HUMAN AGENCY DEPENDENT ON THE POWER OF GOD FOR ITS EFFICIENCY :

A SERMON :

Preached in the Brunswick Chapel, Liverpool, before the Wesleyan Conference, on Sunday Morning, August 4th, 1839,

BY THE REV. JOHN SCOTT;

AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST.

"AND the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah iv. 1–10.)

THERE are two questions which have engaged men's attention, and perplexed their minds: "Why is not Christianity universally revealed?" and, "Why is not its saving effect co-extensive with its revelation?" If it is the only system which gives to men the knowledge of salvation, why has not God made it universally known? If it possesses the property of saving, in proportion as it is known, why does it not save?

Christianity is the government of God,-his government, not of an innocent, but of an apostate, race. The supreme Governor, though possessed of infinite power, and every where present, has not chosen to govern without agency; whatever he might have done, it has not pleased him to dispense with the services of all creatures, and to carry out his intentions by his own immediate energy, independently of instruments and means. To ascertain truly what part he has assigned to human agency, and what he has reserved to himself; and then to ascertain how the agents have acted, and how they ought to act, if this could be done perfectly, would perhaps be a perfect answer to the questions just mentioned, and a perfect solution of every difficulty

which they seem to involve. We may not be able perfectly to ascer-tain these points, and therefore may not be able to remove all difficulty; but we may ascertain them in part, and so our perplexity may be partially relieved. Let us see how the subject is represented in this passage.

A place say the temple-is to be lighted up. A suitable apparatus is provided, a candlestick with a large bowl, or receiver for the oil, seven pipes from the receiver, and a lamp upon each pipe. Two olivetrees stand, one on each side of the candlestick, with branches overhanging the receiver; and from them oil drops into the bowl, which, running through the pipes, feeds the lamps.

This is symbolical, but the deduction is clear. The apparatus, however perfect, would be useless without the oil. The oil is made of service only by means of the apparatus, and only as that is preserved in right condition,―the receiver open, and immediately under the branches of the olive-trees, the pipes without obstruction, and the lamps well trimmed. The oil is supplied by the trees, which give forth their oil only by virtue of that fructifying Power" which bids all nature be." The apparatus is all visible; but the principal agency, the Power that vivifies and makes fruitful, is concealed,-it is seen only in its results, in the olive-trees and in their fatness. That, then, which the agency of God supplies, becomes available to its use by the contrivance and labour of man.

It now appears, in the Prophet's vision, that this is meant to illustrate a parallel case. The temple at Jerusalem, which the Chaldeans, seventy years ago, burned to the ground, is to be rebuilt. The King of Persia orders the work to be done, appoints Zerubbabel Governor of the undertaking, and he and Joshua, the High Priest, proceed to Judea to fulfil the King's command. Means are arranged, building materials provided, builders engaged, and the rebuilding of the temple commences. But though the Governor has received the King's commission, and acts by his authority, difficulties rise and stand in the way, like a hilly range, through which there is no pass, and which there is no possibility of surmounting. A numerous people of Ammonites, Moabites, Arabians, have gained possession of the land during the captivity; they are actuated by the most violent spirit of jealousy and hatred; they interpose every impediment, and keep up the most harassing resistance. Zerubbabel and Joshua have no army at their command to conquer their opponents by numbers; no arm of theirs is strong enough to put down their opposition by force; their enemies seem to triumph. Another Prince has come to the Persian throne, and by their bad influence he is induced to countermand the order for rebuilding the temple. Yet Almighty God favours the undertaking; the mountain sinks, and in its place where it stood, a plain spreads, the temple rises; and, at length, the head-stone is brought forth, and put in its place, amidst the shouting of the people.

The deduction here is furnished to our hands. Divine Providence does not erect the temple by miracle: man's thought and labour are freely and industriously bestowed. Yet God raises up the men; the wisdom, the spirit, the firmness, the patience and perseverance with which they act, he inspires. He changes the King's mind: the prohibition is rescinded, the adversaries are disconcerted, and the temple is rebuilt. "Not by might," then, "nor by power" of men, is the work achieved, "but by THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD:" by these feeble instruments He performs the work. "Who hath despised the day of small things?"

Take, now, a second parallel. God's great spiritual temple is to be built amidst the desolations of a fallen world. Commission is given to Apostles, their auxiliaries and successors, to undertake the work, to collect the materials, to mould, arrange, and place them in their respective situations. Beside the rude state and stubborn nature of the materials which render the work difficult, the progress of the undertaking is resisted by a combination, numerous, powerful, treacherous; and every method which seems likely to defeat the object is adopted. The agents engaged in the work are inconsiderable, few in number, and insufficient to overcome the resistance, and give to the materials the necessary fitness for use. Yet God works with them; and by their means the building rises, and will be completed; and the head-stone shall be "brought forth with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it."

We are here taught that this temple does not, any more than Zerubbabel's material temple, rise, so to speak, without hands; human thought, contrivance, and activity, are required, and must be afforded, or nothing is done. Such is the nature of the work, and such the impediments, that the best-concerted means, and the most powerful efforts of men, cannot, of themselves, raise up one living stone, and place it in the edifice. It is the Spirit of the Lord, working by means of human endeavours, that overcomes all resistance, and accomplishes the work.

We are now able, from the cases thus given, to deduce the following general instruction:

That, to effect his purposes, God calls into his service and employs means and human agency :

That every thing so employed is purely instrumental:

That, when it pleases God to use them, the instruments become possessed of efficacious, and even resistless, power.

I. That, to effect his purposes, God calls into his service and employs means and human agency.

God's purpose, as it respects the subject of our present inquiry, may be shortly stated: it is the recovery of our fallen world. On this he has set his heart, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Pet. iii. 9.) Other worlds he rules

for other purposes :-the world above, that he may preserve in innocence and bliss its pure and happy inhabitants; and the world beneath, that the guilty spirits in their prison may, for their sin, "suffer the vengeance of eternal fire." But this lapsed world of ours, disaffected and averse to himself as it is, he governs that he may save it. How has he arranged to bring about this purpose?

In the earlier part of the great work he acted alone. His own mind planned, his own will determined; of created agency "there was none with him." He determined not to punish the apostasy of his creatures, without first making offer of his mercy. To lay a foundation for his own act, and justify himself in offering mercy, he appointed a sacrifice to be offered for sin; appointed "his only-begotten Son" to be that sacrifice; and further, he appointed that he should leave heaven, take human nature, appear on earth, and offer the sacrifice by dying on the cross. This honour being done to the law, this offering being made to justice, when the offering should be duly recognised by the sinner, it would be just to pardon sin. His next step was to inform his creatures of his purpose, darkly hinting it at first to the first man, and making it intelligible and clear by successive revelations. The revelation once made, men were in circumstances to become "workers together with God;" for they could impart the knowledge to others which they had received by direct communication from himself. This service he now required. Of Abraham he obviously expected that he would "command his children and his household after him" in the way of the Lord. (Gen. xviii. 19.) Subsequently we observe him calling out other agents, and instituting other means. He chooses a people out of the world, whom he ordains to be the light of all other people; he raises up a distinguished man to be their lawgiver; he communicates with him that he may instruct them, and, by a succession of Prophets, he continues to instruct them; he institutes religious rites and observances, to cherish and maintain the spirit of religion in his people, that they may the more certainly answer his great design, and be a standing religious light and attraction in the midst of the world. This preceded our Saviour's coming, and prepared his way. When he came, every thing was done which had been before arranged. He appeared in human nature, spent his life in great humility, and then died in man's place, a sacrifice to the justice of God. While on earth he re-elected his church, and again set it up as "the light of the world;" he re-modelled its institutions, chose his Ministers, and gave them charge to preach his Gospel through all the world. We may now perceive what principal agents and what means, among men, he has chosen to aid his purpose in "reconciling the world unto himself."

I. The holy Scriptures are means. They render it unnecessary to repeat to us those frequent appearances of God, and the angel of God, which were made to the fathers of our race; for they contain the

revelations which, on those occasions, were made to them. It is not required that the Son of God should speak, in conversations and in sermons, as he "spake when on earth;" for they contain the record of what he then taught. The Apostles followed as the inspired interpreters of what the Jewish Lawgiver and Prophets, and the Christian Evangelists, had written; and their writings complete the volume of divine revelation. This constitutes a perfect body of instruction addressed from heaven to men. The volume is "profitable for instruction in righteousness;" for every duty required of a righteous person is so simply and clearly stated and enjoined, and the glorious state of future happiness to which the way of righteousness leads, is so fully revealed, that it "thoroughly furnishes the man of God unto all good works." Men, however, are sinners; degenerate, and under the wrath of God; and, unrenewed, are incapable of holiness of life. The holy Scriptures meet this case. They are not a book of precepts only: they show how a sinner may find peace and be renewed; how he may become "a man of God:" they "are profitable for doctrine." This, to sinful men, constitutes their chief value. The persons who would discard doctrine from their systems of religious instruction,-Statesmen and Divines,-may be very worthy, but they are very foolish and presumptuous persons; and, by advocating the sufficiency of such systems, prove that they neither understand man, whom they would make virtuous, nor virtue, nor the means of attaining to virtue. They would make the blind see, and the lame walk, by their simple precept; but, possessing no miraculous power, the evils which they affect to cure will mock their folly, and remain, notwithstanding their command. Hear how the supreme Teacher uses doctrine in order to practical effect: "A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." (Luke vi. 43.) Our nature is corrupt, and a corrupt nature is incapable of true virtue. "Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt." (Matt. xii. 33.) The heart must be renewed before the actions can be holy. How come we at the knowledge of our fallen and lost state? Doctrine is employed to impart to man the knowledge of his original sinfulness, his guilt, his state as guilty; and thus is he convinced of sin; thus is his heart awakened to penitence; and so he comes to perform the sinner's first duty, and repent. When God's gracious intention of recovering our fallen world is revealed, in what way do we come at the knowledge of his saving plan? In the doctrines of the Gospel the penitent is shown the abounding grace of God to the chief of sinners; the atonement made for sin, the pardon which grace offers through the atonement to every believer; and thus is the heart of the penitent raised into trust and confidence, until he can at length perform the sinner's next great duty, and obey the command of "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." So it is throughout : practical religion is attained by the knowledge and experience of its VOL. XIX. Third Series. JANuary, 1840.

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