Serm. 24.] SELF INQUIRY, &C. in Scotland, when thousands were awakened there; seeing her weep, he said what do you weep for? For this people, ays she; weep for yourself, says he; she replied, I do; but vhat is my soul to all these poor souls! O that ministers may never rise up in judgment against you? O may Moses, in he hand of the Spirit, make you mourn! may the love of God make you cry! may you not go home to-night without an arrow steeped in the blood of Christ. It was wonderful what a good woman, awaking, thought she saw written over her head, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: May every faithful soul be made to hear it; to awake, arise from their sleep in sin. The sun is going down, and death may put an end to all to-night: the Lord help you to come Jesus stands though it is the eleventh hour. O that you would fly, fly this night to Christ, lest God destroy you for ever. "What shall I do to be ready with open arms to receive you whom he has first pricked to the heart, and made you cry out, saved!" He will then make you believe in his name, that you may be saved. God grant this may be the case of all here tonight. Amen. SERMON XXIV. SELF INQUIRY CONCERNING THE WORK OF GOD. NUMBERS XXiii. 23. According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought? WHEN I read you, my dear hearers, these words; when I consider what occasion, and by whom they were originally spoken, I cannot help thinking of that triumphant expression of the royal Psalmist, "Why do the heathen rage?" When Pontius Pilate and the Jews conspire to destroy the cause of God, "he that sitteth in heaven laughs them to scorn;" the Lord not only has them in derision, but overrules even their malice and violence (no thanks to them) to promote that very cause they attempted to destroy; so that it is a very wrong maxim, and argues great ignorance in us, to imagine that God never brings about his designs by the means and instrumentality of wicked men. This is the Papist's objection against the reformation: great pains have been taken to blacken the reformers, and to make it be believed that a reformation could not be good that was begun by people of bad character, and a king of an immoral life. But so far is this from eclipsing, that it illustrates the wisdom and goodness of divine providence, in obliging the wicked to do what they never designed, and overruling their counsels for the fulfilling of God's holy, wise, and sovereign decree. This observation naturally arises from the words of our text, which were spoken by, as far as I can judge, one of the vilest men upon the earth: you doubtless know his name, Balaam, who, though florid in his expres sions, and high in profession of intercourse with God, and puts on a fine face of religion, was but a rotten hearted hypocrite, for he divined for money, made a trade of religion; and so loved the wages of unrighteousness, as to have wished to curse even those whom God had blessed. I need not inform you, that this was the end for which Balak sent for him; and no wonder he was so willing to go, when he knew he was to be well paid for his journey. Achilles, the Grecian hero, is said to be capable of being wounded only in the heel, but bad priests, ministers, and people, have a great deal more dangerous part to be wounded in, that is the palm of the hand; if you can keep that secure from being wounded with gold, never fear the devil cannot have his end. Balak promised him great preferment, if he would but come and curse the people of God. A prophet, or soothsayer, is one that pretends to have intercourse with God or the devil, and Balak did not care by which of them it was, so that he could but get the Israelites cursed. Balaam catches at the golden bait, pretends to ask counsel of God; and what seems strange, God bids him go and yet sends an angel to meet him in the way, who stands ready to slay him for going. Does it not seem very strange, that God should bid a man go, and then slay him for going; but people that read this passage, should carefully mind the particulars of it. God said, if the men come and call' thee, go; but he did not wait for that, but saddles his ass and goes; this is called by St. Peter the madness of the prophet: witness his rising early in the morning, not waiting for the call of the princes, which showed how eager he was to be gone: and though this solution should not be allowed, God was justly angry for his going with an ill design, that is, maliciously to curse a people whom he knew God resolved should be blessed, and that for the sake of the wages of unrighteous ness.* The king and his nobles wait upon him, in hopes this soothsayer will answer their purpose; but after all he can do nothing without God's leave: however, no cost is spared to obtain the end; so true is it, that the devil's children are ten thousand times more expensive in persecuting the people of God, than God's people are in promoting his glory. This soothsaying priest pretends to go to God, which is permitted, but forced to speak what God would have him; once and again his mouth is stopped, or rather his curses are stopped and turned into a blessing. Balak, enraged at his repeated disappointment, bids him neither to curse or bless them at all; and thinking, perhaps, that the sight of the people affected him, carries him to a place where he would see but a small part of them; he goes, and there God made him confirm the blessing instead of the curse, more abundantly than before. Oratory is beautiful, though out of the mouth of the worst of men: "Surely, (said he,) there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain;" having said just before, According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, what hath God wrought! What words are here out of the mouth of a wicked man! and yet I hope it will do no hurt to choose them as a proper subject for an evening meditation. Let us leave this profane diviner, and the king his employer, vexed that they could not get their end of the people of God; let us snatch the words out of the vile prophet's mouth, and see if we can serve him as David did Goliath, take his sword and cut off his head. Some people run to extremes, and because some have abused religion, therefore they think there is no religion at all. Perhaps it is for this reason, that so many offenses are permitted to happen in the churches, that one of the twelve should be a traitor, and that the devil should come with his Bible under his arm to tempt us to disbelieve or abuse it, by which God stirs up the people of God to watch, fight, and pray. How should we take the words of our text? By way of interrogation, or admiration? As speaking in a prophetic strain how God had wrought, and did then work and would afterwards work for the prosperity of his faithful Jacob and his posterity, the Israel of God. It is no unusual thing in holy writ, for heaven to resent and punish even those actions that it has permitted. Witness Deut. i. 20-35, compared with Numb. xiii. 2-Hos. xiii. 11, compared with 1 Sam. viii. 7, chap. xv. 23, chap. xvi. 1-Psalms lxxxi. 11, 12, &c. &c. SELF INQUIRY CONCERNING [Serm. 24. Suppose we take them in the way of question, which, perhaps, is most agreeable to the context, and it may be most serviceable to you and to me; and in order that I may not run into too great a field to-night, I will confine myself to what Balaam confines himself, from this time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, (in a way of inquiry,) what hath God wrought? If we look around the world and survey the works of creation, "the heavens declare God's glory; and the firmament showeth thy handy work." If we look further my brethren, down upon these bodies of ours, if we consider the curious form of them, we may cry, what hath God wrought! Surely I am fearfully and wonderfully made; and when we consider that we are made up of four elements; when we consider to what casualties we are exposed, how wonderfully these bodies have been kept up, when thousands have dropped into the grave before us, we may well say, what hath God wrought! But I rather choose to confine myself to that better part: and I am persuaded, we shall never go to heaven unless God works powerfully on our souls. Supposing you and I now were to forget all created beings; supposing we were to forget our neighbors to-night, and to hear only for ourselves, as the shades of evening are coming on, and as we are going shortly to rest, may be to rise no more in this lower world, what if we should steal a little time from our shop, a little time from our worldly business, as we know not but we may be called to judgment to-morrow, and ask and say, O my soul, what hath God wrought in thy heart? I am glad to hear you are so inquisitive. Observe, what hath God wrought! Now whatever is done in us, is all done by God: it is all done by an almighty power, and it is all the effect of infinite wisdom. Supposing then you and I are new creatures, hath God, O my soul, wrought in thee a deep, a penitent, an humbling sense of thy transgressions against his holy law? This is a most important question; this is the very beginning of religion; this is the very first letter of the christian's alphabet, the first line in his book; with this Christ himself began to teach fallen man. Adam, where art thou? was the first question that the Son of God put to his fallen creatures; what condition art thou in? How art thou fallen, thou son of the morning! and when he came to the woman, he took the same way, he preached, and ministers should preach conviction first; what is this, saith God, thou hast done? To break thy husband, and bring all thy posterity unto ruin? And it seems to me that there was a consciousness in this; and I wonder sometimes, the deists have not ran Serm. 24.] THE WORK OF GOD. so far as to do it in jest. I do not know that I ever heard of a female child's name called Eve; probably, we are ashamed to call a child by that name, because of the guilt of our mother Eve, that brought us all into sin. Now hath God wrought in vou? Hath he given this conviction to you; not a little flight now and then, or a qualm of thy conscience; the devil and natural conscience may do this; but when it is wrought in thy heart by the Spirit of God, it goes to the bottom, the arrow sticks fast, and a poor soul sometimes endeavors to pray, endeavors to pull it out, but in vain. Hath God wrought this in thy soul? When God works this change in the soul, the devil is always busy in tempting the poor convicted sinner to despond if not despair. Ignorant formalists, who are some of the worst people under heaven, when a person is under conviction, think the devil is in them, whereas the devil is in themselves; for the devil hoodwinks people, and he endeavors to persuade them, that there is no harm done to God by sinning against him. It is God wounds the soul, and it is he that heals it. Has he wrought in thee not only a deep and humbling sense of the outward acts of sin, but an humbling sense of the inward corruptions of thy heart? Has he led thee beyond the streams, through the powerful operations of his Spirit, to the fountain head? When he has done so, then are we christians indeed; and this cannot be the work of the devil, who never did, nor do I know whether he can, show a person the inward corruptions of his heart; it must be the Spirit of God. The devil may frighten a person, as to outward things, but I very much question whether it is in the power or will of the devil to show a person that he is totally depraved, that the whole fountain is corrupt; this cannot be, because this would make the devil omnipotent, of equal power with the Holy Ghost, who alone shows thee the guilt and corruption of thy heart. This I have found to be the fact, from thirty years' observation and experience of thousands and thousands with whom I have spoken about their hearts. So it was, I remember, when I went first to Georgia, when I was about twentyfive years old. I had them day after day, week after week, and night after night, saying, What shall I do to be saved? O my wicked heart, my deceitful heart, from morning to night. Hath God wrought this in any of you? Are you complaining of your wicked heart and corrupt nature? Have you found out that your hearts are cages of unclean birds, only a lodging for vain thoughts to dwell in? O my friends, my dear hearers, O may you turn the question into a note of admiration, and say, what hath God wrought! He has not only convinced me of my outward sins, but powerfully convinced |