discourse, is this, that we should raise our hope, our consolation, and
our joy, by a meditation of such future worship in heaven as this is,
when we lie under many weaknesses, restraints, and defilements, in our
best worship on earth. O! how would this hope rejoice our hearts, if we
could but live upon it! What secret comfort would it be to a poor humble
soul, who is hindered from drawing near to God in worship now, because
his affections are perpetually ready to wander, to think that he shall
come and appear before God hereafter, and see him without ceasing, and
his thoughts shall never wander from his God. When he complains under
the temptations of Satan, and absence of God from his ordinances, what a
pleasure to think he is going above to worship at the _general
assembly_, where Satan never enters, and where God never conceals
himself; but appears universally gracious, and without a frown; where
the God of glory and mercy appears unchangeably, and for ever the same.
Those of us who have been long restrained from all the pleasure and
profit of public ordinances, what a blessed release will it be to our
souls, when we shall be dismissed from the bonds of flesh, into that
great and holy society of spirits, and shall feel no more restraints for
ever? We who have been detained from the house of God, by the
uncharitable laws of men, or the painful providence of God, with what a
divine relish shall we embrace our liberty in that day, and be eternally
free from all forbidding laws, and all imprisoning providences?
O how heartily should it engage our affections to one another, and
increase the pleasure of our worship, when we come to wait on God
together here below, to think that we shall worship God together in the
upper world? How should it unite the hearts of our congregations one to
another in divine love and make christians for ever forbear wrath and
anger here, since they must be everlasting fellow-worshippers above?
What a glorious joy will it be to you who are the heads and rulers of
this family, who have so often joined in sweet devotion here on earth,
when you shall meet each other there, and worship together before the
throne in heaven? What a mutual endearment, and mutual delight does such
a prospect raise between the nearest relations? How doth it exalt the
sweetest passion, heighten and refine the warmest love? What a blessed
transport will it be to the parents, to find their children there
engaged in the same work? And what a joyful meeting will it be to you,
the children, the hopeful offspring of this house, to find each other in
that company, and to see your pious parents with you? With what a
glorious and unspeakable joy shall parents render up their accounts to
God in this language, “_Lord here am I, and the children that thou hast
given me_;” imitating the words of the Lord Jesus, giving up his account
to his Father; Heb. ii. 13.
How will our gladness increase, and our souls enlarge themselves in holy
joy, to behold our christian friends, and our dear relatives, standing
in the same assembly, as fellow-worshippers at the throne? How will the
heads of this family rejoice, if their whole household should be found
there, whom they have endeavoured to encourage in their way to heaven,
by a religious care to maintain household worship? how will the joy of
faithful ministers be advanced by every one of their hearers, whom they
shall find in that blessed church above? _Ye are our crown, and our
glory, and our rejoicing in that day_; 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20.
Now should not each of us maintain a holy jealousy within ourselves, and
say, “Which of us shall be missing?” May not every one of us so far
suspect ourselves, as to say, ‘_Lord is it I?_’ Shall I be wanting
there, when all the rest of this little assembly shall be worshipping
with the saints in heaven? Shall I be separated from them with whom I
have so often appeared before God, and bowed the knee together on earth?
O dreadful thought of overwhelming sorrow! Which of us all has so much
stupidity, or such impious courage, as to bear the terrible
apprehension? To be divided for ever from the family of God, and shut
out of his upper sanctuary! O may these words make a proper impression
on every heart, to keep our jealousy awake, and spur us onward in our
christian course of duty and devotion! May such thoughts as these excite
us to _give all diligence, to make our calling and election sure_, and
in every act of worship here in this world, to get some clearer evidence
of an interest in the favour of God, some further meetness for glory;
that when the great assembly shall join together in that heavenly
worship, we may assist with our praises, and mingle our joy with theirs.
_Amen._
HYMN FOR SERMONS XIII. and XIV.
_Appearance before God here and hereafter._
While I am banish’d from thy house,
I mourn in secret, Lord:
“When shall I come, and pay my vows,
And hear thy holy word?”
So while I dwell in bonds of clay,
Methinks my soul shall groan,
“When shall I wing my heavenly way,
And stand before thy throne?”
I love to see my Lord below,
His church displays his grace;
But upper worlds his glory know,
And view him face to face.
I love to worship at his feet,
Though sin attack me there;
But saints exalted near his seat,
Have no assaults to fear.
I’m pleas’d to meet him in his court,
And taste his heavenly love;
But still I think his visits short,
Or I too soon remove.
He shines, and I am all delight,
He hides, and all is pain:
When will he fix me in his sight,
And ne’er depart again?
SERMON XV.
_A Rational Defence of the Gospel: Or, Courage in professing
Christianity._
ROM. i. 16.——I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
THE FIRST PART.
Shame is a very discouraging passion of the mind; it sinks the spirits
low, it enfeebles all the active powers, and forbids the vigorous
execution of any thing whereof we are ashamed. It was necessary
therefore, that St. Paul should be endued with sacred courage, and
raised above the power of shame, when he was sent to preach the gospel
of Christ among the Jews or the heathens, to face an infidel world, and
to break through all the reproaches and terrors of it. _I am a debtor_,
saith he, _verse 14_, _to the Greeks and to the Barbarians_; that is, to
the learned and the unlearned nations; _to the wise and to the unwise_:
I have a commission from Christ to publish his gospel among all the
nations of men, and I esteem myself their debtor, till I have delivered
my message: And though Rome be the seat of worldly power and policy, the
mistress of the nations, and sovereign of the earth, where I shall meet
with opposition and contempt in abundance, yet I have courage enough to
preach this doctrine at Rome also, _for I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ_.
My friends, this is an age wherein the gospel of our Redeemer meets with
much contempt and opposition. There are many in a baptized nation, and
who have been brought up in the christian belief and worship, that begin
to be weary of Christ and his religion; they are endeavouring to find
blemishes and defects in this sacred gospel, and in that blessed word of
God that reveals this grace to us. The divine truths, that belong to
this gospel, meet with mockery and profane reproach from deists and
unbelievers. I may call it therefore a day of rebuke and blasphemy. God
grant we may never become a land of heathens again! Those of us that
believe this gospel from the heart, have need of courage to maintain our
profession of it, especially in some companies and conversations. We
should prepare ourselves to encounter the false reasonings of
unbelievers, as well as harden our faces against their ridicule. Let us
therefore meditate this sacred text, that each of us may pronounce
boldly the words of this great apostle, _I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ_.
Now, that our meditations may proceed regularly on the present theme of
discourse, let us consider,
I. What the gospel of Christ is, that we may not mistake it.—II. What is
included in this expression, I am not ashamed of it.—III. What there is
in this gospel that might be supposed any way to expose a man to shame;
and I shall take occasion under this head to give particular answers to
some of the most important objections that might be made against the
gospel, and shew that there is no just reason to be ashamed of it.—IV. I
shall consider what is that general answer to all objections; that
universal guard against sinful shame which is contained in my text, and
which will bear out every christian in his faith and profession of the
gospel of Christ, _viz._ that it is the power of God to the salvation of
every one who believes.—And, V. I shall draw some proper inferences.
_First_, What is the gospel of Christ?
I answer in general, It is a revelation of the grace of God to fallen
man through a Mediator. Or, It is a gracious constitution of God for the
recovery of sinful and miserable man, from that deplorable state into
which sin had brought him, by the meditation of Christ: Or, in the words
of my text, it is the power of God, or his powerful appointment, for the
salvation of every one who believes. The word gospel, in the original,
εὐαγγέλιον signifies good news, or glad tidings. And surely, when a
sinner who is exposed to the wrath of God, is sensible of his guilt and
danger, it must needs be glad tidings to him to hear of a way of
salvation, and an all-sufficient Saviour. This constitution of God for
our salvation has had various editions, if I may so express it, or
gradual discoveries of it made to mankind, ever since Adam first sinned,
and God visited him with the first promise of grace before he turned him
out of paradise. But the last and most complete revelation of this
gospel was made by the personal ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
more especially by his apostles, when his own death, resurrection, and
exaltation had laid the complete foundation for it. From the books of
the New Testament therefore we may derive this larger description of the
gospel of Christ.
It is a wise, a holy, and gracious constitution of God for the recovery
of sinful man, by sending his own Son Jesus Christ into the flesh, to
obey his laws which man had broken, to make a proper atonement for sin
by his death, and thus to procure the favour of God, and eternal
happiness for all that believe and repent, and receive the offered
salvation; together with a promise of the Holy Spirit to work this faith
and repentance in their hearts, to renew their sinful natures into
holiness, to form them on earth fit for this happiness, and to bring
them to the full possession of it in heaven.
It might be proved that this is the sense and substance of the gospel of
Christ from many of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the
ceremonies and figures of the Jewish church, as well as from a variety
of citations from the writings of the evangelists and apostles: Yet
there have risen some persons, I mean the Socinians and their disciples,
in the last age and in this also, who call themselves christians, but
they also curtail and diminish the gospel of Christ, as to make it
signify very little more than the dictates and hopes of the light of
nature, _viz._ “That if we repent of our sins past, and obey the
commands of God as well as we can for the future, Christ as a great
prophet, has made a full declaration that there is pardon for such
sinners, and they shall be accepted unto eternal life:” and all this
without any dependance on his death as a proper sacrifice, and with
little regard to the operations of his Holy Spirit.
Now I need use no other argument to refute this mistaken notion of the
gospel, than what may be derived from the words of my text, _viz._ that
St. Paul expresses it with a sort of emphasis, and as a matter of
importance, that he was _not ashamed of the gospel of Christ_: Whereas
if this had been all the substance of the gospel, he had no reason to be
ashamed of it either among the Jews or the heathens. The Jews had a
knowledge of forgiveness upon repentance, and a belief of it long before
Christ came: And the heathen philosophers would have readily received
it, as a thing very little different from what their natural reason
might lead them to hope for: though it could not fully assure them of
it: They would never have sought to expose and ridicule the preaching of
St. Paul as mere babbling, and called him _a setter forth of strange
gods_.
But on the other hand, if we suppose him publishing the glorious
doctrine which I have described, there was something in this so strange
to the ears of the heathens, as well as of the blinded Jews, that might
well be supposed to awaken their opposition and rage; and therefore it
was a great point gained with him, when he had courage enough to
maintain such a gospel, and to say, I am not ashamed of it.
This leads me to the second thing proposed.
_Secondly_, What is included in these words, I am not ashamed of the
gospel? To this I answer under these five heads:
1. I am not ashamed to believe it as a man.—2. I am not ashamed to
profess it as a christian.—3. I am not ashamed to preach it to others as
a minister.—4. I am not ashamed to defend it, and contend for it as a
good soldier of Christ.—5. I am not ashamed to suffer and die for it as
a martyr.
1. I am not ashamed to believe this gospel as a man. My rational powers
give me no secret reproaches. My understanding and judgment do not
reprove and check my faith. I feel no inward blush upon the face of my
soul, while I give the fullest assent to all these truths, to this
scheme of doctrine, to this heavenly contrivance and system of grace. A
rational man, especially who has been bred up in learning, should be
ashamed to believe fables and follies, but I believe all this gospel and
am not ashamed. My own reason approves it, and justifies me in the
persuasion and belief of such a gospel as this is. I believe it with so
firm and unshaken a faith, that I venture all my own eternal concerns
upon it. I lay all the stress of my hopes of a blessed immortality on
it. My soul rests here, and I am not ashamed of my resting-place: I am
not ashamed of my Saviour, and the method of his salvation. I am
persuaded my hopes shall never disappoint me. Surely, if the gospel had
been so very irrational a thing, as some men pretend it to be, St. Paul,
being so rational and wise a man, would have been ashamed to believe it.
But I believe it, says he, and am not ashamed. I do not think it casts
any just reflection upon my rational capacities, or my learned education
at the feet of Gamaliel, for me to give a full assent to this gospel.
2. I am not ashamed to profess it as a christian. I am ready to tell the
world that I believe it, and I take all occasions to let the world know
it. I am coming to profess this gospel at Rome, and am not ashamed: I
have owned it before my own countrymen the Jews already, where it has
been most reproached. I have been telling the Gentiles what the gospel
of salvation is, and I long to see you at Rome, that I may tell you what
my belief is in the gospel, and may hear how far you have believed, and
may be _comforted by the mutual faith both of you and me_; Rom. i. 12. I
shall be glad to tell you what doctrines I venture my own soul upon, and
shall be willing to hear from you whether you venture your souls upon
the same doctrine, or no; and shall rejoice to find we are both
interested in one salvation.
3. I am not ashamed to preach it to others as a minister, that is, to
invite others to believe it. It is a communicable good, and I am sent to
diffuse it, nor am I ashamed of my commission. See 2 Tim. i. 12, 13.
_Our Lord Jesus Christ has abolished death, and brought life and
immortality to light by the gospel_, and has appointed me a preacher,
and an apostle to the gentiles: I preach the gospel, and _am not
ashamed_, though I have suffered for it. I venture my soul upon it unto
the last great day, and I bid thee, Timothy, as a preacher unto others,
_to hold fast the same form of sound words which thou hast learned of
me_. I long to teach the whole world this faith and this doctrine,
therefore _I am a debtor to the Greeks and barbarians_; I would make
others partakers of the same hope. _Would to God, that not only thou,
Agrippa, but all those that hear me, were not only almost, but
altogether such as I am, except only these bonds, these sufferings_
which I endure for Christ’s sake; Acts xxvi. 22.
4. I am not ashamed to contend for it as _a good soldier of Christ_; to
defend it when it is attacked, and to vindicate the cause of my Lord and
Master. Where it is assaulted I endeavour to secure it, though with many
reproaches from the carnal prejudices of mankind. I oppose them all; for
they oppose my Saviour and his cross, and I build my everlasting hopes
there. _I am set for the defence of the gospel of Christ_; Phil. i. 17.
and I will _contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the
saints_; Jude ver. 3. And he gave us an instance of it, that when Peter,
who was an apostle, seemed to diminish some of the glory and the liberty
of the gospel, he _withstood him to the face_; Gal. ii. 11. “There shall
no man silence me, or stop my mouth, when I am preaching a crucified
Saviour, and when I express my faith in the liberty and latitude of the
gospel of Christ. For if I durst withstand an apostle under his criminal
concealments, and in his diminution of the honour of this doctrine,
surely I dare oppose all the world besides.”
5. _Lastly_, I am not ashamed to suffer and die for it as a martyr. Load
me with reproaches, ye Jews, my countrymen, and load me with chains, ye
magistrates of Rome; of none of these am I ashamed or afraid, but with
all boldness I am always ready that Christ should be magnified in my
life, or my death; Phil. i. 14, 20. And as for my friends that are full
of sorrow lest Paul should be sacrificed for the faith of Christ. What
mourn ye, and break my heart for? _I am not only ready to be bound, but
to die for the sake of Christ. I count nothing dear to me, no nor my
life precious to myself, that I may finish with joy the course of my
ministry of this gospel, that I may testify the grace of my God_; Acts
xx. 24. and xxi. 13.
I might add also, that St. Paul intends and means more than he expresses
by a very usual figure of speech: I am not ashamed of it, that is, I
glory in it, I make my boast of it. If there be any doctrine worth
boasting of, it is the gospel of Christ. If I have any profession to
glory in, it is that I am a christian. Once I was a pharisee, and I
counted it my gain and my honour; Phil. iii. 7, 8. _But what things were
gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ; yea, doubtless, and I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord._ I glory in being a minister of the gospel; it is the highest
honour God could have put upon me, who am less than the least of all
saints. _To me is this grace given to preach among the gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ_; Eph. iii. 8. I glory in it to that
degree, that I am dead to all things else. _God forbid I should glory in
any thing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus, whereby the world is
crucified to me, and I to the world_; Gal. vi. 14. I glory in my
sufferings: and, my friends, if ye understood the value of these things,
they are your glory too. _If I am offered up a sacrifice for the service
of your faith; I joy and rejoice together with all_; Phill. ii. 17. O!
that you would but rejoice together with me in it. Thus I have shewed
you that all these things are implied in St. Paul’s not being ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, and I have proved it to you from other parts of
his epistles.
The third general head I proposed to speak to, was this; What is there
in this gospel that may be supposed to expose any man to shame! And this
question is very needful; for if there were nothing in it that men might
take occasion to throw their scandals and reproaches at, it had been no
great matter for St. Paul to have cried out, I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ.
To this I answer in general, this was a gospel that contradicted the
rooted prejudices of the Jews, and was severely reproached by those that
professed great knowledge in their law; it was also a new and strange
thing to the Gentiles. _A crucified Christ was a stumbling-block to the
Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks_; 1 Cor. i. 23. There was something
in the faith, and practice, and worship of the gospel so contrary to the
course of their education in the world, so opposite to their carnal
inclinations, and to the customs and fashions of their country, that a
man might well be afraid and ashamed to profess it, when they lift their
tongues, and their hands, and their swords against it, and the chief of
them _crucified the Lord of glory_, and put the preachers of it to
death.
Thus in general. But while I descend to particulars, I shall confine
myself only to those occasions of shame, which the same gospel meets
with in our day, that so the discourse may be more useful, to the
present audience; and as I mention each objection or supposed occasion
of shame, I shall endeavour to take off the force of it, and shew that
it is unreasonable.
Now the things that might any ways be supposed to expose this gospel to
shame, may be ranked under these two heads:—
I. Those which arise from the doctrines of the gospel: And, II.—Those
which arise from the professors of the gospel.
_First_, The occasions of shame that arise from the doctrines of the
gospel, are these five that follow:
I. That there are mysteries in it which are above the powers of our
reason to comprehend, and I will never believe a gospel that I cannot
comprehend. This is the language of Socinians, men that have pretended
so much to reason in our day.
But to relieve this occasion of shame, let us consider that mysteries
are of two sorts.
_First_, Such as we should never have known but by divine revelation;
but being once revealed, they may be fairly explained and understood.
Such is the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, of the resurrection
of the dead, of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ’s
sufferings, and of eternal life in a future world. I say, these are all
mysteries that were hid from ages, that is, they are such truths which
nature or reason could not have found out of itself, but being once
revealed to us of God, may be fairly explained and well understood.
Other sort of mysteries are those, which when revealed unto us, we know
merely the existence, or reality and certainty of them, but cannot
comprehend the mode and manner how they are. And of this kind there are
but two that I know of which are peculiar to our religion, and which are
the chief objects of offence to some men. These are the mysteries of the
blessed Trinity, and the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. The
mystery of Three, whom the scripture describes as persons, who have some
glorious communion in one godhead! and the mystery of two natures united
in one person.
Now, though the way and manner how the three persons, Father, Son, and
Spirit, should be one God, and how two natures, human and divine, should
be one person in Christ Jesus; I say, though the way and manner how
these things are, is not so easy to be explained and unfolded by us, and
above our own present capacity to comprehend and fully to explain, yet I
could never find these things proved impossible to be. If I must refuse
to believe a thing that I know not the manner and nature of, there are
many things in the world of nature, and in natural religion, that I must
disbelieve. Let them explain to me in natural religion what is the
eternity of God, what ideas they can have of a being that never began to
be; and then perhaps I may be able to explain to them how three persons
can have communion in one godhead, and how two natures can be one in
person. I am well assured, there are some doctrines in natural religion
as difficult to be explained, and hard to be understood, and the manner
of them is as mysterious, as these doctrines of revealed religion, which
are also rendered more offensive to the thinking mind, by some men’s
attempts to explain them in an unhappy manner.
But we may go a step lower to meet this objection, and confound it. In
the world of nature there are mysteries of this kind, which are as
unaccountable and as hard to be unfolded as the mysteries of grace. It
is the doctrine of union both in the trinity and the incarnation, which
renders them so mysterious. Now this doctrine of unions in natural
philosophy hath been hitherto insolvable. We know that spirit and body
are united to make a man: But the manner how they are united, remains
still a most difficult question. We know that some bodies are hard, and
some are soft; but what it is that ties or unites hard bodies so closely
together, and makes them so difficult to be separated, is a riddle to
the best philosophers, which they cannot solve; or what it is that
renders the parts of soft bodies so easily separable. And many other
things there are in nature as mysterious as this.