The Potter and the Clay.
JEREMIAH xviii. 1‒6.
_The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise,
and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee
to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and
behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that
he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter, so he
made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to
make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house
of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord.
Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine
hand, O house of Israel._
AT sundry times, and in divers manners, GOD was pleased to speak to
our fathers by the prophets, before he spoke to us in these last days
by his Son. To _Elijah_, he revealed himself by a small still voice.
To _Jacob_, by a dream. To _Moses_, he spake face to face. Sometimes
he was pleased to send a favourite prophet on some especial errand;
and whilst he was thus employed, vouchsafed to give him a particular
message, which he was ordered to deliver without reserve to all the
inhabitants of the land. A very instructive instance of this kind we
have recorded in the passage now read to you. The first verse informs
us that it was a word, or message, which came immediately from the
LORD to the prophet _Jeremiah_. At what time, or how the prophet was
employed when it came, we are not told. Perhaps, whilst he was praying
for those who would not pray for themselves: Perhaps, near the morning,
when he was slumbering or musing on his bed. For the word came to
him, saying, “Arise.” And what must he do when risen? He must “go
down to the potter’s house” (the prophet knew where to find it) “and
there (says the great Jehovah) I will cause thee to hear my words.”
_Jeremiah_ does not confer with flesh and blood, he does not object
that it was dark or cold, or desire that he might have his message
given him there, but without the least hesitation is immediately
obedient to the heavenly vision. “Then (says he) I went down to the
potter’s house, and behold he wrought a work upon the wheels.” Just as
he was entering into the house or workshop, the potter, it seems, had a
vessel upon his wheel. And was there any thing so extraordinary in this,
that it should be ushered in with the word BEHOLD? What a dreaming
visionary, or superstitious enthusiast, would this _Jeremiah_ be
accounted, even by many who read his prophecies with seeming respect,
was he alive now? But this was not the first time _Jeremiah_ had heard
from heaven in this manner. He therefore willingly obeyed; and had you
or I accompanied him to the potter’s house, I believe we should have
seen him silently, but intensely waiting upon his great and all-wise
Commander, to know wherefore he sent him thither. Methinks I see him
all attention. He takes notice, that “the vessel was of clay;” but as
he held it in his hand, and turned round the wheel, in order to work it
into some particular form, “it was marred in the hands of the potter,”
and consequently unfit for the use he before intended to put it to. And
what becomes of this marred vessel? Being thus marred, I suppose, the
potter, without the least imputation of injustice, might have thrown it
aside, and taken up another piece of clay in its room. But he did not.
“He made it again another vessel.” And does the potter call a council
of his domestics, to enquire of them what kind of vessel they would
advise him to make of it? No, in no wise. “He made it again another
vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
“Then,” adds _Jeremiah_, whilst he was in the way of duty――then――whilst
he was mentally crying, LORD what wouldst thou have me to do? “Then
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, O house of _Israel_, cannot
I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is
in the hands of the potter (marred, and unfit for the first designed
purpose) so are ye in mine hand, O house of _Israel_.” At length, then,
_Jeremiah_ hath his sermon given to him: short, but popular. It was
to be delivered to the whole house of _Israel_, princes, priests, and
people: short, but pungent, even sharper than a two-edged sword. What!
says the sovereign LORD of heaven and earth, must I be denied the
privilege of a common potter? May I not do what I will with my own?
“Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hands, so are ye in mine hands,
O house of _Israel_. I made and formed you into a people, and blessed
you above any other nation under heaven: but, O _Israel_, thou by thy
backslidings hast destroyed thyself. As the potter therefore might
justly have thrown aside his marred clay, so may I justly unchurch
and unpeople you. But what if I should come over the mountains of your
guilt, heal your backslidings, revive my work in the midst of the years,
and cause your latter end greatly to increase? Behold, as the clay
is in the hands of the potter, lying at his disposal, either to be
destroyed or formed into another vessel, so are ye in my hands, O
house of _Israel_: I may either reject, and thereby ruin you, or I
may revisit and revive you according to my own sovereign good will and
pleasure, and who shall say unto me, what dost thou?”
This seems to be the genuine interpretation, and primary intention
of this beautiful part of holy writ. But waving all further enquiries
about its primary design or meaning, I shall now proceed to shew, that
what the glorious Jehovah here says of the house of _Israel_ in general,
is applicable to every individual of mankind in particular. And as I
presume this may be done, without either wire-drawing scripture on the
one hand, or wresting it from its original meaning on the other, not
to detain you any longer, I shall, from the passage thus explained
and paraphrased, deduce, and endeavour to enlarge on these two general
heads.
_First_, I shall undertake to prove, that every man naturally
engendered of the offspring of _Adam_, is in the sight of the
all-seeing, heart-searching GOD, only as a “piece of marred clay.”
_Secondly_, That being thus marred, he must necessarily be renewed:
and under this head, we shall likewise point out by whose agency this
mighty change is to be brought about.
These particulars being discussed, way will naturally be made for a
short word of application.
_First_, To prove that every man naturally engendered of the offspring
of _Adam_, is in the sight of an all-seeing, heart-searching GOD, only
as a piece of marred clay.
Be pleased to observe, that we say every man _naturally_ engendered
of the offspring of _Adam_, or every man since the fall: for if we
consider man as he first came out of the hands of his Maker, he was
far from being in such melancholy circumstances. No: he was originally
made upright; or as _Moses_, that sacred penman, declares, “GOD made
him after his own image.” Surely never was so much expressed in so few
words; which hath often made me wonder how that great critic _Longinus_,
who so justly admires the dignity and grandeur of _Moses_’s account of
the creation, and “GOD said, Let there be light, and there was light;”
I say I have often wondered why he did not read a little further, and
bestow as just an encomium upon this short, but withal inexpressibly
august and comprehensive description of the formation of man, “so GOD
created man in his own image.” Struck with a deep sense of such amazing
goodness, and that he might impress yet a deeper sense of it upon our
minds too, he immediately adds, “in the image of GOD made he him.”
A council of the most adorable Trinity was called on this important
occasion: GOD did not say, Let there be a man, and there was a man, but
GOD said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This is
the account which the lively oracles of GOD do give us of man in his
first estate: but it is very remarkable, that the transition from the
account of his creation to that of his misery, is very quick, and why?
For a very good reason, because he soon fell from his primeval dignity;
and by that fall, the divine image is so defaced, that he is now to be
valued only as antiquarians value an ancient medal, merely for the sake
of the image and superscription once stamped upon it; or of a second
divine impress, which, through grace, it may yet receive.
Let us take a more particular survey of him, and see whether these
things are so or not: and first, as to his _understanding_. As man was
created originally “after GOD in knowledge,” as well as righteousness
and true holiness, we may rationally infer, that his understanding,
in respect to things natural, as well as divine, was of a prodigious
extent: for he was made but a little lower than the angels, and
consequently being like them, excellent in his understanding, he knew
much of GOD, of himself, and all about him; and in this as well as
every other respect, was, as Mr. _Collier_ expresses it in one of
his essays, a perfect major: but this is far from being our case now.
For in respect to _natural things_, our understandings are evidently
darkened. It is but little that we can know, and even that little
knowledge which we can acquire, is with much weariness of the flesh,
and we are doomed to gain it as we do our daily bread, I mean by the
sweat of our brows.
Men of low and narrow minds soon commence wise in their own conceits:
and having acquired a little smattering of the learned languages, and
made some small proficiency in the dry sciences, are easily tempted to
look upon themselves as a head taller than their fellow mortals, and
accordingly too, too often put forth great swelling words of vanity.
But persons of a more exalted, and extensive reach of thought, dare
not boast. No: they know that the greatest scholars are in the dark,
in respect to many even of the minutest things in life: and after all
their painful researches into the _Arcanæ Naturæ_, they find such an
immense void, such an unmeasurable expanse yet to be travelled over,
that they are obliged at last to conclude, almost with respect to
every thing, “that they know nothing yet as they ought to know.” This
consideration, no doubt, led _Socrates_, when he was asked by one
of his scholars, why the oracle pronounced him the wisest man on
earth, to give him this judicious answer, “Perhaps it is, because
I am most sensible of my own ignorance.” Would to GOD, that all who
call themselves christians, had learnt so much as this heathen! We
should then no longer hear so many _learned men_, falsely so called,
betray their ignorance by boasting of the extent of their shallow
understanding, nor by professing themselves so wise, prove themselves
such arrant pedantic fools.
If we view our understandings in respect to _spiritual things_, we
shall find that they are not only darkened, but become darkness itself,
even “darkness that may be felt” by all who are not past feeling.
And how should it be otherwise, since the infallible word of GOD
assures us, that they are alienated from the light and life of GOD,
and thereby naturally as incapable to judge of divine and spiritual
things, comparatively speaking, as a man born blind is incapacitated to
distinguish the various colours of the rainbow. “The natural man, (says
an inspired apostle) discerneth not the things of the Spirit of GOD;”
so far from it, “they are foolishness unto him;” and why? Because they
are only to be “spiritually discerned.” Hence it was, that _Nicodemus_,
who was blessed with an outward and divine revelation, who was a ruler
of the _Jews_, nay a master of _Israel_, when our LORD told him, “he
must be born again;” appealed to be quite grappled. “How (says he)
can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his
mother’s womb and be born? how can these things be?” Were three more
absurd questions ever proposed by the most ignorant man alive? or can
there be a clearer proof of the blindness of man’s understanding, in
respect to divine, as well as natural things? Is not man then a piece
of marred clay?
This will appear yet more evident, if we consider the _perverse bent of
his will_. Being made in the very image of GOD; undoubtedly before the
fall, man had no other will but his Maker’s. GOD’s will, and _Adam_’s,
were then like unisons in music. There was not the least disunion, or
discord between them. But now he hath a will, as directly contrary to
the will of GOD, as light is contrary to darkness, or heaven to hell.
We all bring into the world with us a carnal mind, which is not only
an enemy to GOD, but “enmity itself, and which is therefore not subject
unto the law of GOD, neither indeed can it be.” A great many shew much
zeal in talking against the man of sin, and loudly (and indeed very
justly) exclaim against the _Pope_ for sitting in the temple, I mean
the church of CHRIST, and “exalting himself above all that is called
GOD.” But say not within thyself, who shall go to _Rome_, to pull down
this spiritual antichrist? as though there was no antichrist but what
is without us. For know, O man, whoever thou art, an infinitely more
dangerous antichrist, because less discerned, even _self-will_, sits
daily in the temple of thy heart, exalting itself above all that is
called GOD, and obliging all its votaries to say of CHRIST himself,
that Prince of peace, “we will not have this man to reign over us.”
GOD’s people, whose spiritual senses are exercised about spiritual
things, and whose eyes are opened to see the abominations that are in
their hearts, frequently feel this to their sorrow. Whether they will
or not, this enmity from time to time bubbles up, and in spight of all
their watchfulness and care, when they are under the pressure of some
sharp affliction, a long desertion, or tedious night of temptation,
they often find something within rising in rebellion against the
all-wise disposals of divine Providence, and saying unto GOD their
heavenly father, “what dost thou?” This makes them to cry (and no
wonder, since it constrained one of the greatest saints and apostles
first to introduce the expression) “O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?” The spiritual and renewed soul
groans thus, being burdened; but as for the natural and unawakened man,
it is not so with him; self-will, as well as every other evil, either
in a more latent or discernable manner, reigns in his unrenewed soul,
and proves him, even to a demonstration to others, whether he knows, or
will confess it himself or not, that in respect to the disorders of his
will, as well as his understanding, man is only a piece of marred clay.
A transient view of fallen man’s _affections_ will yet more firmly
corroborate this melancholy truth. These, at his being first placed
in the paradise of GOD, were always kept within proper bounds, fixed
upon their proper objects, and, like so many gentle rivers, sweetly,
spontaneously and habitually glided into their ocean, GOD. But now the
scene is changed. For we are now naturally full of vile affections,
which like a mighty and impetuous torrent carry all before them. We
love what we should hate, and hate what we should love; we fear what
we should hope for, and hope for what we should fear; nay, to such
an ungovernable height do our affections sometimes rise, that though
our judgments are convinced to the contrary, yet we will gratify our
passions though it be at the expence of our present and eternal welfare.
We feel a war of our affections, warring against the law of our minds,
and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin and death. So that
_video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor_, I approve of better things
but follow worse, is too, too often the practice of us all.
I am sensible, that many are offended, when mankind are compared to
beasts and devils. And they might have some shadow of reason for being
so, if we asserted in a physical sense, that they were really beasts
and really devils. For then, as I once heard a very learned prelate,
who was objecting against this comparison, observe, “a man being a
beast would be incapable, and being a devil, would be under an
impossibility of being saved.” But when we make use of such _shocking
comparisons_, as he was pleased to term them, we would be understood
only in a moral sense; and in so doing, we assert no more than some of
the most holy men of GOD have said of themselves, and others, in the
lively oracles many ages ago. Holy _David_, the man after GOD’s own
heart, speaking of himself, says, “so foolish was I, and as a beast
before thee.” And holy _Job_, speaking of man in general, says, that
“he is born as a wild ass’s colt,” or take away the expletive, which as
some think ought to be done, and then he positively asserts, that man
is a wild ass’s colt. And what says our LORD, “Ye are of your father
the devil;” and “the whole world is said to lie in him, the wicked
one, who now rules in the children of disobedience,” that is, in all
unrenewed souls. Our stupidity, proneness to fix our affections on the
things of the earth, and our eagerness to make provision for the flesh,
to fulfil the lusts thereof, evidence us to be earthly and brutal;
and our mental passions, anger, hatred, malice, envy, and such like,
prove with equal strength, that we are also devilish. Both together
conspire to evince, that in respect to his affections, as well as his
understanding and will, man deservedly may be termed a piece of marred
clay.
The present _blindness of natural conscience_ makes this appear in a
yet more glaring light; in the soul of the first man _Adam_, conscience
was no doubt the candle of the LORD, and enabled him rightly and
instantaneously to discern between good and evil, right and wrong. And,
blessed be GOD! some remains of this are yet left; but alas, how dimly
does it burn, and how easily and quickly is it covered, or put out
and extinguished. I need not send you to the heathen world, to learn
the truth of this; you all know it by experience. Was there no other
evidence, your own consciences are instead of a thousand witnesses,
that man, as to his natural conscience, as well as understanding, will
and affections, is much marred clay.
Nor does that great and boasted _Diana_, I mean unassisted
_unenlightened reason_, less demonstrate the justness of such an
assertion. Far be it from me to decry or exclaim against human reason.
CHRIST himself is called the “LOGOS, the Reason;” and I believe it
would not require much learning, or take up much time to prove, that so
far and no farther than as we act agreeably to the laws of CHRIST JESUS,
are we any way conformable to the laws of right reason. His service is
therefore called “a reasonable service.” And however his servants and
followers may now be looked upon as fools and madmen; yet there will
come a time, when those who despise and set themselves to oppose divine
revelation, will find, that what they now call reason, is only _reason
depraved_, and as utterly incapable, of itself, to guide us into the
way of peace, or shew the way of salvation, as the men of _Sodom_
were to find _Lot_’s door after they were struck with blindness by the
angels, who came to lead him out of the city. The horrid and dreadful
mistakes, which the most refined reasoners in the heathen world ran
into, both as to the object, as well as manner of divine worship, have
sufficiently demonstrated the weakness and depravity of human reason:
nor do our modern boasters afford us any better proofs of the greatness
of its strength, since the best improvement they generally make of
it, is only to reason themselves into downright wilful infidelity, and
thereby reason themselves out of eternal salvation. Need we now any
further witness, that man, fallen man, is altogether a piece of marred
clay?
But this is not all, we have yet more evidence to call; for do the
blindness of our understandings, the perverseness of our will, the
rebellion of our affections, the corruption of our consciences, the
depravity of our reason prove this charge; and does not the present
_disordered frame_ and _constitution of our bodies_ confirm the same
also? Doubtless in this respect, man, in the most literal sense of the
word, is a piece of marred clay. For GOD originally made him of the
“dust of the earth.” So that notwithstanding our boasting of our high
pedigrees, and different descent, we were all originally upon a level,
and a little red earth was the common substratum out of which we were
all formed. Clay indeed it was, but clay wonderfully modified, even by
the immediate hands of the Creator of heaven and earth. One therefore
hath observed, that it is said “GOD built the man;” he did not form
him rashly or hastily, but built and finished him according to the
plan before laid down in his own eternal mind. And though, as the great
GOD is without body, parts, or passions, we cannot suppose when it
is said “GOD made man after his own image,” that it has any reference
to his body, yet I cannot help thinking (with Doctor _South_) that as
the eternal Logos was hereafter to appear, GOD manifest in the flesh,
infinite wisdom was undoubtedly exerted in forming a casket into which
so invaluable a pearl was in the fulness of time to be deposited. Some
of the ancients are said to have asserted, that man at the first, had
what we call a glory shining round him; but without attempting to be
wise above what is written, we may venture to affirm, that he had a
glorious body, which knowing no sin, knew neither sickness nor pain.
But now on this, as well as other accounts, he may justly be called
_Ichabod_; for its primitive strength and glory are sadly departed
from it, and like the ruins of some ancient and stately fabric, only
so much left as to give us some faint idea of what it was when it
first appeared in its original and perfect beauty. The apostle _Paul_,
therefore, who knew how to call things by their proper names, as well
as any man living, does not scruple to term the human body, though
in its original constitution fearfully and wonderfully made, a “vile
body;” vile indeed! since it is subject to such vile diseases, put
to such vile, yea very vile uses, and at length is to come to so vile
an end. “For dust we are, and to dust we must return.” This among
other considerations, we may well suppose, caused the blessed JESUS to
weep at the grave of _Lazarus_. He wept, not only because his friend
_Lazarus_ was dead, but he wept to see human nature, through man’s own
default, thus laid in ruins, by being subject unto such a dissolution,
made like unto the beasts that perish.
Let us here pause a while, and with our sympathizing LORD, see if
we cannot shed a few silent tears at least, upon the same sorrowful
occasion. Who, who is there amongst us, that upon such a melancholy
review of man’s present, real, and most deplorable depravity both in
body and soul, can refrain from weeping over such a piece of marred
clay? Who, who can help adopting holy _David_’s lamentation over _Saul_
and _Jonathan_? “How are the mighty fallen! How are they slain in their
high places!” Originally it was not so. No, “GOD made man after his
own image: in the image of GOD made he man.” Never was there so much
expressed in so few words. He was created after GOD in righteousness
and true holiness.
This is the account, which the sacred volume gives us of this
interesting point. This, this is that blessed book, that book of books,
from whence, together with an appeal to the experience of our own
hearts, and the testimonies of all past ages, we have thought proper
to fetch our proofs. For, after all, we must be obliged to divine
revelation, to know what we were, what we are, and what we are to be.
In these, as in a true glass, we may see our real and proper likeness.
And from these only can we trace the source and fountain of all those
innumerable evils, which like a deluge have overflowed the natural
and moral world. If any should object against the authenticity of
this revelation, and consequently against the doctrine this day drawn
from thence, they do in my opinion thereby very much confirm it. For
unless a man was very much disordered indeed, as to his understanding,
will, affections, natural conscience, and his power of reasoning, he
could never possibly deny such a revelation, which is founded on a
multiplicity of infallible external evidences, hath so many internal
evidences of a divine stamp in every page, is so suited to the common
exigencies of all mankind, so agreeable to the experience of all men,
and which hath been so wonderfully handed and preserved to us, hath
been so instrumental to the convicting, converting, and comforting
so many millions of souls, and hath stood the test of the most severe
scrutinies, and exact criticisms of the most subtle and refined, as
well as of the most malicious and persecuting enemies, that ever lived,
even from the beginning of time to this very day. Persons of such
a turn of mind, I think, are rather to be prayed for, than disputed
with, if so be this perverse wickedness of their hearts may be forgiven
them: They are in the very gall of bitterness, and must have “their
consciences seared as it were with a red-hot iron,” and must have
their eyes “blinded by the GOD of this world,” otherwise they could not
but see, and feel, and assent to the truth of this doctrine, of man’s
being universally depraved; which not only in one or two, but in one or
two thousands, in every page, I could almost say, is written, in such
legible characters, that he that runs may read. Indeed, revelation
itself is founded upon the doctrine of the fall. Had we kept our
original integrity, the law of GOD would have yet been written in our
hearts, and thereby the want of a divine revelation, at least such as
ours, would have been superseded; but being fallen, instead of rising
in rebellion against GOD, we ought to be filled with unspeakable
thankfulness to our all bountiful Creator, who by a few lines in his
own books hath discovered more to us, than all the philosophers and
most learned men in the world could, or would, have discovered, though
they had studied to all eternity.
I am well aware, that some who pretend to own the validity of divine
revelation, are notwithstanding enemies to the doctrine that hath
this day been delivered; and would fain elude the force of the proofs
generally urged in defence of it, by saying, they only bespeak the
corruption of particular persons, or have reference only to the heathen
world: but such persons err, not knowing their own hearts, or the power
of JESUS CHRIST: for by nature there is no difference between _Jew_
or _Gentile_, _Greek_ or _Barbarian_, bond or free. We are altogether
equally become abominable in GOD’s sight, all equally fallen short of
the glory of GOD, and consequently all alike so many pieces of marred
clay.
How GOD came to suffer man to fall? how long man stood before he fell?
and how the corruption contracted by the fall, is propagated to every
individual of his species? are questions of such an abstruse and
critical nature, that should I undertake to answer them, would be only
gratifying a sinful curiosity, and tempting you, as Satan tempted our
first parents, to eat forbidden fruit. It will much better answer the
design of this present discourse, which is practical, to pass on
II. To the next thing proposed, and point out to you the absolute
necessity there is of this fallen nature’s being renewed.
This I have had all along in my eye, and on account of this, have
purposely been so explicit on the first general head: for ♦as
_Archimedes_ once said, “Give me a place where I may fix my foot, and
I will move the world;” so without the least imputation of arrogance,
with which, perhaps, he was justly chargeable, we may venture to say,
grant the foregoing doctrine to be true, and then deny the necessity
of man’s being renewed who can.
♦ “has” replaced with “as”
I suppose, I may take it for granted, that all of you amongst whom I
am now preaching the kingdom of GOD, hope after death to go to a place
which we call Heaven. And my heart’s desire and prayer to GOD for you
is, that you all may have mansions prepared for you there. But give
me leave to tell you, was you now to see these heavens opened, and the
angel (to use the words of the seraphic _Hervey_) cloathed with all
his heavenly drapery, with one foot upon the earth, and another upon
the sea; nay, were you to see and hear the angel of the everlasting
covenant, JESUS CHRIST himself, proclaiming “time shall be no more,”
and giving you all an invitation immediately to come to heaven; heaven
would be no heaven to you, nay it would be a hell to your souls, unless
you were first prepared for a proper enjoyment of it here on earth.
“For what communion hath light with darkness?” Or what fellowship
could unrenewed sons of _Belial_ possibly keep up with the pure and
immaculate JESUS?
The generality of people form strange ideas of heaven. And because
the scriptures, in condescension to the weakness of our capacities,
describe it by images taken from earthly delights and human grandeur,
therefore they are apt to carry their thoughts no higher, and at
the best only form to themselves a kind of _Mahometan_ paradise. But
permit me to tell you, and GOD grant it may sink deep into your hearts!
Heaven is rather a state than a place; and consequently, unless you are
previously disposed by a suitable state of mind, you could not be happy
even in heaven itself. For what is grace but glory militant? What is
glory but grace triumphant? This consideration made a pious author say,
that “holiness, happiness, and heaven, were only three different words
for one and the self-same thing.” And this made the great _Preston_,
when he was about to die, turn to his friends, saying, “I am changing
my place, but not my company.” He had conversed with GOD and good men
on earth; he was going to keep up the same, and infinitely more refined
communion with GOD, his holy angels, and the spirits of just men made
perfect, in heaven.
To make us meet to be blissful partakers of such heavenly company,
this “marred clay,” I mean, these depraved natures of ours, must
necessarily undergo an universal moral change: our understandings must
be enlightened; our wills, reason, and consciences, must be renewed;
our affections must be drawn toward, and fixed upon things above;
and because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven,
this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on
immortality. And thus old things must literally pass away, and behold
all things, even the body as well as the faculties of the soul, must
become new.
This moral change is what some call, repentance, some, conversion, some,
regeneration; choose what name you please, I only pray GOD, that we all
may have the thing. The scriptures call it holiness, sanctification,
the new creature, and our LORD calls it a “New birth, or being born
again, or born from above.” These are not barely figurative expressions,
or the flights of eastern language, nor do they barely denote a
relative change of state conferred on all those who are admitted into
CHRIST’s church by baptism; but they denote a real, moral change of
heart and life, a real participation of the divine life in the soul of
man. Some indeed content themselves with a figurative interpretation;
but unless they are made to experience the power and efficacy thereof,
by a solid living experience in their own souls, all their learning,
all their laboured criticisms, will not exempt them from a real
damnation. CHRIST hath said it, and CHRIST will stand, “Unless a man,”
learned or unlearned, high or low, though he be a master of _Israel_
as _Nicodemus_ was, unless he “be born again, he cannot see, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of GOD.”
If it be enquired, who is to be the potter? and by whose agency this
marred clay is to be formed into another vessel? Or in other words,
if it be asked, how this great and mighty change is to be effected? I
answer, not by the mere dint and force of moral suasion. This is good
in its place. And I am so far from thinking, that christian preachers
should not make use of rational arguments and motives in their sermons,
that I cannot think they are fit to preach at all, who either cannot,
or will not use them. We have the example of the great GOD himself
for such a practice; “Come (says he) and let us reason together.” And
St. _Paul_, that prince of preachers, “reasoned of temperance, and
righteousness, and a judgment to come.” And it is remarkable, “that
whilst he was reasoning of these things, _Felix_ trembled.” Nor are
the most persuasive strains of holy rhetoric less needful for a scribe
ready instructed to the kingdom of GOD. The scriptures both of the
Old and New Testament, every where abound with them. And when can they
be more properly employed, and brought forth, than when we are acting
as ambassadors of heaven, and beseeching poor sinners, as in CHRIST’s
stead, to be reconciled unto GOD. All this we readily grant. But at
the same time, I would as soon go to yonder church-yard, and attempt
to raise the dead carcases, with a “come forth,” as to preach to
dead souls, did I not hope for some superior power to make the word
effectual to the designed end. I should only be like a sounding brass
for any saving purposes, or as a tinkling cymbal. Neither is this
change to be wrought by the power of our own free-will. This is an
idol every where set up, but we dare not fall down and worship it.
“No man (says CHRIST) can come to me, unless the Father draw him.”
Our own free-will, if improved, may restrain us from the commission of
many evils, and put us in the way of conversion; but, after exerting
our utmost efforts (and we are bound in duty to exert them) we
shall find the words of our own church article to be true, that “man
since the fall hath no power to turn to GOD.” No, we might as soon
attempt to stop the ebbing and flowing of the tide, and calm the most
tempestuous sea, as to imagine that we can subdue, or bring under
proper regulations, our own unruly wills and affections by any strength
inherent in ourselves.
And therefore, that I may keep you no longer in suspence, I inform you,
that this heavenly potter, this blessed agent, is the Almighty Spirit
of GOD, the Holy Ghost, the third person in the most adorable Trinity,
coessential with the Father and the Son. This is that Spirit, which at
the beginning of time moved on the face of the waters, when nature lay
in one universal chaos. This was the Spirit that over-shadowed the Holy
Virgin, before that holy thing was born of her: and this same Spirit
must come, and move upon the chaos of our souls, before we can properly
be called the sons of GOD. This is what _John_ the baptist calls
“being baptized with the Holy Ghost,” without which, his and all other
baptisms, whether infant or adult, avail nothing. This is that fire,
which our LORD came to send into our earthly hearts, and which I pray
the LORD of all lords to kindle in every unrenewed one this day.
As for the extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, such as working
of miracles, or speaking with divers kinds of tongues, they are long
since ceased. But as for this miracle of miracles, turning the soul to
GOD by the more ordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, this abides yet,
and will abide till time itself shall be no more. For it is he that
sanctifieth us, and all the elect people of GOD. On this account, true
believers are said to be “born from above, to be born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of GOD.” Their
second, as well as their first creation, is truly and purely divine.
It is, therefore, called “a creation;” but put ye on (says the apostle)
the new man which is created――And how? Even as the first man was,
“after GOD in righteousness and true holiness.”
These, these are the precious truths, which a scoffing world would fain
rally or ridicule us out of. To produce this glorious change, this new
creation, the glorious JESUS left his Father’s bosom. For this he led
a persecuted life; for this he died an ignominious and accursed death;
for this he rose again; and for this he now sitteth at the right hand
of his Father. All the precepts of his gospel, all his ordinances, all
his providences, whether of an afflictive or prosperous nature, all
divine revelation from the beginning to the end, all center in these
two points, to shew us how we are fallen, and to begin, carry on, and
compleat a glorious and blessed change in our souls. This is an end
worthy of the coming of so divine a personage. To deliver a multitude
of souls of every nation, language and tongue, from so many moral evils,
and to reinstate them in an incomparably more excellent condition than
that from whence they are fallen, is an end worthy the shedding of
such precious blood. What system of religion is there now, or was there
ever exhibited to the world, any way to be compared to this? Can the
deistical scheme pretend in any degree to come up to it? Is it not
noble, rational, and truly divine? And why then will not all that
hitherto are strangers to this blessed restoration of their fallen
natures, (for my heart is too full to abstain any longer from an
application) why will you any longer dispute or stand out against it?
Why will you not rather bring your clay to this heavenly Potter, and
say from your inmost souls, “Turn us, O good LORD, and so shall we be
turned?” This, you may and can do: and if you go thus far, who knows
but that this very day, yea this very hour, the heavenly Potter may
take you in hand, and make you vessels of honour fit for the Redeemer’s
use? Others that were once as far from the kingdom of GOD as you are,
have been partakers of this blessedness. What a wretched creature was
_Mary Magdalene_? And yet out of her JESUS CHRIST cast seven devils.
Nay, he appeared to her first, after he rose from the dead, and she
became as it were an apostle to the very apostles. What a covetous
creature was _Zaccheus_? He was a griping cheating publican; and yet,
perhaps, in one quarter of an hour’s time, his heart is enlarged, and
he made quite willing to give half of his goods to feed the poor. And
to mention no more, what a cruel person was _Paul_. He was a persecutor,
a blasphemer, injurious; one that breathed out threatnings against
the disciples of the LORD, and made havoc of the church of CHRIST. And
yet what a wonderful turn did he meet with, as he was journeying to
_Damascus_? from a persecutor, he became a preacher; was afterwards
made a spiritual father to thousands, and now probably sits nearest
the LORD JESUS CHRIST in glory. And why all this? That he might be
made an example to them that should hereafter believe. O then believe,
repent; I beseech you, believe the gospel. Indeed, it is glad tidings,
even tidings of great joy. You will then no longer have any thing to
say against the doctrine of _Original Sin_; or charge the Almighty
foolishly, for suffering our first parents to be prevailed on to eat
such sour grapes, and permitting thereby their children’s teeth to be
set on edge. You will then no longer cry out against the doctrine of
the _New Birth_, as enthusiasm, or brand the assertors of such blessed
truths with the opprobrious names of fools and madmen. Having felt,
you will then believe; having believed, you will therefore speak; and
instead of being vessels of wrath, and growing harder and harder in
hell fire, like vessels in a potter’s oven, you will be made vessels
of honour, and be presented at the great day by JESUS, to his heavenly
Father, and be translated to live with him as monuments of rich, free,
distinguishing and sovereign grace, for ever and ever.
You, that have in some degree experienced the quickening influence (for
I must not conclude without dropping a word or two to GOD’s children)
you know how to pity, and therefore, I beseech you also to pray for
those, to whose circumstances this discourse is peculiarly adapted.
But will you be content in praying for them? Will you not see reason to
pray for yourselves also? Yes, doubtless, for yourselves also. For you,
and you only know, how much there is yet lacking in your faith, and how
far you are from being partakers in that degree, which you desire to
be, of the whole mind that was in CHRIST JESUS. You know what a body of
sin and death you carry about with you, and that you must necessarily
expect many turns of GOD’s providence and grace, before you will be
wholly delivered from it. But thanks be to GOD, we are in safe hands.
He that has been the author, will also be the finisher of our faith.
Yet a little while, and we like him shall say “It is finished;” we
shall bow down our heads and give up the ghost. Till then, (for to
thee, O LORD, will we now direct our prayer) help us, O Almighty Father,
in patience to possess our souls. Behold, we are the clay, and thou
art the Potter. Let not the thing formed say to him that formed it,
whatever the dispensations of thy future Will concerning us may be,
Why dost thou deal with us thus? Behold, we put ourselves as blanks in
thine hands, deal with us as seemeth good in thy sight, only let every
cross, every affliction, every temptation, be overruled to the stamping
thy blessed image in more lively characters on our hearts; that so
passing from glory to glory, by the powerful operations of thy blessed
Spirit, we may be made thereby more and more meet for, and at last be
translated to a full, perfect, endless, and uninterrupted enjoyment
of glory hereafter, with thee O Father, thee O Son, and thee O blessed
Spirit; to whom, three persons but one GOD, be ascribed, as is most due,
all honour, power, might, majesty and dominion, now and to all eternity.
Amen and Amen.