3. How must they be blinded by the devil, who oppose the salvation of their fellow-creatures !
[There are too many who scoff at piety, and endeavour, by ridicule or persuasion, to turn men from the practice of it, Alas ! what an awful contrast do their characters form with that of the Apostle ! Let such consider the warning given them by our Lord, that it were better for them to have a mill- stone hanged about their neck, and to be cast into the sea, than they should offend one of his little ones^.]
s Luke xvii. 2.
THE EQUITY OF GOd's PROCEDURE.
2 Tim. ii. 11 — 14. It is a faithful saying : For if loe he dead ivitli him, we shall also live with him : if we suffer, we shall also reign with him : if we deny him, he also will deny us : if we believe not, yet he ahideth faithful : he cannot deny himself. Of these thiyigs put them in remembrance.
STRANGE as it may seem, it is no uncommon thing for men to arraign the equity of God, and to accuse him of undue severity in the execution of his judgments. The Jewish people of old complained, " The ways of the Lord are not equal :" and God, for his own honour's sake, was constrained to vin- dicate his character in this respect ; which he did in
an open appeal to their judgment, and a candid exposition of the modes of his procedure. " O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal ?" ' If a man have sinned and repent, I forgive him : but if he turn back to his former wickedness, I make no account of his temporary reformation, but visit all his iniquities upon his head. Is this unequal? Is it not consonant with strict justice^?' In like manner St. Paul declares, in the passage before us, that God will act towards men as they act towards him ; requiting with good his faith- ful servants, and marking the disobedient as objects of his displeasure. And that he may the more deeply impress this truth upon our minds, he introduces it with assuring us, that " it is a faithful saying."
From his words we shall be led to consider,
I. The rule of God's procedure in reference to our future destinies — The whole Scripture declares that he will deal with men according to their works ; that " to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eter- nal life ; but that to them that are contentious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there shall be indignation and wrath, tribulation and an- guish, even upon every soul of man that doeth evil''.
To this effect we are here told how God will deal,
1. With the godly—
[It is here supposed that the godly will " die with Christ, and suffer with him." And it is true, that all his faithful fol- lowers are " crucified with him'^," and " dead with him." As he died for sin, so they, in conformity to him, and by virtue de- rived from him, die to sin: they no longer suffer it to act without controul, as once they did, but they " mortify it in all their members," and " crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts''." In acting thus, they of necessity condemn the " world around them, who are lying in wickedness^," and ordering their course agreeably to the will of Satan, who worketh in them *",
a Ezek. xxxiii. 17—20. ^ Rom. ii. 7—9. « Gal. ii. 20. d Gal. V. 24. «^ 1 John v.. 19. f Eph. ii. 2.
2247.1 EQITITY OF god's PROCEDURE. 31
and " leads them captive at his wills," In consequence of this, they are hated, reviled, and persecuted, as their Saviour was ; and are called to " suffer," even as he suffered. There is not one of them who has not his cross to bear. Times and cir- cumstances may cause a difference as to the degree in which they shall suffer : but there is no exception whatever to that declaration of the Apostle, " All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution'^."