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objections which have any show or colour of argument? My brethren, either we must deny the wisdom of the Creator, or we must infer this consequence, that what is most necessary to be known, what will be most fatal to man to neglect, what we ought most inviolably to preserve, is practical religion. Let us apply this general reflection to the deep decrees of God. If the "foundation of God stands sure," you can have no true joy or solid content, till you have each of you decided this great question; am I one of the "vessels of mercy decreed unto glory?" Or am I one of the " vessels of wrath fitting to destruction?" But how can I satisfy myself on this question at the same time so obscure and so important? The decree is impenetrable. The book of life is sealed. We have told you a thousand times, that there is no other way than by examining whether you bear the marks of election, and your whole vocation is to endeavour to acquire them. These characters, you know, are patience, gentleness, charity, humility, detachment from the world, and all other Christian virtues. It belongs to you to exercise them. A little less speculation and more practice. Let us become less curious, and try to be more holy. Let us leave God to arrange his own decrees, and for our parts let us arrange our actions, and regulate our lives. Do not say, if I be predestinated to salvation I shall be saved without endeavouring. You would be wicked to make this objection, for although you are persuaded that your days are numbered, yet you do not omit to eat, and drink, and take care of your health. In this manner you should act in regard to your salvation.

And we, ministers of Jesus Christ, what is our duty? Why are we sent to this people? Is it to fathom the decrees of predestination and reprobation? As the Spirit of God has revealed these mysteries, it is right to treat of them in the course of our ministry, and we should "think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think," were we to suppress this part of religion. But after all, must we stop here? Must this be the principal subject of our sermons? God forbid we should so ill understand the end of our ministry! I would as willingly see a physician, when he is consulted in a dangerous illness, employ himself in discoursing on the term of human life, haranguing his patient, telling him that his days are numbered, and that a hair of his head could not fall without the will of God. Unseasonable orator, leave talking, and go to work, consult the symptoms of my illness, call art and nature to my assistance, leave God to execute his own decrees, prescribe the remedies I must take, and the regimen I must follow, endeavour to strengthen this tottering body, and to retain my breath just ready to evaporate. Let us apply this image. Let us think of the account we must give to the master who sent us. Let us take care that he does not say to us in the great day of judgment, Get ye behind me ye refractory servants! I sent you to make the church holy, and not render it disputatious: to confirm my elect, and not to engage them in attempts to penetrate the mysteries of election, to announce my laws, and not to fathom my decrees.

But not to confine ourselves to these general

remarks, let us observe, that obscurity in regard to God affords powerful arguments against the rash divine, the indiscreet zealot, the timorous Christian, and the worldly man attached to sensible objects.

This subject addresses itself to you rash divines, you who perplex your mind by trying to comprehend incomprehensible truths, to you whose audacious disposition obliges you to run into one of these two extremes, either to embrace error or to render truth doubtful by the manner of explaining it. For understand, my brethren, the man who rejects a truth because he cannot comprehend it, and he who would fully comprehend it before he receives it, both sin from the same principles, neither understands the limits of the human mind. These two extremes are alike dangerous. Certainly on the one hand we must be very rash, we must entertain very diminutive ideas of an infinite God, we must be very little versed in science to admit only principles which have no difficulty, and to regard the depth of a subject as a character of falsehood. What! A miserable creature, an ignorant creature, a creature that does not know itself, would know the decrees of God, and reject them if they be unfathomable! But on the other hand, we must have very narrow views, we must have a very weak mind, we must know very little of the designs of God, not to feel any difficulty, to find every thing clear, not to suspend our judgment upon any thing, to pretend not only to perceive the truth of a mystery, but to go to the bottom of it. Insignificant man, feel thy diminutiveness. Cover thyself with dust, and learn of the greatest of divines to stop where you ought to stop, and to cry on the brink of the ocean, "O the depth!"

The deep things of God ought to confound the indiscreet zealot, who decries and reviles all opinions different from his own, though in matters in themselves dark and obscure. Here we pour our tears into the bosoms of our brethren of Augsburgh, some of whose teachers describe us in the most odious colours, dip their pen in gall when they write against us, tax us with making of the Deity a God cruel and barbarous, a God who is the author of sin, and who by his decrees, countenances the depravity and immorality of mankind. You see, whether this be our doctrine. You see, we join our voices with those of seraphims, and make our assemblies resound with "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." You see, we exhort our people to "enter in at the strait gate," and to "work out their salvation with fear and trembling." But, say you, do not the consequences we impute to you follow from your principles? To grant for a moment that they do follow, is it not sufficient that we disown and condemn them? Does not such an answer from you concerning another doctrine satisfy us? Accuse us of being bad reasoners: but do not accuse us of being wicked men. Accuse us of reasoning inconclusively; but do not accuse us of exercising a faithless ministry. But, say you, you have divines among you who poison controversy, who refute with bitterness, who excommunicate such as are not of their sentiments on predestination, and who, had they power equal to their will, would establish

every opinion with fire and blood. Have we such divines? Ah! may God deliver us from them! They follow their own spirit, and not the spirit of our churches. Our churches never separated any person from their communion for not believing predestination. You know this by experience. Do we not open our arms to you? Do we not receive you into our communion? Have we not a sincere and ardent desire to be in union with you? O that God would hear our prayers! Spouse of Jesus Christ! O that God would put an end to the intestine wars that tear thee asunder! Children of the Reformation! O that you had but the wisdom to unite all your efforts against the real enemy of the Reformation, and of the reformed! This is our wish, and these shall incessantly be our prayers.

The depths of the ways of God may serve to reprove the timid and revolting Christian; a character too common among us. Our faith forsakes us in our necessities; we lose the sure anchor of hope in a storm; we usually dash against rocks of adversity; we are confounded when we see those projects vanish, on the success of which we rested our happiness, and the prosperity of the church. My brethren, let us be more firm in our principles. Christian prudence indeed will oblige us to put our hand to every good work. We must be vigilant, assiduous, exact in our own affairs. In like manner in public dangers, we must assemble wise men, raise armies, and every one must endeavour to do what is in his power, and carry a stone towards the building of the temple: but when our designs fail, let us be steady, immoveable, unchangeable. Let us remember that we are only little children in comparison with the Intelligence at the helm of the world; that God often allows us to use just and rational means, and at length frustrates all our designs in order to deliver us by unexpected methods, and to save us with more conspicuous power and glory.

When I am to penetrate this truth, I fix my eyes on the great enemy of religion. I see him at first equalling, yea surpassing the most superb potentates, risen to a point of elevation astonishing to the whole world. His family numerous, his armies victorious, his territories extended far and wide, at home and abroad.

than a hundred thousand enemies are either buried in the waves, or killed by our troops, or trodden to death by our horse, or taken prisoners. Behold! whole provinces yield to our arms. Behold! our noble army covered with more laurels than we had ever seen before. Behold the fatal power that was just now exalted to heaven, shaking, falling, and about to be cast down to hell. My brethren, let these events make us wise. Let us not judge of the conduct of God by our own ideas, but let us learn to respect the depths of his Providence.

But what! shall we always live in shades and darkness! Will there always be a veil between the porch and the sanctuary? Will God always lead us among chasms and gulfs? Ah! my brethren, these are precisely the ejaculations, these are the desires with which we would inspire you; and this we affirm, that the deep things of God expose the folly of a worldly man, who immoderately loves the present life. Presently this night, this dark night, shall be at an end; presently we shall enter into that temple, "where there is no need of the sun, because the Lamb is the light thereof," Rev. xxi. 23. Presently we shall arrive at that blessed period, when that which is in part shall be done away. In heaven we shall know all things. In heaven we shall understand nature, providence, grace, and glory. In heaven, Jesus Christ will solve all our difficulties and objections. In heaven we shall see God face to face. O how will this knowledge fill us with joy! O how delightful will it be to derive knowledge and truth from their source! My soul, quit thy dust! Anticipate these periods of felicity, and say with Moses, "Lord, show me thy glory!" O Lord, dissipate the clouds and darkness that are around thy throne!

Lord shorten the time that separates us! . . . "No man can see my face and live." Well! Let us die then. Let us die to become immortal. Let us die to know God. Let us die to be made partakers of the divine nature. Happy to form such elevated wishes! Happier still to see them accomplished! Amen.

SERMON LXVI.

BY JESUS CHRIST.

MATTHEW Xxvi. 24.

The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but wo unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed: it had been good for that man, if he had not been born.

I see places conquered, battles won, and every THE SENTENCE PASSED UPON JUDAS blow aimed at his throne, serving only to establish it. I see a servile idolatrous court elevating him above men, above heroes, and likening him to God himself. I see all parts of the world overwhelmed with his troops, your frontiers threatened, religion trembling, and the Protestant world at the brink of ruin. At the sight of this tempest, I expect every moment to see the church expire, and I exclaim, O thou little boat, driven with the wind, and battered in the storm! Are the waves going to swallow thee up? O church of Jesus Christ! against which the gates of hell were never to prevail, are all my hopes come to this!-Behold Almighty God makes bare his holy arm, discovers himself amidst all this chaos, and overwhelms us with miracles of love, after having humbled us by the darkness of his Providence. Behold! In two campaigns, more

* Of Hochstet and Ramillies.

#

THIS verse is part of a period beginning at the seventeenth, and ending with the twentyfifth verse, in which the evangelist narrates two events, the last passover of Jesus Christ, and the treason of Judas. One of my colleagues will explain the other parts of this passage of sacred history, and I shall confine myself to this sentence of our Saviour against Judas, "It had been good for that man, if he had not been born."

This oracle is unequivocal. It conveys a

most melancholy idea of the condition of the unhappy criminal. It should seem, Jesus Christ enveloped in qualified terms a truth the most dreadful imaginable. These words, "It had been good for that man, if he had not been born," are equivalent to these, Judas is for ever excluded from the happiness of heaven; Judas is for ever condemned to the punishment of hell. It is the same truth, which the apostles expressed, after the example of their master, in milder terms, "Thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether thou hast chosen Justus or Matthias, that he may take part of this apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place," Acts i. 24-28. What is this place? The answer is easy, though some ancient heretics affirm extravagant things about it. It is the place reserved for those against whom the door of mercy is shut: it is the place reserved for those who must for ever serve for victims of divine justice.

If you recall to mind all the most guilty persons, and those whose condition is the most desperate, you will not find one of whom that can be said without rashness which is here affirmed of Judas, Judas is the only person, literally the only person, whom we are allowed with certainty to declare is in the torments of hell. Certainly we cannot help forming lamentable ideas of the condition of some sinners, who died in perpetrating their crimes; as of some who were less men than monsters of humanity, and who died blaspheming God, and attacking religion and morality, as Pharaoh, Belshazzar, Julian, and others; but after all, it is not for us to set limits to the mercy of God. The Holy Spirit has ways unknown to us to convert the hearts of men. Judas is the only one without exception, of whom I dare venture to affirm, he is irrecoverably lost. And when I form this judgment of his destiny, I do not ground it merely on his betraying Jesus Christ; for it is not impossible that after he had committed that crime he might have obtained forgiveness by repentance. I do not ground it on the manner of his death, for he was distracted, and madness is sometimes caused by trouble, and in such a case reason has no share, and divine justice does not impute sir to a man deprived of his senses. I ground my judgment of the punishment of Judas on the words of my text, "It had been good for that man, if he had not been born;" words never denounced by the Spirit of God against any other wretch that ever was. Thus the object which I exhibit to your view to-day, is not only a particular object, but is even an unique, a sole, a single object.

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But perhaps, because it is a singular case, you think it does not regard you, and that you need not make any inferences concerning your own eternal destiny from it. And does not this object regard you? Alas! My brethren, I dare not.....but however hear me; condescend to accompany me in this inortifying and (I must tell you, how improper soever it may seem to reconcile your attention) deign to accompany us in this alarming meditation. Come and examine what a melancholy likeness there is between the features of some of our hearers, and those of the miserable Judas.

How like are their dispositions! How sad soever the examination may be, there is at least one comfortable consideration, at least one difference between them and this traitor, that is, Jesus Christ has pronounced the decree of his condemnation, whereas he has not yet pronounced the sentence on my hearers; the door of mercy is yet open to them, the time of their visitation is not yet quite expired. O that they would avail themselves of the few inestimable moments that remain! O that they would throw themselves at the feet of that Jesus whom they have so often betrayed! O that they may be washed in that blood which they have so unworthily trodden under foot! God Almighty grant, for his great mercy's sake, that this may be the effect of this discourse! Grant, O God, that such of us as are best established in piety may be filled with holy fear, by seeing to what excess self-interest may be carried! "O Lord, incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not unto covetousness." Amen.

"It had been good for that man if he had not been born," or what is the same thing in this place, "If he had never existed, and were not to exist any longer." Let us first explain the meaning of Jesus Christ by a few reflections, and justify the idea I have given you of the words.

1. Existence is the foundation of happiness and misery. Nothing has no properties. Not to exist is to be neither happy nor miserable. To exist is to be capable of one or the other, or both together. Existence considered in itself, is indifferent to the being existing; it is the happiness or the misery with which it is accompanied, which determines the value of it. If it were possible for a man to exist without being either happy or miserable, his existence would be in some sort useless and indifferent, and it would be true in regard to him, that it would be neither good nor evil to him to be born or not to be born. If the existence of a man be accompanied with equal degrees of happiness and misery, we must form the same judgment; misery is compensated by happiness, and happiness by misery, the balance is equal, and preponderates neither way. If there be more happiness than misery in his existence, it is true in regard to him, that it is better for him to be than not to be; on the contrary, if misery exceed happiness, finish this proposition yourselves, and apply it to the subject in hand. "It had been good for Judas if he had not been born." So Jesus Christ declares. The existence of Judas then must be attended with more misery than happiness. This is our first reflection.

2. To judge whether a man be happy or miserable, whether it would be better for him to exist or not to exist, we must not consider him in regard to a few moments, but in the whole of his existence; we must examine whether all things considered good be greater than evil, or evil greater than good. The good and ills of past life generally leave no impression on our minds, they contribute only to our present happiness or misery, and there remains nothing but a remembrance of them. If you can judge of the happiness or misery of man by his actual condition, you will say in

each moment of his happiness, it is better for him to be than not to be; and during every moment of his misery, you will say, it is better for him not to exist. But, as I said before, it is not in regard to a single instant that a man ought to be considered to determine whether he be happy or miserable; it is in the whole of his existence.

life, mankind prefer life before annihilation. Whether their taste be good or bad, we do not inquire now, we speak of a fact, and the fact is indisputable. Jesus Christ speaks to men, he supposes their ideas to be what they are, and he speaks according to these ideas. When he says, "it had been good for Judas, if he had not been born," he means that his misery would be greater after death than it had been during his life; for how disgusting soever life may be, mankind prefer it before annihilation; and if Judas had no other punishment to suffer for his perfidy than such as belonged to the present state, Jesus Christ would not have said, "it had been good for that man if he had not been born." He intended we should understand that Judas would be more miserable in a future economy, than we are in this life, in spite of the maladies to which our frailty exposes us, in spite of the vicissitudes we experience, and in spite of the sacrifices, which we are daily required to make.

I make this reflection to prevent your supposing that when Jesus Christ said, "It had been good for Judas if he had not been born," he meant Judas should be annihilated. Had Judas been annihilated after death, it must be said, according to our first proposition, that Judas after death would not be either happy or miserable; that it would not have been either good or evil for him to be born or not to be born. In this case, to form a just idea of the value of the existence of Judas, it would be necessary to compare the misery of his end with the happiness of his life, and as we have no reason to think he had been more miserable than happy in his life, as we have reason to presume, on the contrary, that having been in a middling state of life, he had enjoyed the gifts of nature with some kind of tranquillity, it could not be affirmed, strictly speaking, that because he died a violent death, "it had been good for him if he had not been born." The death of Judas separated from its consequences was not more miserable than that of a man who dies in his bed after lying ill some days; and as we cannot affirm of a man, who after enjoying a tranquil life dies by an illness of some days, that "it had been good for that man if he had not been born," so neither can we affirm of Judas, if he had been annihilated after death. When Jesus Christ says, " it had been good for that man if he had not been born," he supposes he would subsist after death. He compares the condition he would be in after death with all the good he had enjoyed, and would enjoy during life; and by thus forming his judgment on the whole of existence, he determines that the existence of this traitor would be accompanied with more evil than good, and he pronounces, "it would have been good for that man if he had not been born," that is to say, if he never had existed, and if he never were to exist any longer. This" chains of darkness," the "worm that never is our second reflection.

3. Whatever misfortunes attend the present life, there are few men, who, all things considered, would not rather choose to live for ever, as we live in this world, than to be annihilated after living a few years. I do not inquire whether their choice be good; I only say it is their choice, the fact is incontestable. If few men be of the mind of Mæcenas, who said, "Let me suffer, let me be despised, and miserable, yet I would rather exist than not exist," if there be, I say, few men of the opinion of this favourite of Augustus, there are few also who adopt the sentiment of the Wise Man, or shall I say of the fool? (for there is some reason to doubt, whether it be the language of Solomon or the fool introduced in the book,") "I praised the dead which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive: yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been," Eccles. iv. 2, 3. To consider things as they usually are, whatever misfortunes attend

4. If, as we said at first, the sentence of Jesus Christ against Judas be expresssed in mild terms, we must, in order fully to comprehend the sense, lay aside the soft language, and advert to the terrible subject. But can we without rashness change the terms of a sentence which the Saviour pronounced, and give the whole of what he spoke only in part? Yes, provided the part we add be taken not from our own systems, but from that of Jesus Christ, who only can fill up the space which sufficient reasons induced him to leave vacant when he gave out this sentence. Now we find two things in the system of Jesus Christ on this subject. First, that the misery denounced against Judas is of the most dreadful kind. And secondly, that Jesus Christ denounces against him the greatest degree of misery of this kind. Or to express myself more clearly, my first proposition is, that every place in hell is intolerable. My second proposition is, that Jesus Christ doomed Judas to the most intolerable place in hell.

Does our first proposition need proving? I lay aside what the Scripture tells us of the "lake," the "bottomless pit," the "brimstone," the "smoke," the " darkness," the

dies, and the fire that is never quenched." Frightful objects! I have no need to recollect you to form gloomy images of the state of the damned. My idea of heaven is sufficient to give me a horrible image of hell. "Pleasures at God's right hand for evermore;" joy of an intelligent creature finding his knowledge for ever on the increase; calm of a conscience washed in the blood of the Lamb; freedom from all the maladies that afflict poor mortals, from all the inquietudes of doubt, and from all the turbulence of the passions: society of angels, archangels, cherubim, and all that multitude of intelligences, which God has associated both in rectitude and glory: close communion with the happy God; felicity of heaven: it is you that makes me conceive the horrible state of hell! To be for ever deprived of your charms, this alone is enough to make me tremble at the idea of hell.

But if every place in hell be intolerable, some are more so than others. When, by fol

lowing the genius of the gospel, you examine an irreligious man be not to have the power of for whom divine justice reserves the most dread-getting rid of the troubles of a few years by ful punishments, you easily conceive it is for destroying himself, what will be the state of such men as Judas, and you will agree (with- the damned to see themselves under a fatal neout our staying now to prove it) that as Jesus cessity of existing for ever, and of not having Christ denounced the worst kind of punish- the power of terminating their existence, and ment against him, so he doomed him to suffer of sinking into nothing? What despairing and the greatest degree of that kind of punishment. cruel complaints will this necessity of existing In fine, our last remark on the words of Je- cause? In vain will they seek refuge in "dens" sus Christ is, that when he said, "it had been and chasms of the earth! In vain will they good for that man if he had not been born" or implore "mountains and rocks to fall on them "had he never existed," he supposed not only and hide them!" In vain will they "curse the that the punishment of Judas did not exist in day," and execrate "the night of their birth!" annihilation, but that it would not be in his They will be obliged to exist, because Alpower not to exist. He supposed that Judas mighty God will refuse them that act of omwas not master of his own existence, and that nipotence, without which they cannot be anit did not depend on him to continue or to put nihilated. an end to it, as he should think proper. Existence considered in itself is indifferent. We have explained in what sense, and we have proved that it is the happiness or misery, which attends it, that determines the worth of it.— Now, whatever the pain of hell may be, it need not alarm us, if the Creator when he caused us to exist gave us the power of remaining in it or quitting it. In this case it would always depend on us to get rid of punishment, because it would depend on us to cease to exist, and we might enter into that state of annihilation which we said was neither happy or misera-sembly and the unhappy Judas. What a task ble, but we have not this power over ourselves. As an act of omnipotence was necessary to give us existence, so is it to deprive us of it; and as it belongs to none but Almighty God to perform the first of these acts, so it belongs only to him to effect the second; so absolute, so entire is our dependence upon him!

I do not know what is intended by the "star" mentioned in the ninth chapter of Revelation. St. John represents it as "falling from heaven unto the earth," as having "the key of the bottomless pit," as causing a "smoke to arise," by which the "sun and the air were darkened," and out of which came "locusts upon the earth." But I am persuaded, that in a system of irreligion nothing can be imagined more dreadful than the miseries which the Holy Spirit here says these infernal locusts inflict upon mankind. These were commanded "not to kill," but to "torment five months" such men as "had not the seal of God in their foreheads." And "in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. It is a miserable relief, I grant, to destroy one's self to avoid divine punishment. But does death put an end to our existence? Is a sinner less in the hand of God in the grave, than he is during this life? "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Ps. cxxxix. 7.

What misery in the eyes of an irreligious man to be tormented through life, and to be deprived of a relief which the wretched almost always have in view, I mean death! For how many ways are there of getting rid of life? And to what degree of impotence must he be reduced who is not able by any means to put an end to life? "In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them."

But if the greatest misery in the account of

Such will be the misery of the damned, and such is the extreme misery to which Jesus Christ adjudges Judas. But this man, you will say, had a dark perfidious soul, he was a traitor, he had the infamy to betray his Saviour, and to sell him for thirty pieces of silver; this man was such a monster as nature hardly produces in many centuries. My brethren, I am come now to the most odious but most necessary part of my discourse. I must enter on the mortifying task of examining whether there be any resemblance between some of this as

to perform in such an auditory as this! What a gospel to preach to Christians! What murmurs are we going to excite in this assembly! "The word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay," Jer. xx. 8, 9.

Do not think that I intend to conclude my discourse by abusing the liberty given me of speaking in this pulpit, by attempting to make an ingenious essay on a subject the most grave and solemn; be not afraid of my extenuating the crimes of Judas, and exaggerating yours. How is it possible to extenuate the crimes of Judas? When I represent to myself a man whom the Saviour distinguished in a manner so remarkable, a man who travelled with him, a man to whom he had not only revealed the mysteries of his kingdom, but whom he associated with himself to teach them to the world, to subvert the empire of Satan and set his captives free, and to preach this gospel, “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Sell that you have, and give alms, provide yourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not," Matt. vi. 19, &c. Luke xii. 33. When I consider this man freely opening his heart to the demon of avarice, parleying with the most obstinate enemies of his divine master, proposing to deliver him up to their barbarity, agreeing on the price of treason, executing the horrible stipulation, coming at the head of the most vile and infamous mob that ever was, giving the fatal signal to his unworthy companions, kissing Jesus Christ, and saying while he saluted him, "hail master;" when I consider this abominable man, far from

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