had slept that night, as usual, or if his attendants had read to him in any book but the Chronicle of the empire, or in any part of that Chronicle but the very passage in which the service of Mordecai had been recorded, humanly speaking Haman would have carried his point, Esther vi. 1. In this manner, by a concurrence of circumstances, each of them, if considered singly, apparently trivial, and all of them contingent with respect to any human foresight or prevention, the Lord often pours contempt upon the wise and the mighty, and defeats their deepest laid and best-concerted schemes, in the moment when they promise themselves success. Many salutary and comfortable inferences may be drawn from the consideration of this subject. Some of them I may perhaps have formerly mentioned, but they will well bear a repetition. We have need to be reminded of what we already know. 1. It should inspire us with confidence. If the Lord of hosts, the Lord of lords, be for us, what weapon or counsel can prosper against us? However dark and threatening appearances may be, we need not tremble for the ark of God, the concernments of his church are in safe hands. The cause so dear to us, is still more dear to him. He has power to support it when it is opposed, and grace to revive it when it is drooping. It has often been brought low, but never has been, never shall be forsaken. When he will work none can hinder. Nor need you fear for yourselves, if you have committed yourselves and your all to him. The very hairs of your head are numbered, Matt. x. 30. There is a hedge of protection around you (Job i. 10,) which none can break through without his permission; nor will he permit you to be touched, except when he designs to make a temporary and seeming evil conducive to your real and permanent advantage. and pleasures which the world knows nothing of. Their titles are high, they are the sons and the daughters of the Lord Almighty, 2 Cor. v. 18. Their possessions are great, for all things are theirs, 1 Cor. iii. 21. They are assured of what is best for them in this life, and of life eternal hereafter. They are now nearly related to the King of kings, and shall ere long be acknowledged and owned by him before assembled worlds. They who now account the proud happy, will be astonished and confounded when they shall see the righteous, whom they once undervalued, shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of God. 4. We may lastly infer the extreme folly and danger of those who persist in their rebellion and opposition against this King of kings, and Lord of lords." Though he exercises much patience and long-suffering towards them for a season, the hour is approaching when his wrath will burn like fire. It is written, and must be fulfilled, "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God," Psal. ix. 17. Oh the solemnities of that great day, when the frame of nature shall be dissolved, when the Judge shall appear, the books be opened, and al! mankind shall be summoned to his tribunal ! Will not you tremble and how before him, ye careless ones, while he is seated upon a throne of grace, and while the door of grace stands open! Once more I call, I warn, I charge you, to repent and believe the gospel. If today you will hear his voice it is not yet too late. But who can answer for to-morrow! Perhaps this night your soul may be required of you, Luke xii. 20. Are you prepared for the summons? If not, seize the present opportunity. Attend to the one thing needful. Seek his face, that your soul may live. If not, remember that you are warned; your blood will be upon your own head. We have 2. It should affect us with an admiring and delivered our message, and if you finally rethankful sense of his condescension. "Lord,ject it you must answer for yourselves to him. what is man that thou shouldest be so mind- whose message it is. ful of him?" He humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven, Psal. cxiii. 6. But he stoops still lower. He affords his attention and favour to sinful men. His eye is always upon his people, his ear open to their prayers. Not a sigh or falling tear escapes his notice. He pities them as a father pities his children; he proportions their trials to their strength, or their strength to their trials, and so adjusts his dispensations to their state, that they never suffer unnecessarily, nor in vain. 3. How great is the dignity and privilege of true believers! Is the man congratulated or envied whom the king delighteth to honour? Believers are more frequently despised than envied in this world. But they may congratulate one another. The King of kings is their friend. They have honours SERMON XXXIX. JOB'S FAITH AND EXPECTATION. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Job xix. 25, 26. CHRISTIANITY, that is, the religion of which Messiah is the author and object, the foundation, life, and glory, though not altogether as old as the creation, is nearly so It is coeval with the first promise and inti mation of mercy given to fallen man. When SER. XXXIX.] time, and to draw off your attention from the great concerns which should fill our minds when we meet in the house of God, by giving you a detail of controversies and criticisms, which after all are much more uncertain than important. We need not dispute, whether Job, in this passage, professes his assurance of the incarnation of Messiah, or of his resurrection, or of his final appearance to judge the world; or whether he is only declaring his own personal faith and hope in him. These several senses are not so discordant that if we determine for one we must exclude the rest. I shall content myself with the words as I find them. And I hope, that if we should miss some of the precise ideas which Job might have when he spoke, we shall not greatly mistake his general meaning, nor wander far wide from the scope of the text. Adam by transgressior. had violated the order | of this text. The word worms and body being and law of his creation, his religion, that is, printed in Italics in our version, will apprize the right disposition of his heart towards the attentive English reader, that there are no God, was at an end. Sin deprived him at once words answerable to them in the Hebrew. If of faith and hope, of love and joy. He no you omit these words, something will be evilonger desired, he no longer could bear the dently wanting to make a complete sense. presence of his offended Maker. He vainly This want different writers have supplied, acsought to avoid it; and when compelled to cording to their different judgments, and from answer, though he could not deny his guilt, hence chiefly has arisen the variety of versions instead of making an ingenuous confession, and interpretations. But it would be very he attempted to fix the blame upon the wo-improper for me, in this place, to take up your man, or rather indeed upon the Lord himself, who had provided her for him. But mercy, undeserved and undesired, relieved him from a state in which he was already become obdurate and desperate. A promise was given him of the seed of the woman, (Gen. iii. 15,) which virtually contained, as the seed contains the future plant, the substance of all the subsequent promises which were fulfilled by the incarnation of the Son of God, and by all that he did, or suffered, or obtained for sinners, in the character of Mediator. For a sinner can have no comfortable intercourse with the holy God, but through a Mediator. Therefore the apostle observes of the patriarchs and servants of God, under the Old Testament, "These all died in faith," Heb. xi. 13. We can say nothing higher than this, of the apostles and martyrs, under the New Testament. They died, not trusting in themselves that they were righteous, not rejoicing in the works of their own hands; but they died, like the thief upon the cross, in faith, resting all their hope upon him, who, by his obedience unto death, is the end of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth, Rom. x. 4. We have greater advantages, in point of light and liberty, than those of old. The prophecies concerning Messiah, which, at the time of delivery, were obscure, are to us infallibly interpreted by their accomplishment. And we know that the great atonement, typically pointed out by their sacrifices, has been actually made; that the Lamb of God has, by the one offering of himself, put away sin. But as to the ground and substance, their faith and hope were the same with ours. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, (John viii. 56;) and aged Jacob, soon after he had said, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," died with the same composure and willingness as Simeon did, who saw it with his own eyes. Job, who was perhaps contemporary with Jacob, who at least is, with great probability, thought to have lived before Moses, gives us in this passage a strong and clear testimony of his faith. And it forms a beautiful and well chosen introduction to the third part of the Messiah, the principal subject of which is, the present privileges and future prospects of those who believe in the Saviour's naine. The learned are far from being agreed Four things are observable: 1. The title. There is no name of Messiah more significant, comprehensive, or endearing, than the name Redeemer. The name of Saviour expresses what he does for sinners. He saves them from guilt and wrath, from sin, from the present evil world, from the powers of darkness, and from all their enemies. He saves them with an everlasting salvation. But the word Redeemer, intimates likewise the manner in which he saves them. For it is not merely by the word of his power, as he saved his disciples when in jeopardy upon the lake, by saying to the winds and the seas, "Peace, be still: and there was a great calm;" (Mark iv. 39;) but by price, by paying a ransom for them, and pouring out the blood of his heart as an atonement for their sins. The Hebrew word for Redeemer, Goel, primarily signifies, a near kinsman, or the next of kin; he with whom the right of redemption lay, (Numb. xxxv. 19, 21. Ruth iv. 1-3,) and who, by virtue of his nearness of relation, was the legal avenger of blood. Thus Messiah took upon him our nature, and by assuming our flesh and blood, became nearly related to us, that he might redeem our forfeited inheritance, restore us to liberty, and avenge our cause against Satan, the enemy and murderer of our souls. But thus he made himself also responsible | perties, or effects ascribed to faith, are, that for us, to pay our debts, and to answer the it works by love, (Gal. v. 6,) purifies the demands of the justice and law of God on heart, (Acts xv. 9,) and overcomes the world, our behalf. He fulfilled his engagement. 1 John v. 4. I think it cannot easily be deHe suffered, and he died on this account. nied, by those who are competent judges in But our Redeemer, who was once dead, is the case, that there are persons to be found, now alive, and liveth for evermore, and has who give these evidences that they are be the keys of death, and of hades, Rev. i. 18. lievers, and yet are far from the possession This is he of whom Job saith, I know that he of an abiding assurance. They hope they liveth (was then living,) though he was not love the Lord, but there is such a disproporto stand upon the earth, until the latter day. tion between the sensible exercise of their He is the living One, having life in himself, love, and the conviction they have of their the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, Heb. obligations to him, that they are often afraid xiii. 8. Such was his own language to the they do not love him supremely; and if not, Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am," John they know that in the scriptural sense they viii. 58. Therefore the Redeemer is mighty, do not love him at all. They can say from and his redemption is sure. He is able to their hearts that they desire to love him, but save to the uttermost. His power is unlimit- they dare not go farther. But there is a el, and his official authority, as Mediator, is weak and a strong faith; they differ not in founded in a covenant, ratified by his own kind, but only in degree. Faith is compared blood, and by the oath of the unchangeable to a grain of mustard-seed, (Matt. xvii. 20,) God, Ps. cx. 4. which, under the cultivation of the heavenly Husbandman, who first sows the seed in the heart, grows up to assurance. But in its infant and weak state it is true and acceptable faith. Far from breaking the bruised reed, (Is. xlii. 3,) he will strengthen it. He will not quench the smoking flax, but will in due time fan it into a flame. II. But Job uses the language of appropriation. He says, My Redeemer, And all that we know, or hear, or speak of him, will avail us but little, unless we are really and personally interested in him as our Redeemer. A cold speculative knowledge of the gospel, such as a lawyer has of a will or a deed, which he reads with no farther design than to understand the tenor and import of the writing, will neither save nor comfort the soul. The believer reads it, as the will is read by the heir, who finds his own name in it, and is warranted by it to call the estate and all the particulars specified his own. He appropriates the privileges to himself, and says, the promises are mine; the pardon, the peace, the heaven, of which I read, are all mine. This is the will and testament of the Redecmer, of my Redeemer. The great Testator remembered me in his will, which is confirmed, and rendered valid by his death, (Heb. ix. 16,) and therefore I humbly claim, and assuredly expect, the benefit of all that he has bequeathed. But how shall we obtain this comfortable persuasion, and preserve it against all the cavils of our enemies, who will endeavour to litigate our right? I seem to have before me a proper occasion. of discussing a point, very important, and by too many misunderstood; I mean the nature of that assurance of hope, which the scripture speaks of as attainable, which has been happily experienced by many believers, and which all are exhorted and encouraged to seek after, in the methods of God's appointment. But my plan will only permit me to offer a few brief hints upon the subject. 2. I will go a step farther. Were I to define the assurance we are speaking of, I should perhaps say, it is, in our present state, the combined effect of faith and ignorance. That assurance which does not spring from true faith in the Son of God, wrought by the operation of the Holy Spirit, is no better than presumption. But I believe what we call assurance, even when it is right, is not entirely owing to the strength of our faith, but in a great measure to our having such faint and slight views of some truths, which, if we had a more powerful impression of them, un less our faith was likewise proportionably strengthened at the same time, might possibly make the strongest assurance totter and tremble. I will explain myself. Admitting that I had a right to tell you, that I am so far assured of my interest in the gospel-salvation, as to have no perplexing doubt either of my acceptance or of my perseverance, you would much over-rate me, if you should suppose this was a proof that my faith is very strong. Alas! I have but a very slight perception of the evil of sin, of the deceitfulness of my own heart, of the force and subtlety of my spiritual enemies, of the strictness and spirituality of the holy law, or of the awful majesty and holiness of the great God with whom I have to do. If, in the moment while I am speaking 1. Many respectable writers and preachers to you, he should be pleased to impress these have considered this assurance as essential to solemn realities upon my mind, with a contrue faith. But we have the scripture in our viction and evidence tenfold greater than I hands, and are not bound to abide by the de- have ever known hitherto (which I conceive eisions of any man, farther than as they agree would still be vastly short of the truth,) unwith this standard. The most eminent pro-less-my faith was also strengthened by a ton fold clearer and more powerful discovery of the grace and glory of the Saviour, you would probably see my countenance change and my speech falter. The Lord, in compassion to our weakness, shows us these things by little and little, as we are able to bear them; and if, as we advance in the knowledge of our selves and of our dangers, our knowledge of the unsearchable riches of Christ advances equally, we may rejoice in hope, we may even possess an assured hope. But let not him who hath put on his harness, boast as though he had put it off, 1 Kings xx. 11. We are yet in an enemy's land, and know not what changes we may meet with, before our warfare is finished. criminals to surrender themselves, with a promise of mercy to those who did; though no one was mentioned by name in the act, yet every one who complied with it, and pleaded it, would be entitled to the benefit. Such an act of grace is the gospel. The Lord says, "This is my beloved Son, hear him," Matt. iii. 17. If you approve him, he is yours. If you are still perplexed with doubts, they are owing to the weakness of your faith. But there are means appointed for the growth of faith. Wait patiently upon the Lord in the use of those means, and you shall find he has not bid you seek his face in vain. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Live not in the omission of known duty. Do not perplex yourself with vain reasonings, but believe and obey, and the Lord shall be with you. There are some peculiar cases. Allowances must be made for the effects of constitution and temperament. Some sincere persons are beset and followed, through life, with distressing temptations. But in general, simplicity and obedience lead to assurance. And they who hearken to the Lord, and walk in the way of his commandments, go on from strength to strength, (Isa. xlviii. 18;) their peace and hope increase like a river, which, from small beginnings, runs broader and deeper, till it falls into the ocean. But to 3. How far our assurance is solid, may be estimated by the effects. It will surely make us humble, spiritual, peaceful, and patient. I pity those who talk confidently of their hope, as if they were out of the reach of doubts and fears, while their tempers are unsanctified, and their hearts are visibly attached to the love of the present world. I fear they know but little of what they say. I am better pleased when persons of this character complain of doubts and darkness. It proves at least that they are not destitute of feeling, nor, as yet, lulled into a spirit of careless security. And there are professors, whom, instead of endeavouring to comfort in their pre-return to Job.sent state, I would rather wish to make still III. Another article of his creed concernmore suspicious of themselves than they are; ing the Redeemer, is, He shall stand in the till they are convinced of the impossibility of latter day upon the earth. The latter or last enjoying true peace, while their hearts are days, in the prophetical style, usually denote divided between God and the world. For the Messiah's day, the times of the gospel. though sanctification is not the ground of a To this time Job looked forward. He beheld good hope, it is the certain concomitant of it. the promises afar off. Thus Messiah was the If it be true, that without holiness no man consolation of his people of old, as he who shall see the Lord, (Heb. xii. 14,) it must was come. And it should be our consolation likewise be true, that without holiness no to know that he is come.. His standing upon man can have a scriptural and well-founded the earth may include the whole of his aphope of seeing him. pearance in the flesh; his life, passion, and 4. But to give a direct answer to the in- resurrection. The manner of expression inquiry, How shall I know that he is my Re-timates something important and wonderful. deemer? I may use the prophet's words, Had Job, in the spirit of prophecy, spoken of "Then shall ye know, if you follow on to any individual of Adam's race, of Isaiah, or know the Lord," Hos. vi. 3. Our names are Paul, there would have been nothing extranot actually inserted in the Bible, but our ordinary predicted by saying he shall stand characters are described there. He is the upon the earth, for all men do so in their sucRedeemer of all who put their trust in him. cessive generations. But that the Redeemer, You will not trust in him, unless you feel the Lord of glory, the Maker of all things, your need of him; you cannot, unless you should condescend to visit his creatures, to know him, as he is revealed in the word; you dwell with men for a season, to stand and do not unless you love him, and are devoted walk upon the earth with them, clothed in a to his cause and service. If you know your body like their own, is an event which never self to be a sinner deserving to perish, if you could have been expected if it had not been see that there is no help or hope for you but revealed from heaven. It was the object of in Jesus, and venture yourself upon his gra- Job's faith, and well deserving the solemn cious invitation, believing that he is able to preface with which he introduces his firm save to the uttermost; and if you really in-persuasion of it, "Oh! that my words were clude holiness and a deliverance from sin, in the idea of the salvation which you long for, then he is your Redeemer. If, among us, an act of grace was published, inviting all graven with an iron pen in the rock for ever!" When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord of Hosts, instead of admiring the magnificence of the building, he was struck. with the condescension of the Lord, who would vouchsafe to notice it, and honour it with a symbol of his presence, "Will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, how much less this house which I have built!" 1 Kings viii. 27. But what was the visible glory which appeared in that temple, if compared with the glory of the only begotten Son of God, when he tabernacled in our flesh! The human nature of Christ is that true temple, not made with hands, in which God is manifested upon a throne of grace, that sinners may approach him without dismay, and receive, out of his fulness, grace for grace. To him all the prophets gave witness, on him the desire and hope of his people, in all ages, have been fixed. He was to stand upon the earth, as Mediator between God and man. And in the same office, now he is upon the throne of glory, he is, and will be, admired, adored, and trusted in, by all his believing people, to the end of time. afforded to his people in the earliest times, and consequently, that the religion of the Old Testament and of the New is substantially the same. The great inquiry this subject should impress upon us, is, are we thus minded? What think you, my dear friends, of Christ? Have you accepted him as your Redeemer; and have you a good hope that you shall see him to your comfort, when he shall return to judge the world? If so, you may rejoice. Changes you must expect. You must die, and your flesh must be food for worms. But he has promised to "change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself," Phil. iii. 21. SERMON XL. THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.— 1 Cor. xv. 20. IV. From the Redeemer's appearance upon earth, Job infers the restoration and resurrection of his own body. His trials had been great-bereaved of his children and substance, afflicted with grievous boils, harassed with temptations, reproached by his friends: out of As, in the animal economy, the action of the all the troubles the Lord his Redeemer de- heart and of the lungs, though very different, livered him, and his latter days were more are equally necessary for the maintenance of prosperous than his beginning. But he knew life, and we cannot say that either of them is that he must go the way of all the earth, that more essentially requisite than the other; so his body must lie in the grave, and return to in the system of divine revelation, there are dust. But he expected a future time after some truths, the knowledge and belief of his dissolution, when in the flesh, for himself, which singly considered, are fundamentals and with his own eyes, he should see God. with respect to the salvation of a sinner. And The expressions are strong and repeated. He though they are distinct in themselves, we does not speak the language of hesitation and cannot determine which of them is of most doubt, but of confidence and certainty. It importance to us; for unless we know, aplikewise appears that he placed his ultimate prove, and receive them all, we can have no happiness in seeing God. His words are not experience of a life of faith in the Son of God. very different from those of the apostle, Such, for instance, is the scriptural doctrine When he shall appear, we shall be like concerning the depravity of human nature. him, for we shall see him as he is," 1 John This is a first principle; for unless we underii. 2. To behold the glory of God, as our stand what our state is in the sight of God, the Redeemer, to be in a state of favour and enormity of our transgressions, and our incacommunion with him, and according to the pacity for true happiness, until our hearts are utmost capacity of our nature, to be conform-changed by the power of his grace, we cannot ed to him in holiness and love, is that felicity which God has promised and to which all his servants aspire. Some foretastes of it they enjoy in the present life, which cheer them under their trials, and raise them above the grovelling pursuits of those who have their portion only in this world. But their chief possession is in hope. They look forward to a brighter period, when they shall awaken from the sleep of death, to behold his face in righteousness, Ps. xvii. 15. Then, and not till then, they shall be completely satisfied. The expectation of Job, therefore, affords a sufficient proof that the doctrines of an immortal state, and of a resurrection unto life, were included in the revelations which God rightly understand a single chapter in the Bible. Such, likewise, is the doctrine of the atonement. For, if we could know how totally we are lost, without knowing the gracious method which God has appointed for our recovery, we must unavoidably sink into despair. Again, if we were sensible of our state as sinners, and even if we trusted in Christ for salvation, yet the apostle observes in this chapter, that unless he be indeed risen from the dead, our faith in him would be in vain and we should still be in our sins. The resurrection of Christ, therefore, is a doctrine absolutely essential to our hope and comfort: and it is likewise a sure pledge, that they who believe in him shall be raised from the dead |