Chapter XVIII: Part 18

But further. The paschal lamb was typical of CHRIST our passover in another respect. For as the blood of the lamb, after it was slain, was sprinkled upon the door-posts of the _Israelites_ houses, so the blood of JESUS CHRIST, shed for the sins of the world, is to be applied to, and by faith sprinkled upon the hearts of the true _Israel_ of GOD. And as the destroying angel had no power to execute vengeance on, or hurt those whose door-posts were thus sprinkled with the blood of the paschal lamb, so in the great and terrible day of the LORD, he shall be prohibited both from destroying or hurting true believers, who by a living faith in the blood of JESUS, have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Hence the blood of CHRIST is called “The blood of sprinkling.” And lastly, As the lamb under the law was feasted upon by GOD’s people, after it was slain, so believers under the gospel by faith feast upon a crucified Redeemer. CHRIST, our passover, says the apostle, is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast, not barely upon an Easter-day, but all the year round. For the just, i. e. truly justified souls, live by faith, and find, by happy experience, that in a spiritual sense CHRIST’s flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed; and therefore believing on him is stiled “Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the son of man.” Agreeable to this, in our communion office, the minister, when he gives the bread to the communicants, is directed to make use of these affecting words, “Take and eat this in remembrance that CHRIST died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.” May all who give, and all that receive that bread, feel the meaning of this form of sound words experimentally, and powerfully pressed home upon their souls! Then indeed, but not till then, may they expect to take this holy sacrament to their comfort. Upon all these accounts then, well might the Baptist recommend the holy JESUS under the significant character of the Lamb. And with equal propriety might he be called the LAMB of GOD, not only because he was a Lamb of GOD the Father’s providing, but because he was co-equal, co-essential with the Father: “The Word that was with GOD, the Word that was GOD,” even GOD over all, GOD blessed for evermore. For ever adored be the triune GOD for this great mystery of godliness, GOD manifest in the flesh! O may it be continually marvellous in our eyes! O make us, thou altogether lovely Redeemer, like-minded with thy blessed angels, that with them we may always so eagerly, and so perseveringly desire to look into it, that neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or pride of life, may ever in the least divert us from beholding thee!

What this beholding him imports, comes next to be considered, under our second general head.

And here I take it for granted, that it cannot imply a beholding the LORD JESUS in person with our bodily eyes. It is true, indeed, when _John_ called upon the people and his disciples to behold the LAMB of GOD, they were thus highly favoured: and we are apt to say within ourselves, Blessed are the eyes which saw what they saw; and so undoubtedly they were. But had their views terminated only in beholding his person, or knowing him barely according to the flesh, they might notwithstanding have died in their sins, and been condemned to depart from him into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.――Our LORD himself hath told us, that there will be many who will plead that they eat and drank in his presence, and heard him preach in their streets, to whom he will say, “Verily I know you not.” A true beholding of the LAMB of GOD, must therefore necessarily import something more; and what can that be but a beholding him with an eye of faith? This is what the Old Testament saints were invited to, when the glorious Redeemer called upon them in those emphatic terms, “Behold me, behold me;” and again, “Look unto me, all the ends of the earth.” This our LORD in another place terms, believing on him: “Blessed are they which have not seen me, and yet have believed:” not barely as the result of a mere rational conviction, which is no more than an historical faith, but as the consequence of a true spiritual conviction of our being every way undone, and liable to eternal condemnation without him. This is believing on him with the heart, and is sometimes expressed by coming to, receiving, and trusting in him: different expressions, but all importing one and the self same thing. “I wound, and I heal.” That is the method the Holy Ghost takes, and that is the pattern gospel ministers must follow in preaching him. From any other, though prescribed to us by an angel from heaven, good LORD, deliver us!

But secondly. By beholding the LAMB of GOD, we are to understand not only looking to him so as to trust him for the pardon of our sins, but beholding him so as to have our hearts broke with a true and godly sorrow for having crucified and slain him by them. For thus speaks the LORD by the mouth of the Prophet _Zechariah_, “They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for an only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.” This prediction was in some degree fulfilled immediately after the descent of the Holy Ghost, in the days of Pentecost, when so many being pricked to the heart, were made to look to, believe on, and lament over a pierced JESUS. But it will be continually fulfilling in the experience of every true beholder of the LAMB of GOD, till time shall be no more. True faith, at the same time as it opens the heart to receive CHRIST, melts and dissolves it into tears of godly sorrow, for having betrayed and crucified him. Such were the tears of _Mary_, when she washed the feet of her sin-forgiving LORD. They flowed from a sense of pardoning love. She loved much, having much forgiven her. And though she knew the LORD had forgiven her, yet she could not forgive herself. _Hinc illæ lachrymæ._ Hence those repenting tears: they proceeded from love: sorrow, flowing from any other principle, is not a godly, but a legal sorrow, which the most abandoned wretch may have without the least degree of saving grace. Thus we hear of a _Judas_ his repenting, and of an _Esau_ crying out with an exceeding bitter cry; but the one all the while was a prophane person, and the other immediately went and hanged himself. And why? Their sorrow was only extorted by a fear of hell, and a despairing sense of impending ruin. It is true, a godly sorrow may, and I believe generally does, begin with something of this nature; but then it does not end there. Through want of a due consideration of this, it is to be feared, many seeming converts have taken up with a few legal convictions, which never ended in savingly and truly beholding the LAMB of GOD. May none here present, by a half-way repentance, and hypocritical sorrow for sin, add to the unhappy number!

But this is not all. A scriptural beholding of the LAMB of GOD, denotes not only such a relying on CHRIST for pardon of sin, as is attended with a truly godly sorrow for it, but such a believing on him, as is productive of a holy life, and a universal chearful observance of all his divine commands. When the two disciples mentioned in our text, heard _John_ speak, we are told that they followed him, viz. the LORD JESUS CHRIST. And if GOD hath given us an hearing ear, when called upon to behold the LAMB of GOD, we shall certainly have an obedient heart, and follow him in the way of holy obedience. But then it will be an obedience flowing from love: A working not for, but from life. Not out of a servile fear of being damned, but from a grateful sense of having received the beginning of salvation in our hearts. And this is what the Apostle calls “faith working by love.” Many, I know, censure and look upon us as troublers of _Israel_, for preaching up the doctrine of justification by faith alone in the imputed righteousness of JESUS CHRIST. We own the charge. We do preach, and hope shall continue to preach it, till we can preach no more. _Luther_ stiles it, _Articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiæ_; the article by which the church must stand or fall: and in the ninth article of our own church, it is termed, a most wholesome doctrine. Take away this, and you take away the only solid foundation upon which a truly weary and heavy-laden sinner can possibly build his hopes of pardon and acceptance in the sight of a holy and sin-avenging GOD. But why this outcry against the doctrine of justification by faith alone? They say this doctrine destroys good works. But do we, by preaching this doctrine, make void the law of GOD? No: We thereby establish the law. For, though faith alone justifies, yet, as the good old Puritans used to observe, That faith which is alone, justifieth not. Agreeable to this, speaketh the 12th article of our Church. “Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of GOD’s judgment, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to GOD in CHRIST, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by the fruit.” They, therefore, who object against our insisting upon justification by faith alone, as destructive of morality, not only betray great ignorance of the articles of our Church, and of GOD’s word, but give too great reason to suspect, that they never experienced the blessed influence of a true and lively faith in their own hearts. For true and undefiled religion, is nothing more or less, than a universal morality, founded upon the love of GOD and faith in CHRIST JESUS. And a true beholding him as pierced for our sins, will, in its own nature, sweetly compel us to cry out, “What shall we render unto the LORD?” It was this, that, perhaps, in a quarter of an hour, made that covetous worldling _Zaccheus_, give half of his goods to the poor; it was this, that all of a sudden made the Jailor wash the stripes of those whom he had but a little before thrust into an inward prison; it was this that caused _Lydia_, whose heart the LORD had opened, so freely to open her house to entertain the Apostles; and it was this that excited the Apostles themselves in general, and St. _Paul_ in particular, to bid adieu to worldly honours, to glory in nothing but the cross of CHRIST, and to fly like an arch-angel from pole to pole, publishing the blessed and everlasting gospel. “The love of CHRIST, said he, constraineth us.” Preaching faith in this manner, seems to me the only scriptural way of preaching CHRIST: and by this means we shall steer a middle course between two dangerous extremes. For to insist only upon morality and good works, and not lay a true lively faith, as a foundation whereon they are to be built, (as it is to be feared too many do) is to act like _Pharaoh_’s task-masters, and bid people make brick without shewing them ♦where to get straw. “My soul, come not thou into their secret!” On the other hand, to call upon people to believe in, and behold the LAMB of GOD, and at the same time not exhort them to maintain good works, as an evidence and fruit of their beholding him, is the way to turn the grace of GOD into lasciviousness. And therefore, however evangelical such preachers may seem in their own eyes, yet if the writings of _Moses_ and the Prophets, of our LORD and his Apostles, are to be our judges, they do not rightly divide the word of truth. “To their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united!”

♦ “were” replaced with “where”

Once more. A true beholding of the LAMB of GOD, implies such a beholding him, as will transform us into his divine likeness. This will be the effect of our seeing him as he is in heaven; and this, in its degree, will always be the consequence of our beholding him with an eye of a true and lively faith on earth. When _Moses_ came down from mount _Horeb_, where he had been conversing with GOD, we are told, that his face shone; and if we have been upon the mount of ordinances beholding by faith the blessed LAMB of GOD, though our faces will not shine, yet our hearts will be moulded into his blessed image. This is what the Apostle _Paul_ terms, in one place, “Being transformed by the renewing of our minds;” and in another, “Passing from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the LORD.” All manifestations, of whatever kind or degree, if not attended with this transforming and truly sanctifying influence, are unprofitable, delusive, or merely imaginary. _Balaam_ could call himself the man whose eyes were open, and the man who had seen the visions of the Almighty, and yet he was a poor worldling all the while. He loved the wages of unrighteousness, though forced by GOD not to receive them. Hence we may easily and rationally account for the falling away of some, and it may be the final apostacy of many others, who in the late religious stir, (as some are pleased to call it) seemed to be uncommonly gifted, and to be lifted up, as it were, to the third heaven. Satan being sensible that the Holy Spirit of GOD was working a great work upon the earth, turns himself into an angel of light, introduces his extraordinaries, and thereby mimics GOD’s true work now, as the magicians were once permitted to mimic the real miracles of _Moses_ formerly. Such counterfeits, those who are not ignorant of Satan’s devices, ought from time to time to add all diligence to search out and detect; but after the utmost caution imaginable, I believe we shall find the saying of a very zealous Reformer (who thought, at his first coming out, that he should convert the whole world) to be too true, viz. “That old Satan will be, in many cases, too hard for young _Melancthon_.” Satan is an old practitioner, and we, comparatively speaking, but novices; and therefore no wonder, that we sometimes mistake his extraordinaries, for the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit; or look upon those, at least for a while, who are only stony-ground hearers, and have received the word with joy, as though they were truly converted to, and had by a living, soul-transforming faith, beheld the LAMB of GOD. Such mistakes may serve to make us more cautious. But to condemn a work in the lump, as merely delusive and diabolical, or roundly to affirm, that all the pretended subjects of it have taken up only with an ideal CHRIST, because some have mistaken imaginations for the true spiritual manifestation of GOD’s love to their hearts, discovers such an ignorance of scripture, of Satan’s devices, and the accounts given us of past revivals in all ages, that if one did not know the dreadful blindness of a bigotted sectarian zeal, and what a proneness there is in the best of men, to condemn every thing that doth not come just in their own way, we should think it morally impossible that good men should run such lengths as some have done of late, in censuring what I think may be called, amidst all the infirmities and weaknesses that have attended it, A great and glorious work of a GOD.

But it is time for me to draw nearer to a conclusion. We have now then, my dear hearers, done with the doctrinal part of our text; in opening of which, that we might deal with you as rational creatures, we have endeavoured calmly, and in the fear of GOD, to address ourselves to your understandings: but the hardest work is yet behind, namely, to affect and warm your hearts. This I take to be the very life of preaching: for man is a compound creature, made up of affections, as well as understanding; and, consequently, without addressing both, we only do our work by halves. It is true, every one hath his proper gift, and some excel in making use of a proper method to inform the judgment, whilst others are more eminent for exciting the passions. Both are beautiful in their season; and both ought and will be used by all who have warm hearts, as well as clear heads. _Moses_ and the Prophets, CHRIST and his Apostles, dealt much in exhortations, as well as in opening and explaining the weighty matters of the law. And if we are taught by the same Spirit, we shall, like them, bring light and heat with us, when called to speak of, and enforce the things which concern the kingdom of GOD. Without a proper mixture of these, however a preacher may acquire the character, in the letter-learned and polite world, of being a calm and cool reasoner; yet he never will be looked upon by those whose senses are exercised to discern spiritual things, as a truly evangelical and christian orator.――And surely if a minister’s heart is ever warm, it ought to be so in a more especial manner, when calling on a blind and drowsy world, to behold the Lamb of GOD. O! that my tongue was at this time touched with a coal from his altar. O! that my cold and frozen heart (for I must again repeat the wish I put up at the beginning of this discourse) was in the same blessed and divine frame, as we have reason to believe the holy Baptist was favoured with, when he called upon his disciples and the people, so repeatedly, to behold the Lamb of GOD. But to whom shall I apply myself first? Or with what language shall I address you, when pressing you to the same important thing?

Will my brethren in the ministry suffer a word of exhortation from one who is less than the least of them all? Does not the practice of this fervent harbinger and fore-runner of the Son of GOD, naturally lead me to it? For did he so unweariedly recommend the LORD JESUS? Did he take such care to preach not himself, but CHRIST JESUS his Lord? And shall not we make this same JESUS the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of all our discourses? Did he take such pains to debase himself, exalt his LORD, and evidence to the world that he was disinterested, and sought not his own glory, but the glory of him whose fore-runner he was? And shall we not go and do likewise? To prepare the Redeemer’s way before him, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to proclaim a coming Saviour, _John_ esteemed his highest honour. This is an employ worthy angels. They thought themselves highly favoured, when sent to give notice of the Mediator’s birth to some humble shepherds. And I hope I am speaking to some, who had rather be employed in such an errand, than be ambassadors to the greatest monarchs on earth. Go on then, my brethren, or rather fathers, as it becomes such a one as I to call you. Ye angels of the churches, ye stewards of the mysteries of GOD, go on in the name and strength of the everlasting I AM. Preach CHRIST, and him crucified; continue to preach him: be instant in season and out of season; and though you should be called to suffer for so doing, fear not, but rather rejoice, and be exceeding glad: great will be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they _John_ the Baptist, and others that have been employed in calling upon sinners to behold the Lamb of GOD before you.

Are any here present who are entrusted with the care of youth that are intended for the ministry? My text warns me not to leave you out in this address. _John_ directed his disciples to behold the Lamb of GOD: and ought not such, who have the oversight of those who are hereafter to be employed in the same divine work as _John_ was, to make it one main part of their daily endeavours, to bring their pupils to a true, experimental, and saving acquaintance with the ever-blessed Lamb of GOD? This may be done without leaving any one necessary branch of true knowledge and useful learning undone. A neglect of this important point hath been, and it is to be feared even now is, the bane of the christian church. For, if young men’s minds are from year to year wholly engaged in studying the heathen mythology, instead of being shewn the beauties of the New Testament; if they are taught to delight more in reading _Cæsar_’s Commentaries, or the exploits of an _Alexander_, than to admire the miracles of _Jesus_ of _Nazareth_; if they are directed to employ themselves more in giving an account of _Homer_’s battles, than of the important war between _Michael_ and the Dragon; if it is esteemed a greater excellency to be engaged in studying the folds of a _Roman_ garment, than to enquire into the various turnings and windings of their own corrupt hearts: if these, and such-like trifling things, are recommended to their daily study, and the glorious doctrines of the gospel, such as regeneration, justification, &c. wholly neglected, or superficially spoken of, is it any wonder, that so many ignorantly strike their heads against the pulpit, or appear when put into it, more like heathen philosophers or _Roman_ orators, than gospel preachers, though without half the clearness and sound reasoning of the one, or a thousandth part of the true pathos and unaffected eloquence of the other? The recommending and enforcing the practical study of the doctrines and example of the blessed JESUS, seems to me to be the only remedy for this great, not to say growing evil.

And therefore, I beg leave in the next place to address myself to those who are now actually engaged in the study of divinity, and are desirous of being prepared according to the preparation of the sanctuary, for the great and solemn work of calling upon sinners, to behold the Lamb of GOD. When _John_ the Baptist was thus employed, he took care to allure the people, that he himself was well acquainted with that CHRIST. “I saw, said he, and bear record, that this is the Son of GOD.” And doth not this at least intimate to you, young students, that above all things you should study to get an experimental acquaintance with the LORD JESUS in your own hearts, before you attempt to recommend him to the choice of others? Then, having believed, you will speak; speak not as mere dead, formal, letter-learned scribes, but as men having authority. You will then, like _John_ the Baptist, be the voice of one crying; you will lift up your voices like trumpets; you will preach not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but with the demonstration of the spirit and of power. This, with a moderate share of useful learning, which is quite necessary in its place, will enable you to do wonders. Vallies shall be filled up, mountains shall be brought low, and a highway made, through your instrumentality, into sinners hearts, by the blessed and all-powerful operations of the Spirit of the everliving GOD. Such a method, perhaps, may render your preaching a little unfashionable, but it is the only way to render it useful, and truly evangelical. Take the Apostle _Paul_ for your ensample. He was a great scholar, as well as a great saint; and, if called to it, could have fought the learned world with their own weapons; but he chose to fight only with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of GOD. And even, when preaching at so polite a place as _Corinth_, determined to know nothing among them, but JESUS CHRIST and him crucified. He too, like another _John_, made it his constant, uninterrupted employ to beseech poor sinners to behold the Lamb of GOD. May that mind be in you, which was also in him!

But do not the words of our text lead me to address all in general, as well as tutors and their pupils in particular? Yes: to you, even to as many as hear me this day, whether high or low, rich or poor, young or old, one with another, may a word of exhortation naturally be directed. It was to the people, as well as to his disciples, that _John_, when he saw JESUS coming unto him, spoke those endearing words, “Behold the Lamb of GOD.” I therefore call upon you all in the same language, and for the same reason; for it is He, and He alone, that taketh away the sins of the world. It is this that you all stand in need of, whether you know it or not. You are all stung by that old and crooked serpent the devil. “Therefore, as _Moses_ lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so was the Son of Man lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” O then behold him, behold him! Look unto him, all ye ends of the earth, even ye upon whom the ends of the world are come, and be ye saved. Some of you, I trust, through grace, have already been enabled to do this. O come, come, I beseech you, and repeat the blessed look: for this is the christian’s grand catholicon, the sovereign remedy for all the remaining diseases of his soul. Are ye tempted? Behold the Lamb of GOD. “He was tempted in all things like as we are,” that he might be able experimentally to sympathize with, and succour those that are tempted. Are ye deserted, and bewailing an absent GOD? Behold the Lamb of GOD. He once complained, and that too to his own creatures, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;” He once cried out, and that to his heavenly Father, “My GOD, my GOD, why hast thou forsaken me.” Are ye poor? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He had not where to lay his head. Are ye betrayed and forsaken by friends? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He was betrayed by _Judas_, denied by _Peter_, and when apprehended, all forsook him and fled. Are you blackened and maligned by enemies? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He was accounted a mad-man, a deceiver, nay, a Beelzebub, the very chief of the devils. Are ye afraid of death, or dying? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He hath taken away the sting of that king of terrors, and came to deliver those, who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. Doubt ye whether ye shall hold out to the end? Behold the LAMB of GOD; “He is the Author and finisher of our faith;” and having loved his own, he loved them even unto the end. Do ye want more grace, either to mortify remaining corruption, or to enable you to bring forth more fruit unto GOD? Behold the LAMB of GOD: “Out of his fulness we may all receive, and that too, even grace for grace;” grace upon grace, grace to beget more grace, even till we are filled with all the fulness of GOD. O ye believers, my heart is enlarged towards you; look to, and live much on the blessed JESUS; and then you will live to, and act for him more and more. Be thankful for what you have received, but be looking out continually for fresh discoveries of his love, and fresh incomes of heavenly grace, till you are called to behold this LAMB of GOD in glory: that time, blessed be GOD, will shortly come. Though worms destroy our bodies, yet in our flesh we shall see our GOD; not as we do now, through a glass darkly, but face to face: see him as he is: and what is yet better, be growing up more and more into his divine likeness, through the endless ages of eternity.

But as for ungodly and obstinate unbelievers that die in their sins, it shall not be so with them. Behold him indeed you shall; behold him you must; “For yet a little while, and we must all appear before the judgment-seat of CHRIST.” But O! how shall I speak it? You must behold him once, never to behold him any more! Behold him, not so much as the LAMB of GOD, as the Lion of the tribe of _Judah_, and hear him roaring out that dreadful sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” O think of this, all ye that have hitherto neglected to behold this LAMB of GOD by faith, so shall unbelief not prove your final ruin. To you, even to you I once more call. Blessed be GOD, the door of mercy is not yet shut; the day of grace is not yet over; look unto him, and you shall yet be saved: his heart is open, and his arms stretched out ready to receive you. O that he would rend the heavens and come down amongst you; and as he had once compassion upon a poor woman, that was bowed down with the spirit of infirmity, lo eighteen years! O that he would repeat that all-powerful command, “Be ye loosed from your infirmity,” and enable every unconverted sinner to look up to, and behold the LAMB of GOD! However, if you will not come to him that you might have life, GOD forbid that I should cease to pray for you. O LORD GOD most holy, O LORD GOD most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, by thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial, by thy glorious resurrection and ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost, we humbly entreat thee to help all such to take the warning that has now been given them! O help them to behold thee by faith here, that so no pains of hell may fall from thee whenever they are summoned to appear before thy awful tribunal hereafter! I am persuaded all that love the LORD JESUS in sincerity, will say, _Amen!_ Even so, LORD JESUS! _Amen!_ and _Amen!_

FINIS.