Flavel. many in Church and State, more than any of my order in England these seventy years before. But were particular passage of Scripture, bringing out from it all that is in not sit there."— it, and nothing more. This is the textual idea of preaching. Another cares not a straw for a sermon, if it do not contain a train "It is a great of rigid argumentation, diversified by occasional bursts of party the Gospel of mercy to enjoy rage and strong squirts of the odium theologicum. This is the Peace,' but a still polemical idea of preaching. Another likes no preaching but greater to enjoy what contains a string of appeals, and queries, and adjurations, the peace of the Gospel."-Dyer. unconnected with principles, unsupported by reasonings, and "I have passed loose as a rope of sand. This is called, though falsely, practical through preaching. Another wants a sermon to be a series of electrical places of honour shocks one burst from beginning to end; the clouds returning and trust, both after the rain, and no cotton so thick and no conscience so hard as to exclude or resist the perpetual tumult. This is the claptrap idea of preaching. Another wants flowers; whether natural and fresh from the soil, or artificial and faded, it does not matter; if he do but get flowers, and hear them rustling above his ears, in 1 but assured the breeze of brilliant declamation, he is quite satisfied, whether that by my they keep him languishly awake, or lull him into dreamy repose. This is the florid and Corinthian idea of preaching. Another is content with exclamations; he is not pleased unless every other God, I should sentence begins with Oh! The interjection Ah! has to him a pecu- take therein more liarly pathetic sound; it seems to melt into his midriff like snow; comfort than in spiritual joy and and that preacher would be his Magnus Apollo, who would say, all the honours "Oh! we remark in the next place." This is the interjectional and offices which idea of preaching. Another desiderates chiefly delivery. No have been beminister is a favourite unless his voice be musical, and his attitude smack of the boards; unless he indulge in a profusion of studied declamation, pointing to the four winds when he names them, and laying his hand gently on the heart, when he wishes to indicate that interesting organ. This is the material or Anthropomorphic idea of preaching. Another judges of a sermon by its length, and likes it, either because it is an hour or because it is only the half of the time. This is the arithmetical idea of h Gilfillan. preaching.h 16, 17. have.. Gospel, who have heard the preacher. Esaias, even the prophet Isaiah was not believed by men who admitted that he was a prophet of God. Lord, he, as a model preacher, carried his trouble in prayer to his master. report ? news published concerning the Messiah. so then, the sum of the argument is this. faith.. hearing, hence, to obtain a knowledge of things to be believed men should hear frequently, diligently, prayerfully, practically.d hearing.. God, the Word of God supplies the preacher's warrant and theme. preaching I had converted but one soul unto stowed on me." -Abp. Williams. "But it must be remembered that we 'glorify the word,' not the preacher." Trapp. faith cometh 6 Is. liii. 1. e 2 Th. ii. 13, 14; 1 Pe. i. 23, 25. "God, in the effectual dispensation of His grace, meeteth with The faith that cometh by hearing.-I. The kind of faith that cometh by hearing-1. An historical, 2. A dogmatical, 3. A temporary, faith; 4. A faith of miracles; 5. A saving faith. II. The Word, by the hearing of which faith comes-1. Not the word of men; 2. Nor yet of angels; 3. But of God. III. What is meant them who attend by hearing this Word? Hearing it 1. Read; 2. Expounded; with diligence on 3. Preached. IV. How is faith wrought by the Word?-1. The the outward administer of God speaks it; 2. The ears of the hearer take it in; 3. the means of The Spirit enables the understanding to receive it; 4. Having it. He doth so, I done this, it inclines the will to embrace it. Application: (1) Come to hear the Word with prayer; (2) Hear it reverently; (3) Apply it to thyself; (4) Confer it upon others. A large family to provide for.-A pious gentleman was engaged them."--Dr.Owen. ministration of say, ordinarily, them who despise in comparison of and neglect like a well-drawn "The promises in a certain branch of business by which he was rapidly increasing are so laid, that, his wealth. When he had made about 50,000 dollars, a minister picture, they look was one day conversing with him, and asked if he had not accumuon all that look lated property enough for his family, and if he had not now better on them by an give up that kind of business? "O," said he, "I have not yet made enough to give each of my children a single leaf of the catechism." "Why," inquired the clergyman, "how large is your family?" "Above 600,000,000," was his reply. He looks on the whole family of man as his own family, and he is labouring for eye of faith. The Gospel's joy is thy joy, that hast but faith to receive it."-Gur nall. f Bp. Beveridge. universality of the Divine appeal a Ps. xix. 4; Ac. ii. 5, 6; viii. 4; xi. the salvation of them all. 18-21. have.. heard? all heard, though only some believed. sound..world," 66 so general has that hearing already been, that to it may be applied the words in wh. the Psalmist describes the universality of the testimony of the works of nature to the glory of God." "This speech uttered by creation as properly God's as the speech uttered by the preachers of the Gospel."c first.. saith,d the feelings with wh. the Jews regarded the Gentiles, also predicted. jealousy, the Jews were enraged when the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles. foolish nation, bec. once idolators. Esaias, Isaiah as well as Moses Faith is an ear-foretold the facts of Messiah's day. all day, of prophetic teachnest persuasion ing, and Divine long-suffering. stretched.. hands, gesture cerning the truth of earnest, passionate entreaty. 19; xxvi. 30. f Is. lxv. 1; lv. 5. g Is. lxv. 2. of mind, con From faith doth duly result a as of some matter Their sound went into all the earth.-This fact a proof of-I. propounded.. The historical truth; II. The heavenly origin; III. The blessed naturally and purpose of the Gospel.-The spread of the Word, a testimony—I. Of whom ; II. Through whom; III. For whom. satisfaction or ac- Christ the great helper of the helpless.-Christ, to convince the quiescence in the world of their unableness to emerge and recover out of that deep matter enjoined, be abyss wherein the load of sin (which in Scripture is called a best to done; a choice weight) hath precipitated fallen man, came not into the world and resolution to until well nigh four thousand years of sickness had made the disease comply with desperate, and the cure almost hopeless: so inveterate an ment; an effec- obstinacy at once widening the distance betwixt God and tual obedience; man, and proclaiming the latter's disability to find, by his own a cheerful expec- wisdom, expedients of reunion. Thus Christ healed and distation of a good issue thereupon." possessed a dumb person, who was able to make entreaties but by the disability of pronouncing them, and might truly say to the secure world, "I am found of them that sought me not."i God's appoint -Dr. Barrow. h Lange. i R. R. Boyle. God has not ix. 8, 9. b 2 Co. xi. 22; Ph. iii. 5; 1 Ti. i. 13. < Tholuck. d 1 K. xix. 10, 18. CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH. 1—3. hath . . people ?a wh. some might infer fr. the prophecies just quoted. forbid, for then I should exclude myself. I.. Benjamin,' yet not cast off; but one of God's people by believing in Jesus. cast away, Israel chosen as God's people to be the foundation of Messiah's kingdom; therefore cannot as a people be cast away. of.. Elias Pd i.e., in the hist. of Elijah." Mistakes concerning the number of the righteous.-Sometimes we make them from-I. The peculiar state of our own minds. This seems to have been the condition of Elijah. His language e Alford. "With betrays-1. Severity; 2. Petulancy; 3. Despair. II. Observing Luther, Erasmus, multiplied instances of false profession. The apostasy of one pretender often excites more attention than the lives of solid and regard to." Calvin, Reza. "God's people not the rubbish or the off-scour steady Christians. III. The righteous themselves. Because of— 1. The obscurity of their stations; 2. The diffidence of their are His jewels, dispositions; 3. The manner of their conversion; 4. The diversity of their opinions; 5. The imperfections of their character. Application: (1) The use which the Apostle makes of his subject; (2) Are you among the number of the saved? (3) Let all true Christians consider the Author and end of their salvation; (4) Remember also for whom you have been saved. ing of the world, though the world A wise man will not cast away his jewels. They are esteems them so. his servants. All the willing service he hath done Christ in the world, cepting that of ex angels-is done by these men. A wise man will not cast away A Jewish appeal to Christians.-A Jewish congregation, soliciting money of Christians to build them a synagogue, is a new "The thing. An American congregation makes this appeal: Congregation Mischan Israel,' of this city, propose to build an house unto the Lord their God; but being poor though Jews, they respectfully appeal to the liberality of Christians to aid them. No Christian can read the first five verses of the ninth chapter of such as are truly Romans, without the feeling of kindness towards those who are serviceable to Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,' and him."-Caryl. ' of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came."" On this f W. Jay. Zion's Herald (Methodist) says, "Let all believers in Christ read the eleventh of Romans, and help these heirs of the same promise, even in their shadowy state of faith. Such gifts will open their eyes, as Christ did their ancestors'." election of grace 4, 5. what.. answer, etc., "the case is now just as it was remnant in the time of Elijah; an apparently universal defection, but in according to reality a considerable faithful remnant, even among the Jews."a Baal, Gk., Tỹ, i.e., feminine. A goddess, Astarte, was worshipped a Vaughan. under the name of Baal. election.. grace, acc. to a selection of free favour." 66 66 "If even Elijah was deceived in his number of God's people are His children; they are born of God, and sons of Natural love will not cast away a child. They are His portion, the lot of His inheritance, His revenues of glory, He has by them. A man will not de the Most High. The election of grace.-I. The election is eternal, in the same sense as Christianity is eternal. II. It does not of itself imply eternal salvation. III. It does not imply a decree of reprobation. Apostolic preaching." To preach practical sermons, as they are called," says Bishop Horne, that is, sermons upon virtues and vices, without inculcating those great Scripture truths of redemption, grace, &c., which alone can incite and enable us to forsake sin and follow after righteousness,-what is it but to put together the wheels, and set the hands of a watch, forgetting the spring, which is to make them all go?"-The atonement is fundamental.-The late Thomas, Earl of Kinnoull, a short time before his death, in a long and serious conversation with the Rev. Dr. Kemp, of Edinburgh, thus expressed himself:-"I have always considered the atonement the characteristic of the Gospel; as a system of religion, strip it of that doctrine, and you reduce it to a scheme of morality, excellent, indeed, and such as the world never saw; but, to man, in the present state of his faculties, absolutely impracticable."-The present and the future.-I see the first glory, or reject handsel that God gives them [the Israelites] in their voyage to his own inheritance."-Caryl. the land of promise, thirst and bitterness. Satan gives us pleasant entrances into his ways, and reserves the bitterness for the end. b Homilist. God inures us to our worst at first, and sweetens our conclusion c Bp. Hall. with pleasure.< spise his own 6-8. grace," unmerited favour. works, meritorious obedi- grace and Israel, nation as a whole. that.. for, "the honour works a Ro. iv. 4, 5; Ga. of continuing to be the people of God." election.. it, by v. 4; Ep. ii. 8, 9. ence. b Macknight. c Ro. ix. 6. d 2 Co. iv. 4. e Is. xxix. 10; Is. vi. 9; Je. v. 21; Ez. xii. 2; Ma. xiii. 1 14; Ac. xxviii. 27, 2 Co. iii. 14, 15. ƒ De. xxix. 4. forehand, nor be grace of God. blinded, or hardened (see on ix. 18), given up to judicial blindness. written, another fulfilment of Scripture. spirit.. slumber, stupefaction of mind. unto.. day, to Apostle's day, and to ours. The Christian doctrine of Divine grace.-I. Man is the object of grace: 1. The atonement is the effect of Divine grace; 2. Christianity is entirely independent of man in its contrivance. Grace is not impaired by any arrangements which had reference to ourselves; 3. The death of the cross is only a means to the most benevolent end; 4. The Gospel, while it upholds the claim of the "Grace is a free gift; it is such a Divine law, has an exclusive bearing upon us as sinners. Salvagift as can neither tion is not a question of justice, but of grace; 5. No blessing of be deserved be- the Gospel is, in any legitimate sense, the subject of purpose. requited after it By Christ's righteousness a free gift of salvation was made unto is received." us. II. The grace, which is so pre-eminent, cannot be confounde Bp. Lake. with any inferior or incongruous principle: 1. Grace is free "God's grace favour. It can be-(1) Related to no right; (2) Contained in no hath no depend- law; 2. Work is individual action or conduct; 3. Grace is thereence out of fore opposed to work, as it is-(1) Extrinsic of the person; (2) solely and wholly Independent of the volition; (3) A most jealous challenger of that relieth on God's merit which sinless obedience claims, and the Divine code awards. pleasure. For III. Grace and work are often violently tortured into an unnatural effect father his alliance. No system can reconcile itself to grace, which-1. Proown cause? All ceeds upon the merits of human conduct; 2. Rests human acceptgrace in man ance on a foreknowledge of good qualities of character; 3. doth issue from Reckons on the will's self-determining power; 4. Accounts the wh., therefore, Gospel as a simple facility to man to save himself; 5. Varies the cannot rise from Gospel's freeness by moral differences in man; 6. Founds our aught in man.”— duty upon a bestowment of grace. IV. The effects of these opDr. Clerke. posing principles. How differently they-1. Explain Christianity; 9 Dr. R. W. Hamil-2. Christ's mission; 3. Influence the human mind. God's self, but how shall the grace in God: ton. h Dr. Owen. heart, 'What ned? what good Salvation by grace.-Some are all their days laying the foundation, and are never able to build upon it to any comfort to them"It is reported selves or usefulness to others. And the reason is, because they of Sextus, that, every night be will be mixing with the foundation stones that are only fit for fore he slept, he the building. They will be bringing their obedience, duties, asked of his own mortification of sin, and the like, unto the foundation. These evil hast thou are precious stones to build with, but unmeet to be first laid to this day amend- bear upon them the whole weight of the building. The foundation ed? what vice is to be laid in mere grace, mercy, pardon in the blood of Christ; hast thou shun- this the soul is to accept of and to rest in merely as it is grace, withhast thou done? out the consideration of anything in itself, but that it is sinful in what part art and obnoxious to ruin. This it finds a difficulty in, and would thou bettered?" gladly have something of its own to mix with it; it cannot tell how to fix these foundation-stones without some cement of its own endeavours and duty: and because these things will not mix, they spend fruitless efforts about it all their days. But if the foundation be of grace, it is not at all of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. If anything of our own be mixed with grace in this matter, it utterly destroys the nature of grace, which if it be not alone, it is not at all." Such review is always able." profit the fall of Israel a Ps. lxix. 23. 9-11. David, a with the foresight of a seer. table, meals, banquets, food: prob. remote all. to convivial society. snare.. trap, catching sensual souls, leading to gluttony, epicures, whose god is their belly. recompence, minding earthly things, "He that eats the tickling of their palate is their reward. darkened, to all b De. xxxii. 1315; Is. v. 4, 5, 7. nearly a beast. fall? He who drinks that is holy and heavenly through sensuality; earthly, sensual, till he is full is devilish. bow..alway, reduced to abject slavery. utterly, finally? through.. fall, the grace of God shall not be of none effect. Gentiles, to whom mercy shall be offered, since the Jews rejected it. for.. jealousy, that even by this means the Jews may be excited to emulation, and by believing, be saved. Salvation.-Salvation may be presented to your notice as consisting of four successive steps: I. Conversion; at whatever period of life or by whatever instrumentality accomplished. II. Sanctification; carried on from thence to the end of life, whether long or short. III. The happiness of the disembodied spirit, which we call death. IV. The reunion of the spirit with the body, risen and fashioned like Christ's glorious body. till he is drunk is quite a beast."W. Cobbett. Some others eat to live. men live to eat; d Ac. xiii. 46; xviii. 6; xxii. 18, 21; xxviii. 24, 28. "The Jews' unbelief was a step whereby the Gentiles arose to the knowledge of the Gospel; as the setting of the sun in one place is the rising of it in another."-Char nock. God hath seated Gluttony cured by the Gospel.-At a public festival at Raiatea, a South Sea Island, some of the chiefs and others addressed the company, in brief and spirited appeals to their memory, of the abominations of past times, and of their gratitude for the glorious and blessed changes which the Gospel of Christ had wrought e Dr. H. McNeile. among them. They compared their present manner of feasting, their "Shem was the improved dress, their purer enjoyments, their more courteous be- father of the haviour, the cleanliness of their persons, the delicacy of their con- Jews, and Javersation, with their former gluttony, nakedness, riot, brutality, Gentiles; and pheth of the filthy customs, and obscene talk. One of the speakers observed, "At such a feast as this, a few years ago, none but kings, or great chiefs, or strong men, could have got anything good to eat; the poor, and the feeble, and the lame, would have been trampled under foot, and many of them killed in the quarrels and battles that followed the gormandising and drunkenness." said another, "is the reign of Jehovah,-that was the reign of Satan. Our kings might kill us for their pleasure, and offer our carcases to the Evil Spirit; our priests and our rulers delighted in shedding our blood. Now, behold, our persons are safe, our property is our own, and we have no need to fly to the mountains to hide ourselves, as we used to do, when a sacrifice was wanted for Oro, and durst not come back to our homes till we heard that a victim had been slain and carried to the marae." d 66 tents of Shem (Ge. ix. 27), hath joined both their seeds into one Church....Nay, This," the Jews are cast off, and the Gentiles are made Israel."-Dr. R. Clerke. enriched by fall of Israel a Is. lix. 20; 1x. 3-5; lxvi. 10 12-14. fall, apostasy. be.. world,a be the occasion of Gentiles unsearchable riches of Christ being preached to the world. diminishing, the reduction of the faithful to a mere remnant. fulness ? how much more their restoration? c Apostle . Gentiles, though speaking much and often of the Jews, he does not forget his special commission. magnify.. office, although a Jew, I glory in being a preacher to the Gentiles. if by any, etc., his love to the Jews makes him the more zealous among the heathen. 12: Mi. iv. 2. c" Whole body of preachers and living witnesses revelation."Doddridge. “Full of the truth of Stuart. "Restoration to the state Necessaries to the ministerial office.-To be prepared for this office, we must-I. Seek to possess ourselves with the most just and influential apprehensions of its nature and its high designs. II. Cherish a devout persuasion of its efficacy. III. Endeavour reception."to imbibe and visibly to cultivate the spirit appropriate to its discharge. IV. Give to its fulfilment the unreserved and constant dedication of our highest powers. This must appear under the form of-1. Preparation; 2. Public labour; 3. Private assiduity. destiny."-Kollner V. Continue in the course thus described: 1. With patient per- 21; Ga. i. 15, 16; severance and watchfulness, even to the end; 2. With a meek ii. 8. in wh. they can again fulfil their d Ac. ix. 15; xxii. |