would follow, of which we have at present little conception. "As God accomplishes his purposes by means and instruments, which we may know in our own case, these views present no impediment to our using all proper means for the good of others also: while they not only produce the conviction, that the same rich grace and omnipotent energy, by which God saved us, would suffice for the conversion and salvation of any of those whom we address; but also lead directly to a simple and entire dependence on that omnipotent and most rich grace for success, while we are prepared to give the whole glory to God, when our endeavours are prospered. They stimulate to exertions like Paul's and to his acknowledgment, Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me; to contributions after the manner of David; and to confessions, Who am I, O Lord, that I should be able to give thus willingly after this sort? Of thine own have I given thee. On the other hand, as in every thing they lead us to expect success only of God's free mercy and powerful grace, they restrict us to such means alone as we may scripturally expect, and confidently pray, that God will bless: not doing evil that good may come. They are also, and I find them such, the grand support and cordial of the soul under temptations, conflicts, sufferings; nay in the midst of doubts and fears, as well as when assured that we have passed from death unto life. Determined to save He watch'd o'er my path, And can he have taught me To trust in his name, And thus far have brought me It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Whether in the ark or not, there is an ark: I am in the land of hope, and prayer, and mercy.-Whom he will he hardeneth. He has not hardened me. I am not among scoffers, blasphemers, infidels, Socinians, Pharisees, antinomians, Gallios. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Thus I would plead in the darkest hours. In brighter times, while all the glory of the past is unreservedly given to God, I am enabled to trust him to perfect what concerneth me. But, were my conf dence to rest on any thing in myself, I am so conscious how little my heart and resolution can be depended on, that I should despair, or at least despond. "I must also add, that those very views, or principles, lie at the bottom of all proper exertions, and hope of success in exertions, to propagate Christianity in the world. God's omnipotent grace, his purposes, his predictions, alone give just ground of confidence in attempting to surmount the otherwise insuperable difficulties in the way. In short these views cause the gospel to appear in its full glory. While all other views in a measure seem to darken that glory. They secure all the honour to God, and cherish all right principles and feelings in our hearts towards him, our brethren, and all men. "This is an imperfect view of my sentiments on the subject:-My kind regards to Mrs. Knight. God bless you and all your's, and our assembled brethren. Pray for me, especially for faith, patience, and fortitude: for I am weak. Your's faithfully, "THOMAS SCOTT." No. XIII. ON MATTHEW xiii, 28. "An enemy hath done this." "In lately reading the parable of the tares in the field, the expression, An enemy hath done this, suggested to me the following general observation, That Christianity is answerable only for its own genuine effects, and not for any thing which men, called Christians, have done of another or contrary nature: I sowed good seed in my field; but, as to tares, an enemy hath done this. "When our Saviour had cast out the legion, restored the frantic demoniac to his right mind, brought him to sit at his feet, and sent him to tell his countrymen what the Lord had done for him; it should seem that the Gadarenes overlooked all this important good; and thought of little but what the devils (by the permission, indeed of Christ,) had done in destroying the swine. And so, charging the benevolent Jesus with the loss of their property, which he, for wise reasons, did not see good by his omnipotence to prevent; they refused both his gracious assistance for the cure of their sick, and his invaluable instructions for the salvation of their souls. An enemy hath done this: and they were so alarmed and prejudiced that they desired the best friend, that ever set foot in their country, to depart out of their coast; though the recovered demoniac was an unexceptionable witness to his love, as well as his power. "It appears to me, that modern infidels and skeptics, of various kinds, have trodden in the steps of these Gadarenes; or rather far outgone them. During eighteen centuries immense multitudes, in regions most remote from each other, have, by the genuine efficacy of Christianity, been turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven: they have been taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live so berly, righteously, and godly in this present world: they have repented and done works meet for repentance, they have been harmless and blameless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of crooked and perverse nations, shining among them as lights in the world: they have extorted even from enemies the most unequivocal acknowledgments of their temperance, equity, truth, and love: they have, by their example, covered their calumniators with shame, and disarmed numbers of their persecutors: they have been indeed a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people: yet they have confessed, without exception, that they came far short of that excellence to which their principles, maxims, motives, and example, called them. Nay it has often been proved unanswerably, that, if Christianity were universally received as the principle and rule of men's conduct, it must form the human race to such piety, justice, temperance, faithfulness, and mercy, that wars, massacres, murders, slavery, oppression, licentiousness, and every other evil that disturbs and plagues the world would cease, and peace and love, with all the fruits of righteousness, must fill the earth. Let all men repent and believe the gospel; let them act from its principles, and according to its instructions; let them obey the precepts of Christ, and imitate his example; let them all be Christians indeed, and consistent Christians; and I appeal to every man's understanding and conscience, what sort of rulers, and subjects, and relations, and friends they would be, and what the state of the world would become.-The Christian church, for a short time after the day of Pentecost, when great grace was on them all, shewed us a specimen; and very many millions in succeeding ages have in some good measure answered to it: and numbers even now on earth so far resemble them, that, if whole countries, if the whole earth, were filled with such characters, the beneficial consequences would baffle calculation, and even exceed all that we can at present so much as imagine. Now this is the genuine effect and tendency of Christianity, and the honour of it belongs to her exclusively; whereas, whatever contradicts her principles, her precepts, or the example of her founder, is tares sown by the enemy. He indeed took occasion from the good seed being sown, to cast in his tares; but the parable itself is a prophecy; and Christ and his apostles foretold, in very many places, what mischief the wicked heart of man, and the influence of evil spirits, would take occasion from Christianity to perpetrate: and so the event turns to us for a testimony. But they have also cautioned us against charging the blame on the gospel; for an enemy hath done it. "The modern opposers, however, of our holy religion either forget, or are willingly ignorant of, the immense effects of the most excellent kind which history records as produced by Christianity, and the still more extensive good which it is calculated to produce, when more generally received in its purity; and they dwell with triumph on what the enemy hath done, as if Christ had done it, or Christianity had commanded it. But surely Christianity is not answerable for the mischiefs which heresy, superstition, and enthusiasm have done, or for the crimes of vile hypocrites, whom she classes with infidels.-Can Christianity be answerable for what Antichrist has done, according to the prophecies of the primitive preachers of the gospel? Does Christianity command frauds, seditions, massacres, persecutions, and holy (or rather unholy) wars? Does she authorize her ministers to trample on the necks of kings, or kings to shed the blood of their subjects? Does she even inculcate the odium theologicum, of which so much is spoken, as if inseparable from religion? Do her principles lead to any of these evils? Nay do not her principles, and precepts, and approved examples most directly oppose, discountenance, and forbid in the severest manner, and under the most dreadful penalties, every approach to these evils? Are not all these the offspring of that pride, ambition, envy, malice, rapacity, and enmity to God and man, which constitute the works of the devil, that Christ came to destroy? Let such men, as perpetrate these crimes under the cloke of religion, produce their commission and instructions from the New Testament. Let those, who charge their crimes on the gospel, shew what principle of the gospel tends to produce them, what precepts require them. Till then it is a sufficient answer to say, An enemy hath done this. Even the controversies among Christians, especially when managed with heat and acrimony, are directly contrary to the spirit and precepts of Christianity: and the divisions of the church arise from the want of more knowledge, humility, and love among Christians, and are opposite to the spirit and precepts of the gospel. |