SERMON VI.

GOD'S DISPENSATIONS TO BE HELD AS

ARGUMENTS OF HIS LOVE.

JUDGES xiii. 23.

But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands,-neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such things as these.

THE person to whom these words were addressed, was Manoah, the father of Samson. His wife had hitherto brought him no offspring; but the Angel of the Lord had now appeared to her and to him, announcing that they should have a son, which son, as was afterwards verified in the history of Samson, should "begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." Manoah, upon receiving this intelligence knew not that the messenger was an angel; for he appeared to them in human shape ;—but the discovery of his angelic nature was made, in the cir

cumstances of a sacrifice that Manoah offered to God. It is supposed, and not without reason, by many learned divines, that this spiritual being was no other than the Son of God himself, the Second Person of the ever-blessed Trinity, who, in the patriarchal ages and afterwards, appeared to mankind on particular occasions, in the character of "the angel of the Covenant,' to communicate to them some especial revelation of the divine will. The manner in which he was now discovered to be an angel, is thus related in the verses preceding my text:-"And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, what is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honour? And the angel of the Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?" Here, the word which is translated “secret," signifies in the original language, "wonderful,"

"So

-one of the names which Isaiah, in a remarkable and well-known prophecy, applies to the Messiah. Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord; and the angel did wonderously and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord." This knowledge, however, filled him with dread and consterna

tion; and imagining that some awful punishment was intended by this extraordinary visit, he exclaimed to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God." "But his wife," who more justly supposed, from some favourable circumstances of the case, that it was a visit of benignity and good omen, "said unto him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such things as these."

It is certainly unwise, if not impious, to consider any of God's visitations, whether they present themselves in a favourable or in an unfavourable shape, as notices that he means to destroy us. In our present life of probation, he has, for the wisest reasons, withheld from us the knowledge of any of his ultimate intentions with regard to individuals. If, indeed, we knew to a certainty, what would befal us in this world or the next, we should be apt to relax in our duties, and to distress ourselves in vain. We should feel that we were no longer free agents, but should imagine that a particular destiny hung over each of us, which no care or diligence of our own could, in any way, prevent or controul. With regard to the happiness to be enjoyed by us hereafter in this world, -we should look forward to it with that kind of anticipation, that would lessen the enjoyment of it when it actually arrived. With regard to our future sorrows in this life, we should vex ourselves with

the dread of their approach,-should feel them more keenly when they visited us,—and should be incapable of enjoying those intervals of happiness, which, under the present disposition of events, the bounty of divine providence affords to us, to cheer us on our way, and to keep our minds in a proper state of discipline and elasticity. With regard to the happiness of the next world,-we should be so intent upon the meditation of it, that the active and various duties of this life would be wholly disregarded. Many of the affections and passions, which God has given us to be checks or excitements in the course of our duty, would be unemployed, and therefore useless. The Holy Scriptures, which exhort us to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling,"-to be watchful and cautious;-to "keep our hearts with all diligence;"-to "perfect holiness in the fear of God," and "to purify ourselves, even as our God and Saviour is pure,❞—would be a dead letter. In short, the whole current of our feelings and actions would be unsuitable to a world such as we now live in,— and we should scarcely have any immediate object for which to live in this world at all. The same would be the case, but upon different grounds, as to the punishment that awaits us in the life to come. Every thought of improving our characters, of turning from the error of our ways, of discerning our faults and of repairing them, would, of course, be given up. Our minds would be absorbed in sin, from the certain knowledge, that whether our wick

edness were of the grossest or of the less atrocious kind, yet for these things, God would bring us to judgment and allow us no place, at any time, for repentance. Those comfortable assurances in holy writ, that "God willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," that "when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive;"-that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;" -and that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ;"-what would they be but a mere mockery and discouragement ?— what would they do but distress the very soul, which they were intended to comfort and heal? The expectation, certainly to be realized, of a severe punishment in an eternal state of being, would make human life too bitter to be borne ;-and men, at the same time that they plunged headlong into sin, would charge God with injustice and cruelty, for affording them no encouragement, no hope, of amending their lives.

In opposition to these dangers and absurdities, let us turn to the safer and wiser reflection of Manoah's wife, as mentioned in the text :-"If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands,-neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such things as these." From these words we may collect two admonitory maxims,