ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE." 'JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER. WHOM TO KNOW IS LIFE ETERNAL."

VOL. II.]

JULY, 1842.

[No. 19.

DID THE LORD EVER MAKE THEE A PROMISE?

Then plead it before him, as Jacob did, GEN. XXXII. 12,

AND THOU SAIDST, I WILL SURELY DO THEE GOOD.

WHATEVER may be said to the contrary by Satan, by a merely professing world, or by the unbelief of the heart, it is the high privilege of the children of God, to put him in remembrance-to plead before him his own covenant word and promise. The Scriptures afford a divine warrant for the same; for, in the forty-third chapter of Isaiah and the twenty-sixth verse, the Lord himself says, "Put me in remembrance; let us plead together," &c. Here it would seem that the Lord had forgotten -that he required to be reminded of his promise: this, however, can never be; he never can forget the sacred engagements into which he has entered with his dear Son, as the one glorious living Head and Representative of his church, nor with the church in him. A sacred compact was eternally entered into, taking into account the every state and condition in which every individual member of that church should be placed, and effectually providing for his complete preservation and final deliverance. And the Lord has been pleased uniformly so to withdraw himself in his sensible manifestations, as to cause his children to feel their weakness, their loneliness, and their entire inability to counsel and instruct themselves in the path in which they should go ; that, thereby, the faith of his own implantation may be brought into No. 19, VOL. II.-New Series.

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exercise, and an opportunity afforded him of displaying his watchful care over, and tender sympathies towards, his church.

Jacob (ah! poor Jacob!) was, like a multitude of his followers, prone to live by sense and feeling. He could believe, for the most part, just as far as he could see, and but little or no farther, only as the Lord the eternal Spirit was pleased to operate upon his naturally weak and timid mind. Destined, even before his birth, to be a special character, and one more immediately requiring the peculiar guidance and protection of the most high God, it was not long before he was placed in circumstances which were to set forth what he was in himself, and what God was and would be in him.

That he or his mother was to be justified for the treacherous manner in which he obtained his good old father Isaac's blessing, as recorded in the twenty-seventh chapter of this book, we do not, for a moment, maintain. He did, in this, as did Abraham with respect to Hagar (in the sixteenth chapter), betray the impatience, the unbelief, and the depravity of our poor fallen nature, which is ever ready to give God the lie, and to adopt its own falsely-conceived ideas of good. Oh, no! in this treachery and falsehood Jacob was not to be excused; abstractedly considered, it was an evil thing, and (as a correspondent lately remarked) it was a conviction of this that he felt so keenly many years after, in the prospect of meeting his brother Esau. Sin had unmanned him; sin had rendered him weak; and though God, in the rich aboundings of his mercy, does put away the sins of his people, yet he does make them smart for sin; and they feel enough, under his chastening hand, to make them dread the indulgence of it. Nor do they, in proportion as his love and grace are kept sweetly alive in their hearts, more tremble at the thought of hell itself, than at the idea of the Lord so withdrawing himself as to leave them under the dominion of their old carnal nature, or the power of Satan; and though they are compelled, day by day, to adopt the language of the apostle in his seventh chapter to the Romans, yet it is their ardent desire to be so perpetually living in and upon the grace and fulness of Jesus, that they never would dishonour him by an unbelieving thought or an unholy deed. This is the practical tendency of what is termed Antinomianism.

But Jacob obtains the blessing, and then, compelled to flee the anger of his brother, with a guilty conscience and a burdened heart, he sets out for the house of Laban. Who shall describe his feelings-the anguish of his heart, on leaving his parental roof, and finding himself exposed to many privations? Here, in this forlorn condition, the Lord graciously meets with him; not to upbraid him—not to add sorrow to his already burdened heart-but, in a way of kindness and compassion, bis indulgent Father holds communion with his spirit. He tells him who he is and what he is; and, recapitulating some of his wondrous acts, assures Jacob that he will be with him still. The revelation being only by a dream, the FAITH of Jacob was thereby more called into exercise; there must be a going out of self-a venturing upon a something altogether beyond the reach of human reasoning or mere fleshly feeling. It was a revelation to the faith which the Holy Ghost, at the

same time, implanted in the heart of Jacob; so that there was an instantaneous response, as it were, to the voice of the Most High, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." The mere natural mind of man never can comprehend the peculiar manifestations of God to his people; "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Nor can the natural mind, or old Adam-part of our nature, after grace is implanted, comprehend these divine mysteries any more than the ungodly, who do not possess an opposing principle and a supernatural light. Hence arise, after the brightest manifestations, the multitude of doubts and scruples, the vilest unbelief, and the most God-dishonouring thoughts, which the sceptical mind, the earthly part of a believer, can produce. God promises, faith listens and approves; there is a sweet reception of the word, a blessed closingin with the promise, a shaking hands, a divine embrace between God and the soul; the devil and the unbelief of the heart all the while keeping at a respectful distance: but the moment the Lord withdraws-directly he turns his back (so to speak), they begin; by little and little they throw in their insinuations, their cross-questionings, the possibility, yet the great improbability, of the fulfilment of the promise. "Ah! was it not a misunderstanding? Was it a revelation? Might it not have been a mere illusion? Does anything around justify such an expectation? If it were likely to come to pass, would there not appear some grounds upon which a more certain reliance might be placed?" Oh! that crafty devil! this vile unbelief! near kindred indeed-both deserving one common damnation! Ah! poor exercised believer, thou wilt be freed from both by and by. Thou art now a prisoner; the world is often nothing more than a dungeon to thee; sin and unbelief are the fetters which bind thee, and Satan is door-keeper. Ere long a stronger than he shall come, whose very countenance, animated as it is with love to thee, shall strike such terror into thine enemy, as shall quickly send him back to his own place.

"Lord, it is thine deserts altogether.

"And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good." own word, spoken irrespective of me and my foul Thou art the omniscient Jehovah, taking in, at one glance of thine infinite mind, all I was and all I ever should be-a poor, guilty, helldeserving wretch-afar off from thee by wicked works-prone to despise thee-possessing, naturally, not even the veriest particle of love to thee, but would, on the contrary, gladly hurl thee from thy throne, and deprive thee of existence; yet, notwithstanding all, in Jesus thou hast made me a promise; I will surely do thee good.' And this promise, Lord, I come now, in the time of my necessity, to remind thee of; and I come, not in my own name, nor pleading any worth or worthiness of my own-for I have none to plead-but I come in his dear name in whom and with whom thou hast said thou art ever well pleased. I come, moreover, Lord, pleading the name, the work, the ever-prevalent merits of that very Jesus whom thou didst, in thy great mercy, first reveal as an almighty and an all-suitable Saviour to my sin-burdened soul."

Reader, is this the solemn, the sincere, the importunate language of thy soul? Is this the mode of thy approach to the mercy-seat? Whatever be thy troubles, however complicated or numerous thy exercises, are these the breathings of thy heart? We tell thee, then, for thy comfort, thou must prevail. It is the Holy Ghost pleading within thee, in his own blessed character, as a Spirit of grace and supplication. Left to thyself, to thy own carnal will and rebellious feeling, thou couldst no more breathe forth these desires and ardent longings, than thou couldst create a world. A wrestling Jacob must be a prevailing Israel. Hence the encouraging history left upon record, and now before us. What of his own had Jacob to plead? What inherent good had he to offer at the throne? He had acted in the character of a base deceiver, and uttered lie upon lie; in a human point of view, he had proved himself far less deserving of the blessing than Esau his brother, and yet, according to the eternal purpose and sovereign choice of Him who has a right to choose whom he will, and pass by and reject whom he pleases, Jacob was to inherit it. In a treacherous way he obtained it; upon a free-will, human-merit principle, it must counteract itself; but, viewed in a light to which mere human reason cannot attain, and in conjunction with the results which are left upon record, the treachery and precipitancy of Rebecca and Jacob could not frustrate the eternal purpose of our God. Inconvenience and anguish he must and did suffer; of this we have before testified; still the pleasure of the Most High shall be accomplished, and that in such a way as to render it a most suitable evidence of his long-suffering and compassion to his church in every age.

Jacob leaves Bethel (ever-memorable spot!) and journeys onward. His course is opened most sweetly, and it is proved, to a demonstration, that God is with him, according to promise. Yet mark, amidst all, the interminglings of Fatherly reproof, enough to rebuke the most presumptuous. He had served his seven years for Rachel, seemingly a brief period, on account of the love wherewith he loved her; but, as he had deceived an Isaac, so must he be deceived with a Leah. Mark this, reader, if thou art presumptuously saying, "Let us do evil, that good may come." We hesitate not to say, that this is the most dangerous ground a soul can occupy; and, if a poor child of God be left there, we earnestly pray that God the Holy Ghost, may show him the fallacy of the argument, and break the awful snare in which his poor unwary feet are entrapped. Oh! He can give all the grace, all the brokenness of spirit, and humility of mind thou inwardly pinest after, without leaving thee to fall into the sin which a lying devil and a deceitful heart are saying will, if thou art a child, surely "work together for thy good." It is an awful lie of the devil-an ensnaring bait by which he wishes to entrap thee. God in mercy deliver thee, for none else can. If thou art left to fall into the snare, whatever it be, Satan will surely turn round upon thee, and all but overwhelm thee in the very vortex of despair.

At length, having greatly increased in substance, led by the Lord, Jacob is resolved to return to his own country. Fresh trouble awaits

him; soon intimation is given him that his brother is come out against him with four hundred men. And now comes Jacob's pleading-time. Having used all due precaution, he at once goes to God, and, first reminding him of his high character, as the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God that had bade him follow his present course (oh! it is very blessed when the soul can get here), he confesses his own utter demerit; and then, rehearsing what the Lord had done for him, "With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands" (it is very precious when the soul can contrast former circumstances with present mercies), he presents his plea, and expresses, in the simplest language, his own apprehensions; "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau ; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children." Then comes the language of our text, as though Jacob, notwithstanding all his unworthiness, would assign a reason for the Lord's gracious interference in his present calamity, "And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good;" thou hast promised to appear, thou art under a sacred engagement. Wilt thou canst thou forfeit thy word? From the order of the language, it appears that the Lord remained silent-apparently gave no heed; for we afterwards read of the additional precautions which Jacob took, But the night gets darker— the burden increases the crisis is nearer at hand; and Jacob rose up that night (verse 22), and, being left alone (verse 24), there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. How significant is the expression, and how clearly does it manifest the power of the blessed Spirit as being put forth in the soul of every true wrestler. Jacob-poor, unbelieving, fearful Jacob-was brought into the most necessitous circumstances. A present help he needed-an immediate deliverance he required; hence his importunity, and the holy courage with which he was endowed; "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." Mark the gracious condescension of the Lord; "And when he (that is, the Lord) saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him." This would seem to be putting a finishing stroke to the matter, giving a flat denial to the whole entreaty; but no, this was merely intended to awaken still more earnestness, and to produce a more determinate resolution to be satisfied with nothing short of the blessing sought; and behold how fully was his every wish realized; nay, how far beyond his utmost expectation did the Lord appear for him, turning the lion into a lamb, and possessing the mind of Esau with the utmost tenderness and affection towards his brother, as the following chapter testifies.

Reader, though the subject has ofttimes preached volumes to us, we feel that, in our present meditation, we have been unable to get at the marrow of it as we could desire-so sovereign are the Lord the Spirit's dealings with his messengers. To have sweet meditation upon a subject is one thing-to bring it forth is another; and, lest we should rest upon our contemplations rather than upon the Lord, the most enlarged