Sec \ \ DISCOURSES OF REDEMPTION: AS REVEALED AT "SUNDRY TIMES AND IN DIVERS MANNERS," DESIGNED BOTH AS BIBLICAL EXPOSITIONS FOR THE PEOPLE AND HINTS TO THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS OP A POPULAR METnOD OP EXHIBITING THE " DIVERS" REVELATIONS THROUGH PATRIARCHS, PROPHETS, JESUS, AND HIS APOSTLES. BY EEV. STUAET KOBINSON, " PASTOB OF THE SECOND CHTTRCH, LOUISVILLE, AND LATE PBOFESSOR 09 CHURCH GOVEBN3IENT AND PASTORAL THEOLOQT AT DANVILLE, KENTUCKY. THIRD AMEKICAN EDITION. RICHMOND: PEESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. Entered according to Act of Congress, In 1806, by Rev. Stuart Robinson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Sfates in and for the District of Kentucky. PREFACE That the noble conception of British and American Chris- tians, half a century since, of the Bible, " the religion of Protestants," in every household has produced its fruits, is evinced in the general Bible Renaissance of our age — as seen in the elaborate Biblical disquisitions of infidelity itself ; in the multiplication of learned critical helps for the exposi- tions of scripture ; and, more than all, in the almost innu- merable issues of expositions and illustrations of scripture to meet the general demand for such knowledge among the people. However we may account for the fact, this Renaissance has not yet manifested itself in an equal degree in the pulpit — that divinely appointed agency for the special and autho- ritative teaching of the Word of God to the people. With the exception of perhaps a slight increase of the expository lecture, the prevailing method of preaching is still that of theological disquisition, ethical essay, rhetorical, persuasive or emotional appeal — founded upon a shred of the Sacred Text chosen as a motto, or, at best, as suggesting simply the theological topic of the occasion. Whereas the true theory of preaching as gathered from the scriptures, manifestly assumes its purpose to be the showing of the people how to read the Word of God ; and leading them to feel that '^ this day is the scripture fulfilled m their ears," and that these IV PREFACE. are the words of a Jesu3 who not only spahe by holy men of old, but who is now speaking with living utterance to the men of this generation. Having, through a ministry of twenty years, to congrega- tions variously composed, in four different cities, been accus- tomed, in pursuance of the latter theory of preaching, to appropriate one of the public services of the Sabbath to showing the people how to read the scriptures, and to follow the development of the one great central thought of the Book throuf'-h the successive eras of revelation — the author can testify from practical experience that the people need no other attraction to draw them to the house of God than a simple, rational and practical exposition and illustration of the Bible. And he who may once attract them by such teaching will find no occasion for devising sermons on special subjects, or any other theatrical devices to draw men to the sanctuary. The author's first experiment was in a congregation composed largely of the professional and public men that gather in the capital of a state ; his last experiment in a city of colleges and in a congregation composed in large measure of professional men and students in every stage of professional education ; in two intervening experiments in commercial cities among business men. And his experience is, that with all classes alike the preaching which aims most directly at making the scriptures a living message from God to men, translating them into the current forms of thought -and speech, is more permanently attractive than any other. Perhaps the most encouraging assurance he ever received that his labours were profitable to hearers, was in a recent testimony from the PREFACE. V Students of Arts, Law, Medicine and Theology in the various institutions of learning in Toronto, which specially and very intelligently pointed out the bcnoSts which they considered themselves to have received from the exposition of the gospel in the order of the successive revelations, under the several covenants in the history of redemption. The present volume is the result of an attempt to give per- manent form, so far as oral instruction can be transferred to the printed page, to such outline specimens of the author's Biblical Expositions in the several sections of the inspired Word as might be most suggestive to younger preachers in their attempts to develop the various parts of Scripture to the comprehension of the people, and at the same time be instruc- tive to Christians, and inquirers, and other earnest persons troubled with doubts touching the inspiration or the doctrines of the Bible. From the titles of the several sections, it will be seen that this is not a collection of miscellaneous discourses, but a logical development of the gospel in the order of its communication. And from the titles of the several discourses under each section it will be seen that the general aim is to discuss some of the more germinal points of each revelation. Want of space for the full execution of his plan has compelled the author to omit several subjects embraced in the programme originally, and has suggested the purpose, if the present effort is acceptable to the public, to prepare a second series of " Discourses of Redemption," filling up more completely this outline, while yet constituting a volume com- plete in itself, devoted more especially to the great cardinal truths developed in the symbols of the Protestant Reformation. VI PREFACE. Of course students and others accustomed to more exact forms of presenting religious truth will not expect to find in this volume the precise and scientific style of discussion of the systems of divinity ; nor must literary critics look for the carefulness and finish of the religious essay where the author is aiming to transfer spoken language, in its popular forms, to the printed page. It is hoped, however, that students will find many valuable suggestive hints ; and that earnest-minded persons — whether Christian believers, or inquirers after the way of salvation, or those harassed and tempted by sceptical doubts — may find these discourses of some advantage to them. In the Appendix, the author has discussed two or three points having a direct relation to the subjects of the discourses — especially the place of the Church in the scheme of Re- demption, its ordinances of public worship, and its relation to the Civil Government — in a more elaborate manner than suited the style and limits of a sermon. The conviction grows upon him daily, that the questions there discussed have a far higher importance in the Gospel system than that hitherto attached to them by the Protestant ministry ; and that these are destined to be the great questions of the next ten years both in the British and American Churches. New Yoek, March 26 th, 1866. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSES DISCOURSE I. THE DIVERSITY I:N UNITY OF THE llEVELATION OF REDEMPTION. Hebrews i. 1, 2, and ii. 1-4. PAGB The passages stand in the relation of premise and conclusion. The Apostle reasons to directly an opposite conclusion from this pre- mise from that of the Rationalist and the Romanist. Significance of the Apostle's premise. Fallacies of the Rationalistic reasoning from the diversities of scripture —of the reasonings of the Romanist. False views of Church diversities 17 Significance of the Apostle's reasoning. The compound syllogism. "With whom he does not reason here? What is assumed of those with whom he reasons. The force and solemnity of the Apostle's conclusions 31 DISCOURSE II. THE SCRIPTURES OP THE "SUNDRY TIMES" INSPIRED OF GOD: THE ONLY SOURCE OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE: THE ANTIDOTE TO PEKILOUS ERROR. II. Timothy iii. 1, IG. Features of the perilous times. Why the scriptures are antidotes to such perils. The logical and exhaustive character of the classifi- eation of their uses — for doctrine — reproof — correction — instruc- tion in righteousness. Inspired, in what sense, and to what extent. Difficulties of the theory of inspiration far less than the difficulties of unbelief. Divine adaptation of scripture to doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness 37 SECTION I. DISCOURSE III. REDEMPTION AS REVEALED TO THE PATRIARCHS IN THE THEO- PHANIES. THE GOSPEL COVENANT AND WORSHIP OF THE LOST EDEN. Genesis ii. 8-17; iii. 15, 21, and iv. 4. Principles of the interpretation of these ancient records. The estate of man anterior to Eden. The Eden covenant of works. The VIII CONTENTS. PAGE rationale thereof. Its reasonableness and adaptation to the case of man as a new order of being, from whom a race of beings is to be propagated. The third estate of sin without hope. The fourth estate ; the sinner with a gospel preached. Analysis of the Eden gospel ; its eight points of doctrine. Evidences of the exercise of true faith under the Eden gospel. How Christ crucified was preached. The manner, place and time of the worship of the first sinners. The germinal Church instituted at Eden — substantially the same with the Church still existing 57 DISCOURSE IV. THE GOSrEL CHURCH VISIBLE SEPARATELY ORGANIZED: ITS COVENANT CHARTER WITH ITS SEAL: ITS CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS. Genesis xvii. 4, 7, 10, 11, 13.~Romans iv. 11.— Mark x. 14. Importance of the study of the Old, as the key to the New Testament. Remarkable prominence of Abraham in scripture. Why, at this era, an organization of the Chureh as distinct from the family. Era of Abraham in the history of redemption, analagous to the fourth day in the history of creation. How shown that this is the origin of the visible Church as a separate organization — The charter — its seal. Constituent elements not individuals merely but as representing families. Relation of children to the visible Church — to the invisible. Argument for the safety of all the dead children 75 SECTIOlSr II. EEDEMPXION AS REVEALED IN THE LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF THE THEOCRATIC ERA. DISCOURSE V. THE COVEN- ANT OP THE CHURCH'S REDEJUPTION ; ITS SEAL AND THE SIGNIFICANCE THEREOF. Exodus xii. 3, 7, 11-14.— Luke xxii. 15, 20.— I Corinthians v. 7, 8. Significance of the Passover Covenant. Its relations to preceding and succeeding covenants. Two great classes of truths exhibited in the institution and observance of the first Passover. Objective truths — Retributive justice of God — An elect covenant people — Vicarious atonement for sin. Subjective truths — Tendencies to unbelief— to cavil — obscure faith — feeble faith — strong faith. Free offer of mercy 101 CONTENTS. IX DISCOURSE VI. THE GOSPEL OF THE SIXA[ COVENANT: ITS RULE OF LIFE TO CONVICT OF SIN: ITS RITUAL TO TEACH THE TAKING AWAY OF SIN: AND ITS MOULDING OF THE SOCIAL ORDER AS A TYPE OF CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL COMMONWEALTH. Exodus xix. 3-6, xx. 1-17, xxiv. 7-9.— Deuteronomy v. 2, 3, 22, vi. 1-5, x. 1-5. PAGE Circumstances of this covenanting. Facts touching the Sinai revela- tions. Their nature and purpose. This a covenant with tlie C hurch — as representative of the Church in all ages — spiritual in its significancy — fuller development of previous covenants. In this view of it lies the key to the interpretation of the last four books of the Pentateuch. Israel stood at Sinai in three aspects, and with reference to each the revelations were made. Its chief purpose to give the Church a law to convince of sin ; and ritual to teach the taking away of sin and purification of the nature. Rationale of teaching by symbols. Popular view of the Mosaic laws as repealed erroneoiis 119 SECTION III EEDEMPTION AS REVEALED THROUGH THE-SPIRIT OF 'CHRIST IX THE PROPHETS. DISCOURSE VII. THE-OOSPEL CHURCH BY COVENANT TYPICALLY SET FORTH AS THE ETERNAL KINGDOM OF DAVID'S SON. II. Samuel vii. 1-24.— Psalm Ixxii. 1, 8, 17.— xxxix 3, 4.— Luko i. 32,— Acts ii. 30. The origin of the covenant with David historically considered. Its importance appreciated by David as placing hira in the sphere of Adam, Noah and Abraham. This covenant the key to all the subsequent parts of the Old Testament; explains the prominence of David and Solomon in the history of redemption ; develops the kingly office of the mediator. Hence at the opening of the New Testament dispensation the theme of the gospel is, " The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Practical lessons from these views — the importance of the churchly element in the gospel — the kingship of Christ obscured by confounding the secular and spiritual powers — the conversion of a sinner brings him into a new citizen- ship— the evil tendencies of ignoring the Church 141 X CONTENTS. DISCOURSE VIII. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM IN CONFLICT WITH AN APOSTATE CHURCH; AND WITH DESPONDING FAITH. I Kings xviii. 17-20, and xix. 1-14. PART I. PAGE History of the apostasy of Israel. The crisis on Mount Oarmel. Its representative character. Whom the prophet represents. The fire test — why chosen. Ridicule a just method with imposture. Victory of faith on Oarmel 159 PART II. Fury of the Baal representative. Failure of faith. Effort at se.f- restoration by will worship. Readiness to die as an evidence of piety. The lessons of Horeb. Faith restored 179 DISCOURSE IX. aHE gospel OF PARDONING MERCY AS PREACHED BY THE PROPHETS OF THE KINGDOM. Isaiah i. 10-18. Of whom the prophet speaks, and to whom he makes the offer of mercy. The gospel ever an appeal to reason. Why sin must be the first question reasoned with God. What elements of aggravation? enter into the sins of " scarlet and red like crimson." The grounds of this assurance of pardon 193 SECTION IV. REDEMPTION AS TAUGHT BY JESUS THE INCARNATE WORD. DISCOURSE X. THE OFFICIAL AUTHORrTY, NATURE, LIMITS, AND PURPOSES OP GOSPEL PREACHING. Luke iv. 16-21. The condition of the typical kingdom at the opening of Christ's min- istry. This may he considered the inauguration discourse of the New Testament ministry, to take the i^lace of priests and prophets. The qualification for th3 office. The commission to speak authori- ♦ CONTENTS. XI ) PAGE j tatirely. The security a^^ainst abuse of the authority lies in con- \ fining the minister strictly to the functions of his office, viz., — | " To preach the gospel " — nothing else. Manner of preaching — to | aim to meet the capacities of the poor. The purposes of preach- ] ing — to comfort the heart-broken, in a world full of sin, and there- 1 fore of sorrow — to deliver the captives — to restore spiritual j vision — to hold forth a power to overcome sin — to proclaim an i ever-present, ever-ready Saviour 207 \ DISCOURSE XI. I j THE GROUND OF OUR SALVATION NOT ETHICAL BUT EVAN- '< GELICAL; AND LIES WHOLLY IN THE INFINITE DESIRE OF FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT TO SAVE SINNERS. Luke XV. This chapter contains a discourse of Jesus, in three parts, in reference to ethical religionists. Method of the argument. Designed in the three parables, to represent severally the mediator, the Spirit working in the Church, and the Father receiving sinners. ! Sympathy of heavenly orders in the work. The true analogies for interpreting the gospel are the heart impulses rather than \ ethical reasonings. Picture of the straying soul — and of the love \ of the Father. Portraiture of ethical religionism in the elder brothe" 22T DISCOURSE XII. ''HE AWARD OF THE JUDGMENT TO COME TO BE MADE ON \ PRINCIPLES NOT ETHICAL BUT EVANGELICAL. | Matthew xxv. 31-46. Connection of this judgment scene as the peroration of the discourse begun in Matthew, chapter xxiv, concerning the close of the two dispensations. Sublime views of the close of the present dis- i pensation. The assize— the award. On what principle made? i Mistakes concerning the principles of the award. Tlie six acts j cited a logical and exhaustive summary of human acts. What ! think you of Christ ? the pivot upon which all turns. This tost \ universally applicable. Its application to this age of the Church.. 251 j DISCOURSE XIII. I THE DIVINE TRAGEDY OF EARTH. HEAVEN AND HELL— HUMANITT IN ITS OWN ESSENTIAL ATTRIBUTES TO INHABIT ETERNITY ] Luke xvi. 19-31. ' Occasion of this utterance. The heroes of the tragedy in contrast on J earth, preparatory to an infinite contrast after death. Meaning XII CONTENTS. PAGE of " carried to Abraham's bosom." The life and immortality taught by Jesus, is a transfer of the sinless, pleasures of life over death. Christ's estimate of the value of services. Rich and poor on a level at death. Fallacies of the argument against a hell. The dialogue between hell and heaven. Prayer too late— the real monument of every man's life. Hell the just award of retribution. Hell the natural and necessary sequence of a sinful life. The insincerity of unbelief. Scepticism comes from want of heart, not want of proof 269 DISCOURSE XIV. REDEMPTION AS PREACHED AT THE FINAL APOSTASY OF THE TYPICAL KIXaOOM, IN THE "LIFTING UP" AND THE "PIERCING" OF JESUS ON THE CROSS. John xix. 15 37; iii. 14, andxii. 32, 33. 'Final act of aposta?y of the typical kingdom. Why the inspired word- pictures of his death exhibit him surrounded with relative objects. The hand-washing magistrate. Relative pictures — humanity receiving the gospel from the cross. Central figure — circumstan- ces attending his last hours on the cross. His death expiatory or the facts inexplicable. Note — Blasphemous criticism of Dr. Bushnell. The prophetic chorus around the cross. The cross- preached gospel full of comfort , 295 SECTION V. KEDEMPTION AS PREACHED BY APOSTLES UNDER-THE DISPEN- SATION OF THE SPIRIT. DISCOURSE XV. THE APOSTOLIC STATEMENT OF THE TERMS OF SALVATION. Acts. xvi. 29 31. This an actual case arising, and just such precedent as we need. The miracle does not affect the case. Place of miracles in the gospel. Two things only to be understood — the object of faith "the Lord Jesus Christ" — and the subjective act — "believe." Why we hold forth Jesus Christ as the answer to inquiring sin- ners. What it is to believe. Proof that this believing, without respect to degree of strength, is all that the gospel demands to secure acceptance 32 1 CONTENTS. XIII DISCOURSE XVI. THE APOSTOLIC SUMMARY OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED. 1 Timothy i. 15. PAGB The seven points involved in this comprehensive creed. The true key to the meaning is in the spirit of the utterance. The gospel rests on the assumptior of man a sinner condemned and helpless. How consciousness attests the gospel teaching of sinfulness. Eeason attests the gospel offer as faithful, worthy of all confidence— the heart and moral nature, as worthy of acceptation. The Apostles proof that Jesus will accept any who accept this saying. 343 DISCOURSE XVII. THE APOSTOLIC GROUND OF CHRISTIAN COMFORT AMD COURAGE. Romans viii. 28-31. That God brings mercies out of apparent ills— specially atftested In Christian experience. Tour classes of scoffers at the gospel view of Providence. The natural Saduceeism. Transcendental Atheism Theological Scepticism— Sentimental Scepticism. The last, bad taste, worse theology and still worse logic. Who mny apply the comfort — How determine whether we love God ? '• The called. •" The key to the interpretation of this love — and also to all that follows. Uelation of the gospel truths to the emotions. Hence the error of making the 29th and 30th verses the battle- ground of controversy. "The called" are further assured by the purpose of election. The true end of predestination. Why all real Christians must here practically agree. How this doctrine meets all the necessities of the human soul 363- DISCOURSE XVIII. THE GOSPEL DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY CONTRASTED WITE THAT OF THE SCHOOLS. II Timothy i. 10— I Cor. xv. 22, 53, 54, Prevalent mistakes concerning what the schools have taught. An immortality of bliss has not, neither can be proved from reason and natural religion. What in f\ict true philosophy does teach. The gospel doctrine of the resurrection alone solves the puzzle of the schools. The gospel teaching concerning "'Life and immor- tality." The doctrine of the resurrection essential to any gospel faith. Practical lessons 383. XIV CONTENTS. DISCOURSE XIX. THE GOSPEL ALARUM, -ITS IMPORT. Ephesians v. 11. PAGS Seeming abruptness of the Apostle — reason of it. The sieep and death stupor the natural condition of men. It is a dreamy sleep. The -waking from it at death — may be conceived of from partial awakening before death. The drunken sleeper at Niagara. The somnambulist girl. The awakening from Christ; who not only awakes but gives aid. Ethical gospsls, mere guide-boards, useless to a cripple. Different methods in which Christ gives light. The * bast-eful urgency of the gospel calls ..,.,... 415 SECTION VI. REDEMPTION AS PROCLAIMED BY JESUS ASCENDED; CONFIRMING ALL THAT HAD BEE>f REVEALED AT THE "SUNDRY TIMES AND IN DIVERS MANNERS." DISCOURSE XX. THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO THE CONSCIODS WANTS OF THE HUMAN SOUL; ITS ARGUMENTS, TERMS AND AGENCIES.- Revelations xxii. 16-18. Whence, when, and what, this message. The reference to the last of tho. old covenants. Import of the term " water of life " — tendency of • scriptures to generalizations — what the import of the '^ thirst." Tol be understood in a general sense as well as of longing for salva* tion by the special call of the Spirit. True inference from th© unconscious prophecies of heathenism. The vision of the ship in. the air by the pilgrims. The causes which develop a consciousness of this thirst. They are natural and supernatural. The terms ara? '' Freely." The agencies to bring thirsty soyls to the 'A'atwr of life— natural and supernatural , 431 APPENDIX. NOTE A. TO DISCOURSE IIL THE RECENT OBJECTIOX IN TEIE CHURCH OP SCOTLAND CONCERN- ING THE PERPETUAL OBLIGATION OF THE SINAI COVENANT, AND ITS SABBATH. PAGB The argument founded upon the views presented in Discourse VI., the most efifective method. The reasoning against the Sabbath founded wholly upon insufficient and erroneous views of the Sinai covenant. Errors of the friends of truth in stating the grounds for legislation to protect the Sabbath 451 NOTE B. TO DISCOURSE lY. THE PLACE OF THE CHURCH IN THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION. The science of Ecclesiology yet remains to be developed. Prejudice against theoretical reasoning on the subject not accordant with the spirit and method of scripture. Relation of the idea of the Church to other points of Theology. The relation of the four phases of Theology. — Papal, Zuinglian, Lutheran, and Calvinis- tic. The latter theory naturally points to the central truth of Ecclesiology in the mode of the divine purpose to save not merely sinners individually but a body of sinners. This peculiarity of the divine purpose must enter as an clement into the true defini- tion of the Church. The Church visible the development of this idea of the purpose of God. This view not exclusive of other views of the Church. To the Church directly as an agency for calling and training the elect have been given all the revelations, ordinances, and promises, and not to the race at large as such. General results from this view. The Church essentially one in all ages. Proper definition of the Church. This view in accord- ance with the Westminster Confession. And necessary to any right understanding of what the scriptures teach of the Church. The source of all Church power is Jesus Christ the Mediator. The power delegated by him is vested neither in the people nor in the officers, but in the body contemplated as such. The power of rule is a joint power to be exercised by tribunals, 453 The distinction between the Civil power ordained of God, the Author of Nature and llie Spiritual power ordained of Christ the Mediator. The distinction, not arbitrary or incidental, but intrin- sic and exclusive of the idea of a concurrent jurisdiction. The XYI COXTEN'TS. PAQB three functions to be discharged — and the three offices. The government of the Church is held forth in scripture as bj tribunals 466 NOTE 0. TO DISCOURSE X THE ORDINANCES OF PUBLIC WORSEIIP AS SET FORTH IN SCRIP- TURE ; THEIR RELATION TO THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH. "What arc the divinely appointed ordinances of worship — Rationale thereof. The distinction between the acts of public worship and any merely human teachings lies in the relation of the ordinances of worship to the idea of the Church. Still more direct is the relation of the sacraments to the idea of the Church. Significance and nature of the sacraments as a means of grace 471 NOTE D. TO DISCOURSE X. THE RELATION OF THE TEMPORAL AND THE SPIRITUAL POWERS HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. THE SCOTO-AMERICAN THEORY. Singularly vague views prevalent on this subject. Conflicts in Papal countries between Cis-Montaniam and Ultramontaniam. Conflicts among the Continental Protestants— between the theories of Hegel, Stahl — Schleirmacher, &c. In England between the theories of the Civil Courts — Broad Church — Palmer and others. In Scotland between various theories of support from, and sub- mission to, the State by the Church. In the American Churches between the Virginia theory — the New England theory — and the Gallio theory. Absurd ideas and representations of politicians. 474 The theory of a connection between the powers secular and spiritual wholly Pagan in its origin. History of its first introduction into Christianity. How the Pagan view Avas maintained by the jurists and civilians. Why not cast aside at the Reformation. The Scottish Reformers had clear views of the scripture doctrine. Causes of failure. The Paganism of Vattel. The first develop- ment of the American theory. Logical fallacies of the New Eng- land theory. Its consequences as seen in originating heretical bodies; as seen in Justice Story and Mr. Webster. The doctrine of the memorialists in Virginia — Wad dell, Graham, Smith — a revival and advance upon the doctrine of the Scottish Reformers. The JefiFerson-Madison " Act establishing religious freedom" — the first recognition, from the civib side, in all history of the complete independence of the " kingdom not of this world.". . . . 476 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. T. THE DIVERSITT IN UXTTY OF THE RETELATION OF REDEMPTION. Hebrews i. 1, 2. — God, "who at simdiy times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Hebrews ii. 1, 3. — Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things -which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward ; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? It will be perceived that these two passages, though the opening sentences of different chapters, stand in the close logical relation to each other of premise and conclusion ; the intervening portion of the first chapter being of the nature of a parenthesis. The first, by way of premise, declares the fact that, instead of speaking once for all in making his revelation, God spake at " sundry times " through his prophets, and at last through his Son, " God manifest in the flesh." Nor that cither in any uniform mode of utterance, but " in divers manners " through the successive ages : He spake now through the Theophanics of the Patriarchal era, now through the oraclos of the Theocratic era, now through the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets of later ages, and lastly through Jesus the Incarnate Word. B 18 THE DIVEKSITV IN" UXITV OF SCRIPTURE. From these facts as a premise, Rationalism argues to the conclusion of the uncertainties and contradictions of Scrip- ture ; and Romanism to the conclusion of the need of excluding the people from the free perusal thereof, and the need of an infallible interpreter, through whose harmonizing voice only the speech of God shall be spoken to the people. But, you will ol^eerve, the Apostle, from the same premise, reasons to a precisely opposite conclusion from both, viz., the increased responsibility of those who have the benefit of all these varieties of the revelations of God, and the inevitable doom of those who now neglect such advantage. The purpose of the present discourse will be to fix your attention upon : FivHt. — The significance of the facts of the Apostle's premise — the "sundry times and divers manners " of reve- lation. Second. — The significance of the Apostle's reasoning and conclusion from this premise. I. The fact here set forth, of God's revelation to men through successive and diversified developments of his scheme of Redemption, furnishes a most important key to the interpretation of the Scriptures. For their peculiar form and structure arises chiefly from this, that, instead of a single utterance, in systematic and scientific form, God chose to speak " at sundry times and in divers manners," gradually developing more and more clearly a scheme of salvation, ivliieh IV as perfect from the first. It is the fundamental blunder, alike of the sceptics and of the philosophic theologians, to assume that, if God speak to man, his perfections require the utterance to be exclusively in the terms of a scientific theology. Had he gathered the more intelligent of the race around some Horeb summit, and thence communicated his attributes and purposes, in the style of a " Code Napoleon," or of scientific papers before SIGNIFICANCE OF THE APOSTLE's PREMISE. 19 the Paris Academy, or the Royal Society of London, then Avould the communication, they think, have had an exactness and a certitude more Avorthy a Divine Author ; and then Avould no room have been left for disputes and diversities of opinion in religion. Now it might be a sufficient answer to all such suggestions — What if God hath chosen to reveal himself in his Word as in his Works? What if in Revelation, as in Nature, he hath chosen to scatter his truths broadcast, leaving men to gather them Avith laborious care, and arrange them in their scientific systems? But a little reflection must make it plain that it Avas for reasons in the essential nature of the case, that he spake thus at " sundry times," connecting his revelation Avith the progressive history of humanity through all its varying developments. What man needed Avas not merely a revelation concerning the mysteries of God, but concerning the mysteries of his own nature as Avell ; and the paradoxes of AA^hich his soul is full. Man needed a revelation AAdiich should become the articulate voice of these mysterious instincts of his spiritual nature. How could such a revelation be made in any other conceivable method so Avell as by this of connecting it Avith, and developing it through, the ever varying history of humanity, under the leadings of his Providence, through all its phases and civiHzations ? Accordingly, you find this revelation a record, not merely of the utterances of God speaking from heaven to men, but of the utterances, also, of the human soul ansAvering back from earth to the voice of God. That answer is noAV in cries of mysterious terror, noAV in shouts of defiant impenitency, now in penitential Availings, noAv in the joyous cries of child- like faith and trust. The Bible is not a Divine monologue ; it is an amazing dialogue of the ages, betAveen earth and heaven. The gospel which it reveals is not a mere melody 20 THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. of " Peace on earth " sung by angel voices ; it is the strain of a mighty orchestra rather. Notes from the stricken chords of the heart of God lead the strain, and notes from all the stricken chords of the human soul answer back in responsive chorus. As already suggested, the Bible method consists in the development more and more fully, through the successive ^' sundry times " of humanity, of a scheme of salvation which was perfect from the first, though revealed only in germ. Men build their systems of knowledge as they build their houses ; beam is laid upon beam ; nor does the structure really exist, as a structure, until the last fragment has been adjusted to its place. Hence their proneness to regard a theology as imperfect, which is not thus artificially si/8temized. But when God constructs a theology, he builds, just as he builds the oak of the forest, or the cedar of Lebanon, by the continual development of a germ, perfect from the first, through the successive "sundry times" of the humanity with whose origin the development began. As the oak, perfect and entire, is in the acorn that buries itself in the soil, and expands and extends an ever perfect life till it becomes the gigantic monarch of the forest ; so the entire gospel of redemption was in that germinal promise concerning "the seed of the woman" which, buried in the clods of a wasted Eden, shot forth its life parallel with the growth of humanity. Now it appears as the tender twig of promise to Enoch and Noah ; now the vigorous sapling to the faith of Abraham ; now the refreshing shade tree leafing out in the gorgeous ritual of Moses ; now the well-known pilot's signal tree that guides the course of David and Isaiah ; now putting forth its blossom of plenteous promise in the Gospel of John the Baptist ; and now bearing the rich har- vest of ripe fruit in the preaching of the Apostles under " the ministration of the Spirit." Thus through all the ages, and FALLACIES OF THE RATIONALISTS. 21 in all tlic divers manners of its communication, it is one and the same Gospel, embodying the same great truths in its various stages of development. To the cant of Rationalism concerning the narrower, less enlightened and legendary system of religion which 2>^eceded the Christian gospel, our response is, therefore, Christianity had no predecessor. In a sense that the English deist Tindal never conceived of, " Chrutianity is old as Creation^ The Bible is the history and development of Christianity, and nothing else. It is " the Gospel according to " Moses and David, Isaiah and Daniel, just as truly as it is the Gospel according to Matthew and Mark and Luke and John. And this is manifest from the unity of idea that underlies all " the divers manners" of the revelation. For of all the books in the world, the Bible is emphatically the " book of one idea." That idea is the grand enterprise of " the seed of the woman" in conflict with the Serpent and his seed, gathering his elect body, the Bride of the Lamb, out of all the succes- sive ages. It is this Redeemer, Jehovah Jesus, who, assuming transiently the shadowy form of humanity, speaks Avith Adam and Abraham, and Jacob and Joshua. It is Jehovah Jesus who sits between the Cherubim as the Theocratic king of Israel. It is '^ the spirit of Christ in them " that utters through the prophets " the sulferings of Christ and the glory which should follow." In these cases, just as truly is it the record of Jesus Christ, as when it is the story of his walking on earth as " the Son of man" or of his communicating; his will throu^^h the Holy Spirit to his Apostles after his ascension. Not only is this Great Personage the subject of all the revelation alike, but the fundamental articles of its theology, even to the detailed forms of their expression, are one and the same from first to last. The wrath of God appeased, and sin pardoned by vicarious blood, is the theology of Adam, Abel, and Noah. Vicarious blood shed for sin, is the central thought 22 THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. of the theology of Abraham and Moses, of David and Isaiah, just as truly as in that of Peter and John and Paul, who declare " In him we have redemption through his blood ; " and " His blood cleansethfrom all sin." So the central idea of the worship which embodies this theology in ritual form. In the worship of Abel the sacrificial lamh was the peculiar feature. In the worship of Abraham, two thousand years later, it is still the lamb substituted for the lamb of his own bosom. In the worship of Moses four hundred years later, it is still the lamb Y>'hose blood is sprinkled, and which figures in the gorgeous ritual of the tabernacle. Seven hundred years later, in the visions of Isaiah, it is still the " Lamb led to the slaughter." Again, seven hundred years, and John the Bap- tist, pointing to Jesus the ante-type of all the preceding types, cries " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," and, at the close of the revelation, as John the Evangelist is permitted through " the door opened in heaven" to catch a glimpse of the glorious Church of the future, the worship has still the same central attraction — " the Lamb in the midst of the throne ;" around whom are gathered the shouting myriads who have " washed their robes and made white in the blood of the Lamb." And, as tlie objective theology of the " sundry times," even to its forms of expression, is still the same, so also is the expression of the subjective faith which apprehends it. The only reliance of the saints is upon the vicarious blood ; and upon the promise " When I see the blood I will pass over." And with this rehance for the soul's refreshment, and for " peace and joy in believing," the very forms of the experimental utterances of the soul are the same in all ages. With David the cry is " my soul tJdrsteth for God, as the hart pauteth after the water brooks." And Isaiah proclaims to such — " IIo everyone that tJdrsteth come ye to the waters." Just so the Son of God incarnate, standing in the temple on FALLACIES OF THE liATIOXALLSTS. 23 the great day of the feast, proclaims, " If any man tlurHt let him comemito me and drink." And so again, as the Son of God ascended, Jesus sends back from his throne his last message to the sinners, for whom he had " endured the cross, despising the shame," " Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." But what leaves the charge of contradiction between the Old and the New Testament scriptures without apology, even on the part of those who cannot enter into the spirit of the ob- jective theology of the Bible, or into the subjective experience of the saints, is the fact of the substantial identity, amid all the diversity, of even the externals of this scheme of redemp- tion revealed at the " sundry times." It cannot fail to attract the attention of the reader of this book, that the mode of its revelation is through a series of covenants, each one a larger development of that which ])rc- cedes it. These covenants imply the idea of a distinct body of people with whom the covenant or contract is made. The entire revelation may be analyzed, as consisting of three classes of truths : — First, the record of historic events which prepared the way for certain covenants: next, the covenant and revelation connected with it ; and next the history and revelations connected with the development of that cove- nant. The story of creation and of Eden prepares the way for the covenant of grace with Adam ; the history developing this, prepares again the way for the covenant of protection to the race made with Noah. Then, under this covenant, begins the history preparatory to the Church covenant with Abraham, the history of Avhose development prepares the way for the Passover covenant to redeem the Church, and that again for the Sinai covenant ; then the history of the development of this Church, as Jehovah's spiritual common wealtli, prepares the way for the covenant with David, establishing the typical throne and kin^iidom of Messiah in the Church. From this 24 THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCllIPTURE. time forward all the history and revelations through the pro- phets are to the end of preparing the way of the Lord's coming, as the king of a universal kingdom ; and for the new covenant in his blood, under which his commissioned agents shall " go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." And what is specially noteworthy, as indicating the unity existing under the ^' divers manners " of this covenant body, is the sameness of its administrations under all the changes. The patriarchs, or natural elders of the church, while it was still embosomed in the family constitution, are succeeded by the official " elders " when the shortening of human life makes it necessary to choose among many patriarchs. And such continued to be the form of administration of the visible church in all succeeding ages. Before the national organi- zation under Moses, the elders were in charge of the cove- nant people, to receive and decide upon the genuineness of Moses' call from God (Ex. iii. 15, and iv. 29) ; through the elders was received the covenant seal of the passover (Ex. xii. 3, 21) ; and through them was preparation made for receiving the law ; and through them again was nego- tiated the Sinai Covenant (Ex. xix. 7, 8, and xxiv. 7, 8). Before the elders was the typical rock smitten (Ex. xvii. 3, Q) ; and the elders partook of the sacrificial feast pre- paratory to receiving the ecclesiastical constitution and ritual (Ex. xxiv. 9, 11). The elders with the priests con- stituted the supreme ecclesiastical court to decide appeals under the instruction of the oracle (Deut. xvii. 9, 12). The elders are found, even during the apostasy, sitting in council with Elisha (II Kings, vi. 32) ; in the exile with Ezekiel (Ezek. viii. 1) ; and, in apostate Jerusalem, sat with the priests upon the case of Jeremiah (Jer. xxvi. 8, 17). So when Messiah " came unto his own, and his own received him not," his rejection was by the priests and ciders FALLACIES OF THE RATIONALISTS. 25 in council, of an apostate church (Math. xxiv. 1). Under the dispensation of the Spirit, the ciders still sit in council with x\postlcs (Acts XV. 23). And in that glorious vision of the church of the future, through the door opened in heaven, John saw the great congregation, represented by the " four and twenty elders," twelve for the Old, and twelve for the New Testament Church, acting together, casting their crowns — the symbols of their official authority — at the feet of the great king (Rev. iv. 4). This, then, is our short method with the treacherous Ration- alism which would persuade us to cast aside what " God at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the fathers," anterior to the teaching of Jesus, the Son of man, as no gospel for us. We answer, it is all gospel ; one gospel ; and the same gospel ; not only in its creed, but in the details and results of that creed when accepted. It must therefore stand in its complete integrity or not stand at all. If one part is not divine, no part is divine. If Moses and the prophets are not divine utterances, then neither can Jesus and the apostles be, who claim to be simply the full development of Moses and the prophets, and fully endorse them. And, therefore, this pretence of receiving Jesus as history, while rejecting Moses as legend, is founded either upon an ignorance that has never grasped the idea of him whom it so dogmatically pronounces upon, or upon a hypocritical hifidelity, — that by gradual and insidious approaches, would undermine the foun- dations of our faith. ()n the other hand, the view here taken furnishes an equally short method with the Romanism that harps upon the diver- sities of revelation as creating a necessity for an infallible interpreter, and the exclusion of the people from the free use of the scriptures. What the people need is not an infallible interpreter of scripture, but simply to be shown how to read the scriptures, thus given at the " sundry times," and the 26 THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. divers manners of several successive forms of civilization and thought and speech. Properly instructed as to these inci- dental questions, and having the scriptures translated into their fashion of thought, the people can far more readily interpret the scriptures for themselves than interpret the infallible interpreter. It is indeed true, that the rule of faith being of '' divers manners" of expression will lead to corresponding diverse opinions in incidentals and non-essentials, according as more or less stress is laid upon this or that manner of utter- ance of the same truth. In this sense it may produce sectarianism. But, in this sense, sectarianism is obviously pre-supposed by the gospel, and implied in the very nature of Christianity. Yet this diversity by no means mars the essential unity of the Church of God. It is rather a neces- sity to the completeness of the Holy Catholic Church, as the visible embodiment of such a gospel. Just as we have four biographies of Jesus in the Evangelists, and yet all of them one life so thoroughly, that neither of the four is the life of Jesus without the other three. Just as we find the harmo- nists of the gospels labouring to make the four one, and yet each successive harmonist begins his work by shewing that all his predecessors have failed in some important particular. So with the Church of God, founded upon these Evangelists ; it is manifold, yet one. And so with these perpetual endeavours to fashion the Church into one invariable form in all the details of its liturgy and expression of faith. Hence, long before the controversy with Piotestantism concerning sects, and the need of an infallible interpreter, the children of the Church of Rome herself loved to find the symbols of a church manifold, yet one, in the four rivers, flowing from one fount in Paradise ; and, in the four-fold, yet one, living creature seen in the visions of Ezekiel and Daniel and John in the Apocalypse. Long before the apostasy of FALSE VIEWS OF CllUKCll DIVERSITIES. 27 Rome, Jerome had said : "As the one river of Paradise divided into four streams, so the gospel doctrine of Christ Jesus distributes itself through the channel of four different ministers, to water and fructify the garden of God." Even in the " dark ages," as long ago as A.D. 1172, Adam, of St. Victor, the great hjmnologist, taught the Latin Church to sing: "Circa throniim majestatis, Cum spiritibus beatis, Quatuor divcrsitatis Adstant aoimalia. Pormae fonnant fignrarum Formas cvangelistarum, Quorum imber doctrinarom Stillat in ccclesia." Of which — ^though rudely and feebly rendered — the sense and spirit is, — " Before the throne of majesty, With spirits blessed beyond the sky, The four-fold creature^ stood. Strange mystic figure ! four in one ! Of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, Who jointly shed their dews upon The blessed Church of God." If the unity of the rule of faith is not marred by reason of the " divers manners " of its utterances, why may not the Church, founded upon such a rule of faith^ be one in reahty,, notwithstanding it may exhibit diversity in the manner of uttering its faith and worship ? I may add, moreover, that even though there were no such diversity in the rule of faith, yet from the '' divers manners" .28 THE DIVERSITY IX UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. of the humanity upon which its truths operate, to be reflected back in a subjective theology, the reflection must naturally exhibit these diversities of religious views. It is one of the fine analogies of Edmund Burke, that " the metaphysical rights of man, coming into contact with the actual life of society, are, as the rays of light passing from a rarer into a denser medium, refracted out of a straight line." Shghtly modifying the great orator's figure, I may say that the beams of light from the divine oracles, falling as they do upon humanity, as upon a prism, are not only refracted in the subjective theology of Christian experience, but their colours separated to the view of the beholder, as in the spectrum ; shewing here the Presbyterian Hue — here the Episcopal orange — here the Methodist red — and so through all the seven colours of which the pure white light is composed. And so, reversing the process, when the separating causes are counteracted by some common devotional movement that brings them to pray and praise together, all the colours are combined again, as they commune with God, and they reflect the one pure white light, as it fell upon the prism. This unity of spirit, in devotion and communion w^th God, is that unity to wliich the Apostles exhort ; this is the unity which fulfils the Master's intercessory prayer " that they all may be one." And this spiritual unity is far more real and true than the boasted unity of Rome, depending not on spiritual attraction, but a mere external power of government under one head, making the several fragments' artificially cohere together. So, on the other hand, this unity of spirit is the true unity as against the latitudinarian sentimentalism which, in our day, affects to long for the abolition of sects 4ind creeds, and would merge all into one, by utterly ignoring the doctrine of a church as one of the essential elements of the gospel; and by making light of Christ's appointed order FALSE VIEWS OF CHURCH DIVERSITIES. 29 and ordinances for his spiritual commonwealth. The marvel- lous unity of doctrine evinced by the various confessions of the Protestant Reformation is the true secret of the unity of spirit in devotion among Christians of these various churches ; it is not merely sentimental. Discerning the image of Christ in. each other, they learn to recognize each other as brethren ; and the very zeal for maintaining Christ's order and ordi- nances as each understands them, is only a guarantee, each to the other, of a common zeal for the faith once delivered to the saints. II. Having considered the Apostle's premise, it now remains that -we consider, very briefly, the significancy of the Apostle's reasoning and conclusion from the premise of a revelation " at sundry times and in divers manners." He argues, " Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed, etc., for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, how shall w^e escape if we neglect so great salvation ?" You will observe that this argument is a compound syllo- gism, which may be resolved into these two : 1st. Impenitency under the fuller light of a completed revelation involves greater guilt than under a revelation incomplete. But, since Christ's advent under the ministration of the Spirit, we have the revelation, begun in earlier ages, fully and completely developed. Therefore, the guilt of impenitency is greater now than, ever before. 2nd. The certainty of judgment without mercy is greater, in proportion to the greater guilt of neglecting clearer light. But, as a matter of fact, even under the inferior light of a partially developed gospel, ''Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward." Tlierefore, more certain and inevitable must be the doom of such as now reject the great and fully developed salvation. 30 THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. Thus the power of the two arguments is made to converge upon the one tremendous conclusion of the inevitable doom of transgressors, under the last dispensation of the gospel. To comprehend fullj the force of the argument, Ave need only inquire, — with whom precisely is the Apostle here rea- soning ? and what does he assume concerning them ? Observe then, that he is not reasoning with sceptics who either deny any inspiration, or w^ho conceive of faith as merely a submission to the overwhelming power of proofs addi^essed to the understanding, or under the crushing power of difficulties which the mind cannot master. So, indeed, many conceive of the gospel salvation ; they regard it as something bestowed in the way of reward to the logical and the learned minds, in consideration of their toil in working out demonstrations of the gospel ; or, in the case of the unlearned, something bestowed as a reward for the credulity which can accept without question impossible truths. They imagine that the only reason why they are not Christians is simply from want of ability to force their minds into the belief of the gospel, or Avant of time to examine its evidences. They have the misfortune to be gifted A\ith such an astute- ness of logical perception, or such a capacity of intellect, that the loose reasoning Avhich satisfied a Bacon, or a NcAvton, or a Locke, cannot satisfy them. But they Intend, at a leisure time, to gather up all the books on the evidences, and demonstrate themseves into the kingdom of heaven. Mean- while, they appear to themselves to be sincerely longing after that simple, uninquiring faith, Avhich they think is the pecu- liar privilege of the unlearned masses. Not with such is the Apostle reasoning ; for then the argument Avould be, " God at sundry times hath piled argu- ment upon argument, and in divers manners hath pre- sented the argument, until nothing more could be added to its force; therefore, how shall Ave be converted if not by SIGNIFICANCE OF THE APOSTLE'S REASONING. 31 this ?" That would, indeed, be a true statement, and sound reasoning, but it is not the argument here. It is directed not to those who reject^ but to those who '''' neglecV salva- tion. Nor, again, is the reasoning with that class who, though not unbelievers, as they think, yet find their chief reason for not being Christians in the difficulties of the gospel doctrines, which they cannot reconcile with their reason. There are many of our educated^ youth and professional men to Avhom the gospel presents the aspect of the Sphinx of the old tragedy, sitting by the wayside to propound the riddle, and demanding of each passer-by " Solve it or die !" Whereas, it is the peculiar feature of the gospel of Christ that it demands neither the solution of paradoxes, nor even the acceptance of opinions, as a condition precedent to salvation. Its call is not " solve or die," but " believe with thine heart or die." Not believe a creed, either, but " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," a personal Saviour. Not with such is the reasoning here. For then the argument Avould be, God hath at " sundry times and in divers manners" added explanation to explanation, and solved difficulty after difficulty, till no longer is it conceivable how any sincere mind can cavil ; therefore, if still in the dark, — how shall we ever have the mystery solved ? That would be valid reasoning, but it is not the argument here. He reasons not with those who mystify^ but those who " neglecV salvation. Nor, again, is the reasoning here with the careless and pro- fane scoffers, who say, " let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ;" nor with the frivolous devotees of fashion and the world, whenever care to listen to the higlier calls of the soul; nor with the servile worshippers of Mammon, who recklessly take the dollar in exchange for the soul. For then the rea- soning would be — God hath so highly regarded this work of saving sinners, that, amid all the cares of the Universe, he OZ THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. hath "at sundry times and in divers manners" manifested special concern, and sent down the chariot of heaven to bear communication to earth respecting it. If then ye are careless, frivolous and reckless in a matter that has interested all heaven during ages past, what hope is there for j^ou? IIow can such as ye escape ? That would be valid reasoning, but it is not the argument here. He reasons not with those that insult and contemn^ but those that " neglect " salvation. But the parties addressed in the argument of the text are those of whom it is assumed. First, — That " they have heard these things " and recognize them as things spoken by God's angels (messengers). In so far, they are those found in all our Sabbath congregations, who treat the gospel with great outward respect, and even thank God that they are not as other men — even as these sceptics, scoffers, frivolous and thoughtless. Second, — That they have not only the objective knowledge of the gospel, but also a subjective consciousness of a danger to be " escaped," and a ruin from which the rescue must be a " great salvation." It is indeed a striking feature of the gospel that it assumes, as truths known to human conscious- ness, most of these things which men speculate about as religious opinions. It makes no argument to prove immor- tality to him who is ambitious to prove himself an ox or an ass, or as any of " the brutes that perish." It assumes not only the conviction of immortality in every soul, but, as con- nected with that, the conviction of a condition of present moral ruin, and of a wrath to come. These are instincts with which the spiritual nature of man is assumed in the gospel to have been originally endowed. As in the realms of animated nature, the creatures seem, by some mysterious law, to be endowed with instincts, whose blind impulses prove more watchful guardians of their safety than the proud intelligence of man ; so that the wild scream FORCE AXD SOLEMXITY OF IllS CONCLUSION. 33 of the sea-bird is often tlie -first warning of the coming tem- pest, even when the most experienced mariner can discover no " cloud big as a man's hand" : so the soul of man seems to be endowed with certain spiritual instincts, — blind impulses, it may be, — ^but efficient to warn him of wTath to come. And even when the voyage of life is happiest, its sea calmest, and its sun brightest — amid your shouts of joy and songs of glad- ness, there would bo heard, if you listened for it, the low soul- wail of a coming storm of retribution, through which none but the Great Captain of our salvation can pilot us in safety. Third, — It is assumed that those here addressed have had, in addition to this objective knowledge and subjective convic- tion, some practical development and confirmation of both, in the great facts of God's providential history, showing that every transgression and disobedience has actually received a just recompense. It is, in fact, to this end that the record has been made by holy men of old. Fourth, — It is assumed, however, that, with all this, the men who enjoy such light may yet neglect it, and through neglect ^ms/i ; " seeing they may see and not perceive that God shall save them." Saddest of all truths concerning man the creature ever boasting of his powers of reason ! Now may we see the force of the Apostle's argument to the conclusion of the inevitable doom of all that neglect sal- vation. For the greatness of this salvation is of that very sort, that the neglect of it logically necessitates damnation. If God hath, as it were, exhausted all his infinite resources, and infinitely surpassed all your own conceptions ; if he hath carried on an argument through four thousand years, gradually cumulating to its full completion, and now, in His Providence, hath placed you upon the very apex of the infinite demonstration ; if, in the way of argument, he hath given every conceivable exposition ; if, in the w^ay of persuasion, he hath used every conceivable appeal of tenderness and love ; 34 THE DIVERSITY IN UNITY OF SCRIPTURE. if, in the way of warning and alarm, he hath arrayed before YOU every conceivable terror among the recompenses of reward to transgressors — then what more is there to wait for ? what more to hope for ? how can he possibly escape who neglects so great salvation ? The very method of his reve- lation, "at sundry times and in divers manners," leaves you without one plea for neglecting it, or from putting off from you its calls, a moment longer. Bo you plead that you have yet doubts as to the certainty and reality of these things ? That plea might have had some plausibility in the case of those to whom Noah preached righteousness ; for then the salva- tion was but dimly revealed. But even their transgressions received a just recompense of rcAvard ! How then can you escape ? Bo you plead that you desire to believe, but this gospel is full of doctrines hard to be understood ? That plea had some plausibihty as urged by those to whom Ezekiel and Jeremiah preached, when these cavillers urged that their sufferings, intended to bring them to repentance, were not for their own sins, but because '' the fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." For still the revelation of redemption was comparatively dim and mysterious. But even they, for their transgressions received a just recompense of reward, under the law " the soul that sinneth it shall die." How then can you escape on such a plea ? Bo you still urge that, though you can accept all the doctrines of the gospel as a theology, still somehow it seems not to apply practically to your case ? That plea would have had great plausibility, if God had spoken, as the sceptical men of science would have him speak, by but one utterance of the abstract truths of his gospel in scientific form. For it is easily conceivable that, in such a case, many a poor sinner would have had trouble in applying the abstract truths to the multitudinous forms of the soul trouble. But God " spake at sundry times and in divers manners," connecting the revela- FORCE AND SOLEMNITY OF HIS CONCLUSION. o5 tion of His plan of mercy with all the practical diversities of human character and condition, for four thousand years : and among all the multitudes of sinners saved, and of cases put on record, some one must surely be parallel with yours : at least so nearly parallel as to furnish you with a precedent. Do you plead, " but I am so great a sinner, and have neglected the great salvation so long?" That plea might have had some plausibility when sinners under the law heard Isaiah preach ''your hands are full of blood." But even Isaiah said to them — '' though your sins be as scarlet, never mind ; come on, — and they shall be made as snow ; though you are spiritually bankrupt — never mind ; Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat — without money and without price." And surely you have no excuse for hesitating, who on the back of all this, know that " God in these last times hath spoken unto us by his Son," saying "Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. II. THE SCRIPTURES OF THE " SUNDRY TIMES " INSPIRED OP GOD ; THE ONLY SOURCE OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE AND ANTIDOTE TO PERILOUS ERROR. I. Timothy, iii. 1 16. — This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. * * * All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Viewed simplj in its aspect as Divine, nothing incidental can add solemnity and importance to any utterance of "holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Viewed on its human side, however, this passage in the Epistle to Timothy, " his son in the gospel," has special solemnity and power, as the farewell counsel and warning of an aged martyr for Jesus, now in prison awaiting execution, and saying of himself, in this immediate con- nection, " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me." Though from a prison, therefore, and though a picture of the world drawn by one whom it had maligned, scorned, scourged, imprisoned, and condemned to death, it is not in the snarling spirit of a cynic, but in the joyous spirit of a 38 ALL SCRIPTURE GOD INSPIRED. martyr, shaded, indeed, for a moment, as lie recurs from the glorious prospect before him to the sad prospects of the way- ward and erring church of his love that he leaves behind him. Nor is it in the spirit of an empirical enthusiast that he pre- scribes the scriptures as the only antidote for the anticipated perils of error, but in the profoundest convictions of his own heart's experience, and his large observation and experience in dealing with the errors and passions of men. We should note carefully, at least tile general outlines of the Apostle's picture of perilous times in the last days, as preparatory to any proper appreciation of the antidote for all those perils which he finds in the scriptures inspired of God. You will observe, in the first place, that unbounded as is the confidence of the Apostle in the power of the gospel to regenerate society, and large as are his anticipations of its success, neither he in this place, nor the inspired writers any where else, give ftny countenance to the dreams so popular in these last times, of a progress of society under the gospel with its Christian reforms and philanthropies, to a golden age of universal perfection. Nor do they give any ground for the infidel scofi" and cavil, so popular also in these last times, that Christianity is a failure ; because, in spite of all the efforts of the Church, the society, even of Christendom, is still so largely corrupt, insincere, selfish, God-despising, sham- worshipping, sensual, devilish. Nay, they give no ground, either for the disappointments and despondencies of that Arcadian piety which, assuming the saintly perfection of the Church, anticipated nothing but peace, purity, and love, within its sacred enclosures, and having failed to realize its ideal, falls back into censoriousness, uncharitableness, distrust and unbelief. For it is evidently within the limits of Chris- tianized communities, and even of the Church itself, that the Apostle prophetically sees these ." men that shall be lovers of their own selves^ covetous^ boasters, proud, blasphemers, FEATURES OF THE PERILOUS TIMES. 30 disobedient to |?rtr6'?<^'«.', unilianhful^ unholij, ivii'huut natural affections, trucehreakers, false accusers^ incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of 2)lea^Hre more than lovers of God.'''' That lie antici- pates the realization of this appalling list of sins within the limits of Christianized communities, and among those making pretence to religion, is very manifest from the last item in the catalogue — " Having a form of godliness, hut denying the power thereof.'''' The predictions of i\iQ scriptures uniformly represent that humanity shall go on from generation to gene- ration, until the era of millennial glory, exhibiting the same depravity and the same passions, even under all the light of the gospel; and that the gospel, parallel with the progress of humanity, shall gather out of the corrupt generations Christ's elect, by the same exercise of Divine power and grace that converts the most fierce and savage of the species. Nay, that even the visible Church shall constantly be liable to cor- ruption from the world without, and from unsanctified nature within its enclosures. And, therefore, not oyAj shall the tares continue to grow^ with the wheat till the reapers come for the harvest, but not unfrequently the tares shall utterly choke out the wheat in large portions of the field. Having drawn this general outhne of the picture, the Apostle proceeds to point out the influences at work in the Church to produce such corruption of faith and morals. And here he presents certain portraits of character which may well lead us to study, with special intei^st, both the perils and the antidote in the infallible Word of God which he sets before us. The first of these special portraitures, in filling up the picture, is the religious pretence of the erroiism of the last days. For observe, the special peril here descril>ed is not from the " scofiers," whose coming in the last days the Apostle Peter predicted, but rather from the hypocrites whom 40 ALL SCRIPTURE GOD INSPIRED. both the Apostles Peter and Judc predict and describe as '' false teachers, who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them," (II. Peter, ii. 1) ; and as " certain men crept in unawares, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, even our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude i. 4). Yet all this is done under the guise of " a form of godliness." Nay, generally, as we see from the fulfilment, under the guise of a form of extra godliness. The Church of Jesus Christ, as he hath organized it, is repre- sented by them to be a laggard and a sluggard in the great movement of philanthropy for the regeneration of humanity. So far advanced is this new and improved form of godliness, that even Jesus and His Apostles, though patronizingly smiled upon as well-meaning men, are regarded as far in the rear of the modern philanthro[)y. But especially are the Apostles far in the rear of the improved form of godliness whose flexibiUty so readdy adapts itself to the tastes of men, and thereby beguiles them into the kingdom of God. It devises, now, a poetic religionism for ';he sentimental ; now a gorgeous ceremonial for the lovers of the oesthetic ; now penances for the self-righteous ; now indulgences for the lovers of pleasure ; now fires the zeal of bigots with '' genealogies and old wives' fables ;" and now assures the careless and sluggish Gallios that it is "no matter about belief if one is sincere." In short, while it quiets the craving of the human soul for a religion of some sort, it skilfully adapts itself to every phase of human self-love and human weakness. It preserves, for policy's sake, the semblance of gospel religion ; but under well-feigned zeal for its outward form, it assiduously subverts its power. A second feature in the picture is the very peculiar propa- (jandism of this sham religion—" which creeps into houses and leads captive silly women" — yvuaiKupia — in the neuter, FEATURES OF THE PERILOUS TIMES. 41 and licnce the word may avcII he taken as descrl})tive of the brainless of either sex. This is the remarkable characteristic of 7nost mere formal religionism, that its propagandism ex- pends itself, not in going forth to '' the highways and hedges," nor to the people that sit in darkness and the shadow of death," but in creeping within the enclosures of the covenant, either to seduce off its victims or to infuse into the weak minds self-conceit, self-righteousness, dissatisfaction with the law and ordinances of Christ's house, and suspicion and dis- trust of those who administer them. A thii'd feature in the picture of this sham-religion of the last days is its purely vegatice character — " Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the tru.th.''^ How apt the description of that religionism which, while professing to accept the gospel as Christians, assures us at the same time that nothing is settled as the positive truth of God, but all things are open to dispute as mere opinions. It has no faith, but only an opinion. Its gospel is not " credo " — " I believe," but ever "iiego^' — "I deny." Its prayer and confession is not, " Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief," but '• Lord, I deny, reject, eschew all creeds, reward Thou mine unbelief." The creed, or rather the no-creed, on which it founds its hopes of salvation — no, not of salvation, for it neither needs, nor Avould accept salv^ation — but on which it founds its hope of heaven, is, "I believe not God as maker of heaven and earth, since I know not whether heaven and earth were made, or only developed ; I believe ?w^ Jesus Christ the Son of God, for all of us are in like manner sons of God. I believe not fhQ Holy Ghost, in any sense of a personal spirit and sanctifier, but only as a figure of speech. I believe not that we are justified by faith, but every one of us will for our works be rewarded with God's favour. And as to other points, I have not been able to come to the knowledge of the truth ; and even if I had, could not say I believe, since that would trammel free thought with a creed. 42 ALL SCRIPTURE GOD TXSPIRED. Another feature of the picture is the jjI an sibiUti/ and inge- nuity of the teachers of this sham religion ; they shall be able so to counterfeit the truth as to deceive even the very elect. " As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses," — counterfeiting the very miracles intended to demonstrate the presence and power of Jehovah with him, and thereby destroying the effect of the miracle on Pharaoh's mind — " so do these also resist the tnith.^^ They counterfeit the very seal of heaven, and so counterfeit the current coin of Christ's kingdom, that the real people of the kingdom are imposed upon by their high sound- ing phrases of faith and piety ! Brethren, those of you who are at all famihar with the current style of the insidious infidelity of these times — its pretended zeal for the honour of Christianity — its affected sigliings after a more spiritual faith than either Moses and the Prophets, or Jesus and his Apostles teach — its noisy pliilanthropism — and its pretentious claims to have met the demands of science and the progress of modern tliought — will readily perceive that the aged martyr here paints no ideal picture, nor a picture, either, of men and things only of the ages gone by ! Now^, for such perils as these to the Church of God, the Apostle points out the remedy which, if faithfully applied, shall prove infallible. "Thou hasfc known, from a child, the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salva- tion." And they are thus able to teach the infallible way of salvation : — First, because of their intrinsic dignity and infallible authority, as the inspiration of God : Secondly, because their inspiration gives their contents a Divine adaptation to every positive want of the mind and heart in reference to the question of religion, and to the exposure of every form of religious error. For they give Divine, and therefore infallible clirection, fo?' doctrine — :^:6ac. AVIIY SCRIPTURE THE ANTIDOTE TO SUCH PERILS. 43 Kc/.c: — tlic didactic teaching of the truth concerning God ; "for reproof" — th-y^ov — the refutation, by proof, of error concerning God ; "/or correction^'' — t-av6p()uca — the setting right or rectifying the wrong principles of practical ethics ; ''[for histr action in rigliteousness^ ' — -aiduav ri/v h ciKfuoarvy — the positive nurture of the soul in experimental knowledge of the wa}^ in which a sinner may be accounted righteous before God. And this, it will be perceived on a little reflection, is no mere random citation of certain uses to which the word of God may be applied, as specimens of that use simply. It is a marvellously logical classification of their uses ; and it is exhaustive, as covering all the possible wants that man can desire to have met by a revelation. As a being endowed with reason, and capable of believing only what he conceives to be truth, his religion must embrace a doctrine of God and his relation to God. As a creature liable to be deceived, by error and unbelief, concerning God and his relations to God, his religion must have a guide to warn him against and expose the treacherous wiles of error, that are ever tampering with his " evil heart of unbelief." As a being whose passions are ev^er blinding his conscience in reference to duty toward God and man, his religion must supply him with an ethical rule of right, by which to correct his crooked judgments and amend his crooked ways. As a being capable of a birth to a new and everlasting life, his religion must supply him with a nurture under the new law of righteousness which the faith that is unto salvation teaches him. So that it may be affirmed, with truth, that no want of the human soul can be conceived which is not provided for under one or other of these four heads. We proceed now to consider briefly the twofold aspect in which the scriptures are here presented : Firi tion. 5. That the measure of the thought of this book is not according to the standard of other books. The mind that suggests them being an infinite mind before which the past and future lie ever open as the present, its utterances may not seem to us always to make that marked distinction which our habits of thinking make between the past, the future and the present ; between history and prophecy ; and between the immediate finite bearing of the truths and their remote infinite bearing. Nay more, its finite facts and truths merging con- tinually into the infinite, it must needs be that while we see them, yet we '• see through a glass darkly." Under the limits and the guidance of these and their cor- relative facts and truths, I propose, by an interpretation of this record in the second and third chapter of Genesis, to bring out in brief outline, historically, the Origin of the Gospel OF Kedemptiox, and the germinal form of its develop- ment. It is necessary to-any proper-understanding of the record, — and it demolishes at once most of the fictions of the scofiers at the doctrine of the fall, — to note, very particularly, the distinction between man's primal estate at his creation and his subsequent estate in Eden. This distinction is very plainly brought out in the record. For having given an account of man's creation and the peculiar endowments of his nature, it proceeds to declare that after that — we know not how long, it may have been a century — Jehovah having planted a garden, with its tree of life and tree of knowledge, TOOK the man and put him into the garden. And subse- quently, after the fall, it is particularly said, — he drove out the man to till the ground ivhence he tvas taken. That this is no overstraining of the language is made evident also, by the fact that the sacred writer, in beginning the history of the 60 THE EDEX COYEXANT, G03PEL AND WORSHIP. Eden transaction, begins with it to apply a new title to God. Before, the title is simply '- Mokim,-' God ; now it is the title which is ever afterwards used to express his covenant relation to man, " Jeliovah Mohim,^^ the Jehovah God. To comprehend fully, therefore, the Eden condition of man, we must needs conceive clearly and distinctly, first, of the rela- tion in which he stood to God during that estate which was, both in time and in idea, anterior to the Eden estate. First, — as to his nature. He stood forth at his creation an entirely new order of being, so far as we know, in the universe. There were, before this, angels, purely spiritual creatures : there were animals on earth, mere physical crea- tures ; but this is a compound nature, spiritual as the angel, physical as the animal. Into an organism fashioned out of dust, God hath breathed a living soul. The account of it seems to imply that the vital principle in man was not, as in the other animals, the result of the organism, but produced by a separate and distinct creative act. The process suggests that the vital principle in man is not necessarily dependent upon the physical organism, and, therefore, may exist apart from it. It is connected rather with the spiritual principle ; so that, while the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, yet the soul may continue to exist in con- nection with the vital principle after the dissolution of the body. But not only is man a new order of existence in the uni- veree, personally ; but, by virtue of his compound nature, he stands forth as representative head of a race of beings ; in this respect unlike the angels who, Jesus tells us, " neither marry nor are given in marriage ;" and therefore there are no races of angels, but each one must be dealt with as a separate order of being. Thus, then, man stands a subject toward his Creator, and a sovereign toward the creatures of his system. He is in the ESTATE OF MAX lUCFuKi: THE COVENANT. 01 image of God. His vital i)rinciplc is inseparably united with his soul. lie is free from every sort of evil, i)h3^sical, mental, moral, or spiritual. He is capable of communing with God and with the angelic orders of being. He is capable of an endless life, just as he is : and more than that, of transmit- ting the power of a hke endless existence to an innumerable race of beings in his own image : — Now, out of such a state of facts arises, necessarily, certain relations to God his Creator and to other creatures ; — thus, — To God, as the author of his being, he owes perfect obe- dience and service ; To God, as the bestower of so much loving-kindnesa, he owes, in return, a grateful love and self-consecration. To the creatures of his dominion he owes a just and bene- volent administration of his authority and rule. To the beings who may spring from him he owes a loving care and parental guardianship, that they may keep steadfastly " their first estate " of bliss, and not fall irrecoverably by sinning against God. Thus upon man, considered simply as a creature, a law was laid in this his first estate. Whether a law was formally revealed to him, or he left with such a nature to be " a law unto himself," matters not to the argument. We infer, however, that a law was formally given to him, since, in accordance with such an idea, would be the obliga- tion to observe one-seventh part of his time, as specially consecrated to be a perpetual reminder of his Creator's good- ness. So, had there been no Eden with its covenant, and no iall, there would have been a creed of three articles of theology, and, with it, a law imbedded in the very nature of man : — The blessedness of the Adam-race as specially constituted of God a compound creature, and his consecration to God : man's dominion over the creatures : and man's obligation to conse- crate one-seventh of his time specially to God. 62 THE EDEN COVENANT, GOSPEL AND WORSHIP. Out of such a state of the case grows, necessarily, the idea of oblio^ation to a dependent creature : and out of this the idea of good and evil, according to some rule in the will of the Creator ; and from obligation and duty springs also the idea of penalty for disobedience. But, in the very nature of the case, there can be no room for anything like pardon in such a system ; but, precisely as now when we violate physical laws, the penalty must inexor- ably work itself out. Anv transgression must, as far as it reaches, defeat the whole scheme. Conceive then of the new being, Adam, left without any further law, and, unlike the angel creatures, becoming the head of a whole race of beings in his own likeness ; and still under no special covenant. Then, to every individual of the race, the only condition of his continuance in blessedness, must have been that he continued to love and serve God per- fectly. And failure, in the least, must be irretrievable ruin, as it had been to " the angels who kept not their first estate." With the same inevitable certainty with which the penalty now follows violation of physical laws, such transgressor must become at once a devil, with an unchangeable doom. Obviously, therefore, but two conceivable forms of moral constitution are possible to such a creature, under which to perpetuate such a relation between God and man. Either, first,— thsii each individual of the race, through endless gene- rations, shall take the risk for himself, as fallible, and thus each individual of the race continue perpetually on trial, receiving his proper doom, in case of transgression : or, second, — the race as such may be put upon trial by concen- trating universal obedience in some special proof of it, and through one representative head of the whole ; and, in case the trial is sustained, the reward shall be the establishment of the whole by divine favour, in steadfastness and blessed- THE EDEN COVENANT, AND ITS BREACH. 63 ness forever. So, from divers intimations in scripture, we may infer that the angels in heaven have been established in their steadfastness by some constitution dating far back in eternity. • Now, the record proceeds to inform us that, by special act of God's grace, this second order of constitution was appointed for man. Instead of leaving the Adam race under the original and natural law of his existence to stand or fall, irrecoverably, on the myriads of trials of each one of all the generations ; God entered into a covenant of life with him conditioned upon one special act of obedience. He placed him under a special dispensation ; that is, he changed the original moral constitution under which he, simply as a creature, stood towards his Creator. He surrounded him with every element of blessedness : taking away all temptation to disobedience : and, laying upon him the obligation of abstinence from a single tree of all the thousands that surrounded him, ho put him to the test whether he was indeed willing to perform all duty. Of all the trees he may eat, to nourish the physical life ; of the tree of life, even, whose fruit might impart the power of endless endurance to his physical life ; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, appointed as the sacramental seal of the covenant now made, he shall not eat, as a pledge of his readiness to serve and obey. The whole transaction is thus, manifestly, in the nature of a covenant entered into between Jehovah and man, embody- ing the general principles of man's relation to God in specified form. It is just as when men in their transactions with each other, not simply leaving the general principles of justice to operate their proper results, enter into contract specially, by solemn instrument with seals affixed. Hence, Hosea, allud- ing to this Eden covenant, says (Hos. vi. 7) : " They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant ;" and elsewhere in 9cri]4-ure this is treated as a covenant with Adam. It is a 64 THE EDEN COVENANT, GOSPEL AND WORSHIP. covenant, not simply personal with Adam, but with him as representative of his race. We know that, in it, he repre- sented Eve also, who though probably yet uncreated, was a party to its obligation and penalty. It was therefore not personally with Adam ; and on the same principle that he represented one he represented the whole race. That the race is involved in the consequences is manifest enough ; which would not have been the case under the original constitution. And, moreover, the scriptures everywhere represent this arrangement as analogous to the covenant of redemption with Christ, who stood, not personally, but as the representative of all the redeemed. And the condition of this covenant — namely, obedience in one specified act, to a positive command of the Creator, and that merely a command of abstinence where there was no overpowering, or even strong temptation — was certainly as favourable as could be asked by any fallible being. It would sorely puzzle those who scoff at this, to conceive of a better test or a fairer trial. The result of all was a failure, by an act of disobedience. This brings man now into a f/wVc? estate ; the estate of spiritual death under a broken covenant, with as yet no hope of recovery set before him. And the record proceeds to detail the workings of the human soul under this new phase. The first feature in the picture is that " their eyes were opened ;" that is, to the experimental knowledge of evil. The second is, that " they knew that they were naked" — that is, in the spiritual and typical sense, as when Moses saw that Aaron had made the people nak ed by the golden calf at Sina (Ex. xxxii. 25) ; or, as Ahaz's sin made Judah naked (II Chron. xxviii. 19). The third is, that hearing that sound once so gladdening to them, " The voice of the Lord God walking in the garden," they were afraid and hid them- selves. The fourth is, that being by compulsion brought face to face with Jehovah, they seek to evade and palliate the sin. THE EDEN GOSPEL. 05 Thus, then J tliis creature made in tlie image of God — so glorious, in his estate of creation at first, as the new com- ])Ound order of existence, angel and animal ; so blessed in his second estate of covenant with God, lies fallen, and with- out hope, in this his tliird estate. But so ordering and arranging the judgment upon the transgressors that the tempter should not for a moment enjoy complete triumph, the sentence is pronounced first upon him : and in that sentence upon the tempter is embodied the ^\hole gospel in germ, as subsequently revealed. For, as I now proceed to show you, just as the oak, in germ, is in the acorn, so all the gospel system is in this sentence, " I Avill put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Thus it will be seen, on careful analysis of these words, and deducing the truths embodied by implication in them, that they set forth these eight points of the gospel creed. 1. That the Redeemer and Restorer of the race is to be man^ since he is to be the seed of the woman. 2. That he is, at the same time, to be a being greater than vian, and greater even than Satan ; since he is to be the conqueror of man's conqueror, and, against all his efforts, to recover a sinful world which man had lost ; being yet sinless, he must therefore be divine. 3. That this redemption shall involve a new nature^ at '' enmity " Avith the Satan nature, to wliich man has now become subject. 4. That tliis new nature is a regeneration by Divine power ; since the enmity to Satan is not a natural emotion, but, saith Jehovah, " I will put enmity," &c. 5. This redemption shall be accomphshed by vicai-ious suffering; since the Redeemer shall suffer the bruising of his heel in the work of recovery. E 60 THE EDEN COYENxVNT, GOSPEL AND WORSHIP. 6. Tliat this work of redcraption shall involve the gather- ing out of an elect seed a " peculiar people " at enmity with the natural offspring of a race subject to Satan. 7. That this redemption shall involve a jj^erpe^it^Z conflict of the peculiar people, under its representative head, in the effort to bruise the head of Satan, that is, '' to destroy the works of the Devil." 8. This redemption shall involve the ultimate triumph, after suffering, of the woman's seed ; and therefore involves a triumph over death and a restoration of the humanity to its original estate, as a spiritual in conjunction with a physical Qature, in perfect blessedness as before its fall. Such, then, is the gospel theology here revealed, in germ, through the very terms of the curse pronounced upon the destroyer of the race. It will be seen that here are all the pecuhar doctrines of salvation, by grace, which every Christian accepts, who exercises the faith which is unto salvation. And in the broader and higher sense of the terms, Moses, as truly as Mark at the opening of his evangel, might have prefixed to this third chapter of Genesis the title, " The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God." Observe, then, that we have traced man through three estates up to this point. First ^ as simply a perfect creature, peculiarly constituted, under the natural law of obligation to his Creator. Second^ as, under a special covenant, placed under a special positive law, for the trial, once for all, of his obedience. Tliird^ as, under this special covenant and law, a sinner without any gospel of hope, and therefore wholly subject to the curse. Now we have next presented to us, in the record, man the creature, the covenanting subject, the sinner under the curse, in a Fourth estate. Henceforth he is man the sinner, under a gospel of hope and salvation held forth to his faith. Have we evidence that these first sinners comprehended this gospel of the lost Eden and accepted it by faith ? EVIDEN-CES OF GOSPEL FAITH. 67 Boarlng In mind what lias already been suggested of tlie brief and fragmentary, yet logical, structure of this record, wc shall find evidence that they not only comprehended it, but that, also, their " sorrow of the world that worketh death " was changed to a " Godly sorrow that worketli repentance ;'* and chat, in the exercise of a living faith, they cast their souls upon this promised Redeemer for salvation. The first evidence of this faith is in the fact that vVdam now called his wife's name " Eve," the ^' life ;" and that, too, while yet were echoing in his ears the sentence, " Dust thou art and unto dust shaltthou return." Before, when brought to him, he had named her after himself; he being named *' Ish " — the '' man," she was called " Isha "—the '' maness," or woman. And why should he now, after the sentence of death, change her name to " Eve," the " living ?" Evidently because his faith has apprehended clearly the promise of life involved in the promise of the w^oman's seed to bruise the serpent's head, and thereby to restore the life which sin has forfeited. Another evidence of faith comprehending the promise and referring directly to it, is the joyful cry of Eve over her first born — " I have gotten the man," as the Hebrew reads *' I have gotten the man, the Jehovah:" and the naming him '' Cain," the "Acquisition." Evidently with a clear and intel- ligent faith, she apprehended the promise that the Redeemer should be of the seed of the woman. True it was a sadly mis- taken application of the creed, led astray as she was by the fond hopes and wishes of a mother. But this is only what occurs to the strongest and most intelligent faith of thousands of Christian mothers still, who rejoice over the " acquisition ' of the highest blessing in the son of fondest hopes and highest expectations, and yet find him become an apostate and a murderer. Eve calls tlie first born Cain, " the acquisition," because she thinks him the promised Redeemer, and there- 68 THE EDEN COVENANT, GOSPEL AND WORSHIP. fore calls the second born "Abe'," the "vanishing" — sup- posing that he must come under the general law of the curse, " Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." But, widely mistaken as was her application of the truth, her faith in the truth itself is none the less striking and remarkable. A further evidence of the exercise of faith by these first sinners is found in the record immediately following that of the judgment upon them, implying that their faith found utterance in confession. " Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins." This implied slaugh- ter of the animals could have taken place for no other pur- pose than sacrifice. They were not slain for food : for the grant of the animals as food for man was not made till after the flood in the revelation through Noah. They could hardly have been slain merely to obtain their skins for clothing : for that would involve an altogether anomalous exercise of Divine wisdom and skill, and one in contradiction of God's usual method of providing for the attainment of his ends by the simplest means. There were other materials in abund- ance around them to serve the purposes of clothing, without the infliction of death upon the living creatures. The only solution of the statement that is natural and probable is, that the animals ^vere slain in sacrifice ; and that solution is abun- dantly verified by the subsequent history, beginning with the sacrifice of Abel. To these penitent believers, therefore, Jehovah appointed a mode of confessing their faith, by a worship that set before them vividly the great fundamental truth, just revealed, of the bruising of the heel of the Deliverer for their sins, in order to the bruising of the head of their destroyer. Nor can we conceive of anything more profoundly impressive to them than the witnessing the death of a creature for the first time in the world, in immediate connection with the preaching of pardon for their sins. " Looking upon him whom they have pierced," through the EVIDENCES OF GOSPEL FAITH. 69 dying of tlic victim, and standing at tbc altar clad in tho covering of the victim — thus was presented to them " Christ crucified," and justification hy faith in his atoning sacrifice. That such was the nature of the transaction is made the more evident hy the fact that they taught Abel, their child, also to brinn; " the firstlin:TATu.)x ix TiIi: ciRaaii. o7 God's grace brings them to majority spiritual, and prepares them to exercise their rights as full citizens ; in t!ie other case, until natiirr brings tiiem to majority and prepares them, by years and intelligence, for the exercise of their rights as citizens. Indeed, the differcnco between the theory of the visible Church that makes its constituent elements individual believers only, and the theory, derived from the Abraharaic covenant, that the Church consists of believers and their children — its believers representing famihes — is precisely analogous to the difference between the Continental Jacobin theories of the state as composed of individuals only, who have surrendered certain personal rights, and the Anglo-Saxon theory of Britain and America, that the State is constituted of men as representing families either in esse or in j^osse. To those, therefore, who demand of us, " where is the explicit command of the New Testament for the recognition of our children as members of the visible Church ?" it is suffi- cient response, if we choose to rest the question there — ''where is the charter in the New Testament organizing a visible Church ?" If we find the original charter, in this covenant with Abraham, still recognized in the New Testament as the charter of the Church, then the inevitable conclusion is that the provisions of the original charter as to what are the con- stituent elements of the visible Church are also recognized, unless something expressly to the contrary is declared. The true statement of the issue in controversy is — " where is the command in the New Testament changing the fundamental constitution of the Church and excluding the children from it?" With this view of the case before us, we are prepared to comprehend the profound significance of the story how, among the few occasions on which Jesus manifested indig- nation and something like bitterness in the language of rebuke, one was that in which his disciples officiously inter- 88 COVENANT CHARTER & ELEMENTS OF THE CHURCH. posed to thrust away from him parents coming with their chil- dren for his blessing. The disciples thought it an impertinence of parental fondness to be troubling the Master, in the midst of his labours of heahng and teaching, Avith the little ones who could not appreciate his blessing. But " he was indignant," says the Evangehst, and said " Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the king- dom of God." And after blessing the children, he turned in rebuke to his disciples — just as on another occasion, he turned upon the Pharisees their contempt for pubilcans, in the remark '' the publicans and harlots shall go in before jou " — and severely remarked to them " think you that children have no interest in the matter ? I tell you, unless ye become like them ye shall not yourselves enter the kingdom." That " of such is the kingom of Heaven " in the sense of the Church on earth, which is his kingdom, may readily be understood in view of the foregoing argument ; and, there- fore, I pass by that view of the subject to offer a few sugges- tions, in conclusion, upon the significancy of the saying as relating to the real kingdom of God, the Church of the redeemed in heaven, of which the visible Church is a repre- sentative shadow. And I desire the more, in this connection, to point out the grounds upon which those of us who hold firmly by the doc- trines of the covenant, both of grace and of the Church's organization, rest our confidence of the salvation of our dead children, as part of the kingdom of God — because, from this point of view, we may more easily detect the fallacies of the three popular errors on this subject, arising, severally, from the three corruptions of the truth, viz. : that of Romanism, which makes their salvation depend upon their baptism, — of Rationalism, which makes it depend upon their freedom from the taint of sin, — and that of tha popular perversion of the doctrines of grace which, assuming their salvation as a mere THE DEAD CHILDREN ALL SAVED. 89 opinion, makes it an argument against those doctrines — especially against the points of original sin, and the election of grace — that these imply the damnation even of little children. From >vhat we have shown of the nature of baptism, as the seal of the charter covenant of the visible Church, you may at once discern the error of the Papists, which perverts that which is simply a seal of the covenant into a channel, and the only channel of the grace of the Holy Spirit ; precisely as the Pharisees, whom John the Baptist and Jesus rebuked, made the old sense of circumcision, not a simple seal of the covenant of the external Church, but a channel, and the only channel of grace unto salvation. Assuming that baptism makes them Christians, instead of declaring their birthright in the privileges of the covenant mercy, both Papal and semi- Papal sacramentalists turn the children who die without tliis sacrament awa}^ from Heaven. Hence, also, the folly of the Papal and semi-Papal error of applying to the dying child the seal that has significance only for the child that, it is hoped, will live in the visible Church. Rationalism, in all its forms, rejecting the anterior covenant of grace, of which this is a development, and denying the fact of the native sinfulness of the race as a race, for which sinfulness this covenant of grace was a provision, rests the opinion — for it can amount to nothing more than an opinion, — that the dead children are all saved, on the ground that, dying before moral action, they are not sinners, and need no regeneration. The orthodox creeds of the Reformed churches all assert that " in Adam all die " spiritually ; and that, represented in him, every creature born of Adam is guilty before God, and born with a depraved nature ; but that the electing love of God hath purposed a restoration of part of the guilty race, and that part are by the grace of God, renewed, justified, and 90 COVENANT CIIAKTER & ELEMENTS OF THE CHURCH. received into the kingdom of God. Popular clamour, led on by noisy demagoguism in theology, insists that such a theory excludes from heaven even the children who cannot believe and be saved, except it be such as, without regeneration, and by virtue merely of the election of God, are accepted into the kingdom of heaven. Hence the silly slanders, to the effect that Calvinists have written and preached of " infants in hell a span long." A preaching which none of the reporters, however, have ever themselves read or heard ; but only have it in most cases from some one, who heard some one else say, that he remembered to have heard his father, or some old man say, that his grandfather had heard it reported of some iron-sided Calvinist that he so wrote or preached ! And yet all this in the face of the notorious fact that the men who have written most of the words of consolation for parents bereaved of their little children, are those whom the creeds of the Reformation have taught to expound the gospel. To whom do English-speaking mourners go in their sorrow over their dead children ? To the volumes of Smythe of Charles- ton, or of Rice and Prime of New York, or of Macfarlane or Gumming or Harris of London, or of Russel, or Cuthbert, or John Brown, or Grosart, of Scotland, — Calvinists all of them, of the sturdiest stamp. Or if we turn to the great expos- itors of scripture — with the exception of a few divines, who, laying great stress on the covenant of God in Baptism, hesi- tate to say that he makes no distinction in this regard between the covenant children and the children of the heathen and infidels — we find, from Calvin himself forward — Sibbs, Willet, Henry, Scott, and their successors — all Calvinists — expound- ing tho scriptures in this sense. Nor is this a curious incidental fact merely. For it can easily be shown, that, on no other theory of the gospel than this of the Reformed creeds can any argument be founded to demonstrate, logically, the salvation of the dead children. THE DEAD CITTLDREX ALL SAVED. 91 All other views of the matter can oflfor nothing hotter than the opinions of wise and good men. Such opinions may satisfy the curious, the speculative, or the tlioughtless ; hut, in the dark hour of sorrow, '' Rachel, weeping for her children, refuses to ho comforted " with mere ojnnioiis. Faith must point to a divine rock on which the feet may he planted, as the waves of the tempest heat over the soul ! The Calvinistic creed, or more pro}X)rly the creed of the Reformation, on this subject, reasons with the old epitaph on. the grave-stone over the three dead children : — " Say, arc they lost or saved ? If Dcath'r, by sin, they sinnSd for they lie here : If heaven's by Avorks, in heaven they can't appear: Ah Reason, how depraved ! Revere the sacred page, the knot's untied : They died, for Adam sinned — they live, for Jesus died." But we will be told that this argument apphes only to elect infants. For docs not the confession of the Church of Scot- land say " elect infants dying in infancy?" And is not that as good as saying, some of them arc not elect? True, but docs it not seem curious to argue that if one says he has a number of choice lambs in his fold he therefore means to say that he has some that are not choice ? But, again, where is this clause found in the confession ? In the third article that treats of the elect and the non-elect ? No ! but in the tenth article, '' of eflfectual calling." Having declared that the chosen of God are called by the Word and Spirit, and quickened by the Spirit, that they may answer the call— the question laaturally occurs — " But how then with those who die before they can apprehend and accept the call of the Word?" The confession proceeds to declare that suclr are regenerated in virtue of the atonement, without the call of the word, by " the Holy Spirit, who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth:" therefore the infants elect are saved,. 92 COVENANT CHARTER & ELEMENTS OF THE CHURCH. just as adults are, by the blood of Jesus securing their gra- cious renewal. Strange that the very article that declares how infants are saved, should be cited as evidence of belief that infants are lost ! Biit why then use the qualifying term " elect ?" Why not say '• all infants dying in infancy are saved ?" For two reasons very sufficient. First, it would have been logically out of place here, as introducing another subject than that of hotv the elect are saved, which is the topic in hand, — not tvho are the elect ? which had been defined elsewhere. Secondly, the Confession makes no declarations, — being a confession of faith, — not directly, or by immediate inference, declared in scripture. And the scriptures being intended for those only who can understand them, and to declare to such the terms of their salvation, and the grounds of their hope and com- fort, without gratifying curiosity, — nowhere expressly declare, in direct terms, that all infants shall be saved : while they do declare that the elect of God, adults and infants alike, shall be saved through the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. AYhen the Bible stops speaking, the Confession always stops ; just as, when the Bible speaks, the Confession fearlessly speaks, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear — nay, even though they mock at and malign it. But does not this imply, contrary to what has been said, that the Bible does not teach the salvation of all the dead children ? Not at all. For, while, in virtue of its great prin- ciple of reserve on all points of curious inquiry, it makes no such direct statement, yet it furnishes abundant grounds of comfort and assurance to the soul in sorrow earnestly search- ing for it. What are the grounds of comfort ? I can noAv only present them in suggestive outline, to guide such as desire to search the scripture for them. The aro-ument is threefold. From the analogy of faith. THE DEAD CHILDREN ALL SAVED. 9.> From the nature of the future existence, as presented in scripture. And from statements of scripture directly in reference to this point. First, —There is nothing in the grounds or conditions of salvation, as stated in the gospel, to interpose a barrier to our belief in the salvation of all the dead children. It is not on account of " works" which they could not do ; and though salvation is by faith, yet it is not for the sake of the faith as a work of the sinner. They may be saved, therefore, simply " by grace " as adults are, and therefore can sing with them the same eternal song " Worthy is the Lamb, who washed us in his own blood." Second, — Neither is there anything in the method of salva- tion, by the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing, to contra- vene this belief. For though he w^orks through the word in the case of those who believe, he works without the word also,, saith the confession, "when and where, and how he pleaseth," and, therefore, may regenerate the infant without, as in the case of the adult, working through the word. Third, — Neither is there any ground of difficulty in the sovereign electing love of God. For just as the effectual call,, and the offer accepted by the sinner, proves him to be one of •Jie elect ; so the call of the infant by Jesus, away from the trouble and sin to come, fnay prove it to be one of the elect. Fourth, — Neither is there any ground for supposing the dead children excluded from heaven, by reason of the doctrine that they are of a guilty and depraved race ; since the guilt in any case is removed by the atoning blood of Jesus, justi- fying the sinner, and procuring the grace of the Holy Spirit ; and all for nothing in the saved moving him thereto, but only of his own free sovereign love ; thus putting the adult and the infant upon the same level as to claim for grace. Fifth, — As there is no ground in the analogy of faith to deny, so there is, on the contrary, much from which to affirm,. 94 COYEXxVNT CHARTER & ELEMENTS OF THE CIIURCn. the salvation of infants dying in infllnc3^ Thus infants dying because Adam sinned, also rise from the dead because Christ has risen. "As they have borne the image of the earthly, so shall they bear the image of the heavenly." As certainly as, by some relation to Adam's sin they die, so certainly, by some relation to Christ in his work as Mediator, every one of them that dies shall burst forth from the grave, and " the mortal put on immortality." If, then, by virtue of the relation to Christ, that half of the curse is removed which relates to their physical nature, why not infer that, on the same ground of sovereign grace, the other half is removed, which relates to their spiritual nature ? Sixths — And this seems, again, to receive direct confirma- tion by the Apostle's declaration in reference to the first and second Adam, " where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." For, if we count the aboundings of grace only in the numbers of adult sinners saved, this statement seems not to be realized. The aboundings of sin in every age, so far, exceed vastly the aboundings of grace. But it puts another face on the statement, when we conceive of the dead children as all called by Jesus Christ to himself. More than one-third of the race die under two, and more than one-half of the race under five years of age. If these are counted for the king- dom of heaven, we set out, in our estimate of the abounding of grace, with over half the race redeemed in infancy, and to these add the millions that, since Adam, have accepted the call ! And when Ave have conceived of the vast majority thus gathered out of two thousand generations, — then we may begin to catch the spirit of the Apostle's saying, " where sin abounded, grace did much more abound !" Seventh, — This view is again confirmed by all those scrip- tures which describe the vast numbers of the redeemed in heaven. It is "a great multitude ^that no man could number." It is ^' out of every nation and kingdom, and tongue," — and THE DEAD CIIILDREX ALL SAVED. 95 of course, therefore, out of some tribes that have not ])een cvangehzed, and who can be represented, therefore, only by their infants gathered in infanc3^ It is to be understood also, relatively to the number not saved, and to the whole number of the race ; and must, therefore, include the dead children. Ei(jlitli^ — To these general views must be adckd the argu- ment from the scripture account of the retribution of the future for the lost. This retribution is generally described in a manner to exclude the dead children, since it is made to have reference to the moral actions of the doomed. The condemnation is on the ground that " they loved darkness i*athcr than light, because their deeds are evil." Their judgment is " according to their works." Their retribution is the reaping of a harvest of evil action in life. " lie that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." '' What a man soiveth^ that shall he also reap." And so of multitudes of scriptures. A chief element of the retribution is to be the memory of sins done — none of which things can be predicated of the future existence of the dead children. Ninth, — With the argument cumulating thus at every suc- cessive step of the view of the analogy of faith, and the direct statements of scripture concerning the nature of the future state, we come now to the express declarations of scripture touching children, and their relations to the everlasting kingdom. Even in the Old Testament, with its very limited statements concermng the existence after death, wo find David saying of his dead child, " I shall go unto him, but he shall not return unto me." This must mean, I shall go unto him Avhither he is gone, into " His presence where is fulness of joy and blessings for evermore." Since there was no com- fort in the thouglit that he would go to him Ln his grave, any more than in the like fact that he should go to Absalom in the grave. Besides, David indulges in no such truisms as, "I shall also go to the grave." And it is worthy of remark that this hope of the salvation in this case, was of a child of sin, who could liave little ground of claim by reason of the faith of his backslidden and apostate father. It is also of a child that had not received the sacrament of circumcision, having died before the eighth day, the time appointed by the lav7 for the sacrament, and therefore his salvation was independent of the sacrament, contrary to the Papal notion. So the poor Shunamite mother could say by faith " it is well with the child," though she had deft his corpse in the prophet's chamber. Tenths — We find moreover, in the Old Testament, the same special claim to the children, as peculiarly his own, which Jesus sets up for them in the New Testament ; and the same special indignation at the heartlessness which repelled them, as incompetent to enjoy the spiritual blessings of immortality. Saith Jehovah by Ezekiel (xvi. 21,) in his terrible wrath at the horrible offerings of the children in idolatrous sacrifices — '' They have slain my children, causing them to pass through the fire." Thus laying claim to them as his peculiar posses- sion. So also in Jeremiah (xb:. 4, 5) in reference to this same cruel practice, — " They have filled this place with the blood of innocents ;" and therefore he gives utterance to his specially hot displeasure. In the New Testament I need only refer you to the very explicit declaration of Jesus, " SuSer the little children^-of such is the kingdom of heaven," which, you will find, the more it is studied in connection with his indignation at the disciples, and with the nature of the kingdom of heaven, in its two-fold aspect, as the Church on earth and the Church of the redeemed, the more you will be impressed with the utter folly of supposing him to mean simply that adults must be simple and artless like little children to enter heaven ; or, indeed, anything short of meaning that, in the plan of redemption, the children are specially provided for, both in THE DEAD CHILDREN ALL SAVED. 97 the kingdom on earth, the Church visible, and in the king- dom above, the redeemed Church. * Eleventh^ — As putting the cope-stone upon this argument, thus cumuhiting at every step, I must refer, though it be in a word, to the express declaration, that in the vision of the great day, «Tohn " saw the dead small and great — in the sense of little ones and full grown, as well as of humble and high position — stand before God." And that he saw also, corres- ponding to this fact, " the hooks opened, out of whicli the dead were judged," " according to what was written in the books." " And another Book zvas opened, tJie hook of life ;"' which can be understood in no other way so clearly, as in the supposition of three classes at the judgment, — bcHevers and unbelievers, who were judged according to their works, out of the two books, and the little ones, who had done no works, were recorded in a third book specially appropriated to such — a book of life (see Revel, xx. 12). Such are the general grounds of our faith concerning the children who die. I have discussed this question — though not of immediate connection with the great covenant charter and its provisions for the children who live, rather than the children who die — because of the favourable stand-point for such discussion secured by the exposition of the covenant and the nature of its seal ; and because the perversion of this seal has led to the cruel doctrine of Rome concerninn; the children dying unbaptized. Nor is the evil confined to the Church of Rome : but OAving to the vague and uncertain views with which a Romanizing Protestantism permeates the popular mind, even many excellent Protestant Christians are led to misuse the sacrament of Christ by applying to a child, hecause it is dying, and going to the church above, the seal which recognizes its rights as living in the visible Church on earth, and as such has all its significance. I mean not to say that the seal of the covenant is not to be applied, irrespective of a 98 COVENANT ClIARTEK & ELEMENTS OF THE CHURCH. the question of life or death ; but only that the prospect of death should not be the special ground and reason for apply- ing an external seal which, primarily, contemplates the subject of it in the relation of a member, by birthright, of the visible Church on earth. And the use of the sacrament, in a manner to suggest the approach of death as a ground for its use, tends only to propagate and confirm the error among the Protestant masses, that the baptism makes the child a Christian ; whereas the baptism is but the solemn declaration officially that, under the terms of the charter covenant of the Church, the chikben of believers are born members of the visible Church. Such, then, is the origin of this remarkable body, organized a visible government on earth separate from all other social organizations. This is the kingdom not of this world. Here it has stood for near four thousand years ; while all other governments coeval with its origin have not only perished, but the very records and traditions of them have almost passed from men's knowledge. Well might Jehovah speak of this kingdom as an everlasting kingdom ; and call him now Abra- ham, " the high father of a multitude." You perceive, therefore, brethren, that not only the gospel existed and was preached long before the incarnation, but the gospel Church also existed. And this peculiar spiritual government, into which you and your children are called now, is one and the same with that four thousand years ago. '' The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." You may understand now, what has perhaps puzzled you before, why so little, comparatively, is said of the Church and its constitution in the New Testa- ment. It is not at all because the Cliurch was not divinely organized, or that the question of the Church is a matter of indlfterence, as some would have it, and no essential part of the gospel of redemption ; but simply because there was no call to organize and give a constitutional charter to a Church in tlie New Testament. That had been done two thousand THE TRUE AGE OF THE CnURCII ORGANIZATIOX. 90 years before. Jesus came as a minister of that Church ; became a member of it by his birth, and was formally recog- nized as a member of it, just as the children are how. His disciples were members of this same Church ; and after the work of redemption was completed, instead of setting up a Church for the first time or even a new Church, they simply modified its forms of worship and government to adapt them to the new order of the dispensation of the Spirit. For, in the nature of the case, the ancient forms of worship having been those of a prophetic faith must now change into forms suited to a historic faith. And just as the government had changed from the patriarchal to that by the chosen elders, under the covenant with Abraham ; so under the apostles such a modification occurred as suited the Church of all nations, now that it is no longer the Church of one nation. Therefore so little is said of the constitution of the Church in the New Testament. The nystakc which so confuses men's views of this question of the Church arises, very largely, from that miscalled '• Hifjh-Churcldsm,^' which is but just half A /y/« enoiujli ; since it refers the origin of the separate visible Church to a period just half way back in its history ; and looks for the Church's charter, as a visible organized govern- ment, where there is none, but simply a modification of its ordinances and government to adapt it to a now phase of the work of redemption. '' The Church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth" is an essential element of the scheme of redemption, and has existed since men began first to be redeemed. And as a separated visible government, '^ though not reckoned among the nati'ons," the Church bc'2;an as soon as men be;2;an to or ORDINANCES OF THE THEOCRATIC ERA. DISCOURSE V. THE SIGNIFICANCE THEREOF. Exodus xii. 3, 7, U, 14. — Speak unto all the congregation of Israel, say- ing, In the tenth day of this mouth, they shall take unto them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house, &c. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door post of the houses. And thus shall ye eat it ; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand ; and ye shall eat it in haste ; it is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite the first-born, &c. And the blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where ye are : and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. Luke xxii. 15, 20. — With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. I Cor. v. 7, 8, — For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us ; there- fore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, &c. AssUxMiNG, my brethren, that jou are all familiar with the details of the story of the boudage in F.gypt ; of Moses' call from the desert, his mission and message: of the wonders whereby he has at once visitCil judgment upon, and sought to bring Pharaoh and Egypt to submission and obedience, — I 102 THE PASSOVER COVENANT OF REDEMPTION. desire now to fix your attention upon the consummation of all, in the formal covenant of deliverance made here with this peculiar body of people, organized by the previous charter covenant with Abraham, as those of whom Jehovah is specially the God, and they specially his peoj)le. If I take occasion frequently to remind you that the method of God's revelation is by a successive series of covenants, each a fuller development of the germinal, first covenant, and of all that precede it ; this is, because I would have you hold fast the clue which should guide you to the right interpretation of the book, and guard you against most of the difficulties that have been raised with the record by many learned interpreters ; who, with very obscure ideas of the Gospel revealed in the first, or indeed, in any of the covenants, and with little experience of its power, find mere learning and natural genius unequal to the task of rightly interpreting the oracles of God. The summary of the historic facts here shows this to be a covenant transaction. On the part of Jehovah, a statement and exposition of a certain blessing of redemption from cruel bondage has been made^ which statement here is put into the form of a covenant. And, as before he called upon Abraham to enter into the instrument with him, by an external act, affixing his seal thereto, and saying, ^' This is my covenant, every male shall be circumcised, and it shall be a token betwixt me and you ;" so now, appointing the shedding and sprinkling of blood, he declares " The blood shall be to you for a token." This, therefore, is a covenant of a sacramental nature ; and, after the method of the former covenant, a seal is appointed to be affixed thereto, which seal itself is formed to be a symbol of all the great truths and blessings stipulated in the instrument. Looking backwapd, and compai-ing this with the previous covenants of Jehovah, we shall find this to embrace, and bring TTS SIGXIFIC.VNCE AX!) liKI. ATIOXS. 103 out more clciirly, the truths aii