Discourses on Various Subjects, Vol. 1 (of 2)Duché, Jacob
Religion
Discourses on Various Subjects, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Duché, Jacob
Episcopal Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
"Whatever is within, whatever is without us, calls aloud for a SAVIOUR.
Change, corruption, distemperature and death, have, by the sin of fallen
angels, and of fallen man, been unhappily introduced into this system of
things which we inhabit. The whole creation groaneth; and animals and
vegetables, and even the Immortal Image of GOD himself in man, are all
in bondage to their malign influences; so that every thing cries out,
with the apostle Paul, "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
so that every thing cries out, with the apostle Peter, "Lord, save me,
or I perish!"
"What kind of a Saviour then is it, for whom all nature thus cries
aloud, through all her works? Not a dry moralist, a legislator of bare
external precepts, such as some would represent CHRIST to be: no, the
existence and influence of the REDEEMER OF NATURE, must, at least, be as
extensive as Nature herself. Things are defiled and corrupted
throughout; they are distempered and devoted to death, from the inmost
essence of their being; and none, but HE alone, "in whom they live, and
move, and have their being," can possibly redeem and restore them."
These are inevitable truths, which all men, at some time or other, must
feel, and feel deeply too, whether they attend to them now or not. The
redemption and restoration of every sinner can be accomplished in no
other way, than by CHRIST'S spiritual entrance into his heart, awakening
in him an abhorrence of evil, and a love of goodness.
This is the spirit of the GOSPEL OF JESUS; this the grand purpose of
Heaven, under every dispensation of Revealed Truth, from Adam down to
this day. The modes of communication, the outward forms of worship and
of doctrine, may vary; but the same spirit runs through the whole, and
the enlightened eye of "Wisdom's children" can see and adore her radiant
footsteps, in paths that appear dark and dreary to the eyes of others.
However her outward garb may change; whatever different appearances she
may put on, under the patriarchal, legal, and evangelical dispensations;
her real features, her whole person and employment, have ever been
invariably the same. These different appearances were only adapted to
the different circumstances of men, and calculated to direct their
attention to the one great and principal object she has always had in
view, even the Redemption of immortal spirits from the tyranny of earth
and hell, and the full restoration of them to their primeval innocence
and bliss.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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