To become a Christian, we must have other desires, other hopes, other sentiments, and other pursuits, than those of the world: unless you are born again, you can neither become a member of the church, nor apply to yourselves the promises made to the church. So long as you persist in conserving this conformity to the world, though against the better feelings of your heart, from the sole desire of not rendering the world implacable, or as the gospel says of some, "for fear of the Jews," you are not Christians; and thus the proposition of Jesus Christ is just as much demonstrated with regard to you, as with regard to Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." much on terrific truths? Perhaps you will ask | from this discourse, which so naturally occur for whom these discourses are intended which to my mind as those that a prophet declared can but directly interest such characters as are to a queen of Israel; I would say, as Ahijah to out of the reach of our voice? For whom are the wife of Jeroboam, "I am sent to thee with these discourses, do you yet ask? For some of heavy tidings," 1 Kings xiv. 6. And all those those who hear us, whom God has saved from tidings are not less true than heavy. I confess these calamities, but who hesitate, perhaps, my inability to comprehend the facility with about a relapse. For whom? For this father which some people apply to themselves the of a family, who has left his country, but un- evangelical promises, and arrogate the first able to induce his children to follow, he has es- place in the kingdom, into which Jesus Christ tablished them there; and they will curse him, says, none shall enter without a new birth. perhaps, to all eternity, for having procured Each of the articles in which we have made them worldly wealth at the expense of their the nature of this change to consist, supplies immortal souls. It is for this father, that he us with arguments against this class of people. may feel the horror of a crime which cannot be repaired by too many regrets, by too many sighs, by too many tears. For whom? For a very considerable number of ourselves, who have intercourse with those base Christians, to use unremitting efforts, that they may feel their situation, and be delivered from it. For whom? For you, our high and mighty lords, defenders of the faith, nursing fathers of the church, so often importuned by our solicitations, that you still deign to bear them; and that the protection you have extended to those who take refuge in your country, having but their souls for a prey, may encourage those to come hither, who yet remain in an idolatrous" country. For whom? For the whole, how many soever we be, that impressed with the greatest of our calamities, we may endeavour This last article is worthy of our attention. to move by ardent prayers the bowels of a There are some men, who, if they should folcompassionate God, and prevail on him to re-low their inclination, would wholly devote build the ruins of our Jerusalem, and the dust of our sanctuaries, and to restore to us the great number of souls which the persecution, and more so, the love of the world, have rent away. O God!" God of vengeance, a consuming fire, a jealous God: how long wilt thou be angry with the prayers of thy people? Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; give him no rest till he establish, and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." O God, though we can indeed resolve to abandon our country for ever, yet we cannot resolve to abandon the soul of our brethren. O God, so long as access to the throne of thy mercy shall be open, we will thither approach to ask for the souls of our brethren; and so long as a single moment of life and strength shall remain, we will raise our suppliant cries, and say, Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this! Return, O Lord, return to the many thousands of Israel." Shut the pit of the abyss which is ready to swallow up the souls of our brethren. Lam. ii. 20; Numb. x. 36. 66 But does the proposition of Jesus Christ solely regard the Nicodemites properly so called? Are all those Christians who belong to Christian communions? Among all our hearers, among those who adhere to our worship, who believe our mysteries, and who partake of our sacraments, is there no one to whom we may justly apply the words of the Saviour, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven?" Oh! my brethren, what is the ministry we are commissioned to exercise to-day? What is the gospel which God has this day put into our mouth? I can draw no conclusions themselves to God, but are deterred from doing so, by I know not what shame, the world is pleased to attach to those who openly declare for virtue. For it must be remarked, that our age is come to that pitch of depravity which attaches a note of infamy on those who openly declare for religion, and thereby exposes them to a kind of persecution. This consideration induces Nicodemus to come to Jesus by night, " for fear of the Jews." Here also is what hinders a vast number of men from glorifying the truth. Why does this young man affect outwardly to adopt certain airs of gallantry and profaneness, which he detests in his heart? It is "for fear of the Jews." Because it has pleased men of fashion to account those vices in youth a sort of courtly graces: it is because they attach a badge of infamy on a young man, who is chaste and pious, and expose him to a kind of persecution. Why is it in politics that one dares not openly avow, that religion is the best policy, and that the most consummate statesman cannot save his country when pursued by the vengeance of heaven? It is "for fear of the Jews;" it is because we attach a note of infamy, and expose to a kind of persecution, the statesman who does not make every thing depend on the interested maxims of carnal men. Why does this pastor fail to magnify in his sermons the high morality of the gospel? It is "for fear of the Jews:" it is because the world accounted us visionaries, in fact, and persecuted us as disturbers of the public peace, when we confidently enforced the truth. Do you, alas! fear the Jews, like Nicodemus? Then you have need like him to be born again. Do you come to Jesus only by night, like this Rabbi? Then the proposition of Jesus Christ is as much demonstrated with regard to you, as with regard to him: "Verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Let us, my dear brethren, laying aside world-❘ ly prudence, seriously apply this doctrine; more especially if we are happy enough to know the glory of the gospel, let us never be ashamed to avow it; let us never blush to say, I am a Christian. It costs us much, in some situations, I fully agree, to make the avowal: but what matter? He who supported the martyrs on the fagots and piles; he who enabled St. Stephen to say, when the stones were falling on him, “Behold, I see heaven open, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God;" he who made the apostles exult in the midst of the greatest tribulations, saying, "Thanks be to God who hath always caused us to triumph in Jesus Christ:" the same God will also support us. If in this economy of confusion we are born from above, we shall receive the reward in the great day of universal regeneration; and we shall apply to ourselves the answer of Jesus Christ to St. Peter, when that apostle had asked, "Behold, we have left all, and followed thee, what shall we have therefore?" Jesus said unto them, “Verily, I say unto you, that ye who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Matt. xix. 27, 28. To sit on thrones with Jesus Christ when he shall come in his glory; O! what a motive, my dear brethren! Here is our support constantly to endure the cross, as he endured it. Here is our support to despise reproach, as he despised it. God grant us grace so to do. To him be honour and glory now and for ever. Amen. SERMON XCIX. his discipline is moderated by the wisest regulations. "All souls are mine," he says in the fourth verse of this chapter, "as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine, THE CONDUCT OF GOD TO MEN, AND and I will judge them, not only according to OF MEN. TO GOD. EZEK. XVIII. 29-32. the Sovereign power which I possess over them, but also according to their mode of life. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." "But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, and have not eaten upon the mountains," that is, if he has not partaken of the sacrifices, made by the idolatrous nations in the high places; nor eaten of the flesh of the victims sacrificed to their gods. "Neither hath defiled his neigh Yet saith the house of Israel; the way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your trans-bour's wife, and hath not oppressed any, but gressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel! For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. RIGHTEOUS art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments," Jer. xii. 1. Thus did the prophet Jeremiah formerly reconcile the desire, which is naturally formed by an intelligent being, to inquire into the ways of Providence, with the submission due even to its most obscure dispensations. We ought to possess a strong conviction of the infallibility of God, whose judgments are the rule of reason and of truth. This reflection should always be present in our minds, that his wisdom is able to resolve any difficulties which our finite understandings may suggest; and that the doubts which seem to obscure the glory which surrounds him, only serve to augment its splendour; "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee." Nevertheless, we are permitted to pour our cares into the bosom of God, and to seek in the riches of his knowledge for direction, and of his grace for help, to triumph over our corruptions. We may say, "why hast thou formed me thus," not to place our reason on a level with the Supreme Being, who governs the universe, but to obtain some rays of his light, if he deign to communicate them, or to acquiesce with bumility, in the dispensations he is pleased to order. "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments!" In the temper of mind here expressed, we have meditated on the words read to you; and in this temper you must listen to the explanation of them. They present to us an inquiry, and a conclusion. An inquiry, "O house of Israel, is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?" A conclusion, contained in these words, which is the substance of the two preceding verses, "turn yourselves, and live!" Before we enter upon this subject, it will be necessary to define the expression, conduct, or in the language of the text, "the ways of God, and the ways of the children of Israel." These terms must be limited to the subject treated of in the chapter from which they are taken. God there declares the line of conduct which he intends to pursue, both with regard to the Israelites and sinners in general. He will indeed act as a Sovereign, but the strictness of hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment," in a word, "He who hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judg ments to deal truly, he is just; he shall surely live, saith the Lord." But as the strict administration of justice, in a lawgiver, far from encouraging virtue, serves sometimes for a pretext to palliate vice, and as no mortal can attain to such a standard of holiness, as to bear a rigorous examination, God declares to sinners that he will pardon them on their sincere repentance, " But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die; all his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?" This is what we are to understand by the conduct of God, mentioned in the text, "Are not my ways equal, O house of Israel?" Let us now attend to the conduct of the children of Israel. We must again refer to the same source for information on this subject, the chapter from which the text is taken. We shall there find that the Israelites, during the time when God governed them as a father and legislator, as well as a sovereign, were bold enough to accuse him of forgetting his characters of father and lawgiver, and only exercising his power as sovereign. They charged him with violating that principle of equity, which is the foundation of all his laws, and which he himself had dictated, contained in Deut. xxiv. 6, and noticed by Amaziah, 2 Kings xiv. 6, in which the judges were forbidden to punish their fathers for the sins of the children, or the children for the sins of the fathers. They pretended that they were the victims of the violation of this law, and expressed this dreadful idea by the proverb, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." These blasphemous thoughts of the conduct of God towards them, influenced not merely their understanding, but regulated the whole course of their lives. They dared to assert that when God thus violated the laws of justice and charity, there was no obligation on them to observe them, and no necessity for repentance when they had broken them. "O house of Israel! are not my ways equal? Therefore |