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CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

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CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

11 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

(Continued from last issue)

HRISTIANS derive their name of Christians from their profession of Christ, and the reality and nature of Christians from the enjoyment of Christ. It is their peculiar privilege, and their distinguishing joy to have an unction from the Holy One, and to know all things that are necessary for them to know. And this anointing which they receive of him, abideth in them, and teacheth them. If then they are anointed with the spirit of Christ, and consecrated to be kings and priests unto God and the Father, it is indispensably incumbent upon them to walk worthy of their dignity. They should walk, as kings, in a holy superiority (very remote however from superciliousness or pride) over the world, and its beggarly pursuits; and should live, like priests, in a spiritual abstractedness from pollution, to Christ, to whom they are consecrated and by whom they are ordained. In all respects they should give proof of their real vocation, in being delivered from this present evil world. ‘Tis at once their duty, their interest, and their joy. Being baptized into Christ (which seems synonymous with being anointed by Christ) they put on Christ. Whatever Christ, as God-man is, he is that for their sakes: and, whatever he has, they shall ere long enjoy it with him. There is for this end an inconceivable nearness and union, through the divine unction, betwixt Christ and his people: and this union is represented, in the scripture, by images drawn from those objects in nature which express the most intimate and inseparable union. The husband and wife, the tree and its branches, the head and the members, are frequent metaphors to imply how dearly Christ loves his people; how virtually he supplies them with spiritual life, and how closely they are united to him. What strong consolation, then, may those receive who are made one with Christ, and who feel the healing influences of his spirit in their souls? They obtain a life from him, with which they were not born, and which, because it is his life, can never be destroyed. They are now no longer ‘the phantoms of a moment,’ like earthly men in their state upon earth; but the very conquerors of time and of death, and heirs of immortality.

As the oil which was poured upon Aaron, was so copiously poured as to run down to the skirts of his clothing; so the unction of the Holy One was so abundant, that from him, as the head, it ever has and ever will run down to the meanest and weakest believers. It will run down even to those who seem to be as the lowest and most trailing borders of his garments. If the hem of Christ’s garment was efficacious through a faith to heal the diseased women, shall not those who form a part of himself, feel deliverance from the malady of sin, and be partakers indeed of his holiness?

What an exalted creature, in this view, is the Christian indeed! What privileges is he born to share! What honor and dignity is he made to enjoy? That such a vessel, and such a vessel of clay, as he is, should be anointed with the holy oil of God’s most gracious Spirit, and thereby be consecrated and set apart from the master’s use, is an astonishing mercy, and points out for him a rank of exaltation and blessedness, which all the ability of man can neither comprehend or express. But, that, beyond this passive description of holiness and rest, the believer should possess an active share in Christ’s administration and kingship (for the saints, among other things, shall judge the world:) this affords a pre-eminence and a glory, which neither the intellect of angels, without revelation, could have conceived; nor the eloquence of angels, without superior assistance, have described. How then should the humble believer’s heart rebound with joy, in the contemplation of the vast blessedness which awaits him! Surely this is wonder and love, indeed, beyond degree: wonder without end to angels; and love without bounds to men. How should the praises of this adorable Messiah live upon each believing heart, and ascend from every redeemed tongue! The believer’s very silence, as well as his voice, should praise him; and when his tongue is not heard, life should be more than eloquent, and declare, by the most convincing argument, the glories of his great Immanuel. He should give constant proofs of the reality of that power which alone could enable him, with truth, to bring forth fruits unto God. Like those who have obtained a good report through faith, in the epistle to the Hebrews, it ought to be said of him, that through faith he also hath wrought, what faith, as the principle of life from Christ, only can work, real and unaffected righteousness. Indeed, O Christian, it will be thy regret when thou art lifted to heaven, if regret can possibly enter there, that thou lovedst thy anointed God with such langour, and honored him with such poverty of praise, in the world below. Thou wilt then see clearly, even when blessed beyond the sense of compunction, what horrid ingratitude, unbelief, and unconcern, possessed thy heart in a thousand instances, when that heart should have been exulting with the most lively praise. Thou wilt then see, more than thou canst see now, what base rebellion of will often lay lurking, like a serpent, in thy soul, against the will of him, who willed nothing but love, and mercy, and salvation to thee. Thou wilt see it, and rejoice in that abundant grace which triumphed over all the opposition of thy nature, and safely conducted thee to thy God. Let this consideration stimulate thee now with a holy earnestness to live to his honor, to think for his glory, and to do all things, which thou art enabled to do, to convince thy own conscience and to convince the world, that this holy oil has not been shed upon thy soul for nought; and that thou dost not bear without a gracious right the dignified title and appellation of Christian!

“Jesus, or Saviour”

This is the name which peculiarly affords inestimable comfort and peace to the believing mind, and which, therefore, can never be too much considered by those who hope to share in the blessings which he, who bare it, hath brought into the world. ‘In the name of Jesus the whole gospel lies hid: it is the light, food, and medicine of the soul.’

Jesus literally signifies a Saviour. It includes so much in its idea, when applied to the Messiah, that no one word in any language can fully express it. The meaning however is, in this application, that he delivers from all evil, preserves to all good, and maintains the objects of his salvation in a state of security and blessedness for ever.

This title, so emphatically expressive of redemption by Jehovah the Son, was appointed to the human nature which he purposed to assume, before it was conceived in the womb. An angel from heaven announced his appearance on earth; and, commissioned by the Almighty, gave him that blessed name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in heaven, and beings in earth, and beings under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, in the glory of God the Father. After his birth, we find the multitude of the heavenly Host attending (as it were) the angel’s embassy;—an embassy made not to proud and lofty mortals, but to humble men; on purpose to declare that solemn message of abundant joy, that unto them was born in the city of David, the Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

By the sense in which both the angel who spake, and in which Mary and the shepherds who heard, understood this name, we may learn that it was meant to convey an idea of the utmost importance. God had raised up saviours to his people for temporal purposes, on many occasions; and they received that honorable appellation as eminent instruments of his providential salvation. But it could, with no truth or propriety, be said of any one of these, That he was the Saviour, the Lord; or, in other words, that he was a saviour in the plentitude of his own power, and that his own arm alone could bring salvation to him.

Now, as no mere man could be thus emphatically Jesus, or the Saviour, for want of power and capacity to execute the business of salvation, so Deity alone, though called a Saviour in many parts of Scripture, could not be the Saviour, in the strict sense, intended for the recovery of sinful man; because that Saviour was to be born of a virgin, and to become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He must be man as well as God, and God as well as man; or he could not be the Saviour anointed to redeem, and the Holy One of Israel, mighty to save. But this Saviour, being both in one person, was capable of suffering what it was necessary to suffer; and of performing whatever was given him to do. His birth and suffering were proofs of his humanity; his miracles and resurrection, of his essential divinity.

The prophets and church of God, before the Saviour’s manifestation in the flesh, were neither ignorant of the grandeur of his person, nor insensible of the riches of his grace. They lived in the remembrance of his mercy to their fathers, by the revelation of his holy covenant to them; and many of them were blessed with the most exalted experiences of his salvation in their bodies and souls. They had not, indeed, the full blaze of light, and sensible manifestation, with the apostles, but they found beams of his glory in the representations of the law and in particular discoveries of his word, sufficient to manifest the nature of his person, and the security of their eternal life in his mediation.

In proof that they knew the divinity of his person, and that his divinity was the object of their faith and expectation, two or three arguments, drawn from their scriptures, may convince us.

J. even I, am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Saviour. But Christ is the Saviour, and, therefore, Christ is Jehovah.

I Jehovah—there is no God else besides me, a just God, and a Saviour, there is none besides me. But Jesus Christ is the Saviour; and, therefore, he is Jehovah, God, and a just God. No wonder, then, that the apostles should call the Saviour, God, so often and so earnestly.

Some of the grandest titles of the Almighty are joined, in the Old Testament, with this denomination of Saviour, in order to show that the Saviour is Almighty. He is styled:

Jehovah the Saviour,Al the Saviour, Alehim the Saviour, Holy One the Saviour, Mighty One the Saviour, Redeemer the Saviour, Hope of Israel the Saviour.

The very reason of the Saviour’s name is, in itself, an evident indication of the divinity of his person. His name was to be Jesus; for (said the angel to Joseph) he shall save his people from their sins. Now, can any one believe, upon the very principles of reason and common sense, and contrary also to the clearest testimonies from the word of God; that a mere creature, be he who he may, could have a people peculiar to himself, a people gathered in all ages out of every kindred, nation, and tongue; and that he, by the dint of created might, could save such an immense multitude, as transcends all the computation of man; and not only save them, but save them with an everlasting salvation, rescuing them from infinite evils, and conferring upon them an infinite good? He, who, professing himself a Christian, can fly in the face of reason, of scripture, and of God himself, by thus deliberately pronouncing the Saviour, who hath completed this immense undertaking, either a created being, or less than the omnipotent God; acts most absurdly indeed against those testimonies under which he must make good his profession. He might as consistently say there is no God, as deny the Lord of Life and Glory to be the God of salvation; and he discovers a strange ignorance of himself and of the whole scheme of redemption, when he supposes that feeble sinners, surrounded by innumerable enemies, who are all but omnipotent, can be saved by any other. He may, indeed, have understanding enough in common matters, and be wise too in his generation; but, while he is in this sentiment, he certainly has not that spiritual discernment which constitutes saving wisdom, and which is absolutely necessary for the right apprehension of the things of God.

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