tous or unpropitious incident to some or their common calamities—that it was malignant power of evil. But polytheistic Jehovah, the God of Israel, the only God. superstition, though admitting what it calls On the ground of their utter impotence, by the name of deity,-" Gods many, and their incapacity to do good or to do evil lords many," is represented in the Scrip- to their votaries-to save or to destroy, tures as only one of the forms of atheism. the heathen deities, are not unfrequently, Of the religion to which human nature has in terms of sarcastic irony, and of a kind all along shown its proneness, there was of sublime derision, challenged by the an abundant profusion amongst those who prophets in the name of Jehovah, to comchanged the glory of the incorruptible parison and competition. (Isa. xli. 21—24 God into an image made like to corruptible Jer. x. 3—16.) nan, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, But we, my hearers, may be ready to and creeping things, and who worshipped say-we are very little in danger from this and served the creature rather than the source of error-the error of acknowledgCreator:" and yet of them it is said, "They ing other gods-the fantastic or detestable did not like to retain God in their know- absurdities of Heathen Mythology. This ledge." But if they did not retain God in is not, you think, (and you think truly) their knowledge, they were in reality one of your temptations. And I will not atheists. That surely is not religion, of at present urge upon you the various poswhose feelings and acts of homage, the sibilities of idolatry without your falling objects are either nonentities, or possess a down to stocks and stones, or prostrating being whose qualities are as opposite to yourselves to the lights of heaven. Neither those of Deity as darkness is to light-will I press upon you, how the world, in and atheists their worshippers are accord- all its forms of ambition, and avarice, and ingly denominated: "Not knowing God, pleasure, may take away your hearts from they did service to them which by nature are no gods," (Gal. iv. 8):—they were "without God" (atheists)" in the world," (Eph. ii. 12.) God, and become the idol of your unfeigned and undivided devotion. I will not demand your attention to the proposition, true as it is, that whatever occupies that place in Again: while the religion to which your affections and desires, which God human nature has ever been prone is in himself ought legitimately to hold, is your truth irreligion and atheism, there has dis- idol; although the Scripture unequivocally covered itself, wherever the knowledge of justifies and sanctions the proposition, by the true God has been imparted, a mourn-pronouncing covetousness idolatry, and the fully consistent propensity to forget Him-covetous man an idolater, and affirming, to overlook his superintendence-to leave" If any man love the world, the love of him out of our thoughts. Thus it was with the Father is not in him." But there is the Jews. They required to be incessantly one species of idolatry, or of atheism, more reminded of God. They were ever, per- immediately connected with our present versely aud infatuatedly, prone to the su- subject, which comes under our third perstitious extreme-to let slip the remem-head, and to which, for a few moments I brance of their own Jehovah, and to sub- must solicit your attention. stitute for Him the gods of the surrounding heathen, imputing events to their agency rather than to that of the God of Israel. The text was meant, like many others, to How frequently is something called remind them that Jehovah reigned; that NATURE-( a name which, though someJehovah was the author alike of their ca- times used for the God of nature, expresses, lamities and their blessings-that the latter not seldom, a kind of mystical personificawere his unmerited favours, the former his tion of some unknown existence, the emdeserved corrections-that to HIM they ployment of the term hardly, if at all were to cultivate gratitude-that to HIM suggesting any thought of God)-how they were to exercise submission:-that frequently is something called Nature, in it was not Baal, it was not Moloch, it was language and in thought, in a manner not Melcom, or Ashtoreth, or Dagon, or deified!-and not less frequently, second the Queen of Heaven, or any other of or subordinate causes are so contemplated those senseless idols, which they had mul- and insisted on, as to indicate an exclusion tiplied to themselves " according to the from the mind of the great originating number of their cities," that brought upon cause of all being, and the supreme uncou those cities, at any time, their respective trolled Director of all events! In account> III. Divine agency may be regarded in contradistinction to an exclusive attention to SECOND CAUSES. ing for our calamities (to which it is espe- upon thee; for thou hast made all these cially that the text directs our attention) things." we are in imminent danger of this kind of Such, too, is the lesson of rational deatheism-this overlooking of the Supreme votion taught us by the Scriptures, as to amongst the subordinate-this stopping famines and pestilences, earthquakes and short before we have gone high enough. volcanoes, thunders and lightnings, temLet us be on our guard against it; and pests by land and sea, with every other bear habitually and reverentially in mind, power or element by which destruction that all second causes are under the un- is occasionally wrought. All are comceasing and sovereign control of the prehended in the question of the text,First that no one of them, in any part "Shall there be evil in a city, and the of his universal dominions, can operate to Lord hath not done it?" Fire, hail, the production of any effect, but under his snow, vapour, and stormy wind, fulfil his own eye, and according to his superintend- word." (Psalm cxlviii. 8.) "He maketh ing guidance. winds his messengers, and flames of fire Thus it is with the elements of nature. his ministers." (Psalm civ. 4.) Air, earth, There are laws, it is granted, by which and sea, with all that they contain, are all the movements, and productions, and thus subject to his will. We have not changes, of the physical or natural world done enough, when we have, however are effected. But we are in danger of satisfactorily, accounted for disease from forgetting that they are His laws; that it the state of the atmosphere, for the desowas He who originally ordained them; lations of the storm from the theory of that they are not in themselves powers, the winds, for deficient crops from blight, but the mere rules according to which His and grub, and mildew. We must go power operates; that the rules for the di- higher. We must rise to Him by whom rection of his power resolve themselves all these, with every other power of missimply into his infinite wisdom; that by chief, are commissioned to work their Him every thing was arranged, at the be- respective effects. It is atheism to forget ginning, and that in conformity to the laws his supremacy—to overlook the agent in of his wisdom, He has been, with a power the instrument:— "ever present, ever felt," superintending and directing all things since;-the laws themselves, subject, of course, to the sovereign will of their all-wise framer, and, Let us beware, then, of losing sight of the both by their regular operation, and by designing power, amidst the laws which their occasional almighty suspension, sub-guide its operations, and the means by serving the great purposes of his govern ment. "What is his creation less Than a capacious reservoir of means, Formed for his use, and ready at his will?" Let us which it effects its purposes. "This truth, Philosophy, though eagle-eyed We have dry or wet, hot or cold, healthy or sickly seasons. The astronomer, or the meteorologist discovers, or fancies he has discovered, the causes in nature for the one or for the other:-but if, in his researches, and in the statement of their results, he stops short of God, as in every The same great general truth applies to instance the director of those causes-the men, and to the events of history, in which sovereign and wise ordainer of the fact-men are the agents. "Men are God's he is in the spirit of atheism. The Prophet hand." It is one of the "deep things of Jeremiah finely teaches us, on such occa- God,"-one of the inscrutable mysteries sions, not only the exclusion from agency of his administration, how he controls and of the gods of the heathen, but also of the overrules human passions, and whatever powers of nature, these being incapable of exerts an influence on human volitions, any thing voluntary, and the mere instruments of the will of another, and leads our minds directly to the Supreme Maker and Governor of all things:-Jer. xvi. 22. "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou He, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait amid all the unnumbered diversities of human character, and the intricate complication of human relationships and intercourse, without interfering with the freedom of human agency, and the grounds of human responsibility. Well may we exclaim, in contemplating this certain and necessary, but awfully perplexing truth, It is "Such knowledge is too wonderful for must beware of resting in what is suborme; it is high, I cannot attain unto it!" dinate, and forgetting what is supreme. I have said, it is not moral evil that is Let it further, my brethren, be borne meant in the text. Of this, God is in no in mind, that the existing evils, though sense the author, or cause. He may, how-inflicted by a power which we cannot ever, and we know he does, allow the resist, are not inflicted in caprice. wicked passions of men, with the wicked painful to hear the inconsiderate manner actions thence resulting, to be instruments in which many speak of the divine soveof his judicial inflictions, and of the accom- reignty. They appear to have a notion of plishment of his purposes towards indivi- it, as if it were little else than caprice,duals, and families, and communities. The that is, a strange unaccountable procepassions rage; but they are not his. They dure, for which no reason can be assigned. are neither produced by him, nor have they But though there may be parts of the bis approbation or sanction. Though they divine conduct for which we can assign are amongst the means which he overrules no reason, it does not follow that no reason for his own ends, the guilty agents "mean can be assigned. God himself, we may be not so, neither do their hearts think so:" assured, could assign the very best reasons nothing is farther from their intentions for every thing he does. And here lies than contributing to effect divine purposes, the exercise of his sovereignty. It consists or to promote the divine glory." Therefore their sin remaineth.' in his keeping these reasons to himself. But while he may retain in his own mind the special causes of particular visitations, he has not left us in ignorance of the great general cause of all suffering. This he Many Scripture instances might be adduced, in confirmation of the truth of these remarks. The case of the king of Assyria, so strikingly depicted by the has told us. It is sin. Natural evil is prophet, does not stand alone. It involves a principle, applicable to every enemy whom Jehovah, in the course of the history of Israel, employed as the scourge of his disobedient people. We may look at this case as a specimen of many. (Isaiah x. 5-16.) This, I repeat, is a case illustrative of a principle. The principle is one which pervades the whole of the Bible history; and we want only an inspired commentary on the divine administration in the history of all the nations of the world, in every age, to show us the same principle in universal operation. the offspring of moral evil, and is, throughout, the indication of divine dipleasure. It is not on his creatures, as creatures, that any part of it is inflicted. It is as sinners that they are sufferers; nor was there, in our world, or, we may be assured, in the universe of God, any suffering till there was sin. There can be no such thing as the sovereign infliction of evil. Such infliction has to do, not with sovereignty, but with equity. It is all judicial, all merited. All good is from God; all evil from the sinner himself. All evil is deserved; all good undeserved and gratuitous. All evil is of the nature of righteous punitive retribution; all good the bestowment of free, untrammelled, rich, and sovereign benevolence. Let us beware, then, my brethren. I have so repeatedly called your attention to the present peculiar circumstances of our country and our city, that I feel it But let me not be understood as unnecessary to particularise and expatiate meaning that there is no benevolence in upon them now. I wish now to impress the infliction of suffering. There may be the general principle of the text, leaving much. The evils are inflicted in rightethe application of it to yourselves. I am ousness; but they may have a gracious far from censuring the investigation of the purpose: they may be dictated by mercy, secondary causes of any description of and calculated to answer its ends. They public distresses. Such investigation is are the declarations of justice; but they more than justifiable :-it is an indispen- carry in them the admonitions of kindness. sable step towards either their present Would that men could be persuaded to removal, or, if this should be beyond our power, towards the prevention, as far as human means can operate, of their recurrence in time to come. But we must take care that, on no occasion, the Supreme Ruler be left out:-we must beware of the atheistical propensities of our minds:-we regard them in both lights. But, alas! while men are quite sufficiently, and more than sufficiently sensitive, as to their temporal sufferings, how awfully regardless are they of the moral and spiritual lessons which these sufferings are fittted and designed to teach! Their anxiety is merely to be free of them: and with this they are which God sends contains a merciful adsatisfied, even although no profit whatever monition to accept the good which God of the kind referred to, is left behind. Let offers. "Turn to Him that smiteth you." them but have health and prosperity; and " Humble yourselves under his mighty they care not for aught beside. The Most hand." Accept his grace and his offered High may see to his own glory, and cant- benefits. Thus will evil be converted ing methodists and hypocrites may whine into good,―calamity into blessing,-darkabout the salvation of their souls:-for ness into light. There will then be their parts, they mind the present, and realized in your happy experience, what leave futurity to provide for itself-all in is not, as the Apostle James says, to be good time. In this way they are by their found in nature," the same fountain calamities double losers. They lose the sending forth both sweet water and bitter." temporal good; and they lose what, were In the language, then, of the same Apostle they to obtain it, would be infinitely" Submit yourselves unto God. Resist more than a compensation, the spiritual the devil, and he will flee from you. benefit. They suffer in body or in estate; Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh but their souls are not profited, nor their to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, prospects for eternity improved. Nay, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. even this is not all. For if they are not Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let softened by affliction, they will be hard- your laughter be turned to mourning, and ened by it:-it will add to the moral and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourspiritual callousness of their hearts; and selves in the sight of the Lord, and he their disregard of God's warnings, as well will lift you up."-Think of the conseas their ungrateful requital of his good-quence arising, in God's judicial venness, will aggravate their guilt and accumu- geance, when a temper of mind is indulged, late their punishment. If ungodly men the opposite of that to which He, by his are neither softened by the sun of pros- providence, calls. "And in that day did perity nor by the furnace of trial, they the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping, are, both in the season of joy and of sorrow, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to "treasuring up unto themselves wrath girding with sackcloth: and behold joy against the day of wrath, and revelation and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing of the righteous judgment of God." sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Surely, my friends, if when" evil is in let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we the city," it is "the Lord that hath done shall die. And it was revealed in mine it," our first duty is that expressed by the ears by the Lord of Hosts, Surely this Psalmist "I was dumb, I opened not my iniquity shall not be purged from you till mouth, because thou didst it:"-and our ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts." second is conveyed in the admonition of (Isaiah xxii. 12—14.)—O seek the favour Solomon-" In the day of adversity, con- of God: seek it now: seek it in earnest: sider." This is the divine injunction. seek it in the only way in which sinners Consider, then, who sends it:-consider, can find it,-in the name and for the sake on what account it is sent:-consider, for of his Son. This is the chief good;—it is what end. And O! let consideration (for life, and better than life,-the sum of hapit is unavailing otherwise) have an im- piness, for time and for eternity. mediate and a practical result. The evil GLASGOW: W. R. M'PHUN, PUBLISHER, 86, TRONGATE. To whom all Communications must be addressed. BELL AND BAIN, PRINTERS. SCOTTISH PULPIT. No. II. SATURDAY, 7th APRIL, 1832. SERMON by the Rev. HENRY GREY, Edinburgh. Price 2d. THE CHARACTER OF THE GOSPEL, AND THE CHARACTER AND BLESSEDNEss of believers. A SERMON, PREACHED IN ST. MARY'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH, ON THE AFTERNOON ON SABBATH, 1st APRIL, 1832. By the Rev. HENRY GREY, A. M. "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."-James i. 25. WE find that James, the apostle of the a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he circumcision, wrote this epistle for the is like unto a man beholding his natural instruction of the converted Hebrews face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, who were living without the bounds of and goeth his way, and straightway forPalestine. His object was to comfort getteth what manner of man he was." and animate the tempted and persecuted The views obtained by such a person are believer, and to admonish and reprove altogether superficial and transient, not the inconsistent and formal professor. penetrating his real character: they are Errors of the most fatal kind appear to soon intercepted, and the mind turns away have early found a place in the Church of to other objects. In short, they are soon Christ. So speedily had a form of godli- forgotten, leaving no salutary impressions ness, without the power thereof, prevailed, or real benefit behind. The Apostle prothat even in the apostles' time a formal ceeds to describe and to contrast with the external profession was by many ac- formalist the character of the true Chriscounted sufficient. Some there were who, tian, "Whoso looketh into the perfect under pretence of exalting faith, depre- law of liberty, and continueth therein, he ciated the value of good works, or denied being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the necessity of performing them, while the work, this man shall be blessed in his others again, with Jewish ignorance or deed." prejudice, priding themselves on their knowledge of the law or of the gospel, and on their regular attendance in the synagogue or in the church, were at no pains to illustrate and evince their faith by a consistent and becoming walk and conversation. Against such errors, the Apostle lifts up his voice as a trumpet. He inveighs against them with the greatest severity, he bears testimony against them with the utmost energy, he declares that that faith which is unaccompanied by works is dead, and that he who is a hearer only, and not a doer of the word, but deceives his own soul. In the verses preceeding our text, he says, "If any be VOL. I.-No. II. In speaking from these words, we would remark, 1st, The description here given us of the gospel; 2d, The description of the true believer; and, 3d, The blessedness possessed by this character. In the first place, we have here an interesting description of the gospel. The inspired writers of the New Testament make use of a variety of expressions to declare the excellence and importance of the gospel of Christ. Thus, the Apostle Paul, in addressing Timothy, calls it " "the glorious gospel of the blessed God;" and B |