Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE PORTRAIT OF ST. PAUL.

209

time, "is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who Can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins."

-10 Our Lord himself, who perfectly "knew what was in man," being the physician who alone is able to heal us, and the Judge who will render to every one according to his works; our Lord has described mankind alienated from the chief good, filled with aversion to his people, and enemies to God himself. "I send you forth," saith he to his disciples, "as lambs among wolves. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me, before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own; but because I have chosen you out of the world," that ye should walk in my steps, "therefore the world hateth you. Ifthey have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because," notwithstanding their deism and polytheism, "They know not him that sent me :" For "he that hateth me, hateth my Father also. These things have I told you, that when" they shall chase you from their churches, as demons would chase an angel of light, ye may remember that I told you of them."

[ocr errors]

The Jews were doubtless, in one sense, the most enlightened of all people; seeing they offered to the true God, a public worship unmixed with idolatry, were in possession of the Law of Moses, the Psalms of David, together with the writings of the other prophets, in which the duties required of man, both with respect to God and his neighbour, are traced out in the most accurate manner. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ represents this enlightened people as universally corrupted in spite of these advantages: "Did not Moses," saith he to them, " give you the Law? and yet NONE of you keepeth the Law."

What appears most extraordinary in the sermons of our Lord, is the zeal with which he bore his testimony against the virtues of those Jews,

$ 2

who were reputed men of uncommon devotion. Although they piqued themselves upon being eminently righteous, he declared to his disciples, that, unless their "righteousness," should "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees," they should "in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Hea ven." And observe the manner, in which he gene rally addressed those religious impostors: "Woe unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess [full of covetous desires and disorderly passions ;] Thou blind pharisees, cleanse first that which is within.... that the outside may be clean also."

Nothing is more common than that blindness, which suffers a man to esteem himself better than he really is, and this blindness is, in every period and in every place, the distinguishing characteristic. of a pharisee. This species of hypocrisy, with which St. Paul was once elated, agrees perfectly well with the ordinary sincerity of sinners, who blindly regard amusements the most trifling and expensive, as allowable and innocent pleasures; who Jook upon theatres, as schools of virtue; intrigue and deceit, as prudence and fashion; pomp and profusion, as generosity and decorum; avarice, as frugality; pride, as delicacy of sentiment; adultery, as gallantry, and murder as an affair of honour.

To all such modern christians, may we not, with propriety, repeat, what our Lord once openly addressed to their predecessors? Without doubt, we are authorized, to cry out against them, with an holy zeal, "Woe unto you hypocrites! for ye are like upto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" of hypocrisy, because, your virtues have more appearance than solidity; and of injus

tice, because you render not that which is due to God, to Cesar, or to your fellow-creatures, whether it be adoration, fear, honour, support, or good will.

But, if the depravity of the Jews in general, and of the pharisees in particular, appear abundantly evident; must we suppose there were no happy exceptions among them: It is true, the royal Prophet declares...." The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any, that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether be. come filthy: there is none that doeth good, no not one." But were not the disciples of our Lord to be considered in a different point of view? No : even after the extraordinary assistance afforded them by the Son of God, the Apostles themselves did but confirm the sad assertion of the psalinist. Our Lord, upon whom no appearances could impose, once testified to James and John, that, notwithstanding their zeal for his person, they were unacquainted with his real character; and that, instead of being influenced by his spirit, they were actuated by that of the destroyer. "Ye then, being evil;" said he to all his disciples: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? One of you shall betray me"....Peter who is the most resolute to confess me, shall "deny me thrice....and all ye shall be offended because of me." Lastly: our Lord constantly represented the unregenerate, as persons "diseased and condemned. They that are whole," said he, "have no need of the physician, but, they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Ye are of this world, therefore I said unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am He," and refuse to observe the spiritual regimen I prescribe, ye shall die in your sins. Except ye repent, ye shall perish."

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

It is notorious, that John the Baptist prepared the way of his adorable Master by preaching the same doctrine: "O generation of vipers," said, he to the pharisees and sadducees, to the prophane and professing part of the nation, "who hath warned. you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance."

It is equally well known, that the disciples were instructed by Christ himself to tread in the steps of his forerunner: "It behoveth," said he, "Christ to suffer; and that repentance should be preached in his name among all nations." Hence an Apostle was heard to cry out; "God now commanded all men every where to repent." And at other times, the same divine teacher was inspired to write as follows: "We, who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the gentiles, were by nature the children of wrath even as others: for we were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

The same doctrine was constantly held forth by the other Apostles, as well as by St. Paul. In "time past," saith St. Peter, we have "wrought the will of the gentiles, walking in lasciviousness, lusts, revellings, &c. The whole world lieth in wickednesss;" saith the beloved John and St. James solemnly testifies, that every" friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

This humiliating doctrine, which the world universally abhors, is a light too valuable to be hidden under a bushel: and, till it is raised, as it were, upon a candlestick of gold, we can never hope to see the visible church enlightened and reformed.

Observations upon the repentance of worldly men. IF it be enquired, do not all ministers preach repentance? we answer; that ordinarily, true mi

nisters alone preach true repentance. The preachers of the day, as they are conformable to the world in other things, so they are perfectly contented with practising the repentance of worldly men. Now as he who receives only base coin, cannot possibly circulate good money, so he, who, satisfies his own heart with a short-lived sorrow for sin, cannot possibly give free course to that evangelical repentance, which the Gospel requires. And it is observable, that the hearers of such ill-instructed scribes, generally fix those bounds to their repentance, which are satisfactory to their impenitent pastors.

The repentance, we here condemn, may be known by the following marks.

1. It is superficial, and founded only upon the most vague ideas of our corruption : hence, it cannot, like that of David and Jeremiah, trace sin to its source, and bewail the depravity of the whole heart.

2. It is pharisaical, regarding only outward sins. The righteousness of the pharisees rested upon the most trifling observances, while they neglected those weighty commands of the Law, which respect the love of God and our neighbour. They afflicted themselves, when they had not scrupulously paid the tenths of their herbs; but they smote not upon their breasts, when they had rejected the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the same dangerous. circumstances are those penitents of the present day, who are less sorrowful on account of having offended God and rejected Christ, than that they are become objects of ridicule, contempt, or punishment, by the commission of some impious or dishonourable action. We frequently hear these false penitents bewailing the condition, to which they have reduced themselves, and giving vent to the most passionate expressions of sorrow. But, when are they seen to afflict themselves, because they have not beeg wholly devoted to God? Or when do they

[ocr errors]
« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »