Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

if the subject had been left to their determination, would have probably preferred to every other.

Similar objections have been made to the manner in which certain parts of the Scriptures are written. Particularly, the Prophecies have been sometimes censured, because they are too general and obscure, and sometimes because they are too particular and explicit. The style, in the view of some individuals, is too simple; in the view of others too abrupt; and in the view of many, too devoid of art and elegance.

Another source of objections to the Scriptures is found in their doctrines. Particularly, multitudes have been dissatisfied with them because they are mysterious. Of this class are those concerning the decrees of God; the Trinity; the Deity and Humanity of Christ; the Personality and Agency of the Holy Spirit; the Incarnation; the Atonement; the renovation of the human soul; the Resurrection; and the endless punishment of the wicked. It is hardly necessary for me to remark how numerous the objections against these have been, or how often they have been repeated.

The precepts of the Scriptures have not been less censured, particularly for their strictness, their extent, their unbending nature, and their want of adaptation to the nature and circumstances of man.

I am well aware that many answers have been given to these objections, and that more might be given, amply sufficient to remove them out of the way. It might be shown with no great difficulty, that the manner in which the Scriptures are written is happier than any which it has been proposed to substitute for it; that so far as they are intelligible to us, the doctrines accord with truth, and the precepts with righteousness; and that where they are mysterious, there is nothing in them which violates the dictates of our reason, although there are many things which transcend the limits of our investigation. To do this, however, or any part of it, is not at all included in my present design. I am perfectly willing, for my present purpose, that as many things specified as the objectors please shall be considered as difficult, mysterious, and inexplicable.

But the objectors are bound to remember, and if possessed of any candour must willingly remember,

First, That a revelation is the work of God. As, therefore, all the other works of God are mysterious and inexplicable, it ought to be taken for granted, that a revelation must sustain the same character. Should I be asked, Why if it is thus mysterious, it is called a revelation, since to reveal is to discover, the answer is at hand. It does actually discover innumerable things before unknown by man; explains and settles innumerable more, which would otherwise have been, as without its assistance they had ever been, obscure and doubtful ; and that it discloses with sufficient clearness parts of many other subjects, with respect to each of which the whole is necessarily incomprehensible by us. The parts revealed were necessary to us, and are therefore revealed; while that which is unnecessary is withheld. A revelation formed in this manner is, beyond a doubt, all that we need. Accordingly the Scriptures have been found perfectly competent to all the wants of mankind, both as a rule of duty and as a guide to eternal life. It is remarkable that plain men have ever found them sufficiently clear and comprehensive for their own use, and none but those who were professedly learned have been ever troubled with these difficulties.

Secondly, A revelation is necessarily, on account of the thoughts and ways of God, which we every where see, so far as we see them at all, attended with many mysteries incomprehensible and inexplicable. If then a revelation is to be a true and just account of these inexplicable things, it must of course, and to a considerable extent, be mysterious. The very things which are the most plain and obvious are, in the very nature of the case, connected with others less plain. These again are inseparable from others still more obscure; and these with others still more remote from our investigation. Wherever, therefore, a revelation should stop, such a one I mean as would be of any serious importance to us, such a one as would at all deserve the name, it must necessarily be mysterious; both because it must be an account of the character, agency, and

works of God, and because, from the inseparable connection of things in the created system, a disclosure of the plainest must involve a partial disclosure of others eluding our research.

Thirdly, If the Scriptures contained nothing mysterious, they would want one proof of being a revelation. What one man could completely comprehend, another, for aught that apарpears, might have devised. The very mysteries objected to the Scriptures, carry with them decisive evidence, that they neither were nor could be invented by man.

VI. Objections against revelation, from what it is supposed, God ought to do, are destitute of weight as well as of decency.

"Who," saith St. Paul, "hath known the mind of the Lord, "and who hath been his counsellor?" Let me vary this phraseology, and ask, Who can know the mind of the Lord, and who can be his counsellor? Who can determine what ought to be done by a mind, boundless in its attributes, designing and acting for immensity and eternity? Who can tell the nature and design of even a minute part of what he has done? Who, much more, can tell, or even remotely conjecture, what he ought to do?

On these subjects to philosophize is folly in the extreme. They are so entirely removed beyond our reach, that it is impossible for us to know any thing which can be of any value. No efforts of the most capacious human mind have hitherto been able even to lay hold on them. Very many ingenious men have employed themselves, with no small labour, in attempting to form schemes of creation and providence; and in determining what was proper and what was improper to be done by the Ruler of all things. Unsatisfied with that which is disclosed in the Bible, they have wished to substitute a plan of their own for that of God. By this plan they have not only chosen to interpret the designs for which the beings and events which compose the great system were formed, but have strenuously insisted that their fellow-men should adopt this interpretation. To the same plan they have not only bent their own creed, but with a sufficient degree of assurance, have required the Creator to conform his conduct. Wretched philosophers!

Miserable men! How much more rationally and justly would they have acted, had they exclaimed with a man incomparably wiser than themselves, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for "me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”

What is it that we attempt to comprehend and explain. The thoughts and works of an infinite mind; plans filling eternity and immensity; a train of causes and effects begun here and reaching in a regular chain through endless duration; causes and effects, now existing, to be explained by consequences situated in the remote regions of being. Who are we that thus resolutely enter upon this mighty task? Worms of the dust. When were we born? Yesterday. What do we know? Nothing.

SERMON IX.

LIFE AND IMMORTALITY BROUGHT TO LIGHT IN THE

GOSPEL.

SERMON I.

2 TIMOTHY i. 10.

"But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel."

In this passage of Scripture, Christ, according to the common translation, is said to have abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. The word, which is rendered hath abolished, is xaragynoavros, the proper meaning καταργήσαντος, of which is to render vain or ineffectual, i, e. to deprive a thing of its efficacy. The word rendered, hath brought to light, is parisavros, which signifies to illuminate, to cast a strong light upon, set or exhibit in a clear light. The words in the original for life and immortality are ζωήν και άφθαρσαν, life and incorruption. The life here mentioned is unquestionably the life beyond the grave. The incorruption is an attribute of that life, and may refer, without any impropriety, either to the body or the mind of him who will possess it; or, with equal propriety, to both. In Hebrew phraseology, life and incorruption are the same as incorruptible life. But incorruption, applied to this subject, is the same thing with immortality The words may of course, with the strictest propriety, be rendered immortal life. I would, therefore, translate the whole

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinua »