10-27-23 tihx yet they by no means rested the obligation to believe either exclusively or mainly upon these external signs. In many cases faith was de- manded by those inspired men who never wrought miracles of any kind, as was the fact in the case of some of the prophets; and still more frequently it was required of those among whom no such wonders had been performed. When the Jews demanded a sign and the Greeks wisdom, the apostles preached Christ, and him crucified, as the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. Their con- stant endeavour was bv the manifestation of 32 THE SCRIPTURES, the truth to commend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And if their gospel was hid, it was hid to them that are lost. It is, therefore, plainly the doctrine of the Scriptures themselves, that the word of God is to be believed because of the authority or com- mand of God manifesting itself therein, in a manner analogous to the exhibition of his per- fections in the w^orks of nature. If, as Paul teaches us, the eternal power and godhead are so clearly manifested by the things that are made, that even the heathen are without ex- cuse; and if their unbelief is ascribed not to the want of evidence, but to their not liking to retain God in their knowledge ; we need not wonder that the far clearer manifestation of the divine perfections made in the Scriptures, should be the ground of a more imperative command to believe. It is the experience of true Christians in all ages and nations that their faith is founded on the spiritual apprehension and experience of the power of the truth. There are multitudes of such Christians, who, if asked why they believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, might find it difficult to give an answer, whose faith is nevertheless both strong and rational. They are conscious of its grounds, though they may not be able to state them. They have the witness in themselves, and know that they THE WORD OF GOD. 33 believe, not because others believe, or because learned men have proved certain facts which establish the truth of Christianity. They be- lieve in Christ for the same reason that they believe in God; and they believe in God because they see his glory and feel his authority and power. If then the truth of God contains in its own nature a revelation of divine excellence, the sin of unbelief is a very great sin. Not to have faith in God, when clearly revealed, is the highest offence which a creature can commit against its creator. To refuse credence to the testimony of God, when conveyed in the man- ner best adapted to our nature, is to renounce our allegiance to our creator. To disregard the evidence of truth and excellence in Jesus Christ, is the highest indignity that we can show to truth and excellence. This sin is common, and therefore is commonly disregarded. Men do not easily see the turpitude of evils with which they are themselves chargeable. The faults of those who go beyond them in iniquity they are quick to discern. And therefore the man who feels no compunction at want of faith in the Son of God, will abhor him who pronounces the Redeemer a wicked impostor. He will wait for no explanation and will listen to no excuse. The mere fact that a man, acquainted with the Scriptures, is capable of such a judg- ment respecting the Son of God, is proof of 34 THE SCRIPTURES, depravity which nothing can gainsay. Yet how little difference is there between the state of mind which would admit of such a judgment, and the state in which those are who have no faith in the declarations of Christ; who disre- gard his promises and warnings; who do not feel them to be true, and therefore treat them as fables. The want of faith therefore of which men think so lightly, will be found the most unreasonable and perhaps the most aggravated of all their sins. It implies an insensibility to the highest kind of evidence, and involves the rejection of the greatest gift which God has ever offered to man, pardon, holiness, and eternal life. Section III. — External Evidence of the Divine Origin of the Scriptures — The Testimony of the Church. As God has left the heathen to the un au- thenticated revelation of himself in his works, and holds them responsible for their unbelief, so he might have left us to the simple reve- lation of himself in his word. He has been pleased, however, to confirm that word by exter- nal proofs of the most convincing character, so that we are entirely without excuse. The testimony of the church is of itself an unanswerable argument for the truth of Chris- tianity. The validity of this testimony does THE WORD- OF GOD. 35 not depend upon the assumed infallibility of any class of men. It is merely the testimony of an innumerable body of witnesses, under circumstances which preclude the idea of delu- sion or deception. For the sake of illustra^ tion take any particular branch of Christ's church, as for example the Lutheran. It now exists in Europe and America. It everywhere possesses the same version of the Scriptures, and the same confession of faith. Its testimony is, that it owes its existence, as an organized body, to Luther ; to whom it ascribes the trans- lation of the Bible, and under whose auspices it professes to have received the Augsburg Confession. It is clearly impossible that these documents could, during the present century, have been palmed upon these scattered mil- lions of men. They all bear testimony that they received them as they now are from the hands of their fathers. As to this point, nei- ther delusion nor deception is conceivable. In the eighteenth century we find this church scarcely less numerous than it is at present. It bore the same testimony then that it does now. With one voice it declared that their fathers possessed before them the standards of their faith. This testimony is repeated again in the seventeenth, and again in the sixteenth century, till we come to the age of Luther. This testimony, conclusive in itself, is con- firmed by all kinds of collateral evidence. 36 THE SCRIPTURES, Every thing in the style, doctrines and his- torical references of the standards of the Lu- theran church, agrees with the age to which they are referred. The influence of a society holdins; those doctrines is traceable throuo:h the whole of the intervening period. The wars, the treaties, the literary and religious institutions of the period, to a greater or less degree, received their character from that so- ciety. Much therefore as men may differ as to Luther's character, as to the wisdom of his conduct or the truth of his doctrines, no sane man has ever questioned the fact that he lived, that he translated the Scriptures, that he organized a new church, and gave his fol- lowers the Augsburg Confession. The same series of remarks might be made in reference to the church of England. That extended and powerful body has her thirty-nine articles, her liturgy, and her homilies, which she testifies she received from the Reformers. This testimony cannot be doubted. At no period of her history could that church either deceive or have been deceived, as to that point. Her tes- timony moreover is confirmed by all collateral circumstances. The liturgy, articles and homi- lies are in every respect consistent with their reputed origin; and the whole history of Eng- land during that period is interwoven with the history of that church. The consequence is, no man doubts that the English Reformers lived, or THE WORD OF GOD. 37 that they framed the standards of doctrine and worship universally ascribed to them. This argument when applied to the whole Christian church is no less conclusive. This church now exists in every quarter of the globe, and embraces many millions of disciples. Every- where it has the same records of its faith ; it is everywhere an organized society with religious officers and ordinances. It everywhere testifies that these records and institutions were received from Christ and his apostles. That this vast so- ciety did not begin to exist during the present century is as evident as that the world was not just made. It is no less plain that it did not begin to exist in the eighteenth, the seventeenth, the sixteenth, nor in any other century subse- quent to the first in our era. In each succeeding century, we find millions of men, thousands of churches and ministers uniting their testimony to the fact that they received their sacred writ- ings and institutions from their predecessors, until we come to the age of Christ himself Did the origin of the church run back beyond the limits of authentic history, so as to leave a gap between its reputed founder and its ascertained existence, this argument would fail; an essential link would be wanting, and the whole extended chain would fall to the ground. But as this is not the case, its testimony touching the histori- cal facts of its origin, is as irresistible as that of the church of England respecting the origin of 5 38 THE SCRIPTURES, its articles and liturgy. The Christian church is traced up to the time of Christ by a mass of evidence which cannot be resisted; so that to deny that Christ lived, and that the church re- ceived from his followers the sacred writings, is not merely to reject the testimony of thousands of competent witnesses, but to deny facts which are essential to account for the subsequent his- tory and the existing state of the world. A man might as well profess to believe in the ex- istence of the foliage of a tree, but not in that of its branches and stem. This testimony of the church as to the facts on which Christianity is founded, is confirmed by all kinds of collateral evidence. The lan- guage in which the New Testament is written is precisely that which belonged to the time and place of its origin. It is the language of Jews speaking Greek, and in its peculiarities belonged to no other age or people. All the historical allusions are consistent with the known state of the world at that time. The history of the world since the advent of Christ presupposes the facts recorded in the New Testament. It is beyond a doubt that the religion ttvught by a few poor men in Judea has changed the state of a large part of the world. Paganism has dis- appeared ; a new religion been introduced ; laws, customs, institutions and manners become pre- valent, and they all rest upon facts to which the church bears her testimony. THE WORD OF GOD. 39 Beyond all this, the internal character of the Scriptures is worthy of the origin ascribed to them ; a character which gives the only adequate solution of the revolution w^iich they have effected. When God said, Let there be light, there was light. And when Jesus Christ said, I am the light of the world, the light shone. We cannot doubt that it is light; neither can we doubt when it arose, for all before was dark- ness. This testimony of the church, thus confirmed by all internal and external proofs, establishes the fact that Christ lived and died, that he founded the Christian church, and that the New Testament was received from his immediate fol- lowers. But these facts involve the truth of the gospel as a revelation from God, unless we sup- pose that Christ and his apostles were deceivers. The evidence against this latter assumption is as strong as the evidence of the existence of the sun. The blind, if they please, may deny that the sun exists, and none but the morally blind can resist the evidence which the New Testa- ment affords of the moral excellence and intel- lectual sobriety of the sacred writers. If they were trustworthy men, men who we are to be- lieve spoke the truth, then they actually pos- sessed and exercised the miraculous powers to which they laid claim. To these powers Christ and his ajDostles appealed as an unanswerable proof of their divine mission; and we cannot 40 THE SCRIPTURES, reject their testimony without denying their integrity. Section IV. — The Argument from Prophecy. The same course of argument which proves that the version of the Scriptures and the Augs- burg Confession in the possession of the Lutheran church; that the articles, liturgy and homilies in the possession of the church of England; that the New Testament in the possession of the whole Christian world, were derived from the sources to which they are severally referred, proves with equal force that the writings of the Old Testament in the possession of the Jews are the productions of the ancient prophets. Jews and Christians now have them. They had them a century ago; they had them in the time of Christ. They were then universally acknow- ledged by the Israelites in Judea and elsewhere. They can be historically traced up centuries before the advent of Christ. Three hundred years before that event, they were translated into the Greek language and widely dissemi- nated. They contain the history, laws and lite- rature of the people of Judea, whose existence and peculiarities are as well ascertained as those of any people in the world. These writings are essential to account for the known character of that people, for it was in virtue of these sacred books that they were what they were. Critics THE WORD OF GOD. 41 have indeed disputed about the particular dates of some of these productions, but no one has had the hardihood to deny that they existed cen- turies before the birth of Christ. This being admitted, we have a basis for another argument for the truth of Christianity, which cannot be resisted. In these ancient writings, preserved in the hands of the open enemies of Christ, we find the advent of a deliverer clearly predicted. Imme- diately after t?ie apostasy, it was foretold that the seed of the woman should bruise the ser- pent's head. This prediction is the germ of all the subsequent prophecies, which do but reveal its manifold meaning. Who the promised seed was to be, and how the power of evil was by him to be destroyed, later predictions gradually revealed. It was first made known that the Kedeemer should belong to the race of Shem.* Then that he should be of the seed of Abraham, to whom the promise was made : In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.f Then that he should be of the tribe of Judah, of whom it was foretold that. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, or a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall be the gathering of the people. J Subsequently it was revealed that he was to be of the lineage of David : There shall come forth a rod out of the * Gen. ix. 26. f Gen. xxii. 18. J Gen. xlix. 10. 4* 42 THE SCRIPTURES, stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understand- ing, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.* It was foretold that his advent should be preceded by that of a special messenger. Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.f The time, the manner, and the place of his birth were all predicted. As to the time, Daniel said. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to build and restore Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.J As to the miraculous manner of his birth, Isaiah said. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.§ As to the place, Micah said. But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel. 1 1 This deliverer was to be a poor man. Be- hold, daughter of Zion, thy king cometh unto * Isa. xi. 1, 2. t Mai. iii. 1. J Dan. ix. 25. § Isa. vii. 14 II Micah v. 2. THE WORD OF GOD. 43 thee, lowly, riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass.* He was to be a man of sor- rows and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men,f and yet Immanuel, God with us, J Jehovah our righteousness, § Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,|| whose goings forth were of old, from the days of eternity .^f The Redeemer thus predicted was to appear in the character of a prophet or divine teacher. The Lord thy God, said Moses, will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken.** Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment unto the Gen tiles. "j-j* The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.JJ In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness; the meek also shall in- crease their joy in the Lord, and the poor ^ Zech. ix. 9. f Isa. liii. I Isa. vii. 14. § Jer. xxiii. 6. || Isa. ix. 6. f Micah v. 2. ** Deut. xviii. 15. ff Isa. xlil. 1. J J Isa. Ixi. 1. 44 THE SCRIPTURES, among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.* He was also to be a priest. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."j- He shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne. J The regal character of this Eedeemer is set forth in almost every page of the prophetic writings. I have anointed (said God in refer- ence to the Messiah) my King on my holy hill of Zion.§ Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness. Thou lovest righteous- ness and hatest wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. || Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever.^ The characteristics of this kingdom of the Messiah were also clearly predicted. They * Isa. xxix. 18, 19. f Ps. ex. 4. % Zech. vi. 13. i Ps. ii. 6. II Ps. xlv. 6, 7. H Isa. ix. 6, 7. THE WORD OF GOD. 45 were to be spiritual, in distinction from the external and ceremonial character of the former dispensation. Behold, the days come, saitli the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, &c. 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.'^ Hence the effusion of the Holy Spirit is so constantly mentioned as attending the advent of the promised Redeemer. In that day I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall pro- phesy, &c.f Again, this kingdom was not to be confined to the Jews, but was to include all the world. As early as in the book of Genesis it was de- clared that the obedience of all nations should be yielded to Shiloh, and that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in Abraham and his seed. God promised the Messiah that he should have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his posses- sion. J It shall come to pass in the last days, said Isaiah, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the ^lills, ♦ Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, 33. f Joel ii. 28. J Pa. ii. 8. 46 THE SCRIPTURES, and all nations shall flow unto it.* It is a light thing, said God, that thou should st be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou may- est be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. f In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.J I saw in the night visions, said Daniel, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him; and there was given to him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. § Its pro- gress however was to be gradual. The stone cut out of the mountains without hands, was to break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold, i. e. all other kingdoms, and become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. 1 1 Though the prophets describe, in such strong language, the excellence, glory and triumph of this Redeemer, they did not the less distinctly predict his rejection, sufferings and death. Lord, * Isa. ii. 2. t Isa. xlix. 6. J Isa. xi. 10. I Dan. vii. 13, 14. 1| Dan. ii. 45. THE WORD OF GOD. 47 who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; he is despised and re- jected of men; we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not."^ To him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, and princes also shall worship.f The people whom he came to redeem, it was foretold, would not only reject him, but betray and sell him for thirty pieces of silver. If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, a goodly price that I was prized at of them. J He was to be grievously persecuted and put to death. He was, said the prophet, taken from prison and from judgment, (cut off by an oppressive judg- ment,) and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. § Even the manner and circumstances of his death were minutely foretold. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. They part my garments among them, * Isa. liii. t Isa. xlix. 7. t Zech. xi. 12, 13. ^ Isa. lii. 8, 9. 48 THE SCRIPTURES, and cast lots upon my vesture.* He was not however to continue under the power of death. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption .-}- The consequences of the rejection of the Mes- siah to the Jewish people were also predicted with great distinctness. The children of Israel, it is said, shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord and his goodness in the latter day S.J Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall return. § Of the rebellious portion of the nation it was said, I will scatter them among all people, from one end of the earth to the other, and among those nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; . . . And thou shalt become an astonishment, a pro- verb, and a by-word among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee.|| Though thus scat- tered and afflicted, they were not to be utterly destroyed, for God promised, saying, When they are in the land of their enemies I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.^ It was * Ps. xxii. 16, 18. t Ps. xvi. 10. t Hos. iii. 4, 5. ^ Isa. X. 22, 23. || Deut. xxviii. 37, 66. ^ Lev. xxvi. 44. THE WORD OF GOD. 49 moreover predicted that after a long dispersion they should be brought to acknowledge their crucified king. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first- born.* This same prophet foretold that after the people had rejected and betrayed the good shepherd, they should be given up to the oppres- sion of their enemies, the greater portion should be destroyed, but the residue, after long sufier- ing, should be restored.-}* This representation of the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures, respecting Christ and his kingdom, is in the highest degree inadequate. It would be impossible to give a full exhibition of the subject, without unfolding the whole Old Testament economy. It is not in detached pre- dictions merely, that the former dispensation was prophetic. In its main design it was pre- figurative and preparatory. It had indeed its immediate purpose to answer, in preserving the Israelites a distinct people, in sustaining the true religion, and in exhibiting the divine perfections in his government of the church. But all this was subordinate to its grand purpose of prepar- * Zech. xii. 10. f Zech. xiii. 7, 9. 50 THE SCEIPTURES, ing that people and the world for the advent of Christ, and to be a shadowy representation of the glories of the new dispensation, for the double purpose of affording an object of f^iith and hope to those then living, and that the new economy might be better understood, more firmly believed and more extensively embraced. Detached passages from such a scheme of history and prophecy are like the scattered ruins of an ancient temple. To form a just judgment, the plan must be viewed as a whole as well as in its details. It could then be seen that the history of the Jews was the history of the lineage of Christ; the whole sacrificial ritual a prefigura- tion of the Lamb of God who was to bear the sin of the world ; that the tabernacle and the temple, with their complicated services, were types of things spiritual and heavenly; that the prophets, who were the teachers and correctors of the people, were sent, not merely nor prin- cipally to foretell temporal deliverances, but mainly to keep the eyes of the people directed upward and onward to the great deliverer and to the final redemption. Detached passages can give no adequate conception of this stupendous scheme of preparation and prophecy, running through thousands of years, and its thousand lines all tending to one common centre, — the CROSS OF Christ. The argument from prophecy in support of the truth of Christianity, therefore, can be ap- THE WORD OF GOD. 51 predated by those only who will candidly study the whole system. Still enough has been pre- sented to show that it is impossible to account for the correspondence between the prophecies of the Old Testament and the events recorded in the New, upon any other assumption than that of divine inspiration. We have seen that it was predicted, centuries before the advent of Christ, that a great deliverer should arise, to be born of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David, and at the village of Bethlehem ; that he should be a poor and humble man, and yet worthy of the highest reverence paid to God; that he should be a teacher, priest and king; that he should be rejected by his own people, persecuted and put to death; that he should rise again from the dead; that the Spirit of God should be poured out upon his followers, giving them holi- ness, wisdom and courage ; that true religion, no longer confined to the Jews, should be extended to the Gentiles, and in despite of all opposition should continue, triumph and ultimately cover the earth ; that the Jews wlio rejected the Mes- siah, should be cast off and scattered, and yet preserved ; like a river in the ocean, divided but not dissipated, a standing miracle, a fact without a parallel or analogy. Here then is the whole history of Christ and his kingdom, written cen- turies before his- advent. A history full of appa- rent inconsistencies; a history not written in one age or by one man, but in different ages and 62 THE SCRIPTURES, by different men, each adding some new fact or characteristic, yet all combining to form one con- sistent, though apparently contradictory whole. Admitting then, what no one denies, the an- tiquity of the Jewish Scriptures, there is no escape from the conclusion that they were writ- ten by divine inspiration, and that Jesus Christ, to whom they so plainly refer, is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. To suppose that Christ, knowing these ancient prophecies, set himself, without divine commission, to act in accordance with them, is to suppose impossi- bilities. It is to suppose that Jesus Christ was a bad man, which no one, who reads the New Testament, can believe, any more than he can believe that the sun is the blackness of darkness. It is to suppose him to have had a control over the actions of others which no impostor could exert. Many of the most important predictions in reference to Christ were fulfilled by the acts of his enemies. Did Christ instigate the trea- chery of Judas, or prompt the priest to pay the traitor thirty pieces of silver ? Did he plot with Pilate for his own condemnation ? or so arrange that he should die by a Eoman, instead of a Jewish, mode of capital infliction ? Did he in- duce the soldiers to part his garments and cast lots upon his vesture, or stipulate with them that none of his bones should be broken ? By what possible contrivance could the two great predicted events of the final destruction of the THE WORD OF GOD. 63 Jewish policy and the consequent dispersion of the Jews, on the one hand, and the rapid propa- gation of the new religion among the Gentiles, on the other, have been brought to pass? These events were predicted, their occurrence was be- yond the scope of contrivance or imposture. There is no rational answer to this argument from prophecy. The testimony of the Scriptures to the messiahship of Jesus Christ, is the testi- mony of God. Search the Scriptures, said our Saviour himself, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. God then has been pleased to hedge up the way to infidelity. Men must do violence to all the usual modes of argument ; they must believe moral impossibilities and irreconcilable contra- dictions, and above all they must harden their hearts to the excellence of the Saviour, before they can become infidels. This exposition of the grounds of faith is made in order to show that unbelief is a sin; and to justify the awful declaration of Christ, " He that belie veth not, shall be damned." Men flatter themselves that they are not responsible for their faith. Belief being involuntary, cannot, it is said, be a matter of praise or blame. This false opinion arises from confounding things very different in their nature. Faith differs accord- ing to its object and the nature of the evidence on which it is founded. A man believes that 5* 54 THE SCRIPTURES, two and two are four, or that Napoleon died in St. Helena, and is neither morally better, nor worse for such a faith. Disbelief, in such cases, would indicate insanity, not moral aberration. But no man can believe that virtue is vice or vice virtue, without being to the last degree depraved. No man can disbelieve in God, espe- cially under the light of revelation, without thereby showing that he is destitute of all right moral and religious sentiments. And no man can disbelieve the record which God has given of his Son, without being blind to the glory of God and the moral excellence of the Saviour. He rejects the appropriate testimony of God, conveyed in a manner which proves it to be his testimony. It is vain, therefore, for any man to hope that he can be innocently destitute of faith in God or of faith in Jesus Christ. If the external world retains such an impression of the hand of God, as to leave those without excuse who refuse to regard it as his work; surely those who refuse to acknowledge the excellence of his word and the glory of his Son, will not be held guiltless. The evidence which has convinced millions, is before their eyes, and should convince them. Instead, therefore, of apologizing for their want of faith and complaining of the weakness of the evidence, to which nothing but neglect or blind* ness can render them insensible, let them con- fess their guilt in not believing, and humble THE WORD OF GOD. 55 themselves before God, and pray that he would open their eyes to see the excellence of his word. They should dismiss their cavils, and be assured that if the Bible does not win their faith by its milder glories, it will one day reveal itself by its terrors, to their awakened consciences, to be in- deed the word of God, 56 SIN. CHAPTER n. ^m. Section I. — All Men are Sinners — The Nature of Man^ since the Fall, is depraved. Since then the Scriptures are undoubtedly the word of God, with what reverence should we receive their divine instructions; with what assiduity and humility should we study them ; with what confidence should we rely upon the truth of all their declarations; and with what readiness should we obey all their directions ! We are specially concerned to learn what they teach with regard to the character of men, the way of salvation, and the rule of duty. With respect to the first of these points, (the character of men,) the Bible very clearly teaches that all men are sinners. The apostle Paul not only asserts this truth, but proves it at length, in reference both to those who live under the light of nature, and those who enjoy the light of revelation. The former, he says, are justly chargeable with impiety and immorality, because the perfections of the Divine Being, his eternal power and godhead, have, from the creation, been manifested by the things which are made. SIN. 57 Yet men have not acknowledged their creator. They neither worshipped him as God, nor were thankful for his mercies, but served the creature more than the creator. In thus departing from the fountain of all excellence, they departed from excellence itself Their foolish hearts were darkened, and their corruption manifests itself not only by degrading idolatry, but by the vari- ous forms of moral evil both in heart and life. These sins are committed against the law which is written on every man's heart; so that they know that those who do such things are worthy of death, and are therefore without excuse even in their own consciousness. With regard to those who enjoy a supernatu- ral revelation of the character and requirements of God, the case is still more plain. Instead of rendering to this God the inward and outward homage which are his due, they neglect his ser- vice, and really prefer his creatures to himself. Instead of regulating their conduct by the per- fect rule of duty contained in the Scriptures, they constantly dishonour God, by breaking that law. It is thus the apostle shows that all classes of men, when judged by the light they have severally enjoyed, are found guilty before God. This universality of guilt moreover, he says, is confirmed by the clear testimony of the Scriptures, which declare, There is none right- eous, no not one. There is none that under- standeth; there is none that seeketh after God. 58 SIN. They have all gone out of the way ; they have altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doth good, no not one. This language is not used by the Holy Spirit in reference to the men of any one age or coun- try, but in reference to the human race. It is intended to describe the moral character of man. It is in this sense that it is quoted and applied by the apostle. And we accordingly find simi- lar declarations in all parts of the Bible, in the New Testament, as well as in the Old, — in the writings of one age, as well as in those of an- other. And there are no passages of an opposite character; there are none which represent the race as being what God requires, nor any which speak of any member of that race as being free from sin. On the contrary, it is expressly said, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.* In many things we all ofFend.f There is no man that sinneth not.J All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.§ Hence the Scriptures proceed upon the assumption of the universal sinfulness of men. To speak, to act, to walk after the manner of men, is, in the language of the Bible, to speak or act wickedly. The world are the wicked. This present evil world, is the description of mankind, from whose character and deserved ^ 1 John i. 8. f James iii. 2. % 1 Kings viii. 46. § Rom. iii. 23. SIN. 59 punishment it is said to be the design of Christ's death to redeem his people.* The world cannot hate you, said our Saviour to those who refused to be his disciples, but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.f They are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world heareth them.J We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. § This however is not a doctrine taught in iso- lated passages. It is one of those fundamental truths which are taken for granted in almost every page of the Bible. The whole scheme of redemption supposes that man is a fallen being. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. He was announced as the Saviour of sinners. His advent and work have no meaning or value but upon the assumption that we are guilty, for he came to save his people from their sins ; to die the just for the unjust; to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Those who have no sin, need no Saviour; those who do not deserve death, need no Redeemer. As the doctrine of redemption pervades the Scripture, so does the doctrine of the universal sinfulness of men. This doctrine is also assumed in all the scrip- tural representations of what is necessary for admission into heaven. All men, everywhere, * Gal. i. 4. t John vii. 7. JlJohniv.S. ^lJohnv.19. 60 SIN. are commanded to repent. But repentance sup- poses sin. Every man must be born again, in order to see the kingdom of God ; he must be- come a new creature ; he must be renewed after the image of God. Being dead in trespasses and in sins, he must be quickened, or made partaker of a spiritual life. In short, it is the uniform doctrine of the Bible, that all men need both pardon and sanctification in order to their admis- sion to heaven. It therefore teaches that all men are sinners. The Scriptures moreover teach that the sin- fulness of men is deep seated ; or, consisting in a corruption of the heart, it manifests itself in innumerable forms in the actions of the life. All the imaginations of man's heart are only evil continually.* God says of the human heart that it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.f All men, by nature, are the children of wrath.J And therefore the Psalmist says, Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.§ This corruption of our nature is the ground of the constant reference of every thing good in man to the Holy Spirit, and of every thing evil, to his own nature. Hence in the language of the Bible, the natural man is a corrupt man ; and the spiritual man alone is good. Hence too * Gen. vi. 5. f Jer. xvii. 9. X Eph. ii. 3. ^ Ps. li. 5. SIN. 61 the constant opposition of the terms flesh and. spirit; the former meaning our nature as it is apart from divine influence, and the latter the Holy Spirit, or its immediate efiects. To be in the flesh, to walk after the flesh, to mind the things of the flesh, are all scriptural expressions descriptive of the natural state of men. It is in this sense of the term that Paul says. In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing;* and that our Saviour said, That which is born of the flesh is flesh. -j- This humbling doctrine is, moreover, involved in all the descriptions which the Bible gives of the nature of that moral change which is neces- sary to salvation. It is no mere outward refor- mation ; it is no assiduous performance of exter- nal duties. It is a regeneration ; a being born of the Spirit ; a new creation ; a passing from death unto life. A change never effected by the subject of it, but which has its source in God. Of no doctrine, therefore, is the Bible more full than of that which teaches that men are de- praved and fallen beings, who have lost the image of God, and who must be created anew in Christ Jesus before they can see the kingdom of heaven. These scriptural representations respecting the universality of sin and the corruption of our nature, are abundantly confirmed by expe- * Rom. vii. 18. t John iii. 6. 62 SIN. rience and observation. Men may differ as to the extent of their sinfuhiess, or as to the ill- desert of their transgressions ; but they cannot be insensible to the fact that they are sinners, or that they have sustained this character as long as they have had any self-knowledge. As far back as they can go in the history of their being, they find the testimony of conscience against them. As this consciousness of sin is universal, and as it exists as soon as we have any know^ledge of ourselves, it proves that we are fallen beings ; that w^e have lost the moral image of God with which our first parents were created. It is a fact, of which every human being is a witness, that our moral nature is such, that instead of seeking our happiness in God and holiness, we prefer the creature to the creator. It would be just as unreasonable to assert that this was the original, proper state of man, as to say our reason was sound, if it uni- versally, immediately and infallibly led us into wa^ong judgments upon subjects fairly within its competency. The proof, that man is a depraved being, is as strong as that he is a rational, a social, or a moral being. He gives no signs of reason at his birth; but he invariably manifests his intellec- tual nature as soon as he becomes capable of appreciating the objects around him or of ex- pressing the operations of his mind. No one supposes reason to be the result of education, or SIN. 63 the effect of circumstances, merely because its operations cannot be detected from the first moment of existence. The uniformity of its manifestation under all circumstances, is re- garded as sufficient proof that it is an attribute of our nature. The same remark may be made respecting the social affections. No one of them is manifested from the beginning of our course in this world ; yet the fact that men, in all ages and under all circumstances, evince a disposition to live in society ; that all parents love their children, that all people have more or less sympathy in the joys and sorrows of their fellow-men, is proof that these affections are not acquired, but original; that they belong to our nature, and are characteristic of it. In like manner the apostle reasons from the fact that all men perform moral acts and experi- ence the approbation or disapprobation of con- science, that they have, by nature, and not from example, instruction, or any other external influ- ence, but in virtue of their original moral consti- tution, a law written on their hearts, a sense of right and wrong. But if the uniform occurrence of any moral acts is a proof of a moral nature, the uniform occurrence of wrong moral acts is a proof of a corrupt moral nature. If the univer- sal manifestation of reason and of the social affections, proves man to be by nature a rational and social being, the universal manifestation of 64 SIN. sinful affections proves him to be by nature a sinful being. When we say that any one is a bad man, we mean that the predominant charac- ter of his actions proves him to have bad princi- ples or dispositions. And when we say that man's nature is depraved, we mean that it is a nature whose moral acts are wrong. And this uniformity of wrong moral actions is as much a proof of a depraved nature, as the acts of a bad man are a proof of the predominance of evil dis- positions in his heart. This is the uniform judg- ment of men, and is sanctioned by the word of God. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Therefore by their fruits shall ye know them. This illustration was used by our Saviour with the express design of teaching that the predomi- nant character of the acts of men, is to be taken as a certain index of the state of the heart ; and hence the uniform occurrence of sin in all men is a certain evidence of the corruption of their nature. Indeed there is no one fact with regard to human nature, which consciousness and ob- servation more fully establish than that it is depraved. SIN. 65 Section II. — Tlie Sins of Men are numerous and aggravated. The Bible not only teaches that all men are sinners, and that the evil is deeply seated in their hearts, but moreover that their sinfulness is very great. The clearest intimation which a lawgiver can give of his estimate of the evil of transgression is the penalty which he attaches to the violation of his laws. If he is wise and good, the penalty will be a true index of the real demerit of transgression ; and in the case of God, who is infinitely wise and good, the punishment which he denounces against sin must be an exact criterion of its ill-desert. If we are unable to see that sin really deserves what God has declared to be its proper punish- ment, it only shows that our judgment differs from his; and that it should thus differ is no matter of surprise. We cannot know all the reasons which indicate the righteousness of the divine threatenings. We can have no adequate conception of the greatness, goodness and wis- dom of the Being against whom we sin ; nor of the evil which sin is suited to produce ; nor of the perfect excellence of the law which we transgress. That sin therefore appears to us a less evil than God declares it to be, is no evi- dence that it is really undeserving of his wrath and curse. There is a still more operative cause of our 6* 66 SIN. low estimate of the evil of sin. The more de- praved a man is, the less capable is he of esti- mating the heinousness of his transgressions. And the man who in one part of his career looked upon certain crimes with abhorrence, comes at last to regard them with indifference. That we are sinners, therefore, is a sufficient explanation of the fact, that we look upon sin in a very different light from that in which it is presented in the word of God. Nothing then can be more reasonable than that we should bow before the judgment of God, and acknowledge that sin really deserves the punishment which he has declared to be its due. That punishment is so awful, that nothing but a profound reve- rence for God, and some adequate conception of the evil of sin, can produce a sincere acquies- cence in its justice. Yet nothing can be more certain than that this punishment is the proper measure of the ill-desert of sin. The term commonly employed to designate this punishment is death ; death not merely of the body, but of the soul ; not merely temporal, but eternal. It is a comprehensive term there- fore to express all the evils in this world and the world to come, which are the penal conse- quences of sin. In this sense it is to be under- stood in the threatening made to our first pa- rents v^ In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt * Gen. ii. 17. SIN. 67 surely die; and when the prophet says, The soul that sinneth, it shall die ;"" and when the apostle says, The wages of sin is death. f The same general idea is expressed by the word curse, As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them ; J and also by the word wrath, We were by nature the children of wrath,§ The wrath of God is revealed from hea- ven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. II * These and similar passages teach that sinners are the objects of the divine displeasure, and that this displeasure will certainly be manifested. As God is infinitely good and the fountain of all blessedness, his displeasure must be the greatest of all evils. The Scriptures, however, in order to impress this truth more deeply upon our minds, employ the strongest terms human lan- guage affords, to set forth the dreadful import of God's displeasure. Those who obey not the gos- pel, it is said, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.^ Our Saviour says, The wicked shall be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ; where their * Ezek. xviii. 4. f ^o°i. vi. 23. % Gal. iii. 10. ^ Eph. ii. 3. II Rom. i. 18. 1[ 2 Thess. i. 9. 68 SIN. worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.* At the last great day, he tells us, the judge shall say to those upon his left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.f The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a fur- nace of fire ; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. J In the last day, all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation ;§ or, as it is expressed in Daniel, 1 1 to shame and everlasting contempt. Whatever explanation may be given of the terms employed in these and many similar pas- sages, there can be no doubt that they are in- tended to convey the idea of endless and hopeless misery. Whence this misery shall arise, or wherein it shall consist, are questions of minor importance. It is sufficient that the Scriptures teach that the sufferings here spoken of, are, in degree, inconceivably great and in duration end- less. The most fearful exhibition given of the future state of the impenitent, is that which presents them as reprobates, as abandoned to * Mark ix. 43, 44. f Matt. xxv. 41, 42, t Matt. xiii. 41, 42. § John v. 29. II Dan. xii. 2. SIN. 69 the unrestrained dominion of evil. The repress- ing influence of conscience, of a probationary state, of a regard to character, of good example, and above all of the Holy Spirit, will be with- drawn, and unmingled malignity, impurity and violence constitute the character and condition of those who finally perish. The wicked are represented as constantly blaspheming God, while they gnaw their tongues with pain.* The God who pronounces this doom upon sin- ners, is he who said. As I live, I have no plea- sure in the death of the wicked. The most fearful of these passages fell from the lips of the Lamb of God, who came to die that we might not perish, but have eternal life. It must be remembered that it is not against the chief of sinners that this dreadful punish- ment is denounced. It is against sin, one sin, any sin. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.f Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. J As far as we know, the angels were punished for their first offence. Adam and his race fell by one transgression. Human govern- ments act on the same principle. If a man com- mit murder, he suffers death for the one offence. If he is guilty of treason, he finds no defence in his freedom from other crimes. Sin is apostasy * Kev. xvi. 10. t Gal. iii. 10. J James u. 10. 70 SIN. from God ; it breaks our communion with him, and is the ruin of the soul. The displeasure of God against sin and his fixed determination to punish it, are also mani- fested by the certain connection which he has established between sin and suffering. It is the undeniable tendency of sin to produce misery; and although in this world the good are not always more happy than the wncked, this only shows that the present is a state of trial and not of retribution. It affords no evidence to contra- dict the proof of the purpose of God to punish sin, derived from the obvious and necessary ten- dency of sin to produce misery. This tendency is as much a law of nature as any other law with which we are acquainted. Men flatter themselves that they will escape the evil conse- quences of their transgressions by appealing to the mercy of God, and obtaining a suspension of this law in their behalf They might as reason- ably expect the law of gravitation to be sus- pended for their convenience. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, as certainly as he who sows tares shall reap tares. The only link which binds together causes and effects in nature, is the will of God; and the same will, no less clearly revealed, connects suffering with sin. iVnd this is a connection absolutely indissoluble save by the mystery of redemption. To suspend the operation of a law of nature, SIN. 71 (as to stop the sun in his course,) is merely an exercise of power. But to save sinners from the curse of the law required that Christ should be made a curse for us ; that he should bear our sins in his own body on the tree; that he should be made sin for us, and die the just for the un- just. It would be a reflection on the wisdom of God to suppose that he would employ means to accomplish an end more costly than that end required. Could our redemption have been effected by corruptible things, as silver or gold, or could the blood of bulls or of goats have taken aw^ay sin, who can believe that Christ w^ould have died ? The apostle clearly teaches that it is to make the death of Christ vain, to affirm that our salvation could have been other- wise secured.* Since, then, in order to the par- don of sin, the death of Christ was necessary, it is evident that the evil of sin in the sight of God must be estimated by the dignity of him who died for our redemption. Here we approach the most mysterious and awful doctrine of the Bible. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him ; and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.f *Gal.ii.2L fJuhni. 1,3, 14. 72 SIN. God therefore was manifested in the flesh. He who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.* He then — who is de- clared to be the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power ; whom all the angels are commanded to worship ; of whom the Scriptures say, Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever : Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; they shall perish, but thou remainest; they shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail — even He, who is God over all and blessed for ever, inas- much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, himself also took part of the same ; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil, and de- liver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. It is the doctrine of the Bible that the infinite and eternal Son of God assumed our nature, that *Phil.ii.6,7. SIN. 73 he might redeem us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. It is obvious that no severity of mere human suffering ; no destroying deluge ; no final conflagration, not hell itself can present such a manifestation of the evil of sin and of the justice of God as the cross of his in- carnate Son. It declares in language which is heard by the whole intelligent universe, that sin deserves God's wrath and curse, and that none who refuse submission to the appointed method of pardon, can escape its condemnation. The penalty then which God has attached to the violation of his law, the certainty with which that penalty is inflicted, the doom of the fallen angels, the consequences of Adam's sin, and above all the death of Christ, are manifestations of the evil of sin in the estimation of God, which it is the highest infatuation for us to disreo:ard. However obdurate our hearts may be in refer- ence to this subject, our reason is not so blind as not to see that our guilt must be exceedingly great. We cannot deny that all the circum- stances which aggravate the heinousness of sin concur in our case. The law which we trans- gress is perfectly good. It is the law of God ; the law of right and reason. It is the expression of the highest excellence ; it is suited to our na- ture, necessary to our perfection and happiness. Opposition to such a law must be in the highest degree unreasonable and wicked. This law is enforced not only by its own ex- 7 74 SIN. cellence, but by the authority of God. Disregard of this authority is the greatest crime of which a creature is capable. It is rebellion against a beins: whose rip;ht to command is founded on his infinite superiority, his infinite goodness, and his absolute propriety in us as his creatures. It is apostasy from the kingdom of God to the king- dom of Satan. There is no middle ground be- tween the two. Every one is either the servant of God, or the servant of the devil. Holiness is the evidence of our allegiance to our Maker, sin is the service of Satan. Could we form any ade- quate conception of these two kingdoms, of the intrinsic excellence of the one and the absolute evil of the other, of the blessedness attendant on the one and the misery connected with the other; could we in short bring heaven and hell in im- mediate contrast, we might have some proper view of the guilt of this apostasy from God. It is the natural tendency of our conduct to de- grade ourselves and others, to make Eden like Sodom, and to kindle, everywhere, the fire that never shall be quenched. This cannot be denied, for moral evil is the greatest of all evils and the certain cause of all others. He there- fore who sins is not only a rebel against God, but a malefactor, an enemy to the highest good of his fellow-creatures. Airain, our cruilt is crreat because our sins are ex- ceedingly numerous. It is not merely with out- ward acts of unkindness and dishonesty that we SIN. 75 are chiargeable ; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God. Our pride, vanitj, indifference to his will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of his law. We have never, in any one moment of our lives, been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the divine perfections, that sense of dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose to do the w^ill and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our first and highest duty. It is in this sense that mankind are said to be totally depraved. They are entirely desti- tute of supreme love to God. Whatever else they may have is as nothing while this is want- ing. They may be affectionate fathers or kind masters, or dutiful sons and daughters, but they are not obedient children of God ; they have not those feelings towards God which constitute their first and greatest duty, and without which they are always transgressors. The man who is a rebel against his righteous sovereign, and whose heart is full of enmity to his person and govern- ment, may be faithful to his associates and kind to his dependants, but he is always and increas- ingly guilty as it regards his ruler. Thus we are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what his law requires us to be. If we have never loved him supremely ; 76 SIN. if we have never made it our governing purpose to do his will ; if we have never been properly grateful for all his mercies; if we have never made his glory, but some other and lower object, the end of our actions ; then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious viola- tions of duty ; they are as numerous as the mo- ments of our existence. If the permanent moral dispositions of a man are evil, it must follow that his acts of transgres- sion will be past counting up. Every hour there is some work of evil, some wrong thought, some bad feeling, some improper word, or some wicked act, to add to the number of his offences. The evil exercise of an evil heart is like the ceaseless swinging of the pendulum. The slightest review of life therefore is sufficient to overwhelm us with the conviction of the countless multitude of OUT transgressions. It is this which consti- tutes our exceeding sinfulness in the sight of God. While conscience sleeps, or our attention is directed to other subjects, the number of our transgressions grows like the unnoticed pulsa- tions of our heart. It is not until we pause and call ourselves to an account, that we see how many feelings have been wrong; how great is the distance at which we habitually live from God, and how constant is our want of conformity to his will. It was this that forced the Psalmist to cry, Mine iniquities have taken hold upon SIN. 77 me, so that I am not able to look up ; they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. Again, we may judge of the greatness of our guilt before God, by considering the numerous restraints of his truth, providence and Spirit, which we habitually disregard. The simple fact that sin is wrong, that conscience condemns it, is a constant and powerful restraint. We cannot avail ourselves of the plea of ignorance, as we have a perfect standard of duty in the law of God. We cannot resist the conviction that his commands are righteous, yet, in despite of this conviction, we live in constant disobedience. We are, moreover, fully aware of the conse- quences of sin. We know the judgment of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death, and yet continue our transgressions. We are surprised at the drunkard who indulges his fatal passion in the very presence of ruin ; yet are blind to our own infatuation in continuing to disobey God in despite of threatened death. We stupidly disregard the certain consequences of our conduct, and awake only in time to see that madness is in our hearts. This insensibility, notwithstanding the occasional admonitions of conscience and the constant warning of the word of God, constitutes a peculiar aggravation of our guilt. Nor are we more mindful of the restraining influence of the love of God. We disregard the 7* 78 SIN. fact that the Being against whom we sin, is He to whom we owe our existence and all our en- joyments ; who has carried us in his arms, and crowned us with loving kindness and tender mercies; w4io is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy; who has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, but has borne with our provocations, waiting that his goodness might lead us to repentance. We have despised his forbearance, deriving from it a motive to sin, as though he were slack concerning his promises, and would not accomplish his threatenings; thus treasuring up for ourselves w^rath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Besides all this, we disre- gard the love of Christ. He came to save us from our sins, and we wdll not accept of his me- diation, or reciprocate his love. There stands his cross, mutely eloquent; at once an invitation and a warning. It tells us both of the love and justice of God. It assures us, that he who spared not his own Son, is ready to be gracious. All this we disregard. We count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing; we act as if it were not the blood of the Son of God, shed for us for the remission of sins. Or, it may be, we turn the grace of God into licentiousness, and draw encouragement from the death of Christ to continue in sin. This unbelieving rejection of the Saviour involves guilt so peculiarly great, SIN. 79 that it is often spoken of as the special ground of the condemnation of the world. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not Relieved on the only begotten Son of God. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall convince the world of sin, because they be- lieve not in Christ. If he that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three wit- nesses, of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God ! This great sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as a Saviour, it must be remembered, is an often re- peated and long continued sin. It is also one which is chargeable not on the openly wicked merely, but upon those whom the world calls moral. They too resist the claims of the Son of God ; they too refuse his love and reject his offers. It was when all other messengers had failed, the Lord of the vineyard sent his Son to his disobedient servants, saying. They will reve- rence my Son. The guilt of thus rejecting Christ will never be fully appreciated until the day when he shall sit on the throne, and from his face the earth and heaven shall flee away, and no place be found for them. Besides these restraints from without, we re- sist the still more powerful influence of the Spirit of God. That Spirit strives with all men ; suggesting truth and exciting conscience, expos- tulating and warning, and drawing men from sin 80 • SIN. to God. It is from Him that all good thoughts and right purposes do proceed. This Spirit we quench ; we resist his gracious influences, not once or twice, but a thousand times. Though he will not always strive with men, he strives long, and returns after many insulting rejections, repeating the warnings and invitations of mercy. All men are sensible of this divine influence, though they may not be aware of its origin. They know not whence proceed the serious thoughts, the anxious forebodings, the convic- tions of truth, the sense of the emptiness of the world, the longing after security and peace of which they are conscious. God sends these ad- monitions even to those who are most contented with the world and most happy in their estrange- ment from himself. He leaves no man without a witness and a warning. These strivings of the Spirit are not only frequent, but often urgent. Almost every man can look back and find many instances in which an unseen hand was upon him, when a voice, not from man, has sounded in his ears, when feelings to which he was before a stranger, were awakened in his breast, and when he felt the power of the world to come. The shadow of the Almighty has passed over him, and produced the conviction that God is, and that He is an avenger. From a review of what has been said, it is plain that the Scriptures teach not only that all men are sinners, but that their corruption is SIN. 81 radical, seated in their hearts, and that it is exceedingly great. The severity of the penalty which God has attached to transgression, tlie certainty of its infliction, the costliness of the sacrifice by which alone its pardon could be ob- tained, are all proofs of the evil of sin in the sight of God. The greatness of our personal guilt is plain from the excellence of the law which we have violated ; from the authority and goodness of the Being whom we have offended ; from the number of our sins, and from the power- ful restraints which we have disregarded. 82 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE CHAPTER III. &mm 0f Iniifferme k % Cljatge ai 3m. Section I. — Sin — Want of Consideration — Striving against the Spirit. The charge of sin is brought so directly in the word of God against every human being, and is so fully sustained by observation and experience, that the general indifference of men under so weighty an accusation, is a fact which needs ex- planation. Indifference is no proof of innocence, any more than insensibility to pain is a proof of health. In ordinary cases, indeed, a man cannot be ill without knowing it, but his sensations are a verv unsafe criterion of the nature or dans^er of his disease. He may be most free from pain when most in peril. In like manner, the indifference of men to their own sinfulness affords no pre- sumption that their guilt is not great in the sight of God. The absence of the immediate consciousness of guilt is no proof of innocence, unless attended by the joyful exercise of all right feelings. When accompanied by indiffer- ence to duty and the indulgence of sin, it is the evidence of the depth of our depravity. All men assume this to be true in their judgments TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 83 of those more wicked than themselves. To say of a man, he is a hardened wretch, is not the language of extenuation or apology. It is the language of aggravated condemnation. Those who feel thus keenly, with regard to others, that indifference is an aggravation of guilt, strangely imagine it to be, in their own case, a proof of comparative innocence. This insensibility of men, therefore, to the moral turpitude of their character in the sight of God, so far from being an indication of good- ness, is the result and evidence of the extent of their corruption. As in bodily disease when the seat of life is attacked, the sensibilities are weak- ened, so in the disease of sin, insensibility is one of its symptoms, and increases with the increase of the evil. Sin produces this effect both by blinding the mind and by hardening the heart. It obscures our apprehensions of the excellence of God and of his law, and it produces a cal- lousness of feeling, so that what is seen is not regarded. Experience teaches us that a mere change in the state of the mind, produces an im- mediate and entire change in our apprehensions and feelings in reference to our own sins. The man who at one hour was indifferent as the most careless, at the next is filled with astonishment and remorse. Others think his feelings unrea- sonable and exaggerated ; he knows them to be rational and even inadequate. This is not the result of any hallucination or mistaken appre- 84 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE hensions of God or of his own character. It is the natural effect of an enlightened mind and of an awakened conscience. The ease and fre- quency with which the indifference of men to their guilt in the sight of God is destroyed, is of itself a proof that their insensibility is not based upon truth ; that it is the effect of a dark- ened understanding and a hardened heart, and that though it may increase as sin gains the ascendency, it vanishes the moment the light and power of truth are let in upon the soul. Besides this general cause of the indifference of men to the declarations of God regarding their sinfulness, there are others which ought to be specified. When the prophet contemplated the impenitent unconcern of the people, he exclaim- ed, Israel doth not know, my people do not con- sider. And when God would rouse them to a sense of their guilt, he says. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. It is this want of consideration, more than any dif- ficulty in arriving at the truth, which sets men in such opposition to God in their judgments of themselves, and which hardens them in their in- difference. This inconsideration indeed is but an effect of the more general cause already refer- red to, but it becomes in its turn a cause both of ignorance and unconcern. Men learn little upon any subject by intuition, and the know- ledge of their own hearts is not to be obtained without painful self-examination. This self- TO THE CHxVRGE OF SIN. 85 knowledge is the subject to which men generally devote the least attention. They are engrossed by the cares or pleasures of the world. They either float quietly down the stream of life, or are hurried along its troubled course, with scarcely an hour given to serious reflection. That under such circumstances men should be ignorant of themselves and indifterent to their character in 'the sight of God, is not only natural but unavoidable. It is however a lamentable thing that they should make a judgment of themselves, formed without consideration, the ground of their conduct, and confide in it in op- position to the judgment of God. If they will judge, let them at least consider. If they will act on their own conclusions respecting them- selves, let them at least examine and decide deliberately, and not venture every thing on a hasty, unconsidered estimate of their character, which, it may be, could not, even in their own judgment, stand a moment's inspection. Men, however, are not merely inconsiderate ; they often make direct efibrts to suppress the rising conviction of guilt and danger. The tes- timony of God against them is so plain ; the authority of his law is so obvious; their want of conformity to it is so glaring, and the influ- ences of the Spirit are so general and frequent, that the conviction of sin can hardly fail to ob- trude itself even upon those who in general are the most unconcerned. It is however a painful 8 86 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE conviction, and tlierefore, instead of being che- rished, it is disregarded or suppressed. The mind refuses to dwell upon the subject, or to examine the evidence of guilt, but either turns to other objects, or, by some act of levity or transgression, grieves away the Spirit of God and hardens itself in unconcern. This is a fre- quently recurring experience in the history of most men. They have more anxious thoughts than they allow their most intimate friends to suspect. They often mask an aching heart with a smiling face. They have a quick foresight of what such feehngs must lead to, if cherished. They see, at once, that they cannot cultivate such sentiments, and live as they have been ac- customed to do. There are pleasures, and it may be sins, which must be abandoned. There are companions who must be avoided. There is the opposition of friends, the ridicule of asso- ciates, the loss of rank, to be encountered. All the horrors of a religious life present themselves to the imagination, and frighten the half awa- kened from considering their ways, which they know to be but the first step in what appears a long and painful journey. They therefore struggle against their convictions, and in general master them. This struggle is sometimes short; at others, it is protracted and painful. Victory however comes at last, and the soul regains its wonted unconcern. Such persons little know what they are doing. They little suspect that TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 87 they are struggling to elude the grasp of mercy ; that they are striving against the Spirit of God, who would draw them from the paths of destruc- tion, and guide them into the way of life. Section II. — Sophistical Objections against the Doc- trines of the Bible. Another cause of the indifference of men may be found in the objections which they urge against the truth. Such objections indeed are more frequently and effectually urged to perplex the advocates of religion, than to quiet the un- easiness of conscience. Still men endeavour to impose upon themselves as well as to embarrass others. And the objections referred to, doubt- less are often obstacles in the way of the in- quirer; or opiates to the consciences of those who desire to be deceived. It is objected that we are what God made us ; that our character is determined either by our original constitution, or by the circumstances in which we are placed, and therefore we cannot be responsible for it; that inasmuch as neither our belief nor our affec- tions are under the control of the will, we cannot be accountable for either; that it is useless to use means to escape the judgment of God, since what is to be, will be ; that we must wait till God sees fit to change our hearts, since it is declared in Scripture to be his work. It will be observed that these and similar ob- 88 CAUSES OF IXDIFFEREXCE jections relate to the reconciliation of different truths, and not to their separate validity or evi- dence. The proposition that men are responsible for their moral character, taken by itself, is so capable of demonstration, that all men do in fact believe it. Every man feels it to be true with reirard to himself, and knows it to be true with resrard to others. All self-condemnation and selt-approbation rest on the consciousness of this truth. All our iudsrments recrardinsr the moral conduct of others are founded on the same as- sumption. It is, therefore, one of those truths which is included in the universal consciousness of men, and has in all asres and nations been assumed as certain. Men cannot really doubt it, if they would. On the other hand, it is no less certain that our character does depend in a mea- sure upon circumstances beyond our control; upon our original constitution, upon education, upon prevalent habits and opinions, upon divine influence, kc. All this is proved by experience and observation. Here then are two facts rest- ing on independent evidence, each certain and each by itself securing general assent. Yet we see men constantly disposed to bring up the one against the other; and argue against their re- sponsibility, because they are dependent, or against their dependence, because they are responsible. In like manner the proposition that man is a free agent, commands immediate and universal jfiseiit; because it is an oltinmafe ^adt dT oonsooniK- nesB. It can no more be doosbled dBan we can doobloorownexisfeiKe. ^de % side howeircT with idus inthnalip peEBuaam of oar moral fib^v ty. Heft the comiclion, no leas intbnalie, of oar mM&j to efaangev % madj wining to do ai, either oar beiief or oar aflfecliion% fiir wbidi, as bc^xe staled, evewy man knoiFS biniidf to be le^ponable. Pediaps few men — peifaapB no man— can see die hannonj of Ihese troths; jet tbej are tzndis, and as such are ptacticall j ae- knoidedged bjaUmei. Agun, all expenenoe teadies ns ihat we five in a worid of meanyj^ that knowledge^ veii^on, b:^pine8S9 are adl to be soo^t in a certain way, and that to ne^eet the means is to lose the end. It Ml howevca- no less true that there is no ne- oeasaiy or certain cooneetion betweoi die means and the end; tibat God holds the r^olt in his own hands and decides the issues aoondiDg to his sovcrragn ^easore. In all the ordioaiy affidrs of lile m^i safamit to this anangranent and do not hesitate to use means, thiwigh the end is onoatain and beyond thrar controL Bat in rdigion they think this onoertanitj of the resolt a saflident excose fiir ne^ecL It is obiioos that this method <^ reasoning, or rather of caTilling, wfaidi oonaste in Ivinging i^ one w^ established trath against another, is onworthj d a latiooal being. We oo^t to (and practicallj, we mast) recdve ereij truth 90 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE on its own evidence. If we cannot reconcile one fjict with another, it is because of our ignorance ; better instructed men or higher orders of beings may see their perfect harmony. Our want of such knowledge does not in the least impair the force of the evidence on which they separately rest. In every department of knowledge the number of irreconcilable truths depends on the progress of the student. That loose matter flies off from revolving bodies, and that every thing adheres to the surface of the earth, notwith- standing its rapid revolution, are irreconcilable facts to one man, though not to another. That two rays of light should produce darkness, or two sounds cause silence, are facts which many may be entirely unable to reconcile with other facts of which they are certain, while the philo- sopher sees not only their consistency, but that they are the necessary consequences of the same cause. If the evidence of the constant revolution of the earth round its axis were presented to a man, it would certainly be unreasonable in him to deny the fact, merely because he could not re- concile it with the stability of every thing on the earth's surface. Or if he saw two rays of light made to produce darkness, must he resist the evidence of his senses because he knows that two candles give more light than one ? Men do not commonly act thus irrationally in physical investigations. They let each fact stand on its TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 91 own evidence. They strive to reconcile them, and are happy when they succeed. But they do not get rid of difficulties by denying facts. If in the department of physical knowledge we are obliged to act upon the principle of receiving every fact upon its own evidence, even when un- able to reconcile one with another, it is not won- derful that this necessity should be imposed upon us in those departments of knowledge which are less within the limits of our powers. It is cer- tainly irrational for a man to reject all the evi- dence of the spirituality of the soul, because he cannot reconcile with that doctrine the fact that a disease of the body disorders the mind. Must I do violence to my nature in denying the proof of design afforded by the human body, because I cannot account for the occasional occurrence of deformities of structure? Must I harden my heart against all the evidence of the benevolence of God, which streams upon me in a flood of light from all his works, because I may not know how to reconcile that benevolence with the existence of evil? Must I deny my free agency, the most intimate of all my convictions, because I cannot see the consistency between the freeness of an act and the certainty of its occurrence? Must I deny that I am a moral being, the very glory of my nature, because I cannot change my character at will ? It is impossible for any man to act, in any department of knowledge, upon the principle on 92 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE which these cavillmg objections to religion are founded. From youth to age we. are obliged to take each fact as it comes, upon its own evi- dence, and reconcile it with other facts as best we may. The unreasonableness of this method of argu- ing is further evident from the consideration that, if it were universally adopted, it would render all progress in knowledge impossible. It would be tantamount to a resolution to know notliing until we know all things ; for our know- ledge at first is confined to isolated facts. To classify and harmonize these facts is the slow work of the student's life. This is a most bene- volent arrangement of Providence. It at once stimulates the desire of knowledge and imposes on us the constant exercise of faith. And it is in virtue of these two important principles of our nature that all valuable knowledge is ob- tained. The desire of knowing not merely facts, but their relations and harmony, leads to the constant effort to increase the number of known truths and to obtain an insight into their nature; and the necessity we are under of believing Avhat we cannot understand, or cannot reconcile, culti- vates the habit of faith; of faith in evidence, faith in the laws of our nature, faith in God. It is thus our heavenly Father leads us along the paths of knowledge ; and he who refuses to be thus led must remain in ignorance. God deals with us as children; though as rational children. TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 93 He does not require us to believe without eyi- dence; but he does require us to believe what we cannot understand, and what we cannot reconcile with other parts of knowledge. This necessity of implicit faith is not confined to any one de- j^artment of knowledge, but, as already stated, is constantly demanded with regard to all. The simplest objects in the physical world are sur- rounded with mysteries. A blade of grass has wonders about it which no philosopher can clear up; no man can tell what fixes the type of each species of plant or animal ; by what process the materials of leaf and flower are selected and ar- ranged; whence the beautiful tints are borrowed or how applied; what conducts the silent process of formation of the eye or hand. Every thing we see is, even to the most enlightened, the in- dex of something unknown and inscrutable. If the visible and tangible forms of matter are replete with things past finding out, what may we expect when we turn our eyes on the world of spirits? Even that little world in our own bosoms which is pervaded by our own conscious- nef5S, the facts of w^hich are most intimately known, is full of wonders ; of phenomena which we can neither comprehend nor reconcile. Who can understand the secret union of the soul and body, which establishes their reciprocal influ- ence? Why should. the emotion of shame suf- fuse the cheek, or that of fear send the blood to the heart ? Why does the soul suffer if the body 94 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE be injured? What conception can we form either of matter or mind which is consistent with their mutual influence and communion? The operations of our rational and moral facul- ties are not less beyond our comprehension. We know certain facts, but the reason of them or their consistency we cannot understand. We know that certain feelings follow certain percep- tions : the feeling of confidence the perception of truth ; the feeling of pleasure the perception of beauty ; the feeling of approbation the percep- tion of what is morally right. Why these feel- ings should thus rise no one can tell. Such are the laws of our being ; laws which we did not originate and which we cannot control. That is, we cannot prevent the feeling of confidence or faith attending the perception of truth, nor that of pleasure the perception of beauty, nor that of approbation the perception of moral rectitude. Yet the consciousness of self-agency mingles with all these operations. We are free in being sub- ject to the laws of our own nature. The neces- sity under which we form such judgments or exercise such feelings produces no sense of bond- age. In these involuntary or necessary judg- ments or feelings, however, our moral character is largely concerned. If two men see an act of cruelty, and the one smiles at it, and the other is indignant, no sophistry can prevent our con- demning the former and approving the latter. The feeling excited by the act arises in each, TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 95 spontaneously, and by an inward necessity which neither, at the moment, can control. The know- ledge of this fact does not interfere with our judgment in the case. And that judgment is not merely that the feeling which produced the smile is an indication of a state of mind or of previous conduct worthy of disapprobation, but that the feeling itself was wrong. Moreover, the feeling of disapprobation which arises thus spon- taneously in our bosoms, at this delight in suffer- ing, is itself a moral feeling. We should con- demn ourselves if it did not arise — we approve ourselves because of it. There are therefore, in our owm breasts, enigmas which we cannot solve, depths which we cannot fathom. Must we then, in order to be rational, deny these facts? Must we maintain that our nature is an illusion and our constitution a falsehood ? Shall we, on the one hand, deny that we are subject to the laws of our being, or, on the other, that the acts which result from those laws are not our own, do not express our character nor involve respon- sibility ? This happily cannot be done, for faith in our own consciousness is one of the laws of our nature from which we can never effectually emancipate ourselves. If then there are in our own nature so many things wdiich we cannot comprehend, how can we expect to understand God, to know the rea- sons and relations of his acts, or to be able to reconcile, in all cases, his w^orks with his attri- 96 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE butes? To do this would require a more thorough knowledge of God than we have of ourselves. It would require a comprehension of his purposes and of the mode in which he accomplishes them. It would require, in short, a knowledge which no creature can possess. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. We then, who are the least and lowest of God's rational creatures, may well expect to be required to live by faith ; to receive as true, on his authority, much that we cannot understand and cannot reconcile. It is not how- ever blind belief which is required of us. We are not required to believe any thing without adequate proof; but on the other hand we are not allowed to reject any thing simply because we cannot understand it. We must not reject the existence of God, because we cannot comprehend self-existence; we must not deny his eternity, because we cannot conceive of duration without succession; nor his omnipresence, because we cannot see how a being can be equally and en- tirely in all places at the same time ; nor omni- science, because we cannot see how free acts can be foreknown. In like manner we are not re- quired to believe in God's goodness without abundant evidence of his benevolence; but we are required to believe it, whether we can recon- cile it with the existence of evil or not. We are TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 97 not required to believe in the providence of God without evidence, but our being unable to recon- cile his government with our liberty, is no rational ground of unbelief. The same remark might be made with regard to the apostasy of our race and the corruption of our nature ; our inability and obligation to obedience ; the neces- sity of divine influence and the use of means. We are required to believe nothing on these or any other subjects without adequate proof, but we are not allowed to make our ignorance of the relations of these trutlis an excuse for either un- belief or disobedience. God gives to the glow- worm light enough to see its own path, though not enough to dispel the darkness of the night. Thus too he shows us where to put our foot down in each successive step towards heaven, though he may not enable us to comprehend the Almighty unto j^erfection. It may be said that we have not answered one of all the objections to which reference has so often been made. We have done far better than answer them, if we have made the reader feel the necessity of an humble, trustful spirit towards God. This is the appropriate state of mind for every learner, whether in the school of nature or of Christ. It is that state which the feebleness of our powers, and the difficulty of the things to be learned, render not only reasonable, but indispensable. A second impression which we have laboured to produce is, that it is one of 9 98 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE our primary duties to submit to the truth, to form the purpose and to cherish the habit of yielding the mind to evidence. Faith without evidence is irrational; but unbelief in despite of evidence is not less so. There is a great difference in the temper of different men in relation to this subject. Some resist the truth as long as they can ; they cavil at it and opjDose it. Others are candid and docile; they are willing to admit the force of proof as far as they perceive it. This is the only way in which true knowledge can be obtained. It is thus the philosopher is accustomed to act. He carefully interrogates nature for facts; these facts are received ; they are classified and har- monized as far as the investigator is able thus to reconcile them. But he rejects none because he cannot make it fit into a system. He waits for further light. It is thus we are bound to act. We too are called upon to receive every truth uj)on its own evidence ; to harmonize our knowledge where we can, but to reject nothing simply because of our ignorance of its consist- ency with other truths. A third lesson which it is very important for us to learn is, what is adequate evidence of truth, and when we are bound to rest satisfied. This may be a question which it is diJfficult to decide ; but as far as religion is concerned, the case is sufiiciently plain. By the laws of our being we are imperatively required to confide TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 99 in the well ascertained testimony of our senses; to rely upon the veracity of our own conscious- ness; to receive the unimpeachable testimony of our fellow-men, and to abide by those truths which are matters of intuitive perception, or the necessary conclusions of reason. These are laws of belief impressed upon our constitution by our Creator; and are therefore the authori- tative expressions of his will. To refuse obe- dience to these laws is, then, not only unreason- able, it is rebellion against God. They are the adamantine bars by which he has closed up the way to universal skepticism ; and those who break through them do but prematurely enter upon the outer darkness. We are obliged then as rational beings to receive every truth which rests upon the testimony of our senses, upon the authority of consciousness, the unimpeach- able testimony of witnesses, or the intuitive perceptions or necessary deductions of reason. Whether we can systematize and reconcile all the truths thus arrived at, is a very different question. Our obligation to receive them does not rest upon this power, but upon the evidence afforded for each separate truth. Our conscious- ness tells us that we are sinners ; it also informs us of our helplessness. We may fight against one or the other of these truths as the ocean chafes the rocks. They cannot be moved. When the mind has been drugged with false philosophy, it may for a time disbelieve. But 100 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE the infidelity lasts no longer than the intoxica- tion. As soon as the man is sober, the truth reappears in greater clearness and authority than ever. Nothing therefore can be eventu- ally gained by resistance to the truth, and it is the part of wisdom to submit at once to the laws of belief which God has impressed upon our nature. Besides this rule of faith, (if it may be so called,) which God has given us in the consti- tution of our nature, we have his word and his providence, authenticated by all kinds of ade- quate testimony. There can be no higher ground of faith than the authority of God. Even confidence in the testimony of our senses or the dictates of consciousness, resolves itself into confidence in the veracity of God, by whom the laws of nature have been established. Any truth therefore which is sustained by a well authenticated revelation of God, or upon the actual dispensations of his providence, must be considered as fully established ; and every ob- jection which can be shown to militate against either, must be considered as fully answered. It was thus that the sacred writers answered objections. It was enough for them that God asserted any truth, or actually exercised any prerogative. Any further vindication they deemed unnecessary. We should act on the same principle, and quietly submit to all that God says and to all he does. Some men com- TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 101 plainingly ask, Why were we born ? Surely it is enough that they are born. The fact cannot be denied, whether they can see the wisdom and design of their creation or not. Or they ask. Why were we born in a state of sin, or in a world in which sin is universal and inevitable ? This, to human reason, may be a question im- possible to answer. But as the fact stares us in the face, is there any use in denying it? But it is further asked. If we are born in such a state that either from our nature or circum- stances sin is inevitable and universal, how can we be responsible ? Whatever difficulty there may be in showing how we are responsible, there is no doubt as to the fact. We feel our- selves to be responsible, and can no more free ourselves from the conviction than we can get rid of the consciousness of existence. Where then is the wisdom of quarrelling with facts? Why should we spend our lives like a wild beast in a cage for ever chafing against the bars of its prison, which nevertheless remain ? Let us learn to submit to what we see to be true; let us remember that our knowledge does not embrace all truth ; that things may be per- fectly consistent with each other and with the attributes of God, though we may not see how. Our knowledge will continually increase; and those facts which give us most difficulty will be found to be so analogous to others, the justice of which we are able to recognise, that if we 9* 102 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE never come to see all things in their harmony, we shall at least see that they must be consist- ent, being parts of that system which is every- where luminous with the manifestations of the wisdom and love of God. Let us remember that we are children, the children of God, that he gives us abundant evidence of every thing which he requires us to believe^ though he renders it necessary for us to exercise confidence in him, to feel assured that what he says is true and that what he does is right; that though clouds and darkness may be round about him, justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. The last general remark to be made in refer- ence to these objections is, that they are almost always dishonestly urged; that is, they are urged with an inward conviction of their fallacy. As in many cases we know things to be true which we cannot prove, so we often know objections to be fallacious which we cannot answer. If a man denies his own existence, or the distinction between right and wrong, it is in vain to argue with him. There can be nothing plainer than the truth denied, and therefore there can be no means of proving it. So also, if, to escape the charge of guilt, he denies his responsibility, he denies a fact of consciousness which cannot pos- sibly be made plainer. Or if he plead his in- ability as an excuse for not repenting and obeying God, he presents a plea which he TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 103 knows has no validity. He knows that how- ever real this inability may be, it is of such a nature as to afford no excuse for his continuing in sin, because the conviction of its reality co- exists, in his own consciousness, with a sense of guilt. It is a plea therefore that does not avail at the bar of his own conscience, and he knows that it will not avail at the bar of God. In like manner, when men object to the strict- ness of the divine law, they do so with the in- ward persuasion of the righteousness of that law. Its requirements commend themselves to their conscience. They know that as God is infi- nitely wise and good, it is right that we should regard him with supreme affection, and impli- citly submit to all his directions. All such cavilling objections men know to be false. God has not left himself without a wit- ness. His voice has an authority which we cannot resist. When he tells us we are sinners, we know it to be true. When he tells us that we are worthy of death, we know it to be a righteous judgment. When he tells that we have no strength to save ourselves, and that our salvation depends upon his will, we know it to be even so. Whenever he reveals himself, our mouths are shut, not from fear merely, but from an intimate persuasion of the justice of all his ways. It is, then, both foolish and wicked to urge objections against the truth, which we ourselves know to be futile, whether this b^ 104 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE done with a view to perplex our fellow-men, or in the vain endeavour to silence the accusations of conscience and the word of God. Such is the power of truth, that neither the natural insensibility of the heart, nor the want of consideration, nor the direct efforts which men make to suppress serious thoughts, nor the whole array of sophistical objections, can avail to counteract the secret conviction in the breast of the impenitent, that they are in the road to eternal death. This conviction is often very weak. When men are engrossed in the con- cerns of this world, it is overlooked. Still it is there ; and it is ever and anon waking up to trouble them. Nor can the suggestion, that God is merciful, and, peradventure, will not be strict to mark iniquity, quiet this uneasy appre- hension. This suggestion, therefore, avails but little. It is counteracted by the sense of ill- desert, by the irrepressible conviction that those who commit sin are worthy of death, by the plain declarations of Scripture, and by the evi- dence, which even providence affords, that God is righteous. The vague apprehension of com- ing wrath, therefore, in despite of all their ef- forts, still haunts the path of the impenitent. It chills their joys, and gathers strength when- ever the world seems to be receding from their grasp. Most men are driven to enter the plea of guilty before the bar of conscience, and content TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 105 themselves with prajdng for a delay of judg- ment. They are forced to admit that they are not fit to die in their present state, that they are bound to comply with the requirements of the gospel ; but they plead for time. Go thy way for this time; when I have a more con- venient season I will call for thee. Conscience is more easily deluded by this plea, w^hich seems to admit its demands, than by any other. It is, therefore, the most danorerous snare for souls. Men do not reflect on the wickedness of plead- ing with God for liberty to continue a little longer in sin ; to be allowed to break his com- mandments, to disregard his mercies, to slight his love, and to injure the cause of truth and righteousness. They do not think of the indig- nation with which tliey would reject such a plea from an ungrateful and disobedient son or ser- vant. Nor do they remember that every such act of procrastination is a great aggravation of their guilt, as it supposes a consciousness of the evil of their present course and a recognition of the righteousness of all the demands of God. Nor do they consider that the difficulties which beset the path of their return to God are all increased by delay. If the work of repentance be irksome to-day, it will be more irksome to- morrow. If the heart be now hard, it will become yet harder by neglect. If the power of sin be now too strong for us to resist, it will become still stronger by indulgence. If 106 INDIFFERENCE TO SIN. the motives to repentance now fail to secure obedience, they will act with constantly in- creasing disadvantage hereafter. If God be justly displeased now, he will be more and more displeased by continued disobedience. Every day's procrastination therefore increases, at a fearful rate, the probability of our final perdition. CONVICTION OF SIN. 107 CHAPTER IV. €0iiljkti0it at Bin. Section I. — Knowledge of Sin — Sense of personal Ill-desert, Though men are generally so indifferent to their sinfulness and danger, it often pleases God to arouse their attention, and to produce a deep conviction of the truth of all that the Bible teaches on these subjects. The effects of such conviction are very various, because they are modified by the temperament, the knowledge, the circumstances and concomitant exercises of those who experience it. A sentence of death, if passed upon a hundred men, w^ould probably affect no two of them alike. The mind of one might fasten particularly on the turpitude of his crime; that of another upon the disgrace which he had incurred ; that of a third on the suffer- ings of his friends on his account; that of a fourth upon the horrors of death, or upon the fearfulness of appearing before God. All these and many other views, in endless combination, might operate with different degrees of force on each, and the result be still further modified by their physical and moral temperament, their 108 CONVICTION OF SIN. knowledge and previous history. The endless diversity, therefore, in the experience of men when convinced of sin, is what might be ex- pected; and shows it to be impossible to give any description of such experience that shall be applicable to all cases. It will be sufficient briefly to state what the Scriptures teach to be necessary on this subject. There must be some correct knowledge of sin. It is clearly the doctrine of the Scriptures, con- firmed by universal experience, that men are naturally exceedingly blind on this subject. They have very inadequate ideas of the nature of this evil. Being ignorant of the holiness of God, they do not regard the opposition of sin to his nature so much as its effects upon themselves or upon society. They judge of it by a wrong standard, and hence all their judgments respect- ing it are either erroneous or defective. Its real nature, or the real source of its evil, in a great measure escapes their notice. Hence a thousand things which are unquestionably sinful, they in general overlook or disregard. It is not so much the state of the heart towards God, as the temper and deportment of one man towards his fellow-men, that they consider. And therefore they often regard themselves and others as really good, though they may be destitute of any one right sentiment towards their Maker. Being ignorant of the true nature of sin, they have no conception of the number of their CONVICTION OF SIN. 109 transgressions. They are disposed to estimate them by the number of positive or overt acts of disobedience to the moral law; overlooking the habitual state of the heart, the uniform want of love, faith, and due reverence towards God. Nor have they any adequate idea of the guilt of sin. It is to them, as it exists in them- selves, comparatively a trifle. Any great con- cern about it they consider unreasonable; and, when manifested by others, hypocritical or fana- tical. There is a deceitfulness in sin by which men are deluded so as to form wrong judgments as to its nature, its extent, its turpitude and power. This delusion must be dispelled. The eyes must be opened to see sin as it is repre- sented in the word of God, as an exceedingly evil and bitter thing, as extending not merely to overt acts or outbreaks of passion, but as deeply seated in the heart, polluting at the fountain the streams of life; as really deserv- ing the punishment which God has denounced against it; and as having such hold upon the inward principles of our nature, that its power cannot be broken by any ordinary exertion. This insight into the scriptural account of sin is attended with a firm conviction of its truth ; and this conviction is inseparable from the kind of knowledge of which we are now speaking; because it is in fact nothing but an insight into the nature of the scriptural doctrine as true, or as accordant with the moral nature which 10 110 CONVICTION OF SIN. God has given us. Men therefore are not thus convinced either by argument or authority. They see and feel what God has declared con- cerning the nature and evil of sin to be true. Hence the conviction is irresistible, even when most unwlecome. We often see it taking sud- den and powerful possession of the soul, when conscience is roused from its torpor and assents to the declarations of God, with a force not to be resisted. When Paul reasoned of righteous- ness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. The truth, externally presented, found such a response in the bosom of the Ro- man governor, that he could not disbelieve. This is in accordance with daily experience. The cavils of men against the unreasonable strictness of the divine law and their objections against the justice of its awful penalty vanish, in a moment, when their eyes are open to see w4iat the law and its violation really are. And so long as the perception lasts, the conviction remains. If they can succeed in shutting out the light, and in quieting conscience roused by its intrusion, they become as skeptical as ever on all these subjects. In many cases they suc- ceed in closing their eyes on what they hate to see, and regain their former unbelief. But often this is found to be impossible, especially on the near apj^roach of death, or when God is about to pluck them as brands from the burning. Probably a day does not pass without some illus- CONVICTION OF SIN. Ill tration of the truth of these remarks. Men who have long lived in unbelief or carelessness are arrested by an influence which they can neither understand nor resist. There is no new reve- lation, no novel arguments, no conscious process of reasoning. There is simply a perception of the truth of the declarations of God concerning sin. Against the conviction thence arising, their old cavils, the arguments and assurances of their friends have no effect. They do not reach the point. They are addressed to some- thing quite foreign to the ground of the convic- tion, and therefore do not affect it. Though this persuasion of the truth of the scriptural doctrine respecting sin is often temporary, it forms an essential part of those convictions which are abiding and saving. Men may have this persuasion who never accept the offers of salvation, but those who do accept them cannot be entirely without it. This knowledge of sin, which enters so es- sentially into the nature of true conviction, is derived from the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. I had not known sin, said the apostle, but by the law. For without the law, sin was dead. I was alive without the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. It is clearly taught, in these and similar passages, that the apostle was at one time ignorant of the extent and spiritual- ity of the law, and consequently ignorant of sin. 112 CONVICTION OF SIN. He thought himself to be as good as could be reasonably expected. He was contented and at ease. But when the law was revealed to him in its true character, his views of sin were at once changed. He came to know what it was, and to feel its power over himself. A thousand things, which before had appeared indifferent or trivial, he now saw to be aggravated offences; and especially the secret, deep-seated evil of his heart, w^hich had escaped his knowledge or regard, was detected as the great source of all other sin. The law is the means of communicating this knowledge, because it is an expression of the perfect holiness of God. So long as men judge themselves by themselves, and compare them- selves among themselves, they will be in the dark as to their true character. It is not until they judge themselves by the perfect standard of duty contained in the law of God, that they can have any proper knowledge of their real character. It is in his light that we see light. It is only when we look away from the sinful beings by w4iom we are surrounded, and feel ourselves in the presence of the jDcrfect purity of God, that we are sensible of the extent of our departure from the standard of excellence. It is therefore both the doctrine of the Bible and the experience of the people of God, that the knowledge of sin arises from the apprehension of the divine excellence as revealed in the law. CONVICTION OF SIN. 11 o There is no doubt great diversity in the expe- rience of Christians as to the clearness of their views on this subject. In some cases every thing is seen as through a glass, darkly; in others there is such a discovery of the infinite excellence of God and of his law, as to fill the mind with the greatest reverence and self-abase- ment. Sometimes this knowledge steals upon the mind as imperceptibly as the opening day ; at others, in a moment, the truth stands dis- closed in all its awful purity. The man who one hour was unconcerned, the next is full of astonishment at his former blindness. He won- ders how it was possible he could be so ignorant of the excellence of God and the perfection of his law. He is amazed at his infatuation in thinking that he was to be judged by the com- mon standard of man's judgment, by the low demands of the world or of his associates. He now sees that the rule by which he is to be tried is infinitely pure, and cannot overlook the least transgression. We are nowhere taught what degree of clearness of this knowledge is necessary to salvation. We only know that men must have such a knowledge of sin as to bring their judgments respecting it into accord- ance with the declarations of God ; that instead of that perpetual opposition to the doctrine of the Scriptures respecting the evil and extent of sin, which men so generally evince, they must be brought to acquiesce in the truth 10* 114 CONVICTION OF SIN. and justice of all God's representations on the subject. Besides this knowledge of sin and assent to the scriptural doctrine on the subject, there is, in genuine conviction, a sense of personal un- worthiness. This perhaps has been in a mea- sure anticipated, but it deserves particular consi- deration. Holy beings may have a clear percep- tion of the truth as presented in the word of God respecting the nature of sin, but they can have no sense of moral turpitude. And among men there is often a clear understanding of the doctrine on this subject, and a general assent to its truth, w^ithout any adequate conviction that what the Bible says of sinners is ap23licable to us. It is not enough therefore that we should know and believe what the Scriptures teach respecting sin — we must feel that it is all true as it regards ourselves. There must be an as- sent of our own consciousness to the declaration that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; that in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. This sense of personal un worthiness is the princij^al part of conviction of sin. It is the opposite of that false notion of our own excellence, w hich we are so prone to indulge. It destroys our self-compla- cency, and eradicates the disposition to justify ourselves or extenuate our guilt. The most certain concomitant of this sense of moral tur|)itude in the sight of God, is shame. CONVICTION OF SIN. 115 my God, cried Ezra under a sense of sin, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. And Daniel said : Lord, right- eousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us con- fusion of face, as at this day. I have heard of thee, said Job, with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee, and I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. And in another place he says : Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee ? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. The same feeling is expressed by the Psalmist, when he says. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I cannot look up ; they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. The same emotion filled the bosom of the publican, when he would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. With this sense of unworthiness are mingled, in a greater or less degree, the feelings of con- trition and remorse; sorrow for our innumer- able offences, and bitter self-condemnation. To these are often added perplexity and fear of the wrath of God ; a dread lest our sins never can be forgiven, lest our defilement never can be washed away. No suffering in this world can exceed what the soul often endures under the pressure of these feelings. It cries out with 116 CONVICTION OF SIN. Paul, wretched man that I am, who shall de- liver me from the body of this death ? Or it is forced to say with Job, The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirits ; and the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Or with David, While I suffer thy terrors I am dis- tracted; thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off. With the inspired record of the experience of God's people on this subject, we find the lan- guage of his more eminent servants in later times remarkably coincident. The confessions of Augustin are full of similar expressions of humiliation and anguish under a sense of sin. And even the stout heart of Luther was so broken by his inward sufferings, that his life was long a burden almost too heavy for him to bear. But while it is no doubt true that it is the natural tendency of correct apprehensions of our real character in the sight of God to produce these strong emotions of humiliation and sorrow; and while it is no less true that those who have made the most eminent attainments in holi- ness, have generally had the largest share of these inward trials, it is not to be supposed that they are necessary to the character of a Chris- tian. On the contrary, a believing apprehen- sion of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, while it would not prevent humiliation and peniten- tial sorrow on account of sin, would effectually CONYICTTON OF SIN. 117 extract the bitterness of remorse and fear from tlie cup of repentance. There is no true religion in these terrors and fearful apprehensions. The death-bed of the impenitent often exhibits this sense of guilt, humiliation, remorse, dread of 23unishment, and other indications of an enlight- ened and awakened conscience. And in many cases those who have suffered all this distress, lose their serious impressions and sink into their former carelessness. Though, therefore, the pain of remorse and dread of the wrath of God often attend conviction of sin, they do not constitute it. In many cases there is little of this agita- tion of feeling. Perhaps the most frequent form of religious experience on this subject is a deep distress on account of the want of an excitement of feeling corresponding with the judgment of the understandins; and conscience. The com- mon complaint with many is, that they cannot feel ; that their hearts are like ice ; that the knowledge and perception of their ingratitude and disobedience produce little or no emotion. Such persons would gladly exchange their insen- sibility for the keenest anguish ; their constant prayer is that God would take from them their heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh. This form of experience is just as consistent with the nature of conviction of sin as the other. All that is necessary is the testimony of con- science to the justice of the divine representa- tions of our character and conduct; the con- 118 CONYICTION OF SIN. sciousness and acknowledgment that we are what God declares us to be. Where this judg- ment of the conscience or this sense of personal unworthiness exists, leading the sinner to lay his hand upon his mouth in the presence of God, and to bow at his feet as undeserving of mercy, there, as far as this point is concerned, is genuine conviction. This state of mind may be produced in very different ways. Sometimes it is the result of a calm review of life and a comparison of the habitual state of the heart and general course of our conduct with the law of God. Sometimes some one offence more than commonly aggra- vated seizes upon the conscience, some broken vow, some neglected call, some open sin, is made the means of revealing the man to him- self. Whatever may be the particular occasion, the mind is led to fix itself on its responsibility to God, and the conviction of its guilt becomes settled and confirmed. This is necessary to the sinner's return to God. So long as he thinks himself whole, he will not apply to the physi- cian. So long as he regards his sins as either few or trivial, he will feel no concern for pardon or sanctification. But when his eyes are opened and his conscience aroused, he feels that his case demands immediate and earnest attention; he knows himself to be unprepared to meet his God, that his sins are so great that they cannot be forgiven, unless he obtains an interest in the CONVICTION OF SIN. 119 redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Every true Christian is in some way brought to this con- viction and acknowledgment of personal ill- desert in the sight of God. In the third place, conviction of sin includes a conviction of our condemnation before God. A sense of sin is a sense of unworthiness, and a sense of unworthiness involves a sense of just exposure to the divine displeasure. It may be proper to notice three very distinct states of mind in reference to this subject. It is very obvious that our views of the punishment due to. sin must depend upon our views of sin itself If we have inadequate apprehensions of the evil of sin, we shall have inadequate apprehensions of the punishment which it deserves. Hence in the great majority of men there is a secret disbelief of the scriptural representations on this subject. They cannot reconcile the declarations of God respecting the doom of the impenitent with their views of his justice and mercy, and therefore they cannot believe them. And it very often happens that the sense of sin which serious people experience is insufficient to over- come this unbelief, or at least the strong oppo- sition of the heart to what the Bible teaches on this subject. They feel that they are sinners, they feel that they deserve the displeasure of God, but they still experience a secret revolting against the dreadful denunciations of the Scrip- tures against all sin. "To submit to the cou- 120 CONVICTION OF SIN. demning power of the holy law of God," says Dr. Milner, "is a hard matter, a very hard mat- ter indeed to do this thoroughly. My under- standing has shown me, for many years, that this w^as the touchstone of a sound conversion ; and I have been busy enough in noting the de- fect of it in others ; but as to myself, if I have got on at all in this respect, it is very lately indeed. The heart is sadly deceitful here ; for, with Christ's salvation before one's eye, one may easily f^mcy that God is just and equitable in condemning sinners ; when if you put the case, only for a moment, to your own heart seriously, as a thing likely to happen, the heart will rise against such a dispensation ; perhaps indeed with a smothered sort of opposition and dislike, but which is very steady and determined. Nothing less than the Holy Ghost himself can cure this, by showing us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."* That the soul should revolt at the idea of its own misery is the law^ of our nature, and never can be eradi- cated. This is not the sentiment which it is intended to condemn, but the opposition of the heart to the truth and justice of God's declara- tions respecting the punishment due to sin. It is this opposition, this disposition to criminate God, to regard him as unjustly severe, which ought to be subdued ; because it shows that our * Wilberforce's Correspondence. CONVICTION OF SIN. 121 hearts are not in harmony with his word ; that we regard as unjust what he pronounces just. All experience shows that this is a very com- mon state of mind. And its existence proves that our views of the ill-desert of sin have not been sufficiently clear to bring us to submit to the plan which God has revealed for our re- demption from deserved condemnation. The opposite extreme to this is the feeling that our sins are so great that they cannot be forgiven. This is no uncommon persuasion. When there is a clear discovery of the evil of sin, with no concomitant apprehension of the true plan of salvation, despair is the natural re- sult. The judgment of conscience is known to be true when it pronounces our sins to be de- serving of death. And unless the soul sees how God can be just and yet justify the sinner, it cannot hope for mercy. Nothing can be more pitiable than a soul in this condition. Its views of the justice of God and of the evil of sin are neither false nor exaggerated. It is their truth which gives them power, and which renders futile the soothing assurances of friends that God will not be so strict in marking iniquity, or that the sinner's guilt is not so great as he imagines. An enlightened conscience cannot be thus appeased, and if such be the only sources of consolation to which it has access, it must despair. Li a Christian country, however, the know- 11 122 CONVICTION OF SIN. ledge of the plan of salvation is so generally diffused, that it seldom fails, even when imper- fectly understood, to calm or restrain the appre- hensions of God's displeasure. It is known that God can pardon sin, that there is salvation at least for some, for some have been saved. And although the sinner is often disposed to think that his is an excejDted case, or that there is some peculiar aggravation in his guilt, w^hich puts him beyond the reach of mercy, yet he cannot be sure that such is the case. And in his darkest hours the belief in the possibility of salvation is not entirely destroyed. Between these extremes of inimical opposi- tion to the truth of God as to the just expo- sure of the sinner to condemnation and the despair of mercy which arises from unbelief, lies genuine conviction of ill-desert. If religious experience is the conformity of our judgments and feelings to the truths that are revealed in the Scriptures, and if it is there revealed that the wages of sin is death, our judgment and feeling must assent to that truth; we must admit that such is the just desert of sin and of our sins. There must be no disposition to complain of the extent or severity of the law; but such a sense of ill-desert in the sight of God as shall lead us to lie at his feet, sensible that he can neither do nor threaten wrong, and that forgiveness must be a matter entirely of grace. It is obvious that there can be no CONVICTION OF SIN. 123 intelligent acceptance of Christ as a Saviour Avithout this conviction of our exposure to con- demnation, and there can be no conviction of such exposure without a perception of the jus- tice of the penalty of the law. It is, how^ever, to be remembered that there are many things involved in Christian experience which may not be the object of distinct attention. It may, therefore, well happen that many pass from death unto life without any lively apprehension of the wrath of God, or any very distinct im- pression that all that he has threatened against sin might be justly injQicted upon them. Their attention may have been arrested and their hearts moved by the exhibition of the love of God in Christ, and they may have been con- scious, at the time, of little more than a cordial acquiescence in the gospel, and the desire and purpose to live for the service of God. Still, even in such persons, as soon as their attention is directed to the subject, there is a full recog- nition of ill-desert, a readiness to acknowledge that salvation is a matter of grace, and that they would have no right to complain had they been left to perish in their sins. Diversified, therefore, as may be the experience of God's people on this subject, they agree in acknow- ledging the justice of God in his demands and his threatenings, and in regarding themselves as unworthy of the least of all his favours. 124 CONVICTION OF SIN. Sectiox II. — Insufficiency of our own Righteousness and of our own Strength, Another essential characteristic of genuine conviction is the persuasion that our own good works are entirely insufficient to recommend us to God, or to be the ground of our acceptance be- fore him. Since the Scriptures declare that we are justified freely, not by works, lest any man should boast, but by faith in Jesus Christ, our experience must accord with this declaration. We must have such views of the holiness of God, of the extent of his law and of our own un worthiness, as shall make us fully sensible that we cannot, by our own works, secure either pardon or acceptance. It is easy to profess that we do not trust to our own righteousness, but really to divest ourselves of all reliance upon our supposed excellence is a difficult task. When a man is roused to a sense of his guilt and danger, his first impulse is almost always to fly to any other refuge than that provided in the gospel. The most natural method of appeasing conscience is the promise of reforma- tion. Particular sins are therefore forsaken, and a struggle, it may be, is maintained against all others. This conflict is often long and painful, but it is always unsuccessful. It is soon found that sin, in one form or other, is constantly getting the mastery, and the soul feels that something more must be done if it CONVICTION OF SIN. 125 is ever to make itself fit for heaven. It is, therefore, ready to do, or to submit to any thing which appears necessary for this purpose. What particular form of works it may be which it endeavours to weave into a robe of righteousness, depends on the degree of knowledge Avhich it pos- sesses, or the kind of religious instruction which it receives. When greatly ignorant of the gospel, it endeavours, by painful penances, self-imposed or prescribed by priestly authority, to make satisfaction for its sins. Experience teaches that there is no extremity of self-denial to which a conscience-stricken man will not gladly submit as a means of satisfying the demands of God. If heaven were really to be gained by such means, we should see the road crowded by the young and old, the rich and poor, the learned and ignorant, in multitudes as countless as those which throng the cruel temples of the Hindoos, or which perish on the burning sands of Arabia. This is the easiest, the pleasantest, the most congenial of all the methods of salvation taught by the cunning craftiness of men. It is no won- der that those who teach it as the doctrine of the gospel should iind submissive hearers. If men can be allowed to purchase heaven, or make atonement for past transgressions, by pre- sent suffering, they will gladly undertake it. This is so congenial to the human heart, that men who are w^ell informed, and who pride themselves on their independence of mind, are II* 126 CONVICTION OF SIN. scarcely less apt to be caught in the meshes of this net than their more ignorant brethren. We see, therefore, statesmen and philosophers, as well as peasants, wearing sackcloth, or walk- ing barefoot, at the bidding of their religious teachers. In Protestant countries, w^here the Bible is generally accessible, it is rare to see any such gross exhibitions of the spirit of self-righteous- ness. The Scriptures so clearly teach the me- thod of salvation, that almost every one knows that at least mere external works of morality or discipline cannot avail to our justification before God. We must have a finer robe — a robe com- posed of duties of a higher value. Prayers are multiplied, the house of God is frequented, the whole routine of religious duties is assiduously attended to, under the impression that thus we shall satisfy the demands of God and secure his favour. Multitudes are contented with this routine. Their apprehensions of the character and requirements of God, of the evil of sin, and of their own ill-desert are so low, that this re- medy is adequate for all the wounds their con- sciences feel. The performance of their social and religious duties seems sufficient, in their view, to entitle them to the character of reli- gious men ; and they are satisfied. Thus it was with Paul, who considered himself, as touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless. But all his strictness of moral duty and religious CONVICTION OF SIN. 127 obsen^ance was discovered to be worthless, so far as satisfying the demands of God is con- cerned. And every man, who is brought to accept the offer of salvation as presented in the gospel, is made to feel that it is not for any thing which he either does or abstains from doing, that his sins are pardoned and his per- son accepted before God. Nay, he sees that what men call their good works are so impure, as to be themselves a ground of condemnation. What are cold, wandering, selfish, irreverent prayers but offences against God, whom we pre- tend to propitiate by services which are but a mockery of his holiness? And what is any routine of heartless observances, or, if not heart- less, at least so imperfect as to fail of securing even our own approbation, in the eyes of Him before whom the heavens are unclean? What approach can such services make either towards satisfying the present demands of God, or aton- ing for years of neglect and sin? It requires but little insight into the state of his own heart, or the real character of the divine law, to con- vince the sinner that he must have a better righteousness than that which consists of his own duties or observances. From this foundation of sand the convinced sinner is, therefore, soon driven, but he betakes himself to another refuge nearer the cross, as he supposes, and wliich seems to require more self- renunciation. He ceases to think of establish- 128 CONVICTION OF SIN. ing his own righteousness, but he still wishes to be made worthy to receive the righteousness of God. He knows that he can never cancel his debt of guilt, that his best services are unworthy of acceptance, that with all his circumspection he never lives a day in full compliance with the just demands of the law, and consequently that his salvation must be of grace; but he still thinks he must in some way merit that grace, or at least be prepared by some observance or some experience for its reception. The dis- tressed soul imagines that if it could be more distressed, more humbled, more touched with sorrow or remorse, it might then find accept- ance. It sees that its long course of disobe- dience and ingratitude, its rejection of Christ, its disregard of mercies and warnings, its thou- sand sins of commission and omission, if forgiven at all, must be gratuitously pardoned ; but this hardness of heart, this want of due tenderness and penitence, is a sin w^hich must first be got out of the way, before the others can be re- mitted. It is, however, only one of the long, black catalogue. It can no more be separately conquered or atoned for, before coming to Christ, than any other sin of heart or life. It is often long before the soul is brought to see this, or to feel that it is really endeavouring to make itself better before applying to the physician ; to ac- complish at least some preparatory part of sal- vation for itself, so as not to be entirely indebted CONVICTION OF SIN. 129 to the Redeemer. At last, however, the soul discovers its mistake ; it finds that Christ does not save sinners for their tenderness or convic- tion, that tears are not more worthy of accept- ance than fasting or almsgiving; that it is the unworthy, the hard-hearted, the ungodly, those who have nothing to recommend them, that Christ came to save, and whom he accepts in order to render them contrite and tender-hearted and obedient. These graces are his gifts, and if we stay away from him until we get them our- selves, we must perish in our sins. To this en- tire self-renunciation, this absolute rejection of every thing in itself as the ground or reason of its acceptance, must the soul be brought before it embraces the offers of the gospel. It is included in what has been said that a consciousness of our own weakness is a neces- sary ingredient or consequence of true convic- tion. There is not only a giving up of our own righteousness, but of our own strength. All that is necessary here, as on other points, is that we should feel what is true. If it is the doctrine of the Bible that the sinner can change his own heart, subdue his sins, excite all right affections, then genuine religious experience re- quires that this truth should be known, not merely as a matter of speculation, but as a mat- ter of consciousness. But if the Scriptures teach that this change of heart is the work of the Holy Spirit; that we are born not of the 130 CONVICTION OF SIN. will of man but of God ; that it is the exceed- ing greatness of the divine power that operates in them that believe, quickening those who were dead in trespasses and sins, creating them anew in Christ Jesus, so that they are his workman- ship, created unto good works ; if from one end of the Scriptures to the other, the internal work of salvation is declared to be not by the might or power of man, but by the Spirit of the Lord, then is this one of the great truths of revelation of which we must be convinced. Our experi- ence must accord with this representation, and we must feel that to be true in our case which God declares to be true universally. When a man is brought to feel that he is a sinner, that his heart is far from being right in the sight of God, he as naturally turns to his own strength to effect a change, and to bring himself up to the standard of the- law, as he turns to his own works as a compensation for his sins, or as a ground of confidence towards God. His efforts, therefore, are directed to sub- due the power of sin, and to excite religious feelings in his heart. He endeavours to mortify pride, to subdue the influence of the body, to wean himself from the world. He gives up his sinful or worldly associates ; he strengthens his purposes against evil ; he forces himself to dis- charge the most ungrateful duties, and exercises himself in self-denial. At the same time he tries to force himself into a right state of mind, CONVICTION OF SIN. 131 to make himself believe, repent, love and exer- cise all the Christian graces of meekness, humi- lity, brotherly kindness and charity ; that is, he tries to make himself religious. He does every thing in his own strength and to save himself.- Sometimes this course is pursued to the end of life. At others it is continued for years, and then found to be all in vain. Wesley tells us this was the kind of religion which he had, until his visit to America and his intercourse with the Moravians. This is the religion of ascetics, which may be persevered in, through stress of conscience or fear of perdition, with great strict- ness and constancy. Almost every man makes trial of it. He will be his own saviour, if he can. It is found, however, by those who are taught of God, to be a hopeless task. The sub- tle e^dl of the heart is not to be subdued by any such efforts. If we force ourselves to forego the pleasures of sin, we cannot destroy the desire of forbidden joys. If we refuse to gratify pride, we cannot prevent its aspirations. If we relinquish the pursuit of worldly things, we still retain the love of the world. If we force ourselves to per- form religious duties, we cannot make those du- ties a delight. If we compel ourselves to think of God, we cannot force ourselves to love him, to desire communion with him, to take pleasure in his servdce, and to delight in all his require- ments. No one can tell the misery arising from these painful and ineffectual struggles; these 132 CONVICTION OF SIN. vain attempts to subdue sin and excite the Christian graces. If any thing could be taken as a substitute for them; if making many prayers, or submitting to any sufiering, could be taken as an equivalent, it would be gladly acceded to. But to change the heart, to delight in God, to be really spiritual and holy, is a work the sinner finds to be above his strength, and yet absolutely necessary. Kepeated failures do not destroy his delusion ; he still thinks that this is his work, and that he must do it, or be lost. He therefore struggles on, he collects all his strength, and at length suddenly discovers it to be perfect weakness. He finds that if he is ever renewed and made holy, it must be the work of God, and he cries in the depth of his distress, Lord, save me, or I perish. He gives up working in his own strength, and sees, what he wonders he never saw before, that the Chris- tian virtues are really graces, i. e. gifts; that they are not excellencies to be wrought out by ourselves, but favours bestowed through Christ and for Christ's sake ; that it is the Holy Spirit purchased and sent by Him that is to change the heart and convince of sin, righteousness and judgment; that faith, repentance, joy, peace, humility and meekness are the fruits of that Spirit, and not the products of our own evil hearts; that if we could make ourselves holy, we should scarcely need a Saviour; and that it is the greatest of all delusions to suppose CONYICTION OF SIN. 133 that we must be holy before we come to God through Christ, mstead of holiness being the result of our reconciliation. While we are under the law, we bring forth fruit unto death. It is not until we are free from the law and re- conciled to God by the death of his Son, that we bring forth fruit unto righteousness. This great truth, though written on every page of the Bible, every man has to learn for himself. He cannot be made to understand it by reading it in the Scriptures, or by being told it by others. He must try his own strength until he finds it to be nothing, before he submits to be saved by the grace of God, and bowing at the feet of Jesus, in utter despair of any other helper, says. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. The man, therefore, whom the Holy Ghost convinces of sin, he causes to understand and believe what God has revealed on this subject. He makes him feel that wdiat He declares to be true of all men is true of him ; that he deserves what God declares all men deserve ; that he has no merit to recommend him to God, and no strength to change his own heart. This know- ledge the Spirit communicates through the law, w^iich, by presenting the perfect rule of duty, shows us how far short we come of the glory of God, and how often and justly we have incur- red its penalty; which convinces us that we are entirely unable to comply with its righteous 12 134 CONYICTION OF SIN. demand, and that no mere objective presentation of what is holy, just and good, can change the heart, or destroy the power of in-dwelling sin ; since even when we see the excellence of the law, we do not conform to it, and cannot do the things that we would, but ever find a law in our members warring against the law of our minds, and bringing us into subjection to the law of sin. It is thus that the law is a school- master to bring us to Christ; to drive us from every refuge of our own righteousness and strength, to Him who is made of God, unto those that believe^ both justification and sanc- tification. JUSTIFICATION. 135 CHAPTER V. Section I. — Importance of the Doctrine — Explanation of the Scriptural Terms relatiyig to it — Justification is not hy Works. The state of mind described in the preceding chapter cannot be long endured. Some way of satisfying the demands of conscience must be adopted. When the mind is enlightened by divine truth and duly impressed with a sense of guilt, it cannot fail anxiously to inquire, How can a man be just with God? The answer given to this question decides the character of our religion, and, if jDractically adopted, our future destiny. To give a wrong answer, is to mistake the way to heaven. It is to err where error is fatal, because it cannot be corrected. If God require one thing and we present an- other, how can we be saved ? If he has revealed a method in which he can be just and yet jus- tify the sinner, and if we reject that method and insist upon pursuing a different way, how can \mi hope to be accepted? The answer, there- fore, which is given to the above question should be seriously pondered by all who assume the 136 JUSTIFICATION. office of religious teachers, and by all who rely upon their instructions. As we are not to be judged by proxy, but every man must answer for himself, so every man should be satisfied for himself what the Bible teaches on this subject. All that religious teachers can do, is to endea- vour to aid the investigations of those who are anxious to learn the way of life. And in doing this, the safest method is to adhere strictly to the instructions of the Scriptures, and exhibit the subject as it is there presented. The sub- stance and the form of this all-important doc- trine are so intimately connected, that those who attempt to separate them can hardly fail to err. What one discards as belonging merely to the form, another considers as belonging to its substance. All certainty and security are lost as soon as this method is adopted, and it becomes a matter to be decided exclusively by our own views of right and wrong what is to be retained and what rejected from the scrip- tural representations. Our only security, there- fore, is to take the language of the Bible in its obvious meaning, and put upon it the construc- tion which the persons to whom it was addressed must have given, and which, consequently, the sacred writers intended it should bear. As the doctrine of justification is not only frequently stated in the sacred Scriptures, but formally taught and vindicated, all that will be attempted in this chapter is to give^ as faith- JUSTIFICATION. 137 fully as possible, a representation of what the inspired writers inculcate on this subject; that is, to state what positions they assume, by what arguments they sustain those positions, how they answer the objections to their doctrine, and what aj)plication they make of it to the hearts and consciences of their readers. It is one of the primary doctrines of the Bible, everywhere either asserted or assumed, that we are under the law of God. This is true of all classes of men, whether they enjoy a divine re- velation or not. Every thing which God has revealed as a rule of duty, enters into the con- stitution of the law which binds those to whom that revelation is given, and by which they are to be ultimately judged. Those who have not received any external revelation of the divine will are a law unto themselves. The knowledge of right and wrong, written upon their hearts, is of the nature of a divine law, having its author- ity and sanction, and by it the heathen are to be judged in the last day. God has seen fit to annex the promise of life to obedience to his law. The man that doeth these things shall live by them,* is the language of Scripture on this subject. To the lawyer who admitted that the law required love to God and man, our Saviour said. Thou hast answered right. This do, and thou shalt live.f And to one who * Rom. X. 5. t Luke x. 28. 12* 138 JUSTIFICATION. asked him, What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? he said, If thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commandments.* On the other hand, the law denounces death as the penalty of transgression. The wages of sin is death. Such is the uniform declaration of Scripture on this subject. The obedience which the law demands is called righteousness ; and those who render that obedience are called righteous. To ascribe right- eousness to any one, or to pronounce him right- eous, is the scriptural meaning of the word to justify. The word never means to make good in a moral sense, but always to pronounce just or righteous. Thus God says, I will not justify the wicked.f Judges are commanded to justify the righteous and to condemn the wicked.J Wo is pronounced on those who justify the wicked for a reward. § In the New Testament it is said, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justi- fied in his sight. 1 1 It is God who justifieth, who is he that condemneth ?^ There is scarcely a word in the Bible the meaning of which is less open to doubt. There is no passage in the New Testament in which it is used out of its ordinary and obvious sense.** When God jus- tifies a man, he declares him to be righteous. * ]\[att. xix. 17. t Ex. xxiii. 7. J Deut. xxv. 1. § Isa. V. 23. II Rom. iii. 20. ^ Rom. viii. 33, 34. ** Rev. xxii. 11, is probably no exception to this remark, as the text in that passage is uncertain. JUSTIFICATION. 139 To justify never means to render one holy. It is said to be sinful to justify the wicked ; but it could never be sinful to render the wicked holy. And as the law demands right- eousness, to impute or ascribe righteousness to any one is, in scriptural language, to justify. To make (or constitute) righteous, is another equivalent form of expression. Hence to be righteous before God, and to be justified, mean the same thing ; as in the following passage : Not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.* The attentive, and especially the anxious reader of the Bible cannot fail to observe that these various expressions, to be righteous in the sight of God, to impute righteousness, to constitute righteous, to justify, and others of similar import, are so interchanged as to explain each other, and to make it clear that to justify a man is to ascribe or impute to him righteousness. The great question then is. How is this righteousness to be obtained ? We have reason to be thankful that the answer which the Bible gives to this question is so perfectly plain. In the first place, that the righteousness by which we are to be justified before God, is not of works, is not only asserted but proved. The apostle's first argument on this point is derived from the consideration that the law demands a * Rom. ii. 13. 140 JUSTIFICATION. perfect righteousness. If the law were satisfied by an imperfect obedience, or by a routine of external duties, or by any service which men are competent to render, then indeed justifica- tion would be by works. But since it demands perfect obedience, justification by works is, for sinners, absolutely impossible. It is thus the apostle reasons.* As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse. For it is writ- ten. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. As the law pronounces its curse upon every man who continues not to do all that it commands, and as no man can pretend to this perfect obedience, it follows that all who look to the law for justification must be condemned. To the same effect, in the following verse, he says. The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live by them. That is, the law is not satisfied by any single grace or im- perfect obedience. It knows and can know no other ground of justification than complete com- pliance with its demands. Hence in the same chapter, Paul says. If there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteous- ness would have been by the law. Could the law pronounce righteous, and thus give a title to the promised life to those who had broken its commands, there would have been no neces- *Gal.iii. 10. JUSTIFICATION. 141 sity of any other provision for the salvation of men ; but as the law cannot thus lower its de- mands, justification by the law is impossible. The same truth is taught in a different form, when it is said, If righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain.* There would have been no necessity for the death of Christ, if it had been possible to satisfy the law by the imperfect obedience which we can render. Paul therefore warns all those who look to works for justification, that they are debtors to do the whole law.f It knows no compromise; it cannot demand less than what is right, and perfect obedience is right, and therefore its only language is as before. Cursed is every one that continue th not in all things written in the book of the law to do them ; and. The man that doeth those things shall live by them. Every man, therefore, who expects justification by works, must see to it, not that he is better than other men, or that he is very exact and does many things, or that he fasts twice in the week, and gives tithes of all he possesses, but that he is SINLESS. That the law of God is thus strict in its demands, is a truth which lies at the foundation of all Paul's reasoning in reference to the me- thod of justification. He proves that the Gen- tiles have sinned against the law written on *Gal.ii.21. tGal.v.3. 142 JUSTIFICATION. tlieir hearts, and that the Jews have broken the Law revealed in their Scriptures ; both Jews and Gentiles therefore are under sin, and the whole world is guilty before God. Hence he infers that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. There is, however, no force in this reasoning, except on the assumption that the law demands perfect obedience. How many men, who freely acknowledge that they are sinners, depend upon their works for accept- ance with God ! They see no inconsistency between the acknowledgment of sin and the expectation of justification by works. The rea- son is, they proceed upon a very different prin- ciple from that adopted by the apostle. They suppose that the law may be satisfied by very imperfect obedience. Paul assumes that God demands perfect conformity to his will, that his wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. With him therefore it is enough that men. have sinned, to prove that they cannot be justified by works. It is not a question of degrees, more or less, for as to this 23oint there is no difference, since all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. This doctrine, though so plainly taught in Scripture, men are disposed to think very severe. They imagine that their good deeds will be com- pared with their evil deeds, and that they will be rewarded or punished as the one class or the JUSTIFICATION. ^ 143 other preponderates ; or that the sins of one part of life may be atoned for by the good works of another; or that they can escape by mere confession and repentance. They could not entertain such expectations, if they beheved themselves to be under a law. No human law is administered as men seem to hope the law of God will be. He who steals or murders, though it be but once, though he confesses and repents, though he does any number of acts of charity, is not less a thief or murderer. The law cannot take cognisance of his repentance and reformation. If he steals or murders, the law condemns him. Justification by the law is for him impossible. The law of God extends to the most secret exercises of the heart. It con- demns, whatever is in its nature evil. If a man violate this perfect rule of right, there is an end of justification by the law; he has failed to comply with its conditions, and the law can only condemn him. To justify him, would be to say that he had not transgressed. Men however think that they are not to be dealt with on the principles of strict law. Here is their fatal mis- take. It is here that they are in most direct conflict with the Scriptures, which proceed upon the uniform assumption of our subjection to the law. Under the government of God, strict law is nothing but perfect excellence; it is the steady exercise of moral rectitude. Even con- science, when duly enlightened and roused, is 144 ^ JUSTIFICATION. as strict as the law of God. It refuses to be ap- peased by repentance, reformation, or penance. It enforces every command and every denun- ciation of our Supreme Kuler, and teaches, as plainly as do the Scriptures themselves, that justification by an imperfect obedience is im- possible. As conscience however is fallible, no reliance on this subject is placed on her testi- mony. The appeal is to the word of God, which clearly teaches that it is impossible a sinner can be justified by works, because the law demands perfect obedience. The apostle's second argument to show that justification is not by works, is the testimony of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. This testimony is urged in various forms. In the first place, as the apostle proceeds upon the principle that the law demands perfect obe- dience, all those passages which assert the uni- versal sinfulness of men are so many declara- tions that they cannot be justified by works. He therefore quotes such passages as the fol- lowing : There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way ; they are altogether become unpro- fitable ; there is none that doeth good, no not one.* The Old Testament, by teaching that all men are sinners, does, in the apostle's view, * Rom. iii. 10-12. JUSTIFICATION. 145 thereby teach that they can never be accepted before God on the ground of their own right- eousness. To say that a man is a sinner, is to sav that the law condemns him ; and of course it cannot justify him. As the ancient Scrip- tures are full of declarations of the sinfulness of men, so they are full of proof that justification is not by works. But, in the second place, Paul cites their direct affirmative testimony in support of his doctrine. In the Psalms it is said, Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.'^' This passage he often quotes; and to the same class belong all those passages which speak of the insufficiency or worthlessness of human right- eousness in the sight of God. In the third place, the apostle refers to those passages which imply the doctrine for which he contends ; that is, to those which speak of the acceptance of men with God as a matter of grace, as something which they do not deserve, and for which they can urge no claim founded upon their own merit. It is with this view that he refers to the language of David : Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.f The f^ict that a man is forgiven, implies that he is guilty; * Ps. cxliii. 2. t Rom. iv. 7, 8. 13 146 JUSTIFICATION. and the fact that he is guilty, implies that his justification cannot rest upon his own character or conduct. It need hardly be remarked, that in this view the whole Scriptures, from beginning to the end, are crowded with condemnations of the doctrine of justification by works. Every penitent confession, every appeal to God's mer- cy, is a renunciation of all personal merit, a declaration that the penitent's hope w^as not founded on any thing in himself. Such con- fessions and appeals are indeed often made by those who still rely upon their good works, or inherent righteousness, for acceptance with God. This, however, does not invalidate the apostle's argument. It only shows that such persons have a different view of what is necessary for justification from that entertained by the apostle. They suppose that the demands of the law are so low, that although they are sin- ners and need to be forgiven, they can still do w^hat the law demands. Whereas, Paul pro- ceeds on the assumption that the law requires perfect obedience, and therefore every confession of sin or appeal for mercy involves a renuncia- tion of justification by the law. Again, the apostle represents the Old Testa- ment as teaching that justification is not by works, by showing that they inculcate a differ- ent method of obtaining acceptance with God. This they do by the doctrine which they teach concerning the Messiah as a Eedeemer from sin. JUSTIFICATION. 147 Hence Paul says, that the method of justifica* tion without works, (not founded upon works,) was testified by the law and the prophets, that is, by the whole of the Old Testament. The two methods of acceptance with God, the one by works, the other by a propitiation for sin, are incompatible. And as the ancient Scrip- tures teach the latter method, they repudiate the former. But they moreover, in express terms, assert. That the just shall live by faith. And the law knows nothing of faith ; its lan- guage is, The man that doeth them shall live by them.* The law knows nothing of any thing but obedience as the ground of acceptance. If the Scriptures say we are accepted through faith, they thereby say that we are not accepted on the ground of obedience. Again, the examples of justification given in the Old Testament show that it was not by works. The apostle appeals particularly to the case of Abraham, and asks, Whether he attained justification by works? and answers, No; for if he w^ere justified by works, he had whereof to glory, but he had no ground of glorying before God, and therefore he was not justified by works. And the Scriptures exjoressly assert, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. His' acceptance, there- fore, was by faith, and not by works. * Gal. iii. 11,12. 148 JUSTIFICATION. In all these various ways does the apostle make the authority of the Old Testament sus- tain his doctrine that justification is not by works. This authority is as decisive for us as it was for the ancient Jewish Christians. We also believe the Old Testament to be the word of God, and its truths come to us explained and en- forced by Christ and his apostles. We have the great advantage of an infallible interpretation of these early oracles of truth, and the argumenta- tive manner in which their authority is cited and applied prevents all obscurity as to the real intentions of the sacred writers. That by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified before God, is taught so clearly and so frequently in the New Testament, it is so often asserted, so formally proved, so variously assumed, that no one can doubt that such is indeed the doctrine of the word of God. The only point on which the serious inquirer can even raise a question is, What kind of works do the Scriptures mean to exclude as the foundation for acceptance with God? Does the apostle mean works in the widest sense, or does he merely intend cere- monial observances, or works of mere formality performed without any real love to God ? Those who attend to the nature of his asser- tions, and to the course of his argument, will find that there is no room for doubt on this subject. The primary principle on which his argument rests precludes all ground for mis- JUSTIFICATION. 149 taking his meaning. He assumes that the law demands perfect obedience, and as no man can render that obedience, he infers that no man can be justified by the law. He does not argue that because the law is spiritual, it cannot be satisfied by mere ceremonies or by works flow- ing from an impure motive. He nowhere says, that though we cannot be justified by external rites, or by works having the mere form of goodness, we are justified by our sincere though imperfect obedience. On the contrary, he con- stantly teaches that since we are sinners, and since the law condemns all sin, it condemns us, and justification by the law is therefore impos- sible. This argument he applies to the Jews and the Gentiles without distinction, to the whole world, whether they knew any thing of the Jewish Scriptures or not. It was the moral law, the law which he pronounced holy, just and good, which says. Thou shalt not covet; it is this law, however revealed, whether in the writings of Moses or in the human heart, of which he constantly asserts that it cannot give life, or teach the way of accejDtance with God. As most of those to whom he wrote had enjoyed a divine revelation, and as that revelation in- cluded the law of Moses and all its rites, he of course included that law in his statement, and often specially refers to it; but never in its limited sense as a code of religious ceremonies, but always in its widest scope, as including 150 JUSTIFICATION. the highest rule of moral duty made known to men. And hence he never contrasts one class of works with another, but constantly works and faith, excluding all classes of the former, works of righteousness as well as those of mere formality. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he hath saved us.* Who hath saved us, not ac- cording to our works.")* We are saved by faith, not by works.J Nay, men are said to be justi- fied without works ; to be in themselves ungodly when justified ; and it is not until they are jus- tified that they perform any really good works. It is only when united to Christ that we bring forth fruit unto God. Hence we are said to be his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. All the inward excellence of the Christian and the fruits of the Spirit are the consequences and not the causes of his recon- ciliation and acceptance with God. They are the robe of beauty, the white garment, with which Christ arrays those who come to him poor and blind and naked. It is then the plain doctrine of the word of God that our justifica- tion is not founded uj)on our own obedience to the law. Nothing done by us or wrought in us can for a moment stand the test of a rule of righteousness which pronounces a curse upon all those who continue not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. * Titus iii. 5. f 2 Tim. i. 9. J Eph. ii. 9. JUSTIFICATION. 151 Section II. — The Demands of the Law are satisfied hy what Christ has done. We have thus seen that the Scriptures teach first, that all men are naturally under the law as prescribing the terms of their acceptance with God; and secondly, that no obedience which sinners can render is sufficient to satisfy the de- mands of that law. It follows then that unless we are freed from the law, not as a rule of duty, but as prescribing the conditions of acceptance with God, justification is for us impossible. It is, therefore, the third great point of scriptural doc- trine on this subject, that believers are free from the law in the sense just stated. Ye are not under the law, says the apostle, but under grace.* To illustrate this declaration, he refers to the case of a woman who is bound to her hus- band as long as he lives, but when he is dead, she is free from her obligation to him, and is at liberty to marry another man. So we are de- livered from the law as a rule of justification, and are at liberty to embrace a different method of obtaining acceptance w^ith God.f Paul says of himself J that he had died to the law, i. e. become free from it. And the same is said of all believers.§ He insists upon this freedom as essential not only to justification but to sancti- *Rom. vi. 14. fRom.vii. I, 6. X Gal. ii. 19. g Rom. vii. 6. 152 JUSTIFICATION. fication. For while under the law, the motions of sin, which were by the law, brought forth fruit unto death, but now we are delivered from the law, that we may serve God in newness of spirit.* Before faith came we were kept under the law, which he compares to a schoolmaster, but now we are no longer under a schoolmaster.-]* He regards the desire to be subject to the law as the greatest infatuation. Tell me, he says, ye that desire to be under the law. Do ye not hear the law ? and then shows that those who are under the demands of a legal system, are in the condition of slaves and not of sons and heirs. Stand fast, therefore, he exhorts, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Behold I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify to every one that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect to you; whosoever of you are justi- fied by the law, ye are fallen from grace.J This infatuation Paul considered madness, and ex- claims, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? § * Rom. vii. 5, G. f Gal. iii. 24, 25. J Gal. V. 1-4. ^ Gal. iii. 1,2. JUSTIFICATION. 1 5 3 This apostasy was so fatal, the substitution of legal obedience for the work of Christ as the ground of justification was so destructive, that Paul pronounces accursed any man or angel who should preach such a doctrine for the gospel of the grace of God. It was to the law, as revealed in the books of Moses, that the fickle Galatians were disposed to look for justification. Their apostasy, how- ever, consisted in going back to the law, no matter in what form revealed, to works, no matter of what kind, as the ground of justifica- tion. The apostle^s arguments and denuncia- tions, therefore, are so framed as to apply to the adoption of any form of legal obedience, instead of the work of Christ, as the ground of our confidence towards God. To suppose that all he says relates exclusively to a relapse into Judaism, is to suppose that we Gentiles have no part in the redemption of Christ. If it was only from the bondage of the Jewish economy that he redeemed his people, then those who were never subject to that bondage have no interest in his work. And of course Paul was strangely infatuated in preaching Christ crucified to the Gentiles. We find, however, that what he taught in the Epistle to the Galatians in special reference to the law of Moses, he teaches in the Epistle to the Romans in reference to that law which is holy, just and good, and which con- demns the most secret sins of the heart. 154 JUSTIFICATION. The nature of the apostle's doctrine is, if pos- sible, even more clear from the manner in which he vindicates it, than from his direct assertions. What then ! he asks, shall we continue in sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace ? God forbid. Had Paul taught that we are freed from the ceremonial, in order to be subject to the moral law, there could have been no room for such an objection. But if he taught that the moral law itself could not give life, that we must be freed from its demands as the condition of acceptance with God, then indeed, to the wise of this world, it might seem that he was loosing the bands of moral obligation, and opening the door to the greatest licentiousness. Hence the frequency and earnestness with which he repels the objection, and shows that so far from legal bondage being necessary to holiness, it must cease before holiness can exist ; that it is not until the curse of the law is removed, and the soul reconciled to God, that holy affections rise in the heart, and the fruits of holiness ap- pear in the life. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.* It is then clearly the doctrine of the Bible that believers are freed from the law as prescrib- ing the conditions of their acceptance with God ; it is no longer incumbent upon them, in order to * Rom. iii. 31. JUSTIFICATION. 155 justification, to fulfil its demand of perfect obe- dience, or to satisfy its penal exactions. But how is this deliverance effected? How is it that rational and accountable beings are ex- empted from the obligations of that holy and just law, which was originally imposed upon their race as the rule of justification? The answer to this question includes the fourth great truth respecting the way of salvation taught in the Scriptures. It is not by the ab- rogation of the law, either as to its precepts or penalty ; it is not by lowering its demands, and accommodating them to the altered capacities or inclinations of men. We have seen how constantly the apostle teaches that the law still demands perfect obedience, and that they are debtors to do the whole law who seek justifica- tion at its hands. He no less clearly teaches that death is as much the wages of sin in our case, as it was in that of Adam. If it is nei- ther by abrogation nor relaxation that we are freed from the demands of the law, how has this deliverance been effected ? By the mystery of vicarious obedience and suffering. This is the gospel of the grace of God. This is what was a scandal to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks, but, to those that are called, the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Scriptures teach us that the Son of God, the brightness of the Father's glory and the ex- press image of his person, who thought it not 156 JUSTIFICATION. robbery to be equal with God, became flesh, and subjected himself to tlie very law to which we wei'e bound ; that he perfectly obeyed that law, and suffered its penalty, and thus, by satis- fying its demands, delivered us from its bondage and introduced us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. It is thus that the doctrine of redemption is presented in the Scriptures. God, says the apostle, sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those that were under the law.* Being made under the law, he obeyed it perfectly, and brought in everlasting righteousness, and is therefore declared to be the Lord our right- eousness, since, by his obedience, many are constituted righteous.f He, therefore, is said to be made righteousness unto us.J And those who are in him are said to be righteous before God, not having their own righteousness, but that which is by the faith of Christ.§ That we are redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ's enduring that curse in our place, is taught in every variety of form from the begin- ning to the end of the Bible. There was the more need that this point should be clearly and vari- ously presented, because it is the one on which an enlightened conscience immediately fastens. The desert of death begets the fear of death. * Gal. iv. 4, 5. f Rom. v. 19. X 1 Cor. i. 30. ^ Phil. iii. 9. JUSTIFICATION. 157 And this fear of death cannot be allayed, until it is seen how, in consistency with divine jus- tice, w^e are freed from the righteous penalty of the law. HoAv this is done the Scriptures teach in the most explicit manner. Christ hath re- deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.* Paul had just said. As many as are of the law are under the curse. But all men are naturally under the law, and therefore all are under the curse. How are we redeemed from it? By Christ's being made a curse for us. Such is the simple and sufficient answer to this most important of all questions. The doctrine so plainly taught in Gal. iii. 13, that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law by bearing it in our stead, is no less clearly presented in 2 Cor. v. 21. He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. This is represented as the only ground on which men are authorized to preach the gospel. We are ambassadors for Christ, says the apostle, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Then follows a state- ment of the ground upon which this offer of reconciliation is presented. God has made ef- fectual provision for the pardon of sin, by mak- ing Christ, though holy, harmless, and separate * Gal. iii. 13. 14 158 JUSTIFICATION. from sinners, sm for us, that we might be made righteous in him. The iniquities of us all were laid on him ; he was treated as a sinner in our place, in order that we might be treated as righteous in him. The same great truth is taught in all those passages in which Christ is said to bear our sins. The expression to bear sin, is one which is clearly explained by its frequent occurrence in the sacred Scriptures. It means to bear the punishment due to sin. In Lev. xx. 17, it is said. He that marries his sister, shall bear his iniquity. Again, Whosoever curseth his God, shall bear his sin. Of him that failed to keep the passover, it was said, that man shall bear his sin.* If a man sin he shall bear his iniquity. It is used in the same sense when one man is spoken of as bearing the sin of another. Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms.f Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities. J And when, in Ezekiel xviii. 20, it is said that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, it is obviously meant that the son shall not be punished for the sins of the father. The meaning of this expression being thus definite, of course there can be no doubt as to the manner in which it is to be under- stood when used in reference to the Redeemer. * Num. ix. 13. t Num. xiv. 33. J Lam. v. 7. JUSTIFICATION. 159 The prophet says, The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their ini- quities. He was numbered with transgressors, and bore the sins of many."^ Language more explicit could not be used. This whole chapter is designed to teach one great truth, that our sins were to be laid on the Messiah, that we might be freed from the punishment which they deserved. It is therefore said. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; for the transgression of my people was he smitten. In the New Testament, the same doctrine is taught in the same terms. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.f Christ was offered to bear the sins of many. J Ye know that he was mani- fested to take away (to bear) our sins.§ Accord- ing to all these representations, Christ saves us from the punishment due to our sins, by bearing the curse of the law in our stead. Intimately associated with the passages just referred to, are those which describe the Ee- deemer as a sacrifice, or propitiation. The essential idea of a sin-offering is propitiation by means of vicarious punishment. That this is the scriptural idea of a sacrifice, is plain from * Isa. liii. 6, 11, 12. f 1 Pet. ii. 24. % Heb. ix. 28. § 1 John iii. 5. 160 JUSTIFICATION. the laws of their institution, from the effects ascribed to them, and from the illustrative declarations of the sacred writers. The law prescribed that the offender should bring the victim to the altar, lay his hands upon 'its head, make confession of his crime; and that the animal should then be slain, and its blood sprinkled upon the altar. Thus, it is said, He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.* And he brought the bullock for a sin-offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock of the sin-offering.-j- The import of this imposition of hands, is clearly taught in the following passage: And Aaron shall lay his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited. J The imposition of hands, therefore, was de- signed to express, symbolically, the ideas of substitution and transfer of the liability to punishment. In the case just referred to, in order to convey more clearly the idea of the removal of the liability to punishment, the goat on whose head the sins of the people * Lev. i. 4. t Lev. viii. 14. J Lev. xvi. 21, 22. JUSTIFICATION. 161 were imposed, was sent into the wilderness, but another goat was slain and consumed in its stead. The nature of these offerings is further ob- vious from the effects attributed to them. They were commanded in order to make atonement, to propitiate, to make reconciliation, to secure the forgiveness of sins. And this effect they actually secured. In the case of every Jewish offender, some penalty connected with the tlieo- cratical constitution under which he lived, was removed by the presentation and acceptance of the appointed sacrifice. This was all the effect, in the way of securing pardon, that the blood of bulls and goats could produce. Their efficacy was confined to the purifying of the flesh, and to securing, for those who offered them, the advantages of the external theocracy. Besides, however, this efficacy, which, by di- vine appointment, belonged to them considered in themselves, they were intended to prefigure and predict the true atoning sacrifice which was to be offered when the fulness of time should come. Nothing, however, can more clearly illustrate the scriptural doctrine of sacrifices, than the expressions employed by the sacred writers to convey the same idea as that intended by the term sin-offering. Thus all that Isaiah taught by saying of the Mes- siah that the chastisement of our peace was upon him; that by his stripes we are healed; 14* 162 JUSTIFICATION. that lie was smitten for the transgression of the people; that on him was laid the iniquity of us all, and that he bore the sins of many, he taught by saying, He made his soul an offering for sin. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said, He was offered (as a sacri- fice) to bear the sins of many. The same idea, therefore, is expressed by saying, either he bore our sins, or he was made an offering for sin. But to bear the sins of any one, means to bear the punishment of those sins; and, therefore, to be a sin-offering, conveys the same meaning. Such being the idea of a sacrifice which pervades the whole Jewish Scriptures, it is obvious that the sacred writers could not teach more distinctly and intelligibly the manner in which Christ secures the pardon of sin, than by saying he w\as made an offering for sin. With this mode of j)ardon all the early readers of the Scriptures were familiar. They had been accustomed to it from their earliest years. No one of them could recall the time when the altar, the victim and the blood were unknown to him. His first lessons in religion contained the ideas of confession of sin, substitution and vicarious sufferings and death. When, there- fore, the inspired penmen told men imbued with these ideas that Christ was a propitiation for sin, that he was offered as a sacrifice to make reconciliation, they told them, in the JUSTIFICATION. 163 plainest of all terms, that he secures the par- don of our sins by suffering in our stead. Jews could understand such language in no other way, and therefore, we may be sure it was in- tended to convey no other meaning. And in point of fact, it has been so understood by the Christian Church from its first organization to the present day. If it were merely in the way of casual allusion that Christ was declared to be a sa- crifice, we should not be authorized to infer from it the method of redemption. But this is far from being the case. This doctrine is presented in the most didactic form. It i? exhibited in every possible mode. It is as- sorted, illustrated, vindicated. It is made the central point of all divine institutions and instructions. It is urged as the foundation of hope, as the source of consolation, the motive to obedience. It is in fact the gospel. It would be vain to attempt a reference to all the passages in wdiich this great doctrine is taught. We are told that God set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood.* Again he is declared to be a propitia- tion for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.f He is called the Lamb of God that taketh away (beareth) the sin of the w^orld.J Ye were not redeemed, * Rom. iii. 25. f 1 John "• 2. t John i. 29. 164 JUSTIFICATION. says the apostle Peter, with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot* In the Epistle to the Hebrews this doctrine is more fully exhibited than in any other portion of Scripture. Christ is not only repeatedly called a sacrifice, but an elaborate comparison is made between the offering which he presented and those which were offered under the old dis- pensation. If the blood of bulls and of goats, says the apostle, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the puri- fying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit (possessing an Eternal Spirit) offered himself without spot unto God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.*}* The ancient sacrifices in themselves could only remove ceremonial uncleanness. They could not purge the conscience or reconcile the soul to God. They were mere shadows of the true sacrifice for sins. Hence they were offered daily. Christ's sacrifice being really efficacious, was offered but once. It was because the an- cient sacrifices were ineffectual, that Christ said, when he came into the world. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou . * 1 Pet. i. 18, 10. t Heb. ix. 13, 14. JUSTIFICATION. 165 prepared me. In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, God. By the which will, adds the apostle, that is, by the accom- plishing the purpose of God, we are sanctified (or atoned for) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all; and by that one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified; and of all this, he adds, the Holy Ghost is witness.* The Scriptures, therefore, clearly teach that Jesus Christ delivers us from the punishment of our sins, by offering himself as a sacrifice in our behalf; that as under the old dispensation, the penalties attached to the violations of the theocratical covenant, were removed by the substitution and sacrifice of bulls and of goats; so under the spiritual theo- cracy, in the living temple of the living God, the punishment of sin is removed by the sub- stitution and death of the Son of God. As no ancient Israelite, when by transgression he had forfeited his liberty of access to the earthly sanctuary, was ignorant of the mode of atone- ment and reconciliation; so now, no conscience- stricken sinner, who knows that he is unworthy to draw near to God, need be ignorant of that new and living way which Christ hath conse- crated for us, through his flesh, so that we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. * Heb. X. 5, 15. ' 166 JUSTIFICATION. In all the forms of expression hitherto men- tioned, viz. : Christ was made a curse for us ; he was made sin for us; he bore our sins, he was made a sin-offering, there is the idea of substitution. Christ took our place, he suffered in our stead, he acted as our representative. But as the act of a substitute is in effect the act of the principal, all that Christ did and suffered in that character, every believer is regarded as having done and suffered. The attentive and pious reader of the Bible will recognise this idea in some of the most common forms of scriptural expression. Believers are those who are in Christ. This is their great distinction and most familiar designation. They are so united to him, that what he did in their behalf they are declared to have done. When he died, they died ; when he rose, they rose ; as he lives, they shall live also. The passages in which believers are said to have died in Christ are very numerous. If one died for all, says the apostle, then all died (not, were dead.)* He that died (with Christ) is justified from sin, i. e. freed from its condemnation and power; and if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall live with him.f As a woman is freed by death from her husband, so believers are freed from the law by the body (the death) of Christ, because his death is in effect their death.J *2Cor. V. 14. t Rom. vi, 7, 8. tRoin.vii.4. JUSTIFICATION. 167 And in the following verse he says, having died, (in Christ,) we are freed from the law. Every believer, therefore, may say with Paul, I was crucified with Christ.* In like manner the resurrection of Christ secures both the spiritual life and future resurrection of all his people. If we have been united to him in his death, we shall be in his resurrection. If we died with him, we shall live with him.f God, says the apostle, hath quickened us together with Christ ; and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.J That is, God hath quickened, raised and exalted us together§ with Christ. It is on this ground also that Paul says that Christ rose as the first fruits of the dead ; not merely the first in order, but the earnest and security of the resurrection of his people. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. || As our union with Adam secures our death, union with Christ secures our resurrection. Adam is a type of him that was to come, that is, Christ, inasmuch as the relation in which Adam stood to the whole race, is analogous to that in which Christ stands to his own people. As Adam was our * Gal. ii. 20. f Rom. vi. 5, 8. J Eph. ii. 5, 6. § There is no separate word in the original to answer to the word together, which is not to be understood of the union of be- lievers with one another in the participation of these blessings. It is their union with Christ that the passage asserts. II 1 Cor. XV. 20, 22. 168 JUSTIFICATION. natural head, the poison of sin flows in all our veins. As Christ is our spiritual head, eternal life which is in him, descends to all his mem- bers. It is not they that live, but Christ that liveth in them.* This doctrine of the represen- tative and vital union of Christ and believers, pervades the New Testament. It is the source of the humility, the joy, the confidence which the sacred writers so often express. In them- selves they were nothing and deserved nothing, but in him they possessed all things. Hence they counted all things but loss that they might be found in him. Hence they determined to know nothing, to j^i'each nothing, to glory in nothing but in Christ and him crucified. The great doctrine of the vicarious sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, is further taught in those numerous passages which refer our salva- tion to his blood, his death, or his cross. Viewed in connection with the passages already men- tioned, those now referred to not only teach the fact that the death of Christ secures the pardon of sin, but how it does it. To this class belong such declarations as the following : The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.*}' - We have redemption through his blood.J Ho has made peace through the blood of his cross. § Being justified by his blood. || Ye are made *Gal.ii.20. f IJohn i. 7. JEph.i.7. iCol.i.20. II Rom. V. 9. JUSTIFICATION. 169 nigh by the blood of Christ.* Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling.f Elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.J Unto him who loved us and washed from our sins in his own blood. § He hath redeemed us unto God by his blood. || This cup, said the Son of God himself, is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for many for the remis- sion of sins.^ The sacrificial character of the death of Christ is taught in all these passages. Blood was the means of atonement, and with- out the shedding of blood, there was no remis- sion ; and, therefore, when our salvation is so often ascribed to the blood of the Saviour, it is declared that he died as a propitiation for our sins. The same remark may be made in reference to those passages wdiich ascribe our redemption to the death, the cross, the flesh of Christ; for these terms are interchanged as being of the same import. We are reconciled unto God by the death of his Son.*"^ We are reconciled by his cross.'j^ We are reconciled by the body of his flesh through death.JJ We are delivered from the law by the body of Christ ;§§ he *Eph.ii. 13. tHeb.xii.24. 1 1 Pet. i. 2. § Rev. i. 5. 11 Rev. V. 9. If Matt. xxvi. 28 ** Rom. V. 10. tt Eph. ii. 16. Xt Col. i. 22. U ^om. vii. 4. 15 170 JUSTIFICATION. abolished the law in his flesh ;* he took away the handwriting, which was against us, nailing it to his cross.f The more general expressions respecting Christ's dying for us, receive a defi- nite meanins; from their connection with the more specific passages above mentioned. Every one, therefore, knows what is meant, when it is said that Christ died for the ungodly ; J that he gave himself a ransom for many ;§ that he died the just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God. 1 1 Not less plain is the meaning of the Holy Spirit when it is said, God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all ;•[[ that he was delivered for our ofiences;** that he gave himself for our sins.ff Seeing then that we owe every thing to the expiatory sufierings of the blessed Saviour, we cease to wonder that the cross is rendered so prominent in the exhibition of the plan of sal- vation. We are not surprised at Paul's anxiety, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect ; or that he should call the preaching of the gospel the preaching of the cross ; or that he should preach Christ crucified, both to Jews and Greeks, as the wisdom of God and the power of God, or that he should determine to glory in nothing save in the cross of Christ. ^Eph.ii. 15. tCol.ii.14. t Rom. V. 6. I Matt. xx. 28. II 1 Pet. iii. 18. URom. viii. 32. ** Eom. iv. 25. tt Gal. i. 4. JUSTIFICATION. 171 As there is no truth more necessary to be known, so there is none more variously or plainly taught than the method of escaping the wrath of God due to us for sin. Besides all the clear exhibitions of Christ as bearing our sins, as dying in our stead, as making his soul an offering for sin, as redeeming us by his blood, the Scriptures set him forth in the character of a priest, in order that we might more fully un- derstand how it is that he effects our salvation. It was predicted long before his advent that the Messiah was to be a priest. Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek, was the declaration of the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David.* Zechariah predicted that he should sit as a priest upon his throne.f The apostle defines a priest to be a man ordained for men in things pertaining unto God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.J Jesus Christ is the only real priest in the universe. All others were either pretenders, or the shadow of the great High Priest of our profession. For this ofiice he had every necessary qualification. He w\as a man. For inasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the same in order that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest ; one w^ho can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, seeing he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without * Ps. ex. 4. t Zech. vi. 13. J Heb. v. 1. 172 JUSTIFICATION. sin. He was sinless. For such a high priest became us who was holy, harmless and separate from sinners. He was the Son of God. The law made men, having infirmity, priests. But God declared his Son to be a priest, who is con- secrated for evermore.* The sense in which Christ is declared to be the Son of God, is ex- plained in the first chapter of this epistle. It is there said, that he is the express image of God; that he upholds all things by the word of his power; that all the angels are commanded to worship him ; that his throne is an everlast- ing throne; that in the beginning he laid the foundations of the earth ; that he is from ever- lasting, and that his years fail not. It is from the dignity of his person, as possessing this divine nature, that the apostle deduces the efficacy of his sacrifice,f the perpetuity of his priesthood,! and his ability to save to the utter- most all who come unto God through him.§ He was duly constituted a priest. He glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said to him. Thou art my Son, said also. Thou art a priest for ever. He is the only real priest, and therefore his advent superseded all others, and put an immediate end to all their lawful ministrations, by abolisliing the typical dispensation with which they were connected. * Heb. vii. 28. t Heb. ix. 14. t Heb. vii. 16 § Heb. vii. 25. JUSTIFICATION. 173 For the priesthood being changed, there was of necessity a change of the law. There was a disannulling of the former commandment for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof, and there was the introduction of a better hope."^ He has an appropriate offering to present. As every high priest is appointed to offer sacrifices, it was necessary that this man should have somewhat to offer. This sacrifice was not the blood of goats or of calves, but his own blood ; it was himself he offered unto God, to purge our conscience from dead works.f He has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, which was accomplished when he was once offered to bear the sins of many.J He has passed into the heavens. As the high priest was required to enter into the most holy place with the blood of atonement, so Christ has entered not into the holy place made with hands, but into hea- ven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us,§ and where he ever lives to make inter- cession for us. 1 1 Seeing then we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, (let the reader remember what that means,) who is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, having by himself purged our sins and made reconciliation for the sins * Heb. vii. 12, 19. f Heb. ix. 12, 14. J Heb. ix. 26, 28. I Heb. ix. 24. || Heb. vii. 25. 15* 174 JUSTIFICATION. of the peoj^le, every humble believer who com- mits his soul into the hands of this High Priest, may come with boldness to the throne of grace, assured that he shall find mercy and grace to he\]) in time of need. Section III. The Righteousness of Christ the true Ground of our Justification — The practical Effects of this Doctrine, The Bible, as we have seen, teaches, first, that we are under a law which demands perfect obedience, and which threatens death in case of transgression; secondly, that all men have failed in rendering that obedience, and there- fore are subject to the threatened penalty; thirdly, that Christ has redeemed us from the law by being made under it and in our place, satisfying its demands. It only remains to be shown that this perfect righteousness of Christ is presented as the ground of our justification before God. In scriptural language condemnation is a sentence of death pronounced upon sin; justi- fication is a sentence of life pronounced u]oon righteousness. As this righteousness is not our own, as we are sinners, ungodly, without works, it must be the righteousness of another, even of him who is our righteousness. Hence we find so constantly the distinction between our own righteousness and that which God gives. JUSTIFICATION. 175 The Jews, the apostle says, bemg ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, would not submit them- selves unto the righteousness of God/^" This was the rock on which they split. They knew that justification required a righteousness; they insisted on urging their own, imperfect as it was, and would not accept of that which God had provided in the merits of his Son, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes. The same idea is presented in Rom. ix. 30, 32, where Paul sums up the case of the rejection of the Jews and the acceptance of believers. The Gentiles have attained risrht- eousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel hath not attained it. Where- fore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. The Jews would not receive and confide in the righteous- ness which God had provided, but endeavoured, by works, to prepare a righteousness of their own. This was the cause of their ruin. ' In direct contrast to the course pursued by the majority of his kinsmen, we find Paul re- nouncing all dependence upon his own right- eousness, and thankfully receiving that which God had provided. Though he had every ad- vantage and every temptation to trust in him- self, that any man could have, — for he was one * Rom. X. 3. 176 JUSTIFICATION. of the favoured people of God, circumcised on the eighth day, and touching the righteousness which is in the law, Wameless, — ^yet all these things he counted but loss, that he might win Christ, and be found in him, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the right- eousness which is of God by faith.* Here the two righteousnesses are brought distinctly into view. The one was his own, consisting in obe- dience to the law; this Paul rejects as inade- quate, and unworthy of acceptance. The other is of God and received by faith; this Paul accepts and glories in as all sufficient and as alone sufficient. This is the righteousness which the apostle says God imputes to those without works. Hence it is called a gift, a free gift, a gift by grace, and believers are described as those who receive this gift of righteousness.*)* Hence we are never said to be justified by any thing done by us or wrought in us, but by what Christ has done for us. We are justified through the redemption that is in him. J We are justified by his blood. § We are justified by his obedience. 1 1 We are justified by him from all things.^ He is our righteousness.** We are made the righteousness of God in him.ff * Phil. iii. 9. t Rom. V. 17. X Rom. iii. 24. ^ Rom. v. 9. II Rom. V. 19. ^ Acts xiii. 39. ** 1 Cor. i. 30. ft 2 Cor. v. 21. JUSTIFICATION. 177 We are justified in his name.*** There is no condemnation to those who are in him.-j- Justi- fication is, therefore, by faith in Christ, because faith is receiving and trusting to him as our Saviour, as having done all that is required to secure our acceptance before God. It is thus then the Scriptures answer the question. How can a man be just with God? When the soul is burdened with a sense of sin, when it sees how reasonable and holy is that law which demands perfect obedience and which threatens death as the penalty of transgression; when it feels the absolute impossibility of ever satisfying these just demands by its own obe- dience and sufferings, it is then that the revela- tion of Jesus Christ as our righteousness, is felt to be the wisdom and power of God unto salva- tion. Destitute of all righteousness in ourselves, we have our righteousness -in him. What we could not do he has done for us. The righteous- ness, therefore, on the ground of which the sentence of justification is passed upon the be- lieving sinner, is not his own, but that of Jesus Christ. It is one of the strongest evidences of the divine origin of the Scriptures that tliey are suited to the nature and circumstances of man. If their doctrines w^ere believed and their pre- cepts obeyed, men would stand in their true * 1 Cor. vi. 11. t Rom. viii. 1. 178 JUSTIFICATION. relation to God, and the different classes of men to each other. Parents and children, husbands and wives, rulers and subjects, would be found in their proper sphere, and would attain the highest possible degree of excellence and happi- ness. Truth is in order to holiness. And all truth is known to be truth, by its tendency to promote holiness. As this test, when applied to the Scriptures generally, evinces their divine perfection, so when applied to the cardinal doc- trine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, it shows that doctrine to be worthy of all accepta- tion. On this ground it is commended by the sacred writers. They declare it to be in the highest degree honourable to God and beneficial to man. They assert that it is so arranged as to display the wisdom, justice, holiness and love of God, while it secures the j)ardon, peace and holiness of men. If it failed in either of these objects; if it were not suited to the divine character, or to our nature and necessities, it could not answer the end for which it was designed. It will be readily admitted that the glory of God in the exhibition or revelation of the divine perfections is the highest conceivable end of creation and redemption; and consequently that any doctrine which is suited to make such exhibition is, on that account, worthy of being universally received and gloried in. Now the inspired writers teach us that it is peculiarly in JUSTIFICATION. 179 the plan of redemption that the divine per- fections are revealed; that it was designed to show unto principalities and powers the mani- fold wisdom of God; that Christ was set forth as a propitiatory sacrifice to exhibit his righteous- ness or justice; and especially that in the ages to come he might show forth the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. It is the love of God, the breadth and length and depth and height of which pass knowledge, that is here most conspicuously dis- played. Some men strangely imagine that the death of Christ procured for us the love of God; whereas it was the effect and not the cause of that. love. Christ did not die that God might love us; but he died because God loved us. God commendeth his love toward us in that 'while we were sinners Christ died for us. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have eternal life. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. As this love of God is manifested toward the unworthy, it is called grace, and this it is that the Scriptures dwell upon with such peculiar frequency and earnestness. The mystery of 180 JUSTIFICATION. redemption is, that a Being of infinite holiness and justice should manifest such wonderful love to sinners. Hence the sacred writers so earn- estly denounce every thing that obscures this peculiar feature of the gospel; every thing which represents men as worthy, as meriting, or, in any way by their own goodness, securing the exercise of this love of God. It is of grace lest any man should boast. We are justified by grace; we are saved by grace; and if of 'grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. The apostle teaches us not only that the plan of salvation had its origin in the unmerited kindness of God, and that our accept- ance with him is in no way or degree founded in our own worthiness, but moreover, that the actual administration of the economy of mercy is so conducted as to magnify this attribute of the divine character. God chooses the foolish, the base, the weak, yea those who are nothing, in order that no fiesh should glory in his pre- sence. Christ is made every thing to us, that those who glory, should glory only in the Lord.* It cannot fail to occur to every reader that unless he sincerely rejoices in this feature of the plan of redemption, unless he is glad that the wdiole glory of his salvation belongs to God, his heart cannot be in accordance with the gospel. If he believes that the ground of his acceptance ^ 1 Cor. i. 27, 31. JUSTIFICATION. 181 is in himself, or even wishes that it were so, he is not prepared to join in those grateful songs of acknowledgment to Him, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which it is the delight of the re- deemed to offer unto him that loved them and gave himself for them. It is most obvious that the sacred writers are abundant in the confes- sion of their unworthiness in the sight of God. They acknowledged that they were unworthy absolutely and unworthy comparatively. It was of grace that any man was saved ; and it was of grace that they were saved rather than others. It is, therefore, all of grace, that God may be exalted and glorified in all them that believe. The doctrine of the gratuitous justification of sinners by faith in Jesus Christ, not only dis- plays the infinite love of God, but it is declared to be peculiarly honourable to him, or peculiarly consistent with his attributes, because it is adapted to all men. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also; seeing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncir- cumcision through faith. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For WHOSOEVER shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is no narrow, nation- al, or sectarian doctrine. It is as broad as the earth. Wherever men, the creatures of God, 16 182 JUSTIFICATION. can be found, there the mercy of God in Christ Jesus may be preached. The apostle greatly exults in this feature of the plan of redemption, as worthy of God; and as making the gospel the foundation of a religion for all nations and ages. In revealing a salvation sufficient for all and suited for all, it discloses God in his true cha- racter, as the God and Father of all. The Scriptures, however, represent this great doctrine as not less suited to meet the necessities of man, than it is to promote the glory of God. If it exalts God, it humbles man. If it renders it manifest that he is a Being of infinite holi- ness, justice and love, it makes us feel that we are destitute of all merit, nay, are most ill- deserving; that we are without strength; that our salvation is an undeserved favour. As no- thing is more true than the guilt and helpless- ness of men, no plan of redemption which does not recognise those facts could ever be in har- mony with our inward exj)erience, or command the full acquiescence of the penitent soul. The ascription of merit which we are conscious we do not deserve, produces of itself severe distress ; and if this false estimate of our deserts is the ground of the exhibition of special kindness toward us, it destroys the happiness such kind- ness would otherwise produce. To a soul, there- fore, sensible of its pollution and guilt in the sight of God, the doctrine that it is saved on account of its own goodness, or because it is JUSTIFICATI )N. 183 better tlian other men, is discordant and destruc- tive of its peace. Nothing but an absolutely gratuitous salvation can suit a soul sensible of its ill-desert. Nothing else suits its views of truth, or its sense of right. The opposite doc- trine involves a falsehood and a moral impro- priety in which neither the reason nor con- science can acquiesce. The scriptural doctrine, which assumes what we know to be true, viz: our guilt and helplessness, places us in our proper relation to God; that relation which accords with the truth, with our sense of right, with our inward experience, and with every proper desire of our hearts. This is one of the reasons why the Scriptures represent peace as the consequence of justification by faith. There can be no peace while the soul is not in har- mony with God, and there can be no such har- mony until it willingly occupies its true position in relation to God. So long as it does not ac- knowledge its true character, so long as it acts on the assumption of its ability to merit or to earn the divine favour, it is in a false position. Its feelings toward God are wrong, and there is no manifestation of approbation or favour on the part of God toward the soul. But when we take our true place and feel our ill-desert, and look upon pardoning mercy as a mere gratuity, we find access to God, and his love is shed abroad in our hearts, producing that peace which passes all understanding. The soul ceases from 184 JUSTIFICATION. its legal strivings; it gives over the vain attempt to make itself worthy, or to work out a right- eousness wherewith to appear before God. It is contented to be accepted as unworthy, and to re- ceive as a gift a righteousness which can bear the scrutiny of God. Peace, therefore, is not the result of the assurance of mere pardon, but of pardon founded upon a righteousness which illustrates the character of God, which magnifies the law and makes it honourable ; which satis- fies the justice of God, while it displays the in- finite riches of his tenderness and love. The soul can find no objection to such a method of forgiveness. It is not pained by the ascription of merit to itself, which is felt to be undeserved. Its utter unworthiness is not only recognised, but openly declared. Nor is it harassed by the anxious doubt whether God can, consistently with his justice, forgive sin. For justice is as clearly revealed in the cross of Christ, as love. The whole soul, therefore, however enlightened, or however sensitive, acquiesces with humility and delight in a plan of mercy which thus ho- nours God, and which, while it secures the salva- tion of the sinner, permits him to hide himself in the radiance which surrounds his Saviour. The apostles, moreover, urge on men the doc- trine of justification by fiiith with peculiar earn- estness, because it presents the only method of deliverance from sin. So long as men are under the condemnation of the law, and feel them- JUSTIFICATION. 185 selves bound by its demands of obedience as the condition and ground of their acceptance with God, they do and must feel that he is unrecon- ciled, that his perfections are arrayed against them. Their whole object is to propitiate him by means which they know to be inadequate. Their spirit is servile, their religion a bondage, their God is a hard master. To men in such a state, true love, true obedience and real peace are alike impossible. But when they are brought to see that God, through his infinite love, has set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins, that he might be just, and yet justify those that believe; that it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saveth us; they are emancipated from their former bondage and made the sons of God. God is no longer a hard master, but a kind Father. Obedience is no longer a task to be done for a reward; it is the joyful expression of filial love. The wdiole rehi- tion of the soul to God is changed, and all our feelings and conduct change with it. Though we have no works to perform in order to justifi- cation, we have every thing to do in order to manifest our gratitude and love. Do we, there- fore, make void the law through faith ? God forbid : yea, we establish the law. There is no such thing as real, acceptable obedience until we are thus delivered from the bondage of the law as the rule of justification, and are reconciled to 16* 186 JUSTIFICATION. God by the death of his Son. Till then we are slaves and enemies, and have the feelings of slaves. When we have accepted the terms of reconciliation we are the sons of God and have the feelings of sons. It must not, however, be supposed that the filial obedience rendered by the children of God, is the efiect of the mere moral influence arising from a sense of his favour. Though perhaps the strongest influence which any external con- sideration can exert, it is far from being the source of the holiness which always follows faith. The very act by which we become in- terested in the redemption of Christ, from the condemnation of the law, makes us partakers of his Spirit. It is not mere pardon, or any other isolated blessing, that is offered to us in the gospel, but complete redemption, deliver- ance from evil and restoration to the love and life of God. Those, therefore, who believe, are not merely forgiven, but are so united .to Christ, that they derive from and through him, the Holy Spirit. This is his great gift, bestowed upon all who come to him and confide in him. This is the reason why he says. Without me, ye can do nothing. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. JUSTIFICATION. 187 The gospel method of salvation, therefore, is worthy of all acceptation. It reveals the divine jDcrfections in the clearest and most affecting light, and it is in every way suited to the cha- racter and necessities of men. It places us in our true position as undeserving sinners ; and it secures pardon, peace of conscience and holiness of life. It is the wisdom and the power of God unto salvation. It cannot be a matter of sur- prise that the Scriptures represent the rejection of this method of redemption, as the prominent ground of the condemnation of those who perish under the sound of the gospel. That the plan should be so clearly revealed, and yet men should insist upon adopting some other better suited to their inclinations, is the height of folly and disobedience. That the Son of God should come into the world, die the just for the unjust, and offer us eternal life, and yet we should re- ject his profiered mercy, proj^es such an insensi- bility to his excellence and love, such a love for sin, such a disregard of the approbation and en- joyment of God, that could all other grounds, of condemnation be removed, this alone would be sufficient. He that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 1 88 FAITH. CHAPTER VI. Section I. — Faith necessary in order to Salvation — The Nature of Saving Faith. However abundant and suitable may be the provision which God has made for the salvation of men, there are many who fail of attaining eternal life. There are those whom Christ shall profit nothing. Nay, there are those whose con- demnation will be greatly aggravated, because they have known and rejected the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. It is, therefore, not less necessary that we should know what we must do in order to secure an interest in the redemption of Christ, than that we should un- derstand what he has done for our salvation. If God has revealed a plan of salvation for sinners, they must, in order to be saved, acqui- esce in its provisions. By whatever name it may be called, the thing to be done, is to ap- prove and accept of the terms of salvation pre- sented in the gospel. As the plan of redemption is designed for sinners, the reception of that plan on our part, implies an acknowledgment that we are sinners, and justly exposed to the displea- FAITH. 189 sure of God. To those who have no such sense of guilt, it must appear foolishness and an offence. As it proceeds upon the assumption of the insufficiency of any obedience of our own to satisfy the demands of the law, acquiescence in it involves the renunciation of all dependence upon our own righteousness as the ground of our acceptance with God. If salvation is of grace, it must be received as such. To intro- duce our own merit, in any form or to any de- gree, is to reject it; because grace and works are essentially opposed; in trusting to the one we renounce the other. As justification is pardon and acceptance dis- pensed on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, acquiescence in the plan of salvation involves the recognition and acceptance of the work of Christ as the only ground of justifica- tion before God. However much the child of God may be perplexed with anxious doubts and vain endeavours, he is brought at last to see and admire the perfect simplicity of the plan of mercy ; he finds that it requires nothing on his part but the acceptance of what is freely offered; the acceptance of it as free and un- merited. It is under the consciousness of ill- desert and helplessness that the soul embraces Jesus Christ as he is presented in the gospel. This it is that God requires of us in order to our justification. As soon as this is done, we are united to Christ; he assumes our responsi- 190 FAITH. bilities ; he pleads our cause ; he secures our pardon and acceptance on the ground of what he has done ; so that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The nature of the duty required of us in order to our justification, is made, if possible, still more plain by the account which the Bible gives of those who are condemned. They are described as those who reject Christ, who go about to establish their own righteousness, and refuse to submit to the righteousness of God ; as those who look to the law or their own works, instead of relying on the work of Christ. They are those who reject the counsel of God against themselves ; who, ignorant of their cha- racter and of the requirements of God, refuse to be saved by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The word by which this acceptance of Christ is commonly expressed in the Bible, is faith. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whasoever believeth in him might not perish, but have eternal life. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature ; FAITH. 191 he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The Gentiles have attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith ; but Israel hath not attained it, because they sought it not by faith. Know- ing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. By grace are ye saved through ftiith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. This is his commandment, That we should believe on his Son Jesus Christ. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Language so j)lain and so varied as this can- not be misunderstood. It teaches every serious inquirer after the way of life, that in order to salvation, he must believe in Jesus Christ. Still, though he knows what it is to believe, as well as any one can tell him, yet as he reads of a dead, as well as of a living faith, a faith of devils and a faith of God's elect ; as he reads on one page that he that believes shall be saved, and on another that Simon himself believed, and yet remained in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity, he is often greatly per- 192 FAITH. plexed aiid at a loss to determine what that faith is, which is connected with salvation. This ambiguity is a difficulty which is insepa- rable from the use of language. The soul of man is so wonderful in its operations ; its per- ceptions, emotions and affections are so various and so complicated, that it is impossible there should be a different word for every distinct exercise. It is therefore absolutely necessary that the same word should be used to express different states of mind, which have certain prominent characteristics in common. The de- finite, in distinction from the general or compre- hensive meaning of the word, is determined by the context; by explanatory or equivalent ex- pressions ; by the nature of the thing spoken of, and by the effects ascribed to it. This is found sufficient for all the purposes of intercourse and instruction. We can speak without being mis- understood, of loving our food, of loving an in- fant, of loving a parent, of loving God, though in each of these cases the word love represents a state of mind peculiar to itself, and different from all the others. There is in all of them a pleasurable excitement on the perception of certain qualities, and this we call love, though no states of mind can well be more distinct, than the complacent fondness with which a parent looks upon his infant, and the adoring reverence with which he turns his soul toward God. FAITH. 193 We need not be surprised, therefore, that the word faith is used in Scripture to express very different exercises, or states of mind. In its widest sense, faith is an assent to truth upon the exhibition of evidence. It does not seem accessary that this evidence should be of the nature of testimony ; for we are commonly and properly said to believe whatever we regard as true. We believe in the existence and attributes of God, though our assent is not founded upon what is strictly called testimony. But if faith means assent to truth, it is obvious that its na- ture and attendants must vary with the nature of the truth believed, and especially with the nature of the evidence upon which our assent is founded. A man may assent to the proposition, that the earth moves round its axis, that virtue is good, that sin will be punished, that to him, as a believer, God promises salvation. In all these cases there is assent, and therefore faith, but the state of mind expressed by the term is not always the same. Assent to a speculative or abstract truth is a speculative act ; assent to a moral truth is a moral act ; assent to a pro- mise made to ourselves is an act of trust. Our belief that the earth moves round its axis is a mere assent. Our belief in the excellence of virtue is, in its nature, a moral judgment. Our belief of a promise is an act of trust. Or if any choose to say that trust is the result of assent to the truth of the promise, it may be admitted 17 194 FAITH. as a mere matter of analysis, but the distinction is of no consequence, because the two things are inseparable, and because the Scriptures do not make the distinction. In the language of the Bible, faith in the promises of God is a believing reliance, and no blessing is connected with mere assent as distinguished and separated from reliance. It is, however, of more consequence to remark that the nature of the act by which we assent to truth, is modified by the kind of evidence upon which our assent is founded. The blind may believe, on the testimony of others, in the existence of colours, and the deaf in the har- mony of sounds, but their faith is very different from the faith of those w^ho enjoy the exercise of the sense of sight or hearing. The universal reputation of such men as Bacon and Newton and the acknowledged influence of their writ- ings, may be the foundation of a very rational conviction of their intellectual superiority. But a conviction, founded upon the perusal and ap- preciation of their own works, is of an essentially different character. We may believe on the testimony of those in whose veracity and judg- ment we confide, that a man of whom we know nothing has great moral excellence. But if we see for ourselves the exhibition of his excellence, we believe for other reasons, and in a different way. The state of mind, therefore, which, in the language of common life and in that of the FAITH. 195 sacred Scriptures, is expressed by the word faith, varies essentially with the nature of the evidence uj)on which our belief rests. One man believes the Bible to be the word of God, and the facts and doctrines therein con- tained to be true, simply on the testimony of others. Born in a Christian land and taught by his parents to regard the Scriptures as a revelation from God, he yields a general assent to the truth, without troubling himself with any personal examination into the evidence upon which it rests. Another believes because he has investigated the subject. He sees that there is no rational way of accounting for the miracles, the accomplishment of predictions, the success and influence of the gospel, except upon the assumption of its divine origin. Others, again, believe because the truths of the Bible commend themselves to their reason and con- science, and accord with their inward experi- ence. Those, whose faith rests upon this foun- dation, often receive the word with joy, they do many things, and have much of the appearance of true Christians ; or, like Felix, they believe and tremble. This is the foundation of the faith which often surprises the wicked in their last hours. Men who all their lives have neg- lected or reddled the truth, and who may have accumulated a treasury of objections to the authority of the Scriptures, are often brought to believe by a power which they cannot resist. 196 FAITH. An awakened conscience affirms the truth with an authority before which they quail. Their doubts and sophistries fly affrighted before the majesty of this new revealed witness for the truth. To disbelieve is now impossible. That there is a God, that he is holy and just, and that there is a hell, they would give the world to doubt, but cannot. Here is a faith very dif- ferent in its origin, nature and effects from that which rests upon the authority of men, or upon external evidence and argument. Though the faith just described is generally most strikingly exhibited at the approach of death, it often hap- pens that men who are habitually careless are suddenly arrested in their career. Their con- science is aroused and enlightened. They feel those things to be true, which before they either denied or disregarded. The truth, therefore, has great power over them. It destroys their former peace. It forces them to self-denial and the performance of religious duties. Sometimes this influence soon wears off, as conscience sub- sides into its accustomed slumber. At others it continues long, even to the end of life. It then constitutes that spirit of bondage and fear under which its unhappy subjects endeavour to work out a way to heaven, without embracing the gospel of the grace of God. The effects produced by a faith of this kind, though spe- cifically different from the fruits of the Spirit, are not always easily detected by the eye of FAITH. 197 man. And hence many who appear outwardly as the children of God, are inwardly under the dominion of a spirit the opposite of the loving, confiding, filial temper of the gospel. There is a faith different from any of those forms of belief which have yet been mentioned. It is a faith which rests upon the manifestation by the Holy Spirit of the excellence, beauty and suitableness of the truth. This is what Peter calls the precious faith of God's elect. It arises from a spiritual apprehension of the truth, or from the testimony of the Spirit with and by the truth in our hearts. Of this faith the Scrip- tures make frequent mention. Christ said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.* The external revelation was made equally to the wise and to the babes. To the latter, however, was granted an inward illumi- nation which enabled them to see the excel- lence of the truth, which commanded their joyful assent. Our Saviour therefore added, No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Fa- ther ; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. When Peter made his confession of faith in Christ, our Saviour said to him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed * Luke X. 21. 17* 198 FAITH. it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.* Paul was a persecutor of the church ; but when it 2^1eased God to reveal his Son in him, he at once preached the faith which he before de- stroyed. He had an external knowledge of Christ before ; but this internal revelation he experienced on his way to Damascus, and it effected an " instant change in his whole cha- racter. There was nothing miraculous or pecu- liar in the conversion of the apostle, except in the mere incidental circumstances of his case. He speaks of all believers as having the same divine illumination. God, he says, who com- manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ.f On the other hand, he speaks of those whose minds the god of this world hath blinded, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. In the second chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, he dwells much upon this subject, and teaches not only that the true divine wisdom of the gospel was undisco- verable by human wisdom, but that when exter- nally revealed, we need the Spirit that we may know the things freely given to us of God. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; * Matt. xvi. 17. 1 2 Cor. iv. 6. FAITH. 199 neither can he know them, for they are spiritu- ally discerned. Hence the apostle prays for his readers, that the eyes of their understandings (hearts) might be opened, that they might know the hope of their calling, the riches of their in- heritance, and the greatness of the divine power of which they were the subjects.* And in an- other place, that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spirit- ual understanding.^ By spiritual understanding is meant that insight into the nature of the truth which is the result of the influence of the Spirit upon the heart. Since faith is founded on this spiritual apprehension, Paul says, he preached not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, because a faith which resulted from such preaching could be at best a rational con- viction ; but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that the faith of his hearers might stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. J Hence faith is said to be one of the fruits of the Spirit, the gift of God, the result of his operation. § These representations of the Scriptures accord with the experience of the people of God. They know that their faith is not founded upon the testimony of othvjrs, or exclusively or mainly upon external evidence. They believe because the truth appears i^ them * Eph. i. 18, 19. t Col. i. 9. X 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. g Eph. ii. 8 ; Col. L L2. 200 FAITH. both true and good ; because they feel its power and experience its consolations. It is obvious that a faith founded upon the spiritual apprehension of the truth, as it differs in its origin, must also differ in its effects, from every other kind of belief Of the multitudes who believe the Scriptures upon authority or on the ground of external evidence, how large a portion disregard their precepts and warnings! To say that such persons do not believe, though true in one sense, is not true in another. They do believe; and to assert the contrary is to con- tradict their consciousness. The state of mind which they exhibit, is in the Bible called faith, though it is dead. This rational conviction, in other cases, combined with other causes, pro- duces that decorous attention to the duties of religion and that general propriety of conduct which are so often exhibited by the hearers of the gospel. The faith which is founded on the power of conscience, produces still more marked effects; either temporary obedience and joy, or the despair and opposition manifested by the convinced, the dying and the lost; or that lar borious slavery of religion of which we have already spoken. But that faith, which is the gift of God, which arises from his opening our eyes to see the excellence of the truth, is attend- ed with joy and love. These feelings are as im- mediately and necessarily attendant on this kind of faith, as pleasure is on the perception of FAITH. 201 beauty. Hence faith is said to work by love. And as all revealed truth is the object of the faith of which we now speak, every truth must, in proportion to the strength of our faith, pro- duce its appropriate effect upon the heart. A belief of the being and perfections of God, founded upon the apprehension of his glory, must produce love, reverence and confidence, with a desire to be conformed to his image. Hence the apostle says : We all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of God, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.* Faith in his threatenings, founded upon a perce^^tion of their justice, their harmony with his perfections, and the ill-desert of sin, must produce fear and trembling. His people, therefore, are described as those who tremble at his word. Faith in his promises, founded upon the apprehension of his faithfulness and power, their harmony with all his revealed purposes, their suitableness to our nature and necessities, must produce confidence, joy and hope. This was the faith which made Abraham leave his own country, to go to a strange land; which led Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the trea- sures of Egypt. This was the faith of David also, of Samuel, and of all the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought rights * 2 Cor. iii. 18. 202 FAITH. eousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. This is the faith which leads all the people of God to confess that they are strangers and pilgrims upon earth, and that they look for a city wdiich hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. This is the faith which overcomes the world, which leads the believer to set his affections on things a-bove, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; which enables him to glory even in tribulation, while he looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. And what shall we say of a faith in Jesus Christ founded upon the apprehension of the glory of God, as it shines in him; which beholds that glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth ; which con- templates the Kedeemer as clothed in our na- ture; the first born of many brethren; as dying for our sins, rising again for our justification, ascending into heaven, and as now seated at the right hand of God, where he ever liveth to make intercession for us? Such a faith, the apostle tells us, must produce love, for he says, Whom having not seen ye love, and in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye FAITH. 203 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The soul gladly receives him as a Saviour in all the characters and for all the purposes for which he is revealed; and naturally desires to be con- formed to his will, and to make known the un- searchable riches of his grace to others. It is no less obvious that no one can believe the representations given in the Scriptures re- specting the character of man and the ill-desert of sin, with a faith founded upon right apprehen- sion of the holiness of God and the evil of his own heart,- without experiencing self-condemna- tion, self-abhorrence, and a constant hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Thus of all the truths in the word of God, it may be said, that so far as they are believed in virtue of this spiritual apprehension, they will exert their ap- propriate influence upon the heart and conse- quently upon the life. That such a faith should not produce good fruits, is as impossible as that the sun should give light without heat. This faith is the living head of all right affections and of all holy living; without it all religion is a dull formality, a slavish drudgery, or at best a rationalistic homage. Hence we are said, to live by faith, to walk by faith, to be sanctified by faith, to overcome by faith, to be saved by faith. And the grand characteristic of the people of God is, that they are Believers. 204 FAITH. Section II. — Faith as connected with Justification. What has been said hitherto is designed to iUustrate the nature of saving faith, as it is represented in the Scriptures. It differs from all other acts of the mind to which the term faith is applied, mainly on account of the na- ture of the evidence on which it is founded. The Bible, however, is more definite in its instructions on this subject. Besides teaching us that there is a faith which receives as true all the declarations of God, in virtue of an evi- dence exhibited and applied by the Holy Spirit, it tells us what those particular acts of faith are, which secure our justification before God. It plainly teaches that we are justified by those acts of faith which have a special reference to Christ and his mediatorial work. Thus we are said to be justified by faith in his blood.* The righteousness of God is said to be by faith of Jesus Christ; that is, by faith of which he is the object.f This expression occurs frequently ; Knowiug, says the apostle, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. J Not having my own righteous- ness, which is of the law, but that which is * Rom. iii. 25. f Rom. iii. 22. % Gal. ii. 16. FAITH. 205 through the faith of Christ.* In all these places, and in many others of a similar kind, it is expressly stated that Christ is the object of justifying faith. The same doctrine is taught in those numerous passages, in which justification or salvation is connected with believing in Christ. Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.f He that be- lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life.J Who- soever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins.§ Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. || The same truth is in- volved in all the representations of the method of justification given in the word of God. We are said to be justified by the death of Christ, by the blood of his cross, by the redemption that is in him, by the sacrifice of himself, by his bear- ing our sins, by his obedience, or righteousness. All these representations imply that Christ, in his mediatorial character, is the special object of justifying faith. It is indeed impossible that any man should believe the record which God has given of his Son, without believing every other record which he has given, so far as it is known and apprehended; still the special act of faith, which is connected with our justification, is belief in Jesus Christ as the Saviour from sin. And when we are commanded to believe in * Phil. iii. 9. f John iii. 16. J John iii. 36. I Acts X. 43. II Acts xvi. 31. 18 206 PAITH. Jesus Christ, the scriptural meaning of the ex- pression is, that we should trust, or confide in him. It does not express mere assent to the proposition that Jesus is the Christ, which an- gels and devils exercise ; but it expresses trust which involves knowledge and assent. To be- lieve in Christ as a propitiation for sin, is to re- ceive and confide in him as such. From this representation it is clear what we must do to be saved. When the mind is per- plexed and anxious from a sense of sin and the accusations of conscience; when the troubled spirit looks round for some way of escape from the just displeasure of God, the voice of mercy from the lips of the Son of God is. Come unto me, believe upon me, submit to be saved By me. Till this is done, nothing is done. And when this cordial act of faith in Christ is exercised, we are accepted for his sake, and he undertakes to save us from the dominion and condemnation of our sins. The experience of the people of God, when they are made the recipients of that divine illumination which reveals to them the glory of God, their own unworthiness, and the plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, is no doubt very various. It is modified by their previous knowledge, by their peculiar state of mind, by the particular truth which happens to attract their attention, by the clearness of the manifes- tation and by many other circumstances. This diversity is readily admitted, yet since no man FAITH. 207 can come unto the Father but by the Son ; smce without faith in him there is no forgiveness and no access to God, it must still be true that, with greater or less distinctness of apprehension, Christ and his mediatorial work constitute the object of the first gracious exercises of the re- newed soul. Any approach to God, any hope of his favour, any peace of conscience or confi- dence of pardon, not founded upon him, must be delusive. Having ("that is, because we have) such a High Priest, we come with boldness to the throne of grace ; and this is the only ground on which we can venture to draw near. The whole plan of redemption shows that there is no pardon, no access to God, no peace or reconcilia- tion except through Jesus Christ. And this idea is so constantly presented in the Bible, that all genuine religious experience must be in ac- cordance with it. It is, however, of such vital importance for the sinner distinctly to understand what it is that is required of him, that God has graciously so illustrated the nature of saving faith that the most illiterate reader of the Scriptures may learn the way of life. It is not merely by the term faith, or believing, that this act of the soul is expressed, but by many others of equivalent import. The consideration of a few of these will serve to explain more distinctly the plan of salvation, by showing at once the nature, object and ofiice of justifying faith. 208 FAITH. One of the most comprehensive and intelli- gible of these equivalent terms is that of receiv- ing. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.* As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him.*j* Believers are therefore de- scribed as those who receive the gift of right- eousness; J as those who gladly receive the word.§ To receive Jesus Christ is to accept and recognise him in the character in which he pre- sents himself, as the Son of God, the Saviour of sinners, as a propitiation for our sins, as a ransom for our souls, as the Lord our righteous- ness. He came to his own, and his own received him not. The Jews would not recognise him as the Messiah, the only Mediator between God and man, as the end of the law for righteous- ness. They denied the Holy One, and put far from them the offer of life through him. Could the nature, the object, or office of faith be pre- sented more clearly than they are by this repre- sentation? Can the soul, anxious about salva- tion, doubt what it has to do? Jesus Christ is presented to him in the gospel as the Son of God, clothed in our nature, sent by the Father to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to redeem us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. * John i. 12. t Col. ii. 6. X Rom. V. 17. § Acts ii. 41. FAITH. 209 All that we have to do, is to receive him in this character; and those who thus receive him he makes the sons of God, that is, the objects of his favour, the subjects of his grace and the heirs of his kin«:dom. A still more simple illustration of the nature of faith is contained in those passages in which we are commanded to look unto God. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.* Our Saviour avails himself of this figure, when he says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the w^ilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not j^erish, but have eternal life.*}* The dying Israelite, who was commanded to turn his feeble eye on the brazen serpent, was surely at no loss to know the nature of the duty required of him. He knew there was no virtue in the act of looking. He might look in vain all round the wide horizon. He was healed, not for looking, but because the serpent was placed there by the command of God, and salvation made to depend upon submitting to the appointed method of relief Why then should the soul convinced of sin and misery be in doubt as to what it has to do? Christ has been set forth as crucified; and we are commanded to look to him and be saved. Can any thing be more simple? Must not every attempt to * Isa. xlv. 22. t John iii. 14, 15. 18* 210 FAITH. render more intelligible the Saviour's beautiful illustration, serve only to darken counsel by words without wisdom? Another striking illustration of this subject, may be found in Heb. vi. 18, where believers are described as those who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them. As of old, the man-slayer, when joursued by the avenger of blood, fled to the city of refuge, whose gates were open night and day, and whose highways were always unencumbered; so the soul, under the sense of its guilt and con- vinced that it must perish if it remains where it is, flees to Jesus Christ, as the appointed refuge and finds peace and security in him. There the avenger cannot touch him; there the law, which before denounced vengeance, spreads its ample shield around him and gives him the assurance of safety. A still more common method of expressing the act of saving faith, is to be found in such passages as John vi. -S5. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Here coming and believing are interchanged as expressing the same idea. So also in the following chapter, where our Saviour says. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believ- eth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his FAITH. 211 belly shall flow rivers of living waters. Hence the invitations and commands of the gospel are often expressed by this word. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And in the closing invita- tion of the sacred volume, The Spirit and the bride say. Come; and let him that heareth, say. Come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Though this language is so plain that nothing but the illumination of the Spirit can render it plainer, yet the troubled soul perplexes itself with the inquiry, What is it to come to Christ ? Though assured that he is not far from any one of us, we are often forced to cry out, that I knew where I might find him ! that I might come even to his seat. Behold I go forward, but he is not there ; and backward, but I cannot perceive him ; on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him ; he hideth him- self on the right hand, that I cannot see him. It. is often the very simplicity of the requirement that deceives us. We think we must do some great thing, which shall bear a certain propor- tion to the blessing connected with it. We can- not believe that it is merely looking, merely receiving, merely coming as the prodigal came to his father, or as the Israelite came to the high priest who was appointed to make atone- ment for the sins of the people. Yet it is :5ven 212 FAITH. thus that we must come to the High Priest of our profession, with confession of sin, and submit to the application of his blood as the appointed means of pardon, and rejoice in the assurance of the divine favour. Or still more impressively, as the Hebrew believer came to the altar, laid his hand with confession upon the head of the victim, and saw it die in his stead, so does the trembling soul come to Christ as its propitiatory sacrifice, and confiding in the efficacy of his death, looks up to God and says, My Father ! Coming to Christ, therefore, is the confiding re- ception of him in the offices and for the pur- poses for which he is presented in the word of God, as our mediator and priest, as our advocate with the Father, as our Redeemer and Lord. Another term by which faith is expressed is submitting. This is not to be understood as meaning a submission to the will of God as a sovereign ruler, a giving up all .our controversy with him and resigning ourselves into his hands. All this is duty, but it is not saving faith. The submission required is submission to the revealed plan of salvation ; it is the giving up all excuses for our sins, all dependence upon our own right- eousness, and submitting to the righteousness which God has provided for our justification. This is what the Jews refused to do, and pe- rished in unbelief* This is what we must do, ■^ Rum. X. 3, and xi. 20. FAITH. 213 in order to be saved. Men, when sensible of their guilt and danger, are perplexed and anx- ious about many things. But there is only one thing for them to do. They must submit to be saved as ungodly, as sinners, as entirely undeserving, solely for Christ's sake. They must consent to allow the robe of his righteous- ness to be cast over all their nakedness and blood, that they may be found in him, not hav- ing their own righteousness, but the righteous- ness which is by faith in Jesus Christ. Then will they be prepared to join that great multi- tude which stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and people, and tongue, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. It is thus that the Bible answers the question, What must we do to be saved ? We are told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and to set forth the nature, the object and office of this faith, the Scriptures employ the most significant terms and illustrations, in order that we mav learn to renounce ourselves and our works, and to be found in Christ, depending solely upon what he has done and suffered as the ground of our acceptance with God. Those who thus be- lieve, have passed from death unto life; they 214 FAITH. are no longer under condemnation ; they have peace with God, and rejoice in hope of his glory. As this faith unites them with Christ, it makes them not only partakers of his death, but of his life. The Holy Spirit, given without measure to him, is through him given unto them, and works in them the fruits of holiness, which are unto the praise and glory of God. REPENTANCE. 215 CHAPTER YII. Clearly as the Scriptures teach that whoso- ever believes shall be saved, they teach no less clearly that except we repent we shall all perish. These graces are not only alike indispensable, but they cannot exist separately. Repentance is a turning from sin unto God, through Jesus Christ, and fiiith is the acceptance of Christ in order to our return to God. Repentance is the act of a believer ; and faith is the act of a peni- tent. So that whoever believes repents; and whoever repents believes. The primary and simple meaning of the word commonly used in the New Testament to ex- jDress the idea of repentance, is a change of mind, as the result of reflection. In this sense it is said, There is no repentance with God. He is not a man that he should repent. In the same sense it is said, that Esau found no place for repent- ance, when he was unable to effect a change in the determination of his father. In the ordinary religious sense of the term, it is a turning from sin unto God. This is the account commonly given of it in the word of God. I thought upon 216 REPENTANCE. my ways, said the Psalmist, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.* When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.f Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.J And Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, said. If the people shall bethink them- selves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent and make supplication unto thee, saying. We have sinned and done per- versely, we have committed wickedness, and so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul; then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause. § To repent, then, is to turn from sin unto God. But as there is a repentance which has no connection with salva- tion, it becomes us to search the Scriptures, that we may learn the characteristics of that repent- ance which is unto life. As conviction of sin is an essential part of repentance, and as that point has already been considered, it will not be necessary to dwell long upon this general subject. The prominence, * Ps. cxix. 59. t Ezek. xviii. 27. $ Isa. Iv. 7. U Kings viii. 47-49. REPENTANCE. 217 however, given to it in the Scriptures, and the large space which it occupies in the experience of Christians, demand that the nature of this turning from sin, which is so often enjoined, should be carefully studied. There is one general truth in relation to this point which is clearly taught in the Bible ; and that is, that all true repentance springs from right views of God. The language of Job may, w4th more or less confidence, be adopted by every Christian : I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.* The discovery of the justice of God serves to awaken conscience, and often produces a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. This is the natural and reasonable effect of a clear apprehension of the rectitude of the divine character, as of a judge who renders to every one his due. There are accordingly many illus- trations of the effects of this apprehension re- corded in the Scriptures. Tearfulness and trem- bling, said the Psalmist, are come upon me ; and^ horror hath overwhelmed me.f While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me oft'.J There is no rest in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head, as a * Job xlii. 5, 6. t Ps- Iv. 5. J Ps. Ixxxviii. 15, 16. 19 218 REPENTANCE. heavy burden they are too heavy for me.* These fearful forebodings are so common in the experience of the people of God, that the ear- lier writers make terror of conscience a promi- nent part of repentance. There are, however, two remarks upon this subject, which should be borne in mind. The first is, that these exercises vary in degree from the intolerable anguish of despair to the calm conviction of the judgment that we are justly exposed to the displeasure of God. And secondly, that there is nothing dis- criminating in these terrors of conscience. They are experienced by the righteous and the un- righteous. If they occurred in the repentance of David, they did also in that of Judas. Sin- ners in Zion are often afraid ; and fearfulness often surprises the hypocrite. These fearful apprehensions, therefore, are not to be desired for their own sake ; since there is nothing good in fear. It is reasonable that those should fear who refuse to rej^ent and to accept of the, offers of mercy. But there is nothing reasonable in those fears which arise from unbelief, or distrust of the promises of God. It so often happens, however, in the experience of the people of God, that they are made sensible of their guilt and danger before they have any clear apprehensions of the ]Aan of redemption, that, in fact, fear of the wrath of God enters largely into the feelings * Ps. xxxviii. 3, 4, REPENTANCE. 219 which characterize their conversion. The appre- hension of the holiness of God produces awe. The angels in heaven are represented as veiling their faces, and bowing with reverence before the Holy One. Something of the same feeling must be excited in the minds of men by the dis- covery of His infinite purity. It cannot fail, no matter what may be the state of his mind, to excite 'awe. This, however, may be mingled with love, and express itself in adoration ; or it may co-exist with hatred, and express itself in blasphemy. Very often the effect is simply awe, (or at least this is the prominent emotion,) and the soul is led to prostrate itself in the dust. The moral character of this emotion can only be determined by observing whether it is at- tended with complacency in the contemplation of infinite purity, and with a desire of larger and more constant discoveries of it ; or whether it produces uneasiness and a desire that the vision may be withdrawn, and we be allowed to remain at ease in our darkness. In the next place, this discovery of the holi- ness of God cannot fail to produce a sense of our own unworthiness. It is in his light that w^e see light. It is by the apprehension of his excellence that we learn our own vileness. And as no man can be aware that he appears vile in the sight of others, without a sense of shame, w^e find that this emotion is described as being one of the most uniform attendants upon repent- 220 REPENTANCE. aiice. Thus Ezra, in his penitential prayer, says, my God ! I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God ; for our ini- quities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.* Daniel ' -^presses the same feeling when he says, •ord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day.f And God, when describing the restoration of his peo- ple, even w^hen assuring them of pardon, says, Thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, w^hen I am pacified tow\ard thee, for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.J As the consciousness of unworthiness, when w^e think of others, produces shame, so, when we think of ourselves, it produces self-abhorrence. This latter feeling, therefore, also enters into the nature of true repentance. In the strong language of the suffering patriarch already quoted, the sinner abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes. In another passage the same distinguished servant of God says, Behold I am vile ; what shall I answer thee ? I wull lay my hand upon my mouth. § And the pro- phet, describing the repentance of the people, says, Ye shall remember your ways and all your * Ezra ix. 6. f Dan. ix. 7. t Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. • § Job xl, 4. REPENTANCE. 221 doings, wherein ye have been defiled ; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for all the evil that ye have committed/^ It is not the strength, but the nature of these feelings, which determines the character of our repent- ance. Their nature is the same in all true peni- tents 3 their strength varies in every particular case. In all, however, the sense of sin destroys that self-complacency with which sinners soothe themselves, thanking God they are not as other men. It humbles them before God, and places them in the position which he would have them occupy. To this man will I look, saith the Lord, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.f With such a soul God condescends to take up his abode. For thus saith the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy : I dwell in the high and holy place, wdth him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.t This humbling sense of our unworthiness, which produces true contrition and self-abase- ment, is essential to repentance. Most men are willing to acknowledge themselves to be sinners; but they are at the same time disposed to ex- tenuate their guilt; to think they are as good as could be reasonably expected ; that the law of * Ezek. XX. 43. f Isa. Ixvi. 2. J Isa. Ivii. 15. 19* 222 REPENTANCE. God demands too mucli of beings so frail as man, and that it would be unjust to visit their deficiencies with any severe punishment. The change which constitutes repentance destroys this disposition to self-justification. The soul bows down before God under the consciousness of inexcusable guilt. It stands self-condemned, and, instead of regarding God as a hard master, it acknowledges that he is righteous in all his demands, and in all his judgments. Such were the feelings of David, when he said, I acknow- ledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever be- fore me. Aganist thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou might- est be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.* The same feeling is ex- pressed by Ezra : Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous .... behold, we are before thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this.f And Nehemiah uses language to the same effect : Thou art just in all that is brought upon us ; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.J There can, therefore, be no true repentance without this contrite spirit of self-condemnation and abasement. The confession of sin, on which the Scriptures lay so much stress, is the outward expression of this inward sense of ill-desert. It is not enough *Ps.li.4. fEzraix. 15. JNeh. ix.33. RErENTANCE. 223 that we should secretly condemn ourselves. God requires a full and ingenuous confession of our sins. And this our own hearts will prompt us to make. As there is no desire in the penitent to extenuate his guilt, so there is no disposition to conceal it. On the contrary, the soul is anxious to acknowledge every thing; to take shame to itself, and to justify God. We accord- ingly find that a large part of the penitential portions of the Scriptures is taken up in re- cording the confessions of the people of God. When I kept silence, said the Psalmist, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.* So long as he attempted to conceal his guilt, he found no relief; the hand of God con- tinued to press heavily upon him ; but when he acknowledged his transgressions, he obtained forgiveness. The wise man therefore says. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy .f The New Testament is equally expli- cit as to this part of our duty. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the * Ps. xxxii. 3-5. t Pi'ov. xxviii. 13. 224 REPENTANCE. truth is not in ns If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.* This confession must be made to the person against whom we have sinned. If we have sin- ned against our fellow-men, we must confess to them. If we have sinned against the church, we must confess to the church ; and if we have sinned against God, our confession must be made to God. The Old Testament, in commanding restitution in case of injury done to our neigh- bour, thereby commanded acknowledgment to be made to the injured party. And in the New Testament we are required to confess our faults one to another. f As, however, all our sins are committed against God, it is to him that our confessions are to be principally made ; for even in those cases in which we sin against men, we, in a still higher sense, sin against God. Our sense of guilt in his sight, therefore, will pre- vail over the sense of our injustice to those whom we have offended. Thus David, though he had, in the most grievous manner, sinned against his neighbour, was so affected with the enormity of his sin as committed against God, that he said. Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.J In the inspired records of penitential sorrow, w^e accordingly find that confession is constantly * 1 John i. 8, 9. f James v. 16. J Ps. li. 4. REPENTANCE. 225 made to God. Let thine ear now, said Nelie- niiah, be attentive and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which I pray before thee, now day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and con- fess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against thee; both I and my father's house have sinned, and have dealt very corruptly against thee, have not kept the commandments or the statutes, nor the judgments which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Indeed the greater portion of the remarkable prayers of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, which form the most authentic record of the exercises of genuine repentance, is taken up with confessions of sin ; which shows how essential such confession is to the proper discharge of this duty. No man, therefore, whose heart does not lead him freely, fully and humbly to acknowledge his sin before God, can have any satisfactory evidence that he truly repents. There is indeed a confession which remorse extorts from the lips of those whose hearts know nothing of that godly sorrow which is unto lifo. Thus Judas went to his accomplices in treachery and said, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood; and then went and hanged himself This, however, is very difierent from that ingenuous acknowledgment of sin which flows from a broken spirit, and which is the 226 REPENTANCE. more full and free, the stronger the assurance of forgiveness. Though the Scriptures plainly teach that in all true repentance there is a sense of sin, self loathing, self-condemnation, sorrow and confes- sion, yet such is the poverty of human language, that these very terms may be, nay, must be, employed to express the exercises of those who do not truly repent. It is said of Judas that he repented; and we cannot doubt that his repent- ance included a conviction of guilt, sorrow, self- abhorrence and confession. Yet all this was nothing more than the operation of that impeni- tent remorse which often drives men to despair, and which serves to feed the fire that never shall be quenched. Although we are forced to describe the exercises which attend the sorrow of the world, and those which accompany the sorrow which is of God, by the same terms, they are nevertheless essentially different in their nature. There is a gleam of hope and a glow of love pervading the exercises of the true penitent, which impart to all his exercises a peculiarity of character, and cause them to pro- duce effects specifically different from those which flow from despairing remorse, or the agi- tations of an awakened conscience. His views of the justice and holiness of God produce, not only a conviction of sin and sorrow for having committed it, but also an earnest desire to be delivered from it as the greatest of all evils, and REPENTANCE. 227 an anxious longing after conformity to the image of God as the greatest of all blessings. The repentance of the ungodly consists in the opera- tions of conscience combined with fear; the re- pentance of the godly, of the operations of con- science combined with love. The one is the sorrow of the malefactor ; the other, the sorrow of a child. The one tends to despair and oppo- sition to God; the other to hope and a desire after his favour. Both may lead to obedience; but the obedience in the one case is slavish; in the other, filial. In the one case it is mere penance ; in the other, it is repentance. The circumstance which, perhaps, most per- ceptibly distinguishes true repentance from mere conviction and remorse, is, that the former is attended with an apprehension of the mercy of God. The ungodly may see by the light of con- science and of the divine law, that their sins are exceedingly great. They may be filled with terror from the apprehension of divine justice, and even humbled and confounded under a view of the infinite holiness of God and of their own vileness, but there is no sense of forgiving mercy, no apprehension of the divine favour. Instead, therefore, of turning toward God, they turn from him. After the exam]3le of Adam, they would gladly hide themselves from his presence. And so terrible, at times, is that presence, that they madly seek a refuge from it in the darkness of the grave, or call upon the rocks and the moun- 228 REPENTANCE. tains to cover them. This is the sorrow which worketh death. Bat in every case of real turn- ing unto God, there is more or less distinct apprehension of his mercy. This may be so feeble as only to enable the soul to say, Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him; or, Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him?* or, to adopt the lan- guage of David, If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again. But if he thus say, I have no pleasure in him; be- hold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.f This, however, is sufficient to turn fear into hope, and rebellion into submission. It may be that the hope which saves the soul from sinking into despair, and which prevents it from turning from God. in aggravated opposition, is, at times, nothing more than a conviction that he is merciful, without any distinct apprehension of the way in which his mercy can be exercised, or any confident persuasion of our own accept- ance. Still the soul believes that he is the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.J It has courage to adopt the language of the Psalmist: Thou God art good and ready to for- give; and plenteous in mercy to all those that call upon thee.§ In all the records of penitence, * Joel ii. 14. t 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26. i Ex. xxxiv. 6. I Ps. Ixxxvi. 5. REPENTANCE. 229 therefore, contained in the Scriptures, we find the recognition of the divine goodness as the great operative principle in turning the soul unto God. Thus Nehemiah says. Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness."^ And the pro- phet presents this consideration as the great motive to those whom he calls to repentance: Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and repenteth him of evil.f But inasmuch as there can be no confidence of forgiving mercy, which is not founded on the revelation of the purpose of God, and as there is no revelation of a purpose to pardon except through the mediation of Jesus Christ, so, how- ever indistinct may be, at times, the view which the soul takes of the plan of salvation, there must still be a reference to the Saviour in all authorized expectations of mercy. The penitent may not know how God can be just and yet the justifier of sinners, and yet be persuaded not only that he is merciful, but that he has found a ransom, and can consistently save us from going down into the pit. Doubtless, however, under the light of the gospel, it is far more common that the soul sees all that it discovers of the mercy of God and of the possibility of pardon in the face of Jesus Christ. It is in him that * Neb. ix. 17. f Joel ii. 13. 20 230 REPENTANCE. God has revealed himself as reconciled unto the world, not imputing unto men their trespasses. It is because he was made sin for us, that we can be made the righteousness of God in him. All evangelical hope rests on the assurance, that though we have sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. This is the hope which is effectual in winning the soul back to God. It is the discovery of the love of God in giving his own Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have eternal life. It is this that breaks the hard heart, revealing to it the exceeding turpitude of its sins, and at the same time disclosing the readiness of God freely to forrive those who come to him throuo^h Christ. It is therefore not so much the threat- enings of the law, as the apprehension of the love of God, which turns the sinner from his rebellion, and draws him back to submission and obedience. All repentance without this is legal and slavish. It is such as that of Pharaoh, or Judas, or of the thousands whom an awakened conscience and fear of wrath drive from their former sins, and force to walk in clanking chains along a mistaken road in search of heaven. This is the only repentance which conscience and the apprehension of divine justice can pro- duce. A soul cannot approach an unreconciled God, any more than it can embrace a consuming fire. A sense of the favour of God, or a hope REPENTANCE. 231 ill his mercy, is essential to our returning to him M'ith confidence and love. There is indeed a belief in the mercy of God which, instead of leading men to repentance, encourages them to continue in sin. This is a belief which arises out of ignorance. It is founded on a misapprehension of the character of God. It is easy for those who know nothing of the divine holiness and justice, and who look upon sin as a misfortune or a trifle, to believe that God will not be severe to mark iniquity. To such persons the mercy of God seems a matter of course; restricting its offers to no class of men, but covering with its mantle the sins of the penitent and of the reprobate. As they see no reason why God should not forgive, they easily hope in his mercy. But when their eyes are opened to his immaculate purity which forbids his looking on sin with allowance ; to his justice which forbids him to spare the guilty; to the strictness of his law and to the fearfulness of its penalty; when conscience is aroused and adds its sanction to the judgment of God, in a voice whose authority and power can neither be questioned nor evaded, then these hopes of mercy are seen to be as the spider's web. They are swept away in a moment, and the difficulty now is, to believe that pardon, once thought so certain, is even possible. Hence the assurances that God is plenteous in mercy and ready to for- give are so numerous and earnest in the Scrip- 232 REPENTANCE. tures. Hence the way in which mercy can be exercised, consistently with those attributes which are seen to enter into the essential excel- lence of God, is so clearly set forth. Hence the invitations, the promises, yea, even the oath of God, are given to beget hope in the mind of the convinced and humble sinner. It is not the whole, but the sick, who need the physician; and it is not for the careless, who feel no need of pardon, but for the anxious, who fear that there is scarcely room for mercy, that these assurances are given. It is not, therefore, that hope of mercy which springs from ignorance and indifference, which is operative in the work of repentance, but that which is founded upon the promises of God em- braced by faith. It is an enlightened hope. The soul, in entertaining it, knows something of the difficulties in the way of pardon, and something of the method in which mercy can be consistently exercised. Such a hope is not a matter of course ; nor is it an easy attainment. The sense of sin, the testimony of conscience, the holiness of God, the honour of his law, are all apparently opposed to any reasonable expec- tation of forgiveness. And therefore, although the declarations of Scripture are so explicit on the subject, it often happens that the awakened sinner feels, that though these declarations may be true in reference to others, they cannot be true as it regards himself. And when the good- REPEXTANCE. 233 ness of God is revealed to him ; when he sees the divine love surmounting all difficulties, no shipwrecked mariner surrounded by darkness and tossed by tempests, hails with greater joy the break of day than does such a soul the reve- lation of divine mercy. It is not joy merely ; it is wonder, gratitude and love that take posses- sion of his soul, and fill him with the purpose of living devoted to God his Kedeemer. It is this hope which gives new life to the soul, and ac- complishes its return from the service of sin to the service of God. Hope in the mercy of God being thus import- ant, it is the great design of the Bible to reveal the love of God to sinners, in order to bring them back from their apostasy. The sacred volume is full of instruction on this important su?jject. Every command to repent implies a readiness on the part of God to forgive. Every institution of divine worship implies that God is willing to receive those who return to him. Every instance of pardon mentioned in the Bible is left on record to show that there is forgiveness w^ith God that he may be feared. With the same view he has given those declarations of his mer- cy, long-suffering and love, with which the Scrip- tures abound. And above all, for this purpose has he set forth his Son as a propitiation for our sins, that we may see not only that he is merci- ful, but how he can be merciful and yet just. These ofiers of mercy are made to all who hear 20* 234 REPENTANCE. the gospel, even to those whose sins are as sear- let, or red like crimson ; and none lose the bene- fit of them who do not voluntarily and wickedly reject them; either carelessly supposing that they need no forgiveness, or unbelievingly refus- ing to accept of pardon on the only terms on which it can be granted. That repentance, therefore, which is unto life, is a turning ; not a being driven away from sin by fear and stress of conscience, but a forsaking it as evil and hateful, with sincere sorrow, humi- lity and confession ; and a returning unto God, because he is good and willing to forgive, with a determination to live in obedience to his com- mandments. There are but two ways in which we can judge of the genuineness of this change. The one is the comparison of our inward experience with the word of God ; the other the observation of its effects. As every man is conscious of his own feelings, attention and comparison will gene- rally enable him to ascertain their character. He may tell whether he has had such views of the justice and holiness of God as to produce a conviction of his own sinfulness and ill-desert; whether he has been forced to give up his self- complacency, and to feel that disapprobation of his character and conduct, which leads the soul to confess with shame and sorrow its guilt and pollution in the sight of God. He may tell whether he has had such apprehensions of the REPENTANCE. 235 mercy of God in Jesus Christ as to induce him to return to his heavenly Father, with a strong desire after his favour, and with a firm deter- mination to live to his glory. These are the exercises which constitute repentance, and he w4io is conscious of them may know that he is turned from death unto life. As, however, true self-knowledge is the most difficult of all attainments ; and as the feelings, unless unusually strong, are hard to be detected in their true nature, the surest test of the cha- racter of any supposed change of heart is to be found in its permanent effects. By their fruits ye shall know them, is a declaration as appli- cable to the right method of judging of ourselves as of others. Whatever, therefore, may have been our inward experience ; whatever joy or sorrow we may have felt, unless we bring forth fruits meet for repentance, our experience will profit us nothing. Our repentance needs to be repented of, unless it leads us to confession and restitution in cases of private injury; unless it causes us to forsake not merely outward sins, which attract the notice of others, but those w^hich lie concealed in the heart; unless it makes us choose the service of God, as that which is right and congenial, and causes us to live not for ourselves, but for him who loved us and gave himself for us. There is no duty the necessity of which is either more obvious in itself, or more frequently 236 REPENTANCE. asserted in the word of God, than that of repent- ance. Nature itself teaches us that when we have done wrong, we should be sorry for it, and turn away from the evil. Every man feels that this is a reasonable expectation in regard to those who have offended him. Every parent especially looks with anxiety for the repentance of a disobedient child ; and he considers nothing worthy of the name but sincere sorrow and a return to affectionate obedience. No man need wonder, therefore, that God, who requires no- thing but what is right, and who can require nothing less, commands all men everywhere to repent. The salvation offered in the gospel, though it be a salvation of sinners, is also a sal- vation from sin. The heaven which it promises is a heaven of holiness. The rivers of pleasure which flow from the right hand of God, are filled with the pure waters of life. No man, therefore, can be saved, who does not, by repentance, for- sake his sins. This is itself a great part of sal- vation. The inward change of heart from the love and service of sin, to the love and service of God, is the great end of the death of Christ, who gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish. A salvation for REPENTANCE. 237 sinners, therefore, without repentance, is a con- tradiction. Hence it is that repentance is the burden of evangelical preaching. Our Saviour himself, when he began to preach, said. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.* And when he came into Galilee preaching the gospel, he said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and beliave the gospel. f The commission which he gave his apostles was, That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. J In the execution of this commission, his disciples went forth and preached. Repent ye and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.§ Paul, in the account which he ^ave Agrippa of his preaching, said that he showed first unto them in Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then unto the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn unto God, and do works meet for repentance. || And he called upon the elders at Ephesus to bear witness that he had taught publicly and from house to house, testify- ing both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repent- ance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.TI *Matt.iv. 17. t Mark i. 15. J Luke xxiv. 47. ? Acts iii. 19. 11 Acts xxvi. 20. H Acts xx. 21. 238 REPENTANCE. Eepentance then is the great, immediate and pressing duty of all who hear the gospel. They are called upon to forsake their sins, and to re- turn unto God through Jesus Christ. The neg- lect of this duty is the rejection of salvation. For, as we have seen, unless we repent we must perish. It is because repentance is thus indis- pensably necessary, that God reveals so clearly not only the evil of sin and the terrors of his law, but his infinite compassion and love; that he calls upon us to turn unto him and live, assuring us that he is the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abun- dant in goodness and truth. This call to re- pentance commonly follows men from the cradle to the grave. It is one of the first sounds which wakes the infant's ear; it is one of the last which falls on the failing senses of the dying sinner. Every thing in this world is vocal with the voice of mercy. All joy and all sorrow are calls to return unto God, with whom are the issues of life. Every opening grave, every church, every page of the Bible, is an admonition or an invi- tation. Every serious thought or anxious fore- boding is the voice of God, saying. Turn ye, for why will ye die? It is through all these ad- monitions that men force their way to death. They perish, because they deliberately reject salvation. It is one of the mysteries of redemption, that under the economy of mercy, all duties are REPENTANCE. 239 graces. Though repentance is our duty, it is not less the gift of God. Those who wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, gladly seize on such truths either as an excuse for delay, under pretence of waiting God's time, or as a palliation of the guilt of a hard and impenitent heart. But those who feel the greatness of the work required of them, rejoice in the truth, and rouse themselves with new energy to their duty, no longer a hopeless task, and with all earnest- ness work out their own salvation, because it is God that worketh in them to will and to do, according to his own pleasure. 240 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. CHAPTER YIIL Section I. — The Nature and Necessity of a Puhlio Profession of Religion. Eeligion consists in a great measure in the secret intercourse of the soul with God ; in those acts of adoration, gratitude, confidence and sub- mission which the eye of man cannot see, and with which the stranger cannot intermeddle. These secret exercises, by controlling the exter- nal conduct, and by supplying the motives for the humble demeanour and benevolent actions of the Christian, cannot indeed fail to manifest their existence; but all unnecessary parading them ujDon the notice of others borders on the offence which our Saviour condemned in the ancient Pharisees. Agreeably to his directions, our alms are to be given in secret; when we pray, we should pray in secret; and when we fast, we should not appear unto men to fast, but unto our Father, who seeth in secret. In these words Christ does more than condemn hypocrisy ; he not only forbids the performance of religious duties with the design of being seen of men, but he teaches that true religion is un- PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 241 obtrusive and retiring. It avoids the glare of day. It is lioly, solemn, secret, rejoicing in being unobserved. It is directly opposed to the os- tentatious display of religious feelings in which those delight who seem to make religion consist in talking about it. Although religion is thus retiring in its cha- racter, and although it consists in a great mea- sure in the secret intercourse of the soul with God, it nevertheless has its social and public relations, which render it impossible that a true Christian should desire to keep the fact of his being a Christian a secret from the world. This is indeed often attempted, for a time, by those whose faith is weak, and who dread the reproach with which a profession of religion is, under many circumstances, attended. The temptation to such concealment cannot well be appreciated by those who have always lived in the bosom of a religious society, where the ^^i^ofession of reli- gious sentiments is a passport to confidence and respect. Such persons little know the trial to which those of their brethren are exposed whose parents or associates view all experimental reli- gion with hatred or contempt, and who visit every manifestation of pious feelings with the chastisement of cruel mockings. To a greater or less degree, a large portion of the people of God are called upon to endure this trial; and they are often tempted to ask whether they cannot be religious without letting it be known. 2i 242 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. If religion is a secret thing, why may it not be kept a secret ? To this question the answer is simple and decisive. The confession of Christ before men is declared in Scripture to be essen- tial to salvation. Whosoever, said our Saviour, confesseth me before men, him will I confess before my Father w^hich is in heaven ; but who- soever denieth me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.* Again, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, w^hen he cometh in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels.f Paul also, in writing to Timothy, says. Be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.J If we suffer, we shall also reign wdth him ; if we deny him, he also will deny us.§ And still more explicitly, when teaching the condition of salvation, he says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Je- sus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto right- eousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 1 1 The same truth is taught in all those passages which assert the necessity of * Matt. X. 32, 33. f Mark viii. 38. % 2 Tim. i. 8. § 2 Tim. ii. 12. || Rom. x. 9, 10. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 243 baptism, because baptism involves a public pro- fession of the gospel. Thus our Saviour, in his commission to the apostles, said, He that believ- eth and is baptized shall be saved.* And on the day of Pentecost, when the people were con- vinced of the sin of havmg rejected Christ, and asked what they should do, Peter answered, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus.-j* It was not enough that they should retire to their houses and repent before God ; they must publicly ac- knowledo;e Christ and their alledance to him. There is, therefore, no condition of discipleship more clearly laid down than this. If we do not confess Christ, he will not confess us. If we do not acknowledge him as our Saviour, he will not acknowledge us as his disciples. If we are not willing to share with him in the reproach and contradiction of sinners, we cannot share in the glory which he has received from the Father. The relation in which we stand to Christ as our king renders a public acknowledgment of his authority necessary. • In the kingdoms of this world, no one is admitted to the privileges of citizenship without a profession of allegiance. And in the kingdom of Christ, those who do not acknowledge his authority, reject him. By refusing to confess him as Lord, they declare that they are not his people. * Mark xvi. 16. f Acts ii. 38. 244 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. The cliurch is also often compared in Scrip- ture to a family. Can a child live in his father's house without acknowledging his parent ? May he receive the blessings of a mother's love, and not acknowledge her to be his mother? May he pass her in the street witliout recognition, and then steal away, under cover of the night, to be fed at her table and to be protected by her care? As every one feels that no child, with proper filial feelings, could hesitate to acknow- ledge his parents, so w^e may be assured that we are not the children of God, if we are afraid or ashamed to acknowledge him as our Father, and our obligations to honour and obey him. It is still further to be considered that Chris- tians are the worshippers of Christ. The apostle salutes the Corinthians as those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus ; and from the be- ginning, in Jerusalem and at Damascus, Chris- tians were designated as those who called on the name of Christ.* But what kind of a worshipper is he who is ashamed or afraid to acknowdedge his God ? All the relations, therefore, in which a Christian stands to Christ, as his king, as the head of the family of God and as the object of divine worship, involve the necessity of confess- ing him before men; and we practically reject him in all these relations by neglecting or refus- ing this public profession of him and his religion. * Acts ix. 14,21. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 245 A moment's consideration of the nature of the religion of Jesus Christ must convince us of the impossibility of being a secret Christian. Not the heart only, but the whole external deport- ment must be regulated by that religion. It forbids many things which the world allows ; it enjoins many things which the world forbids. Obedience to its precepts of necessity includes a j)ublic profession ; because such obedience draws a line of distinction between its disciples and the people of the w^orld. This is one of the reasons why the people of God are called saints. They are distinguished, separated from others and con- secrated to God. When they cease to be thus distinguished from those around them, they cease to be saints. If their inward tem2:)er and outward conduct do not mark them out as a peculiar people, they are not Christians. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. It cannot be that those who deny themselves, and take up their cross and daily follow Christ; whose affections are set upon things above; who walk by faith and not by sight ; who live unto God and keep themselves unspotted from the world, should not visibly differ from those whose spirit, principles and objects are all worldly. Nor is it possible that this difference should exist, without an avowal, on the part of the Christian, of the cause of it. He must appeal to the authority of Christ as the justification of his conduct, and 21* 246 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. therefore cannot live as a Christian without con- fessing Christ. Besides the general temper and deportment required by the gospel, there are many specific duties enjoined by Christ which imply a public profession of his religion. The organization of his church as a visible society, supposes the sepa- ration of a people recognising his authority, and professing to act in obedience to his laws. The commission which he gave to his disciples was, that they should go into all the world, preaching his gospel, making disciples, baptizing them in his name, gathering them into distinct societies, and appointing officers over them for conducting ]Dublic worship and for the exercise of discipline. All this supposes that his followers should con- stitute a body publicly acknowledging him as their head, and confessing him as their Lord and Saviour before the world. How can a man keep the fact of his being a Christian a secret, when Christianity is, by its author, made to assume this visible, organized form ? It is specially en- joined upon every believer to associate himself with the church, to assemble with his fellow- Christians for public worship, and to unite with them in celebrating the Saviour's death. If a Christian is one who obeys Christ, and if obe- dience includes those external acts which involve this public acknowledgment of him, then no man can be a Christian who does not make this ac- knowledgment. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 247 There are few duties (and those founded on positive precepts) commanded in the word of God, which right feelings do not, of themselves, urge us to discharge. If we are required to for- sake sin, to serve God, to love the brethren, to live for others rather than ourselves, to be in- stant in prayer, to join in the public and social worship of God ; these are things in w^hich the renewed heart instinctively delights. The ex- ternal command guides and sanctions the per- formance; but the motive to obedience is not mere regard to authority. In like manner, while the public confession of Christ is enjoined in Scripture as a necessary duty, it is, at the same time, the spontaneous tribute of every Christian heart. If no subject requires to be urged to acknowledge a sovereign whom he loves ; if no child needs to be commanded to con- fess a parent whom he reveres, much less does the believer need to be forced to confess the Saviour, whom he regards as the brightness of the Father's glory, to whom he feels indebted for redemption, and whom he hopes to worship and serve with saints and angels in heaven. It is not meant to be asserted that no believer is ever ashamed of Jesus ; nor that under circum- stances of peculiar trial he may not fear to ac- knowledge his truth or to assume his name. Peter once denied his Master. But it is cer- tainly true that no man can have right views of Christ and right feelings toward him, without 248 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. habitually, openly and gladly acknowledging him as his God and Saviour. He will esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, and choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. It is not difficult to understand the nature of the duty now under consideration. To confess Christ is to recognise his character and claims. It is to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. It is to admit the truth of the doctrines which he taught. It is to profess our allegiance to him as our Lord and Saviour. This confession must be public; it must be made before men; it must be made with the mouth, and not left to be in- ferred from the conduct. It should be remem- bered that this includes more than the mere assumption of the name Christian, in distinction from Pagan or Mohammedan. If men miscon- ceive or misrepresent the character of Christ, a profession of such erroneous views is not the confession which he requires. To acknowledge Christ merely as a good man, or an inspired teacher, is in fact to deny him in his true cha- racter as the Son of God, as the propitiation for sin, as the only mediator and the sovereign Lord of the living and the dead. And to acknow- ledge the gospel merely as a code of morals, is to reject it as the revelation of the grace of God. The confession which is required is the public acknowledgment of Christ in his true character, PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 249 and of his gospel in its real nature. It will not do to strip the gospel of every thing offensive to human pride and to acknowledge the rest. The very thing to be done is to take the shame of professing what is a . scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. It is to acknowledge our faith and confidence in a Saviour despised and rejected of men, and in doctrines which human reason can neither discover nor compre- ^ bend. v^..^ There are several ways in which this public confession is to be made. As already remarked, there is a confession included in the obedience rendered to the commands of Christ. Obedience, therefore, is one form of confession, and can never be rendered without distinguishing those who yield it as the followers of Christ. Again, occasions frequently occur in which Christians are called upon to avow the truth, to defend it against gainsayers, to urge it upon those over wdiom they have influence or authority, or to give a reason of the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear. But the chief and most im- portant mode of confession is attendance upon the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. So much prominence is given to these institu- tions, in the word of God, that every Christian should have clear ideas of their nature and of his own duty in regard to them. 250 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. Section II. — Baptisjn and the Lord's Supper. — The Mature, Design and Efficacy of these Ordinances. That Baptism and the Lord's Supper, what- ever other important ends they may be intended to serve, were appointed as a mode of pubhcly professing our faith in the gospel, is clearly taught in the Bible. The public participation of the rites of any religion is, in its nature, a profession of that religion. It is on this ground the apostle charges with idolatry the Corinthians who, within the precincts of the heathen tem- ples, partook of the sacrifices offered to idols. I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. The participation of a Christian ordinance, is it not an act of Christian worship? The participa- tion of a Jewish sacrifice, is it not an act of Jewish worship? and by parity of reasoning, is not the participation of a heathen ordinance an act of heathen worship ? This is the purport of the apostle's argument in 1 Cor. x. 15 — 21, and it is obviously founded on the admitted truth, that joining in the celebration of the ordinances of the gospel, is, from the nature of the act, a profession of the religion of Christ. The reci- pient thereby places himself in communion with the object of worship and with all his fellow- worshippers. For we being many are one bread and one body ; for we are all partakers of one bread. Hence the a^^ostle adds, Ye cannot drink PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 251 of the cup of the Lord and of the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. It is impossible to be in communion with Christ and Satan at the same time, and, therefore, it is the grossest inconsist- ency to partake at the same time of the ordi- nances of Christ and of the sacrifices of devils. All this supposes that a participation of Chris- tian ordinances is a profession of the Christian religion. When Christ commanded the apostles to make disciples, baptizing them, &c., he obvi- ously intended that baptism should be a badge of discipleship, or that by that rite his followers should acknowledge their relation to him. This, indeed, is the prominent idea in the formula. To baptize in the name of any one. And hence Paul reminded the Corinthians that they were not his disciples or followers, by asking them, ^yere ye baptized in the name of Paul? It is, however, unnecessary to dwell upon this point, as it is universally conceded that the participation of the ordinances of the gospel is the appointed mode of confessing Christ before the world. As it is the duty of every Christian to confess Christ, and to confess him in this particular way, it is necessary to inquire more particularly into the nature and design of these ordinances. It has long been customary in the church to call these institutions sacraments. Little light, how- ever, can be derived from the use of this term, because it is not a scriptural word, and because 252 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. it is employed by ancient writers in a very com- prehensive sense. As it comes from the word meaning to consecrate, any thing sacred was called a sacrament. The Eomans applied the term to a sum of money deposited in the hands of the high jDriest to abide the decision of a suit. They also called the oath by which soldiers con- secrate themselves to the military service a sacra- ment; and in the Latin church, (whence we have borrowed the word,) it was used as synony- mous with mystery, not only as applied to things which had a hidden meaning, but in its wider sense as signifying what was undiscover- able by human reason. In this sense the gospel itself, the calling of the Gentiles, the future con- version of the Jews are sacraments. It is not from a word of such latitude of meaning that the nature of the Christian ordinances can be learned; but, on the contrary, the Christian sense of the word must be determined by what the Scriptures teach concerning the ordinances to which the word is now applied. They are, in the jSrst place, rites of divine appointment, and not of human institution. When Christ was about to ascend into heaven, he said, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fatlier, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- manded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. The rite of PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 253 baptism was, therefore, instituted by Christ, and is to be continued as long as there are disciples to be made, even unto the end of the world. And on the night in which he was betrayed, he instituted the Lord's supper, saying, This do in remembrance of me, with the command that it should be observed until he comes. The New Testament furnishes abundant evidence that the apostles enjoined, both by precept and example, the observance of these ordinances, agreeably to the Saviour's directions. No rite, therefore, is a sacrament in the Christian sense of the term, which is not a matter of divine appointment, and of perpetual obligation. In the second place, the Bible teaches us that the sacraments are the signs of spiritual bless- ings. They are designed by outward, significant actions, to represent inward, spiritual gifts. The great blessing offered in the gospel is union with Christ, and the consequent participation of his merits and Spirit, by which we are freed from the condemnation and pollution of sin. And this is the blessing which baptism and the Lord's supper are designed to represent. Hence it is said, As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ; which implies union with him.* Believers are said to be baptized into one body.f That is, by baptism they are constituted one body; but they are one body only in virtue * Gal. iii. 27. f 1 Cor. xii. 13. 22 254 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. of their union with their common head. Know ye not, asks the apostle, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death ? i. e. so as to be united with him in his death.* As union with Christ is the great blessing signified by baptism, and as par- don and sanctification are the consequences of that union, this ordinance is also represented as symbolizing these two great blessings of the covenant of grace. Thus on the day of Pente- cost, Peter said to the people. Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.f And Ananias said to Paul, Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. J In many similar passages the reference of bap- tism to pardon is very clearly expressed. No less clear is its intended significancy of sanctification. This is plainly taught in the passages from the Epistles to the Galatians and Eomans, quoted above, in which baptism is de- clared to represent our union with Christ, and our death to sin and our living unto God. And in the Epistle to Titus,§ it is called " the wash- ing of regeneration ;" and in the Ej^istle to the Ephesians,|| Christ is said to sanctify his church " with the washing of water by the word." It need hardly be remarked that the ordinance is * Rom. vi. 2. t Acts ii. 38. % Acts xxii. 16. |Titusiii.5. |1 Eph. v. 26. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 255 appropriately significant of these great truths. Water is the common means of purification. Both the guilt and pollution of sin are repre- sented in ScrijDture as a defilement, and hence they are said to be washed away by the blood and Spirit of Christ. It is this twofold purifica- tion that is so appropriately represented by the ordinance in question. The same truths, under a different aspect, are exhibited in the Lord's supper. That the bread represents the body of Christ, and the wine his blood, is expressly declared by our Saviour when he said, " This is my body, this is my blood." And by our participation of the bread and wine, our participation of that of which they are* the symbols is clearly represented. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread."^ Here, as in the passage quoted above in reference to baptism, believers are . de- clared to be one body, because, by partaking of the Lord's supper, their communion with the Lord Jesus is expressed. These ordinances, therefore, though in different ways, set forth the same great truth. They are both divinely ap- pointed symbols of our union with Christ, and * 1 Cor. X. IG, 17. 256 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. of our participation of the benefits which flow from his mediation and death. We should greatly err, however, if we sup- posed they were merely signs. We are taught that they are seals; that they were appointed by Christ to certify to believers their interest in the blessings of the covenant of grace. Among men a seal is used for the purpose of authentica- tion and confirmation. It is intended to assure the party concerned that the document to which it is attached, is genuine and binding. In con- descension to our weakness, God has been pleased not only to promise pardon and purity to believers, but to appoint these ordinances as seals of his promises. The simple assurance given to Noah that the earth should not a second time be destroyed by a deluge, might have been a sufficient foundation for confidence ; but God saw fit to appoint the rainbow to be a perpetual confirmation of his covenant; and throughout all generations, when that bow ap- pears, men feel that it is not merely a sign of the returning sun, but a divinely appointed pledge of the promise of God. In like manner, God willing more abundantly to show unto his peo- ple the immutability of his promise, has con- firmed it by these seals, which are designed to assure the believer that as certainly as he re- ceives the signs of the blessings of the covenant, he shall receive the blessings themselves. That these ordinances were really intended to PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 257 confirm the promises of God, is plain from the fact that Paul says that circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of faith ; that is, it was designed to assure Abraham and his de- scendants that God w^ould regard and treat as righteous all w^ho believed his words. And that the apostle regarded baptism in the same light is obvious from Col. ii. 11, &c., where baptism and circumcision are spoken of as of similar im- port. And in reference to the Lord's supper, the Saviour said, This cup is the New Testament in my blood; that is, the new covenant was ratified by his blood. Of that blood the cup is the appointed memorial, and it is, therefore, at the same time, the memorial and confirmation of the covenant itself; it is the assurance to us that God has promised the blessings of that covenant to all believers. Baptism and the Lord's supper are therefore visible pledges or confirmations of the fact that Christ has died, that his death has been accepted as a propitia- tion for sin, and that God, for his sake, will grant pardon, sanctification and eternal life to all them that believe. If, however, the sacraments are seals on the part of God, the reception of them implies a voluntary engagement on the part of the Chris- tian to devote himself to the service of Christ. The gospel is represented under the form of a co- venant. It is so called by Christ himself But a covenant implies mutual stipulations. God pro- 22* 258 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. mises to his people pardon and salvation ; in his strength, they promise faith and obedience. The sacraments are the seals of this covenant. God, in their appointment, binds himself to the per- formance of his promise ; his people, by receiv- ing them, bind themselves to trust and serve him. This idea is included in the representation given in Romans vi. 3, 4, where believers are said to have been buried with Christ in baptism, that as he rose from the dead, they also should walk in newness of life. It is included also in the very formula of baptism ; for to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, implies a voluntary dedication of ourselves to God, as our Father, Redeemer and Sanctifier. The same thing is taught in all the passages in w^hicli a participation of Christian ordinances is said to include a profession of the gospel; for the gospel imposes duties as well as promises blessings. It is probably in this view of these ordinances that the name, sacraments, was so generally ap- j)lied to them. For as the oath by which the soldier consecrated himself to the military ser- vice was called a sacrament, so the ordinances in which the believer binds himself to the ser- vice of Christ was appropriately designated by the same term. The phrase sacramental host is, therefore, not inaptly applied to the people of God, considered as a great multitude, who PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 259 have solemnly bound themselves by sacraments to live to his glory. Baptism and the Lord's supper being ordi- nances of divine appointment and perpetual obligation, designed to distinguish the followers of Christ from the world; to exhibit the truths of the gospel ; to seal to believers the divine promises, and to bring them into covenant with God, the interesting question arises. What good do they do ? What benefits are we authorized to expect from them ? The answer commonly given to this question by the great body of evan- gelical Christians is, that the sacraments are eflB- cacious means of grace, not merely exhibiting to, but actually conferring upon those who worthily receive them, the benefits which they represent. As they are divinely appointed to set forth Christ and his benefits, and to assure the be- liever of his interest therein, they have, even as moral means, a powerful influence to confirm his faith, to excite his gratitude and love, and to open the fountains both of penitence and joy. But as the word of God has not only its own moral influence, as truth, in the sanctification of the soul, but also, when attended by the demon- stration of the Spirit, a divine and eJBfectual power; so the sacraments have not only the in- fluence due to the lively exhibition of truth, but as means of God's appointment, and attended by his Spirit, they become efiicacious signs of grace, communicating what they signify. Nothing less 260 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. than this can satisfy the strong language of the Scriptures on this subject, or the experience of God's people. When the Christian, in the exer- cise of faith, sees in the water of baptism the lively emblem of the purifying influence of the blood and Spirit of Christ, and in the bread and wine the memorials of the Saviour's death, and knows that they are appointed to be a pledge of the salvation of all believers, he receives Christ, in receiving the appointed symbols of his grace ; he receives anew the forsfiveness of his sins ; he enters into fellowship with God, and his soul is filled with the Holy Ghost. Hence it is that believers so often find their strength renewed, their faith confirmed, their purposes invigorated, their hearts filled with joy and love, while at- tending on these ordinances. As the efficacy of the sacraments is a subject of great practical importance, it is necessary to examine more particularly what the Scriptures teach on this subject. Baptism is called the washing of regeneration ; it is said to unite us to Christ,* to make us partakers of his death and life,f to wash away our sins,J to save the soul.§ The bread and wine, in the Lord's sup- per, are said to be the body and blood of Christ ; to partake of these emblems, is said to secure union with Christ and a participation of the * Gal. iii. 27. f Rom. vi. 4, 5. t Acts xxii. 16. g 1 Pet. iii. 21. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 2G1 merits of his death.* These and smiilar pas- sages must be understood either with or without limitation. If they are to be limited, the limi- tation must not be arbitrarily imposed, but sup- plied by the Scriptures themselves. We have no right to say that the sacraments confer these benefits in every case in which no moral impedi- ment is interposed, because no such limitation is expressed in the passages themselves, nor elsewhere taught in the Scriptures. The limi- tation which the Scriptures do impose on these passages is the necessity of faith. They teach that the sacraments are thus efficacious, not to every recipient, but to the believer; to those who already have the grace wdiich these ordi- nances represent. If it be asked how they can be said to confer the grace which is already pos- sessed ? let it be remembered that he who has been sprinkled with the blood of Christ needs the application to be often repeated; he who has received the Holy Spirit needs to receive him again; he w^ho has received Christ needs to receive him day by day, that he may live upon him. That the Scriptures teach that the passages in question are to be understood with the qualifications just stated is clear, because otherwise they would teach that every one who is baptized is a child of God, renewed by the Holy Spirit, united to Christ and made a par- * 1 Cor. X. IG, 17. 262 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. taker of the saving benefits of his death. But this cannot be true, first, because the Bible abundantly teaches that those who are renewed and receive the Holy Spirit have the fruits of the Spirit, love, gentleness, goodness and faith. Where these are not, there the Spirit is not. But these fruits do not uniformly, nor even generally attend the reception of the outward or- dinance. We know that although Simon Magus was baptized, he remained in the gall of bitter- ness and in the bond of iniquity. We know, from Paul's epistles, that many of the baptized Galatians and Corinthians were the enemies of the cross of Christ. We know from our own daily observation that multitudes of those who are baptized and received to the Lord's supper, do not differ in temper or life from the world around them. God, therefore, in the actual ad- ministration of his kingdom, contradicts that interpretation of his word which makes it teach that the sacraments always confer the benefits which they represent. It is to degrade the re- newing of the heart and the gift of the Holy Ghost into things of no account, to represent them as the portion of the unholy multitudes w4io in every age and church have been admit- ted to baptism and the Lord's supper. In the second place, this interpretation is op- posed to what the Scriptures elsewhere teach of the nature of sacraments. The opinion that such ordinances uniformly convey grace and in- PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 263 troduce the recipient into favour with God, was one of those false doctrines of the Jews which Paul so earnestly combated. Great is the virtue of circumcision, for no circumcised person enters hell, was the confident and destructive persua- sion of the formalists of that age. In opposition to this doctrine, the apostle assured them that circumcision would, indeed, profit them, if they kept the law; but if they broke the law, their circumcision became uncircumcision. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly ; and circumci- sion is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter."^ We have here a very explicit state- ment of the nature and efficacy of a sacrament. It has no efficacy in itself considered ; its value depends on the presence or performance of the condition of the covenant to w^hich it is attached. If the Jews kept the law, their circumcision secured to them all the blessings of the covenant under which they lived. But if they broke the law, their circumcision was of no avail. It was, therefore, not external circumcision that made a man a Jew; but the circumcision of the heart, of which the external rite was the sign. In like manner it is not external baptism that makes a man a Christian, but the baptism of the Spirit, of which the washing with water is the ap- * Rom. ii. 25-20. 264 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. pointed symbol. The two are not necessarily connected, and where the latter is wanting, the former can be of no avail. And, lest it should be supposed that we have no right to apply what is said of the sacraments of the old dispensation to those of the new, the very same doctrine is taught in reference to the New Testament sacra- ments themselves. The apostle Peter says, We are saved by water; not ordinary water, but by baptism; not mere external baptism, however, but by the sincere turning of the heart to God, that is, by the inward change of which baptism is the outward sign.* This passage, in its doc* trinal import, is precisely parallel to that refer- ring to circumcision just quoted. Neither rite, therefore, necessarily conveyed the grace of which they were the signs, and to neither is any value ascribed apart from the spiritual change which they are appointed to represent. In like manner, in reference to the Lord's supper, the apostle teaches that, so far from the mere exter- nal act being necessarily connected with the reception of the benefits of Christ's death, those who ate and drank unworthily, ate and drank judgment to themselves. Nothing, indeed, can be more opposed to the whole spirit of the reli- gion of the Bible, than the doctrine that exter- nal rites are necessarily connected with spiritual blessings; that the favour of God is to be ob- * 1 Pet. iii. 21. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 265 tained by mere unresisting submission to reli- gious ceremonies. A man may be baptized, or circumcised on the eighth day, he may belong to the purest and most apostolic church, he may be blameless as touching all the external prescrip- tions of the gospel, and still be destitute of the grace of God and unprepared for his presence. It is not by works of righteousness, much less by ceremonial observances, that we are to be saved, but by the righteousness of Christ and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. He is not a Christian who is one outwardly, nor is that bap- tism which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly, and the baptism which is unto salvation, is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. In the third place, that the sacraments are not designed to convey grace to those who have it not, is plain because the Scriptures require those who are admitted to these ordinances to make a profession of their faith and repentance. When the apostles began to preach, we are told that. Those that gladly received the word were baptized.* When the eunuch desired to be bap- tized, Philip said to him. If thou belie vest with all thy heart, thou mayest.f Cornelius did not receive the Holy Spirit in the first instance by baptism, but when Peter had evidence that he had already received the Spirit, he asked, Can * Acts ii. 41. f Acts viii. 37. 23 266 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we 1^' Paul was a penitent believer before his baptism; and thus in all other cases when men were baptized, they professed to be Christians. They were not made Christians by their admission to the sacraments; but their Christian character or standing was thereby ac- knowledged. It has accordingly been the custom in all ages to require a profession of faith on the part of those who are received 1^3 sealing ordi- nances. But faith is an exercise of a renewed heart; and if faith supposes regeneration, and baptism supposes faith, then by the voice of the church as well as of Scripture, baptism also sup- poses the renovation of the heart. Finally, God bears his testimony against the doctrine which teaches an inseparable connection between these ordinances and spiritual blessings, by granting these blessings to those who have not received any sacramental rite. Abraham was justified before he was circumcised; Corne- lius was a just man, and accepted of God, and a recipient of the Holy Ghost, before he was bap- tized; the penitent thief was assured of his admission into ' paradise though he was never born of water. If then the Scriptures require the evidence of regeneration in those who would acceptably attend upon the sacraments; if they * Acts X. 47. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 267 teach that many who receive the outward sign do not receive the inward erace; and on the other hand, that many receive the inward grace who have not received the outward sign, then do they also teach that these ordinances are not appointed to convey, in the first instance, pardon and sanctification, but to be signs and seals of these blessings to the penitent believer, and that to him, and to him only are they efiicacious means of grace. It is, therefore, obvious that those passages in Scripture, which refer our salvation to baptism and the Lord's supper, cannot, consistently with the plain teaching of the Bible, be understood strictly according to the letter. At the same time it must not be supjDosed that they are to be perverted, or taken in any other than their natural sense; that is, in any other sense than that which the universally received rules of in- terpretation justify and require. It is agreeable to the common language of men and to the usage of the Scriptures, that when any declara- tion or service is the appointed means of pro- fessing faith and obedience, making such declara- tion or performing such service is said to secure the blessings which are promised to the faith thereby professed. It is said. Whosoever confess- eth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is born of God; and again. With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This is said because confession implies faith; and no one supposes 268 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. that an insincere, careless, heartless confession will secure the salvation of any man. Thus also we are said to be saved by calling on the Lord, because invocation implies trust. In like manner we are said to be saved by baptism, be- cause baptism implies faith. If this faith be wanting, baptism can do us no more good than a heartless confession. There is no more difficulty in understanding why the Scriptures should con- nect salvation with the use of the sacraments, than in understanding why they should connect the same blessing with invocation or confession. There is no difficulty in either case, if we allow the Scriptures to explain themselves, and inter- pret them as we explain all other writings. Again, it is according to scriptural usage to ascribe to a sign the name and attributes of the thing signified. Thus circumcision is called the covenant of God, because it was the sign of that covenant. Christ called the cup the new cove- nant; the wine he called his blood and the bread his body. Those who partake of the wine are, therefore, said to receive his blood, and of course the benefits which it purchased. It is to be remembered, also, that the sacra- ments are seals, and that it is common to attri- bute to any ceremony, by which an engagement is ratified, the efficacy which belongs not to the ceremony, but to the engagement itself The ceremonial of inauguration is said to induct a man into the office, the right to which it merely PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 269 publicly declares and confirms. Even in the strict language of the law, a deed, with its signa- ture and seal, is said to convey a right of pro- perty, although it is simply the evidence of the purpose of the original possessor. It is that purpose which conveys the right, and if it can be shown that the man who holds the deed was not the man intended by the grantor, the deed would be resiarded as worthless. If a man deeds an estate to A, on the assumption that he is the son of B, should it be proved that A was not the son of B, the deed would convey to him no valid title. But the blessings of the gospel are de- clared to be intended for penitent believers; the sacraments are the external means of recognising the conveyance of these blessings; to those who are really what they profess to be, they do in fact convey and secure these blessings; to others they confer no such benefits. When an unbe- liever receives these ordinances, he no more ob- tains a title to the blessings which they repre- sent, than a man obtains a title to an estate by falsely assuming the name of the person for whom it is intended. There is nothing, therefore, in the language of the Scriptures on this subject, which is not per- fectlv consistent with the common Protestant doctrine that the sacraments have no inherent efficacy of their own, but become efficacious means of grace to those who believe; the Holy Spirit thereby communicating to believers the 23* 270 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. blessings of which those ordinances are the significant representations. Section III. — Obligation to attend upon the Sacra- ments — Qualifications for the proper Discharge of the Duty, The obligation which rests upon all Christians to attend upon the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, arises clearly from what has been shown to be their nature and design. We have seen that they are institutions appointed by Christ himself. He has commanded all his followers to be baptized and to commemorate his death, in a prescribed manner. As obedience to Christ is necessary, so is a participation of these ordinances. As, however, it is a necessity arising out of a positive command, it is a qualified ne- cessity, since such commands are not binding under all circumstances. It is impossible that a sinner should be saved without faith and repeid- ance; but it is not impossible that he should be saved without the sacraments. As we are boi nd to keep the Sabbath as part of our obedience to God, and yet may innocently labour on that day when necessity or mercy requires it; so although bound to present ourselves at the table of the Lord as an act of obedience, we may be inno- cently absent, whenever that absence is not the eiFect of a wilful or disobedient spirit. As, hc-w- ever, the command of Christ on this subje i Is PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 271 express, the obligation which it imposes is of the strongest character. In the second place, it has been shown that to confess Christ before men is an indispensable duty, and that the sacraments are the appointed means for making this confession; it follows, therefore, that attendance on the sacraments is also an indispensable duty. When in human governments the laws prescribe a particular mode in which we are to acknowledge allegiance to our country, it is not competent for us to neglect that mode; nor have we a right to adopt a differ- ent method of acknowledgment, or to suffer our allegiance to be inferred from our conduct. If we wish to be recognised as citizens, we must, in the prescribed form, acknowledge ourselves such. And if Christ has j)rescribed a particular way in which he will be acknowledged by his followers, intelligently and wdlfully to refuse obedience to his command, is to renounce our allegiance to him and to forfeit the benefits of his kingdom. Again, as the sacraments are the seals of the covenant of grace, to reject these seals is to re- ject the covenant itself. It is not meant that they are in such a sense indispensable that if a man perform the conditions of the covenant, he will be excluded from its benefits, for the want of the seals. Among men, indeed, we often see that the want of the prescribed number of wit- nesses to a signature, the want of a seal, or even a clerical error in a document, is sufficient to set 272 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. aside a solemn engagement. Nothing of this kind can occur under the government of God, where justice is never embarrassed by technical formalities. The apostle expressly teaches that as circumcision becomes uncircumcision, if the law be broken^ so, on the other hand, if a man keep the law, his uncircumcision shall be counted for circumcision. It is admitted, therefore, that if a man has the faith, repentance and obedience required by the gospel, his salvation is secure. But no man has a right to assume that he has this faith and repentance, who neglects to obey the commands of Christ. The essential condi- tions of salvation have been the same under every dispensation. If any man, under the old economy, had the faith of Abraham, he was en- titled to the blessings promised to Abraham. Nevertheless, as circumcision was the appointed means of expressing that faith, and of accepting the covenant of which it was the condition, it was expressly declared, that the uncircumcised man-child, whose flesh of his foreskin is not cir- cumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he hath broken my covenant.* Is it not equally true that those who intelligently and wilfully neglect baptism and the Lord's supper, break the covenant under which the church is now placed? It will not do for us to say, if we have the substance, the form is of little account. * Gen. xvii. 14. PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 273 We all know that if an ancient Israelite had repentance toward God and faith in the promised Messiah, his sins were forgiven ; and yet unless he expressed his faith by bringing the appointed sacrifice to the altar, he was not forgiven. God saw fit that the mode of pardon should be thus exhibited and recognised. In like manner he now requires that the method of salvation should be publicly acknowledged and set forth in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper. We do, therefore, as really reject the covenant of God by neglecting these ordinances, as did the Israelites who rejected circumcision or the offering of sacrifices. Another illustration of this subject may be borrowed from the marriage contract. The es- sence of the covenant is the mutual consent of parties. But in all civilized countries some pub- lic manifestation of that consent is essential to the validity of the engagement. Thus, also, the essence of our covenant with God is repentance and faith; but baptism and the Lord's supper being the divinely appointed means of signifying and ratifying the engagement, they can no more be neglected than the public recognition of the marriage covenant. It was L fatal perversion when the Jews ima- gined that circumcision and sacrifices without faith and obedience, were effectual to salvation, and it is no less a fatal delusion to imagine that baptism and the Lord's supper without those in- 274 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. ward graces can secure the favour of God. But in avoiding one extreme, we must not run into the opposite. Though the ancient sacrifices without faith were an abomination to the Lord ; the sacrifices were still, by divine appointment, necessary; and although the Christian ordi- nances, without the grace which they repre- sent, are empty forms, they too, by divine ap- pointment, are obligatory, and in their place, essential. No Christian, however, needs to be forced by stress of authority to yield obedience to the commands of Christ. It is enough for him that it is the will of his Saviour that the truths and blessings of the gospel should be exhibited and commemorated by the perpetual observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper. Though he were unable to see any fitness in such observance, or though experience taught him no- thing of its value, yet would he cheerfully obey. Much more may he be expected to yield a ready obedience, when he knows both from Scripture and experience, that these ordinances are made to the believer the channels of divine blessings; that they are means of grace and sources of the purest spiritual enjoyments; that they bring him into communion with Christ and unite him in holy fellowship with all his brethren. He knows that to neglect these divine institutions is not only to violate a command of God and to break his covenant; it is to refuse to be fed at PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 2X5 his table, and to reject the provision which he has made for the life of our souls. If the sacraments are such important means of grace, and if attendance upon them is a duty so plainly enjoined in the word of God, it is important to inquire what are the proper qualifi- cations for the acceptable discharge of this duty. In considering this subject we must not con- found the qualifications which the church has a right to demand of those who present themselves as candidates for Christian communion, with those which such candidates are bound to seek in themselves. The church cannot judge the heart; she can only require a credible profession. It is her duty to explain the nature of the gospel, wath its promises and commands, and to state clearly what is the nature of the service in w^hich those engage, who profess to embrace the offers of salvation. Those who, w^hen thus in- structed, declare that they accept the ofiers of divine mercy, and purpose to live in obedience to the divine commands, she receives into com- munion, unless there be some tangible evidence of the insincerity of their professions. This she does, not because she judges them to be true Christians, but because they profess the qualifica- tions which alone she has a right to demand. No priest under the old dispensation ever ven- tured to debar a man from the altar, because in his own mind he might judge him to be desti- tute of the faith and penitence implied in the 276 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. fict of presenting a sacrifice. If the offerer had the external qualifications prescribed by the law, he was admitted. To Him who searches the heart, it was left to decide upon his spiritual state. Thus, also, under the gospel dispensation, we find the apostles baptizing and admitting to the Lord's supper all who made the requisite profession, and against whom no visible evidence of insincerity could be produced. Whatever was considered a sufiicient reason for excommuni- cating a church member, was of course regarded as sufficient to exclude an applicant for admis- sion. It is of importance to remember that the church does not profess to decide that all those are true Christians whom she admits to her communion. Of their inward sincerity she can- not judge; to their own master they must stand or fall. Many are no doubt confirmed in a false judgment of themselves, because they consider their admission to the church to be an expres- sion of the judgment of their pastor, or brethren, that they are what they profess to be. It is natural for them to think well of themselves, when they consider experienced Christians as pronouncing a favourable judgment of their spiritual state. But they should remember that it is not the prerogative of the church to judge the heart; she must receive all who have the external qualifications which the Scriptures re- quire. But though the church is obliged to confine PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 277 lier demands to a credible profession of faith and repentance, it is the duty of those who seek admission to her communion to see that they have all the qualifications which the na- ture of the service demands. These qualifica- tions may all be reduced to knowledge and piety. Did the Scriptures teach that the sacraments had an inherent efficacy of their own ; that the water of baptism had power to wash away sin, and the bread and wine a virtue to sustain spi- ritual life, then indeed they might be adminis- tered to the ignorant, the insensible, or the dying. But if we are taught that the efficacy both of the word and ordinances depends not on them, nor on those who administer them, but on the Holy Spirit, revealing and applying the truth thereby exhibited, then it is plain that they must be understood in order to be beneficial. It is one of the most important doc- trines of the Bible that God sanctifies his people throu^'h the truth. But truth is not truth to o him who does not understand it. If you rejDcat to an i ignorant man a mathematical formula, although it may contain a proposition of the highest value, to him it is nothing. It com- municates no idea to his mind, and can produce no effect upon it. Or if you tell him that God has set forth his Son to be a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood, if he does not understand the meaning of the words, it is as 24 278 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. though he never heard them. We, therefore, do not preach in an unknown tongue; nor do we send Hebrew Bibles to the Hindoos, or the Greek Scriptures to the Hottentots. Unless the truth is understood, it is not present to the mind, and cannot operate upon it. In like manner, unless the sacraments are understood by those who receive them, they are, for them, an unmeaning ceremony. They either exhibit nothing, or they excite erroneous views and ap- prehensions. We degrade the Scriptures into formulas of incantation, and the sacraments into magical rites, if we suppose a knowledge of their meaning to be unnecessary. God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit — intelligently, as well as sincerely and inwardly. It is, therefore, essential to a proper attendance on the sacraments that we should know what they are designed to represent, wdiat benefits they confer and what obligations they impose. When they are thus understood; when the believer sees in them the clear exhibition of the truths and promises of the gospel, and knows that they w^ere appointed to be the means of his confessing Christ before men, and to ratify the gracious covenant of God wdth his soul, he then really receives the spiritual blessings of which the sacraments are the outward signs. The knowledge requisite to a proper under- standing of the sacraments includes a knowledge of all the essential doctrines of the gospel. PROFESSION OF EELIGION. 279 When a man is baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, unless these sacred names represent to his mind some definite idea ; unless he knows them to be the names of the persons of the Godhead, he cannot know what he does in submitting to be baptized. He does not acknowledge Jehovah ; nor does he receive him as his covenant God, Redeemer and Sanctifier. As baptism is de- signed to signify and seal our union with Christ, and our deliverance through him from the guilt and dominion of sin, unless we know ourselves to be sinners, and know that it is necessary for us to be united to Christ, and by his blood and Spirit to be pardoned and renewed, the ordi- nance for us loses all its significancy. Thus a knowledge of the truth concerning God, con- cerning sin, atonement and regeneration is essen- tial to a proper participation of this ordinance. And as the Lord's supper is intended to be a memorial of the death of Christ, unless we know who he was, why he died and what benefits his death secures, we are incapable of profitable joining in this service. All the affections must have an appropriate object. If we love, we love something ; if we fear, we fear something ; if we desire, we desire something. There can be nei- ther faith, nor love, nor penitence, nor hope, nor gratitude, but as objects suited to these exercises are present to the mind; and the nature of these exercises depends upon the nature of the objects 280 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. which call them forth. If they are excited by the truth, they are right and good ; and just in proportion to the clearness with which the truth is spiritually discerned, will be the purity and strength of the religious emotions. Knowledge, therefore, is essential to religion. We must not suppose, however, that know- ledge and learning are synonymous terms, or that all knowledge is derived from without, through the medium of the understanding. Yery far from it. A large part of our know- ledge is derived from our own consciousness or inward experience. The same external revelar tion may be presented to two equally intelligent men ; if the one is made, by the Spirit of God, to feel in accordance with the truth, and the other is destitute of such feelings, the former wdll possess a knowledge of which the latter has no conception. He will have an insight into the nature of the things revealed, and into their truth and value, which is due entirely to what passes within his own bosom. These men, although they may be equal in learning, will difler greatly in knowledge. We accordingly find that the ignorant, among God's people, have often far more knowledge of religious truth, than many learned men. They have more correct views of its nature; and the words by which it is expressed excite in their minds far more defi- nite conceptions c^ the real objects of the reli- gious affections. As, however, God does not PROFESSION OF RELIGION". 281 reveal new truths, but sanctifies his people by his word, there must be external instruction in order to this inward spiritual knowledge ; hence ignorance of the truths revealed in the Scrip- tures, as it is inconsistent with the existence of right religious feelings, or, in other words, with religion itself, so it is inconsistent, with the pro- per participation of those ordinances by which those truths are set forth and confirmed. The other qualifications for an acceptable par- ticipation of the sacraments are naturally sug- gested by the view given of their nature. As they are the appointed means for making a pub- lic profession of religion, it is of course requisite that w^e should be and believe what we therein profess. The substance of this profession is that we are Christians ; that we believe in Christ as the Redeemer of sinners; that we accept of the terms of salvation proposed in the gospel, and purpose to live in obedience to its commands. If we have not this faith ; if we do not thus purpose to renounce our sins and live unto God, then do we make a false profession, and our ser- vice must be unacceptable to God. Viewing the sacraments as seals of the cove- nant of grace, it is plain that they require the qualifications just mentioned in those who re- ceive them. That covenant relates to deliver- ance from sin. God therein engages to grant us salvation ; and we engage to accept of his mercy on the terms on which it is oflered. If 24* 282 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. he promises to be our God, we promise to be his people. But how can those who love sin, and are determined not to forsake it, enter into this solemn engagement with God ? How can those who have no sense of their need of pardon, no desire for holiness, no sorrow for past transgres- sions, thus covenant with God for forgiveness, sanctification and eternal life ? With regard to the Lord's supper, we are taught that it was specially designed to be a memorial of Christ's death. If we join in cele- brating his death, we profess^ to believe not only that he died, but that he was all that he claimed to be ; that his death secures the benefits which the Scriptures attribute to it; and that we are bound to aid in keeping this great event in per- petual remembrance. The proper discharge of this duty requires that w^e should have a due sense of our obligations to Christ for having loved us and given himself for us. It requires that we should reverence and love him in some measure in proportion to his excellence and the value of the blessings which we receive from him. It requires that we should be prepared to own him, who by wicked hands was crucified and slain, as our Lord and Saviour, and as such to obey and trust him. In whatever light, therefore, the sacraments are viewed, whether as the means of publicly confessing Christ, or as signs and seals of spirit- ual blessings, or as commemorative of the work PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 283 of redemption, no man can profitably or accept- ably attend upon them, without adequate know- ledge of their nature, without faith in the truths which they represent and confirm, or without the penitence, gratitude and love which those truths, when really believed, necessarily produce. Where this knowledge, faith and lov<* are found, there are the requisite qualifications for acceptable attendance on the sacraments; where they are wanting, such attendance must include false professions and insincere promises. We must not, however, suppose that the want of these qualifications frees us from the obliga- tion to obey the command of Christ to be bap* tized and to commemorate his death. We are certainly bound to worship God, though desti- tute of the reverence, faith and love which such worship requires ; and the plea of unfitness for the service cannot justify us in absenting our- selves from the ordinances which Christ has appointed. If we fear to assume the responsi- bility of a public profession of religion, we should remember that we make such profession every time we join in the public worship of the sanc- tuary. If we say we should offend God by ap- proaching his table without due preparation, let us remember that we offend him every time we pray, or hear the gospel, without faith, penitence, and obedience. It is in vain to attempt to intro duce consistency into a half religious life. If 284 PEOFESSION OF RELIGION. men will renounce all claim to be of the number of God's people, and reject his service entirely, they may so far be consistent. But they can- not choose one part of his service and reject another; they cannot profess to be penitent and believing by joining in the worship of God, and declare themselves impenitent and unbelieving by absenting themselves from the sacraments. They do not place themselves on neutral ground by such inconsistency. Their only safe and pro- per course is to repent and believe. Then will they be acceptable worshippers and acceptable communicants. If they frequent the temple of God with a sincere desire to do his will, and seek his favour, let them, in the same state of mind, obey all his commands. If they come to the Lord's table to please Christ, to obey his will, to express their gratitude for his death, let them come. As their day is, so shall their strength be. From the review of this whole . subject, it is clear that the public confession of Christ is an indispensable condition of discipleship; that this confession must be made by attending on the ordinances which he has appointed; that these ordinances are not only the signs and seals of spiritual blessings, but are made, by the Holy Spirit, to the believer, effectual means of grace; that attendance upon them is, therefore, an indis- pensable duty, requiring no other qualifications PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 285 than such as are necessary for the acceptable worship of God; and, consequently, that it is in- cumbent" on all those who sincerely desire to serve and honour Christ, and to partake of his salvation, to receive the sacraments, in obedience to his will. 286 HOLY LIVING. CHAPTER IX. Section I. — The Nature of True Religion. It is natural that those who have experienced the agitations which frequently attend upon con- version, and have felt the peace which flows from a hope of acceptance with God, to imagine that the conflict is over, the victory won, and the work of religion accomplished. This imagi- nation is soon dissipated. Birth is not the whole of life; neither is conversion the whole of reli- gion. A young mother may, in the fulness of her joy, forget for a moment that her vocation as a mother is but just begun; but when she looks upon her infant, so wonderful in its organi- zation and instinct with an immortal spirit, the sight of its helplessness makes her feel how great a work she has still to do. An hour's neg- lect might prove the ruin of her hopes. Thus the young Christian, although at first disposed to tliink that his work is finished, soon finds that the feeble principle of spiritual life needs to be watched and nourished with ceaseless care. If abandoned at its birth, it must perish as cer- tainly and as speedily as an exposed infant. HOLY LIYIXG. 287 Another mistake on this subject is made by those who suppose that religion is a fitful sort of life; an alternation of excitement and insensi- bility. Those who labour under this delusion, are religious only on certain occasions. They live contentedly for months in unconcern, and then, if they can be moved to tenderness or joy, they are satisfied with the prosj)ect of another period of collapse. No form of life is thus in- termittent. Neither plants nor animals thus live. Men do not, when in health, pass from convulsions to fainting, and from fainting to con- vulsions; nor does religion, when genuine, ever assume this form. It has, indeed, its alternations, as there are periods of health and sickness, of vigour and lassitude in the animal frame; but just so far as it deserves the name of religion, it is steady, active and progressive; and not a series of spasms. It is a still more common error to suppose that religion is rathier an external than an inter- nal service. There are multitudes who consider themselves to be religious, because they attend upon religious services; who suppose that a regu- lar attendance upon pujjlic worship and the out- ward forms of religion is enough to entitle them to the character of Christians. The Scriptures teach us that religion is a new, spiritual life. Its commencement is, therefore, called a new birth, a creation, a spiritual resur- rection. It is, as to its principle or source, mys- 288 HOLY LIVING. lerious. No man can tell what life is. He sees its different forms in vegetables, animals, and in tlie rational soul; but he cannot detect the secret spring of these different kinds of activity. The nature of spiritual life is not less inscrutable. The wind bloweth where it listeth ; ye hear the sound thereof, but ye cannot tell whence it Cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. A new kind of activity manifests itself in the soul that is born of God; but whence that activity springs, and how it is maintained, are among the secret things of God. We cannot doubt, however, that there is some permanent cause of those new exercises. We know that the life of the body does not con- sist in the acts of seeing, hearing, tasting, &c. ; nor does the soul consist of thought and volition; neither does spiritual life consist in the acts w^iich manifest its existence. There is in re- generation a change effected in the state of the soul which accounts for its perceptions, purposes and feelings being different from what they were before, and for their so continuing. The cause of this difference is sometimes called a new heart, or grace, or the spirit, or the new man, or the renewal of the inner man. All these terms are used to designate the principle of spiritual life, which manifests itself in the fruits of holiness. It is called life because it is thus permanent, or abiding. Those who for a time manifest a de- gree of ardour and activity in relation to religion HOLY LIVING. 289 and then lose all interest in the subject, are like dead bodies on which electricity may for a while produce some of the appearances of animation, but which soon become insensible to all means of excitement. In such cases there is no princi- ple of life. Where religion is genuine, it has its root in a new heart, and is, therefore, permanent. It is, moreover, characteristic of the life of sentient and rational creatures, to be spontane- ous in its exercises. There are certain acts to which it prompts and in which it delights. It is not by constraint that animals eat, or drink, or sport in the consciousness of strength ; nei- ther is it by compulsion that men exercise their minds in the reception and communication of ideas and the reciprocation of feeling. To be so isolated from their fellow-beings as to be prevented from giving vent to the force of intellectual and social life, is the severest of all condemnations. In like manner reverence, gratitude, love, submission, are the spontaneous exercises of the renewed heart. They are the free, unbidden, unconstrained effusions of the soul. That religion which is reluctant or forced, AN h ether by fear or stress of conscience, is spu- rious. Filial obedience, if rendered from a dread of punishment, or from mere regard to appear- ances, is very different from that which flows from respect and love ; and unless the service which we render to God flows unbidden from the heart, it is no evidence that we are his chil- 25 290 HOLY LIVING. dren. The Bible represents the people of God as delighting in the things of God. His word, his ordinances, his sanctuary, his presence are their chief joy. When a man is ill, he t^akes little pleasure in the ordinary sources of enjoy- ment ; and when the Christian is in a declining state, he knows little of the joy which belongs to religion. Still w^hatever there is of spiritual life in any soul, will manifest itself in spontaneous exercises of piety. Again, life, in all the forms in which we are acquainted with it, is progressive ; feeble at the beginning, it advances gradually to maturity. It is thus in plants, in animals, and in the ra- tional soul ; and it is thus also in the spiritual life. There is a joy which attends the beginning of a religious life, which very often declines ; a flict which may lead even the true Christian to think that religion itself is declining in his heart. Such joy, however, is a very uncertain criterion of the progress or decline of the spiritual life. The gambols of young animals show an exube- rance of jo}^, which those that have reached maturity no longer experience. But how imper- fect is the organization of these playful creatures, how small is their power of endurance, how^ little their serviceable strength, in comparison with that of those who know not half their joys ! It is not unnatural, therefore, that young Chris- tians should feel a glow of happiness from the HOLT LIVING. 291 exercise of feelings, delightful from their novelty as well as from their nature, which those more advanced may have ceased to experience, in whom feeling has ripened into principle, and mere joyful emotions settled into a peace which passes all understanding. Though joy is not the proper criterion of pro- gress in the divine life, it is as essential to its nature to be progressive, as it is to the life of the body to increase in stature* as it advances from childhood to maturity, or to that of the mind to gather strength in its progress from infancy to manhood. A man with the mind of an infant is an idiot ; he is destitute of what belongs to a rational being. And a Christian, who makes no progress in holiness, must be essentially defec- tive. The surest evidence of such progress is increase of strength; strength of faith; strength of purpose ; strength of principle ; strength to do right, to resist evil and to endure sufiering. The people of God go from strength to strength, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. True religion, then, is not an external service; nor is it a mere excitement of fear and sorrow, succeeded by peace and joy; nor is it a fitful alternation of such exercises. It is a permanent principle of action, spontaneous in its exercises and progressive in its nature. These attributes are essential to its genuineness, but they do not constitute its whole character. It is a partici- 292 HOLY LIVING. pation of the divine nature,* or the conformity of the soul to God. It is described as the put- ting off the old man with his deeds and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him ;f or a being renewed in the spirit of our mind, that we may put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.J These two passages express the same truth. To be renewed in knowledge, or rather unto know- ledge, means to be renewed so as to know ; and knowledge includes the perception, recognition and approbation of what is true and good. This comprehensive sense of the word is not unusual in the Scriptures; and hence it is said that to know God and Jesus Christ is eternal life. Such knowledge is the life of the soul; it is conformity to God in the perception and approbation of truth. No higher concej)tion of m6ral excel- lence can be formed than that which resolves it into the harmony of the soul with God in judg- ment and will. This is what in the parallel passage the apostle calls righteousness and holi- ness of truth, (that is, founded upon or arising from truth.) The same idea of sanctification is presented in Rom, xii. 2, when it is said. Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove (or, approve) what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This is * 2 Pet. i. 4. t Col. iii. 10. % Eph. iv. 24. HOLY LIVING. 293 true religion, to approve what God approves, to hate what he hates and to delight in what de- lights him. It is obvious from this representation that the whole man is the subject of this change. There are new perceptions, new purposes and new feelings. The mind becomes more -and more enlightened, the will more submissive to the rule of right, and the affections more thoroughly purified. The apostle, in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, says, The God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.* The body is the subject of sanctification in various ways. It is the temple of the Holy Ghost,f and is therefore holy, as consecrated to the ser- vice and hallowed by the presence of God. Our bodies are also members of Jesus Christ, and in virtue of this union, they partake of the benefits of redemption, and are hereafter to be fashioned like unto his glorious body. And still further, the influence of the body upon the soul is so manifold, for good or evil, and, in our fallen state, so predominantly for evil, that no small part of the work of sanctification consists in counteracting that influence. Paul says of him- self, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any means, when I * 1 Thess. V. 23. f 1 Cor. vi. 19. 294 HOLY LIVING. have preaclied to others, I myself should be a castaway.* And he declares it to be one of the conditions of life, that believers should, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body.f The body, therefore, is sanctified not only by redeem- ing it from the service of sin and consecrating it to the service of God, but also by restraining its power over the soul, making it temperate in its demands and submissive to the will of the renewed man. As the work of sanctification extends to all our faculties, so the image of God, which it is designed to impress upon the soul, includes all moral excellence. The different graces, such as love, faith, meekness, kindness, &C.5 are but different manifestations of one and the same principle of goodness. Not that justice and be- nevolence are the same sentiment or disposition, for they are distinct; but the same principle which makes a man just, will make him benevo- lent. Religion, or the principle of divine life, prompts to all kinds of excellence ; and, in it- self, as much to one as to another; just as the principle of life, in plants and animals and in the rational soul, leads to an harmonious develop- ment of the whole in all its parts. The root increases as the branches enlarge ; the body grows as the several members increase in size; and judgment and memory gain strength as the * 1 Cor. ix. 27. f Rom. viii. 13. HOLY LIVING. 295 other powers of the mind increase in vi«'our. Every thing depends upon this harmonious pro- gress. If the arms retained their infantile pro- portions, while the rest of the body advanced to maturity, deformity and helplessness would be the result. Or if judgment and feeling gained their full force, while memory and conscience re- mained as in infancy, the mind would be com- pletely deranged. The same law of symmetrical development is impressed upon the life of the soul. If it exists at all, it manifests itself in all the forms of goodness. There may be some kinds of excellence, where others are absent; but then such excellence has not its source in the divine life; or in a new heart; for that, in its very nature, includes all moral excellence. We feel it to be a contradiction to say that he is a good man, who, though just, is unkind ; be- cause goodness includes both justice and benevo- lence. And it is no less a contradiction to say that a man is religious who is not honest, be- cause religion includes honesty as well as piety. It is not simply intended that the word religion comprehends and expresses all forms of moral excellence, but that the thing meant by religion, or the new man, the principle of grace or of di- vine life in the heart, includes within itself all kinds of goodness. Reverence, love, submission, justice, benevolence, are but different exercises of one and the same principle of holiness. There can be no holiness without benevolence, none 296 HOLY LIVING. without reverence, none without justice. The man, therefore, who is renewed in the spirit of his mind after the image of God, is one who has that moral excellence which expresses itself, ac- cording to its different objects and occasions, in all the various graces of the Spirit. The Scriptures give especial prominence to the love of God as the most comprehensive and im- portant of all the manifestations of this inward spiritual life. We are so constituted as to take delight in objects suited to our nature ; and the perception of qualities adapted to our constitu- tion, in external objects, produces complacency and desire. The soul rests in them as a good to be loved for its own sake ; and the higher these qualities, the more pure and elevated are the affections which they excite. It is the effect of regeneration to enable us to perceive and love the infinite and absolute perfection of God, as comprehending all kinds of excellence, and as suited to the highest powers and most enlarged capacities of our nature. As soon, therefore, as the heart is renewed it turns to God, and rests in his excellence as the supreme object of com- placency and desire. Love to God, however, is not mere compla- cency in moral excellence. It is the love of a personal being, who stands in the most intimate relations to ourselves, as the author of our exist- ence, as our preserver and ruler, as our father, who with conscious love watches over us, pro- HOLY LIVING. 297 tects us, supplies all our wants, holds communion with us, manifesting himself unto us as he does not unto the world. The feelings of dependence, obligation and relationshij), enter largely into that comprehensive affection called the love of God. This affection is still further modified by the apprehension of the infinite wisdom and power of its object. These attributes are the proper object of admiration ; and, when infinite in degree and united with infinite goodness, they excite that wonder, admiration, reverence and complacency which constitute adoration, and which find in prostration and worship their only adequate expression. There is no attribute of religion more essential to its nature than this reverence for God. Whenever heaven has been opened to the view of men, its inhabitants have been seen with their faces veiled and bowing be- fore the throne of God. And all acceptable iivorship upon earth proceeds from the humble and contrite who tremble at his word. The exercise of these feelings of reverence and love is either (so to sj^eak) casual, as the thoughts of God pass and repass through the soul during the busy hours of the day; or it is more prolonged, when the soul withdraws from the world, and sets itself in the presence of God, to adore his excellence, to thank him for his goodness, and to supplicate his blessing. The spirit of devotion which so pre-eminently dis- tinguished the Redeemer, dwells in all his people. 298 HOLY LIVING. They are all devout; they all walk with God; they all feel him to be near and rejoice in his presence; and they all have communion with him in acts of private and public worship. There is no religion without this intercourse of the soul with God, as there is no life w^ithout w^armth and motion in the body. And as the body ra]3idly decays when dead; so the soul perishes when not in communion with God. This love of God will manifest itself in sub- mission and obedience. The former is an hum- ble acquiescence in the will of God, including the perception and acknowledgment that the commands of God concerning all things are right, and that his dispensations are all wise, merciful and just. Even when clouds and darkness are round about him, religion forces upon us the con- viction that justice and judgment are the habi- tation of his throne. The renewed soul, filled with the assurance of the wisdom, power and goodness of God, resigns itself into his hands, sajdng Thy will be doxe. When under the in- fluence of this spirit, it is free from the discon- tent and misgivings which destroy the peace and aggravate the guilt of those who have no such confidence that the judge of all the earth will do right. Love to God must produce obedience, because it supposes a conformity of the soul to God in the perception and love of what is true and right; and obedience is only the expression or HOLT LIVING. 299 outward manifestation of this conformity ; just as disobedience is the evidence of a contrariety between our will and the will of God. Wher- ever there is reconciliation to God,- or the resto- ration of the divine image, there must be con- formity of heart and life to the will of God. It is a contradiction to say that a man is like God, or is a partaker of his nature, who does not love what God loves, and avoid what he hates. Obe- dience is but love in action. It is but the voice, and look, and carriage which affection, of neces- sity, assumes. For the love of God is not, as already said, mere love to excellence ; it is the love of a heavenly Father; and therefore it secures obedience, not only because it supposes a congeniality of mind, if w^e may so speak, between the people of God and God himself, but also because it is his will that we should be obedient; it is what is pleasing to him; and love is no longer love if it does not lead to the purpose and endeavour to give pleasure to its object. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, said our Saviour, he it is that loveth me. Obedience is not so much the evi- dence of love, as it is love itself made visible or expressed. The habitual tenor of a man's life gives a more faithful exhibition of his state of heart, than any occasional ebullition of feel- ing, or any mere verbal professions ; and where the tenor of the life is not in conformity with the will of God; there the heart must be in op- 300 HOLT LIVING. position to that will ; and on the other hand, wherever there is love, there must be obedience. It would be out of analogy with the order of things as established by God, if the exercises of the spiritual life were not attended by peace and joy. Happiness is so intimately associated with these exercises that the apostle says, To be spi- ritually minded is life and peace. Excellence and enjoj'ment are blended in inseparable union ; so that all right emotions and affections are plea- surable. And this pleasure is, in kind if not in degree, proportionable to the dignity of the powers from whose exercise they flow. The senses afford the lowest kind of happiness; then, in an ascending scale, the social affections ; then the intellectual powers; then the moral emotions, and then the religious affections. The kind of enjoyment which attend these latter is felt to be more jDure and elevated, more satisfy- ing and better suited to our nature, than that which flows from any other source. Hence the Scriptures ascribe to communion with God a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and a peace which passes all understanding. Joy, therefore, is one of the fruits of the Spirit; it is one of the accompaniments and evidences of spiritual life ; it is a healthful affusion ; it is the oil of gladness, which the Spirit pours over the renewed soul, to invigorate its exercises, to brighten its visage, and to make it active in the service and praise of God. HOLY LIVING. 301 As the image of God, after which the soul is renewed, consists in moral excellence, and as moral excellence means that state of mind which causes a man to feel and act right under all cir- cumstances, it is impossible that those who have correct views and feelings in regard to God, should not feel and act correctly in regard to their fellow-men. Those whom the Bible desig- nates as good men are benevolent and just, no less than devout. The comprehensive state- ment of our duty toward our fellow-men is found in the command. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself The love here intended is that disposition which leads us to regard our neighbour with respect and kindness, and to seek to do him good. This love is long-suffer- ing and kind; it does not envy the happiness of others, but rejoices in their welfire. It is not proud, nor does it behave itself unseemly. It seeketh not its own. It rejoices not in ini- quity, but rejoices in the truth. It beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things. Without this love, all professions of piety, all gifts, all outward acts of self-denial or charity, are worthless. It belongs essentially to the Christian character; for as self-love, prompting us to the pursuit of our own happiness, belongs to our nature as men, so benevolence, prompting us to seek the happiness of others, belongs to the nature of the new man. A new man means 26 o 02 HOLT LIVING. a good man, one who is like God, holy, just, be- nevolent and mercifuL This meek, kind, trustful temper, which reli- gion never fails to produce, is, of course, variously modified by the various characters of individuals and by the relations of life. It is no part of the teaching of the Bible that we must regard all men with the same feelings. While it incul- cates benevolence toward all men, it makes pro- vision for the peculiar and closer relations in wdiich men stand to each other, as members of one family or one society. And the same prin- ciple of religion which produces this general benevolence, secures the exercise of all the afiections which belong to the various relations of life. It causes us to render obedience to whom obedience is due, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. It makes men, in their intercourse wdth their equals, respectful, considerate and amiable ; in their conduct to their inferiors, condescending, just and kind. It cannot be too well considered that these social virtues are essential to true religion. The people of God are those who are like God ; but God, as we have seen, is just, merciful, long-suf- fering, abundant in goodness and truth. Those, therefore, who are dishonest, unkind, proud, re- vengeful, or deceitful, are not his people ; they do not bear the heavenly image, and have never been renew^ed in the spirit of their minds. Let no man deceive himself with the hope that HOLY LIVING. 303 though a bad parent, child, or neighbour, he may be a good Christian. A Christian is like Christ. Another form in which a renewed heart can- not fail to manifest itself is in self-denial. If any man will come after me, said the Saviour, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. The necessity of self-denial arises partly from the fact that the gratification of our own wishes is often inconsistent with the good of others ; and partly from the fact that so many of our desires and passions are inordinate or evil. The rule prescribed by the gospel is, that we are not to please ourselves, but every one must please his neighbour, for good to edification, even as Christ pleased not himself, but though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich. The daily intercourse of life furnishes constant occasion for the exercises of this kind of self- denial. He who has the same mind that was in Christ, instead of being selfish, is ready to defer his own advantage to that of others, to give up his own gratification, and even his own rights, for the good of others. If meat causes his bro- ther to offend, he will not eat meat while the world lasts. To the Jews he becomes as a Jew, that he may gain the Jews. To the weak he becomes as weak, that he may gain the weak. He does not live for himself His own interest is not the main end of his pursuit. As a disin- 304 HOLY LIVING. terested regard for the good of others pre-emi- nently distinguished the Eedeemer, it character- izes all his followers ; for God has predestinated them to be conformed to the image of his Son. The call for self-denial arising from the cor- ruption of our nature, is still more frequent. In consequence of the fall, the senses have attained an undue influence over the soul ; they are in- cessant in their demands, and become more importunate the more they are indulged. It is inconsistent with reason to yield ourselves to the power of these lower principles of our na- ture ; for reason itself teaches us that if a man is governed by his body, he is the servant of a slave. But if even a rational man feels bound to subject the body to the mind, the religious man cannot be sensual. They that are Chris- tians have mortified the flesh with its aflections and lusts ; they keep their bodies in subjection. What belongs to the body is, in a certain sense, external ; the evil dispositions of the heart are in more intimate connection with the soul. Pride, vanity, envy, malice, the love of self, are more formidable foes than mere bodily appetites. They are stronger, more enduring, and more ca- pable of deceit. As these dispositions are deeply seated in our nature, the putting ofi' the old man, which IS corrupt, or the destruction of these un- holy principles, is the most difficult of all Chris- tian duties, and renders the believer's life a per- petual conflict. The flesh lusteth against the HOLY LIVING. 305 spirit, and the spirit against the flesli, so that he cpnnot do the things that he would. In this ccnfiict, however, the better principle is habit- ually, though not uniformly, victorious ; for the children of God walk not after the flesh, but iifter the spirit. It appears, then, even from this short survey, ihat true Christians are renewed after the image v)f God, so as to be holy ; they love God, they rest with complacency on his perfections, they acquiesce in his will, and rejoice in their rela- tion to him as his creatures and children. They are habitually devout, and have fellowship with the Father of their spirits and with Jesus Christ his Son. They are obedient children, not fashion- ing themselves according to their former lusts ; but as he that called them is holy, so are they holy in all manner of conversation. As they bear the image of a just and merciful God, they are honest and benevolent toward their fellow- men, not seeking their own, but the good of others. And as this victory over themselves, and this conformity to the image of God, cannot be obtained without conflict and self-denial, they keep up a constant opposition to the more subtle evils of the heart. Some may be ready to say, that if this is reli- gion, then no man is religious. It is certainly true that many are called, and few chosen. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 26* 306 HOLY LiyiNG. We must take our idea of religion from the Bible^ and not from the hves of professors. It can- not be denied that the Bible makes religion to consist in love to God and man; nor can it be questioned that the love of God will manifest itself in reverence, devotion and obedience, and the love of men in benevolence and justice. And our own conscience tells us that no external forms, no outward professions, no assiduity in religious services, can entitle us to the character of Christians, unless we are thus devout and obedient toward God, thus just and benevolent toward our fellow-men, and thus pure and self- denying as i^egards ourselves. .But while it is certain that these traits are all essential to the Christian character, it is not asserted that all Christians are alike. There is as great diversity in their characters as Christians, as in their bodily appearance, their mental powers, or social dispositions. But as all men, in the midst of this endless variety, have the same features, the same mental faculties, and the same social affec- tions, so all Christians, however they may dijSer in the strength or combination of the Christian graces, are all led by the Spirit, and all produce the fruits of the Spirit. Having given this brief outline of the nature of true religion, it is proper to say a few words as to its necessity. It should be ever borne in mind that the necessity of holiness is absolute. With regard to other things, some, though desi- HOLY LIYING. 307 rable, are not essential, and others, though essen- tial under ordinary circumstances, are not univer- sally and absolutely necessary. But holiness is necessary in such a sense that salvation, without it, is impossible, because salvation principally consists in this very transformation of the heart. Jesus is a Saviour, because he saves his people from their sins. Those, therefore, who are not sanctified, are not saved. The doctrine that a man may live in sin, and still be in a state of salvation, is as much a contradiction, as to say that a man may be ill, w^hen in health. A state of salvation is a state of holiness. The two things are inseparable ; because salvation is not mere redemption from the penalty of sin, but deliverance from its power. It is freedom from bondage to the appetites of the body and the evil passions of the heart;, it is an introduction into the favour and fellowship of God; the re- storation of the divine image to the soul, so that it loves God and delights in his service. Salva- tion, therefore, is always begun on earth. Yerily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath eternal life. This is the language of our Saviour. To be spiritually minded is life; to be carnally minded is death. There is no delusion more inexcusable, because none is more directly opposed to every doctrine of the Bible, than the idea that a state of grace is consistent with a life of sin. Without holiness no man can see God. Whatever our ecclesiastical connections may be, 308 HOLT LIVING. whatever our privileges or professions, if we are not lioly in heart and life; if we are not habitu- ally governed by a regard to the will of God; if we do not delight in communion with him, and desire conformity to his image; if we are not led by the Spirit and do not exhibit the love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance which that Spirit always produces — then we are not religious men, nor are we in a state of salvation. The Bible knows nothing of proud, selfish, covetous, impure Christians. Christians are par- takers of a holy calling, they are washed, and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God ; they are saints, the sanctified in Christ Jesus; they mind spiritual things; they have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts; they are poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, merciful; they hun- ger and thirst after righteousness. Not that they have already apprehended, or are already perfect ; but they follow after, if that they may apprehend that for which they are also appre- hended of Christ Jesus; forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, they press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Their conversation is in heaven; from whence also they look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his HOLY LIVING. 309 glorious body, according to the working wherebj he is able to subdue all things unto himself. Again, as God is holy, it is necessary that his people should be holy. There can be no com- munion without concord, or congeniality. If one loves what another hates, approves what another condemns, desh'es what another rejects, there can be no fellowship between them. What con- cord hath Christ with Belial; or what fellowship hath light with darkness? So long, therefore, as we are what God disapproves; so long as we do not love what he loves, there can be no fellowship between him and us. Hence Christ says, Marvel not that T said unto you, ye must be born again. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. The carnal mind is enmity against God, and so long as this prevails it is impossible that we should enjoy his presence. As God is the only adequate portion of the soul; as his favour and fellowship are essential to our happiness ; as heaven consists in seeing, loving and serving God, it is plain that unless we are sanctified we cannot be saved; we cannot enjoy the society, the employments, or the pleasures of the people of God above, if we take no delight in them here. The necessity of holiness, therefore, arises out of the very nature of God, and is consequently absolute and unchangeable. We know also that holiness is the end of re- demption. Christ gave himself for his church, 3'10 HOLY LIVING. that he might sanctify and cleanse it, and that it should be holy and without blemish. He died the just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God. The object of redemption is not at- tained in the case of those who remain in sin ; in other words, they are not redeemed. It is, therefore, to subvert the whole gospel, and to make the death of Christ of none effect, to sup- pose that redemption and continuance in sin are compatible. The whole design and purpose of the mission and sufferings of the Saviour would be frustrated if his people were not made par- takers of his holiness; for the glory of God is promoted in them and by them only so far as they are made holy, and the recompense of the Redeemer is his bringing his people into con- formity to his own image, that he may be the first-born among many brethren. Every child of God feels that the charm and glory of redemp- tion is deliverance from sin and conformity to God. This is the crown of righteousness, the prize of the high calling of God, the exaltation and blessedness for which he longs and suffers and prays. To tell him that he may be saved without being made holy, is to confound all his ideas of salvation, and to crush all his hopes. The nature of salvation, the character of God, the declarations of his word, the design of re- demption, all concur to prove that holiness is absolutely and indispensably necessary, so that whatever we may be, or whatever we may have, HOLY LIVING. 311 if we are not holy, we are not the children of God nor the heirs of his kingdom. Section II. — The Means of Sanetification. The attainment of holiness is often treated, even by Christian writers, as a mere question of morals, or, at most, of natural religion. Men are directed to control, by the force of reason, their vicious propensities ; to set in array before the mind the motives to virtuous living, and to strengthen the will by acts of self-restraint. Conscience is summoned to sanction the dic- tates of reason, or to warn the sinner of the consequences of transgression. The doctrines of the presence and providence of God, and of future retribution, are more or less relied upon to prevent the indulgence of sin, and to stiuiu- late to the practice of virtue. Sj^ecial directions are given how to cultivate virtuous habits, or to correct those which are evil. As we are rational beings, and were meant to be governed by reason in opposition to appetite and passion, there is much that is true and im- portant in such disquisitions on the practice of virtue. But as w^e are depraved beings, desti- tute of any recuperative power in ourselves, such rules and the efforts to which they lead must, by themselves, be ineffectual. God has endowed the body with a restorative energy, which en- ables it to throw off what is noxious to the sys- 312 HOLT LIVING. tern, and to heal the wounds which accident or malice may have inflicted. But when the sys- tem itself is deranged, instead of correcting what is amiss, it aggravates what would othersvise be a mere temporary disorder. And if by external means the evil is checked in one part, it reap- pears in another. Though you amputate a de- caying limb, the remaining portion soon exhibits symptoms of mortification. So long as the sys- tem is deranged, such means are mere pallia- tives, concealing or diverting the evil, but leav- ing the source of it untouched. It is no less true that so long as the heart is unrenewed, all that reason and conscience can do is of little avail. They may obstruct the stream, or divert it into secret channels, but they cannot reach the fountain. As we retain, since the fall, rea- son, the power of choice, conscience, the social affections, a sense of justice, fear, shame, &c., much may be done, by a skilful management of these principles of action, toward producing propriety of conduct, and even great amiability and worth of character. But it is impossible, by these means, to call into existence right views and feelings toward God and our neigh- bour, or to eradicate the selfishness, pride and other forms of evil by which our nature is cor- rupted. A man may be brought, by reason and conscience, to change his conduct, but not to change his heart. A sense of duty may force him to give alms to a man he hates, but it can- HOLY LIVING. 313 not change hatred into love. The desire of hap- piness may induce him to engage externally in the service of God, but it cannot make that ser- vice a delight. The affections do not obey the dictates of reason nor the commands of con- science. They may be measurably restrained in their manifestations, but cannot be changed in their nature. They follow their own law. They delight in w^hat is suited to the disposi- tion of him w^ho exercises them. Holding up to them w^hat they ought to delight in, cannot secure their devotion. It is not meant to depreciate reason and con- science, but it is necessary that their true pro- vince should be known, that we may not rely upon inadequate means in our efforts to become holy. Though Scripture and experience teach us that our own unaided powders are insufficient to bring us to the knowledge and love of God, the rules which reason suggests for the culture of moral excellence are, for the renew^ed man, far from being destitute of value. It is no doubt of importance that we should be acquainted with the counsels of the wase on this subject, and that w^e should habituate ourselves to the vigi- lant use of all these subordinate means of im- provement; remembering, however, that it is not by the strength of our ow^n purposes, nor by the force of moral considerations, nor by any rules of discipline, that the life of God in the soul can be either produced or sustained. 27 314 HOLT LIVING. While one class of men place their chief reli- ance for moral improvement upon reason and conscience, another, and perhaps a larger class, rely upon means which, though they have no tendency in themselves to produce holiness, are falsely assumed to have, in virtue of the ap- pointment of God, an inherent efficacy for that purpose. Such are not only the ablutions, pil- grimages and penances of the heathen, but the multiplied rites of corrupt Christian churches. Sprinkling the body with consecrated water, the repetition of forms of prayer, attendance upon religious services not understood, anointing with oil, the imposition of hands, receiving, though without faith, the holy sacraments, are supposed to convey grace to the soul. Great reliance is placed on retirement from the world ; on pray- ing at particular times or places, or in a particu- lar jDosture, and on the whole routine of ascetic discipline. With what laborious and unavaihng diligence these means of destroying sin have been employed, the history of the church gives melancholy evidence. Even in the days of the apostles the disposition to rely on such means for attaining holiness had begun to manifest itself. There were even then men who com- manded to abstain from nieats, who forbade mar- riage, who said. Taste not, touch not, handle not ; which things, says the ajDostle, have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worshij) and humility, HOLY LIVING. 315 and in neglecting and dishonouring the body, and yet only served to satisfy the flesh.'*" \, The Scriptures teach) us a different doctrine.f They teach that believers are so united to Christ, that they are not only partakers of the merit of his death, but also of his Holy Spirit, which dwells in them as a principle of life, bringing them more and more into confonnity with the image of God, and working in themj both to will and to do according to his own] good pleasure. They teach that so long as men are under the law, that is, are bound to satisfy its demands as the ground of their acceptance with God, and are governed by a legal spirit, or a mere sense of duty and fear of punishment, they are in the condition of slaves; incapable of right feelings toward God, or of producing the fruits of holiness. But when, by the death of Christ, they are freed from the law, in the sense above stated, their whole relation to God is changed. They are no longer slaves, but children. Being united to Christ in his death, they are partakers of his life, and in virtue of this union they bring forth fruit unto God. They are henceforth led by the Spirit which dwells in them; and this Spirit is a source of f, life not only to the soul, (but also to the bodjj); for if the Spirit of him that raised Christ from the dead dwell in us, he that raised up Christ * Col. ii. 21-23. 316 HOLT LIVING. (from the dead shall also quicken our bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in us. The doctrine of /sanctification^ therefore, as taught in the Bible IS, that we are made holy not by the force of conscience, nor of moral motives, nor by acts of discipline, but by being united to Christ so as to become reconciled to God, and partakers of the Holy Ghost. Christ is made unto us sanctification as well as justification. He not only frees from the penalty of the law, but he makes holy. There is, therefore, according to the gospel, no such thing as sanctification, with- out or before justification. Those who are out of Christ are under the power as well as under the condemnation of sin. And those who are in Christ are not only free from condemnation, but are also delivered from the dominion of sin. The nature of the union between Christ and his people, on which so much depends, is con- fessedly mysterious. Paul having said, We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his ■ bones, immediately adds. This is a great mys- tery.* It is in vain, therefore, to attempt to bring this subject down to the level of our com- prehension. The mode in which God is present and operates throughout the universe, is to us an impenetrable secret. We cannot even under- stand how our own souls are present and operate in the bodies which they occupy. We need not, ~^ * Eph. V. 32. HOLT LIVING. 317 then, expect to comprehend Tthe mode in which Christ dwells by his Spirit in the hearts of his people.^ The fact that such union exists is clearly revealed ; its effects are explicitly stated, and its nature is set forth, as far as it can be made known, by the most striking illustrations. In his intercessory prayer, our Saviour said, I pray — that they all may be one, as thou. Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us — I in them, and thou in me, that they Vmay be made perfect in one.* He that keepeth his commandments, says the apostle, dwelleth in him, and he in him ; and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit, which he hath given us.f If any man have not the Spirit of . Christ, he is none of his, but if Christ be in you, ' the body (adds the apostle) may die, but the soul shall live.J Know ye not, asks Paul, that \your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, 'which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?§ And to the same effect, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and ^bthat the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?|| The Scriptures are filled with this doctrine. The great promise of the Old Testament, in con- nection with the advent of the Messiah, was, that the Holy Spirit should then be abundantly com- * John xvii. 21, 23. f 1 John iii. 24. X Rom. viii. 9-11. § 1 Cor. vi. 19. II 1 Cor. iii. 16. 27* y 318 HOLT LIVING. municated to men. Christ is said to have re- deemed us in order that we might receive this ji promised Sj^irit.* And the only evidence of a particijDation of the benefits of redemption, re- cognised by the apostles, was the participation of the Holy Ghost, manifesting itself either in the extraordinary powers which he then communi- cated, or in those lovely fruits of holiness which never fail to mark his presence. The effects ascribed to this union, as already stated, are an interest in the merits of Christ in order to our justification, and the indwelling of his Spirit in order to our sanctification. Its nature is variously illustrated. It is compared to that union which subsists between a represen- tative and those for whom he acts. In this view Adam is said to be like Christ, and Christ is said to be the second Adam; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. This idea is also presented whenever Christ is said to have died for his sheep, or in their place; or when they are said to have died with him, his death being virtually their death, satisfying in their behalf the demands of justice, and redeeming them from the curse of the law. It is compared to the union between the head and members of the same body. The meaning of this illustrar tion is by no means exhausted by saying that Christ governs his people, or that there is a com-» ^*CaUH..M. HOLY LIVING. 319 miinity of feeling and interest between them. The main idea is that. there is a community of life; that the same Spirit dwells in him and in them. As the body is everywhere animated by one soul, which makes it one and communicates a common life to all its parts; so the Holy Ghost, who dwells in Christ, is by him communi- cated to all his people, and makes them, in a peculiar sense, one with him and one among themselves, and imparts to all that life which has its seat and source in him. As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the mem- bers of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ, for by one Spirit are we all bap- tized into one body — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.* Another illustration, but of the same import, is employed by Christ, when he says, I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me and I in him, the same brine:- eth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothins:. As the branches are so united to the vine as to partake of its life and to be absolutely dependent upon it, so believers are so united to Christ as to partake of his life and to be abso- lutely dependent on him. The Holy Spirit com- / municated by him to them, is, in them, the [ principle of life and fruitfulness. | Christ and his people are one. He is the foundation, they are the building. He is the * 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. " 320 HOLY LIVING. vine, they are the branches. He is the head, they are the body. Because he lives, they shall live also; for it is not they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. The Holy Spirit, concern- ing which he said to his disciples. He dwelleth with you and shall be in you, is to them not only the source of spiritual life, but of all its manifestations. They are baptized by the Spirit;* they are born of the Spirit ;-j* they are called spiritual, because the Spirit of God dwells in them ; J whereas, the unregenerate are called natu- ral, or sensual, "not having the Spirit."§ Be- lievers are sanctified by the Spirit ;|| they are led by the Spirit;^ they live in the Spirit;** they are strengthened by the Spirit ;ff they are filled with the Spirit. JJ By the Spirit they mortify sin;§§ through the Spirit, they wait for the hope of righteousness ;|||| they have access to God by the Spirit ;^^ they pray and sing in the Spirit.**}* The Spirit is to them a source of knowledge,*! of joy,*§ of love, long suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.*|| This doctrine of the * Luke iii. 16. f John Hi. 5. t 1 Cor. iii. 16. ^ Jude 10. II 1 Cor. vi. 11. f Rom. viii. 14. ^^ Gal. V. 25. ft Eph. iii. 16. Jt Eph. V. 18. ^§ Rom. viii. 13. nil Gal. V.5. HH Eph. ii. 18. *t 1 Cor. xiv. 15. *J Eph. i. 17. *g lThess.i.6. *|| Gal. v. 22. HOLY LIVING. 321 indwelling of the Holy Spirit is so wrought into j the texture of the gospel as to be absolutely ' essential to it. It ceases to be the gospel if we abstract from it the great truth, that the Spirit of God, as the purchase and gift of Christ, is ever present wdth his people, guiding their inward exercises and outward conduct, and bringing them at last, without spot or blemish, to the purity and blessedness of heaven. The secret of holy living lies in this doctrine of the union of the believer with Christ. This is not only the ground of his hope of pardon, but the source of the strength whereby he dies unto sin and lives unto righteousness. It is by] being rooted and grounded in Christ that he isj strengthened with might by his Spirit in ihe\ inner man, and is enabled to comprehend the! breadth, and length, and depth and height of the \ mystery of redemption and to know the love of , Christ which passes knowledge, and is filled withj all the fulness of God. It is this doctrine which sustains him under all his trials, and enables him to triumph over all his enemies, for it is not he that lives, but Christ that lives in him, giving him grace sufficient for his day, and purifying him unto himself, as one of his peculiar peoj)le zealous of good works. As union with Christ is the source of spiritual \ life, the means by wdiich that life is to be main- tained and promoted, are all related to this doc- ' trine and derive from it all their efficacy. Thus 322 HOLY LIVING. we are said to be purified by faith,* to be sancti- fied by faithjf to live by faith^J to be saved by faith. § Faith has this important agency because it is the bond of our union with Christ. It not only gives us the right to plead his merits for our justification, but it makes us partakers of his Holy Spirit. Christ has promised that all who come to him shall receive the water of life, by which the apostle tells us is meant the Holy Spirit. It is by faith, and in the persuasion of our consequent union with Christ, that we have confidence to draw near to God and to open our souls to the sanctifying influence of his love. It is by faith that we receive of his fulness and grace for grace. It is by faith that we look to him for strength to overcome temptations and to discharge our duties. It is by faith that we re- ceive those exceeding great and precious pro- mises, whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature. All Christians know from experience that faith in Christ is the source of their holiness and peace. When beset with temptations to de- spondency or sin, if they look to him for support, they are conscious of a strength to resist, or to endure, which no effort of will and no influence of motives ever could impart. When they draw near to God as the members of Christ, they have * Acts XV. 9. t Acts xxvi. 18. X Gal. ii. 20. ^ Eph. ii. 8. HOLY LIYING. 323 freedom of access and experience a joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. When pressed down by afflictions, if they remember that they are one with him who suffered for them, leaving them an example, they rejoice in their tribula- tions, knowing that if they suffer they shall also reign with him. Moreover, as in virtue of union with Christ we receive the Holy Spirit as the source of spi- ritual life, to maintain that life we must avoid every thing which may provoke the Spirit to withdraw from us. The Bible teaches us that the Spirit may be grieved; that his influences may be quenched; that God, in judgment, often withdraws them from those who thus offend. Evil thoughts, unholy tempers, acts of trans- gression are to be avoided, not merely as sins, but aS' offences against the Holy Spirit. We must remember that to defile the soul with sin, or the body by intemperance or impurity, is sacrilege, because we are the members of Christ, and our bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, right thoughts, just pur- poses, holy desires are to be cherished, not only as right in themselves, but as proceeding from that heavenly agent on whom we are dependent for sanctification. This is a very different thing from opposing sin and cultivating right feelings on mere moral considerations, and in dependence on our own strength. This may be what the world calls 324 HOLY UVING. morality, but it is not what the Bible calls reli- gion. Such considerations ought to have and ever will have, with the Christian, their due weight ; but they are not his dependence^ in his efforts to become holy, nor is his reliance upon his own resources. The life which he leads is by faith in Jesus Christ ; and it is by constant reference to the Holy Spirit and dependence on him that that life is maintained. For it is as inconsistent with the religion of the gospel to suppose that we can make ourselves holy by our own strength, as that we can be justified by our own works. It is principally through the efficacy of prayer that we receive the communications of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not a mere instinct of a de- pendent nature, seeking help from the Author of its being ; nor is it to be viewed simply as a natural expression of faith and desire, or as a mode of communion with the Father of our spirits; but it is also to be regarded as the appointed means of obtaining the Holy Ghost. If ye, 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. Hence we are urged to be con- stant and importunate in prayer, praying espe- cially for those communications of divine in- fluence by wnlch the life of God in the soul is maintained and promoted. The doctrine that the Holy Spirit works in HOLT LIYIXG. 325 the people of God both to will and to do accord- ing to his own good pleasure, is not inconsistent with the diligent use of all rational and scriptu- ral means, on our part, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. For though the mode of the Spirit's influence is inscrutable, it is still the influence of a rational being on a rational subject. It is described as an enlightening, teaching, persuading process, all which terms suppose a rational subject rationally afiected. The indwelling of the Spirit, therefore, in the people of God, does not supersede their own agency. He acts by leading them to act. Thus we are commanded to do, and in fact must do, what he is said to do for us. We believe, though faith is of the operation of God; we repent, though repentance is the gift of Christ; we love, though love, gentleness, goodness and all other graces are the fruits of the Spirit. The work of sanctification is carried on by our being thus led under this divine influence to exercise right dis- positions and feelings. For the law of our na- ture, which connects an increase of strength with the repeated exercise of any of our powers, is not suspended with regard to the holy disposi- tion of the renewed soul. Philosophers say that the vibrations imparted to the atmosphere by the utterance of a word never cease. How- ever this may be, it is certain every pious emo- tion strengthens the principle of piety, and leaves the soul permanently better. The good 28 326 HOLT LIVING. derived from that influence, or from those ser- vices which call our love, faith, or gratitude into exercise, is not transient as the exercises them- selves. Far from it. One hour's communion with God produces an impression never to be effaced ; it renders the soul for ever less suscep- tible of evil and more susceptible of good. And as the Holy Spirit is ever exciting the soul to the exercise of holiness, and bringing it into communion with God, he thus renders it more and more holy, and better fitted for the un- changing and perfect holiness of heaven. It is principally by the contemplation of the truth, the worship of God, and the discharge of duty that these holy exercises are called into being. All thought and affection suppose an object on which they terminate, and which, when presented, tends to call them forth. We cannot fear God unless his holiness and power be present to the mind; we cannot love him except in view of his excellence and goodness ; we cannot believe, except in contemplation of his word, nor hope, unless in view of his promises. As these affections suppose their appropriate objects, so these objects tend to excite the affec- tions. Were it not for our depravity, they never could be brought into view without the corre- *sponding affection rising to meet them. And notwithstanding our depravity, their tendency, resulting from their inherent nature, remains, and as that depravity is .corrected or removed HOLY LIVING. 327 by the Holy Spirit, these objects exert on the soul their appropriate influence. We are, there- fore, said to be sanctified by the truth ;* to be made clean through the word of Christ ;f to be born again by the word of truth ;J to be changed into the image of God by beholding his glory.§ It is most unreasonable to expect to be con- formed to the image of God, unless the truth concerning God be made to operate often and continuously upon the mind. How can a heart that is filled with the thoughts and cares of the world, and especially one which is often moved to evil by the thoughts or sight of sin, expect that the afiections which answer to the holiness, goodness or greatness of God should gather strength within it ? How can the love of Christ increase in the bosoms of those who hardly ever think of him or of his work ? This cannot be without a change in the very nature of things ; and therefore we cannot make progress in holi- ness unless we devote much time to the readimr, and hearing, and meditating upon the word of God, which is the truth whereby we are sanc- tified. The more this truth is brought before the mind ; the more we commune with it, enter- ing into its import, applying it to our own case, appropriating its principles, appreciating its mo- * John xvii. 19. f John xv. 3. X James i. 18. i 2 Cor. iii. 18. 328 HOLT LiyiNG. tives, rejoicing in its promises, trembling at its threatenings, rising by its influence from what is seen and temporal to what is unseen and eter- nal ; the more may we expect to be transformed by the renewing of our mind so as to approve and love whatever is holy, just and good. Men distinguished for their piety .have ever been men of meditation as well as men of prayer ; men ac- customed to withdraw the mind from the influ- ence of the world with its thousand joys and sorrows, and to bring it under the influence of the doctrines, precepts and promises of the word of God. Besides the contemplation of the truth, the worship of God is an important means of grow- ing in grace. It not only includes the exercise and expression of all pious feelings, which are necessarily strengthened by the exercise, but it is the appointed means of holding communion with God and receiving the communications of his grace. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall walk and not be weary, they shall run and not faint. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ; they shall be still praising thee. They shall go from strength to strength, till they appear before God in Zion. This is a matter of experience as well as revela- tion. The people of God have ever found in the private, social and public worship of the Father of their spirits, the chief means of renewing HOLY LIVING. 329 their spiritual strength. The sanctuary is the temple of God on earth, whose services are pre- paratory to those of the temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It is here too that the sacraments, as means of grace, have their appropriate place. They are to us what the sacrifices and rites of the old dispensation W'Cre to the Israelites. They exhibit and seal the truth and promises of God, and convey to those who w^orthily receive them the blessings which they represent. The Christian, there- fore, who is desirous of increasing in the know- ledge and love of God, wall be a faithful attend- ant on all the appointed forms and occasions of divine worship. He will be much in his closet, he w^ill be punctual in the sanctuary and at the table of the Lord. He will seek opportunities of fellow^ship with God, as a friend seeks inter- course vnth his friend; and the more he can enjoy of this communion, the better will he be prepared for that perfect fellow^ship wdth the Father of lights which constitutes the blessed- ness of heaven. Finally, to be good, w^e must do good. It has been falsely said that action is the w^hole of ora- tory, and as falsely supposed that action is the whole of religion. There is no eloquence in action except as it is expressive of thought and feeling, and there is no religion in outward acts except as they are informed and guided by a pious spirit. It is only by maintaining such a 28* 330 HOLY LIVING. spirit that external works can have any signifi- cance or value. It is perhaps one of the evil tendencies of our age, to push religion out of doors; to allow her no home but the street or public assembly; to withhold from her all food except the excitement of loud professions and external manifestations. This is to destroy her power. It is to cut her off from the source of her strength, and to transform the meek and holy visiter from heaven into the noisy and bustling inhabitant of the earth. It is so much easier to be religious outwardly than inwardly; to be active in church duties, than to keep the heart with all diligence, that we are in danger of preferring the form of religion to its power. The same love of excitement and desire to be busy which make men active in worldly pur- suits, may, without changing their character, make them active in religious exercises. But if there is danger on this side, there is quite as much on the other. Although religion does not consist in outward acts, it always produces them. Whosoever hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ?* The love of God can no more fail to produce obedience to his commands, than a mother's love can fail to produce watchfulness and care for her infant. That man's religion, * 1 John iii. 17. HOLY LIVING. 331 therefore, is vain which expends itself in ex- ercises that relate exclusively to his own salvar tion. And doubtless many Christians go halting all their days, because they confine their atten- tion too much to themselves. It is only by the harmonious exercise of all the graces, of faith and love toward God, and of justice and benevo- lence toward men, that the health of the soul can be maintained or promoted. It is not merely because the exercise of benevolence strengthens the principle of benevolence that doing good tends to make men better, but God has ordained that he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He distils his grace on those who labour for the temporal and spiritual benefit of their fellow men, and who follow the example of the blessed Redeemer, walking with God while they go about doing good. True religion, as we find it described in the Bible, is then neither an external show, nor a fitful ebullition of feeling. It is a permanent, spontaneous and progressive principle of spiritual life, influencing the whole man and producing all the fruits of righteousness. It is not any one good disposition, but the root and spring of all right feelings and actions, manifesting itself in love and obedience toward God, in justice and benevo- lence toward man, and in the proper government of ourselves. This divine life can neither be obtained nor continued by any mfere efforts of reason or conscience^ or by any superstitious ob- 332 HOLT LIVING. servances, but flows from our union with Christ, •who causes his Holy Spirit to dwell in all his members. In order to promote this divine life, it is our business to avoid every thing which has a tendency to grieve the Spirit of all grace, and to do every thing by which his sacred influence on the heart may be cherished. It is by this influence that we are sanctified, for it leads lis to exercise all holy dispositions in the contempla- tion of the truth, in the worship of God, and in the discharge of all our relative duties. This unpretending volume, designed for the use of educated youth, was written with the view of impressing on its readers those great truths of revelation which are immediately con- nected with practical religion. We have de- signed to convince them that all skepticism as to the divine authority of the Scriptures is inexcu- sable, inasmuch as the Bible brings wath it its own credentials. It makes such a revelation of the character of God, of the rule of duty and of the plan of salvation as challenges immediate assent and submission to their truth and good- ness. It sets forth the Kedeemer as the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners, in w^hom the glory of God is so revealed that those who refuse to recognise him as their God and Saviour, re- fuse, to infinite excellence, their confidence and obedience. In order that every mouth may be stopped, the Bible, thus replete with evidence of HOLT LIVING. 333 its divine origin, is confirmed by all kinds of ade- quate proofs from miracles, prophecy and history, that it is, indeed, the word of God. The divine authority of the Scriptures being established, the great question to be decided by every one by whom they are known, is, What do they teach as to the plan of salvation and the rule of duty ? It has been our design to aid the reader in answering this question for himself; to show him that the Bible teaches that we are all sinners, and that, being sinners, we have lost the fiivour of God and are unable to effect our own redemption. When we feel that this is true with regard to ourselves, we are convinced of sin, and are irresistibly led to ask what we must do to be saved. In answer to this question the Scriptures set forth Jesus Christ as born of a woman, made under the law, satisfying its demands, dying the just for the unjust, rising again from the dead, and ascending up on high where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. They teach us that it is not for any thing done or experienced by us, but solely for what Christ has done for us, that we are justified in the sight of God; and that in order to our being saved through Christ, we must accept him as our Saviour, not going about to establish our own rigliteousness, but submitting to the righteous- ness of God. Those who thus believe, do, at tlie same time repent; that is, they turn from sin unto God, through Jesus Christ. They are now o 34 HOLY LIVING. his followers, and declare themselves to he such by confessing him before the world and by de- voutly attending upon those ordinances which he has appointed to be means of acknowledging our allegiance to him, and of communicating his grace to us. The Scriptures further teach that our work is but begun when we have thus re- nounced the world and joined ourselves unto the Lord. The spiritual life commenced in regenera-\ tion is carried on by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in all the people of God, by teaching them to look to Jesus Christ, as their living head, for all those supplies of grace and all that protection which their circumstances require. They are thus washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, i and being made meet for the inheritance of the' saints in light, they will be at last admitted into God's blissful presence and enjoy the full com- munications of his grace and love for ever and ever. ANALYTICAL INDEX. Aaron as a priest, 160. Abraham, Christ and, 41,45; faith of, 201, 272; justification of, 147, 266. Action, eloquence in, 329. Adam, fall of, 56, 59, 69, 73, 167, 227. Affections, social, 63, 302-6. Allegiance, civil, 243, 247, 271. Almsgiving, 240, 330. Altar, Jewish, 212. Ancient sacrifices, 274. Animal life, 288, 295. Apochryphal writings, 19. Apostasy of man, 69, 73, 97, 233. Apostles, preaching of, 31. Ascetics, religion of, 131. Atheism a crime, 27. See Unbe- lief. Atonement under the law, 169, 211, 212. Augsburg Confession, 35. Augustin, confessions of, 116. Backsliding, 290. Bacon, Francis, 194. Baptism, duty of, 243, 249-54, 256-82. Belief, foundations of, 194; laws of, 98, 100. Believers, union of Christ with, 168,189,316-23,332. Benevolence, duty of, 331. Bible, divine origin of the, 5, 6j faith in, 15; intellectual charac- teristics of, 18,19; teaching of, 107. Birth, the new, 287, 292, 293, 301, 312. Blind, colours and the, 194. Blood, a means of atonement, 169. Body, disease of the, 312; and soul, 93. Bondage, spirit of, 196. Born in sin, 101. Cavils, 102, 103, 110, 111. See Skepticism. Ceremonial observances, 287, 314. Change of heart, 287, 289, 312, 327. Character, how formed, 88; moral, 25 ; value of, 20. Children of God, 102. Christ, advocate, 230. ashamed of, 247. authority of, 245. character of, 21, 22, 25, 26j 27, 33, 39. confession of, 242, 243. cross of, 168-73, 184. curse for us, 208. death of, 133, 236. devotion of, 297. divinity of> 71, 172, 248. 335 336 ANALYTICAL INDEX. Christ, doctrines of, 21, 22. example of, 331. excellence of, 332. faith in, 322. glory of, 202. humanity of, 72, 171, 202. intercession of, 202, 207, 333. justification through, 151, 152, 155, 158, 159, 204, 205, 316. Lord our righteousness, 208. love of, 299, 303, 327. mediation of, 229, 248. miracles of, 14. obedience to, 274. preaching of, 237. predictions concerning, 41- 53. priesthood of, 171-4, 207, 212. propitiation, 179, 185, 206, 208, 233, 248, 277, 310, 333. ransom, 208. refuge, 210. rejection of, 79, 128, 187, 188, 190, 249. righteousness of, 174-77. sacrifice, 81, 159, 164, 165, 179. . Banctification, 316, 332. Saviour of sinners, 332. S'.n of God, 332. si'Irit of, 317, 318. ■ spiritual head, 168. union of, with believers, 168, 189, 316-21, 332. vicarious sufi'erings of, 168, 169, 202, 204, 205, 213. vine, 186, 319. work of, 189. Christian virtues, 132. Christianity, faith in, 16. Church, the, a family, .244; con- fession to the, 224; history of the, 34, 37, 38, 39; organization of the, 246; testimony of the, 34, 36, 37, 38. Church of England, testimony of the, 36. Church, Lutheran, testimony of the, 35. Circumcision, 263, 265,268, 272, 273. Cities of refuge, 210. Citizenship, 243. Classification of knowledge, 92. Colours and the blind, 194. Concealment of religion, 241. Consistency, 331. Condemned, who are, 191. Confession of Christ, 241, 266, 267; of sin, 143, 220, 222, 223. Conflict, the Christian, 304. Conscience, as a guide, 195; awa- kened, 55, 83, 86, 104, 105, 110, 111, 121, 124-26, 143, 156, 177, 189, 196, 200, 206, 211, 217, 226, 227, 231, 232, 134; neglect of, 55, 57, 76, 77, 79, 80, 82. Consciousness, 93-95, 99, 102, 103, 114, 189, 200. Consistency, Christian, 295, 299. Conversion of heart, 206, 219, 234^ 36, 286. Conviction of sin, 107-34, 216. Corinthians, described, 244. Cornelius, baptism of, 265, 266. Cross of Christ, 168-73, 184. Curse for us, 208. Curse of the law, 156, 157, 208. Daniel, cited, 220, 225. David, faith of, 201 ; house of, 49 ; repentance of, 215, 217, 218, 223, 228. Day of Judgment, 68. ANALYTICAL INDEX. 337 Deaf, sounds and the, 194. Death, eternal, 104 j sentence of, 107; spiritual, 307,' the penalty of sin, 66, 155. Declension, spiritual, 290. Deed, conveyance by, 269. Delay, dangers of, 105. Depravity, 326. Design, evidences of, 91. Despair, 121, 226, 227. Diseases of the body, 312. Dispensation, typical, 172. Domestic relations, 178. Drunkard, folly of the 77. Earth, revolution of the, 193. Enthusiasm, 24, 25. Eunuch, baptism of the, 265. Ephesus, elders of, 237. Esau, cited, 215. Eternal life, 188, 190, 202, 209, 307. Evidence, office of, 14, 20, 91-93, 98, 199, 200. Evangelical hope, 230, 232. Evil, existence of, 96. Excitement, religious, 287, 330. Experience, religious, 7. External religion, 287, 291, 313, 314, 330. Ezra, prayers of, 220, 222, 225. Faith, duty, effects, necessity, and office of, 6, 13-34, 53-55, 92, 100, 150,183-215,261,322. Fall, effects of the, 56, 59, 69, 73, 304. Fear, not desirable, 218. Felix trembles, 110, 195. Filial love, 178, 244, 247, 289. Filial obedience, 178, 236,289. Free agency, 88, 91, 94. Fruits of holiness, 288. Fruits meet for repentance, 235. Fruits of the Spirit. Sec Holy Spirit. Galatiaxs, Paul to the, 152, 153. Gentiles, the, 181,191. God, attributes of, 193. authority of, 100. benevolence of, 91, 96. children of, 102. compassion of, 238. existence of, 28, 80, 96, 193. excellence of, 112, 113, 232, 29fi, 326. favour of, 264. forgiveness of, 232-34. glory of, 178. goodness of, 91, 96, 103, 229, 296, 297, 326. grace of, 179, 181. holiness of, 108, 182, 196, 219,221,226,231,234,326. incomprehensibility of, 95. invitations of, 216, 232. justice of, 119, 120, 122, 123, 182,196,201,217,226,230, 231, 233, 234. law of, 112, 113. long-suffering of, 233. love of, 77, 123, 181, 182, 185, 230, 233, 238. mercy of, 104, 105, 119, 120, 122, 123, 182, 184, 227, 228, 231, 232, 233, 235. oath of, 232. pardon of, 233. perfections of, 178, 187, 201, 296. power of, 326. presence of, 311. promises of, 201, 216, 21S, 232. providence of, 311. purity of, 219, 231. 338 ANALYTICAL INDEX. God, 1 ighteousness of, 104. sovereignty of, 89, 212. threatenings of, 201. wisdom of, 103, 179. works of, 18, 19, 34. worship of, 328. wrath of, 104, 106, 117. Good works, 127, 133, 137, 330, 331. Goodness, human, 25, 182. Gospel, the, 163. Governments, human, 65, 69. Graces, Christian, 132. Grieving the Spirit, 78, 84, 323, 332. Growth, Christian, 290, 291, 294, 308, 321, 325, 328, 334. Heart, change of, 234-36 ; its esti- mate of truth, 13; hardened by neglect of God, 105. Heathen, state of the, 34, 137. Heaven, efforts to gain, 125. Hebrews, Epistle to the, 162, 164. High priest, Jewish, 211. Hindoos, temples of the, 125. Holiness, essential, 306, 307, 309; fruit of truth, 5; and faith, 186; and truth, 178. Holiness of the Bible, 19, 20, 24. Holy Living, 286-334. Holy Spirit, fruits of the, 132, 150, ] 96-99, 211, 262, 277, 288, 300, 306, 315, 317, 319-27, 334; grieving the, 77, 78, 80, 84, 86, 323, 332 ; influences of the, 60, 79, 129, 133, 186,214,260,261; testimony of the, 170. Hope, evangelical, 230, 232. Human goodness, 25, 182. Human nature, 27, 56, 219, 236. Humility, 221, 234. Hypocrisy, 240. Ignorance, 90, 91, 93, 101, 108, 111, 112, 125, 231, 277, 280. Inability to repent, 102, 103. Infancy, 286. Infidelity, 53, 100. Israel, exhortations to, 84. Jailor, the, 191 . Jews, character of, 26 ; history of, 40, 49 ; ignorant of God's right- eousness, 175 ; reject Christ, 208. Job, cited, 217. Joy, spiritual, 290, 300, 323. Judas, repentance of, 218, 225, 226, 230. Judgment, Day of, 68. Judgment and fiery indignation, 217. Judgments, moral, 94, 193. Justice satisfied through the cross, 184. Justification of the sinner, 124, 126, 135-87, 189; not by works, 139, 140, 144-87, 204. Knowledge, limits of, 101; pro- gress in, 92. Koran, faith in, 17. Language, ambiguity of, 192, 226. Law, human, 143. Law of God, bondage of the, 185 ; condemnation of the, 221; de- mands of the, 221; justification not by the, 139, 140, 154, 189; obedience to the, 189; penalty of the, 123; righteousness of the, 204; spirituality of the. 111 ; strictness of the, 231; truthful- ness of the, 110. Laws of our being, 94. Lawgiver, the divine, 65. Legal spirit, 315. ANALYTICAL INDEX. 339 Liberty, moral, 89. Life eternal, 188, 190, 191, 202, 209, 307. Lord's Supper, 249, 250, 255-85. Love, various kinds of, 192; to God, 75, 202, 219, 296-99 ; to our neighbour, 301. Luther, age of, 35 ; convictions of, 116. Lutheran Church, testimony of, 35. Mariner, the shipwrecked, 233. Marriage contract, 273. Maternal love, 244, 286. Means, use of, 89; of sanctifica- tion, 311. Meditation, importance of, 327. Melchizedek, priesthood of, 171. Merit, human, 182, 184. Messiah, the, 161, 273, 317. Miracles, as evidence, 14, 31, 195. Mohammed, character of, 25. Moral character, 88, 94; excel- lence, 295, 301, 302, 305, 306, 313; sense, 15, 18; evil, 74. Morality, 108, 126, 323. Moravians, Wesley and the, 131. Mosaic dispensation, 149, 153, 172; ritual, 149, 273, 276. Moses, faith of, 201; law of, 149; writings of, 149. Multitude before the throne, 213. Natural man, the, 27, 56. Natural philosophy, 90, 92, 93, 98, 325. Nature, human, 27, 56, 219, 236. Nehemiah, confessions of, 222, 225, 229. New birth, 286, 287, 292, 301, 327. New Testament, age of the, 38. Newton, Sir I., 23, 194. Obedience, filial, 186, 227 , to the divine law, 174, 189, 227. Objections, dishonest, 102-4. Old Testament, history of, 40 ; on good works, 144, 148; on restitu- tion, 224. Ostentation in religion, 240. Parade in religion, 240. Parental affection, 192; discip- line, 236. Paul, character of, 126, 175, 266; conversion of, 198; teachings of, 31, 32, 61, 63, 110, 111, 137-57, 166, 175, 198, 237, 242, 257, 263» 293, 314, 316. Peace through faith, 183,191. Penitent thief, unbaptized, 266. Pentecost, day of, 254. Perceptions, various, 94. Perdition, final, 106. Perfections, divine, 187. Personal unworthiness, 114, 115, 118, 119. Peter, confession of, 197; denial by, 247; preaching of, 243. Pharisees, condemned, 240. Pharaoh, repentance of, 230 Phenomena of nature, 90, 93. Philosophy, false, 99. Physical investigations, 90, 91, 93, 98. Prayer, duty of, 247, 305, 324, 328, 329; formal, 127, 314; secret, 240. Preaching, evangelical, 157, 237. Priesthood of Christ, 171. Procrastination of repentance, 105. Prodigal son, 211. Profession of religion, 240-85. Progress, spiritual, 290, 291, 294, 308, 321, 325, 328, 334. 340 ANALYTICAL INDEX. Prophecy, the argument from, 40-53, 195. Prophets, faith of the, 201. Propitiation. See Christ. Protestant countries, 126. Providence of God, 92, 97, 104. Punishment, eternal, 66-68. Rainbow, the, 256. Reason, uses of, 62, 311. Rebel, guilt of the, 69, 75. Redemption, mystery of, 70, 71, 156-63, 168, 179, 187, 188, 207, 218, 238, 309, 318, 321, 333. Reformers, the, 35, 36. Refuge, cities of, 210. Regeneration, spiritual, 61, 129, 132, 266, 286, 287, 288, 293. Religion, profession of, 240-85. Remorse, 115-17, 128, 218, 226, 227. Repentance, 105, 143, 215-39. Responsibility to God, 101, 102. Restitution, 224, 235. Resurrection, the, 308. Revelation, evidence of a, 100. Righteousness, man's, 175, 333 ; hungering after, 203; original, 62; self, 124-26; of Christ, 174. Romans, Paul to the, 153. Sabbath, observance of the, 270. Sacraments, the, 250-85 Sacred writers, the, 39, 178, 181. Sacrifice. See Christ. Sacrifices, doctrine of, 159, 164, 274. Saints, character of, 245. Salvation, holiness essential to, 306-10; plan of, 121; not by works, 103, 124-34, 139, 142, 150, 174,196, 212,330; rejection of, 238. Samaria, woman of, 21. Samuel, faith of, 201. Sanctification, 292, 311, 316, 323, S25. Sanctuary, the, 329. Scriptural account of sin, 109, 111,113,114. Scriptures, divine origin of the, 5, 6, 13, 17-19, 32, 39, 177, 332; faith in the, 195; truths taught by the, 7, 182. Secret discipleship, 241, 245. Secret prayer. See Prayer. Self-abhorrence, 203, 220. Self-agency, 88, 91, 94. Self-approbation, 88. Self-complacency, 221, 234. Self-condemnation, 88, 203, 219, 222, 226, 234. Self-denial, 125, 130, 196,303,304. Self-justification, 221. Self-knowledge, 235. Self-love, 301. Self-restraint, 311. Senses, testimony of the, 99, 100. Serpent lifted up, 209. Simon Magus, faith of, 191. Sin, character and prevalence of, 56-134,333; confession of, 222; conviction of, 216; sorrow for, 115-18, 128. See also. Con- science; Remorse. Skepticism, 6, 26, 87, 99, 332. Social virtues, 302-6. Solomon, prayer of, 216. Sophistical objections, 87, 104. Sorrow for sin. See Conscience; Sin; Remorse. Soul, operations of the, 192; spirit- uality of the, 91; union of the body and the, 93. Sounds and the deaf, 194. Sovereignty of God, 89, 212. Spirit, Holy. See Holy Spirit. ANALYTICAL INDEX. 841 Spiritual regeneration, 61, 129, 132, 266, 287, 288, 293. Striving of the Spirit, 77, 78, 80, 84, 86, 323, 332. Submission to the plan of sal- vation, 212. Temperaments, various, 107. Treason, guilt of, 69, 75. Tribulation, glory in, 202. Truth, apprehension of, 15; eflfects of, 5, 183, 201, 203; evidences of, 98,100, 193, 194; excellence of, 197, 200; power of, 104; pre- sentation of, 278; and faith, 193; and holiness, 5, 178. Typical dispensation, 172. Unbelief, 196, 218 ,• a sin, 27, 29, 33, 34,53,54,78,234; causes of, 26, 27. Unconverted professors, 202, 265. Union of Christ and believers. See Christ. Un worthiness, personal, 114, 119. Vibrations of the atmosphere, 325. Wesley and the Moravians, 131. Wicked, faith of the, 195. Word of God as a test, 234. Works, good. See Salvation. Works of God, 18, 34. World, love of the, 131. Worship, spiritual, 278. Wrath, apprehension of, 1M» 0' Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 01095 1467 Date Due A,' ' 3 '62 Jins5i^i^jgg_ ^-^'V mi iL