Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself....Luke

xxiv. 39.

ONE Amintas had done valiant acts, and lost part of his arm in the field of battle for his country's good. His brother Echylus was like to be condemned to die. Amintas came into court, speaks not a word, but only lifted up the stump of his arm without a hand, as though he had said, see what I have lost in my country's cause : *his silent oratory prevailed and saved his brother's life. What a much more affecting sight does our dear Lord now present to his disciples! He called upon them, he calls upon us to BEHOLD: they by the eye of sense; we by the eye of faith. Consider the reasons for this, 1st. To compose and comfort their minds: they were terrified and affrighted: they took him for a spirit. Christ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities: he sympathizes with us in all our troubles. One cause of them is misapprehension of the nature of Christ, we too oft forget that he was a PERFECT MAN, like unto us in all things, except sin: "Behold my hands and my feet with the nail prints in them. It is I MYSELF." The very same man, with the same flesh and blood, who lately hung upon the cross. Handle me: feel me. 2d. It was to confirm their faith, in his dying for their sins and rising again for their justification: he died as a weak ́man he rose as the almighty God: as God-man he atoned for sin, conquered death and hell for us. The faith of this is the source of all hope and the spring of all peace to our souls. Sd. He says, BEHOLD, &c. to quicken our love. O soul, can you behold by faith, and think of the love and sufferings of Jesus for your salvation, and not love him? His pierced body, hands and feet, are the marks of his great love and agony of sufferings for you. O love, rejoice and adore. Does he not deserve the whole love of our heart, and the sole affections of our soul? BEHOLD, 4th. That all your hope may be in him. Beware of that cursed notion of pride, which some advance; they pretend to believe in Christ for the pardon of sin, but for their final justification, hope in their own works. No, my Lord, the sin-atoning, law-fulfilling, soul-justifying work is thine, and thine alone. I will hope in no other. My soul, I charge thee fix, constantly fix all thy attention, for all thy hope, upon thy once pierced Lord. My conscience, I charge thee, when base intruders would rival his glory, banish them, cry with abhorrence, get ye hence: "What have I to do any more with idols ?"....Hos. xiv. 8.

:

Behold, my soul, the scars and wounds Say faith, what answer dost thou give?
Which Jesus in his body wore: Pardon and peace unto my heart,
See how his precious love abounds, That to Christ's glory I should live,
Think of thy sins....'twas them he bore. And never from his love depart. M.

Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest....Luke xxii. 60.

No, PETER! Why, he speaks plain enough: he is confident of thy person, knows thy voice, and the very brogue of thy tongue: he boldly affirms, "Of a truth thou wast with Jesus." This is a downright lie, to say, "I know not what thou sayest." Peter is ashamed of his Lord. Is he not ashamed of himself? Not yet, He lied horridly next, he curses and swears bitterly. Might we not expect to hear next he was damned eternally? He deserved it. Was he here now, he would confess it from the very ground of his heart; but he is above, confessing his desert of damnation, and ascribing salvation to God and the Lamb. For, "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter." O, who can say what there was in that turn and that look! Lord, give us to feel some of the grace and power of it, that we may improve it. Consider, 1st. Sin is sin, in God's saints, as well as others: yea, their sins exceed all others: yes, and God sees sin in them too as well as others; and he will surely punish them for sin too. Let us not be wise above what is written. Saith the Lord, "you only have I known (with the love of a tender father) of all the families of the earth, THEREFORE I will punish you for ALL your iniquities."....Amos iii. 2. Who can say what a hell of agonies Peter felt when he wept bitterly? He fully experienced that truth, which he after preached to others; "judgment must begin at the house of God."....1 Pet. iv. 17. 2d. See what this judgment is: not damnation for sin, but condemnation for sin in the heart and conscience: the sight of it; feeling, mourning, groaning under a sense of it; looking up to God with a broken heart, a contrite spirit, a sorrowful soul, sighing out, "against thee, O Lord, have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight." Nothing but thy blood, O Jesu, can cleanse me. O, my God, let thy grace pardon me and thy Spirit comfort me. 3d. What affects any sinner thus? The Saviour's turning and looking upon the soul. Sin naturally hardens the heart and sears the conscience. Peter, after his awful fall, would have run away from Christ; given himself up to the service of sin and satan, till he fell into hell, if the Lord had left him to himself. So would you and I. But Jesus TURNS from his anger against our sins; turns to us in love. He LOOKS: instead of frowning us into black despair and eternal damnation, he looks with love; he speaks love into our hearts; he melts our hearts with his gracious, loving looks, into sorrow and remorse for our sins, and with hopes of mercy and pardon from his loving heart; "for where sin abounded, grace much more abounds."....Rom. v. 20. Who knows the bitterness of sin, His look can break the hardest heart, But those who see the love of Christ? Sin to confess, and sin resist. M.

I know that my Redeemer liveth....Job xix. 25.

[ocr errors]

MATTERS are sometimes brought to a close point between God and the soul: it is stript of all its comforts: the soul is in heaviness .... Pet. 1.6. It is broken in the place of dragons and, covered with the shadow of death, as the Psalmist most affectingly paints the scenes of horror and affliction....Psalm xliv. 19. So that as he says, "I had fainted, unless I had believed."....Psalm xxvii. 13. Nothing within, nothing without, for the soul to stay itself upon, but the word of the Lord and the Lord revealed in the word. Then is that sweet word fulfilled, "They shall hang upon HIM all the glory of his father's house."....Isa. xxii. 24. This was Job's tried, tempted, afflicted, yet blessed state: though all his comforts are dead, still his Redeemer liveth: in the midst of all his losses, he had not lost this blessed knowledge: I KNOW it is a matter of the greatest certainty to my soul; I am as sure of it as of my existence, that there is a Redeemer for lost sinners; I know he is my Redeemer; I have seen my want of him, and my certain destruction without his redemption: HE LIVETH; while he lives, my hopes cannot die, my soul cannot despair; stript of all things beside, nothing can separate me from the love of Christ; I know Christ liveth at the right hand of God for ME, because he liveth in my heart by faith. Such is the language of this Old Testament saint. Says Luther, "I had utterly despaired, had I not known that Christ was head of the church." "Head over all things to his body the church."....Eph. i. 22. But how doth a soul know, with Job, that Christ is My Redeemer, so as to say, with Paul, he loved ME and gave himself for ME? By the word of grace we know there is a Redeemer; by the testimony of the Spirit of truth, through faith, the sinner is enabled to say he is MINE, MY beloved, my friend; these are two infal lible evidences of this. Christ has both our hearts and our hopes: our heart is set upon him: our hopes center in him. 1st. Christ is precious to our hearts: we have fellowship with him by faith; we know that he liveth, because we enjoy the comforts of his life and love in our souls; we know him both as dying for us and also as living in us; he dwells in our hearts by faith; he sends us love to kens; he draws our affections to himself, from the world of sin and vanity. 2d. Our hopes are in him; his Spirit gives us to see such an infinite perfection in his glorious work and finished salvation, as sickens us to every other hope; yea, kills self-righteousness and selfconfidence: "We become dead to the law by the body of Christ." ....Rom. vii. 4. We may as soon place our confidence in the righteousness of the thief on the cross, as in any righteousness of our own: We know that he abideth in us, by the spirit which he hath given us.".... John iii. 24.

[ocr errors]

Christ spake this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous....Luke xviii. 9.

men's are.

CHRIST came into the world to save sinners from their sins, into all holiness of heart and life: his gospel requires the strictest purity in walk and conversation: those who have experienced its power, find their souls formed for this: yet a self-righteous spirit is as odious to Christ and as contrary to the genius of his gospel as profaneness; hence he spake this parable against such. See, 1st. Who are here reproved. Every one who places his trust or confidence in any works of righteousness which he has done, or can do, to make himself righteous before God, or to justify himself, first or last, in whole or in part in God's sight. Such are properly pharisees, or self-righteous persons. Lord, keep our souls humble before thee, that we fall not into this cursed pride and dangerous delusion. But such say, we do not trust in what we can do of ourselves, but what we are enabled to do by the grace of God: so this self-righteous pharisee said, "God I thank thee that I am not as other men are." Here lies the very essence of this delusion; for the holiest saint in Christ, is yet a sinner himself, and his nature is as wicked as other The man, who does not see, and confess, as taught by Christ....Luke. xviii. 11....(after all that he is by grace, and all that he has done by assisting grace) "Lord I am an unprofitable servant," is blinded by self-righteousness; has never seen the purity and spiri tuality of the law of God, the abominable vileness of his own nature, the glory and perfection of Christ's righteousness, and the necessity of his being found in it, and clothed with it, to be justified before God: such have not been convinced of sin and of righteous, ness, by the Spirit of truth, the glorifier of Jesus. See, 2d. The evil of this spirit of self-righteousness. Ist. Such are Antinomi ans: they are against and make void the law; though they do not fulfil it, nor can be made righteous by it, yet they trust in themselves that they are righteous contrary to it: for it condemns them as sinners. 2d. They are enemies to justification by God's grace through the righteousness of Christ. Like the Jews of old, they "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge: for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, (that which the Son of God wrought out, which fulfilled the law of God, which he imputes to sinners, and by which he justifies sinners) and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to God's righteousness."....Rom. x. 2, 3. Here is ignorance and unbelief. To which, 3d. Is joined pride. They are of a different spirit to the humble Jesus. He loves SINNERS; "they despise others."....See Isa. lxv. 5.

By the obedience of one, (or by one obedience) shall many be made righteous....Rom. v. 19.

JOYFUL truth to MISERABLE SINNERS. O, that this word was ever upon our minds, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither Our thoughts are, your ways my ways, saith the Lord."....Isa. lv. 8. are to make ourselves righteous by our own obedience: and our ways are, to be justified before God by our own righteousness: but the Lord calls us to forsake these unrighteous thoughts as well as wicked ways, and to submit by faith to his thoughts and his ways, to be made righteous by the obedience of ONE. Consider, 1st. This negative is implied, no obedience but ONE can make any sinner righteous. O sinner, what art thou seeking after, and striving to be and to do? What is the end of thy praying, reading, hearing, communicating, striving against sin and to excel in obedience? &c. Is it to make thyself righteous? Then it all proceeds from unbelief of this truth, by ONE obedience shall many be righteous, and by no other obedience whatever. "Then," say some, 66 there is an end to all good works." No: from the faith of this all good works begin. There is indeed an end to all the evil works of unbelief, which are done to supplant the ONE spotless obedience of Christ, in making sinners righteous, to the establishing the filthy rags of man's righteousness. Taught by the Spirit of truth, through faith, my soul abhors this: I firmly believe "whatsoever is not of faith, is sin.".... Rom. xiv. 23. "Works which do not spring of faith in Jesus Christ, have the nature of sin.' ....Church Article XIII. Hence, O my soul, no obedience of thine, before faith in Christ, can make thee righteous. Obedience after faith doth not make thee righteous; for then thou art made righteous by the ONE obedience of Christ. Settle this matter well in thy conscience: the glory of thy God and the comfort of thy soul spring from it. For, 2d. It is positively asserted, "By THE obedience of ONE: or the ONE obedience of Christ, shall many be made righteous." The faith of God's elect takes the comfort of this, and will love Christ, live upon his righteousness, and give him the glory of it. But, 3d. Who are made righteous by Christ's ONE obedience? MANY: "The many sons whom Christ shall bring to glory."....Heb. ii. 10. Even ALL who see themselves miserable sinners, and believe in Christ for righteousness, unto justification of life. What a glorious way is this of making sinners righteous! 1st. It secures all the glory to Christ. 2d. It keeps the sinner humble before him, dependent on him, and prevents all selfrighteous boasting. While, 3d. It gives the poor sinner greatest boldness, with access of confidence to God. 4th. It inspires warm love to Christ, and the cheerful obedience of faith.

[ocr errors]
« ElőzőTovább »