BX 5139 .F727 1892 
 Fraser, Donald, 1826-1892. 
 Sound doctrine 
 
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SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
PERIODICALS ISSUED BY THE PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
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 THE WOMEN OF CHINA. 
 
 Pagoda Shadows ; or, Studies from Life in China. 
 
 By Adele M. Fielde of Swatow, China. With an In- 
 troduction by the Rev. J. Oswald Dykes, D.D. Cloth. 
 208 pages, price 2s. 6d. 
 Graphic pictures of the domestic and social life of the women of 
 China, and of the blessings the Gospel has brought to many of them. 
 The first edition, published in America, was sold within a week. This 
 English edition contains an additional chapter by the authoress. 
 
 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON. 
 
The Rev. Donald Fraser, D.D. 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE 
 
 A COMMENTARY ON 
 
 THE ARTICLES OF THE FAITH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 J9resbj3tciian Church of Cnglanii 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. DO N A L D "^^R A S ER, D.D. 
 
 LONDOX 
 PUBLICATIOX Co>rMITTEE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 14 Paternoster. Square 
 1892 
 
ABERDEEN UNIVEKSITV PRESS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface, vii 
 
 List of Creeds and Confessions, xv 
 
 On Sound Doctrine, ......... i 
 
 The Articles of the Faith, 2 
 
 Of God 20 
 
 Of the Trinity, 29 
 
 Of Creation, .......... 37 
 
 Of Providence, 46 
 
 Of the Fall, 55 
 
 Of Saving Grace, ......... 64 
 
 Of the Lord Jesus Christ, 72 
 
 Of the Work of Christ, 82 
 
 Of the Exaltation of Christ, 92 
 
 Of the Gospel, 102 
 
 Of the Holy Spirit, 109 
 
 Of Election and Regeneration, iiS 
 
 Of Justification by Faith, 126 
 
 Of Sonship in Christ, 134 
 
 Of the Law and New Obedience 141 
 
 Of Sanctification and Perseverance, 149 
 
 Of the Church, 158 
 
 Of Church Order and Fellowship, ...... 167 
 
 Of Holy Scripture, 176 
 
 Of the Sacraments iS5 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTKNTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Of the Second Advent, 194 
 
 Of the Resurrection, . ... .... 201 
 
 Of the Last Judgment, 209 
 
 Of the Life Everlasting, 217 
 
 Appendix to the Articles, 223 
 
 Church Polity, 223 
 
 The Membership of the Church, 225 
 
 The Discipline of the Church, 226 
 
 Worship and the -Lord's Day, ...... 227 
 
 Marriage and Divorce, 228 
 
 Civil Government, ........ 229 
 
 Index 231 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The " Articles of the Faith," on which a Commentary is 
 hers presented, were adopted with unanimity by the 
 Synod of the Presbyterian Church of England on the 
 first of May, 1890. They had not been hastily drawn 
 up. The Committee of Synod which prepared them had 
 been occupied upon this portion of its task since the year 
 1885. The draft ofthe Articles had been, during two succes- 
 sive years, subjected to a detailed examination by every 
 Presbytery of the Church. No pains had been spared 
 to render the document expressive of the living belief 
 which obtains m this portion of Christ's Church on all 
 doctrines of primary or fundamental consequence to the 
 faith and experience of Christian men. 
 
 It is not pretended that these Articles embody any novel 
 teaching on the great themes of Divine Revelation. They 
 profess to be no more than a re-statement of truths long 
 held by the group of Protestant Churches to which we 
 belong. They are believed to be in substantial accord, 
 both with the teaching of the Westminster Standards 
 accepted in this Church, and with the general system of 
 doctrine which finds more or less full expression in everj' 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 one of the long series of Reformed Confessions drawn up 
 in the course of the sixteenth century. On some central 
 doctrines, such as the Trinity and the Person of our 
 Blessed Lord, they claim to be in harmony with the 
 CEcumenical Councils of the ancient undivided Church 
 in East and West. In their views of sin and grace they 
 are frankly Augustinian. They are set forth, therefore, 
 not because this Church had anything new to teach, but 
 because it felt convinced that certain useful purposes 
 would be served through the Divine Blessing by a fresh, 
 clear, and popular presentation of its ancient faith, at 
 least in essential points, in form and language adapted 
 to present needs. 
 
 One of these purposes, contemplated from the first 
 and specified in the instructions originally given by the 
 Church to the Committee, was that of a " Summarj- of 
 Doctrine to be used as a guide in the instruction of her 
 people, especially of her younger members'". It is in 
 prosecution of this design that the present work has been 
 prepared. 
 
 The Reformed or Calvinistic branch of the Church of 
 Christ has always been honourably distinguished by the 
 pains it has taken to indoctrinate its members in the con- 
 tents of revelation. It has given much attention to the 
 catechising of children ; and at some periods of its histor\- 
 the use of Catechisms has not been confined b\- an}- means 
 to persons of tender 3'ears. At the present day catechising 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 has gone a good deal out of fashion. In the case of 
 young persons on the borders of adult age, it is hardly 
 any longer practicable. But the want was never more 
 evident than now of thorough and systematic grounding 
 in the truths of God's Word. Loose and erroneous 
 opinions on nearly every doctrine of religion are widely 
 spread among all classes. A general haziness of belief, 
 destitute of clear or fixed convictions, is apt to settle 
 upon the mind, even of well-disposed young Christians, 
 if the}' are left to pick up their ideas on such subjects at 
 random amid the conflicting and often ill-considered 
 utterances to be heard on every hand. Never was the 
 guidance of some " form of sound words," based at every 
 point on Divine Revelation, more called for, if the 
 coming generation is not to drift into uncertainty or to 
 fall into error, on the cardinal verities of Christianity. 
 As one contribution at least towards such guidance 
 the present Manual is issued under the sanction of the 
 Synod's Committee on the Instruction of Youth. It is 
 designed to serve at once as a guide to the private Chris- 
 tian in his study of truth, and also as a text-book for the 
 conduct of ministers' classes, whether of catechumens or 
 of young people in general. 
 
 From its severely condensed sentences and its some- 
 what minute sub-divisions, the reader will readil}' conclude 
 that, with a view to its use as a text-book, a good deal is 
 designedly left to the teacher. There is ample room both 
 
xii 
 
 I'KEFACK. 
 
 for fuller exposition and for profitable enforcement of the 
 truths taught. Nor are the biblical proofs, on which 
 of course everything ought ultimately to rest, cited in 
 the text with any attempt at completeness. Passages 
 are often alluded to where no references are given. Still 
 more frequently the Scripture evidence is suppressed. 
 The judicious teacher will find much useful work for his 
 pupils in verifying allusions and in tracing doctrine for 
 themselves to its source in Holy Writ. 
 
 Although the present commentary is founded upon a 
 document adopted by the S}-nod, and was prepared by its 
 lamented Author at the request of a Committee of the 
 Church, yet the helpful explanations which it contains 
 cannot claim any official sanction in points of detail. 
 They bear the stamp and are the independent utterance 
 of their Author. At the same time, the late Dr. Fraser 
 was exceptionally qualified for the task of exposition. 
 Himself a careful and accurate divine, he had been from 
 the first a member of the Committee which prepared the 
 "Articles". Indeed, he had been one of the small 
 Sub-Committee which in the first instance drafted the 
 " Articles ". Both in that preliminary work and in all the 
 subsequent discussions to which, clause by clause, and 
 word b}' word, everv Article was subjected, he had borne 
 a share second to none. The task, therefore, of expound- 
 ing the document in its intended meaning was one tor 
 which hardly any other could be equally well equipped. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Alas, that the work should now carry with it such a 
 pathetic and painful interest ! It comes to us as his 
 latest legac}' to the Church which he loved and laboured 
 for so well. Scarcel)- had the manuscript passed from 
 his hand, before even its paijes were in print, the pen had 
 fallen for ever from his fingers, and the clear and bus}' 
 brain was for ever still. The duty of revising the proof- 
 sheets has consequently devolved upon others. But it 
 has been performed with a pious and tender care. The 
 Editors have been scrupulous to alter nothing which 
 there is not reason to suppose the Author himself would 
 have altered had he been spared to complete his labour of 
 love : so that although the treatise must suffer disad- 
 vantage from not ha\-ing received his own final touches, 
 yet the Church ma}- rest satisfied that it has here his 
 handiwork in its integrit)'. B)- it, " he, being dead, yet 
 speaketh ". 
 
 In sending it forth, the Committee entreat the prayers 
 of all who shall stud}- these pages, that He Who is the 
 Truth would pardon of His mercy whatever is amiss, and 
 condescend to use what is His Own for the enlightenment 
 and confirmation of His people in their most holy faith. 
 
 J. OSWALD DYKES, 
 
 Joiut-Cvuvcncr of the Synod's Cotumittcc on 
 the Instruction of Yonlli. 
 
LIST OF CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS QUOTED OR 
 REFERRED TO. 
 
 Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed - - - 325 and 381 
 Apostles' Creed from 350 
 
 Creed of Council of Chalcedon - - - - ^51 
 
 Augsburg Confession 1530 
 First Helvetic do. ------ 1535 
 
 French do. ------ i^^g 
 
 Scottish do. 1560 
 
 l^elgic do. 1561 
 
 Thirty-nine Articles - - - - - 1563 and 1571 
 Canons of Council of Trent - - - . . 1563 
 Second (or Later) Helvetic Confession - - - 1566 
 
 Irish Articles of Religion i6i^ 
 
 Canons of Synod of Dort iGig 
 
 Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church - - 1643 
 Westminster Confession and Catechisms- - - 1047 
 
Introductory Chapter. 
 
 ON SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Doctrine means teaching. The Greek word which it 
 represents appears in two forms in the New Testament : one 
 of them denoting the matter of teaching, or the thing which 
 is taught ; the other the act of teaching. The former occurs 
 in the pastoral epistles, where St. Paul commends "good 
 doctrine" (i Tim. iv. 6); "healthful doctrine" (2 Tim. 
 iv. 3 ; Titus ii. i). The latter is the term employed when 
 St. Matthew describes the people as "astonished at the 
 doctrineofJesus"["His teaching": R.V.] (St. Matt. vii. 28) ; 
 and when the high priest said to the apostles : "Ye have 
 filled Jerusalem with your doctrine" ["teaching": R. V.](Acts 
 V. 28). In the last instance, the second meaning blends itself 
 with the first. 
 
 There is no question that Christian doctrine (the thing 
 taught) existed at first in the form of uttered or written 
 sayings of our Lord and His disciples. AVhether it was a 
 development or modification of truth previously delivered, 
 or the disclosure of new conceptions to the human mind, 
 it came in conversations, addresses, letters, and the like, not 
 in formal propositions arranged in consecutive order. Yet, 
 like all serious teaching on whatever subject, it must have 
 
2 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 tended from the beginning to take shape and order on the 
 lips of its teachers ; and must have already assumed some 
 definite outline when the Apostle Paul required that men 
 should teach in harmony therewith. 
 
 It was inevitable that the action of the human mind 
 through many centuries should continue to give shape and 
 colour to Christian doctrine ; and that controversy should 
 mould and sharpen its terminology. We call this inevitable ; 
 and yet we do not accept all the historical theology as either 
 true or healthful. On the score of truth and soundness, the 
 doctrine delivered to us must be tested by Holy Scripture. 
 
 What was the Reformation in the sixteenth century but a 
 searching revision and correction of prevailing doctrine 
 in the light of the Bible ? But the Reformed Churches 
 never proposed to dispense with a definite theolog)-. Before 
 one another, and in face of the pope, the princes, and the 
 people, they proclaimed and confessed their belief. And 
 their confessions showed an impressive harmony. 
 
 In agreement with these, our ecclesiastical ancestors, we 
 also refuse to hold our doctrine in vague suspense. It may 
 well be that much is yet to be done in the elucidation of 
 Scripture, and the adjustment of theological tenets ; but at 
 all events some truths, and those of the first rank, are 
 ascertained, and must be held as known. Further, these 
 truths, if known, may be put into forms of words more or 
 less precise. These, again, when set in order, make up a 
 creed if the formula " I believe " or " We believe " be used. 
 If they are set forth in impersonal propositions they 
 constitute a confession of faith, or manifesto of Church 
 doctrine. 
 
 Some such epitome of doctrine is indispensable to every 
 collective Church that possesses any claim to historical 
 continuity and consistency. At the same time, it is never 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 3 
 
 to be regarded as incapable of improvement, but is open to 
 revision in the light of further knowledge or riper caution. 
 Expressions may be amplified or curtailed ; provisoes may 
 be introduced or withdrawn : inferences may be added or 
 struck out to the advantage of sound doctrine. 
 
 Most of the tirades which we hear against creeds and 
 confessions are mere outcries against definiteness in theolo- 
 gical convictions. The late George Eliot once described 
 with keen pen that order of mind which " is fond of what 
 may be called disembodied opinions that float in vapoury 
 phrases". She ascribed this to "a bigotry against any 
 clearly-defined opinions — a lack of coherent thought, a 
 spongy texture of mind that gravitates strongly to nothing. 
 The one thing it is staunch for is the utmost liberty of pri- 
 vate haziness." 
 
 It may, however, be well to examine some of the objec- 
 tions which are urged against the use of creeds, or any 
 insistence on a common doctrine in the Church. 
 
 (i) That it is intellectually oppressive. — It is alleged that 
 dogma stifles thought, and that creeds are made of cast iron. 
 It is a favourite device to harp on the word "dogma," which, 
 though a very harmless term in itself — meaning a precise 
 statement of ascertained truth, whether in philosophy or 
 religion — yet has in the popular mind a suggestion of mental 
 narrowness and obstinacy. The words, dogmatism, dogma- 
 tise, and dogmatical, all help to cast odium on dogma. 
 The first step, therefore, is to raise a prejudice against 
 Christian doctrine by calling it dogma, and implying that it 
 cannot be assimilated, and ought not to be accepted by a 
 self-respecting human mind. 
 
 The next step is to disparage the formulation of dogma 
 in creeds, articles, and confessions of faith. 
 
 Some censure these as cumbrous and over-minute ; and 
 
4 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 with them we have no controversy. It is admitted that 
 certain doctrinal symbols are open to this charge. The 
 Athanasian Creed is too minute in its assertions on one 
 great tenet of the Christian faith ; and most of the Reformed 
 confessions, together with that of Westminster, are led into 
 much detail, because they are manifestoes of orthodoxy on 
 all controverted points, andare levelled against a host of errors. 
 The effect of this has been to render most of those long 
 creeds and confessions practically obsolete. But surely 
 the proper remedy is not to abandon altogether the use 
 of such documents, but to abridge and simplify them, 
 correcting the over-minuteness and cumbrousness so much 
 complained of. It is the more easy to do so, because the 
 Reformed Churches, in committing themselves to a definite 
 line of doctrine, have always drawn a distinction between 
 truths primary and secondary, fundamental and non-funda- 
 mental, greater and less. Some points are more clearly 
 revealed than others ; some are in themselves more weighty 
 and momentous than others. The same emphasis is not 
 laid on all the things affirmed ; and this gives some relief 
 from the burden of detail. 
 
 But there are others who wish to get rid of creeds, root 
 and branch. They allege that any document of the kind, 
 however discreetly drawn up, is an incubus on the human 
 understanding, and an impediment to freedom of inquiry. 
 Thus we find a writer, recently deceased, denouncing the 
 venerable creeds of Christendom as "the idols of un- 
 fledged intellects, but the stumbling-block or scorn of the 
 penetrating and conscientious, barriers to the progress of 
 truth, and usurpations on the prerogatives both of reason 
 and of its Author ".* This sort of thing has an imposing 
 sound ; but it is mere rhetorical wind. 
 
 • Sunshine and Shadows, by W. B. Clilow, p. 115. 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 5 
 
 Is it to be gravely maintained that, in religion, nothing is 
 ever to be discovered or known as certainly true, or that 
 a thing so discovered and known may not be set down in 
 words, lest it should forestall further and independent 
 inquiry ? If there be anything in theology at all, it is 
 worthy of study ; and in this, as in other branches of know- 
 ledge, students ought to help each other ; but how can 
 they do so if no amount of study may ever yield fruit 
 capable of being shaped into a proposition or doctrine ? 
 Is there to be perpetual investigation, and no appreciable 
 result ? No other science, or department of thought, is 
 treated in this fashion. When a fact in astronomy or a law 
 in mechanics is affirmed, no one complains that freedom of 
 inquiry is unfairly limited thereby. It is laid down that a 
 law of gravitation pervades all nature, that it operates 
 according to a certain rule, and with certain calculable 
 effects. This is a dogma of science. It limits our freedom 
 •of opinion, inasmuch as it forbids us to think that there is 
 no such law. But surely we should be no wiser for drop- 
 ping the dogma. It is not the assertion of a fact in nature, 
 but the fact itself which limits that absolute freedom of 
 thought which is only a name for absolute ignorance. 
 Why should one teacher, well versed in his subject, 
 announce to us facts and laws of nature as ascertained and 
 known, and another teacher, equally versed in his subject, 
 be forbidden to inculcate such knowledge of God, of Christ, 
 and of the way of the forgiveness of sins, as has been de- 
 rived from the best sources ? Granted that the doctrine 
 may neither be conceived nor studied in a manner absolutely 
 perfect. Human thought and language are inadequate to 
 the great things of God. But let it be set forth in the best 
 form to which the individual or the Church has attained. 
 Inquiry or investigation is not thereby shorn of any 
 
6 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 reasonable freedom. By all means let him to whom the 
 doctrine is delivered study the question for himself, verifying 
 that doctrine for his own satisfaction, or invalidating it if he 
 is able so to do ; and let him be true to the honest convic- 
 tion at which he arrives. But for any one to demand that 
 there should be no recognised doctrine at all, that the 
 knowledge acquired and expressed by the Church should 
 be kept in vague solution, lest his inquiring mind should 
 be biased, would be preposterous. And the same remark 
 applies to a catena or systematic arrangement of Christian 
 doctrines. As well might one complain of a map of the 
 world, that it takes away the liberty of a traveller to find 
 out all places for himself, to fix their bearings, and measure 
 their distances, as allege against a system of doctrine, that 
 it oppresses the human mind, and invades the freedom of 
 thought. 
 
 (2) That it is responsible for sectarian division. — It is 
 often said that bigots "fight for forms of faith," and that 
 insistence on mysterious dogma has embittered the history, 
 and broken up the unity of the Church. Thus the question 
 is put most plausibly : " AVhat is the use of dwelling so 
 much on religious conceptions and definitions on which no 
 amount of argument can make men agree ? And why 
 spoil our tempers, and split Christian society asunder with 
 strifes of words that have no end ? " 
 
 Now it may be true that some divisions have been caused 
 by an exaggerated strictness on points of doctrine, or on 
 methods of conceiving and expressing them : but it is not 
 the case that all the severe disputes have been on matters 
 of faith. Those which have caused separation have quite 
 as often had regard to the institutions and sacraments of 
 the Church, the due succession and orders of her ministry, 
 her modes of worship, and her government, including the 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 7 
 
 questions of pcapal and of royal supremacy. Moreover, it 
 should be remembered that controversy, whether on these 
 subjects or on doctrine properly so called, has been by no 
 means a barren strife of words. Rendered necessary by the 
 partial and conflicting perceptions of the same fact or truth 
 by human minds, it has done good service in bringing out 
 more complete and accurate statements of grand Christian 
 verities than could otherwise have been reached. It should 
 not be forgotten that the teaching of Christ and His apostles 
 was educed and shaped by active controversy in their own 
 time. It is nothing to be ashamed of that later controversies 
 have been needed to assist and vindicate the just interpre- 
 tation of their words. 
 
 As to the bitter and contentious temper which is imputed 
 to some very orthodox champions in Church history, the 
 fault has not been monopolised by the orthodox, but evenly 
 distributed. There is, however, an obvious distinction be- 
 tween doctrines on their own merits and the spirit and 
 method in which men defend and diffuse them. The 
 former may be just and true, though the latter should be 
 unfair and intemperate. Theology is one thing : the 
 temper shown by theologians another thing. And doctrine 
 is not open to reproach because partisans may have 
 systematised it too rigidly, or urged their favourite formulcR 
 in a severe or sectarian spirit. 
 
 (3) That it is imfavourable to religious fervour and 
 practice. — There is a kind of pious protest against the 
 inculcation of Christian doctrine. It comes from people 
 who love to float on waves of feeling, and delight in ahs! 
 and ohs! and other interjections, but shrink from there/ores, 
 and are afraid of arduous thinking. These are they who 
 warn us against " dry doctrine " and " head knowledge ". 
 But there is no necessity for keeping our doctrine very dry ; 
 
8 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 and knowledge that does not enter our heads is not know- 
 ledge at all. 
 
 Others demand from the pulpit sound practical sermons 
 without dogma. They do not understand that doctrine is 
 the best friend of practice, but suppose them to be adver- 
 saries. Now there is no more frequent or more pernicious 
 fallacy in religion than that of false antithesis. Because we 
 distinguish doctrine from practice, careless or confused 
 thinkers pit them against each other, and proceed to refuse 
 the one, and applaud the other. PJut, in truth, these are 
 intimately related together as foundation and superstructure, 
 or as nourishing soil and mellow fruit. If Christian teachers 
 were to cease from inculcating those doctrines which are 
 just the ascertained truths of our religion, they would be 
 committing the folly and crime of omitting the very basis 
 on which Christian practice must rest, and from which it 
 must derive continual support. Of non-Christian morals 
 we do not speak : but surely it is beyond dispute that 
 Christian conceptions of duty and rules of conduct must 
 found themselves on definite thought and belief regarding 
 God in Christ, i.e., on theologic and Christologic doctrine? 
 
 It is idle to talk of dropping the creed and yet retaining 
 the tone and sentiment of Christianity for practical ends. 
 The tone left to itself would soon die out in a world like 
 this. The sentiment would quickly exhale. Empty the 
 vase of the rose leaves, and the perfume will linger a while, 
 but it grows fointer and fainter, and at last there is none. 
 So will the Christian sentiment disappear, if you throw the 
 Christian doctrine away. 
 
 Thus we find no substance in the allegations which are 
 advanced with a view to discredit a systematic teaching of 
 the great Christian tenets ; and we recognise it as the duty 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 9 
 
 of the Church to hold fast, and, through the lips of public 
 teachers, to hold forth the sound or wholesome doctrine — 
 no matter whether it be liked or disliked by "the spirit of 
 the age ". There is no need to do this in a dry, contentious 
 spirit, or in a narrow and pedantic fashion. Let it be done 
 with charity toward those who think differently and with a 
 reverence for the largeness of divine truth, which can never 
 be all compressed within the limits of any dogmatic system. 
 But done it should be in the best manner of which the 
 Church is capable. Done it must be if the Church is to 
 grow and prevail ; for no Church that neglects doctrine has 
 much life or vigour. Every one must see that the conquer- 
 ing, spreading, missionary Christianity, is that which possesses 
 clear and full doctrinal convictions, and has the courage to 
 proclaim and propagate them. 
 
 And why is it so ? No one alleges that doctrine ever so 
 clearly enunciated, and ever so correctly received by the 
 understanding, saves the soul. Jesus Christ alone saves; 
 and He saves those only who with the heart believe in Him. 
 But to believe in Him implies the acceptance of certain 
 truths, which are doctrines regarding Christ — as to Who He 
 is, what is the constitution of His person, what was meant 
 by His unique relation to God, what is the efficacy of His 
 death, and what the import and power of His resurrection. 
 By all means let the Church trust for her growth and 
 triumph to the simplicity of the Gospel ; but let her re- 
 member that the Gospel is no mere repetition of the 
 formula : " Come to Jesus ". It includes and requires 
 definite teaching or doctrine concerning Jesus and His 
 power to save. 
 
 St. Paul foretold an evil time in which men will not en- 
 dure sound doctrine, but heaping to themselves teachers 
 and turning away from the truth, will delude their own 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 souls with "fables". Such is the Nemesis which awaits our 
 anti-doctrinal Christians who inquire but never ascertain, 
 who have many shifting views but no settled convictions'. 
 They lose their way altogether, and end their quest in a 
 heap of fables. We see too much of this drift in the present 
 generation ;— the fickle mood of mind which gathers no 
 wisdom and the curious vagaries of religious speculation and 
 revivals of old heresies which gain a hearing and even 
 attract disciples. 
 
 The twenty-four Articles, and our Commentary thereon, 
 are intended to furnish an orderly statement of sound 
 doctrine drawn from the Bible. It is a great task, not 
 lightly undertaken. May the Spirit of the truth guide both 
 the writer and his readers ! " They also that erred in spirit 
 shall come to understanding ; and they that murmured shall 
 learn doctrine." 
 
THE 
 
 ARTICLES OF THE EAITH. 
 
 I. OF GOD. 
 
 We believe in, and adore, one living and true God, Who 
 is spirit, personal, infinite, and eternal, present in every 
 place, the almighty Author and sovereign Lord of all ; most 
 blessed, most holy, and most free; perfect in wisdom, 
 justice, truth and love ; to us most merciful and gracious : 
 unto Whom only we must cleave, A\'hom only we must 
 worship and obey. To Him be glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 II. OF THE TRINITY. 
 
 AVe acknowledge, with the ancient Church, the mystery 
 of the Holy Trinity as revealed in Scripture, and believe 
 that in the unity of the ever blessed Godhead there are 
 three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
 of one substance, equal in power and glory. 
 
 III. OF CREATION. 
 
 We believe that Almighty God, for His own holy and 
 loving ends, was pleased in the beginning to create the 
 heavens and the earth, by the Son, the Eternal Word ; 
 and, through progressive stages, to fashion and order this 
 world, giving life to every creature ; and to make man in 
 His own image, that he might glorify and enjoy God, 
 occupying and subduing the earth and having dominion 
 over the creatures, to the praise of his Maker's name. 
 
12 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 R'. OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 We believe that C'.od the Creator upholds all things by 
 the word of His power, preserving and providing for all 
 His creatures, according to the laws of their being ; and 
 that He, through the presence and energy of His Spirit in 
 nature and history, disposes and go\ erns all events for His 
 own high design : yet is He not in an)- wise the author or 
 approver of sin, neither are the freedom and responsibility 
 of man taken away, nor have any bounds been set to the 
 sovereign liberty of Him Who worketh when and where 
 and how He pleaseth. 
 
 V. OF THE FALF. 
 
 We believe and confess that our first father, Adam, the 
 representative head as well as common ancestor of mankind, 
 transgressed the commandment of God through temptation 
 of the devil, by which transgression he fell from his original 
 state of innocence and communion with God ; and so all 
 mankind, being in him, have come under just condemna- 
 tion, are subject to the penalty of death, and inherit a 
 sinful nature, estranged from God, from which proceed all 
 actual transgressions : and we acknowledge that out of this 
 condition no man is able to deliver himself. 
 
 VL OF SAVING GRACE. 
 
 We believe and proclaim that God, Who is rich in mercy 
 as well as of perfect justice, was moved by His great love to 
 man to hold forth from the first a promise of redemption, 
 which from age to age He confirmed and unfolded, and 
 that, in the fulness of the time, Fie accomplished His 
 gracious purpose by sending His Son to be the Saviour of 
 
ARTICLES OK THE I-AITH. 
 
 13 
 
 the world : wherefore our salvation out of sin and miccry is 
 ever to be ascribed to free and sovereign grace. 
 
 VII. OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 We believe in --nd confess, with the ancient Church, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Who, being the eternal Son of God, 
 became man by taking to Himself a true body and soul, 
 yet without sin, being conceived by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary ; so^ that He is both 
 God and Man, two whole perfect and distinct natures, the 
 divine and the human, being inseparably joined together in 
 one person, that He might be the Mediator between God 
 and man, by Whom alone we must be saved. 
 
 VIIL OF THE WORK OF CHRIST. 
 
 We believe that the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 being anointed with the Holy Spirit to proclaim and set up 
 the kingdom of fiod among men, did by His perfect life 
 on earth, through words and deeds of grace, and by His 
 death upon the cross, declare the Father, Whose image He 
 is; and did fully satisfy divine justice, and obtain for us 
 forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to God, and the gift of 
 eternal life, through His obedience on our behalf to the law 
 and will of His Father, even unto death, wherein, bearing 
 our sins, He offered Himself up a sacrifice without spot 
 to God. 
 
 IX. OF THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 We believe that Jesus Christ, being for our offences 
 crucified, dead, and buried, saw no corruption, but was 
 raised again on the third day, in Whose risen life we live 
 
14 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 anew, and have the pledge of a blessed resurrection ; that 
 in the same body in which He rose He ascended into 
 heaven, where, as our High Priest, He maketh continual 
 intercession for us ; and that He sitteth at the right hand 
 of God, Head of the Church, clothed with authority and 
 power as Lord over all. 
 
 X. OF THE GOSPEL. 
 We hold fast and proclaim that God, Who willeth that all 
 men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the 
 truth, has, by His Son our Saviour, given commission to 
 the Church to preach unto all nations the Gospel of His 
 grace, wherein He freely offers to all men forgiveness and 
 eternal life, calling on them to turn from sin, and to receive 
 and rest by faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 XL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of 
 life, Who worketh freely as He will, without AVhose quicken- 
 ing grace there is no salvation, and AVhom the Father never 
 withholds from any who ask for Him ; and we give thanks 
 that He has in every age moved on the hearts of men; 
 that He spake by the prophets ; that through our exalted 
 Saviour He was sent forth in power to convict the world of 
 sin, to enlighten the minds of men in the knowledge of 
 Christ, and to persuade and enable them to obey the call of 
 the Gospel ; and that He abides with the Church, dwelling 
 in every believer as the Spirit of truth, of holiness, and 
 of comfort. 
 
 XII. OF ELECTION AND REGENERATION. 
 We humbly own and believe that God the Father, before 
 the foundation of the world, was pleased of His sovereign 
 
ARTICLES OF THE KAITH. 
 
 15 
 
 grace to choose unto Himself in Christ a people, whom He 
 gave to the Son, and to whom the Holy Spirit imparts 
 spiritual life by a secret and wonderful operation of His 
 power, using as His ordinary means, where years of under- 
 standing have been reached, the truths of His Word in 
 ways agreeable to the nature of man ; so that, being born 
 from above, they are the children of God, created in Christ 
 Jesus unto good works. 
 
 Xni. OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 We believe that every one, who through the grace of the 
 Holy Spirit repents and believes the Gospel, confessing and 
 forsaking his sins, and humbly relying upon Christ alone 
 for salvation, is freely pardoned and accepted as righteous in 
 the sight of God, solely on the ground of Christ's perfect 
 obedience and atoning sacrifice. 
 
 XIV. OF SONSHIP IN CHRIST. 
 
 We believe that those who receive Christ by faith are 
 united to Him, so that they are partakers in His life, and 
 receive of His fulness; and that they are adopted into the 
 family of God, are made heirs with Christ, and have His 
 Spirit abiding in them, the witness to their sonship, and the 
 earnest of their inheritance. 
 
 XV. OF THE LAW AND NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 We believe and acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 has laid His people by His grace under new obligation to 
 keep the perfect Law of God, and has by precept and 
 example enlarged our knowledge of that Law, and illus- 
 trated the spirit of filial love in which the divine will is to 
 
i6 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 be obeyed ; and we bless God that the obedience of Chris- 
 tians, though in this life always imperfect, yet being the 
 fruit of their union to Christ, is accepted for His sake and 
 well-pleasing to God. 
 
 XVI. OF SANCTIFICATION AND PER- 
 SE^'ERA^"CE. 
 
 We believe that the Holy Spirit dwelling in all Christ's 
 people purifies their hearts, enabling them to do freely and 
 cheerfully that which the will of God requires, so that in 
 measure as they surrender themselves to the Spirit of Christ, 
 and follow the guidance of His ^\'ord, they receive strength 
 for daily service, and grow in holiness after the image of 
 their Lord : or if, departing from Clod through unwatchful- 
 ness and neglect of prayer, any of them lapse into spiritual 
 languor, or fall into grievous sins, yet by the mercy of God 
 Who abideth faithful they are not cast off, but are chastened 
 for their l)ackslidiiig, and through repentance restored to 
 His favour, so that they perish not. 
 
 XVn. OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 We acknowledge one holy catholic Church, the innumer- 
 able company of saints of every age and nation, who, being 
 united by the Holy Spirit to Christ their Head, are one 
 body in Him, and have communion with their Lord and 
 with one another : further, we receive it as the will of Christ 
 that His Church on earth should exist as a visible and 
 .sacred brotherhood, consisting of those who profess faith 
 in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him, together with their 
 children, and organized for the confession of His name, the 
 public worship of God, the upbuilding of the saints, and the 
 
ARTICLES OF THE FAITH. 
 
 proclamation of the Gospel ; and we acknowledge, as a part, 
 more or less pure, of this universal brotherhood, every par- 
 ticular Church throughout the world which professes this 
 faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him, as Divine Lord 
 and Saviour. 
 
 XVIII. OF CHURCH ORDER AND FELLOW- 
 SHIR 
 
 We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Head of 
 His Church, has appointed its worship, teaching, discipline 
 and government to be administered according to His will 
 revealed in Holy Scripture, by officers chosen for their fit- 
 ness, and duly set apart to their office ; and although the 
 visible Church, even in its purest branch, may contain un- 
 worthy members, and is liable to err, yet believers ought 
 not lightly to separate themselves from its communion, but 
 are to live in fellowship with their brethren : which fellow- 
 ship is to be extended, as God gives opportunity, to all who 
 in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 XIX. OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 We believe that God, 'Who manifests Himself m creation 
 and providence, and especially in the spirit of man, has 
 been pleased to reveal His mind and will for our salvation 
 at successive periods and in various ways ; and that this 
 Revelation has been, so far as needful, committed to writing 
 by men inspired of the Holy Spirit, in the Scriptures of the 
 Old and New Testaments, which are therefore to be de- 
 voutly studied by all as God's written Word or message to 
 mankind : and we reverently acknowledge the Holy Spirit 
 speaking in the Scriptures to be the Supreme Judge in ques- 
 tions of faith and duty. 
 
r8 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 XX. OF THE SACRAMENTS. 
 We acknowledge Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the 
 two Sacraments instituted by Christ, to be of perpetual 
 obligation, as signs and seals of the new covenant, ratified 
 in His precious blood ; through the observance of which 
 His Church is to confess her Lord and to be visibly dis- 
 tinguished from the rest of the world : Baptism with water 
 into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
 Ghost being the sacrament of admission into the visible 
 Church, in which are set forth our union to Christ and re- 
 generation by the Spirit, the remission of our sins, and our 
 engagement to be the Lord's ; and the Lord's Supper, the 
 sacrament of communion with Christ and with His people, 
 in which bread and wine are given and received in thankful 
 remembrance of Him and of His sacrifice on the cross, and 
 in which they who in faith receive the same do, after a 
 spiritual manner, partake of the body and blood of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, to their comfort, nourishment, and growth in 
 grace. 
 
 XXL OF THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 A\'e assuredly believe that on a day known only to God, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ w^ill suddenly come again from heaven 
 with power and great glory ; and we look for this second 
 appearing of our Saviour as the blessed hope of His Church, 
 for which we ought always to wait in sober watchfulness and 
 diligence, that we may be found ready at His coming. 
 
 XXIL OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 "We believe that the souls of the righteous enter at death 
 upon a state of rest and fehcity at home wi:h the Lord ; 
 that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the 
 
ARTICLES OF THE FAITH. 
 
 19 
 
 just and of the unjust, through the power of the Son of God ; 
 and that the bodies of all who are fallen asleep in Christ, as 
 well as of the faithful who are alive at His coming, shall be 
 fashioned anew and conformed to the body of His glory. 
 
 XXni. OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT. 
 
 We believe that God will judge the world in righteous- 
 ness by Jesus Christ, before Whom all men must appear, 
 AVho shall separate the righteous from the wicked, make 
 manifest the secrets of the heart, and render to every man 
 according to the deeds which he hath done in the body, 
 whether good or evil, when the wicked shall go away into 
 eternal punishment l^ut the r'ghteous into eternal life. 
 
 XXIV. OF THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 
 
 Finally, we believe in and desire the life everlasting in 
 which the redeemed shall receive their inheritance of glory 
 in the kingdom of their Father, and be made fully blessed 
 in the presence and service of God, Whom they shall see 
 iind enjoy for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
Article I. 
 OF GOD. 
 
 We believe in, and adore, one living and true God, Who 
 is spirit, personal, infinite, and eternal, present in every 
 place, the almighty Author and sovereign Lord of all ; most 
 blessed, most holy, and most fiee ; perfect in wisdom, 
 justice, truth and love ; to us most merciful and gracious ; 
 unto Whom only we must cleave, Whom only we must 
 worship and obey. To Him be glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 In the short Saxon word God—d, word of uncertain 
 origin — we utter the greatest conception that has reached 
 the human soul. It is that of a Being Who is the very Foun- 
 tain of Life — the Absolute and All-Perfect One. Statements 
 descriptive of Him, however choice and correct the lan- 
 guage, must be inadequate to their sublime and really 
 ineffable theme. Let us begin with this acknowledgment, 
 and bow in adoration before Him Whom no eye of mortal 
 sees, and no mind of mortal man can penetrate. 
 
 The AV'estminster Confession of Faith begins with a chap- 
 ter on Holy Scripture. So did the Helvetic Confessions in 
 (21) 
 
22 
 
 SOU.N'D DOCTRINE. 
 
 the sixteenth century, and for the obvious reason that those 
 documents were manifestoes of doctrine designed to obviate 
 mistake and defeat calumny. Therefore they put first the 
 source from which their materials were derived, and the 
 authority on which they rested ; viz., Holy Writ, and not the 
 decrees of popes or the traditions of Christendom. But the 
 ancient creeds and the majority of the Reformed Confes- 
 sions * begin with a declaration of faith in God. Evidently 
 this is the natural order. It would be a strange thing to 
 say " I believe in the Book of God " before saying " I be- 
 lieve in God ". Let us begin with the more fundamental 
 proposition. We believe in a Supreme Intelligence, Supreme 
 Affection, Supreme Justice, Supreme Will. At the apex of 
 bemg, at the source of life and force, at the centre of uni- 
 versal order is God. Good has a Best, strength a Strongest, 
 and righteousness One Who is inflexibly just. W'ithout this 
 faith the order of the world is a riddle, and the mystery of 
 life a crushing burden to the mind. The supremacy of un- 
 thinking, unconscious force, the origination and regulation 
 of the universe without any intelligent design, we can never 
 accept. The thing is unthmkable. And we follow alike 
 the best intuitions of the soul and the strongest presumption 
 of our reason when we believe in God, and thirst for God. 
 
 " IVe believe in, mid adore, one living and inie God^ — 
 The creed called " The Apostles' " has " I believe in God " ; 
 the Nicene Creed, "I believe in one God". Both the Thirty- 
 nine Articles and the Westminster Confession have exactly 
 the same statement, " There is but one living and true God "'. 
 The phrase " living and true " is obviously directed against 
 the gods of the heathen which had no breath of life in them, 
 no genuine divinity. The expression is derived from the 
 
 * The Augsburg, the French, the Belgic, the Scottish, and the 
 Thirty-nine Articles. 
 
GOD. 
 
 23 
 
 Bible. In the Psalms, the Prophets, and all parts of the 
 New Testament we read of "the living God". Jeremiah 
 also writes, " Jehovah is the true God ". The two epithets 
 are found together in i Thess. i. 9, when God is placed in 
 contrast with " idols". 
 
 " PV/io is spirit'' — In opposition to those who deify 
 objects in nature, or who embody their conceptions of gods 
 in carved or graven images, we affirm in the words of our 
 Saviour that God is spirit ; not a Spirit, but spirit, essential, 
 fontal, original and originating, and not flesh, not limited by 
 material conditions or by bodily parts and organs. It is 
 true that in many parts of the Bible the organs and feel- 
 ings of a man are attributed to the Deity. This however is 
 by a figure of speech adapted to the conditions of human 
 thought when applied to the Supreme. It is beyond our 
 capacity to apprehend, and still more so to express, the 
 mode of existence proper to a Being \\'ho is pure and infinite 
 spirit; and therefore we have to speak in a figure of "the 
 face of God," "eye of God," "hand of God," "seat of the Most 
 High". But the language is not to be taken prosaically. 
 God is spirit, and therefore not to be conceived of as in a 
 bodily shape, nor represented by any pictured or sculptured 
 form . 
 
 '^Personal." — We are apt to associate spirit with the 
 indefinite. What is without shape or limit seems quite 
 vague and indeterminate. Therefore is the adjective "per- 
 sonal " inserted immediately after spirit. Our theism is not 
 satisfied with the acknowledgment of a power, or force, or 
 energy, or all-pervading order. There is a Being Who wields 
 the power and Who has instituted and maintained the order 
 of the world. So we affirm that the great Spirit is personal, 
 meaning not at all to imply that we can explain His exist- 
 ence, but that He may use the pronouns I, Mine, Me, that 
 
24 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 when we invoke Him we may say Thou, Thine and Thee, 
 and, when we refer to the existence of (jod, must say He, 
 His and Him. It is also implied that the Spirit in Whom 
 we believe and Whom we adore has personal consciousness, 
 perception, disposition, purpose and will. Therefore there 
 may be fellowship and even friendship between such a God 
 and such beings as ourselves ; with a non-personal God we 
 can have no relations whatever. 
 
 That we believe in God excludes Atheism. 
 
 That we believe in one living and true God excludes 
 Polytheism. 
 
 That we believe in God ^^'ho is Spirit excludes the use 
 of Images. 
 
 That we believe in God Who is personal excludes 
 Pantheism. 
 
 " The almighty Author and sovereign Lord of all^ — On 
 these titles we do not expatiate here ; because the first of 
 them must recur when we reach the third Article on Creation, 
 and the second under the fourth Article on Providence. 
 
 Then the chief attributes of God are named. In treating 
 of them, we shall find some help in the distinction drawn by 
 divines of other days between natural and moral attributes. 
 Not that they are separate or separable in the Deity, but 
 that the distinction helps the mind and memory of man. 
 
 (i) The Natural Attrilmies are those which bear on 
 the greatness of God, not on His goodness or moral per- 
 fection. Thus we affirm that He is infinite, eternal, present 
 in every place, and in His will and creation " most free". 
 
 Infinitude with omnipresence : these baffle human concep- 
 tion. But without question they are in sacred Scripture 
 ascribed to (}od \\\\o has no limit set to His all-pervasive 
 presence and all-controlling power. 
 
 On hearing this, some may cry out that on this theory God 
 
GOD. 
 
 25 
 
 is all, and "the all " is God, for the Infinite and Omnipresent 
 leaves no room unoccupied for any other being or any other 
 thing. He fills earth and heaven. But in that very phrase 
 is it not assumed that there is an earth and a heaven 
 which are not God, but only His habitation ? Then, on 
 the earth which we survey, is it not plain that the existence 
 of ever so many finite human spirits — many of them very 
 wide-stretching in action and influence — in no wise invades 
 the personality of each, far less interferes with the space and 
 scope required by material objects ? And why may not the 
 Supreme Spirit pervade the universe without crowding out 
 all but Himself, or without absorbing into Himself all other 
 spirits and even all substances ? We acknowledge our in- 
 ability to show and explain all that the infinitude of God 
 implies, but we can at all events show that it does not in- 
 volve absurdities. 
 
 Eternity is the divine infinitude as related to duration : 
 and it is often ascribed to God in Holy Writ. " The eternal 
 God is thy refuge." " The Holy One inhabiteth eternity." 
 This also is a conception too high for us. AVe cannot say 
 how it is, but we learn from the Bible that so it is. God is 
 from everlasting to everlasting calmly consistent with Him- 
 self, yet there is no stagnation in His being, thought has its 
 movement and succession in His mind, and purposes march 
 to their fulfilment. His eternity means not a stony 
 inmiobility, but a sublime unhasting steadfastness. 
 
 The expression ''most holy and most free'' is taken from 
 the Westminster Confession. It is the second of these epithets 
 that falls among the natural attributes, and it is meant to shut 
 out from our conception of God the ideas of fate or blind 
 necessity. He has the prerogative of self-determination, 
 and speaks or is silent, acts or refrains from acting, accord- 
 ing to His good pleasure, or the counsel of His will. 
 
26 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 These natural attributes of God fill the mind with adoring 
 wonder. Those which we are now to consider ought to 
 call forth our confidence and love. 
 
 (2) The Moral Aitrihetes.— God is 7)iost blessed" in the 
 integrity and harmony of His being, and, therefore, the 
 source of blessing to us, and to all His creatures. The 
 world is full of frets and storms ; but above them all there 
 reigns a glorious and benignant calm. 
 
 God tastes an infinite joy 
 In infinite ways — one everlasting bliss.* 
 
 '■'Most holy," i.e., utterly separate and removed from all 
 that is base and evil, "glorious in holiness ". The gods of 
 ancient nations were associated with practices most wicked 
 and im])ure ; but Jehovah the God of Israel and our God 
 was and is holy. It is this which the Seraphim celebrated 
 in the vision of Isaiah, and the Cherubim in the vision of 
 St. John. It is at the remembrance of this that all the saints 
 give thanks. God is holy, and no evil may stand in His 
 sight. He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. 
 
 ''Perfect in -iinsdom, justice, truth, and love.''' — Wisdom 
 must be taken in this place to include knowledge. From 
 the divine cognisance nothing is hid. And then this all- 
 embracing, all-penetrating knowledge is turned to highest 
 use by His perfect wisdom. The Bible speaks of this as 
 manifested in Creation, in Providence, and in the Church. 
 In Creation : " O Lord ! how manifold are Thy works ; 
 
 in wisdom hast Thou made them all 
 In Providence and History : " O the depth of the 
 
 riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! 
 
 How unsearchable are His judgments, and His 
 
 ways past finding out." 
 
 * Browning's Paracelsus. 
 
GOD. 
 
 27 
 
 In the Church : "To principalities and powers in the 
 heavenly places might be known by the Church 
 the manifold wisdom of God ". 
 Justice is no blind goddess, but an attribute of the 
 living God, displayed in all His dealings with His rational 
 and accountable creatures. No doubt a partial or super- 
 ficial view of events may suggest that "the ways of the 
 Lord are not equal " ; but they that know Him are satisfied 
 that there is no unrighteousness in Him. It is a con- 
 viction fundamental to all piety that the Judge of all the 
 earth does right. His unbending justice satisfies the moral 
 sense, and is felt in all consciences to be worthy of God. 
 
 Truth is a word which suggests that God will not fail or 
 disappoint those who trust His word, and rest on His 
 promises. All is real, not illusion. God verily is what 
 He declares Himself to be ; and He does not change 
 His purpose or shift His ground. Perfect in truth, He 
 "cannot lie". 
 
 Love. — The Westminster Confession describes God as 
 " most loving ". The Shorter Catechism is content with 
 the word "goodness," following the Old Testament — 
 " Abundant in goodness ". " O give thanks to God, for 
 He is good." But it has often been pointed out as a 
 defect in the Catechism, that it answers the question, What is 
 God? without even an allusion to the great New Testament 
 saying, that " God is love". This is the very crown of His 
 perfection, even as in man " love is the bond of perfect- 
 ness". And this is the comfort of faith, that all the divine 
 decrees, decisions, and dealings with men, while guided by 
 wisdom, ordered in righteousness, and regulated in truth, 
 issue from and are suffused with a transcendent love. 
 
 At this point, our Article passes from description to a 
 personal avowal of what God is to us. 
 
28 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 " To US most merciful and gracious^ — Who that has any 
 knowledge and experience of God can withhold this tribute? 
 We desire to call on all the believers in all lands and of 
 all generations to join in this — the old and the young to- 
 gether, the learned and the unlearned. And not the least 
 hearty response will come from those who have suffered 
 and sorrowed. They will say : " Truly God has been good. 
 ' To us most merciful and gracious ' — making rough places 
 plain, and crooked things straight before us." 
 
 Then, in the warmth of feeling which the thought of 
 divine mercy and grace stirs in our hearts, we conclude this 
 Article in words which are taken almost without change 
 from the Scottish Confession of 1560. 
 
 " Unto JVhojn only 7ve must cleave, Whom only we must 
 worship and obey. To Hi>n he glory for ever. Anient — So 
 we declare that God is indispensable to us, and possesses 
 by reason of what He is in Himself, and is to us, an over- 
 whelming claim on our devotion and service. 
 
 Let us recur for a moment to the distinction between a 
 creed and a didactic statement of doctrine. It is specially 
 important under this first Article. We do not say " there 
 is," or even "we believe that there is one living and true God. 
 and that He is spirit," etc. : but " we believe in one living 
 and true God \Vho is spirit," etc. AVe do more than affirm 
 the fact of His existence ; we confide in Him for life and 
 peace, and we testify to what we have found Him to be. 
 
 .\ subsequent Article will show how God is revealed to us 
 and accessible to us in Christ. The first has enough to do 
 in delineating the divine perfection as known to believing 
 man. On this faith in God the whole caste of our religion 
 must depend, and our entire conception of what man ought 
 to be as restored to the moral image of God. In corrupt 
 religions, men make gods in their own image : in the true, 
 
GOD. 
 
 29 
 
 God makes or re-makes men in His image. So the Article 
 is no mere dry proposition : but ttie expression of a belief 
 which ought to carry with it intense desire, profound sub- 
 mission, and ardent endeavours after God-likeness in good- 
 ness and holiness and truth. 
 
 0 God, Thou art my God ; early will I seek Thee, 
 My soul thirsteth for Thee. 
 
 So will I bless Thee while I live, 
 
 1 will lift up my hands in Thy name. 
 
Article II. 
 
 OF THE TRINITY. 
 
 We acknowledge, with the ancient Church, the mystery 
 of the Holy Trinity as revealed in Scripture, and believe 
 that in the unity of the ever-blessed Godhead there are 
 three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
 of one substance, equal in power and glory. 
 
 '• The mystery." — The existence of the one true God in 
 or as a Holy Trinity is a mystery in every sense of the 
 word. It is such in the popular import of the term, as 
 transcending our powers of thought ; and it is such in the 
 sense which mystery has in the New Testament, as a 
 religious truth of the first order, which was hidden from 
 former generations, but is now divinely disclosed. 
 
 " IVe acknowledge the mystery." — We feel this to be the 
 proper attitude of mind toward this truth. We do not 
 analyse or dissect it with the instruments of logic ; nor do 
 we map it round with our poor words in explanation or de- 
 fence. In reverence we bow and acknowledge the mystery. 
 Yet not without adequate authority. 
 
 " As rn'ealed in Scripture." — It was not revealed under 
 (30) 
 
THE TRINITY. 
 
 31 
 
 the Old Testament, though there are suggestions of it in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures which may be recognised by Christian 
 readers. 
 
 In the writings of the Old Testament, the emphatic 
 witness was borne to the Unity of God, in opposition to the 
 multiplicity of gods in the heathen world. The New 
 Testament holds the same witness to the Unity, but adds 
 the disclosure of a Threeness in that Unity. The term 
 Trinity does not occur in the Bible, but is an ancient theolo- 
 gical term, framed to embody the teaching of Holy ^Vrit. 
 This teaching we find to be that the Father is God, that 
 the Son is God, and that the Holy Ghost is God : and yet 
 there is but one God. At the beginning, Christians were 
 able to receive and spread this teaching without speaking in 
 Greek of a Triad, or in Latin of a Trinity. But the pro- 
 gress of discussion and controversy on this as on other 
 doctrines compelled the invention and use of a technical 
 term or title. 
 
 It is not our purpose to cite the passages from the New 
 Testament which convey the teaching above mentioned. 
 Let our readers search out for themselves the places in 
 which the Father is called God, the Son called God, and 
 the Holy Spirit called God ; also those places in which 
 divine powers and prerogatives, e.g., that of searching and 
 knowing the human heart, and that of presence in many 
 localities at the same time, are ascribed now to the Father, 
 now to the Son, and now to the Spirit. So these Three are 
 divine ; and yet there is only one Deity. Then add to these 
 the following passages wherein the Three are grouped to- 
 gether in a manner in which no creature, however excellent, 
 could be conjoined with the Supreme : St. Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 St. John xiv. 26 ; xv. 26. Ephes. ii. 18. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 
 1 Cor. xii. 4-6. Jude 20, 21. Rev. i. 4. 
 
32 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 " IVitk the ancient Chunk." — We believe on the authority 
 of Scripture ; but rejoice to know and say that in acknow- 
 ledging this mystery, we are at one with the Church of the 
 earty centuries. It is only here, and in Article VII. on 
 the Person of Christ, that we make the historical reference ; 
 and we do it for a reason which will at once suggest itself to 
 educated men. All questions concerning the Holy Trinity 
 and the divine-human Person of our Lord were keenly 
 sifted and resolutely determined and settled by Greek 
 theologians and General Councils, in the earlier centuries 
 of our era. We do not receive their deliverances and defi- 
 nitions as infallible, but we are satisfied that they truly set 
 forth the teaching of Holy Scripture. We do not repeat the 
 creed which has been erroneously ascribed to St. Athanasius ; 
 but the doctrine which Athanasius vindicated against Arius, 
 and which the Church has never departed from either in the 
 East or in the West, is that which we acknowledge and main- 
 tain. 
 
 What we have found on this arduous theme in the Bible, 
 and now utter as our faith in unison with the ancient Church, 
 is next put shortly and succinctly as follows : — 
 
 " We believe that in the unity of the ever-blessed Godhead 
 there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Spirit". — Those who call themselves Unitarians seem to 
 claim that they only in Christendom afhrm the unity of God 
 i)ut the simple fact is that all Christians without e.xception 
 believe in and confess "the Unity". The real question is 
 not as to the fact of the Unity, but as to what the Unity 
 may comprehend and enclose. A Unitarian will probably 
 say that we do by the doctrine of a Threeness destroy that 
 of the Oneness, whether we mean to do so or not. We 
 shall examine this allegation a little further on. Meanwhile 
 let us at all events have credit for sincerity in maintaining 
 
THE TRINITY. 
 
 33 
 
 the Divine Unity. And let this important fact be noticed, 
 that Trinitarians never address God in the plural in their 
 devotions. They sing and pray to the Father, to the Son, 
 and to the Holy Spirit; but they never say "Ye," always 
 "Thou"; never "They," always "He". This is because 
 the belief in the Trinity does not in their minds destroy or 
 even disturb the belief in the Unity. Neither in thought 
 nor in language may God be pluralised. 
 
 Confessedly the term '■'Persons'' in the Godhead is open 
 to objection. Taken from the Latin, it has long been in 
 use for want of a better word, but is apt to suggest to the 
 English mind more distinction and separation than is in- 
 tended. Let us try to state what it is that we wish to say 
 of the Three in One. On the one hand, we do not mean 
 that there are three separate beings as we call three men 
 three persons. On the other hand, we do not mean that 
 the one living and true God has three modes of self-mani- 
 festation. But this we mean, that in the unsearchable and 
 ineffable existence of God there is a certain eternal and 
 necessary distinction of Three without multiplying or 
 dividing the One, and to this effect : that the Father 
 loves the Son, sends the Son, and speaks to the Son ; and 
 the Son sends the Holy Spirit, and speaks of the Holy 
 Spirit as "He" or "Him". The Son is only-begotten of 
 the Father; the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. 
 
 " Of one substance.'' — This clause is inserted to emphasise 
 the real Unity which underlies and encloses Trinity. It is 
 taken verbatim from the Westminster Confession and the 
 Thirty-nine Articles. In the Scottish Confession we read : 
 " One in substance " ; in the two ^^'estminster Catechisms : 
 " The same in substance " ; in the Belgic Confession : " One 
 single essence". The Athanasian Creed has: "Neither 
 confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance " ; a 
 3 
 
34 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 valuable form of words. In all these symbols, and in our 
 article, the term "substance " is used to express not a physical 
 or material basis for the divine existence, but that in God 
 which underlies all modes and manifestations, to which 
 attributes belong, in which qualities inhere. 
 
 This was the great contention of Athanasius and of those 
 who with and after him maintained the homootision against 
 the homoiousion. The controversy has been much derided 
 as "vain jangling" on the ground that there is literally 
 only an iota of difference between the words. But a 
 very small difference in form may cover a great distance 
 in meaning. In this case it is the distinction between being 
 of a like substance and being of the same substance. It 
 was no vain jangling to affirm that the Son is of one and the 
 same substance with the Father, as against the proposition 
 that the Son is of an essence or substance resembling that 
 of the Father. In fact, this affirmation is indispensable to 
 the faith of the Trinity, and indeed to that of the Unity 
 also. 
 
 "■Equal in power and glory" — These words are taken 
 from the Westminster Catechisms. The Athanasian Creed 
 says : " The divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost is one, the glory equal, and the majesty 
 equal". The Catechism of the Eastern Church has the 
 expression: " Absolutely equal divine majesty ". And this 
 has found voice in the devotion of the universal Church 
 from the second century downwards in the ascription of 
 "glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy 
 Ghost". 
 
 Such equality is obviously implied in the proposition that 
 each of " the Persons in the Godhead " is truly and properly 
 God. But this must not be taken to hinder or contradict 
 the subordination of the Second to the First, or of the Third 
 
THE TRINITV. 
 
 35 
 
 to the First and Second in the execution of divine purposes 
 and dispensation of divine mercy. In this last sense there 
 is a voluntary inequality of order within the essential equality. 
 The Father is greater than the Son, having sent Him into the 
 world and given Him commandment. The Son is greater 
 than the Spirit, for He shed forth the Spirit on the Church, 
 that the Son might be glorified, and the Father glorified in 
 Him. It is from not grasping this distinction between the 
 inherent dignity, which is equal, and the dispensational 
 arrangements, which introduce apparent or real inequalities 
 for a time and a purpose, that many persons have seen con- 
 tradictions in the New Testament, where there are none. 
 
 But something more must be said on the charge of con- 
 tradiction. It is stoutly alleged that, no matter how par- 
 ticular texts may be explained, the doctrine of the Holy 
 Trinity involves self-contradiction. " Three cannot be one : 
 one cannot be three." Indeed ! We should have thought 
 it plain to every mind that what is one in one respect may 
 be three or threefold in another respect. One man is spirit, 
 soul and body — these three. The sheet we have written on 
 is paper, ink and thought — these three. To constitute a 
 contradiction, you must have an affirmation and a negation 
 concerning the same subject in the same respect. If you say 
 that a specified object is one foot in height, and at the same 
 time that it is three feet in height, you contradict yourself. 
 So also if we say that there is only one God, and at the 
 same time that there are three Gods, we contradict our- 
 selves. Or, if we say that God is one Person, but also that 
 He is three Persons, we contradict ourselves. But no one 
 says so. What is maintained is something quite different, 
 viz., that God is One in one respect, and Three in another 
 respect. He is One in respect of the Eternal and Indivisible 
 Essence ; Three in respect of the triune distinction in the 
 
36 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 (lodhead, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This may be 
 inscrutable ; but it is not contradictory nor irrational. 
 
 The Trinity is inscrutable : but so indeed is the Divine 
 Unity also. It is easy to understand the unity of God as 
 opposed to a plurality of gods. Monotheism, if true, 
 makes polytheism untrue. But no one knows what the 
 unity of such an existence may or may not comprise ; no 
 one can be sure that there is not a number of perfections 
 necessary to the fulness of the Infinite One. In the last 
 vision of Dante occur some noble lines which show how a 
 great imagination endeavoured to body forth this truth, and 
 staggered : — 
 
 In that abyss 
 Of radiance, clear and lofty, seem'd methought 
 Three orbs of triple hue, clip't in one bound, 
 And, from another, one reflected seem'd 
 As rainbow is from rainbow ; and the third 
 Seem'd fire, breathed equally from both. Oh, speech, 
 How feeble and how faint art thou to give 
 Conception birth ! 
 
 Be it frankly said, that this doctrine is not given to the 
 philosophers for analysis, or to the poets for decorative de- 
 scription. It is addressed to spiritual apprehensions, and 
 these are not perplexed by it. During all the Christian 
 centuries it has been received by devout souls without pro- 
 test or demur. Nay, it has been held very precious. It 
 has relieved the mind from the chilling effect of a bare 
 monotheistic conception and has shown how God comes 
 into manifestation, and into contact with His creatures, and 
 how they may approach and commune with Him. It is 
 found that the truth of the Trinity connects with all the 
 doctrines of grace, and helps us to understand them. The 
 covenant of our peace, the comfort of hope, the blessings of 
 
THE TRINITY. 
 
 37 
 
 justification, adoption, and sanctification all become intel- 
 ligible only under the light of this Article of the Faith ; for 
 it will be found that none of what are called the doctrines of 
 grace are firmly held by such as deny or disown the Holy 
 Trinity. They never stop short at that denial, but abandon 
 atonement, redemption, and regeneration also. Every 
 Pelagian is not a Socinian, but every Socinian is a Pelagian, 
 and virtually gives up the Gospel of our salvation. 
 
 It is a grievous mistake to suppose that this doctrine is 
 an obscure or dizzy speculation, without practical value or 
 usefulness. On the contrary, it is fundamental to theology, 
 and to practical piety also. As men hold it fast and 
 lovingly, they see further into all other revealed truths, and 
 they grow in reverence and all the sacred affections. On 
 the other hand, when men who learned it in their youth 
 abandon the truth, or hold it vaguely and loosely, they be- 
 come unsound on ever so many other points, and, as to 
 personal religion, often become lukewarm and self-righteous. 
 
 The Jew, the Gentile Deist, and the Moslem, all say : 
 " God is one, and there is no other but He ". So say we 
 too. But, as Christians, we are taken nearer to the divine 
 secret, and obtain further discoveries of divine wisdom and 
 goodness, and drink of deep wells of salvation, in that we 
 are taught to recognise in the one God not a mere unicity, 
 but the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit : — the 
 Father Who has loved us, the Son Who has redeemed us, 
 and the Holy Spirit AVho regenerates and comforts us. To 
 Whom be glory everlasting ! 
 
Article III. 
 
 OF CREATION. 
 
 We believe that Almighty God, for His own holy and 
 loving ends, was pleased in the beginning to create the 
 heavens and the earth, by the Son, the Eternal Word; 
 and, through progressive stages, to fashion and order this 
 world, giving life to every creature ; and to make man in 
 His own image, that he might glorify and enjoy God, 
 occupying and subduing the earth and having dominion 
 over the creatures, to the praise of his Maker's name. 
 
 The belief affirmed in this Article regards God as " Al- 
 mighty ". No being less than omnipotent could ever have 
 done the work which is described, framing the worlds and 
 calling the universe into existence. The more we know of 
 that universe the more our wonder grows. The more we 
 ascertain of this planet on which we dwell and of the un- 
 numbered suns and planets that move through space, with 
 prodigious velocity through prodigious orbits, yet with 
 mathematical precision, the more emphasis we must lay on 
 the belief that He Who made and marshalled all these is 
 Almighty. 
 
 (38) 
 
CREATION. 
 
 39 
 
 For His own holy and loving e?ids." — The thought of 
 divine power is not the only one which a survey of creation 
 suggests. In wisdom has God made all things. And for 
 other objects than a mere display of might — for objects 
 worthy of the Divine Creator, holy and loving ends. What 
 these ends are we may but very imperfectly discern with our 
 present measure of light, but that they are good, and only 
 good — such is our faith. To think otherwise would be to 
 dishonour the great Creator. 
 
 This Article contains three affirmations : — • 
 I. " That Almighty God 7C'as pleased in the beginning to 
 create the heavens and the earth, by the Son, the Eternal 
 WordP — To the words "Maker of heaven and earth" the 
 Nicene Creed adds, '• and of all things visible and invisible ". 
 From that source the same form of words passed into the 
 Scottish Confession, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the 
 Westminster Confession. The (so-called) Apostles' Creed 
 had not even the words " Maker of heaven and earth " till 
 they were introduced from Eastern sources in the seventh 
 century. The question of the origin of the world did not 
 interest the West so much as the East, where the Biblical 
 doctrine of creation came into conflict alike with the 
 philosophical tenet of the eternity of matter, and with the 
 gnostic view that the ATaker of the world, or Demiurge, is a 
 being quite distinct from the Supreme God. 
 
 The attitude of strict Science toward the problem or 
 creation is that of Nescience. It cannot tell whether the 
 universe ever had a beginning or no ; or, if it had, when 
 and how. The order of the world certainly suggests an 
 ordering intelligence capable of carrying out designs most 
 minute and most comprehensive ; but the origin of the 
 matter and space, which form the universe, lies beyond 
 mental ken and scientific scrutiny. And we say this in no 
 
40 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 taunting spirit. It is no discredit to science that some 
 matters are beyond its province, and beyond its unaided 
 reach. The doctrine of creation, as we avow it, comes from 
 revelation, not from discovery. " Through faith we under- 
 stand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that 
 things which are seen were not made of things which do 
 appear." 
 
 The phrase "in the beginning" is taken from the first 
 verse of Genesis. It negatives at once the notion that the 
 worlds have been from eternity just as we see them now ; 
 and the denial is corroborated by scientific observations and 
 explorations in modern times. Yet the words in Genesis are 
 not intended to fix a date for the origin of things. They 
 merely express antiquity and anteriority — how remote no one 
 can tell. Enough to know that, " of old, God created the 
 heavens and the earth ". 
 
 The term "created" ought also to be well scrutinised. 
 We find four Hebrew words employed to express the act 
 of making. Of these three are used in the Old Testament 
 to denote the productive acts both of God and of men ; but 
 the fourth, which occurs in Gen. i. i, and more than forty 
 times thereafter, belongs to God only, and is never ascribed 
 to men.* So, when we read that God created, we understand 
 that He did something beyond all human power — called 
 what did not exist into existence. 
 
 Three times in the first chapter of Genesis Elohim is said 
 to have created : (i) At the production of the heaven and 
 earth, v. i ; (2) At the introduction of animal life on land 
 and water, v. 21 ; (3) At the formation of man, v. 27. It 
 is worthy of notice that at two of these points modern 
 teachers of continuous evolution confess that they cannot 
 "make their connections". They cannot tell how matter 
 * See Young's Analytical Concordance. 
 
CREATION. 
 
 41 
 
 originated, or how man first came to be. At these points 
 the Bible says : " Elohim created ". 
 
 This sublime affirmation marks with a firm hand the 
 absolute distinction between God and what is called Nature. 
 Ancient nations were prone to confound these together, and 
 fell to worshipping objects and powers of nature, first as 
 manifestations of God, and then as gods. 
 
 So the Persian 
 With myrtle-wreathed tiara on his brow 
 Presented sacrifice to moon and stars, 
 And to the winds and mother elements, 
 And the whole circle of the heavens, for him 
 A sensitive existence, and a god.* 
 
 At one stroke the Bible condemned all worship of nature 
 by showing that its orbs, however grand, and its form, 
 however mighty, are only products of the creative wisdom 
 and energy of God. 
 
 Another clause is added in our Article to set forth a truth 
 of New Testament revelation— wz., that in creation God 
 acted through or by the Son of God, the Eternal Word. 
 The passages of the New Testament which so teach are St. 
 John i. 3; Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 2. The Nicene Creed 
 says of the Son : "By Whom all things were made". And 
 similar statements occur in the writings of old Church 
 Fathers, as Ireneeus. This point of doctrine was somehow 
 omitted from most of the Reformed Confessions; but it 
 has place in the Belgic, and the two Helvetic. 
 
 So the Holy Trinity appears in the work of creation : 
 
 (1) The Father Almighty, the Fountain of divine purpose ; 
 
 (2) The Son, as Divine Executive; (3) The Holy Spirit, 
 brooding and begetting. Thus far of the creation of " heaven 
 and earth," or the visible universe. 
 
 * Wordsworth's Excursion, bk. iv. 
 
42 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 II. That Almighty God through progressive stages fas- 
 hio/ied and ordered this world for its inhabitants. — This is 
 a distinct statement ; and it is a great point gained to have 
 this put separately from the origination of heaven and earth, 
 instead of being confounded with it, as in former confessions 
 and catechisms. Men have felt much difficulty in recon- 
 ciling the narrative of a preparation of the world in six days 
 for its inhabitants, with the evidences of its own formation 
 which the earth has disclosed to the geologists; and 
 straightway have rejected the doctrine of divine creation 
 altogether. But this is most unreasonable. The origin of 
 the universe is one thing ; the fitting up of this world for 
 inhabitation is another thing ; and the former is in no way 
 or measure discredited by difficulties which apply only to 
 the latter. 
 
 Through the study of palaeontology and geology, com- 
 petent men are endeavouring to trace the long periods, and 
 to mark the transitions, slow or sudden, through which our 
 earth has arrived at its present form and condition. We 
 follow them with much interest and entire good-will. It is 
 evident that they are still some way from definite conclusions. 
 Many conclusions recently widely accepted have been modi- 
 fied or even discarded as the result of accessions to know- 
 ledge. Nothing that can be discovered can ever affect 
 the ulterior truth of divine creation ; because these sciences 
 bear only on the fashioning and ordering of the world, and 
 not at all on its origin or initiation. 
 
 As to the "fashioning and ordering" work, described in 
 Genesis as accomplished in six successive days, three things 
 are obvious to the attentive reader. 
 
 (1) The story is told optically, as though all passed before 
 the eye of the narrator in a panorama. 
 
 (2) The story is told mnemonically, so arranged as to 
 
CREATION. 
 
 43 
 
 hold the memory. And, no doubt, this "wondrous tale" 
 was told by one of the ancients to another, and carried on 
 from one generation to another by memory, until it was 
 written down, and so preserved. 
 
 (3) From the nature of the story, and the general usage 
 of Scripture, it is reasonable to suppose, that the days in 
 Genesis i. are not short periods of twenty-four hours, but 
 long periods or ages. The operations described are those 
 of God, and not of man, and the days in which they were 
 " finished " were surely on God's scale, and not on ours. 
 
 What is of highest interest and importance in Genesis i. 
 is that the Scripture reveals, and has all along revealed, a 
 great truth which science has very slowly found out, that 
 this world has been fashioned and ordered through pro- 
 gressive stages. There has been a gradual development ; 
 and yet this has not been continuous, or without drawbacks 
 and pauses, for there have been evenings and mornings. 
 It has also been revealed that among living forms the progress 
 has been from lower to higher : vegetation before animal 
 life ; birds and fishes before mammals ; and all the lower 
 animals before man. In its scope, and even in its details, 
 the first chapter of Genesis is scientifically accurate. 
 
 It follows from what has been affirmed of God, that it is 
 He Who gave " life to every creature ". The Bible says so ; 
 and no other rational account has ever been given of the 
 origin of life. 
 
 III. That God was pleased " to make man in His own 
 image". — Here also we rest on Genesis i., which tells how 
 man is related on the one hand to other living creatures ; 
 and on the other hand to the Divine Creator. He has 
 not been developed or evolved from those apes and chim- 
 panzees which hold themselves erect, yet is he notaltogether 
 different from other terrestrial mammals. He came into 
 
44 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 being in the same day, or division of time, with them, and 
 has his points of resemblance to them, though with evident 
 marks of superiority. The other side of the truth is that 
 man is related to the Divine Maker in a way which other 
 living creatures do not share ; for " Elohim said : Let Us 
 make man in Our image, after Our likeness ". 
 
 Wherein this image or likeness consists is a question 
 which has been much canvassed, and variously answered. 
 It is not the occupation of the earth, or the dominion over 
 the creatures thereon ; for these things were given to man by 
 divine grant, not involved in the possession of a divine 
 likeness. We therefore state those prerogatives in separate 
 clauses : " Occupying and subduing tiu earth, and having 
 dominion over the creatures, to the praise of his Makers na?ne 
 Neither can we find the divine image in the human form 
 and lineaments ; for God is spirit. The image or likeness 
 must be in the mental and moral constitution of man, which 
 bore and still, in a measure, bears a reflection of God. 
 
 It is laid down in the Shorter Catechism of Westminster 
 that the image of God, after which man was made, consisted 
 in "knowledge, righteousness, and holiness". (Knowledge 
 is in the mind, righteousness in the will, and holiness in 
 the affections and motives of life.) This is inferred from the 
 statements of St. Paul regarding restored and renewed 
 man. (See Col. iii. lo ; Eph. iv. 24.) We have, how- 
 ever, refrained from affirming so much in our new Article, 
 because the authority claimed is only indirect and inferential, 
 and because we cannot argue back from the new man 
 under grace to the original man as first made. The " new 
 creation " does more than regain the first state of man as 
 a creature of God. It heightens and betters that state. 
 Even if it were a mere recurrence to the primitive condi- 
 tion, no one can tell how much or how little the first man 
 
CREATION. 
 
 45 
 
 knew, or how far his moral being, untried and undisciplined, 
 was entitled to be called not merely innocent, but righteous 
 and holy. Therefore we avoid uncertain definitions, and 
 are content with the words of the Bible — " in His own 
 image " — for these words sufficiently indicate all we can be 
 sure of, viz., that man was endowed with a mental and 
 moral nature capable of understanding the thoughts and 
 words of God, and of holding communion with Him. 
 
 Then we express the chief end of man as thus called 
 into existence and highly endowed, in the formula which 
 the Shorter Catechism has made famous — that he viighf 
 glorify and enjoy God ". Such an aim in life can be sus- 
 tained by no creature that has not something of the image 
 and likeness of God ; or, to use New Testament language, 
 some conformity to Christ, Who is " the brightness of the 
 Father's glory, and the express image of His person "'. 
 
 The belief that man was made in the divine image, and 
 for the high end now declared, is indispensable to our 
 religion. It is this which makes any real revelation of God 
 to us possible. If ours were not a moral nature formed 
 after His, we could not recognise His moral perfections. 
 The very words which express these would have no meaning 
 for us. We could not esteem the divine justice or truth, 
 unless we had conscience, and knew the obligation of 
 veracity. We could have no conception of what is meant 
 by the adage, — " God is love," unless we had in ourselves 
 the capacity of love. The inferior moral being may enter 
 into sympathetic relation with the Supreme Being. Crea- 
 tures without such a moral constitution cannot. 
 
 Another point must be noted. The making of man in 
 God's image prepared the way for the manifestation of God 
 in man's image — the incarnation of the Son of God. It was 
 possible for the divine nature to join itself to human nature 
 
46 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 in the person of Jesus Christ, because humanity was origi- 
 nally made after the divine likeness. When sin was 
 altogether absent, as in the case of our Saviour, there was no 
 jar or discord between the affections and will of the Son of 
 God and the faculties and activities of the Son of Man. 
 
 The whole theme of creation ought to kindle devout feel- 
 ing. The Lord rejoices in His works, and we, too, should 
 rejoice in them, and speak of the glorious honour of His 
 majesty. The apostles write of Him as the " Merciful 
 Creator," the "Faithful Creator". -'Ocome! let us wor- 
 ship, and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our 
 Maker ! " 
 
Article IV. 
 
 OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 We believe that God the Creator upholds all things by the 
 word of His power, preserving and providing for all His 
 creatures, according to the laws of their being ; and that He, 
 through the presence and energy of His Spirit in nature and 
 history, disposes and governs all events for His own high 
 design : yet is He not in any wise the author or approver of 
 sin, neither are the freedom and responsibility of man taken 
 away, nor have any bounds been set to the sovereign liberty 
 of Him Who worketh when and where and how He 
 pleaseth. 
 
 The word Providence, in relation to God, does not occur in 
 Holy Writ, but the conception which it is meant to express 
 runs through all parts of the Bible, and has been assumed as 
 true in all the prayers and all the patience of the people 
 of God. The Greek equivalent — pronoia — is found in the 
 Apocryphal Book of Wisdom. The 17th chapter of that book 
 has the phrase "eternal Providence" (v. 2), which Milton 
 uses with such dignity in the outset of his epic poem : — 
 (47) 
 
48 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 That to the height of this great argument 
 I may assert eternal Providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to man. 
 
 We also recall his lines on the expulsion of Adam and Eve 
 from Paradise : — 
 
 The world was all before them where to choose 
 Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 
 
 According to its derivation, the word means foresight, but, 
 when ascribed to God, it is clothed with a larger sense, viz., 
 the preservation and government of the whole world, and 
 especially of the Church. Some good divines have treated 
 of conservation and providence separately, but our Article 
 includes both, and its title must be taken to cover both. It 
 is an attempt to group together all our leading conceptions 
 of God in relation to the world and to history — His uphold- 
 ing all created things, preserving and sustaining all the crea- 
 tures according to the laws of their being, and disposing and 
 governing the whole course of events. The Westminster 
 Confession has a similar comprehensiveness in its declaration 
 that " God doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all 
 creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the 
 least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to 
 His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable 
 counsel of His own will ". 
 
 Our Article states God's relation to (i) all things; (2) 
 all creatures ; (3) all events. Then it ends with two pro- 
 visoes, disclaiming two injurious inferences. 
 
 I. " God the Creator upholds all things by the word of His 
 power.''- — The Creatorship is mentioned in order to show- 
 how there comes to be any world at all ; and thus the affir- 
 mation that He Who created ever after upholds or sustains, 
 is brought in to explain how it is the world, once made and 
 
PROVIDENCE. 
 
 49 
 
 set in order, does not fail or collapse. It has no self- 
 sustaining independence ; but God keeps it in being 
 moment by moment, age after age. At the same time this 
 action of God is not a continuous creation, but a continuous 
 maintenance of the substance and order of the world by Him 
 " in Whom all things consist ". 
 
 II. " Freseniing and providing for all His creatures, 
 according to the laws of their being." — AVe are not to suppose 
 that Elohim started the animate world at the first, and then 
 left it to manage itself as it best could, and sustain, pro- 
 pagate, or destroy the life which He had given. On 
 the contrary. He has never ceased to watch over the 
 animate world, and to direct and influence its development ; 
 and this applies to all the creatures, whether plants or 
 animals, in their several genera and species — their distribu- 
 tion, their propagation, and their adaptation to their environ- 
 ment. 
 
 The clause " according to the laws of their being'" is added 
 as an acknowledgment that the divine providence over the 
 creatures is not a series of arbitrary volitions which cannot 
 be anticipated or foreseen, but observes laws or orderly pro- 
 cesses, which the observant mind may perceive. These are 
 the laws of nature which, on the great scale, include the 
 conservation of matter and force in the universe, and, on 
 the particular scale, provide for the life and health of each 
 kind of God's creatures according to its structure, constitu- 
 tion, and appointed place in the vast economy of the world. 
 In the institution and maintenance of these laws we discern 
 the boundless and faultless wisdom of God. 
 
 This clause carries with it important practical lessons. It 
 excludes vain hopes, and condemns unreasonable prayers. 
 God does not preserve or provide for this creature or that by 
 irresistible acts of power, nor should we pray or expect Him 
 
5° 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 to do SO. He will not work a miracle to keep a man who 
 falls over a cliff from injury, or to rescue one who drops into 
 deep water and cannot swim from being drowned. He lets 
 the law of our being have free course. And under that law 
 He preserves us through the use of means — for which use 
 we are ourselves responsible. If we pay no heed to the laws 
 and conditions of health, we shall grow weak and ill, and 
 God will not prevent it. If we run foolish risks, and mis- 
 chief befalls, we suffer — and have only ourselves to blame. 
 Providence takes care of us only according to the law of our 
 being, and, indeed, it would be no kindness but a great 
 calamity if this law were capriciously suspended. There 
 would be no more encouragement to discretion, no more 
 certainty of a retribution for indiscretion and ill-behaviour. 
 
 III. " Through the presence and efiergy of His Spirit in 
 nature and history, He disposes and governs all events for His 
 own high design^ — Here we recognise the divine control 
 over all occurrences in the world's annals and in human 
 history — however fortuitous they may appear. Obviously 
 this must cover the actions of conscious as well as uncon- 
 scious agents : and in the former case the designs, separate 
 or combined, and the motives of action which give shape 
 and character to private and public history. The feelings of 
 His human creatures, good and evil, their passions and 
 plots, their industry or indolence, their competitions and 
 hindrances, their words and works, their improvements and 
 deteriorations, their successes and failures, their peace and 
 war — all are controlled by the Almighty Ruler of the world 
 with a view to the accomplishment of His high design. 
 And the full design is known only to Himself 
 
 In sooth, it is a prodigious conception surpassing all 
 human thought, this fulfilment of a high design through 
 long ages of time, by the operations of nature, and the 
 
PROVIDENCE. 
 
 51 
 
 vicissitudes of history ; nay, more, by the free agency of 
 millions on millions of human beings, each aiming at his 
 own object, not to speak of the presence and influence of 
 unseen spirits, good and evil. The Being Who wields such 
 a providence must indeed be the All-wise and Almighty. 
 What prevision of fortuitous events and of contingent actions! 
 What power to weave events and tendencies into a whole 
 course of things ! What judgment in the balancing of 
 counter influences, and in touching the springs of physical 
 and moral energy ! 
 
 Again, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity helps us. As the 
 Almighty God created by His Son, so also the All-wise 
 God conducts the providence now described by His Spirit, 
 Whose '■'■presence and energy iti 7iature and history " we 
 reverently acknowledge. It is a too common mistake to 
 confine the operation of the Holy Spirit on earth to the 
 enlightenment, consolation, and sanctification of believers. 
 But, anterior to this, there is an immanence of the Spirit of 
 God in what we call nature, and a movement of that Spirit 
 all down the course of history. Wheresoever and whenso- 
 ever man is divinely guided, influenced, or incited to any 
 moral effort, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 But again the all-controlling Spirit has respect in every 
 creature to the " law of its being ". We have seen that such 
 respect is observed in providing for the safety and continu- 
 ance of all creatures. It is also observed in the divine 
 providence over events in which the creatures freely take 
 part. They are no puppets or passive instruments ; but feel 
 and act of or from themselves, executing, or at least trying to 
 execute, their own will. More of this by-and-by. 
 
 Of this divine disposal and government of all events we 
 have three things to say: (i) It excludes chance; (2) It 
 repudiates fate ; (3) It encourages prayer. 
 
52 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 (1) It excludes chance or fortune. — There is no luck, 
 good or bad. On the surface of things there may appear a 
 capricious uncertainty which gives amusement and excite- 
 ment to certain minds, but to the eye of God no issue is 
 vague or problematical. No joy comes to us, no sorrow 
 befalls but it was known to Him, and foreknown, destined 
 by Him, and predestined. 
 
 (2) It repudiates fate — blind and aimless. It is a signifi- 
 cant fact that a belief in fortune carries with it a belief in 
 fate. The nations that made fortune a goddess dreaded 
 the three fates. Pindar identified fortune with one of the 
 destinies. But the doctrine of providence, which rejects 
 chance, rejects dire necessity also. The living God reigns 
 in righteousness and love, and His rule leaves room for the 
 contingent actions of His responsible creatures. They have 
 all the lilierty they need. "Let the earth rejoice ! " 
 
 (3) // 'warrants and encourages prayer. — The pursuit 
 of luck banishes the devout spirit, and fatalism stities it. 
 Granted that the Mussulman, who is a fatalist, goes regularly 
 and ostentatiously to prayer, yet he only repeats the state- 
 ment that " Allah is one," and recites verses from the 
 Koran ; he does not make confession or petition, as Chris- 
 tians do, to the Father in heaven. The foundation of what 
 we call prayer is laid in our belief in an ever-present God, 
 ever presiding and providing. Who has all our times in His 
 hand, with control of all the forces which act on events, and 
 power to shape our lives, and those of others, according to 
 His will. Therefore, we appeal to Him to guide and guard 
 us, and to order all that concerns ourselves and others to 
 such results as are best. He knows how and when to inter- 
 pose, and so, without violating the order of the world or the 
 law of our being, to answer our cry. and help the poor and 
 needy. 
 
PROVIDENCE. 
 
 53 
 
 The faith in divine providence is a strong consolation to 
 the Christian mind ; yet we cannot help seeing, and have no 
 hesitation in acknowledging, that the doctrine runs out on 
 all sides into mystery, and starts intricate questions, the full 
 solution of which is beyond the reach of our philosophy. 
 No wise or humble man attempts to explain hoiv God pro- 
 vides, and governs, and secures His objects, while listening 
 to and granting the prayers of His children, and while leav- 
 ing His creatures generally to act as they desire and will. 
 But at all events we can protect the doctrine from injurious 
 inferences ; and such is the purport of the two provisoes 
 which wind up this Article. 
 
 I. The first has regard to the relation of divine pro- 
 vidence to evil in its origin and continuance. " Yet is He 
 not in a7iywise the author or approver of sin T This is taken 
 from the Westminster Confession. We are not able to 
 show how the Holy One has control of the sinful actions of 
 men, and carries out His purposes through these, and yet 
 remains Himself unspotted ; or why He AVho had the power 
 to exclude evil ever permitted its entrance. But it cannot 
 be, it would destroy the very conception of God, that He 
 should be chargeable with the production or with the pro- 
 pagation of evil. And this is the import of our disclaimer. 
 
 In four points, the late Dr. Charles Hodge set forth the 
 teaching of Scripture on the divine control over sinful acts 
 of men. (i) These acts are so under the control of God that 
 they can occur only by His permission and in execution of 
 His purposes. (2) The wickedness of man is restrained 
 ■within bounds which God has prescrilied. (3) Wicked 
 actions of men are overruled by God for good. (4) The 
 sinfulness of acts proceeds only from the creature and not 
 from God. 
 
 Confessedly there are great perplexities for our reason, 
 
54 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 not only in the origin but also in the continuance, propagation 
 and insolence of sin in the face of God's good providence. 
 But, whatever be the explanation of this, we stand to our 
 disclaimer. It cannot be that He Who forbids and punishes 
 sin is Himself in any respect, or in any degree, an author or 
 approver of the thing which He hates. 
 
 2. The second disclaimer touches the difficult question of 
 the relation of divine providence to moral freedom, and so 
 to responsibility. It may be alleged against the doctrine of 
 providence, as has often been alleged against that of pre- 
 destination, that it places both God and man under a yoke 
 of necessity. This we disavow in two clauses : — 
 
 (1) As to man's freedom. — ^'Neither are the freedom 
 and responsibility of man taken away." This phrase also is 
 taken in abbreviated form from the Westminster Confession. 
 All that can be done in the case is to disclaim any inference 
 from the doctrine of providence which would turn human 
 beings into puppets pulled by strings, or blind tools of a 
 resistless purpose not their own. ^\'e do not pretend to 
 explain how the foreknowledge and forecasting government 
 of God comprehend in their regard the free will and free 
 activities of His creatures. But our failure to discover the 
 quomodo is never a reason for rejecting quod Saucta Scrip- 
 tura docet. Our incapacity to read off the reconciliation 
 between the all-disposing providence of God and the free- 
 dom and responsibility of man forms no ground whatever 
 for rejecting either the one or the other in its own place 
 and on its own evidence. 
 
 (2) As to God's freedom. — Not even by His own world- 
 plan does the Omnipotent limit His own Hberty. So we 
 continue. " Nor have any bounds been set to the sovereign 
 liberty of Him Who worketh tvhen and where and how He 
 pleaseth." We need not dilate on this. Everj' reverent 
 
PROVIDENCE. 
 
 55 
 
 mind will recognise without difficulty that untrammelled 
 freedom must belong to the All-wise and Almighty Ruler of 
 the world. He may not be balked, baffled, or restricted by 
 any conditions whatever, or by any amount of intractable- 
 ness among His world-subjects. The Lord may and will 
 do all His pleasure ; the only qualification of this statement 
 being that He cannot violate His own rectitude, therefore 
 cannot do wrong, cannot lie, cannot act unjustly. But this 
 is no restriction on any liberty that is worthy of God. 
 
 We do not attach much importance to the distinction 
 which used to be drawn between general and particular pro- 
 vidence. The one contains the other. That God superin- 
 tends the whole life of the world, and that God cares for 
 one sparrow falling to the ground, are not separate and dis- 
 connected truths, but are exhibitions of the same truth. 
 The one impresses by its comprehensiveness, the other by 
 its minuteness of consideration and care. It is not easy to 
 say which is the more impressive of the two. 
 
 There is a special providence in the sense of a special 
 divine protection of the faithful in Christ Jesus. It is well 
 put in the Westminster Confession : "As the providence of 
 God doth, in general, reach to all creatures, so, after a most 
 special manner, it taketh care of His Church, and disposeth 
 all things to the good thereof". 
 
 In all time this doctrine has been a pillar of comfort to the 
 saints through all their toils and trials. They trusted in 
 God's holy providence, and were not afraid. Let us also 
 turn this Article of the Faith into a strong consolation. 
 
 Leave God to order all thy ways, 
 
 And hope in Him whate'er betide ; 
 Thou'lt find Him in the evil days 
 
 Thy all-sufficient strength and guide ; 
 Who trusts in God's unchangmg love 
 Builds on the rock that nought can move. 
 
Article V. 
 
 OF THE FALL. 
 
 We believe and confess that our first father, Adam, the 
 representative head as well as common ancestor of mankind, 
 transgressed the commandment of God through temptation 
 of the devil, by which transgression he fell from his original 
 state of innocence and communion with God ; and so all 
 mankind, being in him, have come under just condemna- 
 tion, are subject to the penalty of death, and inherit a sinful 
 nature, estranged from God, from which proceed all actual 
 transgressions : and we acknowledge that out of this condi- 
 tion no man is able to deliver himself. 
 
 The Fall of Man is that which makes both redemption 
 and reformation necessary. Therefore it is one of the chief 
 desiderata in a sound theology to have this matter stated 
 accurately according to the Bible, and in harmony with the 
 facts of experience, without exaggeration and without 
 apology. 
 
 The statement on this subject in any creed, confession, 
 or table of articles will furnish a very shrewd test of its 
 fidelity on all points that concern salvation. If you find a 
 (S6) 
 
THE FALL. 
 
 57 
 
 religious teacher faltering here, you are sure to find him 
 halting all through, and especially defective in his view of 
 the representative character and remedial work of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Already, under the third Article, we have had the doctrine 
 of man's original state, in the image and favour of his Maker. 
 The present i\rticle shows how he did not continue in that 
 state, but fell from it by disobedience. It deals first with 
 the sad story of Adam, and then with the effect of Adam's 
 sin on his posterity. And in view of the humbling contents 
 of the Article, we begin by saying not merely " we believe," 
 but " we believe and confess ". 
 
 I. Of Adam's sin and its effect on him. — " That 
 our first father, Adam,''' etc. Thus we go straight to the 
 Bible, and without looking at questions which the specula- 
 tive intelligence may easily raise, shape the Article simply on 
 the sacred record. 
 
 Some will dispute the description of Adam as " our first 
 father," " the common ancestor of mankind". They will say 
 that the human race now on the earth is not of one blood 
 or of one origin, ^\'e have no objection to the most search- 
 ing examination of this point by competent persons, and 
 have no fear of the issue. Meanwhile our faith rests 
 serenely on Holy Writ, which refers all human life back to 
 "the first man, Adam". It is also suggested that there 
 were pre-Adamite men on the pristine earth. This is a 
 question of palaeontology, and palaeontologists have found 
 no evidence of such creatures ; but even if the thing were 
 proved beyond doubt, it would not affect our statement, 
 which is that of the human race as we know it, and to 
 which we belong, Adam was the " first father " ; or, as the 
 Westminster divines say, " the root of all mankind ". 
 
 " The representative head as well as common ancestor." — 
 
58 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 On the relation of parentage which he bore to the coming 
 race was based the additional one of headship. The 
 Larger Catechism says the same thing in a somewhat 
 peculiar way : " The covenant being made with Adam as 
 a public person, not for himself only, but for his posterity".* 
 This representation by Adam having turned out badly for 
 us, men protest against it as unjust. We shall have some- 
 thing to say on this further on. Meanwhile let it be con- 
 sidered that the complaint of unfair treatment is just as 
 applicable to our deriving a faulty disposition and tempera- 
 ment from a fallen ancestor, as it is to our being involved 
 in the disobedience of a fallen representative. And indeed 
 there is no end to complaints if men are to call God unjust 
 because their parents were not the best possible people, or 
 because they began life at a disadvantage on account of the 
 uiihealthiness, ignorance, or poverty of those who begot and 
 reared them. 
 
 True it is, that we ought to read the record of the origin 
 and fall of man with our moral sense awake and alert ; and 
 that we should never put force upon conscience to accept as 
 just what it regards as unjust. But at the same time it must 
 not pronounce at all on an imperfect acquaintance with the 
 grounds of divine procedure. In such a case as this our 
 moral sense must refrain from any adverse conclusion ; and 
 let the mind fall back on the grand assurance, that the 
 Judge of all the earth has done, does, and will do right. 
 
 Having stated the position which Adam held, and the 
 responsibility which he bore, we tell the sad story thus : 
 " He transgressed the covimandinent of God through tempta- 
 tion of the devil". The Larger Catechism says : " Our first 
 
 * The Puritan divines also described Christ as " a Public Person " 
 undertaking our salvation. See Dr. John Owen, On Communion with 
 God, pt. ii. chap. vi. 
 
THE FALL. 
 
 59 
 
 parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, through 
 the temptation of Satan, transgressed the commandment of 
 God ". It will be observed that our Article traces the fall 
 of man to Adam only ; whereas the Catechisms with less 
 accuracy attribute it to the fault of our first parents. No 
 doubt the temptation came to and through Eve, and she 
 was "first in the transgression but sin entered into the 
 world through " the one man," not by the woman. Eve 
 was a common ancestor, but not a " representative head " of 
 the human race. 
 
 Our Article goes into no detail about the trees of the 
 garden, the wonderful fruit, or the serpent that spoke in 
 human language. And this omission is designed to reserve 
 a reasonable freedom in the interpretation of the narrative in 
 Genesis, so far as concerns its incidents. One man may read 
 these as literal history : another as an allegory of the moral 
 life and its temptation. It matters not, so long as the 
 actuality of Adam's fall is believed, and the story is not 
 reduced to the rank of fable or legend. The irreducible 
 fact, whether told in literal narrative or revealed under the 
 veil of parable or allegory, is that Adam marred his Maker's 
 image and lost his Maker's favour by one act of disobedi- 
 ence ; and that he did so under temptation of the devil. 
 
 " By one man sin entered into the world." Not only so : 
 it was by one act of disobedience on the part of the one 
 man. He had freedom to obey or disobey as he would ; 
 but he was started on his career with every advantage, and 
 every encouragement to obedience. He had no excuse for 
 his sin, for he was solemnly warned of the penalty of dis- 
 obedience, and being the first of the race he had no in- 
 herited fault of character, nor any misleading example. 
 
 It is mentioned not as an excuse for Adam's deed but in 
 explanation of it, that he was tempted through his wife by 
 
6o 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 " that old serpent, the devil ". This is the only mention of 
 that "murderer from the beginning" in our Articles of the 
 Faith : but our readers will do well to study along with this 
 what the Bible says of the tempter in the life of Christ, and 
 in the experience of Christians. 
 
 Why the huly God suffered sin to enter at all, and did 
 not restrain the devil from access to our mother Eve, the 
 Bible does not tell. Neither does it explain why God per- 
 mitted it to enter the ranks of the angels, and to cast down 
 some of them from " their first estate ". The writers of Scrip- 
 ture do not even notice this difficulty of the modern mind. 
 They express no wonder on the point, and offer no explana- 
 tion. So we must be content for the present to know the 
 terrible fact that sin did enter, and that man is responsible 
 for its entrance, inasmuch as he broke the law of his being, 
 which was the will of his Maker, being tempted thereto by 
 the insinuation of doubt, by the kindling of curiosity and 
 wilful desire, and by a certain impatience of restraint which 
 sprang up in his soul. The result of all which is that 
 " Adatii feH/rom his original state of innocence and communion 
 with God'\ 
 
 11. Of the effect of Adam's six on his posterity. — 
 The effect was disastrous, even tragical, and this because of 
 the relation which Adam bore to the race about to spring 
 from him — representative head as well as common ancestor. 
 The doctrine is laid down on the authority of St. Paul's 
 inspired teaching in Rom. v. 12-19. 
 
 ( I ) "yi// mankind, being; in him, have come under just con- 
 demnationT — The expression " being in him " must at this 
 point refer to his representative headship, as well as the 
 hereditary connection, which taken by itself would not 
 warrant condemnation. 
 
 The word "just"' is inserted, not to affirm that we see or 
 
THE FALL. 
 
 6i 
 
 can demonstrate the justice of this mode of trying and con- 
 demning the race, but to express our faith that, whatever 
 judgment God has passed or may pass, must be just, must 
 proceed on grounds which, though imperfectly disclosed to us, 
 are recognised as sufficient by the Supreme Righteousness. 
 
 Many persons evade this point altogether, thinking it 
 quite enough to admit "original sin" in the sense of in- 
 herent and inherited pravity of disposition.* But this is to 
 regard Adam as ancestor only, and not representative head. 
 And mark how this affects the whole position. It spoils 
 and cripples the antithesis between Adam and Christ, Who 
 surely redeems from condemnation and destruction as well 
 as from sin. Also it is unfaithful to the teaching of St. 
 Paul, who traces to Adam not sin only, but condemnation. 
 "The judgment came of one untocondemnation." "Through 
 one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemna- 
 tion." 
 
 (2) " ^// nia^ikind are subject to the penalty of deaths — 
 This also rests on St. Paul's teaching : " Through one man 
 sin entered into the world, and death by sin ". " By the 
 trespass of the one the many died." "By the trespass of 
 the one, death reigned through the one." 
 
 When it is said that death entered the world " by sin," 
 the reference is to man only, and not to other creatures. 
 The notion that human sin brought death on the whole 
 animal creation has no support in the Bible. The question 
 in suspense was whether man, who had dominion over the 
 creatures, would obtain life by obedience, or incur death by 
 disobedience : and Adam's transgression decided the ques- 
 tion adversely for himself and for all his posterity. It is 
 now " appointed unto men once to die ". 
 
 * Dr. Charles Hodge even admitted that this view would satisfy 
 the Calvinistic position. 
 
62 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 On this, as on all points, we wish to go as far as Holy 
 Scripture goes, but no farther. The Westminster Confes- 
 sion affirms that in consequence of Adam's sin, we are all 
 " made subject to death with all miseries, spiritual, tem- 
 poral, and eternal ". In like fashion the Shorter Catechism 
 asserts that " all mankind by their fall (sciL, in Adam) are 
 made liable to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever ". 
 But addenda of this sort, unsupported as they are by Holy 
 Writ, are fitted to damage the truth to which they are ap- 
 pended, and to make it intolerable and incredible. What 
 God said to Adam was: "Dying, thou shalt die". The 
 penalty on the race cannot be heavier than it was on the 
 representative head. No doubt those who have used the 
 severe language above quoted have argued back from the 
 life in Christ. They have inferred from the unspeakable 
 blessings conveyed in that life that the death in Adam must 
 involve misery unspeakable. But the death in Adam is 
 properly contrasted with the life in Adam — not with the life 
 in Christ. And all assertions based on uncertain and ill- 
 balanced inferences, without express support from the Bible, 
 ought to be dropped. 
 
 (3) " All mankind inherit a sinful nature^ estranged from 
 God, from which proceed all actual traftsgressions." — This is 
 what has been commonly called " original sin ". The ninth 
 of the Thirty-nine Articles says: "Original sin is the fault 
 and corruption of the nature of every man ". The language 
 of the Westminster symbols on the point is similar, and 
 very severe. But here again it is important to state the 
 truth firmly, and not to exaggerate. 
 
 In such a phrase as "a sinful nature" there is no attempt 
 at metaphysical precision. Properly the nature of man is 
 moral, and what is immoral or sinful in him is a depravation 
 of that nature. Righteousness is health and order: un- 
 
THE FALL. 
 
 63 
 
 righteousness sickness and confusion. But the words " sin- 
 ful nature " are convenient to express that the hereditary 
 tendency or disposition of human nature has been toward 
 evil. The froward and downward tendency is stronger in 
 some men than in others, but in all there is a proneness to 
 estrangement from God, and to a manner of living that can- 
 not please Him. 
 
 It is not at all meant that man is a mere lump of vileness. 
 It is not intended to deny or disparage estimable virtues 
 and attributes in human nature. The corruption of the 
 whole, or, as it is sometimes called, " total depravity," means 
 not that man is an out-and-out wicked wretch, half beast, 
 half devil, but that all parts and faculties of his originally 
 upright nature have been injuriously affected by original sin. 
 The root of the mischief is that he has been estranged from 
 God, the fountain of life and purity. Thus the mischief is 
 called " total depravity " as tainting the whole nature of 
 man, and " universal depravity " as having spread over all 
 mankind and through all generations, alike by the law of 
 heredity, and by the power of moral or immoral contagion. 
 
 Human progress, improvement, and advance are the 
 assumptions frequent in the mouths of men ; but, so far as 
 these things infer a moral elevation, they are possible only 
 through influences which divine goodness has originated 
 and supplied. The tendency of man, left to his own 
 devices, is to degenerate from the original type — to depart 
 from righteousness and from God. Hence "all actual 
 transgressions ". 
 
 .A. grievous and even gloomy doctrine this : but it is only 
 the necessary acknowledgment of the grievous and gloomy 
 facts of human history and experience. Every capable ob- 
 server has taken note of the facts. The Bible alone has given 
 a clue to account for them. 
 
64 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 (4) " Aftd 7ve acknowledge that out of this condition no man 
 is able to deliver himself." — The condition is one of con- 
 demnation; and no one can justify himself before God. It 
 is one of liability to death ; and no man has " power in the 
 day of death ". It is one of sinfulness ; and no one can 
 regenerate or sanctify himself 
 
 This is well put in several of the confessions of faith. 
 The Westminster says : " A natural man is not able by his 
 own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself 
 thereunto ". The tenth of the Thirty-nine Articles : " The 
 condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he 
 cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength 
 and good works, to faith, and calling upon God ". The first 
 Helvetic Confession : " Original sin so laid hold of the 
 whole human race that, children of wrath and enemies of 
 God, they can be cured by no power except the power of 
 God through Christ". 
 
 So we are all shut up under sin : and there is no help 
 for us but the divine remedy announced in the Gospel. 
 Let us stretch out eager hands for this. Sin has reigned 
 unto death : but, lo ! grace reigns through righteousness 
 unto eternal life. Adam fell ; but Christ stands. By the 
 one man sin entered ; by the other Man sin is put away. 
 
Article VI. 
 
 OF SAVING GRACE. 
 
 We believe and proclaim that God, Who is rich in mercy 
 as well as of perfect justice, was moved by His great love 
 to man to hold forth from the first a promise of redemption, 
 which from age to age He confirmed and unfolded, and 
 that, in the fulness of the time, He accomplished His 
 gracious purpose by sending His Son to be the Saviour of 
 the world : wherefore our salvation out of sin and misery 
 is ever to be ascribed to free and sovereign grace. 
 
 The Article on the Fall of Man we " believe and con- 
 fess ". This, upon Saving Grace, " we believe and proclaivi ". 
 It is the joyful duty of the Church of God to announce and 
 testify His grace to fallen and sinful men. Beautiful upon 
 the mountains are the feet of those who bring these good 
 tidings, and publish peace. 
 
 We have seen that the fall of man is too serious in its 
 consequences to admit of self-recovery. " Out of this con- 
 dition no man is able to deliver himself" It is a case for 
 salvation. Nothing less will do. And " salvation from a 
 higher source flows to the human race ". We believe and 
 5 (65) 
 
66 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 proclaim that the God Whose commandments men have 
 broken, and from Whom men are estranged, has brought 
 to them a great dehverance. 
 
 " God Who is rich in mercy P —h. beautiful expression 
 taken from Eph. ii. 4. God is the Lord and Proprietor 
 of all things, but is never described as rich in possessions. 
 The true wealth of a moral being, from the highest to the 
 lowest in degree, consists in moral qualities of excellence. 
 And God is rich inasmuch as God is good. His first 
 characteristic, as announced by Himself to Moses, is that 
 He is "merciful" (Exod. xxxiv. 6). One of the prophets 
 said of Him: "He delighteth in mercy" (Mic. vii. 18). 
 The New Testament only adds to the overwhelming proof 
 of this. He is rich in this quality of mercy. So with a 
 great love He has loved us. 
 
 "^5 well as of perfect justice." — The ascription to God of 
 this quality, of which something has been said under Article 
 I., has abundant authority from Scripture. The propriet\- 
 of bringing it in as a balance to the divine mercy in the 
 way of human salvation has been usually recognised by the 
 compilers of Confessions of Faith, and by systematic theo- 
 logians. The Westminster Confession says: "God, Who 
 is most loving, gracious, merciful, and withal most just 
 The Belgic : " God, Who is perfectly merciful, and also 
 perfectly just". 
 
 We have already affirmed God's "just condemnation " of 
 man's disobedience. It is now important to say that the 
 salvation of man is not brought about by any violation or 
 sacrifice of justice. Help comes from Him Who is "a just 
 God and a Saviour". God is "just, and the justifier of him 
 which believeth in Jesus". This we have from the Bible. 
 We do not say that we can demonstrate the justice of the 
 justification any more than the justice of the condemnation. 
 
SAVING GRACE. 
 
 67 
 
 The thing is too high for us. But the declaration which 
 we find so explicit on the page of Scripture is sufficient for 
 our faith. 
 
 As we proceed to state what the merciful and just God 
 has devised and done for sinful man, be it observed that we 
 refer to salvation only. There is much besides that God 
 has done in His providence and government of the world 
 for the ameUoration of the state of man, and for the en- 
 couragement of peace and virtue. But our Article is of 
 saving grace. 
 
 " God was moved by His great love io man." — He was 
 not induced by a Redeemer to love the world, but was 
 induced by His love to the world to designate and send a 
 Redeemer. This thought we have derived from the Bible ; 
 and it has become so familiar that it passes for an obvious, 
 almost an axiomatic truth. Yet, in reality, it has not been 
 at all self-evident to the human mind, nor has it been 
 commonly received in any age of the world. The concep- 
 tion of Deity, which has most widely prevailed, never em- 
 braced or suggested a supreme and generous love. The 
 gods of the heathen might show favour and even indulgence 
 to their own votaries, but to others indifference at the best, 
 and in many cases vindictiveness and cruelty. The Moslem 
 perpetually invokes God as " most merciful," but means 
 that He is propitious to " the true believers," viz., the 
 Mohammedans, not at all that He pities or loves the world 
 of men. The cry from the Muezzin is " Allah is great," 
 not " God is love ". Even the Hebrews, with all the 
 teaching of the Old Testament regarding God's merciful 
 nature and His thought for all nations, limited the Holy 
 One in their own minds to the position of a tribal or 
 national Divinity. They did not love the Gentiles, and so 
 were reluctant to think that Jehovah loved them. Even 
 
68 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 those Jews who became Christians found it hard to believe 
 that God was the God, and that Jesus was the Saviour, not 
 of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also. 
 
 From the sad epoch of Adam's disobedience, divine 
 mercy and love began to counteract the mischief which 
 sin had brought into the world : but the Redeemer did not 
 appear till after many centuries of preparation. Long ages 
 passed till at last arrived that Christian era, which is called 
 in the Bible, and in our Article, the fulness of the time" . 
 But we dwell on the far-reaching purpose and promise of 
 our gracious God : — 
 
 " To hold forth from the first a promise of redemption 
 which, from age to age, He confirtned and unfolded".- — Here 
 the Article follows the old Scottish Confession : " God 
 made unto Adam ane most joyful promise, quhilk promise 
 was repeated and made more clear from time to time". 
 The reference is to the Protevangelium in Gen. iii. 15, 
 which predicted a long antagonism of good and evil, and 
 the ultimate triumph of good over evil through a human 
 Deliverer, descended of the woman, but not without suffer- 
 ing — the bruising of the heel. Afterwards this promise was 
 confirmed and more largely unfolded in the types and pro- 
 phecies of a great Deliverer in Jacob— the suffering but 
 conquering Messiah. And in this revelation of mercy rested 
 the faith of all who had received the promises until the 
 fulness of the time arrived. 
 
 '■ And that, in the fulness of the time, He accomplished His 
 gracious purpose by sending His Son to be the Saviour of the 
 tvorld." — This is the central fact in religion and in history. 
 It is expressed in the most lucid terms by our Lord and 
 His apostles, and it has always been the most prominent 
 thought in Christianity. It is not enough to say that the 
 Son of God was sent to teach righteousness, or to give assur- 
 
SAVING GRACE. 
 
 69 
 
 ance of a spirit-world, or to be a messenger of good-will and 
 charity. He was sent "to be the Saviour of the world,"— 
 to take away its sin, — to rescue mankind from moral evil 
 and consequent misery. " God sent His Son into the world, 
 not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him 
 might be saved." 
 
 How this purpose was and is effected subsequent Articles 
 endeavour to state. For the present, we dwell on the great 
 love of God which provided the Saviour, and we shall do 
 well to dwell on it often. So far as the nations have been 
 unenlightened by the Gospel, they have had and still have 
 associations of terror and severity with gods and goddesses. 
 Even in Christendom, where the study of the course of 
 nature and of the reign of physical law is the intellectual 
 fashion, any suggestion of a world-ruler or god makes him 
 inflexible and pitiless, and does not in the least draw the 
 heart to him. Never was there an age that needed more 
 than our age the revelation of God in Christ, which shows 
 to sinful man a truth which no one can read in the face of 
 nature, viz., that God is love. He is "not willing that any 
 should perish ". 
 
 ' ' Wherefore our salvation out of sin and misery is ever to 
 be ascribed to free and sovereign grace." — [Mark how this con- 
 cluding clause of Art. VI. balances that of Art. V.] 
 
 Grace means the kind favour of God to men — having 
 regard to no merit in them, present or prospective. It is 
 free, as being not "strained," or hemmed in by conditions, 
 or exacted as a due, but as flowing spontaneously from the 
 bosom of God. It is sovereign, as overcoming all obstacles, 
 controlling all forces, and reigning through righteousness. 
 
 To this grace we ascribe the very idea and purpose of 
 salvation, as well as the actual divine mission of our Saviour. 
 The compassion of God yearned over the sin-blighted world. 
 
70 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 And then the kindness and love of God to men appeared in 
 the Sent One, Jesus Christ. Of some famous sage or leader 
 of men, we are wont to say that his country and his age pro- 
 duced him, he was the flower of his nation ; but no one 
 would think of so accounting for our blessed Lord. His 
 country did not produce Him, and was not proud of Him. 
 His age was out of harmony with Him. The race of Jews 
 and Galileans cannot be said to have effloresced in the Pro- 
 phet of Nazareth. On the contrary, the most representative 
 men of the nation lightly esteemed and grievously miscon- 
 strued Him. In truth. He was from above; and they were 
 from beneath. Though He was of this race, and the Son 
 of David, He dwelt apart, conversed with heaven, and was 
 at home in a spiritual sphere which it had not entered into 
 the hearts of Pharisees or Sadducees to conceive. He had 
 come forth from God, and that in God which sent Him to 
 be our Saviour was "free and sovereign grace". 
 
 Not only so. Through all that ensues to us on the 
 mission of the Son of God, all that makes the salvation ours 
 —the operation of the Holy Spirit in us, and the repentance 
 and faith with which we receive the Gospel— grace reigns. 
 That any of the children of man are disposed and enabled 
 to welcome and experience the "great salvation " is due to 
 grace. That they who believe are forgiven and justified is 
 due to grace— so that not one of them may boast. That 
 they who are forgiven and justified are also regenerated and 
 sanctified, and conformed to the image of God's Son, is due 
 to grace. And in all these modes of blessing, the grace is 
 " free and sovereign ". So are we taught abundantly in the 
 Epistles of St. Paul. The letter to the Romans explains the 
 justification. The first to the Corinthians was written to 
 those who "are sanctified in Christ Jesus". That to the 
 Galatians teaches adoption in Christ Jesus. That to the 
 
SAVING GRACE. 
 
 71 
 
 Ephesians shows how men are quickened together with 
 Christ, and traces it to God's "great love". That to the 
 Phihppians describes a believer as " apprehended by 
 Christ Jesus ". That to the Colossians appeals to the 
 brethren as " raised up together with Christ ". And the first 
 to the Thessalonians says : " God appointed us not to 
 wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation by our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, Who died for us ". 
 
 Thus from many sides and in divers aspects and effects 
 this inestimable blessing of divine salvation is viewed, and 
 over all we have this holy laud to sing — our fathers sang it, 
 and we shall transmit it to our children — " Grace, grace, 
 unto it 1 " 
 
 This ascription of all the blessing to the divine favour does 
 not make human endeavours needless or nugatory. Neither 
 does it put any slight on good works. Only it puts them in 
 their proper place as the results and evidences, not the 
 ground of our salvation. Nothing is more certain than that, 
 by the reign of grace, the interests of virtue and the obliga- 
 tions to obedience, far from being weakened, are powerfully 
 promoted and secured. 
 
 Nor is any wound given to a just self-respect. This feel- 
 ing makes us unwilling to accept many favours from a fellow- 
 man. Yet much depends on the style of person who is 
 willing to be our benefactor. Some men there are to 
 whom you cannot be obliged or indebted without a sense of 
 humiliation. There are others from whom you can accept 
 repeated gifts of kindness without hesitation or any loss of 
 self-respect. But there is no room for these distinctions 
 and scruples when we are dealing with God for salvation. 
 What He freely provides and bestows we should promptly 
 receive, and give God thanks. Who can feel it derogatory 
 to his nature or dignity to be indebted for eternal salvation to 
 
72 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 the same Supreme Being from Whom he has derived the 
 breath of hfe, and by Whose daily providence he has been 
 laden with benefits ? " Salvation to our God Who sits upon 
 the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever." 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 Grace shall reign eternally. 
 
Article VII. 
 
 OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 We believe in and confess, with the ancient Church, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Who, being the eternal Son of God, 
 became man by taking to Himself a true body and soul, 
 yet without sin, being conceived by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary ; so that He is both 
 God and ISIan, two whole perfect and distinct natures, the 
 divine and the human, being inseparably joined together in 
 one person, that He might be the Mediator between God 
 and man, by Whom alone we must be saved. 
 
 " JVe believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Christ." — That 
 we " believe in " Him is a declaration of personal adherence 
 of heart and soul to Him, and goes beyond a statement 
 concerning Him which we accept as true. Then, remember- 
 ing that belief in the heart ought to be accompanied by 
 confession with the mouth, we confess our Lord before 
 men. (See Rom. x. 9-ti; St. Luke xii. 8, 9.) 
 
 " JViih the ancient Church." — Here again, as in the 
 second Article, we go back to those early centuries of the 
 Church in which the doctrine of the Person of Christ and 
 (73) 
 
74 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 that of the Holy Trinity were exhaustively discussed and con- 
 clusively settled. We really have nothing to add to, nor any 
 change to suggest in, the mature conclusions of the Fathers, 
 and of the Nicene and Apostolic Creeds. Here at all events 
 Christendom always has been, and still is, at one. Greek 
 Church, Latin Church, Coptic Church, Armenian Church, 
 Lutheran Churches, Reformed Churches — on these cardinal 
 truths we all agree. 
 
 The proper designation of our Redeemer is "the Lord 
 Jesus Christ". It is given in this Article with intentional 
 fulness, and it would be well if certain Christians, who freely 
 and familiarly talk of "Jesus" and discuss "Christ," would 
 adopt this more reverential style in referring to the only- 
 begotten Son of God. 
 
 ^^/esus," the human personal name, not uncommon among 
 Jews, but bestowed on the Holy Child by direction of an 
 angel, with emphatic reference to its meaning as Healer or 
 Saviour. 
 
 " Christ " or fke Christ, a title to denote that He Who 
 bore it was the promised Messiah, the Anointed of God, the 
 Hope of Israel. No one ever disputed our Saviour's right 
 to be called Jesus ; but the whole strife regarding Him in 
 His own nation was on the question whether He (Jesus) 
 were the Christ or no. 
 
 Lord" : because God has highly exalted Him. He is 
 Lord of the dead and living. He is Lord of all. The testi- 
 mony of the Church from its very inception has been that 
 God has made Jesus Who was crucified both Lord and Christ. 
 
 It will thus be seen that it is necessary as well as seemly 
 to use here the full designation of our Saviour. Without it, 
 the confession would be lame. 
 
 The object of this Article is to lay down briefly and cate- 
 gorically the doctrine of Holy Scripture regarding the Person 
 
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 75 
 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, a doctrine which, one needs hardly 
 say, is absolutely fundamental to Christianity. The efficacy 
 of His atonement and the glory of His love rest on His 
 unique and sublime personality. He suffered for us. He 
 loves us. But who is He ? 
 
 " Being the eternal Son of God." — Before our Saviour 
 appeared on earth, before He was either Jesus or Christ, 
 He was "the Son in the bosom of the Father". He had 
 glory with the Father before the foundation of the world. 
 We are justified in using the expression " eternal Son of 
 God," because the relation of Fatherhood and only-begotten 
 Sonship inheres in the eternal Godhead. We do not try to 
 imagine how this can be, knowing well that all that pertains 
 to never-beginning existence is too high for us. But what is 
 revealed we believe and confess. Our Saviour was "de- 
 clared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection 
 from the dead" (Rom. i. 4; Ps. ii. 7); but He was 
 the Son of God before He became the Son of David 
 (Rom. i. 3). It was announced by the Angel Gabriel to 
 the Blessed Virgin that her child should " be called the Son 
 of the Highest ". " That holy thing which shall be born 
 of thee shall be called the Son of God " (St. Luke i. 32, 35). 
 But we know that He was the Divine Son before His incar- 
 nation. God sent not One to become His Son either by 
 nativity or by resurrection. He sent " His own Son " 
 (Rom. viii. 3). "He gave His only-begotten Son" (St. 
 John iii. 16). Our Lord was the first-begotten from the dead, 
 but the Only-begotten from eternity. 
 
 The Son of God became niaii." — -"The Logos became 
 flesh" (St. John i. 14). A wonder of wonders. That a man 
 might be exalted to some supermundane sphere and deified 
 was a thought not unfamiliar to the ancient world ; but that 
 any Being properly divine should become human, and yet 
 
76 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 continue none the less divine, is an altogether unique concep- 
 tion. We do not forget the so-called incarnation of Hindoo 
 gods, but these afford no parallel to the Christian doctrine. 
 The alleged avatars of Vishnu, for example, are mere legendary 
 assumptions of various animal forms for a time — a fish, a 
 boar, a tortoise, a man with the head and paws of a lion, a 
 Brahmin, a warrior, etc. In order to express the results of 
 the holy incarnation and nativity, Christianity has invented 
 the title Theanthropos, God-man. 
 
 The ancient Church had quite as much controversy over 
 the humanity as over the divinity of Jesus Christ. And the 
 faith of the modern Church must be so instructed that 
 neither of these two may veil or abridge or invade the other. 
 On the one hand there must be an unwavering belief in 
 Christ's true Deity, on the other a thoughtful and sustained 
 conviction of His proper humanity. Otherwise there is no 
 small danger of constructing in the imagination a Being who 
 is neither God nor man, but something between. 
 
 With a view to bring out the genuineness and fulness of 
 our Lord's humanity, we introduce the words : " Taking to 
 Himself a true body and soul ". 
 
 " True body " contradicts the ancient heresy of Docetism, 
 which ascribed to the Divine Saviour only the semblance of 
 a body. The Scripture teaches that His frame was consub- 
 stantial with those of other men. "Forasmuch as the 
 children are partakers of flesh and blood. He also Himself 
 likewise took part of the same." 
 
 " And soul.'" — The Westminster standards, following the 
 ancient Council of Chalcedon, say " reasonable soul," to 
 affirm that our Lord had human reason, as well as human 
 life {psyc/ie). The explicit mention of soul as well as body 
 in describing His humanity is levelled at another ancient 
 heresy — that of Apollinaris, which has been heard in our 
 
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 77 
 
 own time also, to the effect that Christ had no human 
 reason, but was simply the Divine Logos dwelling in a human 
 body. It will at once be seen that the notion destroys the 
 whole doctrine of His humanity, and denies that He is really 
 our brother-man. It therefore spoils for us the lesson of 
 His example, and far from simplifying the interpretation of 
 His history, throws it into confusion, for it can give no ex- 
 planation of those passages in the Gospels which ascribe to 
 Jesus Christ human thought and affections, or that in which 
 He described His soul as " exceeding sorrowful". 
 
 " Yet ivithout sin." — He was "holy, harmless, undefiled". 
 Sin is no element in human nature, but a blot upon it, and 
 a plague within it. The Son of God assumed humanity in all 
 its proper elements without this blot or plague. It was our 
 humanity with its liability to suffering and to weariness in- 
 deed, but without its evil taint. The Man Christ Jesus was 
 not implicated in original sin. He carried within Him no 
 shrinking from God, no proneness to disobedience. His 
 integrity was assailed but never shaken. He was much 
 tried — indeed tempted in all points as we are — but yielded 
 nothing to the tempter. His most bitter adversaries could 
 not convict Him of a fault ; and it is evident that, though 
 meek and lowly in heart. He had no consciousness of having 
 ever sinned. This is all the more significant when we con- 
 sider that, in His ministry, He was constantly awakening 
 the sense of sin in the hearts of others, calling them to 
 repentance, and pronouncing forgiveness, and yet He never 
 confessed sin on His own part, or sought forgiveness from 
 either God or man. 
 
 It was only One Who " knew no sin " that could be 
 " made sin for us ". 
 
 " Being conceived by the poiver of the Holy Ghost, and born 
 of the Virgin Mary." — These words declare how " the Son 
 
78 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 of God became man ". He did not veil Himself in huma- 
 nity by a mere act of power, and walk the earth a full-grown 
 man ; but He deigned to enter by the ordinary gate ap- 
 pointed for the children of men. As we have it in the Te 
 Deum : He " did not abhor the Virgin's womb ". 
 
 " Conceived Ihe pcnver of the Holy Ghost." — Theolo- 
 gians speak of the Miraculous Conception of our Saviour, 
 and such it is in the sense of being above all natural ex- 
 perience, and impenetrable to all " physical reasonings ". 
 It is a hidden thing of God's power, and believed by us 
 because, though the manner of it be unknown to us, the 
 fact of it is clearly revealed in the Gospels (St. Luke i. 31- 
 35 ; St. Matt. i. 20). John the Baptist was "filled with the 
 Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb " ; but the Child 
 of the Blessed Virgin was formed in the very womb by the 
 Holy Ghost. He was thus " the Son of Man " yet not the 
 son of a man. " Wherefore (said the angelic annunciation) 
 that which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of 
 God." 
 
 " Born of the Virgin Mary." — Theology speaks of this as 
 the Holy Nativity. [Distinguish between the terms incarna- 
 tion, annunciation, conception, nativity, advent.] We are 
 not to attempt refinements on this statement, or represent 
 the mother as a mere vessel or channel through which a 
 Divine Child came into the world. Whatever an ordinary 
 child derives from his parents, whether in physique, intel- 
 ligence, or temperament, we assume that the Child Jesus 
 derived from Mary of Nazareth, only with the proviso 
 already intimated, that He inherited no evil. 
 
 It is all the more necessary to state with fulness the rela- 
 tions of the mother to our Lord's humanity, because we must 
 enter a protest against language which connects her unduly 
 with His divinity. On the ground that her Holy Child has 
 
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 79 
 
 a divine as well as a human nature, the orthodox Greek 
 Church called the Blessed Virgin Theotokos ; and the Latin 
 Church insists on her being addressed as "Mother of God". 
 To put it as mildly as possible, this is a rhetorical exagge- 
 ration, because Mary could be only the mother of the 
 humanity which was taken into one Person with the divinity 
 by an ineffable grace. But we must put the case more 
 strongly. It is a very mischievous exaggeration, because it 
 is used to sustain belief in such fables as the immaculate 
 conception of the Virgin and her bodily assumption into 
 heaven, as well as to encourage and justify constant appeals 
 to her in prayer as though she were a goddess. 
 
 " So that He is both God and Mci?i, two whole perfect and 
 distinct natin-es being inseparably joined together in one per- 
 son." — Having stated our belief that the Son of God came 
 into the world and became man, we treat of the person so 
 constituted. In that person are joined together two natures 
 — whole natures — -perfect and distinct. We may not say 
 that somewhat of the nature of God and somewhat of the 
 nature of man, each the complement of the other, are com- 
 bined in Jesus Christ ; for then would He be neither God 
 nor man, but an inconceivable amalgam of the two. But 
 He is God without defect, and man without defect. The 
 Thirty-nine Articles and the Westminster Confession concur 
 in using the phrase " two whole and perfect natures ". 
 
 The effect of the Incarnation was to join these natures 
 inseparably in one person : and to join them without 
 merging one in the other, or mingling the two in one 
 composite nature, for they are still distinct as well as 
 "whole and perfect". This is known to theology as the 
 "Hypostatic Union" — a technical term to denote the 
 joining of two natures in one person, or hypostasis. This 
 was most carefully defined by the Council of Chalcedon 
 
8o 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 (a.d. 451). "One and the same Christ; to be acknow- 
 ledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indi- 
 visibly, inseparably ; the distinction of natures being by no 
 means taken away by the union, but rather the property of 
 each being preserved, and concurring in one person and 
 one subsistence (hypostasis)." Such exactness in doctrine 
 may to some minds appear to be irksome or over-ingenious; 
 but it is reached by a careful deduction from Scripture, it was 
 rendered necessary in order to exclude erroneous opinions, 
 and it is immensely helpful if not indispensable to an under- 
 standing of the Gospel history. Without it, who can 
 account for the way in which the Son of God was affected 
 by outward incidents, or the language which He used 
 regarding current and future events? Without it, who 
 can explain how the Theanthropic Person was born, and 
 yet could be born of woman only in respect of humanity ; 
 how He suffered as human, how He knew the hearts of 
 all men as divine ? We maintain that the doctrine of the 
 two natures in one person inseparably joined, yet each of 
 them retaining its own properties, the person so consti- 
 tuted having no double consciousness or complex life, but 
 thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting without confusion, 
 ambiguity, or inward distraction; this doctrine is the kev 
 to unlock problems in the biography of our Lord, which 
 are otherwise extremely perplexing, if we may not say quite 
 inexplicable. 
 
 " T/ia/ He might be the Mediator behveen God and man: 
 —Here we state the office for which Jesus Christ was 
 quahfied by the unique constitution of His person. Moses 
 was a mediator between Jehovah and the Tribes of Israel : 
 but Jesus Christ, greater than, though like unto, Moses, 
 intervenes between God and man— all mankind. Moses, 
 however zealous for Jehovah, was only a servant : but 
 
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 8l 
 
 Jesus Christ is the Son ; in union with God in His divine 
 nature, and in union with mankind in His human nature. 
 
 What need have we of other mediators ? Why appeal 
 to the Blessed Virgin, the apostles, or departed saints? 
 Is it that they may mediate between us and our Lord? 
 We do not need them for that purpose, since our Lord is 
 of our flesh and blood, not ashamed to call us brethren ; 
 and we know that in the days of His flesh He was more 
 considerate and accessible to supplicants than the apostles 
 were. It is between us and the one God that a Mediator 
 is required — and " One Mediator " has been provided 
 (i Tim. ii. 5). What can be better for a sinful man than 
 to ]3ut his case into the hands of "the Man Christ Jesus"? 
 
 "■By Whom alone we must be saved." — For this we have 
 the authority of the Apostle Peter at Jerusalem (Acts iv. 12). 
 The eighteenth of the Thirty-nine Articles affirms it thus : 
 " Holy Scripture doth set out to us only the name of Jesus 
 Christ, whereby men must be saved ". 
 
 Note the progress of our closing statements. In Article V., 
 having confessed the fall of man, we acknowledge that 
 " out of this condition no man is able to deliver himself". 
 In Article VI., we affirm that " salvation out of sin and misery 
 is ever to be ascribed to free and sovereign grace". In 
 Article VII., we take another step forward, and having 
 declared who and what Jesus Christ is, proclaim that "by 
 Him alone we must be saved ". 
 
 This does not say or mean that none can be saved 
 except those who know the doctrine of Christ and con- 
 sciously believe in Him. In that case all infants must 
 perish ; and no one of the hundreds of millions who have 
 never heard pf Christ can possibly be saved ; two assertions 
 which no one will venture to make. But it is meant that 
 all those, whether infant or adult, who are saved, owe it 
 6 
 
82 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE, 
 
 to Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man : and 
 that those who hear of Him and refuse to be saved by Him 
 cannot be saved at all. 
 
 It is faith in Him as the Saviour which has formed the 
 Church, sustained the martyrs, fired the souls of the mis- 
 sionaries, brought peace to the hearts and brightness to the 
 lives of a great multitude that no man can number. 
 
Article VIII. 
 
 OF THE WORK OF CHRIST. 
 
 We believe that the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 being anointed with the Holy Spirit to proclaim and set up 
 the Kingdom of God among men, did by His perfect life 
 on earth, through words and deeds of grace, and by His 
 death upon the cross, declare the Father, Whose image He 
 is ; and did fully satisfy divine justice, and obtain for us 
 forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to God, and the gift of 
 eternal life, through His obedience on our behalf to the law 
 and will of His Father, even unto death, wherein, bearing 
 our sins, He offered Himself up a sacrifice without spot 
 to God. 
 
 The title of this Article is warranted by our Lord's own 
 description of His entire intervention as a Saviour : " I have 
 finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do ". 
 
 " JFe believe that the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ:' — 
 It will be observed that the designation of the Saviour is 
 continued from the seventh Article. And the whole of the 
 teaching under that Article must be carried forward into this. 
 Without the doctrine of "the Person" no one can under- 
 stand the doctrine of " the Work ". 
 
 (83) 
 
84 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 " Being anointed with the Holy Spirit." — We have seen 
 that the Lord was quahfied to be the Mediator by the union 
 of two natures in Him — the divine and the human. Now, 
 it is added that on the God-man so constituted came this 
 further quahfication — the anointing, or, as it is otherwise 
 expressed, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And this is 
 denoted by His title, "Christ, the Anointed". The authority 
 for this statement will be found in St. Matt. iii. i6 ; St. Luke 
 iv. 17-21 ; St. John iii. 34, vi. 27 ; Acts iv. 26, 27, x. 38. 
 
 We now proceed to describe the work for which our Lord 
 was qualified and sent by the Father, until and inclusive of 
 His suffering on the Cross. It is one work : but it may 
 conduce to clearness of conception if we treat of it under 
 two aspects, or in two parts. The one is the declarative 
 work ; the other the propitiatory and redemptive. The 
 former is on God's behalf, directed toward man ; the latter 
 is on man's behalf, directed toward God. 
 
 I. The Declar.^tive Work. — ''Being anointed to 
 proclaim and set up the Kiiigdom of God among men.' 
 — The Kingdom of God, or of Heaven, has much pro- 
 minence in the Gospels ; much less in the Epistles, 
 which have more to say of the Church and the Churches. 
 The phrase, indeed, comes from the Old Testament — the 
 great idea of which is the Theocracy in Israel. "Jehovah 
 was king in Jeshurun." In the New Testament the idea 
 receives enlargement and elevation. The Kingdom of God 
 left the restriction of land and race, and became a blessing 
 to the world. 
 
 The new era was announced by the preacher in the 
 wilderness, who cried: "The kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand Then Jesus of Nazareth took up the strain, and 
 went through cities and villages of Gahlee "preaching the 
 
THE WORK OF CHRIST. 
 
 8S 
 
 Gospel of the kingdom ". After He rose from the dead He 
 still taught the apostles " the things concerning the kingdom 
 of God". For this, which was announced in "the days of 
 His flesh," was to be " set up " in the power of His resurrec- 
 tion. It is not synonymous with the Church. It is not an 
 external institution at all ; and so the unregenerate cannot 
 see it (St. John iii. 3). It is the supremacy of the Divine 
 Will ruling the earth in righteousness ; and the privilege 
 which it confers on those who enter it, and are faithful to it, 
 is nothing else than the privilege of being good. " The 
 kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost." It is "not in word, but in power". 
 
 But so long as men entertain unworthy and unlovely 
 thoughts of God they cannot appreciate or welcome His 
 kingdom. Therefore our Article is careful to say that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ " declared the Father, Whose itnage He is ". 
 This statement rests firmly on St. John i. 18 ; xvii. 6, 26. 
 
 When Jesus Christ came into the world, men were sadly 
 ignorant of God. No one had seen Him. The heathen 
 acknowledged a Father of gods and men ; but there was 
 nothing in him to attract love, or even command moral 
 respect. The Jews had the Old Testament revelation of 
 Jehovah, but failed to apprehend His great fatherhood. 
 Indeed, the conception of God which held possession of 
 the more religious Jews — the Pharisees— was that of a self- 
 asserting and punctilious potentate, who was supremely 
 concerned about obtaining his due quota of ceremonious 
 tributes and sacrifices. Jesus Christ made a new era in 
 history by revealing God as the Father righteous and 
 merciful— His Father and our Father. This is a divine 
 discovery which draws the hearts of men to God, and makes 
 His kingdom an object of their desire — " Our Father ! Thy 
 kingdom come ' " 
 
86 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 I'he clause "U'/iose image He is" helps us to understand 
 how it was that Jesus Christ declared to men the Father. 
 It is not a case of withdrawing a curtain or lifting a cloudy 
 veil and showing a Deity enshrined. Our Lord showed the 
 Father by exhibiting in Himself the moral image of God. 
 Those who saw Him saw the P'ather. Those who heard His 
 words heard the words of the Father. Many prophets had 
 uttered messages from God, but only the Son of His bosom 
 could declare Him, as His express image and living Word. 
 This was " God manifest in the flesh". 
 
 It is still further affirmed that our Lord made this declara- 
 tion of the Father " by His perfect life o)i earth, through words 
 and deeds of grace, and by His death upon the cross". 
 
 1. In Life. — Christ's was a "perfect life," above all human 
 levels of excellence, and showed that He had " come forth 
 from God ". The words of grace spoken in that life were 
 such as never man spake. They were of and from the 
 Father, as He said : " My teaching is not Mine, but His 
 that sent Me," " As the Father taught Me, I speak these 
 things So also His deeds were works of the Father rich 
 in mercy. " The Father abiding in Me doeth His works." 
 In the fourth Gospel especially we see the Saviour pro- 
 foundly conscious that all His activities in word and deed 
 were expressions of the Father ever with Him. And it is 
 certain that in these ways the life of Jesus Christ has con- 
 veyed to human hearts a conception of the God of all 
 grace and Father of all mercies, such as, without this de- 
 claration, the world had never known. 
 
 2. In Death. — The declarative aspect of the Cross is not its 
 only aspect, but it is one never to be overlooked. In the 
 dying of the Lord Jesus the love of God is commended to 
 us, and His righteousness declared (Rom. iii. 25, v. 8). 
 So says St. Paul, and St. John to the same effect shows the 
 
THE WORK OF CHRIST. 
 
 divine love displayed not merely in the mission of the Son 
 of God, but in His "propitiation for our sins" (i John 
 iv. 9, 10). 
 
 II. The Propitiatory and Redemptive Work. — 
 Here we enter on a more difficult region of thought, and 
 must walk circumspectly over the still warm ashes of many 
 controversies. We profess belief that the work of Jesus 
 Christ on our behalf had certain results and effects towards 
 God, and that blessings of salvation are obtained for us by 
 His life-obedience and death-sacrifice. It is easy to mis- 
 state this doctrine, and so to raise a prejudice against it. 
 Let us beware of erring, either by exaggeration or by defect. 
 
 I. Of the be7iefits procured for us by the work of Christ. 
 — (i) "He did fully satisfy divine justice." — Such is the 
 language of the Reformed Confessions, more particularly the 
 Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic and Scottish Confessions, 
 and the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. The 
 term " satisfy " is of course to be taken in a juridical sense. 
 It is not to gratify a wish, but to meet a demand in full. 
 Sometimes this has been represented as the payment of a 
 heavy debt which mankind-sinners had incurred ; but though 
 this may be in some respects a useful illustration, we rather 
 avoid it on the ground that it is apt to introduce too narrow 
 and mechanical a conception both of the work of Christ and 
 of the exigency of man. Our doctrine is that the justice 
 of God has pronounced against us, and imposes upon us 
 the death-penalty for sin. But Jesus Christ has for us 
 "satisfied divine justice". By which we mean that the 
 divine justice has not been defeated, or pushed aside, but 
 "the Righteous One" has suffered for "the unrighteous". 
 One Whose divine appointment to this service and Whose 
 intrinsic perfectness give to His intervention an ineffable 
 
88 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 value and significance, has died for us, and expiated our 
 sins. To this nothing can be added ; nothing need be 
 added. Satisfaction means " enough done ". The suffer- 
 ings of Christians are chastisements for their profit. The 
 suffering of Christ was satisfaction to the justice of God. 
 
 (2) " He did obtain for ics forgiveness of sins, reconciliation 
 to God, and the gift of eternal life." — Not that God was un- 
 willing to bestow those benefits on man till Christ won His 
 consent, but a great moral obstacle blocked the way of 
 mercy — the requirements of supreme justice demanding 
 that such blessings should not be imparted except on the 
 ground of an adequate propitiation for the world. 
 
 The "forgiveness" is of all sins. If any offences are 
 never pardoned it is not from defect in the work of Christ, 
 but from failure on the part of the sinner to confess and 
 forsake them. 
 
 The "reconciliation to God" is the reversal of that aliena- 
 tion from Him, and even enmity to Him, which dwells in 
 sinful hearts. The Second Helvetic Confession said: "Our 
 Lord reconciled the Heavenly Father to all believers." with 
 which statement agrees the second of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles: "To reconcile His Father to us ". Earlier still we 
 find it in the Augsburg Confession : " That He might recon- 
 cile the Father unto us ". But those symbols {e.g., the 
 Shorter Catechism) are more in harmony with Scripture 
 language which speak of our being " reconciled to God " 
 (2 Cor. v. 18-20; Rom. v. 11). This is our duty; but none 
 the less is it a privilege or benefit which Christ has procured 
 for us — " peace with God ". 
 
 "And the gift of eternal life." — This, which is so promi- 
 nent in the New Testament, is strangely omitted from most 
 of the symbolical documents of churches. The everlasting 
 life in heaven is recognised, but not that eternal life which, 
 
THE WORK Ol'- CHRIST. 
 
 89 
 
 according to Scripture, is God's present gift to us in Jesus 
 Christ. Only the Heidelberg Catechism describes it as the 
 object of our Lord's passion " to obtain for us the grace of 
 God, righteousness, and eternal life ". And the Belgic 
 Confession shows that through the crucified and risen Son 
 of God " we obtain immortality and life eternal ". This 
 blessing implies newness of life planted in Christ, inex- 
 tinguishable because Christ lives for evermore, and grow- 
 ing stronger and more abundant through the supply of His 
 Spirit. "The witness is this, that God gave unto us 
 eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (i John v. 11). 
 
 The blessings now spoken of are not obtained dy us till 
 we believe on the Son of God. Not till then do we enter 
 into the possession and experience of them. \\'hat this 
 Article affirms is that they were obtained for us by Jesus 
 Christ in His life and death on earth long centuries ago. It 
 is due to His work finished on our behalf that God all down 
 these centuries has pardoned, reconciled, and quickened the 
 sinful sons of men. 
 
 2. Of the means whereby our Redeemer obtained such 
 results. — In this, as in the former aspect of His work (p. 86), 
 we view Him in life and in death. 
 
 (i) In Life. — " Through His obedience on our behalf to the 
 law and will of His Father." — This is what divines have 
 called the " active obedience " of Christ, as distinguished 
 from passive obedience or submission to suffering. It was 
 rendered to the Divine Law, inasmuch as He was " born 
 under the law " and fulfilled all its righteousness. And it 
 was rendered to His Father's will, apart from the precision 
 of law ; for Jesus Christ consulted the Father day by day 
 and did always the things which pleased Him. 
 
 Be it observed that this obedience was rendered, not only 
 as a pattern to us of what our lives should be, but " on our 
 
9° SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 behalf," by our Representative and Saviour. Therefore in 
 St. Paul's teaching it is set in contrast with Adam's dis- 
 obedience. " For as through the one man's disobedience 
 many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of 
 the One shall the many be made righteous " (Rom. v. 19). 
 
 With so clear an apostolic statement on the subject we 
 can dispense with extracts from creeds and confessions. But 
 it is only candid to say that, excepting the text now quoted, 
 we do not find a marked distinction drawn in Holy Writ 
 between the active and the passive obedience or between 
 the obedience and the sufferings of Christ. He obeyed in 
 suffering, and He suffered in obedience. All His active 
 compliance with the divine commands was rendered in 
 " the state of humiliation ". The doing and the dying 
 form one "work". It is, therefore, not judicious or even 
 warrantable to draw an absolute line of separation between 
 the benefit obtained by the obedience of our Lord and the 
 benefit procured by His suffering, as some rigid divines have 
 attempted to do. 
 
 (2) In Death. — "^7V« iinto death, wherein, bearing our 
 sins. He offered Himself up a sacrifice without spot to God." 
 — The obedience continued unto, or until, the death, and 
 was completed therein, for it was in regard to the surrender 
 of His life that our Lord said : " This commandment re- 
 ceived I from My Father". 
 
 The explanation of His death is given in terms carefulh 
 culled from the Scriptures. And it is satisfactory to note 
 how clearly and pointedly the same doctrine has been ex- 
 pressed in venerable church documents. The oldest creeds 
 are meagre at this point, because controversy on "the Atone- 
 ment " had not yet begun ; but the symbolical books of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are very explicit in their 
 statements. The Augsburg Confession, followed herein by the 
 
THE WORK OF CHRIST. 
 
 91 
 
 Thirty-nine Articles, affirms the death of Christ to have been 
 " a sacrifice not only for original guilt, but also for all actual 
 sins of men ". The Scottish Confession describes it as " a 
 voluntary sacrifice offered for us " ; the French Confession 
 as " the perfect sacrifice offered on the cross " ; the Heidel- 
 berg Catechism as "the only atoning sacrifice " ; and the 
 same languagewill be found in the Confession and Catechisms 
 of Westminster. None of the churches has ever been con- 
 tent with the merely exemplary view of the suffering of Christ, 
 or with any theory of impressive moral exhibition. 
 
 The clue to the doctrine is in the sacrificial ordinances of 
 the old Dispensation, when sins were confessed on the head 
 of an animal brought to the altar, and remission was accorded 
 through shedding of blood. The Epistle to the Hebrews 
 shows that the death of Christ was on this wise, and for this 
 end ; that it was the anti-type to those types, with a virtue 
 and value unspeakably higher and more enduring. 
 
 Let the attention be fastened on three points : — 
 
 ((?) He was " 7i'ithoi/t s/^ot". — The lambs slain on the 
 altar of burnt-offering were required to be without blemisli, 
 because they were typical of the spotless Lamb of God. If 
 Jesus Christ could have been convicted of sin, if even one 
 spot could have been detected in His character or life. He 
 would have been disqualified for the altar ; He might have 
 died a martyr but could not have been accepted as a sacrifice. 
 He " knew no sin " Who was " made sin for us ''. 
 
 {/>) He l>are our shis". — Beyond dispute this is the 
 doctrine of Isaiah liii., and i Peter ii. 24. In the latter 
 passage it is immaterial whether we read " bare them on the 
 tree," or " carried them to the tree ''. What we insist upon 
 is that Christ crucified was the Sin-bearer. \\'ith His own 
 consent He was made and held penally responsible for our 
 sins, and died in order to obtain their pardon and removal. 
 
92 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINi;. 
 
 {c) "He offered Himself up a sacrifice to G^(7<f."— What is 
 meant IS an expiatory sacrifice. There is a talk of sacrifice 
 much m vogue m modern days which interprets the death 
 of Christ as a sacrifice on the part of God, made with the 
 view of showing to man the subhmity of self-surrender for 
 the good of others. Now we do not forget the power of 
 our Lords meek suffering to impress the human heart with 
 lessons of patience and unselfishness. And we attach vital 
 importance to the sanctifying power of the cross, by which 
 we are " crucified with Christ But our business at present 
 IS with the death of the Sin-bearer in order to our salvation 
 And It was a sacrifice not by God for our learning, but to 
 God for our deliverance. We do not argue the matter— but 
 rest on the word of Scripture : " Christ gave Himself for us, 
 an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet 
 smell" (Eph. v. 2). 
 
Article IX. 
 
 OF THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 We believe that Jesus Christ, being for our offences 
 crucified, dead, and buried, saw no corruption, but was 
 raised again on the third day, in Whose risen life we live 
 anew, and have the pledge of a blessed resurrection ; that 
 in the same body in which He rose He ascended into 
 heaven, where, as our High Priest, He maketh continual 
 intercession for us ; and that He sitteth at the right hand 
 of God, Head of the Church, clothed with authority and 
 power as Lord over all. 
 
 The exaltation of our Saviour, considered as an upward 
 movement, starts from the lowest depth of His humiliation 
 — " the dust of death ". Adopting the familiar phraseology 
 of the Apostles' Creed : " He was crucified, dead, and buried" 
 — we prefix the significant words for our offe?ices, carrying 
 forward the doctrine already confessed in the eighth Article 
 as to the expiatory character and virtue of the sufferings of 
 Christ. 
 
 After the word "buried," we have not thought it neces- 
 sary to add the next clause in the Apostles' Creed : " He 
 descended into hell ". There is no such statement in the 
 (93) 
 
94 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Nicene Creed : nor was this clause in the original draft of 
 the Apostles'. It was added by the Latins in a form for which 
 we find no support in the Bible : " Descendit ad inferna ". 
 
 It is a fair question whether this clause should not he 
 struck out or dropped from the creed when it is recited 
 in public worship. The alternative is either to omit it 
 altogether, or to read hell not as the place of woe, but 
 simply as hades, the abode of the dead. The former course 
 is rather a drastic mode of treating words so familiar to 
 Christendom ; and the latter is quite sufficient to satisfy a 
 reader of the Acts of the Apostles. We read there that the 
 soul of Christ was " not left in hades " ; and we conclude 
 that His soul was there while His body lay in the grave. 
 The Westminster divines, who had no idea of discontinuing 
 the public use of the Apostles' Creed— a use common to all 
 the Reformed Churches — inserted in the margin : " Hades, 
 or continued under the power of death ". The matter is of 
 sufficient interest to warrant a quotation from the learned 
 and judicious Bishop of Durham : " He descended into 
 hell — that is, into hades, the common abode of departed 
 spirits, not the place of punishment of the guilty. This 
 clause, as we know, has given occasion to much misunder- 
 standing and superstition. It is not found in the earliest 
 creeds, and it is almost peculiar to the West. But ... it 
 completes our conception of the Lord's death. . . . His 
 body was laid in the tomb. His soul passed into that 
 state in which we conceive that our souls shall enter. He 
 has won for God, and hallowed every condition of human 
 existence. We cannot be where He has not been." * 
 
 The exaltation is described in three successive steps — 
 resurrection, ascension, and session in power at the right 
 hand of God. In all the three our Saviour was active. 
 * Westcott's Historic Faith, 2nd ed., pp. 76-77. 
 
THE EXALTATION OK CHRIST. 
 
 95 
 
 (1) He took His life again, and rose from the dead. 
 
 (2) He ascended up on high. 
 
 (3) He sat down at the right hand of God. 
 
 But we are also to remember that God the Father gave to 
 Him this glory as the reward of His obedience, and in token 
 of the acceptance of His sacrifice. 
 
 (1) God raised Him from the dead. 
 
 (2) God highly exalted Him. 
 
 (3) God made Him to sit at His right hand. 
 
 It is easy to find all these statements in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 I. Rksurrection.— This is a pillar truth of our religion. 
 If this can be disproved, Christianity totters and falls. 
 But, if this stands, eternal salvation stands with it. 
 
 ^' Jesus Christ saw no corruption, hut ivas raised again on 
 the third day!' — First we affirm the exemption of His body 
 from the ordinary law of dissolution following death. And 
 we do so on the ground of emphatic statements to that 
 effect in Ps. xvi. and Acts ii. The Westminster Con- 
 fession says : " He was buried, and remained under the 
 power of death, yet saw no corruption ". It is not necessary 
 to assume any miraculous prevention or retardation of the 
 usual process of decay. Enough that corruption was 
 obviated by the early restoration of life to the entombed 
 body of our Lord, which, without undergoing dissolution, 
 was revivified, and transfigured into a frame adapted to a 
 heavenly and eternal existence— " the body of His glory". 
 Then the soul, no longer sorrowful, returned from hades, 
 and a new life began — life over which death can have no 
 power. 
 
 The specific fact that the resurrection was on the third 
 day " is introduced not only to show how there was no 
 corruption, but also to mark how exactly Scriptures are 
 
96 
 
 SOUN'n DOCTRINE. 
 
 fulfilled. The sign of the Prophet Jonah pointed to the 
 third day : and so did that saying of Jesus which gave such 
 umbrage to the Jews : " Destroy this' temple, and in three 
 days I will raise it up ". 
 
 I. Of the evidence of Christ's resurrection. — On what 
 grounds do we believe it ? 
 
 On the testimony of witnesses who declared that they 
 saw Him, not rising, but after He had risen. There can be 
 no question that He was dead and buried. Not His friends, 
 but His enemies " made the sepulchre sure, sealing the 
 stone ". If, after this. He was seen alive. He must have 
 been raised from the dead. 
 
 But can we trust the witnesses? Yes, because (i) they 
 knew Him well, and could not be mistaken on the point of 
 identity. (2) They did not expect Him to rise, and there- 
 fore were not likely to mistake illusion for fact. (3) They 
 saw Him often, in the morning, the daytime, and the 
 evening, in the house and in the open air, at intervals ex- 
 tending over a space of nearly six weeks, so that they had 
 every advantage for verifying the fact, and correcting a mere 
 hallucination. (4) They were many, and their witness 
 agreed together. (5) They gave their testimony to this fact 
 without delay, and adhered to it at the risk of imprisonment 
 and death. Besides all this, we are strongly confirmed 
 in our faith by the circumstance that a highly-educated 
 Jew of the period (Saul of Tarsus), intensely prejudiced 
 against Christ and the Christians, became convinced 
 that the story of resurrection was true. He was not at 
 all the man to admit an unwelcome conviction without 
 overwhelming proof He investigated the matter, knew 
 many of the witnesses personally, and became so satisfied 
 and sure that Jesus Christ had risen, that he devoted the 
 rest of his life to the proclamation of the fact, and would 
 
THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 97 
 
 rather have died than disown it. There are other corro- 
 borative evidences, too, such as the weekly observance of 
 the first day of the week as the Lord's Day. But enough. 
 
 2. Of the efficacy of Christ's resurrection : its value to 
 believers. 
 
 ( 1 ) For spiritual quickening. — " I>i Whose risen life we live 
 atmci." — This is the great fact of experimental religion, so 
 much emphasised in the Epistles of St. Paul ; " I am cruci- 
 fied with Christ, nevertheless I live ". " God quickened us 
 together with Christ and raised us up with Him." 
 
 Regeneration is a spiritual resurrection from death in 
 sin : and both regeneration and that progressive renewal by 
 the Holy Chost which follows it are in virtue of the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, and assume a mystic union between us and 
 our risen Lord. " Christ, Who is our life." 
 
 (2) For our resurrection from the dead. — " And have ihe 
 pledge of a blessed resurrection." — This is expressed with the 
 greatest clearness in i Cor. xv. 20 : "Christ hath been raised 
 from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep ". 
 More of this when we reach the twenty-second Article. 
 
 It may be noted here that both the clauses last com- 
 mented on are taken from the Heidelberg Catechism, which 
 gives as benefits from the resurrection of Christ (Qu. 45) : 
 " We are now by His power raised up to a new life," and : 
 " The resurrection of Christ is to us a sure pledge of our 
 blessed resurrection ". 
 
 n. The Ascension. — " That in the same body in which 
 He rose He ascended itito heaven." — The old Scottish Con- 
 fession is emphatic on the continued identity of the body : 
 " We nothing doubt but the self-same body which was born 
 of the Virgin, was crucified, dead, and buried, and which 
 did rise again, did ascend into the heavens for the accom- 
 7 
 
98 
 
 ;OUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 plishment of all things ". A similar statement will be found 
 in the Westminster Confession, chap. viii. 4. 
 
 This was predicted in Ps. Ixviii. 18 as interpreted in 
 Eph. iv. 8-10. As of old a Hebrew warrior, returning from 
 a successful campaign, might ascend to the citadel on 
 Mount Zion, with spoils of war and rescued captives in his 
 train, so the Lord Jesus went up to heaven a conqueror, 
 " leading captivity captive ". 
 
 How simply it is related in St. Luke xxiv. and Acts i. ! 
 How simply it occurred ! There was no pomp or ceremony 
 — no chariot of fire such as at the ascension of Elijah — 
 nothing but a green knoll above Bethany and the little group 
 of disciples — and from among them the calm departure 
 through the still air of One Who had a right to say: "I 
 leave the world and go to the Father," and Whose last gesture 
 of extended hands intimated a blessing on those who gazed 
 after Him till He was taken out of their sight. It was a 
 scene for worship and great joy. 
 
 " IVhere {i.e., in heaven) as our High Priest He maketh 
 continual intercession for us." — This is affirmed in Rom. 
 viii. 34, and more fully taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 which expatiates on Christ's heavenly priesthood and assures 
 Christian worshippers of their salvation to the uttermost on 
 the ground that their High Priest " ever lives to make in- 
 tercession for them ". 
 
 We can point to instances of His intercession while on 
 earth — e.g., the prayer for Simon Peter that his faith should 
 not fail ; the prayer for the apostles and all who should 
 believe through their word after the Last Supper : and the 
 petition on the Cross : " Father, forgive them ". When we 
 try to conceive of His intercession in heaven there is no 
 need to suppose words actually uttered. This cannot be 
 necessary to the interchange of thought and desire between 
 
THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 99 
 
 the Son and the Father, with Whom He is our " Advocate ". 
 Enough for us to know that as the High Priest entered for 
 all Israel within the veil, and stood in the Holy of Holies 
 resting his plea with God in Israel's behalf on the sacrifice 
 offered at the altar, so the High Priest of our profession has 
 entered by His own blood into the presence of God for us, 
 presenting our case, seeking our good, and obtaining for us 
 all those spiritual helps and comforts which make up salva- 
 tion to the uttermost. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that the Intercession of Christ, 
 so plainly taught in the New Testament, is omitted from many 
 of the creeds and confessions. It is not in the Nicene 
 nor the Apostles' Creed, not in the Augsburg Confession nor 
 the Thirty-nine Articles. It is mentioned, but only named, 
 in the Scottish and the Westminster Confessions ; but the 
 Larger Catechism has a full answer to the question : " How 
 doth Christ make intercession ? " and the Belgic Confession 
 devotes to the same theme a long article (Art. xxvi.). 
 
 III. Session at the right hand of Got).—'' And 
 that He sitteth at the right hand of God.'" — This affirmation 
 rests on Ps. ex. as interpreted in the New Testament ; also 
 on such passages in the Epistles as Rom. viii. 34; Eph. i. 
 20, 21 ; I Peter iii. 22 ; Coloss. iii. i. 
 
 The mode of speech is taken from what would occur in 
 the palace of an Eastern king, when one raised up to share 
 and wield the royal power would be placed at the right hand 
 of the throne. So, explaining the exaltation of Christ, John 
 Calvin remarks : " You see to what end He is so seated ; 
 viz., that all creatures both in heaven and earth should 
 reverence His majesty, be ruled by His hand, do Him im- 
 plicit homage, and submit to His power. All that the 
 apostles intend, when they so often mention His seat at 
 
100 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE 
 
 the Father's hand, is to teach that everything is placed at 
 His disposal." * 
 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews another explanation is 
 supplied. It is shown that the seating of Christ in heaven 
 confirmed the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Himself which He 
 offered on earth, and was a token of divine acceptance. 
 Here too appears a significant contrast with the usages of the 
 Old Covenant. In the former times, the priest in Israel 
 stood day by day at the altar, offering sacrifices which could 
 not take away sins ; and when the annual day arrived for 
 his entrance into the Holiest, he had still to stand, for there 
 was no seat there but the mercy-seat of God which no 
 Aaronic priest might share. But Jesus Christ, having offered 
 one sacrifice for sin, "sat down on the right hand of God 
 He was qualified to take His place on the throne. This 
 Priest is "over the house of God". See Heb. x. 11-13, 
 19-21. 
 
 '■'■Head of the Church." — The Article does not follow the 
 \\'estminster Confession and the Scottish divines in calling 
 our Lord "King and Head of the Church"; and for 
 excellent reasons. There is no Biblical authority for the 
 title King of the Church, or for describing the Church as a 
 Kingdom. Nay, it is important to distinguish between the 
 Church of God, which is now being formed by the Holy 
 Ghost, and the Kingdom of Christ, in which He is to come 
 and reign in His glory. 
 
 Head of His body the Church : such is the teaching of 
 the New Testament — especially of the Epistles to the 
 Ephesians and Colossians. And this is afifirmed by all the 
 Churches. It is the joy and strength of the Church 
 militant on earth, that the Head is in heaven, beyond all 
 hazard, incapable of weariness or exhaustion. Hence the 
 * Instit., bk. ii. chap. xvi. par. 15. 
 
THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 lOI 
 
 inexhaustible life of the body, by the communication of the 
 quickening Spirit from the Head. Hence the growth of 
 the body (Eph. iv. i6). And hence the guidance and 
 control of the body, which ought to acknowledge no source 
 of spiritual authority but the Head in heaven. 
 
 The Westminster Confession has this sentence — not at all 
 superfluous : " There is no other head of the Church but 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ". Earlier confessions — notably the 
 Second Helvetic, the Belgic, and the Scottish — stoutly 
 maintain this as against the Latin doctrine of two heads — 
 the Livisible Who is Christ, and the visible who is the pope. 
 The Church is not a monster with two heads — a higher 
 and a lower. We will not accept a second headship from 
 any quarter. The pope is not head of the Church. The 
 king or queen is not head of the Church. The will of 
 the people is not head of the Church. We maintain not 
 only the real Headship, but also the sole Headship of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 " Clothed with authority and power as Lord over all." — 
 Our Saviour's exaltation includes a certain elevated re- 
 lationship to the whole creation. He is " Head over all," 
 and " Lord over all," being invested with all-embracing 
 authority, all-controlling power. All the forces of nature 
 are subject to Him. All the dispensation of providence is 
 committed to Him. All the angels are under His command. 
 To Him every knee is to bow. Him every tongue is to 
 confess. 
 
 All this conduces to the security of the Church. What- 
 ever dangers threaten her He can avert. Whatever 
 enemies oppose her He can defeat. Whatever support is 
 needful to her He can supply ; for " He is Head over all 
 things to the Church which is His body ". 
 
 The second coming of Christ and His judgment of the 
 
102 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 world at the last day are sometimes treated of under the 
 heading of the Exaltation :— as, for example, in the Larger 
 and Shorter Catechisms. But these topics we place under 
 separate Articles (Nos. 21, 23). We therefore conclude by 
 simply pointing out on St. Paul's authority, that the present 
 elevation of our Lord is to continue till a grand epoch 
 indicated thus : " Then the end, when He shall deliver up 
 the Kingdom to God, even the Father ". 
 
Article X. 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 We hold fast and proclaim that God, Who willeth that all 
 men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the 
 truth, has, by His Son our Saviour, given commission to 
 the Church to preach unto all nations the Gospel of His 
 grace, wherein He freely offers to all men forgiveness and 
 eternal life, calling on them to turn from sin, and to receive 
 and rest by faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 In the four Articles last treated, we have dealt with the 
 great provision which God has made for our salvation in 
 His Son, Jesus Christ. We are now to state the way in 
 which that provision becomes known and available to men. 
 God communicates with us in the Gospel ; and we, by 
 believing and obeying that Gospel, receive His great salva- 
 tion. 
 
 In expounding this Article, we cannot make such references 
 as under other Articles to various creeds and confessions, 
 ancient or modern, for not one of them gives a definition or 
 explanation of the Gospel. 
 
 Gospel means good-tidings. St. Matthew usually has the 
 (103) 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 phrase '' Gospel of the Kingdom ". St. Peter has " Gospel 
 of God ". Most commonly St. Paul says " Gospel of God," 
 or " Gospel of Christ " ; once " Gospel of peace " ; and once 
 " Gospel of the grace of God ". It is this last phrase, found 
 in the apostle's speech at Miletus, that has been inserted in 
 our Article. 
 
 The fourth Article has described the saving grace of God. 
 The tenth treats of the message of this grace to the children 
 of men. 
 
 " We hold fast and proclaim that God. Who willeth that 
 all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the 
 tndhy — This is simply a quotation from i Tim. ii. 4. It is 
 of the same import with the gracious assurance in Ezek. 
 xxxiii. 1 1 : that Jehovah has " no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live ". 
 Let us take care neither to exaggerate nor to minimise such 
 Scriptures as these. It is not that God wills or determines 
 to save all men, but that He is willing {thelo, not boulomai) 
 that all men should be saved, i.e.. He has grace and mercy 
 sufificient for all and which He offers to all. On the otheV 
 hand, the words "all men" should not be grudgingly inter- 
 preted as only indicating all sorts and conditions'of men. 
 Let us gladly accept and proclaim it in the natural meaning 
 of the phrase, showing that God has no ill-will to any man. 
 but good-will to every one of the human race. 
 
 In what manner this divine good-will becomes effectual 
 to the salvation of man is stated at the end of the Article. 
 We must first speak of the emanaiion of the Gospel from 
 the God of all grace. 
 
 " Has, by His Son our Saviour, given co/nmission to the 
 Church to preach unto all nations the Gospel of His grace. — 
 The reference here is to the charge which the Lord Jesus 
 gave to the apostles before His ascension. See St. 
 
THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Matt, xxviii. 19, 20; St. Mark xvi. 15 ; St. Luke xxiv. 47 ; 
 Acts i. 8. 
 
 But why does the Article say " to the Church," and not 
 "to the apostles"? For very obvious reasons. In the 
 commission the Lord's presence is promised to the preachers 
 of the Gospel "always, even to the consummation of the 
 age ". But the disciples then present were not to live and 
 labour all through the New Testament age. It is evident 
 that the commission was to them and their successors — 
 therefore to the Church of all the centuries, of which the 
 apostles were the representatives and patriarchs. This is 
 confirmed to us by the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, 
 from which we learn how St. Paul regarded the Gospel as 
 committed to him, and how the brethren, in the lifetime of 
 the apostles, acted on the conviction that they all were 
 witnesses to Christ, and were all bound, as they had oppor- 
 tunity, to propagate the Gospel (Acts viii. 4; xi. 19, 20; 
 3 John 7). In fact, the New Testament gives no indication 
 of a sacred caste or holy order of preachers. Teaching and 
 ruling are special functions within the Church for her 
 edification and comfort, and these were from the beginning 
 committed to chosen and qualified men ; but there was no 
 monopoly of preaching, which is the function of the Church 
 toward the nations. So should it always be. The whole 
 Church should recognise her privilege and duty as charged 
 with the message of divine salvation to the whole world. 
 And the witness of the Church is to be uttered and diffused, 
 not merely by trained and certified preachers, but through 
 the voices and the lives of all the faithful. 
 
 The Lord Jesus commanded His servants to announce 
 everywhere the great remedial Gospel as God's message to 
 all the nations. A truly divine conception, far beyond any 
 human imagination of good-will and philanthropy. Even 
 
io6 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINK. 
 
 now, after nineteen centuries of Christianity, men have not 
 hearts large enough to appreciate the breadth and grandeur 
 of this commission. Hundreds of thousands who claim to 
 be in the Church have so little perception of the value of 
 the Gospel to themselves, and so little love to their fellow- 
 men, that they are quite apiathetic as to the duty which Christ 
 laid upon His people. They do not at all " love the world " 
 in the sense in which God loves it. They are not at 
 all eager to make disciples in all nations. They make no 
 effort in that direction, bestow no gift, do not even pray with 
 any fervour that the Gospel of divine grace may spread and 
 prevail. How good God is to men ! How cold and cruel 
 they are to one another ! 
 
 But our present business is exposition, not appeal or 
 reproof. The remainder of the Article endeavours to set forth 
 what message the Gospel contains, what it is that God says 
 therein to sinful men. Two words are used which are very 
 familiar in all discussions of this theme : viz., the offer and 
 the call. They who receive the Gospel for salvation 
 embrace or close with the divine offer, and obey the 
 divine call. 
 
 I. The Offer in the Gospel.—" Wherein He freely offers 
 to all men forgiveness and eternal life." — By this we mean 
 that God presents or holds forth these blessings of salvation 
 in His Son with perfect freeness. Appended to the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith is a production of the Assembly 
 of Divines, entitled: "The Sum, and Practical U.se of 
 Saving Knowledge ". Referring to the " hearty invita- 
 tion " from God in Isa. Iv. 1-5, the divines proceed thus : 
 " The Lord maketh open offer of Christ and His grace by 
 proclamation of a free and gracious market of righteousness 
 and salvation, to be had through Christ, to every soul, 
 without exception, that truly desires to be saved from sin 
 
THE GOSPEL. 
 
 107 
 
 and wrath". Afterwards, quoting 2 Cor. v. 19-21, they 
 describe a behever as one who " embraces the offer of 
 perpetual reconciliation through Christ ''. 
 
 The day has been when argument had to be adduced in 
 support of the proposition that Christ and His salvation 
 may be warrantably offered to the whole world of man- 
 kind-sinners.* But that day is past. It is accepted in 
 all evangelical quarters, that God has made, and that 
 preachers may repeat, an offer of salvation in Christ, free 
 and universal, loving and sincere. Therefore may un- 
 believers be upbraided with their ungrateful and callous 
 rejection of a salvation which the Gospel has placed 
 within their offer — within their reach. 
 
 2. The Call of the Gospel. — " Calling on ihem to turn 
 from sin, and to receive and rest by faith upon the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." — In brief, the call is to repentance and faith. 
 Such a call from God obviously has the force of a 
 command : and therefore we speak not merely of em- 
 bracing, but also of obeying, the Gospel. 
 
 (i) Repentance. — ''To turn from sin." — The necessity 
 for this must be plain to every honest conscience. Divine 
 salvation cannot be in sin. It is from sin. And repen- 
 tance is not so much a condition of the salvation as an 
 elementary and indispensable part of it. It is indeed a 
 gift as well as a command of Christ. The desire and the 
 power to turn from sin His Spirit imparts. 
 
 Nothing is prescribed as to the degree of poignant feeling 
 with which men should mourn over their sins. To venture 
 on any such prescription is dangerous, as likely to discourage 
 or perplex tender consciences, and to furnish excuses for 
 delay in believing. The call of God is that men should 
 turn to Him from their sins. Sorrow for sin and abhor- 
 * Boston's Sermon on "The Saviour of the World". 
 
io8 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 rence of it will always be found in him who so turns to 
 God. But the intensity of such feelings will vary according 
 to temperament : and the thing essential is the turning of 
 the heart and will. 
 
 The place of repentance in the preaching of the Gospel 
 and in the entrance on a state of salvation is well stated 
 in the fifteenth chapter of the Westminster Confession : 
 " Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine 
 whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, 
 as well as that of faith in Christ. . . . Although repentance 
 be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any 
 cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's 
 free grace in Christ, yet is it of such necessity to all 
 sinners that none may expect pardon without it.'' 
 
 (2) Faith. — ''To receive and rest by faith upon the Lord 
 Jesus C^m/."— This is familiar language. The West- 
 minster divines exjjlained saving faith as " accepting, 
 receiving, and resting upon Christ alone ". But the word 
 " accepting " is not very fitting in this relation ; and so we 
 follow the Shorter Catechism, which says : " We receive 
 and rest upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation ". 
 
 In the use of such language, we are on a sure foundation 
 of Scripture. When our Lord was on earth, the question 
 was of receiving Him or receiving Him not. " And as 
 many as received Him, to them gave He the right to 
 become the children of God" (St. John i. 12). To "rest 
 in the Lord " comes down to us from the Psalms, as 
 expressing the quiet recumbence and confidence of souls 
 that believe. It is also suggested and sanctioned by those 
 figures of speech which describe the Lord as a rock, a 
 foundation, a refuge, a strong tower. On Him the weary 
 may lean. In Him the heavy-laden rest. 
 
 It is not good news — it is not a gospel— to move a 
 
THE GOSPEL. 
 
 109 
 
 sinner, to be told that if I try to be a good man, God will 
 ultimately have mercy upon me. How am I to become a 
 good man ? How can I change my nature ? And what 
 amount of goodness on my part would suffice ? Nay ; 
 but this is a Gospel : that God loves me, and having no 
 pleasure in my death, freely offers to me forgiveness and 
 eternal life in Christ, and simply bids me repent and 
 believe the record which He has given concerning His 
 Son ; in order to which repentance and faith He vouch- 
 safes to me the inward operation of His Holy Spirit. 
 This is, indeed, a message " worthy of all acceptation ". 
 Let it not be droned forth as a monotonous song, or 
 qualified and weakened by timid provisoes, but published 
 by a living Church to all the world as God's word of 
 power — God's message of peace. 
 
Article XI. 
 
 OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, 
 Who worketh freely as He will, without Whose quickening 
 grace there is no salvation, and Whom the Father never 
 withholds from any who ask for Him : and we give thanks 
 that He has in every age moved on the hearts of men ; 
 that He spake by the prophets ; that through our exalted 
 Saviour He was sent forth in power to convict the world of 
 sin, to enlighten the minds of men in the knowledge of 
 Christ, and to persuade and enable them to obey the call of 
 the Gospel ; and that He abides with the Church, dwelling 
 in every believer as the Spirit of truth, of holiness, and 
 of comfort. 
 
 In many creeds and confessions (as in the Westminster) 
 there is no statement regarding the Holy Spirit other than 
 is contained in the affirmations regarding God and the Holy 
 Trinity. The Apostles' Creed has simply : " I believe in 
 the Holy Ghost '. The Nicene, besides the statement of the 
 (no) 
 
THE HOLY SPIRI1-. 
 
 Spirit s divine rank and glory, says that it is He W ho vivifies 
 and that " He spake by the prophets ". The Orthodox 
 Confession of the Eastern Church" (a.d. 1643), following 
 and expanding the Nicene statement, gives a full and valu° 
 able exposition of the gifts and operations of the Holy 
 Spirit. Of the Reformed Confessions the only one which 
 does any justice to this theme is the Scottish, which devotes 
 a whole Article (Art. 12) to "Faith in the Holy Ghost" 
 carefully ascribing to Him the regeneration and sanctificatio'n 
 of man. Happily the doctrine in our Article is rich and 
 full. 
 
 " We Miei'e in the Holy Spirit: is a personal expres- 
 sion of belief and trust ; being thus in unison with the 
 first Article : " 'W e believe in one living and true God " and 
 with the seventh Article : " We believe in the Lord Tesus 
 Christ ' . It IS not enough to make doctrinal declarations 
 regarding the Divine Father, Divine Saviour, or Divine 
 Comforter. We profess our faith. 
 
 Our Article does not affirm the true and proper Deity of 
 the Spirit, because it has been already staled in the Article 
 on the Holy Trinity. It does not even refer to the proces- 
 sion of the Spirit from the Father, as held by the Eastern 
 Church ; or from the Father and the Son, as held by the 
 I^tin, and by the Lutheran and Reformed Churches ; or'from 
 the Father through the Son according to a formula sugs^ested 
 for the reconciliation of the East and \\est. All this we let 
 alone as too obscure in its nature and evidence to be in- 
 cluded in a summary of belief. AVhat we do endeavour to 
 describe is the office, the prerogative, and the operation of 
 the Spirit, as distinguished though not separated from the 
 Father and Son in the divine dealings with mankind. 
 
 It may assist the understanding" and memory to divide 
 the long sentence before us into three parts. 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 I. Certain General Truths Concerning the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 1. His relation to the highest life. — To the Spirit we 
 ascribe that quickening energy which regenerates. We 
 quote the Nicene Creed: "The Lord, the Giver of life," 
 not Lord of hfe and Giver of hfe, but the Lord Who gives 
 Hfe. God is the hving One and the Fountain of hfe. The 
 Father has hfe in Himself So the Son has life in Himself, 
 and is called the Prince of life, the Lord of the living. 
 But the Holy Spirit is the Giver of new life to man ; quickens 
 the dead, and enlivens the living. All who are born again 
 are born of the Spirit. 
 
 2. His imvorkino; power. — The Spirit is God in us renew- 
 ing, refining, sanctifying in such manner and measure as He 
 deems fit. To indicate this, we have the clause : " Who 
 worketh freely as He 7vill ". To the same effect the \\'est- 
 minster Confession: "The Spirit worketh when, where, 
 and how He pleaseth We are not to suppose that He is 
 limited to those methods of which we may have experience, 
 or to those ordinances, whether the Word or the Sacraments, 
 which we know as means of grace. It is not for us to set 
 bounds to the operation of the Holy Spirit, any more than 
 to the mercy of the Father or the saving grace of the Son. 
 
 3. His availability to us all. — We who are evil give good 
 gifts to our children in answer to their requests ; how much 
 more will our Heavenly Father give the good Spirit to them 
 that ask Him ! Such was our Saviour's teaching, and in 
 accordance with it we insert the words : " Whom the Father 
 never withholds frojit any toho ask for Him ". 
 
 U. The Action of the Holy Spirit in all Ages. 
 I. " JFe give thanks that He has in every age moved on 
 the heai-ts of men'' — From Genesis we learn that the Spirit 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 "3 
 
 Strove with men before the flood (Gen. vi. 3). In a later 
 Book we read that the sin of Israel in the wilderness was 
 that of grieving God's Holy Spirit (Isa. Ixiii. 10). And 
 in all parts of the Old Testament we have indications of 
 movements of the Divine Spirit in contact with human 
 minds and hearts long before the dispensation of the 
 Spirit began. 
 
 ^ We do not presume to shut up the movement of the Holy 
 Ghost within any age or nation. He it is Who in all times, 
 and in all countries, has been the fountain of wisdom and 
 goodness. Wherever men have had heavenward thoughts 
 and longings, pure affections, and even " broken lights '' — 
 beams from the light ineffable — it is because the finger of 
 God has touched their eyes, and the breath of God has 
 passed over their spirits. They may not have known the 
 Holy Ghost : but the Holy Ghost has known them, and 
 has been pleased to "move on their hearts". 
 
 2. " That He spake by the prophets." — This again is an 
 extract from the Nicene Creed ; and it rests on the saying 
 of St. Peter in regard to prophecy, that "men spake from 
 God, being moved by the Holy Ghost ". 
 
 This is claimed in many places for the prophets under 
 the Old Testament. God put His Spirit upon Moses. 
 The Spirit of the Lord spake by David. The Lord God 
 and His Spirit sent Isaiah. And to the same Power was 
 due the rapture of Ezekiel. 
 
 The same view of the prophetic gift is continued in the 
 New Testament. See St. Luke i. 67 ; Acts xxi. 10, 11. 
 And this operation of the Spirit is by no means confined to 
 those whose prophetic words have been preserved in Holy 
 Writ. It is also required to account for all the fresh and 
 powerful utterances of seers, and prophets, and preachers 
 of righteousness wherever they have appeared, although, 
 
114 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 in many instances, their words have been forgotten. As 
 Jesus Christ spoke many words which are not written down 
 in the Gospels, so the Holy Spirit spoke by prophets many 
 words which are not written down anywhere, but were vivid 
 messages from God to those who heard them. If, again, a 
 true prophet should appear anywhere, it would be because 
 the Holy Spirit had a message to deliver through his lips to 
 the Church or to the nations. 
 
 The special work of the Holy Spirit in the inspiration of 
 Scripture will be considered in its proper place under the 
 nineteenth Article. 
 
 III. The DisPENS.vnoN of the Spirit. 
 
 " That through our exalted Saviour He was sent forth in 
 power." — The event which marks the beginning of the Dis- 
 pensation is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of 
 Pentecost at Jerusalem. This is as truly and really an era 
 as the birth of the Son of God at Bethlehem. It was pre- 
 ceded and prepared for by promises, just as the coming 
 of the Messiah was. The advent of the Son is in Scripture 
 ascribed to the Father and the Holy Ghost (St. John vi. 57 : 
 St. Matt. i. 20 ; St. Luke i. 35). The advent of the Holy 
 Ghost is ascribed to the Father and the Son (St. John xiv. 
 16, 26 ; XV. 26, 27 : Acts ii. 33). 
 
 We have spoken of the mission and effusion of the Spirit 
 as a definite historical fact, and a momentous era. It is a 
 truth which needs to be emphasised. Surely they do not 
 know it, who are heard praying for another and another 
 Pentecost. There cannot be a repetition of what occurred 
 on that memorable day — the birthday of the Church. 
 Christ has gone up to heaven, and will come again : but 
 the Holy Spirit has not gone away, and should not be ad- 
 dressed as though He had. If we say, "Come, Holy Spirit, 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 "5 
 
 come ! " we can only mean : manifest Thy presence, put 
 forth Thy power, come nearer to our hearts with Thy sacred 
 unction ! It would be well to say just what we mean. 
 
 The idea of "power" is specially connected with the dispen- 
 sation of the Spirit — power over mind and conscience, heart 
 and will. It is indispensable to the success of the Gospel 
 and the increase of the Church. Without it, instruction, 
 advice, remonstrance, appeal, even the most painful experi- 
 ence, fails to overcome the resistance of human pride to the 
 Gospel, the enmity of the fleshly mind to God. It is the 
 Holy Spirit Who has power to make the conscience start 
 and the heart melt, Who can wound and heal, warn and win, 
 kill and make alive. 
 
 He was " sent forth in power." and abides as the Spirit of 
 power ; but the manifestation of His energy in the Church 
 has been by no means uniform. In times and places, in- 
 consistent Christians have grieved and quenched the Spirit, 
 so that there has been a shading of the light and a hiding of 
 the power. Then the feeling of loss and weakness ought to 
 call the servants of Christ to prayer and to a more profound 
 sense of dependence on God. 
 
 The office of the Holy Ghost, throughout this Dispensa- 
 tion, is to glorify Christ, and, as the Shorter Catechism 
 says, to " apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ ". 
 This may be stated under two heads. 
 
 (i) To convict and convert sinners. — The language of 
 the Article is : " To convict the world of sin, to enlighten the 
 minds of men in the knowledge of Christ, mid to persuade and 
 enable them to obey the call of the Gospel" . No creed or 
 confession, except the Scottish of a.d. 1560, furnishes so 
 full a statement of God's converting grace, as piercing the 
 conscience, illuminating the understanding, and both quick- 
 ening and energising the will. 
 
ii6 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 AVe say nothing here of the means and agencies which 
 the Holy Spirit employs. It has been already affirmed that 
 He works freely at His will ; and this covers mediate as well 
 as immediate operation. The meaning of our statement 
 is that all effectual convictions and conversions are to be 
 traced and ascribed to the power of the Holy Ghost as tlie 
 ultimate spring and source of every decisive change for the 
 better in the attitude and disposition of men toward God. 
 
 Conviction of sin may be by a slow or quick action of 
 conscience, and may or may not be accompanied by horror 
 or terror of soul. The essential matter is that a sinner 
 should become sensible of the vileness of sin in himself, and 
 be convinced that he is wrong and God is right, so that he 
 unfeignedly desires to be delivered from his sin. 
 
 Then, by the Holy Sjjirit, the eyes of the mind and heart 
 are opened to see in Jesus Christ the needed Deliverer. 
 Most lucid teaching regarding the Saviour may be addressed 
 to a whole congregation ; but only those whose eyes are 
 divineh- opened see the Lord. Perhaps Lydia was the only 
 convert that St. Paul made, when he spoke to the women by 
 the river-side at Philippi ; and it was not the apostle who 
 enlightened her, but " the Lord opened her heart ". 
 
 Yet more than conviction and enlightenment is needful 
 to conversion. The root of unbelief is in the will quite as 
 much as in the understanding ; and, therefore, in order to 
 faith, the Holy Spirit must in every case "persuade and 
 enable " men to turn to God and obey the call of His 
 Gospel. The complaint of our Saviour was : " Ye will not 
 come to Me, that ye may have life ''. Conversion means 
 a willingness to come to Him ; and the change is brought 
 about by the drawing and enabling grace of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 This convincing and converting work of the Spirit con- 
 tinues the same quite through the Dispensation. In every 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 117 
 
 country, every race, every rank, it is the same. Many 
 things are modified by time and place, but not this. It is 
 the same now as in the days of Christ and His apostles. 
 
 (2) To abide with and in the mints. — And that He 
 abides with the Church, dwellins:; in every believer as the 
 Spirit of truth, of holiness, and of comfort." 
 
 The Saviour left the world and went to the Father ; yet 
 before His ascension He promised to be with His disciples 
 always. He was with them, nay, as St. Paul and St. John 
 felt and said, He was in them, by the indwelling of His 
 Spirit. The former of these apostles gives us in close 
 sequence these three expressions as equivalent : " The 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in you " ; " Hath the Spirit of 
 Christ"; "If Christ be in you" (Rom. viii. 9, 10). So 
 Christ is still with His Church on earth by the abiding of 
 the Holy Spirit, Who, alas ! has been often resisted and 
 grieved, but, through the tender mercy of God, has not been 
 withdrawn or recalled to heaven. 
 
 It may be maintained that the Holy Spirit abides with 
 the Church as a divine institution or society, giving life to 
 her collective testimony and her sacred ordinances. But 
 the Church really consists of the living Christians in succes- 
 sive generations, and the Spirit abides with the Church no 
 otherwise than by dwelling in each and every believing 
 heart. In some Christians it is very evident that they have 
 received the Holy Ghost ; in others it is hardly discernible 
 by the most charitable eye. Yet in some measure it must 
 be true of every Christian, for it is written : " If any man have 
 not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His ". Therefore the 
 Article affirms that He " dwells in every believer " : the 
 Spirit of truth, to teach ; of holiness, to sanctify ; and of 
 comfort, as shedding abroad in the heart the wondrous love 
 of God.. 
 
ii8 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 The Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church is re- 
 markably full on this doctrine. It enumerates seven gifts or 
 charismata of the Holy Spirit, resting mainly for authority 
 on Isa. xi. 2, thus : — 
 
 1. AVisdom 5. Knowledge 
 
 2. Understanding 6. Purity (i Tim. iv. 12) 
 
 3. Counsel 7. Fear of the Lord. 
 
 4. Might 
 
 The fruits of the Spirit are given as nine from Gal. v. 22. 
 It is more accurate to say nine properties of the one " fruit 
 of the Spirit ". 
 
 1. Love 4. Longsuffering 7. Faithfulness 
 
 2. Joy 5. Kindness 8. Meekness 
 
 3. Peace 6. Goodness 9. Temperance 
 
 (self-control). 
 
 Here are points enough by which to try ourselves whether 
 we have received the Spirit AVhich is of God. " Ye are not 
 in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 
 dwelleth in you." 
 
Article XII. 
 
 OF ELECTION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 We humbly own and believe that God the Father, before 
 the foundation of the world, was pleased of His sovereign 
 grace to choose unto Himself in Christ a people, whom He 
 gave to the Son, and to whom the Holy Spirit imparts 
 spiritual life by a secret and wonderful operation of His 
 power, using as His ordinary means, where years of under- 
 standing have been reached, the truths of His Word in ways 
 agreeable to the nature of man ; so that, being born from 
 above, they are the children of God, created in Christ Jesus 
 unto good works. 
 
 Hitherto the Articles have taken the widest range 
 possible, treating of God and universal man, the providence 
 over all, the Saviour of the world, the Gospel for every crea- 
 ture, and the Holy Spirit moving on the hearts of men in 
 every age. But now we begin to describe the realisation 
 and reception of the blessings of salvation, and lines of 
 inclusion and exclusion necessarily come into view. There 
 is a universal Gospel, but not a universal consent to the 
 Gospel. There is a Christ for all, but all are not for Christ. 
 In the fifth Article, we confessed the condition of mankind 
 ("9) 
 
I20 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINK. 
 
 as condemned and estranged from God. We are now to 
 consider how it is that any escape from that condition, and 
 we hu7nbly mm and believe " that it is by the sovereign 
 grace of God. All through this Article we dwell on that 
 grace, both m the purpose to save and in the execution of 
 that purpose. 
 
 We have left the expression "the world," and now begin 
 to deal with the fact that God has chosen and separated a 
 people to Himself out of the world of men. As there is a 
 law of natural selection in the creation surrounding us so 
 also there is a law of heavenly selection among oursel'ves 
 1 he very suggestion of this is resented by manv minds as 
 narrow and unfair. But we humblv own and 'believe it 
 because it is the account of the matter which is given in 
 the Holy Oracles, and we cannot doubt that the Lord has 
 reasons for this, which are good and sufficient. 
 
 Our Article does not go so far as the M'estminster Con- 
 fession and Catechisms in regard to the divine decrees, and 
 the whole doctrine of predestination. There is no intention 
 to recede from old positions, but it is deemed enough to 
 affirm the election to salvation. 
 
 It is curious to see what a bugbear the doctrine of pre- 
 destination IS to many, and how it is stigmatised as a dismal 
 notion peculiar to Calvinists. Vet even the Council of 
 Irent did not call it in question. All that the twelfth 
 chapter of its Canons does is to \varn men against pre- 
 sumptuously assuming that they are in the number of the 
 predestinate. Then, in the Churches which threw off the 
 Roman obedience, Luther taught this tenet from Scripture 
 as firmly as Zu-ingli and Calvin, and it is in all the Con- 
 fessions. English Christians ought to know how fully it is 
 stated in the seventeenth of the Thirty-nine Articles. 
 
 But, apart from venerable' authorities, why should that 
 
ELI'XTION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 121 
 
 forecasting action of the divine mind, which is called pre- 
 destination, be so very mysterious and perplexing? To us 
 it would seem far more difficult to conceive of a Supreme 
 Being Who did not fore-ordain as well as foresee. How can 
 you t'hink of God ruling over all, yet remaining uncertain as 
 to events, and waiting to form His decisions after His crea- 
 tures have made theirs — and so obtaining His objects only 
 in so far as the creatures may choose and determine ? 
 
 The unwillingness to receive this doctrine seems to spring 
 from confounding it with fate. Under this impression it is 
 supposed to depress the mind and discourage moral energy. 
 But the two are quite different. The objection is well taken 
 to a doctrine of fate, that it assumes every future event to 
 be absolutely and separately decreed, so that it must come 
 to pass, apart from any direction of steps or means thereto. 
 But the doctrine of predestination contemplates each event 
 as the result of a process, or the term in a series, every prior 
 term in which must be made good, else the event in ques- 
 tion cannot be made good. In the former case, activity, on 
 the part of beings interested in the event, is paralysed ; in the 
 latter case, it is required and encouraged. The doctrine of 
 divine fore-ordination is simply that of an all-surveying, all- 
 controlling, all-wise divine will ; and this is no hindrance to 
 human exertion, but a great incentive to it, because it is a 
 guarantee that exertion in directions pleasing to God will 
 have success, and that, if not in every turn of affairs, yet, in 
 the grand issue, justice and mercy must prevail. 
 
 The .Article confines itself to the specific predestination 
 of a people to salvation in Christ. But it is not to salvation, 
 do what they may ; it is to salvation in a way which is right 
 and holy, and the divine purpose contemplates and secures 
 the means as well as the end, the steps as well as the ter- 
 minus. 
 
122 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 "Before the foimdation of the world." — The eternity of 
 the divine election is thus expressed in a phrase quoted 
 from St. Paul (Eph. i. 4), and already cited in many of the 
 Confessions of Faith; e.g., the Scottish, the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, and the Westminster. 
 
 " God the Father was pleased of His sovereign grace to choose 
 Jtii/o Himself in Christ a /w/^."— Observe the plural and 
 collective word— "a people". In Holy Writ the divine 
 choice of an individual is to specific office, dignity, or work. 
 Election unto salvation is predicated of a community or 
 people— resolvable, no doubt, into so many individuals— 
 but in the sovereign choice, contemplated together. So, of 
 old time, Jehovah chose Israel to be a people near to Him— 
 elect and beloved. There is no other explanation to be 
 given of Israel's unique position in the religious annals of 
 the world, save the divine election. But now we learn that 
 in Jesus Christ, God has enlarged His choice, elected and 
 selected "a people unto Himself" out of all nations and 
 kindreds of the earth. Such is the Church of God. As 
 Israel was the people of God chosen and called (Isa. xlv. 4), 
 so, under the Gospel, the people of God as divinely chosen 
 form the elect, and as divinely called form the Church. The 
 apostles said nothing of an election within the Church. 
 The Church was the election. So the members of the 
 Colossian Church are addressed by St. Paul as "elect of 
 God," the Thessalonians are assured of their "election," 
 and in the Book of Revelation, they who are with the 
 Lamb are "called and chosen and faithful". They are 
 called in their several successive generations by the Spirit 
 and the Word ; they were chosen before the foundation of 
 the world. See this laid down with luminous force of 
 language in Eph. i. 3-6. 
 
 The first result of the divine choice is the divine gift of 
 
ELECTION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 123 
 
 this people to the Son of God : " Whom He ,i,>v;fr to the Son" 
 and the next that they are made aUve to God in Christ by 
 the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. Such seems to 
 be the order of " sovereign grace ". The conscious action of 
 the individuals who compose the people of Christ begins 
 with repentance and the belief of the Gospel ; and they so 
 act, not on an assumption of their own election, for which 
 they have no ground, but on the revelation of God's great 
 love to mankind, which is abundantly revealed. They re- 
 pent, not because they suppose themselves elect, but because 
 they know and feel themselves to be sinners. And they 
 believe, not because they suppose themselves elect, but 
 because God has given the record concerning His Son, and 
 called and commanded them and all men to believe and 
 live. 
 
 Now mark how God carries out His purpose of grace. 
 
 "'To ivhom the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual lift- by a secret 
 and ivonderfiil operation of His po7ver." — This is regeneration, 
 which means more than conversion. The latter term de- 
 notes that the soul is turned to God ; the former that it is 
 made alive unto God by being born of the Si^irit. The 
 phrase "secret and wonderful operation of His power" has 
 been suggested by the language of the Council of Dort 
 (a.d. 1619), which describes regeneration as "evidently a 
 supernatural operation most powerful and at the same time 
 most sweet, wonderful, secret, and ineffable. All those in 
 whose hearts God works in this marvellous manner are 
 certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do 
 actually believe." 
 
 Such regeneration may be in infancy. There can be no 
 conversion of an infant ; but before a child reaches an age 
 when it is possible for him to turn away from God, he may 
 be begotten from above, and grow up a child of heavenly 
 
124 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 grace. He will need improvement, confirmation, correction, 
 and guidance, but it is quite possible that he may never 
 need conversion. 
 
 Infant regeneration, however, is not the same thing as 
 infant baptismal regeneration. Baptism is a sign of regene- 
 ration, whether of infants or of adults. In its highest use, 
 it is a seal of regeneration. But there is no authority for 
 saying that baptism with water confers regeneration ; and to 
 assign the inward grace of (lod to the outward act of man, 
 and make the one depend on the other, is to reverse the 
 proper order of the sign and the thing signified, and to 
 throw into our religion an element of materialistic supersti- 
 tion. 
 
 We are not competent to explain how the Divine Spirit 
 may enter into and operate upon the undeveloped moral 
 nature of a babe : but we have something further to say in 
 the case of those who have reached "years of under- 
 standing ". 
 
 Using as His ordinary 7)ieans, 7vlien years of under- 
 standing have been reached, the truths of His Word in ways 
 agreeable to the nature of man:' — The operation is not 
 magical. The Holy Spirit is not restricted to the use of 
 means, but is wont to employ them. Moreover, He uses 
 them in ways agreeable to, i.e., consonant with, the nature of 
 man ; which nature is not invaded and forced, but enlight- 
 ened and persuaded, with its responsibility kept intact. 
 Various are those means— more various than we can know 
 or tell : for who is able to trace out all the dealings of 
 Cod with man? But it is quite safe to say that the 
 "ordinary means" in regeneration are "the truths of His 
 ^^'ord The \\'estminster divines said : " The ministry of 
 the Word". The Heidelberg Catechism: "The preach- 
 ing of the Holy Gospel ". The Second Helvetic Confession 
 
ELECTION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 also has; "The preaching of the Gospel ". But it is not 
 desirable to put such exclusive honour on the proclamation 
 of the Word, as though the Spirit did not employ private 
 reading of the Bible or the suggestion of sacred truth in 
 correspondence or conversation. Better to say that truths 
 of the Divine A\'ord, however brought before the mind, do, 
 in the power of the Spirit, enlighten the eyes and bring 
 new life into the soul. St. Peter describes the Ciiristian 
 as " begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
 ruptible, through the Word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth ". 
 
 It is by the manifestation of that spiritual life which is 
 imparted to them that the elect people of Christ may be 
 recognised. God does not choose them after their regenera- 
 tion, or because of it. He has chosen them to regenera- 
 tion, repentance, faith, and holiness. 
 
 "So that, being born from above, they are the children of 
 God." — The clause " being born from above " is intro- 
 duced to make it quite plain to every reader that the 
 imparting of spiritual life, above-mentioned, is just that 
 birth anew, or birth from above, of which our Lord spoke 
 to Nicodemus, and which is so often referred to by His 
 apostles, especially by St. John. It was the more neces- 
 sary to be explicit on this point, because it has often been 
 regretted that the Westminster divines do not ever in the 
 Shorter Catechism make mention of the " new birth " or 
 " regeneration " ; and not every one is able to recognise it 
 under the technical phrase taken from Latin books of 
 theology, '"effectual calling". 
 
 As they who are born of human parents are rightly 
 styled children of men, so the regenerate, being born 
 of God, are " the children of God ". Behold ! what manner 
 of love ! This honour is not given to angels, who are 
 
126 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 servants of God and of the heirs of salvation. Men 
 redeemed and regenerate are the children, and if children, 
 heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. St. Paul uses 
 the title "children of God," as we do here, to express 
 the disposition of the regenerate; and the title "sons of 
 God " to denote their position of privilege, the result of their 
 adoption, as we also do in the fourteenth Article. St. John, 
 who does not touch on position and privilege in the house- 
 hold, but, in his Gospel and Epistles, always thinks of the 
 subjective effect of regeneration, uses the phrase "children 
 of God "—never " sons ". In his First Epistle, after 
 declaring that every doer of righteousness has been be- 
 gotten of God, he writes : " Beloved, now are we children 
 of God " (i john iii. i, 2, Rev. Vers.). On this the apostle 
 founds all his exhortations to admire the love of God, to 
 do righteousness, and to love the brethren. 
 
 " Created in Christ Jesus unto good works!' — The great 
 spiritual change of which we speak is described in the 
 New Testament, not only as a birth, but also as a new- 
 creation — producing out of confusion a new order, out of 
 darkness a new light — not changing the substance of the 
 soul, but completely changing its convictions, desires, 
 habits, and principles. The words with which our Article 
 ends are cited from St. Paul ; and stronger language 
 cannot be found to indicate the thoroughness of the Spirit's 
 regenerating work — work which nothing short of a divine 
 energy can effect. " If any man be in Christ, there is a 
 new creation." It is a blessing in detail, bestowed on 
 every man apart. In him God creates a clean heart — gives 
 life, and light, and fruitfulness ; and then stamps His own 
 image on the new man. Lo ! it is " all very good ". 
 
 All this doctrine is wholesome. Election leads to re- 
 generation ; and regeneration issues in " good works ". 
 
Article XIII. 
 
 OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 We believe that every one, who through the grace of the 
 Holy Spirit repents and believes the Gos]:iel, confessing and 
 forsaking his sins, and humbly relying upon Christ alone 
 for salvation, is freely pardoned and accepted as righteous in 
 the sight of God, solely on the ground of Christ's perfect 
 obedience and atoning sacrifice. 
 
 Here we enter on a doctrine which has been keenly dis- 
 puted. We must part company with both the (ireek and 
 the Latin Churches, and follow the Lutheran and the 
 Reformed. Not that they have dominion over our faith, 
 but that they seem to us more accurately to apprehend the 
 teaching of the New Testament on this theme. 
 
 It must be confessed that a great deal of the controversy 
 on this subject in the sixteenth century savours of logomachy. 
 The disputants had never agreed on a definition of the term 
 "justification," and using the word in different senses, could 
 never agree about it. The Latins never dissociated justifi- 
 cation from sanctification. Indeed the Council of Trent 
 explicitly confounded them in these words: "Justification 
 (127) 
 
128 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 is not remission of sins only, but also the sanctification and 
 renewal of the inner man " (chap. vii.). It followed, as a 
 matter of course, that Roman Catholic theologians could 
 not leave out of their view of justification the progress of 
 piety, the infusion of habitual righteousness, and the pro- 
 duction of good works. On the other hand, Protestant 
 divines treated of justification strictly as the reverse of con- 
 demnation ; therefore an act of God with regard to man, not 
 a work of God in man. Consequently they could not 
 admit as grounds of such a divine act, the good, but defec- 
 tively good, works of men ; they could recognise no merit 
 as sufficient but the merit of Jesus Christ. Then the 
 Romanists most unfairly accused them of indifference to 
 good works ; whereas they only e.xcluded such works from 
 the place where they could not avail for righteousness, in 
 order to put them in the place where they do avail for gra- 
 cious reward. Of this controversy no adjustment is pos- 
 sible until the parties to it agree on the sense in which the 
 term "justification" is to be used, so that they may speak 
 of the same thing. Indeed, if this were done, there would 
 probably be no controversy left. 
 
 In the body of the Article the technical term does not 
 occur, but the blessing which the term in the title properly 
 covers is set forth according to Holy Scripture. There is no 
 confusion of justification with sanctification. The proposi- 
 tion is that a man whom God justifies " is freely pardoned 
 aftd accepted as righteous in the sight of God". True, he 
 is also renewed and purified. That is stated in other 
 Articles, but not here, because such a statement in this 
 place might lead to confusion, certainly could not con- 
 tribute to clearness, of thought. 
 
 It is a singular fact that the Scotch and the First Helvetic 
 Confessions have no definite doctrine of justification : but 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 129 
 
 the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg and the Reformed 
 Confessions generally — the French, the Belgic, the Second 
 Helvetic, and the Thirty-nine Articles, followed by the 
 Westminster Confession and Catechisms, have clear and 
 firm statements on the subject ; and with all these our 
 Article accords. 
 
 We must find our starting-point in the fact that men are 
 sinners under condemnation. Such is the position of the 
 race in the eye of divine justice ; and every man, by every 
 sin which he commits, incurs more and more condemnation. 
 If there be any way in which man may be extricated from 
 guilt and doom, it must be by divine appointment. If, 
 under an orderly human administration, a condemned 
 culprit is pardoned and restored to civil rights and liberties, 
 it will be done not according to his will or plan, but accord- 
 ing to the good-will and behest of public authority. So, 
 under the divine administration, it is useless to interrogate 
 the wisdom of men, themselves transgressors, as to the way 
 or ground of justification. It is a matter to be decided by 
 God only ; and all we have to do is to study the Book in 
 which He has revealed His will. 
 
 " JFe believe thai every one who, through the grace of the 
 Holy Spirit, repents and believes the Gospel." — Beginning 
 thus, we do not presume to say that God never pardons or 
 accepts any of the human race but those who believe the 
 Gospel. It is not for us to hazard an opinion as to His 
 dealing with persons who have had no opportunity to hear 
 the Word of His grace. We cannot tell how far Christ's 
 " blood and righteousness " may avail for the salvation of 
 men who could not believe on Him simply because they 
 never got apostolic testimony or divine record concerning 
 Him. But we state the way in which, and the grounds on 
 which, justification is conferred on sinful men like ourselves, 
 9 
 
130 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 living under the dispensation of the Gospel. He who 
 would be justified by God must censure himself. En- 
 lightened and convicted by the Holy Spirit, he must repent 
 and believe the Gospel as God's message of grace to sinners. 
 That there may be no mistake, clauses are added to explain 
 and emphasise the repentance and the faith. 
 
 " Confessing and forsaking his sins." — The candidate for 
 justification, if we may use such an expression, is not to 
 stand on his own merit or look for acceptance on account 
 of his personal virtue. He is to own his unworthiness, 
 and with grief and shame confess his sins. It is the self- 
 condemning man whom God will justify ; the self-justifying 
 man Clod will condemn. But confession is not all. He 
 must forsake his sins — at least in heart-purpose. Let no 
 one think to be covered with an imputed righteousness, if 
 he still regards iniquity in his heart. 
 
 " And hiunhly relying on Christ a/one for salvation.^' — 
 This clause is intended to show that the candidate for justi- 
 fication must not merely believe that the Gospel is true and 
 Christ is mighty to save, but must trust in Christ for his 
 own salvation, must rely humbly but firmly on Him " alone " 
 — not attempting to add anything whatever to the one ample 
 and glorious security. Our ground of confidence and peace 
 is not Christ and our prayers, or Christ and our works, or 
 Christ and the sacraments, or Christ and the Church, but 
 " Christ alone 
 
 Let a man — any man — thus repent and believe, and the 
 great redeeming work of Christ, meritorious and accepted in 
 heaven, becomes available and effectual for him. God's love 
 to him has been from eternity, but not God's justification. 
 This last is an act of God, complete, not gradual or progressive, 
 which comes into existence when the sinner repents and 
 believes, and not till then. But from that hour it is sure 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 and steadfast. " It is God that justifieth : who is he that 
 condemneth ? " 
 
 " Is freely pardoned and accepted as righteous in the sight 
 of God." — It is quite clear that justification is not the change 
 which is wrought on the dispositions and desires of the man 
 who repents and beheves, though there must be such achange. 
 It is a complete alteration of his state, ox status, before God, 
 and of the light in which he is regarded by God. He is 
 " freely pardoned," so that none of his transgressions which 
 he committed will be mentioned against him any more. He 
 is also "accepted as righteous," for pardon alone is not a com- 
 plete reversal of a sentence of condemnation. A criminal 
 may be forgiven and released, yet regarded with suspicion 
 and kept at a distance. Blessed be God ! He not only 
 forgives the transgressors, but takes back the banished ones 
 into His presence. 
 
 Strong exception is often taken to the very idea that God 
 accepts men as righteous who are not really so. This is 
 stigmatised as a dogmatic fiction and a " make-believe," 
 such as ought not to be attributed to the God of truth. Let 
 us see if there is any substance in this as an allegation 
 against our doctrine. There is nothing strange or in the 
 least unreal in the idea of being pardoned for the sake, 
 or through the intervention, of another, or even being 
 accepted or taken into favour on the ground of some claim 
 established by another — when that other is not an un- 
 connected stranger, but is in some way closely, yet inno- 
 cently, identified with the offender. Now, Jesus Christ is 
 not in this question as a stranger. He intervenes as the 
 appointed Representative of the sinner, the Surety for the 
 debtor who cannot pay. It is no fiction, but an inteUigible 
 and reasonable result, that in and through Him AVho ful- 
 filled all righteousness, the offender, now united to Christ 
 
132 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 by faith, should go free, and even find acceptance. Nor is 
 there anything in this which is hollow, or unworthy of the 
 God of purity and truth. He justifies the ungodly, but 
 does not let him continue in ungodliness. He Who justifies 
 also sanctifies. He Who imputes also implants righteous- 
 ness. In fact, the answer to nearly all the difficulties that 
 are suggested on this head of doctrine lies in the simple fact 
 that justification and sanctification, while conceived of sepa- 
 rately, are in personal religion inseparably united. 
 
 '■'■ Solely on the ground of Christ's perfect obedience and 
 atoning sacrifice." — The ground on which God's justifying 
 act proceeds is given in some of the Confessions both 
 negatively and positively : in our Article positively only. 
 The Second Helvetic (chap.xv.) defines the term "to justify" 
 thus: "To remit sins, to absolve from guilt and punish- 
 ment, to receive into favour, and to pronounce just ". And 
 further: "God alone justifies us, for Christ's ■s.^ik^ {propter 
 Christum), not imputing to us our sins, but imputing to us 
 His righteousness". The eleventh of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles declares : " We are accounted righteous before 
 God, only for the merit of our Lord and" Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings ". 
 The Westminster Confession makes the disclaimer more 
 full and explicit : " Not for anything wrought in them, or 
 done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, not by imputing 
 faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical 
 obedience to them as their righteousness". Such dis- 
 claimers have their value against unsound doctrine, but we 
 are content to give the grounds positively ; viz., the 
 obedience and the sacrifice of Christ. The former compen- 
 sates for our disobedience ; the latter atones for our sins. 
 To these twain, which merge in one, God has respect in 
 justifying those who repent and believe, and therefore they 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 
 
 are called " the ground " of our justification. The great 
 divine act, perfect and complete, demands a ground per- 
 fect and complete ; and this is found. The obedience was 
 ■without flaw, and the atonement without defect. We can- 
 not think of God as doing any judicial act on grounds un- 
 certain or partial, and such are the best pleas that man can 
 put forward on his own behalf Only the work of Christ is 
 finished, consummate, and secure. 
 
 It is in the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians 
 that this doctrine is most fully taught in opposition to the 
 vain confidence of self-righteousness under the law. In the 
 fourth chapter to the Romans St. Paul affirms that justification 
 by faith was celebrated in the Psalms of David, and that still 
 farther back this blessing was conferred on Abraham. If we 
 believe in God, Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the 
 dead, we are blessed with faithful Abraham, who " believed 
 God, and it was counted to him unto righteousness," and 
 with the man described by the Psalmist, "unto whom 
 God reckoneth righteousness apart from works ". God is 
 righteous in so justifying us ; and we, being accepted as 
 righteous through faith, have peace with God, and, standing 
 in His grace, rejoice in the hope of His glory. In his 
 letter to the Galatians, the same apostle insists on the con- 
 demning ix)wer of the law, and the futility of all attempts to 
 reach justification thereby. They who are " of the works of 
 the law" are under the curse. 
 
 Many persons altogether undervalue such discussions as 
 this Article covers. Interest in such questions has faded 
 away. The modern tendency is to eliminate the judicial 
 aspect or element from Christian theology, and recognise 
 only therapeutic grace. Man is not seriously thought of as 
 a transgressor who incurs condemnation. He is merely a 
 soul-sick and heart-weary creature needing to be healed. 
 
134 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 But surely that is the right theology which looks in the face 
 all the facts of man's sinful state, and all the aspects of the 
 salvation which he needs, not according to the thought- 
 fashions of this age or that, but according to the Bible, cor- 
 roborated by the testimonies of roused and exercised 
 consciences. Indeed, there cannot be any real healing of 
 the inward plague and sickness of our moral nature until 
 there is peace of conscience ; and peace must rest, not on our 
 own faith or our own improvement, but on Christ our 
 righteousness. "Being justified by faith, we have peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.'' 
 
Article XIV. 
 
 OF SONSHIP IN CHRIST. 
 
 We believe that those who receive Christ by faith are 
 united to Him, so that they are partakers in His life, and 
 receive of His fulness ; and that they are adopted into the 
 family of God, are made heirs with Christ, and have His 
 Spirit abiding in them, the witness to their sonship, and the 
 earnest of their inheritance. 
 
 The doctrine of Sonship fitly follows that of acceptance. 
 The sequence calls to mind the promise : " I will receive 
 you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to Me 
 sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty ". But the 
 Article before us is more comprehensive than its title. It 
 treats (i) of Unition to Christ: (2) of Sonship in Christ. 
 And in both parts it sets forth aspects and benefits of 
 grace — abounding grace. 
 
 I. Unition to Christ. 
 
 Unition means junction in one ; and union is the con- 
 dition which ensues. 
 
 " IVe believe that those who receive Christ by faith are 
 (13s) 
 
136 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 united to Him." — The expression "receive Christ by faith " 
 has been employed already in the tenth Article, and needs 
 no exposition here. Christ is not only revealed, but freely 
 offered in the Gospel ; and those who embrace the Gospel 
 in faith receive Him as their Lord and Saviour, their 
 righteousness and strength. Then by the link of faith they 
 are joined to the Lord. The relation established between 
 Him and them is so close as to be a union. They are in 
 Him for righteousness and acceptance with God. He is 
 in them for life, health, and holiness. In brief, this union 
 is the indispensable foundation of both justification and 
 sanctification. When a man is in Christ, he is justified. 
 When Christ is in the man, he is sanctified. 
 
 " So that they are partakers in His life " ; i.e., in the life 
 to which He was raised from the dead. The relation 
 established is more than a junction of aims and interests, 
 or even a reciprocity of affection. We are " quickened 
 together with Christ ". A profound mystery of grace is 
 the kindling and nourishing of ten thousands of lives from 
 one ; and the enfolding of all those lives in the rich and 
 princely vitality of Jesus Christ ! He is the true "\'ine, and 
 His disciples in all times, and all lands, are the branches. 
 O mars-ellous Vine, the Christ of God, that pours fresh life 
 into new shoots and branches that no man can number! 
 
 " And receive of His fulness." — The phrase is taken from 
 Holy Writ. St. Paul first used it in Col. i. 19 ; ii. 9, 10. 
 Against all the Phrygian speculations about a pleroma or 
 plenitude of being, he claimed the true divine plenitude 
 for the Lord Jesus, and taught Christians to repair always 
 to Him. Then St. John put down the same truth in the 
 sublime proem to his Gospel, chap. i. 14, 16. In Jesus 
 Christ there is a richness of nature, a depth of wisdom, 
 a largeness of spirit, an inexhaustible store of moral and 
 
SONSHIP IN CHRIST. 
 
 spiritual resource quite unapproached by the most gifted 
 sons of men. He was, and is, " full of grace and truth " : 
 grace, to meet our unworthiness and inadequacy ; truth, 
 which relieves our perplexity and doubt. To this fulness, 
 all who are united to Him have continual access. Out of 
 this fulness they are replenished. The more that they con- 
 template Christ, the more are they satisfied in Him. The 
 more they learn of Him, the more do they find rest to their 
 souls. The more they eat of "this Bread," the stronger 
 they grow. The more they ask of Him, the more of living 
 water they obtain — water that " springs up unto eternal life ". 
 
 So far of the unition with Christ, which makes His merit 
 our defence, His peace our peace. His friends our friends. 
 His enemies our enemies, His cause our cause, His mind 
 our mind, His very life our life. Because He lives, we live 
 also. 
 
 II. SoNSHip IN Christ. 
 The form of the expression sufficiently intimates that we 
 do not here speak of a filial relation borne by all mankind 
 to a universal Father. Such universal Fatherhood is not a 
 distinctive tenet of Christianity. It was known to the 
 ancients. St. Paul recognises it only in a quotation from a 
 heathen poet : " We are His offspring ". What this Article 
 treats of is something far more intimate and definite. It 
 is the Fatherhood of God in relation to those who are vitally 
 united to Christ. The Jews, who rejected our Lord, said 
 confidently that God was their Father ; but Christ rejected 
 this claim. If God were their Father, they would love, 
 and not hate. His only-begotten Son. So also now it is 
 in vain that Christ-rejecting men prate confidently about the 
 Fatherhood of God. Our Lord gave the right to become 
 children of God to those who received Him and be- 
 
138 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 lieved on His name. In this sense, at all events, sonship 
 cannot be universal, unless faith and justification by faith 
 are universal also. 
 
 " And that tliey are adopted into the family of God." — This 
 language is derived from the Epistles to the Galatians and 
 the Romans. It occurs in a comparison between the 
 status of the faithful under the Law, and that which is 
 accorded to them under the Gospel. In the times of the 
 Law, even godly men were servants under some measure 
 of bondage. In the days of the Gospel, believers in all 
 nations are made sons and daughters, as by a solemn act 
 of adoption. Such an act among ancient nations was a 
 very grave and decisive step, not to be recalled or reversed, 
 giving to the adopted one the full rights and privileges of a 
 son born in the house. So decisive is this act of God : and 
 it is vital to our peace and our comfort in Christ to know 
 that we are admitted into His redeemed family, not as by a 
 mere consent through silence, or on conditional terms and 
 in tentative fashion, but by a decisive act of divine grace. 
 
 The chief joy which this brings to the heart is that of 
 being able to call God our Father, referring and commitcing 
 everything to Him, and through every mist, and above 
 every cloud, beholding our Father's face. The promises 
 cannot fail ; for our Father cannot lie. Affliction cannot 
 crush : it is our Father's rod. The ship on which we have 
 embarked cannot founder : our Feather is at the helm. 
 
 We proceed to mention two eminent privileges of the 
 family of God. 
 
 I. Heirship. — "Are made heirs with Christ!' — "If chil- 
 dren, then heirs ; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ " 
 (Rom. viii. 17). 
 
 Christ, the first born from the dead, has been " appointed 
 Heir of all things ''. Then as many as are united to Him 
 
SONSHIP IN CHRIST. 
 
 through faith are admitted to share His great inheritance. 
 What magnificence of grace! "An inheritance incorrup- 
 tible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." The 
 dignity of co-heirship with Christ is higher than the place of 
 angels, for they are not heirs, but servants to the heirs of 
 salvation. They worship the Son of God, but are not 
 united with Him as are the redeemed from among men, nor 
 have they place or interest in the covenant of promise. 
 They that are Christ's are " Abraham's seed, and heirs ac- 
 cording to promise ". 
 
 2. The abiding of the Holy Spirit.— " And have His 
 Spirit abiding in them." — The Spirit that led the Saviour 
 Himself, in the time of His earthly service, is given to all 
 the sons of God, as Christ's Spirit, to lead them in the way 
 of His steps. It is the way of wisdom, and He is the 
 Spirit of wisdom. It is the way of meekness, and He is the 
 Spirit of meekness. It is the way of holiness, and He is 
 the Spirit of holiness. " As many as are led by the Spirit 
 of God, these are the sons of God." 
 
 We have now reached important points of internal or 
 experimental religion. Already, in the eleventh Article, 
 we have affirmed the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. In the 
 sixteenth Article we shall describe His work of sanctiiica- 
 tion. In the present Article we refer to His inward con- 
 firmation and consolation of believers, and express this in 
 two clauses. 
 
 (i) " The witness to their sonship." — See Rom. viii. 16. 
 The divine Sonship of our Lord Himself was attested in 
 the days of His flesh by the Holy Spirit. When He " went 
 up from the water " of the Jordan, the Spirit descended on 
 Him as a dove, while a voice out of the heavens proclaimed 
 Him God's " Beloved Son ". Again, when He had risen 
 from the sepulchre, " He was declared to be the Son of God 
 
I40 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 with power, according to the Spirit of hoHness, by the re- 
 surrection from the dead ". And between these two events, 
 throughout His career, the Holy Spirit, resting on Him, 
 bore witness with His spirit to the supporting and comfort- 
 ing fact that God was His own Father, and that in Him the 
 Father was well pleased. 
 
 They who are made sons of God in and with the Lord 
 Jesus Christ have the Spirit of the Son resting on them, and 
 assuring their hearts of the Father's love. The witness 
 which their own spirits yield consists in their filial reverence 
 for God, love of His word and ways, and fraternal regard 
 for all who l)ear the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. 
 Then the Holy Spirit, indwelling, confirms and augments 
 this testimony, by the change of disposition which He effects 
 within, by the fruit which He produces in character and 
 conduct, and by such more direct impression on the in- 
 dividual consciousness as may hardly be put into words, but 
 has, for those who receive it, the force and value of a strong 
 assurance. 
 
 What we have described is what may be and ought to be, 
 rather than what is commonly realised. Probably it goes 
 beyond the experience of many persons whose Christianity 
 we have no wish to question ; but it does not go beyond 
 the teaching of the New Testament. We must not pull 
 down the doctrine to meet defective i^iety, but seek to have 
 the piety lifted up to meet the doctrine. 
 
 (2) "■And the earnest of their inheritance." — See Eph. 
 i. 14. The abiding of the Holy Spirit is not only a seal 
 of the grace which has been given to us, but also a pledge 
 of the glory which is promised to us. \\"hen Israel marched 
 through the wilderness, the presence of Jehovah in the 
 midst of the camp, denoted by the Ark of the Covenant 
 and the pillar of fire and cloud above it, was at once a seal or 
 
SONSHIP IN CHRIST. 
 
 141 
 
 certification of the redemption of the tribes, and a divine 
 pledge that they would inherit the promised land. So also 
 now, the presence of the Holy Spirit with the Church and 
 in the hearts of believers is not only a confirmation of their 
 being the Lord's redeemed, but also an earnest of their 
 promised inheritance in the age to come. 
 
 Here surely is a check on vain hope. Let every man 
 e.xamine himself. If he has not received the earnest, how 
 can he expect the possession ? A corrective also of sensa- 
 tional ideas of the inheritance of saints, as of scenes of 
 splendour, " and raptures through and through ". As the 
 earnest is, so will the inheritance be. The former is the 
 sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit in us : thus the latter 
 will be a blessedness of dispositions, fellowships, and em- 
 ployments that are absolutely holy and undefiled. " The 
 mind of the Spirit," in the present time, " is life and peace " : 
 and, therefore, it is the foretaste and pledge of an inheri- 
 tance of eternal life and perfect peace, when the Lord Jesus 
 shalt come and take His co heirs with Him into their pro- 
 mised possession ; and there shall be " the manifestation of 
 the glory of the sons of God ". 
 
 Finally, mark how the two parts of this Article hang 
 together. It is unition to Christ that brings us into the son- 
 ship, and brings the pledge of that sonship into us. Union 
 with Christ, in the power and comfort of the Spirit, carries 
 with it and sustains the whole life of experimental religion. 
 We are thus : — 
 
 (a) Crucified with Him. (e) Seated with Him. 
 
 {^) Buried with Him. (/) Sufferers with Him. 
 
 (c) Quickened with Him. (g) Glorified with Him. 
 
 (d) Raised up with Him. 
 
Article XV. 
 
 OF THE LAW AND NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 We believe and acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 has laid His people by His grace under new obligation to 
 keep the perfect Law of God, and has by precept and 
 example enlarged our knowledge of that Law, and illus- 
 trated the spirit of filial love in which the divine will is to 
 be obeyed ; and we bless God that the obedience of Chris- 
 tians, though in this life always imperfect, yet being the 
 fruit of their union to Christ, is accepted for His sake and 
 well-pleasing to God. 
 
 Moral conduct is the duty of all beings who possess a 
 moral nature ; and from whatever quarter sound moral laws 
 and precepts come, they ought to be obeyed. This is 
 true all the world over, and apart from the Christian revela- 
 tion. But our Article, declaring the Church's belief, refers 
 to the moral attitude and obligation of Christ's redeemed 
 people. The three preceding Articles have dealt exclusively 
 with them, exhibiting the grace of God in their election, re- 
 generation, justification, and adoption. It is time to say 
 that He Who has shown to them such favour has laid special 
 and sacred obligation upon them. Nay, there is need to 
 (142) 
 
THE LAW AND NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 lay emphasis on this. Many who profess and call themselves 
 Christians are fond of religion so long as it means getting 
 and enjoying. They talk readily of the sense of pardon, 
 the comfort of hope, and the joy of salvation ; but on Chris- 
 tian duty and unobtrusive, self-denying service their minds do 
 not dwell. We must explain and insist upon the obligation 
 of obedience to the Lord's will — cheerful, childlike, and 
 implicit obedience. After the call to repentance, and the 
 promise of forgiveness and cleansing in the first chapter of 
 Isaiah, this sentence follows : " If ye be willing and obedient, 
 ye shall eat the good of the land ". 
 
 The will of God, however and wherever recorded, is to us 
 a law of constant and unlimited obligation. For the grounds 
 of this obligation we cannot do better than quote the West- 
 minster Confession : " The moral law doth for ever bind 
 all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience 
 thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained 
 in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator 
 Who gave it". We do not specify the part or parts of 
 Scripture in which this law is found. The books of the 
 Pentateuch were of old denominated the Law, as distinguished 
 from the Psalms and the Prophets. The moral law was 
 epitomised for the people of Israel in the Ten Words of 
 Sinai. To us there is a law in all the moral precepts and 
 injunctions which are delivered in any part of Scripture as 
 from God. \Ve are not to take as our rule the moral 
 actions even of godly men, for they may have come short 
 in duty, or may have mistaken the divine will. But there 
 is a law for us in all that God has enjoined by His holy 
 prophets, and more especially in the commandments of His 
 Son Jesus Christ, 'Who in this respect was "a prophet like 
 unto Moses, "that He gave laws to a redeemed people, binding 
 them on conscience as by immediate divine authority. 
 
144 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 It is necessary, of course, to distinguish between keeping 
 the law as a ground of self-righteousness, and rendering 
 obedience to it as a rule of life. In the former sense the 
 law condemns, and cannot save ; but in the latter it is to be 
 pondered and willingly observed by all whom grace has 
 saved. They ought to delight in it with the blessed man 
 of the first Psalm. They ought to value and keep the 
 precepts, statutes, commandments, and judgments of Jeho- 
 vah, as set forth in Psalms xix. and cxix. St. James 
 requires Christians not merely to hear the Word, but to do 
 it, and describes it as " the perfect law, the law of liberty ". 
 
 The phrase "perfect law" is transferred to our Article ; 
 and Christian liberty is shown to be no unregulated licence. 
 Far from loosening the bands of moral obligation, the 
 Gospel adds emphasis to the whole subject of duty. Indeed 
 the New Testament, in proportion to its size, uses the words 
 " command " and " commandment " as often as the Old. 
 
 The Article has two topics : — 
 
 I. The REL.vnoN of Christi.vns to the Perfect 
 L.w. 
 
 I. The obligation to obedience. — ■' JFe believe and ac- 
 kiw7vkd-c that the Lord Jesus Christ has laid Bis people by 
 His grace under neiv obligation to keep the perfect Law of 
 Qodr—Wit law is regarded as a regula or canon which 
 gives definiteness to moral duty. And now as to the 
 obligation of Christians to give heed to it, we may contmue 
 our recent quotation from the Westminster Chapter on the 
 Law : " Neither doth Christ m the Gospel any way dissolve, 
 but much strengthen, this obligation ". The Israelites were 
 bound to observe the Ten Commandments and other divme 
 statutes given through Moses, not merely because they were 
 creatures of God amenable to the Creator, but also and 
 
THE LAW AND NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 chiefly because they were a redeemed nation, and should be 
 subject to their Divine Redeemer. Of this they were re- 
 minded in what is sometimes called " The Preface to the 
 Ten Commandments " : "I am Jehovah thy God Who 
 brought thee," etc. (Exod. xx. 2). In Christ we have a far 
 greater redemption, and are placed thereby under enhanced 
 obligation to keep the commands and honour all the levealed 
 will of God our Saviour. What manner of persons ought a 
 ransomed people to be in all holy living and godliness ! 
 
 2. The range of obedience. — " And has by precept and 
 example enlarged our knowledge of that Law.'''' — It may 
 be represented that our Lord Jesus reduced the extent of 
 the statutory law in Israel, inasmuch as He laid stress 
 on moral precepts only, and introduced a dispensation 
 which does not concern itself with the ceremonial laws of 
 the Old Testament. But our statement applies to moral 
 duty only ; and it must be plain to every reader of the New 
 Testament that Jesus Christ enlarged and illuminated ethical 
 obligation. He laid stress not so much on negations and 
 prohibitions, so frequent in the Decalogue, as on positive 
 requirements to love God and man, and to do well. He 
 exposed the futility of a merely formal and external obser- 
 vance, laid emphasis on " the weightier matters of the law," 
 and taught His disciples to enter into the inner meaning 
 and spirit of divine commandments. In the Sermon on 
 the Mount, He showed how commands that refer to actions 
 reach to one's looks, thoughts, and unuttered desires. And 
 then He added to the old law invaluable precepts as from 
 Himself, especially on the duties of patience, self-denial, 
 brotherly kindness, and the forgiveness of injuries. 
 
 The effect of this ethical teaching is very marked in the 
 Apostle Paul. He was at first a disciple of the Pharisees, 
 and gloried in the Law as they interpreted and used it to 
 10 
 
146 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 establish self-righteousness, ^\'hen, however, he came into 
 the school of Jesus Christ, Paul ceased from this legalism, 
 but took up the Law for another purpose, as a rule of life 
 under Christ, and gained a remarkable knowledge of the 
 appHcalion of the Commandments to the details of disposi- 
 tion and conduct. See in the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
 chapters to the Ephesians how he uses the fifth, sixth, 
 seventh, eighth, and ninth precepts of the Decalogue in 
 enforcing duty between man and man, and especially 
 between Christian and Christian. 
 
 3. The spirit of obedience. — "And illustrated the 
 spirit of filial love in which the divine will is to be 
 obeyed." — So also says the Westminster Confession : 
 " The Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of 
 man to do that, freely and cheerfully, which the will of 
 God, revealed in the Law, requireth to be done". God 
 looks upon the heart, and takes account, not merely of 
 acts of obedience, but of the disposition with which they 
 are performed. Now, under the Old Testament some were 
 brought to a genuine love for Jehovah and His law ; but 
 their obedience was in the spirit of servants rather than that 
 of sons. Under the grace of the New Testament " the 
 adoption of sons" is freely given, and with it the spirit of 
 sonship ; and, therefore, the obedience ought to be filial. 
 Our pattern is the Son Who pleased the Father in all things, 
 being willingly, patiently, and constantly obedient. As sons, 
 we are to go and work in our Father's vineyard ; not render- 
 ing the service of a hireling who wants short hours and long 
 pay, but as dutiful sons, eager to do our Father's will. 
 IL The Divine .\ccept.\nce of Christi.\n 
 Obedience. 
 
 " Though in this life ahvays imperfect." — Not the best man 
 on the earth keeps the commandments of God without 
 
THE LAW AND NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 fault or failure. AVe, therefore, utterly reject the Roman 
 doctrine of works of supererogation. The saints on the 
 earth do not attain to a perfect obedience ; far less can they 
 go beyond it and lay up a surplus or excess of merit, out of 
 which, or in consideration of which, blessings may accrue to 
 themselves or others. Against this the Reformed Churches 
 indignantly protested. The fourteenth of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles says that " works of supererogation cannot be taught 
 without arrogance and impiety ". The Westminster Con- 
 fession is very explicit: "They who in their obedience 
 attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life, 
 are so far from being able to supererogate, and to do more 
 than God requires, that they fall short of much which in 
 duty they are bound to do ". 
 
 " ]Ve />/ess God that the obedience of Christians, though in 
 this life always imperfect, yet being the fruit of their union 
 to Christ, is accepted for His sake and jvellpleasing to God." 
 — The imperfection of the obedience excludes all notion of 
 justification by the deeds of the law. As a signal and 
 decisive act of God, justification must proceed on a ground 
 that is complete and without flaw. No man's obedience in 
 this life is complete and without flaw ; therefore no man is 
 Justified on the merit of his personal obedience — or on any 
 merit derived from saints, for they have none to spare. 
 But it by no means follows that God takes no account of 
 the obedience rendered to Him by those whom He has 
 freely pardoned and received in Christ. He does take 
 account of it. What could not be accepted as a ground 
 of justification is graciously accepted, and even rewarded, 
 as a willing obedience and loving service. And all in 
 Christ Jesus. The obedience is rendered in Christ, and 
 is indeed the "fruit of union" to Him— the filling up 
 of His obedience in His body the Church, a prolonga- 
 
148 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 tion of His filial service. And then it "is accepted for 
 His sake ". 
 
 The phrase "well-pleasing to God is meant to cover 
 more than the word "accepted". It brings in the thought 
 of gracious reward. Here, again, we quote the ^Vestminster 
 Confession : " God, looking upon believers in His Son, is 
 pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although 
 accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections"'. 
 It may be enough to remind the reader of our Lord's 
 parables of the rewards that await good and faithful 
 servants. 
 
 Here is encouragement for true-hearted Christians. So 
 long as we hear only of the lofty rectitude of God, the per- 
 fect law, and the impossibility of reaching a position of justi- 
 fication through our obedience to that law, we admit that it 
 must be so, but are conscious of a crushing and discourag- 
 mg influence on our minds. Here is the balancing and 
 encouraging element that we want. It is possible for a man 
 in this life to please God. Though His children be faulty, 
 yet, if they be loving and obedient, the great Father accepts 
 and rewards their service through Jesus Christ Whose work 
 is_ perfect. Not an act of self-denial, not a word of faithful 
 witness, not a deed of kindness ever so small escapes His 
 notice, or will lack its recompense. It does not require 
 some conspicuous service or munificent gift to catch His 
 eye. No matter how lowly the position of the well-doer, or 
 how small the offering of the cheerful giver— if the spirit of 
 filial love be there— the doer and the deed, the giver and 
 the gift, have recognition and approval on high. 
 
 It may appear as though this Article did not maintain so 
 elevated a level of thought as those which have gone before. 
 But it is none the less profitable, and none the less essential 
 to a complete conception both of the divine salvation and 
 
THE LAW AND NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 149 
 
 of the Christian calling. Indeed the doctrine of new 
 obedience is one to be pressed on this generation. The 
 age is restless, and impatient of control ; and the spirit of 
 the age creeps into the Church. We are not to yield to 
 this, or humour it ; but to recollect that our Lord Jesus 
 " pleased not Himself". His humanity was perfected in a 
 consistent and loving obedience to the righteous Father. 
 So Christians are " chosen to obedience," as well as to 
 "sprinkHng of the blood of Jesus Christ" (i Pet. i. 2). 
 And Christian manhood or womanhood is at its best, when 
 least self-assertive, when most obedient to the righteous 
 Lord. 
 
 Disobedience spoils everything. It nullifies ever so con- 
 fident a profession of religion. He is no child of God who 
 has not respect to His commandments. 
 
Article XVI. 
 
 OF SANCTIFICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 We believe that the Holy Spirit dwelling in all Christ's 
 people purifies their hearts, enabling them to do freely and 
 cheerfully that which the will of God requires, so that in 
 measure as they surrender themselves to the Spirit of Christ, 
 and follow the guidance of His Word, they receive strength 
 for daily service, and grow in holiness after the image of 
 their Lord ; or if, departing from God through unwatchful- 
 ness and neglect of prayer, any of them lapse into spiritual 
 languor, or fall into grievous sins, yet by the mercy of God 
 Who abideth faithful they are not cast off, but are chastened 
 for their backsliding, and through repentance restored to 
 His favour, so that they perish not. 
 
 The words " sanctification " and "perseverance" are in 
 the title, but not in the Article itself. We have found "justi- 
 fication " treated in the same manner in Article 13. No 
 doubt the reason of this is, that the compilers had it in view 
 to explain technical terms of theology, but not to use them 
 more than can be helped. 
 
 (150) 
 
SANCTIFICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 The fifteenth Article has treated of goodness from the human 
 side, obedience rendered to the will of God. The sixteenth 
 treats of it from the divine side, and shows it to be the 
 product in men of God's inworking grace. The persons 
 spoken of here, as in the four preceding Articles, are 
 " Christ's people " ; and the whole statement presupposes 
 their redemption and regeneration. The question now to 
 be dealt with is how this people are made meet for fellowship 
 with God in this life, and for His most holy presence in the 
 life to come. 
 
 The Article describes the process of sanctification, imply- 
 ing perseverance in grace ; but also shows how the process 
 may be marred, and the issue sadly impaired. 
 
 I. The Sanctifying Process as it ought to be. 
 
 This process originates in the regeneration by the Holy 
 Ghost. Thereafter the Spirit " dwells in every believer," 
 as we have affirmed in the eleventh Article. And we 
 endeavour to describe the blessed change which the in- 
 dwelling Spirit effects. Three operations are specified : and 
 then two results affirmed. 
 
 I. Purifying. — " IJ'e believe that the Holy Spirit dwelling 
 in all Chrisfs people purifies their hearts." — This goes at 
 once to the root of the matter. Our Lord Jesus, Who 
 "knew what is in man," traced impurity of speech and con- 
 duct to impurity of heart. Evil thoughts and desires come 
 from within. They proceed out of the heart, and defile the 
 man. Therefore all remedies for the state of man, which 
 do not reach and sweeten the hidden fountain, are quite in- 
 adequate. We must have the Spirit to create in us a clean 
 heart. 
 
 The purifying energy is that of the Holy Spirit : the 
 purifying element is the \\"ord of Truth. In so far as we 
 
152 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 give serious heed to the Word, we place ourselves in the 
 line of blessing. St. Peter wrote : " Ye have purified your 
 souls in obeying the truth ". 
 
 2. Empowering. — " E7iabling them to do freely and cheer- 
 fully that which the will of God requires y — Man is not only 
 impure in heart, but also impotent and ineffective for the 
 service of righteousness. He needs not only to be purified, 
 but to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner 
 man. 
 
 So said the ancient piety : " The Lord is the strength of 
 my life " ; "I will go in the strength of Jehovah God ". 
 So said New Testament piety : " I can do all things through 
 Christ, Which stren^theneth me". And one has only to think 
 of the opposition which the spiritual life encounters, and 
 the temptations to unworthy compromise which so readily 
 suggest themselves even to well-meaning men, to be aware 
 that consistent goodness demands moral courage and 
 strenuous resolve. Most welcome, therefore, is the fortifying 
 grace of that indwelling Spirit Who upholds as the Spirit of 
 might, while He purifies and consecrates as the Spirit of 
 holiness ; and all this in order to our rendering to the will 
 of God a free and cheerful obedience. 
 
 3. Guiding. — " They folloiu the guidance of His IVord." — 
 The living guide is the Spirit ; the guide-book is His Word, 
 contained and conveyed in the Scriptures, for which all 
 spiritually-minded persons have a marked reverence and 
 affection. The direction of the Spirit is given to them 
 through the serious and prayerful study of the sacred oracles, 
 with a view to ascertain the way of faith and duty. 
 
 This gives no sanction to the practice of opening the 
 Bible, and singling out a sentence that may catch the eye 
 for guidance in some perplexity. The Spirit, one need 
 hardly say, is free to use the Word as He sees meet, and to 
 
SANCTIFICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 apply any saying of Scripture, or any group of sayings, for 
 the direction of a human soul ; but our part is to search the 
 Scriptures, and not merely dip into them here and there ; 
 and when we fasten on particular statements, admonitions, 
 or promises, to examine the bearing of them on our own 
 position, asking, at the same time, for light from the Spirit 
 of wisdom and of truth. 
 
 Such being the operations of the Sanctifier, we state the 
 result as follows : — 
 
 (1) Strength for service. — " measure as they surrender 
 themselves to the Spirit of Christ, a?id follow the guidaiice of 
 His Word, they receive strength for daily service." — By yielding, 
 Christians prevail. By surrender, they wax strong. Of the 
 strength for obedience something has been said already ; 
 but here is a new point. It is diurnal strength for diurnal 
 service to God and man. Not that all days are alike. As 
 in common experience, so also in spiritual, some are far 
 more critical and eventful than others ; and for these special 
 help is given. But a man is what he is day after day : and 
 a Christian is in the right groove when he offers his daily 
 sacrifice of devotion and of doing good, taking guidance 
 from the ^^'ord of God. To such a man, and for such a 
 life, the Lord will give daily bread, not for the body only, 
 but also for the soul — manna morning by morning — and 
 will impart strength and renewal day by day, for taking up 
 the cross, denying self, and serving God. 
 
 (2) Growth in holiness. — ''And grow in holiness after 
 the linage of their Lord." — Holiness is separateness from 
 evil. God is holy ; and His redeemed are to be holy unto 
 Him. All Christians are called to holiness, but it is a 
 mould of character which they acquire only by degrees. 
 They grow into it, conforming to a type, as is the way with 
 all vital growth, — and that type, " the image of their Lord ". 
 
154 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Holiness is never to be measured by likeness to this saint 
 or that, but always by the degree of assimilation to Christ. 
 It IS the object of God's fore-ordination, that we should be 
 " conformed to the image of His Son 
 
 Because it is growth, the assimilation we speak of is un- 
 conscious. I grow like one with whom I associate 
 much, or whom I warmly admire; but I do not myself 
 know or feel the growing resemblance. Others may see it, 
 but not I. So it is with a Christian in process of sanctifi- 
 cation. He thinks of Christ, looks to Christ, communes 
 with Christ, and in this way insensibly reflects the image of 
 Christ. Others may observe that he is becoming a Christ- 
 like man, but he does not see it. What he is painfully 
 conscious of is his unlikeness to the Lord ; and this conscious- 
 ness keeps him humble, and eager for more and more of the 
 sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The continuance of sanctification inferring growth in 
 holiness, is the perseverance of saints— fully described and 
 vindicated in the Canons of the Council of Dort (Fifth 
 Head of Doctrine) and the Westminster Confession (chap, 
 xvii.). But in both these documents, as, indeed, in all 
 honest treatment of this theme, it is acknowledged that 
 there are many appearances to the contrary. There are 
 many failures ; many deflections from the way of holiness. 
 Accordingly, our Article treats of : — 
 
 n. S.VNCTIFIC.\TION : HOW IT IS M.^RRED. 
 
 It is by no means to be inferred that such inconsistency 
 as grieves the Holy Spirit is inevitable, and on that account 
 excusable. It need not be ; it ought not to be. But it does 
 occur ; and the untoward fact cannot be ignored. 
 
 " O?- if departing from God through itnwatchfulness and 
 tiegled of prayer" — So the case of spiritual declension is 
 
SANCTIFICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 explained. Instead of growth in grace there comes a blight 
 upon the soul. Affection is withdrawn from God our 
 Saviour, though the Christian profession is continued. And 
 the mischief is traced to relaxation of watchfulness and 
 neglect of prayer. These two evils are the beginning of 
 declension, and, through these, the declension continues; 
 because by unwatchfulness the soul is laid open to evil in- 
 fluences, and restraint of prayer impedes or blocks that 
 communion with Cod which is indispensable to growth in 
 holiness. The result is departure from the living' Ciod, and 
 a spiritual decay which invites disaster. 
 
 Any of them lapse into spiritual languor T — Languor of 
 the body does not excite alarm, yet it may be full of danger. 
 It betrays a decaying vigour, an enfeebled circulation of 
 blood, an insufficient assimilation of necessarv food, and a 
 consequent lack of vital energy. There may be no pain, 
 but the tired look, feeble step, and indisposition to 
 exertion reveal that mischief is at work in the body. Just 
 so in the spirit of man. When the channels of spiritual" life 
 and fellowship are clogged, and a watch is not kept over the 
 senses and desires, there may be no pain in the conscience 
 or alarm in the mind, but there is a lapse into spiritual 
 languor. It shows itself in a type of religion which is 
 neither wide awake nor sound asleep, but drowsy ; neither 
 quite motionless nor ready for exertion, but torpid ; neither 
 cold nor hot, but lukewarm. 
 
 " Or fall into grievous sins." — The phrase is taken from 
 the Westminster Confession. These sins, even when success- 
 fully hidden from observation, constitute an afiVont to the 
 sanctifying Spirit; and when they are known, bring dis- 
 credit on the Christian name. Obviously it is not discreet 
 to name in an Article of religion, and by naming to suggest 
 sins into which Christians have fallen, and yet have been re- 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Stored Enough that we face the mournful fact that some 
 men who had apparently begun to " follow after holiness " 
 have thereafter sinned heinously. And on this we have two 
 hmgs to say : (i) A grievous sin is no whit less gnevous 
 because of the past reputation and profession of him who 
 commits It It is all the more grievous. (2) A grievous 
 sin in such a case does not prove that he who is auiity 
 of It IS a hypocrite, or that he will be cast away. He 
 IS a backslider, and may be pardoned and healed. He is a 
 jroward child, and may be heavily chastened, " but not 
 
 " ^ii^^'^if "'T-^' ^^^^ abideih faithful they are not 
 
 ^rt^/^^ The phraseology at the end of the Article has 
 evidently been chosen with studied care on the one hand 
 not to encourage licence, on the other not to suggest de- 
 si^air God s mercy IS not withheld from the inconsistent 
 Ctiristian who has lapsed into a mood of spiritual languor ■ 
 no, not even though he has fallen into grievous sins T and 
 the faithlessness of men is not permitted to shake the 
 ^ithfulness of Him AVho called them into the fellowship of 
 His Son. The approval of God is taken from backsliders ; 
 tne light of His countenance is withdrawn: and the 
 sanctifying operation of His Spirit is suspended ; but His 
 niercy is not taken away, nor is His purpose of salvation 
 changed. Discussing the " Certainty of Salvation " and St 
 Pauls teaching on that subject in Rom. viii., a good 
 divine* has said: "The apostle does not rest the perse- 
 verance of the saints on the indestructible nature of faith or 
 on the imperishable nature of the principle of grace in 'the 
 heart or on the constancy of the believer's will, but solely 
 on what is out of ourselves. Perseverance, he teaches us 
 is due to the purpose of God, to the work of Christ, to the 
 
 * Dr. Charles Hodge. 
 
SANCTIFICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 157 
 
 indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and to the primal source of 
 all — the infinite, mysterious, and immutable love of God." 
 
 So we believe that the Lord will not cast off or cast out 
 any one whom He has received to the promise of eternal 
 life. He will not let go His hold of any one whom He has 
 apprehended for salvation, or let any evil power pluck a 
 human soul out of His hand. 
 
 But does not St. Paul use the term " castaway," and ex- 
 press some fear of incurring that doom ? The answer is 
 that the term does occur in the Authorised Version of 
 I Cor. ix. 27, but not with reference to salvation. In that 
 passage St. Paul refers to his service as a Christian apostle, 
 and to the diligence which he had to exercise in his office 
 and work, lest, after preaching to others, he should be re- 
 jected; i.e., disapproved in his ministry. As to personal 
 salvation, he had no misgiving whatever. 
 
 Undoubtedly the Bible recognises the existence both 
 of temporary adherents to the Gospel, and of obdurate 
 apostates ; but does not admit that these had been at any 
 time truly spiritual. Their convictions never were more 
 than superficial, or their hearts never were knit to Christ 
 and the Church. Of such persons St. John wrote: "They 
 went out from us, but they were not of us : for if they had 
 been of us, they would have continued with us " ( i John 
 ii. 19, R. v.). 
 
 " But are chastened for their backsliding:' —TYi&xe. is 
 a rod of God for the correction of undutiful children ; the 
 sword, which has the power to slay, being reserved for His 
 adversaries. Whom the Lord loves He chastens ; and in 
 critical cases the correction may be very sore. When King 
 David had sinned presumptuously he got such a blow from 
 the rod as broke his bones ; nevertheless, God made those 
 broken bones rejoice (Psalm li. 8). Far from making light 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 of sin by our doctrine of perseverance, we believe in no 
 impunity. Least of all in His own children will the Heavenly 
 Father allow evil to pass without some mark of His dis- 
 pleasure. They who grieve His Spirit will be visited with 
 the chastisement of pain and loss in this world, or else 
 will .suffer a greater loss hereafter, and forfeit something of 
 the heavenly inheritance. 
 
 " A?id through repentance are restored to His favour, so 
 that they perish Jiot." — When the chastisement is laid to 
 heart, repentance is renewed. We know that there are un- 
 happy men, who, after dabbling in religion for a while, fall 
 away from it, and cannot be renewed unto repentance 
 (Heb. vi. 4-61. But it is otherwise with those in whom 
 the Sijirit of ( jod, though grieved, abides. They are recalled 
 to their right mind, abhor themselves, and with contrition seek 
 the face of God. Then He restores them to favour — at least, 
 to this extent : " That they perish not ". This is the one 
 thing secured. They may never become what they would 
 have been had they continued steadfast ; but they will not 
 be cast into " the perdition of ungodly men ." 
 
 This is only a minimu»i. Aim far higher. The will of 
 God is your sanctification ; and sanctification should prepare 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 
Article XVII. 
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 We acknowledge one holy Catholic Church, the innumer- 
 able company of saints of every age and nation, who, being 
 united by the Holy Spirit to Christ their Head, are one 
 body in Him, and have communion with their Lord and 
 with one another : further, we receive it as the will of Christ 
 that His Church on earth should exist as a visible and 
 sacred brotherhood, consisting of those who profess faith 
 in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him, together with their 
 children, and organised for the confession of His name, the 
 public worship of God, the upbuilding of the saints, and the 
 proclamation of the Gospel ; and we acknowledge, as a part, 
 more or less pure, of this universal brotherhood, every par- 
 ticular Church throughout the world which professes this 
 faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him, as Divine Lord 
 and Saviour. 
 
 The doctrine of the Church, here stated, entirely corre- 
 sponds with the teaching of the Reformed Confessions. It 
 (159) 
 
i6o 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 has no breath of sectarianism, but is large-souled and 
 genuinely catholic. 
 
 Two thoughts are dominant in this Article. (i)The 
 unity of the Church. (2) The distinction between the 
 Church in its divine ideal and the Church in manifesta- 
 tion and profession. 
 
 A distinction is often drawn between the Church militant 
 and the Church triumphant. But every one understands 
 that this does not mean two separate Churches. It is one 
 Church, as there is one family " in heaven and on earth ". 
 
 The holy Church on earth must fight 
 Against the devil and his might ; 
 The Church in heaven with war hath done, 
 And yet the two are only one. 
 
 But the objection is taken to the distinction drawn 
 between the Church spiritual and the Church of Christian 
 profession, that it makes two Churches out of one. And 
 some colour is given to the objection by the use of the 
 phrases Church invisible and Church visible. These terms 
 are not well chosen, and we avoid them. But the distinc- 
 tion which they were meant to indicate is one which we are 
 bound to maintain. We, therefore, acknowledge the one 
 Church of God, and add that it exists on earth as " a visible 
 and sacred brotherhood". 
 
 The Roman doctrine denies the distinction altogether, 
 and maintains that the Church is essentially a visible 
 organised society, out of which there is no promise of 
 salvation. To such society they ascribe all the powers and 
 prerogatives which are assigned in Holy Writ to the Church 
 Spiritual, the Body of Christ.* 
 
 * " The Roman Church teaches that the Church is priitcipaliter 
 Institution ; the Protestant that it is principalitcr Fellowship." — 
 W. B. Pope in Winer's Confessions of Christendom. 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 i6i 
 
 The Article is in three parts : — 
 
 I. Of the Church in Essential Idea. 
 
 " H e acknowledge one holy catholic Church, the innu- 
 merable company of saints of every age and nation." — It 
 is " one," for it is the m_vstical Body of Christ. But the 
 very fact that it is one shows us that it may not be identified 
 with any outward organisation of Christians ; for no one but 
 a sheer bigot can think that all the saved people on the 
 earth are enclosed within the particular Church to which he 
 is attached. The unity must be and is in spirit, not in form. 
 
 It is " holy," for all its members are called to holiness ; 
 and their fellowship constitutes " a holy temple in the Lord ". 
 Israel was a holy nation ; but now from all nations a holy 
 people is gathered — "the innumerable company of saints". 
 
 It is " catholic," because it embraces men of all regions 
 and all races, partakers of a common faith, cheered and 
 purified by a common hope of glory. 
 
 " Who, being u)iited by the Holy Spirit to Christ their 
 Head, are o?ie body in Him, and have communion ivith 
 their Lord and ivith one another." — As individual (Christi- 
 anity, so also collective Christianity has for its Author the 
 Holy Spirit. Men do not "join the Church," but are joined 
 to the Lord by the power of the Spirit, and by the same 
 power are formed together into His body the Church. One 
 cannot be in Christ, without being in the Church in this sense 
 of the word. One cannot be in the Church, without being 
 in Christ. Indeed, the Bible does not mention Church- 
 membership, except in this manner : " We are members of 
 His body ". And we have such membership through faith 
 and love — not the profession, but the reality. 
 
 This fundamental doctrine of the Church essential, the 
 body mystical of Christ, is set forth in several of the old 
 
l62 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Confessions. Thus the Belgic : " We behave and profess 
 one cathohc or universal Church, which is a holy congre- 
 gation and assembly of true Christian believers '\ The 
 Scottish : " Ane Kirk, that is to say, ane company and 
 multitude of men chosen of God, who richtly worship Him 
 by true faith in Christ Jesus ". The Irish Articles of Re- 
 ligion (a.d. 1615), which form the link between the Thirty- 
 nine Articles and the Westminster Symbols : " There is 
 but one catholic Church (out of which there is no salva- 
 tion), containing the universal company of all the saints, 
 gathered together in one body, under one Head, Jesus 
 Christ ". The ^^'estminster Confession : " The catholic 
 or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the 
 whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be 
 gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof ; and is the 
 spouse, the body, the fulness of Him that fiUeth all in all ". 
 
 With this conception of the one Church of God in our 
 minds, we are not so much perplexed or alarmed by the 
 diversities of Church order which appear, as they are and 
 must be who draw no distinction between essence and form. 
 We regret the excessive multiplication of Churches for many 
 reasons ; but it does not invade the unity of the Church 
 spiritual and essential, to which perpetuity and universality 
 belong. Perpetuity, for it must continue till the Lord 
 accomplishes the number of His elect. Universality, 
 because it embraces the saints of all nations. L7>i Christus, 
 ibi eccksia. 
 
 II. Of the Church in Present Manifestation. 
 "Further, we i-eceive it as the will of Christ that His 
 Church on earth should exist as a visible a7id sacred brother- 
 hood." — Such is the concrete form given to the spiritual 
 essence. " Brotherhood " is a better word for our purpose 
 than "society," which is hackneyed, and is apt to suggest 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 something founded by men. The Lord Jesus Christ is the 
 Founder and the Foundation of the Church as a sacred 
 brotherhood ; and its claims on us are superior to those of 
 any other association or federation whatever. 
 
 " Consisting of tliose tvlw profess faith in Jesus Christ, and 
 obedience to Hun, together with their c/iiidren:'~The W'est- 
 mmster Confession says: "Those that profess the true 
 rehgion, and their children '■. prefer the langua^re of 
 
 our Article regarding the necessary profession, because one 
 may surely be within the pale of the Church who is not yet 
 sufficiently instructed in " the true religion " to make intelli- 
 gent profession thereof The children of professed Chris- 
 tians are recognised in both documents ; for no theory of 
 the Church seems to us to satisfy Scripture, or history or 
 the instincts of the heart, which leaves the children of a 
 Christian family outside the pale. We believe it to be the 
 will of Christ that the Church should enclose the household 
 when the parents profess, or even one of the parents pro- 
 fesses, faith and obedience. Our Lord did not char^^e the 
 young children to come to Him, or embrace the ffospel 
 when they should be old enough to think and act for 
 themselves, but took them in His arms at once when their 
 mothers brought them for His blessing. And in more than 
 one epistle to a Church St. Paul took thought for the 
 children, and wrote to them as within the 'visible and 
 sacred brotherhood. 
 
 The Church is, and ought to be, organised and fitly framed 
 together. \\ hat its order and constitution ought to be is 
 not discussed in this place, but the ends for which the 
 organisation should exist are stated as four in number ■ -d- 
 witness, worship, edification, and evangelisation. ' 
 
 i^" Organised for the confession of His {Christ's) name." 
 — Ihis needs no exposition. It is obvious from the 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 language of our Lord before His Ascension (Acts i. 8) that 
 the first use of the Spirit-born Church is to bear witness to 
 Jesus Christ unto the uttermost part of the earth. Each 
 Christian person is called to confess His holy name ; and the 
 Church, or brotherhood of Christians, in all forms of it and 
 in all places, is intended to bear a combined and continuous 
 testimony to the world that Jesus is " the Christ, the Son of 
 the living God ". Simon Peter, making that confession, was 
 the first stone of witness in " the foundation of apostles and 
 prophets," and ever since stone has been laid upon stone in 
 the great edifice of testimony to our I^ord and His divine 
 power to save. 
 
 2. The public worship of God." — Private worship may be 
 rendered without any definite Church fellowship, but for 
 public worship we should " assemble with the Church," as 
 Paul and Barnabas did at Antioch. The Church is bound 
 to regulate and render such public worship according to the 
 New Testament, as "having boldness to enter into the holy 
 place by the blood of Jesus". Many forms of religion are 
 content with the adoration by priests at the shrine, and the 
 desultory devotion of individual worshippers in the outer 
 courts, varied by occasional festivals that draw the multi- 
 tude ; but pure Christianity requires the worshipping 
 assembly or Church, in which all devout spirits form a holy 
 priesthood offering spiritual sacrifice. 
 
 3. " The tiphuilding of tlie saints." — Everything in the 
 Church should "be done unto edifying". The public 
 teaching, the administration of sacraments, the intercourse 
 of counsel and sympathy, and the mutual intercession — all 
 should tend to the building up of saints in their most holy 
 faith, and the building of them together by the cohesive 
 force of brotherly kindness and charity. 
 
 4. And the proclamation of the Gospel." — No doubt this 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 lies as an obligation on every believer. According to his 
 opportunity, he ought to publish the good tidings. But the 
 great enterprise of the propagation of the Gospel through 
 the world calls for the combined energies of the Church. 
 Individualism is inadequate to the training of skilled 
 preachers, the defraying of inevitable expenses, the trans- 
 lation, publication, and circulation of the Bible in the 
 languages of the world, and the maintenance of a sufficient 
 and continuous supply of missionaries at central stations, 
 'i his calls for the organised action of the Church. We do 
 not say, of a Missionary Society formed by men, with a 
 pecuniary title to membership, but of the Church which God 
 has formed for this very purpose. 
 
 Such are the chief ends for which the Church exists in 
 concrete form or forms on the earth. The Westminster 
 Confession has two chapters— one on the Church, and the 
 other on the Communion of Saints. The latter (chapter 
 xxvi.) has this fine statement : " Saints by profession are 
 bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the 
 worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual ser- 
 vices as tend to their mutual edification ; as also in relieving 
 each other in outward things, according to their several 
 abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offereth 
 opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who in every 
 place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus." No Puritan 
 narrowness, surely, in that last sentence, but a generous 
 catholic mind. 
 
 III. Of Churche.s in the Church. 
 
 We must say something of the divers communities into 
 which modern Christians are divided or distributed. We 
 offer no opinion here on the separations which have 
 occurred, whether they be justifiable or not. Probably an 
 impartial judgment would hold that some of them have been 
 
i66 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 and are unavoidable, while others that once had some reason 
 have now hardly an excuse. But these are questions of 
 detail. The Article takes facts as they are, and makes the 
 best of them. 
 
 "And we acknowledge as a part, more or less pure, of 
 this 7/mversal brotherhood, every particular Church through- 
 out the world which professes this faith in Jesus Christ and 
 obedience to Him, as Divine Lord atid Saviour." — As a 
 matter of fact, there must be "particular Churches". 
 Even if all the Christians within a realm or nation could 
 be held together in one, the habits of distinct nations 
 and the use of divers languages would still require for each 
 country a separate Church. No ground could be adduced 
 from Scripture, or from reason, for squeezing the Chris- 
 tians of all countries and languages into one huge organi- 
 sation, subject to one central control. There is no universal 
 bishop but the Lord Jesus Christ; no Holy See with 
 world-wide authority, but His throne. 
 
 A particular Church in this or some other country may 
 seem to us ill-taught and ill-constituted, but if it professes 
 faith and obedience, as above stated, we have no right to 
 deny that it forms a part of the general visible Church of 
 God. Those who do not recognise Christ as " Divine 
 Lord and Saviour " may call themselves Christians, and 
 many of them are most exemplary people. We do not 
 presume to say how Unitarians, and other deists, may be 
 regarded by the Lord : but remembering His words in 
 St. Matt. xvi. 1 6- 1 8, we are unable to include them in 
 our conception of the Church. 
 
 We are widely separated from some of the particular 
 Churches. We even protest against their errors in doctrine 
 and corruptions of worship. Therefore we have to protect 
 our consistency by insertion of the significant phrase 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 167 
 
 " more or less picre," which is taken from the Irish Articles 
 already quoted, and from the Westminster Confession. 
 The latter document contains this sentence : " Particular 
 Churches, which are members of the catholic Church 
 visible, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine 
 of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances admin- 
 istered, and public worship performed more or less purely 
 in them ". 
 
 This last statement suggests those " Notes of the 
 Church," i.e., of the Church in concrete manifestation, 
 which have been so much canvassed in ecclesiastical 
 controversy. Many of those which are advanced by 
 Roman Catholic divines, we deny to be marks at all ; 
 e.g., submission to the pope, power to work miracles, and 
 infallibility in matters of faith. Protestants, both 
 Lutheran and Reformed, took the preaching of the 
 Gospel and the due administration of the Sacraments to be 
 the external Notes of the Church.* The Scottish Confession 
 added a third ; viz. : " Ecclesiastical discipline uprightly 
 ministered, as God's Word prescribes, whereby vice is 
 reproved and virtue nourished ". The Scottish Reforma- 
 tion, like the Genevan, was earnestly applied to life as 
 well as to doctrine and worship. 
 
 It is the duty of every Christian to be openly and 
 zealously identified with the most pure Church that is 
 within his reach. Of the obligations to the brotherhood 
 which this involves, the next Article speaks. Enough 
 here to urge that all true Christians are Churchmen in 
 the best sense of the term, and ought to cultivate a 
 Church-consciousness, shunning the narrow temper of 
 sectaries and partisans. 
 
 * See Augsburg Conf. , art. vii. Second Helvetic, xvii. 17. 
 
Article XVIII. 
 
 OF CHURCH ORDER AND FELLOWSHIP. 
 
 ^^'t• believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Head of 
 His Church, has appointed its worship, teaching, discipline 
 and government to be administered according to His will 
 revealed in Holy Scripture, by officers chosen for their fit- 
 ness, and duly set apart to their office ; and although the 
 visible Church, even in its purest branch, may contain un- 
 worthy members, and is liable to err, yet believers ought 
 not lightly to separate themselves from its communion, but 
 are to live in fellowship with their brethren : which fellow- 
 ship is to be extended, as God gives opportunity, to all who 
 in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 This must be understood of the Church in the concrete — 
 the "visible and sacred brotherhood" — though the heart 
 of the matter always lies in the communion of saints who 
 are saints indeed, bearing a common relation to God in 
 Christ, and possessing a common life in the Spirit. So far 
 as practicable, this essential and vita! fellowship is to be 
 maintained and exhibited among those who have been called 
 (i68) 
 
CHURCH ORDER AND FELLOWSHIP. 
 
 '' saints by profession ". And a right understanding of this 
 is highly conducive to the comfort and usefuhiess of Chris- 
 tians, as persons not only saved one by one, but also linked 
 together in a community. 
 
 I. Of Church Order. 
 
 This is a subject which many persons, otherwise intelli- 
 gent, depreciate and dislike. They attend this church or 
 that, because it is the nearest to their homes, or the music 
 is good, or the service agreeable to their taste, but as to its 
 administration they know and care very little. In their eyes 
 church discipline is tyranny. If anything should go against 
 their mind they would leave that church and go to another, 
 sure of a welcome in these days of ecclesiastical competition. 
 It IS a time of fickleness and self-pleasing. All the more 
 need to teach the truth about church order. 
 
 Under this title we do not specify any distinctive Church 
 polity as defide. Neither did our ancestors who drew up the 
 confession at Westminster. The subject of polity has its 
 own importance, and is treated of in the Appendix to the 
 Twenty-four Articles ; but it is placed in that subsidiary 
 position just because it is not in the front rank of religious 
 truths. Enough to put it forth as our faith that the Church 
 of God IS no formless heap, but an organic whole with an 
 orderly and authoritative administration, which is derived 
 neither from the clergy nor from the laity, but from the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, tlie sole Head of 
 His Church."— M\ the Reformed Confessions lay emphasis 
 on the Headship of Christ as implying direction and rule. 
 The Westminster Confession calls Him "King and Head"; 
 but the former title is not appropriate in this place. The 
 Bible nowhere speaks of a King of the Church ; and the 
 
I70 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 conception has slipped in through a mistaken identification 
 of the Church with the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of 
 heaven. These are in correspondence with each other, but 
 there is a distinction between them which we do not wish to 
 lose. Therefore, we are well content with the statement 
 for which we have St. Paul's authority (Eph. iv. 15 ; Col. 
 i. 18) that Jesus Christ is Head of the Church, and so 
 has the right to influence the feeling and movement of the 
 body, and to command and control" its activities. 
 
 The Headship of our Lord over the Mystical Body, i.e., 
 the genuine spiritual Church, no reader of the New Testa- 
 ment can dispute. But the organised community of such 
 as profess faith and obedience, together with their'children, 
 ought to follow the ideal, and body forth the conception of 
 the Church essential and spiritual. Therefore, we affirm that 
 Christ is rightful Head of the visible Church also, so that 
 all Church power is derived from Him and to be exercised 
 in His name. 
 
 We also maintain that there is no other Head of the 
 Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. His sole headship is 
 contradicted both in theory and practice over a great part of 
 Christendom. It is represented that Christ is the Supreme 
 Head indeed, but that there is a subordinate terrestrial 
 head also. We ask where this is to be found in the New 
 Testament, or in primitive Christianity. When and where 
 did our Lord delegate His authority over the Church to a 
 temporal head as His vicar ? To our reasonable demand 
 we get no satisfaction ; and, therefore, we altogether reject 
 the claim of the Pope at Rome to be honoured and obeyed 
 as head of the Church. We also refuse to acknowledge our 
 own sovereign, or any other earthly potentate^ as in any proper 
 sense, head of the Church, or "supreme governor and judge 
 in causes ecclesiastical ". The civil and ecclesiastical 
 
CHURCH ORDER AND FELLOWSHIP. 171 
 
 spheres are different in their nature, and the qualifications 
 for civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction are different and may 
 not be confounded. In and over the Church, as adminis- 
 tering spiritual things, the sovereign of the realm has no 
 rightful sway — none whatever. 
 
 " Has appointed its worship, teaching, discipline and 
 government to be administered by officers chosen for their 
 fitness, and duly set apart to their office^ — The sole Head of 
 the Church being in heaven, or, though present with the 
 Church on earth by His Spirit, yet unseen, how is the ad- 
 ministration under His authority to be carried on? The 
 answer is, "by officers"; and this expression is chosen to 
 avoid in this place any affirmation regarding " Holy Orders ". 
 We acknowledge two orders, not three. \Ve find in the New 
 Testament bishops or presbyters, and deacons. We do not 
 find bishops, priests, and deacons. But the Twenty four 
 Articles are " of the Faith," and may be useful, it is hoped, 
 to Churches that are not Presbyterian. Therefore we rele- 
 gate this question of orders to the Appendix, showing that we 
 attach to it secondary, not primary, importance. What is 
 essential to the orderly administration of the Church under 
 Christ is that it be committed to men in office ; that these 
 be chosen for their fitness, capable men and worthy of 
 respect ; and that they be duly set apart, or ordained, not 
 mere committee-men, serving for a term and throwing off 
 their duties at pleasure, but men seriously devoted to 
 Christ's service in the Church for life, or, at all events, for 
 a long term of years. 
 
 It is not said that they must be chosen by the Christian 
 people ; because, though such is the fitting and reasonable 
 course in the case of appointing officers over a particular 
 congregation, those who are to fill positions of a wider and 
 more arduous character may be more properly selected by 
 
172 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 some board of supervision, or Church assembly. The point 
 of importance is that men are not to choose themselves, or 
 push their candidature, or in any way grasp at promotion and 
 power ; but are to wait till their fitness for office is recog- 
 nised by others. 
 
 '■'According to His 'will revealed in Holy Scripture." — 
 Church officers have no leave to "lord it over God's heri- 
 tage," or to issue decrees and censures at their pleasure. 
 Their duty is to construe the will of the Lord as conveyed 
 in the Scriptures, and applying this according to their best 
 judgment to present conditions and wants, to carry on the 
 whole spiritual administration according to Christ Jesus. 
 This does not mean that they must be able to cite e.xpress 
 words of Scripture in support of every direction they give or 
 every decision at which they arrive. But they are to regu- 
 late and conduct the worship and work of the Church in 
 conformity with the principles enunciated by our Lord and 
 His apostles. And this should be enough to exclude carnal 
 policy, invidious respect of persons, connivance at evil, and 
 the imposition of a burdensome ceremonial on the freemen 
 of Christ. 
 
 The idea of a Church administration not subject to courts 
 of civil jurisdiction is unwelcome and alarming to many 
 minds. They think at once and with repugnance of courts 
 of ecclesia.stics, judging according to the canon law ; and 
 they protest in the name of human liberty that there must 
 be an apjieal to the judges of the realm. i3ut, according to 
 our statement, the law to be administered is not canon 
 law, but the will of Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture. 
 The judges are not a close clerical caste, but officers chosen 
 by the Church. And their jurisdiction does not touch the 
 liberty of the subject, or wield civil penalties, but confines 
 itself to the region of conscience, and the question of Church 
 
CHURCH ORDER AND FELLOWSHIP. 
 
 Standing and privilege. We do not deny that such courts are 
 fallible, as the civil courts are also. We do not dispute that 
 there ought even to be an appeal from their decision even, in 
 the last resort ; only not to courts of civil jurisdiction, nor to 
 the occupants of earthly thrones. The ultimate appeal is to 
 the Lord Himself, Who, at His coming in His kingdom, 
 will know how to redress all injustice and remedy every 
 wrong. 
 
 n. Of Church Fellowship. 
 
 The chief objects to be served by such fellowship have 
 been enumerated under the previous Article. The present 
 statement refers to patient continuance in the fellowship of 
 the Church, and is directed against separatism and schism. 
 
 " And although the visible Church, even in its purest 
 //ranch, may contain unworthy nienibers, and is liable to 
 err" — The fact must be faced, that the Church, as seen 
 and known on earth, does not at all come up to the ideal 
 of a communion of saints ; nor is there anything very 
 surprising in this. Individual Christians, as they appear, do 
 not reach the ideal of what they ought to be under their holy 
 calling : and so it is not to be wondered at that the collec- 
 tion or assembly of professed Christians falls short both 
 in faith and in practice of what ought to be found in a 
 people "called saints". 
 
 The Reformed Churches generally make admissions 
 similar to that which is contained in our Article. Thus the 
 twenty-sixth of the Thirty-nine Articles recognises a mingling 
 of "the evil with the good" in the visible Church; and pro- 
 ceeds to require that in the disciphne of the community, 
 " ministers found guilty of offences be deposed ''. There 
 is no reason, however, why discipline should be confined 
 to " ministers ". The Westminster Confession says : "The 
 purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture 
 
174 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 and to error". The mixture is of worthy and unworthy 
 members. The error may be in doctrine or in practice. 
 In such statements, our fathers had in view (i) to disclaim 
 their own infallibility, as they had already denied that of 
 the Pope; (2) to stimulate endeavours for the purifying 
 of Churches ; (3) to discourage that separatism which tries 
 to justify itself on the plea that the Churches are faulty, 
 and that it is necessary to withdraw from them in order to 
 form a pure communion. 
 
 " Vef believers ought not lightly to separate the7iiselves frotii 
 its comiiumion, but are to live in fellowship with their 
 brethren." — The word "lighdy" is introduced because it 
 is impossible to deny that in the case of a Church seriously 
 tainted in doctrine and practice, an individual, if he cannot 
 bring about reformation, may be compelled for conscience' 
 sake to take an attitude of open protest. But the general 
 rule is that one should be very slow to abandon or alter 
 his Church ; and the particular warning is against breaking 
 up Church relations with a view to form some coterie which 
 only regenerate and spiritual persons may enter. That is a 
 policy of censoriousness, disintegration, and schism. Yet 
 they who follow it are often heard to condemn sectarianism 
 and dilate on oneness in Christ. They seem to think that 
 by discrediting and forsaking His visible Church in all its 
 historical forms, they will realise what has never yet been 
 seen on earth — an absolutely pure communion. 
 
 ^Vhen we express ourselves in this way, we may be 
 asked how we justify our fathers in their separation from 
 the Catholic Church. Our answer is that they did not leave 
 the Catholic Church. They renounced the Pope, and all 
 such dogmas, traditions, and ceremonies as obscured the 
 Gospel of grace. But they were Reformers, not sect- 
 makers. When they succeeded in reforming the historic 
 
CHURCH ORDER AND FELLOWSHIP. I 75 
 
 Church of their country, they remained in its fellowship. 
 \V hen they failed, they were driven to worship apart But 
 not one of them changed his creed to say : " I believe in 
 the Protestant Church ". They all continued to say ■ I 
 believe in the holy catholic Church ". 
 
 If, further, it be demanded of us, why we are separate 
 in England from the historic Church of this country, our 
 answer is: (i) That this historic Church was in the judg- 
 ment of our fathers insufficiently reformed : (2) That the^y 
 were not permitted to abide in that Church with a view to 
 complete its reformation, but excluded by Act of Parliament 
 for not conforming to certain fashions and ceremonies in 
 worship. No one who has any true conception of the 
 spiritual origin and nature of the Church, can hold that 
 Parliament has any right to determine the worship or the 
 fellowship of saints. 
 
 Still further, if we are asked how we justify the splits and 
 secessions which have occurred in the annals of our own 
 Churches, we are not concerned to justify them. Men of 
 the period felt constrained to make them, breaking the 
 peace, as they judged, for righteousness' sake and fo^r the 
 truth s sake. They may have been mistaken, or they may 
 not. One thing is worthy to be remembered, that our 
 lathers never abandoned a Church on a mere ground of in- 
 dividualism, or to make a holy nest apart for themselves and 
 a select company. They always were Churchmen, ^eekin- 
 through their testimonies and sufferings to save the Church 
 of Cod from spiritual damage. 
 
 We are not bound to vindicate all that our ecclesia<;tical 
 ancestors said or did. Our duty is to ponder welf the 
 lessons of history, alike for example and for warnine, to hold 
 fast the heritage of truth, order, and liberty, which^has been 
 transmitted to us, and to beware of letting our minds fall 
 
176 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 into the narrow grooves of sectism. This last sentiment is 
 expressed in the final clause of the Article. 
 
 " Which (brotherly) fellowship is to be extended, as God 
 i^ives opportunity, to all 7vho in every place call upoft tlie name 
 of the Lord Jesus." — The words are taken from the twenty- 
 sixth chapter of the Westminster Confession. Where is the 
 Puritan sourness ? Where is the Calvinistic bigotry? Has 
 any Church whatever put into authorised words a more kind 
 and comprehensive recognition of the Christian brotherhood 
 without any condition of orders, administration, or forms of 
 service ? Christ's people are our people : His brethren our 
 brethren all the world over. 
 
 A formalist is perplexed by the slightest divergence from 
 the usages of his particular Church. He knows so little of 
 the substance of religion that he recognises it only in one 
 shape and one dress. But an enlightened and large- 
 hearted Christian rises above slavery to form, knows the 
 truth as it is in Jesus, and loves all those that are " of the 
 truth ". Thus he finds brothers wherever he goes, and is at 
 home everywhere with the children of God. 
 
Article XIX. 
 
 OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 We believe that God, Who manifests Himself in creation 
 and providence, and especially in the spirit of man, has 
 been pleased to reveal His mind and will for our salvation 
 at successive periods and in various ways ; and that this 
 Revelation has been, so far as needful, committed to writing 
 by men inspired of the Holy Spirit, in the Scriptures of the 
 Old and New Testaments, which are therefore to be de- 
 voutly studied by all as God's written Word or message to 
 mankind : and we reverently acknowledge the Holy Spirit 
 speaking in the Scriptures to be the Supreme Judge in ques- 
 tions of faith and duty. 
 
 A STATEMENT on this subject cannot be longer delayed. 
 In Article XVI. we have spoken of following " the guid- 
 ance of His Word " ; and in Article XVIII. of " Christ's 
 will revealed in Holy Scripture ". What is this Holy Scrip- 
 ture? 
 
 The word " Revelation " is of larger meaning than 
 "Bible" or "Scripture". It denotes the unveiling of the 
 (177) 
 
178 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 unseen or undiscerned. The revelation of God therefore is 
 all that process by which He has made Himself known to 
 man. And the object of this Article is to state how the 
 revelation came and how it took definite body and shape in 
 the sacred Book. 
 
 I. Of Divine Revelation Unwritten. 
 
 " JVe believe that God, WIio manifests Hiinself in creation 
 and providence, and especially in the spirit of man.'' — Crea- 
 tion displays the power and wisdom of God. Providence 
 shows Him all-pervasive, all-sustaining, all-controlling. 
 And the spirit of man by its intellectual and moral constitu- 
 tion suggests, postulates, and helps us to apprehend the 
 supreme intelligence and moral attributes of God. Even 
 though we had no Scripture, we have enough around and 
 within us to persuade a serious thinker that God is, and is 
 above all — perfect in knowledge and in might, and in those 
 qualities which are recognised as moral by the human heart 
 and conscience. 
 
 " Has hee7i pleased to reveal His mind and will for our 
 salvation at successive periods and in various ways." — This 
 revelation goes beyond " the light of nature ". It does not 
 come through the study of creation or providence, or from the 
 construction or intuition of the spirit of man. It has come 
 through significant acts of God towards and among men, 
 interpositions in history, and communications through 
 chosen messengers and prophets. Given at " successive 
 periods," this revelation has a cumulative force. Given in 
 "divers ways," it has been for men of all sorts and all 
 nations, but in the main was confined for many centuries to 
 one people chosen from the nations to receive, preser\-e, and 
 transmit the knowledge of God. 
 
 Every one is aware of the distinction drawn between the 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 179 
 
 manifestation of God in nature and providence and that 
 which is declared to us concerning Him in the Bible. But 
 here is another distinction, and one that may show us 
 the way through many difficulties. It is the distinction 
 between the revelation spoken and the record thereof, or 
 revelation written. It is one thing to say God spoke to the 
 Hebrew fathers in the prophets, and at last in His Son : 
 " Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ". 
 It is another thing to say that the things so spoken have 
 been in good measure written for our learning. Let each 
 statement stand for itself, and be responsible only for what 
 follows from itself Revelation cannot be limited to the 
 Bible. There were servants of God who knew and did His 
 will during hundreds of years before a single book of Scrip- 
 ture was in existence. Again, in the beginning of our era, 
 the Church existed for years and spread abroad, before a 
 line of the New Testament had been published. But there 
 was revelation of God and of Christ orally conveyed. 
 
 II. Of Revelation Written. 
 "And that this Revelation has been, so far as needful, com- 
 mitted to writing by men inspired of the Holy Spirit, in the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments." — What was at 
 first oral was exposed to risks of corruption and oblivion, 
 to escape which it was set down in authentic written form. 
 Litera scripta nmnet. Not all that God had conveyed to, 
 and through. His prophets, but so much thereof as He saw 
 to be "needful" to mankind. So the French Confession 
 says : " The Word of God, which was in the beginning 
 revealed through oracles, was afterwards committed to writ- 
 ing in the books which we call the Holy Scriptures ". It is 
 this record of a revelation, translated out of the original 
 tongues, which we call the English Bible. 
 
i8o 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Keeping in view the fact that revelation came first and 
 the record of it second, we are the better able to understand 
 the following characteristics of the Bible : — 
 
 I. Its historical form, and the progress of its thought. — 
 The Bible is not at all a collection of old hymns, or mythic 
 stories and traditions, unconnected with human history, and 
 covered with a grey mist of indefinite antiquity. No more 
 is it a simultaneous outburst of religious thought and feeling 
 from one mind, or at one period, like the Koran. In large 
 measure it is a book of historical facts, defying contradiction. 
 It tells of a knowledge of God that came in a historical 
 fashion, through historical persons, and along a line of his- 
 torical succession. It is the record of a revelation which 
 grew throughout the ages, and which reached its fulness in 
 the manifestation of the Father in the Son, and in the 
 teaching of the apostles through the power of the Holy 
 Spirit. In a word, our Bible is not an oracle ready made 
 and dropped from heaven, but a record of truth historically 
 and progressively conveyed. 
 
 As we have indicated, this differentiates the Bible from the 
 Koran, which is the production of one age, one race, and, 
 in the main, one mind. It also puts it in strong contrast 
 with those ancient religious poems, the Vedas of Hindostan. 
 These, indeed, are not from one mind or one period, but 
 are the effusions of poets who appeared at intervals during 
 several generations : but in the Vedas is no advance such as 
 there is in the Bible. The later poems have no more 
 divine knowledge than the earlier, if so much. "Of orderly 
 development," says an American scholar, "of a progressive 
 self-manifestation of one Deity, there is not in the Vedas 
 any trace. On the contrary, they run into confusions. 
 We are not led by them out into the clear ; we do not gain, 
 when the last poet has seen his vision, any one exalted con- 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 l8l 
 
 ception from which we can sun ey the whole course of their 
 revelations. They lead up to no height from which all 
 becomes clear. The sacred literature of the East reminds 
 us rather of an Indian jungle. It is luxuriant ; it abounds 
 in tropical fruits, but it is a pathless confusion. We look 
 into the Bible, and it is the pathway of the Lord. The 
 Vedas present a shifting play of lights and shadows. Some- 
 times the light seems to grow brighter, but the day never 
 comes. We are left still to dream. In the Bible the pro- 
 mise grows rill the shining of the perfect day."* 
 
 2. Its diversities of form and style. — The writers of the 
 Bible were many ; and of these not a few are unknown. It 
 must be remembered that the men who recorded the re- 
 velation are not always the men to whom the revelation was 
 imparted. One of the most momentous facts in the history 
 of religion is that God made Himself known to Abraham 
 His friend : but who wrote the account of this, which we 
 find in Genesis, no one can tell. There is no reason to think 
 that it is from Abraham's pen. It has been long believed 
 that Moses gave the biographical sketches of the patriarchs 
 their place and setting in that venerable book : but, even so, 
 Closes lived five hundred years after Abraham. Very im- 
 portant also is the revelation of Jehovah in degenerate days 
 to the prophets Elijah and Elisha : but no one knows 
 who wrote the record thereof in the Books of the Kings. 
 Above all, God revealed Himself in the Son of His 
 love ; but the Lord Jesus wrote not a line of our New 
 Testament. It was left to the evangelists to record that 
 great theophany. 
 
 Then the various writers of the Bible, writing without any 
 concert or prearrangement, set down, every man his own 
 portion in his own way, and in the style which suited his 
 * Newman Smjth's Old Faiths in Ncir Light, chap. ii. 
 
l82 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 theme and his cast of mind. Elevated poetry was not 
 attempted by Ezra the scribe : and, on the other hand, the 
 exactitude of the annalists is not to be looked for in the 
 l)ards and prophets. 
 
 Another point is to be kept in mind. The wTiters in 
 question had no knowledge that they were composing parts 
 of a Bible for the use of all mankind. Hence the un- 
 affected tone of each, and the ineffaceable stamp of the 
 period at which he wrote. 
 
 3. The inspiration of the lurifiug. — We say advisedly 
 " of the writing," for it is the Scripture which St. Paul 
 affirms to be theopieustic" (2 Tim. iii. 16). That "holy 
 men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost " is a 
 great truth ; but not enough for us who cannot hear them 
 speak. What we require is an authentic report of the re- 
 velation of God which was made through patriarchs, poets, 
 prophets, and apostles. And this is what we have in the 
 Bible. Various men of God, sometimes the same as the 
 original channels of the revelation, sometimes not, wrote 
 the report or record thereof in certain Hebrew and Greek 
 books, using such natural sources of information as were 
 open to them, and following each one the style of composi- 
 tion which was most congenial to bis mind. These books, 
 again, have been translated, with more or less accuracy, into 
 modern tongues. It is enough that the translators be honest 
 and competent scholars : but we want to be sure of a higher 
 qualification in the original writers ; and we express this by 
 saying that the writing was " by men inspired of the Holy 
 Spirit ". 
 
 It does not follow that all had the same measure of in- 
 spiration ; but on the miiona/e and varying measures of this 
 divine inbreathing, the Church does not pronounce. 
 
 Be it here observed that this statement is applied only 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 183 
 
 to the canonical " Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments,"' excluding the Apocryphal books which have claims 
 on our attention, but are not received as inspired. Also, 
 that the Church is not committed to any definite opinion as 
 to the authorship, age, or construction of any of the sacred 
 books, or as to the possibility of any inaccuracy being found 
 therein through the fault of the human author. Questions 
 of literary and historical criticism have no place in Articles 
 of Faith. 
 
 " Which (Scriptures) are therefore to be devoutly studied 
 by all as God" s ivritten Word or message to mankind." — It 
 is not easy to express the relation of the term " Word of 
 God "to the term "Holy Scripture". The former is much 
 the larger in its meaning, because it properly applies to all 
 communications from God, l)y messengers and prophets, 
 and by His Son Jesus Christ, whether recorded or not. Our 
 ecclesiastical predecessors did not pay much heed to this 
 distinction. Thus the Westminster divines said in the 
 Shorter Catechism : " The Word of God is contained in the 
 Scriptures,'' as though the former were smaller than the 
 latter. But in the Larger Catechism they said : " The 
 Holy Scriptures are the ^Vord of God," and in the Con- 
 fession of Faith they spoke of " Holy Scripture, or the Word 
 of God written ". The French Confession affirmed that 
 " the Word contained in these Books has proceeded from 
 God ". The Later Helvetic opens with an affirmation that 
 " the canonical Scriptures are the true Word of God''. In 
 sufficient accordance with those statements, we declare that 
 the Holy Writings are to be devoutly studied as " God's 
 written Word or message". Our fathers were concerned 
 chiefly with the assertion that Christians have in the Bible 
 a sufficient divine authority and guide apart from Church 
 tradition. But we have other questions to face; and the 
 
i84 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 language of our Article is carefully framed to guard and even 
 suggest that there has been a spoken Word more ample 
 than the written, and to urge men to search and study the 
 written record in order to obtain from it the divine message 
 there preserved for our learning. 
 
 " To be devoutly studied by all." — " Studied," because the 
 writings are such as require and reward examination and 
 reflection. While perspicuous enough to convey God's mes- 
 sage, not to select men only, but to mankind, they are not 
 so written as to expose their treasures on the surface to a 
 casual glance. They are to be investigated, compared, and 
 pondered with patience and candour, and to be " devoutly 
 studied," because they are sacred books. " Open Thou 
 mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy 
 Law." 
 
 " Studied by all.'' — This is a protest against the restric- 
 tion on the perusal of the Bible by the laity imposed by the 
 Latin Church. The Fourth Rule in the Roman Catholic 
 Index makes the following assertion : " It is manifest from 
 experience that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar 
 tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the 
 temerity of men will cause more evil than good to arise 
 from it ". Our reply to this is that our Lord recognised the 
 duty and advantage of searching the Scriptures by the men 
 of His time, and accounted for the errors of some by the 
 circumstance that they did not know the Scriptures : but that 
 He never pointed out any error or evil that sprang from a know- 
 ledge of Holy Writ. St. Peter speaks of some who " wrested 
 the Scriptures to their own destruction " ; but the possi- 
 bility of such a misuse of them is no argument against their 
 honest and pious use. St. Chrysostom said in his time : 
 " From ignorance of the Sacred Scriptures hath grown the 
 prevailing pest of heresies ". 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 III. Of the Divine Record Ikterpreted. 
 
 " Jl'e rrcerently acknowledge the Holy Spirit speaking in 
 the Scriptures to he the Supreme Judge in questions of faith and 
 duty." — The reformers in the sixteenth century saw clearly 
 that the Pope arrogated to himself not merely the office of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ as High Priest, but also that of the 
 Holy Ghost as the supreme and infallible Teacher of the 
 Church. And this has become still more evident in our own 
 time, since the infallibility of the Pope has been proclaimed 
 by the Vatican Council. It is held as of faith throughout 
 the Latin Church that the Bishop of Rome cannot err in 
 laying down what is divinely true. 
 
 You may discuss the inerrancy of Scriiiture ; but the 
 term infallibility does not apply to a writing. You ascribe 
 it, not to the lesson-book, but to the teacher ; not to the 
 statute-book, but to the judge. These functions of teacher 
 and judge in religion belong, in a supreme sense, to the 
 Holy Spirit : and He, He only, is infallible. So in the 
 Second Helvetic Confession you read : " U'e do not accept 
 any other judge in a matter of faith than God Himself 
 declaring through the Holy Scripture what is true, what is 
 false, what ought to be followed, and what ought to be 
 shunned "". The Westminster Confession has a similar 
 statement : " The Supreme Judge, by Which all controversies 
 of religion are to be detennined, and in Whose sentence we 
 are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in 
 the Scriptures 
 
 Granted that this does not secure definite deliverances or 
 judgments on points raised, like those of human judges in 
 sifting disputes and settling suits at law. Spiritual truth 
 does not admit of being defined and applied in that formal 
 way. But, on the other hand, let note be taken of this 
 prodigious advantage. The Spirit, to Whom we ascribe all 
 
i86 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 infallible opening of Scriptures, whether for the settling of 
 controversy, or for the guidance of life, has access, swift 
 and sure, to the minds and hearts of men, and is able to 
 do what no human pope, teacher, or judge can do — convey 
 the meaning and force of the Divine Word, accurately, 
 securely, and effectually, to those who wait on His instruc- 
 tion. He guides the Church from age to age into a know- 
 ledge of the Scriptures, ever increasing in clearness and 
 fulness. 
 
 The heart of all Bible-knowledge is the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ, in Whom, and not in the letter 
 of the Book, we have eternal life. To teach this is the 
 ever- congenial work of the Holy Ghost. Away with all 
 Bibliolatry which, like that of the Jews, whom our Lord 
 reproached (St. John v. 39, 40, 46, 47), shuts the eye of the 
 soul against Him of Whom the Bible testifies ! But onward 
 let us go in that Bible-searching, which, in reliance on the 
 interpretation and teaching of the Holy Ghost, has for its 
 aim to "see Jesus" — to recognise and reach the Christ, 
 the Saviour of the world ! 
 
Article XX. 
 
 I OF THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 We acknowledge Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the 
 two Sacraments instituted by Christ, to be of perpetual 
 obligation, as signs and seals of the new covenant, ratified 
 in His precious blood ; through the observance of which 
 His Church is to confess her Lord and to be visibly dis- 
 tinguished from the rest of the world : Baptism with water 
 into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost being the sacrament of admission into the 
 visible Church, in which are set forth our union to Christ 
 and regeneration by the Spirit, the remission of our sins, 
 and our engagement to be the Lord's ; and the Lord's 
 Supper, the sacrament of communion with Christ and with 
 His people, in which bread and wine are given and received 
 in thankful remembrance of Him and of His sacrifice on 
 the cross, and in which they who in faith receive the same 
 do, after a spiritual manner, partake of the body and blood 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, to their comfort, nourishment, 
 and growth in grace. 
 
 (187) 
 
SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Truths we believe and confess ; institutions we acknow- 
 ledge and observe. The former have the chief place in a 
 religion such as ours, which plants itself in the convictions 
 of the mind and heart : the latter, much made of in heathen 
 religions and in corrupted forms of Christianity, have com- 
 paratively little prominence in the Christianity of the New 
 Testament. Of ornate ceremonial such Christianity knows 
 nothing. An inaugural rite of Baptism, the frequent 
 assembly of the brethren at the Lord's Supper, the obser- 
 vance of the Lord's Day, and the supervision of the Christian 
 community by its own officers duly appointed : — there is 
 really nothing more. The truths of our religion are many 
 and weighty : the institutions are few and simple. 
 
 This Article refers to the sacraments only. As to the 
 term, it does not occur in Holy Writ, but has been intro- 
 duced to mark the sacredness of those rites ; and possibly 
 with some reference to the sacramentuin, or military oath 
 of allegiance among the Romans, because they indicate the 
 relation of fealty which Christians bear to the Captain of 
 their salvation. In the \'ulgate Version of the Scriptures, 
 sacranietitum is introduced as the equivalent of the 
 Greek term, " mystery " : but Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper are never called mysteries in any part of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 The Latin and Creek Churches recognise seven sacraments: 
 giving this title not only to the two which we all acknowledge, 
 but also to confirmation, penance, holy orders, matrimony, 
 and extreme unction. At the other extreme some modern 
 sects dispense with all sacraments, e.g., the Friends (Quakers), 
 who think that spirituality is opposed to symbolic rites, and 
 the Salvation Arm\-, which in practice neglects sacraments, 
 though not committed in principle to their rejection. In 
 common with all the Protestant and Reformed Churches we 
 
THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 189 
 
 acknowledge two sacraments only : Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper. 
 
 I. Wh.\.t They Have in Com.mon. 
 
 Both of these rites date from the time of our Lord, and 
 were instituted by Him. Therefore, they have an authority 
 superior to that of any observances appointed or sanctioned 
 by the Church at later periods. 
 
 Whatever may be said of " John's baptism," or of that 
 which the disciples of Jesus administered in His lifetime, 
 there is no question that Christian baptism is that which 
 was expressly instituted by our Lord before His ascension 
 (St. Matt, xxviii. 19). Equally certain it is that the Lord's 
 Supper was instituted by Himself before He suffered, as 
 three evangelists and one apostle (Paul; affirm. Hence, 
 these sacraments are of obligation in the Church universal, 
 which acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord ; and do not be- 
 long in any special manner to any local or particular 
 Christian community. 
 
 " IFe acknowledge Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the 
 two sacraments instituted by Christ, to be of perpetual 
 obligation." — Here we are in opposition to those who allege 
 that the sacraments were meant only for the apostolic age. 
 So long as disciples are being added to the Church baptism 
 must continue. So long as there is fellowship in the Church 
 in the remembrance and showing forth of the Lord's death, 
 the Lord's Supper must continue. The term " perpetual " 
 is meant to carry on these observances till the second com- 
 ing of Christ. 
 
 "■As signs and seals of the 7iew covenant, ratified in 
 His precious blood." — The sacraments represent and apply 
 the spiritual blessings of that covenant. 
 
 The word " signs " presents no ditificulty. Visible and 
 tangible things are taken to represent or body forth blessings 
 
I90 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 which are invisible and intangible. Material elements are 
 used as tokens or symbols of spiritual realities. Our Larger 
 Catechism says with the Anglican Catechism : — 
 
 " How many parts are there in a sacrament ? 
 
 " Two : the outward visible sign and the inward spiritual 
 grace." 
 
 The water in the one sacrament is obviously a sign of some 
 cleansing efficacy : and the bread and wine in the other are 
 signs of the body and blood of the crucified Redeemer, 
 and of the strength and joy conveyed thereby to believing 
 hearts. 
 
 That the sacraments are also " seals of the covenant " or 
 of blessings in the covenant, is a loftier and more arduous 
 conception. In their full import and validity they arc- 
 means of grace, not merely showing or signifying, but also 
 sealing and applying the benefits of salvation. In Latin 
 there is a close etymological connection between a seal and 
 a sign. Sigi/iiDii is formed from signum. In ancient times 
 one gave his signature by affi.xing his seal. So in our religion 
 the New Testament of God's grace is held to be confirmed 
 to us by sacramental seals. Christian believers are sealed 
 with the Holy Spirit of promise : but the covenant of their 
 redemption is sealed to them by the sacraments, so as to 
 give them assurance and comfort. This, however, not by 
 any magical efficacy in the ordinances, but through the en- 
 livening of faith and the inworking of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " Through the observance of which the Church is to con- 
 fess her Lord and to he visibly distinguished from the rest 
 of the worid." — Here we pass from the spiritual to the con- 
 fessional and evidential view of the sacraments. Zwingli 
 seems to have regarded this last as their only purport : and 
 to this view not a few Protestants tend through their recoil 
 from the superstition of the altar and the mass. We must 
 
THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 191 
 
 be on our guard against such inadequate recognition of the 
 sacraments ; but what is inadequate as a complete account 
 of them, is very necessary in its own place and measure. 
 They are historical memorials of Christian facts, and signifi- 
 cant badges of Christian profession. I'hey form a splendid 
 monument to Jesus Christ, exalting His name through all 
 the centuries and among all nations ; and they serve to 
 differentiate Chri.stians from all other men. In old time 
 Israel was distinguished from the nations in similar fashion. 
 Men spoke in the old time of the circumcision and the 
 uncircumcision ; now we speak of the baptised and the un- 
 baptised. Then, of those who kept the feast of the passover; 
 now, of those who "communicate " in the Lord's Supper. 
 
 So the whole Church, professing allegiance to Christ, and 
 presumed to be faithful in such allegiance, has been aptly 
 styled " the sacramental host of God's elect 
 
 II. Wherein They Differ. 
 
 1. As to the elements employed. — In Baptism we use 
 pure water, suggestive of inward cleansing. In the Supper 
 we take bread and wine, significant of the body of Christ 
 and the blood of our redemption. In neither sacrament does 
 anything depend on the quantity of the element. There is 
 no more need of gallons of water than there is of large 
 slices of bread and draughts of wine. The significance lies 
 in the quality of the element, not in the quantity or bulk. 
 Neither does it matter whether the water be running in a 
 stream or still in a font, whether the bread be leavened or 
 unleavened, the juice of the grape fermented or unfermented. 
 Enough if the elements are as far as possible genuine and 
 unadulterated. 
 
 2. As to their /«r/r9r/.— Baptism is the inaugural rite of 
 Christianity : the Lord's Supper marks continuance in fel- 
 
192 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 lowship. The reason of this is, that Baptism is the sacra- 
 ment of union to Christ, and the Lord's Supper is that of 
 communion with Him. We are baptised into Christ — once. 
 We sup with Christ — often. Accordingly, Baptism may not 
 be administered more than once to the same person, be- 
 cause the unition which it denotes is a spiritual act not 
 repeated ; whereas the Lord's Supper is to be observed fre- 
 quently, because communion should be continuous, and the 
 expression of it should be renewed again and again. 
 
 " Jhip/isiii with water i?tto the name of the Father and of 
 the Soil and of the Holy Ghost being the sacrament of admis- 
 sion into the visible Church, in ivhtch are set forth our union 
 to Christ and regeneration by the Spirit, the remission of 
 our sins, and our eugagenient to be the Lord' s!' — As by the 
 spiritual blessings here enumerated we enter into the Church 
 mystical, which is the Lord's Body, so by the rite which sets 
 forth these blessings under a sign, we are openly and 
 solemnly admitted into the Church visible, or community 
 of the faithful. It is not a " christening ". It does not make 
 those Christians who were not so before. But it admits 
 those who are really or presumably Christians within the 
 pale of the Christ-confessing company or brotherhood. 
 
 As communion with the Lord should follow union, so the 
 Lord's Supper follows Baptism. It may not precede. No 
 unbaptised person may receive the Lord's Supper. Then, 
 as to the purport of this sacrament of communion, our 
 Article speaks thus : " The Lord's Supper, the sacrament of 
 communion with Christ and -with LLis people, in tvhich 
 bread and ivine are given and received in thankful remem- 
 brance of LLini and of LLis sacrifice on the cross, and in which 
 they ivhc in faith receive the same do, after a spiritual 
 manner, partake of the body a?id blood of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to their comfort, nourishment, and groivth in grace " . 
 
THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 While due honour is paid to the two sacraments of the 
 New Testament, it is necessary to beware of exaggeration. 
 Baptismal waters do not produce regeneration ; nor does the 
 Lord's Supper nourish the spiritual life by any mystic power 
 in the elements or by virtue of the devout intention of the 
 ministrant. It is true that the Anglican Catechism describes 
 the sacraments as " generally necessary to salvation " ; but 
 the word "generally" was introduced to mark a dissent 
 from the doctrine of the Latin Church, which counts 
 sacraments necessary means of grace in the sense that the 
 grace which they signify and convey cannot be obtained 
 otherwise than in or through them. Lhe Reformed 
 Churches recognised no more than what is called " the 
 necessity of precept ". The observance of the sacraments 
 IS enjoined by our Lord, and therefore binds the Christian 
 conscience : but, if the observance should be precluded, 
 salvation is not forfeited, grace is not withheld. 
 
 Both on the necessity and on the efficacy of these rites, the 
 twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of the Thirty-nine Articles 
 are quite in accordance with the Reformed Confessions gene- 
 rally : " Baptism is a sign of regeneration or new birth, 
 whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive Baptism 
 rightly are grafted into the Church". Participation of 
 Christ in the Holy Supper is said to be " only after a 
 spiritual and heavenly manner " ; and "the mean whereby 
 the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is 
 faith ". This is quite irreconcilable with the Roman doc- 
 trine of the efficacy of the mass. 
 
 The Lutheran Church is too sacramentarian in theory; 
 but happily maintains that the blessing in a sacrament comes 
 to a believer only. So the Gospel is not perverted or weak- 
 ened, and the truth of justification by faith is not undermined. 
 The Roman or Papal Church asserts a mystic blessing 
 13 
 
194 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 accruing ex opere openito to such as receive the sacramental 
 elements, unless they oppose some fatal hindrance. This 
 renders the blessing independent of penitence and faith in 
 the receiver. All such ritualism, wherever it appears, is a 
 delusion and a snare. 
 
 On the sacramental, as on so many other questions, 
 the path of wisdom and of safety lies in the avoidance 
 of extremes. Let us shun a leveUing and rationalising 
 temper on the one side ; and a ritualistic and superstitious 
 tendency on the other. As to ministrants or celebrants, we 
 hear a cry in one quarter that all Christians as brethren are 
 equal, all can baptise, and all may administer the Lord's 
 Supper. Li another quarter, lo ! the priest at the altar 
 clothed with peculiar authority to consecrate sacramental 
 elements, and to open or shut the channels of grace. We 
 stand midway. We acknowledge an official ministry; but we 
 deny a sacerdotal order. Then as to the efficacy of the rites : 
 one side says that these are merely formal, though clothed 
 with a certain mnemonic value : the other side claims that 
 they are sublime mysteries, indispensable to salvation. Again 
 we stand between the two. For us the sacraments are more 
 than venerable forms, or even mnemonic rites ; but, on the 
 other hand, they are not invariable conduits of saving grace. 
 One man thinks Baptism a ceremony : another regards it as 
 regeneration. Both are wrong. It is much more than a cere- 
 mony ; but then it is only the sign and pledge, not the mystic 
 instrument, of regeneration. The Holy Communion is in the 
 eyes of some a social, fraternal meal : in the eyes of others, 
 the occasion of a dread sacrifice offered at an altar. Again 
 we avoid those extremes. At the table of the Lord, we 
 witness and share an impressive solemnity, a commemoration 
 of the death of Christ, and a communion of His people with 
 Him in faith and lov^e, highly instructive, corroborative, and 
 consolatory to all the members of His spiritual Body. 
 
Article XXI. 
 
 OF THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 We assuredly believe that on a day known only to God 
 the Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly come again from heaven 
 with power and great glory ; and we look for this second 
 appearing of our Saviour as the blessed hope of His Church, 
 for which we ought always to wait in sober watchfulness and 
 diligence, that we may be found ready at His coming. 
 
 » " We assuredly believe'' — This opening phrase marks the 
 emphasis due to the subject, and the resolute resistance 
 we make to that mocking spirit which cries : " Where is 
 the promise of His coming ? " It is admitted that we have 
 no ground for our expectation except the word of prophecy 
 and promise. But this word is explicit enough to warrant 
 assured belief. At all events, it is enough for all who 
 esteem Jesus Christ as faithful and true; and, therefore, 
 as incapable of speaking at random or deluding His followers 
 with vain hope of a return which He was never to accom- 
 plish. 
 
 Yet, for centuries and in almost all Churches, this truth of 
 the Second Advent, so prominent in the Holy Writings of the 
 (195) 
 
196 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 New Testament, has been much neglected, or, when recog- 
 nised, has l)een described in the language of terror rather 
 than of hope. The hearts of men have trembled before the 
 solemnities of death and linal judgment. Much has been 
 said of the great day of His wrath; but little about His 
 joy and the joy of the Church at His glorious appearing. 
 You may recite creeds, and search the confessions, and read 
 ever so many books of British and continental theology, and 
 yet never gather from them that the Second Advent of 
 Christ is "the blessed hope" of the Church, and that it 
 was this which sustained the patience of apostles and saints 
 in trials and labours for His name, thrilling their hearts with 
 sacred gladness. 
 
 The causes for this have been various : chiefly the con- 
 fusion of thought which identifies the Church of God with 
 the reign of Christ on the earth ; the perple.xing conception 
 of a saintly millennium, which, if it is to precede the Advent, 
 puts that event out of practical range of thought ; and, per- 
 haps most of all, the difficulty of adjusting the order of 
 future events so far as they are disclosed. How long 
 between the resurrection of the just and that of the unjust ? 
 When will the saints reign on the earth, and who will be 
 their subjects? When shall they meet Him in the air? 
 And how are we to understand and combine the various 
 testings and judgments by the Lord — the trial of the virgins, 
 the trial of the servants, the judgment of nations, the judg- 
 ment of the dead, the judgment of the world in righteousness, 
 and the gathering out of those that do iniquity? Now it 
 is perhaps not possible for us to arrange these in our thought 
 exactly as they will come to pass. The best men in Israel 
 did not foresee what would occur at the First Advent of 
 Christ ; and it is quite likely that all the maps of futurity 
 drawn by students of Scripture regarding the Second Advent 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 are full of mistakes. But the Church commits herself to no 
 details regarding the order and succession of events. In 
 these Articles she specifies the chief features of the time of 
 the end, as shown in Scripture — the Second Advent, the 
 Resurrection, the Last Judgment, the Life Everlasting. As 
 to the order of time, and all similar questions, let students of 
 the Bible think for themselves, as it may be revealed to them. 
 
 In the present Article we are kept to the main fact, letting 
 side questions alone. As the promise of the Old Testament 
 was that Messiah should come, so the promise of the New 
 Testament is that He will come again. The Lord Jesus 
 Himself gave assurance of it again and again. It was 
 announced to the Galilean disciples, just after the ascension 
 of the Saviour, by "two men in white apparel". It formed 
 part of the divine message on the lips of men who were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost. It is referred to with earnest- 
 ness and fervour by St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, St. James, 
 St. Jude, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It 
 cannot be disputed that this hope formed an integral and 
 important element of primitive Christianity. 
 
 " On a day known only to God the Lord Jesus Christ will 
 suddenly come again from heaven.'' — He will come in person 
 — " that .'^ame Jesus " Whom the disciples saw ascend toward 
 heaven. And He will come suddenly — not to a world pre- 
 pared, but to a world unprepared, and therefore amazed. In 
 discourse with the disciples Jesus likened His second coming 
 to a flash of lightning, and exhorted them to watchfulness 
 because He would return in an hour when men looked not 
 for Him. 
 
 Naturally the disciples were inquisitive about the time 
 of the Advent ; and the Lord gave them certain signs of 
 His approach, but added : " Of that day and hour knoweth 
 no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, 
 
198 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 but the Father only " (St. Matt. xxiv. 36). The signs 
 would be of service to watchful souls, so far at least as 
 to show that the event was nigh. But no one should 
 presume to fix an exact date, or make sure of the 
 chronology of Christ's coming to a day or hour. 
 
 It was so at the First Advent. The Book of Daniel 
 furnished indications of the appointed time, and pious 
 Jews and Jewesses were in a mood of devout expectation 
 as the eve drew nigh ; but even these could not fix the 
 day : and the people at large, with their teachers and rulers, 
 though they possessed the Scriptures of the Prophets, were 
 quite unprepared for Messiah the Prince. He came sud- 
 denly and in an hour that they knew not. After the same 
 manner of suddenness, but not of obscurity, He will come 
 again. 
 
 "JFi//i power atid great };lory." — The First Advent was in 
 great humility. A few shepherds at Bethlehem received an 
 angelic announcement of the Lord's nativity, but the nation 
 was unaware of it, and the world was all ignorant and 
 unmoved. The Second Advent is to be quite otherwise. 
 It will not only be possible for all nations to behold Him, 
 but it will be impossible for any not to know that He has 
 come. The words of our Article, as above quoted, are 
 those of our Blessed Lord : " All tribes of the earth shall 
 see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with 
 power and great glory" (St. Matt. xxiv. 30). 
 
 What these words may cover of surpassing grandeur 
 must be left unsaid. But it may be well to note how 
 much they are at variance with the theory entertained by 
 some of a coming of Christ for His waiting saints, unseen 
 by others, anterior to His visible Advent. There is to be 
 only a Second Advent, not a third, and it is to be splendidly 
 conspicuous. Every eye shall see Him. 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 199 
 
 We have often heard it said that Christ comes to every 
 man at his death ; but even if this be true, it is certainly 
 not the blessed hope of our dispensation : it is not the 
 Second Advent. We have also been told that Christ may 
 be said to come in an augmentation of spiritual power to 
 His Church : but surely the presence of Christ in the 
 Church. His omnipresence or everywhereness, is the 
 blessini; of this current dispensation. Whatever be the 
 spiritual energy exerted by Him, it belongs to the present 
 age. This is never confounded in Scripture with our 
 Lord's paronsia or appearing. The spiritual dynamic 
 presence of Jesus Christ continues till the day when He 
 is to appear in His glory, and take His great power and 
 reign. 
 
 ''And we look for this second appearing of our Saviour as 
 the blessed hope of His C7/«/-f//.''— Because the Church loves 
 her Lord, she is joyful in the hope of an event which will 
 be a glorious reversal of the rejection and contumely which 
 He endured in the days of His flesh. The once-despised 
 Jesus comes in overwhelming majesty. We shall see all 
 things put under Him. He Who was forsaken and slain 
 for us will be glorified before all, and crowned with many 
 crowns. Therefore, when He says : " I am the bright and 
 morning Star," the Spirit moves the Bride to answer : 
 " Come ! and let him that heareth, say. Come ! " 
 
 The Church also hails the era which will wind up her 
 struggling and militant age with triumph. All defect will 
 then be made good; holy longings will be satisfied; and 
 the whole Church presented unblamable in holiness before 
 our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with 
 His saints. 
 
 O blessed day ! when wilt thou dawn ! The feeling 
 which finds expression in such language is obviously quite 
 
200 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 different from that which is excited by the approach of 
 death. There is no promise of death ; nor is it an object 
 of hope : whereas the coming of Christ is a promise and 
 kindles a " blessed hope ". If death be near, we submit 
 to the Lord's will. If the Advent be near, we do not 
 submit, we leap for joy. 
 
 "■'For which we ought always to wait in sober watchfulness 
 a?id diligence." — So our Lord taught the disciples both in 
 plain sayings and in parables. So the apostles exhorted 
 their fellow-Christians. Though the Westminster Con- 
 fession, and the Puritan theology which it condenses with 
 .such ability, paid insufficient attention to this theme, it 
 concludes with these well-chosen words : " Christ will have 
 that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all 
 carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know 
 not at what hour the Lord will come ; and may be ever pre- 
 pared to say : ' Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.'" 
 
 This seems to us decisive against the notion that Evan- 
 gelical Christianity is first to fill the earth, and to predomi- 
 nate for a thousand years before the coming of the Lord. 
 One may wait for an event which may occur at any day or 
 hour, but how can one pretend to watch for an event which 
 cannot come to pass till the end of a period of a thousand 
 years — which period has not yet begun? 
 
 It is a mistake to complicate the great promise of the 
 Second Advent with anticipation of a millennium of love and 
 peace, either before or after. The former is very clear in 
 Holy Writ, and rests on scores of important passages. The 
 latter is obscure, and far from having any prominence in the 
 Bible, has little to rest upon but the vision in Revelation, 
 chap. XX. The former is a great doctrine of the Christian 
 faith, to which we devote an entire Article. The latter is a 
 subject on which we lay nothing down dogmatically, and on 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 20I 
 
 which students of the Bible may hold divergent opinions 
 without blame to themselves or injury to the Church. 
 
 The thing required is to keep thought and hope fixed on 
 the return of the Master of the house ; the King Who has 
 gone to a far country and will come back ; the Bridegroom 
 of the Church — " Go ye out to meet Him ! " 
 
 Such expectation calls for '■'sober tmUhfuIness" . Extra- 
 vagant ambition, riotous living, heady wills, and indulged 
 passions should not be found in those who wait for their 
 Lord. Watch and be sober. Watch and pray. 
 
 It also calls for "diligence" in His service. Hide not 
 His money in a napkin under ground. Miss not the oppor- 
 tunities which open to you for speaking truth, showing 
 kindness, or doing good. He has assigned to every man his 
 work. Blessed is that wise servant whom the Lord, when 
 He comes, shall find so doing ! 
 
 ''That 2ve may be found ready at His coming." — Not 
 ashamed before Him. And He not ashamed of us. Our 
 loins girt about, and our lamps burning — ready to go in with 
 Him to the marriage ! 
 
Article XXII. 
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 We believe that the souls of the righteous enter at death 
 upon a state of rest and felicity at home with the Lord ; 
 that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the 
 just and of the unjust, through the power of the Son of God ; 
 and that the bodies of all who are fallen asleep in Christ, as 
 well as of the faithful who are alive at His coming, shall be 
 fashioned anew and conformed to the body of His glory. 
 
 This statement is brief, and couched in guarded terms. 
 For this no apology is due. The topic is one which ought 
 to be handled with the greatest circumspection. It is one 
 of those themes on which our little knowledge should be 
 expressed with a proper sense of our vast ignorance. 
 
 I. The Sep.-^rate State. 
 By this is meant the condition of human souls after death 
 in separation from their bodies. It is a topic on which the 
 Reformed Confessions are not satisfactory. The compilers 
 of those documents were so intent on disowning the Roman 
 doctrine of Purgatory, that they did not care to look very 
 closely into the distinction between the pre-resurrection and 
 (202) 
 
THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 203 
 
 post-resurrection states. The Thirty-nine Articles make no 
 mention of the death or resurrection of men, but amends for 
 this are made by the Order for the Burial of the Dead, which 
 not only affirms the resurrection of life, but makes beautiful 
 reference to the bliss of the separate state in the words — 
 " Almighty God, with Whom do live the spirits of them that 
 depart hence in the Lord, and with \\'hom the souls of the 
 faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, 
 are in joy and felicity". The Westminster Confession 
 devotes a paragraph to " the state of men after death ". 
 Unfortunately it asserts more than can be proved. It affirms 
 that the souls of all men " have an immortal subsistence," 
 which has been maintained as a philosophical tenet, but 
 cannot be found in Holy Writ. It then proceeds to say that 
 immediately after death souls are either " received into the 
 highest heavens," or "cast into hell, where they remain in 
 torments and utter darkness ". Obviously this would antici- 
 pate the judgment of the last day, and would seem to render 
 it superfluous. 
 
 All this our present Article lets alone, contenting itself 
 with a statement of what the New Testament has disclosed 
 regarding the souls of the righteous dead. " IFe believe that 
 the souls of the righteous enter at death upon a state of rest 
 and felicity at home with the Lord'' (2 Cor. v. 8, Rev. A'ers.). 
 Though we say nothing of "an immortal subsistence," we 
 believe that human souls live on, though their bodies die and 
 are dissolved. How the disembodiment affects their powers 
 of activity no one can tell ; but they are not in mere stupor 
 or unconsciousness. The souls of the wicked can have no 
 rest; the souls of the righteous have "rest and felicity" in 
 the presence of Christ. St. Paul considered such a condi- 
 tion to be " far better " than the most useful life in a mortal 
 body. For followers of Christ, "to die is gain ". 
 
SOUxVD DOCTKINI-;. 
 
 We have nothing to say here about wings, harps, or 
 crowns. There is no reason to think that human bodies 
 ever had or will have wings, and to speak of souls wearing 
 wings and playing on harps is too absurd. Crowns there 
 may be, but not till after the resurrection. All through the 
 literature of this subject, especially in poetry, confusion has 
 been wrought through a habit of assigning to the separate 
 state immediately after death those rewards of service and 
 conditions of elevated bliss which properlv follow the resur- 
 rection from the dead. Thus we have seen that the A\'est- 
 minster divines affirmed the instant reception of saved 
 souls at death " into the highest heavens ". They could 
 not, however, fail to know that many Christians are called 
 away in a condition of unfitness for highest heaven and for 
 communion in glory with Christ and with the saints. 
 Accordingly they introduced another assertion that these 
 souls are " at death made perfect in holiness ". Their only 
 authority for this is the p>hra,se : " The spirits of just men 
 made perfect," in Heb. xii. 23, which is no proof at all.* 
 All such assumptions have been so many weights 
 gratuitously attached to the New Testament doctrine on 
 this subject, tending to drown it in the waters of surmise 
 and uncertainty. And they overlook the important connec- 
 tion between the coming of Christ and His reception of the 
 saints into His glory. They that have fallen asleep in 
 Jesus are not in glory yet, but are waiting for glory. 
 
 n. Resurrection of the Dead. 
 
 Resurrection from the dead, or of the dead, is the 
 language of the New Testament. So also the Nicene 
 Creed : " I look for the resurrection of the dead ". The 
 
 * The reference in this text is to those who were just by faith under 
 the Old Testament, who are now perfected by Christ's' offering of 
 Himself, and " not without us''.— See Heb. x. "14, xi. 40. 
 
THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 205 
 
 oldest form of the (so-called) Apostles' Creed has " resurrec- 
 tion of the flesh"; and this unfortunately has been retained 
 in the Anglican Baptismal Services, and the Order for 
 \'isitation of the Sick, though not in the Catechism, nor in 
 the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer. In modern 
 use of the Creed we say "resurrection of the body," and 
 this is supported by at least one passage of Holy Writ : 
 " He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken 
 also your mortal bodies through His Spirit That dwelleth in 
 you ■' (Rom. viii. 1 1 ). At the same time it should be observed 
 that this text, and the famous discussion of the question : 
 " With what manner of body do they rise?" in i Cor. xv., 
 relate to those only who are "the dead in Christ". Here again 
 the Westmin.ster Confession is unsatisfactory. It overlooks the 
 restriction which we have just pointed out, and thus ventures 
 on two affirmations of a much more sweeping character than 
 the Scriptures warrant : (i) That " at the last day such as are 
 found alive shall not die, but be changed '". The proof- 
 text given for this is i Thess. iv. 1 7, which bears on the 
 transfiguration of those who are Christ's, and of none else. 
 (2) That all the dead shall be raised up with the self-same 
 i)odies, and none other, "although with different qualities 
 For this two proofs are adduced, which say nothing what- 
 c\'er about " all the dead ". In fact the Bible is absolutely 
 silent about the resurrection bodies of those who in their 
 lifetime were not Christ's. 
 
 Endeavouring to avoid mere assumptions on a subject 
 of which we can know nothing but from revelation, we 
 declare our belief in a resurrection of the dead, but 
 confine our statement regarding the bodies in which 
 men will be raised to the case of those " who are fallen 
 asleep in Christ"'. Their bodies are to be "conformed to 
 the body of His glory ". Into the same likeness will also be 
 
2o6 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 transfigured all the faithful who may be found alive on the 
 earth at His coming. 
 
 " There 7uill be a resurrection of the dead, both of the fust 
 and of the unjust, through the power of the Son of God." — 
 Such is the doctrine stated at large, and on the clearest 
 authority. The very language is taken from St. Paul's 
 speech to the governor Felix (Acts xxiv. 15). And the 
 affirmation rests on the quite decisive saying of our Lord : 
 " All that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall 
 come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
 of life ; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection 
 of judgment" (St. John v. 28, 29). 
 
 In other parts of Scripture, the resurrection of the just 
 has special emphasis, and, indeed, almost exclusive recog- 
 nition. How long it may precede the resurrection of the 
 unjust we cannot tell. It is a point on which the Church 
 has no need to commit herself to a definite opinion. But 
 we avoid the somewhat misleading phrase, " general resur- 
 rection," because it may suggest a simultaneous re-appear- 
 ance. Now, the well-doers and the ill-doers are not to rise 
 simultaneously. " The dead in Christ shall rise first." 
 And while all are to be raised by "the power of the Son 
 of God," the principle of the resurrection in each case is 
 different. Those who are Christ's will be raised up in union 
 with Him in that harvest of which His own resurrection 
 was the first fruits : whereas such as are not His, but have 
 wrought iniquity, will be raised simply by His power, in 
 order to be judged. 
 
 "■And the bodies of all who are fallen asleep in Christ, 
 as well as of the faithful ivho are alive at His coining, s/iall 
 be fashioned aneiv, and conformed to the body of His glory P — 
 Here we are on sure ground of Scripture, and have special 
 reference to the language of St. Paul in Phil. iii. 21. 
 
THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 207 
 
 We are at once confronted with the difficulty of the con- 
 ception that a body which has been resolved into its ele- 
 ments — which elements have passed into other shapes and 
 combinations over and over again — can be restored. The 
 physicist declares such a thing impossible ; and it may be 
 admitted that the objection raised is fatal to any theory of 
 the resurrection of the self-same flesh. But the Bible is 
 committed to no such theory. On the contrary, the Apostle 
 Paul, handling this very point, explains that the body in the 
 resurrection of the just will not be the self-same flesh that 
 died, but something that will emanate from it, as a plant 
 issues from a seed that has died in the ground. The form 
 and substance of the plant are derived from the elements, 
 and so moulded on a type as to suit the ]3lace appointed to 
 it in the vegetable kingdom. So the bodies in the resurrec- 
 tion will be taken in substance from the elements and 
 moulded on a type so as to suit their places in the future 
 inheritance of saints. 
 
 But how then will the body be the same ? Have we not 
 quoted the Scripture that God will " quicken our mortal 
 bodies"? Now, we should like to ask him who puts this 
 question, to tell us wherein physical sameness consists. In 
 the present state of being, our bodies are constantly under- 
 going change. Any man will say that he has the same body 
 as he had twenty years ago, though older ; and yet there is 
 not a particle of the same flesh and blood remaining. After 
 long years, one returns to a well-remembered spot, and re- 
 cognises the old familiar trees. They are the same as ever, 
 and yet they are substantially changed. Or one looks at a 
 river — always the same — and yet there is not a drop of water 
 in it to-day that was in it last week. So there may be a con- 
 tinuous identity, along with a constant change or flux. 
 
 We have disowned the term " self-same flesh ". No 
 
208 
 
 SOUND DOCTRIN'E. 
 
 object is gained by pressing the point of identity so far. 
 What the Scripture insists upon is the difference between 
 the " psychical " body of our present state, and the "pneu- 
 matical " body in the resurrection. The psychical body 
 is mortal and corruptible. It takes its form and bearing 
 from our ancestors, our food, our habits and emplo_\- 
 ments, and, in some measure, from our inward disposi- 
 tion. The mind moulds the body as well as the body the 
 mind. The pneumatical body will be immortal and incor- 
 rupt ; material, we must suppose, in its substance, but free 
 from fault and feebleness, free also from heaviness, grossness, 
 and liability to disease — so constituted as to be the habita- 
 tion and the index of a pure and happy spirit. Such bodies 
 the angels may possibly have. But the model on which the 
 future bodies of the saints will be fashioned is not the angelic 
 frame, but the body of the Lord Jesus in His glory, " the 
 image of the heavenly ". So the corruptible is to put on 
 incorruption, and the mortal immortality. 
 
 The difficulties which attend this subject have induced 
 some Christians to treat it with great reserve, and to 
 dwell rather on the immortality of the soul. But our re- 
 ligion has no reason to hide its doctrine of the redemption 
 of the body. On the contrary, this is one of its points of 
 superiority to other religions, and to all philosophic moralit}-. 
 The Bishop of Durham has said in his volume on "The 
 Gospel of the Resurrection " : " The noblest of the ancient 
 moralists looked upon man's body as a hopeless burden and 
 fatal hindrance to the soul : and in this they have been 
 followed by the noblest non-Christian moralists in every age. 
 But Christianity transfigures what philosophy would destroy. 
 It shows that the corruption by which we are weighed down 
 does not belong to our proper nature, and is not necessarily 
 bound up with it for ever." He points out the immense 
 
THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 chasm which divides the thought of the apostles on this 
 topic from that of Platonists and Stoics — " the change 
 for which St. Paul hoped was not the destruction but the 
 ennobhng of his body, by being fashioned hke unto Christ's 
 body of glory ".* 
 
 Our Christian doctrine, at this, as at all other points, has 
 a distinct moral significance and tendency. "The body is 
 for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." There is, there- 
 fore, a solemn obligation to keep it pure, not to hurt it 
 either by excesses or by austerities, and not to yield its 
 members as instruments of unrighteousness. " Glorify God, 
 therefore, in your body." 
 
 This doctrine, too, is rich in comfort. Without it what 
 could we say when we have to lay the bodies of our 
 Christian friends in the grave ? Pathetic meditations on 
 death, even though mingled with some eulogy of the 
 departed, would still leave us comfortless. But all is 
 brightened by this flash of promise : " Thy brother shall 
 rise again " ! The resurrection is worth waiting for, since 
 it is the victory won at last over death and the grave, the 
 unlocking of the gates of hades, the reversal of the sentence : 
 " In Adam all die ". Thus in Christ are all made alive. 
 " When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
 this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
 brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
 swallowed up in victory.'' 
 
 * Fifth ed., pp. 179-180. 
 
 14 
 
Article XXIII. ' 
 
 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 We believe that God will judge the world in righteousness 
 by Jesus Christ, before Whom all men must appear, Who 
 shall separate the righteous from the wicked, make manifest 
 the secrets of the heart, and render to every man according 
 to the deeds which he hath done in the body, whether good 
 or evil, when the wicked shall go away into eternal punish- 
 ment but the righteous into eternal life. 
 
 The doctrine of judgment to come is so serious in itself, 
 and so emphatically stated in Holy Writ, that it cannot be 
 omitted from any, even the most compendious enumeration 
 of the chief matters in religion. 
 
 The title " Last Judgment " suggests, and with truth, that 
 there are many previous judgments. God calls individuals, 
 churches, and nations to account when and how He pleases. 
 He tried and judged our first parents when they had sinned. 
 He judged Cain for the murder of his brother. He judged 
 the corrupt antediluvian world, and executed judgment also. 
 So has it been all through history. It is marked by critical 
 events and epochs, because there is a God Who judges in 
 (210) 
 
THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 the earth. But all these point forward to a final and con- 
 clusive judgment which is to wind up the whole drama of 
 world history, and to determine and close the long strife 
 between good and evil. 
 
 Two convictions must be held to underlie our belief in 
 the Last Judgment, (i) That recompense and retribution 
 are worthy to have place in the divine government. They 
 have their part to play in the moral system of the universe. 
 (2) A dualism of good and evil, balancing and opposing 
 each other, is not to be the permanent condition of things. 
 Good is destined to ultimate triumph : evil is doomed to 
 condign and ignominious defeat. 
 
 Our Article does not speak of the Day of Judgment, 
 though such an expression may be found among the sayings 
 of our Lord, and also in St. Paul's address at Athens. 
 Probably the omission is intentional, and, if so, it is not 
 unwise. It is of some importance to draw off the popular 
 mind from the idea of a day, such as we know it, and a 
 supreme court sitting for a day, with human beings drawn 
 hither by angels or dragged thither by fiends, as the old 
 painters put it all on canvas, notably Michael Angelo in the 
 great fresco at the Sistine Chapel of the ^'atican. How 
 long, how short, that great " day of the Lord " may be, no 
 tongue can tell. The points of importance are.: (1) that 
 the day or era is appointed, and (2) that the judgment at 
 that era will conclude in a righteous manner the long term 
 of moral conflict on the earth, the period of the Lord's long- 
 suffering and of the patience of the saints. 
 
 Many preachers have treated this theme with animated 
 and minatory rhetoric. John Wesley, for instance, in his 
 sermon on " The Great Assize," abounds in interjections 
 and apostrophes. The subject easily yields itself to such 
 treatment. But for our didactic purpose, it is necessary 
 
2 12 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 to avoid sensational description and think calmly and 
 cautiously. 
 
 I. Things not quite Clear. 
 
 No man need be ashamed to say that about some 
 circumstances and aspects of the final judgment he 
 feels uncertain. Who is able to arrange definitely in 
 his mind the various parts or stages of the judgment 
 as indicated in the New Testament ? Our Lord gave 
 notice that at His return He will call His servants to 
 account on the point of fidelity to their unseen Master. 
 This does not touch the great world of men. But He also 
 described a judgment of all nations as to whether they had 
 or had not shown kindness to the least of His brethren. 
 Then, if we inquire of the apostles, we find St. Paul pro- 
 claiming that our risen Lord will judge the world on an 
 appointed day. Both St. Peter and St. Paul say that He 
 will "judge the quick and the dead". St. John had a 
 sublime vision of the judgment of " the dead " according to 
 their works. All these sayings must be true ; but whether 
 these judgments are synchronous or follow each other at 
 intervals over a day of the Lord, which may be a thousand 
 years, it baffles us to determine. It is a mistake to confound 
 them together or roll them into one without distinction ; 
 and on the other hand it may be a mistake to separate them 
 over much, as they probably do who talk of three sessions 
 of judgment to come. Let us be content to recognise that 
 there are various aspects of divine judgment hereafter and 
 various tests in judgment. Every one shall give account of 
 himself to God according to the position he has filled and 
 the advantages he has enjoyed, professed Christians, ser- 
 vants of Christ, being ranked as faithful or unfaithful, and 
 men at large as they have done good or done evil. 
 
THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 213 
 
 II. Things Clear and Indubitable. 
 
 (1) The Lord Jesus Christ wiU be the Jud^e. — For this we 
 have His own authority and that of His apostles— St. 
 Matt. XXV. 31 ; St. John v. 22, 27 ; Acts x. 42, xvii. 31 ; 2 Cor. 
 V. 10 ; 2 Tim. iv. i. 
 
 At His coming the Lord will judge His servants because 
 He is their Master, and all that they have had to profit 
 withal in their time of service has been entrusted to them 
 by Him. So is it laid down in His parables of the talents 
 and of the pounds. No one Init the Christ can fully and 
 finally judge a Christian. 
 
 He will also judge the world, because the Father has 
 appointed Him to this function. The office is suitable to 
 Him as being the " Son of Man," and therefore able through 
 His human consciousness to sift the characters and lives of 
 men. And it is due to Him as part of the reward of His 
 humiliation. He Who for our sakes submitted to the high 
 priest's unjust tribunal and stood before Pontius Pilate's 
 judgment-seat is fitly recompensed by being seated on a 
 glorious high throne, and having all nations summoned 
 before Him. 
 
 (2) All men will be judged. —''■Before Whom all men shall 
 appear^ — Whatever limitations may attach to the words 
 " His servants." or "the dead," or " the Twelve Tribes of 
 Israel," nothing less than universality can be found in the 
 phrases "judge the world," "judge the quick and dead". 
 
 (3) The Judgment will proceed on absolute and i)ifallible 
 knowledge. — It is indisputable among those who believe in 
 God, that to Him all hearts are open, and from Him no 
 secrets are hid. The accumulation of knowledge so detailed 
 in regard to untold millions of human beings is obviously 
 possible only to an infinite mind. God is infinite: so it is 
 
214 
 
 SOUNL) DOCTRINf:. 
 
 possible to Him, and therefore to Christ also. He will ad- 
 minister justice and judgment accordingly. 
 
 True, that in the great judgment scene of St. Matthew, 
 XXV., the Judge is represented as exchanging questions and 
 answers with masses of men ranged on either hand : but the 
 Bible nowhere indicates an interrogation of individuals on 
 that day ; nor indeed is such a detailed process conceivable. 
 The books will be opened : i.e., there will be a disclosure of 
 the true character of each, a revealing of secrets, and a de- 
 claration, so far as may be necessary for the ends of public 
 justice, of the estimate, and probably of some of the grounds 
 of the estimate, which the righteous Judge has formed of 
 each and every man. " WIio shall make manifest the secrets of 
 the heart, and render to every man according to the deeds which 
 he has done in the body, whether good or evil." 
 
 (4) The whole multitude of those that are judged will fall 
 into two general classes. — He " shall separate the righteous 
 from the wicked", ^^'ithin these classes may be great 
 diversities ; but between them runs a definite and deep line 
 of demarcation. The righteous shall be on His right hand, 
 and the wicked on His left. 
 
 In the judgment of each and every one, account will be 
 taken of the advantage and opportunity given to him for 
 knowing and doing right. This bears cn the question of 
 responsibility. It does not appear that any question about 
 orthodox opinion or evangelical faith will arise. Unbelief is a 
 sin, but it is a sin that can be imputed only to those who 
 have heard the Gospel. " How shall they believe on Him 
 of Whom they have not heard ? " The great dilemma in the 
 Last Judgment is that of good or evil, as done in this mortal 
 life. Believers, having been called to the service of Christ, 
 are to be reckoned with as to their vigilance and diligence 
 during the time spent in the body, their use of the talents 
 
THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 entrusted to them, their work of faith and labour of love. 
 Besides these, all men, having conscience, or a law written 
 on their hearts, will be judged by their doings. So St. 
 Paul describes " the righteous judgment of God, Who will 
 render to every man according to his works ". 
 
 (5) The issues of the Judgme7it 7vill be in life and death, 
 these terms cove?-ing all measures of bliss and of shame. — There 
 will be nothing capricious in the sentence pronounced. On 
 the contrary, a law of moral continuity will carry forward 
 the past into the future. AVhat a man has prepared him- 
 self for, he shall have. Whatsoever a man has sown, the 
 same shall he reap. They who have truly lived, because 
 Christ has lived in them, will live on and on with the Lord. 
 They who have shunned and departed from God in this 
 wodd will be driven from Christ in the last day. At the 
 same time, the future destiny is not a mere outgrowth from 
 the present life. It is an appointment by the righteous 
 Judge, the sign of His approval, or the doom from His dis- 
 approval. Each sentence will illustrate the great law of 
 retribution, which appears so much in the Bible and in the 
 whole course of history. 
 
 As to the judicial determinations, our Article simply 
 cjuotes the words of our Lord in St. Matt. xxv. : " The 
 wicked shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous 
 into eternal life". Many questions have been started, and 
 many theories confidently broached, on the import of these 
 contrasted phrases; but the Church should not be com- 
 mitted to any of these. On no subject is confident theoris- 
 ing more unseemly or unwise. 
 
 Every one sees that the same adjective is applied to 
 future punishment, as to future life. It is " aeonial " ; if one 
 may coin an equivalent in English— age-ical. It is eviternal, 
 or eternal. The Westminster Confession goes beyond the 
 
2l6 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Scripture in asserting that the wicked are " cast into eternal 
 torments ".* What may be comprehended in the punish- 
 ment to which the wicked are to be condemned no mortal 
 mind can know or tongue describe. But we are quite sure 
 that the punishment will be such as it is worthy of God to 
 inflict. An earthly government is rightly held responsible 
 for the penalties to which criminals are doomed. If these 
 are excessive or gratuitously cruel, or if the gaols are places 
 of torture, the government is denounced as barbarous. We 
 can never believe that the government of the good and holy 
 God errs on the side of ruthless severity. But here we leave 
 the question of punishment — vague and dreadful. Of the 
 contrary destiny, the eternal life into which the blessed shall 
 pass after the judgment, the twenty-fourth Article will try to 
 speak. 
 
 The American divine, Jonathan Edwards, preached and 
 published a sermon on the " Final Judgment," very forcible, 
 and even terrible of its kind. We should never think of 
 quoting its minute descriptions of the lost in unending 
 suffering ; but we value the practical conclusion. Those 
 who live in secret wickedness are warned that all secrets 
 will be revealed ; and those who " are not just and upright in 
 their dealings with their fellow-men " are admonished that 
 their actions will be tried by a Judge Whom no one can 
 deceive. Sinners are exhorted not to trust to vain excuses. 
 Christians are charged to judge themselves and " not be 
 forward to judge others 
 
 An earlier and greater theologian has spoken of "boldness 
 in the day of judgment" (i John iv. 17). There is a fear of 
 
 * The only kind of support for this is Rev. xiv. 9-11. But (i) 
 No dogma may be founded on a vision in a book full of symbols. 
 (2) The tormented ones in the vision are not by any means all the 
 wicked or all the evil-doers. 
 
THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 217 
 
 judgment to come which has torment : but perfect love casts 
 out such fear. Now this love is awakened by a persuasion of 
 the love of God to us, and is perfected in communion with 
 Him AVho is Love. In the mutual abiding and spiritual 
 familiarity of the loving God and the loving human heart, 
 the power of love is so increased as to give boldness or 
 freedom of spirit, even in face of the righteous judgment. 
 " Now, little children, abide in Christ, that when He shall 
 appear we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before 
 Him at His coming." 
 
Article XXIV. 
 
 OF THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 
 
 Finally, we believe in and desire the life everlasting in 
 which the redeemed shall receive their inheritance of glor)- 
 in the kingdom of their Father, and be made fully blessed 
 in the presence and service of God, Whom they shall see 
 and enjoy for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 Eastern religions had the dim hope of some ultimate 
 abode of peace and mystic stillness. The Greeks and 
 Romans thought the dead happy who dwelt as ghosts in 
 isles of the blessed or in Elysian fields. The Koran pro- 
 mises to the faithful just such a Paradise as an Arab would 
 naturally desire — shade, water, fruit, rest, companionship on 
 couches lined with thick silk, green cushions, and beautiful 
 carpets. 
 
 Our holy religion has a far higher conception of future 
 blessedness. There is nothing trivial or merely sensuous 
 in its hope of glory, nor is any overweening value attached to 
 ageless repose. Read such Scriptures as Psalms xvii. 15 : 
 St. Matt. xiii. 43 ; Rev. xxi. 24-27, xxii. 3-5. What dignity 
 in these jjromises 1 What an answer to the best aspiration 
 of the souls that love God ! 
 
 (218) 
 
THP. LIFE EVERLASTING. 
 
 219 
 
 " JVe believe in and desire the life everlasting." — So our 
 Articles end like the Apostles' Creed : but the word " de- 
 sire " is added to the declaration of faith to intimate that 
 the Christian heart is set on that life in glory, and to har- 
 monise with the Nicene Creed, which says : " I look for 
 (expecfo) the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the 
 world (age) to come ". 
 
 This is far more than the expectation of an interminable 
 continuous existence. It is a fulness of life, the exercise of 
 its noblest capacities, and the conscious enjoyment of the 
 ever-living God in a sweet and blessed home. AV'e cannot 
 really get much meaning out of such words as eternal and 
 everlasting. Do what we will, we find ourselves thinking of 
 a very protracted duration, whereas, eternity, properly con- 
 sidered, should obliterate the very notion of the succession 
 and extension of time. The " life of the age to come " is 
 a good phrase as suggesting the contrast between the future 
 life and that of the age which now is. It will not be tran- 
 sient, but abiding ; not threatened with peril, but secure ; 
 not agitated by conflict, difficulty, or sorrow, but sustained 
 in holy tranquillity. 
 
 The Larger Catechism has an impressive statement re- 
 garding the condition of the righteous after resurrection and 
 judgment : " They shall be fully and for ever freed from all 
 sin and misery, filled with inconceivable joys, made per- 
 fectly holy and happy, both in body and soul, in the company 
 of innumerable saints and holy angels, but especially in the 
 immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity ". 
 Our Article asserts two things of them who shall be adjudged 
 to life everlasting. They are to be glorified, and they are 
 to be beatified. 
 
 (i) Glorified. — T/ie 7-edeemed shall receive their i?iheri- 
 
220 
 
 SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 iance of glory in the kingdom of their Father." — The founda- 
 tion for this statement may be found in St. Matt. xiii. 43, 
 XXV. 34 ; I Peter i. 4. 
 
 The suggestion is not of safety and repose merely but of 
 a heavenly radiance. It is manifestation with Christ in the 
 glory given to Him. Not that the saints are to find their 
 chief joy in an environment of dazzling splendour. The 
 thought of a perpetual conspicuousness has no charm for 
 humble or modest souls, and never can be their heavenly 
 recompense. What will satisfy a saint will be to dwell in 
 the presence of the King of saints, to behold the Saviour's 
 glory, and to be with the good and the wise of all genera- 
 tions without fault before His throne. 
 
 The glory of the .saints may be regarded as the triumphant 
 reversal of "the sufferings of this present time," and of the 
 obloquy which many of them have endured for the name of 
 Jesus. It may also be regarded as the issue and crown of 
 grace. Grace reigns through righteousness ; and they who 
 have received grace, and fulfilled righteousness, at last in- 
 herit glory. \Vc read in Psalm Ixxxiv. 11, "The Lord 
 will give grace and glory". Both are referred to His 
 purpose and gift of love ; and it *is safe to say : if grace, 
 then glory : and, the more grace, the more glory. St. 
 Paul also teaches that those who are justified by faith 
 stand in grace and may rejoice in hope of the glory of 
 God (Rom. V. i, 2). 
 
 Robert Hall, a great sufferer in the body, very naturally 
 said that his chief conception of heaven was rest. William 
 Wilberforce, the Christian philanthropist, replied that his 
 chief conception was love. Both were right in their way. 
 These blessings and many more will be found in perfection 
 in the state of glory. We speak as children— we think 
 as children. We have only faint glimpses of what a good 
 
THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 
 
 221 
 
 old writer* calls "the inaccessible light, the cherishing 
 love, the daunting majesty, the infinite purity, the overload- 
 ing joy, the insupportable glory ; and more, the glances and 
 smiles of God upon the heavenly host who for ever warm 
 and sun themselves in His presence ". We can but sing 
 with wonder the refrain of the children's hymn : "Glory, 
 glory, glory ! " 
 
 (2) Beatified. — " The redeemed shall be 7nade fully blessed 
 in the presence and service of God, JVhom they shall see and 
 enjoy for ever and ever!' — The insertion of the word "fully" 
 is intended to remind us that the redeemed are blessed in 
 this present time with the pardon of sin, the favour of God, 
 and the consolation of the Holy Spirit, and that they will 
 be blessed yet more in the waiting time between death and 
 resurrection. The consummation follows the judgment. 
 And as the blessedness of the present imperfect state is 
 found in looking to God and rendering to Him a willing 
 service, so will the fulness of beatitude be found in more 
 steadfast contemplation and more devoted service. 
 
 a. The Beatific Vision. — We affirm that the redeemed 
 shall be " in the presence of God," and "shall see and enjoy 
 Him for ever ". Many are desirous to know whether the 
 blessed ones in heaven recognise one another, and renew 
 the attachments and friendships of their years of earthly pil- 
 grimage; most probably it will be so, but the absorbing 
 sight in heaven will be the face of God, and our Article 
 mentions no other. 
 
 One of the finest productions of the Puritan theology is 
 John Howe's treatise on "The Blessedness of the Righteous". 
 It was first published with a prefatory note of commendation 
 by Richard Baxter, who wrote of " The Saint's Everlasting 
 Rest " — a happy conjunction. Howe places the blessedness 
 * Bp. Hopkins. 
 
SOL'N'D DOtlRIX]-. 
 
 of the righteous in three things : vision of the face of God, 
 assimilation thereto, and satisfaction therein. 
 
 On the vision itself, and on the question whether it is 
 with the senses of the glorified body, or with the mind only, 
 who can speak? John Howe writes with reverence: 
 " Glory seems to carry in it a peculiar respect to the visive 
 power ; 'tis something to be contemplated — to be looked 
 upon ". Then he describes the sight of God and His glory 
 by the saints in heaven as most properly, though not exclu- 
 sively, "an immediate intuition of the lustre and loveliness 
 of His presence ". 
 
 On this follows — from this results — assimilation to God. 
 "Surely it is of equal necessity to the saint's blessedness to 
 ])artake the glory of God as to behold it, as well to have the 
 divine likeness impressed as have it represented." Our 
 author proceeds to show what things in God are incom- 
 municable and what are communicable, and that it is an 
 assimilation to God in His moral excellencies that forms a 
 great element in the bliss of the saints. 
 
 The third point is the satisfaction which accrues. " I 
 shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness" (Psalms 
 xvii. 15). What a word is this: "I shall be satisfied I '' 
 Meditating on God's loving-kindness in his time, the royal 
 poet of Israel described his soul as " filled with marrow and 
 fatness". But meditation on God is interrupted here, and 
 the soul's satisfaction is invaded and broken. It can only 
 be in the beatific vision of God in heaven, and the confor- 
 mity to God which ensues, that a deep and durable satis- 
 faction can be realised — a perfect rest — a sweet fruition of 
 the highest good. 
 
 b. The Higher Service. — It is the Lord's servants who 
 shall see His face, standing before Him in readiness to do 
 His will. The angels behold our Father's face, and they 
 
THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 
 
 223 
 
 serve Him and His children. The children too, when they 
 behold His face in righteousness, will joyfully give them- 
 selves to any duty or function that He may appoint. So 
 will they be " fully blessed in the service of God ". 
 
 Granted that this is matter of inference rather than of 
 knowledge. No one pretends to say what occupations may 
 open to the happy saints, or what behests they may be sent 
 to execute in distant parts of the universe ; but we infer 
 from the nature of man, and from the nature of love in God 
 and man, that the blessed ones will have exercise for their 
 active as well as receptive powers, and will be no mere 
 absorbants but also reflectors and propagators of light and 
 joy. What delightful service it will be, without reluctance, 
 without mistake, without weariness, without any envy, con- 
 fusion, or contention among the workers ; service rendered 
 with the understanding full of light, the heart full of love, 
 and the will free from all perversity and obstinacy, attuned 
 unerringly to the good and holy will of God ! 
 
 With such thoughts our Articles of the Faith fitly end. 
 They begin and end with God. All through the series we 
 show how God is with men on the earth ; and we conclude 
 by showing how men are to be with God in heaven. Man's 
 chief end, lost by sin, recovered by grace, and preserved 
 through the life of faith, is at last reached in the life to 
 come— glorifying God and enjoying Him for ever. 
 
 Amen. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE ARTICLES OF THE FAITH. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 CHURCH POLITY. 
 
 1. The only Head of the Church is the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, from Whom its powers and prerogatives are 
 derived, so that all its functions are to be exercised in 
 His name, under the guidance of His Word and Spirit, 
 and in subjection to His authority alone. 
 
 2. The Lord Jesus Christ hath given to the Church 
 the Ministry, the Word, and the Sacraments, for the 
 perfecting of the Saints, and the increase of the Kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 3. In accordance with the practice of the Apostolic 
 age, the affairs of the Church are statedly administered 
 by Officers chosen by the members, and solemnlv set 
 apart to their offices. 
 
 4. Of such Officers there are two orders only, recog- 
 
 15 (225j 
 
226 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 nised in the New Testament as Presbj'ters (i.e., Elders) 
 or Bishops, and Deacons. 
 
 5. The spiritual oversight of each Congregation is 
 vested in its Presbyters, who sit in council, presided over 
 by the Presbyter who is set apart, as a minister of the 
 Word of God, to teach, and to preach the Gospel. 
 
 6. The function of Deacons is to take part in the care 
 of the poor, and in the management of the funds and pro- 
 perty of the Congregation. Where there are no Deacons, 
 the financial affairs are administered by a Committee of 
 Management. 
 
 7. Congregations, while organised for the orderly 
 administration of their own affairs, are not separate 
 Churches, independent of each other, but are integral 
 portions of one and the same Church, having a common 
 doctrine, and being subject to a common government. 
 
 8. Common Government is exercised by Ministers and 
 representative Elders from Congregations within a given 
 area, who form a "Presbyter)-". Presbyteries are in 
 their turn subject to a Synod or Assembly, also consisting 
 of Ministers and Elders, representing the whole Church. 
 
 9. The objects sought by this system of administra- 
 tion are the manifestation of the unit}- of the Church, the 
 maintenance of a united testimony to the truth, mutual 
 counsel and support, the faithful exercise of discipline, 
 and combined effort in furtherance of those ends for 
 which the Church of Christ exists. 
 
THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 227 
 
 Chapter II. 
 THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 1. As those who are united to the Lord Jesus Christ 
 by faith belong to the Church Invisible, all who make 
 credible profession of such faith are to be received into 
 the communion of the Visible Church. 
 
 2. The children of those who are in communion 
 belong to the Visible Church, and are to be baptised. 
 Adults are required to profess their faith in Christ pre- 
 vious to baptism. Those who have been baptised into 
 the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
 may not be re-baptised. 
 
 3. Baptised children are not regarded as in the full 
 communion of the Church ; but they receive her nurturing 
 care until they are of age to make intelligent profession 
 of their faith in Christ and their obedience to Him : on 
 making which profession they are to be admitted to the 
 table of the Lord, and the full privileges of membership. 
 
 4. The members of the Church, being united to one 
 another in love, are bound to maintain fellowship in the 
 public worship of God, to seek the spiritual profit of one 
 another, to bear each other's burdens, and to combine for 
 the support and extension of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 5. A member in full communion, on leaving a Con- 
 gregation, is entitled to a certificate of membership, on 
 presentation of which in due time he is received to the 
 same standing in any other Congregation of the Church. 
 
228 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 1. The members of the Church are subject to its 
 government, and amenable to its discipHne. 
 
 2. Church power, being for the edifying of the body of 
 Christ, is in its nature wholly spiritual ; so that, as the 
 Church may not admit within its own sphere the inter- 
 ference or control of the civil power, so neither may it in- 
 termeddle with civil rights or attempt the infliction of 
 civil penalties. 
 
 3. Church discipline is the exercise of spiritual autho- 
 rity in a brotherly spirit for the reclaiming of offending 
 brethren, for deterring others from the commission of 
 offences, and for vindicating the honour of Christ and the 
 purity of His Church. 
 
 4. The Censures by which it is sought to attain these 
 ends are admonition, rebuke, suspension from the privi- 
 leges of the Church for a season, and in the last resort 
 excommunication. 
 
 5. The rights of individuals are protected against the 
 abuse of Church authorit}-, by rules laid down for its 
 exercise, and b}- a power of appeal from local to more 
 general assemblies. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 WORSHIP AND THE LORD S DAY. 
 I. Religious worship is to be offered to God, Father, 
 Son and Holy Ghost, and to Him alone. 
 
WORSHIP AND THE LORD's DAY. 
 
 229 
 
 2. Worship is acceptable to God through the mediation 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of Him only ; and is to be 
 offered by us in His name, in reliance on the promised 
 aid of His Spirit. 
 
 3. In New Testament times the worship of God does 
 not depend for its acceptance on the place where it is 
 presented, or towards which it is directed, but is well- 
 pleasing to Him wherever it is rendered according to His 
 will in spirit and in truth : wherefore God is to be wor- 
 shipped everywhere ; as in secret and in families, so also 
 in the solemn public assemblies of His people. 
 
 4. Public worship is to be regulated according to the 
 simplicity of the New Testament, and conducted with 
 due order and reverence, in a known tongue and without 
 burdensome ceremonial. 
 
 5. The ordinary public worship of God comprises 
 common prayer, the singing of God's praises, the read- 
 ing of Holy Scripture, the preaching and hearing of the 
 Word, and the offering of our substance for the service 
 of God, with the due administration at fitting times of 
 the sacraments instituted by Christ. 
 
 6. The public worship of God is especially to be 
 celebrated on one day in seven, set apart b)' God from 
 the beginning as a day of rest and gladness to be kept 
 holy unto Himself. After the example of our Lord and 
 His Apostles, the first day of the week is to be thus 
 observed throughout the Church Universal as the Lord's 
 Day, in memory of our Saviour's resurrection. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 7. Whatever respect some may pay to other days of 
 commemoration, yet do these lack Scriptural authority, 
 and may not be enforced as binding on the Christian 
 conscience. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 
 
 1. Marriage is to be held in honour, having been 
 ordained of God in the time of man's innocence, as the 
 foundation and bond of fam.ily life ; and is to be between 
 one man and one woman onl}-. 
 
 2. Although marriage is not a sacrament of the Church, 
 but an ordinance appointed for the human race, j-et 
 Christians should marry onl}- in the Lord, and it is 
 seemly and right that the}- be joined in marriage by a 
 minister of His Word. 
 
 3. Christians may lawfully abstain from marriage; but 
 the imposition of vows of perpetual celibacy or virginit}' 
 is to be rejected, as a disparagement of God's ordinance 
 and an invasion of Christian liberty ; and such vows of 
 perpetual celibacy or virginity, voluntarilj^ taken, so far 
 from being degrees of perfection or badges of sanctit}-, 
 are a snare in which Christians ought not to entangle 
 themselves. 
 
 4. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of 
 relationship forbidden in Holy Writ. 
 
CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 231 
 
 5. In the case of adultery, it is lawful for the innocent 
 party to sue out a divorce ; and after the divorce has been 
 pronounced by a Public Court of Justice, to marry another 
 as if the offending- party were dead. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 1. God, the Supreme Lord and Ruler of the nations, 
 has instituted Civil Government, to be under Him, for 
 the making; and executing of laws, with a view to the 
 preservation, good order, and welfare of society ; and to 
 this end He has armed rulers and magistrates with the 
 power of the sword, for the punishment of evil-doers, and 
 for the defence and encouragement of those who do well. 
 
 2. It is the duty of the State, acting within its own 
 province, to seek through legislation and government the 
 common good of its subjects, and to exert the legitimate 
 influence of the nation in favour of righteousness and 
 peace throughout the world. 
 
 3. That Christians have a citizenship in Heaven does 
 in nowise relieve them from the obligations of citizenship 
 in the State, or preclude them from accepting civil office, 
 when regularly called or appointed thereunto. In the 
 discharge of all their duties as citizens, Christians are 
 subject to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
232 
 
 4- The Civil Power may not assume to itself spiritual 
 or ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; but should respect and 
 protect the Church of Christ in the due exercise of its 
 worship and administration of its affairs. 
 
 5. God alone is Lord of the conscience ; so that, in all 
 matters in which He has revealed His will, every man 
 is bound to render obedience to Him : wherefore any 
 attempt on the part of the State to constrain the religious 
 belief of its subjects, or to impose on them forms of 
 worship, is an invasion of the rights of conscience. 
 
 6. It is the duty of the people to pray for rulers, to 
 respect their office and authority, to obey their lawful 
 commands, to pay them all just dues ; nor ma}' any 
 person, on the plea of ecclesiastical employment or 
 dignity, claim exemption from civil jurisdiction. 
 
 7. The duty of subjects to be obedient for conscience' 
 sake does not forbid a people, when misgoverned or op- 
 pressed, to endeavour to change the laws or constitution 
 of the realm, and, if necessary, to remove from office 
 those rulers who have misused the authority with which 
 they were invested. 
 
Index. 
 
 Adam, head of the race, 57. 59. 'xi; 
 
 his sin. 57, 58. 
 Adoption, 138. 
 
 Advent, The Second, i8, 195 : com- 
 pared to the first, 196, 197 fits bles- 
 sing, 199 ; its chronolog)', 197 ; its 
 details, 196 ; its glory, 198 ; its 
 unexpectedness, 197 '; to t)e 
 watched for, 200. 
 
 Apollinaris, his heresy, 76. 
 
 .\nus, 32. 
 
 Athanasius, 32, 34. 
 
 Atheism, 24. 
 
 Atonement, The, 90. 
 
 Backsliding, 154, 156. 
 
 Baptism, its purport. 194; its rela- 
 tion to regeneration, 124; its 
 virtue, 192, 193; not christening, 
 192 ; not to be repeated, 192, 227. 
 See also Sacraments. 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration, 124. 
 
 Bible, The, 179 ; contrasted with 
 Koran, 180; with Vedas, 180; for 
 the laiiy, 184; God's word, 183; 
 historical criticism of, 183 ; its 
 diversities, 181 ; its historical form, 
 180 ; its inerrancy, 185 ; its in- 
 spiration, 182 ; only rule of faith 
 and duty. 185 ; to be studied, 184. 
 See also Word of God. 
 
 Birth, The New, 125. 
 
 Bishops, 226. 
 
 Body, Resurrection of the, 205, 207. 
 
 Calling. Effectual. 125. 
 L"eHb.\c\'. \'o\\s or. 2;o. 
 Chanoe. no:i-existo:;t, 52. 
 
 Children, to be 'baptised, 227; their 
 position in the Church, 227. 
 
 Christ, The t.tle, 74. See Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Christians, their chastisement from 
 God, 157; their civil duties, 231, 
 232 ; their glorified life. 219 ; their 
 growth in holiness, 153 ; their heir- 
 snip with Christ. 138 ; their strength 
 for service, 153. See also Saints. 
 
 Church, The, 16. 159 : a brother- 
 hood. 162; brotherliness between 
 its sections. 176 : Christ's body, 
 162. 170; Christ's headship of, 100. 
 169, 225; its diusions, 165. 174; 
 its duty to ev.\ngelise, 104 ; its ele- 
 ments. 163; its imperfections. 173: 
 its objects. 163; its officers. 171. 
 225 ; its order and fellowship. 168 ; 
 Hs perpetuity. 162 ; its spiritual in- 
 dependence, 172, 228 ; its unity. 
 159. 161; its universality. 162: 
 nature of, 161 ; notes of. 167. 
 
 Church disciplini- ir? : :" - .4!iip. 
 173 : memi ers. 
 171, 225 ; c: J25 ; 
 
 the Catholic 11 ; 
 
 the invisible. I - . i.int. 
 160; the, of Christum profession, 
 160; the spiritual, 160; the Irium- 
 
234 
 
 INULX. 
 
 phant, i6o; the visible, i6o, 162, 
 227. 
 
 Civil Government, 231. 
 Connnemoralion, Days of, 230. 
 Communion. See Lord's Supper. 
 Conception, The Miraculous, 78. 
 Condemnation, its justice, 60. 
 Confessions of Faith, definition of, 3. 
 Congregations, their mutual relation, 
 226. 
 
 Conscience, suljject to God alone, 
 232. 
 
 Conservation, God's work of, 48. 
 
 Conversion, its relation to predes- 
 tination, 123; not necessary for all, 
 124; the work of the Holy Spirit, j 
 116. I 
 
 Conviction, the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, 115. 
 
 Creation, 11, 38; Bible account of. | 
 42; days of, 43 ; God revealed in. 
 178; its nature, 40; its process, 
 42; its purpose, 39; of man, 43; | 
 the new, 44, 126 ; true attitude of j 
 science to, 39 ; work of the Three ■ 
 Persons in, 41. 
 
 Creeds, Definition of, 2, 28 ; objec- | 
 tions to, met, 3. | 
 
 Day of Judgment, The, 21 r. 
 Deacons, 226. 
 
 Dead, Resurrection of, 205. 
 Death, the poialty of sin, 61. 
 Demiurge, 39. 
 
 Depravity, Total, 63; Universal, 63. 
 Devil, The, 59. 
 Divorce, 230, 231. 
 Docetism, 76. 
 
 Doctrine, Definition of, i ; its neces- 
 sity, 9 ; sound, i. 
 Dogma, Definition of, 3. 
 
 Elders, 226. ; 
 Elect, The, are the whole Church, , 
 
 122 ; given by the Father to the 
 Son, 123. 
 
 Election, 14, 119, 120; its objects, 
 
 122, 
 Evolution, 40. 
 Excommunication, 228. 
 
 Faith, 108. 
 
 Fall of man. The, 12, 56; Eve's 
 relation to, 59; its details. 59; its 
 effect on the race, 60. 
 
 Fate, distinct from predestination, 
 121 ; non-existent. 52. 
 
 Fellowship, Church, 17. 
 
 Forgiveness of sins, 88. 
 
 Freedom, God's, 54; man's, 54. 
 
 Geology and creation, 42. 
 
 God, II, 21 ; Hebrew idea of, 67 ; 
 His eternity. 25 ; His freedom, 25. 
 54; His holiness. 26; His infini- 
 tude, 24; His justice, 27, 66, 87; 
 His love, 27. 67, 69, 104 ; His 
 mercy. 27, 66; His moral attri- 
 butes, 26 ; His natural attributes, 
 24 ; His nature, 23 ; His omni- 
 science. 51, 213 ; His omnipo- 
 tence, 38, 51 ; His omnipresence, 
 24 ; His relation to the origin of 
 sin, 60; His riches, 66; His truth. 
 27 ; His unity, 31, 32, 33 ; His 
 wisdom, 26; man's reconciliation 
 to, 88 ; Moslem idea of, 67 ; not 
 the author of sin, 53 ; the Creator, 
 39. 48 ; the Lord of the conscience. 
 232. See also Word of God. 
 
 God the Father, revealed by Christ, 
 
 God the Son, as Saviour, 68 ; His 
 advent, 114; His incarnation, 45 : 
 the instrument of creation, 41. See 
 also Jesus Christ. 
 
 God the Spirit. See Holy Spirit. 
 
 Gospel, The, 14, 103, 109, 164 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Church's relation to, IC4 ; its call, 
 107 ; its offer, io6. 
 Grace, Definition of, 69; saving, 12, 
 65, 69, 70. 
 
 Hades, 94. 
 
 Headship, Christ's sole, loi, 179. 225; 
 
 Heaven, its blessedness, 221 ; S.xints' 
 service in, 223. See also Life liver- 
 lasting. 
 
 Hell, its relation to sin, 62. See also 
 Punishment, Kternal. 
 
 Holiness. Christians' growth in, 153. 
 
 Holy Scripture. See Scripture, 1 loly. 
 
 Holy Spirit, The, 14, no; attests 
 believers' adoption, 140 ; available 
 to all, 112; His abiding in be- 
 lievers, 139; His action in all ages, 
 112; His advent. 114; His con- 
 tinual presence, 115. 117; His 
 dispensation, 114; His fruits. 118: 
 His gifts, n8 ; His inworking 
 power, 112; His origin, in ; His 
 relation 10 the highest life. 112 ; 
 His use of means, 124 ; His work, 
 in Providence, 50, 51 ; of conver- 
 sion, 116; of conviction, 115; of 
 purification, 151 ; of regeneration, 
 123; of sanctification, 151; im- 
 parls strength, 152 ; our guide, 
 152 ; pledge of our glory, 140 ; 
 spake by the prophets, 113. 
 
 Hypostatic union, 79. 
 
 linage-worship, 24. 
 
 Incarnation, The, 75, 77; its effect, 
 
 79- 
 
 Inenanc) of Scripture, 185. 
 Infallibility, 185 ; papal, 185 
 Inspiration, 182. 
 
 Institutions of religion. The, 188. 
 
 Jesus, The name, 74. 
 Jesus Christ, The Lord, 13, 73 ; con- 
 fessed by the Ancient Church, 73 ; 
 
 His ascension, 97 ; His body, 76, 
 
 97 ; His conception, 78 ; His de- 
 signation, 74 ; His death, its de- 
 clarative aspect, 86; its propitiatory 
 aspect, 90; His descent into "hell," 
 93 ; His exaltation, 13, 93, 94 ; 
 His headship of the Church, 100, 
 169 ; His heavenly intercession, 
 
 98 ; His human nature, 76 ; His 
 incarnation, 75, 77, 79; His life, 
 its declarative aspect, 86; its 
 propitiatory aspect, 89; His 
 mediatorsh'ip, 80; His nativity, 78; 
 His natures, 79; His obedience, 
 89 ; His person, 74, 76, 79 ; His 
 priesthood, 98 ; His resurrection, 
 
 95 ; its efficacy, 97 ; its evidences, 
 
 96 ; His sacrifice, 90, 91 ; His 
 second coming, 102 ; His session 
 at God's right hand, gg ; His sin- 
 le.ssnoss, 77, 91 ; His Sonship, 75 ; 
 His soul, 76; His work, 13, 83, 
 84. 87 ; our Higli Priest. g8 ; our 
 Judge, 213 ; our Representative, 
 131 ; our union to. 136, 141 ; saw 
 no corruption. 95 ; the .\nointed, 
 84 ; the image of the Father, 86 ; 
 
 i the Lord of all. loi ; the Re- 
 deemer. 70 ; the Saviour, 81 ; the 
 Sin-liearer, 91. 
 
 Judgment, Day of, 211. 
 ^ Judgment, The last, 19, 209 ; its 
 issues, 214; the Judge, 212; uni- 
 versal, 212. 
 
 Just, The resurrection of the, 206. 
 
 Justice, God's, 66 ; how satisfied, 87. 
 
 Justification by faith, 15, 127 ; defi- 
 nition of, 127 ; in Old Testament 
 times, 133; inseparable from sanc- 
 tification, 132 ; its conditions, 129, 
 130; its ground, 132; its nature, 
 131- 
 
 Kingdom of Clod, The, 84. 
 Koran, The, contrasted with Bible, 
 180 ; its paradise, 218. 
 
236 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Law, The, 15, 142 ; the mora], 143 ; 
 the perfect, 144 ; relation of Chris- 
 tians to. 144. 
 
 Laws of Nature, 49, 50. 
 
 Life Everlasting, The, 19, 88, 218. 
 
 Logos, The, 75. 
 
 Lord's Day, The, 229. 
 
 Lord's Supper, The, 192; its pur- 
 port, 194 ; its virtue, 193 ; to be 
 frequently observed, 192. See also 
 Sacraments. 
 
 Lutheran Church, its view of the 
 Sacraiuents, 193. 
 
 Man: God revealed in his spirit, 
 178; his chief end, 45; his crea- 
 tion, 43 ; his divine likeness, 44, 
 45; his fall, 56; his freedom, 54; 
 his helplessness under sin, 63, 65 : 
 his position as a sinner, 134; his 
 reconciliation to God, 88. 
 
 Management, Committee of, 226. 
 
 Mankind, their common origin, 57. 
 
 Marriage. 230. 
 
 Mary, The 'V'irgin, her assumption, 
 79 : her immaculate conception, 
 79; her motherhood of Jesus, 78; 
 term Theotokos erroneous, 79. 
 
 Mediator, The One, 81. 
 
 Millenium, The, 196, 200. 
 
 Miracles, 50. 
 
 Missions, 164. 
 
 Monotheism, 36. 
 
 Nativity, 'J'he Holy, 78. 
 Nature, Laws of, 49, 50. 
 
 Obedience, accepted by God, 147 ; 
 imperfect in this life, 146, 147 ; its 
 divine acceptance, 146 ; its range, 
 145; its spirit, 146; rewarded 'by 
 God, 148; the new, 15, 142; the 
 obligation to, 144. 
 
 Order, Church, 17, 169. 
 
 Orders, Holy, 171. 
 
 Pantheism, 24. 
 Paradise, in the Koran. 218. 
 Pelagi.anism, 37. 
 Pentecost, 114, 
 
 Perseverance of the Saints, 16, 150, 
 154- 
 
 Persons of the Trinity : their nature. 
 
 33 ; their equality, 34. 
 Pleroma, 136. 
 Polity, Church, 169. 
 Polytheism, 24, 35. 
 Pope, The, his headship false. 170. 
 Prayer, justified. 52; Mohammedan, 
 
 52 ; neglect of, 155 ; warranted and 
 
 encouraged, 52. 
 Preaching, the duty of all Christians, 
 
 105- 
 
 Predestination, 120; distinguished 
 from fate, 121 ; its eternity. 122 ; 
 its nature, 121 ; its objects, 122 ; 
 its relation to conversion, 123; not 
 peculiar to Calvinists, 120; objec- 
 tions to the doctrine, 54, 121. 
 
 Presbyteries, 226. 
 
 Presbyters. 226. 
 
 Promise of redemption, The, 68. 
 Pronoia, 47. 
 
 Prophets, moved by the Spirit, 113. 
 
 Protevangelium, The, 63. 
 
 Providence, 12, 47 ; definition of, 
 48 ; encourages Prayer, 52 ; e.\- 
 cludes chance, 52 ; general and 
 special, 55 ; God revealed in, 178; 
 its continuity, 49 ; its order, 49 ; 
 objections to the doctrine, 54 ; re- 
 pudiates fate, 52. 
 
 Punishment, Eternal, 21;; its nature, 
 216. 
 
 Purgatory, 202. 
 
 Quakers, their relation to Sacra- 
 ments, 188. 
 
 Regeneration, 14, 97, 119; Baptismal, 
 124; definition of, 123; effected 
 
INDEX. 
 
 through God s Word, 125 ; of in- 
 fiims, 123 : work of the Spirit, 123. 
 
 Repentance, 107; its renewal, 158. 
 
 Resurrection, The. 18. 202 ; Christ s 
 rising a pledge of, 97 ; of the dead, 
 204 ; of the just, 206, 207. 
 
 Revelation, Definition of, 177 ; un- 
 written, 178; written, 179. 
 
 Righteousness, imputed, 132. 
 
 Roman Church, view of the Sacra- 
 ments, 194. 
 
 Sin, forgiveness of, 88 ; God's rela- 
 tion to, 53; its origin, 53; its 
 pen.ilty. 61 ; original. 61, 62. 
 
 Sinners, convicted and convened by 
 the Holy Spirit, 115. 
 
 Socinianism, 37. 
 
 Sonship in Christ, 15, 135, 137; 
 
 attested by the Spirit, 139, 140. 
 State, The, its duty, 231 ; its relation 
 
 to the Church, 232. 
 Supererogation, W orks of. 147. 
 
 Sacraments. The, 18, 187 ; adminis- Theaiithropos, 76. 
 tration of, 194; as seals, 190; as Theotokos, 79. 
 signs, 189; in the Latin and Greek I Triad, The. 31. 
 Churches. 188 ; Lutheran view of. Trinity, The, ii, 30, 37; ancient 
 193 ; Quakers' view of, 188 ; Ro- Church on, 32 ; not a contradictory 
 man view of, 194: Salvation doctrine, 35; Persons of, their 
 Army's relation to, 188; the word, equality, 34; their nature. 33; 
 188 ;' their common features. 189 ; ' Scripture authority for, 31. 
 their confessional aspect, 190; their 
 
 differences. 191; their elements. Unitarians. 32 ; outside the Church. 
 191 ; their necessity, 193 ; their 166. 
 
 perpetuity, 189; their purport, 192, > Unition to Christ. 135, 137. 
 
 194; their universalitv, 189. | 
 Saints, The. communion of. 165 : Vedas, The, contn\sted with the 
 
 perseverance of, 154 : their glori- Bible, 180. 
 
 tication, 220 ; their service in Virginity, \"ows of, 230. 
 
 heaven. 223. See also Christians. \'ishnu. The Avatars of, 76. 
 Salvation, 66; certaintv of. 156; 
 
 through Christ alone. Si. " , Word of God, The, 183 ; a purifying 
 Salvation Army, its relation to tlie element, 151 ; how to be used. 
 
 Sacraments, 188. 152; our guide-book, 152; the 
 
 Sanctification, 16, 150 ; how it is instrument of regeneration, 125. 
 
 marred. 154; the work of the Holv See also Bible. 
 
 Spirit, 151". ' Works. Good, their true place, 70, 
 
 Science, its attitude to Creation. 39. ^ 71, 128. 
 
 Scripture, Holy, 17, 177. See also j Worship. 228 ; its channel, 229; its 
 Bible and Word of God. I object, 229 ; its ritual, 229 ; Public, 
 
 Second Advent. See Advent, Second. I 164, 229. 
 Separate state. The, 202. | 
 
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