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Library of Che Theological Seminary 
 
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 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Samuel Agnew, Esq. 
 May 22, 1861 
 
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 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/antinomianismunmOOchas 
 
Sa. 
 
  Antinomianisnr Wumasked: 
 
 * 
 BEING AN 4 — 
 
 INQUIRY 
 a 
 . DISTIN CTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 
 DISPENSATIONS | ~ 
 
 daw and Grace. 
 
 ae 
 SAMUEL CHASE, A.M. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE, 
 BY THE REV. ROBERT HALL, Px. 
 
 This is a faithful saying; and these things I will that thou affirm constantly ; that they 
 which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are 
 good and profitable unto men.——TiTvs iii. 8. 
 
 Ponda : 
 PRINTED FOR JAMES BLACK AND SON, 
 
 ‘ TAVISTOCK-STREET, COVENT-GARDEN. 
 SOLD ALSO BY DEIGHTON AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE} ABEL, 
 NORTHAMPTON; AND DASH, KETTERING. 
 
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 |v is with considerable reluctance that I have 
 complied with the request of the mighig-psthemgad 
 Author of the following work, by prefixing a short 
 Preface; not from the slightest hesitation re- 
 specting the excellence of the work itself, but 
 from an aversion to the seeming arrogance of 
 pretending to recommend what might rest so 
 securely on its own merits. The Reader, if I am 
 not greatly mistaken, will find in this Treatise a 
 chain of close and cogent reasoning from the 
 oracles of God, sufficient to overturn from its. 
 ‘foundation the principles .which. compose the 
 Antinomian heresy ; which, he will be at no loss 
 to perceive, are as much opposed to the grace, as 
 to the authority, of the great Head of the Church. 
 
 The fundamental tenet of the system to which 
 
 this Treatise is opposed, consists in the denial of | 
 
LV PREFACE. 
 
 the obligation of believers Mt obey the precepts of 
 Christ, in supposing that their interest in the 
 merits of the Redeemer releases them from all 
 subjection to his authority ; and, as it is acknow- 
 ledged on all hands, that he is the sole Lord of 
 the Christian dispensation, the immediate conse- 
 quence is, that, as far they are concerned, the 
 moral government of the Deity is annihilated ;. 
 that they have ceased to be accountable creatures. 
 But this involves the total subversion of religion : 
 for what idea can we form of a religion m which 
 all the obligations of piety and morality are done 
 away; in which nothing is binding, or imperative 
 ‘on the conscience? We may conceive of a reli- 
 gious code under all the possible gradations of 
 laxness or severity, of its demanding more or less, 
 or of its enforcing its injunctions by penalties 
 more or less formidable: but to form a concep- 
 tion of a system deserving the name of religion, 
 which prescribes no duties whatever, and is 
 : enforced by no sanctions, seems an impossibility. 
 On this account, it appears to me improper to 
 speak of Antinomianism as a religious error: 
 religion, whether true or false, has nothing to do 
 
 with it: it is rather to be considered as an 
 
PREFACE. Vv 
 
 attempt to substitute a system of subtle and 
 specious impiety in the room of Christianity. In 
 their own estimation, its disciples are a privileged 
 class, who dwell in a secluded region of unshaken 
 security, and lawless liberty, while the rest of the 
 christian world are the vassals of legal bondage, 
 toiling in darkness aa 3 in chains. Hence, what- 
 ever diversity of character they may display in 
 other respects, a haughty and bitter disdain of 
 every other class of professors is a iiiveret 
 feature. Contempt and hatred of the most devout 
 and enlightened Christians out of their own pale, 
 seems one of the most essential elements of their 
 being; nor were the ancient Pharisees ever more 
 notorious for “ trusting in themselves that they 
 
 were righteous, and despising others.” 
 
 Of the force of legitimate argument they seem 
 to have little or no perception, having contracted 
 an inveterate, and pernicious habit, of shutting 
 their eyes against the plainest and most pointed 
 declarations of the word of God. The only 
 attempt they make to support their miserable 
 system, is to adduce a number of detached and 
 
 insulated passages of scripture, forcibly torn from 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 ‘their context, and interpreted with more regard 
 to their sound, than to their meaning, as ascer- 
 tained by the laws of sober criticism. Could they 
 be prevailed upon to, engage in serious dispas- 
 slonate controversy, some hope might be indulged 
 of reclaiming them; their errors would admit. of 
 an easy confutation: but the misfortune is, they 
 seem to feel themselves as much released from 
 the restraints of reason, as of moral obligation; 
 and the intoxication of spiritual pride has incom- 
 parably , more influence in forming their per- 
 
 suasions, than the light of evidence. 
 
 As far as they are concerned, my expectation 
 of benefit from the following Treatise is far from 
 being sanguine. To others, however, who may 
 be in danger of falling a prey to their seduction, 
 it may prove an important preservative ; to the 
 young and inexperienced, it will hold out a faithful 
 warning, by unmasking the deformity, and _ re- 
 vealing the danger, of that pretended doctrine of 
 grace, which is employed to annul the obligation 
 of obedience. ‘They will learn from this Treatise, 
 that the authority of Christ as Legislator, is per- 
 
 fectly compatible with his office as the Redeemer, 
 
PREFACE. vil 
 
 of his people; that the renewal of the soul in true 
 holiness, forms a principal part ofthe salvation 
 he came to bestow; that the privileges of. the 
 evangelical dispensation are inseparably combined 
 with its duties ; and that every hope of eternal life 
 is necessarily presumptuous and unfounded, which | 
 is not connected with’ “ keeping: the command- 
 ments of God.” They will perceive'the beautiful 
 ‘analogy subsisting between’ the Mosaic and the 
 Christian dispensation, and that the redemption 
 wrought out upon the cross is just as subservient 
 to the spiritual dominion of Christ over his people, 
 as was the deliverance of the Israelites from 
 Egypt to the erection’ of a theocracy in the Holy 
 Land: in. a word, they will plainly see that the 
 regal authority of Clirist over his Church belongs 
 to the very essence of the evangelical economy, 
 considered as an annunciation of the Kingdom, or 
 
 Reign of God. 
 
 Yo trace the progress of Antinomianism, and 
 investigate the steps by which it has eradually 
 attained its fearful ascendancy, though an inte- 
 resting inquiry, would lead me far beyond the 
 
 ‘limits of this Preface. Suffice it to suggest a 
 
 \ 
 
vill “PREFACE. 
 
 few circumstances which appear to me to have 
 contributed not a little to that result. When reli- 
 gious parties have been long formed, a certain 
 technical phraseology, invented in order to desig- 
 nate the peculiarities . of the respective systems, 
 naturally grows up: what custom has sanctioned, 
 in process of time becomes Jaw, and the slightest. 
 deviation from the consecrated diction comes to 
 be viewed with suspicion and alarm. Now the 
 technical language apprepriated to the expression — 
 of the Calvinistic system in its nicer shades, 
 however justifiable in itself, has, by its perpetual 
 recurrence, narrowed the vocabulary of religion, 
 and rendered obsolete many modes of expression 
 which the sacred writers indulge without scruple. 
 The latitude with which they express themselves 
 on various subjects has been gradually relin- 
 quished, a scrupulous and systematic cast of dic- 
 tion has succeeded to the manly freedom and noble 
 “negligence they are accustomed to display; and 
 many expressions employed without hesitation in. 
 scripture, are rarely found, except in the direct form 
 of quotation, in the mouth of a _ modern Calvinist. 
 
 he 
 
 In addition to this, nothing is more usual than 
 
* 
 
 PREFACE. 1X 
 
 for the zealous abettors of a system, with the best 
 intentions, to magnify the importance of its pecu- 
 liar tenets by hyperbolical exaggerations, calcu- 
 lated to identify them with the fundamental 
 articles of faith. Thus the Calvinistic doctrines 
 have often been denominated, by divines of de- 
 servedly high reputation, the doctrines of grace ; 
 implying, not merely their truth, but that they 
 constitute the very essence and ‘marrow of the 
 gospel. Hence persons of little reflection have 
 been tempted to conclude, that the zealous incul- 
 cation of these comprehends nearly the whole 
 system of revealed truth, or as much of it at least 
 as is of vital importance, and that no danger 
 whatever can result from giving them the greatest 
 possible prominence. But the transition from a 
 partial exhibition of truth to the adoption of 
 positive error is a most natural one, and he who 
 commences with consigning certain important 
 doctrines to oblivion, will generally end in per- 
 verting or denying them. The authority of the 
 laws of Christ, his proper dominion over his 
 people, and the’absolute necessity of evangelical 
 obedience in o & to eternal life, though per- 
 
 fectly consistent in my apprehension with Cal- 
 
b . PREFACE. 
 
 vinism, form no part of it, considered as a separate 
 system. In the systematic mode of instruction | 
 they are consequently omitted, or so slightly and 
 sparingly adverted to, that they are gradually lost 
 sight of, and when they are presented to the 
 attention, being supported by no habitual mental 
 associations, they wear the features of a strange 
 and exotic character. They are repelled with 
 disgust and suspicion, not because they are per- 
 ceived to be at variance with the dictates of in- 
 spiration, their agreement with which may be 
 immediately obvious; but. purely because they 
 deviate from the trains of thought which the 
 hearer is accustomed to pursue with complacency. 
 It is purely an affair of taste, it is neither the op- 
 position of reason, or of conscience, which is con- 
 cerned, but the mere operation of antipathy. 
 
 The paucity of practical instruction, the prac- 
 tice of dwelling almost exclusively in the exer- 
 cise of the ministry on doctrinal and experimental 
 topics, with a sparing inculcation of the precepts . 
 of Christ, and the duties of morality, is abun- 
 dantly sufficient, without the ‘slightest admixture 
 of error, to produce the efiect of which we are 
 
PREFACE. Xl 
 
 speaking ; nor is it to be doubted that even holy 
 and exemplary men have by these means paved 
 the way for Antinomianism. When they have 
 found it necessary to advert to points of morality, 
 
 and to urge them on scriptural motives, the 
 
 difference between these, and their usual strain of 
 
 instruction, has produced a sort of mental re- 
 vulaten: Conscious, meanwhile, that they have 
 taught nothing but the pure and uncorrupted 
 word of God, have inculcated no doctrine but 
 what appears to be sustained by the fair interpre- 
 tation of that word, they are astonished at per- 
 ceiving the eager impetuosity with which a part — 
 of their hearers rush into Antinomian excesses ; 
 when a thorough investigation might convince 
 them, that though they have inculcated truth, it 
 has not been altogether “as it is in Jesus ;” that 
 many awakening and alarming considerations 
 | familiar to the scriptures have been neglected, 
 much of their pungent and practical appeal to 
 the conscience suppressed, and a profusion of 
 cordials' and stimulants administered, where 
 cathartics were required. 
 
 wR 
 
 In the New Testament the absolute subser- 
 
xil PREFACE, 
 
 viency of doctrinal statements to the formation of 
 the principles and habits of practical piety is 
 never lost sight of: we are continually reminded 
 that obedience is the end of all knowledge and 
 of all religious impressions. But the tendency, 
 it is to be feared, of much popular and orthodox 
 instruction, is to bestow on the belief of certain 
 doctrines, combined with strong religious emotion, 
 the importance of an ultimate object, to. the 
 neglect of that great principle, that “ circumcision 
 is nothing, and uncircumcision nothing, but the 
 keeping of the commandments of God.” While it 
 is but candid to suppose that some are beguiled 
 through the ‘‘ good words and fair speeches,” by 
 which the apostles of Antinomianism recommend 
 themselves to the unlearned and unstable, it can 
 scarce be doubted that they are chiefly indebted 
 for their success to the aversion which many feel 
 to Christianity as a practical system. Divest it 
 of its precepts and its sanctions, represent it as a 
 mere charter of privileges, a provision for investing 
 a certain class with a title to eternal life, indepen- 
 dent of every moral discrimination, and it will be 
 eagerly embraced ; but it will not be the religion 
 
 of the New Testament: it will not be the religion 
 
-PREFACE. Xi 
 
 of him who closed his sermon on the Mount by 
 reminding his hearers, that he who “ heareth his 
 sayings and doth them not, shall be likened to a 
 man who built his house upon the sand, and the 
 
 storm came, and the rains descended, and the 
 
 winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, | 
 
 because it was founded upon the sand.” 
 
 The most effectual antidote to the leaven of 
 ‘Antinomianism will probably be found in the 
 frequent and earnest inculcation of the practical 
 precepts of the gospel, in an accurate delineation 
 of the christian temper, in a specific and minute 
 
 exposition of the personal social and_ relative 
 
 duties, enforced at one time by the endearing, at — 
 
 another by the alarming motives which revelation 
 abundantly suggests. To overlook the distin- 
 
 guishing doctrines of the gospel under the pre- 
 
 tence of advancing the interests of morality, 1s __ 
 
 one extreme; to inculcate those doctrines, with- 
 out habitually adverting to their purifying and 
 transforming influence, is another, not less dan- 
 gerous. If the first involves the folly of attempting 
 to rear a structure without a foundation, the 
 
 latter leaves it naked and useless. 
 
X1V PREFACE. 
 
 A large infusion of practical instruction may 
 be expected to operate as_an alterative in the 
 moral constitution. Without displacing a single 
 article from the established creed, without modi- 
 fying or changing the minutest particle of specu- 
 lative belief, it will generate a habit of contem- 
 plating religion in its true character, as a system 
 of moral government, as a wise and gracious 
 provision for re-establishing the dominion of God 
 in the heart of an apostate creature. ‘Though 
 there must unquestionably be a perfect agreement 
 betwixt all revealed truths, because truth cd ever 
 consistent with itself, yet they are not all adapted 
 to produce the same immediate impression. They 
 contribute to the same ultimate object, “ the per- 
 fecting the man of God,” by opposite tendencies ; 
 and while some are immediately adapted to 
 inspire confidence and joy, others are fitted to 
 produce vigilance and fear; like different species 
 of diet, which may in their turn be equally condu- 
 cive to health, though their action on the system 
 be dissimilar. Hence it is of great importance, 
 not merely that the doctrine that is taught be 
 sound and scriptural, but that the proportion 
 
 maintained betwixt the various articles of relli- 
 
PREFACE. _ XV 
 
 gious instruction coincide, as far as possible, with 
 the inspired model, that each doctrine occupy 
 its proper place in the scale, that the whole 
 counsel of God be unfolded, and no one part of 
 revealed truth be presented with a frequency and 
 prominence which shall cast the others into shade. | 
 The progress of Antinomianism, if I am not 
 greatly mistaken, may be ascribed in a great 
 measure to the neglect of these precautions, to an 
 intemperate and almost exclusive inculcation of 
 
 doctrinal points. 
 
 Even: when the necessity of an exemplary 
 conduct is enforced upon Christians, an attentive 
 and intelligent hearer will frequently perceive a 
 manifest difference between the motives by which 
 it is urged, and those which are presented by the 
 inspired writers. The latter are not afraid of 
 reminding every description of professors without 
 exception, that “ if they live after the flesh they 
 shall die,” and that they will then only “ be par. 
 takers of Christ, if they hold fast the beginning of 
 their confidence, and rejoicing of their hope firm 
 unto the end af while too many content themselves 
 
 with insisting on considerations, which, whatever 
 
XVI ' PREFACE, 
 
 weight they may possess on a devout and tender | 
 spirit, it is the first effect of sinful indulgence to 
 impair. Of this nature is the menace of spiritual 
 desertion, darkness, absence of religious conso- 
 lation, and other spiritual evils, which will 
 always be found to be less alarming, just in pro- 
 portion to-the degree of religious declension. To 
 combat the moral distempers to which the pro- — 
 fessors of religion are liable by such antidotes as 
 these, is appealing to a certain refinement of 
 feeling which the disease has extinguished or 
 diminished, instead of alarming them with the 
 prospect of death. It is not by sentimental ad- 
 dresses, nor by an appeal to the delicactes and 
 sensibilities of a soul diseased, that the apostles 
 proposed to alarm the fears, or revive the vigi- 
 lance of disorderly walkers; they drew aside the 
 veil of eternity ; they presented the thought, in all 
 its terror, of the coming of Christ “ as a thief in 
 the night.” I would not be understood to in- 
 sinuate that the more refined topics of appeal 
 “may not occasionally be resorted to with great 
 propriety: all 1 would be supposed to regret is 
 the exclusive employment of a class of con- 
 
 siderations, of one order of motives, derived from 
 
PREFACE. xvii 
 
 religious sensibility, to the neglect of those which 
 are founded on eternal prospects and interests. 
 As it is seldom safe for an accountable creature 
 to lose sight of these in his most elevated moments ; 
 so least of all can they be dispensed with, in the 
 season of successful temptation. It is then 
 especially, if I ‘am not greatly mistaken, what- 
 ever may have been our past profession or 
 attainments, that we need to be reminded of the 
 awful certainty of fature retribution, to recall to 
 our remembrance that “ whatsoever a man soweth, 
 that shall he also reap.” If, in the scheme of 
 doctrine we have embraced, we suspect there is 
 something incompatible with the use of such » 
 admonitions, we may be assured, either that the 
 doctrine itself is false, or that our inference from 
  itcis erroneous ; since no speculative tenets in 
 | religion can be so indubitably certain, as the uni-- 
 
 versality of the moral government of God. 
 
 - Before I close this Preface, I must be per-. 
 mitted to add, that the prevailing practice of — 
 representing the promises of the gospel as uncon- 
 ditional, or at least of carefully avoiding the 
 obvious phraseology which the contrary suppo- 
 
 b 
 
KVIU PREFACE. 
 
 sition would suggest, appears to me directly to 
 pave the way to Antinomianism. The idea of 
 meritorious conditions is indeed utterly incom- 
 patible with the gospel, considered as a system of 
 grace. But if there be no conditions of salvation 
 whatever, how it is possible to confute the pre- 
 tensions, or confound the dbndnicd of the most 
 licentious professor, I am at an utter loss to 
 discover. It will be in vain to allege the entire. 
 absence of internal holiness together with all the 
 fruits of the Spirit, as defeating his hope of 
 eternal life, since, upon the supposition we are 
 combating, the answer 1s ready, that the enjoy- 
 ment of future felicity is suspended om no 
 conditions. The absurdity of this notion is not 
 less palpable than its presumption. All promises 
 must either be made to individuals by name, or 
 indefinitely to persons of a specific character. A 
 moment's attention will be sufficient to satisfy 
 us that the promise of pardon in the New Testa- 
 ment is of the latter description: in no one 
 instance is it addressed to the individual by name, 
 but to the penitent, the believing, the obedient, 
 or to some similar specification of character. 
 
 Before any person therefore can justly appro-. 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 priate the promise to himself, he must ascertain 
 his possession of that character, or, which is 
 precisely the same thing, he must perceive that 
 he comes within the prescribed condition. When 
 it is affirmed, that except we repent, we shall 
 perish, is it not manifest that he only is entitled — 
 to claim exemption from that doom, who is con- 
 scious of the feelings of a penitent? For the 
 same reason, if he only who believes shall be 
 saved, our assurance of salvation, as far as it 
 depends upon evidence, must be exactly propor- 
 tioned to the certainty we feel of our actual 
 believing. To abandon these principles, is to 
 involve ourselves in an inextricable labyrinth, to 
 he open to the grossest delusions, to build con- 
 clusions of infinite moment on phantoms light as 
 air, He who flatters himself with the hope of . 
 salvation without perceiving in himself a specific 
 difference of character from “ the world that lieth 
 in wickedness,” either founds his persuasion 
 absolutely on nothing, or on an immediate reve- 
 lation, on a preternatural discovery of a matter of 
 fact, on which the scriptures are totally silent. 
 This absurd notion of unconditional promises, by 
 severing the assurance of salvation from all the 
 
 4 
 
an aan 
 tbe 
 
 XX PREFACE. 
 
 fruits of the Spirit, from every trace and feature 
 of a renovated nature and a regenerate state, 
 
 opens the widest possible door to licentiousness. 
 
 As far as it is sustained by the least shadow 
 of reasoning, it may be traced to the practice of 
 confounding the secret purposes of the Supreme 
 Bisnis with his revealed promises. That in the 
 breast of the Deity an eternal purpose has been 
 formed respecting the salvation of a certain 
 portion of the human race, is a doctrine, which, 
 it appears to me, is clearly revealed. But this 
 secret purpose is so far from being incompatible 
 with the necessary conditions of salvation, that 
 they form a part of it; their existence is an 
 inseparable link in the execution of the divine 
 decree; for the same wisdom which has ap- 
 pointed the end, has also infallibly determined 
 the means by which it shall be accomplished ; 
 and as the personal direction of the decree 
 remains a secret, until it is developed in the event, 
 it cannot possibly, considered in itself, lay a 
 foundation for confidence. That a certain num- 
 ber of the human race are ordained to eternal 
 
 life, may be inferred with much probability from 
 
 » 
 
PREFACE. - XX1 
 
 many passages of scripture; but if any person 
 infers from these general premises, that he is 
 of that number, he advances a proposition with- 
 out the slightest colour of evidence. An assurance 
 of salvation, can consequently in no instance be 
 deduced from the doctrine of absolute decrees, 
 until they manifest themselves in their actual 
 effects, that is, in that renewal of the heart which 
 the Bible affirms to be essential to future felicity. 
 - But I'am detaining the Reader too long from the 
 pleasure and the advantage he may promise 
 himself from the perusal of the following Trea- 
 tise, where he will meet with no illiberal insinua- 
 tions, no personal invective, the too frequent 
 seasoning of controversy, and the ordinary grati- 
 fication of vulgar minds; but a series of calm 
 _and dispassionate reasonings out of the scriptures. 
 That they may produce all the beneficial results 
 which the excellent Author has so much at heart, 
 
 is the fervent prayer of the writer of these lines. 
 
 | ROBERT HALL, 
 Leicester, July 2, 1819. 
 
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CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 On the import of the Shrase: The Kingdom of 
 
 Heaven,” as used to designate the Gospel Dispen- 
 Ba ROU se oe hee Were ant oe da te tert mtn de 
 . “ CHAP. II. 
 On the analogy between the Mosaic ‘and Christian 
 Pea PISPENSAUONS 560) ni a BN elk 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 On the import of the term “ Law,”’ as used to designate 
 the Covenant of Works . .). . . «+ «+ 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 - On the import of the terms “ Grace”. artd “ Truth,” as 
 used to define the peculiar character of the Gospel 
 ie) eka aide RPE ehire:: 26, oe: vw. ut 
 
 CHAP. V 
 
 On the first peculiarity of the Covenant of Grace ; viz. 
 the remission of the penalty incurred by the breach 
 of the Covenant of Works 
 
 PAGE 
 
 18 
 
 44 
 
 76 
 
 83 
 
XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VI. > j 
 PAGE 
 
 On the second peculiarity of the Covenant of Grace ; 
 viz. the ministration of the Spirit of life and 
 WoUESS Hs ee dea A oh A Ss 2 eens te 117 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 On the.same subject: 0 7 we 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 On the same subject; being a. practical application of 
 the principles advanced in the two preceding 
 Sc) CPOE tia gama MA, NM ods, aiicael Ae alaieni aims te aang sags Be by) 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 On the third peculiarity of the Covenant of Grace; 
 viz. the forgiveness of sins committed by believers 
 posterior to their justification . . . . . . . Qiil 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 On the real grounds of a believer’s security for final 
 Bal veda sath Uti eae Seen ls ieee te ts ae 
 
 Conchasiaw ye Wea i 6 2a, ie igen tae a it OG 
 
INQUIRY, 
 Ke. Ge. it 
 
 CHAP. Tf. 
 
 ~ ; P @ ii 
 
 ON THE IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, “ THE KINGDOM OF 
 HEAVEN,” AS USED TO DESIGNATE THE GOSPEL DIs- 
 ‘PENSATION, 
 
 Tue most appropriate denomination of the Eco- 
 nomy of Grace introduced by the Messiah, is that 
 which our blessed Lord and his forerunner. uni- 
 formly employed, “The Kingdom, or Reign of 
 Heaven,”* and its synonime, “ The Kingdom, or 
 Reign of God.” No other appellation is, as far 
 as I recollect, given to it by the writers of the 
 New Testament. The term, “ The Gospel Dis- 
 pensation,” now so generally substituted in its 
 room, though perhaps not altogether improper, 
 cannot lay claim to so high an authority, nor can 
 it be considered as equally significant and expres- 
 sive. It has, 1 am aware, been generally thought 
 to be convertible with the former; but this is by 
 
 * Por the import of the phrase 7 Baci\eca re Oe, or Twy spavwy, 
 T would recommend the reader to consult Dr. Campbell’s Prelimi- 
 
 nary Dissertations to his Translation of the Four Gospels. Disserta- 
 tion V. Part I. . 
 
 B 
 
Z IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, 
 
 no means true; and it is much to be regretted, 
 that the adoption of it should have led, as it has 
 done, to the total disuse of the phrase, “ The 
 Kingdom of Heaven,” as it is wholly inadequaté 
 to supply its place. | 
 
 The terms, “ the kingdom of heaven,” and 
 “the gospel dispensation,” are far from being 
 perfectly synonimous. ‘They relate, it is true, to 
 the same object; but they present it to our minds 
 under different aspects. The former embraces, 
 in its vast amplitude of meaning, the whole scheme 
 of our redemption: the latter comprehends but a 
 small proportion of it. 
 
 It will hardly be denied, that the long and 
 total disuse of the phrase, “ the kingdom, or reign 
 of heaven,” has rendered its meaning almost, 
 unintelligible. Few readers of the New Testament 
 are sufficiently aware of the peculiar felicity of 
 this expression, as applied to the new order of 
 things established by the Messiah. And yet; 
 perhaps, it is not saying too much to affirm, that 
 without an adequate conception of its beauty and 
 force, our views of the Economy of Redemption 
 will necessarily be partial and obscure. 
 
 To comprehend aright the mysteries of our 
 holy faith, the terms employed in the New Tes< 
 1ament to define them, must first be clearly under- 
 stood ;* since any obscurity which attaches to . 
 
 * Jt is well observed by Lord Coke in his Institutes of the Laws, 
 ef England, “Ad recte docendum oportet primum inquirere nomint, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. ee: 
 
 them, will, from the necessity of the case, equally 
 involve the principles they are used to explain. 
 And though modern divines may have discarded 
 the phraseology of the sacred writers, as too 
 antiquated for the times in which we live; yet 
 we may venture to predict, that, till different sen- 
 
 timents shall prevail, the New Testament will - 
 
 remain, to a great degree, a sealed book. It can- 
 not be otherwise. A familiar acquaintance with 
 its sacred diction must precede an extensive know- 
 
 ledge of its divine mysteries. And if it be our . 
 
 ambition to be “mighty in the scriptures,” we 
 must practise the lesson so long forgotten, but 
 not on that account the less important, “‘ Hold fast 
 the form of sound words which thou hast heard 
 of me;"*—advice originally given by St. Paul 
 to his son Timothy, but which may justly be 
 considered as addressed to all, who, in future 
 ages, should read this divine admonition. 
 
 The peculiarities of style and manner observable 
 in the sacred writings are by no means arbitrary, 
 as some have imagined. The forms of expression 
 we there meet with, so utterly unlike the diction 
 
 of any other writings of ancient or modern times, 
 
 were not adopted through inadvertence, or caprice, 
 or the mere affectation of singularity. On the 
 
 quia rerum cognitio a nominihus rerum dependit.” He adds,“ Nomina 
 
 si nescis, perit cognitio rerum.” The sentiment expressed by these — 
 
 _ Words is of general application, 
 * 2 Tim. i. 13. 
 
4 IMPORT OF THE) PHRASE, 
 
 contrary, the language of the sacred penmen is an 
 exact transcript of their thoughts. It was the 
 fittest vehicle they could have chosen to convey 
 their meaning. Their style and manner were 
 novel, simply because their doctrine was new. 
 Being the founders of a new school, they were, 
 like the founders of other schools, necessitated, 
 sometimes to employ terms in current use in a 
 sense remote from their common acceptation ; at 
 other times to form combinations of language un- 
 sanctioned by former precedent; and, on some 
 occasions, to invent new terms, when such as were 
 already in use were inadequate to express their 
 meaning. To understand the doctrine of the 
 
 sacred writers, we must therefore carefully exa- | 
 
 mine the sacred peculiarities of their manner of 
 unfolding it; and instead of resting satisfied with 
 a vague and undefined impression of what they 
 intended to express, but which, as we imagine, 
 might have been expressed in happier and more 
 intelligible diction, weigh every term they employ 
 with the nicest care, nor ever rest satisfied until 
 our minds become familiar with it, and we arrive 
 at the conviction, that no other term could. be 
 found adequate to supply its place. | 
 The observations contained. in the last two 
 paragraphs, though of a general nature, have been 
 made with a view to apply them to the denomi- 
 nation given to the economy of our redemption 
 by our blessed Lord and his illustrious harbinger. 
 
I 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. oe 
 Unintelligible as that denomination may now 
 seem, through long disuse, I will yet hazard the 
 assertion, that no term since invented is so com- 
 prehensive in its meaning, or so adequate to convey 
 a just conception of the several parts which con- 
 stitute the whole scheme of our salvation. Other 
 
 denominations apply only to some few of “ the 
 
 mysteries of the kmgdom of God;” and exhibit 
 them in a detached and insulated form. . But in 
 the phrase, “ the kingdom, or reign of heaven,” 
 we behold, as in a faithful mirror, a perfect re- 
 presentation of the entire plan, and see each con- 
 stituent part reflected in its true dimensions, and 
 in its relative bearings on the whole. 
 
 The term, “ the gospel dispensation,” includes 
 little more of the economy of redemption, than 
 that gracious provision God has made for the par- 
 don of sin, and the restoration of apostate man to 
 his forfeited favour. It confines the glad tidings 
 of salvation to the proclamation of forgiveness 
 and reconciliation to God through the blood of 
 the cross. But the phrase, “ the kingdom, or 
 reign of heaven,” while it necessarily supposes 
 this, as laying the only solid basis of Messiah’s 
 spiritual empire, includes in it, what is equally 
 essential in the constitution of the scheme of our 
 redemption, and equally cheering to the mind of 
 
 every good man—the re-establishment of God’s | 
 
 original dominion in the hearts of the children of 
 men. And, what is most important to remark, 
 
{ 
 
 6 IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, 
 
 this is uniformly represented by our blessed Lord 
 as constituting the very sum and substance of the 
 gospel proclamation; and is' emphatically styled 
 by St. Mark, “ the glad tidings of the kingdom of 
 God.” His words are very remarkable; ‘‘ Now, 
 after that John was put in prison, Jesus came 
 into Galilee, proclaiming the glad tidings of the 
 kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, 
 and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, 
 and believe the glad tidings.”* That God was 
 about to set up his everlasting kingdom, was the 
 joyful news which our Redeemer published, when 
 first he entered on his ministry of grace and mercy. 
 And when he sent his Apostles on their gracious 
 errand to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, his 
 commission was, “ As ye go, preach, saying, The 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand.”+ And when he 
 “ appointed the seventy also, and sent them two 
 by two before his face, into every city and place 
 whither he himself would come;” this was his 
 charge, ‘‘ Into whatsoever city ye enter, and they 
 receive you, eat such things as are set before you, 
 and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto 
 them, The kingdom of God ts come mgh unto 
 you.”t Nor can an attentive reader of the New 
 Testament fail to have observed, that more than half 
 the parables of our blessed Lord are professedly 
 designed to illustrate, by a comparison with sen- 
 sible objects, or the affairs of men, the nature of 
 
 ¥ Mark i. 14, 15. + Matt. x. 7. } Luke x. 8, 9. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 7 
 
 that heavenly kingdom which he had announced 
 as just at hand; or that he styles his doctrines, 
 ‘‘the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven;” or 
 
 that the time which intervened between his resur-: 
 rection and ascension to heaven, was spent in 
 
 “ sneaking” to his apostles “ of the things per- 
 taining to the kingdom of God.” And what 
 other cai atisicn can he draw from hence, but 
 that the proper denomination of the gracious 
 economy under which we live, is that given to it 
 by our Lord himself, “ the kingdom of heaven ;” 
 
 and that, to understand the nature of that eco- 
 nomy, we must clearly discern the propriety of 
 
 so denominating it? And here, let me be permitted — 
 
 to suggest to my readers, the great advantage they 
 would derive from a careful study of those divine 
 similitudes, chosen by their great Teacher to ex- 
 plain to our feeble understandings the deep mys- 
 teries of his kingdom; and to assure them, that 
 in no other way: can they attain so clear and 
 
 accurate a conception of the real character of the 
 
 gospel dispensation, or become so fully initiated 
 into its holy mysteries. | 
 
 The great advantage of contemplating the 
 evangelical dispensation as “ the kingdom,” or 
 “reign of heaven,” consists in this; that while the 
 grace and compassion of God in remitting our 
 sins and reinstating us in his favour, are displayed 
 to the greatest advantage; the necessity of obe- 
 
 | ne Acts cy Adan Tad 
 
8 IMPORT OF THE, PHRASE, 
 
 dience to the will of God in order to salvation is 
 demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt; 
 and all arguments for licentiousness founded 
 on a partial view of the economy of grace, are 
 silenced for ever. The absolute znconsistency of Uaat 
 awful conclusion, ‘‘ Let-us sin, that grace may 
 abound,”—a conclusion which every real Christian 
 rejects with holy indignation;—the absolute i- 
 consistency, L say, of such a conclusion with the 
 nature of the gospel dispensation, the excomputi- 
 bility of sinful indulgence with the manifestations 
 of divine mercy by Christ our Saviour, though 
 generally admitted, and sedulously instilled into 
 _ the minds of their hearers by every faithful minis- 
 ter of the Gospel, is yet far from being distinctly 
 apprehended. That it 7s incompatible, is evident 
 to all but those who wish to find an excuse for their _ 
 sins. But the real grounds of this incompatibility, — 
 the greater part probably of even good men would | 
 feel themselves at a less to explain. Nor can it 
 be wonderful that:such a difficulty should exist, 
 when the only denomination, adequate to convey 
 _ a just conception of the whole scheme of salva- 
 tion, has for ages been obsolete; a circumstance, 
 which could have arisen from no other cause than 
 that of the confined and partial views so long and 
 ‘so generally entertained: of the character of the 
 dispensation under which we live. If the grace 
 of God itself were but seen in its true colours—in 
 other words, if the economy established by Christ 
 
* 
 
 a 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 9 
 
 were but rightly understood as necessarily in- 
 volving in it the restoration of God’s moral empiré 
 over the world, the establishment of order, govern 
 ment, and subjection—ideas necessarily implied 
 in the phrase, “ the kingdom of heaven,”— then it 
 
 would be instantly perceived, that the grace of. 
 God cannot be honoured by our continuing in» 
 
 sin. It is only by confining our view to the 
 gospel scheme, as a scheme of forgiveness and 
 reconciliation, that we can be in any danger of 
 perverting the grace of God to licentiousness. 
 With such a partial view of the plan. of redemp- 
 tion, some might possibly be led to conclude, 
 that, as grace refers only to the exercise of for- 
 giveness, the indulgence of sin, by multiplying 
 the occasions for its exercise, may not be unac- 
 ceptable to God, as it affords him an opportunity 
 of exhibiting his forbearance and long-suffering 
 to greater advantage. But if the gospel scheme 
 be not thus limited in its purposes and designs; 
 if the glad tidings of salvation do not exclusively 
 relate to the justification of the ungodly ; if the 
 forgiveness of sin be but one of the blessed con- 
 sequences of Christ’s coming in the flesh; if re- 
 demption comprehend higher and more exalted 
 privileges than forgiveness itself; if reconciliation 
 to our offended Maker be but the preparatory 
 
 step in the economy of our salvation, introducing 
 
 us, as it were, into a state of capacity for receiving 
 richer manifestations of the divine goodness: then 
 
 - 
 
 ‘ 
 
 EFS. inc 7 
 
 Sh 
 NAO: 
 
 Pett phe: 
 
 c+ 
 
10 IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, 
 
 sin, so far from affording an opportunity for the 
 exhibition of divine grace, does, in reality, throw 
 impediments in the way of its exercise; hinders, 
 so to speak, the free course of God's mercy ; and, 
 as far as it can, robs him of that glory which 
 would result to him from the salvation of his 
 people. 
 
 And that the gospel dispensation does include 
 more than the mere pardon of sin, the denomination 
 viven to it by our blessed Lord is, of itself, suffi- 
 cient to prove. For, surely, the phrase, “ the 
 kingdom of heaven,” cannot be considered as the 
 appropriate denomination of an economy, the 
 only distinguishing feature of which is the exer- 
 cise of mercy to the guilty. It presupposes this, 
 as a building presupposes a foundation: but, that 
 ~ foundation for the exercise of still richer grace 
 having been. thus laid, there 1s reared upon it a 
 structure of surpassing beauty and magnificence. 
 Being redeemed by the blood of Christ from the 
 curse of a violated law, the great impediment in 
 the way of our salvation is indeed removed; but 
 the work of salvation itself still remains to be 
 completed. The word of God forbids us to 
 imagine, that, being brought into a state of recon- 
 ciliation with God by the blood of his Son, nothing 
 ‘further is wanting to our salvation. Quite the 
 yeverse. On the contrary, our reconciliation to 
 God, while we were enemies, is represented as 
 merely affording us a confident ground of hope, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 11 
 
 that the work, so graciously begun, shall be 
 assuredly perfected in us. For thus the Apostle 
 reasons; “ God commended his love towards us, 
 in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
 us. Much more then, being now justified by his 
 blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 
 
 For if, when we were enemies, we were recon- | 
 
 ciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, 
 being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”* 
 The gospel dispensation is the establishment 
 of Messiah’s kingdom. And this kingdom must 
 be set up in our hearts, before the purposes of 
 God in our redemption are fully accomplished. 
 Satan’s empire must be overthrown, the thraldom 
 of sin broken, the corruptions of our hearts van- 
 quished and slain, and every thought of our minds 
 ~ brought into subjection to Christ; or we are not 
 saved. If we still have our conversation, as in 
 times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the 
 desires of the flesh and of the mind; the blood of 
 ‘Christ has been shed, as to us, in vain. Christ is 
 * the author of eternal salvation” to such only as 
 * obey him.”t Hence those earnest exhortations, 
 those solemn warnings, those repeated admoni- 
 
 tions, counsels, and reproofs, with which the’ 
 
 writings of the New Testament abound. Hence 
 those anxious solicitudes expressed by the 
 Apostles of Christ for the Churches they had 
 planted. It was this which caused them to shed 
 
 * Rom. y. 8—10. + Hebrews v. 9. 
 
 € 
 
12 IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, 
 
 such bitter tears, when they heard of their depar- 
 ture from the purity of the faith. It was this 
 which filled their hearts with joy and triumph, 
 amidst all their affliction and distress, when they 
 “ received good tidings of their faith and charity ;” 
 for by this they were assured, that they had not 
 “Jaboured in vain.” Who can read the tender 
 and affecting language in which St. Paul ad- 
 dresses his Thessalonian converts, and which the 
 reader will find in the 3d chapter of his first Epistle 
 to them, without instantly discovering the true 
 cause of those alternate fears and joys which he 
 there expresses on their account? Who but must 
 be sensible, that these fears and joys arose from 
 his deep conviction of the absolute necessity of 
 personal holiness in order to salvation? Indeed, 
 the affectionate request to God on their behalf, 
 with which ‘that chapter concludes, places this 
 beyond the possibility of a doubt; “ And the Lord 
 make you to increase and abound in love one 
 toward another, and toward all men, even as we 
 do toward you: to the end he may establish your 
 hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our 
 Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 with all his saints.”* 
 
 Nor was it for others only that the Apostle 
 felt such holy jealousy. He expresses the same 
 fear with respect to his own salvation. “ Know 
 ye not,” says he to the Corinthians, “ that they 
 
 * 1 Thess. iii. 12, 13. 
 » 
 
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1S 
 
 which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the 
 prize? So run, that. ye may obtain, And every 
 man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in 
 all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible 
 crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore run, 
 not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth 
 the air: but £ 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 cast-away.”* 
 And having, through life, exercised this godly 
 jealousy over himself, and this habitual fear of - 
 finally failmg of eternal life, this holy man was 
 enabled through divine grace to express such con+ 
 fident assurance of his future glory and blessed- 
 
 _hess. “ Iam now ready to be offered,” says he in 
 _ the immediate prospect of martyrdom, “ and the 
 
 time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
 a good fight, I have finished. my course, I have 
 kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for 
 me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 
 _ righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.’f 
 
 And he, who would appropriate to himself this’ 
 triumphant language in the prospect of death, 
 judgment and eternity, must follow the Apostle, 
 even as he also followed Christ. An assurance 
 which is not thus founded, is, to use our Lord’s 
 instructive similitude, “like a house built upon 
 
 the sand.”t 
 
 * 1 Cor. ix, 24-27.  +2Tim. iv.6~-8. — t Matt. vii. 26. 
 
14 IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, 
 
 Weare not, then, to dissociate in our minds the 
 glad tidings of the Gospel from the publication of 
 Messiah’s reign ; as if the latter formed no consti- 
 tuent part of the glad tidings themselves, but, on 
 the contrary, lessened their value, and abated the 
 joy with which otherwise we might have received 
 them. Even the Jewish Prophets, who lived under 
 the dispensation of the Law, and to whom, there- 
 fore, deliverance from the yoke of divine authority, 
 had it really constituted any part of the more glo- 
 rious economy which was then shortly to be intro- 
 duced, would have presented itself in its most 
 inviting forms, never once allude to such an expec- 
 tation. On the contrary, when Messiah’s advent is 
 the theme of their prophetic song, the thought 
 which seems to fill their minds, and to give birth to 
 their most elevated joys and holiest raptures, is, 
 that when Messiah.should appear, he would set up 
 his everlasting kingdom, and extend his righteous 
 sceptre over all the nations of the earth. And 
 this reign of the Prince Messiah they represent 
 as a theme of universal exultation and joy; ‘‘ Say 
 ye among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth: the 
 _ world also shall be established that it shall not 
 be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. 
 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; 
 let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the 
 Jield be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall 
 all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; 
 
 a Ee 
 
 ees ee 
 
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. | 13 
 
 Sor he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: 
 he shall judge the world with seb ab and 
 the people with his truth.”* | 
 And the Prophet Isaiah, who, on account of 
 his clear insight into the mysteries of redemption, 
 and his almost graphical representation of the 
 sufferings, death, and future triumphs of our. 
 blessed Redeemer, has been styled “ the Evange- 
 lical Prophet,” even he, when expressly referring 
 to the first proclamation of the Gospel, describes 
 it as an announcement of the righteous and happy 
 reign of Messiah the Prince. ‘“ How beautiful,” 
 he exclaims, as his prophetic eye first caught a 
 sight of the heralds of grace and mercy, hastening 
 their steps towards Zion, to proclaim the joyful 
 
 message of salvation, “‘ How beautiful upon the 
 
 mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
 tidings ; that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good 
 
 tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that 
 
 saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!’} Yes; 
 ‘*‘ Thy God reigneth” is the proclamation so em- 
 phatically styled “ good tidings,” “ good tidings 
 of good,” “ the publishing salvation.” This is the 
 news, which is to fill every inhabitant of the holy 
 city with gladness. These are the tidings, at 
 which the waste places of Jerusalem are called 
 upon to “ break forth, and sing together for joy.”t 
 
 It was not in the character of a priest simply 
 that Messiah was to appear, but of a “ priest 
 
 fd Psalm X¢€vi. 10-—13, t Isaiah lii. ie t Ver. 9. 
 
 ¢ 
 
16 IMPORT OF THE PHRASE, 
 
 upon his throne;”* and hence, among other reasons, 
 when consecrated to the office of the priesthood, 
 it was said unto him, “ Thou art a priest for ever 
 after the order of Melchisedec.’+ For let it be 
 remarked, that the name ‘“‘ Melchisedec” signifies, 
 when interpreted, “ king of righteousness ;” and 
 that he who bore this mysterious name was “ king 
 of Salem,” which is, “king of peace.”’{ How 
 fitly chosen as the type of him, who, while he was 
 to bear the iniquities of his people, and was ap- 
 pointed to make intercession for the transgressors, 
 
 was ordained to “sit upon the throne of his father. 
 
 David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to 
 
 establish it with judgment, and with justice for. 
 
 ever;”§ and, ‘ of the increase of whose govern- 
 ment and peace, it was declared, there shall be no 
 end;” in whose “ days the righteous are to flourish, 
 
 and abundance of peace so sii as the moon. 
 
 endureth.” ||. P 
 
 The humiliation, sufferings, and death of our 
 divine Redeemer, x were the steps, if I may SO 
 speak, by which he was to ascend the throne of 
 universal dominion. For thus it is written of him 
 
 in the book of Prophecy; “ He shall see of the 
 
 travail of his soul, and: shall be satisfied: by his: 
 knowledge shall. my righteous servant justify 
 many; for he shall bear their iniquities. There 
 
 fore will I divide him.a portion with the great. 
 
 * Zech, vi. 13. + Psalm ex. 4, + Hebrews vii. 2: 
 § Isaiah ix, 7. || Psalm Ixxii..7. 
 
 ee a 
 
 ‘ 
 = ‘ 
 ee 
 
 ee eee Se 
 
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 17 
 
 and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; 
 
 because he hath poured out his soul unto death; 
 and he was numbered with the transgressors ; 
 and he bare the sins of many, and made inter- 
 cession for the transgressors.”* The redemption of 
 his people by the shedding of his blood consti- 
 
 _ tutes the foundation on which his authority over 
 
 them as their Zord is established. His sufierings 
 were to precede, and to prepare the way for the 
 revelation of his glory. And in this respect the 
 redemption which Christ has wrought out for his 
 people bears a strict analogy to the redemption 
 which Jehovah anciently accomplished in behalf 
 
 of the chosen tribes. But as this subject is very 
 
 extensive, I shall reserve it for separate discussion 
 
 in the following chapter. 
 
 * Tsaiah lili, il..12, 
 
ES ee a ene ay Kee a - ee i 
 
 18 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC _ 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 ON THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC AND CHRISTIAN 
 DISPENSATIONS. | 
 
 Tw the conclusion of the foregoing chapter I 
 called the reader’s attention to the striking analogy 
 
 “Which is observable between that redemption _ 
 
 which Jehovah in ancient times wrought out in 
 
 - behalf of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the 
 
 redemption which in the fulness of time Christ 
 accomplished for his people. It is far from my 
 intention, however, to illustrate every point of 
 resemblance which may be shewn to exist betwéen 
 them. Itis to one particular feature, more imme- 
 diately connected with the subject discussed in 
 this volume,’ that the following remarks will be 
 exclusively confined. : 
 
 It is almost impossible to have read the books 
 
 of Moses, and not to have remarked, that the 
 
 ultimate design of God in redeeming his people 
 Israel from the iron yoke of Egyptian bondage, 
 was the establishment of his future empire over 
 them. This design is very distinctly announced 
 by Jehovah, when first he appears to Moses to 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS, 192. 
 
 invest him with his high commission ; “ When 
 thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, 
 
 ye shall serve God upon this mountain ;”* and still 
 
 more distinctly when afterwards he commands 
 him to deliver this message to the Egyptian 
 monarch, “ Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people 
 go, that they may serve me.”| And this. purpose 
 of God in their deliverance from the bondage of 
 Pharaoh is as distinctly acknowledged and ap- 
 proved by the Israelites themselves, in the triumphal 
 song which they sang unto the Lord on the shores 
 
 of the Red Sea; in which, after celebrating their 
 
 redemption in thiako emphatic words, “‘ Thou in 
 thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou 
 hast redeemed ;” they add, as if to recognize the 
 new relation into which their late redemption had 
 brought them, “The Lord shall reign for ever 
 and ever.” Nor is it unworthy the reader’s 
 observation, that throughout the four last books. 
 of Moses, but more especially in the book. of 
 Deuteronomy, the redemption of Israel from 
 Egypt is again and again represented as the basis 
 of Jehovah’s temporal kingdom over them: whence 
 
 it is fair to infer, that the establishment of that 
 
 kingdom was the purpose ultimately designed to 
 be accomplished by their redemption. » 
 
 Now, as the redemption of the chosen tribes 
 was but the preparatory step to the accomplish- 
 
 ment of God’s Babe POSER aie establishment 
 
 * Exodus ili, 12, + Ibid, viii, 1. { Ibid. xv. 13, 18. 
 
20 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 oa 
 
 of his ‘temporal kingdom over them; so the re- . 
 
 demption of the true Israel of God by the death 
 of Christ is but a preparatory step in the work of 
 our salvation, laying the foundation of Messiah’s 
 everlasting kingdom, in the complete establishment 
 of which the gracious purposes of God towards his 
 people receive their full accomplishment. As 
 Jehovah delivered the twelve tribes of Israel from 
 the heavy yoke of wplebesier task-masters, “ that 
 they might serve him ;” so Christ rescues his people 
 from their more cruel bondage, and more hopeless 
 captivity to Satan, that he may capacttate them to 
 become has teers and obedient subjects. He “gave 
 himself for us,” says our Apostle, “ that he might 
 redeem us from all inequity, and purify unto himself 
 a peculiar people, zealous of good works.™ 
 Nor. ought the fact to be overlooked, that the 
 righteous laws by which Jehovah’s kingdom was 
 administered, are everywhere, throughout the 
 Jewish scriptures, represented as constituting the 
 most pre- -eminent of those advantages which re- 
 sulted to them from their redemption. ‘“ He 
 sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his 
 judgments unto Israel. We hath not dealt so with 
 any nation: and as for his judgments, they have 
 not known them’—is the grateful acknowledge- 
 ment of the Psalmist, when celebrating God’s 
 goodness to his chosen people. Of all their dis- 
 tinguishing mercies, this was the greatest—it was 
 
 *. ‘Titus i,.14. 
 
 / 
 
 Ce RENE Sa RS ET 
 SR eS ena ene en Oe Oe eee 
 
 \ 
 ~~ — oe 7 
 
 Se, ee Se ee ee a ae 
 
 ee ee 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS, | 21 
 
 the crown and glory of them all: a mercy this, 
 which called for the loudest songs of gratitude and 
 praise. To such an expression of their thanks 
 the Psalmist invites and stirs up his people, 
 “ Praise ye the Lord.”* it 
 
 But it was not reserved for the tinier of Dawid : 
 first to make this happy discovery. That in this 
 consisted their peculiar glory and blessedness, 
 even God himself had distinctly declared, when 
 first he entered into covenant with bis chosen 
 people. “ Ye have seen,” says God, “ what I did 
 unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ 
 wings, and brought you unto myself. Now there- 
 fore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my _ 
 covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure — 
 unto me above all people: for ail the earth is 
 mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of — 
 priests, and an holy nation.”| So Moses, when 
 recounting the peculiar advantages enjoyed by 
 Israel above all people, assigns the pre-eminence 
 to those statutes and ordinances which he had 
 given them. This was the distinction which was 
 to excite the admiration and envy of all surround- 
 ing nations. “ Behold,” says he, addressing the 
 children of Israel, “I have taught you statutes 
 and judgments, even as the Lord my God com- 
 manded me, that thou shouldest do so in the land 
 whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and - 
 
 do them, for this is your-wisdom and understand- 
 
 ik Baalra exlvii. 19,20... ¢ Exodus xix. 4—6, 
 
Jd ANALOGY BETWEEN. THE MOSAIC 
 
 ing in the sight. of the nations, which ‘shall hear 
 all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation 
 is a wise and understanding people. For what 
 . mation is there so. great, who hath God so nigh 
 unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things 
 that we call upon him for? . And what nation is 
 there so great, that hath statutes and gudgmenis so 
 righteous as all this, law, which I set before you 
 thiscday ?* 5) % | 
 
 And every pious Israelite esteemed God's holy 
 
 law his richest inheritance. The corn, and wine, 
 
 and oil, in which the land of Canaan abounded, 
 might present the strongest attractions to those 
 
 who knew not God, and desired not the knowledge © 
 
 -of his ways ; but not so to those, who, like David, 
 
 feared God. ‘“ The law of thy mouth,” says he, 
 
 “is better to me than thousands of gold: and 
 silver. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation 
 all the day. How sweet are thy words unto my 
 taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 
 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for 
 ever; for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” 
 Nor were these sentiments peculiar to David. On 
 ‘the contrary, the very Psalm, from which I have 
 selected these devout expressions of his delight in 
 ‘the law of God, sets out with representing them 
 ‘as common to all good men; “ Blessed are the 
 ‘undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the 
 Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, 
 
 * Deut. iv. 5—8. + Psalm cxix. 72, 97, 103, 111. 
 
 i 
 a. 
 a ee 
 
AND. CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. | 23 
 
 and that seek him with the whole heart. They 
 also do no, iniquity: they walk in his ways. 
 And as this course of holy obedience was agree- 
 able to the will of God, and to his design when 
 he revealed his will to his chosen people, and 
 “commanded them to keep his precepts. dili- 
 gently,” the holy Psalmist prays, “O that my » 
 ways were directed to keep thy statutes!’[. And — 
 this prayer of David will be that .of every good 
 man under the present more perfect dispensation. 
 That we live under a different mode of divine 
 administration, can make no difference as to the 
 nature and source of true blessedness, ‘These are 
 ever the same. The same fountain of pure and 
 living water, which then made glad the city of 
 God, still flows, though in larger and more copious 
 streams, to cheer and gladden the hearts of God's 
 faithful servants till time shall be no more. If 
 David has said, <<‘ Blessed are the undefiled in the 
 way, who walk in the law of the Lord!” He, who 
 is both David’s Son and Lord, has said, ‘‘ Blessed 
 are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” 
 If the sweet singer of Israel has said, ‘“‘ Blessed 
 are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek 
 him with their whole heart!’ He who is the 
 faithful and true witness has said, “ Blessed °are 
 they that do his commandments, that they may 
 have right to the tree of life, and may enter in 
 : through the gates into the city.Ӥ 
 
 #* Psalm cxix.1—3. + Ibid.6. { Matt.v.8.  § Rev. xxii. 14. 
 
34 ANALOGY BETWEEN .THE MOSAIC 
 
 Without obedience to the righteous statutes of 
 Jehovah, the redemption which he had accom- 
 plished for his people Israel proved to them of no 
 avail. ‘The promises made to them were all sus- 
 pended on this one condition. ‘ See,” says Moses, 
 after recapitulating the law in the ears of all the 
 people, * I have set before thee this day life and 
 good, and death and evil; in that I command thee 
 this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his 
 ways, and to keep his commandments and his 
 statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live 
 and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless Y 
 thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. | 
 
 But if thine heart tarn away, so that thou wilt not 
 hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other 
 gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this 
 day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall 
 not prolong your days upon the land, whither 
 thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 
 I call heaven and earth to record this day against - 
 you, that I have set before you life and death, 
 blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that 
 both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest 
 love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey 
 _ his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; 
 (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days . 
 that thou mayest dwell in the land which the 
 Lord sware unto thy father s, to Abraham, to 
 Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”* And the 
 
 * Deut, xxx. 15—20, 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. 25 
 
 truth of this prophetic admonition their subse- 
 quent history too awfully demonstrated. A short 
 epitome of that instructive history the reader 
 may find by turning to the second chapter of the 
 book of Judges, where he will see a forcible 
 illustration of this truth, that the blessedness of | 
 Israel wholly depended on their fidelity to Jeho-— 
 vah their King; and that disobedience to his will, 
 and rebellion against his righteous authority, 
 were invariably attended with severe L eahegnioain rs 
 of his'awful displeasure.* 
 
 It has been imagined by some, that, as God 
 foresaw the rebellions and apostacies of his people 
 
 Israel, and as it is affirmed by inspired authority 
 
 that the Law was given “ that the offence might 
 abound,’+ he could not but be secretly well- 
 pleased to see his ultimate designs so completely 
 accomplished; and could not have felt equal 
 satisfaction, had the experiment tried by the 
 institution of the legal economy been attended 
 with a different result. I much fear that this 
 sentiment, although perhaps not reduced to words, 
 is secretly cherished by too many even among 
 good men. By ungodly men it has been con- 
 fidently asserted. But who are they that dare, 
 merely to give consistency to.a scheme of religious 
 doctrine, or to shew with what tremendous hardi- 
 hood they can follow it through all its mazes, and 
 through all its consequences, even though it 
 
  * Judges ii, 10—23. + Rom. v. 20. 
 
26 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 should at last issue in a disguised but real atheism; 
 I ask, who are they that dare to give God the lier 
 
 And yet what else can we think of the adoption. 
 of a sentiment, which, independently of the dis-— 
 
 honour it reflects on the divine perfections, flatly 
 contradicts the most unequivocal assurances from 
 the mouth of God himself to the contrary? Can 
 his reply to Moses, when he repeated the solemn 
 engagement to obey the will of God, voluntarily 
 entered into by the children of Israel, immediately 
 subsequent to God’s descent upon Mount Sinai to 
 proclaim amidst thick clouds of darkness his fiery 
 law, have wholly escaped their observation? “I 
 
 have heard the voice of the words of this people, | 
 which they have spoken unto thee: they have well — 
 
 said all that they have spoken. O that there were 
 such an heart in them, that they would fear me, 
 and keep my commandments always, that it might 
 be well with them, and with their children for 
 ever!’* Or, have they never read that most 
 affecting address, which God makes to his rebel- 
 lious people by the mouth of his prophet, ‘Thus 
 saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of 
 Israel; [ am the Lord thy God which teacheth 
 - thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way thou 
 shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to 
 my conunandments! then had thy peace been as a 
 river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the. sea; 
 thy seed also had been as the sand, and the 
 
 * Deut. v. 28. 
 
AND CIRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. 27 
 
 offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; 
 his name should not have been cut off nor de- 
 
 stroyed from before me.”* Or ean it be, that God's 
 actual reply to the blasphemous and atheistical 
 insinuation [ am now repelling, and which, it 
 appears, was made by the house of Israeli them-_ 
 selves, with a view to palliate the guilt of their — 
 rebellion against God, could never have been 
 once made the subject of serious. reflection? 
 «“ Therefore; O thou son of man, speak unto the 
 
 house of Israel, Thus ye speak, saying, If our 
 
 transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we 
 pine away in them, how should we then lve? 
 
 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, 
 
 T have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but 
 that the wicked turn from his way and hve: turn 
 
 ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye 
 
 die, O house of [sraci?’> Or, is not the word, or | 
 even the oath of God, to be received, because (for 
 shame be it spoken) it gives the le to a sentiment 
 founded only on the idle dreams of a distempered 
 imagination, or on the equally vam conclusions of 
 a feeble, dark, and benighted understanding? | 
 
 It is most evident then that whatever might be - 
 the actual result of the experiment tried by the insti- 
 tution of the law of Moses, that law was designed 
 to be obeyed; and that the guilt of such as dared 
 to transgress it, was not in the slightest degree 
 palliated by the’circumstance, that the Legislator 
 
 * Tsaiah xiviil. 18, 19. + Ezekiel xxxiii. 10, 11. 
 
28 ANALOGY BLTWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 himself foresaw their future violation of it. How 
 to reconcile the divine foreknowledge with human 
 accountability, is indeed a problem which the wis- 
 dom and ingenuity of man has never been able to 
 solve. But then, on the other hand, we cannot 
 deny either that God doth foreknow the sins 
 which men will commit in violation of his law; 
 or that the sins thus committed deserve God’s 
 severest displeasure. With the knowledge of 
 these first principles of moral truth we ought to 
 vest satisfied: and to every doubt which atheistical 
 objectors may attempt to raise on a point of such 
 infinite moment, we should reply in the spirit and 
 language of our Apostle; “If our unrighteousness 
 commend the righteousness of God, what shall we 
 say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance ? 
 (1 speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall 
 God judge the world?’* And well might the 
 Apostle ask this question; for, on the principle I 
 ain opposing, God must consent either to forego 
 his attribute of prescience, or else to relinquish 
 his prerogative of judging the world. Now what- 
 ever difficulty may attend reconciling the attributes 
 _ of the Most High with his prerogatives, it is abso- 
 lutely necessary that we adopt a scheme which 
 presupposes their perfect harmony, or we fall into 
 the rankest atheisin. 
 
 To such then as would famines that Jehovah 
 
 must of necessity have been secr any well-pleased 
 
 * Rom. iii. 5, 6.. 
 
 nie teal 
 
 = C : : s ' 
 ee ee i 
 
 Fa ane I pe I RT ne a ee 
 
 My 
 im 
 \ 
 | 
 mM, 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. 99 
 
 with the violation of the law of Mount Sinai, inas- 
 much as it tended to demonstrate the necessity of 
 another and better covenant, I would reply, the fact 
 is directly the reverse. 1 speak with confidence, 
 because I am supported by the word and oath of 
 God. And I have thought it necessary to call the 
 reader’s attention so particularly to this subject, 
 because I fear the sentiment I am now opposing 
 finds, in the bosom of every man, too many advo- 
 cates ready to plead in its favour; and that there 
 are few indeed, who, at some period or other of 
 
 their christian profession, have not secretly enter- 
 
 tained it. The mode too frequently adopted, in 
 
 speaking of God’s design in giving the law, seems 
 _galculated to encourage such a thought. And 
 
 when once it has been suggested to the mind, how 
 almost instinctively do we perceive the use we 
 
 -may make of it in calming the terrors, and in 
 
 silencing the reproaches, of a guilty conscience. 
 O what a happy discovery this to a mind in search 
 
 of some excuse for its hourly transgressions; at 
 _ once in love with sin, yet fearful of its tremendous 
 
 consequences! If Jehovah was secretly well- 
 pleased to see his law broken by ‘his ancient 
 people, merely because the violation of it tended 
 to the accomplishment of his hidden purposes; 
 then must every sin be equally pleasing in his 
 sight; since it is certain, that all violations of his 
 
 will are equally foreseen by him, and have an 
 
 equal.tendency to the furtherance of his mysterious 
 
S70) ' ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIG@G ~~ | 
 
 counsels: Who then can fail to perceive the 
 absolute necessity of denying the impious position, 
 that the violation of the law of Mount Sinai was 
 _ secretly well-pleasing to God, if he would deprive 
 sin of its strongest palliation, or render any of the 
 divine commands binding on the conscience? 
 
 But if it be really true, that the law of Moses 
 was given that it might. be obeyed, and that 
 
 notwithstanding God foresaw how his people 
 
 would transgress it, he yet visited their transgres- 
 sions with the most awful marks of his displeasure; 
 then how vain, how impious their hope, who think 
 to recommend themselves to the divine favour by 
 their violations of the law of Christ; as if their 
 unrighteousness, by exhibiting to greater advan- 
 tage the grace of God, must be more acceptable 
 to God than obedience to his will; a holy life 
 aflording (as they suppose) fewer occasions for 
 displaying it. If sins committed against a law 
 purposely given “ that the offence might abound,” 
 were yet hateful in the sight of God; how much 
 more hateful must those sins appear, which are 
 commnitted against the law of Christ, in the annun- 
 ciation of which no such secret purpose has ever 
 been disclosed! The violation of the first cove- 
 nant prepared the way, in some respects, for the 
 establishment of the second: but if this second 
 covenant be broken, by what shall ¢é be stc- 
 ceeded? Has God any richer stores of mercy in 
 
 reserve for those who trample under foot the Son 
 
 f 
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 4 
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 i 
 
 { 
 
 t 
 
 ys 
 
 a 
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 A 
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 A 
 
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AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. ok 
 
 of God, than those he has prepared for such as 
 obey him? Will they who sin presumptuously, 
 after they have received the knowledge of the 
 truth, be advanced to higher thrones in glory, than 
 they to whom sin has been a daily burden? 
 Where are these distinctions promised? Can one 
 intimation even of such high honours and felicities. 
 being kept in store for those who wilfully sin 
 against the law of Christ, be shewn in any one 
 page of the sacred volume? Rather, are not the 
 severest threatenings pointed against such profane 
 and ungodly men? Where in the book of God 
 are to be found such tremendous. denunciations ? 
 of impending wrath, as those which are levelled 
 against them? Ye wilful apostates from the faith. 
 of Christ, who ‘“ turn the grace of our God into 
 lasciviousness,” read these awful words ef an 
 Apostle, and tremble; ‘“ For if we sin wilfully 
 after that we have received the knowledge of the 
 truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; 
 but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment, and 
 fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversa- 
 ries. He that despised Moses’ law died without 
 mercy under two or three witnesses: of how 
 much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be 
 thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the 
 Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the 
 covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy 
 thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of 
 grace? For we know him that hath said, Ven-» 
 
32  . ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 geance belongetl unto me, I will recompense, 
 saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge 
 his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the 
 hands of the living God.”* 'To whom is this 
 fearful warning addressed, if not to you? It 
 pourtrays your character to the very life. You, 
 you are they, who “ tread under foot the Son of . 
 God;” since you openly deny his right to reign 
 over you. You, you are they, who “ account the 
 blood of the covenant,” wherewith you profess 
 yourselves to have been washed from the guilt and 
 pollution of your sins, “an unholy thing ;” since, 
 according to your own avowal, you were washed 
 in his blood, only to obtain a licence to commit 
 fresh abominations, and to contract fresh impurity. 
 You, you are they, who “do despite to the 
 spirit: of grace;” for having invited this divine — 
 inhabitant to take up his dwelling in your hearts, 
 you daily and hourly insult him by your con- 
 temptuous disregard of his sacred monitions; and, 
 what fills up the measure of your iniquity, and the 
 vials of God’s wrath, urge, as an excuse for your 
 sins, the grace which would save you from per- 
 dition. | | | 
 But this fearful warning, while it exhibits a 
 _faithful picture of your hateful character, exposes 
 also the delusion you are practising on yourselves. 
 Because the law was given, “ that the offence 
 might abound,” you weakly and wickedly imagise 
 
 a gt 
 
 eT a Oe ee 
 
 een 
 SA 
 
 a 
 et 
 y 
 
AND CHRISTIAN .DISPENSATIONS. oo 
 
 that God must be secretly well-pleased in wit- 
 
 nessing your transgressions of the law of Christ— 
 
 shutting your eyes against a fact, which, had it 
 been but once adverted to, must have shaken your 
 false confidence and peace to its very foundations: 
 the fact, I mean, to which the writer of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews forces your attention; 
 namely, \that “ he who despised Moses’ law 
 died without mercy, under two or three witnesses :” 
 —a fact, which no sophistry can reconcile with 
 the licentious consequences you would deduce 
 from God’s secret purpose in giving the law. 
 What! no mercy extended to those, who, by 
 trampling on the authority of a law expressly said 
 to have been given “ that the offence might 
 abound,” were instrumental in accomplishing the 
 mysterious counsels of the Most High; and with 
 whom therefore, according to your Uilasskediods 
 conclusion, the Deity could not but be secretly — 
 well-pleased? Then can you expect no mercy. 
 For you a far sorer punishment is kept in store, 
 than Moses ever denounced against those whe 
 presumptuously transgressed his law. For you 
 “‘Tophet is prepared, the place which God hath 
 ordained of old; and suddenly, when you are 
 fondly dreaming of mansions of eternal felicity as’ 
 the merited reward of your having by your. sins 
 subserved God’s secret purposes, you will sink 
 into its devouring flames, and perish for ever. 
 
 O repent of this your wickedness; and pray God, 
 
 D 
 
34 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 if perhaps the thought of your hearts may be 
 forgiven you. Of this be assured, that. there is a 
 sin against God for which no mercy is laid up in 
 store; to which no forgiveness will ever be ex- 
 “tended :* for which we are not even permitted to 
 gntercede in our prayers ;}—a sin, which the blood 
 of the Redeemer was not shed to expiate;{—a sin, 
 from which the Apostles of Christ were not com- 
 missioned to absolve the guilty offender ;{—a sin 
 never followed by the tears of godly penitence, || 
 but sealing up the soul which has committed it in 
 hopeless impenitence and despair. Beware then 
 lest the spirit of God’s grace, having long striven 
 with you in vain, you are given up to judicial 
 ~~ hardness of heart, till, having committed this un- 
 
 pardonable sin, and then being beyond the reach 
 
 of mercy, your final doom is irrecoverably fixed. 
 ‘Let none of my readers persuade themselves, 
 that in our day it is not possible to sin beyond 
 the hope of pardon. To my mind it appears clear, 
 that a wilful renunciation of the authority of 
 Christ as the King of Zion, that'an open denial of 
 the obligation of believers to keep his command- 
 ments,—a crime to which St. Peter refers in the 
 second chapter of his second Epistle, where, 
 speaking of false teachers in the church of Christ, 
 he describes them as “ bringing in damnable here- 
 - ples, even denying the Lord that bought them”q- — 
 
 * Matt. xii. 31,32, 4+ 1Johnv.16.  { Heb. x. 26. 
 § John xx, 23. || Heb, vi6. J 2 Pet. ii. 1. 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. | 35 
 
 i say, to me it appears clear, that this is the very 
 crime which is excepted in the promise of for- 
 giveness. Do I speak too confidently? or rather, 
 is not the word of God equally plain and deci- 
 sive? Is it not of such as these, who, after pro- 
 fessing the faith of Christ, openly renounce. his 
 righteous authority, that St. Jude thus writes? | 
 ‘“‘ For there are certain men crept in unawares, 
 who. were before of old ordained to this con- 
 demnation; ungodly men, turning the grace of our 
 God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord 
 God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.—Woe unto 
 them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and 
 ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, 
 and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These 
 are spots in your feasts of charity, when they 
 feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: 
 clouds they are without water, carried about of 
 winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, 
 twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves 
 of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wander- 
 ing stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of 
 darkness for ever.”* Is it possible, I ask, to read 
 this language, and not instantly perceive whom it 
 was intended to describe? The malignity of Cain, 
 
 _ who hated his brother Abel and slew him, be- 
 
 cause his own works were evil, and his brother’s 
 righteous ;|—the covetousness of Balaam, who, for 
 the sake of a paltry reward, taught the children 
 
 ¢ 
 * Jude 4, 11, 12, 13, +1 John iii. 12. 
 
f 
 
 36 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 of Israel to transgress ;*—and the pride and haired 
 of controul, which sent down Korah and his com- 
 pany alive into the pit;t—these are the charac- 
 teristic features of such, as are “ of old ordained 
 to condemnation” —of those “ wandering stars, to 
 whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for 
 ever.” And are there, in our days, none to whom 
 this awful description will apply?- None, who, 
 with more than Cain’s malignity, traduce their 
 more righteous brethren, and murder by: their 
 lying doctrine the souls of men? None, who, like 
 Balaam, for the wages of unrighteousness, cast a 
 stumbling-block before God’s people, to cause 
 them to transgress? None, who, like Korah, 
 Dathan, and Abiram, cast off all restraint, and 
 refuse to bow their necks to the yoke of Christ 
 himself, of whose dominion the authority of Moses 
 was but'a faint shadow? Alas, “ this vine of 
 Sodom, whose grapes are grapes of gall, and 
 their clusters bitter,” has taken deep root in our 
 land; and, like the fabled tree of Java, distils 
 pestilence and death. Woe, woe to that man who 
 ventures to repose beneath its shade. He who 
 slumbers there, slumbers to rise no more. O let 
 _ the Churches of Christ beware how they encou- 
 rage the growth of this deadly plant, if happily 
 for them they are not yet overshadowed by its 
 branches. O let them beware how they give 
 ear to this lying delusion. Other errors may 
 
 * Rey, ii. 14. + Numbers xvi. 
 
 a eS ee ae ee } ae : 
 Sr Spee sia plas Sg a Ree eS a ee 
 
 = str 
 >a 
 
 Se Sa es 
 
 ei 
 3 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. 37 
 
 consist with rectitude of intention; but not so this 
 damnable heresy. It blinds the understanding, 
 only to deprave the heart. It extinguishes the 
 light, that it may lead our unconscious feet, where 
 
 we shall stumble and fall, and be snared, and 
 
 taken. Let the Churches of Christ be deeply 
 
 -solicitous to secure to themselves individually — 
 
 that honourable testimony, which he, “ who 
 holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, and 
 who walketh in the midst of the seven golden 
 candlesticks,” bore to the Church of Ephesus: 
 “ IT know thy works, and thy labour, and thy 
 patience, and how thou canst not bear them which 
 
 are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they 
 are Apostles, and are not, and hast Sound them 
 
 fiars.”* And how did they try them? “ By their 
 fruits.”t This is the sacred touchstone appointed 
 
 by the blessed Saviour for the certain detection of 
 
 false prophets, and false teachers in every age of 
 the world. And would the Church of Christ in- 3 
 
 _ variably bring them to this infallible test, they 
 
 would find it like Ithuriel’s spear, and these wolves 
 in sheep’s clothing returning instantly to their own 
 likeness, would, like Satan as described by our 
 divine poet, ‘start up discovered and surprised.” 
 
 I before observed, that the righteous statutes. 
 and judgments which God gave to his people 
 
 Israel constituted their peculiar glory. The power 
 of the law to condemn the transgressor of it is 
 
 * Rey, ii, 2, + Matt. vii. 20. 
 
38 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 perfectly consistent with this representation. The 
 
 Apostle Paul strongly labours. this point,* and — 
 
 that in the very midst of his argument to prove 
 the impossibility of obtainmg justification and 
 life-by obedience to the Jaw. And the conclusion 
 at: which:he arrives is this, that notwithstanding 
 
 the sinner, by his transgression of the law, is- 
 
 become obnoxious to the curse ; yet the law itself 
 
 is holy, and just, and good; holy and just, as. 
 
 exacting nothing at our hands but what every 
 man’s conscience must acknowledge to be highly 
 equitable; and good, because it reveals the way 
 of life: and if the sinner wanders from the path it 
 so plainly marks out, and stumbles and falls upon 
 the dark mountains, the law itself is free from all 
 blame. “ The commandment was ordained unto 
 life;’- and if, through transgression, it be “ found 
 to be unto death,” let this awful result be attri- 
 buted to its real cause, the inbred corruption of 
 the human heart, which could convert into a 
 deadly poison: that, which, in itself, was most 
 
 wholesome food, calculated to administer to the . 
 
 life, and health, and beauty of the soul. On sin 
 alone let our indignation fall; against this enemy— 
 for it is sin, and not the righteous law of God, 
 which has wrought our ruin—let our hatred and 
 revenge be wholly directed; and so far from suf- 
 fering our. detestation of it to diminish, because 
 the sentence of death is pronounced upon us by 
 
 * Rom. vii. W—13. 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. 39 
 
 ~ the law, let this only serve to heighten it, since 
 
 but for sin, the law, which is now our accuser and 
 our judge, would have acted only as our monitor 
 and guide. It is not the law of God which is 
 made death unto us: God forbid that we should 
 
 _ think thus of his most, righteous law: “but sin, that 
 
 it. might appear sin, working death in us by that — 
 which is good; that sin by the commandment might 
 become Bee cdine sinful.” Let us then conclude 
 with the Apostle, that ‘“ the law is holy; and 
 the commandment holy, and just, and good.” _ 
 
 To this conclusion it is absolutely necessary 
 that we come, before we can rightly understand 
 the glorious scheme of redemption. Any hesita- 
 tion to admit the perfect rectitude and goodness 
 of the law, demonstrates,a state of mind, which 
 wholly disqualifies us from comprehending the 
 mercy of God in the forgiveness of sin, and the 
 justification of the ungodly. Whatever reflects 
 on the equity of the law, casts a shade on the 
 grace manifested in the pardon of sins committed 
 in violation of it. To form high conceptions of 
 the love of God in sending his Son to redeem us 
 from the curse of the law, we must view sin in all 
 its native malignity; and that malignity must 
 always bear exact proportion to the equity and 
 goodness of the law of which it is the trans- 
 gression. ‘To represent the inability of man to 
 
 obey that law in a light, which, in any degree, 
 
 serves to exculpate the guilty offender, is, in 
 
40 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 reality, to deny the grace of God in freely justi- 
 fying the ungodly. That very inability to serve 
 God is the essence of our crime; for it is in the 
 aversion of the heart from God that our inability 
 consists. ‘The greater the alienation of the mind 
 from God, the greater the inability to serve him ; 
 so that our inability, instead of affording an 
 excuse, constitutes in truth the measure of our 
 guilt. A proper sense of our incapacity for God’s 
 holy service, so far therefore from allaying our 
 apprehensions of his indignation and wrath, or 
 rémoving a sense of guilt from our consciences, 
 will tend to awaken in us fresh alarm; we shall 
 justify God, humbly acknowledge the equity of 
 all his requirements, and take upon ourselves the 
 whole blame of disobedience. And if, while thus 
 filled with holy dread and shame, the redemption 
 which is by the blood of Jesus be proclaimed in 
 our ears, how gratefully shall we adore and mag- 
 nify that love, which, while we were enemies, 
 gave Christ to die for us. Then shall we com- 
 prehend and feel the force of that blessed record 
 of the Saviour, “ God so leved the world, that he 
 gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth on him, should not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life.”* 
 
 And it is only as we apprehend sin, and not 
 the law of God, as the true cause of our ruin, 
 that the establishment of Christ’s kingdom will 
 
 * John iii. 16. 
 
 a _ oy 
 
 DN t _— =o ae - 
 a ne) OM ON OU Comme ——— oa ee ee ee ee 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS, Al 
 
 be to us any matter of rejoicing; and that we 
 shall regard salvation from the dominion of sin as 
 the crowning blessing of the gospel scheme. It is 
 such an apprehension of the exceeding sinfulness 
 of sin, displayed in its “ working death in us by 
 that which is good,” which will alone excite in us 
 
 a longing after deliverance from its cruel capti- — 
 
 vity, and lead us to cry out in the language of the 
 
 ' Apostle, “ O wretched man that Iam! who shall 
 
 deliver me from the body of this death?” and 
 in the happy prospect of deliverance, to exult 
 with him, “ I thank God through Jesus Christ.”* 
 
 From the yoke of divine authority no real 
 penitent will ever wish to be released. He has 
 already made full trial of that wretched freedom 
 which is to be obtained by throwing off this most 
 easy yoke; and has found it to be the basest and 
 most cruel servitude. All that he gained was but — 
 an exchange of masters. And O what an ex- 
 change! He forsook the service of the blessed 
 God, to be the slave of a most miserable apostate, 
 who, not content with having plunged himself 
 into the gulf of eternal perdition, by the mad 
 attempt to shake off his allegiance to his Creator, 
 seeks to draw after him the whole race of man by 
 the false lure of liberty—the liberty of wearing 
 his galling chain! Such liberty the true penitent 
 is willmg to forego; for he has learned by woeful 
 experience, that to be “ free from righteousness,” 
 
 * Rom. vii. 24, 25. 
 
42 ANALOGY BETWEEN THE MOSAIC 
 
 is to be “ the servant of sin:” and having received 
 in the service of sin no other wages than shame, 
 remorse, and the fearful apprehension of the 
 wrath to come, he: prays’to be ‘‘ made free from 
 sin,” that he may become “the servant of righte- 
 ousness.”* To him the proclamation made by the 
 messengers of peace throughout all the gates of 
 
 Zion, “ Thy God reigneth,” is indeed “ glad 
 tidings of great joy.” This “ good news of the 
 kingdom of God” fills his mind with unutterable 
 transport. At the sound of this trumpet of Jubilee 
 his iron fetters dissolve and fall, the doors of his 
 prison-house burst open, and he escapes from his 
 sad and hopeless captivity, to walk in the light 
 and liberty of Christ. And now, having fully 
 learned wherein true freedom consists, he is 
 heard ever and anon repeating those words of — 
 the Psalmist, as if to assure himself of the 
 reality and permanency of his recovered blessed- 
 ness, “ 1 will walk at. liberty: for 1 seek thy 
 precepts.” 7 ) 
 
 If it was the peculiar glory and. felicity of the 
 people of Israel, that they had received from God 
 so righteous a law, is it possible to suppose, that. 
 the true Israel of God, who live under an eco- 
 nomy of surpassing glory, are left, as some have 
 ventured to affirm, without any such gracious 
 intimations of the divine will? No; there is no 
 one point of excellence, no one cause of holy 
 
 * Rom. vi. 18, 20. + Psalm cxix. 45. 
 
AND CHRISTIAN DISPENSATIONS. 43 
 
 triumph and_ boasting to be discovered in the 
 legal economy, in which it is not infinitely out- 
 done by the dispensation of the Gospel. And in 
 nothing does the glory of the latter more com- 
 pletely eclipse the glory of the former, than in the 
 superiority of its mode of moral administration. 
 In what that superiority consists will be the sub- — 
 ject of inquiry in the following chapters. ahi 
 
a6 2 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 CHAP. IIL 
 
 ON THE IMPORT OF THE TERM ‘“ LAW,” AS USED TO. 
 DESIGNATE THE COVENANT OF WORKS, 
 
 “Tue law was given by Moses, but grace and 
 truth came by Jesus Christ.”* Such are the terms 
 used by an inspired writer of the New Testament, 
 to define the characteristic peculiarities of the 
 former and present dispensations. The Mosaic 
 is characterized as the ministration of law; the 
 Christian as the ministration of grace and truth. 
 To understand this important distinction, how- 
 ever, it will be necessary first to ascertain the 
 sense in which the terms law, grace, and truth, are 
 used in the sacred writings; since it is evident, 
 without a clear and accurate notion of the import 
 of these terms, the distinction intended to be 
 expressed by them cannot possibly be compre- 
 hended. Perhaps indeed, it would not be affirm- 
 ing too much to say, that by far the most important 
 mistakes, into which even wise and good men 
 have fallen in different ages of the Christian 
 church, in reference to the great subjects of divine 
 
 * John i, 17. 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 45 
 
 Yevelation, have arisen from their not clearly 
 
 apprehending the precise import of these several 
 terms as they are used by the sacred writers. 
 But to interpret them aright, we must have 
 recourse to the inspired volume alone: we should 
 only be misled, by observing the usage of more 
 modern times. 
 
 I shall therefore request the reader's attention, 
 while I endeavour in the present and following 
 chapters to explain the sense in which I consider 
 the terms law, grace, and truth, as used in the 
 sacred writings. And first let us inquire into the 
 import of the term Law. 
 
 _ This term, as every attentive reader of the 
 New Testament must have remarked, is used by 
 the inspired writers in a variety of senses. It is 
 sometimes employed as the appropriate denomina- 
 tion of the legal economy; as in the passage 
 above quoted, “the law was given by Moses.” 
 At other times it is used simply to denote a rule 
 of action, as in the clause parenthetically inserted 
 
 in the following passage; “To them that are 
 
 without law, as without law, (being not without 
 law to God, but under law to Christ,) that IJ 
 might gain them that are without law.”* But 
 here is a third sense in which the term is used, 
 still more frequent in its occurrence, to which I 
 would most earnestly call the attention of my 
 readers. It is the sense in which it is used by 
 
 * 1 Cor, ix, 21. 
 
A6 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 St. Paul in the words which follow; ‘“ Sin shall 
 not have dominion over you, for ye are not under 
 law, but under grace ;”* where it is clear that the 
 Apostle could neither intend the Mosaic institu- 
 ‘tion on the one hand, nor a rule of action on the 
 other; but meant simply to define the peculiar 
 character of that glorious economy under which 
 believers are placed as a dispensation of rich and 
 unmerited favour, and not of strict and rigorous 
 
 justice. And this latter is m truth the proper 
 
 and ‘primary sense of the term; the two former 
 are only secondary and accommodated senses 
 of it. 3 
 Nor let it be supposed to be a matter of very 
 great difficulty to determine in which of these 
 
 three senses it is used in any particular connection. 
 
 As used synonymously with a rule of action, my 
 memory furnishes me at present with no more 
 than a single example, the one above quoted from 
 St. Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians. And 
 yet, strange to think, the whole Antinomian 
 scheme is founded on the presumption, that this 
 
 is its most usual, as well as its most proper — 
 
 signification. That it cannot be its meaning in 
 that well-known, but much-perverted saying of 
 the Apostle, “ Ye are not under law, but under 
 grace,’ is indeed most evident, from the very 
 consequences he deduces from this fact, or, more 
 strictly speaking, from the position he had been 
 
 * Rom. vi, 14. 
 
 ee i 2 coe = ~ A ‘ = 
 
 ae 
 
 Ee er TS ee OG IE re ele SRS a 
 
 SS 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. AT 
 
 previously advancing, and which this fact is 
 brought forward to prove; viz. that sin shall not 
 have dominion over believers, And considering 
 this sense of the term in question as thus com- 
 pletely disposed of, we have only to determine, 
 whether, in any particular instance, it is used as 
 the peculiar and appropriate denomination of the — 
 Mosaic economy, or as denoting the character of 
 that dispensation as a dispensation of law. And in 
 point of practice, the determination may generally 
 be made without any great difficulty. | 
 
 In most cases, I believe, when the term daw is 
 used to denominate the Mosaic economy, it is 
 preceded by the definite article; when used to 
 denote a dispensation of law, it is put absolutely, 
 without the article. I allude, as the reader must 
 suppose, to the original Greek, and not to our 
 authorized version, the English translators having 
 almost uniformly prefixed the definite article 
 wherever the term occurs. In the following 
 examples the article is prefixed, and the Mosaic 
 economy is evidently intended; ‘“ The law 
 (o vouoc) was given by Moses.”* “ Did not Moses 
 give you the law (rov vouov)?” + ‘ Behold, thou 
 art called a Jew, and restest in the law (cw vouw).” f 
 “The law (0 vouoc) was our schoolmaster to bring 
 us unto Christ.Ӥ But in the examples to be now 
 adduced the article is wanting; and the connec- 
 tion in which the term is found, plainly indicates, 
 
 # Johni.17, + Ib. vii. 19. { Rom.ii.17. 6 Gal iii. 24. 
 
48 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 that it is to be understood as denoting a dispen- 
 sation of law: so at least I would interpret 
 the following passages; ‘ Therefore by deeds of 
 law (&& eeyov vous) Shall no flesh living be jus- 
 
 tified ;’* for. it is plain the Apostle’s argument | 
 
 applies to Gentiles as well as to Jews. So again, 
 ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye 
 are not under law (vio vouov) but under grace.’ f 
 It is the character of the dispensation under 
 which believers are placed, as not being a dispen- 
 sation of law, in other words, as not being con- 
 structed on principles of rigid justice, to which 
 the Apostle evidently alludes. The same mode 
 of interpretation must be resorted to in illustrating 
 the following words ; “ Before faith came, we were 
 kept under law, (vro vonov) shut up unto the faith 
 which should afterwards be revealed ;”t that is, 
 in other words, were placed under an economy, 
 the character of which was rigidly to exact per- 
 fect obedience, without affording any other aid for 
 the discharge of duty, than merely a knowledge 
 of it; by which means, being convinced of the 
 utter impossibility of obtaining justification by 
 works of law, we were prepared joyfully to 
 receive the Gospel, ‘‘ in which the righteousness 
 of God without law is manifested, even the 
 righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus 
 Christ.Ӥ For it is plain, that what constituted 
 
 * Rom. iii. 20. + Rom. vi. 14. t Gal. iii. 23. 
 § Rom. vi. 14, 
 
 t 
 
 - 
 eS ee eee 
 
 — eae ee 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. _ 49 
 
 the law of Moses “a schoolmaster to bring men 
 to Christ,” as the Apostle styles it in the following 
 verse, was its peculiar character as a dispensatio 
 
 of law. Brits 
 In its primary acceptation then, the term law 
 denotes a dispensation of law; and, as applied to 
 the divine government, signifies that mode of 
 administration, which is regulated on principles 
 of strict, rigorous, and inflexible justice. Sucha 
 dispensation is characterized by the two following 
 peculiarities ; first, by cts supplying us with a clear 
 and authoritative revelation of the will of God, 
 enforced under severe and awful penalties; and 
 secondly, and which indeed is its most essential 
 distinction, by ats rigorously exacting the penalty 
 of disobedience, when once it has been incurred. I 
 request the reader’s particular attention to the 
 latter of these characteristic peculiarities, as it 
 is this feature which chiefly distinguishes the two 
 dispensations of Moses and Christ; the former, 
 
 according to its original constitution, rigorously 
 
 exacting the penalty of disobedience; the latter 
 
 graciously remitting it on those merciful condi- 
 
 tions which it prescribes. They both agree in 
 furnishing us with a rule of duty, and in enforcing 
 
 obedience to it under pain of divine displeasure : 
 
 they differ principally in this, that, under the 
 
 covenant of works, no provision was made for the 
 
 remission of sins; under the covenant of grace. 
 
 the true penitent is graciously forgiven. 
 
 E 
 
50 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 The term Jaw is, as I have already observed, ~ 
 
 frequently used by the sacred writers to denote 
 a dispensation of law generally; in which mode of 
 applying it, it signifies, not the Mosaic law, but 
 
 " simply a mode of moral administration conducted 
 
 on principles of strict justice, under which every 
 one receives his just due, whether it be of praise 
 or blame, of reward or punishment. Such appears 
 to be its meaning in those words of St. Paul, “ Ye 
 are not under law, but under grace ;” which may 
 be thus paraphrased, ‘ Ye are not placed under @ 
 dispensation of severe and impartial justice, which 
 exacts sinless obedience as the indispensable con- 
 dition of ‘a continuance in the divine favour, and 
 in case of one single act of disobedience, calls for 
 the death of the offender; but under a dispensa- 
 tion, which, according to the very constitution of 
 it, allows, under specified conditions, of the par- 
 don of sin, and by the powerful aid it affords in 
 the timely and efficacious succours: of the Spirit, 
 strengthens us to do the whole will of God: 
 Under ‘such a dispensation was Adam, the 
 father and federal head of all mankind, originally 
 placed. For the prohibition, “ Of the tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of 
 it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou 
 
 shalt surely die,” * comprehended, agreeably to 
 the first branch of the above definition of the term 
 
 law, a clear and authoritative revelation of the will 
 
 * Gen. ii. 17. 
 
 Cen en ee Gn SE RE Rene een 
 ~ at r = Sen a in Pig 
 
 SS ae een Ce een Per 
 
 3 
 
te 
 
 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 61 
 
 of God, enforced under a severe and awful 
 penalty. And the rigour with which the penalty 
 of disobedience was exacted, when it had been 
 incurred by a single transgression, forms a melan- 
 choly, yet instructive comment on the second 
 branch of that definition. For we are told, that 
 ‘““by one offence (6 evoc TapaTTwuaroc, improperly 
 rendered by our translators, ‘ by the offence of 
 one,) judgment came upon all men to con, 
 demnation.,” * “he 
 
 - This dispensation of law, under which ‘Adiga 
 was © placed, extends its authority over all his 
 posterity, until, by faith in Christ, they are placed 
 
 under another and more gracious dispensation. 
 
 The curse of the law incurred by Adam’s une 
 offence, has descended through him upon all his 
 posterity ; “‘ By one man’s Uisohertinnice the many 
 (ot wokAor) Were made sinners.” | “ By one man 
 sin entered into the world, and death by. sin, and 
 so death hath passed upon all men, for that all 
 have sinned.”{ Such is the language of inspira- 
 tion on this awful subject. And the history of 
 mankind furnishes, alas! too strong a confirmation 
 of its truth. To this history St. Paul himself 
 
 - appeals, and the conclusion he teaches us to draw 
 
 from it is this, that “ by deeds of law,” that is, 
 according to principles of strict and impartial 
 justice, which assign to every man reward or 
 punishment, in exact proportion to his merit or 
 
 * Rom. vy. 18. + Ibid, 19. ft Ibid, 12. 
 
> IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 demerit, ‘‘ there shall:no flesh be justified in the 
 sight of God.”* | 
 
 And the Mosaic economy, according to its 
 original institutton, was, in the strictest sense of 
 ‘the terms, a dispensation of law; that isto say, 
 was framed on principles of rigid justice. I say, 
 according to its original institution; for, as we 
 shall soon have occasion to remark, it subse- 
 quently underwent great modification. 
 
 A studious and observant reader of the — 
 
 writings of Moses, will scarcely have failed to 
 remark a wide difference between the law which 
 was proclaimed by the mouth of Jehovah on 
 Mount Sinai, and that law, which Moses, in the 
 character of Mediator, (in which doubtless he 
 was intended to typify the blessed Redeemer, at 
 once.our Mediator and our King,) afterwards 
 delivered to the people of Israel. Many and very 
 
 important lmes of distinction are to be observed 
 
 between them; and which, if well understood, 
 elucidate, in a very striking manner, the essential 
 characteristics of the two dispensations of Iaw 
 and grace; and prove, beyond a doubt, that so 
 far is a dispensation of grace from excluding the 
 notion of a rule, that it necessarily involves it; 
 and, indeed, since man’s apostacy, lays the only: 
 foundation for the exercise of divine authority, 
 over him. It is only through a Mediator, who is 
 at. once their Priest and their King, that God can, 
 
 * Romeiii, 20. 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. . 3° 
 consistently with that perfect rectitude which 
 belongs to his moral administration, reign over the 
 sinful, offending, guilty children of men. Without 
 such a merciful intervention, their imperfect. obe- 
 dience could not be rewarded with his gracious 
 approbation: on the contrary, every act of trans- 
 gression must be visited with his righteous dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 The firsé peculiarity, then, to be noticed in thi 
 law of Mount Sinai, is the awful terrors amidst 
 which it was proclaimed. It was attended with 
 
 _ thunderings, and lightnings, and thick darkness, 
 
 and flaming fire, and the smoke as of a furnace, 
 that God came down to deliver his fiery law. And 
 such dismay did it create among the people of 
 Israel, that they fled from the mountain, and 
 stood afar off; and said unto Moses, “ Speak 
 thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God 
 speak with us, lest we die.”* To this prayer God 
 was propitious; “ I have heard,” said he to Moses, 
 “‘the voice of the words of this people, which 
 they have spoken unto thee: they have well said 
 all that they have spoken ;”f upon which he pro- 
 ceeds to appoint Moses to his mediatorial oflice : 
 giving to him a variety of instructions and com+ 
 mands, and commissioning him to: make them 
 known to the people. Who, that has read the 
 history of this selemn transaction, but must have 
 Saath the characteristic difference between | 
 
 * Exodus xx. 19, ; P Deut. v. 28. 
 
04 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 these two dispensations of law-—for such they 
 may truly be styled—the one given by the mouth 
 
 of God himself, the other through the ministry of. 
 
 Moses? The people of Israel little understood, it 
 may be, the full import of their own request; but 
 it amounted to an acknowledgment, that, under 
 a dispensation of strict and impartial justice, no 
 man can live. This conviction, the terrible ma- 
 jesty in which Jehovah appeared to declare his 
 will, was, doubtless, designed to produce. The 
 
 approbation which God expressed of his people’s _ 
 
 request, sufficiently indicates this. Happy, in- 
 deed, had it been for them, had the terror, which 
 extorted from them that request, arisen from a 
 just sense of their own utter inability to serve 
 God acceptably on the condition of a covenant 
 
 of works, such as was the law of Mount Sinai, — 
 
 which demanded perfect and sinless obedience, and 
 which, in case of one single transgression, consigned 
 
 the offender to remediless perdition. _ Unhappily 
 
 for them, however, their fear arose from a servile 
 dread of what the power of Jehovah might do, 
 rather than from a humble conviction of what his 
 justice ought to inflict upon them as children of 
 disobedience. and wrath. No sooner, therefore, 
 had the thunderings and lightnings ceased, than 
 their self-confidence returned, their fears sub- 
 sided, and the law afterwards delivered to them 
 through a mediator was identified and confounded 
 with that fiery law, the promulgation of which by 
 
 a, 
 
 ee ee Na, Sat rs ls ae eT mF te ee Ae GG Ns RSE ee Ne ee 
 
 aa Ne ot eg 
 
 ed ed 
 
 chi 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 55 
 
 the mouth of God himself had inspired them with 
 so much dread, And to this present hour their 
 posterity continue under the same wilful blind- 
 ness. ‘Their pride of heart, their utter ignorance 
 of the righteousness which the law of God re- 
 quires for justification, and their insensibility to 
 their own wretched condition as the bond-slaves | 
 of iniquity, will not allow them to perceive the 
 design so clearly expressed by every circumstance 
 attending the giving of the law, nor to understand 
 the lesson so plainly taught, that ‘‘ by deeds a 
 ~ law no flesh living can be justified.” 
 
 ‘The second peculiarity observable in the law of 
 Mount Sinai, and by which it is essentially dis- 
 tinguished from the law afterwards delivered 
 to the people by the ministry of Moses, is its 
 absolute inflexibility. Its language was, “ this 
 do, and thou shalt live;” but then it exacted per- 
 fect obedience. It admitted not. of the smallest 
 failure. One act of disobedience exposed the 
 offender to its righteous curse. ‘‘ The soul that 
 sinneth, it shall die,”* was its awful threatening. 
 It made no provision for the expiation of sin. + It 
 was to another, and more gracious covenant, that 
 the law of sacrifices appertaimed ; and that pro- 
 mises of pardon and reconciliation on repentance 
 were made to such as might have offended. This 
 distinction it is very important that the reader 
 should observe. He who has overlooked it, has 
 
 * Ezekiel xviii. 4, 
 
26 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 lost much useful instruction, which he would 
 otherwise have derived from the writings of Moses. 
 
 The rigid inflexibility of the law given from 
 Mount Sinai, was strikingly and awfully illus- 
 trated very shortly after its promulgation. No 
 sooner had God’s chosen people broken his holy 
 law, by making for themselves a golden calf, than 
 the wrath of Jehovah was kindled against them. 
 “I- have seen this people,” said the Lord unto 
 Moses, “‘ and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: 
 now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may 
 wax hot against them: and I will make of thee a 
 great, nation.”* And it was only at the interces- 
 sion of Moses, that their sin was pardoned. And 
 what was the plea urged by this powerful inter- 
 cessor? Did he attempt to palliate their crime? 
 Did he urge, as a motive for their forgiveness, 
 that this was but their first, their only offence? 
 that if pardoned, they would repent; and, warned 
 by their former awful situation as condemned 
 criminals, whom mercy alone had spared, would 
 be careful for the future to yield a more perfect 
 obedience? No; nothing of this nature escapes 
 the lips of their mediator. Moses knew too well 
 the inflexible severity with which law must exact 
 a compliance with its demands; or, in case of 
 disobedience, visit on the ceeds: its awful curse, 
 to urge such a plea! The people of Israel had 
 sinned ; and the law had said, “ The soul that 
 
 * Exodus XXxil. 9, 10. 
 
 ee eR A Nf ee ae Ne 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. og 
 
 sinneth, it shall die.” "To have urged such a plea on 
 their behalf, would therefore in reality have been, 
 to have cast a reflection on the equity of the law. 
 But how could Moses hope for success, if he 
 admitted their guilt in its fall extent? Was there 
 any expedient to be found, which should at once — 
 vindicate the justice of God, demonstrate the © 
 equity of his law, and, at the same time, allow of 
 the forgiveness of the guilty offender? There was; 
 
 and of this Moses avails himself. Acknowled giae 
 the justice with which God might punish his 
 people with utter extinction, as he had threatened 
 
 he would do, he pleads the gracious eovenant 
 
 which God had formerly made with Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, by the very terms of which pro- 
 vision was made for the forgiveness of sin. “O 
 Lord God,” said he, “ destroy not thy people, 
 and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed 
 through thy greatness, which thou hast brought | 
 forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember 
 thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look 
 
 not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to 
 
 their wickedness, nor to their sin; lest the land 
 whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the 
 Lord was not able to bring them into the land 
 which he promised them, and because he hated 
 them, he hath brought them out to slay them in 
 the wilderness. Yet they are thy people, and 
 thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by 
 
58 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 thy mighty power, and by thy stretched-out arm.”* 
 To this intercessory prayer the Lord hearkened, 
 and “ repented of the evil which he thought to do 
 unto his people.” 
 
 And here I cannot omit remarking, how en- 
 tirely dissimilar is the language which Jehovah 
 employs during the short period that the Sinaitic 
 Covenant subsisted in force, to that which he 
 used after the renewal of the Covenant of Grace, 
 originally made with the patriarch Abraham. 
 During this temporary subsistence of the strict 
 legal dispensation, and before this renewal of the 
 Abrahamic covenant, God spake to his people in 
 these awfully admonitory terms ; “ Behold, [send 
 an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and 
 to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 
 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him 
 not; for he will not pardon your transgressions : 
 for my name is in him.’t But when the Simaitic 
 covenant was virtually at an end, the people of 
 Israel having all, without exception, incurred the 
 sentence of excision, and having been pardoned at 
 the intercession of Moses, and in consideration 
 of God’s ancient covenant with Abraham; and 
 when therefore this more gracious covenant might 
 be said to be confirmed with his posterity ; pro- 
 claims his name, “ The Lord, the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant 
 
 * Deut. ix. 2629. + Exodus xxxii, 14. } Ibid, xxiii, 20, 21. 
 
 a i nl a a 9 i ee eens * 
 
 se aS 
 
a 
 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. oY 
 
 in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
 Sorgiving iniquity and tr ansgression and sin, and 
 that will by no means clear the guilty : visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and 
 upon the children’s children, unto the third and _ 
 to the fourth generation.”* And having thus pro- 
 claimed his mercy and grace, God proceeds to 
 make a new covenant with his people ;{. plainly 
 intimating that the former had been already an- 
 nulled. And an attentive reader of the book of 
 Deuteronomy will observe the pains which Moses 
 takes to convince the people of Israel, that they 
 were now no longer under a dispensation of rigid 
 and inflexible justice; and, therefore, were ad- 
 mitted to the possession of Canaan, not on the 
 terms of the covenant of Mount Sinai—for they 
 had broken that covenant, and had already -re- 
 ceived the sentence of excision; although after- 
 wards they had been graciously spared at the in- 
 tercession of Moses—but on the terms of the 
 covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 He will also observe, that obedience to Jehovah is 
 now enforced by arguments derived from this 
 renewed covenant of grace; “ Thou art an holy | 
 people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy 
 God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto 
 himself, above all ‘people that are upon the face of 
 the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon 
 you, nor choose you, beeanse ye were more in 
 
 * Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. + Ibid. 10. 
 
60 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 number than any people; for ye were the fewest 
 of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and 
 because he would keep the oath which he had sworn 
 unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out 
 with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the 
 house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, 
 
 king of Egypt. Know, therefore, that the Lord 
 
 thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which 
 keepeth COVENANT and mercy with them that love 
 him and keep his commandments, to a thousand 
 generations; and repayeth them that hate him to 
 their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack 
 to him that hateth him; he will repay him to his 
 face. Thou shalt therefore keep the command- 
 ments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which 
 I command thee this day, to do them.”* — 
 
 This passage, which I have quoted so fully, 
 abeunds with very important instruction. It ex- 
 hibits, in the clearest light, the essential distine- 
 tion between a covenant of law, and a covenant of 
 grace; and completely overthrows the unfounded 
 assertion, that exemption from the yoke of divine 
 authority is the discriminating characteristic of a 
 dispensation of grace. On the contrary, we have 
 here'a renewal of God’s covenant with Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob; and, so far is Jehovah from re- 
 
 linquishing his claim to the love and obedience of 
 
 his people, that he exacts it as the condition, on 
 which alone they could expect to enjoy the bene- 
 
 * Deut. vii. 6B—11. 
 
 ? 
 
 So a el a ins Os 
 
 > en 
 
 ee ee he 
 
 * 
 ee ae 
 
 Sh a 
 
 bn 
 
 raat 
 
 ale 1 SS =e a eng os 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 61 
 
 fits of that covenant; “‘ he keepeth covenant and 
 mercy, says Moses, “ with them that love him, and 
 keep his commandments ;” nor are the disobedient 
 and rebellious encouraged to look for any other 
 fruit of their iniquity than his fiery indignation: 
 “he repayeth them that hate him to their face, to 
 destroy them: he will not be slack to him that — 
 
 - hateth him; he will repay him to his face.” But if, 
 
 under this new covenant, sin be so severely pu- 
 nished, where is the boasted grace of it? In what 
 does it differ from a covenant of law? A true 
 child of God will readily give an answer to these 
 questions. For while he rejoices in the testimony 
 of his own conscience, that he loves God, and 
 delights in his statutes, “ esteeming God’s pre- 
 cepts to be right, and hating every false way ;” 
 he knows at the same time, that in many things 
 he daily offends ; so that were he to be judged by 
 the rule of strict righteousness, he could not be 
 acquitted, but must stand exposed to the righteous 
 severity of God; but, being placed under an eco- 
 nomy of grace, which, at the same time that it 
 enjoins love to God and obedience to his will as 
 indispensably necessary to the enjoyment of its 
 covenanted. blessings, promises pardon of sin to 
 the truly contrite, he cherishes a humble assur- 
 ance of his future blessedness; for, notwithstanding 
 his acknowledged deficiencies, his conscience still 
 bears him testimony that he loves God, and takes 
 delight in his ways. But on this subject I shall 
 
62 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 have occasion to observe again, when explaining’ 
 the import of the terms “ grace” and “ truth.” 
 From the preceding remarks, the intelligent 
 reader will not be led to confound the covenant 
 of grace thus renewed with the people of Israel, 
 with that covenant as afterwards fully and com- 
 pletely ratified and confirmed by our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. It was, after all, but a 
 typical and shadowy dispensation of mercy and 
 grace-of which Moses was appointed mediator. 
 The daw or rule of obedience prescribed by him, 
 (excepting indeed the two great commandments) 
 was typical of the obedience of the heart which 
 _ Messiah would afterwards inculcate on his people: 
 The sacrifices appointed to expiate sins committed 
 in violation of that law, were typical of the great 
 sacrifice to be made once for all in the end of the 
 
 world: The blessings promised to the obedient 
 
 were typical of the heavenly Canaan ; and the 
 curses denounced against obstinate and impenitent 
 transgressors were but types of that tremendous 
 doom to which the wicked will be consigned by 
 the Judge of all at the great and final day. Widely, 
 
 therefore, as the covenant of grate made with the | 
 
 people of Israel through the mediation of Moses, 
 differed from the covenant of law given from 
 Mount Sinai, still it was grace only in types 
 and shadows. It afforded indeed a lively repre- 
 sentation, and, to the eye ofa believing Israelite 
 who looked to the end of that which was shortly 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 63 
 
 to be abolished, a most cheering and delightful 
 image, of the kingdom of grace afterwards to be 
 erected by the promised Messiah; but this was 
 all. It was glorious only by the glories, which, 
 asa faithful mirror, it reflected. It shone only 
 with a borrowed light. 
 
 Before, however, I dismiss the consideration ; 
 of the peculiar characteristics of the law of Moses, 
 I must observe, that even under the more gracious 
 form in which it was renewed, after the covenant 
 of Mount Sinai had been virtually annulled, it 
 presented nothing but “ the form of knowledge » 
 and of the truth,”* to use the expressive language 
 of the Apostle. It marked out clearly and dis- 
 tinctly the line of duty; it held out most powerful 
 encouragements to love and obedience; it gra- 
 ciously promised pardon to the truly contrite-on 
 their turning to the Lord with sincere penitence ; 
 and, ‘though it threatened to punish sin, yet it did 
 not, like the law of Mount Sinai, denounce utter 
 extinction for every offence ; but blending mercy 
 even with judgment, sought the correction and 
 restoration of the offender by the very stripes it 
 inflicted ; consigning only presumptuous and har- 
 dened offenders over to remediless perdition: 
 
 _ but still one thing was wanting to render this law 
 
 of grace, if I may so denominate it, operative and 
 effectual; I mean the spirit of grace. Like the 
 light of the moon, it possessed no vital warmth. | 
 
 * Rom, il. 20, 
 
64. IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 It is the prerogative of “the Sun of righteousness” 
 alone to quicken into life. Among all the glorious 
 distinctions of the second covenant made with 
 the people of Israel by which it surpassed the 
 
 first, the promise of the Spirit was not found. 
 
 And for want of this, it proved unavailing, and 
 was at length itself superseded... And now a still 
 better covenant is made by God with his people, 
 established upon better promises; a covenant 
 which exhibits the grace and mercy of God, not 
 in types and figures, but in all their own native 
 plenitude, and divine reality. Of this new cove- 
 nant the prophet Jeremiah gave promise to such 
 as waited for the consolation of Israel; ‘‘ Behold 
 the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make 
 a2 new covenant with the house of Israel, and 
 with the house of Judah; not according to the 
 covenant that I made with their fathers, in the 
 day that [ took them by the hand to bring them 
 out of the land of Egypt; (which my covenant 
 they brake, although | was an husband to them, 
 saith the Lord;) but this shall be the covenant 
 that | will make with the house of Israel; after 
 those days, saith the Lord, £ will put my law im 
 their inward parts, and write it in ther hearts; 
 
 and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 
 
 And they shall teach no more every man_ his 
 
 neighbour, and. every man his brother, saying, 
 
 ix<now the Lord; for they shall all know me from 
 the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith 
 
 See et a nS ee 
 
 “ =~ 
 LOSS 
 
 a Py oe ee eee en gS ee Ca 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 65 
 
 the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and 
 I will remember their sin no more”* What was 
 wanting in the covenant made with Israel—the 
 spirit of grace—is here supplied. By the ministry 
 of- Moses, the children of Israel received God’s 
 righteous law, engraven on tablets of stone; but 
 here God promises to write it on their hearts ; 
 and this promise, the Mediator of this new cove- 
 nant has been fulfilling from the day of Pentecost 
 to the present hour. “ He ascended on high, that 
 he might receive gifts for men, that the Lord God 
 might dwell amongst them.” 
 
 It was the want of this spirit of grace, which 
 rendered the ministration of the law, even under 
 its more gracious form, the ministration only of 
 condemnation. For even under that amended 
 form, it did no more than simply prescribe a rule 
 of action for the observance of such as were 
 placed under its authority; nor could its equity 
 on the one hand, nor its mild and gentle adminis- 
 tration on the other, secure obedience to it; a fact 
 which will occasion no surprise to such as know, 
 that something further is necessary, besides the 
 mere knowledge of the will of God, or even an 
 inward conviction of the equity of his require- 
 ments, to secure our obedience. We must not only 
 know and approve; but, to keep God’s command- 
 ments, we must love them. They must be more 
 
 * Jer. xxxi. 31—34, + Psalm Ixviii, 18, 
 F 
 
66 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW.. 
 
 precious in our esteem, than thousands of gold 
 and silver; they must be sweeter to our taste 
 than honey, or the honey-comb. In short, to use 
 the language of the Prophet Jeremiah, they must 
 -be written on the heart. And this the finger of 
 God alone can perform. ‘To change the heart 
 is his glorious prerogative. And until this gracious 
 change is effected, no man will ever delight in 
 God’s holy law. On the contrary, the more he 
 discovers of its purity and spirituality, the greater 
 will be his aversion to it. Ignorant of its real 
 nature, he may pretend, like the Pharisees, and 
 like St. Paul, before his conversion, to respect 
 its authority; and, by an outward compliance 
 with its demands, may cherish the vain hope of 
 justification by his obedience to it; but let the 
 commandment be exhibited before him in all its 
 vast extent, as requiring the obedience of the 
 heart; and the strength of inbred corruption will 
 soon appear: sin, which before lay dormant and 
 inactive, and to all appearance dead, will rouse 
 itself from its seeming lethargy, assert its do- 
 minion over the heart, and bind in chains of 
 adamantine strength, the man who, till then, was 
 
 fondly dreaming, and proudly boasting of his 
 
 freedom. Happy the man who is thus awakened 
 to a just sense of his real condition. The discovery 
 may be mortifying to his pride, and alarming to his 
 conscience; but it is necessary to his salvation. 
 Without so humbling and painfal a conviction, he 
 
 = ; = = 
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 NE yee Be SE Se Le gn OS Re . a 
 SN a a Tare a gn NO SE, Bee A 
 
 See anne 
 
 Panes: 
 
 “Fas 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 67 
 
 will despise and reject the grace of the gospel : 
 but being made sensible of his state of captivity 
 to sm and death, he will cry out, “O wretched 
 nan that Iam, who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death ?”* 
 
 Such then is the true character of a dispensation © 
 of lew; imparting to men the knowledge of God’s 
 will, but affording them no aid for the performance . 
 of it; requiring a perfect obedience to its com- 
 mands, and, in case of disobedience, rigorously 
 exacting the penalty incurred. Under such an, 
 economy, who among the sons of Adam can hope | 
 to live? Is there one who dares adventure his 
 eternal safety on the condition of perfect obedience 
 required by the terms of it? Alas, there are to 
 be found many, who, madly presuming on their 
 ability to satisfy the requirements of the law, 
 scorn and reject the grace offered them in the 
 gospel. They will be indebted to justice, and © 
 not to mercy, fer their final acquittal at the bar of 
 God. To plead guilty is what their pride cannot 
 brook. To be placed on the same level with the 
 vilest of malefactors, whom the mercy of God 
 ‘has pardoned, and his Spirit sanctified and saved, 
 excites in them the most lively indignation. ‘ What, 
 (say they,) and are we no better than the most 
 reprobate and abandoned of mankind? Is there 
 no merit in our scrupulous observance of the 
 rules of conduct prescribed and recommended 
 
 * Rom, Vii. 24, 
 
68 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 by the virtuous of all ages? Is it not better to 
 practise those rules, than to live in the daily 
 violation of them? Are temperance, sobriety, 
 chastity, honesty, and beneficence, no better than 
 ‘debauchery, sensuality, fraud, and oppression? 
 It eannot be. The God of justice and of truth, 
 must make a distinction. He must approve the 
 _ one, he must condemn the other. But to place 
 all mankind on a level, requiring all alike to plead 
 guilty before God, is utterly to confound light 
 and darkness, good and evil; is to overturn the 
 very foundations of moral eovernment, to destroy 
 every motive to virtue, to remove every impedi- 
 ment to vice. Since all are equally acceptable to 
 God, what better maxim than this, “ Let us sin, 
 that grace may abound?” If God must receive 
 the whole glory of our salvation, we may surely 
 
 spare ourselves the labour we have been taught © 
 
 to consider as so necessary to secure it.’ 
 
 They who thus argue, little know what they 
 say, nor whereof they affirm. The dispensations 
 of law and grace, of which they speak in such 
 reproachful terms, are wholly free from those 
 fatal consequences, which they, misled by their 
 pride and haughtiness of heart, scruple not thus 
 rashly and impiously to impute to them. God is 
 not the author of confusion. The great distinctions 
 ~ of right.and wrong, of good and evil, were never 
 intended by him to be destroyed. Neither his 
 
 law, nor his gospel, are chargeable with enfeebling — 
 
 5 gE a a oe Se 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 69 
 
 the motives to obedience, or silencing the voice 
 _of conscience, or hardening a sinner in his crimes. 
 The charge is false; and, when thoroughly exa- 
 mined, reflects only shame and infamy on those 
 who are weak and wicked enough to advance it, 
 
 As this subject is very important, and lies at 
 the very foundation of all saving knowledge of 
 divine truth, the reader will excuse me, if I occupy 
 a few pages, in endeavouring to place it in its 
 proper - light. And the remarks which have 
 already been made, on the discriminating charac- 
 teristics of a dispensation of law, will assist us 
 in removing every difficulty with which it has 
 been artfully incumbered. 
 
 - The question at issue between those who 
 maintain, and those who deny, the possibility of 
 justification before God by works of our own, is ; 
 not whether a course of virtuous action be not 
 In itself more commendable than a course of vice: 
 for certainly this cannot for a moment be disputed. 
 The temporal benefits naturally attendant on the 
 one, and the pains and miseries consequent on 
 the other, plainly and unequivocally declare, 
 what sentiments God would have us entertain 
 respecting them. Had he been totally indifferent 
 which course we pursued, he would not have 
 hedged up the path of vice with so many thorns. 
 Nor is he indifferent.. Nature, providence, his 
 law, his gospel, all alike disclaim the impious | 
 thought. The true question to be decided is, 
 
1 
 
 70 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 Can God, acting as the governor of the world, 
 and proceeding on principles of justice alone, 
 acquit a transgressor of his righteous law? Can 
 he, consistently with the purity, and perfect 
 
 ‘rectitude of his moral administration, accept of 
 
 ap imperfect obedience? Or, must he not, on the 
 
 other hand, inflict the sentence of the law on all 
 
 who have transgressed his law, were it only in 
 a single instance? If the remarks above made 
 
 on the covenants of law entered into with Adam 
 
 in Paradise, and with the Israelites in the Wilder- 
 ness, be just,—and I can anticipate no valid 
 objection to them,—then these questions admit 
 of but one answer. For it appears, that, for his 
 “ one offence, Judgment came upon all men to 
 condemnation.” When Adam partook of the 
 forbidden fruit, he broke the sole condition on 
 which the continuance of his being and blessed- 
 ness was suspended. His former acts of obedience 
 are neither pleaded by himself in extenuation of 
 his guilt, nor so much as alluded to by his 
 righteous Judge, when having summoned him 
 into his presence, he graciously extended to him 
 the scepire of mercy. His perfect obedience to 
 
 the will of God prior to his fall, is never specified | 
 
 as constituting the least part of the consideration, 
 if [ may be allowed the expression, which induced 
 his maker not rigorously to exact the forfeited 
 
 penalty of life. And yet, surely, the sinless 
 
 obedience of our great progenitor prior to his fall, 
 
 =: 
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 epee 
 
 a 
 
 = 
 
 mn 
 
 as 
 
IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 71 
 
 would have furnished a far better plea, a much | 
 stronger motive for extending mercy to him, than 
 can be found in the holiest life ever since spent 
 by any one of his posterity. In him, before he 
 fell by transgression, even the piercing eye of 
 deity could detect no sin. Infinite purity regarded 
 him with complacency and love. And will, then, 
 any of his degenerate offspring, who daily offend 
 against God; who in thought, word, and deed 
 are hourly transgressing his holy law; whose 
 ‘imaginations have been from their youth up, 
 evil, only evil, and that continually ;’—will they, 
 I say, presume to trust for their acceptance with 
 God, on an obedience itself deserving his dis- 
 pleasure? If they can fairly challenge the justice 
 of God for their final acquittal at his bar; they 
 who were born in sin, and shapen in iniquity, 
 and who, from their earliest infancy, have been 
 estranged from God, and enemies to him by wicked 
 works ; with what confidence might not their once 
 pure, perfect, and sinless progenitor have ap- 
 proached his Judge to solicit the forgiveness of 
 his one offence! But when God appeared, the 
 first transgressor stood silent before him. And 
 when God shall come again to judgment, “ the 
 whole world will stand guilty before God.” The 
 sight of the holy, righteous, heart-searching God, 
 will silence every transgresscr; nor will any then 
 attempt to ask of infinite justice, what their pride 
 now scorns to accept at the hands of mercy. 
 
72 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 It is from not apprehending the real nature 
 of a dispensation of law, that any can presume 
 to expect justification by works of their own. 
 They do not, or will not observe, that to be 
 justified by works, they must yield a perfect and 
 sinless obedience to the law. Nothing short of this 
 will satisfy its demands. A covenant of law 
 cannot, from its very nature, allow of the smallest 
 deficiency. For the principle on which it is 
 framed is that of strict, severe, and impartial 
 justice; so that one deviation from the line of 
 rectitude, is sufficient to incur its awful penalty ; 
 and if that penalty: be once incurred, the law 
 cannot be satisfied until it be paid. This indeed 
 is the character of human laws, when wisely 
 framed and righteously administered: or if in 
 any particular instance they are not thus charac- 
 terized, it is because they are radically defective. 
 Jt is a universally acknowledged principle in 
 legislation, that no penalty ought to be denounced, 
 which the lawgiver does not intend should be 
 rigorously exacted; since it is the certainty of 
 punishment which clothes it with all its terror. 
 The slightest hope of escaping with impunity, 
 holds out encouragement to transgress. The 
 denunciation of the law is heard; but, as it is 
 possible that it may not be executed, it is treated 
 as an idle threat: and thus, the majesty of the 
 Jaw, which ought to inspire with awe and dread, 
 is contemned, insulted and defied. Can we then 
 
- 
 . 
 
 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. wes 
 
 impute to the omniscient God, who sees effects 
 in their remotest causes, an error, which even 
 human legislators would be most careful to avoid? 
 Can we think that the great Ruler of heaven and 
 earth, would commit an act of treason against 
 his own authority and government, and set the 
 example to his creatures of bidding defiance to 
 his own awful threatenings? Yet this we must 
 suppose, were we to imagine, that one violation 
 of his holy law ought to go unpunished, in 
 consideration of the otherwise merit of the 
 offender. - What is this but to say, that the law, 
 which refuses to be satisfied with any thing short 
 of perfect obedience, is unjust? And. yet, have 
 we not shewn, that this is the character of the 
 law? nay, that this was the very principle. of 
 that righteous sentence which doomed Adam 
 and all his posterity to death? We have. To deny 
 
 _ the rectitude of the principle itself, is, therefore, 
 
 to reflect, not merely on the law as too severe, 
 but on its great Author as having actually been 
 guilty of the grossest injustice. If God was just 
 in adjudging the race of man to condemnation 
 for the one offence of the first Adam,—and who 
 dares to charge him with injustice?—then the 
 principle itself is just, and all hopes of justification 
 founded on an obedience which is confessedly 
 imperfect must vanish for ever. It is only by 
 supposing that principle of divine administration 
 
74 IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 
 
 unjust, that such hopes can be defended as either 
 
 reasonable or safe. ) 
 Is there then no way of reconciling the claims 
 
 of justice with those of mercy? Must the law of 
 
 God take its course, and the penalty of dis- 
 
 obedience incurred by every child of Adam be 
 exacted to the very letter of the awful threatening, 
 without any possibility of remission? God forbid 
 
 any should think, that they, who maintain the 
 
 inadequacy of works of law to justify us before 
 God, are driven into so appalling a dilemma. 
 On the very contrary, their happy acquaintance 
 with that merciful provision which God has made 
 for freely justifying the ungodly, not only removes 
 that dread with which the thought of judgment 
 must ever recur to a transgressor of the law, but 
 fills their minds with a holy and heavenly peace. 
 And such is the wisdom with which this mercy 
 is shewn to the guilty children of men, that no 
 one to whom it is extended, ever entertains less 
 exalted thoughts of the equity of the law by 
 which he stood condemned, feels less abhorrence 
 of sin, or cherishes feebler desires after confor- 
 imity to the holy will of God. On the contrary, 
 so greatly has “ God abounded in wisdom and 
 
 prudence” in the plan of human redemption, 
 _ that, by the very act which justifies the ungodly, 
 
 he has contrived to magnify his law, and to assert 
 the claims of his righteous authority. In extending 
 
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IMPORT OF THE TERM LAW. 70 
 
 mercy and forgiveness to the offender, he renders 
 him more sensible of the enormity of his offence, 
 than by inflicting upon him the just punishment 
 of his sin; and the repentance to which this 
 exercise of mercy leads him, is not that selfish 
 “sorrow of the world” which is nourished by 
 despair, and “which worketh death ;” no, but 
 a godly sorrow, wrought in the mind by un- 
 expected, undeserved kindness, which every 
 recollection of the mercy it has received awakens 
 and renews; and which having now no longer — 
 any cause of fearful apprehension, is unmingled 
 with a selfish feeling, and bewails only the number 
 and turpitude of its offences, rousing the soul to 
 implacable revenge against its sins. 
 
 To develope this mystery of wisdom and 
 grace will be the business of the following 
 chapters, in which I propose to consider the 
 import of the terms grace and truth. 
 
76 IMPORT OF THE TERMS 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 ON THE IMPORT OF THE TERMS GRACE AND 
 TRUTH, AS USED BY THE SACRED WRITERS TO 
 DEFINE THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE GOSPEL 
 DISPENSATION. , 
 
 Tue inquiry already instituted into the import 
 of the term daw will be found very greatly to 
 assist us in investigating the precise meaning of 
 the terms grace and truth; and to fix the sense 
 in which we are to understand those well-known, 
 but by many much perverted words of the Apostle, 
 “ Ye are not under law, but under grace.” 
 
 We have seen that /aw, in its primary accep- 
 tation, denotes a dispensation of law; that is, in 
 other words, a mode of divine administration 
 carried on by means of a law clearly defining the 
 nature and extent of the service required, and 
 rigidly exacting the penalty of disobedience when 
 once it has been incurred. We have seen, that. 
 this was the character both of the dispensation 
 under which Adam was originally placed, and of 
 that first covenant made with the children of 
 Israel after their redemption from the house 
 of bondage. We have also seen, that while the 
 law of Mount Sinai was characterized by every 
 
| 
 
 %, 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH. Cia i 
 
 peculiarity belonging to law in its strictest form, 
 the law subsequently delivered to the same people 
 through the mediation of Moses, was in reality 
 a shadowy dispensation of grace, being engrafted 
 on the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob; and admitting, contrary to the essential 
 nature of a dispensation of law, of the pardon 
 and restoration of the offender on his repentance 
 
 _and return to God. We have seen, that the grace 
 
 of this second covenant consisted, not in the 
 abandonment of his authority on the part of 
 
 _ Jehovah, in his relinquishing his claims to the love 
 and obedience of his people, and suffering them 
 
 to walk in future each one after the desires and 
 
 devices of his own heart; but in graciously 
 remitting the penalty they had already incurred 
 
 by their breach of the first covenant, and in 
 placing them under a milder administration, the 
 principles of which required not a _ rigorous 
 exaction of the penalty of disobedience, but 
 allowed of its being graciously remitted on con- 
 dition of sincere repentance: We have seen, that 
 while under this covenant of grace, God promises 
 to “keep covenant and mercy with them that 
 love him, and keep his commandments,” he 
 threatens to ‘“ repay those that hate him to 
 their face;” and that, while he proclaims his 
 name, “ The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness 
 and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
 
78 IMPORT OF THE TERMS me 
 
 iniquity and transgression and sin,” he declares, 
 that he ‘“ will by no means clear the guilty, but 
 will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
 children, and upon the children’s children, unto 
 the third and to the fourth generation.” We have 
 seen, that even this gracious covenant entirely 
 failed of securing the obedience of such as were 
 placed under it; that, merciful as the terms of 
 it were, one thing was wanting to give them 
 eflect—the spirit of grace: and that, in conse- 
 quence of this radical deficiency, even this 
 covenant is abolished, and a new covenant 
 substituted in its room, by the terms of which 
 that spirit of grace which was required to give 
 efficacy to the revealed will of God, and to 
 ensure obedience to it, is promised to God’s 
 people. 
 
 Now to my mind it appears impossible, that, 
 after seeing all this, the true character of the 
 gospel dispensation should not be distinctly 
 perceived; or, that the import of the terms 
 grace and truth employed by John to define the 
 nature of that economy, should not be clearly 
 apprehended. Who but must see, that grace 
 refers to that peculiarity of the administration 
 established by our blessed Lord and Saviour, 
 which stands in direct opposition to the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic of the first covenant 
 made with the people of Israel; viz. to the 
 remission of that penalty incurred by all the 
 
GRACE AND TRUTH. 7G 
 
 children of Adam, and which it is the essential 
 character of law rigidly to exact: and that truth 
 stands also opposed to the shadowy nature of the 
 second covenant made with the people of Israel; 
 in which covenant was exhibited to the eye of 
 faith, in types and figures, an emblematic repre- 
 sentation of the divine realities of Messiah’s future 
 kingdom? The impossibility of arriving at any 
 other conclusion will more clearly appear as we 
 proceed. 4 
 Before I enter, however, into a more minute 
 investigation of the discriminating characteristics . 
 
 of the economy under which all true believers 
 
 are placed, I must advertise the reader not to 
 
 expect a separate discussion of the terms grace 
 
 and truth; or that these terms will in future be 
 used in their strict and primary acceptation, 
 according to the above definition of them. This 
 would be impracticable, and I may add, useless. 
 The sacred writers themselves do not invariably 
 employ these terms in one and the same sense, 
 but in various senses. And yet this want of 
 uniformity is very far from occasioning any real 
 obscurity in their writings. The different shades 
 of meaning are easily distinguished; and it is 
 very seldom indeed that an intelligent reader, 
 after attentively considering the particular con- 
 nection in which either of these terms is found, 
 can be long at a loss to determine the sense. in 
 which it was used, and intended to be understood, 
 by the sacred writer. 
 
80 IMPORT OF THE. TERMS 
 
 Generally speaking, the term grace denotes 
 the principle on which the government of Messiah 
 is administered: in which respect it strikingly 
 agrees with the principle of administration 
 adopted by Jehovah when he entered into 
 covenant the second time with the people of 
 Israel. But it is by no means confined to this 
 sense. It is also used to express what I have 
 before observed to be intended by the word 
 truth; and hence it frequently denotes the gift 
 of the Spirit, by whose mighty energy the \corrup- 
 tions of our nature are subdued, and we are 
 brought to love and delight in, as well as to know 
 and approve, the will of God. 
 
 The word truth occurs Jess frequently. But 
 that it does occur, and that in the sense in which 
 Ihave above explained it, many passages might 
 be adduced to prove; in the greater number of 
 which I apprehend ihe dominion of Christ in the 
 heart, as exerted by the power of his Spirit, is 
 intended. As for example; “If ye continue in 
 my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and 
 ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
 you free. *—* Sanctify them by thy truth; thy 
 word is truth.”t—< For this cause came I into 
 the world, that I might bear witness unto the 
 truth: every one that is of éhe truth heareth my 
 voice.”"[ Other passages might be quoted, in 
 which it bears the same signification. At other 
 times it relates to Christ himself as the great 
 
 * John viii. 31,32. + Ibid. xvii. 17. ¢- Ibid. xviii, 37. 
 
 2 
 
GRACE AND TRUTH. 8L 
 
 reality prefigured: by all the types and shadows 
 of the law; as for example, “ grace and truth 
 came by Jesus Christ.”*—*« Lam the way, and the 
 truth, and the life ;’|—‘ which hast the form of 
 knowledge and of the truth in the law.Ӣ In 
 short, I may observe, that the word truth is often 
 used in one or other of these senses, when possibly 
 a careless reader might consider it as synonimous 
 either with doctrine or with sincerity. I will only | 
 mention one; “the time cometh, and now is, 
 when the true worshipper shall worship the Father 
 in spirit and in truth;’\ by which latter word we 
 are to understand, not sincerity, as is too generally 
 supposed; but the true and spiritual temple, into 
 which by faith believers in Christ, whether Jews 
 or Gentiles, have freedom of access, and where, 
 as priests unto God, they daily offer up spiritual 
 sacrifices. 
 Having made these preliminary remarks, 
 T hasten to the consideration of the subject more 
 immediately in view—the peculiar characteristics 
 of the economy of grace. And from what has 
 been already observed, in relation to the law of 
 Moses, they seem capable of being arranged 
 under the following threefold division ;—first, 
 the free and full remission of the penalty incurred 
 by the violation of the covenant of works :— 
 secondly, the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable 
 the believer in Christ both to will and to do 
 
 *Johni17, + Ubid. xiv.6. f Rom. ii 20, § John iv. 23. 
 Roe 
 
82 IMPORT OF THE TERMS, &c. 
 
 according to God’s good pleasure;—and thirdly, 
 the gracious forgiveness of those daily offences 
 which even the regenerate commit against Christ, 
 at once the Lord and Saviour of his people. 
 Each of these distinguishing peculiarities of the 
 covenant of grace will afford many very interest- 
 ing topics for meditation; and I am greatly 
 deceived, if the reader should rise from the con- 
 templation of them, without deriving from it some 
 confirmation of his faith, his hope, and his love; 
 without finding it “ profitable for doctrine, 
 reproof, correction, and instruction in righteous- 
 ness.” | 
 
ON REDEMPTION, 83 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 ON THE. FIRST PECULIARITY OF THE COVENANT OF 
 GRACE; VIZ. THE REMISSION OF THE PENALTY 
 INCURRED BY THE BREACH OF THE COVENANT OF 
 WORKS, a 
 
 W;: have before observed, that, at his first 
 creation, man was placed under a dispensation of 
 law, according to the condition of which life 
 became forfeited by the very first offence; and 
 that this condition having been broken, “ judg- 
 ment came upon all men to condemnation.” The 
 whole of Adam’s posterity, therefore, are involved 
 in the awful consequences of the fall. That every 
 child of Adam is a child of disobedience, his 
 own conscience bears testimony; nor will any 
 one pretend, that he is perfectly free from sin. 
 All must and do acknowledge, that in many 
 things they daily offend; and would they follow 
 up this admission to its legitimate consequence, 
 they must also acknowledge, that “ by deeds of 
 law no flesh living can be justified.” For, let it 
 be remembered, it is not necessary to constitute 
 a man guilty in the eye of the law, that he should 
 be what the world would pronounce an incor- 
 rigible offender: one offence is sufficient to entail 
 
84 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 its curse. The language of the law is, “ cursed 
 is every one who continueth not in all things 
 written in the book of the law to do them; and 
 again itis written, “ whosoever shall keep the whole 
 law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of 
 all.” 
 
 - How then can man be just with God? This 
 must ever be the first inquiry of an awakened 
 sinner. From the law he can expect nothing but 
 the sentence of condemnation. The law can 
 know nothing of mercy. To the guilty it is 
 inexorable, and must ever remain so. Not one 
 iota of its demands can be relinquished. Hither 
 obedience must be rendered to them in their full 
 extent, or else the penalty of disobedience must 
 be paid. To yield the former is now become 
 impossible, since no future diligence or care will 
 compensate for past transgressions. And to pay 
 the penalty, is to die and perish for ever. Will 
 then the pure and righteous God recede from the 
 strictness of his original demands? or voluntarily 
 forego his title to the forfeited penalty? No; 
 “ heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one 
 iota or tittle of his law shall fail.” Life has been 
 forfeited, and life must be paid. But if God do 
 not recede from his demands, or else forego his 
 title to the penalty of transgression, how can he 
 extend mercy to the guilty? Is there any 
 possibility of satisfying the claims of his broken 
 
 * Gal. iii. 10. + James ii. 10. 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 85 
 
 law, and at the same time of secant the 
 transgressor? Yes, blessed be God, his infinite 
 wisdom has devised, and his boundless love and 
 grace have provided, such an expedient; so that 
 God can now be just in justifying the ungodly. 
 And this glorious contrivance of the wisdom of | 
 God is made known to us in the gospel: for 
 “ therein is the righteousness of God. which is by 
 faith, revealed to faith.”* | eee: 
 Before I proceed, however, to unfold. this 
 amazing plan of divine wisdom for the justification 
 of the ungodly, I would just observe, by way of 
 anticipation, that redemption from the curse of the 
 faw forms only one part of it. Justification com- 
 prehends two things, both of which are equally 
 essential to its perfection; first, an acquittal from. 
 the charge of guilt; and secondly, an acknow- 
 ledgment of title to life, the promised reward of 
 righteousness. What we are now about to con- 
 sider; is only the former of these; the latter will 
 be fully explained, when we come to investigate 
 the second peculiarity of the covenant of grace. 
 
 - How then, it will be asked, has God contrived 
 to satisfy the rigid claims of his violated law? 
 ‘T answer, by sending his only begotten Son to 
 pay the penalty of disobedience. For none but 
 he could pay that penalty. For the penalty was. 
 death. ‘‘'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And 
 there was no possibility that the law. should wie 
 
 ; * Rom. i. 17. 
 
ee he ee mm 
 - 
 
 Se I ee Sete 
 
 36 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 more remit any part of this awful penalty, than 
 that it should recede from any one of its righteous 
 demands. It must in all things be fulfilled. The 
 
 sentence of death pronounced by it, however 
 
 tremendous in its consequences, must be inflicted. 
 But where could one be found, either able or 
 willing to sustain its weight? Who, that was | 
 aware of the malignity of sin, of God’s utter 
 detestation of it, of his fixed and irrevocable 
 purpose to avenge the honour of his insulted law ; 
 and, consequently, of the terrible expressions of 
 his righteous indignation which he would have 
 to endure, who should undertake to pay the 
 sinner’s ransom, would have dared to offer himself 
 as an expiatory sacrifice for sin? The price of 
 pardon was blood, that is, fe. ‘ Without shedding 
 of blood there could be no remission.” This 
 divine justice had irreversibly decreed. But if 
 life itself was to be paid in satisfaction of the 
 penalty of man’s disobedience, none could make 
 such payment, but at the certain loss of their own 
 eternal blessedness. To die, would, to a creature, 
 have been to have perished for ever. Even sup- 
 posing the life of the highest of all created 
 
 intelligences had been deemed a sufficient satis- 
 _ faction, still it is evident, nothing short of life 
 
 rould have been accepted. To such a being, 
 therefore, the loss sustained must have been 
 irreparable. For how was it to be repaired? 
 Being a mere creature, it is plain, he could nof 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 87 
 
 have restored bidiscHt to life, by virtue of any 
 energy of his own, as our blessed Redeemer did. 
 And had the life he had paid in satisfaction of 
 the demands of the law been restored to him, the 
 penalty would have been actually remitted. For 
 death, the sentence of the law, is the utter 
 extinction of life. But this would have been 
 merely a temporary suspension of it. So that, it 
 is’ Sah no created being, even had it been 
 possible for divine justice to have allowed of such 
 a substitution, could have paid the forfeited 
 
 penalty without perishing for ever. But the very 
 _ statement of so tremendous a consequence is 
 
 enough to shew, that the justice of God could not 
 have consented to it, had it even been actually 
 proposed. There would have been’ so manifest 
 an incongruity, not to say injustice, in punishing 
 
 with an eternal loss of being and blessedness, 
 
 one who loved God with such intensity of affec- 
 tion, that, to honour the purity and equity of his 
 law, he was willing to die to preserve it unsullied; 
 while he conferred life, and glory, and felicity on 
 such as had lifted up against him the arm of 
 rebellion, that even, were ‘it imagined possible 
 that any created being could have offered himself 
 as the substitute of sinners, divine justice could 
 not have allowed the substitution. 
 
 How then is the required expiation to be 
 made? Behold the wisdom and the love of God! 
 Since no other means of_redemption could be 
 
xg SEO Ne ele te RO. 2 eee ee ye ee | Ayn . ~v | {e- Tt 
 
 88 . ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 found, he gives his only begotten Son to die for 
 the ungodly! Herein, indeed, is love! But will 
 the Son himself consent to this wondrous plan 
 
 _of rescuing ‘apostate rebels? Will he submit to 
 
 pay the penalty of their offences, and to redeem 
 them from the curse, endure that curse himself? 
 Or if he consent, how is he to pay it? Himself 
 spiritual, immortal, impassible; the fountain of 
 life, of being, and of blessedness, how can he 
 suffer, and bleed, and die? 
 
 Amazing grace! The Son of God consents 
 to be made an offering for sin. “ Deliver him 
 from going fee to the pit,” says he, “ I have 
 found a ransom.”* And “ because the children 
 were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself 
 likewise took part of the same.”} ‘To capacitate 
 himself to suffer and to die, he submits to vail his 
 
 elories i in human flesh. A body is prepared for 
 
 him; and in. the fulness: of time he comes forth 
 from the Father, and comes into the world to 
 tabernacle with men. And when the hour is come 
 that expiation is to, be made, the sword of justice 
 
 is unsheathed, and amidst the silence of wonder- 
 _ ing. angels, these awful words are pronounced, 
 
 « Awake, .O sword, against my Shepherd, and 
 smite. the nian ‘that is mine associate.”{ This 
 sentence pronounced, the Son of God is delivered 
 up into the hands ‘of wicked men. And though 
 
 they could-have had no power over him, had it 
 
 90 OR Xx SH EEO rep. TEP Zech, xiii. 7. 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 89 
 
 not been thus given them from above; yet, having 
 been permitted by God to afflict him, they put 
 him to a cruel and ignominious death, after having 
 first offered him every possible indignity. And 
 didst thou, adorable Redeemer, endure all this at 
 the hands of wicked men, the very objects of. 
 thy grace and compassion? Astonishing mystery 
 of love! Yes, thou didst; and more than this, 
 with thine expiring breath thou didst pray for 
 thy murderers; “ Father, forgive them, for they 
 know not what they do.”* 
 
 But it was not by the hands of men alone that 
 the sentence of eternal justice was executed. No; 
 
 the sword of divine indignation itself smote him. 
 
 In the hour of death, it was not the nails, the 
 thorns, or the spear, which extorted from him 
 the piercing cry he uttered on the cross. (These 
 he bore with meek, yet majestic patience. But 
 when the light of God’s countenance is withdrawn 
 from him, that light which had ever filled his 
 righteous soul with holy joy, he cries out in 
 anguish of spirit, ““ My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me?” This, this was the sting of 
 death. He could have endured insults, and 
 reproaches, and false accusations, and all the 
 tortures of an excruciating death in silence. Even 
 the perfidy of Judas, and the inconstancy of all 
 his disciples, dear as they had ever been to him, 
 could not for one moment disturb his inward 
 
 * Luke xxiii. 34, 
 
90 ON REDEMPTION, 
 
 serenity and peace. This was a fortress beyond 
 the power of treachery to betray, of cowardice 
 to surrender, or of malice to assault. But when 
 
 the terrors of divine wrath arrayed themselves 
 
 against it, it yielded and gave way. The calm 
 composure of his righteous soul, unmoved by 
 the rage of wicked men, forsakes our divine 
 
 Redeemer, when overwhelmed by the storms of 
 
 his Father’s wrath. The gathering of this awful 
 tempest he had long discerned; and when, from 
 the garden of Gethsemane, he beheld it ready to 
 burst on his devoted head, his “soul became 
 exceeding sorrowful,” and he “ sweat, as it were, 
 great drops of blood.” And when, upon the cross, 
 the thick cloud burst over him, and .the tempest, 
 now lashed to fury, spent upon him all the vials 
 of divine wrath, he could endure no longer; 
 nature sunk within him, and he “ yielded up the 
 spirit.”. O who can tell, amidst this tremendous 
 scene, which most to admire; the inflexible justice 
 which stayed not the stroke of vengeance, as it 
 descended .to smite the holy, beloved, only be- 
 gotten Son, when he became the voluntary 
 substitute of sinners? or, the love of the Father, 
 who withheld not his Son, but freely gave him 
 up to die for his enemies? or, the grace and com- 
 passion of the Redeemer himself, who, when he 
 saw the sword of divine justice descending, 
 shrunk not from the stroke? Well, blessed Jesus, 
 may the spirits of the just, through thee made 
 
 — 
 
ON REDEMPTION. - OF 
 
 perfect, ever celebrate thy wondrous grace in 
 heavenly melodies, and with unceasing songs! 
 Well may they sing, “ Unto him that loved us, 
 and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
 and hath made us kings and priests unto God and 
 
 his Father; to him be glory and dominion for 
 
 ever and ever. Amen.’* May thy saints on 
 earth never forget thee. May the mystery of thy 
 holy passion ever fill and melt their ‘hearts. To 
 all but thee, and thy service, may they become 
 dead. Insensible to any other charms but those 
 of thy grace and compassion, and ravished with 
 thine adorable loveliness and beauty, may life 
 itself lose all its attractions: though willing to 
 live that they may serve and honour thee, may 
 they desire rather to depart, that they may see 
 thy face, and be with thee for ever. 
 
 But the whole of this astonishing mystery we 
 have not as yet disclosed. The Son of God has, 
 as we have seen, yielded up the ghost. “ He is 
 cut off out of the land of the living.” “ His soul 
 is made an offering for sin.” But is he for ever to 
 remain under the power of death? Having shed 
 his precious blood to ransom his people, will his 
 love never taste the bliss of beholding the blessed 
 consequences of his vicarious sufferings, the asto- 
 nishing triumphs of his grace? Yes; “he shall see 
 of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” 
 The tomb is not for ever to detain him its captive. 
 
 * Rev. i. 5, 6. + Isaiah liii, 11. 
 
ee eee 
 
 92 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 He shall rise again. He is risen, he has ascended, 
 
 he has already sat down at the right hand of God. 
 Has divine justice then relented? Having received 
 
 the price of pardon, has it so quickly returned it 
 back to the great Ransomer? No; the mighty 
 
 Redeemer rises not again to the possession of the 
 same life he gave a ransom for many. The life 
 
 he yielded up upon the cross was frail, feeble, 
 
 and mortal. ‘The life to which he was quickened 
 by his own almighty energy is spiritual and divine. 
 It was the life of man, a life common to him with 
 those he died to redeem, that expired on the tree: 
 
 but the life he now enjoys, is the life of God. 
 
 Of justice he takes back no part of the penalty 
 he had paid. It is to the power of his eternal 
 godhead alone, that he owes his resurrection from 
 the dead. For he is “ the Prince of life’* In 
 him is “the fountain of life.” By dying, the 
 eodhead, ineffably united to the manhood, did 
 not expire: and it was by the energy of that 
 godhead, that he arose, and that he now lives. 
 Nor is it possible to imagine a greater contrast 
 than that which the humanity of Christ presents, 
 when comparing its former state of humiliation, 
 
 with its present state of exaltation and glory. 
 
 The body of the blessed Jesus, once wearied 
 with toil, oppressed with hunger and thirst, subject 
 to every sinless infirmity common to our. frail 
 nature, requiring sustenance, and _ shelter, and 
 
 * Acts iii, 16. 
 
{ 
 
 ON REDEMPTION. 93 
 
 ‘repose, and above all, liable to the stroke of death, 
 
 now hungers no more, neither thirsts any more ; 
 and being transformed and glorified, is removed 
 beyond the reach of evil, of suffering, or of death. 
 “ He was crucified through weakness, he liveth 
 by the power of God.” He can therefore die no 
 more. “ Death hath no more dominion over kim; 
 for, in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in 
 that he liveth, he liveth unto God.™* 
 
 And by this his resurrection from the dead, 
 divine justice is relieved from the odium, which 
 the utter and eternal extinction of the victim of 
 its wrath would have necessarily incurred. In- 
 stead of perishing for ever, as any created being 
 must have done, had he paid with his own life 
 the penalty of disobedience, the great Redeemer 
 is himself “ the first fruits from the dead.”t For 
 when he paid the life of man as the penalty de- 
 manded by inexorable justice, he ceased not to 
 retain, as the essential Word of God, the fountain 
 of life within himself. This was no part of the 
 penalty incurred. Having therefore laid down 
 his life, he had performed the full satisfaction 
 which the law required, and had a right to exert 
 his divine energy in quickening to life his lifeless 
 humanity, and making it the visible abode of his 
 invisible godhead. But to this subject I shall 
 have occasion to advert again, and shall therefore 
 at present only request the reader to observe, 
 
 ‘® Rom. vi. 9, 10. +1 Cor. xv. 20. 
 
BAD ing a ee a 
 
 94 ON REDEMPTION, 
 
 how, by this glorious expedient of the incarnation 
 ‘of the Eternal Word, every difficulty in the way 
 of our salvation is entirely removed. The penalty 
 of sin is paid, divme justice is relieved from the 
 odium of punishing with eternal death the victim 
 of its wrath, while the substitute of sinners is him- 
 self amply rewarded for all his bitter sufferings. 
 
 Now redemption from the curse, or the gra- 
 cious remission of sins, follows as a necessary 
 consequence of the death of Christ. For the 
 penalty of disobedience having been fully paid by 
 him, the law can do no otherwise than acquit 
 from the charge of guilt those for whom he died. 
 it cannot exact that penalty twice; first of the 
 sponsor, and then of the sinner himself: since the 
 very condition on which Christ engaged to pay it 
 was, that the sinner himself should go free. It 
 was for no sins of his own that he died upon the 
 cross, but for the sins of his people. Justice 
 itself, therefore, must discharge those for whom 
 that penalty was paid: not indeed as a debt due 
 to them; no, they merit no discharge; but as a 
 debt due to the great surety, who by his death 
 purchased the right of releasing them from con- 
 demnation. 
 
 Hence it is that redemption from the curse of 
 the law, considered in the twofold reference which 
 it bears, one to the sinner, the other to the surety, 
 is spoken of under two very different characters. 
 In relation to the sinner himself, who deserves to 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 95 
 
 die, and to whom therefore it is an -act of the 
 purest grace, it is styled the forgiveness of sins; 
 in relation to the surety, who, by having paid the 
 penalty of their disobedience, is entitled to claim 
 their discharge, it is called justification. Some- 
 times the sacred writers speak in such terms as 
 these; “‘ We have redemption through his blood, 
 the forgiveness of sins;* intimating the absolute 
 sovereignty of that grace which freely pardons | 
 our offences; while, on other occasions, they 
 speak of the same act of forgiveness as an act of 
 justification, and of believers as “ being justified 
 by his blood;’f the claims of the law upon such 
 as had violated it, and become liable to the penalty. _ 
 of transgression, having been fully satisfied by the 
 death of Christ, they are themselves, on prin- 
 ciples of strict justice, discharged from their 
 liability. ) | 3 
 
 But here two very important questions arise. 
 First; Zo whom do the benefits of Christ’s death 
 extend? and secondly, To what offences does the 
 sentence of justification relate? In other words, 
 » Are all equally entitled to justification by the — 
 blood of Christ? and, Does justification include 
 in it an exemption from the consequences of all 
 sins, future as well as past? 
 
 To the first of these inquiries the reply is 
 easy. ‘The scriptures unequivocally declare, that 
 the benefits: of Christ’s death are restricted to . 
 
 * Eph. i. 7. t Rom. v. 9. 
 
96 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 those who believe in his name: to those, who, 
 convinced of their guilt, embrace with joy the glad 
 tidings of redemption through his blood. The self- 
 righteous are wholly excluded from all interest in 
 the blessings purchased by Christ for his people. 
 The parables of the Pharisee and Publican, of the 
 Lost Sheep, of the Prodigal Son, and others of 
 a similar kind, beautifully illustrate the character 
 of the gospel as glad tidings to perishing sinners. 
 It addresses not the righteous. With them it has 
 no concern. “ I came not,” said Christ, “ to call 
 the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”* And 
 none but sinners, who know and feel their guilt 
 and helplessness, have any encouragement to come 
 to him. The “ weary and the heavy laden,” the 
 ‘¢ poor in spirit,” the publican and the sinner, are 
 graciously invited. All others are excluded. “He 
 scattereth the proud in the imagination of their 
 hearts. He putteth down the mighty from their 
 seats. ‘The rich he sendeth empty away. While 
 they who are of low degree are exalted; and 
 they who are hungry are filled with good 
 things.” | 
 And this follows from the very nature of the 
 covenant of grace. For if the reward of righte- 
 oushess were in any degree by works, it would 
 so far cease to be of grace. If those who were 
 
 justified, were justified in any degree on account 
 
 of personal worthiness, then it would not be true, 
 
 * Matt. ix. 13. + See Luke i. 53. 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 97 
 
 that the gospel is a revelation of the righteous- 
 ness of God without the law. Were any respect 
 paid to their obedience, men would in reality be 
 justified not as ungodly, but as holy persons; not by 
 faith only, but by works: also ; not freely by grace, 
 
 but as the merited reward of obedience. But St. 
 
 Paul affirms, that God “ justifieth the ungodly bi We 
 
 that by “ deeds of law no flesh can be justified in 
 his sight ;”} that justification is “of faith, that it 
 
 - mnight be by grace; and that this grace is most 
 
 Sree§ in its exercise. 
 
 Does then this free. exercise of grace afford | 
 
 encouragement to sim? On the contrary, being 
 procured by the blood of Christ shed for its re- 
 mission, its evil nature and awful consequences 
 are more strikingly displayed, than could possibly 
 be done on any scheme which should admit the 
 offender to terms of reconciliation on the basis of 
 his own imperfect obedience. N othing could be 
 more fatal to the honour of the divine law, than to 
 suppose it possible, that a violation of it might be 
 
 everlooked in consideration of the otherwise 
 merit of the offender. The idea is absurd. To — 
 
 a holy mind, which discerns the perfect rectitude 
 of the law of God, it is more than absurd, it is 
 impious. It proceeds on the shocking principle, 
 that rigorously to enforce the requisitions of the 
 law would be an act of injustice to the creature 
 
 who has failed in his obedience. Need I expose 
 
 * Rom. iy, 5. + Ibid. iii. 20. Ibid. iv. 16. § Ibid. iii, 24, 
 Sue 
 
a eden he a eee ee maa 
 
 98 ON REDEMPTION. _ 
 
 the impiety of such a sentiment as this? Need I 
 remind the reader how utterly at variance it is 
 with the principles on which the just and righteous 
 Governor of the world proceeded, when, for the 
 one offence of our great progenitor, he pro- 
 nounced sentence of condemnation on him and 
 all his posterity? Need I repeat what I formerly 
 observed in relation to the conduct of Jehovah 
 towards his ancient people, after they had once 
 broken the covenant of Mount Sinai? These 
 facts are so utterly irreconcileable with the doc- 
 trine of human merit, that it is impossible, one 
 should imagine, with these striking proofs to the 
 contrary, to maintain the efficacy of works of 
 righteousness to justify men before God. Nay, 
 even the death of Christ, which lays the foun- 
 dation for the exercise of divine mercy, cannot be 
 accounted for on the supposition, that justifica- 
 tion might be obtained by works of our own. 
 “ For if righteousness come by the law, Christ 1s 
 dead in vain.”* wy 
 
 The principle on which justification by the 
 blood of Christ proceeds, is the equity of the 
 divine law, the perfect rectitude of all its re- 
 quirements, and consequently, the infinite turpi- 
 tude and demerit of ‘sin. ‘Whereas, on the other 
 hand, the prmciple on which they proceed, who 
 expect to be justified by an imperfect obedience, 
 is the unjust severity of the divine law, which 
 
 * Gal, ii, 21. 
 
ON REDEMPTION. _ 99 
 
 denounces death as the punishment of one single 
 act of disobedience, Which of these two doc- 
 trines is most licentious in its tendency, A leave to 
 the reader to determine. 
 
 The very sovereignty of divine grace, He 
 in justifying the ungodly, entirely excludes all con-— 
 sideration of personal worthiness in the objects of 
 its merciful regard, is, in truth, that which secures ; 
 the exercise of it from being productive of any 
 consequences fatal to the divine government. To 
 justify sinners as such, is the only possible way of 
 preserving unsullied the honour of God’s holy 
 law. Were offenders to be received into favour 
 out of respect to their imperfect obedience, the 
 very act of grace exerted in their behalf would 
 form a most dangerous precedent indeed. It 
 _ would serve. as a practical proof of God's indif- 
 ference to the conduct of his creatures, and. be 
 taken as an admission, that far less than sinless 
 obedience would found a claim to acquittal at 
 his righteous bar. But not so his justifying the 
 ungodly. Here the adequacy of an imperfect 
 obedience to justify in his sight is expressly de- 
 nied. Here the supposed rigour of the law is 
 utterly disaflirmed. Forgiveness is indeed ex- 
 tended; but it is not because God has ceased to 
 be the enemy of sin. The guilty are pardoned ; 
 but it is not because God repents of the undue 
 severity of his law, The penalty ttself is not re- 
 mitted; that is exacted and paid to the last mite. 
 
100 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 To the transgressor indeed it is remitted 5 but not 
 to his gracious Surety. When he offered himself _ 
 in the sinner’s room, he could obtain no release. 
 «© my Father,” said he, “ if it be possible, let 
 
 this cup pass from me.”* No; his prayer could 
 
 not be granted. This was a. request, which even 
 God’s only begotten Son could not obtain. And. 
 will God grant to the insolent suit of enemies, 
 
 -_ what he denied to the prayer of his beloved Son? 
 
 {t is madness to expect it. And yet with this 
 madness they are chargeable, who think so lightly 
 of their sins as to imagine they can stand the 
 scrutiny of the omniscient eye of God when he 
 shall come to judgment. So thought not holy 
 David. He deprecates the very thought of being 
 judged by the strict claims of God’s holy law, 
 well knowing, that were he to be thus judged, he 
 
 must be condemned. He therefore prays, “ Enter ~ 
 
 not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy 
 sight shall no flesh living be justified."— And all 
 who understand the true nature of the law of 
 God will gladly adopt the Psalmist’s prayer. And 
 if they comprehend, as he did, that gracious plan 
 which God has devised for justifying the ungodly, 
 they will exclaim with him; “ Blessed is he 
 whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin 1s 
 covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the 
 Lord will not impute sin.” 
 
 ‘The whole scheme of redemption demonstrates, 
 
 € Matt. Xvi. 39. + Psalm exliii 2. t Ibid. xxxii. 1, 2. 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 101 
 
 equally with the covenant of works, the rigour 
 with which the law exacts the penalty of dis- 
 obedience, when once it has been incurred ; 
 and, consequently, the absolute necessity of sin- 
 less obedience to entitle any one to an acquittal 
 at its righteous bar; since even the Son of God 
 himself could not procure for his people a remis-. | 
 sion of the penalty, without himself paying that 
 penalty to the last mite. We cannot commit a. 
 greater, or more fatal mistake, than to suppose, 
 that, under the gospel dispensation, mercy is 
 exercised at the,expence of justice; that God 
 recedes from his original demand of an absolutely 
 perfect obedience, and repents himself of the 
 severity of his awful threatenings; that in sending 
 his Son to redeem us, he tacitly allows, either 
 that his law dean too tO or its penalty too severe. 
 On the contrary, by exacting the penalty of his 
 Son, when he became the sinner’s surety, he ex- 
 presses his infinite and immutable delight in his 
 righteous law, and his fixed determination never | 
 to recede from the smallest iota of its demands. 
 The astonishing wisdom of the plan of redemp- 
 tion consists in its reconciling the exercise of. 
 grace and mercy with the most rigid claims of in- 
 
 flexible justice. It is this which fills heaven with - 
 
 wonder ; nor will eternal ages lessen the amaze- 
 ment, with which the angelic host, and the blessed 
 company of the redeemed, will ever contemplate 
 this profound, this adorable mystery, 
 
ae 
 
 » Rael 
 
 102 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 Let the sinner then, whom the glad tidings of 
 pardon through the blood of Christ fills with holy 
 joy, never forget that God is still the friend of 
 truth and righteousness ; and that he forgives sin 
 not because his hatred of it has diminished. Let 
 him be careful how he entertains light thoughts of 
 the evil of sin. Of one thing he may rest assured, 
 that if his views of salvation by Christ have les- 
 sened his abhorrence of sin, he is labouring under 
 a most awful delusion. | | 
 
 But another question still remains to be an- 
 swered, viz. To what offences does justification 
 extend? Does it equally exempt the believer 
 from the consequences of all future, as well as of 
 all past sins? In other words, Is justification 
 prospective, as well as retrospective ? 
 
 To this question some have replied in the affir- 
 mative, maintaining, that when believers are justified 
 by faith m Christ, they are relieved from the con- 
 sequences of all sins, future as well as past. This 
 doctrine has been advocated by some to whose 
 writings the Church stands deeply indebted. But 
 the sanction of their names ought not to blind us 
 to the fatal consequences which inevitably result 
 from so dangerous a doctrine. In opposition to 
 their authority I hesitate not to affirm, that such 
 a doctrine has no support whatever from the in- 
 fallible oracles of truth; and that it rests wholly 
 on a misconception; that it arises in short from 
 confounding two things altogether unlike; viz. that 
 
ON REDEMPTION. , 103 
 
 exercise of forgiving mercy which constitutes an 
 essential ingredient in the sentence of justification ; : 
 and those daily exercises of forgiveness which 
 are posterior to justification, and which the re-_ 
 ' maining infirmities and imperfections even of the 
 best of men constantly require. It is from con- 
 founding these two things, than which, as we shall 
 presently see, we cannot imagine to ourselves a 
 more striking contrast, that the fatal doctrine of. 
 prospective justification has arisen. 
 
 That this doctrine has no foundation in the 
 word of God; in other words, that justification is 
 retrospective only, the following passage most de- 
 cisively proves; ‘“‘ For this cause he is the Me- 
 diator of the new testament, that by means of © 
 death, for the redemption of the transgressions that : 
 were under the first testament, they which are 
 called might receive the promise of eternal inheri- 
 tance.”* Observe the striking peculiarity of the 
 Apostle’s language. The transgressions, which 
 the death of Christ is here said to redeem, are 
 described as “ the transgressions that were under 
 the first testament.” Now this can only mean 
 those transgressions which are committed by be- 
 lievers prior to their faith in Christ, when they 
 were under the first testament: consequently the 
 redemption here spoken of cannot extend to sins 
 committed by them subsequently to their faith in 
 Christ, by which they are brought from under the 
 
 * Heb. ix. 15. 
 
104. ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 ‘ 
 
 covenant of works, and are placed under a cove- 
 
 nant of grace. Such offences cannot with any 
 
 _ truth or propriety be denominated “ transgres- 
 
 sions that are under the first testament.” On the 
 contrary they are, to adopt the Apostle’s phrase- _ 
 ology, “ transgressions that are under the second 
 testament.” These latter, though they need for- 
 giveness, and, if not forgiven, would finally draw 
 
 down upon the offender the wrath of Almighty 
 
 God; yet, strictly speaking, need not redemption; 
 
 since the law of which they are violations does 
 
 not threaten every transgression with death. 
 Again, the same Apostle, speaking of “ the 
 
 righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus 
 ‘Christ unto all and upon all them that believe,” 
 
 observes, that God hath set forth his Son “ to be 
 
 a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare 
 -his righteousness for the remission of sins that are 
 
 past, through the forbearance of God.”* Here 
 again is a similar restriction of justification to 
 those sins which are committed anterior to the 
 exercise of that faith in the blood of Christ by 
 which we are justified. For, according to the 
 limitation here drawn, the sins then remitted are 
 ‘« sins that are past;” that is, as I understand the 
 
 words, sins committed prior to justification. And, 
 in like manner, the Apostle Peter, alluding to one 
 
 who is barren and unfruitful in the knowledge 
 of Christ, declares, that “ he is blind, and cannot 
 
 * Rom. iit, 25. 
 
z 
 | . 
 | 
 
 ON REDEMPTION. 105 
 
 see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged 
 Srom his old sins.’"* The signification of the 
 epithet “ old,” here applied to designate those sins 
 from which he had been purged, cannot be mis- 
 taken. ‘It admits of but one interpretation, and 
 
 confirms very strongly the reality of the distinction 
 
 above laid down. 
 
 Indeed, were the scriptures even silent on this 
 head, which we find they are not, it would be 
 preposterous to extend justification to acts com- 
 mitted posterior to it: not to observe that the 
 necessity of justification arises wholly from the 
 peculiar nature of a dispensation of law, which 
 knows nothing of grace or favour, and can only 
 proceed on principles of strict and impartial 
 justice. If sins committed under it are forgiven, 
 it can only be in a way of justification; that is, in 
 consideration of the penalty having been paid by | 
 another. The penalty itself, as we have formerly 
 shewn, must be paid; it cannot be remitted. And 
 when it has once been actually paid, the claims of 
 justice are satisfied; and being satisfied, cannot be 
 reinforced. The law, therefore, has no alternative 
 left to its choice, but to pronounce a sentence of 
 acquittal. In doing this, however, it remits no 
 part of the penalty. On the contrary, it acquits 
 the transgressor in consideration of that penalty 
 
 shaving been already paid. And hence remission 
 
 -of sins is styled justificateon—a term fitly chosen — 
 
 * 2 Pet. i. 9. 
 
106 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 to illustrate that principle of strict justice on 
 which God, as the righteous Judge, proceeds, when | 
 he justifies the ungodly. For though, in relation 
 to the personal merits of the transgressor himself, 
 the exercise of forgiveness is most free and unde- 
 served, and what it would be the height of pre- 
 
 “sumptuous impiety in him to claim; yet, in rela- 
 
 tion to the sinner’s surety, who fully paid the 
 penalty of his transgression, it Is no more than 
 justice demands. \ 
 
 But the covenant of grace, making express 
 provision for the exercise of forgiveness, and not 
 denouncing, after the example of the law, a curse 
 on every offence committed against iis righteous 
 
 demands, does not require the offender to be 
 
 justified from the guilt contracted by every offence, 
 previous io his being restored to the divine favour: 
 otherwise one of these two consequences would 
 follow, either justification would have to be daily 
 and hourly repeated—for we are daily and hourly 
 offending ; or else justification must be considered 
 as taking. place once for all, and as having a 
 prospective reference, cleansing us from the guilt 
 of future as well as of past sins;—the conse- 
 quences of which would, as we shall aiiitien, | 
 see, be most fatal indeed. 
 
 _ Now, according to the first supposition, the 
 state of justification could not: be preserved a 
 single day, nay, a single hour. Every action, 
 every word, every thought, being more or less 
 
i 
 | 
 
 ON REDEMPTION. 107 
 mixed with sin, and therefore a violation of the 
 rule of perfect righteousness, would occasion a 
 forfeiture of the blessing, which would have to be 
 renewed as often as it was forfeited, and would 
 again be forfeited as soon as it was renewed. How 
 utterly inconsistent such a doctrine is with that 
 peace with God which it is the happy privilege of 
 every true believer to enjoy, I need not observe. 
 
 To avoid this dilemma then, shall we on the— 
 other hand affirm, that by faith in Christ the 
 believer is for ever justified from the guilt of all 
 future, as well as of all past sins? This hypo- 
 thesis is attended with consequences more fatal 
 even than the former. Under the pretence of 
 being necessary to afford peace of conscience, a 
 pretence which is wholly without foundation, it in 
 fact operates as a grant of indulgence. Admitting 
 for a moment that justification really does absolve 
 from the guilt of future as well as of past sins, 
 is it not obvious how many of the most powerful 
 motives to watchfulness, prayer, self-denial, godly 
 jealousy over ourselves, and active and unwearied — 
 labours in the service of Christ, are destroyed? 
 ft is impossible to imagine a doctrine which 
 could render men more fearless of committing 
 iniquity; for being already relieved from all the 
 consequences of future transgressions, of what- 
 ever enormity they might be, they could have 
 no reasonable cause of apprehension left. What- 
 ever their future conduct might be, having 
 
108 ON REDEMPTION, 
 
 \ 
 
 ‘been already justified, their final salvation would 
 
 be sure. 7 
 How like, in its very worst features, this 
 doctrine is to that dangerous delusion of the 
 Church of Rome, which formerly paved the way 
 for the Reformation—the doctrine of indulgences 
 —I need not surely observe. The resemblance is 
 too obvious not to have already struck the mind 
 of every one of my readers. Or if any should 
 doubt the resemblance, they have only to read 
 
 the form of absolution which I have transcribed - 
 in the margin, and which was formerly used by 
 
 Tetzel, that notorious retailer of Romish indul- 
 gences, to be thoroughly convinced of it.* It was 
 
 the absolution of all sins, transgresstons, and 
 
 * The following words contain the form of absolution used by 
 Tetzel. “ May our Lord Jesus Christ have merey upon thee, and 
 absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by his 
 authority, that of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of the 
 
 most holy Pope, granted and committed to me, in these parts, do. 
 
 absolve thee, first from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever 
 
 manner they have been incurred, and then from all thy sins, trans- 
 
 gressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be, even from 
 such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see; and as 
 far as the keys of the holy church extend, I remit to you all 
 punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account; and I 
 
 restore you to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the . 
 
 faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you possessed at 
 baptism, so that when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and 
 the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened: and if you shall not 
 die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when you are at the 
 
 point of death. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of — 
 ‘the Holy Ghost.”  Robertson’s Hist. Charles Vth. Book ii—I re- 
 
 quest the reader particularly to remark the words printed in italics. 
 
 ~ 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 109 
 excesses, how enormous soever they might be, with- 
 out any limitation to past offences, and the efficacy 
 of that absolution extending itself even till death, 
 which gave indulgences so many fatal attractions, 
 and caused them to be purchased by the depraved 
 and abandoned of that licentious age with such 
 
 - eager avidity. And what is it, I may ask, which, 
 
 in the present day, renders Antinomian heresy so 
 alluring to the licentious multitude, but its pro- 
 fessing to absolve them from the guilt of allsins — 
 past, present, and to'come? What, but the con- 
 fidence with which it pretends to justify the sinner 
 so entirely from his sins, that even if he should 
 
 ‘not die at present, the grace which he now recetves 
 
 shall remain in full force when he is at the point 
 of death? | 
 
 ~ Yes; Antinomianism is this accursed trade 
 
 revived, but under a more specious, and therefore 
 a more dangerous form. We have many a Tetzel 
 in the present day, who with a pride, an effrontery, 
 and a covetousness equal to his, but with a degree 
 of cunning far greater than ever he could boast 
 of, promulgate indulgences, and with great suc- 
 cess. In short, it is an impious compact between 
 covetousness in the teacher, and licentiousness in 
 
 his disciples. 
 
 1 would not be thought, however, to insinuate, 
 that all who may now maintain, or who have 
 formerly maintained, the doctrine of prospective 
 justification, are chargeable with this awfulcrime. ~ 
 
110 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 Far from it. But after making this admission, 
 which truth requires I should make, I will be 
 ‘bold to maintain, that the error itself is not the 
 less pernicious, because it has the sanction of 
 illustrious names. On the contrary, it only proves 
 the insidiousness of the delusion, when it can 
 have imposed on the understandings of men 
 distinguished for their rectitude of intention and 
 purity of life. With them, indeed, it was nothing 
 more than a fallacy of the judgment: it went no 
 further. Their hearts remained uncontaminated 
 by its influence. But not so with others, With 
 them it is a heresy of the heart. They embrace 
 it, not from ignorance of its pernicious influence ; 
 of this they are perfectly aware. On the contrary, 
 their knowledge of its real tendency is the very _ 
 ground of their choice. And with them it is 
 matter of exultation, that they can point to men 
 of acknowledged probity and worth, who have 
 espoused the sentiment: for while they derive from 
 it all the advantage which the utmost depravity 
 of them hearts could desire, they are, by. such an 
 appeal, enabled to escape the odium which the 
 licentions tendency of their doctrine would 
 otherwise incur. 
 
 The delusion I am now endeavouring to 
 _expose is in reality more dangerous, becausé more 
 subtle, and less easily detected, than that which 
 roused. the mighty mind of Luther to so just, and 
 for mankind, so happy an. indignation. Would 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 111 
 
 that some Luther might now arise, to expose this. 
 delusion in all its native malignity.. Would that 
 
 some holy man, endued with equal sagacity to 
 
 pierce the vail by which it contrives to hide its. 
 deformity, and with a pencil equally bold to 
 sketch the real character and lineaments of this 
 most deadly error, might arise and present it to 
 the world without any disguise, any covering to 
 conceal its pollution and its shame, The time 
 is come to blow the trumpet of alarm, that the 
 churches of God may hear and tremble. An 
 enemy is at hand, lurking im secret ambush near 
 the very walls of Zion—near them did I say? 
 I recall that word, and I new say, within them: 
 an enemy the more dangerous, because he is. 
 
 disguised; an enemy deep in his malignity, fixed 
 
 in his resolves, and steady to his purpose. 
 
 The doctrine of prospective justification is 
 founded on the pretext of its being necessary to 
 the stability of the believer’s peace of conscience. 
 But this is altogether a mistake. Justification — 
 need not extend to future offences, m order to 
 relieve us from the condemnation due to sin, The 
 law of the covenant of grace differs essentially 
 from the law of the covenant of works. By the 
 very condition of the latter, sinless obedience 
 was required: the curse was denounced against 
 one single transgression. If therefore it was once 
 violated, the curse in its fullest extent must be 
 rigorously inflicted, By the very nature of a 
 
112 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 covenant of works it could not be remitted. If 
 the sinner were ever pardoned, it must be in a 
 way of justification; that is, it must be in con- 
 sideration of the penalty of sin having been fully 
 paid by another. But by faith im Christ, believers 
 are brought into a new covenant with God, © 
 constructed, not after the pattern of the legal 
 dispensation, on principles of strict justice, but 
 on a principle of grace, that is, of favour; a prin- 
 ciple which expressly provides for the forgiveness 
 of sin; and which, while it threatens the wilful 
 transgressor of its law with God’s severest. dis- 
 pleasure, certainly does not denounce death as 
 the penalty of every offence. While it affirms, that 
 God will “by no means clear the guilty;” and 
 that “he will repay them that hate him to their 
 face;” it proclaims the name of Jehovah, ‘ the 
 
 Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
 
 suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity 
 and transgression and sin.”* Now, whatever 
 covenant provides for the forgiveness of sins 
 committed under it, supersedes the necessity of 
 justification in relation to those sins. For, as was_ 
 observed before, the sole reason why justification 
 was requisite at all, even in relation to the cove- 
 nant of works, was the inexorable and unrelenting 
 character of a dispensation of'law. If such a 
 dispensation could have permitted the extension 
 
 * Exodus xxxiy. 6, 7. 
 
ON REDEMPTION. 113 
 
 _ of mercy to the euilty, no provision need have been 
 
 made to justify them before God. | Consequently 
 there is no pretence whatever for extending Justifi- 
 cation to future as well as to past sins. To peace 
 of conscience it is not necessary that justification — 
 be considered as prospective. If the covenant of 
 grace resembled the covenant of works, in de- 
 nouncing death for every offence, it would. 
 certainly be necessary. But this is not the case, 
 It provides for the pardon of sin. And, having 
 made this provision, it is under no necessity of 
 extending justification beyond the guilt of past 
 transgressions. Those which are future may be 
 
 _ forgiven by an application to the throne of grace; 
 
 and, by reserving to himself the prerogative of 
 forgiveness, God has best consulted the sanctifica- 
 tion of his people. 
 
 For if we admit, what is really the truth, that 
 justification is only retrospective; that it only 
 purges the conscience from the guilt already 
 contracted under a dispensation which itself 
 allowed of no remission of sins; the necessity of | 
 future obedience to the Pos ealel will of God is. 
 in no degree superseded by it: since, if. the 
 word of God even permitted us to suppose, that 
 any who are truly justified from the guilt of past 
 sins, could afterwards live in wilful disobedience 
 to the will of God, and die impenitent, the con- . 
 Sequences of such future transgressions would 
 still follow them; and, notwithstanding their pre- 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
114 ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 vious state of justification, they would inevitably 
 perish for ever, Itis not his being saved from 
 the consequences of past offences, that is the 
 believer's security for eternal life. No such thing. 
 That security arises entirely from another source, 
 which we shall soon have occasion fully to explain: 
 and were it possible, which revelation forbids. us 
 to suppose, to separate the various benefits of 
 redemption, so that he who was really justified in 
 the sight of God from the guilt of his past sins 
 while under a covenant of law, could remain 
 under the. reigning power of corruption; then 
 might a man unquestionably in this sense be 
 justified, and yet finally perish. 
 
 ‘It is on’ this principle that all the warnings, 
 admonitions, expostulations, and threatenings of 
 the New Testament are constructed. Hence they 
 derive all their force. For whatever answer jus- 
 tification affords to the claims of the law of the 
 first covenant, it affords none whatever to those 
 of the law of the second covenant. And though 
 under this more gracious dispensation, perfect and. 
 sinless obedience is not made the condition of 
 salvation—for then none could be saved—yet 
 a sincere and faithful, a constant and enduring 
 love to Christ, manifesting itself in a patient 
 continuance in well-doing, is an indispensable | 
 condition. So that, were it even to be admitted, 
 that one who had lived and died in a state of 
 -impenitence, had, at some former period of his 
 
ON REDEMPTION. © 115 
 
 life, been really justified by faith in the blood of 
 Christ; still, on the conditions of the covenant 
 _of grace, which restricts the promise of life to 
 the obedient, he could not be finally saved. Not 
 that we can seriously allow, that the finally im- 
 penitent ever were in a state of previous justifica- 
 tion: for, as I shall shew hereafter, justification 
 includes in it, besides the remission of past sins, 
 the gracious award of spiritual life, and, wherever 
 it really takes place, is invariably accompanied 
 with the outpouring of the Holy Ghost: from 
 which it follows, that no man who remains under 
 _the reigning power of sin ever was justified ; for, 
 had he been justified, the power of sin would 
 have been vanquished and subdued by the mighty 
 energy of that spirit of grace, which they who 
 are justified receive by faith. 
 
 It is entirely on this principle, that St. Paul 
 constructs that conclusive argument against h- 
 centiousness, which immediately follows his 
 statement of the doctrine of justification by faith. 
 This argument commences with the sixth chapter 
 of his Epistle to the Romans, and extends through 
 several of the following chapters. To the inference 
 in favour of licentiousness which he supposes to 
 be drawn from his doctrine, and which he puts 
 in the form of a question, “ What shall we say. 
 then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may 
 abound?” he replies by proposing another question, 
 “How shall we that are dead to sin, live any 
 
 & 
 
116 «ON REDEMPTION. 
 
 longer therein?”* and then he follows up this 
 question with an argument founded. on the prin- 
 ciple above adveried to, but to be more fully 
 explained in the following chapters, that justifi- 
 cation includes in it the award of spiritual life, 
 and is uniformly and invariably accompanied with 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit. But the force of this 
 argument will be better understood in a subse- 
 quent stage of our inquiry. At present, I can do 
 no more than request the reader to bear this 
 argument in his recollection; and to remember 
 what was formerly observed, that remission of 
 sins constitutes but one branch, and that not the 
 most important, perhaps, of justification by faith 
 in Christ. To the consideration of the remaining 
 branch of it, 1 shall immediately proceed. 
 
 * Romans vi. 1, 2. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 117 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 ‘ON THE SECOND PECULIARITY OF THE COVENANT OF 
 GRACE, VIZ. THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT OF 
 LIFE AND HOLINESS. 
 
 Tue observations already made illustrate only 
 that part of the scheme of divine mercy revealed 
 to us in the Gospel, which the inflexible justice of 
 God on the one hand, and the apostacy of our 
 race on the other, rendered necessary to prepare 
 the way for the establishment of Messiah’s king- 
 dom. Before the foundations of this kingdom 
 could be laid, there were great, and, to all but 
 infinite wisdom, insurmountable difficulties to be 
 overcome. The rigid'claims of God’s violated 
 law. were to be fully satisfied. The penalty of 
 disobedience was to be paid; and this penalty 
 was death. But, blessed be God, these to us: 
 insuperable difficulties are now completely re- 
 moved by the incarnation, suffermgs and pe ae of 
 his only begotten Son. 
 
 _ We should awfully deceive ourselves, however, 
 did we suppose, that, by the death of Christ, the 
 great work of our salvation was fully completed ; 
 and that nothing then remained, but for the objects 
 
118 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 of his mercy and grace to take immediate pos- 
 session of their eternal inheritance. | 
 Redemption by the blood of Christ is only the 
 preparatory step in the work of our salvation, and 
 bears a similar relation to the mediatorial king- 
 dom of Christ, which, formerly, the redemption 
 of the children of Israel did to the kingdom of 
 Jehovah, in the establishment of which the gracious 
 purposes of God respecting them received their 
 full accomplishment. To understand the economy 
 of our salvation, we must look beyond the death 
 of Christ to the great purpose which his death 
 was intended to accomplish. And this purpose ~ 
 is so clearly defined and expressed in the writings 
 of the New Testament, that nothing but a deter- 
 mination not to perceive it, can account for its 
 
 being overlooked. The very name of the illus- 
 
 trious Apostle of the christian profession, Jesus, 
 cannot be repeated, without recalling to our minds — 
 its mysterious import. ‘ He shall save his people — 
 from their sins,’* is the angelic interpretation of 
 that adorable name. And with this agrees the 
 whole tenor of divine revelation. Thus St. Paul 
 testifies, “‘'To this end Christ both died, and rose, 
 and revived, that he might be Lord both of the 
 dead and living :”f And again; “ He gave himself 
 for us, that he might redeem us from all miquity, 
 and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous 
 of good works.”{ But it would be endless te 
 
 ~ * Matt.i.21. + Rom. xiv. 9. t Titus ii, 14. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 119 
 
 adduce every testimony of the same import with 
 which the New Testament:abounds. ‘These are 
 enough to shew, that the death of Christ has its 
 full consummation only in the establishment of 
 his mediatorial kingdom. And it is im the king- 
 dom of the once dead, but now risen and exalted 
 Redeemer, that grace reigns and triumphs. Hither 
 we must come, would we see its majesty, and its 
 might. But for the conquests we here behold 
 achieved by the Prince Messiah, his incarnation, 
 and sufferings, and death were all in vain. But 
 
 for the blessings he here distributes among the 
 
 happy subjects of his reign, he might, as to any 
 benefits resulting from them to the objects of his’ 
 compassion, have spared himself the agonies of a 
 cross, and the dishonours of a tomb. But for 
 these, he might have remained for ever in the 
 bosom of the Father; nor need he to have laid 
 aside the splendours of deity, to array himself in 
 the humble attire of a servant, and, clothed 
 in flesh, to exchange the honours of ceiestial 
 worship and angelic service, for the scofis and 
 derision of the low and degraded children of 
 men. } 
 
 It is really dishonourable to the Saviour of 
 sinners to imagine, that the work of our salvation 
 was finished on the cross. It is dishonourable to 
 divine grace to suppose, that it reigns only in the 
 forgiveness of our sins. And yet, it is under pre-_ 
 tence of doing honour to divine grace, and of 
 
120 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, 
 
 exalting the Saviour in the eyes of men, that for- 
 giveness of sins has been represented, as if it con- 
 stituted the whole of our salvation. It is under 
 this specious profession, that this Antinomian 
 heresy has made such successful inroads mto the 
 church of God. A direct attack on the person 
 and work of Christ would not be endured. So- 
 cinianism proves this. Its hostility to the claims | 
 of the blessed Jesus on the love and adoration of 
 his redeemed people is so plainly marked upon 
 its forehead, that the most simple and unwary 
 can scarcely be deceived by it. But Antino- 
 mianism, though equally intent on dishonouring 
 Christ, advances to the attack under friendly 
 banners. {t raises the cross of Christ, that it may 
 the more efiectuaily prostrate his throne. And it 
 has been by the aid of this hollow artifice, that it 
 has succeeded in swelling its ranks from among 
 those who desire nothing more ardently than to 
 advance the honour of their Lord. | 
 It-is become necessary, therefore, would we 
 succeed in exposing this grand delusion of the 
 enemy of souls, that we should convince mankind 
 of the hollowness of its loud professions of regard 
 for the honour of divine grace; that we should — 
 prove, beyond ; the possibility of contradiction, 
 that those tenets, which undermine the founda- 
 tions of christian obedience, are hostile to the 
 glory of Christ, and absolutely irreconcileable 
 with that exalted name he bears, “ Jehovah our 
 
| 
 4) 
 | 
 | 
 
 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 121 
 
 rtehteousness.”* Yes, we must tear the mask from 
 this most daring of all impostures, and exhibit it 
 to the world im its own native deformity. 
 
 Should any of my readers have incautiously 
 lent an ear to its lying professions, O let me intreat 
 their patient attention, while I endeavour to prove 
 to them, how sadly they have been deluded. I 
 pledge myself to detect the infamous imposture of 
 which they have been the unconscious dupes; 
 and to convince all but those who resolve not to 
 be undeceived, that the grace of God, and the 
 honour and glory of Christ, are deeply concerned 
 in the detection of it. Yes, ye deluded friends of 
 the adorable Redeemer, ye little know, how ye 
 are abetting the enemies of your beloved Lord. 
 You call him Lord, and yet you deny his title to 
 rule over you. You invest him with robes of 
 royalty, and put into his hands the sceptre of 
 dominion ; and then, as if by way of derision, you 
 salute hun, “ Hail, King of the Jews.” Beware 
 lest you arouse him to wrath by proffering him 
 such empty homage. The time is long since 
 past, when it was permitted thus to mock him 
 with impunity. The pericd of his humiliation is 
 no more. ‘There was a time, when the Son of 
 Man patiently submitted to the cruel taunts of 
 men; when he meekly endured their indignities ; 
 when he wore on his sacred temples a crown of 
 thorns, and held in his hand a reed for a sceptre. — 
 
 Shy 3 
 * Jer. Xxiil. 6. 
 
| 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 i} 
 \| 
 uh 
 
 122 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 But that period is gone by; and none may now 
 mock him with impunity. Beware how you pro- 
 voke him to wrath. ‘“ The Lamb of God” is now 
 become “ the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” He 
 now holdeth in his hand another sceptre, and on 
 his head he wears a far different crown. Before 
 him insulting enemies no longer bow the knee, 
 but cherubim and seraphim fall prostrate at his 
 feet in humble adoration. His visage is no longer 
 marred more than any man, and his form more 
 than the sons of men. ‘‘ But in righteousness 
 doth he judge and make war. His eyes are as a 
 flame of fire: on his head are many crowns: out 
 of his mouth goeth a sharp sword with which he 
 
 - smites the nations; he treadeth the wine-press of 
 
 the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And 
 on his vesture, and on his thigh, he hath a name 
 written, ‘ King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. ”* 
 Bring then an offering, and come into his courts; 
 “ serve him with fear, and rejoice before him seach 
 trembling.” “ Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, 
 and ye perish from the way.” Above all, re- 
 member his solemn words, “‘ Not every one that 
 saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
 
 kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of — 
 
 my Father which is in heaven.” And, if you 
 can, reply to his cutting inquiry; “ Why call ye 
 me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which 
 I say?’t 
 
 * Rey. xix. 11—16. , t Matt. vii. 21. t Luke vi. 46. | 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 123 
 
 To some, I doubt not, it appears matter of 
 astonishment, that the necessity of obeying the will 
 of Christ in order to salvation should ever have 
 been disputed ; that, in spite of so many obstacles, 
 the enemy of souls should ever have been able to 
 pervert the grace of God to licentiousness. And 
 doubtless this perversion of the grace of God is © 
 Satan’s master-piece of policy. But then it should 
 be considered, that it is nothing more than a par- 
 ticular application of his grand principle of se- 
 -duction; than following up the same system of 
 delusion, by which he wrought man’s ruin at the 
 first. In every age of the world it has been the 
 great artifice of Satan to cast an odium on the 
 service of God; to persuade men, that a life of 
 obedience, and a life of true felicity, are incom- 
 patible. It has been his aim to associate im their 
 minds the idea of bondage with that of subjection 
 to divine authority: and when he has succeeded 
 in this, he has accomplished his malignant 
 purpose. 
 
 Now, once admit the axiom, that obedience to 
 God and true happiness are incompatible, and 
 Antinomian principles follow from it as so many 
 necessary consequences. For, if freedom from all 
 restraint be really the highest felicity of which 
 our nature is capable; then, the gospel, to be a 
 perfect manifestation of divine grace, ought to 
 confer upon us this inestimable advantage. _ But 
 it is the acknowledged character of the gospel. 
 
124 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 to reveal the grace of God: consequently, on the 
 supposition that freedom from restraint is the 
 greatest of all blessings, the gospel must release 
 us from the yoke of subjection to divine authority. 
 I put it to the reader, whether this be not the true 
 key to the Antinomian scheme. And if it be, 
 then he can be at no joss to reply to another 
 question, namely, who is the contriver of this 
 scheme? It evidently originates with the father 
 of lies, the enemy of God and man; that wicked 
 spirit, who, when his aim has been to seduce the’ 
 servants of God from their allegiance to him, has 
 
 never scrupled to cast insidious retiections on 
 _God’s moral government, and openly to pronounce 
 
 his service bondage. 
 So far, however, is the gospel from giving 
 
 countenance to this impious sentiment, that 
 
 nothing could be imagined more calculated to 
 
 expose its falsehood. The very denomination given 
 
 to the glad tidings of our salvation,—‘“ the glad 
 tidings of the reign of God,’—proves that, in 
 whatever else salvation may consist, certainly 
 release from the yoke of divine authority forms 
 no part of it. On the contrary it exhibiis, as its 
 grand distinguishing feature, the re-establishment 
 of God’s moral empire over the hearts of the 
 children of men. lt is nothing else than glad tidings 
 concerning G'od’s kingdom. Yes, it is glad tidings 
 of great joy that God has set up his everlasting 
 
 kingdom among men. No images of felicity, the 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 125 
 
 most cheering and delightful to the best feelings 
 
 ‘of our hearts, can adequately express the pure 
 
 and perfect bliss which it reveals. The joy of the 
 husbandman, when he gathers in the harvest, 
 the reward of his long-continued labours; of the 
 
 victor, when, at the close of an arduous combat, 
 
 he divides the spoil; of the captive, released from 
 his dark and dismal captivity ; of the debtor, for 
 ever acquitted a debt which he could never hope 
 to discharge ; of the slave, restored to the rights 
 of freedom and of humanity; all these are utterly 
 inadequate to describe the joy, which the glad 
 tidings of the kingdom of God convey to the 
 heart. And yet, if the sentiment Iam opposing 
 be true, they are so far from deserving the deno- 
 mination of ‘‘ glad tidings of great joy,” given to 
 them by way of pre-eminence, that they are 
 mournful, afflictive, disastrous tidings. 
 
 That the proclamation of Messiah’s happy 
 reign is that which the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment emphatically style “the gospel,” or, as the 
 term would be more properly rendered, “ the glad 
 tidings,” I hope I have fully satisfied the reader 
 in the introductory chapter of this work. I will 
 not therefore weary his patience with repeating 
 what I there advanced; but shall hasten to shew, 
 that the kingdom of God, introduced and ‘esta- 
 blished by the coming of the Messiah, is the reign 
 of grace; that it affords the most astonishing 
 manifestations of God’s love to man; and therefore, 
 
126 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 that the news of it, proclaimed by the vospel 
 heralds, is, what they significantly style it, “‘ glad 
 tidings of great joy.” 
 
 But in order to this, I must eecall to the 
 recollection of the reader, what was formerly 
 advanced in relation to the Mosaic economy; as 
 it illustrates, in the most striking manner, the 
 radical distinction between the two dispensations 
 of law and grace. The Mosaic economy was shewn 
 to consist of two very distinct covenants; one a 
 covenant of law, in the strict sense of that term ; 
 the other a covenant of grace, but only in types 
 and shadows. These two covenants are, I am 
 aware, very generally confounded, and considered 
 as only different parts of one and the same cove- 
 nant. But that Moses himself did, not consider 
 
 them as one, it is very easy to shew. Speaking of 
 
 the covenant of Mount Sinai, he says, “ The Lord 
 our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The 
 Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but 
 with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this 
 day. The Lord talked with you face to face in - 
 the mount, out of the midst of the fire.”* And 
 afterwards, speaking of the covenant of grace _ 
 originally made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, — 
 and renewed with their posterity, he says, “ These 
 are the words of the covenant which the Lord 
 commanded Moses to make with the children of 
 Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant 
 
 * Deut. v. 2, 4. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 127 
 
 which he made with them in Horeb.”* Now it was 
 this latter covenant which constituted the glory 
 of the Jewish church: it was this covenant which 
 formed the typical representation of the Christian 
 econoiny. It was this covenant which St. Paul 
 defines, “a figure for the time then present ;”f 
 a “shadow of good things to come.”{ But if this 
 were its character, the gospel dispensation can no 
 otherwise differ from it, than as the substance 
 differs from the shadow. If we discard those 
 peculiarities of the gospel, which correspond to 
 the forms and images of truth contained in the 
 
 law, the Mosaic economy has not only ‘‘ no glory 
 
 by reason of that which eaxcelleth,’4 as our Apostle 
 teaches us, but it has in reality no glory at all. 
 According to the writers of the New ‘Testament, 
 it “ made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of 
 a better hope.”| Now this purpose it was ad- 
 mirably suited to accomplish: but this it did by 
 its strict resemblance to heavenly things. 
 
 Now two things are most evidently observable 
 in the typical dispensation of Moses: first, a — 
 “form of knowledge and of the truth,’{ the 
 pattern of that rectitude of heart which .God 
 requires; and secondly, promises of pardon and 
 
 * Deut. xxix.1. + Heb.ix.9. { Tbid. x. 1.  § 2-Cor. iii. 10. 
 
 || Heb. vii. 19. There is no ellipsis in the original, as our 
 translators must have supposed. The word “ did,’ which they have 
 supplied, gives a sense to the passage foreign to the writer’s 
 argument. § Rom. ii, 20. | 
 
128 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 reconciliation on condition of ‘sincere repentance 
 and return to God. And what deserves peculiar 
 attention is, that this “ form: of knowledge,” and 
 these gracious manifestations of forgiving mercy, 
 
 constituted the glory of that typical dispensation. 
 
 In what light the righteous statutes of God were 
 regarded by such as lived under the legal dispen- 
 sation, we have already seen; nay, we have seen, 
 that even Jehovah himself considered them as the 
 highest proof which he could give of his especial — 
 love to his people Israel. And surely, [ need not 
 observe, since it will hardly be denied, that it was | 
 the revelation of the character of Jehovah, as a 
 “ God, pardoning iniquity and. transgression and 
 sin,” which formed another striking feature of that 
 typical dispensation. ‘ Who is a God like unto 
 thee,” exclaims the Prophet Micah, “ that par- 
 doneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression 
 of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not 
 his anger for ever, because he delighteth in 
 mercy.” | 7 wath RO nIO 
 
 Such, then, were the peculiar features of the 
 type. The antitype must, therefore, strictly cor- 
 respond with it in each of these particulars. If. 
 the law present us with “ the form of knowledge 
 and. of the truth;” then must the gospel be the 
 ministration of knowledge and of the truth itself. 
 If the law pourtray that glorious perfection of the 
 divine character, God’s delight in mercy; then 
 
 * Micah vii, 18. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, 129 
 
 ‘forgiveness of sins must be exercised under the 
 gospel dispensation. But each of these correspond- 
 ences is totally overlooked by such as deny the 
 necessity of personal and vital holiness. For if, 
 under the gospel dispensation, there be no rule 
 of righteousness imperatively binding on the 
 disciples of Christ, there can be no necessity for 
 the spirit of grace to write it on their hearts: ner 
 
 can the daily exercise of forgiving mercy, so 
 
 beautifully typified by the daily sacrifices of the 
 
 law, be practicable; since, if there be no law, 
 
 there can be no transgression, and consequently 
 nothing to forgive. What becomes then, I would 
 ask, of the glory of divine grace? It is plain, that 
 to lay a foundation for the manifestation of it even 
 in the forgiveness of sins, much more in regene- 
 rating and sanctifying the hearts of men, it is 
 indispensably necessary to admit an indissoluble 
 connection between holiness and life. 
 
 It is as being “ the ministration of the Spirit,’* 
 
 that the gospel excels in glory the law, which was 
 simply, “the minisiration of the deiter.” For the 
 spirit of grace is the éruth or substance of that 
 
 of which the law was only the pattern or type. 
 
 Why the spirit of grace was wanting to the legal 
 economy, the remarks which will be presently 
 made will explain. Had it, indeed, been-able to 
 have communicated that spirit, there would have 
 
 been in truth no place found for another and better. 
 
 & 2 Cor. iii. 8. 
 . K 
 
130 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 covenant. The law was not abolished, because it 
 revealed the will of God, as some have absurdly 
 fancied; but, among other reasons, because it 
 comprehended no provision for giving efficiency 
 to that revelation. The reason why the typical 
 dispensation of law was abolished, is expressly 
 assigned by God himself; viz. because they, to 
 whom it was given, “ continued not m has cove- 
 nant.’* And the peculiar excellence of the new 
 covenant above the old is also specified. And in 
 what does it consist? Is it, that God will no longer 
 prescribe his will as the rule of life? No such 
 thing. “This is the covenant that I will make 
 with the house of Israel after those days, saith 
 the Lord; J will put my laws into ther mind, and 
 write them in their hearts.”t There is no difference 
 whatever between the two dispensations of law 
 and grace, as to the obligation of the will of God 
 on those to whom it is revealed. It is the manner 
 in which it is revealed, which constitutes the sole 
 distinction. : phon. 
 
 The gift of the Holy Spirit, to enable the 
 believer in Christ to do the will of God, is then, 
 the first and most important characteristic of 
 Messiah’s spiritual reign. . And, accordingly, the 
 Prophet, speaking of the future kingdom of 
 Christ, says, “Thy people shall be willing in the 
 day of thy power.” ! | 
 
 There are some, however, who deny that this 
 
 * Heb, viii, 9. + Ibid. 10. { Psalm cx. 3. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 131 
 
 constitutes. the radical distinction between the 
 
 kingdom of Jehovah, and the kingdom of Christ. 
 Unacquainted with the corruption of the human 
 heart, and with its entire alienation from the life 
 of God, they suppose that nothing more is wanting 
 to enable men to do the will ef God, than a reve- 
 lation of that will, accompanied with those © 
 weighty motives to obedience, which the character 
 of God, his relation to man, and the doctrine of 
 a future retribution supply. Consequently, in spite 
 of every opposing testimony, they maintain, that ~ 
 the Christian religion is nothing more than a reve- 
 lation of the divine will, accompanied with a 
 glorious manifestation of the divine perfections, 
 and enforced by the discovery of a future state 
 of rewards and punishments. This is the sum 
 and substance of what may be called the religion 
 of the world. Nothing is plainer, however, than 
 that it is noé the religion of Christ. No part of 
 divine revelation gives it any countenance. It 
 meets with no support either from the law, or the 
 gospel: and, what its advocates little suspect, it 
 is as unfriendly to real holiness, as it is avowedly 
 adverse to divine grace. For, deny that the gospel 
 is distinguished from the law by its ministering 
 the spirit of grace, and wherein can its superiority 
 be made to appear? There is no alternative left, 
 than that of representing the rule of duty under 
 the christian dispensation as relaxed in accom- 
 modation to the weakness and infirmity of human 
 
 ‘ 
 
132 MINISTRATION Of THE SPIRIT. 
 
 nature. Either the spirit of grace must be given 
 to raise men to the level of their duty; or the 
 standard of duty must be lowered to the level of 
 their weakness; so that he who rejects the former 
 of these suppositions, must bila fo le embrace 
 the latter. 
 
 But if the latter be Mdofiad, then he must 
 maintain one of these two hypotheses. He must 
 either suppose that the same rule of duty which 
 subsisted under the legal dispensation still remains 
 in force without alteration, but that obedience to 
 it is now exacted with less rigour: or else, he 
 must suppose that another rule has been sub- 
 stituted in its room, gases iit duties of more 
 easy observance. 
 
 -Now, unfortunately for tile who reject the 
 doctrine of the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are 
 
 precluded from maintaining either of these sup- 
 | positions. That the Jewish law remains in full 
 force, and unaltered, they do not so much as 
 pretend. On the contrary, they urge it as matter 
 of just triumph over the Jew, that the gospel has 
 abolished the burdensome rites and ceremonies 
 prescribed by thelaw of Moses. Itcertamly has 
 done this; and it is a cause of thanksgiving and 
 praise that it has done it. But is any thing gained 
 by this admission? Is our duty to God rendered 
 more easy of performance by its becoming less 
 ritual? Is human infirmity at all consulted by the 
 substitution of a spiritual in the place of a carnal 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 133 
 
 service? On the contrary, is it not infinitely easier 
 to serve God according to “the oldness of the 
 letter,” than it is to serve him according to “the 
 newness of the spirit?’ And did not the Jewish — 
 
 law better consult the actual capabilities of our 
 
 species, when it ordained “ bodily exercises,” and 
 ** carnal ordinances,” than the christian law does, 
 which says, “Ye must be born again?”* Cer- 
 tainly the universal experience of mankind is ip 
 favour of the affirmative. | 
 The abolition of the Jewish ceremonial, and 
 the substitution of a spiritual service in its room, 
 has, in truth, produced an effect the very reverse 
 of the one which many fondly imagine. Instead of 
 giving greater facilities to obedience, it has thrown 
 infinitely greater impediments in the way of it, 
 than what arose from the complicated texture 
 of the Jewish ritual. For ceremonial institutions, 
 however numerous, or however burdensome, may 
 be very strictly observed while the heart remains 
 alienated from God; but not so God’s spiritual 
 law. Let the proudest and most self-confident 
 pharisee but once discern its true nature, and his 
 experience will confirm the melancholy testimony 
 of St. Paul, “The carnal mind is enmity against 
 God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
 neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in 
 _ the flesh cannot please God.” 
 It is plain then, that whatever may be the 
 
 * John iii. 7, t+ Rom. viii, 7, 8. 
 
1 
 at 
 - 
 
 134 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 way in which the gospel has become intitled to 
 be styled by way of eminence, “ glad tidings of 
 great joy, it is not, most certainly, by its having 
 better consulted the infirmity of human nature 
 than the law of Moses did in the greater practica- 
 bility of the duties it prescribes. That it does 
 however accommodate itself to human infirmity, 
 is true: but then it is in a sense far different from 
 that which I have been opposing ;—one far more 
 honourable to the law of God, far more consistent 
 with the divine character and perfections, and, 
 I may also add, far more beneficial to us in its 
 results. 1 | 
 
 It is not by lowering the standard of duty to 
 the level of our feeble capacity, that God exhibits 
 the amazing riches of his grace. His infinite purity 
 could never consent to such a scheme; nor is his 
 infinite power reduced to the necessity of adopting 
 so dishonourable an expedient. It is in raising our 
 fallen nature to the high standard proposed to us 
 in his gospel, that he displays the inexhaustible 
 resources of his wisdom, power, and love. 
 
 No one who comprehends the nature of that 
 gracious provision which God has made in his 
 gospel for the moral recovery of our apostate race, 
 will ever feel the slightest temptation to lower 
 the standard of duty. Indeed it is only by eleva- 
 ting that standard—and this Christ and his 
 Apostles have done by substituting the service of 
 the heart in the stead of that bodily service 
 
 ’ 
 4 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 135 
 
 prescribed by the Jewish ritual—that the infinite 
 value of so gracious a provision as that of a sanc- 
 tifier can be made to appear. | 
 
 To feel the importance of the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit promised by Christ to all the faithful, we have 
 only to understand the spirituality of the divine 
 law. Let it once be perceived, that God ‘ re-— 
 quires truth in the inward parts,”* and the prayer 
 of David will be adopted as our own; “ Create 
 in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right 
 spirit within me.”t Let the saying of Christ be 
 once distinctly understood and admitted, “ Ex- 
 cept your righteousness shall exceed. the righte- 
 ousness of the scribes and pharisees ;’—that is, 
 unless it rise to a higher point of elevation than 
 man, unaided by the grace of God, has ever been 
 known to reach ;—“ ye shall in no case enter the 
 kingdom of God;’{ then how infinitely precious 
 will the promise of the Spirit appear. Knowing 
 that “in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth nothing 
 good ;” that “the carnal mind is enmity with 
 God ;” and that ‘“ they who are in the flesh cannot 
 please God ;” knowing too, that “ to be carnally 
 minded is death,” and that they “ who have not 
 the Spirit of Christ are none of his:’ knowing 
 that we must be “ pure in’ heart,” or we- shall 
 never “ see God;” that we must be “ merciful,” 
 or we shall never “ obtain mercy ;” that we must 
 from the heart forgive men their trespasses, or we 
 
 * Psalm li. 6, + Ibid. 10.  — } Matt, v. 20. 
 
136 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 shall never obtain forgiveness: O how shall we 
 exult in the promise of the Saviour, “ Blessed are 
 they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness, for they shall be filled.’”* _O how trans- 
 porting to us will be those gracious words, ‘‘ 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 
 —water.”| Yes; we must drink of this living water, 
 or we perish fol éver. | - 
 
 ’ And were it not that the heart is sleenatat 
 from the life of God, every man would thirst after 
 this living water with far greater avidity, than the 
 thirsty hart ever panted after the water-brooks, 
 Were we not blinded by sin, we should identify 
 holiness with true happiness: we should discover 
 in our apostacy the original cause of all our woe; 
 and should feel the deepest conviction, that, to 
 recover back our lost felicity, we must be “ re- 
 newed after the image of him who created us.” 
 Filled with abhorrence of sin as the sole author 
 of our ruin, we should devote it to utter destruc- 
 tion; and seek occasions of mortifying and sub- 
 duing it. Sensible that true peace and satisfaction 
 will remain strangers to our breasts, until the 
 image of God is restored in our souls, O how 
 fervently should we beseech God to retrace its 
 living characters! To be redeemed from the 
 curse of sin, great and unspeakable as the bles- 
 
 * Matt. v. 6. + John vii. 37, 38. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, 137 
 
 sing indeed is, would be far from satisfying our 
 
 f fs e ‘ 
 enlarged and holy desires, if, after all, sm was 
 
 to retain its dominion over us. ‘ Bound by the 
 chain of our sins,” how bitterly should we bewail 
 our cruel captivity; sentenced to perpetual bon- 
 dage, how ceaselessly, yet wnayailingly, should 
 we sigh after “ the freedom of the sons of God.” __ 
 
 Is there, then, no release from the captivity 
 of sinr. Must we ever make the walls of our 
 prison-house resound with the lamentation, “OQ 
 wretched man that Iam, who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death?” Must we ever 
 remain in this hopeless bondage? Certainly we 
 shall, if almighty power and grace do not set us 
 free. To restore ourselves to our Jost liberty is 
 utterly impracticable. 
 
 Shall we then affirm that the task is beyond 
 the power of God to perform. Cannot he, who 
 made man upright, “ create him anew in righte- 
 ousness and true holiness?” And if he can do 
 this, is it not setting bounds to his grace and com- 
 passion, to suppose that he will not exert this _ 
 power? Surely if it be practicable to elevate a 
 fallen sinner to the high standard of absolute per- 
 fection, it must be infinitely desirable that it should 
 be effected. And no one will venture, I should 
 think, to deny, that it is a work worthy the majesty 
 of God. If there be any task fit to employ the 
 exertion of his infinite power, it is that which baffies 
 all energy short of omnipotence; it is that which 
 
138 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 changes the guilty and the vile into the glorious 
 image of his own immaculate purity. Will then 
 the pure and the omnipotent abandon us to 
 despair? No; blessed be his name, he has pitied 
 us in our low estate; he has made ample provi- 
 sion for our restoration. ‘“ For when we were yet 
 without strength, in due time Christ died for the 
 ungodly.”* | ) 
 
 The scheme of divine mercy includes not only 
 pardon, but renovation in the image of God. He 
 promises to give us a new heart, to create within 
 us a right spirit; to write his law in our inward 
 parts; to be our God and to make us his people. 
 And that we may be impelled earnestly to seek 
 this blessing, he connects obedience with salva- 
 tion. For, were it possible to arrive at heaven by 
 any other path than that of holy obedience, we 
 might despise the promise of his Spirit. But 
 having made this the only path to heaven, he has 
 laid upon us the necessity of earnest supplication 
 
 to him for the communication of his Spirit. Unas- 
 
 sisted by the spirit of grace, we cannot do the will 
 of God; and yet, if we would finally be saved, 
 we must be found walking in the path of holy 
 obedience. It is, therefore, plain, that without 
 the spirit of grace we must perish for ever. 
 
 If no promises of grace were made to us in 
 the gospel, the perfection of the christian standard 
 of duty might justly fill us with alarm; it would 
 
 * Rom, v. 6. / 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 139 
 
 be vain to expect salvation. And hence, no 
 doubt, it is, that those, who regard the gospel 
 dispensation as comprehending no provision for 
 
 the renovation of our nature, have been led to 
 
 reduce the standard of their duty to the measure 
 of their own imaginary strength. To suppose a 
 higher standard, while no supernatural aid was — 
 afforded them, would overwhelm them in absolute 
 despair. For, whatever that standard might be, 
 it is plain they must conform to it; and yet, on 
 the supposition of its being infinitely above their 
 
 _ reach, they could not rise to the level of it, and, 
 
 consequently, could not be saved. 
 
 But considered in its connection with the pro- 
 mise of the Spirit, the perfection of the christian 
 standard of duty need fill us with no alarm. 
 It is perfectly consistent with the character of the 
 gospel as “ glad tidings of great joy.” For, elevate 
 that standard ever so high, the power of God can 
 never fall below it. Suppose his requirements 
 ever so great, his grace is still adequate to our 
 wants; and the more perfect the rule of duty he 
 prescribes, the more conspicuously is his grace 
 displayed, in strengthening us to act up to this 
 rule. | i Hea: 
 
 To magnify the grace of God, then, in the 
 recovery of fallen man, we must form elevated 
 conceptions of the standard of human obligation ; 
 to maintain the perfection of the christian standard 
 of duty, we must ever keep in mind the mighty 
 
140 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 energy of the grace of God. The grace of the 
 gospel, and the perfection of its rule of duty, are 
 so involved the one in the other, that they cannot 
 be separated. ‘To deny the grace of God abso- 
 lutely necessitates us to lower the standard of 
 duty: to impair the perfection of that standard, 
 diminishes the necessity, and, consequently, lessens 
 
 _ the value, of the promises of divine grace. For 
 
 the less we are required to perform, the less need 
 have we of the spirit of grace to enable us to 
 perform it. On the contrary, the more arduous 
 the service is which is appointed us, the more — 
 earnestly and importunately shall we seek sup- 
 plies of grace to help our infirmities. 
 
 If it be true, therefore, that the gospel is “the 
 ministration of the Spirit,” itis perfectly consistent 
 with its character as “ glad tidings of great joy,” 
 that it should highly elevate the standard of 
 human duty. Had we no previous knowledge of 
 the fact, we should conclude this from its being 
 characterized as “ the ministration of the Spirit :” 
 for in no other way could the value of that gracious 
 provision be made to appear. That it has done | 
 this, the slightest acquaintance with the New 
 Testament will suffice-to convince us. The Sermon 
 on the Mount, as it is called, recorded by St. 
 Matthew towards the very beginning of his gospel, 
 alone proves this. In that discourse our blessed 
 Saviour, as if to correct all misapprehension as. 
 to the tendency of his doctrine, and the design of 
 
} 
 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 141 
 
 his mission, gives this early caution to his hearers; 
 * Think not that I am come to destroy the law, 
 or the prophets: [ am not come to destroy but to 
 fulfil—For I say unto you, That except your 
 righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the 
 
 scribes and pharvsees, ye shall in no case enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven.”* 
 
 Let no one, however, suppose, from what has 
 been advanced, as to the necessity of obedience in 
 order to salvation, and of the importance of the 
 promise of the spirit of grace to help our infirmity, 
 that eternal life is, in any degree, the merited 
 reward of obedience; or that the Spirit of God is 
 imparted to believers to enuble them to merit that 
 reward. Nothmg can be more absurd than such 
 a supposition ; nor can any thing be more flatly 
 contradictory to the whole tenour of the New 
 Testament. Of this ample proof will be afforded 
 as we proceed. The truth is, that the spirit of 
 grace bestowed upon the faithful, is the fruct ‘of 
 the Redeemer’s righteousness ; and is given to those 
 who believe, not to enable them to obtain justifi- 
 cation before God, but as the seal of their ac- 
 ceptance ; as the divine token that they are already 
 justified through the perfect righteousness of him in 
 whom they have believed. 
 
 This doctrine is so clearly taught us in the 
 holy scriptures, that it is really matter of surprise, 
 how they, who admit the doctrine of the gift of 
 
 * Matt, v.17, 20, _, 
 
‘ 
 142 ° MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, 
 
 the Holy Spirit, can have overlooked the channel 
 by which that gift is conveyed. To acknowledge 
 that man stands in need of the aids of God’s Spirit 
 to enable him to do the will of God, though certainly 
 an important part of a Christian’s confession, is not 
 the whole ‘which the honour of divine grace re- 
 quires of us, in order to our being made the happy 
 recipients of this blessing. We must distinctly 
 recognize it as the fruit of Christ’s mediation. On 
 this subject the word of God is most explicit. 
 For thus speaks our great Redeemer himself; 
 “‘ Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth 
 on me hath everlasting life. J am that bread of life. 
 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and 
 are dead. This is the bread of life which cometh 
 down from heaven: zf any man eat of this bread, 
 he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will 
 give is my flesh, which £ will give for the ivfe 
 of the world.”*—* Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and 
 drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
 eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
 life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For 
 my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
 indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
 blood, dwelleth in me, and i in him. As the living 
 Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; 
 so he that eateth me, even he shali live by me.”+ In 
 what sense these mysterious words are to be 
 
 * John vi. 47—51. + Ibid. 58—357. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE-SPIRIT. 143 
 
 understood, we learn from what is added by way 
 of elucidation; “ It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; 
 the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit and they are life.* By 
 which we are taught, that to the sacrifice of Christ 
 we are indebted for the gift of the Spirit; and, 
 that by faith in his atoning sacrifice, we become 
 partakers of this heavenly gift. I know of no 
 other consistent interpretation. 
 
 The doctrine of the Holy Spirit has been 
 taught by some in a way, which wholly excludes 
 the consideration of the mysterious channel - 
 through which it flows to us; and in so doing, 
 strips this glorious doctrine of divine revelation 
 of every peculiarity which renders it so offensive 
 to human pride. The assistance which the Spirit 
 affords to all good men, to enable them to do the 
 will of God, is by such persons represented, 
 rather as a debt, which the justice of God owes | 
 to us, than as a gift of pure and most sovereign 
 grace. Why it is so considered, I will endeavour 
 briefly to explain. 
 
 It may be traced then, to two obvious fallacies. 
 First, it supposes that the obedience which God 
 requires of his people constitutes their title to 
 eternal life, and is necessary to purchase for them 
 the heavenly inheritance; and secondly, it assumes 
 as an axiom, that God is in justice bound to furnish 
 
 * John vi. 63. 
 
; 
 
 144 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 his creatures with every assistance which is indis- 
 pensably necessary to a compliance with his will. 
 Now, as it is impossible not to perceive the ue- 
 cessity of the Spirit’s aid, to enable men to do 
 the will of God, it is inferred that God is bound 
 to communicate his Spirit to those who ask it, 
 
 in order to enable them to do that, which, 
 
 without such assistance, they would be unable to 
 perform. 
 
 Now if heaven were, as this reasoning assumes, 
 to be conferred upon men as the merited reward 
 of their obedience, and if their inability to comply 
 with the revealed will of God without divine 
 assistance, were of a physical, and not of a moral 
 nature, the inference drawn from these premises 
 would be just. Nothing, however, can be more 
 plainly taught us in the word of God, than this 
 truth, that “‘eéernal life is the gift of God through 
 Jesus Christ:’* nothing is more easily demon- 
 strated, than that man’s inability to serve God 1s 
 entirely of amoral nature ; an inability, which is so 
 far from exculpating the guilt of his disobedience, 
 that it constitutes the very measure of that guilt. 
 
 But if so, divine justice can lie under no possible - 
 obligation to remove that inability. If, therefore, 
 
 the Spirit of God is poured out upon the weak 
 and sinful children of men, it is not because God | 
 is in justice bound to bestow that gift upon them. 
 On the contrary, the gift of the Spirit is among 
 
 ® Rom. vi. 23. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 145 
 
 the most astonishing manifestations of the riches 
 of his grace. 
 
 Nor is it trae, that the Spirit of God, when 
 bestowed upon the faithful, assists them to perform 
 a meritorious obedience; or in any way assists 
 them to procure eternal life for themselves. On the — 
 contrary, the very gift of the Holy Spirit compre- ; 
 hends within it the gift of eternal life. Vt is the 
 same spirit which now regenerates and sanctifies 
 the believer, that is the seminal principle of his 
 
 ' future and eternal glory: so that he who hath the 
 
 Spirit of God dwelling within him, has already 
 commenced, if I may so speak, the career of 
 immortality. It is not merely promised to him, 
 that he shall at the resurrection of the dead be 
 
 raised up by the power of Christ, to die no more: — 
 it is declared of him, that he already lives; that 
 he has entered on a state of being which shall. 
 endure for ever, and that he shall never die. 
 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth 
 my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation; but %s passed from death unto life. 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, 
 and now 2s, When the dead shall hear the voice of 
 
 the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.’* 
 
 And again, “ Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
 my blood, hath eternal life; and 1 will raise him 
 
 up at che last day.”} And what that eternal life 
 
 * John y. 24, 25, + Ibid. vi. 54. 
 L 
 
146 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 is, our Lord afterwards explains; ‘‘ He that eateth 
 my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, 
 and I in him: as the living Father hath sent me, 
 and J live by the Father; so he that eateth me, 
 even he shall live by me.”* From which it is most 
 evident, that by the words “eternal life” he did 
 not intend a mere perpetuation of that principle 
 of life which is common to all mankind. The 
 life of which he here speaks, is a life immediately 
 derived from the inhabitation of the Spirit of 
 ~ Christ. It is by his, dwelling in them, and they 
 in him, that his people are to live. 
 
 ’ To mark more strongly the distinction between 
 merely animal existence, and that eternal life 
 ‘which is promised to all true believers, I may 
 observe, first, that eternal life is not promised as 
 a future blessing, not to be enjoyed by the faithful 
 till after the resurrection, and as the consequence 
 of it; but as a life to be émmediately imparted to 
 them, and whose communication should precede 
 the resurrection of the body. Hence it is affirmed, 
 that he who believeth, hath eternal life: not that 
 he shall hereafter enjoy it. Hence, too, the pe- 
 culiar order in which eternal life and a future 
 resurrection of the body are placed in the promises 
 of Christ. It is not said of believers, that they 
 shall be raised from the dead, and shall have 
 eternal life; as it would have been, if the future 
 resurrection were to precede the enjoyment of 
 
 * John vi. 56, 57. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 147 
 
 eternal life. On the contrary, eternal life takes 
 the precedence i in the promise of Christ, as it also 
 does in the order of its communication. “ This 
 is the will of him that sent me, that every one 
 which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may 
 have everlasting life; and Iwill raise him up at the 
 last day.’* And so, in the words I have quoted — 
 above, “‘Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
 blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him dy 
 at the last day.” | 
 
 But further, the life promised by Christ to his . 
 people, is a life similar in its nature and principle 
 to that of Christ himself. “As the living Father 
 
 hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that 
 _eateth me, even he shall live by me.”{ Whatever 
 
 constitutes the principle of life in the Son, is to’ 
 become, according to this promise, the principle 
 of life in all true believers. But the principle of” 
 life in the Son is here distinctly specified, so as 
 to leave us in no doubt respecting it; it is the 
 indwelling of the Father in the Son. Hence it 
 follows, that the principle of life in believers, is. 
 the indwelling of Christ in them. That it is so; 
 is not left even to inference, it is explicitly asserted ; 
 “He that eateth my flesh, soilless, in me; and 
 L in him.Ӥ 
 
 For this blessing, the Saviour interceded on 
 behalf of all his people, even to the end of time, 
 in that prayer which he offered up in the presence 
 
 * John vi 40. + Ibid. 54. t Ibid. 57. «4 Ibid. 56. 
 
148 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 of his disciples, the evening preceding his suffer- 
 ings; ‘‘ Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
 them also which shall believe on me through their 
 
 word; that they ali may be one; as thou Hather 
 art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one — 
 in us; that the world may believe that thou hast 
 sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, 
 L have given them; that they may be one, even as 
 we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they 
 may be made perfect in one ; and that the world may 
 know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, 
 as thou hast loved me.”* That this prayer of 
 Christ for his people refers to the outpouring 
 of his Spirit, must be evident to all. To a future 
 life it cannot refer; as the object of the communi- 
 cation of the blessing here interceded for is 
 expressly said to be, to convince the world of the 
 Messiahship of Jesus, and of God's especial love 
 to his disciples; an effect obviously confined 
 ‘within the limits of the present life. And, being 
 offered in behalf of all his people to the end of 
 time, the blessing here interceded for, must be one 
 which is common to the faithful in all ages; and, 
 consequently, cannot refer to the miraculous gifts 
 of the Spirit. It can only intend the gift of the 
 Spirit in his enlightening, regenerating, and sanc- 
 tifying operations. 
 
 - But does it not follow from. this, that the gift 
 of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of eternal life, are 
 
 * John xvii. 20—23. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 149 
 
 identically the same? To my mind the inference 
 is so plain, that I cannot see any possible way of 
 escaping from it. Nor let it be thought a matter 
 of indifference, whether we come to this conclu- 
 sion or not. The consequences resulting from its 
 adoption are im the highest degree important. For | 
 if the indwelling of God’s Spirit in the heart be’ : 
 the eternal life promised by Christ to believers, 
 
 then obedience to the will of God is the fruit ot 
 eternal hfe already begun in the soul, and not 
 the price paid to procure it. We obey, not that 
 we may live hereafter; but because we already live. 
 And this is exactly consonant with that saying of 
 Christ ; ‘« Abide in me, and Lin you. As the branch 
 cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
 vine; nO more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
 1 am the vine, ye are the branches: he that. 
 abideth in me, and Tin him, the same bringeth 
 forth much fruit; for without me ye can do 
 nothing.”* We are equally indebted to Christ for 
 our fruitfulness in good works, as we are for our 
 eternal salvation. They both flow from one com- 
 mon source, the gift of his Holy Spirit. It is he 
 who now sanctifies believers in the present world; 
 
 and it is Ae who will quicken our mortal Bodies 
 at the last day, and transform them into the like- 
 ness of Christ's glorified body. Of this we have 
 an express testimony ; for thus writes our Apostle; 
 “Tf Christ be in you, the body i is dead because of 
 
 * John xy. 4, 6. 
 
150 MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 
 But if the Spirit of him, that raised up Jesus from 
 the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ 
 from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
 
 by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”* Yes, that same 
 
 Spirit, who now quickens the souls of believers 
 to a new and holy life, shall, at the final day, 
 quicken their very bodies, which, because of sin, 
 are first doomed to see corruption. 
 
 -But if the Spirit of God, already bestowed 
 upon the faithful, be itself the fountain of eternal 
 life, agreeably to that promise of the Saviour, 
 “ the water that I ‘shall give him shall be in him 
 a well of water, springing up into everlasting 
 life;’} then certainly it follows, that the Spirit of 
 God is not given to such as believe, to enable 
 them to acquire for themselves a title to future 
 blessedness. It is not afforded as means necessary 
 to assist them in obtaining justification, but as the 
 seal of their present state of justification, and as 
 the fruit of that righteousness of their blessed 
 Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, by which they 
 are already constituted righteous before God. 
 But this doctrine must not be passed over so 
 
 slightly ; it deserves a more attentive consideration | 
 
 than we have yet bestowed upon it; and, if Iam 
 not greatly mistaken, the remarks which will be 
 
 submitted to the reader in the following chapter, 
 
 will throw considerable light on two of the most 
 
 * Rom. viii. 10, 11. + John iy. 14. 
 
MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 151 
 
 important doctrines of the word of God; justifica- 
 tion, and regeneration ; doctrines which lie at the 
 very foundation of all saving knowledge of divine 
 truth; but which, even to the present day, not- 
 withstanding the light thrown on them by the 
 glorious Reformation, still continue involved in. 
 very great obscurity. | 
 
152 CONNECTION BETWEEN . 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 ON THE SAME SUBJECT. 
 
 Tue reader will recollect, that it was formerly 
 stated, that justification includes in it, besides the 
 remission of past sins, the gracious award of life; 
 and hence, that, wherever it really takes place, it 
 is invariably accompanied with the outpouring of 
 the Holy Spirit. . I feel anxious to establish this 
 position. It is the hinge on which some of the 
 most important truths of divine revelation turn. 
 It is the key which opens some of its most sub- 
 lime, sanctifying, and consolatory mysteries. It 
 gives to faith its assurance, to love its ardours, to 
 hope its immoveable confidence. It casts a light 
 on every region of revealed truth, dispelling the 
 mists of error in which they have been, in some 
 degree accidentally, in some degree intentionally, 
 involved. In fine, it gives prominence to the 
 work of Christ, exhibiting him to the eye of faith 
 as “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
 
 end, the first and the last,” of the christian pro- | 
 
 fession. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 153 
 
 To understand the doctrine of justification by 
 faith in Christ, it is necessary that we advert to | 
 the nature of that righteousness which the law of 
 God demands, in order to our justification before 
 God. I may observe then, that to be justified by ~ 
 the law, it was necessary that a perfect obedience 
 was rendered to its requisitions. A negative | 
 righteousness, that is to say, the mere absence of 
 actual transgression, would not satisfy its de- 
 mands, or give any title to the reward promised 
 by it to the obedient. Its language was, “ Ye 
 shall therefore keep my statutes and my judg- 
 
 ments; which, if a man do, he shall live in them.”* 
 To entitle to the reward of life, a positive per- 
 
 formance of its prescribed duties is, by this condi- 
 tion, most obviously required. But if perfect 
 obedience to the law of God be necessary to ob- 
 tain “ justification of life,” who can hope to live? 
 Blessed. be God, his holy word supplies us with 
 an answer to this question. It declares that “ by 
 the obedience of one, the many shall be made 
 righteous,” + and so become entitled to eternal 
 life.“ For if by one man’s offence death reigned 
 by one; much more they which receive abundance 
 of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall 
 reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” t 
 
 The mighty task which the Son of God 
 undertook to accomplish, included far more than 
 merely satisfying the penalty of disobedience. 
 
 * Ley. xviii. 5. 9+ Romiv.19. — t Ibid. 17. 
 
154 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 Had he only paid the penalty of the law, the sole 
 _ effect of his vicarious death would have been, 
 exempting his people from the obligation to 
 suffer. To entitle them to Life, he must also obey 
 the law. For it is not to be supposed, that the 
 gospel has made any, even the slightest change 
 in the principles of God’s moral administration. 
 Whatever was requisite under a covenant of law 
 -to give a title to life, is still requisite ; and, though 
 it be true, that life is awarded to the guilty and 
 the disobedient, it is not because God has aban- 
 doned that principle, on which he formerly pro- 
 fessed to administer his righteous government; 
 viz. of connecting righteousness with life. This 
 would be a virtual acknowledgment, that the 
 condition was too hard, and that he had been 
 compelled to recede from his original demands, 
 from an experience of the impracticability of 
 enforcing them consistently with the ends’ of his 
 righteous administration. The scheme of our 
 salvation contains no such surrender on the part 
 of the Deity. The amazing wonder of that scheme 
 consists, in its comprehending a plan for awarding 
 life to the ungodly, in consideration of a perfect 
 righteousness. ‘‘ For therein is the righteousness 
 of God, which is by faith, revealed to faith.” * 
 And if this glorious scheme of the wisdom and 
 love of God be but once clearly apprehended, the 
 effect which it will produce on the mind -will be 
 
 * Rom. i. 17, 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 155 
 
 _ that which St. Paul, once a proud pharisee, 
 
 experienced, when he beheld, in the glorified 
 Redeemer, ‘“ the Lord his righteousness.” Before 
 this discovery of God’s method of justifying the 
 ungodly, he had trusted in himself that he was 
 righteous. But when Christ was revealed to him 
 as ‘the end of the law for righteousness to every 
 one that believeth,’* the infinite grandeur and 
 glory of this wonderful contrivance of God; the 
 perfection and beauty of the righteousness of 
 Christ, when compared, or rather contrasted, 
 with his own boasted righteousness; and the. 
 blessed consequences resulting from it to the 
 faithful, so far surpassing in their glory the rewards 
 which he had hoped to merit by his own obe- 
 dience; that he abandons the refuge in which he 
 
 _ had formerly trusted, as “a refuge of lies,” and 
 
 flies to “‘ the hope set before him in the gospel.” 
 And the more intimate his acquaintance with the 
 righteousness of God revealed for a sinner’s justi- — 
 fication, the more profound his admiration of it, 
 
 and the more earnest his desire to be interested in 
 
 “the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It was at. 
 the close of his christian profession that he thus 
 
 wrote to the saints at Philippi; “ But what things’ 
 were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. - 
 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all 
 
 * Rom. x. 4, 
 
od 
 
 156 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 things, and do count them but dung, that I may 
 win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine 
 own righteousness which is of the law, but that 
 which is through the faith of Christ, the righteous- 
 ness which is of God by faith: that lmay know 
 him, and the power of his resurrection, and the 
 fellowship of his sufferings, being made con- 
 formable unto his death; if by any means | 
 
 - mnight attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”* 
 
 Would to God that the holy fervour of St. Pail, 
 when expressing his faith in the righteousness of 
 Christ, characterized all who bear the christian 
 
 name. ‘That it does not, can only be ascribed to. _ 
 
 the different light in which many, professing that 
 name, regard the person and work of him in 
 whom they profess to trust. The following obser- 
 vations on that part of the glorious plan of our 
 salvation, by which Christ becomes at once the 
 righteousness and the life of his people, will, 
 
 I hope, tend, under the blessing of God, to render. a 
 
 Christ more precious to the pious reader, and 
 enable him to adopt as his own, with a full 
 perception of its meaning and force, the glowing 
 language of St. Paul, just quoted. . 
 
 How then, it will be asked, did Christ become 
 the righteousness of God to every one that be- 
 lieveth? Let the words of St. Paul supply an 
 answer to this inquiry; ‘“ But when the fulness of 
 the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made 
 
 * Philip, iii, 7—11. 
 
 \ i es Paes aoe = Sa ee ae Se a Ee pl Se ¥ z ea Liss "Oe 
 : sf FS oe OE, ie tan eae aS re Sete eee re = z ess Se mt ete ee aL ey oe 
 bap as Ss bee hit oe Sey = ty 8 a = = ne pe Se Bee. Sa ee eee ee — aS a YY Soe a A F 
 2 PSR SS a OW ce spe a a On eee P 7 SS een a Ee ye ee es Se. 
 
 aoe 
 Redan Seed eet NS. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 157 
 
 of a woman, made under the law, to redeem us 
 that were under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of sons.”* These words comprehend 
 the whole mystery of our justification through the 
 righteousness of Christ. “He was made of a 
 woman,” says the Apostle; that is, he took upon 
 him the likeness of men; for, had he not been 
 ‘‘ found in fashion as a man,” he could not have 
 rendered to the law that obedience which it 
 required. His incarnation, therefore, was the 
 
 first step towards the accomplishment of his 
 
 great design—the bringing in an everlasting righte- 
 ousness. Without this he could not have obeyed 
 the law. But having become incarnate, he was 
 capacitated to obey it; for he had now assumed 
 “the form of a servant.” And this obedience he 
 actually performed; for it is added, “ he was 
 made under the law ;” or, as the words ought to 
 have been rendered, “ he was made under law ;” 
 that is, he was placed under a dispensation of law; 
 being required, as. the indispensable condition of 
 justifying his people, to render to the law a perfect 
 and sinless obedience. ‘To him no grace, that is, 
 no favour, was to be shewn. Impartial and 
 rigorous justice was appointed to weigh in her 
 righteous balance his every thought, and word, 
 and deed. It is this idea, and not his subjection 
 
 to the Mosaic law, which St. Paul intended by 
 
 the expression, “ he was made under law.” 
 
 * Gal, iv. 4, 5, + vo vouoy, without the article. 
 
es 
 158 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 It was this subjection to law, which imposed 
 the necessity of appointing to the work so exalted 
 a personage as the Sonof God. In him there was 
 no sin, not only actual, but possible. And had it 
 been possible that he could have sinned, the whole 
 scheme of divine mercy might have been frustrated ; 
 and then, man failing again in his second, as in 
 his first federal head, must have perished without 
 hope of redemption. Had the obedience of the 
 highest created being been adequate to justify 
 the whole race of man; that is, had it afforded 
 a consideration at all commensurate with the 
 benefits which were to follow from it, in the gift 
 of everlasting life to all believers—which we can- 
 not for a moment consent to allow; yet, even 
 granting this, no created being, however exalted 
 his high rank in the creation,-could have given 
 beforehand any security that he would accomplish 
 the task. Even angelic spirits, pure as they were 
 first formed, had failed in their allegiance, and for 
 the just punishment of their rebellion, had been 
 cast down to hell, there to reap for ever the sad 
 fruits of their apostacy. Some indeed remained 
 firm and unshaken amidst sedition and revolt; 
 but to have secured even them from the possibility 
 of defection, would have required the exercise of 
 
 that grace, which, from the very nature of the 
 
 scheme of redemption, it was necessary the Deity 
 should withhold. For he who should undertake 
 to redeem those who were “under law,” must 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 159 
 
 y) 
 
 himself be “made under law;” in other words, 
 must be placed under a dispensation of rigid and 
 impartial justice; the very principle of which 
 would have been violated, had any favour, any 
 thing beyond what justice was bound to do for 
 him who was under such a dispensation, been 
 conferred on the substitute of sinners. ~ 
 
 But, by appointing the Son of God to the 
 great work, every difficulty is removed. While his. 
 incarnation capacitates him to yield an obedience 
 ‘to the law; his divine nature, ineflably united to | 
 his humanity, secured that obedience from the 
 possibility of defect. Being one with God, his will . 
 could not but be in perfect unison with the will of 
 God: and in this perfect conformity consists the 
 essence and perfection of true holiness. Such a 
 conformity, the blessed Jesus ever exhibited. 
 ‘‘ My meat,” said’he, “is to do the will of him 
 that sent me, and to finish his work.”* Nothing 
 could for one moment divert him from his fixed 
 purpose to obey. While the first Adam was com- 
 pletely vanquished by one single assault of the 
 subtle adversary; the second Adam, the Lord 
 from heaven, bore unshaken his most furious and 
 repeated onsets. Neither men, nor devils, in the 
 full height of their power, when permitted by God — 
 to employ against his Son every stratagem which 
 subtlety or malice could devise, and) when long 
 experience may be supposed to have perfected 
 
 ~ 
 
 1 
 
 * John iv. 34. 
 
160 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 the deceiver and destroyer of our race in the 
 knowledge and practice of every possible artifice 
 of seduction, could obtain over the blessed Jesus 
 one momentary triumph. He could anticipate the 
 ' Jast great struggle in the full confidence of victory; 
 “The prince of this world cometh,” says he to 
 his afflicted followers, “and hath nothing in me.”* 
 
 And_ yet, to ensure his perfect obedience, no 
 x favour, no act of grace, nothing beyond what 
 : justice itself required, was extended to the Son of 
 : God. That the Spirté of holiness was poured out 
 : upon him without measure, to anoint him to his 
 Be. work, is true. But to the Son of God this was no 
 act of grace; he could claim it as his due: for 
 being the ‘“‘ Eternal Life,” he was himself the foun- 
 tain of the Spirit of life. And hence it was, that 
 the Spirit was given to him without measure. Still, 
 : however, he was “made under law.” 
 
 The nature of that dispensation under which 
 our Redeemer would be placed, as a dispensation 
 ; of pure and rigid justice, was very strikingly 
 4 ee shadowed forth by the ark of the testimony, into 
 : which Moses was commanded by Ged to put the — 
 two tables of the law. The history of this trans- 
 action is so peculiar, and yet, probably so little 
 adverted to by many, that the reader will, I hope, 
 excuse me, if I quote the sacred narrative at 
 ‘ length. The fullest account of it we find in the 
 4 book of Deuteronomy, at the beginning of the ‘ 
 
 * John xiv. 30. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 16] 
 
 tenth chapter. It runs thus; “ At that time,” (that 
 is to say, immediately after the people of Israel 
 had, at the intercession of Moses, been graciously 
 forgiven their sin in worshipping the golden calf, 
 and when, as has been before observed, the cove- 
 nant of Mount Sinai was virtually at an end, and 
 the covenant of grace made with Abraham had 
 been renewed with his posterity,) “at that time, 
 the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of — 
 stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into 
 the mount, and make thee ah ark of wood: and 
 I will write on the tables the words that were in 
 ihe first tables, which thou breakest, and thou shalt 
 
 ae put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim- 
 
 wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the 
 Jirst, and went up into the mount, having the two 
 tables in mine hand, And he wrote on the tables, 
 according to the first writing, the ten command-— 
 ments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount 
 
 out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assem- 
 bly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And 
 
 I turned myself, and came down from the mount, 
 and put the tables in the ark which E had made; and 
 there they be, as the Lord commanded me.” —__ 
 How confirmatory of the observations above 
 made, on the nature of that covenant. of law 
 
 _ under which the divine Redeemer was placed, is 
 the whole of this transaction from first to last. 
 
 The words written on the two tables of stone, | 
 which Moses was commanded to prepare, were, 
 M 
 
$< 
 
 4162 . CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 as Moses observes, “the words that were in the 
 first tables,” or, as he afterwards more emphatically 
 
 expresses it, they were “according to the first ¢ 
 
 writing,” even “ the ten commandments, which the 
 Lord spake in the mount out of the midst of the 
 fire, in the day of the assembly.” It was, therefore, 
 the law of the covenant of works, already broken 
 by the people of Israel, which was to be put into 
 the ark. It was that very law, which had been 
 
 delivered by the mouth of Jehovah himself, out 
 
 of the midst of the fire;—that law, which made 
 no provision for the exercise of mercy, even in 
 
 gressed by the whole Israelitish nation, gave them 
 up to utter excision ;—a sentence which Jehovah 
 
 would have executed, “ had not Moses,” that 
 illustrious type of Christ, the true Mediator, — 
 ‘stood before him in the breach, to turn away his a 
 wrath, lest he should destroy them.*—This very oy 
 aw, so rigorous and unrelenting in its demands, — 
 Moses is commanded to put into the ark. I scarcely — 
 need observe, that the ark itself was an illustrious hs 
 
 type of Christ. Such has it been considered by 
 
 the church in all ages. To its typical reference to __ 
 
 case of one single violation of its authority, but 
 which threatened death as the penalty of one a 
 offence:—that law, which, when actually trans- — 
 
 the Messiah, the writer to the Hebrews bears an 
 testiinony.t And to this striking emblem of Christ’ 
 as “the end of the law for righteousness,” David, 
 
 * Psalm cvi. 23. ~ + Heb. ix. 4. | 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 163 
 
 or rather I should say, the Spirit of Christ, speak- 
 ing by the mouth of David, evidently alludes, 
 where he says, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst 
 not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt- 
 offering and sin-offering hast thou, not required. 
 Then. said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the 
 
 book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, 
 
 a 
 
 O my God: yea, thy law ts within my heart. 
 And, considering the ark as an acknowledged. 
 type of Christ, the import of the transaction which | 
 Moses records in the words I have above quoted, 
 cannot be mistaken. 
 But to return from this short digression. | was 
 observing that Christ, having been made under 
 
 law, perfectly obeyed the will of God. And by 
 
 this nis obedience, he became entitled to claim 
 the promised reward of life. The law had said, 
 “The man that, doeth these things shall live by 
 them.” It was therefore but just, that as Christ 
 had suffered death as the penalty of sin, so in like | 
 mauner, he should enjoy life, as the reward of 
 righieousness. ‘The law could not, for the purpose 
 of expiation, demand more than the payment of 
 the penaliy. Lo expiate sin, therefore, it was only 
 
 “necessary that he should die. But he had done 
 
 more than this; he had obeyed the law, as well 
 as endured its curse; and this obedience he had 
 rendered by virtue of his own essential godhead, 
 mysteriously united to- his humanity. This, by 
 
 * Psalm x], 6—8, 
 
164 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 entitling his humanity to a communication, with- 
 out measure, of the Spirit of holiness, even though 
 placed under a dispensation of rigid justice, se- 
 cured his obedience from the possibility of defect. 
 Now, by the very terms and express condition of 
 the law, he had acquired a right to life, as the 
 reward of his perfect obedience. And it seemed 
 
 expedient, that the life given to him, should be — i 
 
 immediately derived from that nature, which was 
 the true fountain of all his purity and perfection ; 
 and this was the godhead dwelling in him bodily: 
 that, as the nature which he had assumed, and 
 which had incurred the penalty of transgression, 
 exposed him to the pains of death; so the nature 
 which assumed to itself humanity for the purpose 
 
 of expiation, and which gave to his obedience all 
 
 its dignity and perfection, should, in its turn, after 
 expiation was made, communicate its own divine 
 
 fulness and glory to the humanity which it had 
 
 assumed, and by which it was capacitated to 
 render an obedience to the law. To have merely 
 restored the same life which Christ had offered up 
 upon the cross in expiation of sin, would neither 
 have demonstrated the true source of his perfect 
 righteousness, nor would it have been a reward 
 at all adequate to the infinite merit of his obedience; 
 besides which, as I observed before, it would 
 have been.a surrendering back on the part of 
 divine justice of the penalty it had just before so 
 rigidly exacted. To which 1 may add, that the 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 165 
 
 mere restoration of that animal life which expired 
 on the tree, would not have answered the pur- 
 pose of our salvation, as the reader will soon 
 perceive. But, by his resurrection to a new and 
 divine life, every difficulty is removed. The 
 blessed Jesus is amply repaid for all his toils, 
 labours, and sufferings; the principle of his recti- 
 tude is strikingly manifested ; divine justice is not 
 made to relent its former severity; and ample 
 provision is made for effecting that great work, 
 which, on his resurrection from the dead, the 
 Redeemer had yet to perform. For when God 
 raised him from the dead, he “set him at his own 
 right hand,” “ put all things under his feet,” and. 
 constituted him the “ head over all things to his 
 church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
 filleth all in all.” 
 
 The life to which our Redeemer was raised 
 up by the power of God, he received in his 
 character of the head of his body, the church. 
 For he was under no obligation to obey the law, 
 except what arose from the federal relation which 
 he voluntarily engaged to sustain. And that he 
 
 _did not resort to this, as an expedient for gaining 
 
 any accession to his original glory, cannot be 
 supposed, unless that which is already infinite, 
 can admit of increase. It was grace alone which 
 induced him to undertake to recover lost and 
 ruined man. The glory to which he is now 
 exalted, is but the same glory which he had with 
 
166 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 the Father before the world began. It is not his 
 deity; which is either ennobled or exalted. ‘This 
 admits of no addition, no increase, either of glory 
 or of blessedness. It is the humanity, associated 
 to the godhead for the purpose of redemption, 
 
 that is glorified. And this God exalts to his own — . 
 
 right hand; and to his Son as Immanuel, God 
 and Man in one mysterious person, he commits 
 the government of all worlds. To him, as the 
 Mediator and Advocate of his people, he gives all 
 power in heaven and on earth ; and assigns to him 
 the glorious work of recovering a lost and ruined 
 world; of gathering together in one all things in 
 heaven and on earth; of quickening the dead in 
 trespasses and sins; of renewing the moral crea- 
 tion of God in all its original beauties; and 
 causing, to use the figurative language of pro- 
 phecy, “ the desert to rejoice and blossom as the 
 rose.” 
 
 In entitling himself by his obedience to 
 claim life as a merited reward, it is plain our 
 blessed Redeemer could have no possible regard 
 to himself: for he had already in himself “ the 
 fountain of life.” “ In him,” as the essential word 
 of God, “ was life.”* His obedience must, con- 
 
 sequenily, have been rendered to the law, for the - 
 
 purpose of procuring the promised reward of life 
 for his people. It was to ‘‘ bring in an everlasting 
 righteousness,” such as should entitle him to 
 
 * John i. 4 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 167 
 
 bestow eternal life on all his people, that he con- 
 sented to be ‘‘ made of a woman, made under law.” 
 For the great Redeemer can only be rewarded 
 
 _with life in the persons of his people. In no other 
 
 way can he be recompensed for his infinitely 
 meritorious obedience. | 
 Nor should it be forgotten, that the glory to 
 which the Father covenanted to exalt his Son, 
 was the glory of working out salvation for his 
 people. ‘This was ‘“ the joy which was set before 
 him,” and which led him to assume the humble 
 “form of a servant.” It was this which induced 
 him to leave for a time the bosom of the Father, 
 and to dwell with men. He had before received 
 from the Father commission to create: and this 
 commission he had fully executed; for “ by him 
 
 _, were all things created in heaven and on earth.” 
 
 But now he receives. from the Father authority to 
 save. And fired, if I may thus speak of ‘the 
 Kternal Word, with the godlike ambition of be-. 
 coming the author of the new, as he already was 
 of the first creation, he undertakes this second, and 
 more glorious work. More glorious, I say. For 
 to infinite wisdom, and irresistible power, he must 
 now add unsullied purity, indefectible rectitude, 
 and matchless grace. These perfections of deity 
 too he possessed; and resolved to show, that the 
 holiness and love of God were not eclipsed by his 
 
 > wisdom or his power, he accepts the task assigned 
 
 to him, and consents for a time to.vail the glories 
 
 AR 
 
168 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 _of his’ eternal godhead in human flesh. He 
 assuines ‘‘ the form of a servant,” and, though 
 Lord of all, himself submits to obey. And having 
 performed his appointed service, he claims his 
 merited reward. And what reward does he ask 
 for? O godlike compassion! O wondrous grace! 
 he claims to be made the Head and Saviour of a 
 lost and ruined world! Incapable of receiving 
 any addition to his own glory or blessedness, he 
 is satisfied to be made the dispenser of those 
 rewards which he had become entitled to claim. 
 He had purchased life, and he asks to give life to 
 a dying world. This his request is granted; for 
 how could it in justice be refused him? He is 
 made “the head of his body, the church ;” and 
 ‘‘ power is given to him over all flesh, that he may 
 
 give eternal life”’* to all his redeemed people. 
 
 This power he receives on his resurection from 
 
 the dead. It is then that he is invested with this’ 
 
 glorious prerogative of quickening the dead. For 
 the life to which he is exalted at the right hand of 
 God bears no resemblance to his life while here 
 upon the earth. The latter was frail and mortal. 
 But the life to which he was quickened is im- 
 
 mortal, divine, and vivifying. And in this respect © 
 
 it differed essentially from that principle of life 
 which Adam received, when God breathed into 
 him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. 
 This essential difference St. Paul notices in the 
 
 * John xvii. 2. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 169 
 
 contrast which he draws between the first and the 
 second Adam. “ The first Adam,” he observes, 
 “was made a living soul, the last Adam’ a 
 quickening spirit.” * 
 
 And this spirit of life, received by our divine 
 _ Redeemer in the character of the head of the 
 church, is the believer's security that he shall 
 finally be saved. And O, what ample security 
 does it afford! Well might our Redeemer say, 
 and well may the sheep of Christ rejoice in that 
 gracious saying; ‘‘ My sheep hear my voice, I _ 
 know them, and they follow me. And I give 
 unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of my 
 hand.” + Were Christ's sheep to perish, even 
 the feeblest of them for whom he gave his life ‘a 
 ransom, Christ would himself lose a part of his 
 reward. And not only so, but the honour of 
 divine justice itself would be tarnished; as it 
 would be in fact a violation of an express com- 
 pact into which the Father had originally entered 
 with him. For, before his incarnation, it had 
 been solemnly promised him, that “ he should see 
 his seed, that he should prolong his days, and 
 that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in 
 his hand ;” that “by his knowledge he should 
 Justify many, because he should bear their iniqui- - 
 ties."[ ‘The justice and faithfulness of God then 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv.45.  f John x. 27,28. t_Isaiah lili. 10, 11. 
 
170 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 both stand equally pledged for the final salvation. 
 of the redeemed. 
 
 On this rock of salvation may every believer 
 in Christ rest with firm confidence. Let him 
 know in whom he has believed ; even in him who 
 identifies his own glory with his people’s salva- 
 tion; in him, who, by his perfect obedience to the 
 law, has merited the reward of life, and may 
 justly claim: that reward as his righteous due; 
 but who, in consequence of his own essential 
 dignity and infinite perfection as the fountain 
 of life, is utterly incapable of being rewarded 
 according to the infinite merit of his obedience, 
 - but as he is made the author of eternal salvation 
 to his faithful people. And when to this is 
 added, that the Father himself has most solemnly 
 
 promised to give his Son a reward adequate to his 
 
 worthiness, and commensurate with the largest 
 desires of his heart, so that the infinite compassion 
 
 and .grace which urged him to undertake the 
 
 cause of perishing sinners, should repose in it 
 with most perfect satisfaction; what eround of 
 hope, nay, of confident triumph, can the true 
 
 believer want more? Weil may fe have peace © 
 
 with God who is thus justified by faith in Jesus 
 Christ! Well may he, while trusting in the power 
 of his risen and ascended Lord, his righteousness 
 and his life, bid a holy defiance to all the enemies 
 of his salvation. ‘To destroy the feeblest of 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 171 
 
 ~ Christ's sheep, they must pluck them out of his 
 hand who died to redeem, and who arose to save 
 
 them. The task they undertake is nothing short 
 of spoiling him of the reward of his obedience ; of 
 the only reward he can ever possibly receive in 
 recompense of all his toils; of a reward secured 
 to him by the promise and oath of God; and this, — 
 now that all things in heaven and earth are made 
 subject to him. “And can they succeed? They 
 cannot. “My sheep shall never perish, neither 
 shall any man pluck them out of my hand;” is 
 the confident assurance which our Redeemer has - 
 graciously given us. Let the sheep of Christ 
 rejoice in this saying of their “ good shepherd,” 
 and respond to it in the language ef St. Paul— 
 for his holy confidence becomes every true be- 
 liever ;—‘‘ | am persuaded that neither death, nor 
 
 _ life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 
 things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
 depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
 separate us from the love of God, which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord.” * 
 
 But it will be asked, if eternal life is thus 
 infallibly secured to all true believers by the | 
 righteousness of Christ, does not this rather 
 exclude, than demonstrate, the necessity of per- 
 sonal sanctification? This question is highly 
 important, and merits to be distinctly answered. 
 
 ‘But perhaps it is not so difficult of reply as some 
 
 '. * Rom, viii. 38, 39. 
 
 ' 
 
172 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 may suppose; and of this I hope fally to satisfy 
 the reader before I dismiss the subject. 
 
 We have seen in our inquiries into the charac- 
 teristic peculiarities of a dispensation of law, that 
 it requires perfect obedience, and that, in case of 
 failure, even in the slightest degree, it rigidly 
 exacts the forfeited penalty. We have also seen 
 that this was the character of the covenant origi- 
 nally made with our great progenitor; and that he, 
 having broken it, became immediately liable to the 
 exaction of the penalty. Now the penalty which 
 God had threatened was death, that is, the loss of 
 life. But this loss included in it two things essen- 
 tially different, the one involving in it natural, the 
 other spiritual, or moral evil. For when it is said 
 that God “ breathed” into man ‘the breath of life ; 
 and man became a living soul;”* we are not to 
 suppose that the life here spoken of comprehends 
 
 only animal existence. This he had in common 
 
 with the brute, or irrational creation, concerning 
 whom the same language is not used. The words” 
 must therefore import a life peculiar to him; a 
 life of which none of all the various inhabitants of 
 
 the earth partook but he alone. And this was | 
 
 spiritual life; a life by which he was capacitated 
 for the peculiar exercises and enjoyments of 
 spiritual being; in other words, of seeing, enjoying 
 
 and glorifying God. As by the animal life he 
 
 held communion with the sensible creation; so by 
 
 * Genesis ik, 7. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 173 
 
 this spiritual life he communed with the invisible 
 Creator. The former constituted the life of the 
 body, the latter the life of the soul. Each com- 
 ponent part of his mysterious nature, which 
 formed, as it were, the intermediate link between. 
 the visible and the invisible worlds, was thus 
 quickened to a life appropriate to itself. . It was | 
 therefore the loss of this twofold being, which 
 was denounced by the awful threatening, “ In the 
 day thou eatest, thou shalt surely de.” It was to 
 this twofold death, that the transgressor became 
 liable when he partook of the forbidden fruit. 
 No sooner had he broken the divine command, 
 than he ceased to commune with God. For such 
 high communion he felt no longer any relish. 
 His Maker, whose reviving presence he had once 
 courted and prized as his highest felicity, he now 
 shuns as an object of dread. “ Adam and his wife 
 hid themselves,” says the sacred narrative, “ from 
 the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees 
 
 of the garden.”* What a lively, but affecting 
 
 picture is here presented of the nature of spiritual 
 
 death—alienation from the life of God! And this 
 
 part of the sad consequence of his apostacy Adam 
 has transmitted to all his descendants. For that 
 
 _ they are “alienated from the life of God,” the 
 
 conscience of every man must testify. By nature. 
 all alike are enemies to God. They have no love 
 to his perfections, no regard for his authority, no _ 
 
 * Genesis iii, 8. _ 
 
174 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 delight in his pure and holy presence. He is not 
 in all their thoughts.-. I speak not of a few, or 
 even of a large proportion only of the children of 
 Adam. The word of unerring truth declares, 
 “'They are all gone aside, they are all: together 
 become filthy, there is none that doeth good, xo, 
 not one.”* Now this alienation of man from God 
 is the consequence of the sentence of death in- 
 curred by the one offence of Adam. ‘“ By one 
 
 man sin entered into the world.” “ Through the 
 
 offence of one the many died.’} 
 
 Now as spiritual death was the fruit of the one 
 offence of the first Adam, who is in this, if we 
 exactly reverse the consequences of the fall, “ the 
 type of him that was to come,” that is, Jesus Christ ; 
 SO spiritual life is the fruit of the obedience of the 
 second Adam. If it were not so, the parallel 
 would altogether fail; and, mstead of gaining 
 more by the second than we lost by our first 
 federal head, as St. Paul affirms, the most awful 
 consequences of the fall would remain unrepaired. 
 And indeed not only so, but if spiritual life were 
 not a consequence resulting to us from the obe- 
 
 4 
 
 dience of Christ, and as a fruit of our justification ~ 
 
 by faith in his righteousness, no man. could be 
 
 saved. For we receive no blessings under the 
 
 new covenant of grace, but what he has procured 
 
 for us by his obedience unto death. Though a, 
 
 scheme of the purest mercy, and most sovereigu 
 
 * Psalm xiv. 3. + Romans v. 12, 13, 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 175 
 
 grace, as it respects sinners themselves, the great 
 mystery of our salvation, and that which displays 
 its amazing wisdom, is, that, in relation to Christ, 
 the dispensation of these rich favours is a matter of 
 strict justice and right. We receive them, indeed, 
 as flowing from the infinite and self-origimating 
 love of God: but not so our Redeemer; he claims - 
 them as the purchase of his infinitely meritorious 
 obedience and death. 
 
 The sacred scriptures uniformly ascribe our 
 
 regeneration to Chrisé as its author. Tt is indeed 
 by the Spirit that he regenerates; but then it 
 
 should be remembered, that it is in him, as the - 
 
 fountain of all grace, that the Spirit is treasured 
 
 up for the benefit of his people; and that the | 
 right to bestow the Spirit was conferred upon 
 him as the reward of his perfect righteousness. 
 
 Of this truth no reader of the Gospel of St. John — 
 
 can for one moment doubt. Not to remind the 
 reader. of such ‘sayings as these, “ In him was 
 life ;'-—“ If thou knewest the gift of God, and who 
 zé.as that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou 
 wouldest have asked of Aim, and and he would 
 have given thee living water ;”—“ As the Father 
 raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so 
 the Son quickeneth whom he will;’—“ I am the 
 living bread which came down from, heaven ;’*— 
 not to dwell upon these striking testimonies, and 
 
 which it would be very easy to multiply, what in- 
 
 * John i, 4; iv. 10; v. 21; vi. ol, 
 
176 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 terpretation can we put upon the following words 
 addressed by Christ to his afflicted disciples, with. 
 a view to comfort them in the melancholy pro- 
 spect cf his speedy departurer “ It is expedient 
 - for you that I Zo away ; for if I go not away, the 
 Comforter will not come unto you; but if £ 
 depart, I will send him unto you.™ Or what shall 
 we say to that promise of Christ recorded and 
 explained by the same Evangelist in the words 
 which follow? ‘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 water. This spake he,” adds the 
 historian by way of comment, “ of the Spirit 
 which they that believe on him should receive: 
 for the Hely Ghost was not yet given; because 
 that Jesus was not yet glorified.”t I can assign 
 to such words no meaning, except it be, that the 
 dispensation of the Spirit is the prerogative of 
 Christ, bestowed upon him by the Father as the 
 reward of his perfect obedience. 
 
 Some may perhaps consider it as a matter of 
 comparative indifference, w hether or not we trace 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit to the righteousness of 
 ‘Christ as its procuring cause, provided we do but 
 admit ‘the necessity of the influence of the Spirit 
 to renew the heart. To such a doctrine, however, 
 ‘I am utterly unable to subscribe;-and I feel no 
 hesitation in saying, that it is to the prevalence of 
 
 * John xvi. 7. + Ibid, vii. 37—39. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION, 177 
 
 this sentiment, leading to unscriptural views of 
 divine influence, that we may ascribe, among 
 other causes, the rejection of the doctrine of 
 personal sanctification. Contrary to the uniform 
 practice of the sacred writers, many modern 
 divines have spoken of the work of the Holy 
 Spirit in a manner which would seem to imply 
 a total forgetfulness on their part of the righte- 
 ousness of Christ as the procuring cause of 
 this heavenly gift. Contrary to that saying of 
 Christ, “ He shall glorify me: for he shall re- 
 
 _ ceive of mine, and shall shew it unto you,”™ 
 
 the Spirit is made to bear testimony to his 
 own work, and not to the work of Christ. 
 And the consequence has been such as we might 
 have anticipated; viz. that others have denied the 
 Spirit’s work as a sanctifier. And for this reason : 
 they consider it as dishonourable to the fished 
 
 work of Christ, in whom all true believers are said 
 
 to be complete. - And certainly the apprehension 
 thus expressed for the honour of Christ would be 
 just and reasonable, if the work of the Spirit were 
 altogethér independent on the work of Christ, 
 But taking the view of regeneration and sauctifi- 
 cation which I have been endeavouring in the 
 course of this and the preceding chapter to 
 explain, nothing can be more absurd than such an 
 apprehension. 
 
 Nor is this the only consequence which has 
 
 * John xvi. 14, 
 N 
 
178 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 resulted from mistaken representations of the 
 work of the Spirit. It has led to mistaken views 
 of the justice of God, which, if the plan of re- 
 demption be but rightly apprehended, reigns and 
 triumphs, not only in the sufferings and death of 
 the blessed Redeemer, but in every other part of 
 _ the scheme of our salvation ; but which, according 
 to the too frequent mode of unfolding that scheme, 
 must be considered as resigning the throne of 
 deity to the more lovely attribute of mercy, as 
 soon as her vindictive claims were satisfied by the 
 shedding of the Saviour’s blood. But this is to 
 array divine justice in most awful colours indeed. 
 And no wonder that when she is never exhibited 
 to the view of the imagination but clothed in a 
 vesture dipped in blood, she should excite in the 
 mind sentiments of terror and aversion. For in 
 the death of the Redeemer we see only her awful 
 _ severity. To understand her true character we 
 must reverse the scene. For it is the prerogative 
 of justice to reward, as well as to punish; and it 
 is the glory of the gospel of our salvation to 
 exhibit her in the exercise of this more delightful 
 branch of her prerogative. Having vindicated the 
 insulted honour of the law in the death of God’s 
 only begotten Son, when he became an offering 
 ‘for sin, she asserts her right of assigning to him 
 the reward of his obedience. Having sheathed 
 the sword of vengeance with which she had 
 smitten the great Shepherd of the sheep, she 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 179 | 
 
 calls on him to awake from the sleep of death, 
 and to receive from her own right hand the inves- 
 titure of that universal dominion promised to his 
 obedience. Loving righteousness, as well as 
 hating iniquity, she cannot suffer so infinitely 
 meritorious a work as that of the Son of God to’ 
 pass unrequited. She claims for him the life he 
 had purchased ; and as he is himself “ the Eternal 
 Life,” and can admit of no increase of his original | 
 glory, she confers on him the divine prerogative of 
 bestowing eternal life on all his redeemed people. 
 Thus indirectly justice herself pleads for the 
 sinner’s acceptance with God, since she has no 
 way of testifying her love to righteousness, but 
 by awarding life to those who plead the merit of 
 their righteous surety. With such a plea to en- 
 force their suit, the vilest, the most unworthy, 
 need not, cannot despair. Not mercy alone, | 
 justice herself too is their friend. That God was 
 just was a thought which once filled their minds 
 with dismay; that God is just now fills them 
 with joy and peace. And hence, even when de- 
 precating the just severity of God, we hear the 
 
 holy Psalmist pouring out this prayer to God, 
 
 “ Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my sup- 
 plications; in thy faithfulness answer me, and an thy 
 righteousness. And enter not into judgment with 
 thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man. living 
 
 be justified.”* And in precisely the same spirit, 
 
 * Psalm cxliii, 1, 2. 
 
180 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 and with the same views of the divine perfections, 
 we find the beloved disciple extracting from the 
 most tremendous of the divine attributes, tremen- 
 dous I mean to a guilty sinner, the faithfulness 
 and the justice of God, matter of holy triumph ; 
 “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
 unrighteousness.”* : 
 
 The regeneration and anbeliin gol of belitvara 
 is the effect of that spiritual life which they 
 derive from Christ their exalted head. “I am 
 the vine,” says he, “ ye are the branches. fe 
 that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
 bringeth forth much fruit: for wethout me ye can 
 do nothing. Jf a man abide not in me, he is cast 
 forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather 
 them, and cast them into the fire, and they are 
 burned.”} And again, “ Because I live, ye shall 
 live also. At that day ye shall know that I am 
 in my Father, and ye in me, and J in you~ And 
 this power to impart spiritual life to his people, 
 our divine Redeemer received from the Father 
 when he arose from the dead. It was then the 
 Spirit of life entered into him; and by that Spirit - 
 he now quickens all who believe on his name. 
 
 That the resurrection of Christ forms a main 
 article of christian belief, every reader of the 
 New Testament must distinctly perceive. The 
 recognition of it is spoken of as necessary to 
 
 ® 1 John i. 9. + John xv. 5, 6, t Ibid. xiv. 19, 20. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 181 
 
 salvation. For thus writes our Apostle; “ If thou 
 shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and 
 shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised 
 him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”* But the 
 importance of this article of faith is not perhaps 
 generally ascribed to its real cause. It has, by 
 
 most writers on the subject, been represented, as) 
 
 consisting in the evidence it affords of the truth 
 of Christianity; of the divinity of the Saviour’s 
 mission. As Christ had predicted his own resur- 
 rection from the dead, he had voluntarily sub- 
 mitted that his character and pretensions should 
 be decided by this infallible test. Consequently, 
 had he always remained under the power of death, 
 his prediction would have been falsified; and, 
 according to his own test, his claims to the 
 Messiahship would have been negatived. 
 
 But, important as the doctrine of Christ’s re- 
 surrection may be considered in this point of. 
 view, it may yet be confidently affirmed, that it is 
 not in this circumstance that its importance alone, 
 or even principally consists. ‘To form proper con- 
 ceptions of its bearings on the great work of our 
 salvation, we must consult the sacred writers, 
 They will inform us, that “to this end Christ both 
 died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord 
 both of the dead and living.’t And again; “he 
 was delivered for our offences, and was raise 
 
 * Rom. x. 9. + Rom. xiy. 9, 
 
182 © CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 again for our justification.”* And again; “ if 
 when we were enemies, we were reconciled to 
 God by the death of his Son, much more, being 
 reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.’+ In short, 
 when our great Redeemer arose from the dead, he 
 arose to reign; to exercise that spiritual empire, 
 - which he will never cease to administer, until all 
 the purposes of his mediatorial kingdom shall be 
 fully accomplished. “For he must reign, till he 
 hath put all enemies under his feet.” | 
 
 And what is the nature of that dominion he 
 now exercises? With respect to his own people, 
 IT reply, he rules over them by the power of his 
 Spirit, regenerating and sanctifying their hearts, 
 until, having brought every thought into captivity 
 to himself, he presents them faultless before the 
 _throne of God. For “ to this end he both died, 
 and rose, and-revived.” 
 
 If indeed the resurrection of Christ were to be 
 considered as simply the reanimating his lifeless 
 body, by restoring-to it that very life which ex- 
 pired on the cross, it would be difficult to shew 
 any connection between the resurrection of Christ, 
 and the regeneration and sanctification of his 
 people. To connect them together, as it is plain 
 they are connected in the word of God, we must | 
 understand, that when Christ arose.from the dead, 
 he arose to the life of God. The’ principle of life 
 
 * Rom iy. 25. + Ib. v. 10. } 1 Cor. xv. 20. 
 
= 
 
 JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 183 
 
 in his risen humanity, was not the same with that 
 which had expired on the tree. It was the life of 
 man which he yielded up upon the cross; but it 
 is the life of God by which he was reanimated. 
 And hence, not only that amazing change which 
 passed upon the human nature of our blessed. 
 Lord when he arose; but the power which he has — 
 ever since exerted in quickening and animating 
 his body the church. | 
 
 _ The resurrection of Christ is at once the type, 
 and the principle, of the resurrection of his people. 
 
 - to newness of life. It is the ¢ype or pattern of it. 
 
 “Wherefore,” says the Apostle to his Ephesian 
 
 converts, “I cease not to make mention of you 
 
 in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the father of glory, may give unto you the 
 Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge 
 of him: the eyes of your understanding being 
 
 enlightened: that ye may know what is the hope 
 of his atti, and what the riches of the glory of 
 his inheritance in the saints, and what is the ea- 
 ceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who 
 believe, according to the working of his mighty 
 power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised 
 him from the dead, and set him at his own right 
 hand in the heavenly places, far above all princi- 
 paliy and power, and might, and dominion, and 
 every name that is named, not only in this world, 
 but in that which is to come; and hath put all things 
 under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all 
 
184 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 things to the church, which is his body, the fulness 
 of him that filleth all in all.”* 
 
 Of the glory to which our Redeemer was 
 advanced by his resurrection from the dead, we 
 could indeed have formed no conception, had he 
 not been pleased to manifest himself after his 
 ascension to glory, to some of his most favoured 
 disciples; and had they not also, for the confir- 
 mation of our faith, have left upon record what 
 they beheld. A vision of the glorified Saviour 
 was granted to the beloved disciple in the Isle of 
 Patmos, and it is thus he describes it; “I was 
 in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind 
 me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, J am 
 Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.—And 
 I turned to see the voice that spake with me. 
 And being turned, I saw seven golden candle- 
 sticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks 
 one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a gar- 
 ment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with 
 a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were 
 white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes 
 were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine 
 brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice 
 as the sound of many waters. And he had in his 
 right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went 
 a sharp two-edged sword; and his countenance was 
 as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw 
 ham,” says John, “‘ I fell at. his feet as dead. And 
 
 * Eph, i. 16—23. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 185 
 
 he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, 
 Fear not; £ am the first and the last: Tam he that 
 liveth, and was dead, and behold, Z am alive for 
 evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of 
 death.”* Where, in all this glorious representation, 
 do we find any resemblance of the once hungry, 
 thirsty, wearied, fainting, emaciated, bleeding, | 
 dying Saviour? Is this the man, who was born in 
 a stable, and cradled in a manger; who wrought 
 as a carpenter; who travelled as a pilgrim; who 
 was indebted to a few pious women for sustenance 
 and a home; who was dragged from prison to 
 judgment, and from condemnation to a cross? 
 Yes; this is he. ‘ fam he that was dead.” But 
 how altered! how transfigured! Whence this 
 amazing change? ‘The words of St. Paul furnish 
 the only intelligible solution of this mystery; “ He 
 was crucified through weakness, fe liveth by the 
 power of God.”+ And this mighty power of God, 
 exerted in raising up his Son, and setting him at 
 his own right hand, investing him with a name 
 which is above every name, and with a power to 
 which universal nature yields obedience; this is 
 the pattern of that energy, which is exerted in 
 quickening the dead in trespasses and sins. This, 
 this is the glorious type of the believer's regenera- 
 tion. “* According to the working of that mighty 
 | power, which God wrought in Christ, when he 
 ) raised him from the dead, and set him at his own 
 
 * Rey. i, 10—18., + 2 Cor. xiii. 4. 
 
186 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 right hand,” is “the exceeding greatness of his 
 
 power to us-ward who believe.” 
 
 And, as the resurrection of Christ is the type, 
 so it is the principle, the efficient cause of regene- 
 ration,—that spiritual resurrection, to which all 
 who believe in Christ are raised by the power of 
 God. “ Because I live,” said Christ to his discon- 
 solate disciples, ‘‘ye shall live also.”* But this 
 spirit of life he had not power to communicate 
 until after his resurrection from the dead. For 
 he communicates this life, not in his character of 
 the Eternal Word, in whom life essentially resides; 
 but as the Incarnate Word, who, having magnified 
 the law, and made it honourable, has entitled 
 himself to bestow eternal life on as many as the 
 Father had given him. Now it is evident, that 
 until his own humanity had become, by his resur- 
 rection from the dead, the well-spring, if I may 
 
 so speak, of life, no living streams could issue. 
 
 thence to quicken and revive his people. This 
 serves to explain the words I formerly quoted 
 from St. John, “The Holy Ghost was not yet 
 given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” It 
 was obviously necessary that he should himself 
 receive of the Father the gift of the Spirit, before 
 
 ~ he could bestow that gift upon his people; and 
 
 it was only through him, that they could be 
 made partakers of it. “ For as.in Adam all die, 
 so in Christ must all be made alive;’ I mean 
 
 * John xiv. 19. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 187 
 
 spiritually alive, or, in other words, partakers of 
 the spirit of life; for, as I have shewn before, it is 
 by the indwelling of the Spirit that all true be- 
 lievers live. All the blessings of the new covenant 
 flow to us through Christ, as the channel of their 
 communication. If believers are quickened, they 
 ‘are “quickened together with Christ ;” if they are 
 raised up, they are “raised up together” with 
 him; if they are filled with the fulness of God, it 
 is because they are the “members of his body,” 
 “the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” In 
 _ short, the spirit of life and holiness must be given 
 to those who believe, as the consequence of ‘the | 
 sentence of justification pronounced upon them, 
 and in execution.of the award of life, which forms 
 an essentially component part of that sentence. 
 I say in execution of that award ; for we must not 
 confound justification and regeneration. ‘Though 
 the latter be an inseparable consequence of the 
 former, it is yet perfectly distinct from it. Juséz- 
 Jjication is properly no more than a solemn adjudi- 
 - cation of the believer’s title to eternal life; and 
 this it is the office of the Father to pronounce; 
 according to that saying of the Apostle, “It is. 
 God that justifieth ;°* that is, as I understand his 
 words, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for 
 itis his law we have violated; and consequently, 
 it is he who must determine whether or not he 
 is satisfied with the vicarious obedience and death 
 
 * Romans vill. 33. 
 
188 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 of his Son. Regeneration, on the contrary, is the 
 communication of life to those who were spi- 
 ritually dead, in execution of that sentence by 
 which God the righteous judge had awarded to 
 them life, in consideration of his infinite delight 
 in. the righteousness of his Son. And this is 
 properly the work of Christ. “For as the Father 
 hath life in himself, ‘so hath he given to the Son to 
 have life in himself’* “As the Father raiseth up 
 the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son 
 quickeneth whom he will.t As a title is simply 
 a legal right to a possession, and is of no avail 
 unless that right is reduced into possession; so 
 justification, or a divinely adjudicated title to 
 life, is no more than a right to its possession, and 
 can be of no avail to us, unless it be subsequently 
 followed up by the gift of life. If indeed we were 
 already in possession of life, nothing further would 
 be wanting to our complete salvation than a so- 
 lemn adjudication of our right to it. If we only 
 stood, like criminals at the bar of a human 
 tribunal, charged with a capital offence, by which 
 our lives became forfeited to divine justice, and 
 we had not yet paid the forfeit; then indeed a 
 simple acquittal would be all we needed. But 
 this comparison does not strictly hold. Our life 
 is not merely forfeited to divine justice, it has 
 been in a measure paid; we are not merely liable 
 to condemnation, we are condemned already; 
 
 * John v. 26. + Ib. 21. 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 189 
 
 we are not merely awaiting the execution of the 
 sentence of the law, that sentence has been in 
 part already executed. In short, we are “dead 
 in trespasses and sins.” If no part of the sentence 
 of death had been put in execution, then indeed 
 
 a simple reversal of that sentence would perfect 
 
 our deliverance; but such a reversal will little 
 profit us, if that sentence has been, in a most 
 material part of it, already executed. If our 
 present condition were merely that of liability | 
 to death, a sentence of justification alone would 
 restore us to the full enjoyment of life. But 
 being already dead, not only must the sentence 
 of condemnation formerly passed upon us be 
 reversed, but the effects of that sentence. viz. 
 
 spiritual death, must be counteracted and re- 
 
 moved: otherwise justification would resemble, 
 not the acquittal of a prisoner from a capital 
 charge, to which it has been frequently compared, 
 but the reversal of an attainder by an act of 
 the legislature, after the death of the criminal. 
 In short, without regeneration, justification will 
 be to us of no avail. To enjoy the benefits 
 which it is intended to secure to us, we must be 
 ‘‘quickened together with Christ.” Then indeed 
 
 _ will it profit us, because then we shall be put 
 
 into possession of that inheritance of life, to 
 which the sentence of the great Judge has gra- 
 ciously restored us. | 
 
 These sentiments receive striking confirmation 
 
190 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 from what is said by St. Paul in the sixth chapter 
 of his Epistle to the Romans, to which I would 
 strongly recommend the reader’s attention. I 
 must beg leave to observe, however, that by a 
 mistranslation of one or two expressions in that 
 chapter, on which the whole argument of the 
 Apostle turns, the English reader is deprived of 
 one of the strongest proofs which the New Testa- 
 ment affords of the necessity of personal and vital 
 holiness. ‘The error. of our translators is in their 
 using the dative instead of the ablative case in the 
 second, tenth and eleventh verses. The rendering 
 given by Dr. Macknight is greatly to be preferred. 
 ‘In the second. verse he has rendered the words, 
 amsOavonev 7) apagtia, “* we who have died by sin nit 
 so in the tenth Verse, TN apapria amrelavev ‘eparrak, s he 
 died by sin once ;” 
 VEKOSC wey eval TN apagTia he translates, “to be dead 
 verily by sin.” The obvious meaning of the 
 Apostle is, that sin was the cause of death both 
 to believers and to Christ; that it was that by 
 which they died; and not that to which they had 
 become dead. Indeed, with respect to Christ, it 
 would be difficult to point out any sense in which 
 he could, with any propriety, be said to have 
 died unto sin. To suppose, with the author of 
 a recent pamphlet, that the words of St. -Paul, 
 rendered by our translators, (as I conceive, very 
 improperly,) “he died «nto sim once,” signify, 
 “that when he died he had endured all the 
 
 so again in the eleventh verse, 
 
 oa 
 
JUSTIFICATION AND REGENERATION. 191 
 
 penalty which sin—or rather, the law for sin— 
 could righteously inflict, viz. death;” and there- 
 fore that “sin could not penally afflict him, or 
 put him to death again,”—I quote the words of 
 the author—appears to me to be putting a very 
 forced construction on the Apostle’s words; a 
 construction which the least reflection will, as ] 
 conceive, convince the reader they will by no 
 
 means bear. The Apostle evidently alludes to 
 
 the actual death of Christ upon the cross: but 
 tits interpretation affixes to the Apostle’s words 
 
 -amerely figurative meaning, and supposes them 
 
 to intend the legal consequences resulting from his 
 death. ‘The Aposile speaks of an event which 
 “once” took place, a condition which has no 
 longer any existence, a state to which the present 
 glory of the Redeemer is opposed. But this in- 
 terpretation must consider him as speaking of a 
 state of things which had its commencement 
 indeed at the death of Christ, but which is to 
 
 continue for ever, and, consequently, is perfectly 
 
 consistent with Christ’s present state of glory. 
 The death of which the sacred writer speaks 
 ceased to have dominion over him when he arose 
 from the dead; for he says himself, “ knowing 
 that Christ, bene raised from the dead, dieth no 
 more, death hath no more dominion over him ;* 
 adding, according to the rendering of his words, 
 which to me appears most correct, “ for in that — 
 
 he died, he died once by sin; but in that he 
 
2) 
 
 192 CONNECTIO i 
 
 liveth, he liveth fey God. a But that legal con- 
 sequence of his death, which the writer, whose 
 opinion I am now combating, seems to suppose 
 _is the idea intended to be expressed by the 
 Apostle, is not properly an event which could be 
 said to have happened once: on the contrar y> it 
 is the result of the death of Christ, the one event 
 to which St. Paul alludes, and, instead of having 
 
 no longer any existence, it is a state or condition 
 which will continue for ever. 
 
 The reader will now perceive the real stress 
 of the Apostle’s argument. If Christ died by sin, 
 and if believers by their baptism into Christ are 
 baptized into his death, they must of necessity 
 account themselves to have been virtually cruci- 
 fied with Christ, and, consequently, to have died 
 _ by sin. If so, its dominion over them has ceased ; 
 since that nature is dead over which it formerly 
 reigned. If Christ was raised from the dead by 
 the power of God, and is now partaker of a life 
 over which death hath no dominion; if the life 
 he now enjoys arises from the immediate in- 
 dwelling of the godhead in his risen humanity— 
 intimated, as I conceive, by the expression, “ in 
 that he liveth, he liveth by God;’—and if the 
 believer in Christ in baptism is emblematically 
 made a partaker of Christ’s resurrection; then it 
 follows, that he ought to reckon himself a par- 
 taker of a divine life, or, to use the Apostle’s own 
 words, “alive by God through Jesus Christ.” 
 
JUSTIFICATION 4 ID REGENERATION. 193 
 And if so, his obligation toa Haky life cannot be 
 denied. To sin he owes nothing: since it has 
 put him to death in the person of his Lord, and 
 those members of sin are crucified by which 
 alone he could serve it. To God he owes every 
 thing; for by him he lives. It is precisely the same 
 arguinent, only differently expressed, which St: 
 Paul uses in the eighth chapter of the same 
 Epistle to the Romans; “ If Christ be in you, the 
 body indeed is dead shaotigli sin (or apagriay,) but 
 the Spirit is life through righteousness (Sta Sucat- 
 oovvnv.) But if the Spirit of him that raised up 
 Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised 
 up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your 
 mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 
 
 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the 
 flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after 
 
 the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the 
 
 Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
 live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of 
 God, they are the sons of God.”* In this passage 
 the connection between justification by the righte- 
 ousness of Christ, and a resurrection to spiritual 
 life, is plainly indicated in those few, but striking. | 
 words, “ If Christ be in you,—the Spirit ts life 
 through righteousness.” Were there no other 
 passage to confirm the doctrine I have advanced 
 upon this subject, I should deem such a plain 
 
 _ and unequivocal testimony as this amply sufficient. 
 
 * Romans viii. 10—14. 
 O 
 
194 CONNECTION, &e. 
 
 The reader will now, J trust, think I have fully 
 redeemed the pledge I gave at the commencement 
 of the preceding chapter, to prove that it is really 
 
 -dishonourable to the Saviour to imagine, that the 
 work of our salvation was finished on the cross ; 
 that it is dishonourable to divine grace to suppose, 
 that it reigns only in the forgiveness of sins. I 
 cannot content myself, however, without making 
 a practical application of the principles advanced 
 in the present chapter: but having already tres- 
 passed too much on the patience of my reader, I 
 shall reserve what I have to offer to him by way 
 of improvement for a separate chapter. 
 
 i 
 
; EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCH. 195 
 
 “* CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ‘ON THE SAME SUBJECT; BEING A PRACTICAL APPLICA: 
 TION OF THE PRINCIPLES ADVANCED IN THE TWO 
 PRECEDING CHAPTERS. * 
 
 Tue remarks subinitted to the reader in the two 
 preceding chapters, will, I trust, appear to him 
 amply sufficient to establish a position very early 
 advanced in the course of this discussion ; viz. 
 that justification by faith in Christ includes in it 
 more than the forgiveness of sin, and a conse- 
 quent exemption from the penalty of disobedience: 
 that besides an acquittal from the charge of guilt, 
 it comprehends also a solemn adjudication of the 
 believer's title to life. 
 
 Two consequences follow from the doctrine of 
 justification as thus explained: first, that eternal 
 life is not the reward of our own personal obe- 
 dience, but of the righteousness of Christ: and 
 secondly, that a renewal of the heart by the Spirit 
 of Christ, is an inseparable concomitant of justifica- 
 éton. And this instructs us what place to assign 
 to obedience in the economy of our salvation; 
 viz. not to lay it as a foundation for our acceptance 
 with God, or to offer it to divine justice as an 
 
196 NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 
 
 adequate price for our future and eternal glory ; 
 but to lay it on the golden altar as a free-will 
 offering, as the grateful tribute of such as have 
 already received mercy. This is the principle on 
 which it is uniformly enforced by the sacred 
 writers. ‘ I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by 
 ihe mercies of God,”* is the most usual strain of 
 apostolic exhortation. ‘The obedience they incul- 
 cate is not that of servants, who are urged to. 
 diligence in their work, that they may thereby 
 entitle themselves to a reward; but of children, 
 who, having been constituted heirs to a large 
 inheritance, are called upon to “ walk worthy of 
 the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every 
 good work ;” while, at the same time, “they give 
 thanks unto the Father, who hath made them 
 meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the 
 saints in light.” T 
 
 The necessity of obedience to our final salva- 
 tion is not in the smallest degree diminished, 
 because it is not made the price of our future 
 blessedness. . For though obedience will not con- 
 stitute the ground or consideration of our accept- 
 ance at the final day, it certainly will constitute 
 the rule or standard by which we shall then be 
 tried. ‘The question which will then have to be 
 determined will be, whether we are the sheep of 
 Christ or not. And though undoubtedly it is not 
 by obeying his voice, that we become his sheep, 
 
 * Rom. xii. 1. + Col. i. 10, 12. 
 
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE. 197 
 
 yet it is on the other hand as certain, that we are 
 not his sheep, if we do not obey it. “ My sheep,” 
 says Christ, “ hear my voice, and I know them, 
 and they follow me.”* And again, speaking of 
 himself, he says, “‘ He that entereth in by the 
 door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the - 
 
 porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and 
 he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth 
 them out. And when he putteth forth his own 
 sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow 
 him: for they know his voice.”+ Obedience to 
 Christ, then, according to this figurative repre- 
 sentation, is the discriminating characteristic of 
 all his people. Independently of this, none have 
 any right to conclude that they belong to that 
 happy number. By this criterion we shall be 
 judged at the last day: by this criterion, and by 
 this alone, ought we now, therefore, to. judge 
 ourselves. For in vain is it that we approve our- 
 selves, if Christ should finally condemn us. And 
 that he will then condemn us, if we have never 
 listened to his voice, and followed him, he has 
 forewarned us in the plainest terms; “ Not every 
 
 _ one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 
 into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth 
 the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many 
 will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we 
 not prophecied in thy name? and in thy name’ 
 
 have cast out devils? and in thy name done many 
 
 * John x. 27. + Ibid. 2—4. 
 
198 NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 
 
 wonderful works? And then will I profess unto 
 them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye 
 that work iniquity.” * | , 
 
 Though good works be not necessary to jus- 
 tify us before God, they are necessary to evince 
 our justification ; nor have we any title to consider 
 ourselves as having been justified by faith im 
 Christ, if we bring forth none of the fruits of 
 justification. For, as has been already observed, 
 justification comprehends, besides the forgiveness 
 of sins, the award of spiritual life;. and that 
 award is invariably followed up by the gift of the 
 Spirit. yh ; 
 
 It is worthy the reader’s observation, that 
 there is no part of the New Testament which 
 treats either directly or indirectly of our justifica- _ 
 tion by faith im Christ, in which allusion is not | 
 made to the Spirit of Christ as the seal of justifica- 
 tion. It is in the Epistles of Saint Paul to the 
 
 Romans and the Galatians, that we meet with the — 
 clearest statement and the most laboured defence 
 of the doctrine of justification by: faith without 
 deeds of law. Now let the reader attentively 
 examine the Apostle’s argument in each of these 
 Epistles, and he will not fail to remark, that, in 
 both, the gift of the Spirit is represented as the 
 infallible seal of justification. And on this prin- 
 ciple the whole of his argument in the Epistle to 
 the Romans in reply to the Antinomian inference, 
 
 * Matt. vii. 31—23. 
 
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE. 199 
 
 “Let us sin, that grace may abound,” is con- 
 structed. But as that argument is very extended, 
 running through the whole of the sixth, seventh, 
 and eighth chapters, I must forbear quotation. 
 Indeed it is the less necessary, as I have already 
 illustrated the Apostle’s train of reasoning -con- — 
 siderably at length. In the Epistle to the Gala- — 
 tians similar statements are to be found expressed 
 in nearly the same terms. In both these Epistles 
 we are taught, that every true believer in Christ 
 is quickened by the Spirit. In the one we find such 
 sayings as these, ‘If any man have not the Spirit 
 of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in 
 you, the body indeed is dead through sin, but the 
 Spirit is life through righteousness.” * And again; 
 “‘ If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we 
 
 - ghall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, 
 
 being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death 
 hath no more dominion over him. For in that he 
 died, he died by sin once: but in that he liveth, 
 
 _he liveth by God. Likewise reckon ye also your- 
 
 selves to be dead indeed by sin, but alive by God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord.”+ In the other 
 we meet with corresponding expressions. Let 
 the two following serve as examples; ‘“ Christ 
 
 "hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
 
 being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed 
 is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the 
 blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles 
 
 * Rom, viii. 9, 10. + Rom. vi. 8—11. 
 
200 NATURE AND NECESSITY O¥ 
 
 through Jesus Christ: that we might receive the 
 promise of the Spirit through faith.”* So again; 
 “‘ But when the fulness of the time was come, God 
 sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under 
 law, to redeem them that were under law, that 
 we might receive the adoption of sons. And 
 because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit 
 of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” 
 
 Now, if none who are destitute of the Spirit © 
 
 of Christ have a title to consider themselves as 
 his, we have only to inquire whether or not we 
 have the Spirit of Christ, in order to ascertain 
 whether we possess a justifying faith. And how 
 can it be known whether the Spirit of Christ 
 dwell in us, or not, except by those fruits of 
 holmess which that Spirit produces in the hearts 
 
 and lives of all those in whom it dwells. Such — 
 
 fruit it does invariably produce; for, according to 
 
 our blessed Lord, ‘“‘A good tree cannot bring ‘ 
 
 forth evil fruit,” any more than ‘“ a corrupt tree 
 can bring forth good fruit:”{ so that every tree 
 may infallibly be known by its fruit. If, therefore, 
 the heart be renewed by the spirit of grace, the 
 fruits of sanctification will not be wanting. It is 
 as true, that “they that are after the Spirit, do 
 mind the things of the Sptrit;’ as it is of those 
 “who are after the flesh, that they mind the things 
 of the flesh.Ӥ So that if it were really our great 
 object and aim to ascertain, whether we were 
 
 * Gal. iii, 13,14. + Ibid. iv.4—6, { Matt. vii. 18, § Rom. viii. 5. 
 
 ef 
 
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE. 201 
 
 Uhrist’s, or not; the point might speedily, and 
 with certainty, be determined. For we have only 
 to inquire, whether the things, about which we 
 are intent, are the things of the flesh, or the things 
 of the Spirit. And this question it is not difficult 
 to answer, if we would but be true to ourselves. 
 The only obstacle to our arriving at a just conclu- 
 sion, is our readiness to be deceived. ‘Though a 
 matter of the highest importance that we should 
 not mistake, yet we willingly mistake, our pride 
 not suffering us to see our characters in their true 
 colours. And yet, surely, it were infinitely better 
 to discover the truth with respect to ourselves, 
 however painful that discovery might be; than to 
 continue under a flattering delusion, till eternity 
 should reveal to us our error, when that error 
 could no longer be rectitied. 
 
 Let none imagine, they honour Christ ny con- 
 tinuing in sin. On the contrary, to sin against his — 
 authority, is to trample him under their feet. It is 
 an impious attempt to arrest him in his glorious 
 progress from conquering to conquer. The work 
 
 assigned him by the Father is that of subjugating 
 
 all things to himself. «For to this end he both 
 died, and rose and revived, that he might be Lord 
 both of the dead and living.” Nor shall this glo- 
 rious design fail in his hands. “ To him every 
 knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus 
 Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” * 
 
 * Rom. xiv. 11. compared with Phil. ii, 10, 11. 
 
202 NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 
 
 If this confession be not made to him now, by a 
 prompt, cheerful, diligent and unwearied obe- 
 dience to his will; it shall be made at the great 
 day, when he shall come to execute vengeance 
 on his enemies. Then, if not before, all shall 
 acknowledge that he i is “ King of Kings and Lord 
 of Lords;” but an acknowledgment extorted by 
 the ia of that day will prove of no avail. . 
 Let it not, however, for one moment be 
 thought, that the obedience which Christ exacts 
 of the subjecis of his kingdom, diminishes, in the 
 slightest degree, the glory of his grace. I am 
 anxious to remove this impression from the minds 
 of any of my readers, who should have been so 
 unhappy as to have entertained the thought. In 
 the simplicity of their hearts they may have been 
 induced to cherish it, wishing above all things to 
 honour their Saviour, and fearful of mixing up 
 any thing in the work of their salvation besides 
 his meritorious righteousness, ‘To such I would 
 say, the best way to honour Christ, even as “ the 
 Lord your Righteousness,” is practically to obey 
 his will. For it ought never to be forgotten, that 
 the obedience which he rendered to the divine 
 law, and by which he became “ the Lord our 
 Righteousness,” entitled him, on the terms of the 
 covenant of works, to the reward of eternal life. 
 But this reward he could not in any other way 
 receive, than as the Head of his body the Church. 
 Being himself the “ Eternal Life,” he could in no 
 
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE. 203 
 
 other way be rewarded, than by becoming the 
 depositary of life for those whom he undertook to 
 redeem. It is only therefore as life is imparted 
 to his people, that his perfect obedience to the 
 divine law receives any recompense. It is as 
 they live, that he is rewarded. But that life 
 
 which he is exalted to bestow, is, as we have ~ 
 
 already seen, the life of God; a life springing 
 immediately from his residence in the soul. “ It_ 
 is the Spirit that quickeneth.”* They who live, 
 ‘live by the Spirit ;’ he is the spring and foun- 
 tain of their new and immortal being. But that 
 Spirit cannot dwell in the soul without quickening 
 it to a holy activity. The soul in whom he dwells 
 will live for God. To imagine that we “live by 
 the Spirit,” while we do not “ walk by the Spirit,” 
 is a gross delusion. Life can only be known by 
 its activity. The principle of life itself is imper- 
 ceptible; it is no object of any of our senses ; its 
 existence can only be ascertained by its vital 
 operations. But, indiscernible as this principle 
 itself is, nothing can be easier than to detect its 
 presence. Unable as we are to say, what life is, 
 we feel no hesitation, because we find no diffi- 
 culty, in determining, where it is, and where it is 
 not. The indications of its presence are too 
 marked to be mistaken. A corpse can never 
 deceive us. We see the image of death visibly 
 enstamped upon it. And so it is with the spiritual 
 
 * John vi. 63. + Gal. v. 25. 
 
204 NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 
 
 life. Its presence is indicated by its vital opera- 
 tions ; and if these are not discernible, we have a 
 title to say, here there is no spiritual life; this is 
 _ the region of death. 
 
 Would we, then, exalt the Saviour in his cha- 
 racter of “‘ the Lord our Righteousness,’ we must 
 live unto God. A holy life being the fruit of the 
 Spirit dwelling in the heart; and the gift of that 
 
 Spirit to those who are justified by faith being the _ 
 
 purchase of the Redeemer’s righteousness; it is 
 plain, that a holy life is honourable to the Saviour. 
 So far is it from detracting from his all-sufficient 
 merit, that it is really the fruit, and the evidence 
 of its all-sufficiency. That believers are quick- 
 
 ened from a death in trespasses and sins, they 
 
 owe as much to the meritorious righteousness of 
 Christ, as they do their redemption from the 
 curse of the law. By his obedience unto death, 
 he acquired the right to impart life to the dead. 
 In bestowing the Spirit of life upon his people 
 whom he purchased by his blood, consists the 
 exercise of that dominion, which the Father has 
 conferred upon him as the reward of his obe- 
 dience. In subduing the corruptions of their 
 hearts, in bringing every thought of their minds 
 into captivity to himself, he enjoys the recompense 
 of all his labours and toils. It is when “ the 
 dead hear his voice and live,” that “he sees 
 of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied.” Nor, 
 as it regards those whom he hath purchased to 
 
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE. 205 
 
 himself by his blood, shall his most enlarged 
 
 desires fail of being fully accomplished. For 
 
 thus saith the word of prophecy; “ The Lord 
 shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: 
 rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy 
 people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in 
 the beauties of holiness from the womb of the 
 morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The. 
 Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a 
 priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.™ 
 And how signally has this prophecy been ful- 
 filled! What illustrious trophies of his victorious 
 grace does the history of the Church of Christ 
 record! Amongst them we behold a woman of 
 
 Samaria once defiled by lust; a Zaccheus once 
 
 stained with the guilt of extortion; a condemned 
 malefactor, who once expiated on a cross a life of 
 violence and fraud. On these the mighty Saviour 
 ‘“‘ sprinkles clean water,” according to the figura-_ 
 tive language of Isaiah, “ and they are clean.” ‘The 
 impure becomes chaste, the extortioner beneficent, 
 the dying thief a fit companion for the society 
 of the just. Of Corinthian sinners, among whom 
 St. Paul expressly names, “ fornicators, idolaters, 
 adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with 
 mankind, thieves, covetous persons, drunkards, 
 revilers, extortioners ;” the Redeemer has caused 
 it to be written, as a memorial of the might of his 
 power to the latest generations, “ Such were some 
 
 * Psalm cx. 2—4, 
 
206 NATURE AND NECESSITY oF 
 
 of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, 
 but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and by the Spirit of our God. 
 
 But the most astonishing and instructive 
 example, which the whole history of the Re- 
 deemer’s triumphs can supply, is that which is 
 furnished in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. 
 This blood-thirsty persecutor was on his way to 
 Damascus, with a commission of imprisonment 
 and death against the disciples of Jesus. The 
 voice of Christ reaches his ear, and the power of 
 Christ touches his heart ; and he cries out, “ Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me todo?” Was this the 
 language of momentary alarm? No; his: heart 
 was softened and subdued. Love had touched 
 and melted his soul. The object of his former 
 hatred and scorn, is now the object of his supreme 
 affection and delight. ‘The grace of our Lord,” 
 says“ he, speaking of the mighty change then 
 
 wrought in him by the power of Christ, “ was. 
 
 exceeding abundant with faith and love which is 
 in Christ Jesus." Having been “ forgiven much ; 
 he “loved much.”§ His zeal for the glory of his 
 Saviour after his conversion to the faith, was 
 proportioned to the bitterness of his hatred, when 
 formerly he had attempted to destroy it. As 
 none bad equalled him as “fa persecutor, as a 
 blaspheimer,” as a cruel murderer of the saints; 
 
 “*1Cor.vi.9—ll, + Acts ix. 6. { 1 Tim. i. 14 
 - § See Luke vii. 47. é' 
 
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE. 207 
 
 so none can compare’ with him in ardent and 
 unwearied labours for Christ, or in tender pity 
 and compassion for the souls of men, after he is 
 called to the Apostleship. Here then let the 
 christian reader behold a pattern of the grace of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ towards all his people. | 
 In the measure of tts exercise it would be in vain © 
 to expect that it should always equal this glorious 
 exemplar; but in its mode of operation it would 
 be as absurd to imagine that it should ever vary. 
 Wherever the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 abounds, faeth and love will be in vigorous 
 exercise. 
 
 Let, then, such as would appropriate to them- 
 selves the consolation, which is to be derived 
 from an assurance of their being justified by faith, 
 see that they abound in all the fruits of the Spirit. 
 It is certamly true, that all who believe, are freely 
 justified from all their offences; and that they 
 receive a present title to eternal life. But then, 
 it is equally true, that they who believe are 
 quickened into life by the vivifying Spirit of 
 Christ. If Christ died, he also arose from the 
 dead ; and if we are made partakers of his death, 
 we are also made partakers of his resurrection. 
 “If we be dead with Christ,” says the Apostle, 
 ‘ we believe that we shall also live with him.’* In 
 short, we have no title to pronounce ourselves 
 his: disciples, unless we can say with the same 
 
 * Rom. vi, 8. 
 
2 
 
 208 NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 
 
 Apostle, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless 
 
 LT live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And 
 the life that Inow lve in the flesh, J live by the 
 faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave 
 himself for me.”* 
 
 The remarks already made, will, I trust, fully 
 satisfy the mind of every impartial reader, that 
 the Covenant of Grace is distinguished from the 
 Covenant of Works, not by the absence of a rule 
 of life, as some have impiously affirmed; but by 
 the glorious provision it has made for effectually 
 securing our obedience to it. ‘‘ The form” only 
 “of knowledge and of truth,” to employ the ex- 
 pressive language of St. Paul, was to be found in 
 the law of Moses. For the reality, or “ truth” 
 itself, we must look into the kingdom of grace, 
 administered by the risen and ascended Saviour. 
 For it is his prerogative to reign in the hearts of 
 his people. There he erects his throne, there he 
 sways his righteous sceptre. ‘‘ The kingdom of 
 God,” said he to his hearers, “is within you.” 
 Happy for us if this kingdom has been set up in 
 our hearts! There we must find it, or for us it 
 will be in vain that Christ and his Apostles pro- 
 claimed, ‘‘ The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 
 Into this kingdom none can enter, but. they who 
 are born of the Spirit. For “(except a man be 
 born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God.”{ Nay, he cannot 
 
 % Gal. ii. 20. + Luke xvii. 21. t John iii. 5. 
 
me 
 
 EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE, 209 
 
 éven so much as discern it. The principle of 
 administration in this heavenly kingdom bears no 
 analogy to that, b¥ which all other kingdoms are 
 administered. To controul the corrupt propensi- 
 ties of men, they employ coercive means; content 
 to restrain the outward indulgence of passions 
 which they cannot extirpate from the’ human 
 breast. This heavenly kingdom, on the contrary, 
 is administered by the constant, unintermitting 
 agency of a power, which, operating directly on 
 the heart, subdues and. exterminates every cor- 
 rupt and depraved affection, and sweetly and _ 
 efiectually melines the happy subjects of it to 
 render a prompt and cheerful obedience to the 
 will of God. None are so truly happy as they | 
 who serve Christ. That he reigns, and that he 
 will continue to reign, till he hath subdued all 
 things to himself, is to the servant of Christ 
 matter of unspeakable joy. Sensible, deeply 
 sensible of the evil of sin, of the impurity of his 
 own heart, of his sad, and, as it regarded himself, 
 his hopeless captivity to sin and death ; knowing 
 too, that in conformity to the will of God, a sense 
 of his love, a freedom of access into his presence, 
 and a future vision of his unclouded glory, con- 
 
 "sists the highest felicity of an intelligent, sentient, 
 
 and immortal mind; he hails “ the glad tidings 
 
 concerning God’s kingdom” established and ad- 
 
 ministered by his only begotten Son, with more 
 
 joy, than ever gladdened the heart of the slave, 
 ; P 
 
210 NATURE AND NECESSITY, &c. 
 
 ‘the debtor, or the condemned criminal, when the 
 trump of jubilee announced the long-looked-for 
 year of release. The bitter lamentation which he 
 once often repeated, “ O wretched man that I 
 
 am! who shall deliver me from the body of this — 
 
 death?” he now exchanges for the language of an 
 assured confidence of speedy and complete deli- 
 verance; “I thank God, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lori, ett 
 
 And. yet, of all this rick and inexhaustible 
 source of felicity, Antinomianism attempts to 
 despoil the Christian believer ; while, at the same 
 time, it would rob the Saviour of the glory of 
 working. out so great salvation for his people: 
 and all this under the cloak of zeal for the honour 
 of Christ, and of love to the souls of men. O 
 when shall the folly, impiety, and malignity of a 
 doctrine, which at once dishonours Christ, and 
 destroys the souls of such as cordially and prac- 
 tically embrace it, be made manifest to all men! 
 Should these pages, in the economy of means, be 
 instrumental in accelerating an event so propi- 
 tious to the cause of pure and undefiled reli- 
 
 gion, the writer will esteem himself amply recom- - a 
 
 pensed. 
 
 * Rom. vii. 24, 28. 
 
 % 
 1a 
 iy 
 ‘7, 
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 y 
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 ar IO ay a Ei ee i, 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES, 21] 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 OF THE THIRD PECULIARITY OF THE COVENANT OF 
 
 GRACH; VIZ. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS COMMITTED 
 BY BELIEVERS POSTERIOR TO THEIR JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 Tins peculiarity of the covenant of grace ne- 
 cessarily results from the character of ie gospel 
 dispensation as “the kingdom” or “reign of 
 God.” And it will be recollected that it con- 
 stituted a principal feature in the second covenant 
 made with the people of Israel after their re- 
 demption from “the house of bondage.” The 
 first, or Sinaitic covenant, made no provision for 
 the forgiveness of sins. To the transgressor of 
 its law it was inexorable. It was as preparatory 
 to the second covenant that God_proclaimed his 
 name, “’Phe Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness 
 and. truth, keeping mercy for thousands forgiving 
 iniquity and transgression and sin.”* And this 
 proclamation must be considered as defining the 
 nature of that more gracious dispensation which 
 was then about to be established. ! 
 
 It might seem almost unnecessary to remark, 
 
 * Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. 
 
 4 
 
912 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES, 
 
 that the forgiveness promised to the people of 
 Israel under the second, or renewed Abrahamic 
 covenant, related not merely to the sin they had 
 already committed in worshipping the golden 
 calf, by which they had incurred the penalty. of 
 “the law of the first covenant,—for that had been 
 already graciously remitted,—but rather to those 
 sins which they might afterwards commit in 
 violation of the law of the second covenant. 
 I should have forborne making this remark, as 
 
 deeming it unnecessary, had it not been essential — 
 
 to the explanation of the doctrine now under 
 consideration. For it ought to be remembered, 
 that the second, or renewed Abrahamic covenant, 
 stands not, like that of Mount Sinai, in opposition 
 to the covenant of grace introduced and esta- 
 blished by the Messiah. On the contrary, it 
 served, prior to his coming, as a type, outline, 
 or figure of that dispensation of mercy. Instead 
 therefore, of looking, as some have done, into the 
 Christian dispensation, for a contrast to every 
 peculiarity of Judaism: we ought rather to look 
 for the closest resemblance in it to every distin- 
 guishing feature of that shadowy economy ; 
 
 remembering only, that the resemblance it ought — 
 io present, should be that which the substance 
 
 bears to the shadow. 
 
 The mediatorial kingdom established by 
 Jehovah over his ancient people, subsequently to 
 the breach of the Sinaitic covenant, was a type 
 
* , ‘ : \ 
 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 213 
 
 or pattern of the kingdom afterwards to be erected 
 
 by the Messiah; and the principles of its ad- 
 
 ministration were illustrative of those by which 
 Messiah’s kingdom was to be regulated. This is 
 the only key which will open to us ‘the mysteries 
 of the kingdom of heaven.” And I scruple not — 
 to say, that it has been from a misapprehension — 
 
 of the nature and design of the Jewish theocracy, 
 that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have 
 been so little understood. The covenant of Mount 
 Sinai having been confounded with the covenant 
 afterwards made with the people of Israel on the 
 basis of the Abrahamic covenant, the Jewish : 
 theocracy has been considered as furnishing a 
 contrast to the future kingdom of the Messiah, 
 rather than a type or model of it; and, conse- 
 quently, dissimilitudes have been sought after, 
 instead of resemblances. But this principle of 
 interpretation ought to have been reversed. The 
 analogy between the Mosaic and Christian econo- 
 mies would have been found to supply a far 
 better canon of scriptural exposition: nor will the 
 dispensation of grace ever be clearly understood, 
 till this canon is more generally adopted. | 
 
 In the last three chapters, I illustrated one 
 
 of those analogies to which I now allude. 'The 
 present chapter will be devoted to. the illustration 
 of another of those analogies, as exhibited in the 
 forgiveness of sins. I speak not. now of. sins 
 committed by believers prior to their justification, 
 
214 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 - but of sins committed subsequently to it; not of 
 sins committed m violation of the law of the 
 covenant of works, but of sins committed in 
 
 violation of the authority and will of Christ as 
 the king of his redeemed people. For it is not 
 till a sinner is justified by faith from the guilt of 
 his past sins, that he assumes the honourable 
 character of a “servant of Christ.” He must be 
 ‘purged from dead works,” before he can “serve 
 the living God.” This is the order which divine 
 wisdom has established; and it accords with the 
 
 purity and justice of God that this order should | 
 
 be inviolably observed. But if the pardon of sins 
 committed by the believer while under a covenant 
 of works precede his admission into the kingdom 
 of Christ, it cannot be in their forgiveness that we 
 are to look for that analogy, which I am now 
 endeavouring to elucidate. For, as I have already 
 observed, the forgiveness of sins promised to the 
 Israelites on the basis of the Abrahamic covenant, 
 renewed with them after the breach of the Sinaitic 
 covenant, extended not merely to that single 
 offence by which they had incurred the penalty 
 of the law of the first covenant, but to future 
 offences which they might afterwards ‘commit in 
 violation of the law of the second, or renewed 
 Abrahamic covenant., ‘This covenant too had its 
 law; and that law, as well as‘the law delivered 
 from Mount Sinai, had its sanctions; and those 
 
 of a very awful kind. But yet, notwithstanding 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 215 
 
 this, it was a covenant of grace; since, uhder it 
 sip was not inexorably punished, as it had been 
 by the law of the covenant of works, but gra- 
 ciously forgiven to such as truly repented and 
 returned to God. | 
 
 We are not to suppose, that the threatenings — 
 denounced against impenitent transgressors of 
 the Mosaic law, and which are recorded in the 
 book of Deuteronomy, belong to the covenant of 
 works. By no means. We have the authority 
 of Moses himself for saying, that they appertain 
 to another covenant—a_ covenant of grace. In | 
 a former part of this work, I have pointed out the 
 distinction between the two covenants of law and 
 grace successively made by Jehovah with his 
 people Israel; and have shewn, that Moses him- 
 self very carefully marks that distinction. Speak- 
 ing in reference to the Sinaitic covenant, he 
 observes, to prevent the Israelites. from confound- 
 ing it with the Abrahamic covenant; ‘“‘ The Lord 
 our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The 
 Lord made not ihis covenant with our fathers, but 
 with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this 
 day.* According to this declaration of Moses, 
 the covenant made in Horeb was utterly unknown 
 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in other words, 
 it was totally dissimilar in its spirit and. principle 
 to that covenant which God had so frequently 
 renewed with the Jewish patriarchs. Wherein 
 
 ¥ Deut. ¥. 25003 
 
216 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES; 
 
 that dissimilarity consisted we have already seen, 
 and the reader will recollect, that one important 
 feature. of distinction was this, that while the 
 covenant of Mount Sinai spoke nothing of for- 
 giveness, the Abrahamic covenant made express 
 provision for its exercise. Under this renewed 
 covenant of grace, it was one of the acknowledged 
 attributes of Jehovah to forgive ; “© Who is a God 
 like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth 
 ~ by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? 
 he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he 
 delighteth in mercy ;”* is the exclamation of one 
 who lived under this shadowy dispensation of 
 grace. But on what basis was his confidence in 
 the divine mercy founded? on the covenant of 
 Mount Sinai, or on the covenant made with 
 Abraham? The prophet himself answers this 
 important question for us: “ He will turn again, 
 he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue 
 our iniquities; and thou shalt cast all their sins 
 into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the 
 truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which 
 thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of 
 old.” T 
 
 But while the covenant made with Abraham, 
 and renewed with his posterity in the land of 
 Moab, contained gracious promises of forgiveness, 
 those promises were not made indiscriminately to 
 all; they were restricted to the penitent, and 
 
 * Micah vii. 18. + Thid. 19, 20. 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES, 2147 
 
 always presupposed a hearty return to God from 
 the path of disobedience. Of this abundant proof 
 is furnished in. the writings of Moses. Thus, the 
 very first proclamation of divine mercy concludes 
 with a distinct avowal of God’s fixed determina- 
 tion not to absolve the obstinate and impenitent 
 transgressor. Does he proclaim his name, “ The 
 Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
 suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, 
 keeping mercy for phousent forgiving iniquity 
 and transgression and sin?” it is added, to prevent 
 the abuse of this revelation of the divine mer cy to 
 the purposes of licentiousness ; “and that will by 
 no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of 
 the fathers upon the children, and upon the chil- 
 dren’s children, unto the third and to the fourth 
 generation.”* Here is as much mercy exhibited 
 as the real penitent can ask for, or desire; but yet 
 so exhibited, as to deter him from a wilful and 
 presumptuous transgression of the divine will; 
 ‘‘ He will by no means clear the guilty.” And a 
 similar limitation is afterwards drawn by Moses; 
 ‘“‘ Know therefore,” says he to the children of is 
 Israel, when recapitulating the law in the land of 
 Moab, “that the Lord thy God, he is God, the 
 faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy 
 with them that love him and keep his command- 
 ments, to a thousgpd generations; and repayeth 
 them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: 
 
 * Exodus xxxiy. 6, 7. 
 
918 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he wilt 
 repay hin to his face.”* And it is in perfect 
 accordance with the principle and spirit of this 
 _ limitation, that the Prophet fsaiah thus encourages 
 the wicked ‘in his day to repent and return to 
 God; “ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
 unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him retarn 
 
 anto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; 
 
 and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” 
 Here mercy is promised to the wicked, but it is 
 on condition of his forsaking his evil way, and 
 returning to the Lord his God. 
 It is false, as I hinted before, to imagine, that, 
 under the covenant of grace renewed with ‘the 
 posterity of Abraham, no curses are denounced 
 against presumptuous transgressors. ~The book 
 of Deuteronomy abounds with the most awful de- 
 nunciations. And that those denunciations belong 
 strictly to the renewed Abrahamic, and not to the 
 Sinaitic covenant, we have the authority of Moses 
 for asserting. After warning the people of Israel, 
 
 in the most solemn and awful manner, of the 
 
 terrible judgments which would be inflicted upon 
 them, if they hearkened not to the voice of the 
 Lord their God to observe to do all his command- 
 
 ments and statutes, “ which,” says Moses, “I 
 
 command thee this day;’{ he subjoins this very 
 important remark ; “ These are the words of the 
 covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to 
 
 * Deut. vii.9, 10. + Isaiah lv. 7. t See Deut. xxviii, 15—68. 
 
 REISS 
 
 ere 
 
 Sia ates ee ee 
 epee eee aie: 
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 Z * ee 
 SS ee 
 
 See steps 
 
 ae 
 
 SS 
 5S fe eee 
 
 % SES 
 Sa 
 ere es 
 
- 
 
 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 219 
 
 make with the children of Israel in the land of 
 Moab, beside the covenant which he made with 
 them in Horeb.”* But for this observation we 
 should probably have thought, that these awful 
 denunciations against presumptuous transgressors 
 belonged to the Sinaitic covenant; and, con- 
 sequently, could have drawn no conclusion from 
 hence as to the real character of a covenant of 
 grace. But, appended as these denunciations are 
 to the Abrahamic, and not to the Sinaitic cove- 
 nant, we learn in what the real distinction 
 between a covenant of law and a covenant of 
 grace consists; and that denunciations against 
 presumptuous and impenitent transgressors are 
 not at all incompatible with promises of mercy 
 and forgiveness to the contrite and obedient. 
 Now there is, as the reader will observe, a 
 strict analogy between the second covenant made 
 with the people of. Israel, and the covenant of 
 grace confirmed with Christ and his people, 
 Under the gospel dispensation forgiveness is pro- 
 mised ; but that promise, as we shall soon have 
 occasion to observe, has its restrictions and limita- 
 tions. Every offence committed against the 
 authority of Christ as the Lord of hig people is 
 not comprehended within the compass of it, 
 Some sins are expressly, and by name, excluded. 
 A line is drawn, beyond which apostacy becomes 
 final, irrecoverable, hopeless. To some no mercy 
 
 * Dent. xxix. 1. 
 
220 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 is exhibited ; on the contrary, they are abandoned 
 to the terrors of a guilty conscience, and the 
 
 fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna-_ 
 
 _tion.* And it becomes every one who professes 
 the christian name to beware, lest he thus aposta- 
 tize to his eternal ruin. 
 
 That it is possible for a true believer so to sin 
 against Christ, as to stand in need of forgiveness, 
 even after he has been justitied by faith, is a posi- 
 tion which one could scarcely think any would 
 have been hardy enough to deny, confirmed as it 
 is by every page of divine revelation. ‘To maintain 
 the negative would involve us in a thousand absur- 
 dities and contradictions. If it be impossible that 
 believers should ever, in strictness of speech, 
 require to be forgiven after they have been justified 
 by faith in Christ, one of these three hypotheses 
 must be adopted; either first, that by justification 
 believers attain to a state of sinless perfection, 
 
 from which it is impossible they can ever after-_ 
 
 wards fall; or, secondly, that believers are under 
 no law or rule of duty, and cannot therefore incur 
 the guilt of transgression; or, thirdly, that, sup- 
 posing such a law to exist, the guilt of all sins, 
 future as well as past, was entirely removed by 
 
 the sentence of justification passed upon them 
 
 when first they believed in Christ for salvation. 
 Each of these positions has found its advocates ; 
 and it is really difficult to say which of them is 
 
 * See Heb. vi.4—6; x. 26—-29; xii, 17, 2 Pet. ii, 1—21. Jude 4—13. 
 
 Bi 
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 erage aseeis i? 
 
 ERE A aca IS OR i 3 Stee se 
 Geena ys Be pod tes a ee nee ee ee 
 
 ses : 
 
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FORGIVENESS OF DATLY OFFENCES. 221 
 
 Ranged with the greatest absurdities. But yet, 
 he who denies, that a believer can ever stand’ in 
 need of forgiveness subsequently to his justifica- 
 tion ‘by faith, must make his election which of 
 these positions he will choose to defend. 
 
 The first of these positions stands in direct" 
 contradiction to the testimony ef Solomon, who 
 affirms, “there is not a just man upon earth, that 
 doeth good, and sinneth not;”* and of St. John, 
 who assures us, “If we say we have no sin, we 
 deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 
 We are authorized, therefore, in asserting, not only 
 that sinless perfection is not the inseparable con- 
 comitant of justification, and, therefore, the uni- 
 versal privilege of true believers; but that it is 
 not so much as attainable by any in the present 
 life. 3 
 
 - That sanctification is progressive, and not, as 
 the sentiment I am now combating supposes, in- 
 stantaneously perfected in all who believe; that 
 sin is not completely subdued, though its former 
 empire over the heart is subverted; that the flesh 
 lusteth against the Spirit; that the law in the. 
 ‘members warreth against the law of the mind, so 
 that when the saints of God would do good, evil 
 is present with them, and they cannot do the 
 things that they would; are facts confirmed, not 
 only by the most decisive testimonies of scrip- 
 ture,f but by the daily experience of all good 
 
 * Eccl. vii.20. ti Johni.8. {See Rom. vii. 19, 21, 23. Gal. v. 17. 
 
222 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 | a » 
 men. And he who knows nothing of the strength 
 of inbred corruption has reason to fear, that his ig- 
 norance arises, rather from the unresisted dominion 
 
 which sin still continues to exercise over him, than’ 
 
 from the triumphant victory which he has gained 
 over it. “ Let not him that girdeth on his har- 
 ness, boast himself, as he that putteth it off,”* 
 was the answer, which Ahab, king of Israel, re- 
 turned to the taunting message of Benhadad, king 
 of Syria: and the event justified the rebuke. And 
 
 it is the apostolic caution to every self-confident © 
 
 believer, “ Let him that thinketh he standeth, take 
 heed lest he fall.”+ | 
 Watchfulness against temptation, godly jea- 
 lousy over ourselves, an habitual fear lest we 
 should fail of the grace of God ;—these are the 
 dispositions inculeated by Christ and his Apos- 
 tles. ‘“ Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
 temptation ;°{—‘‘ What I say unto you, I say 
 unto all, watch ;°§—< Be not high-minded, but 
 - fear;”\|—-““ Let us therefore fear, lest a promise 
 being left us of entering into his rest, any of 
 you should seem to come short of it;”4—these 
 are the exhortations they are continually sounding 
 in our ears. But on the supposition that be- 
 levers attain by their justification a state of sinless 
 perfection, from which they can never afterwards 
 fall, these admonitions have no meaning. And 
 
 * 1 Kings xx. 11. T DOCor x. 12. t Matt. xxvi. 41. 
 § Mark xiii. 37.» {| Rom. xi. 20. | q Heh. iv. 1. 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 223 
 
 hence ‘we find, that such as have adopted the 
 notion of sinless perfection, scruple not to discard 
 all such admonitory language as unsuitable to the 
 state and condition of the people of God. 
 That believers are under no law, by the trans- 
 gression of which they can ever stand in need 
 
 ¥ 
 
 of divine forgiveness, is another hypothesis in- — 
 
 vented to get rid of the doctrine of forgiveness as 
 extended to our daily offences. We have already 
 so fully exposed the absurdity of this sentiment, that 
 it would be trespassing on the reader’s patience, 
 were I to labour the point a second time. And. 
 with respect to the third hypothesis, which, while 
 it professes to admit the existence of such a rule, 
 affirms that believers cannot, in strictness of 
 speech, stand in need of daily forgiveness, inas- 
 much as the guilt of all sins, future as well as 
 past, is removed. by the sentence of justification 
 passed upon them when first they believe in 
 Christ for salvation ; I have also so completely de- 
 - monstrated the falsehood and dangerous tendency 
 of this doctrine, when treating of that branch of 
 justification which relates to the forgiveness. of 
 sins, that I shall not at present repeat what I 
 there advanced, but shall content myself with 
 sunply referring the reader to it, should he have 
 forgotten the course of argument which I there 
 adopted. What I would wish to offer to the 
 reader's consideration in the present stage of this 
 discussion, is rather a solution of the difficulty 
 
224 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 which the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins ébtn 
 mitted by believers subsequently to their justifi- 
 cation is supposed to involve. The difficulty is 
 this, that such a doctrine cannot be maintained, 
 “without supposing that every sin so committed 
 has the effect of cancelling their previous state of 
 justification. It is this difficulty which has, I 
 doubt not, led many great and good men, to ad- 
 vocate one or other of the three several hypo- 
 theses above adverted to. But the difficulty is 
 far less than is apprehended. It arises wholly 
 from a mistaken conception of the nature and 
 srounds of justification. Because justification 
 includes in it, when exercised towards sinners, 
 the pardon of sin; it is inferred that the pardon 
 of sin must necessarily involve in it justification ; 
 and, consequently, ‘that to suppose a_ believer 
 ever to need forgiveness, is to suppose he stands 
 in need of being again justified. 
 
 ‘This is the real source of the difficulty which 
 is thought to be involved in the doctrine I am 
 now endeavouring to support. And were it true 
 that justification and forgiveness of sins were 
 co-extensive, it would not be easy to remove the 
 difficulty. But it is not true. Though justifica- 
 tion necessarily includes in it forgiveness of sius ; 
 yet forgiveness of sins does not necessarily include 
 in it justification. And the reason is plain. Jus- 
 tification is that peculiar modification of the act 
 of forgiveness, which the nature of the dispensa- 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. Q25 
 
 tion under which man was originally placed, ren- 
 dered indispensably necessary in order to, main- 
 tain the honour of the law, and to illustrate the 
 perfections of God. The law made no provision 
 for the exercise of forgiveness. It proceeded on 
 a principle of strict and impartial justice: and 
 the only way by which it was possible to escape, — 
 its penalty, was by fully satisfying its requisitions. 
 it was not merely obstinate disobedience, and final 
 impenitence, which incurred the penalty of death 
 denounced by it. One offence was amply sufli- 
 cient to expose the transgressor of it to its righ- 
 teous curse. And, having once incurred its 
 penalty, man could never have been forgiven, but 
 through the gracious medium which infinite 
 wisdom has devised; by which, while the sinner 
 himself escapes the payment of the awful penalty, 
 the penalty itself is fully paid. The law there- 
 fore acquits the sinner in consideration of the 
 perfect satisfaction it has already received; that 
 is, he is pardoned an a way of justification. 
 
 Now, if the law of Christ were equally strict 
 with the Jaw of the covenant of works; that is, 
 uf tt denounced a curse on every offence, of what- 
 ever magnitude, or of whatever degree of enormity, 
 making no distinction between sins of ignorance, 
 sins of infirmity, or sins committed through the 
 force of sudden and violent temptation, and pre- 
 sumptuous sins; then would the commission of 
 any sin, however small its amount, however 
 
 Q 
 
226 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 deeply and sincerely deplored, and however care- 
 
 fully avoided for the future, expose the believer. 
 
 to a fresh sentence of condemnation; and, conse- 
 quently, have the effect to cancel iis previous 
 _ state of justification. But is this the case? Is it 
 ithe effect of every sin committed against the law 
 of Christ to incur so tremendous a penalty? On 
 the contrary, is not forgiveness expressly pro- 
 mised to the penitent believer on his return to his 
 
 heavenly Father? Is it not declared in prophecy, 
 
 in reference to the people over whom Messiah 
 
 reigns, “If his children forsake my law, and 
 
 walk not in my judgments; if they break my 
 statutes, and keep not my commandments; then 
 will # visit their transgressions with the rod, 
 and their inquty with stripes. Nevertheless my 
 
 loving-kindness will 1 not utterly take from him, 
 
 nor suffer my faithfulness to faal?’* And is it not 
 
 written by the beloved disciple for the comfort of 
 
 the penitent and contrite in all succeeding ages, 
 ‘“ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
 righteousness 2°, 
 
 {t is from confounding together two modes of 
 government utterly unlike in their principle, i mean 
 regal and paternal government, that the difficulty 
 I am endeavouring to remove arises. The dis- 
 tinction between them is very obvious. The former 
 is administered on principles of rigid justice; and 
 
 ¥ Paalm Ixxxix30+-38.% | ¢- ye doha ig. 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 227 
 
 when its authority is infringed, it punishes. the 
 guilty offender to the full extent of the threatened 
 penalty, even should that penalty be death. The 
 invariable consequence of violating the law by 
 which it is administered is condemnation. But 
 under the paternal government, condemnation is : 
 not the uniform and invariable consequence of — 
 transgressing the bounds of duty. A child may 
 indeed by obstinately persisting in his disobe- 
 dience to parental authority, at length provoke a 
 sentence of perpetual exclusion from his father’s 
 house. But this is not the effect of one offence. 
 Many must have been the provocations which a 
 father must have received, before he can cease to 
 yearn over a rebellious child. Unless he give 
 proof of hardened impenitence, he will not con- 
 sent for ever to cut him off. He will chastise. 
 him for his faults; but he will not abandon him, 
 till chastisement proves utterly unavailing. And 
 it is precisely thus that God deals with his own 
 children. They offend him by the violation of | 
 his commands; he chastises them to bring them 
 to repentance: and if few stripes will not avail, 
 he inflicts more, till he makes them sensible of 
 their folly, and they return to him with penitent 
 aud contrite hearts. “ Whom the Lord loveth, 
 he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
 he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God 
 dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is 
 he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye 
 
 Sb Naa MR ak ta 
 
228 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 be without chastisement, whereof all are par- 
 takers, then are ye bastards and not sons.”* | 
 
 While it is true, therefore, that believers do 
 _ frequently incur the divine displeasure, it is not 
 true, that a forfeiture of a previous state of justifi- 
 cation is the consequence of every sin they com- 
 mit: for it is not the character of the law under 
 which they are placed to denounce death as the 
 penalty of every offence. Every transgression 
 does not incur a liability to final condemnation, 
 ‘from which they can only be restored by a fresh 
 act of justification. And it has been wholly from 
 overlooking this very obvious fact, that the pos- 
 sibility of a believer's standing in need of for- 
 giveness, subsequently to his justification, has 
 been denied. Let it be kept in mind, that every 
 transgression committed against the authority of 
 Christ does not incur the penalty of excision, 
 and the difficulty which has been supposed to 
 attend the doctrine I am labouring to establish, 
 vanishes away. 
 
 ‘That believers are expressly commanded to 
 pray for the forgiveness of sin, and that this 
 command has been frequently exemplified in the 
 conduct of the most eminent saints, whose names 
 are recorded in the holy scriptures,” is even ad- 
 mitted by those, who contend, that believers can 
 never, in strictness of speech, stand in need of 
 forgiveness subsequently to their justification. 
 
 * Heb. xil. 6—S. 
 
Ss bd 
 
 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 229 
 
 And, surely, these facts present a far greater 
 difficulty than the one I have just been solving. 
 That Jesus Christ sbould himself have taught 
 his disciples to pray, “forgive us our debts, as 
 we forgive our debtors;”* that the most eminent 
 saints, such as David, and others, should have 
 sought forgiveness, even after they had been 
 justified by faith ; that St. John should have laid 
 it down as a universal principle, applicable to 
 the people of God in all ages, “If we confess 
 our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from ail unrighteous- 
 ness;”{—these are facts which no sophistry can 
 reconcile with the doctrine which maintains, that 
 believers never stand in need of forgiveness. It 
 is true, attempts have been made to remove this 
 difficulty by the advocates of that doctrine; but 
 how miserably those attempts have succeeded, 
 the reader will judge from the quotation subjoined 
 in the margin.{ It is taken from the writings of 
 a celebrated divine of the last century, and is 
 adduced by another late eminent writer as the 
 
 * Matt. vi. 12. | + 1 Johni.9. 
 
 t “ Very frequently when the saints pray, either for the forgive- 
 ness of their own, or others’ sins, their meaning is, that God would 
 in a providential way, deliver them out of present distress; remove 
 his afflicting hand, which lies heavy upon them; or avert those 
 judgments which seem to hang over their heads, and very much 
 threaten them; which, when he does, is an indication of his having 
 pardoned them. We are to understand many petitions of Moses, 
 Job, Solomon, and others, in this sense. Besides, when believers 
 now pray for the pardon of sin, their meaning is—that they might 
 
230 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 best solution of the difficulty which he could offer 
 to his readers. 1 forbear adding their names out 
 of tenderness to their memories. Théy were both 
 great and holy men, and deserve the high estima- 
 tion in which they have been long held by the 
 church of Christ; but still they were equally 
 liable to be mistaken with other men; and I feel 
 no doubt the author of the passage quoted in. 
 the margin was himself imposed upon by_ the 
 mysterious air which his solution assumed. He 
 thought, doubtless, that his language implied 
 something different from a direct and positive 
 denial of the duty of believers to pray for the 
 forgiveness of their daily offences; in short, that 
 he had hit upon some happy expedient of ex- 
 plaining the injunction to pray for forgiveness of 
 sin, and the example of saints in former ages 
 illustrative of the nature and obligation of that 
 duty, without either admitting on the one hand, 
 that believers could ever, in strictness of speech, 
 stand in need of forgiveness, or on the other hand 
 flatly, and in terms denying it. But there is 
 really no other alternative than to affirm or to 
 
 have the sense, the manifestation. and application of pardoning grace 
 to their souls.. We are not to imagine, that as often as the saints 
 sin, repent, confess their sins, and pray for the forgiveness of them, 
 God passes new acts of pardon.—But, whereas they daily sin 
 against God, grieve his Spirit, and wound their own consciences, 
 they have need of the fresh sprinklings of the blood of Jesus, and 
 of renewed manifestations of pardon to their souls; and it is both 
 their duty and their interest to attend the throne of grace on this 
 account” : 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 231° 
 
 deny. To adopt a middle course is only to delude 
 ourselves. | 
 
 Let it be remembered, lLowever, that the for- 
 giveness we are commanded daily to pray for, is 
 
 that which a father exercises towards his offending: 
 
 children; not that which a sovereign extends to 
 
 guilty and condemned criminals. Nor is it true 
 
 that when the saints pray for the forgiveness of 
 their own, or others’ sins, their meaning 1s, “ that 
 God would in a providential way deliver them 
 out of present distress; remove his afilicting hand, 
 which lies heavy upon them; or avert those 
 judgments which hang over their heads, and very 
 much threaten them;” this is not the burden of 
 their request. No;—this were to impute to;them 
 the base feelings of a slave, who cares for nothing 
 but the lash; and is happy when he is assured 
 that his punishment is remitted. That which 
 
 inflicts the deepest wound in the contrite heart, 
 
 is the sense of having incurred God’s fatherly 
 _ displeasure, of having lost the wonted tokens of 
 his love. It is the presence of God, the light 
 
 of his countenance, and the joys of his salvation, 
 
 for which he so importunately supplicates ; and 
 though no temporal judgments may follow his 
 sins, he cannot rest, till these forfeited privileges 
 are restored to him. After David had sinned 
 against God in the matter of Uriah, he was not 
 satisfied with the assurance of the Prophet Nathan, 
 “The Lord hath put away thy sin; thou shalt 
 
 ital. ath 
 
232 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES, 
 
 not dic.”* ‘This only causes him to shed fresh 
 tears of bitterness, and in the anguish of his 
 spirit he cries out, “ Hide thy face from my sins, 
 and blot out all mine iniquities.— Cast me not away 
 from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit 
 from me. Restore unto me. the joy of thy a” 
 and uphold me with thy free Spirit.’> 
 
 _ The reader must not forget, that the prayer 
 in which our blessed Lord taught his disciples 
 
 to pray, “ forgive us our debts,” is prefaced with 
 
 the language of a child addressing his father, 
 ‘Our Father; which art in heaven.” There is 
 nothing, therefore, of the servile spirit blended 
 with the petition ; nor need the believer fear to 
 adopt it as his own, lest he should seem to imply 
 a forgetfulness. of his filial relation to God, or 
 
 a renunciation of the privileges of adoption. It. 
 
 is one of those very privileges which pertain to 
 him in his character of a child of God. It is 
 a blessing covenanted to him in the gospel; nor, 
 if sought for in the spirit of lowly penitence, and 
 of humble reliance on the atoning blood of Christ, 
 will he seek for it in vain. It is recorded in that 
 book which contains the charter of our salvation; 
 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
 unrighteousness.”f 
 
 But while the gospel proclaims forgiveness 
 to the humble, the lowly, the returning penitent, 
 
 * 2 Sam. xii. 18. + Psalm li. 9, 11, 12. t} John 1. 9. 
 
 eda pala Te RESET ya 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 333 
 
 let it not be thought, that it holds out the hope 
 of forgiveness alike to all. While it says, for the 
 encouragement of the true and sincere believer, 
 who, through ignorance, infirmity, or violent 
 temptation, may fall into sin, “‘there is a sin noé 
 unto death;’ and for the forgiveness of which we 
 are commanded to intercede one for another ; it’ 
 also says, to prevent presumption, and to guard 
 us against apostacy from the faith, “there is 
 a sin unto death, L say not that ye shall pray 
 for «t.* | 
 
 It must not be expected, eevee that we 
 should be able accurately to define the nature 
 or amount of those sins which shall never be 
 forgiven. The sacred scriptures have purposely, 
 as it appears to me, left this subject involved in_ 
 a degree of awful obscurity, lest, by too accurately 
 drawing the line, they should afford encourage- 
 ment to men to transgress up to the prescribed 
 limit. That there is, however, such a_ limit, 
 beyond which if a man transgress, he becomes: 
 involved in irreparable ruin, appears certain; and 
 it is a truth which the sacred scriptures are con- 
 tinually pressing on our notice, that we may 
 be upon our guard against final and hopeless 
 apostacy. For, let it be remembered, a believer's - 
 security for eternal salvation rests not on his 
 ‘having been justified from the guilt of his past 
 sins, but on his being kept by divine grace faithful 
 
 .* 1 ohn y. 16, 17. 
 
234 FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 
 
 and obedient unto the end. ‘This, and this. only, 
 is the ground of his security against final per- 
 dition. ‘Therefore St. Paul thus argues in his 
 Epistle to the Romans, “If when we were enemies 
 we were reconciled to God, by the death of his 
 Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved 
 by his life.* It is not a previous state of recon- 
 ciliation, which affords us any security, except as 
 it is inseparably connected with the renewal and 
 sanctification of the heart. ; 
 
 For, it must be remembered, there is a day 
 of scrutiny appointed, when “all shall stand 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ,’t and then 
 ‘every one shall be judged according to their 
 works. { And “the fire” of that day “ shall try 
 every mans work of what sort it is.”"§ The 
 question which that day will have to determine, 
 in regard to all who have lived under the sound 
 of the gospel, will be, whether they have obeyed 
 Christ or not. And it is this which now renders 
 
 the gift of the Spirit of Christ of such unspeakable 
 value. For, destitute of the Spirit, we cannot. 
 
 perform an acceptable obedience; and yet, unless 
 we obey Christ, we cannot be finally saved. The 
 word of God abounds with the most awful denun- 
 clations against such as are disobedient to the 
 will of Christ. ‘Those mine enemies,” said the 
 blessed Redeemer, discoursing of the judgment- 
 
 day, ‘‘ who would not that I should reign over 
 
 *Rom. v.10. +b. xiv. 10. ft Rev.xx.13.  § 1 Cor. iii. 13. 
 
 é 
 
FORGIVENESS OF DAILY OFFENCES. 235 
 
 them, bring hither and slay them before me.”™* 
 Nor will it be enough to exempt us from this 
 awful sentence, that we have professed faith in 
 his mission, or trust in his sacrifice, or have called 
 him, Lord, Lord. ‘ Why call ye me Lord, Lord, 
 and do not the things which I say ?”+—*‘ Not every 
 one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven; bué he that doeth the 
 will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will 
 say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 
 _ prophecied in thy name? and in thy name have 
 cast out devils? and in thy name done many 
 wonderful works? And then will I profess unto 
 them, £ never knew you: depart from me, ye that 
 work iniquity.”t | 
 
 * Luke xix. 27, t Ib. vi. 46. { Matt. vii, 21—23., 
 
936 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 ON THE REAL GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY FOR 
 ~ RIN AL SALVATION, 
 
 As there are no speculative errors of a religious 
 nature perfectly innoxious in their practical in-— 
 fluence, so it may with truth be asserted, there 
 are none so. fatally pernicious as those which 
 regard the grounds of our security for eternal 
 salvation. And as such errors are very common, 
 perhaps the writer cannot confer a more extensive 
 or lasting benefit upon many of his readers, than 
 by endeavouring if possible to rectify them. 
 
 The believer's security that he shall not fall 
 into condemnation has been by some supposed to 
 arise, either, on the one hand, from the want of a 
 law, under the present gracious dispensation, | 
 enforced by so tremendous a sanction as that of 
 eternal death; or, on the other hand, from some 
 special exemption which every believer in Christ 
 has obtained from the operation of that law. But 
 neither of these suppositions are true. Nor indeed 
 is it in the smallest degree necessary that we 
 should adopt either of them, in order to establish 
 
at Z 2 Se 
 
 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 237 
 
 the consolatory, and certainly scriptural truth, 
 that Christ's sheep shall never perish. No; were 
 it possible that one who had been really justified 
 by faith in Christ from the guilt of his past sins, 
 could afterwards live in wilful disobedience to 
 Christ, and die in a state of confirmed impeni- 
 tence ;—a case which scripture does not permit us_ 
 to think can ever possibly occur ;—still granting 
 it possible, He would certainly perish, nor would 
 his previous state of justification in the least degree 
 avail him. Not that his perdition would be the 
 
 consequence of a reversal of the sentence of ne 
 
 justification formerly passed in his favour. No," 
 this would infer that no law was enforced by the 
 sanction of eternal death but the law of the cove- 
 nant of works: for if we suppose. the contrary, 
 namely, that the law of Christ is enforced by 
 such a sanction, we have no occasion to have 
 
 recourse to the nature and operation of the cove- 
 
 nant of works to account for a sentence of perdi- 
 
 tion. 
 
 It has, I believe, been too generally assumed, 
 that no law can condemn a sinner, but the law of 
 the covenant of works ; and, consequently, that, 
 as all true believers are not under a covenant of 
 works, but a covenant of grace, they are in no 
 danger of final perdition, be their conduct what it 
 may. But it is far from being true, that the law 
 of Christ’s kingdom is incapable of punishing the 
 transgressor of it with death. On the contrary, 
 
3238 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 
 
 that law will constitute the rule of judgment at the 
 great and final day; ‘* The word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall yudge him in the last day.’ * 
 Nor can any one have read the New Testament 
 with attention, without perceiving, that the prin- 
 ciple which is to determine the eternal destinies of 
 such as have lived under the gospel dispensation, 
 is obedience or disobedience to Christ, and -not 
 obedience or disobedience to the law of the cove- 
 nant of works. “ Those mine enemies, who would 
 not that L should reign over-them, bring hither and 
 slay them before me.” t 
 This principle of future judgment is recognized 
 by all the parables of our blessed Lord which 
 refer to that great and awful day. And throughout 
 the whole of the apostolic writings the same 
 doctrine is invariably taught. It is never once 
 asserted, that disobedience to the authority of 
 Moses will expose the transgressor to eternal 
 condemnation. On the contrary, this tremendous 
 punishment is uniformly represented as the con- 
 sequence of disobedience to the authority and will 
 of Christ. Thus, St. Paul declares, that when the 
 Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
 . his mighty angels in flaming fire, he will “ take 
 _vengeance on them that know not God, and that 
 obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who 
 shall be punished ‘with everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory 
 
 * John xii. 47. + Luke xix. 27. 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 239 
 
 of his power.” * And in his Epistle to the He- 
 brews the same Apostle thus writes, “ Therefore ;” 
 
 that is, on account of the pre-eminent dignity of 
 Christ, by whom God hath in these last times 
 spoken unto us, in comparison of angels, the 
 ministers of his will under the Mosaic dispensa- 
 tion, “therefore, we ought to give the more ~ 
 earnest heed to the things which we have heard, 
 lest at.any time we let them slip. For if the word 
 spoken by angels was stedfast, and every trans- 
 gression and disobedience received a just recom- 
 pense of reward, how shall we escape who neglect 
 so great ‘salvation; which at the first began to be 
 spoken to us by the Lord?’}+ And, in a subse- 
 quent chapter of the same epistle, he thus writes ; 
 ‘If we sin wilfully after that we have received 
 the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no 
 more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking- 
 for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall 
 devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ 
 law died without mercy under two or three wit-' 
 nesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, 
 shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under 
 foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of 
 the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an 
 unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit 
 of grace? Kor we know him that hath said, 
 
 Vengeance belongeth unto tne, I will recompense, 
 
 saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall 
 
 { 
 * 2 Thess. i. 8, 9, * + Heb. ii, 1—3. 
 
» 
 Sr 
 
 940 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 
 
 judge his people. {t 1s a fearful thing to fall into 
 the hands of the living God.” * 
 
 I have already remarked, that the denuncia- 
 tions which Moses was commanded by Jehovah 
 to make against obstinate and impenitent trans- 
 gressors, when, in the land of Moab, he renewed 
 God’s gracious covenant with the children of 
 Israel, pertained not to the Sinaitic, but to the 
 renewed Abrahamic covenant. I may now remark, 
 that the denunciations of future wrath to be found | 
 in the New Testament belong, in like manner, not — 
 to the covenant of works, which, with respect to 
 believers in Christ is superseded and annulled, but 
 tothe covenant of grace made with them in Christ 
 their Saviour, and ratified and confirmed with his 
 precious blood. For, let it be remembered, the 
 sanctions by which the Mosaic law was enforced 
 were all of a temporal nature. ternal death was 
 not a punishment denounced against transgressors 
 by the law of Moses. So that when Christ and 
 his Apostles speak of eternal death, they speak of 
 a punishment unknown to the law. ‘The abolition 
 of that shadowy economy could not, therefore, 
 affect a sanction, which the law-of Moses did not 
 so much as adopt. 
 
 I wish the reader particularly to attondit to this © 
 important fact, as it furnishes an unanswerable 
 objection to the doctrine of those who maintain, 
 that such as are under a covenant of grace can 
 
 * Heb. x. 26—31. 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 24[ 
 
 never incur any obligation to punishment, be their 
 conduct what tt may. ‘To this we reply, that the 
 covenant of grace is itself guarded by the most 
 tremendous of all sanctions; and that the curses 
 denounced by Jehovah against his people Israel, — 
 should they rebel against his righteous authority, 
 were but faint types of that fiery wrath, which 
 awaits the impenitent transgressor of the ibe 
 and will of Christ. : 
 
 The Apostles of Chri ist are supposed by some 
 to borrow their doctrine of eternal retribution from 
 the Mosaic law. But that they did not is plain 
 from this, that the thing itself was impossible, 
 siice the doctrine of a future retribution is never 
 once directly mculcated throughout the entire 
 writings of the Jewish lawgiver. It is a fact not 
 to be denied, that Moses enforces his law by 
 éemporal sanctions, and by such only. So silent 
 is he as to the future and eternal destinies of men, 
 that it may be affirmed with truth, that the whole 
 of the Pentateuch does not contain one direct 
 assertion of the existence even of a future state; 
 much less does it appeal to a future judgment and , 
 eternal death, in order to enforce an obedience te 
 its authority. These doctrines may, it is admitted, 
 
 be gathered from some obscure hints scattered oe 
 
 throughout those writings ; but they are dark and 
 
 mysterious intimations. And this accounts for 
 
 the fact, that the sadducees, though they received 
 
 the writings of Moses as of divine authority, yet 
 R 
 
942 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY; 
 
 denied a future state. That they might have 
 inferred a future state of existence from severak 
 allusive passages, is true, as appears from our 
 ‘Lord’s reply to the sadducean objection ;* but 
 the very instance to which he refers them, as it 
 may be supposed to be one of the most conclusive 
 on the point in dispute, is confirmatory of the 
 assertion, that a future retribution is not once 
 appealed to by the Jewish lawgiver as the prolwe 
 sanction of his law. Le 
 
 It is very remarkable, that the BE of 
 Enoch concerning the future judgment, recorded 
 by St. Jude,f is not so much as alluded to by 
 Moses; and even his translation: is described by 
 him in ambiguous terms ;{ though. certainly, had 
 Moses designed. to inculcate the doctrine of a 
 future retribution, no reason can be assigned to 
 account for his mysterious silence. 
 
 The solution of the difficulty must be sought 
 for in the temporary nature of the J ewish economy.. 
 « It was a figure for the time then present ;”§ and 
 being intended to be abolished, it was necessary, 
 that nothing should be admitted into its structure, 
 ‘but what was itself temporary and typical. If 
 the day of judgment had really constituted an 
 essential part: of the Mosaic institution, then, 
 ‘indeed, the abolition of that institution would 
 seem to imply, that the sanction of a future judg- 
 
 * See Matt, xxii, 20-32, +See Jude 14,15, — t See Gen. v. 24. 
 § Heb. ix. 9. 7 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY, 243 
 
 ment was repealed, at least in relation to true 
 believers. But as this sanction did not constitute 
 a part of that shadowy economy, it cannot be in 
 the smallest degree affected by its abrogation. On 
 the contrary, the repeal of that shadowy law 
 gives greater prominence to the doctrine of a _ 
 fature judgment: the system of temporal sanc- — 
 tions being withdrawn, the future and eternal 
 destinies of men are left to occupy the whole field 
 of moral vision. And hence arises, in part, the 
 great power of the gospel in converting a sinner 
 from the error of his way. Of the gospel message, ~ 
 the revelation of a day of judgment forms an 
 essential part. It is the great and powerful sanc- 
 tion of that law by which the Redeemer’s kingdom 
 is administered. This is the grand motive by 
 which the Apostles of Christ stir up sinners to 
 repentance. “ The times of this ignorance,” says 
 St. Paul to the Athenians, “ God winked at, but | 
 now commandeth all men ever 'y where to repent: 
 because he hath appointed a day, in the which he 
 will judge the world in righteousness, by that man 
 whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given 
 assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
 from the dead.”* This is the persuasive arguinent 
 by which they stimulate the faithful to watchful- 
 ness, to patient endurance, to unshaken constancy, 
 to holy circumspection, and to active and un- 
 wearied labours in the service of Christ. “ We 
 
 * Acts xvii, 30, 31. 
 
\ 
 944 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 
 
 must all appear. before. the judgment-seat of 
 Christ :’*—“ Behold, the Judge standeth before the 
 door ;’t—“ The Lord shall judge his people;’{— 
 is the plain and decisive language in which that 
 argument is expressed. ae 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that while in the 
 
 earlier portions of the Jewish scriptures, the allu- 
 sions to a future retribution are very few, and 
 those few mysterious and enigmatical, the later 
 portions contain very frequent and very plain 
 references to that event. Whether there are any 
 to be found in the inspired writings composed 
 anterior to the time of David is doubtful; but 
 subsequently to that period, they grow thick upon 
 us; till Malachi, the last of the Jewish prophets, 
 and, consequently, the nearest to the ‘time of 
 Messiah, fiat out in the following awful lan- 
 cuage; “ But who may abide the day of his 
 coming? aud who shali stand when he ap- 
 
 peareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like — 
 
 fuller’s soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and 
 
 purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of 
 Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that. 
 
 they may offer unto the Lord an offering m 
 righteousness. Then shall the offerings of Judah 
 and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the 
 days of old, and as in former years. And I will 
 come near io you in judgment; and I will be a 
 swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 10. +damesv.9. ~° { Heb. x. 30. 
 
‘GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 245 
 
 adulterers, and against false swearers, and against 
 those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the - 
 widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the 
 stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the 
 Lord of hosts.’* And again, “ For behold, the 
 day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all 
 the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall. 
 be as stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn 
 them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that w shall 
 leave them neither root nor branch.” > 
 And the forerunner of our Lord is even more 
 explicit than any of the Jewish prophets, Malachi 
 not excepted. ‘To the pharisees and sadducees, 
 who came to his baptism he said, “ O generation 
 of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the 
 wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet 
 for repentance: and think not to say within your- 
 selves, We have Abraham to our father: for I 
 say unto you, that God is able of these stones to 
 raise up children unto Abraham. And now also 
 the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore 
 every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is - 
 hewn down, and cast into the fire. 1 indeed bap- 
 tize you with water unto repentance: but he that 
 cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes 
 I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you 
 with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is 
 in his hand, and he will throughly purge fas 
 1 floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; but 
 
 * Mal. iii, 2-5. _ 4+ Ibid. iy. 1. 
 
246. GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 
 
 he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable 
 fire.”* at ee 
 
 Thus, the nearer we approach the coming of 
 Messiah, the more clearly do we find a day of future 
 
 retribution revealed: a fact utterly unaccountable 
 on the supposition, that this was a sanction pecu- 
 liar to a covenant of works, and incompatible 
 with the nature of a covenant of yrace: but per- 
 fectly intelligible, if we consider the gospel as the 
 good news of Messiah’s reign, and future retribu- 
 tion as the sanction by which the law of his king- 
 dom ts enforced. 
 
 Nor is this all. Not only do we find: the doc- 
 trine of future retribution more clearly revealed, 
 the nearer we approach the day of Messiah’s ap- 
 pearing ; but we find it taught as one of the grand 
 ditinenee peculiartives of that kingdom which hewas 
 to wntroduce and establish. Both Malachi and John 
 the Baptist are express and decisive in their testi- 
 mony as to this point. And, doubtless, it was the 
 salutary fear impressed upon the minds of his 
 hearers by this great truth, which gave such 
 effect to the preaching of the Baptist. “ The 
 kingdom of God was preached, and every man 
 pressed into it.”t Of this effect of his doctrine 
 John himself was fully sensible, as appears by his 
 address to those pharisees and sadducees who 
 came to his baptism ; ‘‘ O generation of vipers, who 
 
 _ hath warned you to fice from the wrath to come?’ 
 
 * Matt. iii, 7—12, + Luke xvi. 16. t Matt. iii. 7. 
 
GROUNDS OFA BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 247 
 
 plainly intimating, that the dread of future and 
 eternal wrath was the grand engine, by which he 
 had effected so mighty a reformation in the minds 
 of his hearers. 
 
 When, therefore, we meet, either in the para- 
 bles of Christ, or in the discourses or writings of 
 his apostles, with denunciations of wrath against ~ 
 the finally impenitent, we are not to imagine that 
 such denunciations belong only to the covenant 
 of works: and, consequently, that a believer in 
 Christ, being placed under another covenant, has 
 no ground for apprehension, and is under no 
 necessity of exercising fear, or caution, or watch- 
 fulness. These awful denunciations pertain to 
 the very covenant under which he is placed; 
 they are the sanctions of that very law which he 
 is required to obey. So that were it possible 
 that a believer in Christ could live in wilful con- 
 tempt of the authority of that law, he would, by 
 his disobedience to it, incur the awful penalty 
 which it, threatens to inflict on the transgressor 
 
 of it; nor could he escape final perdition, unless 
 dilieie grace should interpose, and recover. him 
 from the paths into which he had wandered. 
 Such examples are not wanting of the triumphs 
 of divine grace. It is at our peril, however, that 
 we presume on like mercy being shewn to us. If 
 we have examples of backsliders being restored, 
 we have also examples of apostates who perished 
 in their sins. If David and Peter hold out 
 
248 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY, 
 
 encouragement to the penitent wanderer to returs 
 to God; a Judas, a Simon, a Demas, warn us 
 of the danger of presumptuous transgression. 
 From what has been advanced, then, we may 
 learn, that nothing but divine grace urging the 
 believer in Christ to a determined resistance of 
 his great spiritual adversary the devil, to habitual 
 waichfulness agamst the inroads of temptation, to 
 a daily mortification of his own inward cor- 
 ruptions, to a cheerfal, steady, and unwearied 
 
 compliance with the whele will of God, secures: 
 
 him from fmal perdition. This is a sentiment 
 confirmed by every page of the New Testament. 
 Not only do the numerous exhortations to. watch- 
 fulness, godly jealousy over ourselves, the mortifi- 
 cation of our sensual appetites, and a diligent and 
 unwearied observance of the will of Christ, pre- 
 suppose our danger of falling into final perdition ; 
 it is also presuppesed by such exhortations as the 
 following, which, indeed, can have no meaning 
 
 on a contrary hypothesis; ‘ Destroy not him by, 
 thy meat, for whom Christ died.”* “ For meat 
 
 desiroy not the work of God.”} “ But take heed, 
 lest, by any means, this liberty of yours become a 
 _ Stumbling-block to them that are weak. For, if 
 
 any man see thee, which hast knowledge, sit at - 
 
 meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience 
 of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those 
 
 * Rom. xiv. 15, , i Ibid. 20. 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 249 
 
 things which are offered to idols; and, through 
 thy knowledge, shall the weak brother perish, 
 for whom Christ died?’* Do not all these exhor- 
 tations and expostulations proceed on the prin- 
 ciple, that, to sin against Christ, is to incur the 
 danger of final perdition? and that, to. become the 
 occasion of sin to our brethren in Christ is, as far’ 
 as lies in our power, to destroy their souls? If no 
 such danger be incurred, really the caution here 
 inculcated is unnecessary... : 
 That the apostles of Christ were apprehensive 
 of such danger, is evident, from their anxious 
 solicitude for the spiritual welfare of their con- 
 verts.. As one specimen among many, which 
 I might adduce of this godly jealousy over them, 
 I will refer the reader to St. Paul's. tender and 
 affectionate address to his Thessalonian converts; 
 “Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, 
 we thought it good to be left at, Athens alone; 
 and sent ‘Timotheus, our brother; and minister of 
 God, and our fellow-labourer m the gospel of 
 Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you 
 concerning your faith; that no man should be 
 moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know 
 that we are appointed thereunto. For this cause, 
 when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know 
 your faith, lest by some means the tempter have 
 tempted you, and our labour be in vain. But now 
 when ‘Timotheus came from you unto us, and 
 
 * 1 Cor. viii, 9-11. 
 
950 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY, 
 
 brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, 
 and that ye have good remembrance of us always, 
 desiring greatly to ‘see us, as we also to see you; 
 therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in 
 all our affliction and distress by your faith: for, 
 now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.* ‘This 
 language, I venture to affirm, is perfectly unin- 
 telligible, if no departure from the faith and purity 
 of the gospel incur a liability to final perdition ; 
 but is easy of explanation, if, on the other hand, 
 the affirmative be true. | 4 
 
 But this is not all; the New Testament 
 ‘abounds with direct and positive assertions of 
 the fact I am labouring to establish; viz. that 
 apostacy from the faith is the road to eternal 
 perdition; and that every sin wilfully committed, 
 is a step towards this awful consummation. Need 
 I remind the reader of the argument of St. Paul, 
 in his first Epistle to the Corinthians? ‘ Moreover, 
 brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant 
 how that all our fathers were under the cloud, 
 and all passed through the sea; and were all 
 baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 
 and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did 
 all drink ihe same spiritual drink ; for they drank 
 of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and 
 that Rock was Christ. But with many of them 
 God was not well pleased; for they were over- 
 thrown in the wilderness. Now these thing's were 
 
 * 1 Thess. iii. 1—8. 
 
 a 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER'S SECURITY. ee 
 
 our examples, ( or ensamples to us) to the intent we 
 should not lust after evil things, as they also 
 lusted. Neither be ye idolaters; as it is written, 
 The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose 
 up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, 
 as some of them committed, and fell in one day 
 three and twenty thousand. Neither Jet us tempt — 
 Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were 
 destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as 
 some of them also murmured, and were destroyed 
 of the destroyer. Now all these things happened 
 unto them for ensamples: and they are written for 
 our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world 
 are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he 
 standeth, take heed lest he fall."** Yn this passage 
 will be found a direct application of the doctrine. 
 above advanced, of the strict analogy which 
 subsists between the Mosaic and Christian eco- 
 _ -nomies. Were it not for this analogy, there 
 would be no propriety or force in the statement 
 of the Apostle, that the judgments which befel 
 the Israelites in the wilderness, “ happened to 
 them for ensamples.” It is ouly by supposing a 
 similarity, or rather, I should say, an identity, 
 in the principle on which the kingdoms of Jehovah 
 and of Christ are respectively administered, that 
 any conclusion, like that which the Apostle here 
 draws from the one to the other, could be sup- 
 ported. If, instead of similarity in the principle 
 
 * 1 Cor x.\1-+—12, 
 
252 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 
 
 of their respective administrations, there were 
 a direct contrast and opposition between them, as 
 is too commonly supposed, this inference would 
 altogether fail, and a contrary conclusion would 
 be far more just. It is not. possible, [ think, to 
 devise a form of words more confirmatory of the 
 position | am supporting, than those of St. Paul 
 above quoted.. Similar authorities. might be 
 adduced: but as it would not be possible to find 
 one more decisive,’ and as merely to multiply 
 them would add nothing to the strength, of the 
 argument, I will not trespass on the patience of 
 my readers by a formal quotation of.them, but 
 request such as may be desirous of consulting 
 analogous peatmonness to turn to the passages 
 noted in the margin.” | 
 
 Let it not be thought, however, from any thing 
 which has been advanced, that there is no. se- 
 curity whatever for the final salvation of the 
 people of God. ‘My sheep shall never perish,” 
 says Christ, “ neither shall any man pluck them 
 out of my hand.”{ Ample provision is made for 
 their preservation from final apostacy. But that 
 security does not arise from the total absence of 
 danger; from the non-existence of a law obliga- _ 
 tory on the believer, and enforced by the sanctions | 
 of judgment and eternal death. It is as true .of 
 the righteous, as it is of the wicked, of those who 
 
 * See Heb. iii. 7—19; iv. 1, 2,11; x. 38; xii, 15—17, 2 Pet. ti. 1—9. 
 Jude 5—7. + John x. 28. 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 253 
 
 shall be finally saved, as of those who shall fmally 
 perish, that they shall be “judged according to 
 their works.”* None shall enter the mansions of 
 the blessed, whose works accord not with the 
 rule of christian duty. ‘ Behold,” says Christ, 
 “I come quickly; and my reward is with me, 
 to give every man according as-his work shall be. 
 Tam Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
 end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that 
 do his commandments, that they may have right to 
 the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates 
 into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, 
 and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, 
 and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”"} It was 
 the firm impression of this truth, which led 
 St. Paul to pray on behalf of his Thessalonian 
 converts, that God would “ establish their hearts 
 unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, 
 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all 
 his saints.”{ ‘This led him so assiduously to 
 “labour, that whether present or absent, he might 
 be accepted of him.”§ This led him ‘to “ keep 
 under his body, and bring it into subjection, lest 
 that by any means, when he had preached to 
 others, he himself should be a cast-away.’||_ 
 
 O let not those who bear the name of Christ 
 mistake on a point of such infinite importance. 
 Let tog not trust ina refuge of lies. Let them 
 
 *% Rey. xx. 13. + Ib, xxii, 1Q—-15.° ry 1 ‘Thes. 1.13, _’; 
 § 2 Cor. v. 9. . I}. 1 Cor, ix. 27. 
 
254 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY, 
 
 not indulge in vain self-confidence, and imagine; 
 that becanse they have been justified from the 
 guilt of their former sins, no future conduct on 
 their part can endanger their final safety. It is 
 a delusive peace which springs from such a source 
 as this; and tends, more than any other feeling 
 of the mind, to plunge the soul in hopeless and 
 irrecoverable ruin. Even with all the care, and 
 caution, and watchfulness, which the best saint 
 that ever lived has exerted against his subtle ad- 
 _ versary, he has sometimes been foiled. This 
 mighty foe of God’s people has cast down many 
 wounded, even when they have fought most man- 
 fully, and used the christian armour with greatest 
 skill. And yet some fondly think, they may lay 
 aside the shield, and the helmet, and the breast: 
 plate, and the sword, and attain heaven without 
 a struggle with the great enemy. So thought not 
 Paul. To his Ephesian converts he thus writes; 
 ‘“‘ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, 
 and in the power of his might. Put on the whole 
 armour of God, that ye may be able to stand 
 against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not 
 against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
 against powers, against the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
 places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole ar- 
 mour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the 
 evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand there- 
 fore, having your loins girt about with truth, and 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 255 
 
 having on the breast-plate of righteousness; and 
 your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel 
 of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, 
 wherewith ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts 
 of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, 
 and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
 God, praying always with all prayer and supplica-- 
 tion in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with 
 all perseverance.” * | CFG) 
 
 It is one of the artifices of the subtle enemy of 
 our salvation, if possible, to conceal from us his 
 strength, that he may induce us to abate our 
 vigilance, and throw aside our armour; and, when 
 he has succeeded in producing in our minds a 
 false security, he looks upon our rum as more than 
 half accomplished. Those, therefore, who teach 
 men to despise their great adversary, are not the 
 true friends of their salvation. They are ‘“ apostles 
 of Satan transforming themselves into the apostles 
 of Christ.” Beware, christian reader, how you 
 listen to their lying doctrine. They would lull 
 you to repose, as the false Delilah once did the 
 mighty champion of Israel, that having first shorn 
 you of your strength, they may then deliver you 
 bound into the enemy’s hands. “ Surely in vain 
 the net is spread in the sight of any bird,” ¢ said 
 - the royal preacher. But alas! there are among 
 the sons of men many who are more void of 
 understanding than the fowls of heaven. The net 
 
 * Eph. vi. 10—18. } Prov. i. 17. 
 
956 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 
 
 of the fowler is spread in their very sight, and yet 
 they cannot be persuaded that danger is nigh, 
 They deem it a part of wisdom to be unsuspicious, 
 and make it their boast that they dare sleep 
 unarmed in the very presence of their foe. O that 
 my feeble voice could arouse them to a just sense 
 
 of thew danger, lest they should lie down, and ; 
 
 sleep the sleep of death. 
 Does it then become the christian fi to 
 cherish no assurance of his final salvation? Must 
 
 he ever indulge the terrific dread of one day falling 
 
 by the hand of his enemy? No, despondency 
 equally misbecomes him as vain confidence, and 
 is a feeling little less injurious in its tendency. 
 Because liis enemy is mighty, he is not to deem 
 him resistless. That enemy would fain persuade 
 those whom he cannot lull into security, that all 
 resistance to his power will prove ineffectual. 
 And so it would be, did the Christian contend 
 
 against him in his own strength; but, aided as he | 
 
 is by omnipotence, the feeblest saint is more than 
 a match for this potent adversary, though he come 
 out against him like a roaring lion. Let the 
 believer remember that the great Captain of his 
 salvation has already “spoiled principalities and 
 powers,” that he has led “ captivity captive ;” 
 and that he has engaged to make ali his people 
 “more than conquerors,” and to “ bruise Satan 
 under their feet shortly.” * 
 
 * Rom. xvi. 20. 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY: 257 
 
 Despond not, ye children of the most high 
 God, because you are called to wrestle with the 
 principalities and powers of darkness. Remember 
 there is one “ who is able to keep you from falling, 
 and to present you faultless before the presence of 
 his glory with exceeding joy.”* “To him commit 
 the keeping of your souls in well-doing.” + While’ 
 you trust in his power, and wield,his armour, and 
 fight his battles, and continue manfully opposing 
 your enemies, and wander neither to the right 
 _hand nor to the left, you have no fatal danger to 
 fear. Your adversary the devil may come out 
 against you as a roaring lion; but “resist him, 
 and he will flee from you.”+ Continue vigilant 
 and circumspect, and self-diffident, and armed at 
 every point with the armour which Christ has 
 provided you, and you may dare him to do his 
 worst. He cannot overcome you even by his 
 most furious onsets, or mortally wound you even 
 by his most fiery darts, while you steadily pursue 
 the course marked out for you in God’s word. 
 It is when you slumber, or loiter, or relax your 
 vigilance, or turn aside from the holy command- 
 ment, that he can surprise you. “‘ Be sober” then, 
 “ be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, 
 as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom 
 he may devour: whom resist, stedfast in the 
 faith, knowing that the same afflictions are 
 accomplished in your brethren that are in the 
 
 * Jude 24, + 1 Pet, iv, 19, { James iv, 7. 
 S 
 
958 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 
 
 world. But the God of all grace, who hath called 
 us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after 
 that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, 
 stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory 
 and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” * 
 
 Some have represented the condition of a 
 believer in the present life as one of perfect secu- 
 rity, arising from the total absence of danger. But 
 this is not the doctrine of the sacred scriptures ; 
 nor is it the way to do honour to the grace of God, 
 
 or to the tender pity and watchful care of the. 
 
 ood Shepherd. Supposing the children of God 
 to be placed beyond the reach of danger, there is 
 no need for the arm of omnipotence to be stretched 
 out for their protection and defence. Supposing 
 the sheep of Christ to be fed in pastures, into 
 which no roaring lion or raging bear can have 
 access to worry or to devour them, and there is 
 no Opportunity afforded for the exercise of vigi- 
 lance on the part of the great Shepherd. The 
 loving-kindness which God manifested to his ser- 
 vant David, was not expressed in placing him ina 
 condition of absolute security from the violent 
 rage of his bitter enemy, king Saul. No, it wasim 
 delivering him in the time of his extremity, at the 
 very moment when Saul exulted in the thought of 
 his certain destruction. “God hath delivered him 
 into mine hand,” said he; “ for he is shut in, by 
 entering into a town that hath gates and bars.” 
 
 * 41 Pet. vy. 8—11. +1 Sam, xxiii. 7. 
 
 a 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 259 
 
 But God disappointed his cruel and murderous 
 designs; and it is thus that David records his 
 deliverance ; ‘“‘ He sent from above, he took me, 
 he drew me out of many waters. He delivered 
 me from my strong enemy, and from them which 
 hated me: for they. were teo strong for me. They 
 prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the 
 Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also 
 into a large place: he delivered me, because he 
 delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me accord- 
 ing to my righteousness; according to the clean- 
 ness of my hands hath he recompensed me.” * 
 _ And afterwards he adds, ‘“‘ For by thee I have 
 run through a troop; and by my God have I 
 leaped over a wall. It is God that girdeth me 
 with strength, and maketh my way perfect. He 
 maketh my feet like hind’s feet, and setteth me 
 upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to 
 war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine 
 arms.” | And similar deliverances may be grate- 
 fully recorded by all God’s people in every age. 
 Such was the miraculous preservation of the three 
 children whom Nebuchadnezzar commanded to 
 be cast into the burning fiery furnace; and of 
 Daniel, when, for violating a crafty and impious 
 decree, he was thrown into the den of lions. Nor 
 ought it to be forgotten, that both the king of 
 Babylon in the one instance, and the king of the 
 Medes and Persians in the other, were brought by 
 
 * Psalm xviii. 16—20. + Ibid, 29, 32—34. 
 
960 GROUNDS OF A BELTEVER’s SECURITY. 
 these very events to the acknowledgment of the 
 true God. “I make a decree,” said king Darius; 
 “that in every dominion of my kingdom men 
 tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he 
 is the living God, and_ stedfast for ever, and his 
 kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and 
 his dominion shall be even unto the end. He 
 delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and 
 wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered 
 Daniel from the power of the lions.”* And in the 
 heavenly world it will be matter of eternal thanks- 
 giving and praise, that, encompassed as the saints 
 of God were, while sojourning on earth, with 
 enemies more fierce and more cruel than even — 
 famished beasts of prey, they reached their father’s 
 home safe and unhurt. 
 The grace of God towards his people is not 
 expressed, by placing them in a condition where 
 no enemy can assault them; but in making them, 
 feeble as they are in sii tiny “more than con- 
 querors through him who loved them.” It is not 
 expressed in giving them a discharge from the 
 toils or dangers of the conflict; but in shielding 
 their heads in the day of battle; in “ teaching their 
 hands to war and their fingers to fight;” in 
 making them swift to flee, where safety is to be 
 sought in flight, and strong to combat, where the 
 enemy must be fairly met and vanquished. Some- 
 times indeed, to convince them where their safety 
 
 * Dan. vi. 26, 27. 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVERS SECURITY. 261 
 
 lies, he may so entirely surround them with 
 difficulties and dangers, that no exertions of theirs 
 can surmount, and no wisdom of theirs can elude 
 them; and they have no other resource left them, 
 but to “ stand still and see the salvation of God.” 
 But this is not the manner in which God most 
 commonly interposes on behalf of his people. 
 Their situation usually resembles that of the little 
 army of Gideon advancing to the attack of the 
 Midianitish camp. Nothing but the arm of omni- 
 potence could enable them to vanquish those 
 innumerable hosts of Midianites and Amalekites, 
 who, to use the expressive language. of sacred 
 story, “covered the valley like grasshoppers for 
 “multitude.” But yet God had determined that 
 by the sword of Gideon he would work out. 
 deliverance for his people. The appointed watch- 
 word was, “ The sword of the Lord and of 
 Gideon.”* And.so it is with God’s spiritual 
 people. He not merely subdues their enemies ; 
 but he strengthens them to obtain the victory. 
 He not merely vanquishes their great adversary 
 the devil, but “ he bruises Satan under their 
 feet.’+ And this mode of interposition, though 
 less striking to the senses, conveys to the mind a 
 far more decisive proof of the majesty of divine 
 power, than if he were wholly to exclude all 
 human agency in carrying into effect his designs 
 of mercy towards his people. And certainly it 
 
 * Judges vii. 18. + Rom. xvi, 20. 
 
 ~ 
 
262 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 
 
 inflicts more signal disgrace on the great enemy 
 of God’s people thus to be defeated, than had alt 
 the artillery of divine power been brought for- 
 ward to secure his overthrow. If the pride of 
 Satan could derive consolation, as our great poet 
 has very naturally described him as doing, from 
 the thought, that it was in a war against omni- 
 potence only that he had been foiled, this miser-. 
 _ able consolation will remain to him no longer. - 
 His victors are not God and his Messiah; it is 
 the children of Adam, once his wretched and 
 hopeless captives, who now trample him beneath 
 their feet. 
 
 j put it to the candid and impartial reader, 
 whether the representation I have above given be 
 not more honourable to the grace of God, than 
 any known modification of the Antmomian doc- 
 trine? Where, on that scheme, is any scope 
 afforded for the exercise on the part of God, of 
 patience, or forbearance, or long-suffering, or 
 tender pity, or paternal care, or forgiving love, or 
 renewing grace? What scope for the vigilance, or 
 protecting arm of the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep? Or what motive for the exercise of faith 
 in God on the part of his people? It is impos- 
 sible, I think, not to perceive, that, under pre- 
 tence of doing honour to the grace of God, it 
 reduces it to a total incapacity of actively ex- 
 erting itself in the salvation of men, by leaving 
 nothing for it to perform: that, under pretence of 
 
GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 263 
 
 exalting the Redeemer, it robs him of that. ex- 
 haustless revenue of praise which would fivally 
 accrue to him from the safe conduct of his people 
 to the realms of glory. Upon this miserable 
 scheme nothing can be easier than the task which 
 is now assigned him. That his sheep shall never 
 perish, they owe not to his watchful care, or his 
 almighty arm. His flock depasture, where no 
 enemy can approach to devour them. O shame- 
 less advocates of so injurious a doctrine! Reflect 
 but for a moment on its real tendency. It does 
 nothing less than rob Christ of the honour of 
 “bringing many sons” safe “ to glory.” To what- 
 ever they may owe their safety, it is not to him, 
 if what you affirm be true. That blessed promise 
 of the Saviour, the joy and comfort of all his 
 redeemed people, for which they daily bless and 
 magnify his name, “ My sheep shall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of my 
 hand ;”* this blessed promise, I say, you strip of 
 all its value, by ascribing the security of the flock 
 of Christ, not to his vigilance or power, but simply 
 to some imaginary state of safety which wholly 
 supersedes any necessity for their exertion. 
 
 Thus have I proved the position which I for- 
 merly advanced, that Antinomianism is as hostile 
 to the honour of divine grace, as it is avowedly 
 unfriendly to the interests of personal, vital and 
 practical holiness; in short, that it raises the 
 
 * John x. 28, 
 
264 GROUNDS OF A BELIEVER’S SECURITY. 
 
 al 
 
 cross of Christ only that it may the more effec. 
 tually prostrate his throne, and not from any 
 sincere regard to its true glory. And yet it has 
 been chiefly by loud professions of zeal for Christ 
 that it has gained such numerous accessions to 
 its cause. The reader will now be able toa 
 judge what measure of confidence those profes. 
 sions deserve. 
 
 8 gs 
 
GONCLUSION. 265 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 From the remarks which have been made in the 
 _ preceding chapters, the reader will be led to see 
 wherein the true glory of that dispensation con- 
 sists, under which it is his happy privilege to live. 
 . Rejecting with a holy indignation the impious 
 sentiment, “ Let us sin, that grace may abound,” 
 he will make it his boast that he is the “ servant 
 of Christ.” Advancing no ‘claims to exemption 
 from divine authority, he will exult in the delight- 
 ful thought, that the Sovereign whose will he 
 is bound to consult, whose laws he is required to 
 obey, and at whose tribunal he must one day 
 stand, is he who once died for his sins, and then 
 rose again for his justification; in short, that his 
 Redeemer and Saviour is his Lord and Judge. 
 
 It is this truth, and this alone, which St. Paul 
 expresses in those well-known words, “ Ye are 
 not under law, but under grace ;” that is to say, as 
 I have before observed, Ye are not under a dis- 
 pensation of law, the distinctive characteristic of 
 which is rigid and inflexible justice ; which affords 
 no other aid for the discharge of duty than the 
 simple revelation of the divine will; and which 
 
206 CONCLUSION. 
 
 knows not to forgive, when once its requisitions 
 have been broken and violated. No; the king- 
 dom of the glorified Jesus, of which you are the 
 privileged subjects, is administered on milder and 
 more gracious principles. Making provision at 
 once for assisting our weakness, and pardoning 
 our daily provocations, it meets every possible 
 exigence of our fallen nature; while, by its com- 
 mands and its prohibitions, its promises and its 
 threatenings, it urges us to seek after greater, and 
 still greater degrees of conformity to the image 
 and will of God. And what can a child of God 
 desire more? Nothing but an invincible attach- 
 ment to sin, and a fixed determination to indulge 
 in it, in spite of all its consequences, can for one 
 moment induce a wish, that the prohibitions and 
 threatenings of the word of God were expunged 
 from the sacted page. Is it not enough that we 
 live under the mild and gentle reign of the Son of 
 God, who knows and who pities the infirmities of 
 our nature, who intercedes for our forgiveness 
 when we go astray from his ways, and who, by 
 the mighty agency of his Spirit, conquers and sub- 
 dues the inbred corruptions of our hearts, and 
 transforms us enemies into the likeness of sons;— 
 Is not this, I ask, enough to satisfy us, but we 
 must contend for absolute exemption from moral 
 obligation and final accountability? must live as 
 we list, and pass into heaven without undergoing 
 any scrutiny from the searching eye of the great 
 
CONCLUSION. 267 
 
 Judge? Such is not the grace revealed to us in 
 the gospel of Christ. The good news it proclaims 
 to perishing sinners is good news concerning 
 God’s everlasting kingdom; and he whose heart 
 has been broken with genuine contrition, when he 
 hears these glad tidings proclaimed, will hasten 
 to offer his submission to the King whom God — 
 
 hath “ set upon his holy hill of Zion;” rejoicing _ 
 
 that the sinful sons of men are invited to renew 
 their allegiance, and to serve their God in the 
 person of his only begotten Son. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Huenes and Baynes, Printers, Maiden Lane, Covent Gardeii. 
 
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 ips Saleh ose Ba pola Ih) dae jie rd sBlterty are AS append ire c 
 
 z 
 
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