V' 
 
 § 
 
University of California. 
 
 FROM THK LIBRARY OF 
 
 DR. FRANCIS LIEBKR, 
 Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, New York. 
 
 THK GIFT OF 
 
 MICHAEL REESE, 
 
 Of San Fra^icisco. 
 1B73. 
 
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THE 
 
 WAY OF LIFE 
 
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 Eivgrswtd by W G Am-! 
 
 Thus sailh the LORD; Behold,! set before you the Wat of Life. 
 
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 Thyword is alsmp unto my f eet. ai\d alighmnio my path. 
 
 .amBmi©^^- eiTMBi^ S€M®®1. WM1®B" 
 
 ' •-.. 146 Chestnut Strket ^,-- 
 
THE 
 
 WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HODGE, 
 
 PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, N. J* 
 
 WRITTEN FOR THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, AND 
 REYISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 N EW EDITION. 
 
 AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 NO. 146 CHESTNUT STREET, 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 184], by Herman Cope, 
 Treasurer, in trust for the American SuDday*schooI Union, in the Clerk's Office 
 of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 I. Ashmead & Co., Printers. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 It is one of the clearest principles of divine 
 revelation, that holiness is the fruit of truth ; 
 and it is one of the plainest inferences from 
 that principle, that the exhibition of the truth 
 is the best means of promoting holiness. 
 Christians regard the vv^ord of God as the 
 only infallible teacher of those truths which 
 relate to the salvation of men. But are the 
 Scriptures really a revelation from God ? If 
 they are, what doctrines do they teach ? And 
 what influence should those doctrines exert 
 on our heart and life ? 
 
 The publishing committee of the American 
 Sunday-school Union have long felt the want 
 of a book which should give a plain answer 
 to these questions, and be suitable to place in 
 the hands of intelligent and educated young 
 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 persons, either to arouse their attention, or to 
 guide their steps in the way of life. 
 
 The following work has been prepared at 
 the request of the committee, with the hope 
 that it may in some measure answer the pur- 
 pose just stated. In a Christian country it 
 might seem unnecessary to raise the question 
 whether the Scriptures are the word of God. 
 But those who have had much intercourse 
 with young men, know that even among those 
 who have been religiously educated, there is 
 more or less skepticism upon this point ; and 
 where there is no absolute skepticism, there is 
 often an impression that the evidence of the 
 divine origin of the Bible is not so decisive as 
 it might, or even should be. Hence it is that 
 the want of faith is seldom felt to be a great 
 sin. It was therefore deemed important that 
 the question. Why we are bound to believe 
 the Bible to be the word of God ? should be 
 distinctly, though briefly, answered. 
 
 The still more comprehensive question, 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 What do the Scriptures teach ? is of course 
 here considered only in reference to those 
 great practical doctrines which are essential 
 to evangelical religion, viz. : the doctrines of 
 sin, justification, faith, repentance, and holy 
 living. 
 
 With regard to the influence vrhich these 
 doctrines should exert upon the heart and 
 life, or, in other v^ords, w^ith regard to reli- 
 gious experience, reference might be made to 
 the numerous records of the exercises of the 
 people of God, or to what we see daily in his 
 church. As, however, the Scriptures them- 
 selves not only teach us what the truth is, 
 but also how it operates upon an enlightened' 
 conscience and believing heart, our safest 
 appeal is to them. It is there that we can 
 best learn how we ought to feel and act in 
 view of what the Bible teaches us of sin, of 
 justification, faith, and repentance ; since 
 genuine religious experience is simply the 
 accordance of our views and feelings with 
 the truth of God. 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 If this little book should be instrumental, 
 by the simple exhibition of the truth, of point- 
 ing out the WAY OF LIFE to those who are 
 anxious to know what they must believe and 
 what they must experience in order to be 
 saved, it will answer the design of its prepa- 
 ration and publication. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Sec. I. — The internal evidence of the divine origin of the 
 
 Scriptures, - - - - 13 
 
 Sec. II. — The internal evidence of their divine origin is 
 
 the proper ground of faith in the Scriptures, 28 
 
 Sec. III. — External evidence of the divine origin of the 
 
 Scriptures. The testimony of the Church, 37 
 
 Sec. IV. — The argument from prophecy, - - 43 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SIN. 
 
 Sec. I. — All men are sinners. The nature of man, since 
 
 the fall, is depraved, - - - 62 
 
 Sec. II. — The sins of men are numerous and aggravated, 72 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Sec. I. — Sin, want of consideration* stfiying against the 
 
 Spirit, - . - - - 92 
 
 Sec. II. — Sophistical objections against the doctrine of 
 
 the Bible, - - . - 98 
 
 CH APTE R IV. 
 
 conviction op sin. 
 
 Sec. I. — Knowledge of sin. Sense of personal ill-desert, 121 
 Sec. II. — Insufficiency of our own righteousness and of 
 
 our own strength, - - - 140 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 justification. 
 
 Sec. I. — Importance of the doctrine. Explanation of the 
 Scriptural terms relating to it. Justification 
 is not by works, - - - 1 53 
 
 Sec. II. — The demands of the law are satisfied by what 
 
 Christ has done, - - - 171 
 
 Sec. III. — The righteousness of Christ the true ground of 
 ' our justification. The practical effect of the 
 
 doctrine, - - - - 197 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FAITH. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Sec. I. — Faith necessary in order to salvation. The na- 
 ture of saving faith, - - - 214 
 Sec. II. — Faith, as connected with Justification, - 232 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Repentance, - - - - -245 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 Sec. I. — The nature and necessity of a public profession 
 
 of religion, - - - - 274 
 
 Sec II. — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The nature, 
 
 design, and efficacy of these ordinances, - 285 
 
 Sec. III. — Obligation to attend upon the sacraments. 
 Qualifications for the proper discharge of the 
 duty, - - - - - 309 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 Sec. I. — The nature of true religion, - - 328 
 
 Sec II. — The means of sanctification, - - 357 
 
THE WAY OF LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 Section I. The internal evidence of the di- 
 vine origin of the Scriptures. 
 
 It often happens that those who hear the 
 gospel, doubt whether it is really the word of 
 God. Having been taught from infancy to 
 regard it as a divine revelation, and knowing 
 no sufficient reason for rejecting it, they yield 
 a general assent to its claims. There are 
 times, however, when they would gladly be 
 more fully assured that the Bible is not a cun- 
 ningly devised fable. They think if that 
 point was absolutely certain, they would at 
 once submit to all the gospel requires. 
 
 Such doubts do not arise from any defi- 
 ciency in the evidence of the divine authority 
 of the Scriptures; nor would they be re- 
 2 
 
14 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 moved by any increase of that evidence. 
 They have their origin in the state of the 
 heart. The most important of all the evi- 
 dences of Christianity, can never be properly 
 appreciated unless the heart be right in the 
 sight of God. The same exhibition of truth 
 which produces unwavering conviction in one 
 mind, leaves another in a state of doubt or 
 unbelief. And the same mind often passes 
 rapidly, though rationally, from a state of 
 skepticism to that of faith, without any 
 change in the mere external evidence pre- 
 sented to it. 
 
 No amount of mere external evidence can 
 produce genuine faith. The Israelites, who 
 had seen a long succession of wonders in the 
 land of Egypt ; who had passed through the 
 divided waters of the Red Sea; who were 
 daily receiving by miracle food from heaven ; 
 who had trembled at the manifestations of the 
 divine majesty on Mount Sinai ; within sight 
 of that mountain, made a golden calf their 
 God. The men, who saw the miracles of 
 Christ performed almost daily in their pre- 
 sence, cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. 
 Hence our Saviour said, that those who hear 
 not Moses and the prophets would not be per- 
 suaded though one rose from the dead. We 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 15 
 
 may confidently conclude, therefore, that 
 those who now believe not the gospel, would 
 not be persuaded had they seen all the mira- 
 cles which Christ performed. 
 
 It is important that the attention of the 
 doubting should be directed to the fact that 
 their want of faith is to be attributed to their 
 own moral state, and not to any deficiency in 
 the evidence of the truth. If our gospel be 
 hid, says the apostle, it is hid to them that are 
 lost ; in whom the god of this w^orld hath 
 blinded the minds of them that believe not, 
 lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, 
 should shine unto them. 
 
 There is nothing in the doctrine here stated, 
 out of analogy with our daily experience. 
 No truth can be properly apprehended un- 
 less there is a harmony between it and the 
 mind to which it is presented. Even abstract 
 or speculative truths are not seen to be true, 
 unless the understanding be duly cultivated 
 to apprehend them. With regard to objects 
 of taste, unless there is a power to perceive 
 the correspondence between them and the 
 standard of beauty, there can be no apprecia- 
 tion of their excellence. And still more ob- 
 viously in regard to moral and religious truth, 
 there must be a state of mind suited to their 
 
16 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 apprehension. If our moral sense were en- 
 tirely destroyed by sin, we could have no per- 
 ception of moral distinctions ; if it is vitiated, 
 what is true in itself and true in the view of 
 the pure in heart, wall not be true to us. A 
 # man who has no adequate sense of the evil of 
 sin, cannot believe in the justice of God. If 
 you awaken his conscience, he is convinced 
 at once, without the intervention of any pro- 
 cess of proof. 
 
 No one can fail to remark that the Bible 
 demands immediate and implicit faith from 
 all who read it. It may lie neglected in the 
 study of the philosopher, or in the chest of 
 the outcast sailor ; or it may be given by a 
 missionary yet ignorant of the language of 
 the heathen to whom he ministers. The mo- 
 ment, however, it is opened, in these or any 
 other circumstances, it utters the same calm 
 voice. He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
 lasting life, he that believeth not the Son shall 
 not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
 him. If this demand was confined to the 
 educated, we might suppose it to rest on evi- 
 dence which the educated only are able to 
 appreciate ; or if it was made of those only 
 to whom the scriptures are presented by re- 
 gularly commissioned ministers, we might 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 17 
 
 suppose it rested on their authority ; but it is 
 not thus confined. It is inseparable from the 
 word itself. It is as imperative when the 
 Bible is read by a child to a company of pa- 
 gans, as when it is proclaimed in a cathedral. 
 But if this demand of faith goes with the 
 word wherever it goes, it must rest upon evi- 
 dence contained in the word itself. The de- 
 mand of faith cannot be more extensive than 
 the exhibition of evidence. Unless, therefore, 
 we restrict the obligation and the benefits of 
 'faith to those who are capable of appreciating 
 the external evidence of the Bible, we must 
 admit that it contains its own evidence. 
 
 To make the testimony of others to the 
 truth of Christianity, the ground of faith, is* 
 inadmissible for two obvious reasons. In the 
 first place, as already intimated, it is not suf- 
 ficiently extensive. The obligation to believe 
 rests on multitudes to whom that testimony is " 
 not addressed. In the second place, it is en- 
 tirely inadequate. The great mass of men 
 cannot be required to believe on the testimony 
 of the learned few, a religion which is to con- 
 trol their conduct in this world and to decide 
 their destiny in the next. Besides, learned 
 men testify in behalf of the Koran as well as 
 in favour of the Bible. That, therefore, can- 
 2^ 
 
18 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 not be an adequate ground of faith, which 
 may be urged in support of error as well as 
 of truth. To require the common people to 
 be able to see why the testimony of learned 
 Christians may safely be relied upon, while 
 that of learned Mussulmans should be reject- 
 ed, is to require of them a task as severe as 
 the examination of the historical evidences of 
 Christianity. There is, therefore, no way of 
 justifying the universal, immediate and au- 
 thoritative demand, which the Bible makes 
 on our faith, except by admitting that it con- 
 tains within itself the proofs of its divine 
 origin. 
 
 It may not be easy, or perhaps possible, to 
 give any adequate exhibition of the nature of 
 this proof to those who profess not to see it. 
 Enough however may be said to show that it 
 is a rational and adequate ground for implicit 
 confidence. Every work bears the impress of 
 its maker. Even among men it is hard for 
 one man successfully to counterfeit the work 
 of another. Is it wonderful then that the 
 works of God should bear the inimitable im- 
 press of their author ? Do not the heavens de- 
 clare his glory ? Does not the mechanism of 
 an insect as clearly evince the workmanship 
 of God ? Why then should it be deemed in- 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 1# 
 
 credible that his word should contain inherent 
 evidence of its divine origin ? If the Bible 
 be the word of God, it must contain the im- 
 press of his character, and thereby evince 
 itself to be divine. 
 
 It may be objected that we are not compe- 
 tent to judge of this evidence. If it requires 
 so much cultivation of the intellect to judge 
 of the excellence of human productions, and 
 so accurate an acquaintance with the charac- 
 ter of their authors, in order to decide on the 
 genuineness of such productions, who can 
 pretend to a knowledge of God which shall 
 enable him to judge what is, or what is not 
 worthy of his hand ? This would be a fatal 
 objection if the internal evidence of the scrip- 
 tures consisted in their intellectual excellence. 
 It loses its force however when it is remem- 
 bered that this excellence is, in a great mea- 
 sure, moral, and that goodness carries with it 
 its own evidence. To appreciate evidence of 
 this kind requires no great degree of know- 
 ledge, or refinement. It requires merely right 
 moral feelings. Where these exist, the evi- 
 dence that goodness is goodness is immediate 
 and irresistible. It is not because the Bible 
 is written with more than human skill, and 
 that its discrimination of character or its elo- 
 
20 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 quence is beyond the powers of man, that we 
 believe it to be divine. These are matters of 
 which the mass of men are incompetent 
 judges. The evidence in question is suited 
 to the apprehension of the humblest child of 
 God. It is partly negative and partly posi- 
 tive. It consists, in the first place, in the ab- 
 sence of every thing incompatible with a di- 
 vine origin. There is nothing inconsistent 
 with reason, and there is nothing inconsistent 
 with goodness. Did the scriptures contain 
 any thing contrary to reason, or to right moral 
 feeling, belief in its divine origin would be 
 impossible. Such a belief would involve the 
 ascription of folly, or sin to its author. There 
 is more in this negative evidence than we are 
 apt to imagine. It cannot be urged in behalf 
 of any other book but the Bible, claiming a 
 divine origin. An impassable gulf is thus 
 placed between the scriptures and all apocry- 
 phal writings. The claims of the latter are 
 in every instance disproved by the fact that 
 they contain statements which cannot be true. 
 It is however the positive internal evidence 
 of a divine origin, which gives power and au- 
 thority to the claims of the Bible. This evi- 
 dence consists mainly in its perfect holiness, 
 in the correspondence between all its state- 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 21 
 
 ments respecting God, man, redemption, and 
 a future state, and all our own right judg- 
 ments, reasonable apprehensions and personal 
 experience. When the mind is enlightened 
 to see this holiness ; when it perceives how 
 exactly the rule of duty prescibed in the word 
 of God agrees with that enforced by con- 
 science ; how the account which it gives of 
 human nature coincides with human expe- 
 perience ; how fully it meets our whole case ; 
 when it feels how powerfully the truths there 
 presented operate to purify, console and sus- 
 tain the soul, the belief of the scriptures is a 
 necessary consequence. The idea that such 
 a book is a lie and a forgery involves a con- 
 tradiction. The human mind is so consti- 
 tuted that it cannot refuse its assent to evi- 
 dence, when clearly perceived. We cannot 
 withhold our confidence from a man whose 
 moral excellence is plainly, variously and con- 
 stantly manifested. We cannot see and feel 
 his goodness, and yet believe him to be an 
 impostor or deceiver. In like manner, we 
 cannot see the excellence of the scriptures, 
 and yet believe them to be one enormous 
 falsehood. The Bible claims to be the word 
 of God ; it speaks in his name, it assumes his 
 authority. How can these claims be false and 
 
22 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 yet the Bible be so holy ? How can falsehood 
 be an element of perfect excellence? The 
 only possible way of shaking our confidence 
 in the competent testimony of a man, is to 
 show that he is not a good man. If his good- 
 ness is admitted, confidence in his word can- 
 not be withheld, and especially when all he 
 says finds its confirmation in our own expe- 
 rience, and commends itself to our conscience 
 and judgment. Thus also it is impossible 
 that we should discern the excellence of the 
 scriptures and feel their correspondence with 
 our experience and necessities, and yet sup- 
 pose them to be untrue. 
 
 When the woman of Samaria reported to 
 her townsmen that Jesus had told her all 
 that ever she did, many of them believed. 
 But after they had themselves listened to his 
 instructions, they said to the woman, Now 
 we believe, not because of thy saying, for we 
 have heard him ourselves, and know that 
 this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world. ^ No Christian can be surprised at 
 this declaration, or think the faith in Christ 
 founded upon what he said, either irrational, 
 or enthusiastic. We can well believe that 
 there was such an ineffable manifestation of 
 
 * John iv. 42. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 23 
 
 goodness in the Redeemer's conntenance, 
 manner and doctrines, as to conciliate entire 
 confidence. Those who were rightly affect- 
 ed conld not fail to believe all he said ; that 
 he was the Christ, that he came to seek and 
 save them that are lost, to lay down his life 
 for his sheep and to give himself a ransom 
 for many. Can we doubt that the goodness 
 of the Saviour, the elevation, holiness and 
 power of his instructions, their correspon- 
 dence with our own nature, experience and 
 wants, would of themselves constitute an ade- 
 quate ground of faith? All this we have. 
 This every man has, who reads the Bible. 
 There the Saviour stands in the majesty of 
 unapproachable excellence. He utters in 
 every hearing ear the words of eternal life ; 
 declares his origin, his mission, the design of 
 his advent and death ; offers pardon and eter- 
 nal life to those who come unto God through 
 him. There is the most perfect accordance 
 between his claims and his conduct ; between 
 his doctrines and what we know and what 
 we need. To disbelieve him, is to believe 
 him to be a deceiver, and to believe this, is 
 to disbelieve our own perceptions; for we 
 know what goodness is, and we know that 
 goodness cannot deceive, that God cannot lie. 
 
24 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 It makes very little difference as to the 
 force of this kind of evidence, whether we 
 personally saw and heard the Saviour for our- 
 selves, or whether we read the exhibition of 
 his character and the record of his instruc- 
 tions. For the evidence lies in his goodness 
 and in the nature of his doctrines. It is the 
 same to us who read the Bible, as it was to 
 those that heard the Saviour. There is 
 therefore the same violence done to reason 
 and duty, in our rejecting it, as was offered 
 by those who believed not because they were 
 not of his sheep, that is, because they were 
 insensible to the constraining influence of the 
 grace and truth which were in Him. Does 
 then any one ask, how we know that the 
 Bible is not a forgery? Let him consider 
 what such an assumption involves. It sup- 
 poses either that the authors of the Bible 
 were fools, which we can no more believe 
 than that Newton was an idiot ; or that they 
 were wicked, which no man can believe who 
 knows what goodness is. Wherever, there- 
 fore, the Bible goes, it carries with it evi- 
 dence, that is irresistible, (when attended to 
 and appreciated,) that its authors were neither 
 dupes nor deceivers. 
 
 It may be asked. If the Bible contains such 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 25 
 
 clear evidence of its divine origin, whj are 
 there so many unbelievers ? To this it may 
 be answered, that there are two things neces- 
 sary in order that evidence should produce 
 conviction. The first is that it should be at- 
 tended to ; otherwise it might as well not 
 exist. Of the many millions of people in 
 Christendom, comparatively few give the 
 Scriptures any serious attention. That such 
 persons should have no effective faith, is no 
 more a matter of surprise than that they 
 should be ignorant of what they never learn- 
 ed. The second requisite for the reception 
 of evidence, is that it should be understood, or 
 really apprehended. If this evidence is ad- 
 dressed to the understanding, there must be 
 strength of mind enough to comprehend its 
 nature and bearing ; if addressed to the moral 
 faculty, there must be moral sensibility to 
 appreciate it, or it will be like light shining 
 on the eyes of the blind. The internal evi- 
 dence of the Scriptures is in a great measure 
 of this latter kind. It consists in their per- 
 fect holiness. In proportion as men are cor- 
 rupt, they are blind to this kind of evidence. 
 It may exist in all its force, and men be in- 
 sensible to it. Another part of this evidence 
 consists in the accordance between the scrip- 
 3 
 
26 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 tures and the religious experience of men. 
 Those who have not the experience, cannot 
 see this accordance. Still another portion of 
 the evidence is made available by the power 
 of God in subduing sin, in purifying the af- 
 fections, in diffusing peace and joy through 
 the heart. Those who have never felt this 
 power cannot appreciate this kind of proof. 
 The fact, therefore, that so large a proportion 
 of mankind have no adequate faith in the 
 Scriptures, affords no presumption against 
 the existence of sufficient evidence. This 
 fact is in exact accordance with what the 
 Bible teaches of the moral state of man. 
 
 Another objection to the view of the ground 
 of faith given above, is that it leads to enthu- 
 siasm, and breaks down the distinction be- 
 tween true and false religion. Every enthu- 
 siast, it is said, thinks he sees wonderful ex- 
 cellence in the pretended revelations which 
 he embraces. It is a sufficient answer to this 
 objection to ask, whether the scholar has less 
 faith in the excellence of the great standards 
 of poetry, because the writers of doggerel 
 rhymes have had their admirers ? That the 
 sensual, selfish and cruel character of Mo- 
 hammed appears good in the eyes of a Turk, 
 does not prove him to be an enthusiast who 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 27 
 
 bows with reverence before the supreme ex- 
 cellence of Jesus Christ. That the pagan 
 world saw evidence of the existence of their 
 gods in the heavens and in the course of na- 
 ture, does not make him an enthusiast, who 
 recognises in the works of God the manifes- 
 tations of infinite power, wisdom and good- 
 ness. It is most unreasonable to assume that 
 we must not feel the force of truth and excel- 
 lence, because others have ascribed these at- 
 tributes to error and vice. It is not accord- 
 ing to the constitution of our nature that one 
 man should cease to know a thing to be true 
 or good, because others do not see it. The 
 evidence is complete for him, though all the 
 world reject it. 
 
 If it is asked, where the standard is ; what 
 criterion of excellence exists by which I am 
 authorized to decide that what I call goodness 
 is really such ; the rule is given in the nature 
 of man. We know that benevolence is better 
 than malice, veracity than deceit, humility 
 than pride, and by the same rule we know 
 that Christianity is better than Hindooism, 
 and ^he blessed Redeemer than the Arabian 
 impostor. No judgment can be more sure 
 than this, no persuasion more intimate, no 
 confidence either more firm, or more rational. 
 
28 THE .SCRIPTURES, 
 
 It is, therefore, no objection against admitting 
 the excellence of the Scriptures to be a proof 
 of their divine origin, that besotted or deluded 
 men have ascribed excellence to folly and 
 wickedness. 
 
 Section II. The internal evidence of their 
 divine origin is proper ground of faith in the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The Scriptures themselves clearly teach 
 that the faith which they demand is founded 
 upon the authority of God, manifesting itself 
 in them by the excellence and power of the 
 truth which they contain. They everywhere 
 represent faith as the effect and evidence of 
 right moral feeling, and unbelief as the result 
 of moral or spiritual blindness. Our Saviour 
 said to the Jews, If any man will do his will, 
 he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of 
 God.^ Again, He that is of God, heareth 
 God's words ; ye therefore hear them not be- 
 cause ye are not of God.f On another occa- 
 sion he said. Ye believe not, because ye are 
 not of my sheep ; my sheep hear my voice. J 
 The apostle speaks to the same effect. Hereby 
 know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit 
 
 * John vii. 17. t John viii. 47. \ John x. 26, 27. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 29 
 
 that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in 
 the flesh, is of God, We are of God. He 
 that knoweth God heareth us ; he that is not 
 of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the 
 spirit of truth and the spirit of error.* In 
 like manner Paul says, The natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; 
 for they are foolishness unto him, neither can 
 he know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned, t And again. If our gospel be hid, 
 it is hid to them that are lost ; in whom the 
 god of this world hath blinded the eyes of 
 them that believe not, lest the light of the 
 glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of 
 God, should shine unto them. For God, 
 who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give 
 the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
 God in the face of Jesus Christ. J The doc- 
 trine taught in these and similar passages, is 
 that there is in the word of God, and espe- 
 cially in the person and character of Jesus 
 Christ, a clear and wonderful manifestation 
 of the divine glory. To this manifestation 
 the natural man is blind, and therefore does 
 not believe, but those who have the Spirit of 
 God discern this glory and therefore believe. 
 
 * 1 John iv. 2, 3, 6. f 1 Cor. ii. 14. t 2 Cor. iv. 3—6. 
 3* 
 
30 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 . It is in accordance with this view that un- 
 belief is represented as so grave a moral 
 offence, and faith as so important a duty. 
 Atheism is every where regarded as a crime, 
 because the evidences of the existence of God 
 are everywhere present ; above us, around us 
 and within us. They are addressed to the 
 moral constitution, as well as to the specula- 
 tive understanding. They cannot be resisted 
 without the same violence to moral obliga- 
 tions, or the authority of moral considera- 
 tions, that is involved in calling virtue vice, 
 and vice virtue. Hence the Scriptures 
 always speak of unbelief as a sin against 
 God, and the special ground of the condem- 
 nation of the world. He that believeth on 
 him is not condemned, but he that believeth 
 not is condemned already, because he hath 
 not believed in the name of the only begotten 
 Son of God.* Who is a liar, but he that 
 denieth that Jesus is the Christ ? He is anti- 
 Christ, that denieth the Father and the Son. 
 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath 
 not the Father.t Disbelief of the Son as re- 
 vealed in the Scriptures, is an offence of the 
 same nature as the denial of God. In both 
 cases supreme excellence is revealed and dis- 
 
 ♦Johniii. 18. t 1 John ii. 22, 23. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 31 
 
 regarded. Much to the same effect the Sa- 
 viour says, He that hateth me, hateth my 
 Father also.* On the other hand, faith is 
 represented as the highest act of obedience, 
 as a moral act of the greatest worth in the 
 sight of God. Whosoever belie veth that Jesus 
 4s the Christ, is born of God.f As many as 
 received him, to them gave he power to be- 
 come the sons of God, even to them that 
 believe on his name. J And our Saviour 
 told the inquiring Jews, This is the work 
 of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath 
 sent. 5 These representations cannot be re- 
 conciled with the assumption that faith is 
 founded on external testimony, which does 
 not address itself to our moral nature, and an 
 assent to which has so little concern with 
 moral character. All is plain, however, if 
 we are required to believe in the Son be- 
 cause his glory, as of the only begotten of the 
 Father, is presented to us ; and to receive the 
 Scriptures because they bear the impress of 
 the divine perfections. If this be the ground 
 of faith, unbelief is indeed a crime. It is a 
 refusal to recognise wisdom and holiness, and 
 
 * John XV. 23. t 1 John v. 1. 
 
 X John i. 12. 5 John vi. 29. 
 
32 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 to acknowledge the manifested excellence of 
 God. 
 
 This view of the ground of faith is con- 
 firmed by the effects ascribed to that grace. 
 It works by love, it purifies the heart, it over- 
 comes the world, it produces peace and joy. 
 It is indeed conceivable that the conviction 
 of truths affecting our interests, however pro- 
 duced, should call forth fear, sorrow, or joy 
 according to their nature. But it is not con- 
 ceivable that belief of moral, or religious 
 truths, founded upon the testimony of others, 
 should control our affections. A man may 
 believe on authority, or on merely rational 
 grounds, that we are under a moral govern- 
 ment, and that the law by which we are 
 bound is holy, just and good, but such a faith 
 will not subdue his opposition. He may be, 
 by argument or miracle, convinced of the ex- 
 istence of God, but such a faith will not pro- 
 duce love. Faith therefore cannot have the 
 effects ascribed to it, unless it is founded on a 
 spiritual apprehension of the truths believed. 
 
 Hence it is that faith is represented as the 
 gift of God. The evidence indeed is present- 
 ed to all, or there would be no obligation to 
 believe; but men are morally blind, and 
 therefore the eyes of their understanding 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 33 
 
 must be opened that they may understand 
 the things which are freely given to them of 
 God. The apostle therefore says to his be- 
 lieving brethren, Ye have an unction from 
 the Holy One, and ye know all things. I 
 have not written unto you, because ye know 
 not the truth, but because ye know it, and 
 that no lie is of the truth. The anointing 
 which ye have received of him abideth in 
 you, and ye need not that any man teach 
 you : but as the same anointing teacheth you 
 of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and 
 even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in 
 him.^ It is here taught, as in other passages 
 already quoted, that believers are the reci- 
 pients of an influence, an unction, from the 
 Holy One, which convinces them of the 
 truth, and makes them see and know that it 
 is truth. Hence Paul says, his preaching 
 was not with the enticing words of man's 
 wisdom, but in the demonstration of the 
 Spirit and of power; that the faith of his 
 hearers might not stand in the wisdom of 
 men, but in the power of God ; that is, that 
 their faith might not be the eflfect of skilful 
 reasoning, but of the spiritual perception and 
 experience of the truth. 
 
 * 1 Johnii. 20,21,27. 
 
34 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 All this is confirmed by the constant prac- 
 tice of the inspired teachers. Though they 
 appealed to all kinds of evidence in support 
 of the doctrines which they taught, to signs 
 and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost, yet they by no means rested 
 the obligation to believe either exclusively or 
 mainly upon these external signs. In many 
 cases faith was demanded by those inspired 
 men who never wrought miracles of any 
 kind, as was the fact in the case of some of 
 the prophets; and still more frequently it 
 was required of those among whom no such 
 wonders had been performed. When the 
 Jews demanded a sign and the Greeks wis- 
 dom, the apostles preached Christ, and him 
 crucified, as the wisdom of God and the 
 power of God unto salvation. Their con- 
 stant endeavour was by the manifestation of 
 the truth to commend themselves to every 
 man's conscience in the sight of God. And 
 if their gospel was hid, it was hid to them 
 that are lost. 
 
 It is, therefore, plainly the doctrine of the 
 Scriptures themselves, that the word of God 
 is to be believed because of the authority or 
 command of God manifesting itself therein, 
 in a manner analogous to the exhibition of 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 35 
 
 his perfections in the works of nature. If, as 
 Paul teaches us, the eternal power and god- 
 head are so clearly manifested by the things 
 that are made, that even the heathen are 
 without excuse ; and if their unbelief is as- 
 cribed not to the w^ant of evidence, but to 
 their not liking to retain God in their know- 
 ledge ; we need not wonder that the far clear- 
 er manifestation of the divine perfections 
 made in the Scripture, should be the ground 
 of a more imperative command to believe. 
 
 It is the experience of true Christians in all 
 ages and nations that their faith is founded 
 on the spiritual apprehension and experience 
 of the power of the truth. There are multi- 
 tudes of such Christians, who, if asked why 
 they believe the Scriptures to be the word of 
 God, might find it difficult to give an answer, 
 whose faith is nevertheless both strong and 
 rational. They are conscious of its grounds 
 though they may not be able to state them. 
 They have the witness in themselves, and 
 know that they believe, not because others 
 believe, or because learned men have proved 
 certain facts which establish the truth of 
 Christianity. They believe in Christ for the 
 same reason that they believe in God; and 
 they believe in God because they see his 
 glory and feel his authority and power. 
 
36 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 If then the truth of God contains in its 
 own nature a revelation of divine excellence, 
 the sin of unbelief is a very great sin. Not 
 to have faith in God, when clearly revealed, 
 is the highest offence which a creature can 
 commit against its creator. To refuse cre- 
 dence to the testimony of God, when convey- 
 ed in the manner best adapted to our nature, 
 is to renounce our allegiance to our creator. 
 To disregard the evidence of truth and excel- 
 lence in Jesus Christ, is the highest indig- 
 nity that we can show to truth and excel- 
 lence. This sin is common, and therefore is 
 commonly disregarded. Men do not easily 
 see the turpitude of evils with which they 
 are themselves chargeable. The faults of 
 those who go beyond them in iniquity they 
 are quick to discern. And therefore the man 
 who feels no compunction at w^ant of faith in 
 the Son of God, will abhor him who pro- 
 nounces the Redeemer a wicked impostor. 
 He will wait for no explanation and will lis- 
 ten to no excuse. The mere fact that a man, 
 acquainted with the Scriptures, is capable of 
 such a judgment respecting the Son of God, 
 is proof of depravity which nothing can gain- 
 say. Yet how little difference is there be- 
 tween the state of mind which would admit 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 37 
 
 of such a judgment, and the state in which 
 those are who have no faith in the declara- 
 tions of Christ ; who disregard his promises 
 and warnings; who do not feel them to be 
 true, and therefore treat them as fables. The 
 want of faith therefore of which men think so 
 lightly, will be found the most unreasonable 
 and perhaps the most aggravated of all their 
 sins. It implies an insensibility to the high- 
 est kind of evidence, and involves the rejec- 
 tion of the greatest gift which God has ever 
 offered to man, pardon, holiness, and eternal 
 life. 
 
 Section III. External evidence of the di- 
 vine origin of the Scriptures. The testimony 
 of the Church, 
 
 As God hath left the heathen to the unau- 
 thenticated revelation of himself in his worksy/^ 
 and holds them responsible for their unbelief, 
 so he might have left us to the simple revela- 
 tion of himself in his word. He has been 
 pleased, however, to confirm that word by ex- 
 ternal proofs of the most convincing charac- 
 ter, so that we are entirely without excuse. 
 
 The testimony of the church is of itself an 
 unanswerable argument for the truth of Chris- 
 4 
 
38 
 
 tianity. The validity of this testimony does 
 not depend upon the assumed infallibility of 
 any class of men. It is merely the testimony 
 of an innumerable body, of witnesses, under 
 circumstances which preclude the idea of de- 
 lusion or deception. For the sake of illustra- 
 tion take any particular branch of Christ's 
 church, as for example the Lutheran. It 
 now exists in Europe and America. It every 
 where possesses the same version of the 
 Scriptures, and the same confession of faith. 
 Its testimony is, that it owes its existence, as 
 an organized body, to Luther ; to whom it as- 
 cribes the translation of the Bible, and under 
 whose auspices it professes to have received 
 the Augsburg Confession. It is clearly im- 
 possible that these documents could, during 
 the present century, have been palmed upon 
 these scattered millions of men. They all 
 bear testimony that they received them as they 
 now are from the hands of their fathers. As 
 to this point, neither delusion nor deception 
 is conceivable. In the eighteenth century we 
 find this church scarcely less numerous than 
 it is at present. It bore the same testimony 
 then that it does now. With one voice it de- 
 clared that their fathers possessed before them 
 the standards of their faith. This testimony 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 39 
 
 is repeated again in the seventeenth, and again 
 in the sixteenth century, till we come to the 
 age of Luther. This testimony, conclusive 
 in itself, is confirmed by all kinds of collate- 
 ral evidence. Every thing in the style, doc- 
 trines and historical references of the stand- 
 ards of the Lutheran church, agrees v^ith the 
 age to which they are referred. The influ- 
 ence of a society holding those doctrines is 
 traceable through the whole of the interven- 
 ing period. The wars, the treaties, the lite- 
 rary and religious institutions of the period, 
 to a greater or less degree, received their cha- 
 racter from that Society. Much therefore as 
 men may differ as to Luther's character, as to 
 the wisdom of his conduct or the truth of his 
 doctrines, no sane man has ever questioned 
 the fact that he lived, that he translated the 
 Scriptures, that he organized a new church, 
 and gave his followers the Augsburg confes- 
 sion. 
 
 The same series of remarks might be made 
 in reference to the church of England. That 
 extended and powerful body has her thirty- 
 nine articles, her liturgy, and her homilies, 
 which she testifies she received from the Re- 
 formers. This testimony cannot be doubted. 
 At no period of her history could that church 
 
40 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 either deceive or have been deceived, as to 
 that point. Her testimony moreover is con- 
 firmed by all collateral circumstances. The 
 liturgy, articles and homilies are in every re- 
 spect consistent with their reputed origin ; 
 and the whole history of England during that 
 period is interwoven with the history of that 
 church. The consequence is, no man doubts 
 that the English reformers lived, or that they 
 framed the standards of doctrine and worship 
 universally ascribed to them. 
 
 This argument when applied to the whole 
 Christian church is no less conclusive. This 
 church now exists in every quarter of the 
 globe, and embraces many millions of disci- 
 ples. Every where it has the same records 
 of its faith ; it is every where an organized 
 society with religious officers and ordinances. 
 It every where testifies that these records and 
 institutions were received from Christ and his 
 apostles. That this vast society did not be- 
 gin to exist during the present century, is as 
 evident as that the world was not just made. 
 It is no less plain that it did not begin to ex- 
 ist in the eighteenth, the seventeenth, the six- 
 teenth, nor in any other century subsequent 
 to the first in our era. In each succeeding 
 century, we find millions of men, thousands 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 41 
 
 of churches and ministers uniting their testi- 
 mony to the fact that they received their sa- 
 cred writings and institutions from their pre- 
 decessors, until we come to the age of Christ 
 himself. Did the origin of the church run 
 back beyond the limits of authentic history, 
 so as to leave a gap between its reputed 
 founder and its ascertained existence, this 
 argument would fail ; an essential link would 
 be wanting, and the whole extended chain 
 would fall to the ground. But as this is not 
 the case, its testimony touching the histori- 
 cal facts of its origin, is as irresistible as that 
 of the church of England respecting the ori- 
 gin of its articles and liturgy. The Chris- 
 tian church is traced up to the time of Christ 
 by a mass of evidence which cannot be re- 
 sisted ; so that to deny that Christ lived, and 
 that the church received from his followers 
 the sacred writings, is not merely to reject the 
 testimony of thousands of competent wit- 
 nesses, but to deny facts which are essential 
 to account for the subsequent history and the 
 existing state of the world. A man might as 
 well profess to believe in the existence of the 
 foliage of a tree, but not in that of its branches 
 and stem. 
 
 This testimony of the church as to the 
 4* 
 
42 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 facts on which Christianity is founded, is con- 
 firmed by all kinds of collateral evidence. 
 The language in which the New Testament 
 is written is precisely that which belonged to 
 the time and place of its origin. It is the 
 language of Jews speaking Greek, and in its 
 peculiarities belonged to no other age or peo- 
 ple. All the historical allusions are consistent 
 with the known state of the world at that 
 time. The history of the world since the 
 advent of Christ pre-supposes the facts re- 
 corded in the New Testament. It is beyond 
 a doubt that the religion taught by a few poor 
 men in Judea, has changed the state of a large 
 part of the world. Paganism has disappear- 
 ed ; a new religion been introduced ; laws, 
 customs, institutions and manners become 
 prevalent, and they all rest upon facts to 
 which the church bears her testimony. 
 
 Beyond all this, the internal character of 
 the Scriptures is worthy of the origin ascribed 
 to them; a character which gives the only 
 adequate solution of the revolution which they 
 have effected. When God said. Let there be 
 light, there was light. And when Jesus 
 Christ said, I am the light of the world, the 
 light shone. We cannot doubt that it is 
 light; neither can we doubt when it arose, 
 for all before was darkness. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 43 
 
 This testimony of the church, thus con- 
 firmed by all internal and external proofs, es- 
 tablishes the fact that Christ lived and died, 
 that he founded the Christian church, and 
 that the New Testament was received from 
 his immediate followers. But these facts in- 
 volve the truth of the gospel as a revelation 
 from God, unless we suppose that Christ and 
 his apostles were deceivers. The evidence 
 against this latter assumption is as strong as 
 the evidence of the existence of the sun. 
 The blind, if they please, may deny that the 
 sun exists, and none but the morally blind can 
 resist the evidence which the New Testa- 
 ment affords of the moral excellence and in- 
 tellectual sobriety of the sacred writers. If 
 they were trustworthy men, men who we are 
 to believe spoke the truth, then they actually 
 possessed and exercised the miraculous powers 
 to which they laid claim. To these powers 
 Christ and his apostles appealed as an unan- 
 swerable proof of their divine mission; and 
 we cannot reject their testimony without de- 
 nying their integrity. 
 
 Section IV. The argument from prophecy . 
 
 The same course of argument which proves 
 
44 
 
 that the version of the Scriptures and the 
 Augsburg confession in the possession of the 
 Lutheran church; that the articles, liturgy 
 and homilies in the possession of the church 
 of England ; that the New Testament in the 
 possession of the whole Christian world, 
 were derived from the sources to which they 
 are severally referred, proves with equal force 
 that the writings of the Old Testament in the 
 possession of the Jews are the productions of 
 the ancient prophets. Jews and Christians 
 now have them. They had them a century 
 ago; they had them in the time of Christ. 
 They were then universally acknowledged by 
 the Israelites in Judea and elsewhere. They 
 can be historically traced up centuries before 
 the advent of Christ. Three hundred years 
 before that event, they were translated into 
 the Greek language and widely disseminated. 
 They contain the history, laws and litera- 
 ture of the people of Judea, whose existence 
 and peculiarities are as well ascertained as 
 those of any people in the world. These 
 writings are essential to account for the known 
 character of that people, for it was in virtue 
 of these sacred books that they were what 
 they were. Critics have indeed disputed 
 about the particular dates of some of these 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 45 
 
 productions, but no one has had the hardihood 
 to deny that they existed centuries before the 
 birth of Christ. This being admitted, we 
 have a basis for another argument for the 
 truth of Christianity, which cannot be re- 
 sisted. 
 
 In these ancient writings, preserved in the 
 hands of the open enemies of Christ, we find 
 the advent of a deliverer clearly predicted. 
 Immediately after the apostacy, it was fore- 
 told that the seed of the woman should bruise 
 the serpent's head. This prediction is the 
 germ of all the subsequent prophecies, which 
 do but reveal its manifold meaning. Who 
 the promised seed was to be, and how the 
 power of evil was by him to be destroyed, 
 later predictions gradually revealed. It was 
 first made known that the Redeemer should 
 belong to the race of Shem.^ Then that he 
 should be of the seed of Abraham to whom 
 the promise was made ; In thy seed shall all 
 the nations of the earth be blessed ;t then that 
 he should be of the tribe of Judah, of whom it 
 was foretold that, The sceptre shall not de- 
 part from Judah, or ia law-giver from between 
 his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall 
 be the gathering of the people. J Subsequent- 
 
 * Gen. ix. 26. . f Gen. xxii. 18. t Gen. xlix. 10. 
 
46 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 ly it was revealed that he was to be of the 
 lineage of David ; There shall come forth a 
 rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch 
 shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of 
 the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of 
 wisdom and understanding, the spirit of know- 
 ledge and the fear of the Lord.^ ' 
 It was foretold that his advent should be 
 preceded by that of a special messenger. Be- 
 hold I will send my messenger, and he shall 
 prepare the way before me ; and the Lord 
 whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his tem- 
 ple, even the messenger of the covenant whom 
 ye delight in : behold he shall come saith the 
 Lord of Hosts. t The time, the manner, and 
 the place of his birth were all predicted. As 
 to the time, Daniel said. Know therefore and 
 understand, that from the going forth of the 
 commandment to build and restore Jerusalem, 
 unto Messiah the prince, shall be seven weeks 
 and three-score and two weeks. J As to the 
 miraculous manner of his birth, Isaiah said. 
 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, 
 and shall call his name Immanuel.^ As to 
 the place, Micah said. But thou Bethlehem- 
 Ephratah though thou be little among the 
 
 *Is. xi. 1, 2. tMal. iii. 1. 
 
 I Daniel ix. 25. 5 Isaiah vii. 1 4. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 47 
 
 thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall 
 he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in 
 Israel.^ 
 
 This deliverer was to be a poor man. Be- 
 hold, O daughter of Zion, thy king cometh 
 unto thee%lowly and riding upon an ass and 
 upon a colt the foal of an ass.f He was to be 
 a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, 
 despised and rejected of men, J and yet Imma- 
 nuel, God with us,^ Jehovah our righteous- 
 ness, || "Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty 
 God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of 
 Peace,Tr whose goings forth were of old, from 
 the days of eternity.^* 
 
 The Redeemer thus predicted was to ap- 
 pear in the character of a prophet or divine 
 teacher. The Lord thy God, said Moses, will 
 raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst 
 of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto 
 him shall ye hearken. ff Behold my servant 
 whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul 
 delighteth, I have put my Spirit upon him, 
 he shall bring forth judgment unto the Gen- 
 tiles. Jf The Spirit of the Lord God is upon 
 me, because he hath anointed me to preach 
 
 * Micah V. 2., fZech. ix. 9. t Is. 53. 
 
 5 Is. vii. 14. II Jer. xxiii. 6. IT Is. ix. 6. 
 
 ** Mich. V. 2. tt Deut. xviii. 15. tt ^s. xlii. i. 
 
48 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 good tidings iinto the meek ; he hath sent me 
 to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim 
 liberty to the captives, and the opening of the 
 prison to them that are bound.* In that day- 
 shall the deaf hear the words of the book, the 
 eyes of the blind shall see out of # obscurity 
 and out of darkness ; the meek also shall in- 
 crease their joy in the Lord, and the poor 
 among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of 
 Israel, t 
 
 He was also to be a priest. The Lord hath 
 sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest 
 for ever after the order of Melchizedek. J He 
 shall build the temple of the Lord, and he 
 shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule 
 upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon 
 his throne. J 
 
 The regal character of this Redeemer is 
 set forth in almost every page of the pro- 
 phetic writings. I have anointed, (said God 
 in reference to the Messiah,) my king on my 
 holy hill of Zion.|| Thy throne, O God, is 
 for ever and ever ; the sceptre of thy kingdom 
 is a sceptre of righteousness. Thou lovest 
 righteousness and hatest wickedness, there- 
 fore God, thy God hath anointed thee with 
 
 * Is. Ixi. 1. t Is- xxix 18, 19. t Ps. ex. 4. 
 
 } Zech. vL 13. || Ps. ii. 6. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 49 
 
 the oil of gladness above thy fellows.* Unto 
 us a child is born, unto us a son is given, 
 and the government shall be upon his shoul- 
 der. Of the increase of his government and 
 peace there shall be no end, upon the throne 
 of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, 
 and to establish it with judgment and with 
 justice, from henceforth even for ever.f 
 
 The characteristics of this kingdom of the 
 Messiah were also clearly predicted. They 
 were to be spiritual, in distinction from the 
 external and ceremonial character of the for- 
 mer dispensation. Behold, the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that I will make a new co- 
 venant with the house of Israel and with the 
 house of Judah; not according to the cove- 
 nant that I made with their fathers, &c. I 
 will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts, and will be their God, 
 and they shall be my people. f Hence the 
 effusion of the Holy Spirit is so constantly 
 mentioned as attending the advent of the pro- 
 mised Redeemer. In that day I will pour out 
 my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and 
 your daughters shall prophesy, &c.§ 
 
 Again, this kingdom was not to be confined 
 
 * Ps. xlv. 6, 7. t Is. ix. 6, 7. 
 
 \ Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, 33. } Joel ii. 28. 
 
 5 
 
50 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 to the Jews, but was to include all the world. 
 As early as in the book of Genesis it was de- 
 clared that the obedience of all nations should 
 be yielded to Shiloh, and that all the nations 
 of the earth should be blessed in Abraham 
 and his seed. God promised the Messiah 
 that he should have the heathen for his in- 
 heritance and the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for his possession.^ It shall come to pass in 
 the last days, said Isaiah, that the mountain 
 of the Lord's house shall be established in 
 the top of the mountains, and shall be ex- 
 alted above the hills, and all nations shall 
 flow unto it.f It is a light thing, said God, 
 that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up 
 the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the pre- 
 served of Israel ; I will also give thee for a 
 light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my 
 salvation unto the ends of the earth. J In 
 that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which 
 shall stand for an ensign of the people; to 
 it shall the Gentiles seek.^ I saw in the 
 night visions, said Daniel, and behold, one 
 like the Son of man came with the clouds of 
 heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 
 they brought him near before him ; and there 
 was given to him dominion and glory, and a 
 
 * Ps. ii. 8. t Is. ii. 2. J Is. xlix. 6. 5 Is. xi. 10. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 51 
 
 kingdom, that all people, nations and lan- 
 guages should serve him ; his dominion is an 
 everlasting dominion which shall not pass 
 away, and his kingdom that which shall not 
 be destroyed.^ Its progress however was to 
 be gradual. The stone cut out of the moun- 
 tains, without hands, was to break in pieces 
 the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and 
 the gold, i. e. all other kingdoms, and become 
 a great mountain and fill the whole earth. f 
 
 Though the prophets describe, in such 
 strong language, the excellence, glory and tri- 
 umph of this Redeemer, they did not the less 
 distinctly predict his rejection, sufferings and 
 death. Lord, who hath believed our report? 
 and to w^hom is the arm of the Lord re- 
 vealed? For he shall grow up before him 
 as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry 
 ground ; he is despised and rejected of men ; 
 we hid as it were our faces from him ; he was 
 despised and we esteemed him not. J To 
 him whom man despiseth, to him whom the 
 nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings 
 shall see and arise, and princes also shall 
 worship.^ The people whom he came to re- 
 deem, it was foretold, would not only reject 
 him, but betray and sell him for thirty pieces 
 
 *Dan. vii. 13, 14. f Dan. ii. 45. 
 
 I Is. liii. 5 Is. xlix. 7. 
 
52 
 
 of silver. If ye think good, give me my price, 
 and if not, forbear. So they vreighed for my 
 price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord 
 said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, a 
 goodly price that I was prized at of them.* 
 He was to be grievously persecuted and put 
 to death. He was, said the prophet, taken 
 from prison and from judgment (cut off by an 
 oppressive judgment) and who shall declare 
 his generation? for he was cut off out of 
 the land of the living ; for the transgression 
 of my people was he stricken. And he made 
 his grave with the wicked and with the 
 rich in his death. f Even the manner and 
 circumstances of his death were minutely 
 foretold. The assembly of the wicked have 
 enclosed me ; they pierced my hands and my 
 feet. They part my garments among them 
 and cast lots upon my vesture. J He was not 
 however to continue under the power of 
 death. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; 
 neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see 
 corruption. § 
 
 The consequences of the rejection of the 
 Messiah to the Jewish people were also pre- 
 dicted with great distinctness. The children 
 
 *Zech. xi. 12, 13. t Is- l"i- 8, 9. 
 
 t Ps. xxii. 16, 18. { Ps. xvi. 10. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 53 
 
 of Israel, it is said, shall abide many days 
 without a king, and without a prince, and 
 without a sacrifice, and without an image, 
 and without teraphim. Afterward shall the 
 children of Israel return and seek the Lord 
 and his goodness in the latter days.* Though 
 the number of the children of Israel be as 
 the sand of the sea, a remnant shall return, f 
 Of the rebellious portion of the nation it was 
 said, I will scatter them among all people, 
 from one end of the earth to the other, and 
 among those nations shalt thou find no ease, 
 neither shall the soul of thy foot have rest ; 
 .... And thou shalt become an astonishment 
 a proverb, and a by-word among all na- 
 tions, whither the Lord shall lead thee. J 
 Though thus scattered and afflicted, they 
 were not to be utterly destroyed, for God pro- 
 mised saying, When they are in the land of 
 their enemies I will not cast them away, 
 neither will I abhor them to destroy them 
 utterly, and to break my covenant with them, 
 for I am the Lord their God.^ It was more- 
 over predicted that after a long dispersion 
 they should be brought to acknowledge their 
 crucified king. I will pour upon the house 
 
 * Hos. iii. 4, 5. t Is. x. 22, 23. 
 
 t Deut. xxviii. 37, 66. 5 Lev. xxvi. 44. 
 
 5* 
 
54 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
 lem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and 
 they shall look upon me whom they have 
 pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one 
 mourneth for his only son, and shall be in 
 bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness 
 for his first-born.* This same prophet fore- 
 told that after the people had rejected and 
 betrayed the good shepherd, they should be 
 given up to the oppression of their enemies, 
 the greater portion should be destroyed, but 
 the residue, after long suffering, should be 
 restored, t 
 
 This representation of the prophecies of 
 the Jewish Scriptures, respecting Christ and 
 his kingdom, is in the highest degree inade- 
 quate. It would be impossible to give a full 
 exhibition of the subject, without unfolding 
 the whole Old Testament economy. It is 
 not in detached predictions merely, that the 
 former dispensation was prophetic. In its 
 main design it was prefigurative and prepara- 
 tory. It had indeed its immediate purpose 
 to answer, in preserving the Israelites a dis- 
 tinct people, in sustaining the true religion, 
 and in exhibiting the divine perfections in 
 his government of the church. But all this 
 
 * Zech. xii. 10. t Zech. xiii. 7. 9. 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 55 
 
 was subordinate to its grand purpose of pre- 
 paring that people and the world for the ad- 
 vent of Christ, and to be a shadowy represen- 
 tation of the glories of the new dispensation, 
 for the double purpose of affording an object 
 of faith and hope to those then living, and 
 that the new economy might be better under- 
 stood, more firmly believed and more exten- 
 sively embraced. Detached passages from 
 such a scheme of history and prophecy are 
 like the scattered ruins of an ancient temple. 
 To form a just judgment the plan must be 
 viewed as a whole as well as in its details. 
 It could then be seen that the history of the 
 Jews was the history of the lineage of Christ ; 
 the whole sacrificial ritual a prefiguration of 
 the Lamb of God who was to bear the sin of 
 the world ; that the tabernacle and the tem- 
 ple, with their complicated services, were 
 types of things spiritual and heavenly ; that 
 the prophets, who were the teachers and cor- 
 rectors of the people, were sent, not merely 
 nor principally to foretell temporal deliver- 
 ances, but mainly to keep the eyes of the peo- 
 ple directed upward and onward to the great 
 deliverer and to the final redemption. De- 
 tached passages can give no adequate concep- 
 tion of this stupendous scheme of preparation 
 
56 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 and prophecy, running through thousands of 
 years, and its thousand lines all tending to 
 one common centre, — the cross of Christ. 
 The argument from prophecy in support of 
 the truth of Christianity, therefore, can be 
 appreciated by those only who will candidly 
 study the whole system. Still enough has 
 been presented to show that it is impossible 
 to account for the correspondence between 
 the prophecies of the Old Testament and the 
 events recorded in the New, upon any other 
 assumption than that of divine inspiration. 
 We have seen that it was predicted, centu- 
 ries before the advent of Christ, that a great 
 deliverer should arise, to be born of the tribe 
 of Judah, and of the family of David, and at 
 the village of Bethlehem ; that he should be a 
 poor and humble man and yet worthy of the 
 highest reverence paid to God ; that he should 
 be a teacher, priest and king ; that he should 
 be rejected by his own people, persecuted and 
 put to death ; that he should rise again from 
 the dead ; that the Spirit of God should be 
 poured out upon his followers, giving them 
 holiness, wisdom and courage; that true reli- 
 gion, no longer confined to the Jews, should 
 be extended to the Gentiles, and in despite of 
 .all opposition should continue, triumph and 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 57 
 
 ultimately cover the earth; that the Jews 
 who rejected the Messiah, should be cast off 
 and scattered and yet preserved ; like a river 
 in the ocean, divided but not dissipated, a 
 standing miracle, a fact without a parallel or 
 analogy. Here then is the whole history of 
 Christ and his kingdom, written centuries 
 before his advent. A history full of appa- 
 rent inconsistencies ; a history not written in 
 one age or by one man, but in different ages 
 and by different men, each adding some new 
 fact or characteristic, yet all combining to 
 form one consistent, though apparently con- 
 tradictory whole. 
 
 Admitting then, what no one denies, the 
 antiquity of the Jewish Scriptures, there is 
 no escape from the conclusion that they were 
 written by divine inspiration, and that Jesus 
 Christ, to whom they so plainly refer, is the 
 Son of God and the Saviour of the world. 
 To suppose that Christ, knowing these an- 
 cient prophecies, set himself, without divine 
 commission, to act in accordance with them, 
 is to suppose impossibilities. It is to sup- 
 pose that Jesus Christ was a bad man, which 
 no one, who reads the New Testament, can 
 believe, any more than he can believe that 
 the sun is the blackness of darkness. It is 
 
58 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 to suppose him to have had a control over the 
 actions of others which no impostor could 
 exert. Many of the most important predic- 
 tions in reference to Christ were fulfilled by 
 the acts of his enemies. Did Christ instigate 
 the treachery of Judas, or prompt the priests 
 to pay the traitor thirty pieces of silver? 
 Did he plot with Pilate for his own condem- 
 nation ? or so arrange that he should die by a 
 Roman, instead of a Jewish, mode of capital 
 infliction? Did he induce the soldiers to 
 part his garments and cast lots upon his ves- 
 ture, or stipulate with them that none of his 
 bones should be broken ? By what possible 
 contrivance could the two great predicted 
 events of the final destruction of the Jewish 
 policy and the consequent dispersion of the 
 Jews, on the one hand, and the rapid propa- 
 gation of the new religion among the Gen- 
 tiles, on the other, have been brought to 
 pass? These events were predicted, their 
 occurrence was beyond the scope of contri- 
 vance or imposture. There is no rational 
 answer to this argument from prophecy. 
 The testimony of the Scriptures to the mes- 
 siahship of Jesus Christ, is the testimony of 
 God. Search the Scriptures, said our Sa- 
 viour himself, for in them ye think ye have 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 59 
 
 eternal life, and they are they which testify 
 of me. 
 
 God then has been pleased to hedge up the 
 way to infidelity. Men must do violence to 
 all the usual modes of argument ; they must 
 believe moral impossibilities and irreconcila- 
 ble contradictions, and above all they must 
 harden their hearts to the excellence of the 
 Saviour, before they can become infidels. 
 
 This exposition of the grounds of faith is 
 made in order to show that unbelief is a sin ; 
 and to justify the awful declaration of Christ, 
 ''He that believeth not, shall be damned." 
 Men flatter themselves that they are not re- 
 sponsible for their faith. Belief being in- 
 voluntary, cannot, it is said, be a matter of 
 praise or blame. This false opinion arises 
 from confounding things very different in 
 their nature. Faith differs according to its 
 object and the nature of the evidence on 
 which it is founded. A man believes that 
 two and two are four, or that Napoleon died 
 in St. Helena, and is neither morally better, 
 nor worse for such a faith. Disbelief, in 
 such cases, would indicate insanity, not moral 
 aberration. But no man can believe that vir- 
 tue is vice or vice virtue, without being to 
 the last degree depraved. No man can dis- 
 
60 THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 believe in God, especially under the light of 
 revelation, without thereby showing that he 
 is destitute of all right moral and religious 
 sentiments. And no man can disbelieve the 
 record which God has given of his Son, 
 without being blind to the glory of God and 
 the moral excellence of the Saviour. He re- 
 jects the appropriate testimony of God, con- 
 veyed in a manner which proves it to be his 
 testimony. 
 
 It is vain, therefore, for any man to hope 
 that he can be innocently destitute of faith 
 in God or of faith in Jesus Christ. If the 
 external world retains such an impression of 
 the hand of God, as to leave those without 
 excuse, who refuse to regard it as his work ; 
 surely those who refuse to acknowledge the 
 excellence of his word and the glory of his 
 Son, will not be held guiltless. The evi- 
 dence which has convinced millions, is be- 
 fore their eyes, and should convince them. 
 Instead, therefore, of apologizing for their 
 want of faith and complaining of the weak- 
 ness of the evidence, to which nothing but 
 neglect or blindness can render them insen- 
 sible, let them confess their guilt in not be- 
 lieving, and humble theraselves before God 
 and pray that he would open their eyes to 
 
THE WORD OF GOD. 61 
 
 see the excellence of his word. They should 
 dismiss their cavils, and be assured that if 
 the Bible does not win their faith by its 
 milder glories, it will one day reveal itself by 
 its terrors, to their awakened consciences, to 
 be indeed the word of God. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 SIN. 
 
 Section I. All men are sinners. The na- 
 ture of many since the fall^ is depraved. 
 
 Since then the Scriptures are undoubted- 
 ly the word of God, with what reverence 
 should we receive their divine instructions ; 
 with what assiduity and humility should we 
 study them ; with what confidence should we 
 rely upon the truth of all their declarations ; 
 and with what readiness should we obey all 
 their directions ! We are specially concern- 
 ed to learn what they teach with regard to 
 the character of men, the way of salvation, 
 and the rule of duty. 
 
 With respect to the first of these points, 
 (the character of men) the Bible very clearly 
 teaches that all men are sinners. The apos- 
 tle Paul not only asserts this truth, but 
 proves it at length, in reference both to those 
 who live under the light of nature, and those 
 who enjoy the light of revelation. The for- 
 
SIN. 63 
 
 mer, he says, are justly chargeable with im- 
 piety and immorality, because the perfections 
 of the divine Being, his eternal power and 
 godhead, have, from the creation, been mani- 
 fested by the things which are made. Yet 
 men have not acknowledged their creator. 
 They neither worshipped him as God, nor 
 were thankful for his mercies, but served the 
 creature more than the creator. In thus de- 
 parting from the fountain of all excellence, 
 they departed from excellence itself Their 
 foolish hearts were darkened and their cor- 
 ruption manifests itself not only by degrading 
 idolatry, but by the various forms of moral 
 evil both in heart and life. These sins are 
 committed against the law. which is written 
 on every man's heart ; so that they know that 
 those who do such things are worthy of 
 death, and are therefore without excuse even 
 in their own consciousness. 
 
 With regard to those who enjoy a super- 
 natural revelation of the character and re- 
 quirements of God, the case is still more 
 plain. Instead of rendering to this God the 
 inward and outward homage which are his 
 due, they neglect his service, and really pre- 
 fer his creatures to himself. Instead of re- 
 gulating their conduct by the perfect rule of 
 
64 SIN. 
 
 duty contained in the Scriptures, they con- 
 stantly dishonour God, by breaking that law. 
 It is thus the apostle shows that all classes of 
 men, when judged by the light they have 
 severally enjoyed, are found guilty before 
 God. This universality of guilt moreover, 
 he says, is confirmed by the clear testimony 
 of the Scriptures, which declare, There is 
 none righteous, no not one. There is none 
 that understandeth ; there is none that seek- 
 eth after God. They have all gone out of 
 the way; they have altogether become un- 
 profitable ; there is none that doeth good, no 
 not one. 
 
 This language is not used by the Holy 
 Spirit in reference to the men of any one age 
 or country, but in reference to the human 
 race. It is intended to describe the moral 
 character of man. It is in this sense that it 
 is quoted and applied by the apostle. And 
 we accordingly find similar declarations in 
 all parts of the Bible, in the New Testament, 
 as well as in the Old, in the writings of one 
 age, as well as in those of another. And 
 there are no passages of an opposite charac- 
 ter ; there are none which represent the race 
 as being what God requires, nor any which 
 speak of any member of that race as being 
 
^IN. 65 
 
 free from sin. On the contrary, it is express- 
 ly said, If we say we have no sin, we deceive 
 ourselves, and the truth is not in us.* In 
 many things we all offend. f There is no 
 man that sinneth not.f All have sinned and 
 come short of the glory of God.§ Hence the 
 Scriptures proceed upon the assumption of 
 the universal sinfulness of men. To speak, 
 to act, to walk after the manner of men, is, in 
 the language of the Bible, to speak or act 
 wickedly. The world are the wicked. This 
 present evil world, is the description of man- 
 kind, from whose character and deserved 
 punishment, it is said to be the design of 
 Christ's death to redeem his people. || The 
 world cannot hate you, said our Saviour to 
 those who refused to be his disciples, but me 
 it hateth, because I testify of it that the 
 works thereof are evil. If They are of the 
 world, therefore they speak of the world and 
 the world heareth them.** We are of God, 
 and the whole world lieth in wickedness, ff 
 
 This however is not a doctrine taught in 
 isolated passages. It is one of those funda- 
 
 * 1 John i. 8. t James iii. 2. 
 
 I 1 Kings viii. 46. 5 Ro"^- i"- 23. 
 
 II Gal. i. 4. IT John vii. 7. 
 ** 1 Johniv. 5. ft 1 John v. 19. 
 
 6* 
 
66 SIN. 
 
 mental truths which are taken for granted in 
 almost every page of the Bible. The whole 
 scheme of redemption supposes that man is a 
 fallen being. Christ came to seek and to 
 save the lost. He was announced as the Sa- 
 viour of sinners. His advent and work have 
 no meaning or value but upon the assump- 
 tion that we are guilty, for he came to save 
 his people from their sins ; to die the just for 
 the unjust ; to bear our sins in his own body 
 on the tree. Those who have no sin, need 
 no Saviour ; those who do not deserve death, 
 need no Redeemer. As the doctrine of re- 
 demption pervades the Scripture, so does the 
 doctrine of the universal sinfulness of men. 
 
 This doctrine is also assumed in all the 
 Scriptural representations of what is neces- 
 sary for admission into heaven. All men, 
 everywhere, are commanded to repent. But 
 repentance supposes sin. Every man must 
 be born again, in order to see the kingdom of 
 God; he must become a new creature; he 
 must be renewed after the image of God. 
 Being dead in trespasses and in sins, he 
 must be quickened, or made partaker of a 
 spiritual life. In short, it is the uniform 
 doctrine of the Bible, that all men need both 
 pardon and sanctification in order to their ad- 
 
SIN. 67 
 
 mission to heaven. It therefore teaches that 
 all men are sinners. 
 
 The Scriptures moreover teach that the 
 sinfulness of men is deep seated ; or, consist- 
 ing in a corruption of the heart, it manifests 
 itself in innumerable forms in the actions of 
 the life. All the imaginations of man's heart 
 are only evil continually.* God says of the 
 human heart that it is deceitful above all 
 things and desperately wricked. f All men, 
 by nature are the children of wTath. J And 
 therefore the Psalmist says. Behold I was 
 shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother 
 conceive me. J 
 
 This corruption of our nature is the ground 
 of the constant reference of every thing good 
 in man to the Holy Spirit, and of everything 
 evil, to his own nature. Hence in the lan- 
 guage of the Bible, the natural man is a cor- 
 rupt man; and the spiritual man alone is 
 good. Hence too the constant opposition of 
 the terms flesh and spirit ; the former mean- 
 ing our nature as it is apart from divine in- 
 fluence, and the latter the Holy Spirit, or its 
 immediate effects. To be in the flesh, to 
 walk after the flesh, to mind the things of the 
 
 ♦ Gen. vi. 5. f Jer. xvii. 9. 
 
 t Eph. ii. 3. { Ps. li. 5. 
 
68 SIN. 
 
 flesh, are all Scriptural expressions descrip- 
 tive of the natural state of men. It is in this 
 sense of the term that Paul says, In my flesh 
 there dwelleth no good thing;* and that our 
 Saviour said, That which is born of the flesh 
 is flesh, t 
 
 This humbling doctrine is, moreover, in- 
 volved in all the descriptions which the Bible 
 gives of the nature of that moral change 
 which is necessary to salvation. It is no 
 mere outward reformation ; it is no assiduous 
 performance of external duties. It is a re- 
 generation ; a being born of the Spirit ; a new 
 creation ; a passing from death unto life. A 
 change never effected by the subject of it, but 
 which has its source in God. Of no doc- 
 trine, therefore, is the Bible more full than of 
 that which teaches that men are depraved 
 and fallen beings, who have lost the image of 
 God, and who must be created anew in Christ 
 Jesus before they can see the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 These Scriptural representations respect- 
 ing the universality of sin and the corruption 
 of our nature, are abundantly confirmed by 
 experience and observation. Men may differ 
 as to the extent of their sinfulness, or as to 
 
 * Rom. vii. 18. f John iii. 6. 
 
SIN. 69 
 
 the ill desert of their transgressions, but they 
 cannot be insensible to the fact that they are 
 sinners, or that they have sustained this cha- 
 racter as long as they have had any self- 
 knowledge. As far back as they can go in 
 the history of their being, they find the testi- 
 mony of conscience against them. As this 
 consciousness of sin is universal, and as it 
 exists as soon as we have any knowledge of 
 ourselves, it proves that we are fallen beings ; 
 that we have lost the moral image of God 
 with which our first parents were created. 
 It is a fact, of which every human being is a 
 witness, that our moral nature is such, that 
 instead of seeking our happiness in God and 
 holiness, we prefer the creature to the creator. 
 It would be just as unreasonable to assert that 
 this was the original, proper state of man, as 
 to say our reason was sound, if it universally, 
 immediately and infallibly led us into wrong 
 judgments upon subjects fairly within its 
 competency. 
 
 The proof, that man is a depraved being, 
 is as strong as that he is a rational, a social, 
 or a moral being. He gives no signs of rea- 
 son at his birth ; but he invariably manifests 
 his intellectual nature as soon as he becomes 
 capable of appreciating the objects around 
 
70 SIN. 
 
 him or of expressing the operations of his 
 mind. No one supposes reason to be the re- 
 sult of education, or the effect of circumstan- 
 ces, merely because its operations cannot be 
 detected from the first moment of existence. 
 The uniformity of its manifestation under all 
 circumstances, is regarded as sufiicient proof 
 that it is an attribute of our nature. 
 
 The same remark may be made respecting 
 the social ajffections. No one of them is ma- 
 nifested from the beginning of our course in 
 this world ; yet the fact that men in all ages 
 and under all circumstances, evince a dispo- 
 sition to live in society ; that all parents love 
 their children, that all people have more or 
 less sympathy in the joys and sorrows of their 
 fellow-men, is proof that these affections are 
 not acquired, but original ; that they belong to 
 our nature and are characteristic of it. 
 
 In like manner the apostle reasons from the 
 fact that all men perform moral acts and ex- 
 perience the approbation or disapprobation of 
 conscience, that they have, by nature, and 
 not from example, instruction, or any other 
 external influence, but in virtue of their origi- 
 nal moral constitution, a law written on their 
 hearts, a sense of right and wrong. But if 
 the uniform occurrence of any moral acts is a 
 
SIN. 71 
 
 proof of a moral nature, the uniform occur- 
 rence of wrong moral acts is a proof of a cor- 
 rupt moral nature. If the universal manifes- 
 tation of reason and of the social affections, 
 proves man to be by nature a rational and so- 
 cial being, the universal manifestation of sin- 
 ful affections proves him to be by nature a 
 sinful being. When we say that any one is 
 a bad man, we mean that the predominant 
 character of his actions proves him to have 
 bad principles or dispositions. And when 
 we say that man's nature is depraved, we 
 mean that it is a nature whose moral acts are 
 wrong. And this uniformity of wrong moral 
 actions is as much a proof of a depraved na- 
 ture, as the acts of a bad man are a proof of 
 the predominance of evil dispositions in his 
 heart. This is the uniform judgment of men, 
 and is sanctioned by the word of God. A 
 good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 
 can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 
 Therefore by their fruits shall ye know them. 
 This illustration was used by our Saviour 
 with the express design of teaching that the 
 predominant character of the acts of men, is 
 to be taken as a certain index of the state of 
 the heart ; and hence the uniform occurrence 
 of sin in all men is a certain evidence of the 
 
72 SIN. 
 
 corruption of their nature. Indeed there is 
 no one fact with regard to human nature, 
 which consciousness and observation more 
 fully establish than that it is depraved. 
 
 Section II. The sins of men are numerous 
 and aggravated. 
 
 The Bible not only teaches that all men 
 are sinners, and that the evil is deeply seated 
 in their hearts, but moreover that their sin- 
 fulness is very great. The clearest intima- 
 tion which a lawgiver can give of his esti- 
 mate of the evil of transgression is the penal- 
 ty which he attaches to the violation of his 
 laws. If he is wise and good, the penalty 
 will be a true index of the real demerit of 
 transgression ; and in the case of God, who is 
 infinitely wise and good, the punishment 
 which he denounces against sin, must be an 
 exact criterion of its ill-desert. If we are un- 
 able to see that sin really deserves what God 
 has declared to be its proper punishment, it 
 only shows that our judgment differs from 
 his ; and that it should thus differ is no mat- 
 ter of surprise. We cannot know all the rea- 
 sons which indicate the righteousness of the 
 divine threatenings. We can have no ade- 
 
SIN. 73 
 
 quate conception of the greatness, goodness, 
 and wisdom of the Being against whom we 
 sin ; nor of the evil which sin is suited to pro- 
 duce ; nor of the perfect excellence of the law 
 which we transgress. That sin therefore 
 appears to us a less evil than God declares it 
 to be, is no evidence that it is really unde- 
 serving of his wrath and curse. 
 
 There is a still more operative cause of our 
 low estimate of the evil of sin. The more 
 depraved a man is, the less capable is he of 
 estimating the heinousness of his transgres- 
 sions. And the man who in one part of his 
 career, looked upon certain crimes with ab- 
 horrence, comes at last to regard them with 
 indifference. That we are sinners therefore, 
 is a sufficient explanation of the fact, that we 
 look upon sin in a very different light from 
 that in which it is presented in the word of 
 God. Nothing then can be more reasonable 
 than that we should bow before the judgment 
 of God, and acknowledge that sin reaUy de- 
 serves the punishment which he has declared 
 to be its due. That punishment is so awful, 
 that nothing but a profound reverence for 
 God, and some adequate conception of the 
 evil of sin, can produce a sincere acquiescence 
 in its justice. Yet nothing can be more cer- 
 7 
 
74 SIN. 
 
 tain than that this punishment is the proper 
 measure of the ill-desert of sin. 
 
 The term commonly employed to designate 
 this punishment is death ; death not merely 
 of the body, but of the soul ; not merely tem- 
 poral, but eternal. It is a comprehensive 
 term therefore to express all the evils in this 
 world and the world to come, which are the 
 penal consequences of sin. In this sense it is 
 to be understood in the threatening made to 
 our first parents ; In the day thou eatest there- 
 of thou shalt surely die;^ and when the pro- 
 phet says. The soul that sinneth, it shall die ;t 
 and when the apostle says, The wages of sin 
 is death. J The same general idea is ex- 
 pressed by the word curse. As many as are 
 of the works of the law are under the curse ; 
 for it is written. Cursed is every one that 
 continueth not in all things written in the 
 book of the law to do them;^ and also by the 
 word wrath. We were by nature the children 
 of wrath, II The wrath of God is revealed from 
 heaven against all ungodliness and unrigh- 
 teousness of men. IT 
 
 These and similar passages teach that sin- 
 
 * Gen ii. 17. t Ezek. xviii. 4. 
 
 X Rom. vi. 23. } Gal. iii. 10. 
 
 II Eph. ii. 3. IT Rom. i. 18. 
 
SIN. 75 
 
 ners are the objects of the divine displeasure, 
 and that this displeasure will certainly be 
 manifested. As God is infinitely good and 
 the fountain of all blessedness, his displeasure 
 must be the greatest of all evils. The Scrip- 
 tures, however, in order to impress this truth 
 more deeply upon our minds, employ the 
 strongest terms human language affords, to 
 set forth the dreadful import of God's dis- 
 pleasure. Those who obey not the gospel, it 
 is said, shall be punished with everlasting 
 destruction from the presence of the Lord 
 and from the glory of his power.* Our Sa- 
 viour says. The wicked shall be cast into 
 hell, into the fire that never shall be quench- 
 ed ; where their worm dieth not and the fire 
 is not quenched, t At the last great day, he 
 tells us, the judge shall say to those upon his 
 left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels. J The Son of man shall send forth 
 his angels, and they shall gather out of his 
 kingdom all things that offend, and them that 
 do iniquity, and shall cast them into a fur- 
 nace of fire ; there shall be wailing and gnash- 
 ing of teeth. ^ In the last day, all that are in 
 
 * 2 Thess. i. 9. f Mark. ix. 43, 44. 
 
 X Matt. XXV. 41, 42. 5 Matt. xiii. 41, 42. 
 
76 SIN. 
 
 their graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
 come forth ; they that have done good, unto 
 the resurrection of life ; and they that have 
 done evil, unto the resurrection of damna- 
 tion;* or as it is expressed in Daniel,! to 
 shame and everlasting contempt. 
 
 Whatever explanation may be given of the 
 terms employed in these and many similar 
 passages, there can be no doubt that they are 
 intended to convey the idea of endless and 
 hopeless misery. Whence this misery shall 
 arise, or w^herein it shall consist, are questions 
 of minor importance. It is suflScient that the 
 Scriptures teach that the sufferings here spo- 
 ken of, are, in degree, inconceivably great and 
 in duration endless. The most fearful exhi- 
 bition given of the future state of the impeni- 
 tent, is that v^hich presents them as repro- 
 bates, as abandoned to the unrestrained domi- 
 nion of evil. The repressing influence of 
 conscience, of a probationary state, of a re- 
 gard to character, of good example, and above 
 all of the Holy Spirit, v^ill be w^ithdrawn, and 
 unmingled malignity, impurity and violence 
 constitute the character and condition of those 
 v^ho finally perish. The wricked are repre- 
 sented as constantly blaspheming God, while 
 
 * John V. 29. t I>aniel xii. 2. 
 
 t 
 
SIN. 77 
 
 they gnaw their tongues with pain.^ The 
 God who pronounces this doom upon sinners, 
 is he who said, As I live, I have no pleasure 
 in the death of the wicked. The most fearful 
 of these passages fell from the lips of the 
 Lamb of God, who came to die that we might 
 not perish, but have eternal life. 
 
 It must be remembered that it is not against 
 the chief of sinners that this dreadful punish- 
 ment is denounced. It is against sin, one 
 sin, any sin. Cursed is every one that con- 
 tinueth not in all things written in the book 
 of the law to do them.f Whosoever shall 
 keep the whole law, and yet offend in one 
 point, he is guilty of all. J As far as we 
 know, the angels were punished for their 
 first offence. Adam and his race fell by one 
 transgression. Human governments act on 
 the same principle. If a man commit mur- 
 der, he suffers death for the one offence. If 
 he is guilty of treason, he finds no defence in 
 his freedom from other crimes. Sin is apos- 
 tacy from God; it breaks our communion 
 with him, and is the ruin of the soul. 
 
 The displeasure of God against sin and his 
 fixed determination to punish it, are also mani- 
 fested by the certain connexion which he has 
 
 *Rev. xvL 10. tClal. iii. 10. J James ii. 10. 
 
 7^ 
 
78 SIN. 
 
 established between sin and suffering. It is 
 the undeniable tendency of sin to produce 
 misery ; and althougli in this world the good 
 are not always more happy than the wicked, 
 this only shows that the present is a state of 
 trial and not of retribution. It affords no evi- 
 dence to contradict the proof of the purpose 
 of God to punish sin, derived from the ob- 
 vious and necessary tendency of sin to pro- 
 duce misery. This tendency is as much a 
 law of nature as any other law with which 
 we are acquainted. Men flatter themselves 
 that they will escape the evil consequences of 
 their transgressions by appealing to the mercy 
 of God, and obtaining a suspension of this law 
 in their behalf. They might as reasonably 
 expect the law of gravitation to be suspended 
 for their convenience. He that soweth to the 
 flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, as 
 certainly as he who sows tares shall reap 
 tares. The only link which binds together 
 causes and effects in nature, is the will of 
 God; and the same will, no less clearly re- 
 vealed, connects suffering with sin. And this 
 is a connexion absolutely indissoluble save by 
 the mystery of redemption. 
 
 To suspend the operation of a law of na- 
 ture, (as to stop the sun in his course,) is 
 
SIN. 79 
 
 merely an exercise of power. But to save 
 sinners from the curse of the law required 
 that Christ should be made a curse for us ; 
 that he should bear our sins in his own body 
 on the tree ; that he should be made sin for 
 us and die the just for the unjust. It would 
 be a reflection on the wisdom of God to sup- 
 pose that he w^ould employ means to accom- 
 plish an end more costly than that end re- 
 quired. Could our redemption have been 
 effected by corruptible things, as silver or 
 gold, or could the blood of bulls or of goats 
 have taken away sin, who can believe that 
 Christ would have died ? The apostle clearly 
 teaches that it is to make the death of Christ 
 vain, to afiir^m that our salvation could have 
 been otherwise secured.* Since, then, in 
 order to the pardon of sin, the death of Christ 
 was necessary, it is evident that the evil of 
 sin in the sight of God must be estimated by 
 the dignity of him who died for our redemp- 
 tion. Here we approach the most mysterious 
 and awful doctrine of the Bible. In the be- 
 ginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God. All 
 things were made by him ; and without him 
 was not any thing made that was made. And 
 
 * Gal. ii. 21. 
 
80 SIN. 
 
 the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, 
 and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the 
 only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
 truth.* God therefore was manifested in the 
 flesh. He who, being in the form of God, 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; 
 made himself of no reputation, and took upon 
 him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as 
 a man, he humbled himself, and became obe- 
 dient unto death, even the death of the cross, f 
 He then — who is declared to be the bright- 
 ness of the Father's glory and the express 
 image of his person, upholding all things by 
 the word of his power ; whom all the angels 
 are commanded to worship; of whom the 
 Scriptures say. Thy throne O God is for ever 
 and ever. Thou Lord in the beginning hast 
 laid the foundation of the earth, and the hea- 
 vens are the work of thy hands ; they shall 
 perish, but thou remainest; they shall wax 
 old as doth a garment ; and as a vesture shalt 
 thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, 
 but thou art the same, and thy years shall not 
 fail — even He, who is God over all and blessed 
 for ever, inasmuch as the children were par- 
 takers of flesh and blood, himself also took 
 
 *Johni. 1,3, 14. t Phil. ii. 6,7. 
 
SIN. 81 
 
 part of the same ; that through death he might 
 destroy him that had the power of death, that 
 is the Devil, and deliver them who through 
 fear of death were all their lifetime subject to 
 bondage. 
 
 It is the doctrine of the Bible that the infi- 
 nite and eternal Son of God assumed our na- 
 ture, that he might redeem us from the curse 
 of the law by being made a curse for us. It 
 is obvious that no severity of mere human 
 suffering ; no destroying deluge ; no final con- 
 flagration, not hell itself can present such a 
 manifestation of the evil of sin and of the jus- 
 tice of God as the cross of his incarnate Son. 
 It declares in language which is heard by the 
 whole intelligent universe, that sin deserves 
 God's wrath and curse, and that none who 
 refuse submission to the appointed method of 
 pardon, can escape its condemnation. 
 
 The penalty then which God has attached 
 to the violation of his law, the certainty with 
 which that penalty is inflicted, the doom of 
 the fallen angels, the consequences of Adam's 
 sin, and above all the death of Christ, are 
 manifestations of the evil of sin in the estima- 
 tion of God, which it is the highest infatua- 
 tion for us to disregard. 
 
 However obdurate our hearts may be in 
 
82 SIN. 
 
 reference to this subject, our reason is not so 
 blind as not to see that our guilt must be ex- 
 ceedingly great. We cannot deny that all 
 the circumstances which aggravate the hei- 
 nousness of sin concur in our case. The law 
 which we transgress is perfectly good. It is 
 the law of God ; the law of right and reason. 
 It is the expression of the highest excellence ; 
 it is suited to our nature, necessary to our 
 perfection and happiness. Opposition to such 
 a law must be in the highest degree unrea- 
 sonable and wicked. 
 
 This law is enforced not only by its own 
 excellence but by the authority of God. Dis- 
 regard of this authority is the greatest crime 
 of which a creature is capable. It is rebellion 
 against a being whose right to command is 
 founded on his infinite superiority, his infinite 
 goodness and his absolute propriety in us as 
 his creatures. It is apostacy from the king- 
 dom of God to the kingdom of Satan. There 
 is no middle ground between the two. Every 
 one is either the servant of God, or the ser- 
 vant of the devil. Holiness is the evidence 
 of our allegiance to our Maker, sin is the ser- 
 vice of Satan. Could we form any adequate 
 conception of these two kingdoms, of the in- 
 trinsic excellence of the one and the absolute 
 
SIN. 83 
 
 evil of the other, of the blessedness attendant 
 on the one and the misery connected with the 
 other; could we in short bring heaven and 
 hell in immediate contrast, we might have 
 some proper view of the guilt of this apostacy 
 from God. It is the natural tendency of our 
 conduct to degrade ourselves and others, to 
 make Eden like Sodom, and to kindle, every 
 where, the fire that never shall be quenched. 
 This cannot be denied, for moral evil is the 
 greatest of all evils and the certain cause of 
 all others. He therefore who sins is not only 
 a rebel against God, but a malefactor, an 
 enemy to the highest good of his fellow crea- 
 tures. 
 
 Again, our guilt is great because our sins 
 are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely 
 with outward acts of unkindness and dis- 
 honesty that we are chargeable ; our habitual 
 and characteristic state of mind is evil in the 
 sight of God. Our pride, vanity, indifference 
 to his will and to the welfare of others, our 
 selfishness, our loving the creature more than 
 the Creator, are continuous violations of his 
 law. We have never, in any one moment of 
 our lives, been or done what that law requires 
 us to be and to do. We have never had that 
 delight in the divine perfections, that sense of 
 
84 SIN. 
 
 dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose 
 to do the will and promote the glory of God, 
 which constitute the love which is our first 
 and highest duty. It is in this sense that 
 mankind are said to be totally depraved. 
 They are entirely destitute of supreme love to 
 God. Whatever else they may have is as 
 nothing while this is wanting. They may 
 be affectionate fathers or kind masters, or du- 
 tiful sons and daughters, but they are not 
 obedient children of God ; they have not those 
 feelings towards God which constitute their 
 first and greatest duty, and without which 
 they are always transgressors. The man who 
 is a rebel against his righteous sovereign, and 
 whose heart is full of enmity to his person 
 and government, may be faithful to his asso- 
 ciates and kind to his dependents, but he is 
 always and increasingly guilty as it regards 
 his ruler. Thus we are always sinners ; we 
 are at all times and under all circumstances 
 in opposition to God, because we are never 
 what his law requires us to be. If we have 
 never loved him supremely ; if we have never 
 made it our governing purpose to do his will ; 
 if we have never been properly grateful for 
 all his mercies ; if we have never made his 
 glory, but some other and lower object, the 
 
SIN. 85 
 
 end of our actions ; then our lives have been 
 an unbroken series of transgressions. Our 
 sins are not to be numbered by the conscious 
 violations of duty ; they are as numerous as 
 the moments of our existence. 
 
 If the permanent moral dispositions of a 
 man are evil, it must follow that his acts of 
 transgression will be past counting up . E very 
 hour there is some work of evil, some wrong 
 thought, some bad feeling, some improper 
 w^ord, or some wicked act, to add to the num- 
 ber of his offences. The evil exercise of an 
 evil heart is like the ceaseless swinging of 
 the pendulum. The slightest review of life 
 therefore is sufficient to overwhelm us with 
 the conviction of the countless multitude of 
 our transgressions. It is this which consti- 
 tutes our exceeding sinfulness in the sight of 
 God. While conscience sleeps, or our atten- 
 tion is directed to other subjects, the number 
 of our transgressions grows like the unnoticed 
 pulsations of our heart. It is not until we 
 pause and call ourselves to an account, that 
 we see how many feelings have been wrong ; 
 how great is the distance at which we habitu- 
 ally live from God, and how constant is our 
 want of conformity to his will. It was this 
 that forced the Psalmist to cry, Mine iniqui- 
 8 
 
86 SIN. 
 
 ties have taken hold upon me, so that I am 
 not able to look up, they are more than the 
 hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth 
 me. 
 
 Again, we may jndge of the greatness of 
 our guilt before God, by considering the nu- 
 merous restraints of his truth, providence and 
 Spirit, v^hich v^e habitually disregard. The 
 simple fact that sin is v^rong, that conscience 
 condemns it, is a constant and powerful re- 
 straint. We cannot avail ourselves of the 
 plea of ignorance, as we have a perfect stand- 
 ard of duty in the law of God. We cannot 
 resist the conviction that his commands are 
 righteous, yet, in despite of this conviction, 
 we live in constant disobedience. 
 
 We are, moreover, fully aware of the con- 
 sequences of sin. We know the judgment of 
 God, that those who do such things are wor- 
 thy of death, and yet continue our transgres- 
 sions. We are surprised at the drunkard 
 who indulges his fatal passion in the very 
 presence of ruin; yet are blind to our own 
 infatuation in continuing to disobey God in 
 despite of threatened death. We stupidly 
 disregard the certain consequences of our 
 conduct, and awake only in time to see that 
 madness is in our hearts. This insensibility, 
 
SIN. 87 
 
 notwithstanding the occasional admonitions 
 of conscience and the constant warning of the 
 word of God, constitutes a peculiar aggrava- 
 tion of our guilt. 
 
 Nor are we more mindful of the restrain- 
 ing influence of the love of God. We disre- 
 gard the fact that the Being against whom 
 we sin, is He to whom we owe our existence 
 and all our enjoyments ; who has carried us 
 in his arms, and crowned us with loving 
 kindness and tender mercies ; who is merci- 
 ful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous 
 in mercy; who has not dealt with us after 
 our sins, nor rewarded us according to our 
 iniquities, but has borne with our provoca- 
 tions, waiting that his goodness might lead 
 us to repentance. We have despised his for- 
 bearance, deriving from it a motive to sin, as 
 though he were slack concerning his pro- 
 mises, and would not accomplish his threat- 
 enings; thus treasuring up for ourselves 
 wrath against the day of wrath and revela- 
 tion of the righteous judgment of God. Be- 
 sides all this, we disregard the love of Christ. 
 He came to save us from our sins, and we 
 will not accept of his mediation, or recipro- 
 cate his love. There stands his cross, mutely 
 eloquent ; at once an invitation and a warn- 
 
88 SIN. 
 
 ing. It tells us both of the love and justice 
 of God. It assures us, that he who spared 
 not his own Son, is ready to be gracious. All 
 this we disregard. We count the blood of 
 the covenant an unholy thing ; we act as if it 
 were not the blood of the Son of God, shed 
 for us for the remission of sins. Or, it may 
 be, we turn the grace of God into licentious- 
 ness, and draw encouragement from the death 
 of Christ to continue in sin. This unbeliev- 
 ing rejection of the Saviour involves guilt so 
 peculiarly great, that it is often spoken of as 
 the special ground of the condemnation of 
 the world. He that belie veth not is con- 
 demned already, because he hath not believed 
 on the only begotten Son of God. When he, 
 the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall convince 
 the world of sin, because they believe not in 
 Christ. If he that despised Moses' law died 
 without mercy, under two or three witnesses, 
 of how much sorer punishment shall he be 
 thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot 
 the Son of God ! 
 
 This great sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as 
 a Saviour, it must be remembered, is an often 
 repeated and long continued sin. It is also 
 one which is chargeable not on the openly 
 wicked merely, but upon those whom the 
 
SIN. 89 
 
 world calls moral. They too resist the claims 
 of the Son of God ; they too refuse his love 
 and reject his offers. It was when all other 
 messengers had failed, the Lord of the vine- 
 yard sent his Son to his disobedient servants, 
 saying, They will reverence my Son. The 
 guilt of thus rejecting Christ, will never be 
 fully appreciated until the day when He shall 
 sit on the throne, and from his face the earth 
 and heaven shall flee away, and no place be 
 found for them. 
 
 Besides these restraints from without, we 
 resist the still more powerful influence of the 
 Spirit of God. That Spirit strives with all 
 men; suggesting truth and exciting con- 
 science, expostulating and warning, and 
 drawing men from sin to God. It is from 
 Him that all good thoughts and right pur- 
 poses do proceed. This Spirit we quench ; 
 we resist his gracious influences, not once or 
 twice, but a thousand times. Though he 
 will not always strive with men, he strives 
 long, and returns after many insulting rejec- 
 tions, repeating the warnings and invitations 
 of mercy. All men are sensible of this divine 
 influence, though they may not be aware of 
 its origin. They know not whence proceed 
 the serious thoughts, the anxious forebodings, 
 8* 
 
90 SIN. 
 
 the convictions of truth, the sense of the 
 emptiness of the world, the longing after se- 
 curity and peace of which they are conscious. 
 God sends these admonitions even to those 
 who are most contented with the world and 
 most happy in their estrangement from him- 
 self. He leaves no man without a witness 
 and a warning. These strivings of the Spirit 
 are not only frequent, but often urgent. 
 Almost every man can look back and find 
 many instances in which an unseen hand 
 was upon him, when a voice, not from man, 
 has sounded in his ears, when feelings to 
 which he was before a stranger, were awa- 
 kened in his breast, and when he felt the 
 power of the world to come. The shadow of 
 the Almighty has passed over him, and pro- 
 duced the conviction that God is, and that 
 He is, an avenger. 
 
 From a review of what has been said, it is 
 plain that the Scriptures teach not only that 
 all men are sinners, but that their corruption 
 is radical, seated in their hearts, and that it is 
 exceedingly great. The severity of the pe- 
 nalty which God has attached to transgres- 
 sion, the certainty of its infliction, the costli- 
 ness of the sacrifice by which alone its pardon 
 could be obtained, are all proofs of the evil of 
 
SIN. 91 
 
 sin in the sight of God. The greatness of 
 our personal guilt is plain from the excel- 
 lence of the law which we have violated; 
 from the authority and goodness of the Being 
 whom we have offended, from the number of 
 our sins, and from the powerful restraints 
 which we have disregarded. 
 
.1^|V\ 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE TO THE CHARGE 
 OF SIN. 
 
 Section I. Sin^ want of consideration^ 
 striving against the Spirit. 
 
 The charge of sin is brought so directly in 
 the word of God against every human being, 
 and is so fully sustained by observation and 
 experience, that the general indifference of 
 men under so weighty an accusation, is a fact 
 which needs explanation. Indifference is no 
 proof of innocence, any more than insensi- 
 bility to pain is a proof of health. In ordi- 
 nary cases indeed, a man cannot be ill with- 
 out knowing it, but his sensations are a very 
 unsafe criterion of the nature or danger of his 
 disease. He may be most free from pain, 
 when most in peril. In like manner, the in- 
 difference of men to their own sinfulness 
 affords no presumption that their guilt is not 
 great in the sight of God. The absence of 
 the immediate consciousness of guilt is no 
 
INDIFFERENCE TO SIN. 93 
 
 proof of innocence, unless attended by the 
 joyful exercise of all right feelings. When 
 accompanied by indifference to duty and the 
 indulgence of sin, it is the evidence of the 
 depth of our depravity. All men assume this 
 to be true in their judgments of those more 
 wicked than themselves. To say of a man, 
 he is a hardened wretch, is not the language 
 of extenuation or apology. It is the language 
 of aggravated condemnation. Those who 
 feel thus keenly with regard to others, that 
 indifference is an aggravation of guilt, 
 strangely imagine it to be, in their own case, 
 a proof of comparative innocence. 
 
 This insensibility of men, therefore, to the 
 moral turpitude of their character in the sight 
 of God, so far from being an indication of 
 goodness, is the result and evidence of the 
 extent of their corruption. As in bodily 
 disease when the seat of life is attacked, the 
 sensibilities are weakened, so in the disease 
 of sin, insensibility is one of its symptoms, 
 and increases with the increase of the evil. 
 Sin produces this effect both by blinding the 
 mind and by hardening the heart. It ob- 
 scures our apprehensions of the excellence of 
 God and of his law, and it produces a callous- 
 ness of feeling, so that what is seen is not re- 
 
94 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 garded. Experience teaches us that a mere 
 change in the state of the mind, produces an 
 immediate and entire change in our appre- 
 hensions and feelings in reference to our own 
 sins. The man who at one hour was indif- 
 ferent as the most careless, at the next, is 
 filled with astonishment and remorse. Others 
 think his feelings unreasonable and exagge- 
 rated ; he knows them to be rational and even 
 inadequate. This is not the result of any 
 hallucination or mistaken apprehensions of 
 God or of his own character. It is the natu- 
 ral effect of an enlightened mind and of an 
 awakened conscience. The ease and fre- 
 quency with which the indifference of men 
 to their guilt in the sight of God, is destroy- 
 ed, is of itself a proof that their insensibility 
 is not based upon truth ; that it is the effect 
 of a darkened understanding and a hardened 
 heart, and that though it may increase as sin 
 gains the ascendency, it vanishes the moment 
 the light and power of truth are let in upon 
 the soul. 
 
 Besides this general cause of the indiffer- 
 ence of men to the declarations of God re- 
 garding their sinfulness, there are others 
 which ought to be specified. When the pro- 
 phet contemplated the impenitent unconcern 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 95 
 
 of the people, he exclaimed, Israel doth not 
 know, my people do not consider. And 
 when God would rouse them to a sense of 
 their guilt, he says, Now therefore thus saith 
 the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. It is 
 this want of consideration, more than any dif- 
 ficulty in arriving at the truth, which sets 
 men in such opposition to God in their judg- 
 ments of themselves, and which hardens them 
 in their indifference. This inconsideration 
 indeed is but an effect of the more general 
 cause already referred to, but it becomes in 
 its turn a cause both of ignorance and uncon- 
 cern. Men learn little upon any subject by 
 intuition, and the knowledge of their own 
 hearts is not to be obtained without painful 
 self-examination. This self-knowledge is the 
 subject to which men generally devote the 
 least attention. They are engrossed by the 
 cares or pleasures of the world. They either 
 float quietly down the stream of life, or are 
 hurried along its troubled course, with scarce- 
 ly an hour given to serious reflection. That 
 under such circumstances men should be 
 ignorant of themselves and indifferent to 
 their character in the sight of God, is not 
 only natural but unavoidable. It is however 
 a lamentable thing that they should make a 
 
96 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 judgment of themselves formed without con- 
 sideration, the ground of their conduct, and 
 confide in it in opposition to the judgment of 
 God. If they will judge, let them at least 
 consider. If they will act on their own con- 
 clusions respecting themselves, let them at 
 least examine and decide deliberately, and 
 not venture every thing on a hasty, uncon- 
 sidered estimate of their character, w^hich, it 
 may be, could not, even in their own judg- 
 ment, stand a moment's inspection. 
 
 Men, however, are not merely inconsider- 
 ate, they often make direct efforts to suppress 
 the rising conviction of guilt and danger. 
 The testimony of God against them is so 
 plain ; the authority of his law is so obvious ; 
 * their want of conformity to it is so glaring, 
 and the influences of the Spirit are so gene- 
 ral and frequent, that the conviction of sin 
 can hardly fail to obtrude itself even upon 
 those who in general are the most unconcern- 
 ed. It is, however, a painful conviction, and 
 therefore, instead of being cherished, it is dis- 
 regarded or suppressed. The mind refuses 
 to dwell upon the subject, or to examine the 
 evidence of guilt, but either turns to other 
 objects, or, by some act of levity or transgres- 
 sion, grieves away the Spirit of God and 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 97 
 
 hardens itself in unconcern. This is a fre- 
 quently recurring experience in the history 
 of most men. They have more anxious 
 thoughts than they allow their most intimate 
 friends to suspect. They often mask an ach- 
 ing heart with a smiling face. They have a 
 quick foresight of what such feelings must 
 lead to, if cherished. They see, at once, that 
 they cannot cultivate such sentiments, and 
 live as they have been accustomed to do. 
 There are pleasures, and it may be sins, 
 which must be abandoned. There are com- 
 panions who must be avoided. There is the 
 opposition of friends, the ridicule of asso- 
 ciates, the loss of rank, to be encountered. 
 All the horrors of a religious life present 
 themselves to the imagination, and frighten 
 the half awakened from considering their 
 ways, which they know to be but the first 
 step in what appears a long and painful jour- 
 ney. They therefore struggle against their 
 convictions, and in general master them. 
 This struggle is sometimes short ; at others, 
 it is protracted and painful. Victory how- 
 ever comes at last, and the soul regains its 
 wonted unconcern. Such persons little know 
 what they are doing. They little suspect 
 that they are struggling to elude the grasp of 
 9 
 
98 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 mercy; that they are striving against the 
 Spirit of God, who would draw them from 
 the paths of destruction, and guide them into 
 the way of life. 
 
 Section II. Sophistical objections against 
 the doctrines of the Bible. 
 
 Another cause of the indifference of men 
 may be found in the objections which they 
 urge against the truth. Such objections in- 
 deed are more frequently and effectually 
 urged to perplex the advocates of religion, 
 than to quiet the uneasiness of conscience. 
 Still men endeavour to impose upon them- 
 selves as well as to embarrass others. And 
 the objections referred to, doubtless are often 
 obstacles in the way of the inquirer^ or 
 opiates to the consciences of those who de- 
 sire to be deceived. It is objected that we 
 are what God made us ; that our character is 
 determined either by our original constitu- 
 tion, or by the circumstances in which we 
 are placed, and therefore we cannot be re- 
 sponsible for it ; that inasmuch as neither our 
 belief nor our affections are under the control 
 of the will, we cannot be accountable for 
 either ; that it is useless to use means to es- 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 99 
 
 C£^pe the judgment of God, since what is to 
 be, will be ; that we must wait till God sees 
 fit to change our hearts, since it is declared 
 in Scripture to be his work. 
 
 It will be observed that these and similar 
 objections relate to the reconciliation of differ- 
 ent truths, and not to their separate validity 
 or evidence. The proposition that men are 
 responsible for their moral character, taken 
 by itself, is so capable of demonstration, that 
 all men do in fact believe it. Every man 
 feels it to be true with regard to himself, and 
 knows it to be true with regard to others. 
 All self-condemnation and self-approbation 
 rest on the consciousness of this truth. All 
 our judgments regarding the moral conduct 
 of others are founded on the same assump- 
 tion. It is, therefore, one of those truths 
 which is included in the universal conscious- 
 ness of men, and has in all ages and nations 
 been assumed as certain. Men cannot really 
 doubt it, if they would. On the other hand, 
 it is no less certain that our character does 
 depend in a measure upon circumstances be- 
 yond our control ; upon our original constitu- 
 tion, upon education, upon prevalent habits 
 and opinions; upon divine influence, &c. 
 All this is proved by experience and observa- 
 
100 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 tion. Here then are two facts resting on in- 
 dependent evidence, each certain and each 
 by itself securing general assent. Yet we 
 see men constantly disposed to bring up the 
 one against the other ; and argue against their 
 responsibility, because they are dependent, 
 or against their dependence, because they are 
 responsible. 
 
 In like manner the proposition that man is 
 a free agent, commands immediate and uni- 
 versal assent, because it is an ultimate fact of 
 consciousness. It can no more be doubted 
 than we can doubt our own existence. Side 
 by side however with this intimate persua- 
 sion of our moral liberty, lies the conviction, 
 no less intimate, of our inability to change, 
 by merely willing to do so, either our belief 
 or our affections, for which, as before stated, 
 every man knows himself to be responsible. 
 Perhaps few men, — perhaps no man, — can 
 see the harmony of these truths ; yet they are 
 truths, and as such are practically acknow- 
 ledged by all men. 
 
 Again, all experience teaches us that we 
 live in a world of means, that knowledge, re- 
 ligion, happiness, are all to be sought in a 
 certain way, and that to neglect the means is 
 to lose the end. It is, however, no less true 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 101 
 
 that there is no necessary or certain connec- 
 tion between the means and the end; that 
 God holds the result in his own hands and 
 decides the issues according to his sovereign 
 pleasure. In all the ordinary affairs of life 
 men submit to this arrangement and do not 
 hesitate to use means, though the end is un- 
 certain and beyond their control. But in re- 
 ligion, they think this uncertainty of the re- 
 sult a sufficient excuse for neglect. 
 
 It is obvious that this method of reasoning, 
 or rather of cavilling, which consists in bring- 
 ing up one well established truth against an- 
 other, is unworthy of a rational being. We 
 ought to (and practically, we must) receive 
 every truth on its own evidence. If we can- 
 not reconcile one fact with another, it is be- 
 cause of our ignorance ; better instructed men 
 or higher orders of beings may see their per- 
 fect harmony. Our want of such knowledge 
 does not in the least impair the force of the 
 evidence on which they separately rest. In 
 every department of knowledge the number 
 of irreconcileable truths depends on the pro- 
 gress of the student. That loose matter flies 
 off from revolving bodies, and that every 
 thing adheres to the surface of the earth, not- 
 withstanding its rapid revolution, are irrecon- 
 9* 
 
102 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 cileable facts to one man, though not^ to an- 
 other. That two rays of light should pro- 
 duce darkness, or two sounds cause silence, 
 are facts which many may be entirely unable 
 to reconcile with other facts of which they 
 are certain, while the philosopher sees not 
 only their consistency, but that they are the 
 necessary consequences of the same cause. 
 
 If the evidence of the constant revolution 
 of the earth round its axis were presented to 
 a man, it would certainly be unreasonable in 
 him to deny the fact, merely because he could 
 not reconcile it with the stability of every 
 thing on the earth's surface. Or if he saw 
 two rays of light made to produce darkness, 
 must he resist the evidence of his senses be- 
 cause he knows that two candles give more 
 light than one ? Men do not commonly act 
 thus irrationally in physical investigations. 
 They let each fact stand on its own evidence. 
 They strive to reconcile them, and are happy 
 when they succeed. But they do not get rid 
 of difficulties by denying facts. 
 
 If in the department of physical knowledge 
 we are obliged to act upon the principle of 
 receiving every fact upon its own evidence, 
 even when unable to reconcile one with an- 
 other, it is not wonderful that this necessity 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 103 
 
 should be imposed upon us in those depart- 
 ments of knowledge, which are less within 
 the limits of our powers. It is certainly irra- 
 tional for a man to reject all the evidence of 
 the spirituality of the soul, because he cannot 
 reconcile with that doctrine the fact that a 
 disease of the body disorders the mind. Must 
 I do violence to my nature in denying the 
 proof of design afforded by the human body, 
 because I cannot account for the occasional 
 occurrence of deformities of structure ? Must 
 I harden my heart against all the evidence of 
 the benevolence of God, which streams upon 
 me in a flood of light from all his works, be- 
 cause I may not know how to reconcile that 
 benevolence with the existence of evil ? Must 
 I deny my free agency, the most intimate of 
 all convictions, because I cannot see the con- 
 sistency between the freeness of an act and 
 the certainty of its occurrence ? Must I deny 
 that I am a moral being, the very glory of my 
 nature, because I cannot change my charac- 
 ter at will ? 
 
 It is impossible for any man to act, in any 
 department of knowledge, upon the principle, 
 on which these cavilling objections to religion 
 are founded. From youth to age we are 
 obliged to take each fact as it comes, upon its 
 
104 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 own evidence, and reconcile it with other 
 facts, as best we may. 
 
 The unreasonableness of this method of 
 arguing is further evident from the considera- 
 tion that if it were universally adopted it 
 would render all progress in knowledge im- 
 possible. It would be tantamount to a reso- 
 lution to know nothing until we know all 
 things ;♦ for our knowledge at first is confined 
 to isolated facts. To classify and harmonize 
 these facts, is the slow work of the student's 
 life. This is a most benevolent arrangement 
 of providence. It at once stimulates the de- 
 sire of knowledge and imposes on us the con- 
 stant exercise of faith. And it is in virtue of 
 these two important principles of our nature 
 that all valuable knowledge is obtained. 
 The desire of knowing not merely facts, but 
 their relations and harmony, leads to the con- 
 stant effort to increase the number of known 
 truths and to obtain an insight into their na- 
 ture ; and the necessity we are under of be- 
 lieving what we cannot understand, or cannot 
 reconcile, cultivates the habit of faith ; of faith 
 in evidence, faith in the laws of our nature, 
 faith in God. It is thus our heavenly Father 
 leads us along the paths of knowledge ; and 
 he who refuses to be thus led, must remain 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 105 
 
 in ignorance. God deals with us as chil- 
 dren ; though as rational children. He does 
 not require us to believe without evidence ; 
 but he does require us to believe what we 
 cannot understand, and what we cannot re- 
 concile with other parts of knowledge. This 
 necessity of implicit faith is not confined to 
 any one department of knowledge, but as 
 already stated, is constantly demanded with 
 regard to all. The simplest objects in the 
 physical world are surrounded with myste- 
 ries. A blade of grass has wonders about it 
 which no philosopher can clear up ; no man 
 can tell what fixes the type of each species 
 of plant or animal ; by what process the ma- 
 terials of leaf and flower are selected and ar- 
 ranged ; whence the beautiful tints are bor- 
 rowed or how applied; what conducts the 
 silent process of formation of the eye or hand. 
 Every thing we see is, even to the most en- 
 lightened, the index of something unknown 
 and inscrutable. 
 
 If the visible and tangible forms of matter 
 are replete with things past finding out, what 
 may we expect when we turn our eyes on the 
 world of spirits? Even that little world in 
 our own bosoms which is pervaded by our 
 own consciousness, the facts of which are 
 
106 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 most intimately known, is full of wonders; 
 of phenomena which we can neither compre- 
 hend nor reconcile. Who can understand 
 the secret union of the soul and body, which 
 establishes their reciprocal influence ? Why 
 should the emotion of shame suffuse the 
 cheek, or that of fear send the blood to the 
 heart ? Why does the soul suffer if the body 
 be injured? What conception can we form 
 either of matter or mind which is consistent 
 with their mutual influence and communion ? 
 The operations of our rational and moral 
 faculties are not less beyond our comprehen- 
 sion. We know certain facts, but the reason 
 of them, or their consistency we cannot un- 
 derstand. We know that certain feelings fol- 
 low certain perceptions ; the feeling of confi- 
 dence the perception of truth ; the feeling of 
 pleasure the perception of beauty; the feel- 
 ing of approbation the perception of what is 
 morally right. Why these feelings should 
 thus rise no one can tell. Such are the laws 
 of our being ; laws which we did not origi- 
 nate and which we cannot control. That is, 
 we cannot prevent the feeling of confidence 
 or faith, attending the perception of truth, 
 nor that of pleasure, the perception of beauty, 
 nor that of approbation, the perception of 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 107 
 
 moral rectitude. Yet the consciousness of 
 self-agency mingles with all these operations. 
 We are free in being subject to the laws of 
 our own nature. The necessity under which 
 we form such judgments or exercise such 
 feelings produces no sense of bondage. In 
 these involuntary or necessary judgments or 
 feelings, however, our moral character is 
 largely concerned. If two men see an act of 
 cruelty, and the one smiles at it, and the 
 other is indignant, no sophistry can prevent 
 our condemning the former and approving 
 the latter. The feeling excited by the act 
 arises in each, spontaneously, and by an in- 
 ward necessity which neither, at the moment, 
 can control. The knowledge of this fact does 
 not interfere with our judgment in the case. 
 And that judgment is not merely that the 
 feeling which produced the smile, is an indi- 
 cation of a state of mind, or of previous con- 
 duct worthy of disapprobation, but that the 
 feeling itself was wrong. Moreover the feel- 
 ing of disapprobation which arises thus spon- 
 taneously in our bosoms, at this delight in 
 suffering, is itself a moral feeling. We should 
 condemn ourselves if it did not arise, we 
 approve ourselves because of it. There are 
 therefore, in our own breasts, enigmas which 
 
108 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 we cannot solve, depths which we cannot 
 fathom. Must we then, in order to be ra- 
 tional, deny these facts ? Must we maintain 
 that our nature is an illusion and our consti- 
 tution a falsehood? Shall we, on the one 
 hand, deny that we are subject to the laws of 
 our being, or, on the other, that the acts which 
 result from those laws are not our own, do 
 not express our character nor involve respon- 
 sibility? This happily cannot be done, for 
 faith in our own consciousness is one of the 
 laws of our nature from which we can never 
 effectually emancipate ourselves. 
 
 If then there are in our own nature so 
 many things which we cannot comprehend, 
 how can we expect to understand God, to 
 know the reasons and relations of his acts, or 
 to be able to reconcile, in all cases, his works 
 with his attributes? To do this would re- 
 quire a more thorough knowledge of God 
 than we have of ourselves. It would require 
 a comprehension of his purposes and of the 
 mode in which he accomplishes them. It 
 would require in short a knowledge which 
 no creature can possess. For what man 
 knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit 
 of man that is in him? Even so the things 
 of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 109 
 
 God. We then, who are the least and lowest 
 of God's rational creatures, may well expect 
 to be required to live by faith ; to receive, as 
 true, on his authority, much that we cannot 
 understand and cannot reconcile. It is not 
 however blind belief which is required of us. 
 We are not required to believe any thing 
 without adequate proof; but on the other 
 hand we are not allowed to reject any thing 
 simply because we cannot understand it. 
 We must not reject the existence of God, be- 
 cause we cannot comprehend self-existence; 
 we must not deny his eternity, because we 
 cannot conceive of duration without succes- 
 sion, nor his omnipresence, because we can- 
 not see how a being can be equally and en- 
 tirely in all places at the same time; nor 
 omniscience, because we cannot see how free 
 acts can be foreknown. In like manner we 
 are not required to believe in God's goodness 
 without abundant evidence of his benevo- 
 lence; but we are required to believe it, 
 whether we can reconcile it with the exist- 
 ence of evil or not. We are not required to 
 believe in the providence of God without 
 evidence, but our being unable to reconcile 
 his government with our liberty, is no ra- 
 tional ground of unbelief. The same remark 
 10 
 
110 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 might be made with regard to the apostacy 
 of our race and the corruption of our nature ; 
 our inability and obligation to obedience ; the 
 necessity of divine influence and the use of 
 means. We are required to believe nothing 
 on these or any other, subjects without ade- 
 quate proof, but we are not allowed to make 
 our ignorance of the relations of these truths 
 an excuse for either unbelief or disobedience. 
 God gives to the glow worm light enough to 
 see its own path, though not enough to dispel 
 the darkness of the night. Thus too he 
 shows us where to put our foot down in each 
 successive step towards heaven, though he 
 may not enable us to comprehend the Al- 
 mighty unto perfection. 
 
 It may be said that we have not answered 
 one of all the objections to which reference 
 has so often been made. We have done far 
 better than answer them, if we have made 
 the reader feel the necessity of an humble, 
 trustful spirit towards God. This is the 
 appropriate state of mind for every learner, 
 whether in the school of nature or of Christ. 
 It is that state which the feebleness of our 
 powers and the difficulty of the things to be 
 learned, render not only reasonable but indis- 
 pensable. A second impression which we 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. Ill 
 
 have laboured to produce is, that it is one of 
 our primary duties to submit to the truth, to 
 form the purpose and to cherish the habit of 
 yielding the mind to evidence. Faith v^ith- 
 out evidence is irrational; but unbelief in 
 despite of evidence is not less so. There is 
 a great difference, in the temper of different 
 men in Telation to this subject. Some resist 
 the truth as long as they can ; they cavil at 
 it and oppose it. Others are candid and 
 docile ; they are v^illing to admit the force of 
 proof as far as they perceive it. This is the 
 only way in which true knowledge can be 
 obtained. It is thus the philosopher is accus- 
 tomed to act. He carefully interrogates na- 
 ture for facts ; these facts are received ; they 
 are classified and harmonized as far as the 
 investigator is able thus to reconcile them. 
 But he rejects none because he cannot make 
 it fit into a system. He waits for further 
 light. It is thus we are bound to act. We 
 too are called upon to receive every truth 
 upon its own evidence; to harmonize our 
 knowledge where we can, but to reject no- 
 thing simply because of our ignorance of its 
 consistency with other truths. 
 
 A third lesson which it is very important 
 for us to learn is, what is adequate evidence 
 
112 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 of truth and when we are bound to rest satis- 
 fied. This may be a question which it is 
 difficult to decide ; but as far as religion is 
 concerned the case is sufficiently plain. By 
 the laws of our being* we are imperatively 
 required to confide in the well ascertained 
 testimony of our senses; to rely upon the 
 veracity of our own consciousness ; to receive 
 the unimpeachable testimony of our fellow 
 men, and to abide by those truths which are 
 matters of intuitive perception, or the neces- 
 sary conclusions of reason. These are laws 
 of belief impressed upon our constitution by 
 our creator ; and are therefore the authorita- 
 tive expressions of his will. To refuse obe- 
 dience to these laws is, then, not only unrea- 
 sonable, it is rebellion against God. They 
 are the adamantine bars by which he has 
 closed up the way to universal skepticism; 
 and those who break through them do but 
 prematurely enter upon the outer darkness. 
 We are obliged then as rational beings to 
 receive every truth which rests upon the tes- 
 timony of our senses, upon the authority of 
 consciousness, the unimpeachable testimony 
 of witnesses, or the intuitive perceptions or 
 necessary deductions of reason. Whether 
 we can systematize and reconcile all the 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 113 
 
 truths thus arrived at, is a very different 
 question. Ckir obligation to receive them 
 does not rest upon this power, but upon the 
 evidence afforded for each separate truth. 
 Our consciousness tells us that we are sin- 
 ners ; it also informs us of our helplessness. 
 We may fight against one or the other of 
 these truths as the ocean chafes the rocks. 
 They cannot be moved. When the mind has 
 been drugged with false philosophy, it may 
 for a time disbelieve. But the infidelity lasts 
 no longer than the intoxication. As soon as 
 the man is sober, the truth re-appears in 
 greater clearness and authority than ever. 
 Nothing therefore can be eventually gained 
 by resistance to the truth, and it is the part 
 of wisdom to submit at once to the laws of 
 belief which God has impressed upon our 
 nature. 
 
 Besides this rule of faith, (if it may be so 
 called,) which God has given us in the con- 
 stitution of our nature, we have his word and 
 his providence, authenticated by all kinds of 
 adequate testimony. There can be no higher 
 ground of faith than the authority of God. 
 Even confidence in the testimony of our 
 senses or the dictates of consciousness, re- 
 solves itself into confidence in the veracity of 
 10^ 
 
114 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 God, by whom the laws of nature have been 
 established. Any truth therefore which is 
 sustained by a well authenticated revelation 
 of God, or upon the actual dispensations of 
 his providence, must be considered as fully 
 established; and every objection which can 
 be shown to militate against either, must be 
 considered as fully answered. It was thus 
 that the sacred writers answered objections. 
 It was enough for them that God asserted 
 any truth, or actually exercised any preroga- 
 tive. Any further vindication they deemed 
 unnecessary. We should act on the same 
 principle and quietly submit to all that God 
 says and to all he does. Some men com- 
 plainingly ask, Why were we born ? Surely 
 it is enough that they are born. The fact 
 cannot be denied, whether they can see the 
 wisdom and design of their creation or not. 
 Or they ask. Why were we born in a state 
 of sin, or in a world in which sin is universal 
 and inevitable ? This, to human reason, may 
 be a question impossible to answer. But as 
 the fact stares us in the face, is there any use 
 in denying it ? But it is further asked. If we 
 are born in such a state that either from our 
 nature or circumstances sin is inevitable 
 and universal, how can we be responsible? 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 115 
 
 Whatever difficulty there may be in showing 
 how we are responsible, there is no doubt as 
 to the fact. We feel ourselves to be respon- 
 sible, and can no more free ourselves from 
 the conviction than we can get rid of the con- 
 sciousness of existence. Where then is the 
 wisdom of quarrelling with facts? Why 
 should we spend pur lives like a wild beast 
 in a cage for ever chafing against the bars of 
 its prison, which nevertheless remain ? Let 
 us learn to submit to what we see to be true ; 
 let us remember that our knowledge does not 
 embrace all truth ; that things may be per- 
 fectly consistent with each other and with 
 the attributes of God, though we may not see 
 how. Our knowledge will continually in- 
 crease ; and those facts which r^ive us most 
 difficulty will be found to be so analogous to 
 others, the justice of which we are able to re- 
 cognise, that if we never come to see all 
 things in their harmony, we shall at least see 
 that they must be consistent, being parts of 
 that system which is every where luminous 
 with the manifestations of the wisdom and 
 love of God. Let us remember that we are 
 children, the children of God, that he gives 
 us abundant evidence of every thing which 
 he requires us to believe, though he renders 
 
116 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 it necessary for us to exercise confidence in 
 him, to feel assured that what he says is true 
 and that what he does is right ; that though 
 clouds and darkness may be round about him, 
 justice and judgment are the habitation of his 
 throne. 
 
 The last general remark to be made in re- 
 ference to these objections, is, that they are 
 almost always dishonestly urged; that is, 
 they are urged with an inward conviction of 
 their fallacy. As in many cases we know 
 things to be true, which we cannot prove, so 
 we often know objections to be fallacious 
 which we cannot answer. If a man denies 
 his own existence, or the distinction between 
 right and wrong, it is in vain to argue with 
 him. There can be nothing plainer than the 
 truth denied, and therefore there can be no 
 means of proving it. So also, if, to escape 
 the charge of guilt, he denies his responsibili- 
 ty, he denies a fact of consciousness, which 
 cannot possibly be made plainer. Or if he 
 plead his inability as an excuse for not re- 
 penting and obeying God, he presents a plea 
 which he knows has no validity. He knows 
 that however real this inability may be, it is 
 of such a nature as to afford no excuse for his 
 continuing in sin, because the conviction of 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 117 
 
 its reality co-exists, in his own consciousness, 
 with a sense of guilt. It is a plea therefore 
 that dees not avail at the bar of his own con- 
 science, and he knows that it will not avail 
 at the bar of God. In like manner, when 
 men object to the strictness of the divine law, 
 they do so with the inward persuasion of the 
 righteousness of that law. Its requirements 
 commend themselves to their conscience. 
 They know that as God is infinitely wise and 
 good, it is right that we should regard him 
 with supreme affection, and implicitly sub- 
 mit to all his directions. 
 
 All such cavilling objections, men know to 
 be false. God has not left himself without a 
 witness. His voice has an authority which 
 we cannot resist. When he tells us we are 
 sinners, we know it to be true. When he 
 tells us that we are worthy of death, we know 
 it to be a righteous judgment. When he 
 tells us that we have no strength to save our- 
 selves, and that our salvation depends upon 
 his will, we know it to be even so. When- 
 ever he reveals himself, our mouths are shut, 
 not from fear merely, but from an intimate 
 persuasion of the justice of all his ways. It 
 is, then, both foolish and wicked to urge ob- 
 jections against the truth, which we ourselves 
 
118 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE 
 
 know to be futile, whether this be done with 
 a view to perplex our fellow-men, or in the 
 vain endeavour to silence the accusations of 
 conscience and the word of God. 
 
 Such is the power of truth that neither the 
 natural insensibility of the heart, nor the 
 want of consideration, nor the direct efforts 
 which men make to suppress serious thoughts, 
 nor the whole array of sophistical objections, 
 can avail to counteract the secret conviction 
 in the breast of the impenitent, that they are 
 in the road to eternal death. This convic- 
 tion is often very weak. When men are en- 
 grossed in the concerns of this world, it is 
 overlooked. Still it is there; and it is ever 
 and anon waking up to trouble them. Nor 
 can the suggestion, that God is merciful and, 
 peradventure, will not be strict to mark ini- 
 quity, quiet this uneasy apprehension. This 
 suggestion, therefore, avails but little. It is 
 counteracted by the sense of ill-desert, by the 
 irrepressible conviction that those who com- 
 mit sin are worthy of death ; by the plain de- 
 clarations of Scripture, and by the evidence 
 which even providence affords, that God is 
 righteous. The vague apprehension of com- 
 ing wrath, therefore, in despite of all their 
 efforts, still haunts the path of the impeni- 
 
TO THE CHARGE OF SIN. 119 
 
 tent. It chills their joys and gathers strength 
 whenever the world seems to be receding 
 from their grasp. 
 
 Most men are driven to enter the plea of 
 guilty before the bar of conscience, and con- 
 tent themselves with praying for a delay of 
 judgment. They are forced to admit that 
 they are not fit to die in their present state ; 
 that they are bound to comply with the re- 
 quirements of the gospel, but they plead for 
 time. Go thy way for this time; when I 
 have a more convenient season I will call for 
 thee. Conscience is more easily deluded by 
 this plea, which seems to admit its demands, 
 than by any other. It is, therefore, the most 
 dangerous snare for souls. Men do not re- 
 flect on the wickedness of pleading with God 
 for liberty to continue, a little longer in sin ; 
 to be allowed to break his commandments, to 
 disregard his mercies, to slight his love, and 
 to injure the cause of truth and righteous- 
 ness. They do not think of the indignation 
 with which they would reject such a plea 
 from an ungrateful and disobedient son or 
 servant. Nor do they remember that every 
 such act of procrastination is a great aggrava- 
 tion of their guilt, as it supposes a conscious- 
 ness of the evil of their present course and a 
 
120 CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE, &C. 
 
 recognition of the righteousness of all the de- 
 mands of God. Nor do they consider that 
 the difficulties which beset the path of their 
 return to God are all increased by delay. If 
 the work of repentance be irksome to-day, it 
 will be more irksome to morrow. If the 
 heart be now hard, it will become yet harder 
 by neglect. If the power of sin be now too 
 strong for us to resist, it will become still 
 stronger by indulgence. If the motives to 
 repentance now fail to secure obedience, they 
 will act with constantly increasing disadvan- 
 tage hereafter. If God be justly displeased 
 now, he will be more and more displeased by 
 continued disobedience. Every day's pro- 
 crastination therefore increases, at a fearful 
 rate, the probability of our final perdition. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 Section I. Knowledge of sin. Sense of 
 personal ill-desert. 
 
 Though men are generally so indifferent 
 to their sinfulness and danger, it often pleases 
 God to arouse their attention, and to produce 
 a deep conviction of the truth of all that the 
 Bible teaches on these subjects. The effects 
 of such conviction are very various, because 
 they are modified by the temperament, the 
 knowledge, the circumstances and concomi- 
 tant exercises of those who experience it. A 
 sentence of death, if passed upon a hundred 
 men, would probably affect no two of them 
 alike. The mind of one might fasten parti- 
 cularly on the turpitude of his crime ; that of 
 another upon the disgrace which he had in- 
 curred ; that of a third on the sufferings of his 
 friends on his account ; that of a fourth upon 
 the horrors of death, or upon the fearfulness 
 of appearing before God. All these and 
 11 
 
122 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 many other views, in endless combination, 
 might operate with different degrees of force 
 on each, and the result be still farther modi- 
 fied by their physical and moral tempera- 
 ment, their knowledge and previous history. 
 The endless diversity, therefore, in the expe- 
 rience of men when convinced of sin, is what 
 might be expected ; and shows it to be impos- 
 sible to give any description of such expe- 
 rience that shall be applicable to all cases. 
 It will be sufficient briefly to state, what the 
 Scriptures teach to be necessary on this sub- 
 ject. 
 
 There must be some correct knowledge of 
 sin. It is clearly the doctrine of the Scrip- 
 tures, confirmed by universal experience, that 
 men are naturally exceedingly blind on this 
 subject. They have very inadequate ideas of 
 the nature of this evil. Being ignorant of 
 the holiness of God, they do not regard the 
 opposition of sin to his nature so much as its 
 effects upon themselves, or upon society. 
 They judge of it by a wrong standard, and 
 hence all their judgments respecting it are 
 either erroneous or defective. Its real na- 
 ture, or the real source of its evil in a great 
 measure escapes their notice. Hence a thou- 
 sand things which are unquestionably sinful, 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 123 
 
 they in general overlook or disregard. It is 
 not so much the state of the heart towards 
 • God, as the temper and deportment of one 
 man towards his fellow-men, that they con- 
 sider. And therefore they often regard them- 
 selves and others as really good, though they 
 may be destitute of any one right sentiment 
 towards their maker. Being ignorant of the 
 true nature of sin, they have no conception of 
 the number of their transgressions. They 
 are disposed to estimate them by the number 
 of positive or overt acts of disobedience to the 
 moral law ; overlooking the habitual state of 
 the heart, the uniform want of love, faith, and 
 due reverence towards God. Nor have they 
 any adequate idea of the guilt of sin. It is to 
 them, as it exists in themselves, comparative- 
 ly a trifle. Any great concern about it, they 
 consider unreasonable ; and when manifested 
 by others, hypocritical or fanatical. There is 
 a deceitfulness in sin by which men are de- 
 luded so as to form wrong judgments as to its 
 nature, its extent, its turpitude and power. 
 This delusion must be dispelled. The eyes 
 must be opened to see sin as it is represented 
 in the w^ord of God, as an exceedingly evil 
 and bitter thing, as extending not merely to 
 overt acts or out-breaks of passion, but as 
 
124 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 deeply seated in the heart, polluting at the 
 fountain the streams of life ; as really deserv- 
 ing the punishment which God has denounced 
 against it ; and as having such hold upon the 
 inward principles of our nature, that its pow- 
 er cannot be broken by any ordinary exertion. 
 This insight into the Scriptural account of 
 sin is attended with a firm conviction of its 
 truth ; and this conviction is inseparable from 
 the kind of knowledge of which we are now 
 speaking ; because it is in fact nothing but an 
 insight into the nature of the Scriptural doc- 
 trine as true, or as accordant with the moral 
 nature which God has given us. Men there- 
 fore are not thus convinced either by argu- 
 ment or authority. They see and feel what 
 God has declared concerning the nature and 
 evil of sin to be true. Hence the conviction 
 is irresistible even when most unwelcome. 
 We often see it taking sudden and powerful 
 possession of the soul, when conscience is 
 roused from its torpor and assents to the de- 
 clarations of God, with a force not to be re- 
 sisted. When Paul reasoned of righteous- 
 ness, temperance and judgment to come, 
 Felix trembled. The truth, externally pre- 
 sented, found such a response in the bosom 
 of the Roman governor, that he could not dis- 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 125 
 
 believe. This is in accordance with daily- 
 experience. The cavils of men against the 
 unreasonable strictness of the divine law and 
 their objections against the justice of its awful 
 penalty vanish, in a moment, when their eyes 
 are open to see what the law and its violation 
 really are. And so long as the perception 
 lasts, the conviction remains. If they can 
 succeed in shutting out the light, and in 
 quieting conscience roused by its intrusion, 
 they become as skeptical as ever on all these 
 subjects. In many cases they succeed in 
 closing their eyes on what they hate to see ; 
 and regain their former unbelief But often 
 this is found to be impossible, especially on 
 the near approach of death, or w^hen God is 
 about to pluck them as brands from the burn- 
 ing. Probably a day does not pass without 
 some illustration of the truth of these re- 
 marks. Men who have long lived in unbe- 
 lief or carelessness are arrested by an influ- 
 ence which they can neither understand nor 
 resist. There is no new revelation, no novel 
 arguments, no conscious process of reasoning. 
 There is simply a perception of the truth 
 of the declarations of God concerning sin. 
 Against the conviction thence arising, their 
 old cavils, the arguments and assurances of 
 11^- 
 
126 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 their friends have no effect. They do not 
 reach the point. They are addressed to 
 something quite foreign to the ground of the 
 conviction, and therefore do not affect it. 
 Though this persuasion of the truth of the 
 Scriptural doctrine respecting sin, is often 
 temporary, it forms an essential part of those 
 convictions which are abiding and saving. 
 Men may have this persuasion who never ac- 
 cept the offers of salvation, but those who do 
 accept them cannot be entirely without it. 
 
 This knowledge of sin, which enters so es- 
 sentially into the nature of true conviction, is 
 derived from the law, for by the law is the 
 knowledge of sin. I had not known sin, said 
 the apostle, but by the law. For without the 
 law, sin was dead. I was alive without the 
 law once ; but when the commandment came 
 sin revived and I died. It is clearly taught 
 in these and similar passages, that the apostle 
 was at one time ignorant of the extent and 
 spirituality of the law, and consequently igno- 
 rant of sin. He thought himself to be as 
 good as could be reasonably expected. He 
 was contented and at ease. But when the 
 law was revealed to him in its true character, 
 his views of sin were at once changed. He 
 came to know what it was, and to feel its 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 127 
 
 power over himself. A thousand things 
 v^hich before had appeared indifferent or tri- 
 vial, he now saw to be aggravated offences ; 
 and especially the secret, deep-seated evil of 
 his heart, which had escaped his knowledge 
 or regard, was detected as the great source of 
 all other sin. 
 
 The law is the means of communicating 
 this knowledge, because it is an expression of 
 the perfect holiness of God. So long as men 
 judge themselves by themselves, and compare 
 themselves among themselves, they will be in 
 the dark as to their true character. It is not 
 until they judge themselves by the perfect 
 standard of duty contained in the law of God, 
 that they can have any proper knowledge of 
 their real character. It is in his light that 
 we see light. It is only when we look away 
 from the sinful beings by whom we are sur- 
 rounded, and feel ourselves in the presence of 
 the perfect purity of God, that we are sensi- 
 ble of the extent of our departure from the 
 standard of excellence. It is therefore both 
 the doctrine of the Bible and the experience 
 of the people of God, that the knowledge of 
 sin arises from the apprehension of the divine 
 excellence as revealed in the law. 
 
 There is no doubt great diversity in the 
 
128 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 experience of Chrstians as to the clearness of 
 their views on this subject. In some cases 
 every thing is seen as through a glass, darkly ; 
 in others there is such a discovery of the infi- 
 nite excellence of God and of his law, as to 
 fill the mind with the greatest reverence and 
 self-abasement. Sometimes this knowledge 
 steals upon the mind as imperceptibly as the 
 opening day; at others, in a moment, the 
 truth stands disclosed in all its awful purity. 
 The man who one hour was unconcerned, 
 the next is full of astonishment at his former 
 blindness. He wonders how it was possible 
 he could be so ignorant of the excellence of 
 God and the perfection of his law. He is 
 amazed at his infatuation in thinking that he 
 was to be judged by the common standard of 
 man's judgment, by the low demands of the 
 world or of his associates. He now sees that 
 the rule by which he is to be tried is infinite- 
 ly pure, and cannot overlook the least trans- 
 gression. We are no where taught what de- 
 gree of clearness of this knowledge is neces- 
 sary to salvation. We only know that men 
 must have such a knowledge of sin as to 
 bring their judgments respecting it into ac- 
 cordance with the declarations of God ; that 
 instead of that perpetual opposition to the 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 129 
 
 doctrine of the Scriptures respecting the evil 
 and extent of sin, which men so generally 
 evince, they must be brought to acquiesce in 
 the truth and justice of all God's representa- 
 tions on the subject. 
 
 Besides this knowledge of sin and assent to 
 the Scriptural doctrine on the subject, there 
 is, in genuine conviction, a sense of personal 
 unworthiness. This perhaps has been in a 
 measure anticipated, but it deserves particu- 
 lar consideration. Holy beings may have a 
 clear perception of the truth as presented in 
 the word of God respecting the nature of sin, 
 but they can have no sense of moral turpi- 
 tude. And among men there is often a clear 
 understanding of the doctrine on this subject, 
 and a general assent to its truth, without any 
 adequate conviction that what the Bible says 
 of sinners is applicable to us. It is not 
 enough therefore that we should know and 
 believe what the Scriptures teach respecting 
 sin, we must feel that it is all true as it re- 
 gards ourselves. There must be an assent of 
 our own consciousness to the declaration that 
 the heart is deceitful above all things and 
 desperately wicked ; that in us, that is, in our 
 flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. This 
 sense of personal unworthiness is the princi- 
 
130 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 pal part of conviction of sin. It is the oppo- 
 site of that false notion of our own excellence, 
 which we are so prone to indulge. It destroys 
 our self-complacency and eradicates the dis- 
 position to justify ourselves, or extenuate our 
 guilt. 
 
 The most certain concomitant of this sense 
 of moral turpitude in the sight of God, is 
 shame. my God, cried Ezra under a sense 
 of sin, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my 
 face to thee my God, for our iniquities are 
 increased over our head, and our trespass is 
 grown up unto the heavens. And Daniel 
 said : Lord, righteousness belongeth unto 
 thee, but unto us confusion of face as at this 
 day. I have heard of thee, said Job, with the 
 hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth 
 thee, and I abhor myself and repent in dust 
 and ashes. And in another place he says: 
 Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee ? 
 I will lay my hand upon my mouth. The 
 same feeling is expressed by the Psalmist, 
 when he says. Mine iniquities have taken 
 hold upon me, so that I cannot look up ; they 
 are more than the hairs of my head, there- 
 fore, my heart faileth me. The same emo- 
 tion filled the bosom of the Publican, when 
 he would not so much as lift up his eyes to 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 131 
 
 heaven, but smote iipon his breast and said, 
 God be merciful to me a sinner. 
 
 With this sense of unworthiness are min- 
 gled, in a greater or less degree, the feelings 
 of contrition and remorse; sorrow for our in- 
 numerable offences, and bitter self-condemna- 
 tion. To these are often added perplexity 
 and fear of the wrath of God ; a dread lest 
 our sins never can be forgiven, lest our defile- 
 ment never can be washed away. No suffer- 
 ing in this world can exceed what the soul 
 often endures under the pressure of these feel- 
 ings. It cries out with Paul, O wretched 
 man that I am, who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death? Or it is forced to say 
 with Job, The arrows of the Almighty are 
 within me, the poison whereof drinketh up 
 my spirits; and the terrors of God do set 
 themselves in array against me. Or with 
 David, While I suffer thy terrors I am dis- 
 tracted ; thy fierce wrath goeth over me ; thy 
 terrors have cut me off. 
 
 With the inspired record of the experience 
 of God's people on this subject, we find the 
 language of his more eminent servants in 
 later times remarkably coincident. The con- 
 fessions of Augustin are full of similar expres- 
 sions of humiliation and anguish under a 
 
132 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 sense of sin. And even the stout heart of 
 Luther was so broken by his inward suffer- 
 ings, that his life was long a burden almost 
 too heavy for him to bear. But while it is 
 no doubt true that it is the natural tendency 
 of correct apprehensions of our real character 
 in the sight of God to produce these strong 
 emotions of humiliation and sorrow; and 
 while it is no less true that those who have 
 made the most eminent attainments in holi- 
 ness, have generally had the largest share of 
 these inward trials, it is not to be supposed 
 that they are necessary to the character of a 
 Christian. On the contrary, a believing ap- 
 prehension of the mercy of God in Jesus 
 Christ, while it would not prevent humilia- 
 tion and penitential sorrow on account of sin, 
 would effectually extract the bitterness of re- 
 morse and fear from the cup of repentance. 
 There is no true religion in these terrors and 
 fearful apprehensions. The death-bed of the 
 impenitent often exhibits this sense of guilt, 
 humiliation, remorse, dread of punishment 
 and other indications of an enlightened and 
 awakened conscience. And in many cases 
 those who have suffered all this distress, lose 
 their serious impressions and sink into their 
 former carelessness. Though; therefore, the 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 133 
 
 pain of remorse and dread of the wrath of 
 God often attend conviction of sin, they do 
 not constitute it. In many cases there is lit- 
 tle of this agitation of feeling. Perhaps the 
 most frequent form of religious experience on 
 this subject is a deep distress on account of 
 the want of an excitement of feeling corres- 
 ponding with the judgment of the under- 
 standing and conscience. The common com- 
 plaint with many is, that they cannot feel ; 
 that their hearts are like ice ; that the know- 
 ledge and perception of their ingratitude and 
 disobedience produce little or no emotion. 
 Such persons would gladly exchange their 
 insensibility for the keenest anguish; their 
 constant prayer is that God would take from 
 them their heart of stone, and give them a 
 heart of flesh. This form of experience is 
 just as consistent with the nature of convic- 
 tion of sin as the other. All that is necessary 
 is the testimony of conscience to the justice 
 of the divine representations of our character 
 and conduct ; the consciousness and acknow- 
 ledgment that we are what God declares us 
 to be. Where this judgment of the con- 
 science, or this sense of personal unworthi- 
 ness exists, leading the sinner to lay his hand 
 upon his mouth in the presence of God, and 
 12 
 
134 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 to bow at his feet as undeserving of mercy, 
 there, as far as this point is concerned, is 
 genuine conviction. 
 
 This state of mind may be produced in 
 very different ways. Sometimes it is the re- 
 sult of a calm review of life and a comparison 
 of the habitual state of the heart and general 
 course of our conduct with the law of God. 
 Sometimes, some one offence more than com- 
 monly aggravated, seizes upon the conscience ; 
 some broken vow, some neglected call, some 
 open sin, is made the means of revealing the 
 man to himself. Whatever may be the par- 
 ticular occasion, the mind is led to fix itself 
 on its responsibility to God, and the convic- 
 tion of its guilt becomes settled and confirm- 
 ed. This is necessary to the sinner's return 
 to God. So long as he thinks himself whole, 
 he will not apply to the physician. So long 
 as he regards his sins as either few or trivial, 
 he will feel no concern for pardon or sanctifi- 
 cation. But when his eyes are opened and 
 his conscience aroused, he feels that his case 
 demands immediate and earnest attention; he 
 knows himself to be unprepared to meet his 
 God, that his sins are so great that they can- 
 not be forgiven, unless he obtains an interest 
 in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 135 
 
 Every true Christian is in some way brought 
 to this conviction and acknov^ledgment of 
 personal ill-desert in the sight of God. 
 
 In the third place, conviction of sin in- 
 cludes a conviction of our condemnation be- 
 fore God. A sense of sin is a sense of unwor- 
 thiness, and a sense of unvrorthiness involves 
 a sense of just exposure to the divine displea- 
 sure. It may be proper to notice three very 
 distinct states of mind in reference to this 
 subject. It is very obvious that our views of 
 the punishment due to sin, must depend upon 
 our views of sin itself. If we have inade- 
 quate apprehensions of the evil of sin, we 
 shall have inadequate apprehensions of the 
 punishment which it deserves. Hence in the 
 great majority of men there is a secret disbe- 
 lief of the Scriptural representations on this 
 subject. They cannot reconcile the declara- 
 tions of God respecting the doom of the im- 
 penitent with their views of his justice and 
 mercy, and, therefore, they cannot believe 
 them. And it very often happens that the 
 sense of sin which serious people experience 
 is insufficient to overcome this unbelief, or at 
 least, the strong opposition of the heart to 
 what the Bible teaches on this subject. 
 They feel that they are sinners, they feel 
 
136 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 that they deserve the displeasure of God, but 
 they still experience a secret revolting against 
 the dreadful denunciations of the Scriptures 
 against all sin. '' To submit to the condemn- 
 ing power of the holy law of God," says Dr. 
 Milner, '' is a hard matter, a very hard matter 
 indeed to do this thoroughly. My under- 
 standing has shown me, for many years, that 
 this was the touchstone of a sound conver- 
 sion ; and I have been busy enough in noting 
 the defect of it in others ; but as to myself, if 
 I have got on at all in this respect, it is very 
 lately indeed. The heart is sadly deceitful 
 here ; for, with Christ's salvation before one's 
 eye, one may easily fancy that God is just 
 and equitable in condemning sinners ; when 
 if you put the case, only for a moment, to 
 your own heart seriously, as a thing likely to 
 happen, the heart will rise against such a dis- 
 pensation ; perhaps indeed with a smothered 
 sort of opposition and dislike, but which is 
 very steady and determined. Nothing less 
 than the Holy Ghost himself can cure this, 
 by showing us the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Christ."^ That the soul should re- 
 volt at the idea of its own misery, is the law 
 of our nature, and never can be eradicated. 
 
 * Wilberforce's Correspondence. 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 137 
 
 This is not the sentiment which it is intend- 
 ed to condemn, but the opposition of the 
 heart to the truth and justice of God's decla- 
 rations respecting the punishment due to sin. 
 It is this opposition, this disposition to crimi- 
 nate God, to regard him as unjustly severe, 
 which ought to be subdued ; because it shows 
 that our hearts are not in harmony with his 
 word ; that we regard as unjust what he pro- 
 nounces just. All experience shows that this 
 is a very common state of mind. And its ex- 
 istence proves that our views of the ill-desert 
 of sin have not been sufficiently clear to bring 
 us to submit to the plan which God has re- 
 vealed for our redemption from deserved con- 
 demnation. 
 
 The opposite extreme to this is the feeling 
 that our sins are so great that they cannot be 
 forgiven. This is no uncommon persuasion. 
 When there is a clear discovery of the evil of 
 sin, with no concomitant apprehension of the 
 true plan of salvation, despair is the natural 
 result. The judgment of conscience is known 
 to be true when it pronounces our sins to be 
 deserving of death. And unless the soul sees 
 how God can be just and yet justify the sin- 
 ner, it cannot hope for mercy. Nothing can 
 be more pitiable than a soul in this condition. 
 12^ 
 
138 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 Its views of the justice of God and of the evil 
 of sin, are neither false nor exaggerated. It 
 is their truth which gives them power, and 
 which renders futile the soothing assurances 
 of friends that God will not be so strict in 
 marking iniquity, or that the sinner's guilt is 
 not so great as he imagines. An enlightened 
 conscience cannot be thus appeased, and if 
 such be the only sources of consolation to 
 which it has access, it must despair. 
 
 In a Christian country, however, the know^- 
 ledge of the plan of salvation is so generally 
 diffused, that it seldom fails, even when im- 
 perfectly understood, to calm or restrain the 
 apprehensions of God's displeasure. It is 
 known that God can pardon sin, that there is 
 salvation at least for some, for some have been 
 saved. And although the sinner is often dis- 
 posed to think that his is an excepted case, 
 or that there is some peculiar aggravation in 
 his guilt, which puts him beyond the reach 
 of mercy, yet he cannot be sure that this is 
 the case. And in his darkest hours the belief 
 in the possibility of salvation is not entirely 
 destroyed. 
 
 Between these extremes of inimical opposi- 
 tion to the truth of God as to the just expo- 
 sure of the sinner to condemnation and the 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 139 
 
 despair of mercy which arises from unbelief, 
 lies genuine conviction of ill-desert. If reli- 
 gious experience is the conformity of our 
 judgments and feelings to the truths that are 
 revealed in the Scriptures, and if it is there 
 revealed that the wages of sin is death, our 
 judgment and feeling must assent to that 
 truth; we must admit that such is the just 
 desert of sin and of our sins. There must be 
 no disposition to complain of the extent or 
 severity of the law ; but such a sense of ill- 
 desert in the sight of God as shall lead us to 
 lie at his feet, sensible that he can neither do 
 nor threaten wrong, and that forgiveness must 
 be a matter entirely of grace. It is obvious 
 that there can be no intelligent acceptance of 
 Christ as a Saviour, without this conviction 
 of our exposure to condemnation, and there 
 can be no conviction of such exposure, with- 
 out a perception of the justice of the penalty 
 of the law. It is, however, to be remembered 
 that there are many things involved in Chris- 
 tian experience, which may not be the object 
 of distinct attention. It may, therefore, well 
 happen that many pass from death unto life, 
 without any lively apprehension of the wrath 
 of God, or any very distinct impression 
 that all that he has threatened against sin 
 
140 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 might be justly inflicted upon them. Their 
 attention may have been arrested and their 
 hearts moved by the exhibition of the love 
 of God in Christ, and they may have been 
 conscious, at the time, of little more than a 
 cordial acquiescence in the gospel, and the 
 desire and purpose to live for the service of 
 God. Still, even in such persons, as soon as 
 their attention is directed to the subject, there 
 is a full recognition of ill-desert, a readiness 
 to acknowledge that salvation is a matter of 
 grace, and that they would have no right to 
 complain had they been left to perish in their 
 sins. Diversified, therefore, as may be the 
 experience of God's people on this subject, 
 they agree in acknowledging the justice of 
 God in his demands and his threatenings, and 
 in regarding themselves as unworthy of the 
 least of all his favours. 
 
 Section II. Insufficiency of our own righte- 
 ousness and of our own strength. 
 
 Another essential characteristic of genuine 
 conviction is the persuasion that our own 
 good works are entirely insufficient to recom- 
 mend us to God, or to be the ground of our 
 acceptance before him. Since the Scriptures 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 141 
 
 declare that we are justified freely, not by 
 works, lest any man should boast, but by faith 
 in Jesus Christ, our experience must accord 
 with this declaration. We must have such 
 views of the holiness of God, of the extent of 
 his law and of our own un worthiness as shall 
 make us fully sensible that we cannot, by our 
 own works, secure either pardon or accept- 
 ance. It is easy to profess that we do not 
 trust to our own righteousness, but really to 
 divest ourselves of all reliance upon our sup- 
 posed excellence, is a diificult task. When a 
 man is roused to a sense of his guilt and dan- 
 ger, his first impulse is almost always to fly 
 to any other refuge than that provided in the 
 gospel. The most natural method of appeas- 
 ing conscience is the promise of reformation. 
 Particular sins are therefore forsaken, and a 
 struggle, it may be, is maintained against all 
 others. This conflict is often long and pain- 
 ful, but it is always unsuccessful. It is soon 
 found that sin, in one form or other, is con- 
 stantly getting the mastery, and the soul feels 
 that something more must be done if it is 
 ever to make itself fit for heaven. It is, 
 therefore, ready to do, or to submit to any 
 thing which appears necessary for this pur- 
 pose. What particular form of works it may 
 
142 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 be which it endeavours to weave into a robe 
 of righteousness, depends on the degree of 
 knowledge which it possesses, or the kind of 
 religious instruction which it receives. When 
 greatly ignorant of the gospel, it endeavours, 
 by painful penances, self-imposed, or pre- 
 scribed by priestly authority, to make satis- 
 faction for its sins. Experience teaches that 
 there is no extremity of self-denial to which 
 a conscience-stricken man will not gladly 
 submit as a means of satisfying the demands 
 of God. If heaven were really to be gained 
 by such means, we should see the road crowd- 
 ed by the young and old, the rich and poor, 
 the learned and ignorant, in multitudes as 
 countless as those which throng the cruel 
 temples of the Hindoos, or which perish on 
 the burning sands of Arabia. This is the 
 easiest, the pleasantest, the most congenial of 
 all the methods of salvation, taught by the 
 cunning craftiness of men. It is no wonder 
 that those who teach it as the doctrine of the 
 gospel, should find submissive hearers. If 
 men can be allowed to purchase heaven, or 
 make atonement for past transgressions, by 
 present suffering, they will gladly undertake 
 it. This is so congenial to the human heart, 
 that men who are well informed, and who 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 143 
 
 pride themselves on their independence of 
 mind, are scarcely less apt to be caught in 
 the meshes of this net, than their more igno- 
 rant brethren. We see, therefore, statesmen 
 and philosophers, as well as peasants, wear- 
 ing sackcloth, or walking barefoot, at the 
 bidding of their religious teachers. 
 
 In Protestant countries, where the Bible is 
 generally accessible, it is rare to see any such 
 gross exhibitions of the spirit of self-righte- 
 ousness. The Scriptures so clearly teach the 
 method of salvation, that almost every one 
 knows that at least mere external works of 
 morality or discipline cannot avail to our jus- 
 tification before God. We must have a finer 
 robe, a robe composed of duties of a higher 
 value. Prayers are multiplied, the house of 
 God is frequented, the whole routine of reli- 
 gious duties is assiduously attended to, under 
 the impression that thus we shall satisfy the 
 demands of God and secure his favour. Mul- 
 titudes are contented with this routine. Their 
 apprehensions of the character and require- 
 ments of God, of the evil of sin, and of their 
 own ill-desert are so low, that this remedy is 
 adequate for all the wounds their consciences 
 feel. The performance of their social and 
 religious duties seems sufficient, in their 
 
144 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 view, to entitle them to the character of reli- 
 gious men ; and they are satisfied. Thus it 
 was with Paul, who considered himself, as 
 touching the righteousness which is of the 
 law, blameless. But all his strictness of mo- 
 ral duty and religious observance, was disco- 
 vered to be worthless, so far as satisfying the 
 demands of God is concerned. And every 
 man, who is brought to accept the offer of 
 salvation as presented in the gospel, is made 
 to feel that it is not for any thing which he 
 either does or abstains from doing, that his 
 sins are pardoned and his person accepted 
 before God. Nay, he sees that what men 
 call their good works are so impure, as to be 
 themselves a ground of condemnation. What 
 are cold, wandering, selfish, irreverent pray- 
 ers, but offences against God, whom we pre- 
 tend to propitiate, by services which are but 
 a mockery of his holiness ? And what is any 
 routine of heartless observances, or if not 
 heartless, at least so imperfect as to fail of se- 
 curing even our own approbation, in the eyes 
 of him before whom the heavens are unclean ? 
 What approach can such services make either 
 towards satisfying the present demands of 
 God, or atoning for years of neglect and sin ? 
 It requires but little insight into the state of 
 
CONVICTION OT SIN. 145 
 
 his own heart, or the real character of the 
 divine law, to convince the sinner that he 
 must have a better righteousness than that 
 which consists of his own duties or ob- 
 servances. 
 
 From this foundation of sand the con- 
 vinced sinner is, therefore, soon driven, but 
 he betakes himself to another refuge nearer 
 the cross, as he supposes, and which seems 
 to require more self-renunciation. He ceases 
 to think of establishing his own righteous- 
 ness, but he still wishes to be made worthy to 
 receive the righteousness of God. He knows 
 that he can never cancel his debt of guilt, 
 that his best services are unworthy of accep- 
 tance, that with all his circumspection he 
 never lives a day in full compliance with the 
 just demands of the law, and consequently 
 that his salvation must be of grace, but he 
 still thinks he must in some way merit that 
 grace, or at least, be prepared by some ob- 
 servance or some experience for its reception. 
 The distressed soul imagines that if it could 
 be more distressed, more humbled, more 
 touched with sorrow or remorse, it might 
 then find acceptance. It sees that its long 
 course of disobedience and ingratitude, its 
 rejection of Christ, its disregard of mercies 
 13 
 
146 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 and warnings, its thousand sins of commis- 
 sion and omission, if forgiven at all, must be 
 gratuitously pardoned, but this hardness of 
 heart, this want of due tenderness and peni- 
 tence, is a sin which must first be got out of 
 the way, before the others can be remitted. 
 It is, however, only one of the long, black 
 catalogue. It can no more be separately con- 
 quered or atoned for, before coming to Christ, 
 than any other sin of heart or life. It is often 
 long before the soul is brought to see this, or 
 to feel that it is really endeavouring to make 
 itself better before applying to the physician ; 
 to accomplish at least some preparatory part 
 of salvation for itself, so as not to be entirely 
 indebted to the Redeemer. At last, however, 
 the soul discovers its mistake; it finds that 
 Christ does not save sinners for their tender- 
 ness or conviction, that tears are not more 
 worthy of acceptance, than fasting, or alms- 
 giving ; that it is the unworthy, the hard- 
 hearted, the ungodly, those who have nothing 
 to recommend them, that Christ came to save, 
 and whom he accepts in order to render them 
 contrite and tender-hearted and obedient. 
 These graces are his gifts, and if we stay 
 away from him until we get them ourselves, 
 we must perish in our sins. To this entire 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 147 
 
 self-renunciation, this absolute rejection of 
 every thing in itself as the ground, or reason 
 of its acceptance, must the soul be brought 
 before it embraces the offers of the gospel. 
 
 It is included in what has been said that 
 a consciousness of our own weakness is a 
 necessary ingredient, or consequence of true 
 conviction. There is not only a giving up 
 of our own righteousness, but of our own 
 strength. All that is necessary here as on 
 other points, is that we should feel what is 
 true. If it is the doctrine of the Bible that 
 the sinner can change his own heart, sub- 
 due his sins, excite all right affections, then 
 genuine religious experience requires that 
 this truth should be known, not merely as a 
 matter of speculation, but as a matter of con- 
 sciousness. But if the Scriptures teach that 
 this change of heart is the work of the Holy 
 Spirit; that we are born not of the will of 
 man but of God; that it is the exceeding 
 greatness of the divine power that operates 
 in them that believe, quickening those who 
 were dead in trespasses and sins, creating 
 them anew in Christ Jesus, so that they are 
 his workmanship, created unto good works ; 
 if from one end of the Scriptures to the other, 
 the internal work of salvation is declared to 
 
148 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 be not by the might, or power of man, but 
 by the Spirit of the Lord, then is this one of 
 the great truths of revelation of which we 
 must be convinced. Our experience must 
 accord with this representation, and we must 
 feel that to be true in our case, which God 
 declares to be true universally. 
 
 When a man is brought to feel that he is a 
 sinner, that his heart is far from being right 
 in the sight of God, he as naturally turns to 
 his own strength to effect a change, and to 
 bring himself up to the standard of the law, 
 as he turns to his own works as a compen- 
 sation for his sins, or as a ground of confi- 
 dence towards God. His efforts, therefore, 
 are directed to subdue the power of sin, and 
 to excite religious feelings in his heart. He 
 endeavours to mortify pride, to subdue the 
 influence of the body, to wean himself from 
 the world. He gives up his sinful, or world- 
 ly associates; he strengthens his purposes 
 against evil ; he forces himself to discharge 
 the most ungrateful duties, and exercises 
 himself in self-denial. At the same time he 
 tries to force himself into a right state of 
 mind, to make himself believe, repent, love 
 and exercise all the Christian graces of meek- 
 ness, humility, brotherly kindness and cha- 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 149 
 
 rity ; that is, he tries to make himself reli- 
 gious. He does every thing in his ov^n 
 strength and to save himself. Sometimes 
 this course is pursued to the end of life. At 
 others, it is continued for years, and then 
 found to be all in vain. Wesley tells us this 
 wa.s the kind of religion which he had, until 
 his visit to America and his intercourse vs^ith 
 the Moravians. This is the religion of as- 
 cetics, w^hich may be persevered in, through 
 stress of conscience, or fear of perdition, v^^ith 
 great strictness and constancy. Almost every 
 man makes trial of it. He v^ill be his ov^n 
 saviour, if he can. It is found, hovrever, by 
 those w^ho are taught of God, to be a hopeless 
 task. The subtle evil of the heart is not to 
 be subdued by any such efforts. If we force 
 ourselves to forego the pleasures of sin, v^e 
 cannot destroy the desire of forbidden joys. 
 If we refuse to gratify pride, we cannot pre- 
 vent its aspirations. If we relinquish the 
 pursuit of worldly things, we still retain the 
 love of the world. If we force ourselves to 
 perform religious duties, we cannot make 
 those duties a delight. If we compel our- 
 selves to think of God, we cannot force our- 
 selves to love him, to desire communion with 
 him, to take pleasure in his service, and to 
 13^ 
 
150 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 delight in all his requirements. No one can 
 tell the misery arising from these painful and 
 ineffectual struggles ; these vain attempts to 
 subdue sin and excite the Christian graces. 
 If any thing could be taken as a substitute 
 for them ; if making many prayers, or sub- 
 mitting to any suffering, could be taken as 
 an equivalent, it would be gladly acceded to. 
 But to change the heart, to delight in God, 
 to be really spiritual and holy, is a work the 
 sinner finds to be above his strength and yet 
 absolutely necessary. Repeated failures do 
 not destroy his delusion ; he still thinks that 
 this is his work and that he must do it, or be 
 lost. He, therefore, struggles on, he collects 
 all his strength, and at length suddenly dis- 
 covers it to be perfect weakness. He finds 
 that if he is ever renewed and made holy, it 
 must be the work of God, and he cries in the 
 depth of his distress. Lord save me, or I 
 perish. He gives up working in his own 
 strength and sees, what he wonders he never 
 saw before, that the Christian virtues are 
 really graces, i. e. gifts; that they are not 
 excellencies to be wrought out by ourselves ; 
 but favours bestowed through Christ and for 
 Christ's sake ; that it is the Holy Spirit pur- 
 chased and sent by Him that is to change 
 
CONVICTION OF SIN. 151 
 
 the heart and convince of sin, righteousness 
 and judgment; that faith, repentance, joj, 
 peace, humility and meekness are the fruits 
 of that Spirit, and not the products of our 
 own evil hearts ; that if v^e could make our- 
 selves holy, v^e should scarcely need a Sa- 
 viour ; and that it is the greatest of all delu- 
 sions to suppose that we must be holy before 
 we come to God through Christ, instead of 
 holiness being the result of our reconcilia- 
 tion. While we are under the law, we bring 
 forth fruit unto death. It is not until we are 
 free from the law and reconciled to God by 
 the death of his Son, that we bring forth fruit 
 unto righteousness. This great truth, though 
 written on every page of the Bible, every 
 man has to learn for himself. He cannot be 
 made to understand it by reading it in the 
 Scriptures, or by being told it by others. He 
 must try his own strength until he finds it to 
 be nothing, before he submits to be saved by 
 the grace of God, and bowing at the feet of 
 Jesus, in utter despair of any other helper, 
 says. Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
 clean. 
 
 The man, therefore, whom the Holy Ghost 
 convinces of sin, he causes to understand and 
 believe what God has revealed on this sub- 
 
152 CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 ject. He makes him feel that what He de- 
 clares to be true of all men, is true of him ; 
 that he deserves what God declares all men 
 deserve ; that he has no merit to recommend 
 him to God and no strength to change his 
 own heart. This knowledge the Spirit com- 
 municates through the law, which by pre- 
 senting the perfect rule of duty, shows us 
 how far short we come of the glory of God, 
 and how often and justly we have incurred 
 its penalty ; which convinces us that we are 
 entirely unable to comply with its righteous 
 demand, and that no mere objective presenta- 
 tion of what is holy, just and good, can change 
 the heart, or destroy the power of in-dwelling 
 sin ; since even when we see the excellence 
 of the law, we do not conform to it, and can- 
 not do the things that we would, but ever 
 find a law in our members warring against 
 the law of our minds, and bringing us into 
 subjection to the law of sin. It is thus that 
 the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to 
 Christ ; to drive us from every refuge of our 
 own righteousness and strength, to Him who 
 is made of God, unto those that believe, both 
 justification and sanctification. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 Section I. Importance of the doctrine. 
 Explanation of the Scriptural terms relating 
 to it. Justification is not by works. 
 
 The state of mind described in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, cannot be long endured. 
 Some way of satisfying the demands of con- 
 science must be adopted. When the mind 
 is enlightened by divine truth and duly im- 
 pressed with a sense of guilt, it cannot fail 
 anxiously to inquire, How can a man be just 
 with God ? The answer given to this ques- 
 tion decides the character of our religion, and 
 if practically adopted, our future destiny. 
 To give a wrong answer, is to mistake the 
 way to heaven. It is to err where error is 
 fatal, because it cannot be corrected. If God 
 require one thing and we present another, 
 how can we be saved ? If he has revealed a 
 method in which he can be just and yet jus- 
 tify the sinner, and if we reject that method 
 
IM JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 and insist upon pursuing a different way, how 
 can we hope to be accepted ? The answer, 
 therefore, which is given to the above ques- 
 tion should be seriously pondered by all who 
 assume the office of religious teachers, and by 
 all who rely upon their instructions. As we 
 are not to be judged by proxy, but every man 
 must answ^er for himself, so every man should 
 be satisfied for himself what the Bible teaches 
 on this subject. All that religious teachers 
 can do, is to endeavour to aid the investiga- 
 tions of those who are anxious to learn the 
 way of life. And in doing this, the safest 
 method is to adhere strictly to the instruc- 
 tions of the Scriptures, and exhibit the sub- 
 ject as it is there presented. The substance 
 and the form of this all-important doctrine are 
 so intimately connected, that those who at- 
 tempt to separate them, can hardly fail to err. 
 What one discards as belonging merely to the 
 form, another considers as belonging to its 
 substance. All certainty and security are 
 lost, as soon as this method is adopted, and it 
 becomes a matter to be decided, exclusively 
 by our own views of right and wrong, what 
 is to be retained and what rejected from the 
 Scriptural representations. Our only securi- 
 » ty, therefore, is to take the language of the 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 155 
 
 Bible in its obvious meaning, and put upon 
 it the construction which the persons to whom 
 it was addressed must have given, and which, 
 consequently, the sacred writers intended it 
 should bear. 
 
 As the doctrine of justification is not only 
 frequently stated in the sacred Scriptures, 
 but formally taught and vindicated, all that 
 will be attempted in this chapter, is to give, 
 as faithfully as possible, a representation of 
 what the inspired writers inculcate on this 
 subject ; that is, to state what positions they 
 assume, by what arguments they sustain 
 those positions, how they answer the objec- 
 tions to their doctrine, and what application 
 they make of it to the hearts and consciences 
 of their readers. 
 
 It is one of the primary doctrines of the 
 Bible, everywhere either asserted or assumed, 
 that we are under the law of God. This is 
 true of all classes of men, whether they enjoy 
 a divine revelation or not. Every thing 
 which God has revealed as a rule of duty, 
 enters into the constitution of the law which 
 binds those to whom that revelation is given, 
 and by which they are to be ultimately 
 judged. Those who have not received any 
 external revelation of the divine Avill, are a 
 
156 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 law unto themselves. The knowledge of 
 right and wrong, written upon their hearts, 
 is of the nature of a divine law, having its 
 authority and sanction, and by it the heathen 
 are to be judged in the last day. 
 
 God has seen fit to annex the promise of 
 life to obedience to his law. The man that 
 doeth these things shall live by them,* is the 
 language of Scripture on this subject. To 
 the lawyer who admitted that the law re- 
 quired love to God and man, our Saviour 
 said. Thou hast answered right. This do, 
 and thou shalt live.f And to one who asked 
 him. What good thing shall I do that I may 
 have eternal life? he said. If thou wouldst 
 enter into life, keep the commandments. J 
 On the other hand, the law denounces death 
 as the penalty of transgression. The wages 
 of sin is death. Such is the uniform declara- 
 tion of Scripture on this subject. 
 
 The obedience which the law demands, is 
 called righteousness; and those who render 
 that obedience are called righteous. To as- 
 cribe righteousness to any one, or to pro- 
 nounce him righteous, is the scriptural mean- 
 ing of the word to justify. The word never 
 means to make good in a moral sense, but 
 
 * Rom. X. 5. t Luke x. 28. | Matt. xix. 17. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 157 
 
 always to pronounce just or righteous. Thus 
 God says, I will not justify the wicked.* 
 Judges are commanded to justify the righte- 
 ous and to condemn the wicked. f Wo is 
 pronounced on those who justify the wicked 
 for a reward. f In the New Testament it is 
 said, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh 
 be justified in his sight. ^ It is God who jus- 
 tifieth, who is he that condemneth?|| There 
 is scarcely a word in the Bible the meaning 
 of which is less open to doubt. There is no 
 passage in the New Testament in which it is 
 used out of its ordinary and obvious sense. IT 
 When God justifies a man, he declares him 
 to be righteous. To justify never means to 
 render one holy. It is said to be sinful to 
 justify the wicked ; but it could never be sin- 
 ful to render the wicked holy. And as the 
 law demands righteousness, to impute or as- 
 cribe righteousness to any one, is, in scriptu- 
 ral language, to justify. To make (or con- 
 stitute) righteous, is another equivalent form 
 of expression. Hence to be righteous before 
 God, and to be justified, mean the same thing ; 
 
 * Ex. xxiii. 7. f Deut. xxv. 1. | Is. v. 23. 
 
 5 Rom. iii. 20. || Rom viii. 33, 34. 
 
 H Revelation xxii. 11, is probably no exception to this re- 
 mark, as the text in that passage is uncertain. 
 
 14 
 
158 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 as in the following passage, Not the hearers 
 of the law are righteous before God, but the 
 doers of the law shall be justified.* The at- 
 tentive, and especially the anxious reader of 
 the Bible cannot fail to observe that these va- 
 rious expressions, to be righteous in the sight 
 of God, to impute righteousness, to constitute 
 righteous, to justify, and others of similar im- 
 port, are so interchanged as to explain each 
 other, and to make it clear that to justify a 
 man is to ascribe or impute to him righteous- 
 ness. The great question then is. How is 
 this righteousness to be obtained ? We have 
 reason to be thankful that the answer which 
 the Bible gives to this question is so perfectly 
 plain. 
 
 In the first place, that the righteousness by 
 which we are to be justified before God, is 
 not of works, is not only asserted but proved. 
 The apostle's first argument on this point is 
 derived from the consideration that the law 
 demands a perfect righteousness. If the law 
 were satisfied by an imperfect obedience, or 
 by a routine of external duties, or by any ser- 
 vice which men are competent to render, then 
 indeed justification would be by works. But 
 since it demands perfect obedience, justifica- 
 
 *Rom. ii. 13. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 159 
 
 tion by works is, for sinners, absolutely im- 
 possible. It is thus the apostle reasons.* 
 As many as are of the works of the law, are 
 under the curse. For it is written. Cursed is 
 every one that continueth not in all things 
 written in the book of the law to do them. 
 As the law pronounces its curse upon every 
 man who continues not to do all that it com- 
 mands, and as no man can pretend to this 
 perfect obedience, it follows that all who look 
 to the law for justification must be condemn- 
 ed. To the same effect in the following 
 verse, he says. The law is not of faith, but 
 the man that doeth them shall live by them. 
 That is, the law is not satisfied by any single 
 grace or imperfect obedience. It knows and 
 can know no other ground of justification 
 than complete compliance with its demands. 
 Hence in the same chapter, Paul says. If 
 there had been a law which could have given 
 life, verily righteousness would have been by 
 the law. Could the law pronounce righte- 
 ous, and thus give a title to the promised life 
 to those who had broken its commands, there 
 would have been no necessity of any other 
 provision for the salvation of men ; but as the 
 law cannot thus lower its demands, justifica- 
 
 * Gal. iii. 10. 
 
160 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 tion by the law is impossible. The same 
 truth is taught in a different form, when it is 
 said, If righteousness come by the law, Christ 
 is dead in vain.^ There would have been 
 no necessity for the death of Christ, if it had 
 been possible to satisfy the law by the imper- 
 fect obedience which we can render. Paul 
 therefore warns all those who look to works 
 for justification, that they are debtors to do 
 the whole law.f It knows no compromise; 
 it cannot demand less than what is right, and 
 perfect obedience is right, and therefore its 
 only language is as before, Cursed is every 
 one that continueth not in all things written 
 in the book of the law to do them ; and. The 
 man that doeth those things shall live by 
 them. Every man, therefore, who expects 
 justification by works, must see to it, not that 
 he is better than other men, or that he is very 
 exact and does many things, or that he fasts 
 twice in the week, and gives tithes of all he 
 possesses, but that he is sinless. 
 
 That the law of God is thus strict in its 
 demands, is a truth which lies at the founda- 
 tion of all Paul's reasoning in reference to the 
 method of justification. He proves that the 
 Gentiles have sinned against the law written 
 
 * Gal. ii. 21. t Gal. v. 3. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 161 
 
 on their hearts ; and that the Jews have bro- 
 ken the law revealed in their Scriptures; * 
 both Jews and Gentiles therefore are nnder 
 sin, and the whole world is guilty before God. 
 Hence he infers that by the deeds of the law 
 there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. 
 There is however no force in this reasoning, 
 except on the assumption, that the law de- 
 mands perfect obedience. How many men, 
 who freely acknowledge that they are sin- 
 ners, depend upon their works for acceptance 
 with God! They see no inconsistency be- 
 tween the acknowledgment of sin, and the 
 expectation of justification by works. The 
 reason is, they proceed upon a very different 
 principle from that adopted by the apostle. 
 They suppose that the law may be satisfied 
 by very imperfect obedience. Paul assumes 
 that God demands perfect conformity to his 
 will, that his wrath is revealed against all un- 
 godliness and unrighteousness of men. With 
 him therefore it is enough that men have 
 sinned, to prove that they cannot be justified 
 by works. It is not a question of degrees, 
 more or less, for as to this point there is no 
 difference, since all have sinned, and come 
 short of the glory of God. 
 
 This doctrine, though so plainly taught in 
 14^ 
 
162 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 Scripture, men are disposed to think very se- 
 vere. They imagine that their good deeds 
 vi^ill be compared vv^ith their evil deeds, and 
 that they v^ill be rewarded or punished as the 
 one class or the other preponderates ; or that 
 the sins of one part of life may be atoned for 
 by the good works of another ; or that they 
 can escape by mere confession and repent- 
 ance. They could not entertain such expec- 
 tations, if they believed themselves to be un- 
 der a law. No human law is administered 
 as men seem to hope the law of God will be. 
 He who steals or murders, though it be but 
 once, though he confesses and repents, though 
 he does any number of acts of charity, is not 
 less a thief or murderer. The law cannot 
 take cognizance of his repentance and refor- 
 mation. If he steals or murders, the law 
 condemns him. Justification by the law is 
 for him impossible. The law of God extends 
 to the most secret exercises of the heart. It 
 condemns whatever is in its nature evil. If 
 a man violate this perfect rule of right, there 
 is an end of justification by the law ; he has 
 failed to comply with its conditions; and the 
 law can only condemn him. To justify him, 
 would be to say that he had not transgressed. 
 Men however think that they are not to be 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 163 
 
 dealt with on the principles of strict law. 
 Here is their fatal mistake. It is here that 
 they are in most direct conflict with the 
 Scriptures, which proceed upon the uniform 
 assumption of our subjection to the law. 
 Under the government of God, strict law is 
 nothing but perfect excellence; it is the 
 steady exercise of moral rectitude. Even 
 conscience, when duly enlightened and 
 roused, is as strict as the law of God. It re- 
 fuses to be appeased by repentance, refor- 
 mation, or penance. It enforces every com- 
 mand and every denunciation of our Supreme 
 Ruler, and teaches, as plainly as do the 
 Scriptures themselves, that justification by 
 an imperfect obedience is impossible. As 
 conscience however is fallible, no reliance on 
 this subject is placed on her testimony. The 
 appeal is to the word of God ; which clearly 
 teaches that it is impossible a sinner can be 
 justified by works, because the law demands 
 perfect obedience. 
 
 The apostle's second argument to show 
 that justification is not by works, is the testi- 
 mony of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. 
 This testimony is urged in various forms. 
 In the first place, as the apostle proceeds 
 upon the principle that the law demands per- 
 
164 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 feet obedience, all those passages, which as- 
 sert the universal sinfulness of men, are so 
 many declarations that they cannot be justi- 
 fied by works. He therefore quotes such 
 passages as the following : There is none 
 righteous, no not one. There is none that 
 understandeth, there is none that seeketh 
 after God. They are all gone out of the 
 way; they are altogether become unprofita- 
 ble; there is none that doeth good, no not 
 one.* The Old Testament, by teaching that 
 all men are sinners, does, in the apostle's 
 view, thereby teach that they can never be 
 accepted before God on the ground of their 
 own righteousness. To say that a man is a 
 sinner, is to say that the law condemns him ; 
 and of course it cannot justify him. As the 
 ancient Scriptures are full of declarations of 
 the sinfulness of men, so they are full of proof 
 that justification is not by works. 
 
 But in the second place, Paul cites their 
 direct affirmative testimony in support of his 
 doctrine. In the Psalms it is said, Enter not 
 into judgment with thy servant; for in thy 
 sight shall no man living be justified.! This 
 passage he often quotes ; and to the same class 
 belong all those passages which speak of the 
 
 * Rom. iii. 10—12. t Ps. cxliii. 2. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 166 
 
 insufficiency or worthlessness of human righ- 
 teousness in the sight of God. 
 
 In the third place, the apostle refers to 
 those passages which imply the doctrine for 
 which he contends; that is, to those which 
 speak of the acceptance of men with God as 
 a matter of grace, as something which they 
 do not deserve, and for which they can urge 
 no claim founded upon their own merit. It 
 is with this view that he refers to the lan- 
 guage of David ; Blessed are they whose ini- 
 quities are forgiven, and whose sins are cover- 
 ed. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 
 will not impute sin.^ The fact that a man is 
 forgiven, implies that he is guilty; and the 
 fact that he is guilty, implies that his justifi- 
 cation cannot rest upon his own character or 
 conduct. It need hardly be remarked, that 
 in this view, the whole Scriptures, from be- 
 ginning to the end, are crowded with condem- 
 nations of the doctrine of justification by 
 works. Every penitent confession, every ap- 
 peal to God's mercy, is a renunciation of all 
 personal merit, a declaration that the peni- 
 tent's hope was not founded on any thing in 
 himself. Such confessions and appeals are 
 indeed often made by those who still rely 
 
 * Rom. iv. 7, 8. 
 
166 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 upon their good works, or inherent righteous- 
 ness, for acceptance with God. This, how- 
 ever, does not invalidate the apostle's argu- 
 ment. It only shows that such persons have 
 a different view of what is necessary for justi- 
 fication, from that entertained by the apostle. 
 They suppose that the demands of the law 
 are so low, that although they are sinners and 
 need to be forgiven, they can still do what the 
 law demands. Whereas, Paul proceeds on 
 the assumption that the law requires perfect 
 obedience, and therefore every confession of 
 sin, or appeal for mercy, involves a renuncia- 
 tion of justification by the law. 
 
 Again, the apostle represents the Old Tes- 
 tament as teaching that justification is not by 
 works, by showing that they inculcate a dif- 
 ferent method of obtaining acceptance with 
 God. This they do by the doctrine which 
 they teach concerning the Messiah as a Re- 
 deemer from sin. Hence Paul says, that the 
 method of justification without works, (not 
 founded upon works,) was testified by the 
 law and the prophets, that is, by the whole of 
 the Old Testament. The two methods of 
 acceptance with God, the one by works, the 
 other by a propitiation for sin, are incompati- 
 ble. And as the ancient Scriptures teach 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 167 
 
 the latter method, they repudiate the former. 
 But they moreover, in express terms, assert, 
 That the just shall live by faith. And the 
 law knows nothing of faith ; its language is. 
 The man that doeth them shall live by them.* 
 The law knows nothing of any thing but obe- 
 dience as the ground of acceptance. If the 
 Scriptures say we are accepted through faith, 
 they thereby say that we are not accepted on 
 the ground of obedience. 
 
 Again, the examples of justification given 
 in the Old Testament, show that it was not 
 by works. The apostle appeals particularly 
 to the case of Abraham, and asks. Whether 
 he attained justification by works? and an- 
 swers, No, for if he were justified by works 
 he had whereof to glory, but he had no 
 ground of glorying before God, and, there- 
 fore, he was not justified by works. And the 
 Scriptures expressly assert, Abraham believed 
 God, and it was imputed to him for righte- 
 ousness. His acceptance, therefore, was by 
 faith and not by works. 
 
 In all these various ways, does the apostle 
 make the authority of the Old Testament 
 sustain his doctrine that justification is not by 
 works. This authority is as decisive for us 
 
 '*GaL iii. 11, 12. 
 
168 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 as it was for the ancient Jewish Christians. 
 We also believe the Old Testament to be the 
 word of God, and its truths come to us ex- 
 plained and enforced by Christ and his apos- 
 tles. We have the great advantage of an in- 
 fallible interpretation of these early oracles 
 of truth, and the argumentative manner in 
 which their authority is cited and applied, 
 prevents all obscurity as to the real inten- 
 tions of the sacred writers. That by the 
 deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified 
 before God, is taught so clearly and so fre- 
 quently in the New Testament, it is so often 
 asserted, so formally proved, so variously as- 
 sumed, that no one can doubt that such is 
 indeed the doctrine of the word of God. The 
 only point on which the serious inquirer can 
 even raise a question, is what kind of works 
 do the Scriptures mean to exclude as the 
 foundation for acceptance with God. Does 
 the apostle mean works in the widest sense, 
 or does he merely intend ceremonial observ- 
 ances, or works of mere formality performed 
 without any real love to God ? 
 
 Those who attend to the nature of his as- 
 sertions, and to the course of his argument, 
 will find that there is no room for doubt on 
 this subject. The primary principle on 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 169 
 
 which his argument rests precludes all 
 ground for mistaking his meaning. He as- 
 sumes that the law demands perfect obe- 
 dience, and as no man can render that obe- 
 dience, he infers that no man can be justified 
 by the law. He does not argue that because 
 the law is spiritual it cannot be satisfied by 
 mere ceremonies or by works flowing from 
 an impure motive. He no where says, that 
 though we cannot be justified by external 
 rites, or by works having the mere form of 
 goodness, we are justified by our sincere 
 though imperfect obedience. On the con- 
 trary, he constantly teaches, that since we are 
 sinners, and since the law condemns all sin, 
 it condemns us, and justification by the law 
 is, therefore, impossible. This argument he 
 applies to the Jews and the Gentiles without 
 distinction, to the whole world, whether they 
 knew any thing of the Jewish Scriptures or 
 not. It was the moral law, the law which 
 he pronounced holy, just and good, which 
 says. Thou shalt not covet; it is this law, 
 however revealed, whether in the writings of 
 Moses, or in the human heart, of which he 
 constantly asserts that it cannot give life, or 
 teach the way of acceptance with God. As 
 most of those to whom he wrote had enjoyed 
 15 
 
170 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 a divine revelation, and as that revelation in- 
 cluded the lavr of Moses and all its rites, he 
 of course included that law in his statement, 
 and often specially refers to it ; but never in 
 its limited sense as a code of religious cere- 
 monies, but always in its widest scope as in- 
 cluding the highest rule of moral duty made 
 known to men. And hence he never con- 
 trasts one class of works with another, but 
 constantly works and faith, excluding all 
 classes of the former, works of righteousness 
 as well as those of mere formality. Not by 
 works of righteousness which we have done, 
 but according to his mercy he hath saved 
 us.* Who hath saved us, not according to 
 our works, t We are saved by faith, not by 
 works, f Nay, men are said to be justified 
 without works ; to be in themselves ungodly 
 when justified ; and it is not until they are 
 justified that they perform any really good 
 works. It is only when united to Christ 
 that we bring forth fruit unto God. Hence 
 we are said to be his workmanship, created 
 in Christ Jesus unto good works. All the 
 inward excellence of the Christian and the 
 fruits of the Spirit are the consequences and 
 
 * Titus iii. 5. f 2 Tim. i. 9. J Eph. ii. 9. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 171 
 
 not the causes of his reconciliation and ac- 
 ceptance with God. They are the robe of 
 beauty, the white garment, with which 
 Christ arrays those who come to him poor 
 and blind and naked. It is then the plain 
 doctrine of the word of God that our justifi- 
 cation is not founded upon our own obedience 
 to the law. Nothing done by us or wrought 
 in us can for a moment stand the test of a 
 rule of righteousness which pronounces a 
 curse upon all those, who continue not in all 
 things written in the book of the law to do 
 them. 
 
 Section II. The demands of the Lavj are 
 satisfied by what Christ has done. 
 
 We have thus seen that the Scriptures 
 teach first that all men are naturally under 
 the law as prescribing the terms of their ac- 
 ceptance with God; and secondly, that no 
 obedience which sinners can render is suffi- 
 cient to satisfy the demands of that law. It 
 follows then that unless we are freed from the 
 law, not as a rule of duty, but as prescribing 
 the conditions of acceptance with God, justi- 
 fication is for us impossible. It is, therefore, 
 the third great point of Scriptural doctrine on 
 
172 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 this subject, that behevers are free from the 
 law in the sense just stated. Ye are not 
 under the law, says the apostle, but under 
 grace. ^ To illustrate this declaration he re- 
 fers to the case of a woman who is bound to 
 her husband as long as he lives, but when he 
 is dead, she is free from her obligation to him, 
 and is at liberty to marry another man. So 
 we are delivered from the law as a rule of 
 justification, and are at liberty to embrace a 
 different method of obtaining acceptance with 
 God.f Paul says of himself, J that he had 
 died to the law, i. e. become free from it. 
 And the same is said of all believers. § He 
 insists upon this freedom as essential not only 
 to justification but to sanctification. For 
 while under the law, the motions of sin, 
 which were by the law, brought forth fruit 
 unto death, but now we are delivered from 
 the law that we may serve God in newness 
 of spirit. II Before faith came we were kept 
 under the law, which he compares to a school- 
 master, but now we are no longer under a 
 schoolmaster. TT He regards the desire to be 
 subject to the law as the greatest infatuation. 
 
 * Rom. vi. 14. t Rom. vii. 1 , 6. 
 
 I Gal. ii. 19. 5 Rom. vii. 6. 
 
 II Rom. vii. 5, 6. IT Gal. iii. 24, 25. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 173 
 
 Tell me, he says, ye that desire to be under 
 the law, Do ye not hear the law? and then 
 shows that those who are under the demands 
 of a legal system, are in the condition of 
 slaves and not of sons and heirs. Stand fast, 
 therefore, he exhorts, in the liberty where- 
 with Christ hath made us free. Behold I 
 Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, 
 Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify 
 to every one that is circumcised, that he is a 
 debtor to do the whole law. Christ has be- 
 come of no effect to you ; whosoever of you 
 are justified by the law, ye are fallen from 
 grace. ^ This infatuation Paul considered 
 madness, and exclaims, O foolish Galatians, 
 who hath bewitched you, that ye should not 
 obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus 
 Christ hath been evidently set forth, cruci- 
 fied among you ? This only would I learn of 
 you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of 
 the law, or by the hearing of faith ?f This 
 apostacy was so fatal, the substitution of legal 
 obedience for the work of Christ as the 
 ground of justification, was so destructive, 
 that Paul pronounces accursed any man or 
 angel who should preach such a doctrine for 
 the gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 * Gal. V. 1—4. t Gal. iii. 1, 2. 
 
 15* 
 
174 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 It was to the law, as revealed in the books 
 of Moses, that the fickle Galatians were dis- 
 posed to look for justification. Their apos- 
 tacy, however, consisted in going back to the 
 law, no matter in what form revealed, to 
 works, no matter of what kind, as the ground 
 of justification. The apostle's arguments and 
 denunciations, therefore, are so framed as to 
 apply to the adoption of any form of legal 
 obedience, instead of the work of Christ, as 
 the ground of our confidence towards God. 
 To suppose that all he says relates exclusive- 
 ly to a relapse into Judaism, is to suppose 
 that we Gentiles have no part in the redemp- 
 tion of Christ. If it was only from the bond- 
 age of the Jewish economy that he redeemed 
 his people, then those who were never sub- 
 ject to that bondage have no interest in his 
 work. And of course Paul was strangely in- 
 fatuated in preaching Christ crucified to the 
 Gentiles. We find, however, that what he 
 taught in the Epistle to the Galatians, in spe- 
 cial reference to the law of Moses, he teaches 
 in the Epistle to the Romans in reference to 
 that law which is holy, just and good, and 
 which condemns the most secret sins of the 
 heart. 
 
 The nature of the apostle's doctrine is, if 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 17*5 
 
 possible, even more clear from the manner in 
 which he vindicates it, than from his direct 
 assertions. What then ! he asks, shall we 
 continue in sin, because we are not under the 
 law, but under grace? God forbid. Had 
 Paul taught that we are freed from the cere- 
 monial, in order to be subject to the moral 
 law, there could have been no room for such 
 an objection. But if he taught that the moral 
 law itself could not give life, that we must be 
 freed from its demands as the condition of 
 acceptance with God, then indeed, to the 
 wise of this world, it might seem that he was 
 loosing the bands of moral obligation, and 
 opening the door to the greatest licentious- 
 ness. Hence the frequency and earnestness 
 with which he repels the objection, and shows 
 that so far from legal bondage being necessa • 
 ry to holiness, it must cease before holiness 
 can exist ; that it is not until the curse of the 
 law is removed, and the soul reconciled to 
 God, that holy affections rise in the heart, 
 and the fruits of holiness appear in the life. 
 Do we then make void the law through faith ? 
 God forbid: yea, we establish the law.* 
 It is then clearly the doctrine of the Bible 
 
 *Rom. iii. 31. 
 
176 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 that believers are freed from the law as pre- 
 scribing the conditions of their acceptance 
 with God; it is no longer incumbent upon 
 them, in order to justification, to fulfil its de- 
 mand of perfect obedience, or to satisfy its 
 penal exactions. But how is this deliverance 
 effected? How is it that rational and ac- 
 countable beings are exempted from the obli- 
 gations of that holy and just law, which was 
 originally imposed upon their race as the rule 
 of justification ? The answer to this question 
 includes the fourth great truth respecting the 
 way of salvation taught in the Scriptures. 
 It is not by the abrogation of the law, either 
 as to its precepts or penalty ; it is not by low- 
 ering its demands, and accommodating them 
 to the altered capacities or inclinations of 
 men. We have seen how constantly the 
 apostle teaches that the law still demands 
 perfect obedience, and that they are debtors 
 to do the whole law who seek justification at 
 its hands. He no less clearly teaches that 
 death is as much the wages of sin in our 
 case, as it was in that of Adam. If it is 
 neither by abrogation nor relaxation that we 
 are freed from the demands of the law, how 
 has this deliverance been effected ? By the 
 mystery of vicarious obedience and suffering. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 177 
 
 This is the gospel of the grace of God. This 
 is what was a scandal to the Jews, and fool- 
 ishness to the Greeks, but, to those that are 
 called, the power of God and the wisdom of . 
 God. 
 
 The Scriptures teach us that the Son of 
 God, the brightness of the Father's glory, 
 and the express image of his person, who 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
 became jiesh, and subjected himself to the 
 very law to which we were bound ; that he 
 perfectly obeyed that law, and suffered its 
 penalty, and thus, by satisfying its demands, 
 delivered us from its bondage and introduced 
 us into the glorious liberty of the sons of 
 God. It is thus that the doctrine of redemp- 
 tion is presented in the Scriptures. God, 
 says the apostle, sent forth his Son, made of 
 a woman, made under the law, that he might 
 redeem those that were under the law.* 
 Being made under the law, he obeyed it per- 
 fectly, and brought in everlasting righteous- 
 ness, and is therefore declared to be the Lord 
 our righteousness, since, by his obedience, 
 many are constituted righteous. f He, there- 
 fore, is said to be made righteousness unto 
 us.f And those who are in him are said to 
 
 * Gal. iv. 4, 5. f Rom. v. 19. if 1 Cor. i. 30. 
 
178 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 be righteous before God, not having their 
 own righteousness, but that which is by the 
 faith of Christ.* 
 
 That we are redeemed from the curse of 
 the law by Christ's enduring that curse in 
 our place, is taught in every variety of form 
 from the beginning to the end of the Bible. 
 There was the more need that this point 
 should be clearly and variously presented, 
 because it is the one on which an enlighten- 
 ed conscience immediately fastens. The de- 
 sert of death begets the fear of death. And 
 this fear of death cannot be allayed, until it 
 is seen how, in consistency with divine jus- 
 tice, we are freed from the righteous penalty 
 of the law. How this is done the Scriptures 
 teach in the most explicit manner. Christ 
 hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
 being made a curse for us.f Paul had just 
 said. As many as are of the law are under 
 the curse. But all men are naturally under 
 the law, and therefore all are under the curse. 
 How are we redeemed from it? By Christ's 
 being made a curse for us. Such is the sim- 
 ple and sufl&cient answer to this most impor- 
 tant of all questions. 
 
 The doctrine so plainly taught in Gal. iii. 
 
 * Phil. iii. 9. t Gal iii. 13. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 179 
 
 13, that Christ has redeemed us from the 
 curse of the law by bearing it in our stead, 
 is no less clearly presented in 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew 
 no sin, that we might be made the righteous- 
 ness of God in him. This is represented as 
 the only ground on which men are autho- 
 rized to preach the gospel. We are ambas- 
 sadors for Christ, says the apostle, as though 
 God did beseech you by us, we pray you in 
 Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 
 Then follows a statement of the ground upon 
 Avhich this offer of reconciliation is presented. 
 God has made effectual provision for the par- 
 don of sin, by making Christ, though holy, 
 harmless, and separate from sinners, sin for 
 us, that we might be made righteous in him. 
 The iniquities of us all were laid on him ; he 
 was treated as a sinner in our place, in order 
 that we might be treated as righteous in him. 
 The same great truth is taught in all those 
 passages in which Christ is said to bear our 
 sins. The expression to bear sin, is one 
 which is clearly explained by its frequent oc- 
 currence in the sacred Scriptures. It means 
 to bear the punishment due to sin. In Lev. 
 XX. 17, it is said, He that marries his sister, 
 shall bear his iniquity. Again, Whosoever 
 
180 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 curseth his God, shall bear his sin. Of him 
 that failed to keep the passover, it was said, 
 that man shall bear his sin.* If a man sin 
 he shall bear his iniquity. It is used in the 
 same sense when one man is spoken of as 
 bearing the sin of another. Your children 
 shall wander in the wilderness forty years, 
 and bear your whoredoms, f Our fathers 
 have sinned and are not, and we have borne 
 their iniquities. J And when, in Ezekiel 
 xviii. 20, it is said that the son shall not bear 
 the iniquity of the father, it is obviously 
 meant that the son shall not be punished for 
 the sins of the father. The meaning of this 
 expression being thus definite, of course there 
 can be no doubt as to the manner in which it 
 is to be understood when used in reference to 
 the Redeemer. The prophet says. The Lord 
 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. My 
 righteous servant shall justify many, for he 
 shall bear their iniquities. He was number- 
 ed with transgressors, and bore the sins of 
 many.§ Language more explicit could not 
 be used. This whole chapter is designed to 
 teach one great truth, that our sins were to be 
 laid on the Messiah, that we might be freed 
 
 * Numbers ix. 13. t lumbers xiv. S3. 
 
 I Lam. V. 7. ^ Is. liii. 6, 11, 12. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. l§t 
 
 from the punishment which they deserved. 
 It is therefore said, He was wounded for our 
 transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniqui- 
 ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
 him ; for the transgression of my people was 
 he smitten. In the New Testament, the 
 same doctrine is taught in the same terms. 
 Who his ownself bare our sins in his own 
 body on the tree.* Christ was offered to 
 bear the sins of many.f Ye know that he 
 was manifested to take away (to bear) our 
 sins. J According to all these representa- 
 tions, Christ saves us from the punishment 
 due to our sins, by bearing the curse of the 
 law in our stead. 
 
 - Intimately associated with the passages 
 just referred to, are those which describe the 
 Redeemer as a sacrifice, or propitiation. The 
 essential idea of a sin-offering is propitiation 
 by means of vicarious punishment. That 
 this is the Scriptural idea of a sacrifice, is 
 plain from the laws of their institution, from 
 the effects ascribed to them, and from the 
 illustrative declarations of the sacred writers. 
 The law prescribed that the offender should 
 bring the victim to the altar, lay his hands 
 upon its head, make confession of his crime ; 
 
 * 1 Peter ii. 24. f Heb. ix. 28. J 1 John iii. 5. 
 
 16 
 
182 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 and that the animal should then be slain, and 
 its blood sprinkled upon the altar. Thus, it 
 is said, He shall put his hand upon the head 
 of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted 
 for him to make atonement for him.* And 
 he brought the bullock for a sin-offering, and 
 Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the 
 head of the bullock of the sin-offering, f The 
 import of this imposition of hands, is clearly 
 taught in the following passage : And Aaron 
 shall lay his hands upon the head of the live 
 goat, and confess over him all the iniquities 
 of the children of Israel, and all their trans- 
 gressions in all their sins, putting them upon 
 the head of the goat, and the goat shall bear 
 upon him all their iniquities unto a land not 
 inhabited. J The imposition of hands, there- 
 fore, v^as designed to express, symbolically, 
 the ideas of substitution and transfer of the 
 liability to punishment. In the case just re- 
 ferred to, in order to convey more clearly the 
 idea of the removal of the liability to punish- 
 ment, the goat on vi^hose head the sins of the 
 people were imposed, was sent into the wil- 
 derness, but another goat was slain and con- 
 sumed in its stead. 
 
 The nature of these offerings is further ob- 
 
 * Lev. i. 4. t Lev. viii. 14. t Lev. xvi. 21, 22. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 183 
 
 vious from the effects attributed to them. 
 They were commanded in order to make 
 atonement, to propitiate, to make reconcilia- 
 tion, to secure the forgiveness of sins. And 
 this effect they actually secured. In the case 
 of every Jewish offender, some penalty con- 
 nected with the theocratical constitution un- 
 der which he lived, was removed by the pre- 
 sentation and acceptance of the appointed 
 sacrifice. This was all the effect, in the way 
 of securing pardon, that the blood of bulls 
 and goats could produce. Their efficacy was 
 confined to the purifying of the flesh, and to 
 securing, for those who offered them, the ad- 
 vantages of the external theocracy. Besides, 
 however, this efficacy, which, by divine ap- 
 pointment, belonged to them considered in 
 themselves, they were intended to prefigure 
 and predict the true atoning sacrifice which 
 was to be offered when the fulness of time 
 should come. Nothing, however, can more 
 clearly illustrate the Scriptural doctrine of 
 sacrifices, than the expressions employed by 
 the sacred writers to convey the same idea as 
 that intended by the term sin-offering. Thus 
 all that Isaiah taught by saying of the Mes- 
 siah that the chastisement of our peace was 
 upon him ; that by his stripes we are healed ; 
 
184 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 that he was smitten for the transgression of 
 the people ; that on him was laid the iniquity 
 of us all, and that he bore the sins of many, 
 he taught by saying, he made his soul an 
 offering for sin. And in the epistle to the 
 Hebrews it is said, He was offered (as a sacri- 
 fice) to bear the sins of many. The same 
 idea, therefore, is expressed by saying, either 
 he bore our sins, or he was made an offering 
 for sin. But to bear the sins of any one, 
 means to bear the punishment of those sins ; 
 and, therefore, to be a sin-offering, conveys 
 the same meaning. 
 
 Such being the idea of a sacrifice which 
 pervades the whole Jewish Scriptures, it is 
 obvious that the sacred writers could not 
 teach more distinctly and intelligibly the 
 manner in which Christ secures the pardon 
 of sin, than by saying he was made an offer- 
 ing for sin. With this mode of pardon all 
 the early readers of the Scriptures were fami- 
 liar. They had been accustomed to it from 
 their earliest years. No one of them could 
 recall the time when the altar, the victim and 
 the blood were unknown to him. His first 
 lessons in religion contained the ideas of con- 
 fession of sin, substitution and vicarious suf- 
 ferings and death. "When, therefore, the in- 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 185 
 
 spired penmen told men imbued with these 
 ideas that Christ was a propitiation for sin, 
 that he was offered as a sacrifice to make re- 
 conciliation, they told them, in the plainest 
 of all terms, that he secures the pardon of 
 our sins by suffering in our stead. Jews 
 could understand such language in no other 
 way, and therefore, we may be sure it was 
 intended to convey no other meaning. And 
 in point of fact, it has been so understood by 
 the Christian church from its first organiza- 
 tion to the present day. 
 
 If it were merely in the way of casual 
 allusion that Christ was declared to be a sa- 
 crifice, we should not be authorized to infer 
 from it the method of redemption. But this 
 is far from being the case. This doctrine is 
 presented in the most didactic form. It is 
 exhibited in every possible mode. It is as- 
 serted, illustrated, vindicated. It is made 
 the central point of all divine institutions and 
 instructions. It is urged as the foundation 
 of hope, as the source of consolation, the mo- 
 tive to obedience. It is in fact the gospel. 
 It would be vain to attempt a reference to all 
 the passages in which this great doctrine is 
 taught. We are told that God set forth 
 Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins 
 16^ 
 
186 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 through faith in his blood.* Again he is de- 
 clared to be a propitiation for our sins, and 
 not for our's only but for the sins of the 
 whole world. t He is called the Lamb of 
 God that taketh away (beareth) the sins of 
 the world. J Ye were not redeemed, says 
 the apostle Peter, with corruptible things as 
 silver and gold from your vain conversation 
 received by tradition from your fathers, but 
 with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb 
 without blemish and without spot.^ In the 
 epistle to the Hebrews this doctrine is more 
 fully exhibited than in any other portion of 
 Scripture. Christ is not only repeatedly 
 called a sacrifice, but an elaborate compari- 
 son is made between the offering which he 
 presented and those which were offered under 
 the old dispensation. If the blood of bulls 
 and of goats, says the apostle, and the ashes 
 of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth 
 to the purifying of the flesh, how much more 
 shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
 Eternal Spirit (possessing an Eternal Spirit) 
 offered himself without spot unto God, purge 
 your conscience from dead works to serve 
 the living God.|| The ancient sacrifices in 
 
 * Rom. iii. 25. f 1 John ii. 2. t John i. 29. 
 
 5 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. II Heb. ix. 13, 14. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 187 
 
 themselves could only remove ceremonial 
 nncleanness. They could not purge the con- 
 science or reconcile the soul to God. They 
 were mere shadows of the true sacrifice 
 for sins. Hence they were offered daily. 
 Christ's sacrifice being really efficacious, was 
 offered but once. It was because the an- 
 cient sacrifices were ineffectual, that Christ 
 said, when he came into the world. Sacrifice 
 and offering thou wouldst not, but a body 
 hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings 
 and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. 
 Then said I, Lo I come to do thy will, O 
 God. By the which will, adds the apostle, 
 that is, by the accomplishing the purpose of 
 God, we are sanctified (or atoned for) through 
 the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once 
 for all ; and by that one offering he hath per- 
 fected for ever them that are sanctified, and 
 of all this, he adds, the Holy Ghost is wit- 
 ness.* The Scriptures, therefore, clearly 
 teach that Jesus Christ delivers us from the 
 punishment of our sins, by offering himself 
 as a sacrifice in our behalf; that as under the 
 old dispensation, the penalties attached to 
 the violations of the theocratical covenant, 
 were removed by the substitution and sacri^ 
 
 *Heb. X. 5, 15. 
 
1 88 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 fice of bulls and of goats, so under the spirit- 
 ual theocracy, in the living temple of the 
 living God, the punishment of sin is removed 
 by the substitution and death of the Son 
 of God. As no ancient Israelite, when by 
 transgression he had forfeited his liberty of 
 access to the earthly sanctuary, was ignorant 
 of the mode of atonement and reconciliation ; 
 so now, no conscience-stricken sinner, who 
 knows that he is unworthy to draw near to 
 God, need be ignorant of that new and living 
 way which Christ hath consecrated for us, 
 through his flesh, so that we have boldness 
 to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. 
 In all the forms of expression hitherto 
 mentioned, viz : Christ was made a curse for 
 us; he was made sin for us; he bore our 
 sins, he was made a sin offering, there is 
 the idea of substitution. Christ took our 
 place, he suffered in our stead, he acted as 
 our representative. But as the act of a sub- 
 stitute is in effect the act of the principal, all 
 that Christ did and suffered in that character, 
 every believer is regarded as having done 
 and suffered. The attentive and pious read- 
 er of the Bible will recognise this idea in 
 some of the most common forms of Scriptur- 
 al expression. Believers are those who are 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 189 
 
 in Christ. This is their great distinction 
 and most familiar designation. They are so 
 united to him, that what he did in their be- 
 half they are declared to have done. When 
 he died, they died ; when he rose, they rose ; 
 as he lives, they shall live also. The passa- 
 ges in which believers are said to have died 
 in Christ are very numerous. If one died 
 for all, says the apostle, then all died (not, 
 were dead.)^ He that died (with Christ) is 
 justified from sin, i. e. freed from its condem- 
 nation and power; and if we died with 
 Christ, we believe, that we shall live with 
 him.f As a woman is freed by death from 
 her husband, so believers are freed from the 
 law by the body (the death) of Christ, be- 
 cause his death is in effect their death. f 
 And in the following verse, he says, having 
 died, (in Christ) we are freed from the law. 
 Every believer, therefore, may say with Paul, 
 I was crucified with Christ.^ In like man- 
 ner the resurrection of Christ secures both 
 the spiritual life and future resurrection of 
 all his people. If we have been united to 
 him in his death, we shall be in his resurrec- 
 tion. If we died with him, we shall live 
 
 * 2 Cor. V. 14. t Rom. vi. 7, 8. 
 
 I Rom. vii. 4. { Gal. ii. 20. 
 
190 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 with him.* God, says the apostle, hath 
 quickened us together with Christ; and 
 hath raised us up together, and made us 
 to sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
 Jesus. t That is, God hath quickened, rais- 
 ed, and exalted us together^ with Christ. 
 It is on this ground also that Paul says that 
 Christ rose as the first fruits of the dead ; not 
 merely the first in order, but the earnest and 
 security of the resurrection of his people. 
 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all 
 be made alive. ^ As our union with Adam 
 secures our death, union with Christ secures 
 our resurrection. Adam is a type of him 
 that was to come, that is Christ, inasmuch as 
 the relation in which Adam stood to the 
 whole race, is analogous to that in which 
 Christ stands to his own people. As Adam 
 was our natural head, the poison of sin flows 
 in all our veins. As Christ is our spiritual 
 head, eternal life which is in him, descends 
 to all his members. It is not they that live, 
 
 * Rom. vi. 5, 8. t Eph. ii. 5, 6. 
 
 J There is no separate word in the original to answer to the 
 word together, which is not to he understood of the union of 
 believers with one another in the participation of these bless- 
 ings. It is their union with Christ that the passage asserts. 
 
 { 1 Cor. XV. 20, 22. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 191 
 
 but Christ that liveth in them.^- This doc- 
 trine of the representative and vital union of 
 Christ and believers, pervades the New Tes- 
 tament. It is the source of the humility, the 
 joy, the confidence which the sacred writers 
 so often express. In themselves they were 
 nothing and deserved nothing, but in Him 
 they possessed all things. Hence they count- 
 ed all things but loss that they might be 
 found in Him. Hence they determined to 
 know nothing, to preach nothing, to glory in 
 nothing but in Christ and him crucified. 
 
 The great doctrine of the vicarious suffer- 
 ings and death of Jesus Christ, is further 
 taught in those numerous passages which re- 
 fer our salvation to his blood, his death, or his 
 cross. Viewed in connexion with the passa- 
 ges already mentioned, those now referred to 
 not only teach the fact that the death of 
 Christ secures the pardon of sin, but how it 
 does it. To this class belong such declara- 
 tions as the following. The blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanses us from all sin.f We have 
 redemption through his blood. J He has 
 made peace through the blood of his cross. J 
 Being justified by his blood. || Ye are made 
 
 * Gal. ii. 20. f 1 John i. 7. J Eph. i. 7. 
 
 5 Col. i. 20. II Rom. v. 9. 
 
192 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 nigh by the blood of Christ.* Ye are come 
 to the blood of sprinkling. f Elect nnto obe- 
 dience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
 Christ. J Unto him who loved ns and wash- 
 ed us from our sins in his own blood. ^ He 
 hath redeemed us unto God by his blood. || 
 This cup, said the Son of God himself, is the 
 New Testament in my blood, which is shed 
 for many for the remission of sins. IT The 
 sacrificial character of the death of Christ is 
 taught in all these passages. Blood was the 
 means of atonement, and without the shedding 
 of blood, there was no remission ; and, there- 
 fore, when our salvation is so often ascribed 
 to the blood of the Saviour, it is declared that 
 he died as a propitiation for our sins. 
 
 The same remark may be made in refer- 
 ence to those passages, which ascribe our re- 
 demption to the death, the cross, the flesh of 
 Christ; for these terms are interchanged as 
 being of the same import. We are reconciled 
 unto God by the death of his Son.** We are 
 reconciled by his cross. ff We are reconciled 
 by the body of his flesh through death. Jf 
 We are delivered from the law by the body 
 
 * Eph. ii. 13. t Heb. xii. 24. | 1 Pet. i. 2. 
 
 } Rev. i. 5. II Rev. v. 9. IF Matt. xxvi. 28. 
 
 ** Rom. V. 10. tt Eph. ii. 16. |t Col. i. 22. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 193 
 
 of Christ ;* he abolished the law in his flesh ;t 
 he took away the handwriting, which was 
 against us, nailing it to his cross, f The 
 more general expressions respecting Christ's 
 dying for us, receive a definite meaning from 
 their connexion with the more specific passa- 
 ges above mentioned. Every one, therefore, 
 knows what is meant, when it is said that 
 Christ died for the ungodly;^ that he gave 
 himself a ransom for many;|| that he died 
 the just for the unjust that he might bring us 
 unto God. IT Not less plain is the meaning 
 of the Holy Spirit when it is said, God spared 
 not his own Son, but delivered him up for us 
 all;** that he was delivered for our offen- 
 ces ;tt that he gave himself for our sins.JJ 
 
 Seeing then that we owe every thing to the 
 expiatory sufferings of the blessed Saviour, 
 we cease to wonder that the Cross is rendered 
 so prominent in the exhibition of the plan of 
 salvation. We are not surprised at Paul's 
 anxiety, lest the cross of Christ should be 
 made of none effect; or that he should call 
 the preaching of the gospel the preaching of 
 the cross; or that he should preach Christ 
 
 =^ Rom. vii. 4. f Eph. ii. 15. t Col. ii. 14. 
 
 5 Rom. V. 6. II Matt. xx. 28. IT 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 ** Rom. viii. 32. ft Rom. iv. 25. # Gal. i. 4. 
 17 
 
194 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 crucified, both to Jews and Greeks, as the 
 wisdom of God and the power of God, or that 
 he should determine to glory in nothing save 
 in the Cross of Christ. 
 
 As there is no truth more necessary to be 
 known, so there is none more variously or 
 plainly taught than the method of escaping 
 the wrath of God due to us for sin. Besides 
 all the clear exhibitions of Christ as bearing 
 our sins, as dying in our stead, as making his 
 soul an offering for sin, as redeeming us by 
 his blood, the Scriptures set him forth in the 
 character of a Priest, in order that we might 
 more fully understand how it is that he effects 
 our salvation. It w^as predicted long before 
 his advent that the Messiah was to be a 
 priest. Thou art a priest for ever, after the 
 order of Melchizedec, was the declaration of 
 the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David.* 
 Zechariah predicted that he should sit as a 
 priest upon his throne. f The apostle defines 
 a priest to be a man ordained for men in 
 things pertaining unto God, that he may offer 
 both gifts and sacrifices for sins. J Jesus 
 Christ is the only real priest in the universe. 
 All others were either pretenders, or the sha- 
 dow of the great High Priest of our profes- 
 
 * Ps. ex. 4. t Zechariah vi. 13. ij: Heb. v. 1. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 195 
 
 sion. For this office he had every necessary 
 qualification. He was a man. For inasmuch 
 as the children were partakers of flesh and 
 blood he also took part of the same in order 
 that he might be a merciful and faithful high 
 priest ; one who can be touched with a sense 
 of our infirmities, seeing he was tempted in 
 all points like as we are, yet without sin. He 
 was sinless. For such a high priest became 
 us who was holy, harmless and separate from 
 sinners. He was the Son of God. The law 
 made men, having infirmity, priests. But 
 God declared his Son to be a priest, who is 
 consecrated for evermore.* The sense in 
 which Christ is declared to be the Son of 
 God, is explained in the first chapter of this 
 epistle. It is there said, that he is the ex- 
 press image of God; that he upholds all 
 things by the word of his power ; that all the 
 angels are commanded to worship him ; that 
 his throne is an everlasting throne; that in 
 the beginning he laid the foundations of the 
 earth; that he is from everlasting, and that 
 his years fail not. It is from the dignity of 
 his person, as possessing this divine nature, 
 that the apostle deduces the efficacy of his 
 sacrifice,! the perpetuity of his priesthood, J 
 
 * Heb. vii. 28. f Heb. ix. 14. I Heb. vii. 16. 
 
196 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 and his ability to save to the uttermost all 
 who come unto God through him.* He was 
 duly constituted a priest. He glorified not 
 himself to be made a high priest, but he that 
 said to him, Thou art my Son, said also, 
 Thou art a priest for ever. He is the only 
 real priest, and, therefore, his advent super- 
 seded all others, and put an immediate end to 
 all their lawful ministrations, by abolishing 
 the typical dispensation with which they 
 were connected. For the priesthood being 
 changed, there was of necessity a change of 
 the law. There was a disannulling of the 
 former commandment for the weakness and 
 unprofitableness thereof, and there was the 
 introduction of a better hope.f He has an 
 appropriate offering to present. As every 
 high priest is appointed to offer sacrifices, it 
 was necessary that this man should have 
 somewhat to offer. This sacrifice was not 
 the blood of goats or of calves, but his own 
 blood ; it was himself he offered unto God, to 
 purge our conscience from dead works, f He 
 has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, 
 which was accomplished when he was once 
 offered to bear the sins of many.^ He has 
 
 * Heb. vii. 25. t Heb. vii. 12, 19. 
 
 t Heb. ix. 12, 14. 5 Heb. ix. 26, 28. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 197 
 
 passed into the heavens. As the high priest 
 was required to enter into the most holy place 
 with the blood of atonement, so Christ has 
 entered not into the holy place made with 
 hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear 
 in the presence of God for us,* and where he 
 ever lives to make intercession for us.f 
 
 Seeing then we have a great High Priest, 
 that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son 
 of God, (let the reader remember what that 
 means), who is set down on the right hand of 
 the Majesty on high, having by himself 
 purged our sins and made reconciliation for 
 the sins of the people, every humble believer 
 who commits his soul into the hands of this 
 High Priest, may come with boldness to the 
 throne of grace, assured that he shall find 
 mercy and grace to help in time of need. 
 
 Section HI. The righteousness of Christ 
 the true ground of our Justification. The 
 practical effects of this doctrine. 
 
 The Bible, as we have seen, teaches, first, 
 that we are under a law which demands per- 
 fect obedience, and which threatens death in 
 case of transgression ; secondly, that all men 
 
 * Heb. ix. 24. t Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 17* 
 
198 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 have failed in rendering that obedience, and 
 therefore, are subject to the threatened penal- 
 ty ; thirdly, that Christ has redeemed us from 
 the law by being made under it and in our 
 place, satisfying its demands. It only re- 
 mains to be shown that this perfect righte- 
 ousness of Christ is presented as the ground 
 of our justification before God. 
 
 In scriptural language condemnation is a 
 sentence of death pronounced upon sin ; justi- 
 fication is a sentence of life pronounced upon 
 righteousness. As this righteousness is not 
 our own, as we are sinners, ungodly, without 
 works, it must be the righteousness of an- 
 other, even of him who is our righteousness. 
 Hence we find so constantly the distinction 
 between our own righteousness and that 
 which God gives. The Jews, the apostle 
 says, being ignorant of God's righteousness, 
 and going about to establish their own righte- 
 ousness, would not submit themselves unto 
 the righteousness of God.* This was the 
 rock on which they split. They knew that 
 justification required a righteousness; they 
 insisted on urging their own, imperfect as it 
 was, and would not accept of that which God 
 had provided in the merits of his Son, who is 
 
 * Rom. X. 3. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 199 
 
 the end of the law for righteousness to every 
 one that believes. The same idea is present- 
 ed in Rom. ix. 30, 32, where Paul sums up 
 the case of the rejection of the Jews and the 
 acceptance of believers. The Gentiles have 
 attained righteousness, even the righteous- 
 ness which is of faith. But Israel hath not 
 attained it. Wherefore? Because they sought 
 it not by faith, but as it were by the works of 
 the law. The Jews would not receive and 
 confide in the righteousness which God had 
 provided, but endeavoured, by works, to pre- 
 pare a righteousness of their own. This was 
 the cause of their ruin. In direct contrast to 
 the course pursued by the majority of his 
 kinsmen, we find Paul renouncing all de- 
 pendence upon his own righteousness, and 
 thankfully receiving that which God had 
 provided. Though he had every advantage 
 and every temptation to trust in himself, that 
 any man could have ; for he was one of the 
 favoured people of God, circumcised on the 
 eighth day, and touching the righteousness 
 w^hich is in the law, blameless, yet all these 
 things he counted but loss, that he might win 
 Christ, and be found in him, not having his 
 own righteousness, which is of the law, but 
 that which is through the faith of Christ, the 
 
200 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 righteousness which is of God by faith. ^ 
 Here the two righteousnesses are brought 
 distinctly into view. The one was his own, 
 consisting in obedience to the law ; this Paul 
 rejects as inadequate, and unworthy of ac- 
 ceptance. The other is of God and received 
 by faith ; this Paul accepts and glories in as 
 all sufficient and as alone sufficient. This is 
 the righteousness which the apostle says God 
 imputes to those without works. Hence it is 
 called a gift, a free gift, a gift by grace, and 
 believers are described as those who receive 
 this gift of righteousness. t Hence we are 
 never said to be justified by any thing done 
 by us or wrought in us, but by what Christ 
 has done for us. We are justified through 
 the redemption that is in him. J We are jus- 
 tified by his blood. ^ We are justified by his 
 obedience.il We are justified by him from 
 all things. 1[ He is our righteousness.** 
 We are made the righteousness of God in 
 him.ft We are justified in his name.JJ 
 There is no condemnation to those who are 
 in him.H Justification is, therefore, by faith 
 
 *Phil. iii. 9. fRom. v. 17. 
 
 t Rom. iii. 24. 5 Rom. v. 9. 
 
 II Rom. V. 19. IF Acts xiii. 39. 
 
 **lCor. i. 30. tt2Cor. V. 21. 
 
 II 1 Cor. vi. 11. 55 Rom. viii. 1. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 201 
 
 in Christ, because faith is receiving and trust- 
 ing to him as our Saviour, as having done all 
 that is required to secure our acceptance be- 
 fore God. 
 
 It is thus then the Scriptures answer the 
 question. How can a man be just with God ? 
 When the soul is burdened with a sense of 
 sin, when it sees how reasonable and holy is 
 that law which demands perfect obedience 
 and which threatens death as the penalty of 
 transgression ; when it feels the absolute im- 
 possibility of ever satisfying these just de- 
 mands by its own obedience and sufferings, 
 it is then that the revelation of Jesus Christ 
 as our righteousness, is felt to be the wisdom 
 and power of God unto salvation. Destitute 
 of all righteousness in ourselves, we have our 
 righteousness in him. What we could not 
 do he has done for us. The righteousness, 
 therefore, on the ground of which the sen- 
 tence of justification is passed upon the be- 
 lieving sinner, is not his own but that of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is one of the strongest evidences of the 
 divine origin of the Scriptures that they are 
 suited to the nature and circumstances of 
 man. If their doctrines were believed and 
 their precepts obeyed, men would stand in 
 
202 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 their true relation to God, and the different 
 classes of men to each other. Parents and 
 children, husbands and wives, rulers and 
 subjects, would be found in their proper 
 sphere, and would attain the highest possible 
 degree of excellence and happiness. Truth 
 is in order to holiness. And all truth is 
 known to be truth, by its tendency to pro- 
 mote holiness. As this test when applied to 
 the Scriptures generally, evinces their divine 
 perfection, so when applied to the cardinal 
 doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus 
 Christ, it shows that doctrine to be worthy of 
 all acceptation. On this ground it is com- 
 mended by the sacred writers. They de- 
 clare it to be in the highest degree honour- 
 able to God and beneficial to man. They 
 assert that it is so arranged as to display the 
 wisdom, justice, holiness and love of God, 
 while it secures the pardon, peace and holi- 
 ness of men. If it failed in either of these 
 objects ; if it were not suited to the divine 
 character, or to our nature and necessities, it 
 could not answer the end for which it was 
 designed. 
 
 It will be readily admitted that the glory 
 of God in the exhibition or revelation of the 
 divine perfections is the highest conceivable 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 203 
 
 end of creation and redemption ; and conse- 
 quently that any doctrine which is suited 
 to make such exhibition is, on that account, 
 worthy of being universally received and 
 gloried in. Now the inspired writers teach 
 us that it is peculiarly in the plan of redemp- 
 tion that the divine perfections are revealed ; 
 that it was designed to show unto principali- 
 ties and powers the manifold wisdom of God ; 
 that Christ was set forth as a propitiatory 
 sacrifice to exhibit his righteousness or jus- 
 tice ; and especially that in the ages to come 
 he might show forth the exceeding riches of 
 his grace in his kindness towards us in 
 Christ Jesus. It is the love of God, the 
 breadth and length and depth and height of 
 which pass knowledge, that is here most con- 
 spicuously displayed. Some men strangely 
 imagine that the death of Christ procured for 
 us the love of God ; whereas it was the effect 
 and not the cause of that love. Christ did 
 not die that God might love us ; but he died 
 because God loved us. God commendeth 
 his love towards us in that while we were 
 sinners Christ died for us. He so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth on him might not 
 perish, but have eternal life. In this was 
 
204 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 manifested the love of God towards us, be- 
 cause God sent his only begotten Son into 
 the world, that we might live through him. 
 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
 that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
 propitiation for our sins. * 
 
 As this love of God is manifested towards 
 the unworthy, it is called grace, and this it 
 is that the Scriptures dwell upon with such 
 peculiar frequency and earnestness. The 
 mystery of redemption is, that a Being of in- 
 finite holiness and justice should manifest 
 such wonderful love to sinners. Hence the 
 sacred writers so earnestly denounce every 
 thing that obscures this peculiar feature of 
 the gospel; every thing which represents 
 men as worthy, as meriting, or, in any way 
 by their own goodness, securing the exercise 
 of this love of God. It is of grace lest any 
 man should boast. We are justified by 
 grace; we are saved by grace; and if of 
 grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace 
 is no more grace. The apostle teaches us 
 not only that the plan of salvation had its 
 origin in the unmerited kindness of God, and 
 that our acceptance with him is in no way 
 or degree founded in our own worthiness, 
 but moreover, that the actual administration 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 205 
 
 of the economy of mercy is so conducted as 
 to magnify this attribute of the divine char- 
 acter. God chooses the foolish, the base, the 
 weak, yea those who are nothing, in order 
 that no flesh should glory in his presence. 
 Christ is made every thing to us, that those 
 who glory, should glory only in the Lord.^ 
 
 It cannot fail to occur to every reader that 
 unless he sincerely rejoices in this feature of 
 the plan of redemption, unless he is glad that 
 the whole glory of his salvation belongs to 
 God, his heart cannot be in accordance with 
 the gospel. If he believes that the ground 
 of his acceptance is in himself, or even 
 wishes that it were so, he is not prepared to 
 join in those grateful songs of acknowledg- 
 ment to Him, who hath saved us and called 
 us with an holy calling, not according to our 
 works, but according to his own purpose and 
 grace, which it is the delight of the redeem- 
 ed to oflfer unto him that loved them and 
 gave himself for them. It is most obvious 
 that the sacred writers are abundant in the 
 confession of their unworthiness in the sight 
 of God. They acknowledged that they were 
 unworthy absolutely and unworthy compara- 
 tively. It was of grace that any man was 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 27, 31. 
 
 18 
 
206 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 saved; and it was of grace that they were 
 saved rather than others. It is, therefore, all 
 of grace, that God may be exalted and glori- 
 fied in all them that believe. 
 
 The doctrine of the gratuitous justification 
 of sinners by faith in Jesus Christ, not only 
 displays the infinite love of God, but it is de- 
 clared to be peculiarly honourable to him, or 
 peculiarly consistent with his attributes, be- 
 cause it is adapted to all men. Is he the 
 God of the Jews only ? Is he not also of the 
 Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gentiles also ; seeing 
 it is one God who shall justify the circum- 
 cision by faith, and the uncircumcision 
 through faith. For the same Lord over all 
 is rich unto all that call upon him. For 
 WHOSOEVER shall call on the name of the 
 Lord shall be saved. This is no narrow, na- 
 tional, or sectarian doctrine. It is as broad 
 as the earth. Wherever men, the creatures 
 of God can be found, there the mercy of God 
 in Christ Jesus, may be preached. The 
 apostle greatly exults in this feature of the 
 plan of redemption, as worthy of God ; and 
 as making the gospel the foundation of a reli- 
 gion for all nations and ages. In revealing 
 a salvation sufficient for all and suited for all, 
 it discloses God in his true character, as the 
 God and Father of all. 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 207 
 
 The Scriptures, however, represent this 
 great doctrine as not less suited to meet the 
 necessities of man, than it is to promote the 
 glory of God. If it exalts God, it humbles 
 man. If it renders it manifest that he is a 
 Being of infinite holiness, justice and love, it 
 makes us feel that we are destitute of all 
 merit, nay, are most ill-deserving; that we 
 are without strength ; that our salvation is an 
 undeserved favour. As nothing is more true 
 than the guilt and helplessness of men, no 
 plan of redemption which does not recognise 
 those facts could ever be in harmony with 
 our inward experience, or command the full 
 acquiescence of the penitent soul. The as- 
 cription of merit which we are conscious we 
 do not deserve, produces of itself severe dis- 
 tress ; and if this false estimate of our deserts 
 is the ground of the exhibition of special 
 kindness towards us, it destroys the happi- 
 ness such kindness would otherwise produce. 
 To a soul, therefore, sensible of its pollution 
 and guilt in the sight of God, the doctrine 
 that it is saved on account of its own good- 
 ness, or because it is better than other men, 
 is discordant and destructive of its peace. 
 Nothing but an absolutely gratuitous salva- 
 tion can suit a soul sensible of its ill-desert. 
 
208 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 Nothing else suits its views of truth, or its 
 sense of right. The opposite doctrine in- 
 volves a falsehood and a moral impropriety in 
 which neither the reason nor conscience can 
 acquiesce. The scriptural doctrine, which 
 assumes what we know to be true, viz : our 
 guilt and helplessness places us in our pro- 
 per relation to God ; that relation which ac- 
 cords with the truth, with our sense of right, 
 with our inward experience, and with every 
 proper desire of our hearts. This is one of 
 the reasons why the Scriptures represent 
 peace as the consequence of justification by 
 faith. There can be no peace while the soul 
 is not in harmony with God, and there can 
 be no such harmony until it willingly occu- 
 pies its true position in relation to God. So 
 long as it does not acknowledge its true cha- 
 racter, so long as it acts on the assumption of 
 its ability to merit or to earn the divine fa- 
 vour, it is in a false position. Its feelings to- 
 wards God are wrong, and there is no mani- 
 festation of approbation or favour on the part 
 of God towards the soul. But when we take 
 our true place and feel our ill-desert, and look 
 upon pardoning mercy as a mere gratuity, 
 we find access to God, and his love is shed 
 abroad in our hearts, producing that peace 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 209 
 
 which passes all understanding. The soul 
 ceases from its legal strivings ; it gives over 
 the vain attempt to make itself worthy, or to 
 work out a righteousness wherewith to ap- 
 pear tefore God. It is contented to be ac- 
 cepted as unworthy, and to receive as a gift 
 a righteousness which can bear the scrutiny 
 of God. Peace, therefore, is not the result of 
 the assurance of mere pardon, but of pardon 
 founded upon a righteousness which illus- 
 trates the character of God, which magnifies 
 the law and makes it honourable ; which sa- 
 tisfies the justice of God, while it displays the 
 infinite riches of his tenderness and love. 
 The soul can find no objection to such a me- 
 thod of forgiveness. It is not pained by the 
 ascription of merit to itself, which is felt to be 
 undeserved. Its utter unworthiness is not 
 only recognised but openly declared. Nor is 
 it harassed by the anxious doubt whether 
 God can, consistently with his justice, forgive 
 sin. For justice is as clearly revealed in the 
 cross of Christ, as love. The whole soul, 
 therefore, however enlightened, or however 
 sensitive, acquiesces with humility and de- 
 light in a plan of mercy which thus honours 
 God, and which, while it secures the salva- 
 tion of the sinner, permits him to hide him- 
 18^ 
 
210 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 self in the radiance which surrounds his Sa- 
 viour. 
 
 The apostles, moreover, urge on men the 
 doctrine of justification by faith with peculiar 
 earnestness, because it presents the only me- 
 thod of deliverance from sin. So long as men 
 are under the condemnation of the law, and 
 feel themselves bound by its demands of obe- 
 dience as the condition and ground of their 
 acceptance with God, they do and must feel 
 that he is unreconciled, that his perfections 
 are arrayed against them. Their whole ob- 
 ject is to propitiate him by means which they 
 know to be inadequate. Their spirit is ser- 
 vile, their religion a bondage, their God is a 
 hard master. To men in such a state, true 
 love, true obedience and real peace are alike 
 impossible. But when they are brought to 
 see that God, through his infinite love, has 
 set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our 
 sins, that he might be just, and yet justify 
 those that believe ; that it is not by works of 
 righteousness which we have done, but ac- 
 cording to his mercy he saveth us ; they are 
 emancipated from their former bondage and 
 made the sons of God. God is no longer a 
 hard master, but a kind Father. Obedience 
 is no longer a task to be done for a reward ; 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 211 
 
 it is the joyful expression of filial love. The 
 whole relation of the soul to God is changed, 
 and all our feelings and conduct change with 
 it. Though we have no works to perform in 
 order to justification, we have every thing to 
 do in order to manifest our gratitude and 
 love. Do we, therefore, make void the law 
 through faith ? God forbid : yea, we establish 
 the law. There is no such thing as real, ac- 
 ceptable obedience until we are thus deliver- 
 ed from the bondage of the law as the rule of 
 justification, and are reconciled to God by the 
 death of his Son. Till then we are slaves 
 and enemies, and have the feelings of slaves. 
 When we have accepted the terms of recon- 
 ciliation we are the sons of God and have the 
 feelings of sons. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that the 
 filial obedience rendered by the children of 
 God, is the efl^ect of the mere moral influence 
 arising from a sense of his favour. Though 
 perhaps the strongest influence which any 
 external consideration can exert, it is far from 
 being the source of the holiness which always 
 follows faith. The very act by which we be- 
 come interested in the redemption of Christ, 
 from the condemnation of the law, makes us 
 partakers of his Spirit. It is not mere par- 
 
212 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 don, or any other isolated blessing, that is 
 offered to us in the gospel, but complete re- 
 demption, deliverance from evil and restora- 
 tion to the love and life of God. Those, 
 therefore, who believe, are not merely for- 
 given, but are so united to Christ, that they 
 derive from and through him, the Holy 
 Spirit. This is his great gift, bestowed upon 
 all who come to Him and confide in Him. 
 This is the reason why he says. Without me, 
 ye can do nothing. As the branch cannot 
 bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; 
 no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I 
 am the vine, ye are the branches. He that 
 abideth in me, and I in him, the same bring- 
 eth forth much fruit. 
 
 The gospel method of salvation, therefore, 
 is worthy of all acceptation. It reveals the 
 divine perfections in the clearest and most 
 affecting light, and it is in every way suited 
 to the character and necessities of men. It 
 places us in our true position as undeserving 
 sinners ; and it secures pardon, peace of con- 
 science and holiness of life. It is the wisdom 
 and the power of God unto salvation. It 
 cannot be a matter of surprise that the Scrip- 
 tures represent the rejection of this method of 
 redemption, as the prominent ground of the 
 
JUSTIFICATION. 213 
 
 condemnation of those who perish under the 
 sound of the gospel. That the plan should 
 be so clearly revealed, and yet men should 
 insist upon adopting some other better suited 
 to their inclinations, is the height of folly and 
 disobedience. That the Son of God should 
 come into the world ; die the just for the un- 
 just, and offer us eternal life, and yet we 
 should reject his proffered mercy, proves such 
 an insensibility to his excellence and love, 
 such a love for sin, such a disregard of the 
 approbation and enjoyment of God, that could 
 all other grounds of condemnation be re- 
 moved, this alone would be sufficient. He 
 that believeth not, is condemned already, be- 
 cause he hath not believed in the name of the 
 only begotten Son of God. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 FAITH. 
 
 Section I. Faith necessary in order to sal- 
 vation. The nature of saving Faith. 
 
 However abundant and suitable may be 
 the provision which God has made for the 
 salvation of men, there are many who fail of 
 attaining eternal life. There are those whom 
 Christ shall profit nothing. Nay, there are 
 those whose condemnation will be greatly ag- 
 gravated, because they have known and re- 
 jected the Son of God, the Saviour of the 
 world. It is, therefore, not less necessary 
 that we should know what we must do in 
 order to secure an interest in the redemption 
 of Christ, than that we should understand 
 what he has done for our salvation. 
 
 If God has revealed a plan of salvation for 
 sinners, they must, in order to be saved, ac- 
 quiesce in its provisions. By whatever name 
 it may be called, the thing to be done, is to 
 approve and accept of the terms of salvation 
 
FAITH. 215 
 
 presented in the gospel. As the plan of re- 
 demption is designed for sinners, the recep- 
 tion of that plan on our part, implies an ac- 
 knowledgment that we are sinners, and justly 
 exposed to the displeasure of God. To those 
 who have no such sense of guilt, it must ap- 
 pear foolishness and an offence. As it pro- 
 ceeds upon the assumption of the insufficien- 
 cy of any obedience of our own to satisfy the 
 demands of the law, acquiescence in it in- 
 volves the renunciation of all dependence 
 upon our own righteousness as the ground of 
 our acceptance with God. If salvation is of 
 grace, it must be received as such. To intro- 
 duce our own merit, in any form or to any 
 degree, is to reject it; because grace and 
 works are essentially opposed ; in trusting to 
 the one we renounce the other. 
 
 .As justification is pardon and acceptance 
 dispensed on the ground of the righteousness 
 of Christ, acquiescence in the plan of salva- 
 tion involves the recognition and acceptance 
 of the work of Christ as the only ground of 
 justification before God. However much the 
 child of God may be perplexed with anxious 
 doui)ts, and vain endeavours, he is brought at 
 last to see and admire the perfect simplicity 
 of the plan of mercy ; he finds that it requires 
 
216 FAITH. 
 
 nothing on his part but the acceptance of 
 what is freely offered ; the acceptance of it as 
 free and unmerited. It is under the con- 
 sciousness of ill-desert and helplessness that 
 the soul embraces Jesus Christ as he is pre- 
 sented in the gospel. This it is that God 
 requires of us in order to our justification. 
 As soon as this is done, we are united to 
 Christ; he assumes our responsibilities; he 
 pleads our cause ; he secures our pardon and 
 acceptance on the ground of what he has 
 done; so that there is no condemnation to 
 them that are in Christ Jesus. 
 
 The nature of the duty required of us in 
 order to our justification, is made, if possible, 
 still more plain by the account which the 
 Bible gives of those who are condemned. 
 They are described as those who reject 
 Christ, who go about to establish their own 
 righteousness, and refuse to submit to the 
 righteousness of God; as those who look to 
 the law or their own works, instead of rely- 
 ing on the work of Christ. They are those 
 who reject the counsel of God against them- 
 selves; who, ignorant of their character and 
 of the requirements of God, refuse to be saved 
 by grace through the redemption that is in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
FAITH. 217 
 
 The word by which this acceptance of 
 Christ is commonly expressed in the Bible, is 
 FAITH. God so loved the world that he gave 
 his only begotten Son, that whosoever believ- 
 eth in him might not perish, but have eternal 
 life. He that belie veth on him is not con- 
 demned; but he that believeth not is con- 
 demned already. He that believeth on the 
 Son hath everlasting life ; he that believeth 
 not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath 
 of God abideth on him. Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, he that believeth on me hath ever- 
 lasting life. Go ye into all the world and 
 preach the gospel to every creature ; he that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he 
 that believeth not shall be damned. Sirs, 
 what must I do to be saved ? and they said, 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved. God is just and the justifier 
 of him that believeth in Jesus. The Gen- 
 tiles have attained righteousness, even the 
 righteousness which is by faith; but Israel 
 hath not attained it, because they sought it 
 not by faith. Knowing that a man is not 
 justified by works of the law, but by the faith 
 of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in 
 Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by 
 the faith of Christ and not by the works of 
 19 
 
218 PAITH. \ 
 
 the law. By grace are ye saved through 
 faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift 
 of God. This is his commandment. That we 
 should believe on his Son Jesus Christ. He 
 that believeth on the Son of God hath the 
 witness in himself. 
 
 Language so plain and so varied as this, 
 cannot be misunderstood. It teaches every 
 serious inquirer after the way of life, that in 
 order to salvation, he must believe in Jesus 
 Christ. Still, though he knows what it is to 
 believe, as well as any one can tell him, yet 
 as he reads of a dead, as well as of a living 
 faith, a faith of devils and a faith of God's 
 elect ; as he reads on one page that he that 
 believes shall be saved, and on another, that 
 Simon himself believed, and yet remained in 
 the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniqui- 
 ty, he is often greatly perplexed and at a loss 
 to determine what that faith is, which is con- 
 nected with salvation. This ambiguity is a 
 difficulty which is inseparable from the use 
 of language. The soul of man is so wonder- 
 ful in its operations; its perceptions, emo- 
 tions, and affections are so various and so 
 complicated, that it is impossible there should 
 be a different word for every distinct exercise. 
 It is therefore absolutely necessary that the 
 
FAITH. 219 
 
 same word should be used to express different 
 states of mind, which have certain prominent 
 characteristics in common. The definite, in 
 distinction from the general or comprehen- 
 sive meaning of the word, is determined by 
 the context; by explanatory or equivalent 
 expressions ; by the nature of the thing spo- 
 ken of, and by the effects ascribed to it. 
 This is found sufficient for all the purposes 
 of intercourse and instruction. We can speak 
 without being misunderstood, of loving our 
 food, of loving an infant, of loving a parent, 
 of loving God, though in each of these cases 
 the word love represents a state of mind pecu- 
 liar to itself, and different from all the others. 
 There is in all of them a pleasurable excite- 
 ment on the perception of certain qualities, 
 and this we call love, though no two states of 
 mind can well be more distinct, than the 
 complacent fondness with which a parent 
 looks upon his infant, and the adoring reve- 
 rence with which he turns his soul towards 
 God. 
 
 We need not be surprised, therefore, that 
 the word faith is used in Scripture to express 
 very different exercises, or states of mind. 
 In its widest sense, faith is an assent to truth 
 upon the exhibition of evidence. It does not 
 
220 FAITH. 
 
 seem necessary that this evidence should be 
 of the nature of testimony ; for we are com- 
 monly and properly said to believe vrhatever 
 we regard as true. We believe in the exist- 
 ence and attributes of God, though our assent 
 is not founded upon what is strictly called 
 testimony. But if faith means assent to 
 truth, it is obvious that its nature and attend- 
 ants must vary with the nature of the truth 
 believed, and especially with the nature of 
 the evidence upon which our assent is found- 
 ed. A man may assent to the proposition, 
 that the earth moves round its axis, that vir- 
 tue is good, that sin will be punished, that to 
 liim, as a believer, God promises salvation. 
 In all these cases there is assent, and there- 
 fore faith, but the state of mind expressed by 
 the term, is not always the same. Assent to 
 a speculative or abstract truth is a specula- 
 tive act ; assent to a moral truth, is a moral 
 act ; assent to a promise made to ourselves, is 
 an act of trust. Our belief that the earth 
 moves round its axis is a mere assent. Our 
 belief in the excellence of virtue is, in its na- 
 ture, a moral judgment. Our belief of a pro- 
 mise is an act of trust. Or if any choose to 
 say that trust is the result of assent to the 
 truth of the promise, it may be admitted as a 
 
FAITH. 221 
 
 mere matter of analysis, but the distinction 
 is of no consequence, because the two things 
 are inseparable, and because the Scriptures 
 do not make the distinction. In the lan- 
 guage of the Bible, faith in the promises of 
 God is a believing reliance, and no blessing 
 is connected with mere assent as distinguish- 
 ed and separated from reliance. 
 
 It is, however, of more consequence to 
 remark that the nature of the act by which 
 we assent to truth, is modified by the kind of 
 evidence upon which our assent is founded. 
 The blind may believe, on the testimony of 
 others, in the existence of colours and the 
 deaf in the harmony of sounds, but their faith 
 is very different from the faith of those who 
 enjoy the exercise of the sense of sight or 
 hearing. The universal reputation of such 
 men as Bacon and Newton and the acknow- 
 ledged influence of their writings, may be 
 the foundation of a very rational conviction 
 of their intellectual superiority. But a con- 
 viction, founded upon the perusal and appre- 
 ciation of their own works, is of an essential- 
 ly different character. We may believe on 
 the testimony of those in whose veracity and 
 judgment we confide, that a man of whom 
 we know nothing ha» great moral excellence. 
 19* 
 
222 FAITH. 
 
 But if we see for ourselves the exhibition of 
 his excellence, we believe for other reasons, 
 and in a different way. The state of mind, 
 therefore, which, in the language of common 
 life and in that of the sacred Scriptures, is 
 expressed by the word faith, varies essential- 
 ly with the nature of the evidence upon 
 which our belief rests. 
 
 One man believes the Bible to be the word 
 of God, and the facts and doctrines therein 
 contained to be true, simply on the testimo- 
 ny of others. Born in a Christian land and 
 taught by his parents to regard the Scrip- 
 tures as a revelation from God, he yields a 
 general assent to the truth, without troubling 
 himself with any personal examination iato 
 the evidence upon which it rests. Another 
 believes because he has investigated the sub- 
 ject. He sees that there is no rational w^ay 
 of accounting for the miracles, the accom- 
 plishment of predictions, the success and 
 influence of the gospel, except upon the 
 assumption of its divine origin. Others, 
 again, believe because the truths of the Bible 
 commend themselves to their reason and 
 conscience, and accord with their inward ex- 
 perience. Those, whose faith .rests upon this 
 foundation, often receive the word with joy, 
 
FAITH. 223 
 
 they do many things, and have much of the 
 appearance of true Christians ; or, like Felix, 
 they believe and tremble. This is the founda- 
 tion of the faith which often surprises the 
 vricked in their last hours. Men who all 
 their lives have neglected or reviled the 
 truth and who may have accumulated a trea- 
 sury of objections to the authority of the 
 Scriptures, are often brought to believe by a 
 power which they cannot resist. An awaken- 
 ed conscience affirms the truth with an 
 authority before which they quail. Their 
 doubts and sophistries fly affrighted before 
 the majesty of this new revealed witness for 
 the truth. To disbelieve is now impossible. 
 That there is a God, that he is holy and just, 
 and that there is a hell, they would give the 
 world to doubt, but cannot. Here is a faith 
 very different in its origin, nature, and effects 
 from that which rests upon the authority of 
 men, or upon external evidence and argu- 
 ment. Though the faith just described, is 
 generally most strikingly exhibited at the ap- 
 proach of death, it often happens that men 
 who are habitually careless, are suddenly 
 arrested in their career. Their conscience is 
 aroused and enlightened. They feel those 
 things to be true, which before they either 
 
224 FAITH. 
 
 denied or disregarded. The truth, therefore, 
 has great power over them. It destroys their 
 former peace. It forces them to self-denial 
 and the performance of religious duties. 
 Sometimes this influence soon wears off, as 
 conscience subsides into its accustomed slum- 
 ber. At others it continues long, even to the 
 end of life. It then constitutes that spirit of 
 bondage and fear under which its unhappy 
 subjects endeavour to work out a way to 
 heaven, without embracing the gospel of the 
 grace of God. The effects produced by a 
 faith of this kind, though specifically differ- 
 ent from the fruits of the Spirit, are not al- 
 ways easily detected by the eye of man. 
 And hence many who appear outwardly as 
 the children of God, are inwardly under the 
 dominion of a spirit the opposite of the lov- 
 ing, confiding, filial temper of the gospel. 
 
 There is a faith different from any of those 
 forms of belief which have yet been mention- 
 ed It is a faith which rests upon the mani- 
 festation by the Holy Spirit, of the excellence, 
 beauty, and suitableness of the truth. This 
 is what Peter calls the precious faith of God's 
 elect. It arises from a spiritual apprehension 
 of the truth, or from the testimony of the 
 Spirit with and by the truth in our hearts. 
 
FAITH. 225 
 
 Of this faith the Scriptures make frequent 
 mention. Christ said, I thank thee, O Father, 
 Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid 
 these things from the wise and prudent, and 
 hast revealed them unto babes. ^ The ex- 
 ternal revelation was made equally to the 
 wise and to the babes. To the latter, how- 
 ever, was granted an inward illumination 
 which enabled them to see the excellence of 
 the truth, which commanded their joyful as- 
 sent. Our Saviour therefore added. No man 
 knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; 
 and who the Father is, but the Son, and he 
 to whom the Son will reveal him. When 
 Peter made his confession of faith in Christ, 
 our Saviour said to him, Blessed art thou, 
 Simon Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath not 
 revealed it unto thee, but my Father which 
 is in heaven, t Paul was a persecutor of the 
 church ; but when it pleased God to reveal 
 his Son in him, he at once preached the faith 
 which he before destroyed. He had an ex- 
 ternal knowledge of Christ before ; but this 
 internal revelation he experienced on his way 
 to Damascus, and it effected an instant 
 change in his whole character. There was 
 nothing miraculous or peculiar in the conver- 
 ♦ Luke X. 21. t Matthew xvi. 17. 
 
226 FAITH. 
 
 sion of the apostle, except in the mere inci- 
 dental circumstances of his case. He speaks 
 of all believers as having the same divine 
 illumination. God, he says, v^ho command- 
 ed the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
 shined into our hearts, to give us the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God, as it 
 shines in the face of Jesus Christ.^ On the 
 other hand, he speaks of those w^hose minds 
 the god of this vi^orld hath blinded, lest the 
 light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is 
 the image of God, should shine unto them. 
 In the second chapter of his first epistle to 
 the Corinthians, he dwells much upon this 
 subject, and teaches not only that the true 
 divine wisdom of the gospel was undiscover- 
 able by human wisdom, but that when exter- 
 nally revealed, we need the Spirit that we 
 may know the things freely given to us of 
 God. For the natural man receiveth not the 
 things of the Spirit of God, for they are fool- 
 ishness unto him, neither can he know them 
 for they are spiritually discerned. Hence 
 the apostle prays for his readers, that the 
 eyes of their understandings (hearts) might 
 be opened, that they might know the hope of 
 their calling, the riches of their inheritance, 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
 
FAITH. 227 
 
 and the greatness of the divine power of 
 which they were the subjects.* And in 
 another place, that they might be filled with 
 the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and 
 spiritual understanding, f By spiritual un- 
 derstanding is meant that insight into the 
 nature of the truth which is the result of the 
 influence of the Spirit upon the heart. Since 
 faith is founded on this spiritual apprehen- 
 sion, Paul says, he preached not with the 
 enticing words of man's wisdom, because a 
 faith which resulted from such preaching 
 could be at best a rational conviction ; but in 
 the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 
 that the faith of his hearers might stand, not 
 in the wisdom of men, but in the power of 
 God. J Hence faith is said to be one of the 
 fruits of the Spirit, the gift of God, the result 
 of his operation. ^ These representations of 
 the Scriptures accord with the experience of 
 the people of God. They know that their 
 faith is not founded upon the testimony of 
 others, or exclusively or mainly upon exter- 
 nal evidence. They believe because the 
 truth appears to them both true and good ; 
 because they feel its power and experience 
 its consolations. 
 
 * Eph. i. 18, 19. t Colossiana, i. 9. 
 
 t 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. } Eph. ii. 8. Col. ii. 12. 
 
228 FAITH, 
 
 It is obvious that a faith founded upon the 
 spiritual apprehension of the truth, as it dif- 
 fers in its origin, must also differ in its effects, 
 from every other kind of belief Of the mul- 
 titudes who believe the Scriptures upon au- 
 thority or on the ground of external evidence, 
 how large a portion disregard their precepts 
 and warnings ! To say that such persons do 
 not believe, though true in one sense, is not 
 true in another. They do believe ; and to as- 
 sert the contrary is to contradict their con- 
 sciousness. The state of mind which they 
 exhibit, is in the Bible called faith, though it 
 is dead. This rational conviction, in other 
 cases, combined with other causes, produces 
 that decorous attention to the duties of reli- 
 gion and that general propriety of conduct, 
 which are so often exhibited by the hearers of 
 the gospel. The faith which is founded on 
 the power of conscience, produces still more 
 marked effects; either temporary obedience 
 and joy, or the despair and opposition mani- 
 fested by the convinced, the dying, and the 
 lost ; or that laborious slavery of religion of 
 which we have already spoken. But that 
 faith, which is the gift of God, which arises 
 from his opening our eyes to see the excel- 
 lence pf tl^e truth, is attended with joy and 
 
FAITH. 229 
 
 love. These feelings are as immediately and 
 necessarily attendant on this kind of faith, as 
 pleasure is on the perception of beauty. 
 Hence faith is said to work by love. And as 
 all revealed truth is the object of the faith of 
 which we now speak, every truth must, in 
 proportion to the strength of our faith, pro- 
 duce its appropriate effect upon the heart. 
 A belief of the being and perfections of God, 
 founded upon the apprehension of his glory, 
 must produce love, reverence and confidence, 
 with a desire to be conformed to his image. 
 Hence the apostle says: We all, with open 
 face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of 
 God, are changed into the same image from 
 glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.* 
 Faith in his threatenings, founded upon a 
 perception of their justice, their harmony 
 with his perfections, and the ill-desert of sin, 
 must produce fear and trembling. His peo- 
 ple, therefore, are described as those who 
 tremble at his word. Faith in his promises, 
 founded upon the apprehension of his faith- 
 fulness and power, their harmony with all his 
 revealed purposes, their suitableness to our 
 nature and necessities, must produce confi- 
 
 *2Cor. iii. 18. 
 20 
 
230 FAITH. 
 
 dence, joy and hope. This was the faith 
 which made Abraham leave his own conn- 
 try, to go to a strange land ; which led Moses 
 to esteem the reproach of Christ greater 
 riches than the treasures of Egypt. This 
 was the faith of David also, of Samuel, and 
 of all the prophets, who through faith sub- 
 dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob- 
 tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the 
 edge of the sword, out of weakness were 
 made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned 
 to flight the armies of the aliens. This is the 
 faith which leads all the people of God to 
 confess that they are strangers and pilgrims 
 upon earth, and that they look for a city 
 which hath foundations, whose builder and 
 maker is God. This is the faith which over- 
 comes the world, which leads the believer to 
 set his affections on things above, where 
 Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; 
 which enables him to glory even in tribula- 
 tion, while he looks not at the things which 
 are seen, but at the things which are not 
 seen ; for the things that are seen are tempo- 
 ral, but the things that are not seen are eter- 
 nal. 
 
 And what shall we say of a faith in Jesus 
 
FAITH. 231 
 
 Christ founded upon the apprehension of the 
 glory of God, as it shines in him ; which be- 
 holds that glory as the glory of the only be- 
 gotten of the Father full of grace and truth ; 
 which contemplates the Redeemer as clothed 
 in our nature ; the first born of many brethren ; 
 as dying for our sins, rising again for our jus- 
 tification, ascending into heaven, and as now 
 seated at the right hand of God, where he 
 ever liveth to make intercession for us ? Such 
 a faith the apostle tells us, must produce love, 
 for he says, Whom having not seen ye love, 
 and in whom, though now ye see him not, 
 yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory. The soul gladly receives 
 him as a Saviour in all the characters and for 
 all the purposes for which he is revealed ; and 
 naturally desires to be conformed to his will, 
 and to make known the unsearchable riches 
 of his grace to others. 
 
 It is no less obvious that no one can believe 
 the representations given in the Scriptures 
 respecting the character of man and the ill- 
 desert of sin, with a faith founded upon right 
 apprehension of the holiness of God and the 
 evil of his own heart, without experiencing 
 self-condemnation, self-abhorrence, and a con- 
 stant hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
 
232 FAITH. 
 
 ness. Thus of all the truths in the word of 
 God, it may be said, that so far as they are 
 believed in virtue of this spiritual apprehen- 
 sion, they will exert their appropriate influ- 
 ence upon the heart and consequently upon 
 the life. That such a faith should not pro- 
 duce good fruits, is as impossible as that the 
 sun should give light without heat. This 
 faith is the living head of all right affections 
 and of all holy living ; without it all religion 
 is a dull formality, a slavish drudgery, or at 
 best a rationalistic homage. Hence we are 
 said, to live by faith, to walk by faith, to be 
 sanctified by faith, to overcome by faith, to 
 be saved by faith. And the grand character- 
 istic of the people of God is, that they are 
 Believers. 
 
 Section II. Faith as connected with Jus- 
 tification. 
 
 What has been said hitherto is designed to 
 illustrate the nature of saving faith, as it is 
 represented in the Scriptures. It differs from 
 all other acts of the mind to which the term 
 faith is applied, mainly on account of the na- 
 ture of the evidence on which it is founded. 
 The Bible, however, is more definite in its 
 
FAITH. 233 
 
 instructions on this subject. Besides teach- 
 ing us that there is a faith which receives as 
 true all the declarations of God, in virtue of 
 an evidence exhibited and applied by the 
 Holy Spirit, it tells us what those particular 
 acts of faith are, which secure our justifica- 
 tion before God. It plainly teaches that we 
 are justified by those acts of faith which have 
 a special reference to Christ and his mediato- 
 rial work. Thus we are said to be justified 
 by faith in his blood.* The righteousness of 
 God is said to be by faith of Jesus Christ; 
 that is, by faith of which he is the object. f 
 This expression occurs frequently ; Knowing, 
 says the apostle, that a man is not justified 
 by the works of the law, but by the faith of 
 Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus 
 Christ, that we might be justified by the faith 
 of Christ. J Not having my own righteous- 
 ness, which is of the law, but that which is 
 through the faith of Christ.^ In all these 
 places, and in many others of a similar kind, 
 it is expressly stated that Christ is the object 
 of justifying faith. The same doctrine is 
 taught in those numerous passages, in which 
 
 ♦ Rom. iii. 23. t Rom- "i- 22. 
 
 I Gal. ii. 16. 5 Phil. iii. 9. 
 
 20* 
 
234 FAITH. 
 
 justification or salvation is connected with be- 
 lieving in Christ. Whosoever believeth in 
 him shall not perish, but have eternal life.* 
 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
 life.f Whosoever believeth on him shall re- 
 ceive remission of sins.f Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. § The 
 same truth is involved in all the representa- 
 tions of the method of justification given in 
 the w^ord of God. We are said to be justified 
 by the death of Christ, by the blood of his 
 cross, by the redemption that is in him, by 
 the sacrifice of himself, by his bearing our 
 sins, by his obedience, or righteousness. All 
 these representations imply that Christ in his 
 mediatorial character, is the special object of 
 justifying faith. It is indeed impossible that 
 any man should believe the record w^hich 
 God has given of his Son, vrithout believing 
 every other record which he has given, so far 
 as it is known and apprehended; still the 
 special act of faith, which is connected with 
 our justification, is belief in Jesus Christ as 
 the Saviour from sin. And when we are 
 commanded to believe in Jesus Christ, the 
 
 * John iii. 16. f John iii. 36. 
 
 \ Acts X. 43, 5 Acts xvi. 31. 
 
FAITH. 235 
 
 Scriptural meaning of the expression is, that 
 we should trust, or confide in him. It does 
 not express mere assent to the proposition 
 that Jesus is the Christ, which angels and 
 devils exercise ; but it expresses trust which 
 involves knowledge and assent. To believe 
 in Christ as a propitiation for sin, is to receive 
 and confide in him as such. 
 
 From this representation it is clear what 
 we must do to be saved. When the mind is 
 perplexed and anxious from a sense of sin and 
 the accusations of conscience ; when the trou- 
 bled spirit looks round for some way of escape 
 from the just displeasure of God, the voice of 
 mercy from the lips of the Son of God is. Come 
 unto me, believe upon me, submit to be saved 
 by me. Till this is done, nothing is done. 
 And when this cordial act of faith in Christ 
 is exercised, we are accepted for his sake, and 
 he undertakes to save us from the dominion 
 and condemnation of our sins. The expe- 
 rience of the people of God, when they are 
 made the recipients of that divine illumina- 
 tion which reveals to them the glory of God, 
 their own un worthiness, and the plan of sal- 
 , vation by Jesus Christ, is no doubt very va- 
 rious. It is modified by their previous know- 
 ledge, by their peculiar state of mind, by the 
 
236 FAITH. 
 
 particular truth which happens to attract 
 their attention, by the clearness of the mani- 
 festation and by many other circumstances. 
 This diversity is readily admitted, yet since 
 no man can come unto the Father but by the 
 Son ; since without faith in him there is no 
 forgiveness and no access to God, it must still 
 be true that, with greater or less distinctness 
 of apprehension, Christ and his mediatorial 
 work constitute the object of the first gra- 
 cious exercises of the renewed soul. Any 
 approach to God, any hope of his favour, any 
 peace of conscience or confidence of pardon, 
 not founded upon him, must be delusive. 
 Having, (that is, because we have) such an 
 High Priest we come with boldness to the 
 throne of grace ; and this is the only ground 
 on which we can venture to draw near. 
 The whole plan of redemption shows that 
 there is no pardon, no access to God, no 
 peace or reconciliation except through Jesus 
 Christ. And this idea is so constantly pre- 
 sented in the Bible, that all genuine religious 
 experience must be in accordance with it. 
 
 It is, however, of such vital importance for 
 the sinner distinctly to understand what it is 
 that is required of him, that God has gra- 
 ciously so illustrated the nature of saving 
 
FAITH. 237 
 
 faith that the most illiterate reader of the 
 Scriptures may learn the way of life. It is 
 not merely by the term faith, or believing, 
 that this act of the soul is expressed, but by 
 many others of equivalent import. The con- 
 sideration of a few of these will serve to ex- 
 plain more distinctly the plan of salvation, 
 by showing at once the nature, object and 
 office of justifying faith. 
 
 One of the most comprehensive and intelli- 
 gible of these equivalent terms is that of re- 
 ceiving. To as many as received him, to 
 them gave he power to become the sons of 
 God.^ As ye have therefore received Christ 
 Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him.f Be- 
 lievers are therefore described as those who 
 receive the gift of righteousness ;t as those 
 who gladly receive the word.^ To receive 
 Jesus Christ is to accept and recognise him 
 in the character in which he presents him- 
 self, as the Son of God, the Saviour of sin- 
 ners, as a propitiation for our sins, as a 
 ransom for our souls, as the Lord our righte- 
 ousness. He came to his own and his own 
 received him not. The Jews would not re- 
 
 * John i. 12. f Col. ii. 6. 
 
 I Rom. V. 17. 5 Acts ii. 41. 
 
238 FAITH. 
 
 cognise him as the Messiah, the only media- 
 tor between God and man, as the end of the 
 law for righteousness. They denied the 
 Holy One, and put far from them the offer of 
 life through him. Could the nature, the ob- 
 ject, or office of faith be presented more clear- 
 ly than they are by this representation? 
 Can the soul, anxious about salvation, doubt 
 what it has to do ? Jesus Christ is presented 
 to him in the gospel as the Son of God, 
 clothed in our nature, sent by the Father to 
 make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in 
 everlasting righteousness, to redeem us from 
 the curse of the law by being made a curse 
 for us. All that we have to do, is to receive 
 him in this character ; and those who thus 
 receive him he makes the sons of God, that 
 is, the objects of his favour, the subjects of 
 his grace and the heirs of his kingdom. 
 
 A still more simple illustration of the na- 
 ture of faith is contained in those passages in 
 which we are commanded to look unto God. 
 Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends 
 of the earth.* Our Saviour avails himself 
 of this figure, when he says, As Moses lifted 
 up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
 must the Son of Man be lifted up, that who- 
 ♦ Is. xlv. 22. 
 
FAITH. 239 
 
 soever believeth in him should not perish 
 but have eternal life.^ The dying Israelite, 
 who was commanded to turn his feeble eye 
 on the brazen serpent, was surely at no loss 
 to know the nature of the duty required of 
 him. He knew there was no virtue in the 
 act of looking. He might look in vain all 
 round the wide horizon. He was healed, 
 not for looking, but because the serpent was 
 placed there by the command of God, and 
 salvation made to depend upon submitting to 
 the appointed method of relief. Why then 
 should the soul convinced of sin and misery 
 be in doubt as to what it has to do ? Christ 
 has been set forth as crucified ; and we are 
 commanded to look to him and be saved. 
 Can any thing be more simple ? Must not 
 every attempt to render more intelligible the 
 Saviour's beautiful illustration, serve only to 
 darken counsel by words without wisdom ? 
 
 Another striking illustration of this subject, 
 may be found in Heb. vi. 18, where believers 
 are described as those who have fled for 
 refuge to lay hold of the hope set before 
 them. As of old, the man-slayer, when pur- 
 sued by the avenger of blood, fled to the city 
 of refuge, whose gates were open night and 
 
 * John iii. 14, 15. 
 
240 FAITH. 
 
 day, and whose highways were always unin- 
 cumbered ; so the soul, under the sense of its 
 guilt and convinced that it must perish if it 
 remains where it is, flees to Jesus Christ, as 
 the appointed refuge and finds peace and se- 
 curity in him. There the avenger cannot 
 touch him ; there the law which before de- 
 nounced vengeance, spreads its ample shield 
 around him and gives him the assurance of 
 safety. 
 
 A still more common method of expressing 
 the act of saving faith, is to be found in such 
 passages as John vi. 35. He that cometh to 
 me shall never hunger, and he that believeth 
 on me shall never thirst. All that the Father 
 giveth to me shall come to me ; and him that 
 cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 
 Here coming and believing are interchanged 
 as expressing the same idea. So also in the 
 following chapter, where our Saviour says, 
 If any man thirst let him come unto me and 
 drink. He that believeth on me, as the 
 Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall 
 flow rivers of living waters. Hence the in- 
 vitations and commands of the gospel are 
 often expressed by this word. Come unto 
 me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest. And in the closing 
 
FAITH. 241 
 
 invitation of the sacred volume, The Spirit 
 and the bride say, Come ; and let him that 
 heareth, say, Come ; and let him that is 
 athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him 
 take the water of life freely. 
 
 Though this language is so plain that no- 
 thing but the illumination of the Spirit can 
 render it plainer, yet the troubled soul per- 
 plexes itself with the inquiry, what is it to 
 come to Christ ? Though assured that he is 
 not far from any one of us, we are often forc- 
 ed to cry out, O that I knew where I might 
 find him ! that I might come even to his seat. 
 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ; 
 and backward, but I cannot perceive him ; on 
 the left hand, where he doth work, but I can- 
 not behold him; he hideth himself on the 
 right hand, that I cannot see him. It is often 
 the very simplicity of the requirement that 
 deceives us. We think we must do some 
 great thing, which shall bear a certain pro- 
 portion to the blessing connected with it. 
 We cannot believe that it is merely looking, 
 merely receiving, merely coming as the pro- 
 digal came to his father, or as the Israelite 
 came to the high priest who was appointed 
 to make atonement for the sins of the people. 
 Yet is it even thus that we must come to the 
 21 
 
243 FAITH. 
 
 High Priest of our profession, with confession 
 of sin, and submit to the application of his 
 blood as the appointed means of pardon, and 
 rejoice in the assurance of the divine favour. 
 Or still more impressively, as the Hebrew 
 believer came to the altar, laid his hand with 
 confession upon the head of the victim, and 
 saw it die in his stead, so does the trembling 
 soul come to Christ as its propitiatory sacri- 
 fice, and confiding in the efficacy of his 
 death, looks up to God and says. My Father ! 
 Coming to Christ, therefore, is the confiding 
 reception of him in the offices and for the 
 purposes for which he is presented in the 
 word of God, as our mediator and priest, as 
 our advocate with the Father, as our Re- 
 deemer and Lord. 
 
 Another term by which faith is expressed 
 is submitting. This is not to be understood 
 as meaning a submission to the will of God 
 as a sovereign ruler, a giving up all our con- 
 troversy with him and resigning ourselves 
 into his hands. All this is duty, but it is not 
 saving faith. The submission required is 
 submission to the revealed plan of salvation ; 
 it is the giving up all excuses for our sins, all 
 dependence upon our own righteousness, and 
 submitting to the righteousness which God 
 
FAITH. 243 
 
 has provided for our justification. This is 
 what the Jews refused to do, and perished in 
 unbelief* This is what we must do, in 
 order to be saved. Men, when sensible of 
 their guilt and danger, are perplexed and 
 anxious about many things. But there is 
 only one thing for them to do. They must 
 submit to be saved as ungodly, as sinners, as 
 entirely undeserving, solely for Christ's sake. 
 They must consent to allow the robe of his 
 righteousness to be cast over all their naked- 
 ness and blood, that they may be found in 
 him, not having their own righteousness, but 
 the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus 
 Christ. Then will they be prepared to join 
 that great multitude which stand before the 
 throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white 
 robes and palms in their hands, crying with 
 a loud voice. Salvation to our God who sitteth 
 upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for thou 
 wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God 
 by thy blood, out of every kindred, and peo- 
 ple, and tongue, and nation, and hast made 
 us unto our God kings and priests. 
 
 It is thus that the Bible answers the ques- 
 tion, What must we do to be saved ? We are 
 told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and 
 
 * Rom. X. 3, and xi. 20. 
 
244 FAITH. 
 
 to set forth the nature, the object and office 
 of this faith, the Scriptures employ the most 
 significant terms and illustrations, in order 
 that we may learn to renounce ourselves and 
 our works, and to be found in Christ depend- 
 ing solely upon what He has done and suffer- 
 ed as the ground of our acceptance with God. 
 Those who thus believe, have passed from 
 death unto life ; they are no longer under con- 
 demnation; they have peace with God and 
 rejoice in hope of his glory. As this faith 
 unites them with Christ, it makes them not 
 only partakers of his death, but of his life. 
 The Holy Spirit, given without measure to 
 him, is through him given unto them, and 
 works in them the fruits of holiness, which 
 are unto the praise and glory of God, 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REPENTANCE. 
 
 Clearly as the Scriptures teach that who- 
 soever believes shall be saved, they teach no 
 less clearly that except we repent we shall all 
 perish. These graces are not only alike in- 
 dispensable, but they cannot exist separately. 
 Repentance is a turning from sin unto God, 
 through Jesus Christ, and faith is the accept- 
 ance of Christ in order to our return to God. 
 Repentance is the act of a believer ; and faith 
 is the act of a penitent. So that whoever be- 
 lieves repents ; and whoever repents believes. 
 
 The primary and simple meaning of the 
 word commonly used in the New Testament 
 to express the idea of repentance, is a change 
 of mind, as the result of reflection. In this 
 sense, it is said. There is no repentance with 
 God. He is not a man that he should repent. 
 In the same sense it is said, that Esau found 
 no place for repentance, when he was unable 
 to effect a change in the determination of his 
 21* 
 
246 REPENTANCE. 
 
 father. In the ordinary religious sense of the 
 term, it is a turning from sin unto God. 
 This is the account commonly given of it in 
 the word of God. I thought upon my ways, 
 said the Psalmist, and turned my feet unto 
 thy testimonies.* When the wicked man 
 turneth away from his wickedness that he 
 hath committed, and doeth that which is law- 
 ful and right, he shall save his soul alive. f 
 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
 righteous man his thoughts, and let him re- 
 turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
 upon him, and to our God, for he will abun- 
 dantly pardon. J And Solomon, in his prayer 
 at the dedication of the temple, said. If the 
 people shall bethink themselves in the land 
 whither they were carried captives, and re- 
 pent and make supplication unto thee, say- 
 ing. We have sinned and done perversely, we 
 have committed wickedness, and so return 
 unto thee with all their heart and with all their 
 soul; then hear thou their prayer and their 
 supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, 
 and maintain their cause. ^ To repent, then, 
 is to turn from sin unto God. But as there 
 is a repentance which has no connexion with 
 
 * Ps. cxix. 59.^ t Ezek. xviii. 27. 
 
 I Is. Iv. 7. i 1 Kings viii. 47—49. 
 
REPENTANCE. 247 
 
 salvation, it becomes us to search the Scrip- 
 tures, that we may learn the characteristics 
 of that repentance which is unto life. 
 
 As conviction of sin is an essential part of 
 repentance, and as that point has already been 
 considered, it will not be necessary to dwell 
 long upon this general subject. The promi- 
 nence, however, given to it in the Scriptures, 
 and the large space which it occupies in the 
 experience of Christians, demand that the 
 nature of this turning from sin, which is so 
 often enjoined, should be carefully studied. 
 
 There is one general truth in relation to 
 this point which is clearly taught in the 
 Bible; and that is, that all true repentance 
 springs from right views of God. The lan- 
 guage of Job may, with more or less confi- 
 dence, be adopted by every Christian : I have 
 heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but 
 now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor 
 myself, and repent in dust and ashes. "^ 
 
 The discovery of the justice of God serves 
 to awaken conscience, and often produces a 
 fearful looking for of judgment and fiery in- 
 diornation. This is the natural and reasona- 
 ble eff'ect of a clear apprehension of the recti- 
 tude of the divine character, as of a judge 
 
 ' * Job xlii. 5, 6. 
 
248 REPENTANCE. 
 
 who renders to every one his due. There 
 are accordingly many illustrations of the 
 effects of this apprehension recorded in the 
 Scriptures. Tearfulness and trembling, said 
 the Psalmist, are come upon me ; and horror 
 hath overwhelmed me.* While I suffer thy 
 terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath 
 goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me 
 off.f There is no rest in my bones because 
 of my sin. For my iniquities are gone 
 over my head, as a heavy burden they are 
 too heavy for me. J These fearful forebod- 
 ings are so common in the experience of the 
 people of God, that the earlier writers make 
 terror of conscience a prominent part of re- 
 pentance. There are, however, two remarks 
 upon this subject, which should be borne in 
 mind. The first is, that these exercises vary 
 in degree from the intolerable anguish of des- 
 pair, to the calm conviction of the judgment 
 that we are justly exposed to the displeasure 
 of God. And secondly, that there is nothing 
 discriminating in these terrors of conscience. 
 They are experienced by the righteous and 
 the unrighteous. If they occurred in the re- 
 pentance of David, they did also in that of 
 Judas. Sinners in Zion are often afraid ; and 
 
 * Ps. Iv. 5. t Ps. Ixxxviii. 15, 16. I Ps. xxxviii. 3, 4. 
 
REPENTANCE. 249 
 
 fearfulness often surprises the hypocrite. 
 These fearful apprehensions, therefore, are 
 not to be desired for their own sake; since 
 there is nothing good in fear. It is reason- 
 able that those should fear who refuse to re- 
 pent and to accept of the offers of mercy. 
 But there is nothing reasonable in those fears 
 which arise from unbelief, or distrust of the 
 promises of God. It so often happens, how- 
 ever, in the experience of the people of God, 
 that they are made sensible of their guilt and 
 danger, before they have any clear apprehen- 
 sions of the plan of redemption, that, in fact, 
 fear of the wrath of God enters largely into 
 the feelings which characterize their conver- 
 sion. The apprehension of the holiness of 
 God produces awe. The angels in heaven 
 are represented as veiling their faces, and 
 bowing with reverence before the Holy One. 
 Something of the same feeling must be ex- 
 cited in the minds of men by the discovery of 
 His infinite purity. It cannot fail, no matter 
 what may be the state of his mind, to excite 
 awe. This, however, may be mingled with 
 love, and express itself in adoration; or it 
 may co-exist with hatred, and express itself 
 in blasphemy. Yery often the effect is sim- 
 ply awe; (or at least this is the prominent 
 
250 REPENTANCE. 
 
 emotion,) and the soul is led to prostrate it- 
 self in the dust. The moral character of this 
 emotion can only be determined by observing 
 whether it is attended with complacency in 
 the contemplation of infinite purity, and with 
 a desire of larger and more constant discove- 
 ries of it ; or whether it produces uneasiness 
 and a desire that the vision may be with- 
 drawn, and we be allowed to remain at ease 
 in our darkness. 
 
 In the next place, this discovery of the 
 holiness of God cannot fail to produce a sense 
 of our own unworthiness. It is in his light 
 that we see light. It is by the apprehension 
 of his excellence that we learn our own vile- 
 ness. And as no man can be aware that he 
 appears vile in the sight of others, without a 
 sense of shame, we find that this emotion is 
 described as being one of the most uniform 
 attendants upon repentance. Thus Ezra, in 
 his penitential prayer, says, O my God! I 
 am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to 
 thee, my God ; for our iniquities are increased 
 over our head, and our trespass is grown up 
 unto the heavens.* Daniel expresses the 
 same feeling when he says, Lord, righte- 
 ousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us con- 
 
 * Ezra ix. 6. 
 
REPENTANCE. 251 
 
 fusion of faces, as at this day.* And God, 
 when describing the restoration of his people, 
 even when assuring them of pardon, says, 
 Thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that 
 thou may est remember, and be confounded, 
 and never open thy mouth any more because 
 of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee, 
 for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. f 
 As the consciousness of unworthiness, 
 when we think of others, produces shame, 
 so, when we think of ourselves, it produces 
 self-abhorrence. This latter feeling, there- 
 fore, also enters into the nature of true re- 
 pentance. In the strong language of the suf- 
 fering patriarch already quoted, the sinner 
 abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes. 
 In another passage the same distinguished 
 servant of God says. Behold I am vile ; what 
 shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand 
 upon my mouth. J And the prophet describ- 
 ing the repentance of the people says. Ye 
 shall remember your ways and all your 
 doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and 
 ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, 
 for all the evil that ye have committed. J It 
 is not the strength, but the nature of these 
 
 * Dan. ix. 7. t Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. 
 
 I Job xl. 4. 5 Ezek. xx. 43. 
 
252 REPENTANCE. 
 
 feelings, which determines the character of 
 our repentance. Their nature is the same in 
 all true penitents; their strength varies in 
 every particular case. In all, however, the 
 sense of sin destroys that self-complacency 
 with which sinners soothe themselves, thank- 
 ing God they are not as other men. It hum- 
 bles them before God, and places them in the 
 position which he would have them occupy. 
 To this man will I look, saith the Lord, even 
 to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and 
 trembleth at my word.* With such a soul 
 God condescends to take up his abode. For 
 thus saith the High and Lofty One who in- 
 habiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I 
 dwell in the high and holy place, with him 
 also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, 
 to revive the spirit of the humble, and to re- 
 vive the heart of the contrite ones.f 
 
 This humbling sense of our unworthiness, 
 which produces true contrition and self-abase- 
 ment, is essential to repentance. Most men 
 are willing to acknowledge themselves to be 
 sinners ; but they are at the same time dis- 
 posed to extenuate their guilt; to think they 
 are as good as could be reasonably expected ; | 
 that the law of God demands too much of 
 
 * Is. Ixvi. 2. t Is. Ivii. 15. 
 
REPENTANCE. SJ5#' 
 
 beings so frail as man, and that it would be 
 unjust to visit their deficiencies with any- 
 severe punishment. The change which con- 
 stitutes repentance destroys this disposition 
 to self-justification. The soul bows down be- 
 fore God under the consciousness of inexcusa- 
 ble guilt. It stands self-condemned, and, in- 
 stead of regarding God as a hard master, it 
 acknowledges that he is righteous in all his 
 demands, and in all his judgments. Such 
 were the feelings of David, when he said, I 
 acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin 
 is ever before me. Against thee, thee only 
 have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, 
 that thou mightest be justified when thou 
 speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.^ 
 The same feeling is expressed by Ezra, O 
 Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous .... 
 behold, we are before thee in our trespasses, 
 for we cannot stand before thee because of 
 this.f And Nehemiah uses language to the 
 same ejffect; Thou art just in all that is 
 brought upon us ; for thou hast done right, 
 but we have done wickedly. J There can, 
 therefore, be no true repentance without this 
 contrite spirit of self-condemnation and abase- 
 ment. 
 
 * Ps. li. 4. t Ezra it, 15. X Neh. ix. 33. 
 
 22 
 
254 REPENTANCE. 
 
 The confession of sin, on which the Scrip- 
 tures lay so much stress, is the outward ex- 
 pression of this inward sense of ill-desert. It 
 is not enough that we should secretly con- 
 demn ourselves. God requires a full and 
 ingenuous confession of our sins. And this 
 our own hearts will prompt us to make. As 
 there is no desire in the penitent to extenuate 
 his guilt, so there is no disposition to conceal 
 it. On the contrary, the soul is anxious to 
 acknowledge every thing ; to take shame to 
 itself, and to justify God. We accordingly 
 find that a large part of the penitential por- 
 tions of the Scriptures is taken up in record- 
 ing the confessions of the people of God. 
 When I kept silence, said the Psalmist, my 
 bones waxed old through my roaring all the 
 day long. For day and night thy hand was 
 heavy upon me ; my moisture is turned 
 into the drought of summer. I acknowledg- 
 ed my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have 
 I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgres- 
 sions unto the Lord ; and thou forgavest the 
 iniquity of my sin.* So long as he attempt- 
 ed to conceal his guilt, he found no relief; 
 the hand of God continued to press heavily 
 upon him ; but when he acknowledged his 
 
 * Ps. xxxii. 3 — 5. 
 
REPENTANCE. 255 
 
 transgressions he obtained forgiveness. The 
 wise man therefore says, He that covereth 
 his sins shall not prosper ; but whoso confess- 
 eth and forsake th them, shall have mercy.* 
 The New Testament is equally explicit as to 
 this part of our duty. If we say that we 
 have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
 truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, 
 he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.! 
 
 This confession must be made to the per- 
 son against whom we have sinned. If we 
 have sinned against our fellow men, we must 
 confess to them. If we have sinned against 
 the church, we must confess to the church ; 
 and if we have sinned against God, our con- 
 fession must be made to God. The Old 
 Testament, in commanding restitution in 
 case of injury done to our neighbour, thereby 
 commanded acknowledgment to be made to 
 the injured party. And in the New Testa- 
 ment we are required to confess our faults 
 one to another. J As, however, all our sins 
 are committed against God, it is to him that 
 our confessions are to be principally made ; 
 for even in those cases in which we sin 
 against men, we, in a still higher sense, sin 
 
 * Prov. xxviii. 13. f 1 John i. 8, 9. | James v. 16. 
 
66 REPENTANCE. 
 
 against God. Our sense of guilt in his sight, 
 therefore, will prevail over the sense of our 
 injustice to those whom we have offended. 
 Thus David, though he had, in the most 
 grievous manner, sinned against his neigh- 
 bour, was so affected with the enormity of 
 his sin as committed against God, that he 
 said. Against thee, thee only have I sinned 
 and done this evil in thy sight.* In the in- 
 spired records of penitential sorrow, we ac- 
 cordingly find that confession is constantly 
 made to God. Let thine ear now, said Ne- 
 hemiah, be attentive and thine eyes open, 
 that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy ser- 
 vant which I pray before thee, now day and 
 night, for the children of Israel thy servants, 
 and confess the sins of the children of Israel 
 which we have sinned against thee ; both I 
 and my father's house have sinned, and have 
 dealt very corruptly against thee, have not 
 kept the commandments or the statutes, nor 
 the judgments which thou commandest thy 
 servant Moses. Indeed the greater portion 
 of the remarkable prayers of Daniel, Ezra, 
 and Nehemiah, which form the most authen- 
 tic record of the exercises of genuine repent- 
 ance, is taken up with confessions of sin; 
 
 * Ps. li. 4. 
 
REPENTANCE. ' 257 
 
 which shows how essential such confession 
 is to the proper discharge of this duty. No 
 man, therefore, whose heart does not lead 
 him freely, fully and humbly to acknowledge 
 his sin before God, can have any satisfactory 
 evidence that he truly repents. 
 
 There is indeed a confession which re- 
 morse extorts from the lips of those whose 
 hearts know nothing of that godly sorrow 
 which is unto life. Thus Judas went to his 
 accomplices in treachery and said, I have 
 sinned ia that I have betrayed the innocent 
 blood ; and then went and hanged himself. 
 This, however, is very different from that in- 
 genuous acknowledgment of sin which flows 
 from a broken spirit, and which is the more 
 full and free, the stronger the assurance of 
 forgiveness. 
 
 Though the Scriptures plainly teach that 
 in all true repentance there is a sense of sin, 
 self-loathing, self-condemnation, sorrow and 
 confession, yet such ^ the poverty of human 
 language, that these very terms may be, nay, 
 must be, employed to express the exercises 
 of those who do not truly repent. It is said 
 of Judas that he repented ; and we cannot 
 doubt that his repentance included a convic- 
 tion of guilt, sorrow, self-abhorrence and con- 
 22* 
 
258 REPENTANCE. 
 
 fession. Yet all this was nothing more 
 than the operation of that impenitent remorse 
 which often drives men to despair, and which 
 serves to feed the fire that never shall be 
 quenched. Although we are forced to de- 
 scribe the exercises which attend the sorrow 
 of the world, and those which accompany 
 the sorrow which is of God, by the same 
 terms, they are nevertheless essentially differ- 
 ent in their nature. There is a gleam of 
 hope and a glow of love pervading the exer- 
 cises of the true penitent, which impart to 
 all his exercises a peculiarity of character, 
 and cause them to produce effects specifically 
 different from those which flow from despair- 
 ing remorse, or the agitations of an awaken- 
 ed conscience. His views of the justice and 
 holiness of God produce, not only a convic- 
 tion of sin and sorrow for having committed 
 it ; but also an earnest desire to be delivered 
 from it as the greatest of all evils, and an 
 anxious longing after conformity to the image 
 of God, as the greatest of all blessings. The 
 repentance of the ungodly consists in the 
 operations of conscience combined with fear ; 
 the repentance of the godly, of the operations 
 of conscience combined with love. The one 
 is the sorrow of the malefactor ; the other the 
 
REPENTANCE- 259 
 
 sorrow of a child. The one tends to despair 
 and opposition to God ; the other to hope and 
 a desire after his favour. Both may lead to 
 obedience ; but the obedience in the one case 
 is slavish; in the other, filial. In the one 
 case it is mere penance ; in the other it is re- 
 pentance. 
 
 The circumstance which, perhaps, most 
 perceptibly distinguishes true repentance 
 from mere conviction and remorse, is, that 
 the former is attended with an apprehension 
 of the mercy of God. The ungodly may see 
 by the light of conscience and of the divine 
 law, that their sins are exceedingly great. 
 They may be filled with terror from the ap- 
 prehension of divine justice, and even hum- 
 bled and confounded under a view of the 
 infinite holiness of God and of their own vile- 
 ness, but there is no sense of forgiving mercy, 
 no apprehension of the divine favour. In- 
 stead, therefore, of turning towards God, they 
 turn from him. After the example of Adam, 
 they would gladly hide themselves from his 
 presence. And so terrible, at times, is that 
 presence, that they madly seek a refuge from 
 it in the darkness of the grave, or call upon 
 the rocks and the mountains to cover them. 
 This is the sorrow which worketh death. 
 
260 REPENTANCE. 
 
 But in every case of real turning unto God, 
 there is more or less distinct apprehension of 
 his mercy. This may be so feeble as only 
 to enable the soul to say, Though he slay 
 me, yet I will trust in him ; or, Who know- 
 eth if he will return and repent and leave a 
 blessing behind him ?^ or, to adopt the lan- 
 guage of David, If I shall find favour in the 
 eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again. 
 But if he thus say, I have no pleasure in 
 him ; behold here am I, let him do to me as 
 seemeth good unto him.f This, however, is 
 sufficient to turn fear into hope, and rebellion 
 into submission. 
 
 It may be that the hope which saves the 
 soul from sinking into despair, and which 
 prevents it from turning from God in aggra- 
 vated opposition, is at times, nothing more 
 than a conviction that he is merciful, without 
 any distinct apprehension of the way in 
 which his mercy can be exercised, or any 
 confident persuasion of our own acceptance. 
 Still the soul believes that he is the Lord, 
 the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
 suffering and abundant in goodness and 
 truth, f It has courage to adopt the lan- 
 guage of the Psalmist : Thou God art good 
 
 * Joel ii. 14. t 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26. J Ex. xxxiv. 6. 
 
REPENTANCE. 261 
 
 and ready to forgive ; and plenteous in mercy 
 to all those that call upon thee.^ In all the 
 records of penitence, therefore, contained in 
 the Scriptures, we find the recognition of the 
 divine goodness as the great operative princi- 
 ple in turning the soul unto God. Thus 
 Nehemiah says, Thou art a God ready to 
 pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, 
 and of great kindness. f And the prophet 
 presents this consideration as the great mo- 
 tive to those whom he calls to repentance; 
 Rend your hearts and not your garments, and 
 turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gra- 
 cious and repenteth him of evil. J 
 
 But inasmuch as there can be no confi- 
 dence of forgiving mercy, which is not found- 
 ed on the revelation of the purpose of God ; 
 and as there is no revelation of a purpose to 
 pardon except through the mediation of Jesus 
 Christ, so howxver indistinct may be, at 
 times, the view which the soul takes of the 
 plan of salvation, there must still be a refer- 
 ence to the Saviour in all authorized expec- 
 tatians of mercy. The penitent may not 
 know how God can be just and yet the justi- 
 fier of sinners, and yet be persuaded not only 
 that he is merciful, but that he has found a 
 
 ♦ Ps. IxxxvL 5. t Neh. ix. 17. t Joel iL 13. 
 
262 REPENTANCE. 
 
 ransom, and can consistently save us from 
 going down into the pit. Doubtless, how- 
 ever, under the light of the gospel, it is far 
 more common that the soul sees all that it 
 discovers of the mercy of God and of the pos- 
 sibility of pardon in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 It is in him that God has revealed himself as 
 reconciled unto the world, not imputing unto 
 men their trespasses. It is because he w^as 
 made sin for us, that we can be made the 
 righteousness of God in him. All evangeli- 
 cal hope rests on the assurance that though 
 we have sinned we have an advocate with the 
 Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is 
 the propitiation for our sins. This is the 
 hope which is effectual in winning the soul 
 back to God. It is the discovery of the love 
 of God in giving his own Son, that whoso- 
 ever believes on him, should not perish but 
 have eternal life. It is this that breaks the 
 hard heart, revealing to it the exceeding tur- 
 pitude of its sins, and at the same time dis- 
 closing the readiness of God freely to forgive 
 those who come to him through Christ. It 
 is therefore not so much the threatenings of 
 the law, as the apprehension of the love of 
 God, which turns the sinner from his rebel- 
 lion, and draws him back to submission and 
 
REPENTANCE. 263 
 
 obedience. All repentance without this is 
 legal and slavish. It is such as that of Pha- 
 raoh, or Judas, or of the thousands whom an 
 awakened conscience and fear of wrath drive 
 from their former sins, and force to walk in 
 clanking chains along a mistaken road in 
 search of heaven. This is the only repent- 
 ance which conscience and the apprehension 
 of divine justice can produce. A soul cannot 
 approach an unreconciled God, any more 
 than it can embrace a consuming fire. A 
 sense of the favour of God, or a hope in his 
 mercy, is essential to our returning to him 
 with confidence and love. 
 
 There is indeed a belief in the mercy of 
 God which, instead of leading men to repent- 
 ance, encourages them to continue in sin. 
 This is a belief which arises out of ignorance. 
 It is founded on a misapprehension of the 
 character of God. It is easy for those who 
 know nothing of the divine holiness and jus- 
 tice and who look upon sin as a misfortune 
 or a trifle, to believe that God will not be 
 severe to mark iniquity. To such persons 
 the mercy of God seems a matter of course ; 
 restricting its offers to no class of men, but 
 covering with its mantle the sins of the peni- 
 tent and of the reprobate. As they see no 
 
264 REPENTANCE. 
 
 reason why God should not forgive, they 
 easily hope in his mercy. But when their 
 eyes are opened to his immaculate purity 
 which forbids his looking on sin with allow- 
 ance; to his justice which forbids him to 
 spare the guilty ; to the strictness of his law 
 and to the fearfulness of its penalty ; when 
 conscience is aroused and adds its sanction to 
 the judgment of God, in a voice whose autho- 
 rity and power can neither be questioned nor 
 evaded, then these hopes of mercy are seen 
 to be as the spider's web. They are swept 
 away in a moment, and the difficulty now is, 
 to believe that pardon, once thought so cer- 
 tain, is even possible. Hence the assurances 
 that God ia plenteous in mercy and ready to 
 forgive are so numerous and earnest in the 
 Scriptures. Hence the way in which mercy 
 can be exercised, consistently with those at- 
 tributes which are seen to enter into the es- 
 sential excellence of God, is so clearly set 
 forth. Hence the invitations, the promises, 
 yea, even the oath of God, are given to beget 
 hope in the mind of the convinced and hum- 
 bled sinner. It is not the whole, but the 
 sick, who need the physician ; and it is not 
 for the careless, who feel no need of pardon, 
 but for the anxious, who fear that there is 
 
REPENTANCE. 265 
 
 scarcely room for mercy, that these assuran- 
 ces are given. 
 
 It is not, therefore, that hope of mercy 
 which springs from ignorance and indiffe- 
 rence, which is operative in the work of re- 
 pentance, but that which is founded upon the 
 promises of God embraced by faith. It is an 
 enlightened hope. The soul in entertaining 
 it, knows something of the difficulties in the 
 way of pardon, and something of the method 
 in which mercy can be consistently exer- 
 cised. Such a hope is not a matter of course ; 
 nor is it an easy attainment. The sense of 
 sin, the testimony of conscience, the holiness 
 of God, the honour of his law, are all appa- 
 rently opposed to any reasonable expectation 
 of forgiveness. And, therefore, although the 
 declarations of Scripture are so explicit on 
 the subject, it often happens that the awaken- 
 ed sinner feels, that though these declarations 
 may be true in reference to others, they can- 
 not be true as it regards himself And when 
 the goodness of God is revealed to him ; when 
 he sees the divine love surmounting all diffi- 
 culties, no shipwrecked mariner surrounded 
 by darkness and tossed by tempests, hails 
 with greater joy the break of day than does 
 such a soul, the revelation of divine mercy. 
 23 
 
266 REPENTANCE. 
 
 It is not joy merely ; it is wonder, gratitude 
 and love that take possession of his soul and 
 fill him with the purpose of living devoted to 
 God his Redeemer. It is this hope which 
 gives new life to the soul, and accomplishes 
 its return from the service of sin to the ser- 
 vice of God. 
 
 Hope in the mercy of God being thus im- 
 portant, it is the great design of the Bible to 
 reveal the love of God to sinners, in order to 
 bring them back from their apostacy. The 
 sacred volume is full of instruction on this 
 important subject. Every command to re- 
 pent, implies a readiness on the part of God 
 to forgive. Every institution of divine wor- 
 ship implies that God is willing to receive 
 those who return to him. Every instance of 
 pardon mentioned in the Bible is left on re- 
 cord to show that there is forgiveness with 
 God that he may be feared. With the same 
 view he has given those declarations of his 
 mercy, long-suffering and love, with which 
 the Scriptures abound. And above all, for 
 this purpose has he set forth his Son as a 
 propitiation for our sins, that we may see not 
 only that he is merciful, but how he can be 
 merciful and yet just. These offers of mercy 
 are made to all who hear the gospel, even to 
 
REPENTANCE. 267 
 
 those whose sins are as scarlet, or red like 
 crimson ; and none lose the benefit of them 
 who do not voluntarily and wickedly reject 
 them ; either carelessly supposing that they 
 need no forgiveness, or unbelievingly refusing 
 to accept of pardon on the only terms on 
 which it can be granted. 
 
 That repentance, therefore, which is unto 
 life, is a turning ; not a being driven away 
 from sin by fear and stress of conscience, but 
 a forsaking it as evil and hateful, with sin- 
 cere sorrow, humility and confession ; and a 
 returning unto God, because he is good and 
 willing to forgive, with a determination to 
 live in obedience to his commandments. 
 
 There are but two ways in which we can 
 judge of the genuineness of this change. 
 The one is the comparison of our inward ex- 
 perience with the word of God ; the other the 
 observation of its effects. As every man is 
 conscious of his own feelings, attention and 
 comparison will generally enable him to as- 
 certain their character. He may tell whe- 
 ther he has had such views of the justice and 
 holiness of God as to produce a conviction of 
 his own sinfulness and ill-desert ; whether he 
 has been forced to give up his self-compla- 
 cency and to feel that disapprobation of his 
 
268 REPENTA1VCE. 
 
 character and conduct, which leads the soul 
 to confess with shame and sorrow its guilt 
 and pollution in the sight of God. He may 
 tell whether he has had such apprehensions 
 of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ as to in- 
 duce him to return to his heavenly Father, 
 with a strong desire after his favour, and with 
 a firm determination to live to his glory. 
 These are the exercises which constitute re- 
 pentance, and he who is conscious of them 
 may know that he is turned from death unto 
 life. 
 
 As, however, true self-knowledge is the 
 most difficult of all attainments ; and as the 
 feelings, unless unusually strong, are hard to 
 be detected in their true nature, the surest 
 test of the character of any supposed change 
 of heart is to be found in its permanent 
 effects. By their fruits ye shall know them, 
 is a declaration as applicable to the right 
 method of judging of ourselves as of others. 
 Whatever, therefore, may have been our in- 
 ward experience ; whatever joy or sorrow we 
 may have felt, unless we bring forth fruits 
 meet for repentance, our experience will pro- 
 fit us nothing. Our repentance needs to be 
 repented of, unless it leads us to confession 
 and restitution in cases of private injury ; un- 
 
REPENTANCE. 269 
 
 less it causes ns to forsake not merely out- 
 ward sins, which attract the notice of others, 
 but those which lie concealed in the heart; 
 unless it makes us choose the service of God, 
 as that which is right and congenial, and 
 causes us to live not for ourselves, but for 
 him who loved us and gave himself for us. 
 
 There is no duty the necessity of which is 
 either more obvious in itself, or more fre- 
 quently asserted in the word of God, than 
 that of repentance. Nature itself teaches us 
 that when we have done wrong, we should 
 be sorry for it, and turn away from the evil. 
 Every man feels that this is a reasonable ex- 
 pectation in regard to those who have offend- 
 ed him. ETOry parent especially looks with 
 anxiety for the repentance of a disobedient 
 child ; and he considers nothing worthy of 
 the name, but sincere sorrow and a return to 
 affectionate obedience. No man need won- 
 der, therefore, that God who requires nothing 
 but what is right and who can require no- 
 thing less, commands all men every .where to 
 repent. The salvation offered in the gospel, 
 though it be a salvation of sinners, is also a 
 salvation from sin. The heaven which it 
 promises is a heaven of holiness. The rivers 
 of pleasure which flow from the right hand 
 23* 
 
270 REPENTANCE. 
 
 of God, are filled with the pure waters of life. 
 No man, therefore, can be saved, who does 
 not, by repentance, forsake his sins. This is 
 itself a great part of salvation. The inward 
 change of heart from the love and service of 
 sin, to the love and service of God, is the 
 great end of the death of Christ, who gave 
 himself for his church, that he might sancti- 
 fy and cleanse it with the washing of water, 
 by the word, that he might present it to him- 
 self a glorious church, not having spot, or 
 wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should 
 be holy and without blemish. A salvation 
 for sinners, therefore, without repentance, is 
 a contradiction. 
 
 Hence it is that repentance is the burden 
 of evangelical preaching. Our Saviour him- 
 self, when he began to preach, said. Repent, 
 for the kingdom of God is at hand.* And 
 when he came into Galilee preaching the 
 gospel, he said, The time is fulfilled, and the 
 kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and 
 believe the gospel, f The commission which 
 he gave his apostles was, That repentance 
 and remission of sins should be preached in 
 his name among all nations. J In the execu- 
 tion of this commission, his disciples went 
 
 * Matt. iv. 17. t Mark i. 15. J Luke xxiv. 47. 
 
REPENTANCE. 271 
 
 forth and preached, Repent ye and be con- 
 verted, that your sins may be blotted out, when 
 the times of refreshing shall come from the 
 presence of the Lord.* Paul, in the account 
 which he gave Agrippa of his preaching, said 
 that he showed first unto them in Damascus, 
 and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the 
 coasts of Judea, and then unto the Gentiles, 
 that they should repent and turn unto God, 
 and do works meet for repentance. f And he 
 called upon the elders at Ephesus to bear 
 witness that he had taught publicly and from 
 house to house, testifying both to the Jews 
 and to the Greeks, repentance towards God 
 and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.J 
 
 Repentance then is the great, immediate 
 and pressing duty of all who hear the gospel. 
 They are called upon to forsake their sins 
 and to return unto God through Jesus Christ. 
 The neglect of this duty, is the rejection of 
 salvation. For, as we have seen, unless we 
 repent we must perish. It is because repent- 
 ance is thus indispensably necessary, that 
 God reveals so clearly not only the evil of sin, 
 and the terrors of his law, but his infinite 
 compassion and love ; that he calls upon us to 
 turn unto him and live, assuring us that he is 
 
 * Acts iii. 19. t Acts xxvi. 20. | Acts xx. 21. 
 
272 REPENTANCE. 
 
 the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gra- 
 cious, long-suffering, and abundant in good- 
 ness and truth. This call to repentance com- 
 monly follows men from the cradle to the 
 grave. It is one of the first sounds which 
 wakes the infant's ear ; it is one of the last 
 which falls on the failing senses of the dying 
 sinner. Every thing in this world is vocal 
 with the voice of mercy. All joy and all 
 sorrow are calls to return unto God with 
 whom are the issues of life. Every opening 
 grave, every church, every page of the Bible, 
 is an admonition or an invitation. Every 
 serious thought or anxious foreboding is the 
 voice of God, saying. Turn ye, for why will 
 ye die ? It is through all these admonitions 
 that men force their way to death. They 
 perish, because they deliberately reject salva- 
 tion. 
 
 It is one of the mysteries of redemption, 
 that under the economy of mercy, all duties 
 are graces. Though repentance is our duty, 
 it is not less the gift of God. Those w^ho 
 wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, 
 gladly seize on such truths either as an ex- 
 cuse for delay, under pretence of waiting 
 God's time, or as a palliation of the guilt of a 
 hard and impenitent heart. But those who 
 
REPENTANCE. 273 
 
 feel the greatness of the work required of 
 them, rejoice in the truth, and rouse them- 
 selves with new energy to their duty, no 
 longer a hopeless task, and with all earnest- 
 ness work out their own salvation, because it 
 is God that worketh in them to will and to 
 do, according to his own pleasure. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 Section I. The nature and necessity of a 
 public prof ession of religion. 
 
 Religion consists in a great measure in 
 the secret intercourse of the soul with God ; 
 in those acts of adoration, gratitude, confi- 
 dence and submission which the eye of man 
 cannot see, and with which the stranger can- 
 not intermeddle. These secret exercises by 
 controlling the external conduct, and by sup- 
 plying the motives for the humble demeanour 
 and benevolent actions of the Christian, can- 
 not indeed fail to manifest their existence; 
 but all unnecessary parading them upon the 
 notice of others borders on the offence which 
 our Saviour condemned in the ancient Phari- 
 sees. Agreeably to his directions, our alms 
 are to be given in secret ; when we pray we 
 should pray in secret, and when we fast, we 
 should not appear unto men to fast, but unto 
 our Father, who seeth in secret. In these 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 275 
 
 words Christ does more than condemn hy- 
 pocrisy ; he not only forbids the performance 
 of religious duties with the design of being 
 seen of men, but he teaches that true religion 
 is unobtrusive and retiring. It avoids the 
 glare of day. It is holy, solemn, secret, re- 
 joicing in being unobserved. It is directly 
 opposed to the ostentatious display of reli- 
 gious feelings in which those delight, who 
 seem to make religion consist in talking 
 about it. 
 
 Although religion is thus retiring in its 
 character, and although it consists in a great 
 measure in the secret intercourse of the soul 
 with God, it nevertheless has its social and 
 public relations, which render it impossible 
 that a true Christian should desire to keep 
 the fact of -his being a Christian a secret from 
 the world. This is indeed often attempted, 
 for a time, by those whose faith is weak, and 
 who dread the reproach with which a pro- 
 fession of religion is, under many circum- 
 stances, attended. The temptation to such 
 concealment cannot well be appreciated by 
 those who have always lived in the bosom of 
 a religious society, where the profession of 
 religious sentiments is a passport to confi- 
 dence and respect. Such persons little know 
 
276 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 the trial to which those of their brethren are 
 exposed whose parents or associates view all 
 experimental religion with hatred or con- 
 tempt, and who visit every manifestation of 
 pious feeling with the chastisement of cruel 
 mockings. To a greater or less degree, a 
 large portion of the people of God, are called 
 upon to endure this trial ; and they are often 
 tempted to ask whether they cannot be reli- 
 gious without letting it be known. If reli- 
 gion is a secret thing, why may it not be 
 kept a secret ? To this question the answer 
 is simple and decisive. The confession of 
 Christ before men is declared in Scripture to 
 be essential to salvation. Whosoever, said 
 our Saviour, confesseth me before men, him 
 will I confess before my father which is in 
 heaven ; but whosoever denieth me before 
 men, him will I also deny before my Father 
 which is in heaven.* Again, whosoever 
 shall be ashamed of me and of my words in 
 this adulterous generation ; of him also shall 
 the Son of Man be ashamed, when he com- 
 eth in the glory of his Father and with the 
 holy angels.f Paul also in writing to Timo- 
 thy says. Be not ashamed of the testimony of 
 our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou 
 
 * Matt. X. 32, 33. t Mark viii. 38. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 277 
 
 partaker of the afflictions of the gospel ac- 
 cording to the power of God.* If we suffer, 
 we shall also reign with him ; if we deny 
 him, he also will deny us.f And still more 
 explicitly, when teaching the condition of 
 salvation, he says, If thou shalt confess with 
 thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe 
 in thy heart that God hath raised him from 
 the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the 
 heart man believeth unto righteousness, and 
 with the mouth confession is made unto sal- 
 vation. J The same truth is taught in all 
 those passages which assert the necessity of 
 baptism, because baptism involves a public 
 profession of the gospel. Thus our Saviour 
 in his commission to the apostles said. He 
 that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. § 
 And on the day of Pentecost, when the 
 people were convinced of the sin of having 
 rejected Christ, and asked what they should 
 do, Peter answered. Repent and be baptized 
 every one of you, in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus. II It was not enough that they should 
 retire to their houses and repent before God ; 
 they must publicly acknowledge Christ and 
 their allegiance to him. There is, therefore, 
 
 * 2 Tim. i. 8. t 2 Tim. ii. 12. X Rom. x. 9, 10. 
 } Mark xvi. 16. || Acts ii. 38. 
 
 24 
 
278 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 no condition of discipleship more clearly laid 
 down than this. If we do not confess Christ, 
 he will not confess ns. If we do not acknow- 
 ledge him as our Saviour, he will not ac- 
 knowledge us as his disciples. If we are not 
 willing to share with him in the reproach 
 and contradiction of sinners, we cannot share 
 in the glory which he has received from the 
 Father. 
 
 The relation in which we stand to Christ 
 as our king renders a public acknowledg- 
 ment of his authority necessary. In the 
 kingdoms of this world, no one is admitted to 
 the privileges of citizenship without a profes- 
 sion of allegiance. And in the kingdom of 
 Christ those who do not acknowledge his 
 authority, reject him. By refusing to con- 
 fess him as Lord they declare that they are 
 not his people. 
 
 The church is also often compared in 
 Scripture to a family. Can a child live in 
 his father's house without acknowledging his 
 parent? May he receive the blessings of a 
 mother's love, and not acknowledge her to be 
 his mother ? May he pass her in the street 
 without recognition, and then steal away, 
 under cover of the night, to be fed at her 
 table and to be protected by her care ? As 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 279 
 
 every one feels that no child, with proper 
 filial feelings, could hesitate to acknowledge 
 his parents, so we may be assured that we 
 are not the children of God, if we are afraid 
 or ashamed to acknowledge him as our Fa- 
 ther, and our obligations to honour and obey 
 him. 
 
 It is still further to be considered that 
 Christians are the worshippers of Christ. 
 The apostle salutes the Corinthians as those 
 who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus ; 
 and from the beginning, in Jerusalem and at 
 Damascus, Christians were designated as 
 those who called on the name of Christ.* 
 But what kind of a worshipper is he who is 
 ashamed or afraid to acknowledge his God ? 
 AH the relations, therefore, in which a Chris- 
 tian stands to Christ, as his king, as the head 
 of the family of God and as the object of 
 divine worship, involve the necessity of con- 
 fessing him before men ; and we practically 
 reject him in all these relations by neglecting 
 or refusing this public profession of him and 
 his religion. 
 
 A moment's consideration of the nature of 
 the religion of Jesus Christ must convince us 
 of the impossibility of being a secret Chris- 
 * Actsix. 14, 21. 
 
280 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 tian. Not the heart only, but the whole ex- 
 ternal deportment must be regulated by that 
 religion. It forbids many things which the 
 world allows ; it enjoins many things which 
 the world forbids. Obedience to its precepts 
 of necessity includes a public profession ; be- 
 cause such obedience draws a line of distinc- 
 tion between its disciples and the people of 
 the world. This is one of the reasons why 
 the people of God are called saints. They 
 are distinguished, separated from others and 
 consecrated to God. When they cease to be 
 thus distinguished from those around them, 
 they cease to be saints. If their inward tem- 
 per and outward conduct do not mark them 
 out as a peculiar people, they are not Chris- 
 tians. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. 
 It cannot be that those who deny themselves 
 and take up their cross and daily follow 
 Christ; whose affections are set upon things 
 above; who walk by faith and not by sight; 
 who live unto God and keep themselves un- 
 spotted from the world, should not visibly 
 differ from those whose spirit, principles and 
 objects are all worldly. Nor is it possible 
 that this difference should exist, without an 
 avowal, on the part of the Christian, of the 
 cause of it. He must appeal to the authority 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 281 
 
 of Christ as the justification of his conduct, 
 and, therefore, cannot live as a Christian 
 without confessing Christ. 
 
 Besides the general temper and deportment 
 required by the gospel, there are many spe- 
 cific duties enjoined by Christ which imply 
 a public profession of his religion. The or- 
 ganization of his church as a visible society, 
 supposes the separation of a people recognis- 
 ing his authority, and professing to act in 
 obedience to his laws. The commission 
 which he gave to his disciples was, that they 
 should go into all the world, preaching his 
 gospel, making disciples, baptizing them in 
 his name, gathering them into distinct socie- 
 ties and appointing officers over them for 
 conducting public worship and for the exer- 
 cise of discipline. All this supposes that his 
 followers should constitute a body publicly 
 acknowledging him as their head, and con- 
 fessing him as their Lord and Saviour before 
 the world. How can a man keep the fact of 
 his being a Christian a secret, when Chris- 
 tianity is, by its author, made to assume this 
 visible, organized form ? It is specially en- 
 joined upon every believer to associate him- 
 self with the church, to assemble with his 
 fellow Christians for public worship, and to 
 24* 
 
282 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 unite with them in celebrating the Saviour's 
 death ? If a Christian is one who obeys 
 Christ, and if obedience includes those exter- 
 nal acts which involve this public acknow- 
 ledgment of him, then no man can be a 
 Christian who does not make this acknow- 
 ledgment. 
 
 There are few duties (and those founded 
 on positive precepts) commanded in the word 
 of God, which right feelings do not, of them- 
 selves, urge us to discharge. If we are re- 
 quired to forsake sin, to serve God, to love 
 the brethren, to live for others rather than 
 ourselves, to be instant in prayer, to join in 
 the public and social worship of God ; these 
 are things in which the renewed heart in- 
 stinctively delights. The external command 
 guides and sanctions the performance; but 
 the motive to obedience is not mere regard to 
 authority. In like manner, while the public 
 confession of Christ is enjoined in Scripture 
 as a necessary duty, it is, at the same time, 
 the spontaneous tribute of every Christian 
 heart. If no subject requires to be urged to 
 acknowledge a sovereign whom he loves ; if 
 no child needs to be commanded to confess a 
 parent w^hom he reveres, much less does the 
 believer need to be forced to confess the Sa- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 283 
 
 viour whom he regards as the brightness of 
 the Father's glory ; to whom he feels indebt- 
 ed for redemption, and whom he hopes to 
 worship and serve with saints and angels in 
 heaven. It is not meant to be asserted that 
 no believer is ever ashamed of Jesus; nor 
 that under circumstances of peculiar trial he 
 may not fear to acknowledge his truth or to 
 assume his name. Peter once denied his 
 master. But it is certainly true that no man 
 can have right views of Christ and right feel- 
 ings towards him, without habitually, openly 
 and gladly acknowledging him as his God 
 and Saviour. He will esteem the reproach 
 of Christ greater riches than the treasures of 
 Egypt, and choose rather to suffer affliction 
 with the people of God than to enjoy the 
 pleasures of sin for a season. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand the nature 
 of the duty now under consideration. To 
 confess Christ is to recognise his character 
 and claims. It is to acknowledge that Jesus 
 is the Christ. It is to admit the truth of the 
 doctrines which he taught. It is to profess our 
 allegiance to him as our Lord and Saviour. 
 This confession must be public ; it must be 
 made before men ; it must be made with the 
 
284 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 mouth, and not left to be inferred from the con- 
 duct. It should be remembered that this in- 
 cludes more than the mere assumption of the 
 name Christian, in distinction from Pagan or 
 Mahommedan. If men misconceive or misre- 
 present the character of Christ, a profession 
 of such erroneous views is not the confession 
 which he requires. To acknowledge Christ 
 merely as a good man, or an inspired teacher, 
 is in fact to deny him in his true character as 
 the Son of God, as the propitiation for sin, as 
 the only mediator and the sovereign Lord of 
 the living and the dead. And to acknow- 
 ledge the gospel merely as a code of morals, 
 is to reject it as the revelation of the grace of 
 God. The confession which is required is 
 the public acknowledgment of Christ in his 
 true character, and of his gospel in its real 
 nature. It will not do to strip the gospel of 
 every thing oj9fensive to human pride and to 
 acknowledge the rest. The very thing to be 
 done is to take the shame of professing what 
 is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the 
 Greeks. It is to acknowledge our faith and 
 coafidence in a Saviour despised and rejected 
 of men, and in doctrines which human reason 
 can neither discover nor comprehend. 
 
 There are several ways in which this pub- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 285 
 
 lie confession is to be made. As already re- 
 marked, there is a confession included in the 
 obedience rendered to the commands of 
 Christ. Obedience, therefore, is one form of 
 confession, and can never be rendered with- 
 out distinguishing those who yield it as the 
 followers of Christ. Again, occasions fre- 
 quently occur in which Christians are called 
 upon to avow the truth, to defend it against 
 gainsayers, to urge it upon those over whom 
 they have influence or authority, or to give a 
 reason of the hope that is in them, with 
 meekness and fear. But the chief and most 
 important mode of confession is attendance 
 upon the ordinances of Baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper. So much prominence is 
 given to these institutions, in the word of 
 God, that every Christian should have clear 
 ideas of their nature and of his own duty in 
 regard to them. 
 
 Section II. Baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
 per. The nature, design and efficacy of these 
 ordinances. 
 
 That Baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
 whatever other important ends they may be 
 intended to serve, were appointed as a mode 
 
286 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 of publicly professing our faith in the gospel, 
 is clearly taught in the Bible. The public 
 participation of the rites of any religion is, in 
 its nature, a profession of that religion. It is 
 on this ground the apostle charges with idola- 
 try the Corinthians who, within the precincts 
 of the heathen temples, partook of the sacri- 
 fices offered to idols. I speak as to wise men, 
 judge ye what I say. The participation of a 
 Christian ordinance, is it not an act of Chris- 
 tian worship ? The participation of a Jewish 
 sacrifice, is it not an act of Jewish worship ? 
 and by parity of reasoning, is not the partici- 
 pation of a heathen ordinance an act of hea- 
 then worship? This is the purport of the 
 apostle's argument in 1 Cor. x. 15 — 21, and 
 it is obviously founded on the admitted truth, 
 that joining in the celebration of the ordi- 
 nances of the gospel, is, from the nature of 
 the act, a profession of the religion of Christ. 
 The recipient thereby places himself in com- 
 munion with the object of worship and with 
 all his fellow-worshippers. For we being 
 many are one bread and one body ; for we are 
 all partakers of one bread. Hence the apos- 
 tle adds. Ye cannot drink of the cup of the 
 Lord and of the cup of devils ; ye cannot be 
 partakers of the Lord's table and the table of 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 287 
 
 devils. It is impossible to be in communion 
 with Christ and Satan at the same time, and, 
 therefore, it is the grossest inconsistency to 
 partake at the same time of the ordinances of 
 Christ and of the sacrifices of devils. All 
 this supposes that a participation of Christian 
 ordinances is a profession of the Christian re- 
 ligion. When Christ commanded the apos- 
 tles to make disciples, baptizing them, &c., 
 he obviously intended that baptism should be 
 a badge of discipleship, or that by that rite 
 his followers should acknowledge their rela- 
 tion to him. This, indeed, is the prominent 
 idea in the formula. To baptize in the name 
 of any one. And hence Paul reminded the 
 Corinthians that they were not his disciples 
 or followers, by asking them. Were ye bap- 
 tized in the name of Paul? It is, however, 
 unnecessary to dwell upon this point, as it is 
 universally conceded that the participation of 
 the ordinances of the gospel is the appointed 
 mode of confessing Christ before the world. 
 
 As it is the duty of every Christian to con- 
 fess Christ, and to confess him in this parti- 
 cular way, it is necessary to inquire more 
 particularly into the nature and design of 
 these ordinances. It has long been customa- 
 ry in the church to call these institutions sa- 
 
288 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 craments. Little light, however, can be de- 
 rived from the use of this term, because it is 
 not a scriptural word, and because it is em- 
 ployed by ancient writers in a very compre- 
 hensive sense. As it comes from the word 
 meaning to consecrate, any thing sacred was 
 called a sacrament. The Romans applied 
 the term to a sum of money deposited in the 
 hands of the high priest to abide the deci- 
 sion of a suit. They also called the oath by 
 which soldiers consecrate themselves to the 
 military service a sacrament; and in the 
 Latin church, (whence we have borrowed 
 the word), it was used as synonymous with 
 mystery, not only as applied to things which 
 had a hidden meaning, but in its wider sense 
 as signifying what was undiscoverable by 
 human reason. In this sense the Gospel it- 
 self, the calling of the Gentiles, the future 
 conversion of the Jews are sacraments. It is 
 not from a word of such latitude of meaning 
 that the nature of the Christian ordinances 
 can be learned; but, on the contrary, the 
 Christian sense of the word must be deter- 
 mined by what the Scriptures teach concern- 
 ing the ordinances to which the word is now 
 applied. 
 
 They are, in the first place, rites of divine 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 289 
 
 appointment, and not of human institution. 
 When Christ was about to ascend into hea- 
 ven, he said. Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
 teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
 ever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am 
 with you always, even unto the end of the 
 world. The rite of baptism was, therefore, 
 instituted by Christ, and is to be continued 
 as long as there are disciples to be made, even 
 unto the end of the world. And on the night 
 in which he was betrayed, he instituted the 
 Lord's supper, saying, This do in remem- 
 brance of me, with the command that it 
 should be observed until he comes. The 
 New Testament furnishes abundant evidence 
 that the apostles enjoined, both by precept 
 and example, the observance of these ordi- 
 nances, agreeably to the Saviour's directions. 
 No rite, therefore, is a sacrament in the 
 Christian sense of the term, which is not a 
 matter of divine appointment, and of perpetu- 
 al obligation. 
 
 In the second place, the Bible teaches us 
 
 that the sacraments are the signs of spiritual 
 
 blessings. They are designed by outward, 
 
 significant actions, to represent inward, spi- 
 
 26 
 
290 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 ritual gifts. The great blessing offered in 
 the Gospel is union with Christ, and the 
 consequent participation of his merits and 
 Spirit, by which we are freed from the con- 
 demnation and pollution of sin. And this is 
 the blessing which baptism and the Lord's 
 supper are designed to represent. Hence it 
 is said, As many as have been baptized into 
 Christ, have put on Christ; which implies 
 union with him.* Believers are said to be 
 baptized into one body.f That is, by baptism 
 they are constituted one body ; but they are 
 one body only in virtue of their union with 
 their common head. Know ye not, asks the 
 apostle, that so many of us as were baptized 
 into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his 
 death ? i. e. so as to be united with him in 
 his death. f As union with Christ is the 
 great blessing signified by baptism, and as 
 pardon and sanctification are the consequen- 
 ces of that union, this ordinance is also repre- 
 sented as symbolizing these two great bless- 
 ings of the covenant of grace. Thus on the 
 day of Pentecost, Peter said to the people, 
 Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in 
 the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
 
 ♦ Gal. iii. 27. f 1 Cor. xii. 13. \ Rom. vi. 2. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 291 
 
 sins.* And Ananias said to Paul, Arise and 
 be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling 
 on the name of the Lord.f In many similar 
 passages the reference of baptism to pardon 
 is very clearly expressed. 
 
 No less clear is its intended significancy of 
 sanctification. This is plainly tanght in the 
 passages from the epistles to the Galatians 
 and Romans, quoted above, in which baptism 
 is declared to represent our union with 
 Christ, and our death to sin and our living 
 unto God. And in the epistle to Titus, J it is 
 called "the washing of regeneration;" and in 
 the epistle to the Ephesians,^ Christ is said 
 to sanctify his church ''with the washing of 
 water by the word." It need hardly be re- 
 marked that the ordinance is appropriately 
 significant of these great truths. Water is 
 the common means of purification. Both the 
 guilt and pollution of sin, axe represented in 
 Scripture as a defilement, and hence they are 
 said to be washed away by the blood and 
 Spirit of Christ. It is this two-fold purifica- 
 tion that is so appropriately represented by 
 the ordinance in question. 
 
 * Actsii. 38. t Actsxxii. 16. 
 
 I Titus iii. 5. 5 Eph. v. 26. 
 
292 PROFilSSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 The same truths, under a different aspect, 
 are exhibited in the Lord's supper. That 
 the bread represents the body of Christ, and 
 the wine his blood, is expressly declared by 
 our Saviour when he said, '' This is my body, 
 this is my, blood." And by our participation 
 of the bread and wine, our participation of 
 that of which they are the symbols, is clearly 
 represented. The cup of blessing which we 
 bless, is it not the communion of the blood of 
 Christ? The bread which we break, is it 
 not the communion of the body of Christ? 
 For we being many are one bread, and one 
 body, for we are all partakers of that one 
 bread.* Here, as in the passage quoted 
 above in reference to baptism, believers are 
 declared to be one body, because by partaking 
 of the Lord's supper their communion with 
 the Lord Jesus is expressed. These ordi- 
 nances, therefore, though in different ways, 
 set forth the same great truth. They are 
 both divinely appointed symbols of our union 
 with Christ, and of our participation of the 
 benefits which flow from his mediation and 
 death. 
 
 We should greatly err, however, if we sup- 
 
 * 1 Cor. X. 16, 17. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 293 
 
 posed they were merely signs. We are 
 taught that they are seals; that they were 
 appointed by Christ to certify to believers 
 their interest in the blessings of the covenant 
 of grace. Among men a seal is used for the 
 purpose of authentication and confirmation. 
 It is intended to assure the party concerned 
 that the document to which it is attached, is 
 genuine and binding. In condescension to 
 our weakness, God has been pleased not only 
 to promise pardon and purity to believers, but 
 to appoint these ordinances as seals of his 
 promises. The simple assurance given to 
 Noah that the earth should not a second time 
 be destroyed by a deluge, might have been a 
 sufficient foundation for confidence ; but God 
 saw fit to appoint the rainbow to be a per- 
 petual confirmation of his covenant; and 
 throughout all generations when that bow 
 appears, men feel that it is not merely a sign 
 of the returning sun, but a divinely appoint- 
 ed pledge of the promise of God. In like 
 manner God willing more abundantly to show 
 unto his people the immutability of his pro- 
 mise, has confirmed it by these seals, which 
 are designed to assure the believer that as 
 certainly as he receives the signs of the bless- 
 25^ 
 
294 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 ings of the covenant, he shall receive the 
 blessings themselves. 
 
 That these ordinances were really intend- 
 ed to confirm the promises of God, is plain 
 from the fact that Paul says that circumcision 
 was the seal of the righteousness of faith; 
 that is, it was designed to assure Abraham 
 and his descendants that God would regard 
 and treat as righteous all who believed his 
 words. And that the apostle regarded bap- 
 tism in the same light is obvious from Col. ii. 
 11, &c., where baptism and circumcision are 
 spoken of as of similar import. And in re- 
 ference to the Lord's supper, the Saviour 
 said. This cup is the New Testament in my 
 blood ; that is, the new covenant was ratified 
 by his blood. Of that blood the cup is the 
 appointed memorial, and it is, therefore, at 
 the same time, the memorial and confirma- 
 tion of the covenant itself; it is the assurance 
 to us that God has promised the blessings of 
 that covenant to all believers. Baptism and 
 the Lord's supper are, therefore, visible 
 pledges or confirmations of the fact that 
 Christ has died, that his death has been ac- 
 cepted as a propitiation for sin, and that God, 
 for his sake, will grant pardon, sanctification 
 and eternal life to all them that believe. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 295 
 
 If, however, the sacraments are seals on the 
 part of God, the reception of them implies a 
 voluntary engagement on the part of the 
 Christian to devote himself to the service of 
 Christ. The gospel is represented under the 
 form of a covenant. It is so called by Christ 
 himself. But a covenant implies mutual sti- 
 pulations. God promises to his people par- 
 don and salvation ; in his strength, they pro- 
 mise faith and obedience. The sacraments 
 are the seals of this covenant. God, in their 
 appointment, binds himself to the perform- 
 ance of his promise ; his people, by receiving 
 them, bind themselves to trust and serve him. 
 This idea is included in the representation 
 given in Romans vi. 3, 4, where believers are 
 said to have been buried with Christ in bap- 
 tism, that as he rose from the dead, they also 
 should walk in newness of life. It is inclu- 
 ded also in the very formula of baptism ; for 
 to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son 
 and Holy Ghost, implies a voluntary dedica- 
 tion of ourselves to God, as our Father, Re- 
 deemer and Sanctifier. The same thing is 
 taught in all the passages in which a partici- 
 pation of Christian ordinances, is said to in- 
 clude a profession o:" the gospel; for the 
 gospel imposes duties as well as promises 
 blessings. 
 
296 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 It is probably in this view of these ordi- 
 nances that the name, sacraments, was so 
 generally applied to them. For as the oath 
 by which the soldier consecrated himself to 
 the military service, was called a sacrament, 
 so the ordinances in which the believer binds 
 himself to the service of Christ, was appro- 
 priately designated by the same term. The 
 phrase sacramental host is, therefore, not in- 
 aptly applied to the people of God, considered 
 as a great multitude, who have solemnly 
 bound themselves by sacraments to live to 
 his glory. 
 
 Baptism and the Lord's supper being or- 
 dinances of divine appointment and perpetual 
 obligation, designed to distinguish the fol- 
 lowers of Christ from the world ; to exhibit 
 the truths of the gospel ; to seal to believers 
 the divine promises, and to bring them into 
 covenant with God, the interesting question 
 arises. What good do they do ? What bene- 
 fits are we authorized to expect from them ? 
 The answer commonly given to this question 
 by the great body of evangelical Christians 
 is, that the sacraments are efficacious means 
 of grace, not merely exhibiting to, but actual- 
 ly conferring upon those who worthily re- 
 ceive them, the benefits which they repre- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 297 
 
 sent. As they are divinely appointed to set 
 forth Christ and his benefits, and to assure 
 the believer of his interest therein, they have, 
 even as moral means, a powerful influence to 
 confirm his faith, to excite his gratitude and 
 love, and to open the fountains both of peni- 
 tence and joy. But as the word of God has 
 not only its own moral influence, as truth, in 
 the sanctification of the soul, but also, when 
 attended by the demonstration of the Spirit, 
 a divine and effectual power ; so the sacra- 
 ments have not only the influence due to the 
 lively exhibition of truth, but as means of 
 God's appointment, and attended by his 
 Spirit, they become efficacious signs of grace, 
 communicating what they signify. Nothing 
 less than this can satisfy the strong language 
 of the Scriptures on this subject, or the ex- 
 perience of God's people. When the Chris- 
 tian, in the exercise of faith, sees in the. 
 w^ater of baptism the lively emblem of the 
 purifying influence of the blood and Spirit of 
 Christ, and in the bread and wine the memo- 
 rials of the Saviour's death, and knows that 
 they are appointed to be a pledge of the sal- 
 vation of all believers, he receives Christ, in 
 receiving the appointed symbols of his grace ; 
 he receives anew the forgiveness of his sins ; 
 
298 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 he enters into fellowship with God, and his 
 soul is filled with the Holy Ghost. Hence it 
 is that believers so often find their strength 
 renewed, their faith confirmed, their purposes 
 invigorated, their hearts filled with joy and 
 love, while attending on these ordinances. 
 
 As the efiicacy of the sacraments is a sub- 
 ject of great practical importance, it is neces- 
 sary to examine more particularly what the 
 Scriptures teach on this subject. Baptism is 
 called the washing of regeneration ; it is said 
 to unite us to Christ,* to make us partakers 
 of his death and life,! to wash away our 
 sins, J to save the soul. ^ The bread and 
 Avine, in the Lord's supper, are said to be the 
 body and blood of Christ ; to partake of these 
 emblems, is said to secure union with Christ 
 and a participation of the merits of his 
 death. II These and similar passages must 
 be understood either with or without limita- 
 tion. If they are to be limited, the limitation 
 must not be arbitrarily imposed, but supplied 
 by the Scriptures themselves. We have no 
 right to say that the sacraments confer these 
 benefits in every case in which no moral im- 
 pediment is interposed, because no such limi- 
 
 Gal. iii. 27. t Rom. vi. 4, 5. I Acts xxii. 16. 
 5 1 Pet. iii. 21. || 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 299 
 
 tation is expressed in the passages them- 
 selves, nor elsewhere taught in the Scrip- 
 tures. The limitation which the Scriptures 
 do impose on these passages is the necessity 
 of faith. They teach that the sacraments 
 are thus efficacious, not to every recipient, 
 but to the believer; to those who already 
 have the grace which these ordinances re- 
 present. If it be asked how they can be said 
 to confer the grace which is already possess- 
 ed? let it be remembered that he who has 
 been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, 
 needs the application to be often repeated; 
 he who has received the Holy Spirit needs 
 to receive him again ; he who has received 
 Christ needs to receive him day by day that 
 he may live upon him. That the Scriptures 
 teach that the passages in question are to be 
 understood with the qualifications just stated, 
 is clear because otherwise they would teach 
 that every one who is baptized is a child of 
 God, renewed by the Holy Spirit, united to 
 Christ and made a partaker of the saving 
 benefits of his death. But this cannot be 
 true, first, because the Bible abundantly 
 teaches that those who are renewed and re- 
 ceive the Holy Spirit, have the fruits of the 
 Spirit, love, gentleness, goodness, and faith. 
 
300 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 Where these are not, there the Spirit is not. 
 But these fruits do not uniformly, nor even 
 generally attend the reception of the outward 
 ordinance. We know that although Simon 
 Magus was baptized, he remained in the gall 
 of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. 
 We know, from Paul's epistles, that many of 
 the baptized Galatians and Corinthians were 
 the enemies of the cross of Christ. We 
 know from our own daily observation that 
 multitudes of those who are baptized and re- 
 ceived to the Lord's supper, do not differ in 
 temper or life from the world around them. 
 God, therefore, in the actual administration 
 of his kingdom, contradicts that interpreta- 
 tion of his word which makes it teach that 
 the sacraments always confer the benefits 
 which they represent. It is to degrade the 
 renewing of the heart and the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost, into things of no account, to re- 
 present them as the portion of the unholy 
 multitudes who in every age and church 
 have been admitted to baptism and the 
 Lord's supper. 
 
 In the second place this interpretation is 
 opposed to what the Scriptures elsewhere 
 teach of the nature of sacraments. The opi- 
 nion that such ordinances uniformly convey 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 301 
 
 grace and introduce the recipient into favour 
 with God, was one of those false doctrines of 
 the Jews which Paul so earnestly combated. 
 Great is the virtue of circumcision, for no cir- 
 cumcised person enters hell, was the confi- 
 dent and destructive persuasion of the formal- 
 ists of that age. In opposition to this doc- 
 trine, the apostle assured them that circum- 
 cision would, indeed, profit them, if they kept 
 the law ; but if they broke the law, their cir- 
 cumcision became uncircumcision. For he 
 is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is 
 that circumcision which is outward in the 
 flesh ; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly ; 
 and circumcision is that of the heart, in the 
 spirit, and not in the letter.* We have here 
 a very explicit statement of the nature and 
 efficacy of a sacrament. It has no efficacy in 
 itself considered; its value depends on the 
 presence or performance of the condition of 
 the covenant to which it is attached. If the 
 Jews kept the law, their circumcision secured 
 to them all the blessings of the covenant un- 
 der which they lived. But if they broke the 
 law, their circumcision was of no avail. It 
 was, therefore, not external circumcision that 
 made a man a Jew ; but the circumcision of 
 
 * Rom. ii. 25—29. 
 26 
 
302 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 the heart, of which the external rite was the 
 sign. In like manner it is not external bap- 
 tism that makes a man a Christian, but the 
 baptism of the Spirit, of which the washing 
 with water is the appointed symbol. The 
 two are not necessarily connected, and where 
 the latter is wanting, the former can be of no 
 avail. And, lest it should be supposed that 
 we have no right to apply what is said of the 
 sacraments of the old dispensation to those of 
 the new, the very same doctrine is taught in 
 reference to the New Testament sacraments 
 themselves. The apostle Peter says. We are 
 saved by water ; not ordinary water, but by 
 baptism; not mere external baptism, how- 
 ever, but by the sincere turning of the heart 
 to God, that is, by the inward change of 
 which baptism is the outward sign.^ This 
 passage, in its doctrinal import, is precisely 
 parallel to that referring to circumcision just 
 quoted. Neither rite, therefore, necessarily 
 conveyed the grace of which they were the 
 signs, and to neither is any value ascribed 
 apart from the spiritual change which they 
 are appointed to represent. In like manner, 
 in reference to the Lord's supper, the apostle 
 teaches that, so far from the mere external 
 
 * 1 Pet iii. 21. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 303 
 
 act being necessarily connected with the re- 
 ception of the benefits of Christ's death, those 
 who ate and drank unworthily, ate and drank 
 judgment to themselves. Nothing, indeed, 
 can be more opposed to the whole spirit of 
 the religion of the Bible, than the doctrine 
 that external rites are necessarily connected 
 with spiritual blessings; that the favour of 
 God is to be obtained by mere unresisting 
 submission to religious ceremonies. A man 
 may be baptized, or circumcised on the eighth 
 day, he may belong to the purest and most 
 apostolic church, he may be blameless as 
 touching all the external prescriptions of the 
 Gospel, and still be destitute of the grace of 
 God and unprepared for his presence. It is 
 not by works of righteousness, much less by 
 ceremonial observances, that we are to, be 
 saved, but by the righteousness of Christ and 
 the renewing of the Holy Ghost. He is not 
 a Christian who is one outwardly, nor is that 
 baptism which is outward in the flesh ; but 
 he is a Christian who is one inwardly, and 
 the baptism which is unto salvation, is of the 
 heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. 
 
 In the third place, that the sacraments are 
 not designed to convey grace to those who 
 have it not, is plain because the Scriptures 
 
304 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 require those who are admitted to these ordi- 
 nances to make a profession of their faith and 
 repentance. When the apostles began to 
 preach, we are told that, Those that gladly 
 received the word were baptized.^ When 
 the eunuch desired to be baptized, Philip said 
 to him, If thou believest with all thy heart, 
 thou mayest.f Cornelius did not receive the 
 Holy Spirit, in the first instance by baptism, 
 but when Peter had evidence that he had 
 already received the Spirit, he asked. Can 
 any man forbid water, that these should not 
 be baptized, which have received the Holy 
 Ghost as well as we? J Paul was a penitent 
 believer before his baptism ; and thus in all 
 other cases when men were baptized, they 
 professed to be Christians. They were not 
 made Christians by their admission to the sa- 
 craments; but their Christian character or 
 standing was thereby acknowledged. It has 
 accordingly been the custom in all ages to 
 require a profession of faith on the part of 
 those who are received to sealing ordinances. 
 But faith is an exercise of a renewed heart ; 
 and if faith supposes regeneration, and bap- 
 tism supposes faith, then by the voice of the 
 
 * Acts ii. 41. t Acts viii. 37. f Acts x. 47. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 306 
 
 church as well as of Scripture, baptism also 
 supposes the renovation of the heart. 
 
 Finally, God bears his testimony against 
 the doctrine which teaches an inseparable 
 connexion between these ordinances and spi- 
 ritual blessings, by granting these blessings 
 to those who have not received any sacra- 
 mental rite. Abraham was justified before 
 he was circumcised; Cornelius was a just 
 man, and accepted of God, and a recipient of 
 the Holy Ghost, before he was baptized ; the 
 penitent thief was assured of his admission 
 into paradise though he was never born of 
 water. If then the Scriptures require the 
 evidence of regeneration in those who would 
 acceptably attend upon the sacraments; if 
 they teach that many who receive the out- 
 ward sign do not receive the inward grace ; 
 and on the other hand, that many receive the 
 inward grace, who have not received the out- 
 ward sign, then do they also teach that these 
 ordinances are not appointed to convey, in 
 the first instance, pardon and sanctification, 
 but to be signs and seals of these blessings to 
 the penitent believer, and that to him, and to 
 him only are they efficacious means of grace. 
 
 It is, therefore, obvious that those passages 
 in Scripture, which refer our salvation to 
 26* 
 
306 PROFESSION OF RELIGION, 
 
 baptism and the Lord's supper, cannot, con- 
 sistently with the plain teaching of the Bible, 
 be understood strictly according to the letter. 
 At the same time it must not be supposed 
 that they are to be perverted, or taken in any 
 other than their natural sense ; that is, in any 
 other sense than that which the universally 
 received rules of interpretation justify and re- 
 quire. It is agreeable to the common lan- 
 guage of men and to the usage of the Scrip- 
 tures, that when any declaration or service is 
 the appointed means of professing faith and 
 obedience, making such declaration or per- 
 forming such service is said to secure the 
 blessings which are promised to the faith 
 thereby professed. It is said. Whosoever con- 
 fesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh 
 is born of God ; and again. With the mouth 
 confession is made unto salvation. This is 
 said because confession implies faith ; and 
 no one supposes that an insincere, careless, 
 heartless confession will secure the salvation 
 of any man. Thus also we are said to be 
 saved by calling on the Lord, because invo- 
 cation implies trust. In like manner we are 
 said to be saved by baptism, because baptism 
 implies faith. If this faith be wanting, bap- 
 tism can do us no more good than a heartless 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION: 307 
 
 confession. There is no more difficulty in 
 understanding why the Scriptures should 
 connect salvation with the use of the sacra- 
 ments, than in understanding why they 
 should connect the same blessing with invo- 
 cation or confession. There is no difficulty 
 in either case, if we allow the Scriptures to 
 explain themselves, and interpret them as we 
 explain all other writings. 
 
 Again, it is according to scriptural usage to 
 ascribe to a sign the name and attributes of 
 the thing signified. Thus circumcision is 
 called the covenant of God, because it was 
 the sign of that covenant. Christ called the 
 cup the new covenant ; the wine he called his 
 blood and the bread his body. Those who 
 partake of the wine are, therefore, said to re- 
 ceive his blood, and of course the benefits 
 which it purchased. 
 
 It is to be remembered, also, that the sa- 
 craments are seals, and that it is common to 
 attribute to any ceremony, by which an en- 
 gagement is ratified, the efficacy which be- 
 longs not to the ceremony, but to the engage- 
 ment itself. The ceremonial of inauguration 
 is said to induct a man into the office, the 
 right to which it merely publicly declares 
 and confirms. Even in the strict language 
 
308 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 of the law, a deed, with its signature and 
 seal, is said to convey a right of property, 
 although it is simply the evidence of the pur- 
 pose of the original possessor. It is that pur- 
 pose which conveys the right, and if it can 
 be shown that the man who holds the deed 
 was not the man intended by the grantor, the 
 deed would be regarded as worthless. If a 
 man deeds an estate to A, on the assumption 
 that he is the son of B, should it be proved 
 that A was not the son of B, the deed would 
 convey to him no valid title. But the bless- 
 ings of the Gospel are declared to be intend- 
 ed for penitent believers ; the sacraments are 
 the external means of recognizing the convey- 
 ance of these blessings; to those who are 
 really what they profess to be, they do in 
 fact convey and secure these blessings; to 
 others they confer no such benefits. When 
 an unbeliever receives these ordinances, he 
 no more obtains a title to the blessings which 
 they represent, than a man obtains a title to 
 an estate by falsely assuming the name of the 
 person for whom it is intended. 
 
 There is nothing, therefore, in the lan- 
 guage of the Scriptures on this subject, 
 which is not perfectly consistent with the 
 common protestant doctrine that the sacra- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 309 
 
 ments have no inherent efficacy of their own, 
 but become efficacious means of grace to 
 those who believe; the Holy Spirit thereby 
 communicating to believers the blessings of 
 which those ordinances are the significant 
 representations. 
 
 Section III. Obligation to attend upon 
 the Sacraments. Qualifications for the pro- 
 per discharge of the duty. 
 
 The obligation which rests upon all Chris- 
 tians to attend upon the ordinances of bap- 
 tism and the Lord's supper, arises clearly 
 from what has been shown to be their nature 
 and design. We have seen that they are in- 
 stitutions appointed by Christ himself He 
 has commanded all his followers to be bap- 
 tized and to commemorate his death, in a 
 prescribed manner. As obedience to Christ 
 is necessary, so is a participation of these or- 
 dinances. As, however, it is a necessity aris- 
 ing out of a positive command, it is a quali- 
 fied necessity, since such commands are not 
 binding under all circumstances. It is im- 
 possible that a sinner should be saved with- 
 out faith and repentance ; but it is not impos- 
 sible that he should be saved without the 
 
310 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 sacraments. As we are bound to keep the 
 Sabbath as part of our obedience to God, and 
 yet may innocently labour on that day when 
 necessity or mercy requires it; so although 
 bound to present ourselves at the table of the 
 Lord as an act of obedience, we may be inno- 
 cently absent, whenever that absence is not 
 the effect of a wilful or disobedient spirit. 
 As, however, the command of Christ on this 
 subject is express, the obligation which it im- 
 poses is of the strongest character. 
 
 In the second place, it has been shown that 
 to confess Christ before men is an indispensa- 
 ble duty, and that the sacraments are the ap- 
 pointed means for making this confession ; it 
 follows, therefore, that attendance on the sa- 
 craments is also an indispensable duty. 
 When in human governments the laws pre- 
 scribe a particular mode in which we are to 
 acknowledge allegiance to our country, it is 
 not competent for us to neglect that mode ; 
 nor have we a right to adopt a different 
 method of acknowledgment, or to suffer our 
 allegiance to be inferred from our conduct. 
 If we wish to be recognised as citizens, we 
 must, in the prescribed form, acknowledge 
 ourselves such. And if Christ has prescribed 
 a particular way in which he will be acknow- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 311 
 
 ledged by his followers, intelligently and wil- 
 fully to refuse obedience to his command, is 
 to renounce our allegiance to him and to for- 
 feit the benefits of his kingdom. 
 
 Again, as the sacraments are the seals of 
 the covenant of grace, to reject these seals is 
 to reject the covenant itself It is not meant 
 that they are in such a sense indispensable 
 that if a man perform the conditions of the 
 covenant, he will be excluded from its bene- 
 fits, for the want of the seals. Among men, 
 indeed, we often see that the want of the pre- 
 scribed number of witnesses to a signature, 
 the want of a seal, or even a clerical error in 
 a document, is sufficient to set aside a solemn 
 engagement. Nothing of this kind can occur 
 under the government of God, where justice 
 is never embarrassed by technical formalities. 
 The apostle expressly teaches that as circum- 
 cision becomes uncircumcision, if the law be 
 broken, so, on the other hand, if a man keep 
 the law, his uncircumcision shall be counted 
 for circumcision. It is admitted, therefore, 
 that if a man has the faith, repentance and 
 obedience required by the gospel, his salva- 
 tion is secure. But no man has a right to 
 assume that he has this faith and repentance, 
 who neglects to obey the commands of Christ. 
 
312 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 The essential conditions of salvation have 
 been the same under every dispensation. If 
 any man, under the old economy, had the 
 faith of Abraham, he was entitled to the bless- 
 ings promised to Abraham. Nevertheless, as 
 circumcision was the appointed means of ex- 
 pressing that faith, and of accepting the cove- 
 nant of which it was the condition, it was ex- 
 pressly declared, that the uncircumcised man- 
 child, whose flesh of his foreskin is not cir- 
 cumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his 
 people ; he hath broken my covenant.* Is it 
 not equally true that those .who intelligently 
 and wilfully neglect baptism and the Lord's 
 supper, break the covenant under which the 
 church is now placed ? It will not do for us 
 to say, if we have the substance, the form is 
 of little account. We all know that if an 
 ancient Israelite had repentance toward God 
 and faith in the promised Messiah, his sins 
 were forgiven ; and yet unless he expressed 
 his faith by bringing the appointed sacrifice 
 to the altar, he was not forgiven. God saw 
 fit that the mode of pardon should be thus 
 exhibited and recognised. In like manner 
 he now requires that the method of salvation 
 should be publicly acknowledged and set 
 
 * Gen. xvii. 14. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 313 
 
 forth in the ordinances of baptism and the 
 Lord's supper. We do, therefore, as really 
 reject the covenant of God by neglecting 
 these ordinances, as did the Israelites who 
 rejected circumcision or the offering of sacri- 
 fices. 
 
 Another illustration of this subject may be 
 borrowed from the marriage contract. The 
 essence of the covenant is the mutual consent 
 of parties. But in all civilized countries some 
 public manifestation of that consent is essen- 
 tial to the validity of the engagement. Thus, 
 also, the essence of our covenant with God is 
 repentance and faith; but baptism and the 
 Lord's supper being the divinely appointed 
 means of signifying and ratifying the engage- 
 ment, they can no more be neglected than 
 the public recognition of the marriage cove- 
 nant. 
 
 It was a fatal perversion when the Jews 
 imagined that circumcision and sacrifices 
 without faith and obedience, were effectual 
 to salvation, and it is no less a fatal delusion 
 to imagine that baptism and the Lord's sup- 
 per without those inward graces can secure 
 the favour of God. But in avoiding one ex- 
 treme, we must not run into the opposite. 
 Though the ancient sacrifices without faith 
 27 
 
314 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 were an abomination to the Lord ; the sacri- 
 fices were still, by divine appointment, neces- 
 sary ; and although the Christian ordinances, 
 without the grace which they represent, are 
 empty forms, they too, by divine appointment, 
 are obligatory, and, in their place, essential. 
 No Christian, however, needs to be forced 
 by stress of authority to yield obedience to 
 the commands of Christ. It is enough for 
 him that it is the will of his Saviour that the 
 truths and blessings of the Gospel should be 
 exhibited and commemorated by the perpetu- 
 al observance of the ordinances of baptism 
 and the Lord's supper. Though he were 
 unable to see any fitness in such observance, 
 or though experience taught him nothing of 
 its value, yet would he cheerfully obey. 
 Much more may he be expected to yield a 
 ready obedience, when he knows both from 
 Scripture and experience, that these ordinan- 
 ces are made to the believer the channels of 
 divine blessings ; that they are means of grace 
 and sources of the purest spiritual enjoy- 
 ments ; that they bring him into communion 
 with Christ and unite him in holy fellowship 
 with all his brethren. He knows that to ne- 
 glect these divine institutions is not only to 
 violate a command of God and to break his 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 315 
 
 covenant ; it is to refuse to be fed at his table 
 and to reject the provision which he has made 
 for the life of our souls. 
 
 If the sacraments are such important means 
 of grace, and if attendance upon them is a 
 duty so plainly enjoined in the word of God, 
 it is important to inquire what are the proper 
 qualifications for the acceptable discharge of 
 this duty. 
 
 In considering this subject we must not 
 confound the qualifications which the church 
 has a right to demand of those who present 
 themselves as candidates for Christian com- 
 munion, with those which such candidates 
 are bound to seek in themselves. The 
 church cannot judge the heart ; she can only 
 require a credible profession. It is her duty 
 to explain the nature of the Gospel, with its 
 promises and commands, and to state clearly 
 what is the nature of the service in which 
 those engage, who profess to embrace the 
 offers of salvation. Those who, when thus 
 instructed, declare that they accept the offers 
 of divine mercy, and purpose to live in obe- 
 dience to the divine commands, she receives 
 into communion, unless there be some tangi- 
 ble evidence of the insincerity of their pro- 
 fessions. This she does, not because she 
 
316 PROFESSION OF RELl^GION. 
 
 judges them to be true Christians, but be- 
 cause they possess the qualifications which 
 alone she has a right to demand. No priest 
 under the old dispensation ever ventured to 
 debar a man from the altar, because in his 
 own mind, he might judge him to be desti- 
 tute of the faith and penitence implied in the 
 act of presenting a sacrifice. If the offerer 
 had the external qualifications prescribed by 
 the law, he was admitted. To Him who 
 searches the heart, it was left to decide upon 
 his spiritual state. Thus also, under the 
 Gospel dispensation, we find the apostles 
 baptizing and admitting to the Lord's sup- 
 per all who made the requisite profession, 
 and against whom no visible evidence of in- 
 sincerity could be produced. Whatever was 
 considered a sufficient reason for excommuni- 
 cating a church member, was of course re- 
 garded as sufficient to exclude an applicant 
 for admission. It is of importance to remem- 
 ber that the church does not profess to decide 
 that all those are true Christians, whom she 
 admits to her communion. Of their inward 
 sincerity she cannot judge ; to their own mas- 
 ter they must stand or fall. Many are no 
 doubt confirmed in a false judgment of them- 
 selves, because they consider their admission 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 317 
 
 to the church to be an expression of the judg- 
 ment of their pastor, or brethren, that they 
 are what they profess to be. It is natural for 
 them to think well of themselves, when they 
 consider experienced Christians as pronounc- 
 ing a favourable judgment of their spiritual 
 state. But they should remember that it is 
 not the prerogative of the church to judge the 
 heart ; she must receive all who have the ex- 
 ternal qualifications which the Scriptures re- 
 quire. 
 
 But though the church is obliged to con- 
 fine her demands to a credible profession of 
 faith and repentance, it is the duty of those 
 who seek admission to her communion, to see 
 that they have all the qualifications which 
 the nature of the service demands. These 
 qualifications may all be reduced to know- 
 ledge and piety. 
 
 Did the Scriptures teach that the sacra- 
 ments had an inherent efficacy of their own ; 
 that the water of baptism had power to wash 
 away sin, and the bread and wine a virtue to 
 sustain spiritual life, then indeed they might 
 be administered to the ignorant, the insensi- 
 ble, or the dying. But if we are taught that 
 the efficacy both of the word and ordinances 
 depends not on them, nor on those who ad- 
 27^ 
 
318 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 minister them, but on the Holy Spirit, reveal- 
 ing and applying the truth thereby exhibited, 
 then it is plain that they must be understood 
 in order to be beneficial. It is one of the 
 most important doctrines of the Bible that 
 God sanctifies his people through the truth. 
 But truth is not truth to him who does not 
 understand it. If you repeat to an ignorant 
 man a mathematical formula, although it 
 may contain a proposition of the highest 
 value, to him it is nothing. It communi- 
 cates no idea to his mind, and can produce 
 no effect upon it. Or if you tell him that 
 God has set forth his Son to be a propitiation 
 for our sins through faith in his blood ; if he 
 does not understand the meaning of the 
 words, it is as though he never heard them. 
 We, therefore, do not preach in an unknown 
 tongue; nor do we send Hebrew Bibles to the 
 Hindoos, or the Greek Scriptures to the Hot- 
 tentots. Unless the truth is understood, it is 
 not present to the mind, and cannot operate 
 upon it. In like manner, unless the sacra- 
 ments are understood by those who receive 
 them, they are, for them, an unmeaning cere- 
 mony. They either exhibit nothing, or they 
 excite erroneous views and apprehensions. 
 We degrade the Scriptures into formulas of 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 319 
 
 incantation, and the sacraments into magical 
 rites, if we suppose a knowledge of their 
 meaning to be unnecessary. God is a Spirit, 
 and they who worship him must worship 
 him in spirit — intelligently as well as sin- 
 cerely and inwardly. It is, therefore, essen- 
 tial to a proper attendance on the sacraments 
 that we should know what they are designed 
 to represent, what benefits they confer and 
 what obligations they impose. When they 
 are thus understood ; when the believer sees 
 in them the clear exhibition of the truths 
 and promises of the Gospel, and knows that 
 they were appointed to be the means of his 
 confessing Christ before men, and to ratify 
 the gracious covenant of God with his soul, 
 he then really receives the spiritual blessings 
 of which the sacraments are the outward 
 signs. 
 
 The knowledge requisite to a proper un- 
 derstanding of the sacraments includes a 
 knowledge of all the essential doctrines of 
 the Gospel. When a man is baptized in the 
 name of the Father, of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost, unless these sacred names re- 
 present to his mind some definite idea; un- 
 less he knows them to be the names of the 
 persons of the Godhead, he cannot know 
 
320 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 what he does in submitting to be baptized. 
 He does not acknowledge Jehovah ; nor does 
 he receive him as his covenant God, Re- 
 deemer and Sanctifier. As baptism is de- 
 signed to signify and seal our union with 
 Christ, and our deliverance through him 
 from the guilt and dominion of sin, unless 
 we know ourselves to be sinners, and know 
 that it is necessary for us to be united to 
 Christ, and by his blood and Spirit, to be 
 pardoned and renewed, the ordinance for us 
 loses all its significancy. Thus a knowledge 
 of the truth concerning God, concerning sin, 
 atonement and regeneration is essential to a 
 proper participation of this ordinance. And 
 as the Lord's supper is intended to be a me- 
 morial of the death of Christ, unless we 
 know who he was, why he died, and what 
 benefits his death secures, we are incapable 
 of profitable joining in this service. All the 
 aflfections must have an appropriate object. 
 If we love, we love something; if we fear, we 
 fear something ; if we desire, we desire some- 
 thing. There can be neither faith, nor love, 
 nor penitence, nor hope, nor gratitude, but 
 as objects suited to these exercises are pre- 
 sent to the mind ; and the nature of these ex- 
 ercises depends upon the nature of the ob- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 321 
 
 jects which call them forth. If they are ex- 
 cited by the truth, they are right and good ; 
 and just in proportion to the clearness with 
 which the truth is spiritually discerned, will 
 be the purity and strength of the religious 
 emotions. Knowledge, therefore, is essential 
 to religion. 
 
 We must not suppose, however, that know- 
 ledge and learning are synonymous terms, or 
 that all knowledge is derived from without, 
 through the medium of the understanding. 
 Very far from it. A large part of our know- 
 ledge is derived from our own consciousness 
 or inward experience. The same external 
 revelation may be presented to two equally 
 intelligent men ; if the one is made, by the 
 Spirit of God, to feel in accordance with the 
 truth, and the other is destitute of such feel- 
 ings, the former will possess a knowledge of 
 which the latter has no conception. He will 
 have an insight into the nature of the things 
 revealed, and into their truth and value, 
 which is due entirely to what passes within 
 his own bosom. These men, although they 
 may be equal in learning, will differ greatly 
 in knowledge. "We accordingly find that 
 the ignorant, among God's people, have often 
 far more knowledge of religious truth, than 
 
322 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 many learned men. They have more cor- 
 rect views of its nature ; and the v^ords by 
 v^hich it is expressed excite in their minds 
 far more definite conceptions of the real ob- 
 jects of the religious affections. As, how- 
 ever, God does not reveal new truths, but 
 sanctifies his people by his word, there must 
 be external instruction in order to this in- 
 ward spiritual knowledge; hence ignorance 
 of the truths revealed in the Scriptures, as it 
 is inconsistent with the existence of right 
 religious feeling, or in other words, with reli- 
 gion itself, so it is inconsistent with the pro- 
 per participation of those ordinances by which 
 those truths are set forth and confirmed. 
 
 The other qualifications for an acceptable 
 participation of the sacraments are naturally 
 suggested by the view given of their nature. 
 As they are the appointed means for making 
 a public profession of religion, it is of course 
 requisite that we should be and believe what 
 we therein profess. The substance of this 
 profession is that we are Christians ; that we 
 believe in Christ as the Redeemer of sin- 
 ners ; that we accept of the terms of salva- 
 tion proposed in the Gospel, and purpose to 
 live in obedience to its commands. If we 
 have not this faith ; if we do not thus pur- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 323 
 
 pose to renounce our sins and live unto God, 
 then do we make a false profession, and our 
 service must be unacceptable to God. 
 
 Viewing the sacraments as seals of the co- 
 venant of grace, it is plain that they require 
 the qualifications just mentioned in those 
 who receive them. That covenant relates to 
 deliverance from sin. God therein engages 
 to grant us salvation ; and we engage to ac- 
 cept of his mercy on the terms on which it is 
 offered. If he promises to be our God ; we 
 promise to be his people. But how can those 
 who love sin and are determined not to for- 
 sake it, enter into this solemn engagement 
 with God? How can those who have no 
 sense of their need of pardon, no desire for 
 holiness, no sorrow for past transgressions, 
 thus covenant with God for forgiveness, sanc- 
 tification and eternal life ? 
 
 With regard to the Lord's supper we are 
 taught that it was specially designed to be a 
 memorial of Christ's death. If we join in 
 celebrating his death, we profess to believe 
 not only that he died, but that he was all 
 that he claimed to be ; that his death secures 
 the benefits which the Scriptures attribute 
 to it ; and that we are bound to aid in keep- 
 ing this great event in perpetual remem- 
 
324 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 brance. The proper discharge of this duty 
 requires that we should have a due sense of 
 our obligations to Christ for having loved us 
 and given himself for us. It requires that 
 we should reverence and love him in some 
 measure in proportion to his excellence and 
 the value of the blessings which we receive 
 from him. It requires that we should be 
 prepared to own him, who by wicked hands 
 was crucified and slain, as our Lord and Sa- 
 viour, and as such to obey and trust him. 
 
 In whatever light, therefore, the sacra- 
 ments are viewed, whether as the means of 
 publicly confessing Christ, or as signs and 
 seals of spiritual blessings, or as commemora- 
 tive of the work of redemption, no man can 
 profitably, or acceptably attend upon them, 
 without adequate knowledge of their nature, 
 without faith in the truths which they re- 
 present and confirm, or without the peni- 
 tence, gratitude and love which those truths, 
 when really believed, necessarily produce. 
 Where this knowledge, faith and love are 
 found, there are the requisite qualifications 
 for acceptable attendance on the sacraments ; 
 where they are wanting, such attendance 
 must include false professions and insincere 
 promises. 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 325 
 
 We must not, however, suppose that the 
 want of these qualifications frees us from the 
 obligation to obey the command of Christ to 
 be baptized and to commemorate his death. 
 We are certainly bound to worship God, 
 though destitute of the reverence, faith and 
 love which such worship requires ; and the 
 plea of unfitness, for the service cannot jus- 
 tify us in absenting ourselves from the ordi- 
 nances which Christ has appointed. If we 
 fear to assume the responsibility of a public 
 profession of religion, we should remember 
 that we make such profession every time we 
 join in the public worship of the sanctuary. 
 If we say we should oflfend God by approach- 
 ing his table, without due preparation, let us 
 remember that we offend him every time we 
 pray, or hear the gospel without faith, peni- 
 tence and obedience. It is in vain to attempt 
 to introduce consistency into a half religious 
 life. If men will renounce all claim to be of 
 the number of God's people, and reject his 
 service entirely, they may so far be consis- 
 tent. But they cannot choose one part of 
 his service and reject another; they cannot 
 profess to be penitent and believing by join- 
 ing in the worship of God, and declare them- 
 28 
 
326 PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 
 
 selves impenitent and unbelieving by absent- 
 ing themselves from the sacraments. They 
 do not place themselves on neutral ground 
 by such inconsistency. Their only safe and 
 proper course is to repent and believe. Then 
 will they be acceptable worshippers and ac- 
 ceptable communicants. If they frequent 
 the temple of God with a sincere desire to 
 do his will, and seek his favour, let them, 
 in the same state of mind, obey all his com- 
 mands. If they come to the Lord's table to 
 please Christ, to obey his will, to express 
 their gratitude for his death, let them come. 
 As their day is, so shall their strength be. 
 
 From the review of this whole subject, it 
 is clear that the public confession of Christ 
 is an indispensable condition of discipleship ; 
 that this confession must be made by attend- 
 ing on the ordinances which he has appoint- 
 ed; that these ordinances are not only the 
 signs and seals of spiritual blessings, but are 
 made, by the Holy Spirit, to the believer, 
 effectual means of grace; that attendance 
 upon them is, therefore, an indispensable 
 duty, requiring no other qualifications than 
 such as are necessary for the acceptable wor- 
 ship of God ; and, consequently, that it is in- 
 
PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 327 
 
 cumbent on all those who sincerely desire to 
 serve and honour Christ, and to partake of 
 his salvation, to receive the sacraments, in 
 obedience to his will. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 Section I. The nature of true religion. 
 
 » It is natural that those who have expe- 
 rienced the agitations which frequently at- 
 tend upon conversion, and have felt the peace 
 which flows from a hope of acceptance with 
 God, to imagine that the conflict is over ; the 
 victory won, and the work of religion accom- 
 plished. This imagination is soon dissipated. 
 Birth is not the whole of life ; neither is con- 
 version the whole of religion. A young 
 mother may, in the fulness of her joy, forget 
 for a moment that her vocation as a mother 
 is but just begun ; but when she looks upon 
 her infant, so wonderful in its organization 
 and instinct with an immortal spirit, the 
 sight of its helplessness makes her feel how 
 great a work she has still to do. An hour's 
 neglect might prove the ruin of her hopes. 
 Thus the young Christian, although at first 
 
HOLY LIVING. 329 
 
 disposed to think that his work is finished, 
 soon finds that the feeble principle of spiritual 
 life needs to be watched and nourished with 
 ceaseless care. If abandoned at its birth, it 
 must perish as certainly and as speedily as 
 an exposed infant. 
 
 Another mistake on this subject is made by 
 those who suppose that religion is a fitful 
 sort of life ; an alteration of excitement and 
 insensibility. Those who labour under this 
 delusion, are religious only on certain occa- 
 sions. They live contentedly for months in 
 unconcern, and then, if they can be moved to 
 tenderness or joy, they are satisfied with the 
 prospect of another period of collapse. No 
 form of life is thus intermittent. Neither 
 plants nor animals thus live. Men do not, 
 when in health, pass from convulsions to 
 fainting, and from fainting to convulsions; 
 nor does religion, when genuine, ever assume 
 this form. It has, indeed, its alternations, as 
 there are periods of health and sickness, of 
 vigour and lassitude in the animal frame; 
 but just so far as it deserves the name of reli- 
 gion, it is steady, active and progressive ; and 
 not a series of spasms. 
 
 It is a still more common error to suppose 
 that religion is rather an external than an in- 
 28^ 
 
330 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 ternal service. There are multitudes who 
 consider themselves to be religious, because 
 they attend upon religious services ; who sup- 
 pose that a regular attendance upon public 
 worship, and the outward forms of religion is 
 enough to entitle them to the character of 
 Christians. 
 
 The Scriptures teach us that religion is a 
 new, spiritual life. Its commencement is, 
 therefore, called a new birth, a creation, a 
 spiritual resurrection. It is, as to its princi- 
 ple or source, mysterious. No man can tell 
 what life is. He sees its different forms in 
 vegetables, animals, and in the rational soul ; 
 but he cannot detect the secret spring of 
 these different kinds of activity. The nature 
 of spiritual life is not less inscrutable. The 
 wind "bloweth where it listeth ; ye hear the 
 sound thereof, but ye cannot tell whence it 
 Cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every 
 one that is born of the Spirit. A new kind 
 of activity manifests itself in the soul that is 
 born of God; but whence that activity 
 springs, and how it is maintained, are among 
 the secret things of God. We cannot doubt, 
 however, that there is some permanent cause 
 of those new exercises. We know that the 
 life of the body does not consist in the acts of 
 
HOLY LIVING. 331 
 
 seeing, hearing, tasting, &c. ; nor does the 
 soul consist of thought and volition ; neither 
 does spiritual life consist in the acts v^hich 
 manifest its existence. There is in regenera- 
 tion a change effected in the state of the soul 
 M^hich accounts for its perceptions, purposes 
 and feelings being different from w^hat they 
 were before, and for their so continuing. 
 The cause of this difference is sometimes 
 called a new heart, or grace, or the spirit, or 
 the new man, or the renewal of the inner 
 man. All these terms are used to designate 
 the principle of spiritual life, which manifests 
 itself in the fruits of holiness. It is called 
 life because it is thus permanent, or abiding. 
 Those who for a time manifest a degree of 
 ardour and activity in relation to religion and 
 then lose all interest in the subject, are like 
 dead bodies on which electricity may for a 
 while produce some of the appearances of 
 animation, but which soon become insensible 
 to all means of excitement. In such cases 
 there is no principle of life. Where religion 
 is genuine, it has its root in a new heart, and 
 is, therefore, permanent. 
 
 It is, moreover, characteristic of the life of 
 sentient and rational creatures, to be sponta- 
 neous in its exercises. There are certain acts 
 
332 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 to which it prompts and in which it delights. 
 It is not by constraint that animals eat, or 
 drink, or sport in the consciousness of 
 strength; neither is it by compulsion that 
 men exercise their minds in the reception 
 and communication of ideas and the recipro- 
 cation of feeling. To be so isolated from 
 their fellow-beings as to be prevented from 
 giving vent to the force of intellectual and 
 social life, is the severest of all condemna- 
 tions. In like manner reverence, gratitude, 
 love, submission, are the spontaneous exer- 
 cises of the renewed heart. They are the 
 free, unbidden, unconstrained effusions of the 
 soul. That religion which is reluctant, or 
 forced, whether by fear or stress of con- 
 science, is spurious. Filial obedience, if ren- 
 dered from a dread of punishment, or from 
 mere regard to appearances, is very different 
 from that which flows from respect and love ; 
 and unless the service which we render to 
 God flows unbidden from the heart, it is no 
 evidence that we are his children. The Bible 
 represents the people of God as delighting in 
 the things of God. His word, his ordinances, 
 his sanctuary, his presence are their chief 
 joy. When a man is ill, he takes little plea- 
 sure in the ordinary sources of enjoyment, 
 
HOLY LIVING. 333 
 
 and when the Christian is in a declining 
 state, he knows little of the joy which belongs 
 to religion. Still whatever there is of spirit- 
 ual life in any soul, will manifest itself in 
 spontaneous exercises of piety. 
 
 Again, life, in all the forms in which we 
 are acquainted with it, is progressive ; feeble 
 at the beginning, it advances gradually to 
 maturity. It is thus in plants, in animals, 
 and in the rational soul ; and it is thus also in 
 the spiritual life. There is a joy which at- 
 tends the beginning of a religious life, which 
 very often declines; a fact which may lead 
 even the true Christian to think that religion 
 itself is declining in his heart. Such joy, 
 however, is a very uncertain criterion of the 
 progress or decline of the spiritual life. The 
 gambols of young animals show an exube- 
 rance of joy, which those that have reached 
 maturity no longer experience. But how im- 
 perfect is the organization of these playful 
 creatures, how small is their power of endu- 
 rance, how little their serviceable strength, 
 in comparison with that of those who know 
 not half their joys. It is not unnatural, 
 therefore, that young Christians should feel a 
 glow of happiness from the exercise of feel- 
 ings, delightful from their novelty as well as 
 
334 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 from their nature, which those more advanced 
 may have ceased to experience, in whom feel- 
 ing has ripened into principle, and mere joy- 
 ful emotions settled into a peace which passes 
 all understanding. 
 
 Though joy is not the proper criterion of 
 progress in the divine life, it is as essential to 
 its nature to be progressive, as it is to the life 
 of the body to increase in stature as it advan- 
 ces from childhood to maturity, or to that of 
 the mind to gather strength in its progress 
 from infancy to manhood. A man with the 
 mind of an infant is an idiot ; he is destitute 
 of what belongs to a rational being. And a 
 Christian, who makes no progress in holiness, 
 must be essentially defective. The surest 
 evidence of such progress is increase of 
 strength ; strength of faith ; strength of pur- 
 pose; strength of principle; strength to do 
 right, to resist evil, and to endure suffering. 
 The people of God go from strength to 
 strength, perfecting holiness in the fear of the 
 Lord. 
 
 True religion, then, is not an external ser- 
 vice ; nor is it a mere excitement of fear and 
 sorrow succeeded by peace and joy ; nor is it 
 a fitful alternation of such exercises. It is a 
 permanent principle of action, spontaneous in 
 
HOLY LIVING. 335 
 
 its exercises and progressive in its nature. 
 These attributes are essential to its genuine- 
 ness, but they do not constitute its vrhole 
 character. It is a participation of the divine 
 nature,^ or the conformity of the soul to God. 
 It is described as the putting off the old man 
 with his deeds and putting on the nev^ man, 
 which is renewed in knowledge after the 
 image of him that created him;t or a being 
 renewed in the spirit of our mind, that we 
 may put on the new man, which after God 
 is created in righteousness and true holiness. J 
 These two passages express the same truth. 
 To be renewed in knowledge, or rather, unto 
 knowledge, means to be renewed so as to 
 know; and knowledge includes the percep- 
 tion, recognition and approbation of what is 
 true and good. This comprehensive sense 
 of the word is not unusual in the Scriptures ; 
 and hence it is said, that to know God and 
 Jesus Christ is eternal life. Such knowledge 
 is the life of the soul ; it is conformity to God 
 in the perception and approbation of truth. 
 No higher conception of moral excellence can 
 be formed than that which resolves it into the 
 harmony of the soul with God in judgment 
 and will. This is what in the parallel pas- 
 * 2 Pet. i. 4. t Col. iii. 10. I Eph. iv. 24. 
 
336 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 sage, the apostle calls righteousness and holi- 
 ness of truth, (that is, founded upon, or aris- 
 ing from truth.) The same idea of sanctifi- 
 cation is presented in Rom. xii. 2, when it is 
 said. Be ye transformed by the renewing of 
 your mind, that ye may prove (or, approve) 
 what is that good, and acceptable and perfect 
 will of God. This is true religion, to approve 
 what God approves, to hate what he hates, 
 and to delight in what delights him. 
 
 It is obvious from this representation that 
 the whole man is the subject of this change. 
 There are new perceptions, new purposes 
 and new feelings. The mind becomes more 
 and more enlightened, the will more submis- 
 sive to the rule of right, and the affections 
 more thoroughly purified. The apostle in 
 his epistle to the Thessalonians says. The 
 God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray 
 God your whole spirit and soul and body be 
 preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ.^ The body is the sub- 
 ject of sanctification in various ways. It is 
 the temple of the Holy Ghost,! and is, there- 
 fore, holy as consecrated to the service, and 
 hallowed by the presence of God. Our 
 bodies are also members of Jesus Christ, and 
 * 1 Thess. V. 23. f 1 Cor. vi. 19. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 337 
 
 in virtue of this union, they partake of the 
 benefits of redemption, and are hereafter to 
 be fashioned like unto his glorious body. 
 And still further, the influence of the body 
 upon the soul is so manifold, for good or evil, 
 and, in our fallen state, so predominantly for 
 evil, that no small part of the work of sancti- 
 fication consists in counteracting that influ- 
 ence. Paul says of himself, I keep under my 
 body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by 
 any means, when I have preached to others, 
 I myself should be a castaway.^ And he 
 declares it to be one of the conditions of life, 
 that believers should, through the Spirit, 
 mortify the deeds of the body.f The body, 
 therefore, is sanctified not only by redeeming 
 it from the service of sin and consecrating it 
 to the service of God, but also by restraining 
 its power over the soul, making it temperate 
 in its demands and submissive to the will of 
 the renewed man. 
 
 As the work of sanctification extends to all 
 our faculties, so the image of God, which it 
 is designed to impress upon the soul, includes 
 all moral excellence. The different graces, 
 such as love, faith, meekness, kindness, &c., 
 are but different manifestations of one and the 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. ix. 27. t Rom. viii. 13. 
 
 29 
 
338 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 same principle of goodness. Not that justice 
 and benevolence are the same sentiment or 
 disposition, for they are distinct; but the 
 same principle which makes a man just, will 
 make him benevolent. Religion, or the prin- 
 ciple of divine life, prompts to all kinds of 
 excellence ; and, in itself, as much to one as 
 to another; just as the principle of life, in 
 plants and animals and in the rational soul, 
 leads to a harmonious development of the 
 whole in all its parts. The root increases as 
 the branches enlarge ; the body grows as the 
 several members increase in size ; and judg- 
 ment and memory gain strength as the other 
 powers of the mind increase in vigour. 
 Every thing depends upon this harmonious 
 progress. If the arms retained their infantile 
 proportions, while the rest of the body ad- 
 vanced to maturity, deformity and helpless- 
 ness would be the result. Or if judgment 
 and feeling gained their full force, while 
 memory and conscience remained as in infan- 
 cy, the mind w^ould be completely deranged. 
 The same law of symmetrical development is 
 impressed upon the life of the soul. If it 
 exists at all, it manifests itself in all the forms 
 of goodness. There may be some kinds of 
 excellence, where others are absent; but then 
 
HOLY LIVING. 339 
 
 such excellence has not its source in the 
 divine life; or in a new heart; for that, in its 
 very nature, includes all moral excellence. 
 We feel it to be a contradiction to say that he 
 is a good man, who, though just, is unkind ; 
 because goodness includes both justice and 
 benevolence. And it is no less a contradic- 
 tion to say that a man is religious who is not 
 honest, because religion includes honesty as 
 well as piety. It is not simply intended that 
 the word religion comprehends and expresses 
 all forms of moral excellence, but that the 
 thing meant by religion, or the new man, the 
 principle of grace or of divine life in the 
 heart, includes within itself all kinds of good- 
 ness. Reverence, love, submission, justice, 
 benevolence, are but different exercises of one 
 and the same principle of holiness. There 
 can be no holiness without benevolence, none 
 without reverence, none without justice. The 
 man, therefore, who is renewed in the spirit 
 of his mind after the image of God, is one 
 who has that moral excellence which ex- 
 presses itself, according to its different objects 
 and occasions, in all the various graces of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 The Scriptures give especial prominence 
 to the love of God as the most comprehensive 
 
340 taOLY LIVING. 
 
 and important of all the manifestations of 
 this inward spiritual life. We are so consti- 
 tuted as to take delight in objects suited to 
 our nature; and the perception of qualities 
 adapted to our constitution, in external ob- 
 jects, produces complacency and desire. The 
 soul rests in them as a good to be loved for 
 its own sake ; and the higher these qualities, 
 the more pure and elevated are the affections 
 which they excite. It is the effect of regene- 
 ration to enable us to perceive and love the 
 infinite and absolute perfection of God, as 
 comprehending all kinds of excellence, and 
 as suited to the highest powers and most en- 
 larged capacities of our nature. As soon, 
 therefore, as the heart is renewed it turns to 
 God, and rests in his excellence as the su- 
 preme object of complacency and desire. 
 
 Love to God, however, is not mere compla- 
 cency in moral excellence. It is the love of 
 a personal being, who stands in the most in- 
 timate relations to ourselves, as the author of 
 our existence, as our preserver and ruler, as 
 our father, who with conscious love watches 
 over us, protects us, supplies all our wants, 
 holds communion with us, manifesting him- 
 self unto us as he does not unto the world. 
 The feelings of dependence, obligation and 
 
HOLY LIVING. 34l 
 
 relationship, enter largely into that compre- 
 hensive affection called the love of God. 
 This affection is still further modified by the 
 apprehension of the infinite wisdom and pow- 
 er of its object. These attributes are the pro- 
 per object of admiration; and, when infinite 
 in degree and united with infinite goodness, 
 they excite that wonder, admiration, reve- 
 rence and complacency which constitute ado- 
 ration, and w^hich find in prostration and wor- 
 ship their only adequate expression. There 
 is no attribute of religion more essential to its 
 nature than this reverence for God. When- 
 ever heaven has been opened to the view of 
 men, its inhabitants have been seen with their 
 faces veiled and bowing before the throne 
 of God. And all acceptable worship upon 
 earth, proceeds from the humble and contrite 
 who tremble at his word. 
 
 The exercise of these feelings of reverence 
 and love is either, (so to speak,) casual, as the 
 thoughts of God pass and repass through the 
 soul during the busy hours of the day ; or it is 
 more prolonged, when the soul withdraws 
 from the world, and sets itself in the presence 
 of God, to adore his excellence, to thank him 
 for his goodness, and to supplicate his bless- 
 ing. The spirit of devotion which so pre- 
 29* 
 
342 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 eminently distinguished the Redeemer, dwells 
 in all his people. They are all devout; they 
 all w^alk w^ith God ; they all feel him to be 
 near and rejoice in his presence ; and they all 
 have communion with him in acts of private 
 and public worship. There is no religion 
 without this intercourse of the soul with God, 
 as there is no life without warmth and motion 
 in the body. And as the body rapidly decays 
 when dead ; so the soul perishes when not in 
 communion with God. 
 
 This love of God will manifest itself in 
 submission and obedience. The former is an 
 humble acquiescence in the will of God, in- 
 cluding the perception and acknowledgment 
 that the commands of God concerniug all 
 things are right, and that his dispensations 
 are all wise, merciful and just. Even when 
 clouds and darkness are round about him, 
 religion forces upon us the conviction that 
 justice and judgment are the habitation of his 
 throne. The renewed soul, filled with the 
 assurance of the wisdom, power and goodness 
 of God, resigns itself into his hands, saying. 
 Thy will be done. When under the influ- 
 ence of this spirit, it is free from the discon- 
 tent and misgivings which destroy the peace 
 and aggravate the guilt of those who have no 
 
HOLY LIVING. 343 
 
 such confidence that the judge of all the earth 
 will do right. 
 
 Love to God must produce obedience, be- 
 cause it supposes a conformity of the soul to 
 God in the perception and love of what is 
 true and right ; and obedience is only the ex- 
 pression or outward manifestation of this con- 
 formity ; just as disobedience is the evidence 
 of a contrariety between our will and the will 
 of God. Wherever there is reconciliation to 
 God, or the restoration of the divine image, 
 there must be conformity of heart and life to 
 the will of God. It is a contradiction to say 
 that a man is like God, or is a partaker of his 
 nature, who does not love what God loves, 
 and avoid what he hates. Obedience is but 
 love in action. It is but the voice, and look, 
 and carriage which affection, of necessity, as- 
 sumes. For the love of God is not, as already 
 said, mere love to excellence; it is the love 
 of a heavenly Father ; and, therefore, it secures 
 obedience, not only because it supposes a con- 
 geniality of mind, if we may so speak, between 
 the people of God and God himself, but also 
 because it is his will that we should be obe- 
 dient ; it is what is pleasing to him ; and love 
 is no longer love if it does not lead to the pur- 
 pose and endeavour to give pleasure to its ob- 
 
344 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 ject. He that hath my commandments and 
 keepeth them, said our Saviour, he it is that 
 loveth me. Obedience is not so much the evi- 
 dence of love, as it is love itself made visible, or 
 expressed. The habitual tenor of a man's life 
 gives a more faithful exhibition of his state of 
 heart, than any occasional ebullition of feel- 
 ing, or any mere verbal professions; and 
 where the tenor of the life is not in conform- 
 ity with the will of God, there the heart must 
 be in opposition to that will ; and on the other 
 hand, wherever there is love, there must be 
 obedience. 
 
 It would be out of analogy with the order 
 of things as established by God, if the exer- 
 cises of the spiritual life were not attended by 
 peace and joy. Happiness is so intimately 
 associated with these exercises that the apos- 
 tle says. To be spiritually minded is life and 
 peace. Excellence and enjoyment are blend- 
 ed in inseparable union ; so that all right emo- 
 tions and affections are pleasurable. And this 
 pleasure is, in kind if not in degree, proportion- 
 able to the dignity of the powers from whose 
 exercise they flow. The senses afford the 
 lowest kind of happiness ; then, in an ascend- 
 ing scale, the social afi^ections ; then the intel- 
 lectual powers ; then the moral emotions, and 
 
HOLY LIVING. 345 
 
 then the religious aflfections. The kind of 
 enjoyment which attend these latter is felt to 
 be more pure and elevated, more satisfying 
 and better suited to our nature, than that 
 which flows from any other source. Hence 
 the Scriptures ascribe to communion with 
 God a joy that is unspeakable and full of 
 glory, and a peace which passes all under- 
 standing. Joy, therefore, is one of the fruits 
 of the Spirit ; it is one of the accompaniments 
 and evidences of spiritual life ; it is a health- 
 ful affusion ; it is the oil of gladness, which 
 the Spirit pours over the renewed soul, to in- 
 vigorate its exercises, to brighten its visage, 
 and to make it active in the service and 
 praise of God. 
 
 As the image of God, after which the soul 
 is renewed, consists in moral excellence, and 
 as moral excellence means that state of mind, 
 which causes a man to feel and act right 
 under all circumstances, it is impossible that 
 those who have correct views and feelings in 
 regard to God, should not feel and act correct- 
 ly in regard to their fellow-men. Those 
 whom the Bible designates as good men are 
 benevolent and just no less than devout. 
 The comprehensive statement of our duty to- 
 wards our fellow-men, is found in the com- 
 
346 . HOLY LIVING. 
 
 mand, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 self. The love here intended is that disposi- 
 tion which leads us to regard our neighbour 
 with respect and kindness, and to seek to do 
 him good. This love is long-sujfFering and 
 kind ; it does not envy the happiness of others 
 but rejoices in their welfare. It is not proud, 
 nor does it behave i|;self unseemly. It seek- 
 eth not its own. It rejoices not in iniquity, 
 but rejoices in the truth. It beareth all 
 things, believeth all things, hopeth all things. 
 Without this love, all professions of piety, all 
 gifts, all outward acts of self-denial or charity, 
 are worthless. It belongs essentially to the 
 Christian character ; for as self-love, prompt- 
 ing us to the pursuit of our own happiness, 
 belongs to our nature as men, so benevolence, 
 prompting us to seek the happiness of others, 
 belongs to the nature of the new man. A 
 new man means a good man, one who is like 
 God, holy, just, benevolent and merciful. 
 
 This meek, kind, trustful temper, which 
 religion never fails to produce, is, of course, 
 variously modified by the various characters 
 of individuals, and by the relations of life. 
 It is no part of the teaching of the Bible that 
 we must regard all men with the same feel- 
 ings. While it inculcates benevolence to- 
 
HOLY LIVING. 347' 
 
 wards all men, it makes provision for the pe- 
 culiar and closer relations in which men 
 stand to each other, as members of one fami- 
 ly, or one society. And the same principle 
 of religion which produces this general be- 
 nevolence, secures the exercise of all the af- 
 fections which belong to the various relations 
 of life. It causes us to render obedience to 
 whom obedience is due, fear to whom fear, 
 honour to whom honour. It makes men in 
 their intercourse with their equals respectful, 
 considerate and amiable ; in their conduct to 
 their inferiors condescending, just and kind. 
 
 It cannot be too well considered that these 
 social virtues are essential to true religion. 
 The people of God are those who are like 
 God ; but God, as we have seen, is just, mer- 
 ciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness 
 and truth. Those, therefore, who are dis- 
 honest, unkind, proud, revengeful, or deceit- 
 ful, are not his people ; they do not bear the 
 heavenly image, and have never been renew- 
 ed in the spirit of their minds. Let no man 
 deceive himself with the hope that though a 
 bad parent, child, or neighbour, he may be a 
 good Christian. A Christian is like Christ. 
 
 Another form in which a renewed heart 
 cannot fail to manifest itself is in self-denial. 
 
348 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 If any man will come after me, said the Sa- 
 viour, let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross and follov^ me. The necessity of self- 
 denial arises partly from the fact that the 
 gratification of our own wishes is often incon- 
 sistent with the good of others; and partly 
 from the fact that so many of our desires and 
 passions are inordinate or evil. The rule 
 prescribed by the gospel is, that we are not 
 to please ourselves, but every one must please 
 his neighbour, for good to edification, even as 
 Christ pleased not himself, but though he 
 was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, 
 that we, through his poverty, might be rich. 
 The daily intercourse of life furnishes con- 
 stant occasion for the exercises of this kind of 
 self-denial. He who has the same mind that 
 was in Christ, instead of being selfish, is 
 ready to defer his own advantage to that of 
 others, to give up his own gratification, and 
 even his own rights for the good of others. 
 If meat causes his brother to offend, he will 
 not eat meat while the world lasts. To the 
 Jews, he becomes as a Jew, that he may gain 
 the Jews. To the weak, he becomes as 
 weak, that he may gain the weak. He does 
 not live for himself. His own interest is not 
 the main end of his pursuit. As a disinter- 
 
HOLY LIVING. 349 
 
 ested regard for the good of others pre-emi- 
 nently distinguished the Redeemer, it char- 
 acterizes all his followers ; for God has pre- 
 destinated them to be conformed to the image 
 of his Son. 
 
 The call for self-denial arising from the 
 corruption of our nature, is still more fre- 
 quent. In consequence of the fall, the senses 
 have attained an undue influence over the 
 soul; they are incessant in their demands, 
 and become more importunate the more they 
 are indulged. It is inconsistent with reason 
 to yield ourselves to the power of these lower 
 principles of our nature; for reason itself 
 teaches us that if a man is governed by his 
 body, he is the servant of a slave. But if 
 even a rational man feels bound to subject 
 the body to the mind, the religious man can- 
 not be sensual. They that are Christians 
 have mortified the flesh with its affections 
 and lusts ; they keep their bodies in subjec- 
 tion. 
 
 What belongs to the body is, in a certain 
 sense, external ; the evil dispositions of the 
 heart are in more intimate connection with 
 the soul. Pride, vanity, envy, malice, the 
 love of self are more formidable foes than 
 mere bodily appetites. They are stronger, 
 30 
 
350 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 more enduring, and more capable of deceit. 
 As these dispositions are deeply seated in onr 
 nature, the putting off the old man, which is 
 corrupt, or the destruction of these unholy 
 principles, is the most difficult of all Christian 
 duties, and renders the believer's life a per- 
 petual conflict. The flesh lusteth against 
 the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so 
 that he cannot do the things that he would. 
 In this conflict, however, the better principle 
 is habitually, though not uniformly, victori- 
 ous ; for the children of God walk not after 
 the flesh, but after the spirit. 
 
 It appears, then, even from this short sur- 
 vey, that true Christians are renewed after 
 the image of God so as to be holy ; they love 
 God, they rest with complacency on his per- 
 fections, they acquiesce in his will, and re- 
 joice in their relation to him as his creatures 
 and children. They are habitually devout 
 and have fellowship with the Father of their 
 spirits and with Jesus Christ his Son. They 
 are obedient children, not fashioning them- 
 selves according to their former lusts, but as 
 he that called them is holy, so are they holy 
 in all manner of conversation. As they bear 
 the image of a just and merciful God, they 
 are honest and benevolent towards their feU 
 
HOLY LIVING. 361 
 
 low-men, not seeking their own, but the good 
 of others. And as this victory over them- 
 selves and this conformity to the image of 
 God cannot be obtained without conflict and 
 self-denial, they keep up a constant opposi- 
 tion to the more subtle evils of the heart. 
 
 Some may be ready to say, that if this is 
 religion, then no man is religious. It is cer- 
 tainly true that many are called, and few 
 chosen. Strait is the gate and narrow is the 
 way, which leadeth unto life, and few there 
 be that find it. We must take our idea of 
 religion from the Bible, and not from the 
 lives of professors. It cannot be denied that 
 the Bible makes religion to consist in love to 
 God and man ; nor can it be questioned that 
 the love of God will manifest itself in reve- 
 rence, devotion and obedience, and the love 
 of men in benevolence and justice. And our 
 own conscience tells us that no external 
 forms, no outward professions, no assiduity 
 in religious services, can entitle us to the 
 character of Christians, unless we are thus 
 devout and obedient towards God, thus just 
 and benevolent towards our fellow-men, and 
 thus pure and self-denying as regards our- 
 selves. But while it is certain that these 
 traits are all essential to the Christian cha- 
 
352 HOLY LIVIl^G. 
 
 racter, it is not asserted that all Christians 
 are alike. There is as great diversity in 
 their characters as Christians, as in their 
 bodily appearance, their mental powers, or 
 social dispositions. But as all men, in the 
 midst of this endless variety, have the same 
 features, the same mental faculties, and the 
 same social affections, so all Christians, how- 
 ever they may differ in the strength or com- 
 bination of the Christian graces, are all led 
 by the Spirit, and all produce the fruits of 
 the Spirit. 
 
 Having given this brief outline of the na- 
 ture of true religion, it is proper \o say a few 
 words as to its necessity. It should be ever 
 borne in mind that the necessity of holiness 
 is absolute. With regard to other things, 
 some, though desirable, are not essential, and 
 others, though essential under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, are not universally and absolute- 
 ly necessary. But holiness is necessary in 
 such a sense that salvation, without it, is im- 
 possible, because salvation principally con- 
 sists in this very transformation of the heart. 
 Jesus is a Saviour, because he saves his peo- 
 ple from their sins. Those, therefore, who are 
 not sanctified, are not saved. The doctrine 
 that a man may live in sin, and still be in a 
 
HOLY LIVING. 353 
 
 state of salvation, is as much a contradiction, 
 as to say that a man may be ill, when in 
 health. A state of salvation is a state of holi- 
 ness. The two things are inseparable; be- 
 cause salvation is not mere redemption from 
 the penalty of sin, but deliverance from its 
 power. It is freedom from bondage to the 
 appetites of the body and the evil passions of 
 the heart ; it is an introduction into the favour 
 and fellowship of God ; the restoration of the 
 divine image to the soul, so that it loves God 
 and delights in his service. Salvation, there- 
 fore, is always begun on earth. Verily, veri- 
 ly, I say unto you, he that believeth on me 
 hath eternal life. This is the language of 
 our Saviour. To be spiritually minded is 
 life; to be carnally minded is death. There 
 is no delusion more inexcusable, because none 
 is more directly opposed to every doctrine of 
 the Bible, than the idea that a state of grace 
 is consistent with a life of sin. Without holi- 
 ness no man can see God. Whatever our 
 ecclesiastical connexions may be, whatever 
 our privileges or professions, if we are not 
 holy in heart and life ; if we are not habitu- 
 ally governed by a regard to the will of God ; 
 if we do not delight in communion with him, 
 and desire conformity to his image ; if we are 
 30*- 
 
354 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 not led by the Spirit and do not exhibit the 
 love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
 goodness, faith, meekness and temperance 
 which that Spirit always produces — then we 
 are not religious men, nor are we in a state 
 of salvation. 
 
 The Bible knows nothing of proud, selfish, 
 covetous, impure Christians. Christians are 
 partakers of a holy calling, they are washed, 
 and sanctified and justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God ; 
 they are saints, the sanctified in Christ Jesus ; 
 they mind spiritual things ; they have cruci- 
 fied the flesh with its affections and lusts ; 
 they are poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, 
 merciful ; they hunger and thirst after righte- 
 ousness. Not that they have already appre- 
 hended, or are already perfect ; but they fol- 
 low after, if that they may apprehend that for 
 which they are also apprehended of Christ 
 Jesus ; forgetting the things that are behind, 
 and reaching forth unto those things which 
 are before, they press toward the mark for the 
 prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus. Their conversation is in heaven; 
 from whence also they look for the Saviour, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our 
 vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto 
 
HOLY LIVING. 355 
 
 his glorious body, according to the working 
 whereby he is able to subdue all things unto 
 himself. 
 
 Again, as God is holy, it is necessary that 
 his people should be holy. There can be no 
 communion without concord, or congeniality. 
 If one loves what another hates, approves 
 what another condemns, desires what another 
 rejects, there can be no fellowship between 
 them. What concord hath Christ with 
 Belial; or what fellowship hath light with 
 darkness? So long, therefore, as we are 
 what God disapproves ; so long as we do not 
 love what he loves, there can be no fellow- 
 ship between him and us. Hence Christ 
 says, Marvel not that I said unto you, ye 
 must be born again. That which is born of 
 the flesh, is flesh ; and that which is born of 
 the Spirit, is spirit. The carnal mind is en- 
 mity against God, and so long as this prevails 
 it is impossible that we should enjoy his pre- 
 sence. As God is the only adequate portion 
 of the soul ; as his favour and fellowship are 
 essential to our happiness ; as heaven consists 
 in seeing, loving and serving God, it is plain 
 that unless we are sanctified we cannot be 
 saved ; we cannot enjoy the society, the em- 
 ployments, or the pleasures of the people of 
 
356 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 God above, if we take no delight in them 
 here. The necessity of holiness, therefore, 
 arises out of the very nature of God, and is 
 consequently absolute and unchangeable. 
 
 We know also that holiness is the end of 
 redemption. Christ gave himself for his 
 church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, 
 and that it should be holy and without blem- 
 ish. He died the just for the unjust that he 
 might bring us unto God. The object of re- 
 demption is not attained in the case of those 
 who remain in sin ; in other words, they are 
 not redeemed. It is, therefore, to subvert the 
 whole Gospel, and to make the death of 
 Christ of none effect, to suppose that redemp- 
 tion and continuance in sin are compatible. 
 The whole design and purpose of the mission 
 and sufferings of the Saviour would be frus- 
 trated if his people were not made partakers 
 of his holiness ; for the glory of God is pro- 
 moted in them and by them only so far as 
 they are made holy, and the recompense of 
 the Redeemer is his bringing his people into 
 conformity to his own image, that he may be 
 the first-born among many brethren. Every 
 child of God feels that the charm and glory 
 of redemption is deliverance from sin and 
 conformity to God. This is the crown of 
 
HOLY LIVING. 357 
 
 righteousness, the prize of the high calling of 
 God, the exaltation and blessedness for which 
 he longs and suffers and prays. To tell him 
 that he may be saved without being made 
 holy, is to confound all his ideas of salvation, 
 and to crush all his hopes. The nature of 
 salvation, the character of God, the declara- 
 tions of his word, the design of redemption, 
 all concur to prove that holiness is absolutely 
 and indispensably necessary, so that whatever 
 we may be, or whatever we may have, if we 
 are not holy, we are not the children of God 
 nor the heirs of his kingdom. 
 
 Section II. The mean$ of sanctijication. 
 
 The attainment of holiness is often treated, 
 even by Christian writers, as a mere question 
 of morals, or at most of natural religion. 
 Men are directed to control, by the force of 
 reason, their vicious propensities; to set in 
 array before the mind the motives to virtuous 
 living, and to strengthen the will by acts of 
 self-restraint. Conscience is summoned to 
 sanction the dictates of reason, or to warn the 
 sinner of the consequences of transgression. 
 The doctrines of the presence and providence 
 of God, and of future retribution, are more or 
 
358 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 less relied upon to prevent the indulgence of 
 sin, and to stimulate to the practice of virtue. 
 Special directions are given how to cultivate 
 virtuous habits, or to correct those which are 
 evil. 
 
 As we are rational beings and were meant 
 to be governed by reason in opposition to ap- 
 petite and passion, there is much that is true 
 and important in such disquisitions on the 
 practice of virtue. But as we are depraved 
 beings, destitute of any recuperative power in 
 ourselves, such rules and the efforts to which 
 they lead, must, by themselves, be ineffectual. 
 God has endowed the body with a restorative 
 energy, which enables it to throw off what is 
 noxious to the system, and to heal the 
 wounds, which accident or malice may have 
 inflicted. But when the system itself is de- 
 ranged, instead of correcting what is amiss, 
 it aggravates what would, otherwise, be a 
 mere temporary disorder. And if by exter- 
 nal means the evil is checked in one part, it 
 re-appears in another. Though you ampu- 
 tate a decaying limb, the remaining portion 
 soon exhibits symptoms of mortification. So 
 long as the system is deranged such means 
 are mere palliatives, concealing or diverting 
 the evil, but leaving the source of it untouch- 
 
HOLY LIVING. 359 
 
 ed. It is no less true that so long as the 
 heart is unrenewed, all that reason and con- 
 science can do is of little avail. They may 
 obstruct the stream, or divert it into secret 
 channels, but they cannot reach the fountain. 
 As v^e retain since the fall, reason, the power 
 of choice, conscience, the social affections, a 
 sense of justice, fear, shame, &c., much may 
 may be done, by a skilful management of 
 these principles of action, towards producing 
 propriety of conduct and even great amiabili- 
 ty and worth of character. But it is impos- 
 sible, by these means, to call into existence 
 right views and feelings towards God and 
 our neighbour, or to eradicate the selfishness, 
 pride and other forms of evil by which our 
 nature is corrupted. A man may be brought, 
 by reason and conscience, to change his con- 
 duct, but not to change his heart. A sense of 
 duty may force him to give alms to a man he 
 hates, but it cannot change hatred into love. 
 The desire of happiness may induce him to 
 engage externally in the service of God, but 
 it cannot make that service a delight. The 
 affections do not obey the dictates of reason, 
 nor the commands of conscience. They 
 may be measurably restrained in their mani- 
 festations, but cannot be changed in their na- 
 
360 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 ture. They follow their own law. They 
 delight ia what is suited to the disposition of 
 him who exercises them. Holding up to 
 them what they ought to delight in, cannot 
 secure their devotion. 
 
 It is not meant to depreciate reason and 
 conscience, but it is necessary that their true 
 province should be known, that we may not 
 rely upon inadequate means in our efforts to 
 become holy. Though Scripture and expe- 
 rience teach us that our own unaided powers 
 are insufficient to bring us to the knowledge 
 and love of God, the rules which reason sug- 
 gests for the culture of moral excellence, are, 
 for the renewed man, far from being destitute 
 of value. It is no doubt of importance that 
 we should be acquainted with the counsels of 
 the wise on this subject, and that w^e should 
 habituate ourselves to the vigilant use of all 
 these subordinate means of improvement ; re- 
 membering, however, that it is not by the 
 strength of our own purposes, nor by the 
 force of moral considerations, nor by any 
 rules of discipline, that the life of God in the 
 soul can be either produced or sustained. 
 
 While one class of men place their chief 
 reliance for moral improvement upon reason 
 and conscience, another, and perhaps a larger 
 
HOLY LIVING. 361 
 
 class, rely upon means which, though they 
 have no tendency in themselves to produce 
 holiness, are falsely assumed to have, in vir- 
 tue of the appointment of God, an inherent 
 efficacy for that purpose. Such are not only 
 the ablutions, pilgrimages and penances of 
 the heathen, but the multiplied rites of cor- 
 rupt Christian churches. Sprinkling the 
 body with consecrated water, the repetition 
 of forms of prayer, attendance upon religious 
 services not understood, anointing with oil, 
 the imposition of hands, receiving, though 
 without faith, the holy sacraments, are sup- 
 posed to convey grace to the soul. Great re- 
 liance is placed on retirement from the world ; 
 on praying at particular times or places, or 
 in a particular posture, and on the whole 
 routine of ascetic discipline. With what la- 
 borious and unavailing diligence these means 
 of destroying sin have been employed, the 
 history of the church gives melancholy evi- 
 dence. Even in the days of the apostles the 
 dispositions to rely on such means for attain- 
 ing holiness had begun to manifest itself 
 There were even then men who commanded 
 to abstain from meats, who forbade marriage, 
 who said, taste not, touch not, handle not; 
 which things, says the apostle, have indeed a 
 31 
 
362 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 show of wisdom in will-worship and humili- 
 ty, and in neglecting and dishonouring the 
 body, and yet only served to satisfy the ftesh.* 
 The Scriptures teach us a different doc- 
 trine. They teach that believers are so uni- 
 ted to Christ, that they are not only parta- 
 kers of the merit of his death, but also of his 
 Holy Spirit, which dwells in them as a prin- 
 ciple of life, bringing them more and more 
 into conformity with the image of God, and 
 working in them both to will and to do, ac- 
 cording to his own good pleasure. They 
 teach that so long as men are under the law, 
 that is, are bound to satisfy its demands as 
 the ground of their acceptance with God and 
 are governed by a legal spirit, or a mere 
 sense of duty and fear of punishment, they 
 are in the condition of slaves; incapable of 
 right feelings towards God, or of producing 
 the fruits of holiness. But when, by the 
 death of Christ, they are freed from the law, 
 in the sense above stated, their whole relation 
 to God is changed. They are no longer 
 slaves, but children. Being united to Christ 
 in his death, they are partakers of his life, 
 and in virtue of this union they bring forth 
 fruit unto God. They are henceforth led by 
 
 * Col. ii. 21—23. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 363 
 
 the Spirit which dwells in them; and this 
 Spirit is a source of life not only to the soul 
 but also to the body ; for if the Spirit of him 
 that raised Christ from the dead, dwell in us, 
 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
 also quicken our bodies, by his Spirit that 
 dwelleth in us. The doctrine of sanctifica- 
 tion, therefore, as taught in the Bible is, that 
 we are made holy not by the force of con- 
 science, nor of moral motives, nor by acts of 
 discipline, but by being united to Christ so 
 as to become reconciled to God, and partakers 
 of the Holy Ghost. Christ is made unto us 
 sanctification as well as justification. He not 
 only frees from the penalty of the law, but he 
 makes holy. There is, therefore, according 
 to the gospel, no such thing as sanctification, 
 without or before justification. Those who 
 are out of Christ are under the power, as well 
 as under the condemnation of sin. And 
 those who are in Christ are not only free 
 from condemnation, but are also delivered 
 from the dominion of sin. 
 
 The nature of the union between Christ 
 and his people, on which so much depends, 
 is confessedly mysterious. Paul having said, 
 We are members of his body, of his flesh, and 
 of his bones, immediately adds, This is a 
 
364 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 great mystery.* It is in vain, therefore, to 
 attempt to bring this subject down to the 
 level of our comprehension. The mode in* 
 which God is present and operates through- 
 out the universe, is to us an impenetrable se- 
 cret. We cannot even understand how our 
 own souls are present and operate in the bo- 
 dies which they occupy. We need not, then, 
 expect to comprehend the mode in which 
 Christ dwells by his Spirit in the hearts of 
 his people. The fact that such union exists, 
 is clearly revealed; its effects are explicitly 
 stated, and its nature is set forth as far as it 
 can be made known by the most striking il- , 
 lustrations. In his intercessory prayer, our 
 Saviour said, I pray — that they all may be 
 one, as thou Father art in me and I in thee, 
 that they also may be one in us. — I in them, 
 and thou in me, that they may be made per- 
 fect in one.f He that keepeth his command- 
 ments, says the apostle, dwelleth in him, and 
 he in him; and hereby we know that he 
 abideth in us, by the Spirit, which he hath 
 given us. I If any man have not the Spirit 
 of Christ, he is none of his, but if Christ be 
 in you, the body, (adds the apostle,) may die, 
 
 * Eph. V. 32. t John xvii. 21, 23. \ i John iii. 24. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 365 
 
 but the soul shall live.^ Know ye not, asks 
 Paul, That your body is the temple of the 
 Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have 
 of God, and ye are not your own?t And to 
 the same effect. Know ye not that ye are the 
 temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
 dwelleth in you? J 
 
 The Scriptures are filled with this doc- 
 trine. The great promise of the Old Testa- 
 ment, in connexion with the advent of the 
 Messiah was, that the Holy Spirit should 
 then be abundantly communicated to men. 
 Christ is said to have redeemed us in order 
 that we might receive this promised Spirit.^ 
 And the only evidence of a participation of 
 the benefits of redemption, recognised by the 
 apostles, was the participation of the Holy 
 Ghost, manifesting itself either in the extra- 
 ordinary powers which he then communi- 
 cated, or in those lovely fruits of holiness 
 which never fail to mark his presence. 
 
 The effects ascribed to this union, as alrea- 
 dy stated, are an interest in the merits of 
 Christ, in order to our justification, and the 
 indwelling of his Spirit in order to our sanc- 
 tification. Its nature is variously illustrated. 
 
 * Rom. viii. 9—11. t 1 Cor. vi. 19. 
 
 I 1 Cor. iii. 16. 5 Gal. hi. 13, 14. 
 
 31* 
 
366 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 It is compared to that union which subsists 
 between a representative and those for whom 
 he acts. In this view Adam is said to be like 
 Christ, and Christ is said to be the second 
 Adam ; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ 
 shall all be made alive. This idea is also 
 presented whenever Christ is said to have 
 died for his sheep, or in their place ; or when 
 they are said to have died with him, his death 
 being virtually their death, satisfying in their 
 behalf the demands of justice, and redeeming 
 them from the curse of the law. It is com- 
 pared to the union between the head and 
 members of the same body. The meaning 
 of this illustration is by no means exhausted 
 by saying that Christ governs his people, or 
 that there is a community of feeling and in- 
 terest between them. The main idea is that 
 there is a community of life ; that the same 
 Spirit dwells in him and in them. As the 
 body is every where animated by one soul, 
 which makes it one and communicates a com- 
 mon life to all its parts ; so the Holy Ghost, 
 who dwells in Christ, is by him communi- 
 cated to all his people, and makes them, in a 
 peculiar sense, one with him and one among 
 themselves, and imparts to all, that life which 
 has its seat and source in him. As the body 
 
HOLY LIVING. 367 
 
 is one, and hath many members, and all the 
 members of that one body, being many are 
 one body ; so also is Christ, for by one Spirit 
 are we all baptized into one body — and have 
 all been made to drink into one Spirit.* An- 
 other illustration, but of the same import, is 
 employed by Christ, w^hen he says, I am the 
 vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in 
 nje and I in him, the same bringeth forth 
 much fruit ; for w^ithout me ye can do nothing. 
 As the branches are so united to the vine as 
 to partake of its life and to be absolutely de- 
 pendent upon it, so believers are so united to 
 Christ as to partake of his life and to be ab- 
 solutely dependent on him. The Holy Spirit 
 communicated by him to them, is, in them, 
 the principle of life and fruitfulness. 
 
 Christ and his people are one. He is the 
 foundation, they are the building. He is the 
 vine, they are the branches. He is the head, 
 they are the body. Because he lives, they 
 shall live also ; for it is not they that live, but 
 Christ that liveth in them. The Holy Spirit, 
 concerning which he said to his disciples. 
 He dwelleth with you and shall be in you, is 
 to them not only the source of spiritual life, 
 but of all its manifestations. They are bap- 
 
 * 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. 
 
368 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 tized by the Spirit;* they are born of the 
 Spirit;! they are called spiritual, because the 
 Spirit of God dwells in them; J whereas, the 
 unregenerate are called natural, or sensual, 
 ''not having the Spirit."^ Believers are 
 sanctiJfied by the Spirit ;|| they are led by the 
 Spirit ;ir they live in the Spirit;** they are 
 strengthened by the Spirit ;tt they are filled 
 with the Spirit.JJ By the Spirit they mor- 
 tify sin;H through the Spirit, they wait for 
 the hope of righteousness ;|| || they have access 
 to God by the Spirit; If H they pray and sing, 
 in the Spirit .*** The Spirit is to them a 
 source of knowledge,ttt of joy,Mt <^f ^^^^^ 
 long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 temperance. H^ This doctrine of the in- 
 dwelling of the Holy Spirit is so wrought 
 into the texture of the Gospel as to be abso- 
 lutely essential to it. It ceases to be the Gos- 
 pel if we abstract from it the great truth, that 
 
 * Luke iii. 16. f John iii. 5. 
 
 t 1 Cor. iii. 16. J Jude 10. 
 
 II ICor. vi. 11. IT Rom. viii. 14. 
 ** Gal. V. 25. tt Eph. iii. 16. 
 tt Eph. V. 18. 55 Rom. viii. 13. 
 nil Gal. V. 5. iriF Eph. ii. 18. 
 *** 1 Cor. xiv. 15. ttt Eph. i. 17. 
 
 III 1 Thess i. 6. 555 Gal. v. 22. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 369 
 
 the Spirit of God, as the purchase and gift of 
 Christ, is ever present with his people, guid- 
 ing their inward exercises and outward con- 
 duct, and bringing them at last, without spot 
 or blemish, to the purity and blessedness of 
 heaven. 
 
 The secret of holy living lies in this doc- 
 trine of the union of the believer with Christ. 
 This is not only the ground of his hope of 
 pardon, but the source of the strength where- 
 by he dies unto sin and lives unto righteous- 
 ness. It is by being rooted and grounded in 
 Christ that he is strengthened with might by 
 his Spirit in the inner man, and is enabled 
 to comprehend the breadth, and length, and 
 depth and height of the mystery of redemp- 
 tion and to know the love of Christ which 
 passes knowledge and is filled with all the 
 fulness of God. It is this doctrine which 
 sustains him under all his trials, and enables 
 him to triumph over all his enemies, for it is 
 not he that lives, but Christ that lives in him, 
 giving him grace sufficient for his day, and 
 purifying him unto himself, as one of his pe- 
 culiar people zealous of good works. 
 
 As union with Christ is the source of spiri- 
 tual life, the means by which that life is to 
 be maintained and promoted, are all related 
 
370 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 to this doctrine and derive from it all their 
 efficacy. Thus we are said to be purified by 
 faith,* to be sanctified by faith,t to live by 
 faith 4 to be saved by faith. ^ Faith has this 
 important agency because it is the bond of 
 our union with Christ. It not only gives us 
 the right to plead his merits for our justifica- 
 tion, but it makes us partakers of his Holy 
 Spirit. Christ has promised that all who 
 come to him sTiall receive the water of life, 
 by which the apostle tells us is meant the 
 Holy Spirit. It is by faith, and in the per- 
 suasion of our consequent union with Christ, 
 that we have confidence to draw near to God 
 and to open our souls to the sanctifying influ- 
 ence of his love. It is by faith that we re- 
 ceive of his fulness and grace for grace. It 
 is by faith that we look to him for strength to 
 overcome temptations and to discharge our 
 duties. It is by faith that we receive those 
 exceeding great and precious promises, 
 whereby we are made partakers of the divine 
 nature. 
 
 All Christians know from experience that 
 faith in Christ is the source of their holiness 
 and peace. When beset with temptations to 
 
 * Acts XV. 9. j- Acts xxvi. 18. 
 
 I Gal. ii. 20. } Eph. ii. 8. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 371 
 
 despondency or sin, if they look to him for 
 support, they are conscious of a strength to 
 resist, or to endure, which no effort of will 
 and no influence of motives ever could im- 
 part. When they draw near to God as the 
 members of Christ, they have freedom of ac- 
 cess and experience a joy which is unspeak- 
 able and full of glory. When pressed down 
 by afflictions if they remember that they are 
 one with him who suffered for them, leaving 
 them an example, they rejoice in their tribu- 
 lations, knowing that if they suffer they shall 
 also reign with him. 
 
 Moreover, as in virtue of union with Christ 
 we receive the Holy Spirit as the source of 
 spiritual life, to maintain that life we must 
 avoid every thing which may provoke the 
 Spirit to withdraw from us. The Bible 
 teaches us that the Spirit may be grieved ; 
 that his influences may be quenched ; that 
 God, in judgment, often withdraws them 
 from those who thus offend. Evil thoughts, 
 unholy tempers, acts of transgression are to 
 be avoided not merely as sins, but as offences 
 against the Holy Spirit. We must remem- 
 ber that to defile the soul with sin, or the 
 body by intemperance or impurity, is sacri- 
 lege, because we are the members of Christ 
 
372 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 and our bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost. 
 On the other hand, right thoughts, just pur- 
 poses, holy desires are to be cherished, not 
 only as right in themselves, but as proceed- 
 ing from that heavenly agent on whom we 
 are dependent for sanctification. 
 
 This is a very different thing from oppo- 
 sing sin and cultivating right feelings on 
 mere moral considerations, and in dependence 
 on our own strength. This may be what 
 the world calls morality, but it is not what 
 the Bible calls religion. Such considerations 
 ought to have and ever will have, with the 
 Christian, their due weight ; but they are not 
 his dependence in his efforts to become holy, 
 nor is his reliance upon his own resources. 
 The life which he leads is by faith in Jesus 
 Christ ; and it is by constant reference to the 
 Holy Spirit, and dependence on him that 
 that life is maintained. For it is as inconsis- 
 tent with the religion of the Gospel, to sup- 
 pose that we can make ourselves holy by our 
 own strength, as that we can be justified by 
 our own works. 
 
 It is principally through the efficacy of 
 prayer that we receive the communications 
 of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not a mere in- 
 stinct of a dependent nature, seeking help 
 
HOLY LIVING. 373 
 
 from the author of its being ; nor is it to be 
 viewed simply as a natural expression of faith 
 and desire, or as a mode of communion with 
 the Father of our spirits ; but it is also to be 
 regarded as the appointed means of obtaining 
 the Holy Ghost. If ye being evil, know how 
 to give good gifts unto your children ; how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give 
 the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Hence 
 we are urged to be constant and importunate 
 in prayer, praying especially for those com- 
 munications of divine influence by which the 
 life of God in the soul is maintained and pro- 
 moted. 
 
 The doctrine that the Holy Spirit works 
 in the people of God both to will and to do 
 according to his own good pleasure, is not in- 
 consistent with the diligent use of all rational 
 and scriptural means, on our part, to grow in 
 grace and in the knowledge of God. For 
 though the mode of the Spirit's influence is 
 inscrutable, it is still the influence of a ration- 
 al being on a rational subject. It is descri- 
 bed as an enlightening, teaching, persuading 
 process, all which terms suppose a rational 
 subject rationally affected. The indwelling 
 of the Spirit, therefore, in the people of God, 
 does not supersede their own agency. He 
 32 
 
374 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 acts by leading them to act. Thus we are 
 commanded to do, and in fact must do, what 
 he is said to do for us. We believe, though 
 faith is of the operation of God ; we repent, 
 though repentance is the gift of Christ ; we 
 love, though love, gentleness, goodness and 
 all other graces are the fruits of the Spirit. 
 The work of sanctification is carried on by 
 our being thus led under this divine influence 
 to exercise right dispositions and feelings. 
 For the law of our nature, which connects an 
 increase of strength with the repeated exer- 
 cise of any of our powers, is not suspended 
 with regard to the holy disposition of the re- 
 newed soul. Philosophers say that the vi- 
 brations imparted to the atmosphere by the 
 utterance of a word never cease. However 
 this may be, it is certain every pious emotion 
 strengthens the principle of piety, and leaves 
 the soul permanently better. The good de- 
 rived from that influence, or from those ser- 
 vices which call our love, faith, or gratitude 
 into exercise, is not transient as the exercises 
 themselves. Far from it. One hour's com- 
 munion with God produces an impression 
 never to be effaced ; it renders the soul for 
 ever less susceptible of evil and more suscep- 
 tible of good. And as the Holy Spirit is ever 
 
HOLY LIVING. 375 
 
 exciting the soul to the exercise of holiness, 
 and bringing it into communion with God, 
 he thus renders it more and more holy, and 
 better fitted for the unchanging and perfect 
 holiness of heaven. 
 
 It is principally by the contemplation of 
 the truth, the worship of God, and the dis- 
 charge of duty that these holy exercises are 
 called into being. All thought and affection 
 suppose an object on which they terminate, 
 and which, when presented, tends to call 
 them forth. We cannot fear God unless his 
 holiness and power be present to the mind ; 
 we cannot love him except in view of his ex- 
 cellence and goodness; we cannot believe, 
 except in contemplation of his word, nor 
 hope, unless in view of his promises. As 
 these affections suppose their appropriate ob- 
 jects, so these objects tend to excite the affec- 
 tions. Were it not for our depravity, they 
 never could be brought into view without the 
 corresponding affection rising to meet them. 
 And notwithstanding our depravity, their 
 tendency, resulting from their inherent na- 
 ture, remains, and as that depravity is cor- 
 rected or removed by the Holy Spirit, these 
 objects exert on the soul their appropriate in- 
 fluence. We are, therefore, said to be sane- 
 
376 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 tified by the truth;* to be made clean 
 through the word of Christ;! to be born 
 again by the word of truth ;t to be changed 
 into the image of God by beholding his 
 glory. ^ 
 
 It is most unreasonable to expect to be con- 
 formed to the image of God, unless the truth 
 concerning God be made to operate often and 
 continuously upon the mind. How can a 
 heart that is filled with the thoughts and 
 cares of the world, and especially one which 
 is often moved to evil by the thoughts or 
 sight of sin, expect that the affections which 
 answer to the holiness, goodness or greatness 
 of God should gather strength within it? 
 How can the love of Christ increase in the 
 bosoms of those who hardly ever think of 
 him or of his work ? This cannot be without 
 a change in the very nature of things, and, 
 therefore, we cannot make progress in holi- 
 ness unless we devote much time to the read- 
 ing, and hearing, and meditating upon the 
 word of God, which is the truth whereby we 
 are sanctified. The more this truth is 
 brought before the mind ; the more we com- 
 mune with it, entering into its import, apply 
 
 ^ John xvii. 19. t John xv. 3. 
 
 \ James i. 18. } 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 377 
 
 ing it to our own case, appropriating its prin- 
 ciples, appreciating its motives, rejoicing in 
 its promises, trembling at its threatenings, 
 rising by its influence from what is seen and 
 temporal to what is unseen and eternal ; the 
 more may we expect to be transformed by the 
 renewing of our mind so as to approve and 
 love whatever is holy, just and good. Men 
 distinguished for their piety have ever been 
 men of meditation as well as men of prayer ; 
 men accustomed to withdraw the mind from 
 the influence of the world with its thousand 
 joys and sorrows, and to bring it under the 
 influence of the doctrines, precepts and pro- 
 mises of the word of God. * 
 
 Besides the contemplation of the truth, the 
 worship of God is an important means of 
 growing in grace. It not only includes the 
 exercise and expression of all pious feelings, 
 which are necessarily strengthened by the 
 exercise, but it is the appointed means of 
 holding communion with God and receiving 
 the communications of his grace. They that 
 w^ait on the Lord shall renew their strength ; 
 they shall mount up with wings as eagles, 
 they shall walk and not be weary, they shall 
 run and not faint. Blessed are they that 
 dwell in thy house ; they shall be still prais- 
 32^ 
 
378 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 ing thee. They shall go from strength to 
 strength, till they appear before God in Zion. 
 This is a matter of experience as well as re- 
 velation. The people of God have ever found 
 in the private, social, and public worship of 
 the Father of their spirits, the chief means of 
 renewing their spiritual strength. The sanc- 
 tuary is the temple of God on earth whose 
 services are preparatory to those of the temple 
 not made with hands eternal in the heavens. 
 It is here too that the sacraments, as means 
 of grace, have their appropriate place. They 
 are to us what the sacrifices and rites of the 
 old dispensation were to the Israelites. They 
 exhibit and seal the truth and promises of 
 God, and convey to those who worthily re- 
 ceive them, the blessings which they repre- 
 sent. The Christian, therefore, who is de- 
 sirous of increasing in the knowledge and 
 love of God, will be a faithful attendant on 
 all the appointed forms and occasions of di- 
 vine worship. He will be much in his closet, 
 he will be punctual in the sanctuary and at 
 the table of the Lord. He will seek oppor- 
 tunities of fellowship with God, as a friend 
 seeks intercourse with his friend; and the 
 more he can enjoy of this communion, the 
 better will he be prepared for that perfect fel- 
 
HOLY LIVING. 379 
 
 lowship with the Father of lights which con- 
 stitutes the blessedness of heaven. 
 
 Finally, to be good, we must do good. It 
 has been falsely said that action is the whole 
 of oratory, and as falsely supposed that action 
 is the whole of religion. There is no elo 
 quence in action except as it is expressive of 
 thought and feeling, and there is no religion 
 in outward acts except as they are informed 
 and guided by a pious spirit. It is only by 
 maintaining such a spirit that external works 
 can have any significance or value. It is 
 perhaps one of the evil tendencies of our age, 
 to push religion out of doors ; to allow her no 
 home but the street or public assembly; to 
 withhold from her all food except the excite- 
 ment of loud professions and external mani- 
 festations. This is to destroy her power. It 
 is to cut her off from the source of her 
 strength, and to transform the meek and holy 
 visiter from heaven, into the noisy and 
 bustling inhabitant of the earth. It is so 
 much easier to be religious outwardly than 
 inwardly ; to be active in church duties, than 
 to keep the heart with all diligence, that we 
 are in danger of preferring the form of reli- 
 gion to its power. The same love of excite- 
 ment and desire to be busy which make men 
 
380 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 active in v^orldly pursuits, may, without 
 changing their character, make them active 
 in religious exercises. But if there is danger 
 on this side, there is quite as much on the 
 other. Although religion does not consist in 
 outward acts, it always produces them. Who- 
 soever hath this world's good, and seeth his 
 brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels 
 of compassion from him, how dwelleth the 
 love of God in him ?^ The love of God can 
 no more fail to produce obedience to his com- 
 mands, than a mother's love can fail to pro- 
 duce watchfulness and care for her infant. 
 That man's religion, therefore, is vain which 
 expends itself in exercises that relate exclu- 
 sively to his own salvation. And doubtless 
 many Christians go halting all their days, be- 
 cause they confine their attention too much 
 to themselves. It is only by the harmonious 
 exercise of all the graces, of faith and love 
 towards God, and of justice and benevolence 
 towards men, that the health of the soul can 
 be maintained or promoted. It is not merely 
 because the exercise of benevolence strength- 
 ens the principle of benevolence that doing 
 good tends to make men better, but God has 
 ordained that he that watereth shall be water- 
 *1 Johniii. 17. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 381 
 
 ed also himself. He distils his grace on those 
 who labour for the temporal and spiritual 
 benefit of their fellow men, and who follow 
 the example of the blessed Redeemer, walk- 
 ing with God while they go about doing 
 good. 
 
 True religion, as we find it described in 
 the Bible, is then neither an external show, 
 nor a fitful ebullition of feeling. It is a per- 
 manent, spontaneous and progressive princi- 
 ple of spiritual life, influencing the whole 
 man and producing all the fruits of righteous- 
 ness. It is not any one good disposition, but 
 the root and spring of all right feelings and 
 actions, manifesting itself in love and obe- 
 dience towards God, in justice and benevo- 
 lence towards man, and in the proper govern- 
 ment of ourselves. This divine life can nei- 
 ther be obtained nor continued by any mere 
 efforts of reason or conscience, or by any su- 
 perstitious observances, but flows from our 
 union with Christ, who causes his Holy 
 Spirit to dwell in all his members. In order 
 to promote this divine life it is our business 
 to avoid every thing which has a tendency to 
 grieve the Spirit of all grace, and to do every 
 thing by which his sacred influence on the 
 heart may be cherished. It is by this influ- 
 
382 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 ence that we are sanctified, for it leads us to 
 exercise all holy dispositions in the contem- 
 plation of the truth, in the worship of God, 
 and in the discharge of all our relative duties. 
 This unpretending volume, designed for 
 the use of educated youth, was written with 
 the view of impressing on its readers those 
 great truths of revelation which are imme- 
 diately connected with practical religion. 
 We have designed to convince them that all 
 skepticism as to the divine authority of the 
 Scriptures is inexcusable, inasmuch as the 
 Bible brings with it its own credentials. It 
 makes such a revelation of the character of 
 God, of the rule of duty and of the plan of 
 salvation as challenges immediate assent and 
 submission to their truth and goodness. It 
 sets forth the Redeemer as the Son of God 
 and the Saviour of sinners, in whom the glory 
 of God is so revealed that those who refuse to 
 recognise him as their God and Saviour, re- 
 fuse, to infinite excellence, their confidence 
 and obedience. In order that every mouth 
 may be stopped, the Bible, thus replete with 
 evidence of its divine origin, is confirmed by 
 all kinds of adequate proofs from miracles, 
 prophecy and history, that it is, indeed, the 
 word of God. 
 
HOLY LIVING. 383 
 
 The divine authority of the Scriptures 
 being established, the great question to be de- 
 cided by every one by whom they are known, 
 is, What do they teach as to the plan of sal- 
 vation and the rule of duty ? It has been our 
 design to aid the reader in answering this 
 question for himself; to show him that the 
 Bible teaches that we are all sinners, and 
 that, being sinners, we have lost the favour 
 of God and are unable to ejffect our own re- 
 demption. When we feel that this is true 
 with regard to ourselves, we are convinced of 
 sin, and are irresistibly led to ask what we 
 must do to be saved. In answer to this ques- 
 tion the Scriptures set forth Jesus Christ as 
 born of a woman, made under the law, satis- 
 fying its demands, dying the just for the un- 
 just, rising again from the dead, and ascend- 
 ing up on high, where he ever liveth to make 
 intercession for us. They teach us that it is 
 not for any thing done or experienced by us, 
 but solely for what Christ has done for us, 
 that we are justified in the sight of God ; and 
 that in order to our being saved through 
 Christ, we must accept him as our Saviour, 
 not going about to establish our own righte- 
 ousness, but submitting to the righteousness 
 of God. Those who thus believe, do, at the 
 
384 HOLY LIVING. 
 
 same time repent ; that is, they turn from sin 
 unto God, through Jesus Christ. They are 
 now his followers, and declare themselves to 
 be such by confessing him before the v^orld 
 and by devoutly attending upon those ordi- 
 nances which he has appointed to be means 
 of acknowledging our allegiance to him, and 
 of communicating his grace to us. The 
 Scriptures further teach that our work is but 
 begun when we have thus renounced the 
 world and joined ourselves unto the Lord. 
 The spiritual life commenced in regeneration 
 is carried on by the Holy Spirit, who dwells 
 in all the people of God, by teaching them to 
 look to Jesus Christ, as their living head, for 
 all those supplies of grace and all that protec- 
 tion which their circumstances require. They 
 are thus washed, sanctified and justified in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit 
 of our God, and being made meet for the in- 
 heritance of the saints in light, they will be 
 at last admitted into God's blissful presence 
 and enjoy the full communications of his 
 grace and love for ever and ever. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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