that shalt rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn."* and when that shall be in ashes, when the powers of the earth and the lights of heaven shall fall, and be extinguished for ever, God doth not every day manifest his will, its superstructure will appear in perfect by his prophets, respecting the kingdoms beauty. Death dissolves the relation we which he setteth up and putteth down. But bear to an earthly government, and all civil having so often done it in the cases of those distinctions drop into the dust together. great empires of which we have been speakBut our citieenship, as saith the apostle,ing, he showeth us, by such remarkable and nuwv пoditevμa,-is in heaven.* As Christians, we belong to a polity not subject to dissolution; a society, whose duration runs parallel with the days of eternity. We form a body of which Messiah is the head, and to which angels are therefore enjoined to minister. What wonder is it, that we find exceeding great and precious promises made to this high and heavenly community, and fulfilled, with regard to the empires of the world, from age to age? "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee the city city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought; for the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." Thus glorious are the things spoken of thee, thou city of God."§ May we not, therefore, take up our parable with Balaam, and say, "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel? How shall we curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall we defy whom God hath not defied ?T Behold, we have received commandment to bless: He hath blessed, and we cannot reverse it.' ** If the dealings of the Almighty with a people be squared by their dealings with his religion, the state of religion will always be the surest criterion whereby to judge of the state of that nation wherein it is planted; that there can be no greater enemies to their country, than those who are enemies to her; since concerning her He hath declared, who cannot deceive, or be deceived-" No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue prominent instances, how he acts in all * Isai. liv. 17. by the Turks. Every man, who has the of the prospect. May the whole become prosperity of his country at heart, should light! May the returning spirit and power very seriously consider, how far these tokens of godliness reanimate its form, and be are to be found upon ourselves; what can again the heart and soul of every action be done to prevent the farther spreading of and intention, producing, with piety and the infection, and to eradicate the seeds of charity unfeigned, obedience, union, hon'the disorder. Those in the higher ranks esty, frugality, temperance, purity; let me of life, it may be said-it ought to be said add, health, strength, and true fortitude. -cannot complain, that a bright example With these, should we, at any future time, of virtue is not held forth to them from the be called to go forth against our old enethrone. Happy would it be for them-mies (all our present unhappy differences selves, happy for the community, would adjusted, and all our divisions healed,) we they study to reflect its lustre on the wide-shall go forth under the favor and protecextended circles of their inferiors and de- tion of Heaven; and then, He who created pendants. The legislature hath by no the world, and who preserves it for the means shown itself backward in supporting sake of his church; He who secured her that establishment of Christianity settled in the ark, when the flood came, and among us at the reformation. The integ-watched over her in the families of the rity of those truly reverend and respectable holy patriarchs; He who brought her out persons, intrusted with the important charge of Egypt, led her through the wilderness, of administering justice and judgment in introduced her into the promised inheritthe land that particular, which rendered ance, and made her to be the glory of the the Romans, in the opinion even of their whole earth; He who raised up Cyrus to enemies, worthy to be masters of the world deliver her from the power of Babylon; -is universally seen, and gratefully ac- who turned the heart of Alexander in her knowledged. In these sequestered and favor; who went out, with Judas and his peaceful scenes, the destined mansions of brethren, to the battle against the armies of literature and religion (long may they con- Antiochus, and bade the sword of Constantine tinue to be so, loved by the good, and pa- conquer under the banner of the cross; He, tronized by the great!) though the fences the Lord of Hosts, will ever be with us; He of our enclosure will not serve entirely to the God of Jacob, will ever be our refuge ! exclude the turn and temper of the world"O that my people "says he, in that about us, yet many are diligent to teach, most condescending and affectionate wish Wisdom and many attentive to learn. "O that my people had hearkened uttereth her voice, and the sound of the unto me, and Israel had walked in my Gospel is heard. There is a river, the ways! I should soon have subdued their streams whereof, going forth from this their enemies, andturned my hand against their fountain, often cause the wilderness to be- adversaries*-THEM THAT HONOR ME I WILL come a fruitful field; to rejoice, and blos- HONOR; BUT SUCH AS DESPISE ME SHALL BE som as the rose. It must be added, that LIGHTLY ESTEEMED." there certainly resides in British bosoms a laudable propensity to acts of beneficence. I have no desire to present the dark side VOL. II. 43 Psal. lxxxi. 13, 14: DISCOURSE LXVI. CHRIST THE OBJECT OF RELIGIOUS ADORATION, AND THEREFORE VERY GOD. ROMANS, X. 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. THE text, as Dr. Whitby well remarks up-deemer might receive no small degree of conon it, presents us with a double argument in firmation in the minds of its professors, when, favor of our Lord's Divinity. First, it ap- without concert or consultation, persons sitplies to HIM, what by the prophet Joel is ting down to reconsider it, at different times spoken of Jehovah; secondly, it affirms him and in different places, should be found to reto be the object of religious adoration. Either present it in the same light, and to vindicate of these particulars does, indeed, imply the it by the same arguments. Entreating your other. For if he be Jehovah, he must be the favorable acceptance of this very necessary object of religious adoration; and, if the ob- apology, I will venture to proceed. ject of religious adoration, he must be Jehovah. We might therefore take occasion, from this passage, to prove his Divinity, and from thence infer, that he is to be worship-ance of which salvation is annexed: "Whoped; but at present, that the subject may be viewed on every side, let us take it in another light; let us first prove, that he is to be worshipped, and from thence infer his Divinity. Invocation, then, is a part, and a principal part, of adoration; but my text mentions the invocation of Christ, as a duty, to the perform soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The context treats wholly of Christ, in whom, it is said, "Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed ;" and in whom, it is likewise said, the Jews refused to believe, when they had heard of him by the preach But it is incumbent upon me previously to observe, that, since the composition of the fol-ing of the apostles. "Whosoever shall call lowing discourse, the cause has been pleaded at on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But large by much abler advocates;* for which how shall they call on him, of whom they reason, a resolution was once taken to lay it have not heard? and how shall they hear aside, as fully and happily superseded. But without a preacher?" &c. Christ therefore a saying of one of the ancients occurred, that is, without doubt, the person mentioned in in times when erroneous and noxious tenets the text; he is, consequently, the object of were diffused, all men should embrace some invocation, a principal part of religious adoopportunity to bear their testimony against ration; and the man who desires to be them. It occured likewise, that the evidence," saved," must "call upon him," by prayer. drawn to a point, and delivered from the pul- In the apostolical times, all Christians were pit, might strike many (of my younger audi- supposed, by virtue of their profession, to intors more especially) who might not be dis- voke Christ, and were characterized by that posed to search for it in tracts of greater ex-very circumstance. Thus St. Paul addresses tent, and far greater merit. This considera- one of his epistles, to "all that in every place tion, above all, prevailed, that the established doctrine concerning the worship of our Re *See Dr. Randolph's Vindication of the Worship of the Son and Holy Ghost; and Mr. Bingham's Vindication of the Doctrine and Liturgy of the Church of England. See likewise Mr. Burgh's Scriptural confutation of the Arguments against the one Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, both theirs and ours;" that is, says the excellent paraphrast," whom we and all true Christians join in acknowledging and adoring as their Lord and ours." In the ninth chapter of the Acts, we find Ananias saying of Saul, "And here he hath authority to bind all that call on thy name;" that is, says Dr. Hammond, "who publicly avow the worship of Christ." Again, in the same chapter, we read, "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them who called on this name?" that is, evidently, the name of Christ. 10 66 he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for "We have confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him."† Can a man read these two passages, and doubt for a single moment, whether his Saviour be the God that heareth prayer? Some critics tell us, that the phrase ExαLEμEO TO OUR Xpiss, "calling upon the name of Christ," is to be taken passively, as denoting those who were named by the name of Christ, or who were called Christians. But this cannot be. The name, Christian, was not known in the world, till some time after St. Paul's conversion, when, as St. Luke expressly informs us, "the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch ;" whereas, before that time, they were distinguished by the title of επικαλεμενοι το Όνομα Χριςε, " those who called on the name of Christ." Besides that Ennakɛoua (as hath been justly observed,) when followed by an accusative case, always signifies to invoke, or worship, except only where it signifies to appeal to. Thus, in the chapter from whence my text is taken, "The same Lord is rich to all who call upon him-for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."* In the twenty- Does not St. Stephen here worship Christ, second chapter of the Acts, Saul is bidden to in the very same manner in which, a little "wash away his sins, calling on the name of before, Christ himself had worshipped the Fathe Lord." And Origen, who must have ther? Where is the difference between, understood the import and force of a Greek" Father, into thy hands I commend my spiparticiple, at least as well as any modern critic, commenting on one of the above cited passages, says "The apostle, in these words, declares him to be God, whose name was called upon." The argument, therefore, deduced from this expression, we may venture to say stands good; nor can it admit of any farther reply or evasion. St. Paul's usual form of benediction was by invocation of the name of Christ. "Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Sometimes the name of Christ stands in the first order: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." § In another place, "The Lord Jesus Christ comfort your hearts" that is, I pray the Lord Jesus Christ so to do. And speaking of his thorn in the flesh, he says "I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And εις πάντας τις επικαλυμένες αυτον- τας γκρ ος αν επικαλέσηται το Όνομα Κυρις σωθήσεται. + Επικαλεσάμενος το Όνομα το Κυρίγο Origen. Com. in Rom. x. lib. viii. 2 Cor, xiii. 14. 2 Thess. ii. 16. The blessed martyr Stephen, just before he expired, preferred the following prayer to his Saviour, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Can a departing soul be thus solemnly committed into the hands of any one, but of him, who is "the God of the spirits of all flesh ?" rit "-and-"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit?" Does not the martyr likewise address Christ, as the person who could forgive sins? Where is the difference, again, between-"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do "-and-"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge?" Or shall a dying Christian scruple to say what St. Stephen said, because Christ does not appear to the one, as he was pleased to do to the other? It is a cavil not fit to proceed from the mouth of a serious man. We read of many persons, who, when Christ was upon earth, falling down upon their faces, and worshipping him, were never checked or reproved for so doing, as St. John was when he offered to worship the angel; and Cornelius, when he made the same offer to St. Peter. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, evincing the superiority of the Son of God over all created spirits, produces the following testimony: "When he bringeth in his first begotten into the world, he saith, “ And let all the angels of God worship him.” | If 'દ 2 Cor. xii. 8. † 1 John iii. 21. Heb. i. 6. you ask what kind of worship the apostle may be supposed to intend, let us turn to the Revelation. There, upon the exaltation of our Lord, after his sufferings, St. John represents to us the church universally in heaven and earth, with the parts of created nature, and all the angelic intelligences, ascribing the very same blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, to him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb," in conjunction.* In heaven, the will of God is duly performed, and all "honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." † Why should it be otherwise on earth? 66 the dead.” * And when he was brought to the stake, he concluded his last prayer with this doxology to the whole Trinity-"I bless thee, I praise thee, I glorify thee for all things, together with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son, with whom, unto thee, and the Holy Spirit, be glory, both now and for ever, world without end :"† So prayed this holy bishop and blessed martyr of Christ, at the hour of his departure out of the world. As he had been a disciple of St. John the evangelist, we cannot well suppose him ignorant of the proper object of Christian worship. We find him in possession of the doctrine of a coequal and coeternal Trinity, considered as that object; a doctrine which, we may venture to say, he did not derive from the Platonists of Alexandria, from scholastic theology, or from the papal chair. And we may continue, it is hoped, to use the prayers in our own liturgy, though they conclude exactly like the prayer of Polycarp. That it ought not to be otherwise, but that equal honor should be paid to both Father and Son, with the Holy Spirit, is evidently implied by the baptismal form running in the name of all the Three. If the Holy Spirit were a property only, as the Socinians pretend, could a property be thus joined with the Father and the Son? They are not properties; they are persons, certainly. If the Son and the Spirit were creatures, could they be joined with the Father in the solemn act of baptism? Baptism is the consecration of him who is baptized, to the service-of whom? Of God, and two creatures? No, surely, but of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and, whether St. John hath said it or not, if there be any meaning in words, THESE THREE ARE ONE, they are the one object of our faith and our love, of our prayers and of divine worship? Impossible! our praises. While this form continues to be used in the Church, the doctrine of the TRI-lieve it. NITY cannot perish from it; and who denies glory and worship to be due to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, does, in effect, renounce his baptism, and ought to be initiated, by a new form, into a new religion. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, suffered for the faith, fifty years before Polycarp, and had conversed familiarly with many of the apostles. He begins one of his epistles in the following manner: "I glorify Jesus Christ our God, who hath given unto you this wisdom." + Could such men as these, instructed by the apostles themselves, be mistaken in the capital article of all religion, the object A man must have the credulity of an infidel to be Justin Martyr, who flourished about the middle of the second century, declares to the Pagans, that the object of Christian worship was the whole Trinity. "We worship and adore," says he, "the God of righteousness, Thus stands the Scripture evidence: and and his Son, and the Holy Spirit of prophewe find the practice of the primitive Chris- cy." Yet, a little after, he tells the empertians entirely conformable to it. A remark- ors, "We hold it unlawful to worship any able instance offers itself, very early, in the but God alone."§ So Origen, who lived in case of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. He the former patt of the third century-" We suffered in the year 167. He joins God the worship and adore no creature, but the FaFather and the Son together in his prayers ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." || Give for grace and benediction upon men, con- me leave to insist a little on an argument ceived in the following manly and exalted suggested by these passages, because it seems strain of piety and charity "The God and for ever to determine the question concernFather of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Christing the faith of the primitive church on the himself the eternal High Priest, the Son of God, build you up in faith, and truth, and in all meekness, to live without anger, in patience, in long suffering, and forbearance, and give you a lot and part among the saints, and to us with you, and to all them that are under heaven, who shall believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, and in his Father, who raised him from article of our Lord's true and proper Divinity. The Christians objected to the Pagans their idolatry. The Pagans retorted the objection *Polycarpt. Epis. ad Philipp. sect. xii. Martyr. Policarp. apud Coteler. Patres Apostol. t. ii. p. 199. Η Αοξάξω Ιησεν Χριςόν τον Θεον, τον έτως vas dopioarea. Ignat. Epis. ad Smyrn. § Justin. Apol. ii. Comment. in Epist. ad Rom. lib. i. |