THE LIVING TEMPLE;
OR, A GOOD MAN THE TEMPLE OF GOD.
By THE REV. JOHN HOWE,
A.M.
IT is well remarked by the excellent
JOHN HOWE, in the following
Treathise, that the "Living Temple," or, as it is frequently styled in the New
Testament the "Kingdom of Heaven," which God is setting up in the world, "is
not established by might or by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord; who - as
the structure is spiritual, and to be situated and raised up in the mind or
spirit of man - works, in order to it, in a way suitable thereto; that is, very
much by soft and gentle insinuations, to which are subservient the
self-recommending amiableness and comely aspect of religion, the discernible
gracefulness and uniform course of such in whom it bears rule, and is a
settled, living law. It is a structure to which there is a concurrence of truth
and holiness; the former letting in a vital, directive, formative light - the
latter, a heavenly, calm, and god-like frame of spirit." To the same import is
the declaration of our Saviour, when, in answer to the Pharisees, who demanded
of Him when the kingdom of God should come, replied, "The kingdom of God cometh
not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, lo, there! for,
behold, the kingdom of God is within you." We are thus given to understand,
that the kingdom which God is establishing in the world, does not consist in
external forms and observances - that it is not of a temporal, but of a
spiritual character - and that, unlike the establishment of earthly kingdoms,
it cometh with none of those visible accompaniments which meet the eye of
public observation.
The establishment of a new kingdom in the world
carries much in it to strike the eye of an observer. There is a deal of visible
movement accompanying the progress of such an event - the march of armies, and
the bustle of conspiracies, and the exclamations of victories, and the triumph
of processions, and the splendour of coronations. All these doings are
performed upon a conspicuous theatre; and there is not an individual in the
country, who, if not an actor, may not be at least an observer on the elevated
stage of great and public revolutions. He can point his finger, and say, Lo,
here! or, lo, there! to the symptoms of political change which are around him;
and the clamorous discontent of one province, and the warlike turbulence of
another, and the loud expressions of public sentiment at home, and the report
of preparation abroad - all force themselves upon the notice of spectators; so
that when a new kingdom is set up in the world, that kingdom cometh with
observation.
The answer of our Saviour to the question of the
Pharisees, may be looked upon as designed to correct their misconceptions
respecting the nature of the kingdom which he was to establish. There is no
doubt that they all looked for a deliverance from the yoke of Roman authority -
that, in their eyes, the Captain of their Salvation was to be the leader of a
mighty host, who, fighting under the special protection of God, would scatter
dismay and overthrow among the oppressors of their country - that the din of
war, and the pride of conquest, and the glories of a widely extended dominion,
and all the visible parade of a supreme and triumphant monarchy, were to shed a
lustre over their beloved land. And it must have been a sore mortification to
them all, when they saw the pretensions of the Messiah associated with the
poverty, and the meekness, and the humble, unambitious, and spirit.. ual
character of Jesus of Nazareth. We cannot justify the tone of His persecutors;
but we must perceive, at the same time, the historical consistency of all their
malice, and bitterness, and irritated pride, with the splendour of those
expectations on which they had been feasting for years, and which gave a secret
elevation to their souls under the endurance of their countrys bondage,
and their countrys wrongs. It marks - and it marks most strikingly - how
the thoughts of God are not as the thoughts of man; that the actual fulfilment
of those prophecies which related to the history of Judea, turned out so
differently from the anticipations of the men who lived in it; and that
Jerusalem, which, in point of expectation, was to sit as mistress over a
tributary -world, was, in point of fact, torn up from its foundations, after
the vial of Gods wrath had been poured in a tide of unexampled misery
over the heads of its wretched people.
Now, what became all the while
of those prophecies which respected the Messiah? What became of that kingdom of
God which the Pharisees inquired about, and of which, however much they were in
the wrong respecting its nature, they were certainly in the right respecting
the time of its appearance? Did it actually appear? Is it possible that it
could be working its way, at the very time that every hope which man conceived
of it was turned into the cruellest mockery? Is it possible that the truth of
prophecy could be receiving its most splendid vindication, at the very time
that every human interpreter was put to shame, and that all that happened was
the reverse of all that was anticipated? Surely if any kingdom was formed at
that time, when the besom of destruction passed through the land of Judea, and
swept the whole fabric of its institutions away from it_surely if it was such a
kingdom, as was to spread, through the seed of Abraham, the promised blessing
among all the families of the earth, and that, too, when a cloud of ignominy
was gathering upon the descendants of Abraham - surely if at the time when
Pagans desolated the Land of Promise, and profaned the temple, and entered the
holy place, and wantoned in barbarous levity among those sacred Courts where
the service of the true God had been kept for many generations - surely if at
such a time and with such a burden of disgrace and misery on the people of
Israel, a kingdom was forming that was to be the glory of that people, then it
is not to be wondered at that no earthly eye should see it under the gloom of
that disastrous period, or that the kingdom of God, coming as it did in the
midst of wars and rumours of wars, when mens eyes were looking at other
things, and their hearts were failing them, should have eluded their
observation.
In common language, a kingdom carries our thoughts to the
country over which it is established. The kingdom of Sweden directs the eye of
our mind to that part of Europe; and in the various places of the Bible where
the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are mentioned, this is one of the
significations. But it has also other significations. It sometimes means, not
the plaée over which the royal authority extends, but the royal
authority itself. In the first sense, the kingdom of heaven carries our
attention to heaven; but with this as the meaning, we could not understand what
John the Baptist pointed to, when he said "the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
But, in the second sense, it is quite intelligible, and means that the
authority which subordinates all the families of heaven to the one Monarch who
reigns there, was on the eve of being established with efficacy on earth; or,
in other words, that the prayer was now beginning its accomplishment - "Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Hence it is that some
translators, for the term kingdom, substitute the term reign; and make our
Saviour say, that the reign of God cometh not with observation, for the reign
of God is within you. The will of man is the proper seat of the authority of
God. It is there where rebellion against Him exists in its principle; and where
that rebellion is overthrown, it is there where the authority of God sits in
triumph over all His enemies. Give Him the will of man, and invest that will
with an efficient control over the doings of man, and you give Him all He
wants. You render Him the one act of obedience which embraces every other. "
Give me thy heart," is a precept, the performance of which involves in it the
surrender of all the man to all the requirements. It brings the whole life
under its authority; for it takes that into its keeping out of which are the
issues of life. And could these hearts of ours be brought into subjection to
the first and great commandment, obedience would cease to be a task; for we
would delight to run in the way of it. To do it would be our meat and our
drink. We would know, in the experience of our own lives, that the commandments
of God are not grievous. It is only grievous to do that which is against the
bent of the will. But to do that which is with the bent of the will, contains
in it all the facility of a natural and spontaneous movement. It is doing what
is a pleasure to ourselves.
It is said to be one of the attributes of
rebellion, that it walks in the counsel of its own heart, and in the sight of
its own eyes. But this is only when the heart is alienated from the God of
heaven, and the eyes are blinded by the god of this world. Give us a heart
which the purifying grace of the gospel hath made clean, and eyes to which
Christ hath given light, and then it is no longer rebellion to walk in the
counsel of such a heart, and in the sight of such eyes. Obedience against the
desires and tendencies of the heart is painful as the drudgery of a slave; and,
in fact, to the eye of God, who thinks that if He has not the heart He has
nothing, it is no obedience at all - but obedience, with these desires and
tendencies, is carried on with all the spring and energy of a pleasurable
exercise. And, oh! precious privilege of him who is made by faith to partake in
the heart-purifying influences of the gospel! It is the very pleasure which we
take in the doing of Gods will, and which makes it so delightful to us,
that gives to our performances all their value in the eye of God. We will be at
no loss to understand the happiness of a well-founded Christian, when the doing
of that which is in the highest degree delightful to himself, meets, and is at
one, with all the security of Gods friendship and Gods approbation.
We are now touching upon such an experience of the inner man as the
world knoweth not, and are describing the mysteries of such a kingdom as the
world discerneth not; but whether all our readers go along with us or not, it
remains true, that if the love of God be made to reign within us, His will
becomes our will. And this commandment proves itself to be the first of all;
for when it is fulfilled, the fulfilment of all the rest fqllows in its train
and the greatest of all; for it, as it were, takes a wide enough sweep to
inclose them all, and to form a guard and a security for their
observance.
The reign of God on earth, then, is the reign of His will
over the unseen movements of the inner man. This is the kingdom He wants to
establish. It is the submission of that which is within us, that lie claims as
His due; and if it be withheld from Him, all the conformity of our outer doings
is a vain and an empty sacrifice. Give us a right mind towards God, and you
give us, in the individual who owns that mind, all the elements of loyalty. It
is there where His authority is felt and acknowledged to be a rightful
authority. It is there where its requirements are looked at by the
understanding, and laid upon the conscience, and move the will with all the
force of a resistless obligation, and form the purpose of obedience, and send
forth that purpose, armed with the full power of a presiding influence, over
every step and movement of his history. It is in the busy chamber of the mind
where all that is great and essential in the work of obedience is carried on.
The mighty struggle between the powers of heaven and of hell is for the
possession of this little chamber. The subtle enemy of our race knows, that
while he has this for his lodging-place, the empire is his own - and give him
only the citadel of the heart, and he will revel in all the glories of his
undivided monarchy. The strong man reigns in his house with the full authority
of its master, till a stronger than he overcome him, and bind him, and take
possession of that which he before occupied.
And such is the spirit
that worketh in the children of disobedience. It is in the heart of man that he
worketh, and is ever plying it with his wiles and contrivances, and turning its
affections to the creature, and blinding it to all that is glorious or lovely
in the image of the Creator; and by his power over the fancy, causing it to
imagine a greatness, and a stability, and a value, and an enjoyment in the
things of the world which do not belong to them; and whispering false promises
to the ear of the inner man, and seducing him as he did the first of our race,
so as to bring him into the snare of the devil, and to take him captive at his
will. In the same manner, he who came to destroy the works of the devil, bends
his main force to the quarter where tbese works are strongest, and their
position is most advantageous to the enemy. The heart of man is the mighty
subject of this spiritual contest, and the possession of the heart is the prize
of victory.
To those who have not yet learned to take their lesson from
the Bible, all this sounds like a fabulous imagination, or the legendary tale
of an artfulpriesthood to a drivelling and superstitious people. But it is all
to be met with in Gods revealed communication. You are ignorant of what
you ought to know, if you know not that a contest is going on among the higher
orders of being for the mastery of all that is within you. Let Christ then
dwell in you by faith. He is knocking at the door of your heart, and if you
will open it to receive Him, He will enter it. He will sweep it of all its
corruptions. He will enable you to overcome, for then greater will be He that
is in you than be that is in the world. The kingdom of God is righteousness and
peace, and joy in the Holy. Ghost; and He making you, by the power of of His
Spirit, to abound in these fruits, will in you make another addition to that
living temple - that spiritual kingdom which God is establishing in the world.
Man has revolted from God, and a fearful change has taken place in his
moral constitution; and thus the things of sight and of sense, instead of
leading his thoughts to God, have become the idolatrous objects of his
affections. In his original state of innocence, man not only held direct and
intimate communion with God, but all that he saw, and all that he enjoyed,
conducted his thoughts and his affections to that Being whose love and whose
authority reigned in supremacy over his heart. The gratification of his desire
for created things, was then in perfect harmony with the love of the Creator.
And man would just now have been in this condition if he had not fallen. He
would not have counted it his duty, to have violently counteracted his every
taste, and every desire, for the things which are created. The practical habit
of his life would not have been a constant and strenuous opposition to all that
could minister delight to the sensitive part of his constitution. He would not
have been ever and anon employed in thwarting the adaptations which God had
ordained between the objects that are around him, and his organs of enjoyment.
It is true, that when Eve put forth her hand to the forbidden fruit, it
was after she had looked upon the tree, and seen that it was good for food, and
pleasant to the eyes: but the very same thing is said of the other trees in the
garden, "for out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food." Our first parents tasted of all
these trees without offence, - and in that habitation of sweets many an avenue
of enjoyment was open to them; and a thousand ways may well be conceived, in
which the loveliness of surrounding nature would minister delight both to the
eye and the feeling of our first parents, - and from every point of that
external materialism which God had reared for his accommodation, would there
beam a felicity upon the creature whom He had so organized, as to suit his
capacities of pleasure to his outward circumstances.
We are not to
conceive, that during that short1ived period of the worlds innocence, and
of heavens favour, there was no gratification transmitted to the soul of
man from the sensible and created things which were on every side of him. His
taste was gratified, - and amid the pure luxury, and among the delicious
repasts of paradise, might be perceived in him a principle of desire,
corresponding to what in our days of depravity is termed the lust of the flesh.
His eye was gratified, - and as he surveyed the beauties of his garden, and
felt himself to be its vested and rightful proprietor, would he experience a
principle of desire, which, in its transmission to a corrupt posterity, has now
become the lust of the eye. His sense of superior dignity was gratified, - and
as he stalked in benevolent majesty among the tribes of creation that had been
placed beneath him, would he feel the kindlings of that very affection, which,
tainted by the malignity of sin, has sunk down among his offspring into the
pride of life. All these affections, which in a state of guilt have so virulent
an operation on the heart, as to be opposite to the love of God, - there is not
one of them but may have had a pure and a righteous counterpart in a state of
innocence. And the whole explanation of the matter appears simply to be this.
Adam lived at that time in communion with God. In aid that he enjoyed, he saw a
Givers hand, and a Givers kindness. That link, by which the
happiness he derived from the use of the creature was associated with the love
of the Creator, was clearly and constantly present with him. There was not one
thing which he either tasted or saw, that was not regarded by him as a token of
the Divine beneficence; insomuch that the expression of a Fathers care,
and a Fathers tenderness, beamed upon his senses, from every one object
with which his senses came into intercourse. Whatever he looked upon with the
eye of his body, was but to him the material vehicle, through which the love of
the great Author of all found its way to him, with some new accession of
enjoyment; nor could there one pleasurable feeling then be made to arise, which
was not most exquisitely heightened, and most intimately pervaded, by the
grateful remembrance of him who had placed him in his present condition, and
whose liberal hand had done so much to bless and to adorn it.
In the
case of a human benefactor, there is no difficulty in perceiving, that there is
room in the heart, both for a sense of gratification from the gift, and for a
sense of gratitude to the giver. In the case of the heavenly Benefactor, the
union of these two things stood constant and inseparable, and was only
dissolved by the fall. A sense of God mingled with every influence that came
from the surrounding materialism upon our first parents. It impregnated all. It
sanctified all. The things of sense did not detain them for a single moment
from God; because, while busied with the work of enjoyment, they were equally
busied with the work of gratitude. All that they tasted, or handled, or saw,
were memorials of the Divinity; insomuch that His visible presence in the
garden was never felt to be an interruption. It only made Him present to their
senses, who was constantly present to their thoughts. it for a time withdrew
them from some of the scenes on which his character was imprinted; but it
summoned them to a direct contemplation of the character itself. While it
suspended their enjoyment of a few of the tokens of his love, it gave them a
nearer and more affecting enjoyment of its reality; and instead of reluctantly
withdrawing from those objects which were merely dear to them as the
reflections of His kindness, when He called them to an act of fellowship with
the kindness itself, did they recognise His voice, and obeyed it with ecstasy.
Now, without adverting to the way in which the transition from the
former to the present state of mans moral nature has taken place such in
fact has been the transition, that the two states are not only unlike, but in
direct and diametric opposition to each other - there isno such change in his
physical constitution, but that what tasted pleasurably to him in his state of
innocence, tastes pleasurably to him still - and what looked fair to him in
external nature then, looks fair to him now - and in many instances, what
regaled his senses in the one state, is equally fitted to regale them in the
other. The purity of Eden did not lie in the want or the weakness of all
physical sensation; neither does the guilt of our accursed world lie in the
existence, or even in the strength, of physical sensation. But in the former
state, the gift stood at all times associated in the mind of man with the
Giver. God rejoiced over his children to do them good; and they, while
rejoicing in the good that they obtained, felt it all to be heightened and
pervaded by a sense of his kindness. Every new accession to their enjoyment,
instead of seducing them from their loyalty, only served to confirm it; and
brought a new accession to that love, which made their duty to be their
delight, and their highest privilege and pleasure to be the keeping of His
commandments.
The moral and spiritual change which our race has
undergone, consisted in this - that the tie in their minds was broken, by which
the enjoyment of the gift led to a sense and a recognition of the Giver. It is
the breaking asunder of this link which simply and essentially forms the
corruption of man He drinks of the stream, without any recognition of the
fountain from which it flows. God is banished from his gratitude and from his
thoughts. With him the wholebusinessof enjoyment is made up of an intercourse
between his senses, and the objects that are suited to them. There is no
intercourse between his mind and that Being, who is theAuthor both of his
senses,and of all that isfitted to regale them. He makes use of created things,
and has pleasure in the use of them. But in that pleasure he rests and
terminates. Instead of vehicles leading him to God, they are in his eye
stationary and ultimate objects; the possession of which, and the enjoyment of
which, are all that he aspires after. Pleasure is prosecuted for itself. Wealth
is prosecuted for itself. Distinction is prosecuted for itself. There is no
wish on the part of natural men for a portion in any thing beyond these. God is
not the object of their desire, and he is just as little the object of their
dependence. It is neither God whom they are seeking, nor is it to God that they
look for the attainment of what they are seeking. They count upon fortune, and
experience, and the constancy of the course of nature, and any thing but the
power, and the purposes, and the sovereignty of God.
He, in fact, is
deposed from his supremacy, both as an object of desire and an object of
dependence. Men have deeply revolted from God; and they have raised the world,
not into a rival, but into the sole and triumphant divinity of their adoration.
The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, may have
all had their counterpart in the constitution of Adam ere he fell; but instead
of averting his eye from the Father, they brought the Father more vividly into
his remembranc - instead of intercepting God, they conducted both his thoughts
and his affections to the Being who openeth his hand liberally, and satisfieth
the desire ,of every living thing. But with the diseased posterity of Adam,
these affections are only so many idolatrous desires towards the creature - so
many acts of homage towards the world, regarded in the light of a satisfying
and independent deity_and therefore is it said of them, that "they are not of
the Father, but of the world."
Now, to bring this home to familiar
experience - who is there, in looking forward with delight to some
entertainment of luxury or who is there, in prosecuting with intense devotion
some enterprise of gain or who is there, in adding to the pomp of his
establishment, that ever thinks of God as having furnished the means, or as
having created the materials of these respective gratifications? They look no
farther than to the materials themselves. For the indulgence of these various
affections, they draw not upon God, but upon this solid and visible world, to
which they ascribe all the power and all the independency of God. They look not
to any pleasure which they enjoy as emanating from the first cause. They see it
emanating from secondary causes; and with these do they stop short, and are
satisfied. It is this which stamps the guilt of atheism on the whole practical
habit and system of human life. In the prosecution of its objects, not one
civil obligation may have been violated - not one deed may have been committed
to forfeit the respect of society - not one thing may ever have been charged
upon this worlds idolater to alienate the regard, but every thing may
have been done by him to conciliate the kindness, and draw down upon him the
flattery of his fellow-men.
But, alas! he has broken loose from God! He
lives, from the cradle to the grave, without any practical recognition of Him
in whom he lives, and moves, and has his being. A demonstration of social
virtue, so far from offending, may minister to his complacency. But to bid him
crucify his affections for the things of sense, is to bid him inflict a suicide
upon his person. And thus, while beneficent in conduct, and fair in reputation
among his fellows, may he in prospect be linked with the fate of a world that
is soon to be burnt up, and in character be tainted with the spirit of a world
that is lying in wickedness. And thus it is, that there may be spiritual guilt
in the midst of social accomplishment - there may be wrath from heaven in the
midst of applause and connivance from the world - there may be impending
disaster in the midst of imagined safety there may be abomination in the sight
of God, in the midst of highest esteem and popularity among men. There is
nothing in the daily routine of this worlds luxury, or this worlds
covetousness, or this worlds ambition, which suggests to its carnal and
earth-born children the conviction of sinfulness. The round of pleasure is
described, or the career of adventure is prosecuted, or the path of
aggrandizement is entered upon; and it does not once meet the imagination of
this worlds votary, that, in every one of these pursuits, he is widening
his departure from God. He is not aware of the deathly character of his habits;
and, protect him only from the voice of human execration, he hears, or hears
without alarm, that voice of truth which pronounces him wholly given over to
idolatry. And yet can any thing be more evident, even of the most harmless and
reputable members of society, than that the gifts of a kind and liberal Father
have stolen away from Him the affections of His own children - than that they
have taken up with another portion, than with Him who originates and sustains
them - than that they have built their foundation on the creature, and look on
the Creator with the defiance at least of unconcern? They in reality have
disjoined themselves from God. Instead of being conducted by the sight of the
world to the thought of God, they look no further than the world, and, it
stands in their hearts contrasted with God. Instead of the one leading to the
other, the one detains and withdraws from the other. They are so conversant
with the world as to lose sight of God.
For this we can appeal to the
conscience of every natural man, and on this we ground the affirmation, that
though in the keen pursuit of the money which purchaseth all things, he may
have never deviated from the onward path of integrity, he has been receding by
every footstep to a greater distance from heaven - and with an eye averted from
God, has been looking towards those things, the love of which is opposite to
the love of the Father. And it is because men are thus engrossed with the
visible objects of time, that they have lost sight of their own individual
concern in that spiritual kingdom which God is setting up in the world. Because
it does not rank among the visibilities of earth, it is looked at by them with
the most heedless indifference, and they regard its existence as a fiction of
the imagination.
The subject of that kingdom is indeed invisible. It
worketh its silent and unseen way through the world of souls, and it may be
multiplying its subjects, and widening the extent of its dominion every day,
without the eye of man being able to perceive it. There is a day of revelation
coming; and the hidden things which are to be laid open on that day are the
secrets of the heart. . But, in the meantime, the heart is, in a great measure,
shut up from observation; and many of its movements will remain unnoticed and
unknown till that day shall discover them. And we are expressly told, that that
greatest of all movements, by which it turns from Satan unto God, is a hidden
operation. It is said of the Spirit, who worketh this movement, that no man
knoweth whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. It makes its noiseless way
through streets and families. The visible instrument which God employs may come
equally to all who are within its reach; but the effect which the Spirit giveth
to that instrument, is not a matter of direct perception, nor can we tell who
the individual is whose heart it will ply with the word of God, so as to give
all the weight and power of a hammer breaking the rock in pieces. 0 how much of
the inner man remains impenetrably hidden under all that is visible in the
general aspect of society! To man himself it is an unknown field, though the
beings who are above man have all their eyes upon it. In looking to human
affairs, it is the only field they deem worthy of contemplation. The frail and
fleeting materials of common history, are as nothing in the eye of those who
count nothing important but that which has stamped upon it the character of
eternity. To recommend it to them, it must have the attribute of endurance; or,
in other words, it must be related to souls, which are the only subjects in the
world that God hath endued with the vigour of immortality.
Now the soul
of man is invisible to us, nor can we see, as through a window, desires, and
its movements, and its silent aspirations. There is a thick covering of sense
thrown over it; and thus it is, that what, to the eye of angels appears the
only worthy object of attention in the history of the species, is, to the eye
of man himself, an unknown mystery. His eye is grossed with the glare of what
is seen, and of what is sensible; and the secrecies of the soul lie on the
back-ground of his contemplation altogether. He knows as little about the busy
doings which go on in the heart of his neighbour, as he knows of what goes on
on the surface of some remote and undiscovered world. In the wideness of
immensity, there are fields so distant as to be beyond the ken of eye or of
telescope; but there is also a field immediately around us, which lies wrapt in
unfathomable secrecy. 0 it is little dwelt upon by man, whose thoughts are so
taken up with what the eye seeth and the ear can listen to. But on this field
there are doings of mightier import than the whole visible universe lays before
us. It forms part of the world of spirits. It is the field of discipline for
eternity. It is the field on which is decided the fate of conscious and never
ending existence. It is a province in the moral government of God, and in worth
outweighs all the splendour and all the richness of that material magnificence
which is around us. The earth is to be burned up, and the heavens are to pass
away as a scroll; but on this near, though unnoticed field, there is a mighty
interest now forming, which will survive the wreck of all that is visible; and
it is there that God gains accessions to his kingdom which endureth for ever.
But there are two remarks by which we would limit and define the extent
of what is said by our Saviour, about the kingdom of God coming not with
observation. It holds true of every man who becomes the subject of that
kingdom, that "by his fruits ye shall know" him. There is a visible style of
conduct which bespeaks him to be a different man from others, and a different
man from what he himself was before he entered into the kingdom of God. Let the
reign of God be established over the inner man, and it will tell, and tell
observably, upon the doings of the outer man. But remark here, that though the
kingdom of God may be the subject of observation where it exists, yet the
bringing of that kingdom into existence, or, in other words, the coming of that
kingdom may not be with observation.
Now, what is true of an
individual, is true of many. The formation of the kingdom of God, in the hearts
of the majority of a neighbourhood, would give rise to a spectacle fitted to
strike the general eye; and there is something broadly visible in the
complexion of a renovated and moralized people. There is a change of aspect in
the doings of every man who is born again, that meets the observation of his
neighbours; and a sufficient number of such men would give rise to such a
general change as to solicit general observation. Bnt though the change, after
it is established, may excite their notice, yet the coming on of the change may
not excite their notice. The steps by which it is accomplished may elude the
notice of the generality altogether. The little stone may be too small to draw
upon it the attention of a distant world; but it may compel their attention by
its progress, and even long before it filleth the whole earth, the whole earth
may be filled with inquiries after it. The work of the Spirit is visible, but
the working of the Spirit is not visible. He bloweth where He listeth; and
though the kingdom of God, that he is to establish in the world, shall swallow
up all the rest, and by its magnitude force itself upon the general
observation, yet, in the first stages of its progress, and in the act of
coming, it may not be with observation.
Our other remark is, that though
the kingdoni of God cometh not with observation, yet by the prophecies of God,
the origin and the sudden enlargement of that kingdom, have a place assigned to
them in the march of visible history. The four great monarchies form
conspicuous eras in the history of man. They come with observation, and they
mark, in a general way, the infancy, and the growth, and the matured
establishment of that kingdom which cometh not with observation. We lie at the
feet of Nebuchadnezzars image. This is the place in the descending scale
of ages which we occupy; and the present political aspect of Europe was seen
afar by the prophet Daniel through the vista of many generations. The ten
kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided, form the closing scene in his
magnificent representation of futurity; and it is this distant period which, in
the mighty range of his prophetic eye, he is employed in contemplating, when he
tells us of a kingdom made without hands, and, from the size of a little stone,
growing into a mountain which filled the whole earth. The coming of these ten
kingdoms carried on it a broad aspect, which addressed itself to the senses of
men. They were ushered in with all the notes and characters of preparation.
Kings met, and kings combated on a conspicuous arena; the loud uproar of the
battle was heard, and the rumour of it spread itself; and each of the predicted
kingdoms made its entrance into the world, with the pomp, and the circumstance,
and the visible insignia of war. It is in the time of these kingdoms that the
kingdom of God is to break forth on every side; and the want of those visible
accompaniments, which mark the progress and the establishment of other
kingdoms, signalizes the kingdom of God, and stamps upon it the peculiar
character of coming not with observation. There is a silence and a secrecy in
the progress of this kingdom, which do not belong to the others.
It has
its signs too, but they are not such signs as the Pharisees were looking for,
when they asked about the kingdom of God, and about the signs of its
appearance. The interpreters of prophecy have been watching, for whole
centuries, all the variations which take place in the restless politics of this
world they have been pursuing every fluctuation in the everchanging history of
the times, - but the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzars image still represent
the great outline of European society. It is not in the revolutions of
political power that we are to look for the direct or immediate symptom of
Gods approaching kingdom. The effect of that kingdom is to revolutiomze
the hearts of men. The Alexander of a former day, filled with generous
resentment at the wrongs of his outraged country, and gathering energy from
despair, and marching at the head of a population rallying around the standard
of revenge, out of all his provinces, and aided by the tempests of heaven,
might have overwhelmed that power which had spread its desolating triumphs over
half the monarchies of Europe. But all this might have been done, and the
little stone have remained all the while stationary, and the flock of Christ
received no addition to its numbers; and should the same rapacity of ambition
exist among the rulers of the world, and the same profligaey among the people,
and the same baleful infidelity among the learned, and the same lofty contempt
for the holy spirit and doctrines of the gospel among the upper classes of
society, and the same devotedness to the good things of life spreading among
all its classes a spiritual indifference to the law of God, - then the kingdom
of God has made no progress, and all the characters of Antichrist stand as
deeply engraved as ever upon the aspect of the existing generation. But should
the heart of the present Nicholas receive a secret visit from that Spirit which
bloweth where He listeth - should it be turned, with all its affections, to the
Saviour who died for him - should the renewed soul of the monarch own in silent
reverence the power of a higher monarchy, and, instead of his plans and his
purposes of ambition and war, should his heart be filled with the holy ambition
of dedicating all his means and all his energies to the spread of Christianity
in the world; then, in the solitude of his inner chamber, an unseen preparation
might be going on for helping forward the establishment of the kingdom of God:
and when we think of the small place which these doings occupy in the columns
of a gazette, or in the deliberations of a cabinet, or in the earnest
contemplation of the general mind in Europe - above all, when we think that
they are chiefly carried on by men who,through the great mass of society, are
derided or unknown - then may we well understand how a kingdom, spreading its
unseen influence through such private channels, and earning all its triumphs in
the hearts and bosoms of individuals, is a kingdom which cometh not with
observation.
We may easily understand, from what has been stated, how
inefficient must be many of the methods which are actually resorted to for
extending true religion, or the kingdom of God, in the world. It is not by
crusading it against the power of infidel governments, that you will establish
this kingdom. It is not by enacting it against the heresy of unscriptural
opinions, that you will carry forward the establishment of this kingdom. It is
not by the solemn deliberations of a legislature, sitting in judgment over
questions that can only be carried into effect by the civil authority of the
state, that you can at all help forward the establishment of this kingdom in
the world. We will venture to say, that the mad enterprise of the middle ages
did not add one subject to the kingdom of God. They may have stormed the holy
city, so as to plant upon its battlements the standard of Christendom; but they
did not storm a single human heart, so as to plant within it a principle of
holiness. The citadel of the heart must be plied with another engine; and the
strong man who reigns and who occupies there, may smile and may sit in secure
defiance to the warlike preparations of a whole continent. No external violence
of any kind can force the will and the principle of man to its subserviency.
Whatever effect it may have on the territory of earthly princes, it cannot add
a single inch to the territory of the kingdom of God; and that whether the
instrument of religious frenzy be an army or a parliament, after expending all
its force, and doing nothing, it is at length, by the working of another
instrument, and the silent but powerful efficacy of another expedient, that we
make a way for the establishment of Gods Living Temple in the world.
This brings us to the question, What is this instrument? The Spirit of
God is the agent in every conversion of every human soul from Satan unto God.
He is the alone effectual worker in this matter, but He worketh by instruments;
and it is our part to put them in readiness, and to do those things to the
doing of which He stands pledged to impart the efficacy of His all-subduing
influences. It was the Spirit, and He alone, who gave the apostles all the
enlargement they got on the day of Pentecost: but they put themselves in
readiness, by obeying the prescribed direction to go to Jerusalem; and there
they waited and they prayed for the promise of the Father. Had they not been at
their prescribed post, they would have obtained no part whatever in the
promised privilege; and in like manner we, with every sentiment of dependence
on the power of the Spirit, should, both for ourselves and others, do those
things, in the doing of which alone we have reason to expect that He will come
down with all that energy of impression, and all that richness of gift and of
endowment, which belong to Him. The apostles were the human instruments for the
dispensation of the Spirit in those days; and we cannot do better than to take
our lesson from them, and observe what they had to do, that the Spirit of God,
working along with them, might turn the hearts of men, and extend the proper
kingdom of God over the proper ground which that kingdom has to occupy. They
laid before those to whom they addressed themselves the word of God, and they
prayed for the Spirit of God, that He might take hold of His own instrument,
and make it bear with effect upon the consciences aad the understandings of
men. The lesson is a short one, but it comprises all that we have to do in the
work of extending Christianity through the world.
Be it on our own
behalf, and with a view to bring down upon our own souls the benefits of the
gospel, and the best thing we can turn ourselves to is to read diligently the
Bible, and to pray diligently for that Spirit, who pours the brilliancy of a
warm and affecting light over all its pages. Be it on behalf of others, and
with a view to secure to them the benefits of the gospel, then, if they are
immediately around us, the best thing we can do is to ply them with the
instructions of the Bible, and to pray for the coming down of that power which
can alone give these instructions all their efficacy. Hence the stationary
apparatus of a country where Christianity is established - consisting of
schools, where the reading of the Bible is taught; and churches, where the
meaning of the Bible is expounded; and official men, whose business it is to
pray themselves, and to press the exercise of prayer on others, to that God who
orders intercessions in behalf of all, because He willeth all to be saved. But
should it be in behalf of men who live in a distant country - and the precept
of "Go and preach the gospel to every creature," gives a legitimacy to the
attempts of Christianizing them, which all the ridicule and all the wisdom of
this world cannot overthrow - then the stationary apparatus becomes a moveable
one; and the word of God, translated into other languages, and human messengers
to carry that word and to expound it - and Christians abroad to spread around
them the message of salvation, and Christians who stay at home praying to the
God of all influence, and giving Him no rest till He pour such a blessing on
other lands that there shall be no room to receive it.
This lays before
us the godly apparatus, which we rejoice to observe is in growing operation
among the men of the present day; and while Bible Societies, nnd Missionary
Societies, and Praying Societies, have the full cry of ridicule discharged upon
them by the men of the world - while the disgrace of an obscure and
contemptible fanaticism is made to lie upon all these operations - while the
affairs of temporal kingdoms, and the fluctuations of their ever-veering
politics, fill up the columns of every newspaper, and form the talk of every
company - there are holy men now dealing with the hearts and the principlesof
the people in our own country, and of savages in distant lands; and amid all
the noisy contempt and resistance they have gathered around them, with the
sanction of apostolical example, and the persevering use of apostolical
instruments, are they working their silent but effectual way to the magnificent
result, and the final establishment of the kingdom of God in the world.
And thus it is, that men become themselves living temples of God, and
that Gods living temple, his spiritual kingdom, is extended and
established throughout the world. And we cannot better reply to the question,
What is the best instrument for promoting and extending the kingdom of God in
the world? than by referring our readers to the following Treatise of JOHN
HOWE, "The Living Temple, or a Good Man the Temple of God." This Treatise,
which we have introduced to the notice of our readers, is less known to the
Christian public than some of the other productions of this celebrated author.
It is not because that, either in itself or in its subject, it possesses less
worth or less importance than those pieces of this author, which are better
known and have acquired greater popularity for, in respect to both, it holds a
high rank among the numerous and valuable productions of this much-admired
writer. But we apprehend the reason of its not obtaining such general
circulation, arises from the circumstance of the main subject of the Treatise -
the formation of Gods Living Temple in the world - being intermingled
with his lengthened and elaborate demonstrations of the existence of God - and
from his profound and metaphysical controversies with Spinoza and the French
infidels, respecting the uncreated Being, and the eternal self-existence of the
Deity, extending through nearly half the original Treatise. And, though we hold
this profound and erudite exposure of atheism, to contain the most perfect and
unanswerable demonstration of the existence of a God with which we are
acquainted yet the deep and metaphysical character of his argumentation,
renders it too occult and abstruse to be easily apprehended by ordinary readers
; and thus is it fitted to repel them from entering on a piece of superlative
excellence. It was under this conviction, and to render the Treatise more
acceptable and useful to the Christian public, that we have divested the
present edition of those elaborate disquisitions, into which he had been drawn
by the French infidels, and which were extraneous to the specific design of the
work, and have only presented our readers with what relates to the
authors main subject - the method by which the reign of truth and
holiness is established in the hearts of men, in order to their becoming
temples of the Living God.
To those who desiderate a full and
comprehensive exhibition of the gospel scheme, for the restoration our fallen
and apostate race to the lost image and communion of the Godhead, we would
recommend this invaluable Treatise to their perusal. He gives a deeply
affecting, but justly descriptive representation of the apostasy, and
consequent ruin and depravity of man, in his melancholy but magnificent
delineation of the ruined, desolate, and forsaken condition of that noble
Living Temple, where God once dwelt, and which was once blessed and beautified
by the Divine Presence. And he gives a no less powerful and scriptural
representation of the wisdom and glory, of the plans and purposes, of the
Divine Mind, for the rebuilding of this fallen and deserted temple by Emmanuel,
that God might, in perfect consistency with the holiness and righteousness of
His august government, again tabernacle with man - and that the love, and the
loyalty, and the obedience which were due to Heavens great Monarch, might
be re-established in the hearts of men, in order that they might again be
restored to that blissful communion and intercourse with God which they had
forfeited by their apostasy.
And who can estimate the might and the
magnitude of that great undertaking, by which Emmanuel achieved the restoration
of this ruined temple? How the temple of His own body had to be destroyed, that
by His sufferings and death He might expiate the guilt of an apostate world and
make reparation for the offence done to Heavens righteous government -
and effect a reconciliation between God and His alienated creatures and obtain
the communication of the Holy Spirit to renovate and adorn this desolated ruin,
that the great Inhabitant might return and again occupy His long-deserted
temple. It is because men are insensible to the extent of the ruin and the
desolation which sin has effected, that they are so insensible to the greatness
of that deliverance which the Saviour had to achieve for the restoration of man
to the enjoyment of the Divine Presence.
To establish the reign of
truth and holiness in the hearts of men, and thus to render them fit temples
for the Divinity, is the grand and ultimate design of God in that wonderful
dispensation which is revealed in the gospel. 0 it is little thought of by men,
in whose hearts the god of this world has established his reign, what a mighty
change must be effected ere they become living temples of God! It is because
they are so insensible to the nature and extent of the ruin, that they are so
insensible to the magnitude of that change which they must undergo ere they
become fit for the divine residence. It is not a repair, but a rebuilding. It
is not a reform, but a thorough regeneration. It is fearful to think of the
delusion which prevails in the great mass of society respecting this mighty
change. It is not merely the infidel and the practical atheist, to whom HOWE so
well addresses the language of terror and alarm, that require to be awakened.
When we think of the spiritless indifference, and cold irreligion of many
professors of Christianity - when we think of the lukewarm decencies, and
heartless conformities, of many who profess their attachment to the Saviour -
and compare them with that spirituality of mind, and renovation of heart, which
this excellent author well sets forth, as constituting the Living Temple, it
may well alarm the consciences of many a decent and reputable professor of the
gospel. And it ought to reach conviction to the heart of many, whose
complacency in their own state has never been disturbed, that, amidst the many
earthborn qualities and endowments with which their character in society is
adorned - while their hearts are devoted to earthliness, and the world forms
the object of their idolatrous affections - they are still unfit for the divine
residence, and are living without God in the world.
Now, it is the
scriptural view of the magnitude of the change that is implied in becoming a
Christian, which makes Christianity, in the entire sense of the term, so
revolting both to the pride and the sagacity of nature. It looks so wild and
impossible an enterprise to draw away the affections from that which appears to
give life and motion to the whole of human industry. The demand appears so
extravagant, when asked to renounce our liking for what all men like - and we
appear to be pushing the exactions of religion so unreasonably far, when we
represent it as incompatible with the love of wealth, or grandeur, or animal
gratification - that to the eye of many a cool and sober-minded citizen, it
appears in the light of a very unlikely speculation. With the eye of a strong
practical understanding, much and judiciously exercised in the realities of
business, he regards the man of such lofty and spiritual lessons as a visionary
altogether - but he shrewdly guesses that there is no danger of obtaining many
real disciples to a system, so utterly at variance with the most urgent
principles of the human constitution.
Now, to repel the contempt, and
also the apparent common sense of all this resistance, we might easily
demonstrate, that without any mitigation whatever of the spirit of
Christianity, the service of God, would still remain a reasonable service. But
we shall content ourselves with urging upon you one argument which the Bible
furnishes, which is, that the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. There
is a result pointed to here, ye sage and calculating men, who are looking so
intently forward to the result of your varied speculations. There is an event
which is surely coming upon you all, and which will put to shame all the glory
of secular wisdom, and hurry to a prostrate ruin all the might and magnificence
of your grovelling enterprises. In a few little years, and time will arbitrate
this question. It will tell us who is the visionary - he who is wise for this
world, or he who is wise for eternity. A day is coming, when the busy ambition
of your lives will all be broken up - when death will smile, in ghastly
contempt, over the vanity of earthly affections - when, summoning you away from
this warm and comfortable dwelling-place, he will call your body to its grave,
and your spirit to its reckoning - and upon the falling down of that screen
which separates the two worlds, will it appear that the man who has sought his
portion among the schemes, and the pursuits, and the passing shadows of our
present state, was indeed the visionary. With this element of computation do we
neutralize all the contempt which nature feels and nature expresses against the
abstractions of a spiritual Christianity - and pronounce of him who disowns it,
that he is indeed the blind and pitiable maniac, wasting himself upon trifles,
and lost and bewildered among the frivolities of an idiots dream.
On entering some busy place of commercial intercourse, and perceiving
what it is that forms the ruling desire of every heart, and the ruling topic of
every conversation - and feeling the resistless evidence that is before him, of
the world being the resting-place of every individual, and its perishable
objects forming all that they long for, and all that they labour after, and at
the same time, observing what a face of respectable intelligence is thus
lavished on the pursuits of earthliness - a Christian looker-on cannot but feel
the strength of that discountenance which is thus laid on the views and the
principles of spiritual men. The vast aggregate of mind and of example in the
world appears to be against him; and he feels as if left alone to his own
visionary speculation, a gaze of universal contempt was directed against that
peculiarity, in which he meets so few to share and to sympathize with him. But
let him only look a little further on, and this will both revive his
confidence, and retort on the whole opposing species the very charge by which
he was well nigh over-whelmed. In a few years, and all that is visible of the
mass of life, and thought, and ambition, that is before him, will be a
mouldering mass of dust and rottenness in the churchyard. There is evermore a
rapid transference of that living crowd, one by one, from the place of business
to the place of burial. In a few years, and the transference will be completed,
and every one of these intense, and eager, and speculative beings, shall have
disappeared from this busy scene,and shall have gone to share in the still more
awfully interesting and important scenes of eternity.
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