Here, then, the point is clear. The services of God and Mammon are incompatible with each other. Whichever we most affect in our minds, his servants we are: and friendship with either precludes a possibility of union with the other.] Nor is a resemblance to God less necessary for an enjoyment of him, II. In the world to come— There cannot, even in heaven, be any union between God and an ungodly man ["There is no repentance in the grave." What a man, in his decided character, is at the time of his death, that he will remain to all eternity: "As the tree falls, so it will lie ":" "He that is unjust, will be unjust still; and he that is filthy, will be filthy still." Suppose a man to have had no love for holiness here, but rather to have felt an alienation of mind from holy men and holy exercises; how can he, all at once, feel delight in a holy God, and in the employment of the heavenly hosts? How can he, who has never for one single hour been filled with love and gratitude in this world for all the wonders of redeeming love, how can he, I say, join in the songs of the redeemed to all eternity? If there were nothing more than a consciousness of his own state to affect him, he would be glad to recede from a place where there was not a being like-minded with himself, or an occupation suited to his taste. He had a dislike to the exercises of devotion here; and he would dislike them there he fled from God's presence here; and he would flee from it there. Like our first parents after their fall, they would endeavour to hide themselves from him, instead of going forth to meet him; and Paradise itself would be to them a place of torment.] The manner in which the prophet declares this truth greatly augments its weight [He does not utter it in a way of simple affirmation; but he makes it the subject-matter of an appeal: "How can two walk together, except they be agreed?" He constitutes every man a judge in his own cause. We need not any of us be told, that to the existence of real friendship there must be a similarity of taste: those who are perfectly opposed to each other in the things that are most agreeable to themselves, can no more become united with each other, in the bonds of endeared friendship, than light and darkness can coalesce. Observation and experience prove this beyond a doubt; nor can any one be so ignorant as not to know it.] Well then, may this TEACH us, 66 1. The necessity of true conversion ["The carnal mind," says the Apostle, that is, the mind of every man by nature," is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can bek." "A new heart, therefore, must be given us, and a new spirit must be put within us." We must become altogether "new creatures; old things passing away, and all things being made newm" This, as our Lord tells us, is so necessary, that except it take place we can never enter into the kingdom, no, nor ever see it"." To speak of this as necessarily attendant on baptism, is contrary to fact; for there are thousands who are baptized, as there were thousands circumcised amongst the Jews, who have never experienced this change. But this change must be wrought in us, if ever we would behold the face of God in peace." That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." The former being altogether carnal, is incapable of enjoying a spiritual kingdom: it is the latter which alone can fit us for the exercises and enjoyments of the heavenly world. You well know, that if a man had no taste for music, he could not, for any length of time, feel pleasure in the melodies which, to a lover of music, afford the highest gratification. So neither can we, without a taste for the employments of heaven, or, in other words, without "a meetness for heaven," ever hope to participate in the blessedness of the just.] 2. The importance of separation from the world [The world wonder at the saints, for standing aloof from them; and often impute it to pride: as though the Lord's people said to them, "Stand off; I am holier than thou P." But the godly, in associating with the world, do not meet on equal terms. All the sacrifice must be on their part. The world will propose to them to join in every vanity: but if, in return, they were asked to join in reading the word of God. and prayer, for the sake of spiritual edification and comfort, they would regard the proposal almost as a symptom of insanity. And, if you were to wait till such a proposal were made, or even approved, by them, you would wait till the sun had ceased to run its course. It is not for nought that the Apostle says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." There is abundant occasion for it: for friendship with them is constructively nothing less than enmity itself against God"." Rom. viii. 7. n John iii. 3, 5. 2 Cor. vi. 17. 1 Ezek. xxxvi. 26. • John iii. 6. Jam. iv. 4. m 2 Cor. v. 17. P Isai. lxv. 5. We must "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed in the renewing of our minds, if ever we would prove, to the satisfaction of our God, what is his good and acceptable and perfect will"."] 3. The happiness of real piety [Where the soul is really in accordance with the revealed will of God, there will God delight to "dwell, as in a temple." To such persons "he will manifest himself as he does not unto the world";""He will come unto them, and make his abode with them;" and "they shall walk in the light of his countenance"." O! who shall adequately declare the blessedness of friendship with God?-- - And if in this world the saints have such great advantage, what shall they have in the eternal world? Who shall declare their felicity, when they shall stand in his immediate presence, and behold the full brightness of his glory in the person of his dear Son? If it be so sweet now to have "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost"," what shall it be to behold the Saviour "face to face a?" If a taste of the waters of life, though taken from polluted cisterns, be so sweet, what shall it be to drink of them at the fountain-head? Let those who walk with God in this world know, that they shall, ere long, "walk with him in white,” where distance and parting shall be no more "."] GOD THE SOURCE AND CAUSE OF ALL THINGS. Amos iii. 6. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? IT is a generally acknowledged truth, that every thing proceeds from God; and we have the authority of God himself for affirming it: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these things." The same truth was put in a way of appeal even to the enemies of God; and that, too, at a time when he was denouncing against them the heaviest judgments. As surely as the roaring of a lion betokens that he has seized his a Isai. xlv. 7. prey; or the capture of a bird that the snare had been set for him; or the blowing of a trumpet the approach of danger; so surely should the evils coming on his disobedient people mark the indignation of God against them: "Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it ?" But as, on the incursion of evil, we are apt to trace it almost exclusively to second causes, and to overlook the hand of God in it, I propose, I. To confirm the truth which is here intimated There is a great variety of evil in the world: but God is the author of it all. From him proceeds all evil; 1. Moral [Of course, we are not to imagine that moral evil proceeds from him in a way of actual efficiency: for " God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed"." But, as no man would be in a capacity to perpetrate evil, if God did not invest him with the power, and allow him the opportunity to commit it, the Scripture uniformly represents God as concurring in it, even where the agency of men or devils is most manifest in the production of it. For instance; In the selling of Joseph into Egypt, the envy of his brethren was manifestly the first moving cause: yet, what did Joseph say concerning it? "Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life. God sent me before you, to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but Gode" "Ye indeed thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good." In the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, we must look further than to the innate depravity of that impious monarch; for God had raised him up to the possession of royal power, that so he might have full scope for the display of all that was in his heart: yes, and he gave him up, too, to the unrestrained exercise of all his evil dispositions; as he had before declared to Moses that he would do. And thus God himself is said, in a qualified sense, to have "hardened Pharaoh's heart," yea, b Jam. i. 13, 14. d Gen. 1. 20. c Acts vii. 9. with Gen. xlv. 5—8. and to harden in like manner the hearts of all whom he is pleased thus to give up to the unrestrained indulgence of their own lusts. Above all, in the crucifixion of our blessed Lord, where shall we find human depravity so active and so combined as in that tremendous scene? And can we trace any part of that to Almighty God? Yes, the whole of it: for St. Peter says, that "Jesus was delivered up to his murderers by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; and that "Herod and Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel that were gathered together against him," in all that they perpetrated, "did only what God's hand and God's counsel had determined before to be done." What, then, must not be traced to God, if we are taught to refer to him such transactions as these?] 2. Political [By political evil, I mean such as arises, whether to nations or individuals, in the common course of human events. The defection of the ten tribes from Rehoboam may well be considered as originating in the tyranny of that weak monarch, and in his following the infatuated counsels of the young men, rather than the judicious counsels of the old. But God himself declares, that it was altogether ordained of him, for the accomplishment of his own designs: "The cause, it is said, was of God, that the Lord might perform the word which he had spoken." And when Rehoboam had raised an army of 180,000 men to reduce the ten tribes to subjection, one single word spoken by Shemaiah, a man of God, to Rehoboam and his army, saying, "Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house: for this thing is done of me, saith the Lord," was sufficient for the satisfying and disbanding of the whole army: so universally was God's agency in human affairs acknowledged by them at that dayi. The captivity of Israel by the Assyrians might well be traced to the pride and ambition of the Assyrian monarch; as the captivity of Judah by the Chaldeans might also to the resentment and cupidity of the Babylonish monarch: but both the one and the other are traced to God himself, as stirring up the enemies of his people to execute upon them his sovereign will. Respecting the former, it is said, "The God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, to carry them away." And respecting the latter, it is said, "The Lord sent against Jehoiakim • Exod. iv. 21. and vii. 13. and ix. 16. with Rom. ix. 17, 18. Acts iv. 27, 28. f Acts ii. 23. h 2 Chron. x. 15. |