09 - Chapter 09
CHAP. IX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED WITH RESPECT TO RELIGIOUS DISPENSATIONS.
If God is Love towards the human race in their present fallen condition, we may anticipate that the clearest demonstration of the fact will be found in,his proceedings bearing directly upon the point the most important to men, their eternal salvation. On that inquiry we are now to fix our attention.
Before we enter upon the consideration of the dealings of God with men severally under the different dispensations of religion, under successive disclosures, Antediluvian, Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian, of revealed truth through which He has conducted men to the present hour; we may seasonably refer to one leading appointment of His providential care, one immutable attestation of His holy purposes, one decisive proof that He is Love, which has equally characterised and pervaded all those dispensations. It is this: that obedience to His laws has always had, as it has at this moment, a settled and an indisputable tendency to promote the present happiness of every individual, and disobedience to produce unhappiness. This result, confirmed by universal experience, is scripturally and immutably established on the difference between, the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit.1 Can there be found a man to maintain that licentiousness and impurity, that thieving, covetousness, drunkenness, reviling, extortion, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, en- vyings, murders, revellings, conduce to the happiness of individuals, of families, of society ? Can a question exist whether love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, are not main ingredients in public and private comfort,—main supports of public and private welfare ? Is it not an incontestable proof not only of the holiness of God but of the divine love to men that, in the fixed arrangements of His Providence, He has caused those things, of which He has solemnly announced that whosoever does them shall not inherit the kingdom of God, to be sources of present wretchedness, as an admonitory warning to i 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Galatians 5:13-24. transgressors: and righteous conduct, which alone can lead to the gift of eternal happiness from our Redeemer, to be accompanied throughout its progress by the cheering conviction that godliness is profitable unto all things; that it has the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come.1 The narrative contained in the book of Genesis of the events which took place between the death of Abel and the deluge is so brief that large details cannot be expected as to the particular exemplifications by which, during that period, the love of God towards men was displayed. But we are by no means left without specific and signally impressive instances of its manifestations both in encouragements and in warnings. Enoch walked with God. And he ivas not, for God took him? A righteous man exempted from the general sentence pronounced upon the human race : exalted at once from the earth to the kingdom of God without passing through the valley of the shadow of death ! What a demonstration to the world of the divine approval of holiness. What an assurance that blessedness beyond the power of i 1 Timothy 4:8. a Genesis 5:25. imagination is reserved in a future state of existence for every follower of holiness! In the progress of the ante-diluvian history, when all flesh had corrupted its way upon earth, we learn that the earth was fitted with violence l ; that is to say, with rapine, confusion, insecurity, and wretchedness. Here we have an incidental testimony to the truth brought forward in the early part of this chapter, that, by the settled arrangements of Providence, sin is the parent of misery in the present life. When the wickedness of men drew forth the declaration, 7 will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth ; Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why did Noah find grace ? The Lord said unto Noah; Come thou and all thy house into the ark: for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.2 Here we have another proof that God fails not to regard the righteous ; a proof that the Lord, when he reserves the wicked unto the day of Judgement to be punished, knoweth how to deliver the godly.3 The divine love, however, had been specially exercised in the most open and comprehensive manner towards that pre-eminently corrupt ge- i Genesis 6:11: 2 Genesis 7:12 Peter 2:6. neration. They had received a warning from heaven one hundred and twenty years beforehand of the impending judgement. They had been, assured that this period of one hundred and twenty years was mercifully granted to them, as a term of trial whether they would turn unto God. And God was pleased graciously to appoint means singularly adapted to their intended objects of keeping the warning and the assurance in universal and perpetual recollection, and of rousing men to repentance, to be in operation during this momentous interval. The means were three. The first of them, without which the others would have been of no avail, was the continued striving of the Holy Spirit, by his inward grace, against the corruption of the human heart. The declaration of God, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, shall not strive for an unlimited period; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years, included an evident promise that during those years the striving of the Divine Spirit should not be withdrawn. The two remaining means were committed to the instrumental agency of one human individual. Who was that individual ? Noah. What were the means ? One of them was the admonitory voice of Noah himself. He was constituted a preacher of righteousness l, that he might summon the inhabitants of the world to consider their ways, to renounce their iniquities, to embrace the offered mercy while the day of grace yet remained. Nor would we doubt that there were numbers to whom the preaching would be blest unto salvation; to whom an entrance into everlasting peace was granted before the flood came upon the obstinately irreclaimable world of the ungodly. The second of the means appointed to Noah was the building of the ark designed for the preservation of himself and his family; but intended, also, throughout the progress of the work, to call a sinful generation to reflection and repentance. The construction of so immense a fabric necessarily occupying many years; necessarily and constantly visible to the dwellers in the surrounding region, while fame was spreading the tidings far and wide ; its unexampled singularity ; the uniformly declared purpose of its erection; the perseverance of Noah unabated amidst sneers and scoffs from unbelieving multitudes, while thus by faith, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, he pre- i 2 Peter 2:5. pared an ark to the saving of his house ; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith? What could be more mercifully calculated to excite men to deep contrition and to earnest endeavours under divine grace to escape the wrath about to come ?
We advance to Patriarchal times.
Indications of the divine love attended and followed the descent of Noah and his family from the ark. The original grant to man of dominion over the whole animal creation was renewed. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea : into your hands they are delivered? The probable apprehensions of men that another deluge might arise and sweep them from the surface of the globe, were anticipated and obviated. Iwitt establish my covenant with you: neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood., neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.3 Was not this solemn assurance sufficient ? In condescension to human distrust- i Hebrews 11:7:2 Genesis 9:2. a Genesis 9:9-11. fulness and to human usages, the Almighty vouchsafed to institute a perpetual sign, to be a pledge that He, the God of truth, would never be unmindful of his engagement. / do set my bow in the clouds : and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh: and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.1 In the mode of chastising the presumptuous and rebellious purpose of erecting the tower of Babel, love on the part of God towards men was manifest. He did not destroy one even of the principal offenders. He did not send painful inflictions upon any offender. He simply introduced diversities of languages among them; and thus, by confusion of speech, constrained the multitude not only to abandon their undertaking, but to separate into distinct masses, as the individuals in each found themselves and their neighbours mutually intelligible ; and forwarded his gracious purpose of i Genesis 9:12-17. spreading the settlements of men and the rudiments of nations over the face of the earth. The period was now arrived in which a larger developement of the plan of redemption by the mysterious seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head, was to be granted. It commenced with the Patriarch Abraham. The wisdom of the Almighty had predetermined to raise among the generations of mankind a people which should be in a peculiar manner set apart to Himself; brought near to Himself; dedicated and devoted by a special covenant to Himself; honoured and sustained by unexampled mercies, so long as they should be faithful in obedience to their Divine Benefactor ; yet liable to signal chastisements, and to the loss of all their distinguishing privileges, if they should ungratefully refuse to keep His commandments. This people was to be the depository of express revelations of the divine will; the earthly guardian of pure religion; a light amidst the darkness of an idolatrous world ; and the instrument in the hands of God for preparing that world, while they were themselves mercifully receiving a similar preparation, for the coining of the promised Redeemer, whose human descent was appointed to proceed from their race. Of this chosen nation Abraham was to be the immediate forefather. He received from God repeated assurances that from him should descend a posterity countless as the stars of heaven, who should possess the land of Canaan for their inheritance ; that his name should be great; that he should be a blessing ; that in him and in his seed1 should all the families of the earth be blessed. To Isaac, by the typical offering of whom on Mount Moriah, not only was the faith of Abraham openly proved, but the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross was prefigured, the promise of being the ancestor of the Messiah was carried forward ; and was subsequently assigned in succession to Jacob, to Judah, and to David. The deliverance of the people of Israel from the bondage of Egypt was followed by the communication of the Law to them from Mount Sinai, proclaimed with unexampled and majestic impressiveness. It was replete with ordinances and institutions typifying daily the future atonement and offices of the Redeemer; i Genesis 22:18. and precluding all facility of intercourse or contact with surrounding idolaters. After their departure from Sinai the Israelites were preserved to the end of forty years in the wilderness by continual miracles. To similar interpositions of the uplifted arm of God they were wholly indebted for their establishment in the land of Canaan. Have we not here most eminent proofs of divine love ? They were the more astonishing, because the conduct of the Heavenly Benefactor of the race of Abraham was one continued display of long-suffering kindness towards rebellious ingratitude andmost audacious provocation. The same description may be extended throughout the eventful series of vicissitudes which marked their history until the appearance upon earth of their expected Messiah. In the mean time God had been graciously preparing the Israelites, by the unwearied voice of prophecy, for the manifestation of this great Deliverer in the midst of them. From age to age, in succession, chosen men inspired by the Holy Ghost arose not merely to rebuke transgressors, to enforce righteous practice, or to announce the purposes of God respecting some existing crisis in the concerns of the nation ; but, mainly, to predict the leading circumstances which should characterise the Redeemer, and the immeasurable blessings which He would ultimately confer on the twelve tribes of Israel, and on all the kingdoms of the earth. Under every dispensation the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’.- the universal object of prophecy is to make known and to glorify the Saviour. Prophecy announces him as the offspring of a virgin mother; declares the place and the period of his birth ; his wonderful works; his sorrows; his sufferings; his death. Then changing its tone to sounds of stupendous import, it proclaims him as the Great Being who in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and of whose hands the heavens are the workmanship; by whom all things were created, visible and invisible, the Son of God; the Mighty God; God with us.