Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

be made available in the attainment of holiness, he knew not. His reliance was mainly placed upon his own efforts, and upon sacramental efficacy. In this state, with the best intentions, but with very defective qualifications, he went abroad to convert the Heathen; he failed in his mission, and returned home with the humbling conviction, that he was himself unconverted, in the true evangelical sense of that term. How he spent thirteen years of unavailing effort to attain purity of heart, finding, after all, that his nature was still unsanctified; and how he was at length taught the all-important doctrine of present salvation from sin, by present faith in the sacrificial blood of Christ, which one of his friends aptly denominated "the sinner's short way to God," he has related with inimitable simplicity, frankness, and candour: and with all deference to the Reviewer, this affecting record, which exhibits the providence and grace of God in their combined operation, is as interesting as it is instructive, and will be read with spiritual profit by generations yet unborn, as it has already been thus read by many thousands of persons who now sleep in Jesus." The record of Mr. Wesley's conversion, and of the circumstances which preceded, accompanied, and followed it, showing the manner in which God in his endless mercy prepared one of his choicest instruments of good to the world, I must still crave leave to think, is somewhat "better than a turnpike-log!

66

2. There are persons who have also found in the Journal of Mr. Wesley an authentic account of one of the most extraordinary revivals of religion that the world has ever witnessed since the apostolic times: a revival as deep as it is extensive. Methodism is a great fact, which merits the careful study of the politician, and of every religious man. In Great Britain and her colonies, as well as in America, its influence is incalculable, both upon general society and upon bodies of Christian people who are not immediately connected with it; and it shows no signs of decay. The man who would see this work in its origin, real nature, and gradual development, must study the Journals of Mr. Wesley. Here we see how the high and unbending Churchman became a field-Preacher, and, in despite of the parochial system, a Pastor of religious societies, scattered all over the kingdom; spurning the trammels of ecclesiastical etiquette, and subordinating everything to the personal salvation of redeemed men. Methodism, in its practical working, is the most perfect development of religious liberty. It sets at nought all acts of uniformity, by whomsoever put forth, when they interfere with the conversion of souls. It practically asserts a freedom as perfect as that which the Apostles claimed, when they went daily into every house in Jerusalem, and thence through heathen nations, everywhere proclaiming, as with a voice of thunder, "Ye must be born again!" A hundred years hence, when party-feeling has subsided, and a true ecclesiastical historian shall arise,—a Mosheim, a Neander, or an evangelical Milman,-in detailing the stirring events of the eighteenth century, he will refer to the Journals of Mr. Wesley as the most precious document of the times; unfolding all those principles and elements, the practical application of which turned the world upside down. To the philosophic eye of such a man the Journals will appear something "better than a turnpike-log.” Yet it is not every man that can at present perceive their real value: nor is this to be wondered at. Perhaps a man might have been found at one of the annual feasts in Jerusalem, who regarded the rich assemblage of precious stones upon the breast-plate of the High Priest as nothing more than a few pebbles; so that, had he seen one of them fall from this splendid pectoral, he would have scarcely thought it worth his while to pick it up.

3. Once more. Some readers of Mr. Wesley's Journal have found in it the recorded opinions of an acute, learned, intelligent, and pious man, concerning the books which he read, the men with whom he was brought into intercourse, with the events and objects which came under his observation in all parts of the three kingdoms, during the long space of sixty years; with a considerable number of letters, written by himself in peculiar emergencies, and by other persons who either objected to his proceedings, or concurred with him in sentiment and action. Such a work cannot but be profoundly interesting; and I cannot doubt, that when our critic has read it, he will be of the same judgment. That he has not read it, is indubitable; for if he had, he could not by possibility have fallen into the mistake, that Mr. Wesley, as a Preacher," seldom coped with a multitude.” This "turnpike-log," allow me to say, contains gems of thought and maxims of wisdom on an endless variety of subjects, which an intelligent reader will turn to the best practical account.

Nov. 9th, 1847.

ME.

REVIEW.

The Congregational Lecture, Twelfth Series.

The Revealed Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments. By Richard Winter Hamilton, LL.D., D.D. 8vo. pp. xvi, 555. Jackson and Walford.

(Concluded from page 1018.)

THE subject of Dr. Hamilton's second lecture is, "The law and government of responsible agents." In this he advances a few steps from the first, and brings before us the great questions of law,-chiefly divine law,— what may be termed the facts and operations of human nature, in reference to an established moral government: and then, the Gospel, as a remedial system, fully adopting the law, from the consequences of violating which it proposes to set man free, and offering to man what the glorious wisdom and love of God have provided for him, the rich blessings of salvation,— comprehensively, those of justification and regeneration,-for the fallen sinner, the condemned and the unholy.

Our principal work in this lecture will be that of extracting. On some points, indeed, we see not exactly eye to eye with the Lecturer; and as we go on, we may possibly advert to what we consider as objectionable. But our task is in no degree polemic. Amidst so much that is excellent, and where the substantial agreement is so considerable, we should no more do justice to our own feelings than to Dr. Hamilton, were we to pause, for the purpose of censure, every time we met with what we might consider as verbal, or even as denominational, inaccuracies. The volume has afforded us too much pleasure, and, we do not hesitate to say, too much profit, to allow any such proceeding.

The description of the contrast between human and divine government is forcibly given, and well sustained.

And most impressive is the contrast between all that we discern of divine and human ruling power. "The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver,

the Lord is our King." Society could not subsist without magistracy and legal restraint. In surveying the operations of earthly government, we are struck

with the complexity of its proceedings, and the jealousy of its principles. On every side, there are its inquisitions and its menaces. It clothes itself with pomp. It is full of stir and ferment. There is

parade and obtrusion. It loves ceremonial and emblem. It holds court and erects tribunal. It constantly publishes itself. Its sword is always naked. Its balance is always raised. It "bringeth the wheel over the wicked." It is palpable through all its workings and all its checks. It imposes itself with pageant and state. It cries aloud. Yet in all this apparatus there is the effort of a conscious feebleness. It is display to make up the want of power. It rebounds to its own strokes. It bends under its own burdens. There is an unceasing confession of its impotence. There is perpetual sign of suspicion and self-distrust. Little can it punish. Little can it prevent. Its inefficiency is in a close proportion to its external magnificence. But the dominion of the Most High moves in a far different course. "The law of the Lord is perfect." It seeks and needs no badge and observance. It disdains ministry and instrument. Its sword is "bathed in heaven." Its balance is that in which the hills are weighed. It is noiseless and unseen in its mechanism. It has access to mind. Its power is in conscience. By inscrutable influences it enforces itself. There can be no partiality, no indecision, no resistance. cannot be turned aside,-warped by indulgence, or intimidated by danger. Vain is every hope to elude and defeat it. allows no difficulty. Silent as time, serene as a star, it keeps its way. Obe. dience is attended by happiness, transgression by woe. So linked together are offence and suffering, that the tormentors are ever waiting and ever ready

[ocr errors]

66

It

It

to exact the connexion. The blow may be long delayed which strikes down the oppressor; but his first act of injustice smote him. The punishment which appears slow has already fallen. The dealing is summary. The punishment has begun. The wicked flee when no man pursueth. There are arrows which drink up the spirit. The transgressor may vaunt boldly; he may be the object of general envy; all may flatter him; yet shall he be the drift of an inward tempest, the wreck of the soul's own sea. "All darkness is hid in his secret places." "In the fulness of his sufficiency he is in straits." To cause the mind to punish itself, to work a retribution out of ourselves, to secure it by fixed nature, to inflict it by inflexible necessity, to convert the capacity of sin into the instrument of suffering, is the prerogative of divine rule. It is unlike any other, though inferior jurisdiction may be helped by this its conduct. The feelings which it awakens may subserve far lower administrations. In the prison-house of earth there may be mental anguish but man there trembles under the original liability. He agonizes in his troubled thoughts as a subject of God. There is, indeed, the sense of social guilt, unworthiness, and shame; but unless he had first felt that he was the subject of God, little had his mind suffered for anything he had done as the subject of man. It is in this infinite ease, and repose, and omnipresence, of the "kingdom which ruleth over all," that we learn its unparalleled and inimitable excellence. It is uniformly, and it is universally, administrative and executing. "There is no darkness where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." Its design is direct, and its effects sure. This is true majesty! (Page 89.)

The important and strongly-marked distinction between the term law as used in its subordinate, and in its proper, sense, is well stated. We quote it, both as teaching some valuable lessons, and as exposing, and thus destroying, some false and mischievous analogies.

We e are wont to speak of certain laws as subsisting in physics. We tell of the laws of matter and of mind; the laws of mechanism, electricity, and heat; the laws of relation, of suggestive thought, of reasoning judgment. Such a use of language is arbitrary and unjust. In these instances we suppose and can conceive no proper rule. We understand these things, they being found in given states, conditions, successions. We know what are electrical affinities, and that they invariably act: we know when water

will freeze or evaporate, and when metals will fuse or volatilize; when bodies will become precipitates, and atoms crystals. Yet all these phenomena reveal no law : at most are they seen in obedience to one. They prove, in Aristotelian phrase, a universal. They lie within uninterrupted experience. Their sequence has never been known or reported to fail. But when we speak of law in reference to a responsible agent, the application is strictly correct. It is the only use which is proper and true. At best is it, in any

other employment, an accommodated term. In this, it stands up to the idea. It promises authority rather than power. It asserts its right over intelligent nature. It is a grand exhibition of moral principles. It binds all in justice; but that justice addresses all in inducements. A law, whatever it be, which moves matter, can never describe a law which operates upon mind.

Any parallelism between material necessary effects and moral contingent ac

66

tions must be, therefore, very remote and
strained. They involve perfectly different
subjects of influence. They oppose to
each other the relations which are borne
towards those subjects. They respec-
tively present uninformed and irrespon-
sible matter, impelled by a foreign and
resistless will of pleasure, and rational
and amenable mind, governed by an in-
dependent but legislative will of right.
(Page 90.)

And yet, we would scarcely say that the subordinate use of the term is unjust." Few languages are so copious as to have a separate word for every aspect of the same grand idea. Only let the primary and subordinate notions be preserved in their proper distinctness, and no great mischief will be done: perhaps some good will result. These unalterable sequences proceed from power not only always acting in the same manner, but doing so in adherence to a system laid down previously in infinite wisdom, by Him who had the right thus-shall we say ?-to prescribe to himself his own modes of operation. The term, thus employed, conveys the notion of a system, according to which dominion is exercised, and to the effects of which we may always point in illustration of the inexpressible advantage issuing from successfully-administered rule, among whatever existences may be its subjects. Order, beauty, usefulness, shine throughout creation with dazzling splendour. Might we say that all this is the result of law obeyed? God undeviatingly observes his own rules. It requires no other imagination than that which the Scriptures awaken when they describe the outgoings of the morning and evening as rejoicing, the little hills as rejoicing on every side, and the valleys as shouting and singing for joy,to conceive of all nature, masses and atoms, living and unliving, as obedient to Him whose throne is heaven, whose footstool is earth, and who sways the sceptre of the universe. Most glowing and animating is that psalm in which all the subjects of this great King are invoked to proclaim and celebrate his greatness. "Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps: fire and hail; snow and vapours; stormy wind, fulfilling his word!" And such loveliness and harmony, such enjoyment and gladness, such joy and praise would there be throughout the wide domain of created intelligence, were all the subjects of law as issued to them, submissively engaged in "fulfilling his word." It is thus shown what would be the blessedness of the reign of obeyed law. Let the admirer of creation remember, that it is thus worthy of his admiration because the will of God is done throughout; and if he be a patriot and philanthropist, and would promote his own well-being, and the well-being of his country, and of mankind, let him obey, and seek to bring others to obey, that divinelypromulgated law, which, because expressing the will of God, the holy, and just, and good, is itself holy, and just, and good. Let the Christian saint, who desires heaven, desire it yet more intensely, desire it chiefly, because the will of God is done there; and let him seek for heaven on earth, by submissive obedience to the law of God's will while he dwells there. For ourselves, we cannot help approving, and even admiring, the term generally appropriated to the great classifications of nature for the purposes of science. There is the kingdom of minerals, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom. They are the royal portions of that great empire

whose Sovereign is God, whose will is done, and whose name ought to be hallowed, in them all.

We are thus almost naturally led to give the following extracts, as just in sentiment as they are beautiful in expression. They especially deserve attention at the present day, when so many mischievous theories on the subject are put forth by a plausibly-disguised but real infidelity:

We cannot be too strongly impressed with the goodness or benevolence of the divine law. Right and good are correlative ideas; but we are not equally affected by them. More spontaneously can we conclude that all good is right, than that all right is good. And we more slowly confess the good of law, because we more commonly regard law itself as restraint rather than as protection. We forget that it is far more restraint upon others than upon ourselves, and that our protection is in that restraint. Every interdict is upon all, and each one obtains the benefit. Every obligation binds the whole race to the security and welfare of the individual. The best description of liberty is, protection from wrong. And if we inspect the great social law, what is it but a fence and safeguard thrown around our dearest, most precious interests? Its heed holds back that which receives every denouncement, when we call it lawless. Its observance defends the allegiance of our household, the sanctity of our life, the legitimacy of our offspring, the possession of our store, the reputation of our character, even to the proscription, and to the driving from the heart, of any secret wish that might seek to injure us. It sets a seal upon all. Our forbearance to aggrieve others, which must be harmful to oneself, is repaid by forbidding any grievance against our welfare from the millions upon millions who might otherwise inflict it. The duty which every man owes to love us as himself, is a blessed and rich return of our duty thus ourselves to love every man. The rule commands and obliges every man to love me, to uphold me,— invests him as my brother, authorizes him as my keeper, arms him as my defender, pledges him as my surety, adorns him as my example, couples him as my co-heir. It is the law of love. It is the perfect commutative justice. How

benign must be the universal regulation, all whose acquirements, learning, consequences, motives, aims, are fulfilled by love! And the same reflections are appropriate to the law which respects the claims of Deity. (Page 94.)

The celebration of Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, must elevate the mind towards him, purify its feelings, and calm its cares; will bring a respite from labour aud a solace to grief; tends to awaken the soul to its true portion and rest. The reversal of these rules, or their mere absence, would draw down upon us evils which it appals the heart to foreshadow. Anarchy would rage with unappeasable malignity. The contest would not be of interest, but of listed minds. It would be the unrestrained grapple of spirits. Chaos has been painted to us by poetry: however wild, it works itself to quiescence, and its fury stills. Not such the end of the intellectual elements when in their strife and uproar. They cannot rock themselves to peace. Theirs is ever-rising surge. Where all power is ill, and all motive is selfishness, there can be no controlling principle, no attempering pause. That sea, self-wrought, cannot rest. There is no voice to bid its proud waves stay! Let us honour law as the crowning blessing of blessings. Let us remember that intellectual creatureship without it is as inconceivable as it would be insupportable. Let us acknowledge it as the most sublime of ideas, the true exponent of happiness, the proper basis of dignity, the exclusive shield of freedom, the pure fountain of good-will,-inaugurating truth in its state, decking benevolence in its majesty, lifting right to its throne, and then proclaiming with imperial authority that all this is but God, and that, therefore, there is none good but one, and that is God. (Page 96.)

The writer of this splendid but most truthful passage will never censure us for expressing our fear of danger, when we find notions seeking to prevail, which, if not in the mind of their authors, yet in the form of their enunciation, seem, at least, if not to oppose liberty to law, yet to dissociate the one from the other. The admirers and champions of liberty should always so order their speech, that no mistake can arise, and that their scholars should not infer, but most evidently hear, that the liberty advo

« VorigeDoorgaan »