PIOUS COMPANIONS TO BE CHOSEN. 215 him, and placed at an impassable distance through all eternity. It is best for the Christian to form those friendships now, which may be renewed in heaven, and perpetuated for ever and ever. § 6. Choose those therefore for your friends, who are the friends of God-friends that will be friends for ever. They can sympathize with you in your sorrows, the worldly cannot; they may obtain blessings for you by their prayers, the gay and thoughtless would gain you none, but rather deprive you of the blessings your own prayers might obtain. They would do you good in your pilgrimage, and you might indulge the comfortable hope of meeting them in heaven, and of joining them there in all the noble employments and exalted pleasures of that happy, holy world. How much better, how much happier, to travel to heaven with beloved companions, heirs with you of the grace of life, than to have associates that are without hope, without God, and without Christ! Besides all these motives for shunning evil company, the blessed God has graciously furnished a motive, wonderfully endearing and encouraging. He promises you his own friendship, if you renounce the friendship of the world. When he says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," he graciously adds, " And I will receive you, and be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." With such a promise proclaimed in your hearing, can you hesitate whether to choose the friendship of God, or the attachment of some, perhaps amiable, but perishing, creatures? His friendship for eternity, or theirs for an inch of time? His that would bless you with eternal life, or theirs that would rob you of that prize, and sink you in destruction? His favour, that would fill your soul with present peace, and enrich you with blessings that will be enjoyed without intermission through an eternal day of glory; or theirs, which when it does its utmost, can but please a few short hours with vain mirth, that is, like a transient blaze, followed by eternal darkness ? On Marriage. § 7. As wisdom in the choice of companions is thus important, still more important is the exercise of Christian wisdom in the choice of a companion for life. There is no sub ject on which many professors of religion seem so inattentive to the rules of duty, as on this; and deplorable are the con sequences of their sin and folly. If you have already entered that union, which death only must dissolve, and have formed it with one who is a stranger to the paths of peace, the advice contained in this chapter can be of little service to you. "The die is cast, and cast for life." Your duty is to watch and pray, that you may not be drawn into the paths of the destroyer. Endeavour to act the Christian's part. Labour and pray for the eternal welfare of him, or of her, who may be as dear to you as your own life, but who you are aware is not dear to God, but perishing in sin. With what melting pity should you behold the friend of your bosom, the partner of your heart, no sharer with you in even one spiritual blessing! dear to you through nature's ties, but an enemy to your God! With what sorrow should you think, that the friend who is travelling with you the journey of life, sharing its cares and its comforts, has no inheritance in your home; but when the journey of life ends, must be separated from you to meet no more through all eternity! How fervent should be your prayers, how watchful your conduct, that if possible you may lead this dear, but perishing, friend, to your Saviour, for life, and peace, and pardon! § 8. But if you have not entered into the marriage union, then, as you love your soul, as you regard your peace, as you value the favour of your God, never form that connexion with any one, however amiable, however moral, however endowed with the gifts of fortune or nature, who is not a decided follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. This advice may be enforced by reasons the most weighty and momentous. § 9. Marriage between those who partake of divine grace, and those who are strangers to religion, is represented in the Scriptures as the source of the greatest evils, and such unequal matches are abundantly condemned. According to the sense usually attributed to several verses in the sixth of Genesis, unhallowed marriages are represented as the cause of that dreadful wickedness, which occasioned the destruction of mankind by the general deluge. It was when the sons of God chose for their wives the fair but impious daughters of men, that the iniquity of man became so great as to call down that dread ful judgment from a patient and merciful God. These wicked connexions matured human depravity, filled up the measure of man's iniquity, ripened a world for impending vengeance, banished the last lingering traces of piety from almost every heart, made this earth a scene of dreadful desolation, and hurried multitudes to the pit of eternal night. When the world was repeopled, the same cause produced in smaller circles effects not less deplorable. What made part of the daughters of Lot slight God's gracious warning to escape from perishing Sodom? They were married to some of its depraved inhabitants. What rendered those who did escape such monsters of impurity? Doubtless they had contracted this among those with whom they had too long conversed. What rendered Solomon, the wisest of men, an idolatrous fool? What made him, once so favoured by God, once so devoted to his glory, an impious apostate, a worshipper of pagan abominations? "His wives turned away his heart after other gods, and he went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians; and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh, the abomination of Moab; and Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon."i The piety that erected God's most splendid temple, the wisdom that nations admired, could not shield him from the accursed influence of unhallowed connexions. When we see the wise Solomon become an aged infatuate apostate, bowing at an idol's shrine, because an impious wife adored that idol, need we wonder when we see professors of religion, that marry unbelievers, joining in the sins and follies that please an ungodly wife or husband? and going like an ox to the slaughter where Satan leads them? What aggravated the crimes of impious Ahab, who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord? Jezebel, his pagan wife, urged him forward in his career of iniquity. K $10. The word of God not only represents such unhallowed unions as dangerous in the extreme, but expressly and absolutely forbids them. They were expressly forbidden to Israel of old. The reason of the case might sufficiently prove, that what was thus offensive to God under the lax dispensation of Moses, could not be less offensive under the more spiritual and holy dispensation of the gospel. But we are not left to (i) 1 Kings xi, 4, 5, 7. (k) 1 Kings xxiv. 25. (1) Deut. vii. 3, 4. Neh. xiii. 26, 27. U dubious inference. The Christian law upon this subject is decisive and plain. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." Nothing can be a more complete violation of this law, than marriage with a person destitute of heavenly grace. In that case, instead of not being unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, the believer is voluntarily yoked till death dissolve the union, to one whom God esteems an unbeliever. Instead of coming out from such persons, the believer is permanently united to one in the closest of all connexions. Instead of being separate, a union is sought and formed, where the interests, hopes, cares, fears, business, pains, and pleasures of the parties, are all intimately mingled, and mingled for life. What can be more glaring rebellion against the Majesty of heaven? What more wilful contempt of the giver of this law? The same law is given in expressions equally definite on another occasion. When the liberty of a female to marry is declared, it is said, "She is at liberty to be married to whom she will, ONLY IN THE LORD."m All considerations respecting property, or age, or temper, or health, or prospects, are left to the prudence of the parties; but this one restriction God lays down, the believer must marry no one who is not in the Lord. The expression, in the Lord, is too common in the Scriptures for its meaning to be mistaken. It evidently signifies a person who is a partaker of saving grace, a true disciple of Jesus, a humble child of God. Among the in stances in which it occurs are the following: "Timothy, my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord."n "Are not ye my work in the Lord." "I count all things loss, that I may win Christ, and be found in him." "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." "There is no condemnation for them who are in Chirst Jesus." The meaning of this expression being thus plain, the law itself cannot be obscure. The disciples of Jesus, as far as freedom from restriction on his part is concerned, are at liberty to marry whom they will, only in the Lord. 11. When we behold the conduct of many that profess religion, we might suppose that a law like this did not exist (1) 2 Cor. vi. 14-18. (o) 1 Cor. ix. 1. (p) Phil. iii. 9. (m) 1 Cor. vii. 39. (n) 1 Cor. iv. 17. (r) Rom. viii. 1. in the Bible. How many thoughtlessly intwine their affections and interests with those who are utter strangers to the way of peace-clasp in their arms the children of the wicked one, and give their hearts to those whom Satan rules. To arm you, if in any danger of insnarement, against this common and destructive sin, consider that it is a great sin, a sin deeply dyed with wicked ingratitude. God is the giver of the law, which forbids your being yoked with an unbeliever, and which allows you to marry only in the Lord. And are not you under the greatest obligations to obey your gracious God? Are not you under the strongest ties to love him? Are not you bought with that price, precious and invaluable, the blood of Christ? And are not you directed to do, whatever you do, "to the glory of God?" Should not you then yield your heart to him who has so loved you? To encourage you to this he gives the most gracious promise possible, "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." Of what ingratitude would you be guilty, if with such a promise given by such a God, you trample under foot his righteous law! § 12. To break this law has all the guilt of rebellion against the authority of God. Idolatry, fornication, or adultery, you would esteem great crimes; for God abhors and forbids those crimes, but God as truly forbids unhallowed marriages; and they who marry strangers to religion, as truly rebel against God, as they who lead lives of unlicensed lewdness. The sin committed by a believer in such case, is much aggravated by its being a wilful and deliberate sin. It is not a sudden fall, like Peter's; it is not a crime committed unawares, or to which persons are hurried in a moment of impetuous passion, but it is a deliberate and wilful crime. The young man, month after month, pursues the object on which he fixes his affections, though he knows that whatever charms she possess, she has not that one which excels all others, the charm of humble piety. The young woman, month after month, receives the addresses of her lover, though she is aware, that whatever worth he may possess, he is not a disciple of the Son of God. Thus the rebellion against the authority of God is wilful and continued, and month after month, and perhaps year after year, is the Most High insulted, by behold (s) 1 Cor. x. 31. |