Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

heaven was at hand." The Apostles, too, considered it as enjoined on all; and they preached it to all, without exception. In considering the words before us, I shall not enter into any methodical discussion of them; but take them as they lie, and endeavour to impress upon your minds the duty contained in them. Repent," then, my beloved Brethren

66

[That you all need repentance, you cannot doubt. If you had never transgressed the law of God but in one single instance, it would be necessary for you to repent of it; and much more when you have violated God's law every day and hour of your lives Call your ways to remembrance, in order to search out your multiplied transgressions; and confess them humbly to the Lord, saying, Thus and thus have I done' Let your sorrow for them be deep

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

It is "the broken and contrite heart alone which God will not despise." And flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of them. No repentance can be genuine, if it be not accompanied with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; especially in those who hear the Gospel. If you have not such a sense of your guilt and helplessness as brings you to the foot of the cross, you cannot see them aright. The penitent under the law confessed his sins over his offering, and at the same time transferred them to the head of his victim: so will you transfer your own sins to Christ, if you know his willingness and sufficiency to save.]

"Be converted" also

[Repentance is of no avail, if it stop short of this. There must be a thorough conversion of your souls to God. His will must be your will, and his glory the one end for which you live. Do not mistake, as though it were sufficient for you to be sorry for your sins. Your sorrow may arise, not from any hatred of sin itself, or any sense of the dishonour it has done to God, but simply from a dread of the punishment denounced against it. With your grief for past sin there must be blended a love of universal holiness, and an entire dedication of yourselves to God - See to it, then, that this be found in you; and that you live henceforth entirely to Him who died for you and rose again --]

Then may you hope that "your sins shall be blotted out"

[You shall certainly never turn to God in vain: for he has said, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous b Acts xvi. 20.

a Matt. iii. 2. and iv. 17.

e Acts xx. 21. and xxvi. 20.

man his thoughts; and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' Not that your repentance will wash away sin, or your conversion purchase heaven. It is the blood of Christ alone that can cleanse even from the smallest sin: but if, with a penitent and contrite heart, you turn unto him, your sins, how numerous soever they may have been, shall all be blotted out; and how heinous soever they may have been, they shall be made white as snow -]

to

And then shall "seasons of refreshing, also, come
Lord"-

you from the presence of
of your

[This expression may refer to that season of joy which shall prevail over the earth, when the Messiah's reign shall be established upon itd. But I understand it rather as importing that peace and joy which shall flow into the soul of every true convert. See the change wrought in the minds of the three thousand, on the day of Pentecost. See the promise made to all who shall "truly believe in Christ"." This shall be your experience, if, with penitential sorrow, and in newness of heart and life, you turn unto the Lord. You shall be filled with a "peace that passeth all understanding," and "a joy that is unspeakable and glorified." No tongue can declare the blessedness of that soul which has "the light of God's countenance lifted up upon it," and "his love shed abroad within it” — — —]

Let me, then, once more say to every one of you, Repent deeply of all your sins, and seek, without delay, to be truly converted unto God

[Without this there can be no remission of your sins: not one can ever be blotted out of the book of God's remembrance; but all will be brought forth against you in judgment, to the utter confusion and condemnation of your souls. And what season of refreshment, suppose you, will you ever experience? Have you any now? You know you have not. Will you have any in a dying hour? Alas! insensibility is the best that you can hope for then. And what will you have in the eternal world? Alas! not " a drop of water to cool your tongues." What I say, then, to one, I say to all, "Repent, and be converted, ere it be too late, and ere the wrath of God fall upon you to the uttermost.]

[blocks in formation]

MDCCXLV.

MOSES AND CHRIST COMPARED IN THEIR PROPHETICAL OFFICE.

Acts iii. 22, 23. Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

THERE are innumerable beauties in the Holy Scriptures, which escape the notice of the superficial observer, but which, when discovered, abundantly compensate all the labour that can attend the minutest investigation. Critics have bestowed much pains in searching out the beauties of heathen authors, and have often given them credit for excellencies, that were neither designed, nor discovered, by the authors themselves. But we need never be afraid of ascribing too much to him, who delivered to us the sacred oracles. If time would permit, we might point out a great variety of passages that would illustrate this remark. But that before us, may stand as a specimen of the rest. Peter had exhorted the Jews to believe in Christ, that their sins might be blotted out by his blood. The Jews imagined, that a compliance with this exhortation would be a defection from Moses. Peter therefore obviated this objection by an appeal to the writings of Moses; and shewed them, that Moses himself, not only foretold the advent of this new prophet, but enjoined an unreserved obedience to him under the severest penalties. Thus he turned their regard for Moses into an argument in support of that very doctrine, which for the sake of Moses they were inclined to reject. His words naturally lead us to set before you,

I. The character of Christ

The words of the text are twice mentioned in Deut. xviii. and twice mentioned in the Acts of the

Apostles. They may well therefore be considered as deserving peculiar attention.

They set forth the character of Christ literally—

[When God had spoken to the Jews in thunderings and lightnings, they entreated that he would, in future, communicate his mind and will to them through a mediator. He, approving their request, promised them a prophet raised up from among themselves, who should fully reveal to them his most secret counsels. Such a prophet was Jesus. He was raised up in a most extraordinary way, being the son of a pure virgin. He was taken from among their brethren, being of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David. "Though he was in the form of God, and thought it no robery to be equal with God, he took upon him the form of a servant;" yea, "became a worm and no man, the very scorn of men and the outcast of the people." He revealed all that it was needful for men to know, and "opened their understandings that they might understand it." To him did the Father himself, by an audible voice from heaven, apply this prophecy. And Jesus thus literally executed the commission given him of the Father.]

But it is in a typical view that the text is principally to be considered

[Our Lord resembled Moses in the offices of a lawgiver, a saviour, an intercessor. But, waving all observations respecting these, let us trace the resemblance which subsisted between them, as "prophets" of the Most High God.

Both of them received their doctrines in the same way. Moses was not merely instructed, like other prophets, by visions, or dreams, or by the "still small voice" of inspiration, but was admitted to converse with God as a man talketh with his friend, and received the law from the hands of God, engraven upon stones by God himself. In this he differed from all the other prophets that ever existed in the world, till this new Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, arose. But Christ had been from all eternity "in the bosom of the Fatherd;" and he taught the very truths which he had heard, and learned, of the Father".

66

Both of them also taught the very same doctrine. Moses gave the law to be a ministration of death," and a rule of life; and our Lord explained, and enforced it, for the very same ends. Moses also pointed the people to the sacrifices

a Acts vii. 37. d John i. 18.

b Deut. xviii. 16—18. e Matt. xvii. 5.

e John viii. 28.

as the only means of expiating their offences: our Lord also declared, that he "gave his life a ransom for many;" and that it was by the shedding of his blood alone, that any could obtain the remission of their sins1.

Moses

Moreover, both of them taught in the same manner. spake, not as one giving advice, but with authority, "Thus saith the Lord;" yet he instructed the people with astonishing meekness and forbearance: and when they, in direct opposition to what he had taught them, revolted from God, and set up a golden calf, he was so filled with compassion towards them, as to pray, that he himself might be blotted out of the book of God, rather than that they should suffer the punishment due to their transgressions. Thus did Jesus preface his instructions. with that authoritative declaration, "I say unto you:" yet so mild was he, that he made his meekness a plea with

persons, to encourage them to learn of him; "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart:" and to such a degree did he compassionate the obstinate refusers of his law, that he wept over them, and with his dying breath pleaded their ignorance in extenuation of their guilt.]

While Moses thus explicitly foretold the prophetical character of our Lord, he declared to us also,

II. Our duty resulting from it

As all the offices of Christ are replete with benefits to our souls, so each lays upon us some correspondent duties and obligations. While we rely on him as our Priest, and obey him as our King, we must regard him as our Prophet, by attending to his instructions

This is plainly declared in the text

["Him shall ye hear," is the command of God. But it is not in a careless manner that we are to regard his voice; we must incline our ear to him, and hear him with fixed attention. We must so consider the dignity of his person, and the importance of his message, as to receive his word with the deepest reverence; not gainsaying it, and sitting in judgment upon it, but bringing every high thought and every proud reasoning into subjection to ith. It becomes us also to listen to it with lively joy, as to the voice of our Beloved; knowing that there is not a word of his lips, in which there are not treasures of knowledge, and inexhaustible fountains of salvationi. Above all, we must attend to it with unreserved submission to his will; we must obey it "in all things, what

f Matt. xxvi. 28. h 2 Cor. x. 5.

Luke xix. 41. and xxiii. 34. i Isai. xii. 3.

« ÖncekiDevam »