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CBAKSWICK JOST, A. M* PICTOU, N. S. PRINTED BY WILLIAM HARRIS. 1876. > \ \ . ,^ .' . -* « \>. .W. .^ v-.«> - 1 •> i^ til -I in 061 t)f Met .i .l!llJ3 J u i/' ' i.i *: i'TV i tli»liv tri #■ ■^•' > i^. ^ti !v ! 1. i: ■.••.-4>-.-5i^ii i'lVH ' /^^'i J m Ooi be d« iiiiid0 of /f TO THE READER. the following Essay appeared, in part, in the .Ni a ffew months ago, it was the writer's Jndly sanctioHed by the Editor, immediate- cement it, by such an appeal to the Fathers |lsm as is now made. Want of leisure delav- mtion of this purpose, and in order that the ' be conveniently brought to the reader's fs presented in a pamphlet, rather than in >arated News-paper articles, which might lly. collated. several Authors have written at length upon discussed, none have been directly consult- ing those whose works are a part of ** the %udy to be pursued by Candidates for our long these,* besides Wesley and Fletcher, is i Whose Commentary is fast superseding those ^ve hitherto been most generally used by And AH this Commentary presents the >sis of the views advocated in this Essay, 5S on Matthew, 19. 14., Luke, 18. 16., John, ^mans, 5. 18., 11. 32., Eph. 2. 3., &c.,) it may de. In reply to an objection which has been \tsi want of harmony with the older Standards lism, to observe how cordially and unre- It is recommended by the leading publica- iritish Methodism. [jssLEYAN M. Magazine says, editorially, imerous popular and portable Commentaries re appeared, this is undoubtedly the best. In all the qualifications essential to a Conin* Dr. Whedon is second to none, so that he may as a safe and sure guide of the inspired Word. The City Road Ma(JAZINE also says, edi ** Indeed it is not too much to say that the Ct ary upon Romans is a work of sanctified ezege nius. Trained scholarship, keenly aecurii powerful original thinking, minute carefuln* % produced an exposition as fresh and startling, truthful and vigorous." Judging from the expressions of surprise a: proval with which this Essay, as publishei WESLBYAN was met, the writer regards the ap: of it as very opportune. Surely it is time fori thodist to return to the horn-books of his ear! to whom it is needful to say, as did Fletcher, reply to his opponents, he proved from the 8 the very truth for which we contend, ** I ti could speak as the oracles of God without exp to truth ot the gospel to the smiles of Christian That the truth ** may have free course and ^ fied," is the prayer which accompanies thiDK humble eil'ort towards its dissemination. e: 1 r'A PiCTOU, N, S., Feb., 1876. r. * i. €hij ) \ itm .i 7' 2 wi tha i\\ .-< sea ishei le ap! 5 for ear- he 8**^ I ti expto tian ' . and ^ s th« . ; t« f - .1 LATION OF CHILDREN TO JESUS. , » II /y ious culture of the young, occupies to- u of unprecedented importance in the ( d labor of the Christian Church. We it on abandon the Prayer-Meeting, or the u the ordinary acceptation of that term, as ored Sabbath School. mi' it has become a custom in some quarters i the morning sermon and the school, in : service, in which parents and children e united study of the word of God, the , osing with the exposition of the day's ^ other appropriate Scripture, by the ,. t is more than probable that such a , spending the morning hours of the Sab- be, in many cases, for the advantage of d. It would be of advantage to the ^ giving a prominence to their religious | hich is not generally secured, and by hab- ; em to regular attendance upon the Public ^ God; whereas, it is a lamentable fact | of them are now found only in the Sab- ^ 1. It would be of advantage to parents them to a more careful and consecutive ^ w 6 home-study of the SeiiptuieH. It would be of ad. vantage to the Pastor by enabling him to compassij his preaching a wider range of truth and niakeliii preaching more exi)ository than is usually possibfe, thereby better accomplishing one of the grand objedj of preaching, namely, to make the heai'ei's familiir with truth in all its various phases. Such a custom also appears to conform closely to tlie habit of tlie primitive Church, for, it was not until the fourth or fifth century of our era, that the sermon, as we understand that term, was introduced. But, the design of all the Agencies of the Chnitli, in their i^elation to children, is to train them up for God; and back of the question as to the manner in which these Agencies may be most successftilly employed, is the question we now propose to con- sider; the question of the relation which children sustain to Jesus, in virtue of which we expect them dying to he sailed, or, living to be trained up to (Oi early exhibition of the blossoms and fruits of genuine piety. It has come to be regarded, practically, as afa«t, by the different branches of the Protestant Chureii, that all children dying in infancy are saved. The Westmmster Confession of Faith says, ** Elect mfants, dying in infancy, are regenerated 'and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when, where and how He pleaseth." The logical infer- ence from this assertion is that non-elect infant^ dying m infancy, are not regenerated and saved i Ind that such was the belief of the framers of that nfession, and, generally, ofthat school of religious inkers, in former times, cannot be reasonably dis- 11 ted. Occasionally of late years, though we believe mparatively rarely, the same opinion has found pression in the pulpit. The present v'^riter once ard a prominent and well known Minister attempt emphasize and justify the awful announcement, most in these exact words, "We may say, poor tie things, poor little things, and may pity their ndition, but, it is written in the Word of God, d we cannot get over it." We have however, the testimony of a Presbyter- n divine, that "the theologians who hold to this estminster) Confession (now) generally maintain at all infants (who die in infancy) are elect, and any of them think that this article in the Confess- n would express the truth more clearly if the word elect" were omitted. It is omitted in the Con- ssion of Faith as p mended by the Cumberland resbyterian Church." " ' . ... According to this interpretation the article refer- 3(1 to is now generally understood to mean, infants lying in infancy are regenerated and saved &c., and ihus corresponds de facto with Arminian views. 1 But, what shall we say of children who live and lor whose Christian nurture and training we are ) largely responsible ? What relation do they sus- lin to Christ 1 Is the salvation of the dying child jcomplished by a special work of grace in view of i 8' deatli, while the living child is left in a state of con demnation until an age is i*eached, when pemnal faith and obedience are iK)ssible 1 Or, are all child ren, through Chiist, free from condemnation, and, therefore, in a gracious state of meetness for heaven, until guilty of actual sin ] If we can arrive at the Scriptual answer, wewiE be led to a more intelligent and adequate consolatioii in the one case, and, in the other case, to a more successful use of the necessary means of Christian tramine. " As Christ is at least equal to Adam, it FOLLOWS, THAT AS AdAM BROUGHT A GENERAL CON DEMNATION, AND A UNIVERSAL SEED OF DEATH UPOS ALL INFANTS ; SO ChRIST BRINGS UPON THEM A GEN ERAL JUSTIFICATION AND A UNIVERSAL SEED OF LIFE." — John Fletcher, We regard it as incontrovertible, that every one born into the world inherits a sinful nature. Tlie sad consequences of the first sin are universal. Pain, suffering, and sinful tendencies, are manifest with the first development of human faculties. But, a Saviour has been provided, and, wide-reach- ing as is the influence of sin, so wide-reaching is the i influence of His atonement. m ^ These two great truths are thus placed in an- tithesis to each other, in there need be no subseiiueiit necessity for the change which is indicated by these phnises. To ilhistrate onr idea of the relation such Script- ures sustain to the opinion we advocate, we refer the reader to the Great Commission ; " Ooye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature ; he that believeth and is baptized shaU be saved, but he that believeth not shaU be damned, Mark, 16, 15. 16. >^: A Af~«^<^« .VI 11 we are to interpi-et these words in t^eir widest significance, we, at once, exclude every infant, dying in infancy, from the possibility of salvation ; for, such an infant "believeth not," and, therefore, "shall be damned." From this conclusion, we shrink with horror. It is worthy of remark, as a historic fact, that Ambrose, Augustine, and others of the church Fathers, made a corresponding mistake in their interpretation of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus, " except a rpan be bom of water and o/ the spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of Oo^P Taking this statement in its widest sense, they said, all unbaptized children must be excluded from the Kingdom of God; though, as if to mitigate tlie harsh- ness of such a conclusion, they assigned to them the mildest grade of perdition. This error was the result of a waut of consideration of the circumstances of the persons. We at once see the necessity of a similar consideration in the case of the Saviour's last command, and, consequently, of limiting its direct application to those who have attained such a uiiiturity of understanding as renders personal faith in Christ possible. In like manner, we must limit the direct application of the phrases before quoted, to those who hare lost the justification of infancy, and, therefore, need a renewal, or, we may say another renewal, of their nature, by the power of the Spirit of God. And, this phrase, another renewal, will occasion no surprise to one, familiar with Fl- etcher's remarks, that, all who are lost " foifeit their initial salvation," by their own sin ; and, all who enter the heavenly glory, are saved, " by keep- ing the free gift which is come unto all men," or, " by recovering through faithful obedience to re- converting grace." — F. & G. Creed. « ' "* - -«^ Any other opinion of the relation of children to Jesus, than that here urged, involves in diffi- culty and doubt, the familiar saying of the Saviour four times repeated, in substance, in the Gospel, *' SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME, AND FORBID THEM NOT, FOR OF SUCH IS THE KING- DOM OF God." \^ = For example, examine this saying m the light of the opinion, that a child is justified and regen- erated, only on condition of its dying in infancy. Then, we must take one horn of the following dilemma ; either, we must believe that only these children who were there in the Saviour's presence, not all children, ai-espoken of and that they were all justified because they were to die m mfaney or, we must believe that Jesus spoke, not of children ** ,M I'l; >li 14 themselves as members ot the king ) < •M According to the teaching of our Standard wri- ters, the very continuance ol the human race, after Adam's sin, is conditioned upon the promise of a Saviour. Were it not for such a promise, the full sentence ol death would have been imme- diately executed, and, the human race would have ended where it began. ,,.!.. .,.'4 "What the race would have been^ had not the redeeming plan been brought in, the Scriptures no where tell us, except that a sentence of death to be executed "in the day" in whiqh the first pair sinned, was the sanction of the law under which they were placed; and, it is great presump- tion to amme it as a truth that they would have multiplied their species only for eternal destruc- „^lv V'? '''''^ ^^^^^^^ ^ave been propagated bSJ^acw''^r^^^^^^^^ ^^ sinnii^,.^tn^d, of 17 lyed are i^ation willl)e ii'd wrl ri race, Tomise romise, iranie' would lottiie ptures tleatb B lirs( under lump- have }truc- ^ated J, of )JdIy (s an biite whicli the Script uivs ascriln' tu (rcjil." — Wat807iS JnsHL l\)l. 2. Page 51). "As we sinned only Heminalhim Adam, if God had not intended our re^leinption, His gocxlness would have engaixt'd Ilini to destroy us seminal' li/^hy crushing the ca])ital otiender who contained us nil; so there woulcl have been a just proportion between the sin and the )»unis]iinent; for, as we sinned in Adam witliout the least consciousness of guilt, so we should have been jjunished with- out the least consciousness of pain." — JFleic/ur, Ml Vhexk. Ilunian beings, therefore, come into the world ^' under a constitution of mercy which actually existed beiore their birth " ; and, " until the mom- t^nt that by actual sin, tliey biing personal con- demnation lipo?) themselves, they remain heh's of tlie Kingdom of eternal glory". If it be asked, how this diilers from Pelagian, or, Semi-Pelagian theories of the natural inno- cence, or, angelic sinlessness of childhood, as, e.g., that of Dr. 'J\aylor, to whom Mr. Wesley's "Tre- atise on Orii^inal sin " is a rei)ly ; we answer, the difterenee is^very great. Dr. Taylor taught, and his theory contains the substance of all those to which we have i-eferred, that " no evil but tem- poral death came upon men in consequence of Adam's sin." Methodism follows the Scripture in teaching that temporal death is only one con- sequence of Adam's sin; other consequences are ^'the being born into the world with a corrupt o l« ^! v.-.suif!ir (1; 1 k tt 18 nuture, always teinlinsianc(' timsc of this Kssay, iri'touiid in his ^sVppcal;^' ;i woi-k which Annin- I'liis have ahvays projK'rly ro^'ardod as jnvscntini^ llie Scrihtural idt'a ot" human d.coravitv most nn- piiswcrahly, the coincidence' proving that in his lopiiiion, thci'o is no want ofharniony ))ct\vccn the It wo (lo(.'trincs. I It will i>e observed, hy a comparison of qnota- Itions, .ilready given, tliat Dr. Fisk agrees precise- ly with Watson, so Car as these quoted statenn nts iiiv concerned. J>ut, as the statement of'the forin- |t'r lias been strangely construed into a denial of •Icpravity, exce])t sucli as is one's own making, wereter^o it again, "Guilt is not inii)uted, until involuntary rejection of the Gospel-renie(iy, man makes the depravity of liis nature, the object ^'t'liis own clioice." So^far is this hmguage from ^It'iiying human depravity, that it most clearly ii!i|)lies the very opposite^ conclusion. For,^ how ^Mii it be said that "man makes the depravity ot his nature the ohject of his own choice, it his naturc^ be not depraved. And, the fact that this depravity is "of his own nature" no ^«;« F^ e^^ it to be of his own making, than the foct that Ins .'.ffections are a part of his nature, F^^^^ ^X)se l)e of his own m akino-. And, as a man may choose to bo .uS"^^^^^^^ ''' '' 20 )| y 1 i 1 [i \-\ miiy cl\()()se tu b»* ' in int:inev. must Ix* iustilieil,rei:«| SSlOll ate