Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

that there certainly resides in British bosoms a laudable propensity to acts of beneficence. I have no desire to present the dark side of the prospect. May the whole become light! May the returning spirit and power of godliness reanimate its form, and be again the heart and soul of every action and intention, producing, with piety and charity unfeigned, obedience, union, honesty, frugality, temperance, purity; let me add, health, strength, and true fortitude. With these, should we, at any future time, be called to go forth against our old enemies (all our present unhappy differences adjusted, and all our divisions healed), we shall go forth under the favour and protection of Heaven; and then, He who created the world, and who preserves it for the sake of his church; He who secured her in the ark, when the flood came, and watched over her in the families of the holy patriarchs; He who brought her out of Egypt, led her through the wilderness, introduced her into the promised inheritance, and made her to be the glory of the whole earth; He who raised up Cyrus to deliver her from the power of Babylon; who turned the heart of Alexander in her favour; who went out, with Judas and his brethren, to the battle against the armies of Antiochus, and bade the sword of Constantine conquer under the banner of the cross; He, the Lord of Hosts, will ever be with us; He, the God of Jacob, will ever be our refuge!"O that my people"-says he, in that most condescending and affectionate wish"O that my people had hearkened unto me, and

"Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have "subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against "their adversaries -THEM THAT HONOUR ME I WILL HONOUR; BUT SUCH AS DESPISE ME 66 SHALL BE LIGHTLY ESTEEMED."

e Psal. lxxxi. 13, 14

517

DISCOURSE XXXIV.

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 upon it, presents us with a double argument in favour of our Lord's Divinity. First, it applies to HIM, what by the prophet Joel is spoken of Jehovah; Secondly, it affirms him to be the object of religious adoration. Either of these particulars does, indeed, imply the other. For if he be Jehovah, he must be the object of religious adoration; and, if the object 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 worshipped; 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.

But it is incumbent upon me previously to observe, that, since the composition of the following discourse, the cause has been pleaded at large by much abler

[ocr errors]

advocates; for which reason, a resolution was once taken to lay it aside, as fully and happily superseded. But a saying of one of the ancients occurred, that in times when erroneous and noxious tenets were diffused, all men should embrace some opportunity to bear their testimony against them. It occurred likewise, that the evidence, drawn to a point, and delivered from the pulpit, might strike many (of my younger auditors more especially) who might not be disposed to search for it in tracts of greater extent, and far greater merit. This consideration, above all, prevailed, that the established doctrine concerning the worship of our Redeemer might receive no small degree of confirmation in the minds of its professors, when, without concert or consultation, persons sitting down to reconsider it, at different times and in different places, should be found to represent it in the same light, and to vindicate it by the same arguments. Entreating your favourable acceptance of this very necessary apology, I will venture to proceed.

Invocation, then, is a part, and a principal part, of adoration; but my text mentions the invocation of Christ, as a duty, to the performance of which salvation is annexed: "Whosoever shall call upon "the name of the Lord shall be saved." The context treats wholly of Christ, in whom, it is said,

a 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.

'Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed;" and n whom, it is likewise said, the Jews refused to beeve, when they had heard of him by the preaching f the apostles. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him, of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" &c. Christ therefore is, without doubt, the person menoned in the text; he is, consequently, the object f invocation, a principal part of religious adoration; nd the man who desires to be "saved," must "call upon him," by prayer.

In the apostolical times, all Christians were suposed, by virtue of their profession, to invoke Christ, nd were characterized by that very circumstance. hus St. Paul addresses one of his epistles, to "all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, both theirs and ours";" that is, says excellent paraphrast, "whom we and all true Christians join in acknowledging and adoring as their Lord and ours." In the ninth chapter of the cts, we find Ananias saying of Saul, “And here he hath authority to bind all that call on thy name;" at is, says Dr. Hammond, "who publicly avow the worship of Christ." Again, in the same chapr, 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.

b 1 Cor. i. 2.

C

• Dr. Doddridge.

« IndietroContinua »