It is an extraordinary circumstance, that the agency of God, in the production of the natural world, should be universally admitted, because no other adequate cause can be assigned; and yet that it should, with so little hesitation, be denied in the moral world. Why is God to be excluded from this superior creation, but because men "do not like to retain him in their knowledge," and because corrupted reason would deify itself and dethrone the Almighty?--And here we have the characteristic distinction between religion and irreligion. The former assigns God as the cause and agent in every thing, born interior and exterior to us. It places him upon the throne, subordinates every thing to his will, attributes every thing to his influence. It contemplates his dominion as infinite, and his will as the law of nature and of nations. It fully believes, that naturally and spiritually "in him we live, and move, and have our being." Irreligion--and we may comprehend in the term, not only extravagant immorality or gross impiety, but a system which is found to exist under the cloak of religion, and the pretence of doing God service--irreligion of every class and in every form is perpetually limiting the empire of the Deity, prescribing bounds to his influence, criticising and defining his prerogatives, and refusing him the "right to reign over us."
The Scriptures uniformly ascribe the first principle, all the successive actions, and the final consummation of religion in the heart, to the Spirit of God. It is the subject of express promise: "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."--"This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people."--"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh; and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." The nature of this moral transformation is distinctly stated in such passages as the following--"Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"--"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of God, he is none of his"--"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God"--"We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained, that we should walk in them." In the same manner, the increase of religion is ascribed to the Spirit. "He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ"--"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." Let us then, as Moses expresses it respecting the bush which he saw at the back of Horeb, burning, but still unconsumed, "turn aside and see this great sight." "God is every where by his power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with his hand, he fixes the earth in its place with his foot, he guides all the creatures with his eye, and refreshes them with his influence; he makes the powers of bell to shake with his terrors, and binds the devils with his word, and throws them out with his command, and sends the angels on embassies with his decrees.... God is especially present in the hearts of his people, by his Holy Spirit; and indeed the hearts of holy men are temples in the truth of things, and in type and shadow they are heaven itself. For God reigns in the hearts of his servants: there is his kingdom. The energy of grace hath subdued all his enemies; this is his power. They serve him night and day, and give him thanks and praise; that is his glory. The temple itself is the heart of man; Christ is the high priest, who from thence sends up the incense of prayers, and joins them to his own intercession, and presents all together to his Father; and the Holy Ghost, by his dwelling there, hath also consecrated it into a temple; and God dwells in our hearts by faith, and Christ by his Spirit, and the Spirit by his purities; so that we are also cabinets of the mysterious Trinity; and what is short of heaven itself, but as infancy is short of manhood, and letters of words?" [[48]]
How inconceivably glorious is the beauty of holiness in the renovated soul! That "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness," should "shine into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus"--that the vileness of our nature should be superseded by the purity of grace--that sinners should be pardoned and sin subdued--that the good seed should vegetate in such a barren and overgrown wilderness of desolation--that we who were "sometime darkness" should become "light in the Lord," is truly marvellous. This establishment of "the kingdom of God within us," excites the gratitude of saints, the wonder of angels, and the loud anthems of triumph that vibrate from the harps of heaven. When God made a fair world from a formless mass of matter, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy;" but when he devised the plan to make a holy human being from a base and fallen rebel, they sung "Glory to God in the HIGHEST."
How animating the consideration, that the hope of salvation inspired in the soul by the Spirit of God, can never be extinguished! The grace that powerfully impels him to take the first step in the Christian life, as forcibly urges him forward to the end of his course. The light which is kindled in his bosom will burn and brighten, and consummate his immortal bliss. It is itself the pledge of this increase and perfection. The felicity of the Christian here is similar in its essence to his glory hereafter, as the first ray of morning is the same in nature with the noontide brightness. It may struggle through obscurities, but will rise to perfect day. Death indeed is rapidly approaching: but as the solar orb plunges for a short season into darkness, to reappear with new splendour; so will the righteous eventually ascend above the tomb and, the worm, to "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
The manner of Lydia's conversion ought not to be overlooked. Her heart was opened. There is something gentle, as well as effectual, in the representation. The Spirit of God not only operates by a variety of instruments, but by a considerable diversity of modes. He descends on Sinai in tempests, and on Calvary in smiles. Sometimes his manifestations are terrible, and sometimes soothing; sometimes he breaks, and sometimes opens the heart. In scripture we are furnished with illustrations of this diversified operation. Manasseh, who "made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen," and who "would not hearken" to divine monitions, was taken by the Assyrians "among the thorns, and bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon." He who was unaffected, either by mercies or menaces, in his prosperity, "when he was in affliction, besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him; and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." Paul, who breathed out threatening and slaughter against the Christian church, was suddenly struck to the earth by a miraculous light from heaven, and from a persecutor transformed into an apostle. The Philippian jailer exclaimed amidst his terrors, "What must I do to be saved?" and was not only prevented from committing suicide, but directed to heaven by the doctrine of his apostolic prisoner, which through grace he cordially received: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved, and thine house." On the other hand, Samuel, Timothy, and Lydia, were "drawn with bands of love." They heard the whispers of mercy, and felt the attractions of grace. Each of their hearts, like that of Lydia, was opened. Passion subsided, prejudice withdrew, ignorance melted away. They were not taken by storm, but made willing "in the day of his power."
The importance of this change is intimated in the remarkable declaration of Jesus Christ to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven." It is essential to the possession of paradise; it constitutes the very basis of the Christian character; and to be indifferent to it is a mark of condemnation. Its present influence, and its future consequences, are so wonderful, that it becomes us to cherish an immediate and incessant solicitude upon the subject. Look upward--Almighty love "waits to be gracious"--Is it not recorded, and can it ever be forgotten, that "every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened? If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
III. The account of Lydia is further illustrative of the effects resulting from a divine influence upon the human heart.
The first of these effects is intimated by the statement, that "she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Her spirit was exceedingly different from that of the hearers of Ezekiel: "Thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not." Lydia, on the contrary, heard to profit. She listened, reflected, and "inwardly digested," the truths of the Gospel. She heard with seriousness and with self-application. The doctrine was to her novel and interesting. The Gospel came to her, "not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance;" for she "received the word of God which she heard, not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God," which "effectually worketh" in believers.
And is this descriptive of our views and feelings? Do we pay attention to divine instructions, and "hear so that our souls may live?" Is the word of God to us like descending manna from the skies, which we go forth with eager haste to gather for our spiritual subsistence? Whenever we repair to "the house of God," are we "more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools?" Do we dwell upon the lips of the preacher? Do we aim to remember, seek to understand, and humbly resolve to practise what is taught? Or, do we go to public worship with reluctant and hesitating steps, compelled alone by the force of habit, education, example, or terror? When arrived, do we enter with irreverence, assume a careless and familiar attitude, give the rein to our wandering thoughts, resign our bodies or our consciences to unhallowed slumber, or watch with frequent glances the slowly revolving hour that will free us from an irksome service? When retired from public engagements, do we forget God our Maker, dissipate consecrated hours, and at length lose every salutary impression amidst the cares of life, and the subordinate concerns of a moment?
It is possible you may even plead temporal anxieties and business, as an extenuation of the guilt of religious negligences, or as a sufficient ground of exemption from the claims of piety. You are forsooth too busy, too needy, too perplexed in establishing connections or conducting commercial transactions, to pay an immediate regard to the interests of the soul and eternity; and although you at present defer such considerations, you apologize for your folly by saying, it does not arise from aversion, but inconvenience. You do not deny, you only procrastinate. But who has insured your life? Who has perused for you the page of destiny, which numbers the years of your mortal existence? Who has given you any evidence, that the distant day of intentional repentance, shall be a day of health, seriousness, and leisure? Who can tell that the sun, which illumines the path of your prosperity at this period of irresolution, will not, upon the arrival of the predicted hour of penitence, shine only upon your grave? Who has given you authority to invert the order which Christ has established in the admonition, "Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness?"