صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

proprietor, yea, of a foundation to the building. "Upon this rock I will build my church." This is his own person. As the apostle said of the rock which supplied Israel with water in the desert, so say we of this "That rock is Christ."

By a perversion of scripture and of sense, Peter is made by some the rock on which the church is founded, because his name signifies a rock. If this had been the case, the church must have fallen when the foundation was removed. Peter is long since dead. He has not left a successor in office, save in the ordinary exercise of ministe. rial duties. None succeeded him to the apostleship. And if the Roman bishop have any claim as the successor of Peter, it is because he inherits, not his zeal, his piety, or love, but his denial of his Lord, and his opposition to laying the foundation of the church in the sufferings of the Lord of glory. Let the friends of the man of sin build upon the pretended occupant of Peter's chair. Their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves be. ing judges. The stone which these builders rejected is made the HEAD of the CORNER. The person of Christ, which Peter confessed, and which is in allu. sion to Peter's name, is called a rock, and not the person or office of Peter who made the confession, is the foundation of the church. Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Resting upon this, she is possessed of immovable stability. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. The

heathen raged; the kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice; the earth melted.*

Propos. V. The church is still to expect severe attacks from powerful enemies.

She is not yet beyond the reach of her adversary. She is liable to attacks, furious, and frequent, and constant. Christ, by his death, has obtained a conquest for us over all the powers of darkness: but our enemies are not so far defeated as not to exist, or to be totally discouraged from any further attempt towards our ruin. Opposed to the gates of Zion are the gates of hell. Christ intimates this in the text. Gates, by a figure, conveys the idea of cunning and of violence. In gates, counsels were anciently held, and from them armies marched to battle. The counsels and the forces of malicious spirits, and of wicked men, are united against true religion. The prince of the power of the air worketh in the children of disobedience, and seeketh whom he may devour.

Propos. VI. The friends of religion have no cause of much alarm.

The gates of hell shall not prevail. Christ, the faithful and true witness, hath promised this. He is able also to perform. Not only shall the elect be all saved, but an organized church shall exist on the earth until the end of the world. The visibility of the church is included in our text. In this the honor of Christ is concerned; and against it are the efforts of Satan directed. The church of Christ, fully organized,

* Psalm xlvi.

is sound in her doctrine, has the legitimate use of the sacraments, Created, shout, The King of glory comes,

Bend under thee. And heaven with its inhabitants

and ostensible conformity to the laws of Christ in her discipline and government. Such is the true church. A suitable number of professors of this description shall Christ maintain as witnesses for him in every age. They may be, at particular times, very few and little known. Jesus has intimated that it should be so. The woman must escape for her nourishment to the wilderness, while

the whole world wonders after the beast. No promise has she of preservation in any particular nation or language. Those to whom the characteristics of the true church belong, may be the minority in a communion greatly corrupted, or exist in one or more distinct and separately organized societies. The divine law, it is true, determines the duty of individuals and communities in relation to those circumstances: but the promises secure the existence of his true church in her visible form, until the resurrection. Go ye, therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: and lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matt. xxviii. 19,20.

(To be continued.)

THE PROVIDENCE OF THE

MEDIATOR.

(Continued from page 172.)

"On my right hand unto the Son the Father
said,
Sit thou, Messiah, Lord of all; and reign
Until thy foes become a stool on which
Thy feet may stand, the acknowledged Lord
Earth, with all its potentates and powers,

In all the terrible array of war,
To break in pieces thrones; and power abused,
Wrench from the sceptred hands of royalty:
And make a way for truth to spread her wings
And fly unto utmost bounds of earth,
That, to his rising, kings may come; and
Gentile nations in his brightness shine,
And earth's dark places know him in his

grace.

Hail, Jesus! King of nations and of saints!

The advantage gained by the decisive battle of Zama, was prosecuted with great vigor, by the successful Romans. They rapidly spread their dominion over a vast number of tributary nations, which were made to recognize the sovereignty of Rome. One hundred and thirty-eight years after this battle, and sixty A. C., Pompey the Great took Jerusalem, and reduced Judea to the rank of a province, which, till after the advent of Messiah, continued to be governed by Jewish princes, who were recognized by the Roman government. The world was thus preparing, by the enlarged dominion of Rome, for some important moral change. The communication opened between the distant parts of the empire and the metropolis, for military and cruel purposes, was equally convenient for conveying the truth: and the awe inspired by the general government among the nations, become a shield to the disciples of the Redeemer, when in obedience to his command they went unto all the world to preach the gospel. The apostle Paul took advantage of this protection, when the provincial magistrate treated him unjustly. He appealed to Cesar.*

Thus important external advantages were afforded for the

*Acts xxv. 11.

enlargement of the church of God.

In pursuing this mode of illus. trating the providence of the Me. diator, it deserves particular notice that he employed not only the prosperity of Rome for the good of the church, but also its corruptions. The seeds of dissolution, which were thickly planted in the constitution of the republic, were not less useful in helping forward the work of the Lord, than its former republican strength.

Long continued prosperity, without the salutary fear of a formidable rival, to nurse the severer national virtues, produced pride and effeminacy. All ranks of men, particularly those in power, indulged in sloth and the most abandoned sensuality. Ambi. tious men, taking advantage of the manners of the age, built on the corruptions of the govern. ment the foundation of their own personal aggrandizement. The holy fire of patriotism was quenched by a wretched scramble for office and power; equally disregardful of the means of ob. taining them; or when obtained, of employing them for the public

weal.

When Pompey returned to Rome, after his achievements in the east, the base transactions which had taken place in the days of Sylla and Marius, were reacted by the triumvirate and their minions.*

"At this period the common

wealth might be said to be com. posed of three different bodies, each actuated by different interests. The triumvirate, aiming at sovereign authority, and desi-rous, by depressing the senate and cajoling the people, to extend their own influence. The senate, equally apprehensive of the three great men who controlled them, formed a middle interest between them; and being bent on re-establishing the aristocracy which had been set up by Sylla, their struggles were dignified with the name of freedom. The people, on the other hand, were anxious for liberty in the most extensive sense, and with a fatal blindness, only apprehensive of the invasion of it from the side of the senate, gave all their influence to the triumvirate, whose promises were as magnificent as their pretenses were specious."*

According to the decision made by the triumvirate, the provinces of Gaul were assigned to Cæsar, with four legions of soldiers, with the addition of other two legions granted by the unsuspicious Pompey.

So far Cæsar had succeeded to the utmost of his wishes. Gaul, the seat of his government, being not very distant from Rome, he could easily maintain with it a correspondence for the further. ing of his sinister and ambitious purposes. The warlike character of the natives of Gaul, while he brought them under his authority, became the means of much experience in the art of war to both himself and his soldiers.

At this period an event took place, which, in the course of

* The triumvirate consisted of Pompey the Great, Julius Cæsar, and Crassus. These men agreed to share among themselves the government. Pompey took Spain, Crassus Syria, and Gaul fell to the lot of Cæsar. This laid the grave-stone on the liberties of Rome.

* Mavor's Universal History.

time, has had a connection and bearing of no ordinary kind on the general interests of the church of God. This was the invasion of Britain. The proximity of this country to Gaul gave Cæsar an opportunity of pursuing his designs in it; accordingly, having subdued the latter, he transported his legions into Britain, and brought it under his authority.

The invasion of Britain by Ju. lius Cæsar, although apparently trivial when compared with some other events of that age, has, however, been more influential in producing moral and religious good, than all the other transactions of a similar kind of that period. It is impossible for a mind seriously impressed with the providence of the Mediator not to observe in this event his controlling influence, by preparing, in this part of the world, for the diffusion of truth and righteous.

[blocks in formation]

local situation, been separated and almost wholly disconnected from the other parts of the world. Little or no communication was maintained between it and them. But as it was designed of God that this island should be the scene of an extraordinary exhibition of truth; and as he had designed to raise up to himself here a great and numerous seed by the preaching of the gospel, it was necessary that a communication should be opened between Britain and the Roman empire, by which the missiona. ries of Jesus Christ might enter, and preach him crucified, the way of salvation.

However ignorant the haughty and ambitious Cæsar was of the character and work of the Mediator, he was employed as his servant to aid in accomplishing his providence in the world; even as was Cyrus before him. "Though thou hast not known me."*

Britain, at this time, consisted of a number of small kingdoms or principalities, existing in a state of the grossest barbarism and ignorance; and of course weak and contemptible in a political point of view. The condition of the island and its inhabit. ants possessed nothing worthy of the attention of an invader.

[blocks in formation]

* Mavor.

** Isaiah xlv. 4.

Cowper

others, are generally those of hope or fear: the hope of promoting their own interests, or the fear of its being injured. In the present instance there does not appear to have been any reasonable ground for the influence of any of these motives. There was nothing to cause fear; and there was as little to excite hope. The country, in its soil and pro. ductions, offered nothing calculated to inflame the avarice of the Romans. And the character of its inhabitants was too rude and unformed to be the cause of danger: and though the inhabitants had been more civilized, they were too little concerned in what was going on in the Roman empire, to be any cause of alarm to the masters of the world.

Nor when the particular circumstances of Cæsar himself, who was the prime mover of the invasion, are considered, does there appear any thing more like. ly to explain his conduct.

It is not probable that Cæsar acted from the desire of increas. ing his military fame. For although he was ambitious, he had no anxiety for the glittering tinsel of a name: for the name of conquest he cared nothing. The object of Cæsar's ambition was power, not fame; and he would willingly have parted with the name of conqueror to another, if this in the least would have enlarged his power. While trampling on his country's rights, and ruling in the most arbitrary manner, he assumed no appearance of ostentation, but rather of humility. This was done that he might lull asleep the suspicions and the fears of the citizens of

Rome. The apparently humble conduct which he manifested to the last of his life, in refusing honors decreed him by the senate, or proffered him by his minions, proves that while he grasped at unlimited dominion, it was not for the sake of the name, but for the power which it bestowed. In this respect Cæsar differed much from his rival Pompey, who appears to have had no desire of making himself supreme, further than in fame. The ambition of Pompey was not to have the sovereignty of his country, but the monopoly of its military glory. But the mind of Cæsar was too great and comprehensive to be flattered with a mere name; and his moral principles too weak to be bounded by the restrictions of lawful authority. The glory of a victory he could easily have yielded to such pageant minds as the son of Philip; but, like the late emperor of France, while he did not court the pomp of a name, he held with an unflinching hand the power and authority resulting from victory.

And had he been a man of such a disposition, that he might have been intoxicated with the mere fame of military exploits, the invasion of Britain offered none. The natives were weak and barbarous; their reduction to obedience, therefore, added nothing to the honors of the conqueror. The invasion of such a people, however successful, could not add a single flower to the hard earned wreath of honor which the general had formerly obtained, nor provide him with the means of gratifying the avarice of his soldiers: there was

« السابقةمتابعة »