can tell what has been the influence of thy truth upon the mind of man? It has poured a flood of light upon the darkness of the understanding-it has given patience in affliction, and satisfaction in disappointment-it has afforded direction in perplexity, and support in feebleness-it has revealed that heaven, where the Christian shall rest from his labours, when he shall return with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy upon his head. "The things that are revealed!" Who can thus trace their influence, (and this is a mere sketch,) and not see in all this a strong, clear, satisfying proof that God designed all these things for us? and not say with pleasure and gratitude, "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but the things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever?" My brethren, if these be our rights, and if our claims can be so supported, should we not next ask, how does it become us to use these rights? We are certainly not to hold them in ignorance of their nature: we are not to suppose that they are given merely to distinguish us from those by whom we are surrounded. They are surely given to us to promote our individual benefit. If this revelation be sealed with the broad seal of heaven, and presented to us in an intelligible form, how ought we to aim at knowing the things it contains; that what it reveals may be enjoyed on the one hand, and obeyed on the other! We are to search these divine oracles, till their force is felt on our hearts, and their import treasured up in our recollection. Highly, greatly as God has distinguished us by these rights, this will only issue in our aggravated wo, if we should be found walking in the ways of darkness. Let us not be hearers of the truth only-let us not be content with looking at the "perfect law of liberty," and admiring it merely; let us look and admire, but let us also "continue therein;" that we may not be forgetful hearers, but "doers of the work." Again: If these be our rights, and if they belong to our children, and to our children's children, what care should we take to transmit them without corruption to the succeeding generation. We often read of the enthusiastic ardour of those who have advocated our rights who have not merely thundered in the senate, but have shed their blood on the scaffold; and while we have seen these martyrs in the cause of civil liberty, and martyrs in the cause of Christ, thus fearlessly and freely yielding up their lives, how have we admired, nay, almost envied, the men who shalt bind them for a sign upon thine were able to manifest such zeal and pa- hand; and they shall be as frontlets betriotism! But why did they act thus ?tween thine eyes; and thou shalt write that we, and those who came after us, might enjoy those liberties which they esteemed more valuable than liberty or life; and shall not we transmit them to our children, and to those that may come after us, "that they also may set their hope in God, and keep his commandments?" them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Thus giving the greatest publicity to them, that the generation to come might know them, and seek after God, and love him and serve him with all their hearts. And while we understand these things, and find them to be all our joy and all our desire, let us be glad that This is your work. It is for an insti- there are so many advocates of these tution which is designed to carry these truths of God. We live in a day in which purposes into effect, that he who ad- much opposition is made to pure and undresses you has now to plead. An in- defiled religion: but as the truth has outcompetent pleader he confesses himself; lived all the efforts of the prince of darkbut one who feels that something like the ness, and gathered strength from the very whole energy of zeal should be thrown opposition which has been made to it, it into his subject, while he has to plead the shall still be so to the end of time. It rights of children. You are called to take has defied all the sophistries of Hume, care of the children of the poor-some of and the eloquence of Gibbon, and the them your neighbours and some not-in vituperations of Voltaire, and the inuenorder that you may give them a portion of does of Rousseau, and the blasphemy of education. A great deal has been said Paine; and when all their names shall about education-a great deal has been have been written in the dust, or appear said loosely, a great deal foolishly, about on the roll of history as awful instances it. Education may be, and in some cases of depraved intellect and perverted talent is, a great evil: but a Christian education—the TRUTH shall stand unsullied and -and this is your work-is that by which you may serve your generation, your country, your God. In no other way can you turn education to a good account, but by teaching them the truth of God. We speak to you in language sound-" Come ye, and let us walk in the light ing from the throne of heaven-in language addressed to you through the medium of the Jewish lawgiver, surrounded by the congregated thousands of Israel. "Hear, O Israel! the words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart." This is to be our first care; and "thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy May God further, by your means, and children; and shalt talk of them when by the united means of all Christians, thou sittest in thine house, and when thou this glorious consummation, and fulfil walkest by the way, and when thou liest the truth of the text in your experience. down, and when thou risest up: and thou | Amen. uninjured before God. And while all that the malignant heart of the infidel prompts him to, shall have failed of its effect, and died away, the truth shall give its suffrages for the welfare of men to the very ends of the earth: Christians shall say, of the Lord; for the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks." |