Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

God, which in divine complacency he originally pronounced 'good;' and were the Saints to be removed to a different country, to mingle indiscriminately with angels and other intelligent beings-the kingdom of the church, as the successor of the four Monarchies, would not be everlasting in the absolute sense of the term; and we must be shewn from the Scriptures the necessity of adopting a restricted sense, before we depart from the primary meaning of the language of inspiration. This, however, like the preceding, is a point which we cannot fully discuss till we have reached an advanced stage of the argument.

I therefore close this review of the Sacred Kalendar; and, at the same time must suspend the general discussion, purposing however, if the Lord will, to resume it after a short interval.

The topics handled argumentatively in the preceding pages are rich with matter for interesting practical reflections. I shall select only two.

Observe the vanity of ambition, on the part of statesmen; and the folly, on the part of the people, of agitating their hearts with the spirit of politics. Even although the destruction of those kingdoms in which worldly men seek for aggrandizement were to be long deferred, yet, since come the destruction would at last, there would still be meanness and poverty in their ambition. It is not enough for the gratification of the mind that what we are possessed of endure so long as we live, we desire the honour of being possessed of that which is so substantial that it will endure for ever, or at least for many ages. At the best then worldly men are worthy of our pity, when with such labour and anxiety they pursue that which contains within it the seeds of corruption and death; how much more, when all this state and honour is to be abolished speedily, yea with speedy vengeance, for the curse of God is upon it, and He will abolish it in his anger?

When the ambition of those who move in the higher circles of life is rebuked thus severely, with equal sharpness is the rebuke administered to that spirit of politics which rages among the people. Let me not be misunderstood. I abhor tyrants as strongly as I love my children. And no man can abominate more than do I the doctrine of passive obedience, for christian any more than infidel. It is neither for a

countryman of Milton, nor a countryman of Knox; and as little as for either of them, is it for a disciple of Him who proclaimed Herod a cunning and bloody fox, (Luke xiii. 32.) cowardlike to prostrate his mind before the imbecile dogma,

that any mortal king may rule, or parliament of mortal men may legislate, without an oppressed people having right to interfere, and work out for themselves a redress of their grievances. Government is an ordinance of God, but his ordinance, for his country at least, is, that the people, with the fear of him before their eyes, elect rulers for themselves; and if thus elected they rule not so as to be ministers of God to them for good, (Rom. xiii. 4.) that they dismiss them and try others with their place. What I principally find fault with in the spirit which is at present abroad in our land is not the demand for redress, but that there is no acknowledgment made in it of the Supreme God as the Ruler of the universe, and no account taken of the necessity for His blessing, ere any measures be successful for the redemption of our commonwealth. No one is found in their assemblies to give testimony for Jehovah, when even the Romans would have expressed their trust in such gods as they knew. They have made an Idol of Reform, and assured they may be that He who is jealous of his glory will avenge himself on the idolatry. But even although devotional acknowledgment were made in this agitating question of the presiding government of the Most High, still would I condemn the feeling for being excited so strongly, as if something great were dependent on it, and as if it concerned the prosperity of many future generations. Let the men be told that what they are so zealous to have rectified has not long to stand, before the Stone of Heaven shall smite it, and disperse it for ever. Up to the moment when the Lord shall come let us perform whatsoever is our duty, so that we shall be found at our post; but let us proportion our attention and zeal according to what He has revealed concerning the duration of the works of our hands.

Observe, therefore, in the second place, the glory of the Church, and the nobility of her membership. Here is that kingdom which when all others are desolated shall remain unmoved; yea which shall rise from its present state of lowliness and far and wide around the globe shall it carry its conquests. The Romans in their vanity applied "orbis" to their empire, when not more than a third part of the world was even known by them to exist. But in the time of the flourishing of the Church there shall be no land which Geography may include where he will not find her rule established. Her empire shall be identified with the universe; nor shall it ever know decline. -Although then the christian had no hope that he himself would enjoy this triumph, yet how ennobled would he feel as a member of that institution whose destiny is so glorious! But

[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
« ZurückWeiter »