end, Mark xi. to the end, and readily appeased again, is constantly set forth as one of the brightest virtues that give Fr. m Matth. lustre to a brave and truly noble mind. And if such were the notions of heathens, who xx. 10. to the professed to follow no other guide but the light of reason, surely the duty of loving and 15. to the end forgiving those that have injured and offended us, cannot be a task so very difficult to Luke xix. 45. Christians, who, in matters capable of any tolerable construction, are required to put on John xii. 19. to that charity, (a) "which believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things;" the end. and, in the worst that can be, such a generous greatness of mind, as "puts away from us all bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil-speaking, with all malice; such as should make us kind and tender-hearted,-(b) restoring those that are overtaken in a fault in the spirit of meekness; and such as should prevail with us,-(c) to forbear one another, and to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us." [The truth is, that most of the objections urged against the moral precepts of the Gospel proceed from a total misapprehension of the import of those precepts. When our Lord says-(d) "Resist not evil," he alludes, as he himself informs us, to the lex talionis, or law of retaliation, which authorised an injured Jew to demand, if he chose, blow for blow," an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." This law the Christian Legislator repealed; and for the best of all reasons, because cases may occur, in which it could not be enforced without extreme cruelty. Many things, we know, were permitted to the Jews for the hardness of their hearts, and among them we may conclude was the practice of retaliation, which, in the corrupt age in which our Saviour appeared on earth, had probably extended far beyond the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. It would certainly be cruel, if not unjust, to render a man, with one eye, stone-blind, because in a sudden fit of passion he had accidentally struck out one of the eyes of his neighbour; or to deprive an artist of his right-hand, by which he supports himself and his family, because in anger he had struck off the right-hand of a man, who subsists by some employment, perhaps of his voice. These retaliations might be demanded by the Jews; but the mild and merciful Redeemer of the world, enjoins his followers to submit to repeated injuries of this kind, rather than avail themselves of this law, to indulge a spirit of revenge, from which they could not reap the smallest benefit. To deprive their offending brother of an eye or a limb in cool blood, could not restore to them the eye or limb, of which he had deprived any one of them in a fit of passion; and, as is evident from the context, this is all which our Lord meant, when he said, "Resist not evil;"-" do not retaliate (e)." He commands them to yield to slight instances of injustice, rather than have recourse to litigation for every trifle; and he strictly forbids his immediate disciples to insist on a privilege claimed by the disciples of the scribes and Pharisees, of being exempted from those occasional journeys in the service of the state, which all other Jews, when called upon, were bound to perform in the company of the public messengers As disciples of a Rabbi, who taught publicly in the temple, and spake as never man spake, they had an equal right with the disciples of the other doctors of the law to be exempted from this public duty; but their Master commanded them, instead of urging a false claim, rather to go twice as far as they were bound to do by the customs of the country, and thus avoid all appearance of resistance to the government.] And indeed, he who considers that the very foundation of our religion is laid in the (a) 1 Cor. xiii. 7. (b) Gal. vi. 1. (c) Eph. iv. 31. 32. (d) See Gleig's Sermons.-serm. 12. (e) See Schleusner on the word avlíornui. those who studied the law, that one of them thus expresses himself; "Quare punitus est Abrahamus pater noster, et afflicti sunt filii ejus in Egypto? Quia angariavit discipulos sapientûm; sicut dicitur (Gen. xiv. 14.) Armavit Catechumenos suos !" Vid. Lightfoot Hora Hebraica in Evangel. Matt. cap. v.] 2 X [So sacred did the Rabbins consider the time of VOL. III. Ann. Dom. A. M. 4037, belief and profession of a pardon extended to the highest of all provocations, of love &c. or 5442. inconceivable to the worst of all enemies, and both these expressed and effected by a Vulg. Ær. 33, person, the most highly injured, and in a method the most beneficial, the most ama&c. or 31.__ zingly kind; insomuch, that no instance of generosity or goodness besides, presents us with any thing like it, with any thing near it, with any thing fit to be named with it: He who considers this, I say, cannot but acknowledge that the precept of loving and forgiving our enemies is peculiarly suitable to the condition of Christians, who owe all their hopes and happiness to it; and that it would have been absurd not to have obliged those men to a virtue, which they confess themselves so infinitely beholden to, and (a) which no man can think a grievous command, who considers the pleasure and sweetness of love, the glorious victory of overcoming evil with good, and then compares these with the restless torments and perpetual tumults of a malicious and revenge. ful spirit. (b) 3. The Stoics of old represented their wise man as no more concerned at the loss of his estate, his liberty, or life, than if they were the rattles or gewgaws of a child, which might afford him some little ease, and present diversion indeed, but were by no means essential, or, in any degree, necessary to his real happiness. This however is a flight too romantic to be credited. To lay down this life, and all the comforts of it, while men were so much in the dark about another, and to expose the body to sufferings, when doubtful and in distrust about the soul, is too great an infraction upon selfpreservation, because it is to part with one's all, at least our all in certainty and opinion But to do this, when men know the reality of a future state, and the value of their immortal souls; (c) "to fear him who, when he hath killed, can cast both body and soul into hell," rather than them, "who can only kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do ;" to receive, embrace, rejoice in (d) " the light affliction, which is but for a moment," when thoroughly persuaded, that "it worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" this is not to destroy, but to save and profit ourselves, and what, in the affairs of this world, we esteem it our wisdom to do every day. If by any sad accident our house happens to be set on fire, no man is to be blamed for doing his best to save his goods; but when that is found impracticable, every wise man will choose to leave all and escape naked, rather than, out of a foolish fondness for any furniture of value or curiosity, there stay and perish with it. Now this is no improper emblem of the case before us. When the fire of persecution breaks out among us, we have our Lord's permission, by all prudent and honourable methods, to decline it; but when it comes at last to catch upon these earthly tabernacles, i. e. when our circumstances admit of no other choice but either sinning or suffering, the loss of our lives or the loss of our virtue, we owe it then, not only to God, but to ourselves, rather to quit this house of flesh, than bring the glorious inhabitant in it into danger of being buried in its ruins. Upon the whole, therefore, this taking up our cross, or suffering upon the account of religion, is not choosing evil, as such, but choosing an infinitely less evil, which, in this respect, is a great good. It is not exposing ourselves when we might be safe, but where we cannot be safe in our whole persons, redeeming one part with another, the better with the worse; it is not sustaining a loss, but making an exchange, an exchange of fugitive and perishing goods for lasting and substantial, and parting with something of less value, in order to receive another thing unspeakably better and more desirable. Thus it appears, that the three great precepts which are commonly objected against as heavy impositions, are the necessary result of the state and circumstances wherein (a) Tillotson's Sermons in Folio, vol. i. (c) Luke xii. 4, 5. (d) 2 Cor. iv. 17. (b) Stanhope's Sermons at Boyle's Lectures. xx. 10. to the Luke xix. 45. the end. we are placed: That the duty of denying ourselves arises from the corruption of the From Matth. nature we are born with; that of loving our enemies, from the very genius and foun- end, Mark xi. dation of the religion we live under; and that of taking up our cross, from such pru- 15. to the end, dential considerations as make us always choose the less evil; and are all so suited to to the end, and the reason of mankind, that we find some of the best improvers of it prescribing the John xii. 19. to same rules to their disciples; (a) which is enough to convince us, that our Lord, who has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, ought not by any means to be accounted an hard master, when he imposes no other terms than the heathens thought fit to engage in, upon the mere spur of private conscience or public shame; and that speechless, and without apology, a great part of the Christian world must needs stand in the day of enquiry, when it shall appear that Pythagoras, and Plato, and Zeno, could have their scholars run through such discipline, as necessary to the character of a virtuous man, which those who profess Christ are not ashamed to call foolish and needless, only because it is unpleasing. 4. The other part of the Christian religion is, as we said, those doctrines which were designed for the direction of our faith, in matters that were not sufficiently revealed before. (b) That there is one supreme, absolute, and independent cause, and original of all things, eternal, infinite, all-powerful, all-sufficient, the Maker and Lord of all things, himself derived from none, made of none, begotten of none, proceeding from none; that by him all creatures, material and immaterial, visible and invisible, animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, mortal and immortal, in heaven and in earth, were made or created out of nothing: That having made the world at first, he still governs it by his perpetual Providence, insomuch, that the most fortuitous accident does not happen, "a sparrow does not fall to the ground, nor an hair from our heads," without his permission or direction; that in the exercise of this his Providence, every thing is submitted to his will; no strength can resist his power, no swiftness can flee from his presence, no secrecy can conceal from his knowledge, no art can evade his justice, and every creature participates of his goodness: That this infinite and almighty Being did, from all eternity, and long before any ages commenced, in an ineffable manner (which the Scriptures call generation) communicate the essence of the Godhead so entirely to his Son, as to make him the same with himself, very God of very God: That this eternal Son of God, having a being in the bosom of his Father, was partaker of his glory and power in the creation and government of the world, and, by the Divine appointment, is our Saviour, Mediator, Intercessor, and Judge: That having a tender compassion for sinful man, and willing to procure for him the grace of repentance, he voluntarily condescended to take our nature, with all its innocent infirmities, upon him: That in this nature (miraculously conceived, and born of a virgin) he lived a life, as we do, and was affected as we are (but without sin), revealed unto us his Father's will, and did many wonderful works in confirmation of his Divine mission: That after a life spent in doing good, he submitted, in his human nature, to a painful and ignominious death, that thereby he might make an atonement to God, and reconciliation for our sins: That after a stay of three days in the grave, by his Almighty power he raised himself to life again, conversed upon earth for the space of forty days, instructed his disciples in matters relating to his kingdom, and at length, in the sight of a great number of spectators, ascended visibly into heaven: That upon his ascension, he was exalted to the right hand of God, where he now makes intercession for us, and is invested with all power and authority, wherewith he governs the whole church, and is hereafter to judge the whole world: That upon his investiture, he soon sent down the Holy Ghost, the third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity, to be the immediate Comforter and Director (a) Young's Sermons, vol. ii. (b) Clarke's Sermons, vol. i. Ann. Dom. &c. or 31. A. M. 4037. of his apostles, to lead them into all truth, to inspire them with the gift of tongues, and &c. or 5442, to impart to their followers such other gifts as might best serve the end of their minisVulg. Ær. 33, try: That this Blessed Spirit still continues with all good men, and (a) by illuminating their understandings, rectifying their wills and affections, renewing their natures, uniting their persons to Christ, and helping the infirmities of their prayers with his own intercession, is the great Sanctifier of their souls and bodies, in order to make them acceptable in the sight of God for ever:-These, together with the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and, after their reunion, an eternal state of misery or happiness in the other world, are the great and fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and mysteries, as the apostle (b) calls them, "which have been hid from ages, and from generations, but are now made manifest to the saints." "But how are these things made manifest (says the objector presently) when, notwithstanding all the pretended light of revelation, they still remain obscure and unintelligible? Some articles of the Christian faith, such as the existence of a God, the dispensations of Providence, the spirituality of our souls, a future state, and future judgement, we readily allow, because these are founded in the nature of things, and rise in the mind upon the disquisitions of reason; but, as for the stories of a Trinity in unity, a co-equality in the Son, the incarnation of a God, and the propitiation made by the Man Christ Jesus, of these we can frame no manner of conception, and therefore you must excuse us, if we do not believe them; for where is the crime of not performing impossibilities, or of not believing what does not appear to us to be true?" It cannot be denied, indeed, but that in the Christian religion there are many great mysteries or doctrines, of too much sublimity for the powers of reason, unassisted by revelation, to find out, or when discovered fully to comprehend; but this is no more than what we might reasonably expect, considering the nature and quality of the things it treats of. In its main intendment, it is a kind of comment upon the Divine nature, or an instrument to convey right conceptions to the soul of man, as far as it is capable of receiving them. But now God, we know, is an infinite Being, without any bounds or limitations of his essence; wonderful in his actions, inconceivable in his purposes, and inexpressible in his attributes; and how can such vast and mighty things be crouded in a little finite understanding? How shall our poor, short faculties be able to measure the lengths of his eternity, the breadth and expansions of his immensity, the heights of his prescience, the depth of his decrees, and, least of all, the unutterable, incomprehensible mystery of two natures united into one person, and again of one and the same nature diffused into a triple personality? When a man that is born blind (as (c) one expresses it) shall be able, on hearsay, to conceive in his mind all the varieties and curiosities of colours, or to draw an exact scheme of some fine city, or map of some large province, then may we expect, in this degenerate state of our understanding, to comprehend the ways of the Almighty, and "by searching find out God:" But (to do justice to the argument on the other side) as it would be extremely foolish and irrational for a blind man to affirm, that there is no such thing as colours, or lines, or pictures, because he finds that he cannot form in his mind any true conception of them; so would it be equally, if not superlatively, more unreasonable, for us to deny the great mysteries of our faith, because the plummet of our reason will not reach them. While we continue in this state of imperfection, we must be content (d) to know in part: A full and adequate conception of these sublime mysteries is reserved as a principal ingredient of our felicity and happiness above, when all the heights and depths, which we now stand amazed at, shall be made clear and familiar to us.; when God shall display the hidden glories of his nature, the wonders of his Providence, and the (a) Pearson on the Creed. (b) Col. i. 26. (c) South's Sermons, vol. i (d) 1 Cor. xiii. 12. wisdom of his counsels; and withal fortify the eye of the soul to such a degree, as to From Matth. make it able (as far as the capacities of an human intellect can be able) to behold and end, Mark take them in. end, Mark xi. 15. to the end, to the end, and To have a right notion of the doctrines of our religion, however, we are to distin- Luke xix. 45. guish between those things that are above reason, and incomprehensible, and those that John xii. 19. to are against reason, and utterly inconceivable. (a) Some things are above reason, be- the end. cause of their transcendent excellency and distance from us; whereas those that are against reason, involve a contradiction, and have a natural repugnancy to our understandings, which cannot conceive any thing that is formally impossible. And from hence it will follow, that though we neither can, nor should believe those things that are contrary to our reason, yet we both may, and ought to believe those that are above it: And the reason is (b), because the only evidence we can give of our acknowledging the infallible truth of God, is, by assenting to what he affirms upon his own authority. In assenting to a proposition whose truth we perceive from the reason of the thing, we do not assent upon any authority at all. To such a proposition we should assent, though it were affirmed by the most fallible man, nay, though it were affirmed by the most notorious liar; and, consequently, our assenting to such a proposition, is no manner of proof that we acknowledge the infallible veracity of God. This can only appear by our assenting to a proposition whose truth we do not perceive by any evidence from the nature of the thing; for here we assent upon the simple authority of God's affirmation, and our assent is an explicit acknowledgment of his absolute veracity. If then it be reasonable to expect, in a Divine revelation, that God should require our acknowledgment of this attribute especially, and without such acknowledgment no revelation would be of any use, and if this acknowledgment can appear only by our assenting, upon the authority of God, to such propositions as we cannot perceive the truth of by any internal evidence; it certainly cannot be incongruous to expect such propositions in a Divine revelation: Nay, much more incongruous would it be, and (c) a probable objection against the divinity of any revelation, if we should not find some propositions of this kind in it, because it is hardly conceivable, why God should make an external revelation of those things only, which, by a due exercise of our reason, he has enabled us to find out. [What we find out by the due exercise of our reason, we do not believe, but know. The discoveries of reason deduced from self-evident truths are the objects, not of faith, but of science; and if faith be a Christian grace, there must be, in a religion revealed by God, truths not capable of demonstration.] Seeing it is so far from being unreasonable then, that it is highly expedient, and in some sort necessary, that there should be some propositions above the reach of human understanding in every revelation that comes from God; if we can but shew, that in the Christian system there are no doctrines but such as stand clear of all absurdity and contradiction, the more abstruse and mysterious they are, the more they deserve our belief, for this very reason, because (d), if what is revealed concerning God were every way easy, and adapted to our comprehension, it could never reach, nor, with any fit ness, represent that nature which we all allow to be incomprehensible. The Holy Scriptures, for instance, teach us, that in the Divine nature (which can be but one) there are three distinct persons, to whom we ascribe the same attributes and perfections, the same worship and adoration. This indeed is a doctrine above our comprehension, as to the manner, how three should be one, and one three (e); but still we affirm, that there is no contradiction in it, if we will but distinguish between numbers and the nature of things. For three to be one indeed, is a contradiction in abstract numbers, but whether an infinite nature can communicate itself to three different (a) Bates's Harmony of the Divine Attributes. (c) Law's Case of Reason. (b) Rogers's Necessity of a Divine Revelation. (d) Young's Sermons, vol. ii, |