“For the accomplishment of this, there must not only be a going forth on the vast and untrodden spaces that are without; there must be a filling up of the numerous and peopled vacancies that are within—a busy, internal locomotion, that might circulate, and disperse, and branch off to the right and to the left, among the many thousand families which are at hand: and thoroughly to pervade these families; to make good a lodgment in the midst of them, for the nearer or the more frequent ministrations of Christianity than before; to have gained welcome for the Gospel testimony into their houses, and, in return, to have drawn any of them forth to attendance on the place of Sabbath and of solemn services—this, also, is to act upon our text, this is to do the part, and to render one of the best achievements of a missionary.”
Birth rates are plummeting in the United States and globally, forecasting a political and financial crisis. The most recent estimate predicts the average American woman will have 1.6 children in her lifetime, far below the rate of 2.1 required to maintain a steady population and even further below the 2.5 rate observed in the United States as recently as 1970.
Many cultural and technological factors have contributed to this dramatic decline, and public policies play a role in shaping people’s decisions about whether to have children and how many. Finding the right policy levers for influencing fertility rates, however, has proven very difficult.
“Did believers in the Lord Jesus more frequently meet in council, in service, in communion, how soon and entirely would the coldness, the party spirit; the jealousies, the erroneous impressions vanish which now, alas! divide the body of Christ, all whose members are ‘members one of another.’ Knowing each other better, they would love each other more; and loving each other more, there would be more ready concession made to the freedom of judgment and the claims of conscience. The clergy of the various sections of the Christian Church stand too wide apart from each other simply because they do not know each other. And if the shepherds are thus sundered, it is no marvel that the sheep are divided! The Church of Christ is essentially one, why should she not be visibly one? Inseparable from Christ, why should we be separated from each other? With an essential unity of faith, why should we not all unite in excluding uncharitableness? Oh! If the Lord’s people—losing sight of every badge but Christian, and of every name but Christ—were to mingle more frequently, confidingly, and prayerfully together, how much more would they find of assimilation, of sympathy, and affection—how much less to sunder, separate, and censure, and how much more to admire, love, and imitate in each other than they had any conception of.”
12. Adam brake the whole frame of heaven and earth: and to the Second ADAM the whole broken and marred lump of the Creation is promised, that he may be the repairer of the waste places. Isa. 49:8. I will preserve thee, and give thee for a Covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. Ps. 72:16. Under the reign of the Messiah, There shall be an handfull of corn upon the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. Jer. 31:12. Therefore shall they come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord (Christ) for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd.
1. The Lord made all things at the beginning very good, Gen. 1:31. Heaven, Earth, Sun, Moon, Beasts, Birds, &c. being all made servants to man, were in a manner fellow-Covenanters in their kind with man in the Covenant of Works: As a King covenants with a great Family, his servants and dependers have the benefit of the Kings Covenant peace, all obeyed Adam without jarring: but when Adam sinned, war between the Lord, and between the Master and the servants is denounced, the earth is cursed for his sake, Genes. 3:17, 18. and Lions and wild Beasts rise against him like loose boarders. But in the Covenant of Grace, Hos. 2:18, 19, 20. the beasts of the field, the fowls of the heaven, the Sun which shall not smite by day, nor the Moon by night, Ps. 121:6. are by the Surety of the Covenant brought in a new league: yea the stones of the field, Job 5:23. are compartners of the peace, and Christ the King takes off the forefaultry [forfeit, failure] upon all, and looses the arrestment of vanity that by sin was laid upon the Creation, which was made sick like a woman travelling in birth, Rom. 8:20, 21, 22. Hence are they blessed in Christ to the Saints, Deut. 28:4, 5; Levit. 26:4, 5, 6. and the Angels come in under their Head Christ, Col. 2:10. and serve the new restored heirs, Heb. 1:13. for their Heads sake.
2. God hath appointed Christ the Heir of all things, and, Heb. 1:2. hath given a Charter to Christ and put in bread, garments, houses and all to the Believer in Christ the first Heir: his great evidence is, 1 Cor. 3:21. All things are yours. 3. He makes all things new, Rev. 21:5. This Christ mends the broken gold ring which was broken by the first unattentive and rash Heir Adam; So that now Heavens, Earth, Mountains, Isai. 49:13. Sea, trees, fields, Psal. 96:11, 12, 13. are commanded to sing a Gospel Psalm of joy, because Christ the new King and Restorer of all is come to the Throne: yea let the stoods [stands of trees] clap their hands, Psal. 98:9. and he purposes to purge with fire the great Pest-house infected with sin and under bondage of corruption, Rom. 8:21; 2 Pet. 3:10, 11. that he may set up the new world in Gospel-beauty, the new heavens and the new earth, 2 Pet. 3:13; Isai. 65:17; Isai. 66:22; Rev. 21:1. Oh what a life to have a cottage and a little yard of herbs in that new World, and how base to be but Citizens of this World!
“And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee” (Deut. 25.2-3).
“Now it follows: That the wicked man shall be condemned according to his desert. There is here no mention of such offences as were to be punished by death. For if there were murder committed, or adultery, or such like thing; they were punished by death. We have seen how God commanded that all such kinds of wickedness should be utterly rooted out: but here he speaks but of such injuries as deserve some other chastisement. And that is the cause why it is said, That the malefactor shall be punished according to his desert, yet so has he shall not have above forty stripes. For they used a whip made of an oxe hide, to chastise them which dealt wrongfully and outrageously with their neighbor, always provided that the offence deserved not death. It is said: That they shall not pass the number of forty strips. And why? To the intent that the man should not be mangled or disfigured in his body, but remain whole and found. You see then in effect what is here declared, to wit, first that the sentence must not be given in vain: and secondly that some moderation must be used, so as the rigor be not excessive. . . .
“Moreover secondly in this place here is mention made of moderating the chastisements which are used. For the judges ought always to consider that they fit in justice in the behalf of God, and therefore into that seat which is holy and dedicated to the doing of right, they may not bring their own passions, to feed their own choler, and to deal crossly and overwartly as they themselves lift. God therefore in saying, that there shall be a certain number of stripes, declares expressly that there must be a reasonable measure used in punishing. Verily when a man is not to be clean rooted out, but to live still in the world, God will not have him maimed that he should become unprofitable as touching h is body. For what a thing were it if a man should be so rigorously handled as to be made a cripple so as he can no more help himself? It were better he had been put to death at the first, than to be left to pine away in this world, and to be as a block. Now therefore when a man is to be left alive still, GOD will have the judges to ave a regard that he be not beaten of scourged in such wise as he disfigured or made unable to help himself. That is the very thing which God will have men to look unto.”
West Port Experiment 