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 Bampton lectures 
 
CHRISTIAN FAITH, 
 
 COMPREHENSIVE, NOT PARTIAL; 
 DEFINITE, NOT UNCERTAIN : 
 
 EIGHT SERMONS, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 IN THE YEAR, M.DCCC.LVII. 
 
 AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY 
 
 THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M.A. 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM EDWARD JELF, B.D. 
 
 Late Censor of Christ Church, and sometime Whitehall Preacher. 
 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 PRINTED BY J. WRIGHT, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY, 
 
 SOLD BY J. H. & JAS. PARKER, OXFORD, 
 AND 377 STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 M.DCCC.LVII. 
 
E X T R A C T 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REV. JOHN BAMPTON, 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to 
 
 " the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University 
 " of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and sin- 
 " gular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the 
 " intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that is to 
 " say, I will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of the 
 " University of Oxford for the time being shall take and 
 " receive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and 
 " (after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions 
 " made) that he pay all the remainder to the endowment 
 " of eight Divinitv Lecture Sermons, to be established for 
 
 1 • 1 
 
 " ever in the said University, and to be performed in the 
 " manner following : 
 
 " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in 
 " Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads 
 " of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room ad- 
 " joining to the Printing-House, between the hours of ten 
 " in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach 
 " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at 
 " St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement of the 
 
 a 2 
 
iv EXTRACT FROM CANON" BAMPTON's WILL. 
 
 " last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third week 
 "in Act Term. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of the 
 " following Subjects — to confirm and establish the Christ- 
 " ian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics 
 " — upon the divine authority of the holy Scriptures — 
 " upon the authority of the writings of the primitive Fa- 
 " thers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church 
 " — upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 " Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the 
 " Articles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in the 
 " Apostles' 1 and Nicene Creeds. 
 
 " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within two 
 " months after they are preached, and one copy shall be 
 " given to the Chancellor of the University, and one copy 
 " to the Head of every College, and one copy to the Mayor 
 " of the city of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the 
 " Bodleian Library; and the expense of printing them shall 
 " be paid out of the revenue of the Land or Estates given 
 " for establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons; and the 
 " Preacher shall not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, 
 " before they are printed. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be 
 " qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, un- 
 " less he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts at least, 
 " in one of the two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge; 
 " and that the same person shall never preach the Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons twice. 11 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 J_ AM well aware that the following pages 
 leave untouched many points which are 
 necessary to a full exposition of the idea on 
 which my Lectures are founded. In a sub- 
 ject, which practically includes the whole of 
 theology, time and space forbade my follow- 
 ing it out to its extreme limits, or going into 
 all the details ; I was therefore obliged to 
 content myself with taking the more salient 
 points, and those which promised to afford 
 most opportunities for the illustration and 
 application of the principle with reference to 
 the theological questions of the day — and 
 even in these prominent points I have found 
 myself compelled to pass by much which 
 properly belongs to their full consideration. 
 As some of these points are treated of at 
 length in my published volume of Whitehall 
 
vi PREFAC E. 
 
 Sermons, I hope I may be held excused 
 for occasionally referring to what I have 
 there said on the possibility and impossibility 
 of pardon — the value and worthlessness of 
 good works — sins of infirmity and sins deadly 
 — confession and absolution — times of fast- 
 ing, &c. 
 
 I had intended to follow the example of 
 my predecessors in adding an appendix : but 
 as I find it impossible to do justice to so 
 wide a subject in the time specified in the 
 founder's will for sending round copies to 
 those who are entitled to them, I think it 
 best to publish the Lectures alone ; should 
 it seem desirable that what I have advanced 
 should be supported by quotations, or fur- 
 ther illustrations or arguments, I may at any 
 time put forth an Appendix as a separate 
 volume. 
 
 Caerleon, Aug. 8, 1857. 
 

 ONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Matt. x. 34. 
 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I came 
 not to send peace, but a sword. 
 Misuse of Christianity by men. Divisions arising from 
 love of system. Unity not merely conventional. Faith 
 comprehensive, not partial ; definite, not uncertain. Two, 
 humanly speaking, contradictory statements may be true 
 together. Explanation and limitation of this principle. 
 Dangers arising from the contrary theories : arguments in 
 favour of them considered. The faith of our Church com- 
 prehensive and definite. Results of holding these principles. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 OUR SAVIOUR. 
 
 Heb. xiii. 8. 
 
 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. 
 
 Manifold nature of Christ. His divine nature. Doctrine 
 of Trinity in Unity. General nature of objections to it. 
 View taken by comprehensive and definite faith of our 
 Saviour on earth : it combines all that Scripture reveals.. 
 Effect of this manifold faith. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 man's state by nature and by grace. 
 
 Rom. vii. 24, 25. 
 
 Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank: 
 
 God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 How far man by nature is capable of good. Rationalistic 
 
 views of human perfection, untrue and unphilosophical. 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 Human nature and Christianity not altogether antagonistic. 
 How faith views human nature. Restoration of man by 
 Christ. How far man is capable of receiving the gospel. 
 How far the Christian is capable of good. Practical views 
 of comprehensive and definite faith on this subject. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 MODE OF SALVATION. 
 
 Acts xvi. 30. 
 
 What must I do to be saved ? 
 
 Universality of salvation — how far all men benefited by 
 
 Christ's death — how far only a few — both views received 
 
 by comprehensive faith. 
 
 Predestination and free will — both received by compre- 
 hensive faith — lessons of faith and practice to be drawn 
 from each. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 Gal. hi. 22. 
 
 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that tin 
 
 promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them 
 
 that believe. 
 
 Opposite errors on this subject — how justification and 
 sanctification, faith and works, are distinguished and con- 
 nected in the application of Christ's merits. Holiness and 
 repentance have definite places in the scheme of salvation. 
 
 Scriptural view of repentance and good works — confusion 
 between the notions of merit and reward. 
 
 Function of faith — nature of faith. Living and dead 
 faith. What is comprised in true faith. Assurance an ele- 
 ment of saving faith. 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 GROUNDS OF ASSURANCE. 
 
 Rom. viii. 1 6. 
 
 The Spirit itself beareth ivitness with our spirit that ive 
 
 are the children of God. 
 
 Importance of the question. Predestination no sure 
 
 ground of assurance ; nor election. Doctrine of Perseverance 
 
 considered. Church fellowship no sure ground of assurance 
 
 — nor penances ; nor answer of a good conscience alone — 
 
 much less the answer of a bad conscience — nor convictions of 
 
 sin — nor death-bed repentance — nor religious privileges. 
 
 Nature and elements of true scriptural assurance. How 
 
 the sense of sin is compatible with a good conscience. 
 
 Assurance different in different persons, and different stages 
 
 of religious growth. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 Eph. iv. 23. 24. 
 Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on 
 the new man, which after God is created in righteous- 
 ness and true holiness. 
 
 Source of the spiritual life to be sought in the working 
 of the Spirit. The Spirit works by various means ; by the 
 word ; by Baptism — effects of Baptism. Conditions of, and 
 results of, in adults. Baptismal Regeneration of Infants. 
 Some objections to considered and answered. Comfort of 
 the Doctrine. Work of the Spirit in Conversion — repent- 
 ance. Recovery from sin. Spiritual and rational life. 
 
x CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 Eph. iv. 1 6. 
 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and com- 
 pacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to 
 the effectual working in the measure of every part, mak- 
 eth increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
 love. 
 
 Eternal existence of the church. Church unchangeable. 
 How represented in Scripture — threefold bond of unity in — 
 what is necessary for a church — individuality of persons and 
 congregations. 
 
 Advantages of church fellowship — does not supersede 
 personal religion. The church does not interfere with di- 
 vine prerogatives — nor the individual privileges of Christ- 
 ians — nor do these supersede the office of the clergy. 
 Private judgment — forms — the independence of the church. 
 
 Conclusion : Comprehensive learning necessary — cause of 
 its neglect. Address to those who are destined for orders. 
 Danger of tampering with or betraying the truth entrusted 
 to our church and nation by partial or indefinite views. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page I, in the text of the first Lecture for " that I came" read "that I am 
 come" 
 47) h i3»/<w "attribute" read "attributes" 
 59, 1. 24, for "literal sense" read " literal a sinsi' 
 [49, I. 20, for "Judge." read "Judge?" 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 Matt. x. 34. 
 
 Think not that I came to send peace on the earth ; 
 I came not to send peace, but a sword. 
 
 IT would perhaps be difficult to find a stronger 
 proof of the evil in man, than the way in which 
 Christianity has been rejected or misused. Could 
 any ancient philosopher have guessed at the nature 
 and circumstances of the Gospel revelation ; could 
 he have known that it would come in the power of 
 signs and wonders bearing witness to its divine ori- 
 ginal, he would have augured \ for it universal ac- 
 ceptance : had he known that it would disclose 
 those secrets of the moral and spiritual world which 
 had so long excited and baffled the curiosity of man; 
 that it would show us the Divine Being in his attri- 
 butes, counsels, and will, he would have supposed 
 that men would contemplate rather than speculate 
 upon it : had he known that it would solve doubts 
 and assure hopes, that it would reveal the highest 
 motives, aims, destinies, consolations for this life, 
 and bring with it the sure promise of another, he 
 would have looked forward to its becoming the 1111- 
 
 B 
 
2 LECTURE 1. 
 
 disputed guide of action : had he known that with 
 these revelations and these sanctions it would set 
 forth universal love as the practical rule of action, he 
 surely would have prophesied for it a reign of trium- 
 phant peace and happiness ; he would have sighed for 
 this more than golden age, which was to come over 
 the world by the will and in the power of the Lord 
 of heaven and earth : and of course all these antici- 
 pations would have been more certain had he known 
 the Jewish scriptures, or had he listened with the 
 shepherds to the tidings of great joy, peace, good-will 
 towards men. 
 
 How little however can we trust to any antici- 
 pations which are based on man's goodness or wis- 
 dom ! As we look back on the history of the 
 Christian world, that history will be but a sad and 
 awful commentary on the prophetic words of my 
 text. Nearly two thousand years have passed since 
 those words were spoken, and it is scarcely too much 
 to say, that every one of those years has in its private 
 or public records furnished an illustration of their 
 meaning. Not however that we are to suppose that 
 our Saviour is setting forth the will or aim of God 
 in sending Him upon earth; lie is but foreshadow- 
 ing the workings of Satan's malice and human per- 
 versity ; the discords introduced by man into the 
 harmonious counsels of God. Isaiah's prophetic 
 images of perfect peace, repeated as they are in the 
 angels' song, show to us the proper and final, as the 
 words of my text give us the actual and present re- 
 sults of the coming of the kingdom of God. 
 
 It was indeed to be expected that Christianity 
 
LECTURE I. 3 
 
 should rouse against itself the fierce and cruel en- 
 mity of the powers and religions it came to over- 
 throw ; and our Saviour's warning may be consi- 
 dered to have had its first accomplishment in the 
 trials which waited on the early profession of the 
 faith ; but even when heathen darkness had yielded 
 to Divine light, even then peace seems to have re- 
 sulted as little from the triumphant as it had from 
 the persecuted state of the Church. Christians in- 
 deed had no longer to fear the frowns or the fancies 
 of the masters of the world, to cower before the 
 enmity of a dominant religion struggling for its very 
 existence; the Church stood erect not only in the 
 sight of God, but in the sight of man ; her warfare 
 with the external world was over; and then Christian 
 rose against Christian with fire and sword ; a man's 
 foes were of his own household of faith. In the 
 very vineyard of the Lord, where the seed of peace 
 and love was sown, there sprung forth armed men ; 
 the very name which lulled the wind and smoothed 
 the sea, roused passions more unruly than the storm, 
 more merciless than the waves ; the very name be- 
 fore which death had loosed his grasp, was made the 
 death warrant of thousands of Christians, not, as for- 
 merly, by those who persecuted the disciples, but by 
 those who gloried in calling themselves the soldiers 
 of the Cross. It was under this sacred banner, and 
 in His all-holy Name, that Christian countries laid 
 waste, Christian cities sacked, Christian populations 
 massacred, bore witness to the meaning of the words, 
 / came not to send peace, but a sword. 
 
 And though actual persecution to death or bonds 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 has now for the most part passed away before the 
 milder spirit of the age, yet even in these days it 
 cannot be denied that the Gospel brings war rather 
 than peace. In many parts of the world religion is 
 standing with sword and shield in the attitude of 
 attack or defence ; it is still the cause, open or se- 
 cret, why nation is set against nation. In our coun- 
 try it is, alas! no small element of the differences 
 which paralyse our energies as a church and nation ; 
 while in private life there are probably very few who 
 cannot point to a family where religious views have 
 severed the ties of friendship or of blood. 
 
 Nor is it difficult to trace this state of things to 
 the natural tendencies of fallen man ; it has ever 
 been an instinct of human pride, an ambition of 
 human reason, to grapple with and subdue ideas 
 which elude its grasp and defy its power ; to ar- 
 range and combine the various images reflected on 
 its broken surface, to solve difficulties, to unravel 
 secrets, to penetrate mysteries, so that the whole 
 universe, visible and invisible, should seem to bow its 
 head before the master powers of the human mind. 
 And closely connected with this mental activity 
 thus striving towards mental supremacy, is a mental 
 indolence which anticipates the time of rest and sa- 
 tisfaction, and tries to grasp the victory before it is 
 won ; and hence arises a yearning after system and 
 simplicity, which though properly a handmaid of 
 truth, yet in many cases rather betrays than fur- 
 thers it. The curious mind, weary of grappling with 
 difficulties without conquering them, impatient of 
 feeling itself baffled, oftentimes takes refuge in a 
 
LECTURE I. 5 
 
 solution which is only such so far as it presents an 
 harmonious and consistent whole, whose simplicity, 
 by ignoring difficulties, gives to the mind an ap- 
 parent victory over them ; reducing by force, as it 
 were, the various phenomena to some one principle 
 or cause, it is content with the shadow of knowledge 
 instead of its reality ; for surely that knowledge is 
 only a shadow, and a pretence, which, instead of 
 embodying and representing the true nature and 
 relations of tilings, is satisfied if all does but seem 
 to hang together, though the similitudes are forced 
 and the connection unreal ; which instead of con- 
 fessing its ignorance of some things, is content if it 
 can but seem to be master of all, though the very 
 formulae and dogmas which it uses are but thinly 
 veiled expressions of ignorance. The result of 
 such a course in physical inquiries would be easily 
 recognised as error, for nature herself, ever be- 
 fore the eyes of those who search into her, bears 
 witness against this pretended philosophy which thus 
 sacrifices truth to harmony ; and hence in physical 
 science, theory after theory, system after system, 
 passed away with the mind that created or the age 
 that accepted it. 
 
 Much more fatal are the effects which this love 
 of system and theory worked upon theology: for here, 
 the subject-matter being without the province of 
 sense, the mind was free to combine, reject, arrange, 
 create as it pleased, without its operations being 
 subjected to the test of facts or of experience ; every 
 man was, humanly speaking, free to systematise for 
 himself; and thus the various attempts to introduce 
 
6 LECTURE I. 
 
 simplicity and harmony did but produce the con- 
 fusions and contradictions of a variety of opposing 
 theories. And by this same love of system most of 
 the heresies which sprung from the peculiar turn of 
 mind, or the accidental direction given to individual 
 thought and study, were developed in a way which 
 their authors at first but little dreamed of. Some 
 one text or doctrine*, true in itself, attracted the rea- 
 son or the feelings, and thus became unconsciously 
 the centre round which all other views and doctrines 
 were to group themselves ; such as did not readily 
 harmonise with it were straightway struck out or 
 explained away ; the one doctrine thus taken out of 
 its proper position and relation was added to or cur- 
 tailed, as seemed necessary to work out its due pro- 
 portion and completeness as a system. Hence again 
 some doctrines were lost sight of, some moulded 
 afresh; and then men, naturally jealous of the 
 honour of the idol they had thus carved, were 
 persuaded that it alone presented the image of Di- 
 vine truth, and that whoever would be saved must 
 straightway fall down and worship it; while, on the 
 other hand, those who opposed these perversions of 
 the gospel were led by their antagonism to exag- 
 gerate the opposite 11 , to set forth, explain, define, 
 arrange, deduce, so as in their turn to introduce the 
 
 8 Ilieron. vol. iv. page 991. (ed. Ben. Ver. 1 7.3 5 .) " Omnis enim 
 hareticus nascitur in Ecclesia." Jewell, vol. iii. p. 82. ed. Ox. 
 1848, " Neither ever was any heresy so gross, but was able to make 
 some show of (iod's word." 
 
 h Cf. Aug. De Grat. vol. x. page 473. A. ed. Bened. Antw. 
 1700. — Bacon on Church Controversies, vol. 2. p. 510. Lond. 
 1819. See Appendix. 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 gravest errors, and to lose the most necessary 
 truths. The theological history of the Church is 
 made up of the disputes stirred up by those who, 
 taking one truth and neglecting others, framed 
 a religion of their own, or who were driven by one 
 error into the opposite extreme. And then was the 
 Church compelled in self-defence to set forth and 
 state more closely and briefly many points of Ca- 
 tholic doctrine, which had hitherto been embodied 
 as living principles in the souls of the faithful, rather 
 than in any formal definition of the faith ; and 
 though we have great reason to thank God that He 
 has in our Creeds preserved to us those truths 
 which were thus imperilled, yet sad it is to see 
 Christian faith, instead of the manifold play of 
 infinite truth, assume the stern fixed features of 
 a system of philosophy. The stone which came 
 down from heaven to fill the whole earth, need- 
 ed not to be carved or hewn into human shape 
 by man. To those indeed who look on our reli- 
 gion with the eye of the flesh, it might seem to be 
 wanting in form or comeliness, but those who gaze 
 on it with the reverential eye of faith can see in it 
 features and proportions far exceeding any beauty or 
 perfection which the powers of man could possibly 
 confer upon it. 
 
 And when Divine truth was thus as it were 
 split into fragments, each with its own champions 
 and worshippers, it was but matter of course 
 that each separate system daily became more 
 rigid and exclusive ; new points of separation arose, 
 new parties were formed, the barriers between those 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 already existing daily became more impassable, till 
 Christendom, which should have been the land of 
 peace and promise, sending forth warriors well 
 trained for the spiritual armies of God, became the 
 battle field of the fiercest and angriest passions of 
 man ; wherein by tongue and pen, and even by fire 
 and sword, Christians sought the destruction of 
 Christians, each party denouncing and persecuting 
 the other in this world; and as for the next, shutting 
 out, in will and wish at least, all those who held the 
 slightest variation from their favourite dogma, or 
 who had not the pass-words of the system. If the 
 anathemas which resounded from the various parts of 
 Christendom were to be believed, truth had passed 
 away from the earth ; each condemned each, and was 
 in his turn condemned by the rest. Time went on ; 
 nations rose and fell; circumstances restored to Rome 
 her position among the nations of the west as the 
 centre of civilisation and power ; and the bishops of 
 her see by a skilful adaptation of her arts, her poli- 
 tics, her religion to the weaknesses and ambitions, 
 the prejudices or the designs of the rude yet ener- 
 getic men who were brought within her influence, 
 contrived to throw such a charm over their spirits that 
 all other voices but her own were well nigh hushed ; 
 and well indeed would it have been for Christendom 
 if in that high position she had been true to the faith 
 once delivered to the saints — if her voice, as it went 
 out to all corners of the globe, had been content to 
 preach the gospel of St. Paid and St. Peter, without 
 seeking to found dominion on her Divine mission : if 
 she had held her faith in the power of God's word to 
 
LECTURE I. 9 
 
 establish His kingdom, without adding decrees and 
 doctrines of her own to keep minds in subjection 
 to her principle of unity. For a time there was 
 the semblance of peace ; it was but seldom that 
 the rude breath of polemics ruffled the church's sur- 
 face ; but this, alas ! this was but a sign of the deep 
 stagnation of the waters of spiritual life, the lack of 
 the breath of the Spirit ; and then Rome went fur- 
 ther and further from her first love ; human aims 
 and passions, having been admitted as her servants, 
 quickly became her masters, and she was alternately 
 the slave and the mistress, the tool and the guide of 
 the powers of the world. Faith, in the scriptural 
 sense of the word, was in most parts dead, and in 
 its place rose up a spirit of chivalry and self- 
 devotion which in its highest energies went forth 
 as an armed warrior with all the pomp and circum- 
 stance of war, to win lands, cities, and kingdoms 
 from the infidel, instead of the hearts of men from 
 Satan, or perhaps now and then to crush the mi- 
 serable, nay, rather happy, few, who refused to bow 
 the knee to Rome, and chose rather to suffer with 
 Christ than to live with her; but these were lost in 
 the vastness of her empire, and, as far as Christendom 
 itself went, peace seemed at least to have taken the 
 place of the sword. It was however but for a time, 
 and in seeming: Rome waxed worse and worse; her 
 principles of thought and action, her policy, private 
 and public, became more and more exclusively and 
 confessedly carnal and selfish, till in good truth the 
 spirit which was in her seemed to be rather that of 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 the powers of the prince of this world, than of God ; 
 obliged from time to time to contrive new supersti- 
 tions, perversions, or negations of the pure gospel, in 
 order to supply her needs and to prop up the fabric of 
 universal dominion, which she called unity, she at 
 length, by the blessing of God, wore out the patience 
 of men. The charm was broken ; the river which had 
 been so long pent up from its natural course burst 
 the barriers, and instead of flowing in one deep 
 broad stream, broke into a thousand channels. The 
 sword again left the sheath ; Christendom, once more 
 alive, began to think and act for itself; but its eyes 
 were dim, and its step uncertain, as of men awaking 
 out of a deathlike sleep. Where men's minds were 
 weak, Rome managed to retain or to regain them : 
 while where there was more activity and independ- 
 ence, there more or less of primitive freedom was 
 recovered; but this was mostly the rebellion of hu- 
 man reason against usurped authority, and mostly 
 therefore, as being merely human, produced the na- 
 tural results: men of powerful mind and hasty judg- 
 ment framed for themselves and for others systems of 
 theology, taking as their basis that interpretation of 
 Scripture which was most opposed to that particular 
 point which they most, disliked in Rome ; and thus 
 arose new elements of separation, new Mar cries of 
 discord in the Christian world: in our own country 
 especially, which by that time had become a centre 
 of thought and action, men were and are so accus- 
 tomed to think and act for themselves, that from 
 that time to the present fresh parties and sects have 
 
LECTURE 1. 11 
 
 been continually springing into being, each and all 
 claiming to take their stand on scriptural truth, and 
 pretending to teach men exclusively the way of sal- 
 vation ; and this not only without, but even within 
 the very Church of God. 
 
 It is true that Christianity has proved itself to 
 have a principle of vitality above and independ- 
 ent of human will or human cooperation, inas- 
 much as in spite of being thus, humanly speaking, 
 divided against itself, it has stood and still stands 
 among mankind, a power mighty to save ; but it 
 need not be said how contrary these divisions are to 
 the interests of our Church, and the glory of God, 
 and the work of Christ and his Spirit ; how much they 
 hinder the salvation of those who are thus lacking 
 in Christian love — nay, more, it is enough to call 
 forth a sigh even in the careless heart which looks 
 only to its effects on us as a nation. 
 
 I am aware that some persons acquiesce in this 
 state of religious variance as almost a necessary con- 
 dition of the Church militant on earth ; something 
 which, though on the whole to be regretted, is no 
 wise contrary to the nature of Christianity. I must 
 say that I can see in the Bible no trace of the no- 
 tion that difference in religious matters is to be the 
 proper and normal condition of different churches or 
 of different individuals in the same church. It is 
 true that there may, nay, must be, different ways of 
 setting forth or receiving the same truth, arising 
 from national or individual temperament or circum- 
 stances, as there must be different forms of expres- 
 sion for truth arising from difference of language ; 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 but these are not of the essence, but the accidents 
 of the truth. In such cases there is no difference as 
 to the truth itself; but where there is such differ- 
 ence, it seems to be a sign that the Spirit of love 
 and knowledge is in some way or other lacking ; 
 for where that Spirit is, it will lead into all truth, 
 and therefore necessarily to the same truth ; where 
 that Spirit is, there may be diversities of language, 
 of race, of ministrations, of customs, but there will 
 be identity of thought in religious matters ; identity 
 of feeling ; identity of hope ; identity of faith ; the 
 same idea of God ; the same view of Christ ; the 
 same belief in the Holy Ghost ; the same view of 
 the position, the destinies, the duties, in short, of 
 the whole spiritual life of Christian men. It is true, 
 perhaps, that as things are at present we can practi- 
 cally realise no higher form of Christian unity than 
 by suspending all bitterness of feeling and speaking 
 towards those with whom we differ, and by feeling 
 and acting with them, where we can do so without 
 compromising or imperilling w r hat we believe to be 
 God's truth. It seems as if this might be the way of 
 leading others, and perhaps of ourselves being led to 
 Christian truth, and thus of reestablishing Christian 
 unity; but surely this does not interfere with the duty 
 which lies upon every man according to his ability 
 and opportunity of contending earnestly for the faith 
 once delivered to the saints, and striving to bring 
 about the consummation of religious peace by unity 
 of religious thought. Surely Christian unity is some- 
 thing more than a mere conventional truce, a mere 
 suspension of hostilities. We do not find it thus 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 figured in the Bible ; we do not there find Christian 
 at war with Christian, and merely resting on their 
 arms in weariness, or it may be in pity and sym- 
 pathy for each other, but we find them side by side 
 in the unity of the Spirit, prepared to do battle with 
 the enemies of God and man ; we find that Christ- 
 ians are to be one, even as the Father and the Son 
 are one, are all to be of one mind, all think the 
 same thing. Divisions, indeed, and heresies are 
 spoken of as necessary, but it was in order that 
 the wheat might be sifted from the chaff; those, who 
 having not the spirit of truth went out from the 
 body, were not to be embraced, or admitted to the 
 Christian brotherhood ; for the simple fact of essen- 
 tial division, of essential difference of view in reli- 
 gious matters, destroyed that complete sympathy 
 of faith and unity of feeling on which the brother- 
 hood was founded. Those were glorious and happy 
 times when the faithful, though outlaws from civil- 
 ized life, though hunted like beasts from city to city 
 and desert to desert, knew themselves nevertheless 
 to be bound together by stronger ties than those of 
 country or race. What a contrast to the modern so- 
 called unity, when even those who are sprung from 
 the same race, living in the same country, and 
 under the same laws, and speaking the same lan- 
 guage, can find no higher idea of Christian harmony 
 than that they should agree to differ. I am not 
 saying that it would be wise or right to lay aside 
 even this shadow of unity, but that we ought not to 
 acquiesce in it as our highest and best, but ought 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 always to be praying and striving towards something 
 higher and better. It is something to the storm- 
 tost ship that the jealousies and enmities of the 
 crew should not break out into open tumult; but it 
 is not this which will trim the sails to the breeze, or 
 guide her prosperously on her way. It would be 
 something- for the Church if hostile thoughts, angrv 
 words, bitter sneers, unfair misrepresentations should 
 be still ; but this is not all which is needed, if we 
 are, by the help of God and the breath of the Spirit, 
 to brin 2: the ark of God and the souls of men safe 
 through the waves of this troublesome world. 
 
 Nor can I think that the full or real idea of unity 
 has been grasped or developed by the attempts of 
 modern times to base it on a common profession of 
 Christianity, as a religion, without caring for agree- 
 ment in the particulars of which, in fact, Christianity 
 is made up : not merely, as in the former case, by 
 agreeing to differ, but by assigning to every opinion 
 equal and independent possession of truth. It is not 
 to be wondered at indeed if, amid the strife of con- 
 flicting systems, men of warm hearts and earnest love 
 for their fellows have waxed impatient of the way in 
 which the various sects excluded each other from 
 communion, and arrogated the sure mercies of Christ 
 only to those who adopted their own theological 
 views and language. It is no wonder that such men 
 have sought to devise a remedy; some by maintain- 
 ing that the holding of any portion of gospel truth 
 is a sufficient embracing of Christ's revelation, even 
 though great and primitive and essential doctrines 
 
LECTURE I. U 
 
 are rejected ; so that no one of the religious par- 
 ties represents Christianity more or less than an- 
 other: that the Bible sets forth the Gospel in a 
 variety of aspects, any one of which may be chosen 
 with equal assurance : some by declaring the reve- 
 lation itself to be so obscure, that it is impossible 
 to distinguish accurately truth from falsehood, or to 
 say that any man is wrong who believes what he 
 thinks he finds therein. It seems to me that each 
 of these views is so far right that it starts from exist- 
 ing facts ; the one recognising in the several systems 
 the presence of that truth on which they are respect- 
 ively founded ; the other implying that there are 
 many difficulties and perplexities in Scripture before 
 which human reason must bow its head. But I con- 
 fess that in the deductions they draw and the princi- 
 ples they evolve, it appears to me that the one does 
 away with the completeness and mars the proportions 
 of the Christian Faith ; while the other destroys its 
 certainty, making it a mere matter of human opin- 
 ion, in which either of two opposites is as likely to 
 be faith as the other. 
 
 It will be my endeavour in the following Lectures 
 to exhibit what seems to me a more complete view 
 of truth, a more sure ground of unity, by setting 
 forth Christian Faith, I. as comprehensive, not partial; 
 II. definite, not uncertain. By showing that it com- 
 prehends, in their positive teaching and doctrines 
 at least, most, if not all, of the various opinions 
 which have divided Christendom ; that it places be- 
 fore the human mind no ill-defined ravs of truth which 
 
16 LECTURE L 
 
 are essentially to vary with the focus through which 
 they are viewed, but the very pure and perfect light 
 of God Himself unchangeable and unchanged ; that 
 the notes which the Bible sounds, however broken 
 by the noisy strifes of men, are not uncertain or 
 wavering, but the very voice of God Himself speak- 
 ing clearly and distinctly to those who have ears 
 and hearts to hear. 
 
 T. The first principle I would maintain and illustrate 
 is, that faith is comprehensive, that it has breadth as 
 well as depth; that with reference to the Bible, it 
 receives all the doctrines in the revealed scheme of 
 salvation without altering or doing violence to them: 
 that with reference to the various religious opinions, it 
 embraces all, without excluding any, which are founded 
 on Scripture or natural religion, and not on the will or 
 fancy of men. I do not mean by this, what perhaps some 
 would mean, that it embraces each as by itself truth, 
 each separately and by itself a sufficient and complete 
 faith; but that each is an element of the whole truth, 
 and contributes something to the full measure of faith; 
 that the different doctrines, which in their separate or 
 exaggerated form divide the religious world, may 
 be, and are, with exceptions and modifications, 
 true together, when reduced to their due propor- 
 tions ; that real faith combines into one whole, and 
 in their proper proportions, each of the truths which 
 form the centre, or rather the whole, of this or that 
 theological system ; and in doing this, I am but ap- 
 plying to Theology what I believe to be a true 
 principle of philosophy in general : that where men 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 of talents, learning, patience, honesty deduce from 
 the same data different views, and support them by 
 fair argument and proof, there must be something 
 at least of truth in each — something in each which 
 is wanting to complete the rest. 
 
 I hold it then to be no real objection to a doc- 
 trine held by others, that it presents to us a view of 
 the Divine will, or of human nature in relation to 
 that will, different from what we ourselves may 
 rightly have accepted as a fundamental truth of real 
 religion. The point we have to consider is, whe- 
 ther it is in Scripture as read by the primitive 
 Church b or not. If it is, then we may not so ex- 
 pound one text of Scripture as to obscure or ignore 
 the truth laid down in another ; and this holds good 
 not only where the two doctrines may, on further 
 inspection, be reconciled with each other, as being 
 merely different phases or degrees of the same spi- 
 ritual fact or state, or applicable to different circum- 
 stances, or in different senses, where they may be 
 logically true together, but even where, according to 
 our finite conception, there is an actual contradiction 
 between them ; such as Predestination and Free 
 Will, or Trinity in Unity. 
 
 Still less, of course, is one doctrine overthrown by 
 its contradictory when the opposition is not between 
 Scripture and Scripture, but between Scripture and 
 a dogma which is built on our abstract conceptions 
 
 b Scripture as the sole Revelation. The primitive Church as 
 the best, because the safest, interpreter thereof. See Dr. Hook's 
 Sermon on i Cor. xi. 16. 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 of* the Divine nature and attributes, such as the notion 
 that what is in Scripture termed everlasting* punish- 
 ment cannot be everlasting, because it is supposed 
 to be contrary to the mercy of God ; or that our 
 Saviour's death could not be a sacrifice, because it 
 would be contrary to our notions of God's moral 
 nature. Apart from revelation, man, fallen in feel- 
 ings and reason, can form no real conception of 
 God's nature or attributes : His ways are not as our 
 ways, they are unsearchable and past finding out ; 
 and yet men talk and argue as if they knew them 
 as perfectly and surely as they do the motions of our 
 own moral being. Actually, too, in the world we 
 find contradictions to our dim views of perfect 
 goodness (such, for instance, as the permission of 
 evil and pain,) all which we know to exist ; and 
 in the history of His dealings with His own people, 
 there are surely things which to superficial observers 
 are hard to reconcile with human notions of a per- 
 fect being. To faith, indeed, there are no such diffi- 
 culties. Faith knows that whatever God does must 
 be good and just ; faith knows that we are to form 
 our ideas of God from what He tells us of Himself, 
 not to interpret what He is pleased to tell us by our 
 abstract views of Him. 
 
 The principle however which I have advanced 
 requires some limitations : first of all, it does not 
 apply, if one of the opposing doctrines is not in 
 Scripture : where it is merely an human addition, 
 whether in the practice of a church or the writings 
 of an individual, to fill up a mere humanly devised 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 system, there of course the direct revelation of 
 Scripture is not coordinately true with it, but bears 
 direct evidence against it. The so called religious 
 impressions of a crazed fancy or ambition, such as 
 that of Montanus, or of several impostors in modern 
 times ; additions to the faith on merely human 
 grounds and by human authority, such as the mass 
 of Romish corruptions ; the blank void of the deist — 
 all these and such as these are excluded from the 
 principle of comprehension which I am advocating. 
 They are each in their degree direct negations of 
 Divine truths, not exaggerations or perversions of 
 them. Thus the Romish dogma of a plurality of 
 mediators in the persons of the Virgin and Saints is 
 directly overthrown by the text, There is but one 
 Mediator betweeii God and men. If, indeed, the me- 
 diation of others besides our Saviour had been re- 
 vealed in Scripture, then the principle I have laid 
 down would require us to receive as true, though in 
 some way above our comprehension, both the single 
 mediation of Christ, and nevertheless the mediation 
 of the Saints; but one is in the Bible, and the other 
 is not. It is not that any two contradictory propo- 
 sitions in theology are necessarily true together, but 
 that when any such are both revealed, then both are 
 to be received as coordinate parts of God's counsels. 
 Nor, again, is the principle available in such 
 things as are within the direct cognizance of our 
 senses , in matters of fact, past or present. The 
 
 c Tertullian de Anima, c. 17. " Non licet nobis in dubiufn 
 sensus istos revocare." 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 same reasoning does not apply to things finite and 
 things infinite. Things infinite may not be tested 
 by our experience or by our notions of their possi- 
 bility either in themselves or relatively to some 
 other established truth, for the simple reason that 
 our faculties cannot judge of what lies in so different 
 a sphere. Possibility and impossibility are, in fact, 
 mere human conceptions and expressions for the re- 
 lations, positive and negative, between finite things, 
 and therefore do not obtain in things infinite ; but 
 where these notions do legitimately come in, where 
 the two really opposing doctrines relate to what is 
 directly in the sphere of our senses, then it is clear 
 that both are not true together, though Scripture 
 may apparently be adduced in support of each. It 
 is, for instance, no answer to the texts which speak 
 of the consecrated elements as bread and wine, to 
 urge that the contrary doctrine, that they are actu- 
 ally flesh and blood, may yet, on the principle laid 
 down above, be true ; for the question is not one of 
 the coordinate truth of two Scripture statements on 
 matters beyond our cognizance, but of two conflict- 
 ing facts on a matter directly within the sphere of 
 our senses, the opposites of which cannot both be set 
 forth in Scripture. And this is decided by the uni- 
 versal perception of the fact d , that to the sight, touch, 
 taste, the bread does remain bread, and the wine 
 does remain wine ; whence we see that the meaning 
 
 d See Jeremy Taylor " on the Presence of Christ in the Holy 
 Sacrament," vol. x. (> sqq. (ed. Heber. 1837.) See also Jewell, 
 vol. iii. p. 84. 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 which the Romanist puts on the one text is not 
 really the sense of Scripture, and therefore cannot 
 be quoted as such against the other. 
 
 II. The second point I shall endeavour to establish 
 is of no less consequence than the former, viz. that 
 Christian faith is definite : that the truths and doc- 
 trines of which it is composed are clear and certain ; 
 many of them indeed above our comprehension as 
 to the mode, but still within our apprehension as to 
 the fact of their reality. And this second point is 
 for the most part a corollary of the first, for the 
 notion of the indefiniteness of Scripture has arisen 
 very much from losing sight of its comprehensive- 
 ness. Each truth is definite and clear enough of 
 itself; the indefiniteness has arisen from supposing 
 that other truths, really coordinate, overthrow or 
 neutralize it. 
 
 I do not mean to combat directly or at length the 
 errors which I think may be traced to losing sight 
 of truth, except so far as may be necessary to esta- 
 blish or illustrate my position, or support the truth 
 on either side, or to mark the limits between truth 
 and error. I wish to treat the subject positively 
 rather than negatively, not so much to attack error 
 as to put forward truth in the comprehensive form 
 in which I believe it to exist in Scripture, and to 
 have been realized in the early church. 
 
 I am perfectly aware that such an attempt may 
 well be considered above the powers of him who 
 makes it ; but I have long been persuaded that he 
 who wishes to do good in the world must often throw 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 aside such personal considerations, not only by set- 
 ting at nought blame when unjust, but by running 
 the risk of being justly blamed, if there is on the 
 other hand a chance that the church or even society 
 may be thereby benefitted ; and it is in this feeling 
 that I submit what I have to say to the judgment of 
 others, in the hope and prayer that if there be any 
 truth in it God will help and prosper it; if it be 
 false, that He may be graciously pleased to overrule 
 and hinder it. 
 
 I have been induced to enter upon this subject by 
 the conviction that the views against which I am 
 putting forward the comprehensiveness and definite- 
 ness of faith are unsound in themselves, and bring 
 with them more of danger than of real charity to 
 those for whose welfare they are devised. 
 
 First, any partial or untrue exhibition of Christ- 
 ianity is dangerous to our real spiritual interests. It 
 seems almost a truism to say that man cannot alter 
 the scheme of salvation, or the dimensions, so to 
 speak, of saving faith. If all Christians in all 
 parts of the world were to agree that this degree of 
 belief or that degree of belief should be sufficient, it 
 would not make the slightest difference in the coun- 
 sels of God's foreknowledge, or in the actual nature 
 of faith, ft is true, that such an agreement would 
 give a high degree of probability that the view thus 
 put forth would be the true one, but still it would 
 not make it true. Amid all the quarrels of man, 
 the truth of God remains fixed, and the voice of 
 man is of no more avail than it would be to alter 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 the course of the winds, or the current of the sea, 
 or to add a cubit to his stature. Over these indeed, 
 and over subtler energies than these, we have esta- 
 blished a sort of dominion ; we have in some sort 
 bound the elements to our service ; we entrust to 
 them our lives, our wealth, our thoughts, and bid 
 them carry us and our's from one end of the world to 
 the other, and, lo, they obey ; but it is only because 
 we have found out the properties and laws which 
 God has given them, and use them according to His 
 will. Once transgress these limits but a hair's 
 breadth, once try to impose on them laws which 
 God has not fixed, or to give them orders which are 
 not the interpretations of His commands, then the 
 pliant water and the impalpable air become more 
 immovable than the rocks, more obstinate than 
 man himself; and these visible creatures of God's 
 power do not laugh to greater scorn the attempts of 
 man to alter them according to his own pleasure 
 than do the invisible realities of His will, the 
 powers, and laws, and truths of the spiritual world. 
 But when I say that no man has the right, no man 
 has the power, to prescribe suo arbitrio to another 
 what he shall or what he shall not believe under 
 peril of his soul, I do not mean that the Church 
 has no authority in controversies of faith, or that it 
 ought not to be listened to therein. I do not see 
 how a church can exist without dogmatic theology, 
 any more than without practical teaching. A church 
 has the right, nay, she is bound to state clearly what 
 she believes to be the necessary conditions and way 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 of salvation, what she believes God to have said ; 
 less than this she dare not, more than this she 
 cannot do; but then it is necessary only so far as God 
 has willed it, by virtue of God's will, not by virtue 
 of the human dogma or decree. All that has been 
 said or written by theologians or decreed by councils 
 will not affect a single soul, except so far as, being 
 true or false, it leads to truth or error. A church 
 or any body of Christians may fix the terms of faith 
 or practice on which they will admit others to be 
 partakers of their communion ; but they cannot take 
 the Holy Spirit from those to whom the Holy Spirit 
 is promised, or give His grace where God has not 
 given it; the voice of prayer will be heard if a 
 man be in the truth, though he be for that very 
 truth's sake cast out of a visible church, while the 
 most solemn absolution of an impenitent sinner is 
 but mockery. Thus no man's destiny for eternity will 
 be decided by what he says or thinks of himself, or by 
 what others think of him, but by what he himself is 
 in Christ ; and therefore in our religious statements 
 truth is the point to be regarded, and not charity ; for 
 charity does not obtain in the simple setting forth of 
 God's truth, (except in the mode of doing it,) or in 
 denying error, any more than in defining the laws of 
 light or number; or if charity comes in at all, it forbids 
 us to withhold what we in our consciences believe to 
 be God's truth, and therefore necessary for the sal- 
 vation of souls. It does not follow that he who 
 simply opposes error does even in wish produce the 
 condemnation of any one ; nay. rather if we hold our 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 tongue against error, shall we be guilty of our bro- 
 ther's blood. The physician is not uncharitable, he 
 does not arm fever or poison with death, he is not 
 the destroying angel who rides on the pestilence, 
 because in science or practice he sets forth the prin- 
 ciples and conditions of life, the causes and results 
 of disease. And as charity is in nowise violated by 
 contending earnestly for the faith, (if it were so St. 
 Paul would not have told us to do it,) so neither is 
 it furthered by pretending to give salvation to all 
 men. Kind-hearted theologians must remember, 
 that the power of the keys is not committed to 
 them any more than to the bishop of Rome. Salva- 
 tion is not ours to give: and it is no charity to 
 persuade men that it is, or that the terms thereof 
 are just what any one chooses to make or believe 
 them. It is moreover a practical injury to our 
 eternal interests to take away from faith any doc- 
 trine which God designed for it ; for every such 
 doctrine is meant to bear its part in the work of the 
 Spirit on the soul, so that the faith of those who 
 reject this or that truth must needs be imperfect 
 not only in belief but in practice. 
 
 And, secondly, as these views are dangerous in prac- 
 tice, so are they unsound in theory ; for when we al- 
 low that each opinion byitself is possibly true, we allow 
 that each is possibly false, and this we cannot do with- 
 out taking from truth that which makes it true and 
 from belief that which makes it faith. That which is 
 essentially and not merely accidentally true refuses to 
 fraternize with error ; faith, like the real mother in the 
 
2d LECTURE I. 
 
 judgment of Solomon, refuses any compromise which 
 shall destroy that on which her heart is fixed. 
 
 In fact, the very notion that it matters not to the 
 reality of a man's faith, whether he believes little or 
 much of what God has revealed, disproves itself; 
 the faith of which it speaks cannot be real faith; for 
 this is no transient emotion or conviction confining 
 itself to this matter or that, but comprehending all 
 Gospel truth, and realizing the whole will of God as 
 far as it is within its reach. Faith is the reflection 
 of the Divinity on the soul, as far as that Divinity 
 has been pleased to reveal Himself, and therefore 
 faith must be one and indivisible even as God, Who 
 is the object and author thereof. It is God Whom 
 faith contemplates in His nature, His attributes, 
 His counsels, His dealings with men, and it is a 
 contradiction in terms to call that faith which wil- 
 fully accepts only part of these, as it is a contra- 
 diction in thought to view God only in part of these 
 His relations, which can be separated only by a 
 fiction of the reason, to enable us to form con- 
 ceptions of infinite and indivisible perfection. 
 
 And the same conclusion follows from the nature 
 of faith as a habit or state of mind. To those whom 
 God has called He has given a power of discerning 
 spiritual things; an eye of the soul whereby they 
 are able to receive Divine truth, even as in the 
 natural man there exists a power of discerning or 
 receiving moral or physical truth. This spiritual 
 vision differs indeed in different individuals, as the 
 Divine light is poured upon Divine things in greater 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 or less abundance, and Divine things presented to 
 it in greater or less variety; hence we find it spoken 
 of in different degrees in Scripture : how different in 
 degree was the faith of the centurion from the faith of 
 St. Paul, and yet in both it was essentially the same, 
 the perception and hearty reception of the Divine 
 Messenger in whatever degree He was pleased to 
 place Himself before them, as the Miracle-worker, 
 or the Prophet, or the Priest, or the Sacrifice, or the 
 Judge. Where Divine truth falls on the mind with- 
 out affecting it, there faith in its full and perfect 
 nature cannot really be, just as there is no sight 
 in the eye on which light falls powerless. That 
 temper of mind then, which accepts some truths 
 and rejects others, cannot be more than the sem- 
 blance and counterfeit of faith — if it had been faith, 
 it would have recognized one and all alike. 
 
 And as faith from its own nature cannot be par- 
 tial, so neither from its own nature can it be un- 
 certain ; it does not admit to itself the notion of the 
 possibility of error. Grounding itself on the revela- 
 tion of an omniscient Being, it so completely ac- 
 quiesces in the certainty of its object, that to suppose 
 the possibility of this being unreal destroys it. It 
 is not a mere weighing of probabilities ; the mind in 
 suspense, first inclining to one side and then to the 
 other : but resting on the truth which it apprehends, 
 it becomes a very part of our intellectual conscious- 
 ness as well as of our moral being ; so that things 
 hoped for are as substantially before us as if we held 
 them in our hands, we have as sure a witness of things 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 unseen as if we saw them actually with our eyes. 
 Its sphere may be enlarged, but its nature is not 
 changed. It is the clear and indelible impression of 
 Divine revelation on our very being, so that it works 
 into and with all the faculties and energies, and 
 governs them with an unvarying and undoubting 
 voice. The various doctrines must work themselves 
 thoroughly into the reason, feelings, affections, and 
 how can this be as long as we doubt whether they 
 are not deceptions rather than doctrines ( He who 
 doubts whether he may be sure, has a witness in 
 himself that he has but the shadow of faith. 
 
 I confess it seems to me contrary to the very no- 
 tion of a Divine revelation, to suppose that God has 
 revealed truth of such a sort or in such a way that 
 after all it is no truth to us, but varies with the short- 
 sighted and wayward reason of each individual ; for 
 once admit the principle, and there may be as many 
 shades of truth as there are individuals in the 
 world. It is surely no scriptural theology which 
 says, " Let every man be true, and God a liar ;" for 
 if St. John tells us, that he who believes not the 
 record which God gave of His Son makes Him a 
 liar, what are we to think of those who say that 
 God has given us no record of His Son, or one so 
 doubtful that no man can be certain what it is? 
 
 It is true, that our Saviour's teaching was often 
 clothed in parables, so that His meaning might be 
 obscure to those who could not profit by it; but 
 still to those who were able to hear, it presented a 
 definite notion and image, while t<> those who were 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 not, it conveyed no notion at all, or a wrong one. 
 It was not that what both the one and the other 
 gathered from it was equally and indifferently true, 
 but that one did, and the other did not comprehend 
 our Saviour's meaning. 
 
 It is true also that we are said to see " through a 
 glass darkly," "&' evoirrpov ev alviypari" and this text 
 has been used to show that it is impossible to say with 
 certainty what is revealed and what is not. The more 
 correct translation however is, in a glass, in a riddle. 
 We see in a glass the reflection of things invisible, not 
 the very things themselves ; but a reflection is not 
 necessarily less distinct and clear than the object itself; 
 we see Divine truths only as they are reflected on our 
 spiritualized reason; but they are reflected as clearly 
 and distinctly as that whereon they are reflected 
 admits ; as far as our spiritualized reason can grasp 
 such mysteries unto understanding there is no un- 
 certainty ; we do not perhaps see the whole, but 
 that does not make what we do see indistinct f . 
 The mountain top may be hid in clouds, but the rocks 
 and woods, the vineyard at its foot are not for that re- 
 flected less distinctly in the polished surface. We see 
 them ev ouviyixaTi ; we cannot comprehend them in all 
 their relations ; they are mysteries and puzzles to us. 
 We see them in a glass : we cannot subject them to 
 the same searching process as we do earthly truths 
 in the visible objects in which they reside. We 
 must be content to receive them as they are pre- 
 sented to us ; we must be content to be puzzled 
 1 Calv. ad loc. 
 
:jo LECTURE I. 
 
 by the mysteries thus partially disclosed to us, but 
 still there is no ground for uncertainty or doubt 
 as far as they are disclosed. Our inability is no 
 reason for disbelieving, but rather for acquiescing in 
 them. Thus did the Apostles see our Saviour trans- 
 figured before them clearly enough, but they knew 
 not what to say, nor what to think of the vision ; 
 thus the notion of eternity set forth clearly in 
 Scripture is to us, who know only time, a riddle ; 
 thus the ever blessed Trinity, which we see so dis- 
 tinctly in the glass of faith, is a mystery we cannot 
 solve ; thus even the Deity Himself, revealed as He 
 is so certainly in Nature and in Scripture, is revealed 
 ev alviyfjLaTt. He baffles our keenest wit, and con- 
 founds our minds as soon as they try to search Him 
 out. The time will come when these riddles may 
 be read to us, but our souls and bodies must first 
 have undergone that change which is to fit them for 
 seeing face to face. Each degree of revelation is 
 suited to the state to which it belongs ; the present 
 partial is suited to what we are, the future total to 
 what we shall be. 
 
 But it may be said, it is not meant that Divine 
 truth is in itself uncertain ; but that it is uncertain 
 to us, that Ave have not faculties to grasp it firmly ; 
 but if not, why not ? What is faith but a faculty of 
 the soul purified, strengthened, enlightened to ap- 
 prehend Divine things, and if not so purified, 
 strengthened, enlightened, how can our weak, dark, 
 carnal perceptions be called faith, except in a se- 
 condary and almost figurative sense? We have al- 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 ready seen that faith excludes uncertainty ; if then 
 our faculties cannot in Divine things rise above 
 uncertainty, then they cannot be properly termed 
 faith. Whatever uncertainty exists in some men's 
 minds arises from their hearts not being sufficiently 
 in subjection to the Spirit; the truths revealed are 
 not uncertain, unless we make them so by trying to 
 reduce them to human proportions, and to measure 
 them by a human standard. The more we examine 
 into the nature and origin of this uncertainty, the 
 more I think shall we see the necessity of all dog- 
 matic theology being founded on that comprehen- 
 sive belief, which accepts without questioning, which 
 with bowed head and willing heart listens humbly to 
 what the Lord says concerning Himself and us. 
 
 And, if I rightly gather the mind of our Church, in 
 her dogmatic as well as her practical teaching, it is 
 in this sense that she may justly be called a broad 
 Church, including many differing views. She is a 
 broad and comprehensive Church, but it is with 
 reference to the breadth and comprehensiveness of 
 Divine truth, and not to the vacillation and indefi- 
 niteness of human opinion. It is not so much that 
 she meant to take all opinions under her wings, 
 (though this of course is an accidental result,) but 
 that she meant to accept and set forth the several 
 truths out of which those opinions had grown ; it is 
 not that she meant to include men of every shade of 
 opinion, as if the faith were indefinite or their dif- 
 ferences unimportant, as if each was in complete and 
 sufficient possession of truth, but that she felt herself 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 bound to lay before men the whole counsel of God, 
 trusting to Him to overrule whatever danger there 
 might be in so doing. It is not that her view is dim 
 and uncertain, if she at one time brings one doc- 
 trine forward, at another time another, but that she 
 is far-sighted and comprehensive ; it was not in the 
 way of a disloyal compromise of the faith once deli- 
 vered to the saints and entrusted to her stewardship 
 that she embraced opposing doctrines in her teach- 
 ing, opposing parties in her communion, but because 
 she recognised in each portions of the truth, however 
 exaggerated or distorted, and she trusted that each 
 would correct and perfect each ; hence it is that men 
 of opposite opinions are able each to claim our Re- 
 formers as favouring their peculiar views&, because 
 our Reformers held them both as far as they were 
 true, and modified each by the other as far as it was 
 false. I cannot look upon those Fathers of our 
 Church without reverential wonder, as men whose 
 natural powers God was pleased in that emergency 
 to strengthen with an especial gift of discernment of 
 Himself and His Scriptures. The Church of the 
 saints had long been in ruins ; above and around it 
 the ingenious foolishness of men had raised an im- 
 posing structure, with all that could please the eye, 
 or cheat the reason, or enlist the sympathies of the 
 men who worshipped there. It was their business 
 to search among the half forgotten ruins for what- 
 
 e This is sufficiently illustrated in the arguments held on the 
 theological points which have unhappily heen matters of strife in 
 our own times. 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 ever bore the impress of Divine workmanship, to 
 pick up a key-stone here, a column there, a mould- 
 ing here, and thus to reconstruct the sanctuarv after 
 the pattern of primitive times ; and by God's bless- 
 ing on their labour, or rather by the presence of 
 God's Holy Spirit in their hearts, they missed no- 
 thing- which was necessary to their work ; and the 
 Church of Christ rose beneath their hands, and now 
 stands among us in its beautiful yet simple com- 
 pleteness; weakened indeed and marred by the want 
 of faith and firmness in those who have been built 
 into her spiritual building: but in herself, as a de- 
 pository of God's truth from generation to genera- 
 tion, in her liturgies, her doctrines, her ordinances, 
 her sacraments, setting forth fully before us the 
 Divine will, and the Divine scheme of salvation, as 
 it w r as set forth by Christ and His Apostles. 
 
 And though the great variety of religious views 
 and parties tell a sad tale of the lack of the Spirit of 
 truth dwelling in us, yet, as regards our Church as 
 an ark of the truth, it is no slight witness to her 
 Scriptural character, that men of so many different 
 opinions have found and still find shelter under her 
 wings, and think that they have Scriptural grounds 
 for doing so; nor would I have it otherwise: I be- 
 lieve if any one of the parties were to succeed in 
 driving the other out, there would be, as things are 
 at present, a truth lost; it would exist indeed in 
 formularies and articles of faith as long as these were 
 unaltered ; for this is one blessing of a fixed liturgy 
 and creed, that truth is preserved in spite of men's 
 
 D 
 
34 LECTURE I. 
 
 rejection of it ; but it would be dead as far as exer- 
 cising any influence over the minds of that genera- 
 tion, and it could not be revived in another without 
 much strife and trouble. I confess that I believe, 
 that if our Church were what God designed her to be, 
 what perhaps our Reformers sometimes dared to 
 hope she would be, if her clergy and laity were filled 
 with the Spirit of God at all in proportion to their 
 opportunities and privileges, there would not be in 
 her differing parties holding different truths, but one 
 united body, holding even as the Church in the days 
 of old, all truths in the unity of the Spirit and the 
 bond of peace. It might be that one truth or the 
 other would at this time or that be brought more pro- 
 minently forward according to the needs of person or 
 place, but not so as to overshadow the rest, just as 
 in the primitive writers, and even in Scripture, we 
 find one part of the Christian character spoken of 
 as if it were the whole; sometimes as if it were 
 nothing but love, sometimes nothing but hope, some- 
 times as a mere intellectual belief, sometimes as re- 
 pentance ; because perfect hope, perfect love, perfect 
 belief, perfect repentance, all meet together in per- 
 fect Christian faith ; and it is not that any one of 
 these is the whole, but that each properly implies 
 the rest ; so that in this, as in all things, Scripture 
 puts before us what we should be. And would that 
 it were so ; would that the Spirit of truth might 
 by the reality of our prayers, and the piety of our 
 hearts, and the warmth of our love, and the holiness 
 of our lives, and the earnestness of our desires, be 
 
LECTURE I. 35 
 
 won to come among us as the Spirit and Power of 
 peace, so that the same faith should speak among us 
 though in different tongues; as it is, what I should 
 pray for, as the result of the idea I shall endeavour 
 to set before you is this, that while we are zealous and 
 anxious in maintaining what we believe to be the 
 truth, we should look earnestly and lovingly on that 
 which others think to be true, and see if there be 
 not something therein which we lack ; that each may 
 learn from each ; surely there is scarcely one of us 
 who can say Lord, I believe, but lias reason to add 
 help Thou my unbelief-, we have all of us reason to 
 be on our guard lest, our hearts being hardened by 
 that pride and self-sufficiency which is the spirit of 
 unbelief, Divine truth should be shining around us 
 without our comprehending it. Thus might we hope 
 that our faith will attain its Scriptural proportions, 
 and our Zion be at peace, and better able to defend 
 God's kingdom, against superstition on the one 
 hand, and godless indifferentism on the other. 
 
 Not that there is to be any compromise of truth : 
 compromise may obtain in matters of state policy or 
 of individual interest, but I do not see whence either 
 individuals or churches get the right to compromise 
 one jot or one tittle of Divine revelation : to say " I 
 will allow that what I believe is matter of doubt, 
 is no belief, no revelation, if you will allow the same 
 of what you believe." No man is to sacrifice what 
 he Scripturally believes to be true ; on the contrary, 
 he must thoroughly, and practically, and humbly 
 realize the truth which he holds, before he can see the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LECTURE I. 
 
 truth which others hold. There is surely a spiritual 
 affinity between truth and truth : each truth which 
 is realized in its due proportions, makes our appre- 
 hension of other truths in their proportions more 
 quick and sure ; but each must be realized, not as a 
 point for .controversial warfare or theological victory, 
 but as a soul-stirring life-guiding principle ; in pro- 
 portion as we do this, one truth will open our eyes 
 to more truth ; in proportion as it is to us a mere 
 point in theology, it will dim our eyes and hide 
 other truth from us. 
 
 Nor is the spiritual sphere of our minds at all 
 narrowed, nor our spiritual liberty abridged there- 
 by, but rather much enlarged and increased. Men 
 on either side are now in captivity to their own 
 one-sided opinions; this truth or that truth is keep- 
 ing them bound to itself, so that they do not 
 enjoy the range which God has provided for them. 
 The truth will set them free. God lias given 
 us a vast and comprehensive revelation of His 
 own Divine nature and counsels, and of man's po- 
 sition, duties, and destinies; and the more we 
 realize this in all its parts, the more extended will be 
 our sphere of spiritual thought, the more complete 
 our knowledge of and communion with Him, the more 
 completely shall we be transformed to His image. 
 It is true many things in the spiritual world are ob- 
 scure and mysterious to us ; but the more we believe 
 the more will be given us to believe, the greater will 
 be our power of believing; the more will faith be 
 revealed to faith. There may seem to us in the 
 
LECTURE J. 37 
 
 revelation many impossibilities, many contradictions ; 
 but as we grow in all truth the impossibilities will 
 change into realities, the contradictions into har- 
 mony; we shall see more clearly the meaning of 
 each doctrine, as we allow its influence to be im- 
 pressed on our soul by faith and practice ; as we fix 
 the eye of faith on the yet far off figures, they will 
 be made nearer and clearer to us; the mist, the 
 clouds, the distance will melt away before the in- 
 tensity of our gaze, and we shall almost anticipate 
 the time when we shall see face to face ; each doc- 
 trine, each mystery will assume its proper place and 
 proportion, will exercise its proper influence over our 
 hearts and lives. We shall know what each has to 
 say to us, what each would have us to do ; we shall 
 see how all spring from, all end in, all have their 
 meaning from Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, /o- 
 day, and for ever. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 Hebrews xiii. 8. 
 Jesus Christ, the same yesterday \ to (/<uj, and for ever. 
 
 iT is the natural result of the truth which breathes 
 throughout a Divine Revelation, that Christianity 
 gives us far more exalted ideas of the Supreme 
 Being and all that belongs to Him than any of the 
 other systems which have stood in the place of reli- 
 gion to man. The God of the Christian is not a 
 mere deified hero, or an abstract essence or power. 
 The very fact, that we have no images of thought or 
 speech whereby we can adequately represent God to 
 ourselves, does but make Him known to us in His 
 real nature as higher and better than any thing we 
 can imagine. The heaven of the Christian is not a 
 mere beautiful earth above the clouds — think of it 
 as we may, we can form no real picture of it, and yet 
 no Christian can think of it without the deepest in- 
 terest and hope. If God and heaven are the proper 
 objects of religious thought and feeling, then is the 
 Christian blessed above all men, if it were only in 
 having a true object of worship, a real resting-place 
 for his souJ. 
 
LECTURE II. 39 
 
 And though God and heaven are thus presented 
 to us in all their majesty, yet is the Christian's at- 
 tention drawn to earth with an interest no less 
 intense. It is not as in the so-called religion of old 
 that we have put before us the creations of poetic 
 fancy, which loved to people earth, sea, and sky 
 with ideal divinities ; nor yet the fables of the 
 grosser mythology, which gave to the gods the 
 desires, the enjoyments, the passions, and even the 
 crimes of humanity ; nor yet are we taught to listen 
 for the Divine voice coming forth from the caves or 
 shrines which superstition assigned to the Divinity as 
 its dwelling place on the earth. 
 
 But the Christian's gaze is fixed on earth, as the 
 place wherein our salvation was accomplished by 
 Him who came down from heaven, God manifest in 
 the flesh, living and dwelling in visible existence 
 and shape, as man among men, the man Christ 
 Jesus : on Him whose nature is so infinite, and 
 whose functions so manifold, that they cannot be 
 taken in with one glance of even the spiritual 
 eye. God, Man, Son, Prophet, Priest, King, Sa- 
 viour, Redeemer, Mediator, Judge, Sacrifice, Power, 
 Word, Wisdom, Light, Life — what words shall fitly 
 declare His glory, what mind fully conceive it ? 
 
 It is no wonder then that when men tried to 
 bring down this all-wonderful Being to the level of 
 human understanding, to form of Him as consistent 
 conceptions as they did of any of God's creatures, 
 they were obliged to strip Him of His glories ; and 
 thus while they were professing to be wise above 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 others, they were shutting themselves out from the 
 knowledge which others, more simple-minded, pos- 
 sessed. Hence it is that from the very earliest times 
 so many heresies sprung up as to Him who is the 
 very Truth itself, from whom all truth springs. 
 There was in Him of necessity from His very na- 
 ture, from the very scheme of salvation, so much 
 which reason could not comprehend or recon- 
 cile, that men who would not be content with 
 what the Bible told them, were obliged to solve 
 their difficulties by taking a partial and carnal 
 view of Him, as their fancies, or lives, or circum- 
 stances led them to look at Him exclusively from 
 the one side or the other — How can He who is God 
 be also man \ How can He who is God have died ? 
 How can He who is subordinate to the Father be 
 one with the Father? How can He who is eternal 
 have ever been begotten ? These and the like diffi- 
 culties, which are founded entirely on the notion 
 that heavenly things differ in no respect from earthly, 
 occupied the attention and made shipwreck of the 
 faith and hope of thousands ; many a one whom 
 God had gifted with His choicest natural gifts, whom 
 He had embraced in His church, and brought to the 
 living waters of scriptural truth, was led astray by 
 a wayward love of system, a wayward impatience 
 of submitting to what can not be understood or ex- 
 plained, a wayward confidence in human perceptions, 
 inferences, deductions. Where Christ was looking 
 for adoration, there was nothing to be found or heard 
 but philosophical questions and logical doubts as to 
 
LECTURE II. 41 
 
 those very points which the Apostles received and 
 set forth in humble and thankful faith. These 
 men would not receive the gospel until there was 
 nothing left which their reason had not mastered. 
 It seems to me that this was just the disputing 
 and the wisdom against which St. Paul warned 
 his children in the faith. Happy they who amid 
 those perilous heresies listened to his warning, and 
 throwing philosophy and vain deceit to the winds, 
 shut their ears to those who would have robbed their 
 faith of its deepest and highest objects of contem- 
 plation. Strange that men should refuse to be borne 
 upon the boundless ocean, unless they can fathom 
 its depths ; that they should refuse to drink in the 
 glories of the sun, unless they can master the causes 
 of its light and warmth. Wiser, surely, they who 
 are content to w r onder, and adore, and love. 
 
 That there are in Scripture many (humanly speak- 
 ing) contradictions as to our Saviour, no one, I think, 
 will deny ; but according to the principle I have set 
 forth in the first lecture, we have not to reconcile 
 these statements : all that we have to do is to assure 
 ourselves that they are in Scripture : to study them 
 separately and together : to find out and lay to heart 
 what they separately and together teach us. It may 
 be that some of them will be to us as long as we 
 are here contradictions : while of others we may 
 see how they fit as it were into each other, and have 
 a definite place and office in the scheme of our 
 salvation ; at all events, comprehensive faith accepts 
 them all. 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 The first point which would occur to one to whom 
 Jesus Christ was for the first time made known 
 would naturally be, "Who is He?" and this brings 
 us directly to the consideration of the view which 
 Christianity gives us of the Divine nature, as con- 
 tained in the revelation that God is Three and 
 One. This question indeed has been so fully and 
 so exhaustively treated by other hands, that it is 
 not necessary for me to enter into it, except so far 
 as it bears on the principle I am advocating, or as 
 the principle may be brought to bear upon it; for 
 in regard to those within our church, and indeed to 
 the majority of* Christendom, where there is no dif- 
 ference of opinion on this point, I would rather use 
 it as an admitted truth in support of the principle 
 that opposed notions in theology may be true to- 
 gether ; while to the others I would urge my prin- 
 ciple in answer to their objections to the doctrine 
 which are based mainly on the theory that the same 
 Being cannot be both Three and One. 
 
 The proofs of this doctrine of the Trinity, whether 
 direct, such as in the institution of baptism, or indi- 
 rect, as where each person is separately spoken of as 
 God, or has Divine powers and attributes assigned to 
 Him, as well as the argument from primitive consent, 
 are so familiar to all, that they need no further men- 
 tion. But against all this direct scriptural evidence, 
 it is urged that there are other passages of Scrip- 
 ture which both directly and indirectly represent God 
 as One; for I have not to deal with those who deny 
 the doctrine simply on the ground of its being con- 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 trary to reason, but to those who oppose it on the 
 ground of its being incompatible with other state- 
 ments in Holy Writ. These statements, they say, can- 
 not be true together, and therefore we have as much 
 right to choose the one as the other ; and since one 
 or the other cannot on Scripture grounds be true, 
 we are justified in taking that which is most agree- 
 able to the general sense of mankind, and the voice 
 of natural religion. I suppose this would not un- 
 fairly represent the reasoning whereby such a person 
 would deny the doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 Now our church rightly maintains that the proof 
 that God is One does in no way exclude the proof 
 of there being in the unity of this Godhead three 
 persons. We are Unitarians in as proper and full a 
 sense as those to whom the name is more technically 
 and exclusively given : but we are Trinitarians also; 
 we maintain that these, humanly speaking, incon- 
 sistencies, subsist and are true together, and that the 
 acceptance of the one does not necessitate the re- 
 jection of the other. For why should it ? The notion 
 that the one destroys the other is entirely based on 
 the supposition that the Divine nature is the same in 
 kind as our own, subject to the same conditions as our- 
 selves — conditions which, after all, are only abstractions 
 of the mind, shadowing dimly forth those accidents 
 and properties which are attached to an imperfect 
 state of being, but from which the existence of God 
 must from its very perfection and infinity be free ; 
 one and many — divisible and indivisible — separate. 
 together — before and after, and the like, are simply 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 human modes of expressing certain states and rela- 
 tions of number, space, and time, in the com- 
 pound and complex universe : while to Him whose 
 being is one and simple, whom size, space, time, 
 affect not, they are, properly speaking, inapplicable. 
 Nor should we with any propriety apply them to 
 Him, were it not that the Scripture partially re- 
 veals Him by them as the modes of conception and 
 thought necessary to beings such as we are. The 
 Scripture then being the only ground whereby these 
 notions and terms are applicable to the Deity, it fol- 
 lows that they are applicable to Him only in the way 
 in which Scripture has applied them : that is, by op- 
 posing them one to the other, and thus giving us 
 some idea of what is properly above human compre- 
 hension ; to refuse to receive them because they are 
 opposed to each other, is to refuse to receive know- 
 ledge in the only way in which it can be given: for 
 reason itself confesses that the only way in which we 
 can conceive or define those natures and essences 
 which belong to a different and far higher state 
 of things than our own, is by that combination of 
 notions which we might rightly reject in matters 
 which our faculties can grasp. In fact, almost all our 
 true notions of the Deity involve attributes which 
 Mould in created things be incompatible, as may be 
 seen even in the points of natural religion which 
 have always been connected with the Divine essence 
 where it has been at all realised by man. Take for 
 instance the omnipresence of the Deity; the notion 
 that a person is in more than one place at the same 
 
LECTURE II. 4.5 
 
 moment of time, is as contrary to our natural con- 
 ceptions of possibility as the Trinity in Unity, if not 
 more so ; and yet mankind instinctively attribute to 
 God personality and ubiquity, and acquiesce in the 
 difficulty implied in their conjunction ; and while 
 some have pretended to solve the difficulty by Pan- 
 theism, or an anima mundi, yet it is easy to see 
 that they do in reality but bring before us more 
 vividly the difficulty they profess to solve. In sooth, 
 when we begin to think on the Divine nature, and 
 try to search it out by those faculties of analysis 
 which are almost all-powerful within their proper 
 sphere, to try to systematize and to measure it, 
 instead of realising it spiritually by contemplation, 
 our minds must find themselves lost, not only in the 
 immensity, but the perplexity of the subject. We 
 must acquiesce in what some might perhaps call 
 contradictions, or else take from the Deity one after 
 another of those notions which are involved in the 
 idea of the Divinity, until at length He is brought 
 down to the level of deified humanity. And thus 
 it is in strict accordance with the theory and prac- 
 tice of sound reason, that the catholic faith, finding 
 both Three Persons and One God clearly revealed 
 in Scripture, accepts them both with wondering 
 gratitude, as the only complete revelation of the 
 Godhead which was ever vouchsafed to man. In 
 days of old even philosophy was compelled to be 
 content with very partial views of the Divinity : 
 thinking men, indeed, sighing for more complete 
 knowledge, searched out the secret places of their 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 own souls, to see if therein they could discern 
 any reflection of God ; looking around on outward 
 things they felt after Him in the elements, the laws, 
 the powers of the universe, if haply they might 
 find Him ; having only part, and feeling that it was 
 only part, they longed and strove after what was yet 
 lacking to that Divine science. Modern philosophy, 
 now that God Himself has spoken, refuses to take 
 the whole, and standing proudly aloof, thinks to 
 choose for herself what part she shall accept and 
 what reject : and falls back on theories and fancies 
 not more real or satisfactory than the theology of 
 antiquity. 
 
 And as in the essential existence of the Deity we 
 must teach ourselves to acquiesce in unexplained dif- 
 ficulties as our best wisdom, so must we also expect to 
 find them in His moral attributes when viewed from 
 the side of earth. There are indeed instinctive feel- 
 ings of morality embodying the rights and duties of 
 man to man, correlative with many perfections and 
 infirmities, bound up with our very being and our 
 idea of goodness, to lose which would be almost to 
 cease to be man. These may be said to have their 
 birthplace in heaven, because they are the guides 
 and laws which God's will has attached to man's 
 nature ; but to try to bind the Deity with such as 
 these, is as if we were to try to guide Him by ex- 
 citing in Him those passions the right operation 
 and laws of which these principles of morality em- 
 body. In fact, to ascribe the attributes of human 
 morality to God, seems to be only so far allowable as 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 it is our only way of expressing those partial glimpses 
 of the Divine will which from time to time we are able 
 to catch. At present we see only in part ; we are sure 
 indeed that every conceivable element of perfection 
 must exist in the Divine Being, though not perhaps 
 exactly in the way in which we should conceive of 
 it. The notion of perfection is implied in the notion 
 of God. This we can read in nature — in the pages 
 of history, sacred and profane — in the events of the 
 world as they pass before us — in the events of our 
 own lives — in the experiences of our own hearts — in 
 the primary notions of our own mind. And though 
 to us His attribute of infinite justice and infinite 
 mercy may seem to be opposed, yet in Himself He 
 is as infinitely just as if there were no mercy, as in- 
 finitely merciful as if there were no justice ; for we 
 may not conceive of His attributes as if they were 
 separate qualities or habits residing in a moral being, 
 and operating in moral acts. However heathen 
 poetry may have impressed such images on the minds 
 and language of men, it is certainly contrary to the 
 true idea of God to suppose that His nature is made 
 up of parts and affected by passions. And it is the 
 more necessary to insist upon this, because the re- 
 jection or misinterpretation of many parts of Scrip- 
 ture arises from arguing from human to Divine per- 
 fections. There are indeed those who map out the 
 Divine mind, and bind the Divine will and power by 
 chains of human possibility, necessity, and morality : 
 who weigh one attribute against another, and thus 
 work out what seems to them to be a consistent 
 
48 LECTURE II. 
 
 scheme for the operations of His counsels; who 
 will allow God to he wise, and just, and merciful, 
 only in the way in which they themselves would 
 be so ; who say lie cannot do this, He must have 
 done that; and seem to think that if God had had 
 them for counsellors, the world would have been 
 more perfect, man more happy than we find him to 
 be as God has created him and ordered his goings; 
 nay, that God himself would have been more wise 
 than Scripture reveals Him to us. With such ques- 
 tionings and systems faith has nought to do; she 
 believes whatever Scripture reveals, as she reads 
 it therein ; Scripture tells us that God is just, and we 
 believe it. The same Scripture tells us that unborn 
 generations were lost for the sin of Adam ; the suf- 
 ferings of the innocent were exacted in lieu of the 
 punishment of the guilty, and we believe it. Scrip- 
 ture tells us that God takes vengeance, and we be- 
 lieve it; and yet that sinners practically go unpu- 
 nished, and we believe it. The Scripture tells us 
 that God is merciful, and willeth not the death of a 
 sinner, and we believe it : the same Scripture speaks 
 of eternal punishment, the worm that never dieth, 
 and the fire that is never quenched, and we be- 
 lieve it. Terrible in vengeance, strict in justice, 
 infinite in mercy ! faith receives and dwells upon 
 each and all. She receives them all, knowing that 
 the terms whereby they are expressed are but as the 
 shadows which the painter is obliged to use to de- 
 fine and express the rays of light, which fall with 
 different hues from the one sinjjle indivisible centre 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 of pure light — terms whereby we are able to con- 
 ceive somewhat, though after a very imperfect fa- 
 shion, of Him who dwelleth in the heavens out of 
 our sight. 
 
 We may see from this how very inadequate and 
 fallacious are all a priori conceptions of the parti- 
 cular exhibitions of God's nature in His dealings 
 with men. We may argue in general that His justice, 
 mercy, power, goodness, love, will exhibit themselves 
 in some way or other to man ; we may argue of an 
 act of God that it is just because it is God's, because 
 there can be no unrighteousness with God ; we may 
 argue that the idea of injustice is necessarily excluded 
 from the idea of God : and that therefore what might 
 at first sight seem to be unjust or unkind, cannot 
 be really so, because the Judge of the world must 
 needs do right, because " He is the Rock, His work 
 is perfect : for all His ways are judgment: a God of 
 truth and without iniquity, just and right is He a ." 
 But we cannot put one of God's attributes against 
 another, and argue negatively that His justice could 
 not have acted in this manner or that, as Scrip- 
 ture has in express terms revealed it to us, be- 
 cause it would be contrary to His mercy or His 
 love, for the simple reason that such moral contra- 
 dictions imply separate parts and passions and per- 
 fections : and that His nature being one and indi- 
 visible, it follows that His mercy and justice and 
 love are inseparable likewise ; and therefore we 
 cannot tell how His mercy, or love, or justice 
 
 a Deut. xxxii 4. 
 E 
 
50 LECTURE II. 
 
 would act by itself. We may contemplate Him 
 in silent adoration as just, or merciful, or kind, 
 as He is revealed in Scripture, but we may not 
 wrest or reject Scripture to suit our notions of a 
 deified humanity. Man may be in his own conceits 
 elevated above his real position, by fancying that he 
 can see himself reflected in the Majesty of heaven, 
 that he himself is as God only in a lower sphere ; 
 but I confess it seems to me worse than vain to at- 
 tempt to pourtray God with a pencil dipped in 
 mere earthly colours ; just as one shrinks from 
 those representations wherein the painter, with a 
 mistaken and presumptuous piety, has thought to 
 image the Deity by clothing Him in the most per- 
 fect proportions and most venerable aspect of hu- 
 man shape and feature. 
 
 The same comprehensive belief which accepts the 
 doctrine of Three Persons and One God, and conse- 
 quently the Divinity of our Saviour, holds likewise 
 when we read of Him as man, coming down from 
 heaven, manifest in the flesh. It is not however 
 His humanity which is so much called in ques- 
 tion as his Divinity. It is undoubted that it is hu- 
 manly speaking impossible to reconcile His being 
 God with all the Divine attributes and perfections, 
 and yet at the same time being man with all human 
 passions and infirmities — all that faith cares to know 
 is that Scripture does most certainly and definitely 
 speak of Him as God and man; and therefore we 
 believe that He is both God and man, " not by con- 
 fusion of substance, but bv unity of Person." 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 [Nor is true faith staggered in her belief by the 
 various contradictory statements which we find in 
 Scripture on various points connected with our Sa- 
 viour ; such, for instance, as that He is coexistent 
 from the beginning with, and yet begotten from 
 everlasting of the Father — that He is one with the 
 Father and yet His Son — that the Father is greater 
 than the Son, and yet He is equal to Him. All these 
 and the like do not to faith suggest doubts, but pre- 
 sent themselves as mysteries, which we, bound as we 
 are by the conditions of our present state, can neither 
 fathom nor explain ; as sources of fruitful meditation 
 and wonder, which may impress upon our mind a 
 wholesome sense of the Divine Majesty of Ilim who 
 though he took upon Himself the likeness of man, 
 and the form of a servant, yet so evidently belongs 
 to an infinitely higher sphere of existence, and re- 
 fuses to bow before our laws of being or our laws of 
 thought ; and if the Church has ever attempted an 
 explanation of those mysteries, as in the Athanasian 
 Creed, it is because heresies forced the question upon 
 her a , and because she hoped that she might stop the 
 evil and reclaim those who were taken captive 
 of it b .] 
 
 And as we receive Christ both as God and man, 
 so do we take no partial view of Him when He is 
 presented to us, not so much in His own nature as 
 
 a See Bacon, of Church Controversies, vol. i, page 501, Lond. 
 1 819. See also Hilarius de Trin. II. 1, quoted by Giesler, Kir- 
 chen Gesch. I. 367. 
 
 b The passages between brackets were omitted in deliverv. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LECTURE II. 
 
 in His relation to men, and in His functions in the 
 work of our salvation. In this as in other points, 
 the faith of the early Church, and I may say of our 
 own, comprehends the whole truth, while each of the 
 contending parties is in error by stopping short of it 
 on either side. What each directly affirms of our 
 Saviour from Scripture faith receives, but in that 
 each denies some Scriptural statement concerning 1 
 Him she goes further, higher, and deeper than they 
 do ; she has all that they severally and separately 
 hold. 
 
 There are those who look on Christ as a Hero, a 
 man raised above His fellows by the loftiness of His 
 spirit, the greatness of His actions ; and He is un- 
 doubtedly the greatest man, the greatest hero, if you 
 will, who ever appeared upon earth ; with all human 
 infirmities, He triumphed over the weaknesses and 
 frailties which mar the perfection of ordinary men ; 
 He won men's hearts, and founded by His will a power 
 before which imperial Rome was forced to bow. A 
 Hero doubtless He was, and as such He is repre- 
 sented in Scripture. No one realises this so truly 
 as he who believes Him to be God. How could it 
 be otherwise ? how could God come among men in 
 any other character? nay, surely the very act of 
 suffering on earth for the salvation of sinners 
 was in itself an act of heroism to which neither 
 history nor mythology present any parallel. The 
 highest heroes of poetry or of history were men 
 who, finding themselves in the midst of and set 
 above an evil world, did their part boldly in the 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 battle ; but this our Hero entered upon it by His 
 own free will ; and as for His actual doings on 
 earth, Fame herself grows pale beside them. To 
 attempt to enlarge upon them, or to clothe them 
 with human panegyric, would be but to diminish 
 their grandeur : one might as well try to give fresh 
 hues to the rainbow, or to gild the setting sun. 
 They are familiar to us ; every page of Scripture 
 bears their impress ; they are written on every 
 faithful heart. 
 
 As a Hero, then, Christian faith receives Him. 
 But was He nothing more ? Watch the child Jesus 
 as He comes forth, led by His mothers hand, from 
 the temple, followed by the wondering eyes and 
 thoughts of the doctors, and see even there in His 
 earliest years the Teacher sent from God. Mingle 
 with the crowds that gather round Him as He raises 
 the widow's son or bids Lazarus come forth from 
 the grave ; as He stills the sea, or cures the sick, or 
 casts out devils; listen to Him ordaining sacraments, 
 instituting a ministry, giving new commandments 
 or confirming the old ones ; follow Him again when, 
 in His glorified body after His resurrection, He spake 
 to His disciples of the things pertaining to the 
 kingdom of God ; and who can fail to recog- 
 nise the Prophet of the Gospel revelation, the 
 Leader of the new Exodus, the Moses of the new 
 covenant? And Christian faith, too, delights to 
 dwell on Him in this character and office ; to watch 
 His miracles of mercy and of power, and drink in 
 from His lips the secret mysteries of the Divine 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 nature and counsels, principles and rules for life : 
 new hopes to animate and restrain ; new command- 
 ments to guide. Who can choose but exclaim, 
 Surely never man spake as this man ! what man can 
 do these works except he be sent of God f 
 
 But, again, listen more attentively and look more 
 curiously. Amid all His acts of heroic benevolence 
 and authority, amid these deep and practical lessons 
 of morality, there fall from His lips and appear in 
 His actions indications of His Divine nature and 
 power ; and instinctively, unless the instinct be 
 overpowered by pride or foolishness, we fall down 
 to worship God, made flesh for our redemption. 
 His wisdom, His mercy, His power receive fresh 
 hues, as being the very words and w r orks of God 
 Himself. And if this instinctive worship of the 
 heart were at a loss how to clothe itself, it would 
 find in Holy Scripture words of adoration put into 
 men's mouths by the Holy Spirit Himself, as fit ex- 
 pressions to be spoken of and addressed to Christ. 
 If the Bible be true, the fact of His Divine nature 
 is verily and really expressed in these expressions of 
 worship ; if the Bible be not true, then all the reve- 
 lation contained in it fades away, and we are again 
 reduced to the dreamy abstractions of philosophy, 
 or the absurd fictions of a popular belief. Our 
 Saviour's divinity and the whole Christian revela- 
 tion stand or fall together. It is idle to talk of the 
 evangelical writings as historic narratives like that 
 of Mahomet ; if the Bible be not true as a revela- 
 tion, neither can it be as an history. 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 And so again in the crowning and finishing act of 
 His earthly life ; what can fitly express the wondering 
 adoration with which faith sees the Man of Sorrows, 
 the Captain of our salvation, nailed to the cross by 
 the very men whom He came to save. Who is there 
 who stands in imagination among the crowds on 
 Mount Calvary without being moved by tender and 
 pitiful interest when he beholds the patient bravery, 
 the unconquered charity, the sublime resignation of 
 the man Christ Jesus in the moments of His agony ? 
 
 Again, who is there who is not struck with the 
 unrepining obedience with which He Whom the 
 Father sent submits to the will of Him W r ho sent 
 Him. Surely in Him, above all others whom the 
 world has seen or heard of, we recognise the devo- 
 tion of One Who knows Himself to be sent by God 
 on earth to do great things, and to change the desti- 
 nies of man. 
 
 But the sufferings of the Hero, the obedience of 
 the Prophet, can be realised and exhausted by hu- 
 man thought and feeling. There is something be- 
 sides and above all this which Christian faith realises, 
 which the more it is thought upon the more inex- 
 haustible a source of thought and feeling is it found 
 to be — the Son of man dying for us to restore us to 
 the favour of God. 
 
 And as Christ is differently regarded as to His 
 nature and office, so are there differences of opinion 
 as to the way in which His death is connected with 
 our salvation. What may be called the human 
 theory of redemption is held by those who do 
 
56 LECTURE II. 
 
 not recognise any act of reconciliation performed 
 by Christ between God and man ; who think that 
 Christ's death was effectual to salvation only as 
 raising the tone and destinies of the human race in 
 setting before us an example, by the following of 
 which we may raise ourselves above the common 
 herd, and scale the heights of heaven for ourselves. 
 Nor is their view so wholly wrong as to be wholly 
 lost sight of: nay, it sets forth a great truth which 
 we must not lose sight of; Christ did set us an ex- 
 ample, that we should follmc his steps c , by the follow- 
 ing of which man may be almost more than man : / 
 have given you an example that ye should do as I 
 have done unto you 11 . He did set us an example of 
 obedience and virtue, in order that we should arm 
 ourselves with the like mind ; and woe unto us if 
 we do not according to opportunities, which life 
 presents in some shape or other to every man, fol- 
 low the example He set. Christian suffering and 
 Christian daring, Christian heroism e , if you will, is 
 part of the scheme of salvation ; Christianity is not 
 set before us as a pleasant path in which we may 
 saunter leisurely along; an ever flowing stream on 
 which we have only to embark to be passively and 
 easily wafted to the land of promise without any effort 
 on our part. We read of a battle — of hardships, of 
 adversaries, of giants in the road, spiritual enemies on 
 all sides. As there is much to do, much to endure, 
 
 r i St. Pet. ii. 21. d St. John xiii. 15. 
 
 r Lcicrhton, vol. iii. p. 234. cd. Lond. 1830. 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 much to overcome, so is there ample sphere for the 
 highest heroism of men. Nay, where has the world 
 seen greater heroism than was shown by those who, 
 treading closely in their Masters steps, took up 
 their cross boldly and denied themselves ; who 
 counted all things loss, so that they might come 
 out as conquerors in the struggle in which God had 
 placed them, victors in the race which He had given 
 them to run ? 
 
 Others, again, go somewhat further ; they hold 
 that Christ by His patience and obedience so pleased 
 God that the souls of mankind were given Him as 
 a reward, and that His patience and obedience thus 
 worked out our salvation. Nor does faith look 
 upon this obedience and patience as things apart 
 from the work. Like all other acts of Christ's life, 
 it bore its part ; and doubtless the obedience of 
 the second Adam has something especially to do in 
 the reconciliation of man, inasmuch as it stood in 
 contrast to, and in some sort did away with the 
 disobedience of the first. When we read of His 
 bowing to His Father's will, in spite of the inclina- 
 tions of the fiesh and the suggestions of Satan, we 
 surely ought not to be moved with sympathy only, 
 or wonder, or stirred up to imitation, but with a 
 deep sense that all this, viewed merely in its ex- 
 ternal relations of obedience and patience, was 
 suffered and done for us and for our salvation. The 
 words of Scripture rise to our thoughts, By the 
 obedience of one many are made righteous. 
 
 [The way. moreover, in which the end and purpose 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 of Christ's coming upon earth is spoken of combines 
 all these views : sometimes as a Hero, to elevate 
 human nature, to turn from sin, to destroy evil, to 
 set captive souls free, to bring triumph and peace 
 to the Israel of Cod ; sometimes as a Prophet and 
 Teacher to bear witness to the truth, to be a light 
 to lighten the Gentiles, a day-spring from on 
 high ; sometimes to obey and suffer, and to teach 
 mankind by His example; sometimes simply to save 
 sinners, to give us eternal life ; sometimes more de- 
 finitely to put away our sin by His death in the 
 body; to be lifted up for the salvation of sinners.] 
 
 But we do not stop here ; for as in Scripture, so 
 in Christian faith, the prominent feature is the 
 Lamb that was slain ; Christ bearing our sins in 
 His body on the tree; the blood which was shed; 
 the sin-offering which was offered ; the ransom 
 which was paid. 
 
 And what is Christian faith without it? it may 
 perhaps be a consistent philosophical theory based 
 on human probabilities and counsels, and embodying 
 what may seem to us the interests of the human 
 race; it may be a code of most perfect morality, 
 but it is not what it ought to be — the Bible 
 written in our hearts ; for who shall say that Scrip- 
 ture is indefinite on this point, that it speaks doubt- 
 fully ? that it may perhaps be true that Christ died 
 for us; perhaps it may not; that those who deny it 
 may be as right as those who hold it? either it is in 
 the Bible or it is not. And who can read Scripture 
 without seeing that the sacrifice of Christ is put for- 
 
LECTURE II. 59 
 
 ward as the key-stone to the whole fabric? Nay, those 
 who deny the doctrine are forced practically and in 
 the common sense view of the case, to admit that it 
 is distinctly mentioned by every New Testament 
 writer. The manifold forced arguments they are 
 compelled to use ; the number of facts they have to 
 get rid of; the number of sentences to which they 
 must give a forced interpretation ; the number of 
 words which must be wrested from their proper and 
 acknowledged meaning : all these are in reality so 
 many arguments furnished by the opponents in 
 favour of the doctrine they oppose. In spite of 
 themselves the truth rises up from their own lips, 
 and stands forth in their own pages. They may 
 prove beyond a doubt that our Saviour was man ; 
 faith receives it as fully as they do ; but this does 
 not disprove that He was God also. They may en- 
 large on His obedience and example as working in 
 the redemption of man ; faith receives it as fully as 
 they do ; but this is no reason why we should not 
 likewise believe what Scripture tells us no less 
 plainly and definitely, that He was offered as a 
 sacrifice to suffer for our sins, in as true and 
 literal sense as any of the sacrifices under the 
 Law, which are in reality only so far effectual sacri- 
 fices as being the types and substitutes for the sacri- 
 fice of Christ. Nor does the absolute truth of any 
 one of these make the others uncertain. We cannot 
 say that the sacrifice is doubtful because the others 
 are true, nor that the others are doubtful because 
 the sacrifice is true. Christ's death indeed is not 
 
60 LECTURE 11. 
 
 always or only represented as a sacrifice : it is some- 
 times the price paid for our ransom from the power 
 of sin; sometimes the price paid to purchase for us 
 everlasting life ; and each of these differs somewhat 
 in idea from the notion of a sacrifice to atone for our 
 sins ; but these terms are not merely figurative, they 
 represent realities, — real facts in God's counsels, in 
 Christ's death, in our salvation. No one of these is 
 excluded by the other ; together they form one 
 great whole ; not indeed on exactly equal terms, for 
 the sacrifice is the centre from which the others 
 radiate, and to which all converge. The sacrifice is 
 the essence ; the others the antecedents rather, or 
 the accidents. The sufferings and obedience of 
 Christ would, as far as God's will is revealed to us, 
 have been of no avail without the sacrifice ; nor can 
 we, with due regard to Scripture, say that the sacri- 
 fice could, according to the same Divine will, have 
 been offered without these its parts ; Scripture tells 
 us that it pleased God to make the Captain of our 
 salvation perfect through suffering. 
 
 In fact, the notion of uncertainty on this point 
 seems frequently to arise from the lack of a fitting 
 sense of our own demerits. Where a man feels that 
 his sins deserve punishment, which if he were to 
 pay in his own person he is for ever lost, then is 
 this doctrine forced home to his heart; he feels it 
 to be true ; not that its Scriptural foundation is 
 deficient, but as human pride destroys the effect of 
 Scripture evidence, so does this sense of our sin 
 realise and apply it. 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 The Pharisee and Publican go up to Calvary toge- 
 ther : the one, proud of his knowledge, proud of his 
 piety, spotless in his own conceit, unfailing in the 
 performance of his duties, can at the best only 
 wonder, and learn how to die patiently and bravely. 
 To him the cross is a stumblingblock. The Publi- 
 can standing, as in the temple afar off, with his — 
 " God be merciful to me a sinner," feels that God 
 has provided a ransom for him ; is ready to believe 
 that in the blood poured out the mercy he seeks for 
 is vouchsafed to him. 
 
 And who shall say that this is a narrow faith? it 
 takes in all that others have, and something above 
 and beyond them. Who shall say that it is in theory 
 less exalted, less worthy of the dignity or destinies 
 of man, than the view which makes Christ a mere 
 example, His death a mere act of obedience ? In 
 good truth, it has always seemed to me that a 
 lack of a really high moral sense of the perfection 
 and beauty of holiness lies at the bottom of the 
 notion that man needs not the sacrifice of Christ 
 and His righteousness. The standard of human 
 perfection is low, men can come up to it ; and 
 therefore, fancying themselves able to purify and 
 justify themselves, they feel no need of a sacri- 
 fice. That we should look forward to being clothed 
 upon with a righteousness above the highest con- 
 ceptions of man, to being presented before the 
 throne of God pure and spotless as washed in 
 the blood of the Lamb, not mere men, but men 
 clothed upon by Christ, may be contrary to reason, 
 
62 LECTURE II. 
 
 offensive to pride ; but it is not contrary to the 
 truest interests, the most earnest yearnings, the 
 most sensible needs of him who knows earth, and 
 has formed any real conception of heaven. 
 
 Who, again, shall say that the feelings excited by 
 it are less divine, less true, less pure, that the heart 
 in which it abides is less exalted, less filled with 
 adequate notions of the Divine nature and coun- 
 sels, or the life or office of Christ in all its parts ? Tt 
 may well be doubted whether the Socinian dwells on 
 the patience and obedience of Christ with the same 
 intensity of heart as the more scriptural and more 
 comprehensive believer, who looks at them as com- 
 bined with the sacrifice. 
 
 Three men go up to Calvary togeth r : the one 
 gazes with curious wonder on the suffering of the 
 Man of Sorrows, sympathizes perhaps with Him, 
 and draws in a lesson of patience and endurance for 
 the troubles of life. The second looks with o-rateful 
 reverence on the moral act of obedience whereby he 
 thinks Christ wins the favour of God for man ; but 
 who shall describe, what words express, the feelings 
 of the one who views Him as suffering in his stead, 
 crucified by his sins, reconciling him to God by 
 bearing his punishment ? 
 
 And who shall say that the knowledge which this 
 divine mystery opens to us is narrow and degrading, 
 because it calls on us to believe, even though we 
 understand not? Surely God's revelations are, to 
 say the least, as true knowledge as any thing we can 
 find out for ourselves. Tf a man is higher the more 
 
LECTURE II. 63 
 
 he knows, then surely we cannot object to a reve- 
 lation that it is narrowing because it is higher and 
 more extensive than any thing we have yet known ; 
 that it transports us beyond the sphere of human 
 sight and thought, and confounds the petty imagina- 
 tions and deductions of human knowledge. If it 
 did not do so, it would not be divine. On the ac- 
 knowledged principle of these rational philosophers, 
 that knowledge elevates and purifies, that the higher 
 the knowledge the better the man, they ought not 
 to allow their prejudices to make them content 
 with the lower when the higher is within their 
 reach. 
 
 It seems, in good truth, well nigh impossible to 
 estimate justly how much they lose who take their 
 stand on one text and truth of Scripture relating to 
 Christ, and refuse to acknowledge other truths and 
 other texts which seem to overshadow or overthrow 
 the view which has recommended itself to and oc- 
 cupied their minds. Not only do they shut them- 
 selves out from the ennobling and quickening 
 thoughts, hopes, feelings, consolations, which arise 
 from a comprehensive and definite faith in Christ as 
 the Priest and Sacrifice, but there are other Scrip- 
 ture facts and mysteries which they are obliged to 
 distort or deny : His miraculous conception : the 
 power of His resurrection, whereby the dead are 
 to rise from their graves, whereby we rise again 
 into newness of life ; the ascension into heaven ; 
 His eternal presence in the Church ; His eternal 
 mediation in heaven : all these must be given up ; 
 
64 LECTURE II. 
 
 all the texts which speak of them must be explained 
 away as forgeries or delusions. Strange and suicidal 
 misuse of reason, to employ it in struggling against 
 the spiritual blessings wherewith Christ is waiting 
 to bless them ! 
 
 True faith, on the other hand, drawing her inspir- 
 ations from Scripture, dwells on all that Christ was 
 or did, and finds in all, subjects for adoration and 
 thanksgiving ; sees in all, the Father's love working 
 towards our salvation. Thus is Christ brought be- 
 fore us by our Church in all His characters — Hero, 
 Example, Prophet, Priest, King, Sacrifice ; each act 
 of His life and being exercises a definite influence on 
 our spiritual state, and on our growth in grace, in spi- 
 ritual strength, and in knowledge. When we look up 
 to Him as the Captain of our salvation, the Prince of 
 the people of God, the patient, the heroic Deliverer, 
 we surely feel our hearts swell with loyalty and 
 devotion, with patience and courage ; we resolve to 
 resist unto blood, striving against the enemy : we 
 find our hearts armed and steeled to withstand the 
 assaults of the evil one, and to triumph over him in 
 the world even as Christ triumphed over him in the 
 wilderness, and the garden, and the cross. When 
 we listen to our Teacher, we cannot choose but 
 drink in the words which fall from His lips in such 
 persuasive force and beauty ; we cannot choose but 
 let our hearts be somewhat moulded and guided by 
 His teaching. When we gaze on Him as our ex- 
 ample, there rise up within us, without our bidding, 
 good resolutions to tread in the steps of His hunn'I- 
 
LECTURE II. 65 
 
 ity, patience, charity, meekness. When we look at 
 the crowning act of His obedience and submission to 
 God's will, we cannot but feel, in spite of our fleshly 
 selves, God's will stealing" over our souls, and pre- 
 senting itself to us as our reasonable service. When 
 we know that He has bought us for Himself, we 
 recognise His claims to our being His soldiers and 
 servants throughout life. When we realise the fact 
 that he has set us free, we feel it would be foolish- 
 ness for us to let sin be master even of our mortal 
 bodies. But it is chiefly by the adoring contemplation 
 of His sacrifice on the cross, by the realising in our 
 souls the fact and the aim of the shedding of His 
 blood as an atonement for our sins, that we are 
 raised above ourselves by a sense of the dignity and 
 value of man ; of the value of the soul, nay, of the 
 value of Christ's body, for which He died ; that we are 
 awakened to a sense of the heinousness and de- 
 formity of sin, from which such an act of love could 
 alone save us; that we are made alive to the glories 
 of a heavenly life, to obtain which for us God sent 
 His only begotten Son into the world, and allowed 
 Him to die as a man ; that we are stirred up to 
 the work of attaining thereto. It is by recollecting 
 that God, according to the revealed purposes of 
 His Divine will, does avert the consequences of 
 sin by His Son's bearing them for us, that we 
 are made most fearful of sinning, most sensible of 
 its danger: it is by recollecting that Christ died for 
 us, that our spirits are most moved to love Him ; 
 it is by recollecting that Christ died for all men, 
 
 F 
 
66 LECTURE II. 
 
 that we are most effectually touched with sym- 
 pathy and charity towards those who, involved in 
 the same ruin with ourselves, stricken with the 
 same plague, are by the same act of the same 
 Deliverer restored, by the same talisman of the 
 same Physician healed. There is nothing that binds 
 human hearts so strongly together as the lying 
 under the same burden, and partaking of the same 
 deliverance, being together lifted up above the in- 
 terests and cares of this life by the same gratitude 
 to a common Saviour, the same duties to a common 
 Master, the same promptings of a common Guide, 
 the same hopes of a common home, the same faith 
 in a common Redeemer. It is by keeping in mind 
 that a ransom has been paid for us, that our punish- 
 ment has been borne for us, that we are most re- 
 freshed by consolation and assurance, knowing that 
 it is not our own work which is to wash out our 
 sins and to turn away the destroying angel from us, 
 for Christ our Passover has for us been slain. 
 
 Nor is there in these feelings any thing indefinite 
 or uncertain. Jesus Christ is to us the same yester- 
 day, to-day, and for ever. Faith knows whom she has 
 believed, in whom she puts her trust ; her fountain 
 does not ebb and flow ; is not now raised by a hope 
 that Christ has made the atonement ; now disturbed 
 by a fear lest it be not so ; not now hoping she may 
 be right ; now fearing she may be wrong ; but being 
 assured that God has spoken, and that He will not 
 deceive man, enters with joy and thanksgiving on 
 the work of her calling, ever looking up to the cross 
 
LECTURE II. 67 
 
 and to Him who is nailed thereon. And should 
 ever an unhappy doubt be cast over the soul, the 
 shadow, as it were, of Satan passing by, she turns 
 from it with hasty fear to the Bible Revelation, 
 and finds therein more than sufficient answer to the 
 delusions and temptations of the enemy. 
 
 Our souls indeed may well doubt if we lose sight 
 of Christ dying for us, and atoning for our sins ; 
 fully aware of our infirmities, how weak the will to 
 good, how fierce and strong and reckless the im- 
 pulses to evil ; finding ourselves bound up in a body 
 in which the passions within are ever ready to re- 
 peat and enforce the temptation from without, we 
 may well tremble and cry aloud, Who shall deliver 
 us from the body of this death f but peace returns 
 to us when, catching sight again of Christ bearing 
 our sins in His own body on the tree, we are able 
 to hear the words which faith speaks within, / thank 
 God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 f2 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 Romans vii. part of 24th and 25th verses. 
 
 Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 MAN has ever been a mystery to himself. Of all 
 God's living creatures, he alone, as far as we know, has 
 within him a mixed nature. The angels in heaven are 
 wholly good ; the devils in hell are wholly bad ; the 
 brute creation move in obedience to fixed instincts, 
 in which there is neither good nor evil ; the wills of 
 all these are simple and uniform : man alone is a con- 
 tradiction. His action, as of some cunningly devised 
 machine, seemingly regular and simple enough, is found 
 to be produced by a number of impulses and checks, 
 moving, balancing, controlling, disturbing each other. 
 And that the movements of this wondrous piece of 
 mechanism were deranged, that man was not what 
 his Creator meant him to be, was perceived, or 
 rather suspected by even heathen philosophy, with 
 more or less accuracy ; but the more it was looked 
 into, the more perplexing it was. The great ancient 
 master of the moral nature of man, though he has 
 
LECTURE III. 69 
 
 given us a most masterly and correct analysis of the 
 phenomena and immediate causes of this derange- 
 ment, was unable to trace it to its real cause or 
 devise any real remedy. These are both laid down 
 by the apostle in the words of my text ; the state 
 and feelings of the man who found himself unable 
 to combat the evil which he hated, and to do the 
 good which he would, are well expressed in — Who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death f and the 
 only remedy is no less clearly stated in the words, / 
 thank God through Jesus Christ. 
 
 At the very threshold then of our inquiry into 
 the results of Christ's sacrifice, the question meets us, 
 What is the body of this death from which Christ 
 came to save us? in what does our salvation consist? 
 what is the state of man by nature ? how, and how 
 far, is he restored by grace? On these points, as, 
 alas ! on most others, modern Christendom is not 
 agreed. 
 
 There are those who hold that man is not all, 
 or very little, fallen from the image in which he 
 was created ; that he is now as he came forth from 
 the hands of his Maker. They point to the brighter, 
 we can hardly say the bright, pages in man's history ; 
 to the virtues which have from time to time shone 
 forth in the heathen world ; to the almost divine 
 thoughts which were breathed into many parts of 
 ancient poetry and philosophy by men at whose feet 
 Christians in all ages have been content to sit in the 
 attitude of disciples ; they point to the distinction 
 between right and wrong in the mass ; to the de- 
 
70 LECTURE III. 
 
 voted lives, the calm constancy, the confiding re- 
 signation, the pure piety, the unruffled patience 
 which we read of in the lives of those whose names 
 are as household words even throughout civilized 
 Christendom ; they point to such texts as — " These 
 have the law 'written in their hearts ;" " In every 
 nation he that worketh righteousness is accepted of 
 God f to the witness borne by Scripture to the pre- 
 sence of an accusing or excusing voice of conscience : 
 and they argue that beings who display such capaci- 
 ties and exhibit such development, and are spoken 
 of in such terms in Scripture, cannot truly be con- 
 ceived or spoken of as fallen creatures. 
 
 [As for those who deny the fall on the ground 
 that it is contrary to God's mercy and justice as 
 conceived of by them, it is not necessary to repeat 
 here what has been already said on all denial of 
 direct Scripture statements and human experience 
 on a priori grounds. The practical bearing of their 
 view on human life is much the same as of the one 
 just stated, which has however this advantage, that 
 it is built on a less shifting foundation than the 
 creature's notions of the Creator.] 
 
 Others, again, hold that man is wholly fallen, nothing 
 but evil; that he has not and never can have in him any 
 trace of good; they dwell on that which, as experience 
 as well as Scripture tells us, proceedeth out of the 
 heart of man, evil thoughts, evil desires, evil works; 
 they point to the almost Satanic hatred, wrath, jea- 
 lousy, revenge, cruelty with which nearly every page 
 of history is darkened : they point to such texts as — 
 
LECTURE III. 71 
 
 * k The imaginations of man are evil from his youth:'" 
 " In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.'" 
 " In sin hath my mother conceived me ;" to the 
 mournful yet true picture drawn by St. Paul in the 
 first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The 
 brighter gleams which others dwell on, they take 
 to be but lightning flashes, few and far between, 
 passing away in an instant, and which even while 
 they last do but mark more strongly the darkness 
 out of which they burst. 
 
 The result of these conflicting opinions is, that the 
 one party think that the work of redemption is con- 
 fined almost entirely to the averting from man the 
 penalties of his natural corruption — losing sight of his 
 danger and his duties with reference to actual sin 
 and actual holiness, they think that the work is 
 complete and his salvation secure when by God's 
 mercy the merits of Christ's blood are applied to 
 his original sinfulness ; that the acts of a man, 
 whether viewed as heathen or Christian, can be 
 nothing but unmixed sin, and that therefore it does 
 not signify whether there is much sin or little ; nay, 
 some go so far as to assert that the greater the sin 
 the more glorious the salvation, the more certain the 
 assurance. It need not be said how the spiritual 
 state and destinies of beings who are only too ready 
 to accept any excuse or cloke for sin are affected by 
 teaching which, by holding up one half of Scripture, 
 putting aside and hiding the other half from view, 
 makes sin into almost a means of grace. The other 
 side, losing sight of original sin and its consequences, 
 
72 LECTURE III. 
 
 think that a man can stand by himself; that he comes 
 before God as a sinner only on account of the actual 
 sins he commits; that he is able to save himself either 
 as a man by his natural powers without Christ, or as a 
 Christian only by accepting His atonement so far as 
 his deeds of actual evil outweigh those of actual 
 good. Some are led to think that they may, as re- 
 deemed of Christ, endure the severity of God's 
 judgment in their own name and by their own 
 righteousness. 
 
 At first sight it would perhaps seem natural to 
 say that the contrary views of human nature on 
 which these opinions are founded cannot be true 
 together ; but if the principle on which these Lec- 
 tures are grounded is right, it is more correct to 
 say they cannot be true apart ; each represents one 
 side of truth, and when combined by comprehensive 
 faith, they convey to the mind the state of man as 
 he is drawn in Scripture, and of course as he is 
 really in life. 
 
 It must, 1 think, be allowed that in Scripture 
 man is represented as fallen, and yet capable of 
 good. The texts on either side to which I have 
 alluded, and others which are familiar to all, pre- 
 vent our denying the coexistence of these two 
 statements. Let us see how they may be together 
 true. 
 
 T do not see how, except by shutting our eyes to 
 the evidence of all history and philosophy, as well as 
 of daily experience, we can deny thai as a mere hea- 
 then, as a moral, social, and political being, man, in 
 
LECTURE III. 73 
 
 his state by nature, is capable of so performing his 
 parts and duties of moral, social, and political life as 
 to claim, in a human sense, the name of righteous a ; 
 that there was in the heathen world some knowledge 
 of and practice of good. And this is proved, first, 
 by the universal reprobation attached to some acts 
 which did not directly injure society, for evil cannot 
 be recognised as evil by those to whom good is ut- 
 terly strange; and secondly, the notions of virtue and 
 vice, the sense of praise and blame, the aims and 
 laws of the legislator, the theories of philosophy, 
 the rules of moralists, the exhortations of poets, all 
 prove the same point of the heathen world in ge- 
 neral : while, turning to individuals, I do not see how 
 we can deny that one who had never even heard the 
 name of Christ was capable of acting bravely, kindly, 
 generously, and even, in a certain sense, piously. He 
 might worship and serve God according to the law 
 he had ; he might have had a true and loving know- 
 ledge of God as far as He may be apprehended in 
 the material world ; and where there is any such 
 knowledge of God at all, there, in that same degree, 
 must there be some good : he might be, after a cer- 
 tain fashion, unselfish ; he might have impulses and 
 habits, and perform acts which externally differ very 
 little from the fruits of the Spirit, though, viewed 
 internally, they differ most essentially ; perhaps in 
 many things his life would bear comparison with the 
 lives of those who call themselves Christian ; he had, 
 
 a On the application of the word righteous to man's works, 
 see Lect. V. 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 whether he listened to them or not, powers, feelings, 
 hopes, cravings, the tendency of which was to lead 
 him from what is utterly low and sensual to that 
 which cannot be called evil, except with reference 
 to the higher rule and standard of good which 
 Christ has revealed. 
 
 [Nor can we, I think, suppose that an act of cha- 
 rity (for instance) performed by a heathen is abso- 
 lutely displeasing to God in the same way in which 
 an act of murder is : not because the supposition is 
 contrary to our notions of God, for I shall not use 
 myself the argument I deny to others ; but because 
 the Spirit, though speaking of the whole world as 
 concluded under sin, does nevertheless draw a dis- 
 tinction between one sort of men and the other sort 
 of men, between Abel, for instance, and Cain, be- 
 tween every soul of man, Jew or Gentile, that 
 worketh good, and every soul of man that worketh 
 evil b .] 
 
 But in spite of all these tendencies and powers and 
 feelings, man by nature is so far lost, that he is not 
 capable of faith and turning unto God; nay, the 
 works which he does in the state of nature, shadows 
 and resemblances though they sometimes may be of 
 Christian holiness, have so far the nature of sin, in 
 that they spring from that selfishness and self-will 
 which is naturally engendered in every son of Adam, 
 and whereby Adam's sin is from day to day repro- 
 duced. Their best actions are done not with a 
 view to God, but to self in some shape or other — 
 
 b Rom. ii. y, 10. 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 to their happiness, dignity, or pleasure; their highest 
 motive is but a sense of praise and blame, of good 
 or bad desert as referred to self. They have in them 
 nothing of that element which makes the Christian's 
 life acceptable to God, adoption through Christ, and 
 the sanctification of the Holy Ghost ; and hence man 
 is, as well in his works as in his being, a child of 
 wrath, inasmuch as his life is only the energy of that 
 nature which the sin of Adam alienated from God : 
 thus too is he very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness, and of his own nature inclined to evil ; for when 
 the Spirit left him at his fall, self with its passions, 
 the flesh with its lusts, rose up in the place of God, 
 and these were so strong within him, that those who 
 resisted them were thought very prodigies of virtue . 
 And yet not wholly lost, for there yet existed some 
 memories of what he had been, some cravings after 
 escape from what he was ; he still had such an ap- 
 preciation and such a power of good, as springs from 
 its being conformable to reason or agreeable to self- 
 love ; and hence we conclude that the heathen man is 
 capable of that lower good which belongs to unassist- 
 ed nature, but incapable of that true spiritual good 
 which arises from the indwelling and consists in the 
 energies of the Spirit. 
 
 And if there be to this some exceptions : if there 
 have even in heathen times and countries been some 
 who had feelings and views above their merely un- 
 regenerate nature, these do not disprove the rule, 
 for they are by the hypothesis rare and exceptional 
 cases ; and those wise men <>f old who seem to speak 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 with a wisdom above their own, may be not unrea- 
 sonably supposed to have been enlightened from 
 above, to be God's servants in the midst of crooked 
 and perverse generations. It is true also that Scrip- 
 ture tells ns of men under the old dispensation who 
 were not outwardly partakers of the Christian cove- 
 nant, and yet were able to please God, as fully as 
 any of the saints under the covenant of grace ; such 
 for instance were Enoch, Noah, Abraham, David, 
 Hezekiah ; such too, in his degree, was Cornelius : 
 these, it may be urged by some, were unregenerate 
 men, and yet were capable of works pleasing to God. 
 To this we answer, It is clearly laid down in Scrip- 
 ture, that those who are in the flesh cannot please 
 God, that it is faith in Christ and the grace of the 
 Holy Spirit which can take us out of the flesh, and 
 put into our minds spiritual desires, good counsels, 
 and just works, and therefore these men must have 
 prospectively had faith ; and the Holy Spirit, which 
 is now poured out to all who seek, was before the 
 coming of Christ vouchsafed to these chosen ones 
 who, though seemingly unregenerate men, were ne- 
 vertheless counted as sons of the adoption, heirs of 
 the promises. 
 
 Thus comprehensive and definite faith does not 
 halt between two opinions, whether man is by nature 
 good or bad, but holds firmly that for some things he 
 has good in him, though of a lower order ; and that, 
 on the other hand, not only are there in him a 
 number of evil passions which make him love what 
 is bad, but that for the higher sort of good he is by 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 nature not only incapacitated, but disinclined : while 
 *he gratefully recognises the relics and shadows of 
 good, which kept those men who retained them in 
 a comparatively moral state, yet she recognises too 
 man's absolute need of a higher and better nature, 
 and no less gratefully acknowledges and accepts God's 
 mercy in the restoration through Christ. 
 
 So that this is not merely an abstract question; it 
 has a practical bearing on our salvation. The doc- 
 trine of the corruption of our nature is the ground- 
 work of our hopes of perfection, for it makes us feel 
 our need of, makes us accept our Saviour; while of 
 those who lose sight thereof, some so far deny Christ 
 as to look upon Him merely as an example, and 
 fancy that their highest religious perfection consists 
 in the development of their natural gifts and 
 powers, it may be after the pattern of Christian 
 virtues, but independent of the motions of that Holy 
 Spirit without Whom Christian virtue is but a name. 
 Others, again, deny Him wholly, and treat His ex- 
 istence and history as a myth, without divine sanc- 
 tion or authority. Their confidence in human nature 
 is such, that they think the spirit of man which is in 
 him, if its flight be but soaring and daring enough, 
 will of itself reach heaven ; that self, if devoutly 
 worshipped, will disclose itself as a god ; that each 
 individual is, by giving his soul free range, un- 
 restricted by fear of God or man, to d eve! ope the 
 Divine particle which is by nature in him, and there- 
 by to place himself above the weaknesses and cares 
 and follies of this life, and in perfect security for the 
 
7* LECTURE 111. 
 
 next, if next there be. According to this philosophy, 
 it is not Christianity, which is by its supernatural 
 powers to raise the whole race, as it spreads wider 
 and wider, and throws its roots deeper and deeper, 
 but the destinies of the world are to be worked out 
 to the fullest consummation by the progressive ex- 
 pansion and concentration of human perfections. 
 
 Against these Babel-builders faith points to the in- 
 herent corruption of human nature as revealed by 
 God, and illustrated in the pages of history no less 
 than in the facts of daily life. And that this cor- 
 ruption is to be subdued by the self-dependent ef- 
 forts of the individual soul, no one, whose con- 
 science is true to him, can believe. Men may talk 
 of the pure calm happiness of the triumphant intel- 
 lect; of the purity and repose of a soul self-possessed 
 in its philosophy ; of the elevating visions which rise 
 up from the contemplation of the beautiful and true; 
 of the delights of sympathy, and communion with 
 those whom these visions raise above the cares of 
 ordinary life; but that which is of the flesh is flesh, 
 and he who sows to the flesh must in the end reap 
 corruption. By the side of the philosopher there 
 sits a figure who whispers the word "death" in his ear, 
 and all his visions vanish like a dream ; and even 
 while the dream lasts evil mingles with its purest and 
 best. The calm intellect is rufHed by pride ; in the 
 self-possessed soul there is the debasing element of 
 self-worship ; in the sympathies of kindred souls 
 there is absorbing selfishness, and oftentimes a proud 
 disregard of the laws of («od and man; in their 
 
LECTURE III. 79 
 
 beautiful and true there is but a lower sort of beauty 
 and truth : it is after all but a whitened sepulchre. 
 
 Nor is this corruption a thing from which the 
 world may free itself by the progressive advance- 
 ment of generation after generation. Men may point 
 to the conquests of science, to the stores of know- 
 ledge laid up by one generation for the next, and 
 ask what bounds are to be set to this progress ; 
 but this progress is rather apparent than real ; they 
 cannot point to any one particular in which civiliza- 
 tion has affected our inborn nature. When we look 
 at the heart of man, and take away the disguises in 
 which refinement and language have hidden the mo- 
 tions and acts of sin ; when we see how actions seem- 
 ingly different and called by different names do in 
 reality flow from the same fountain of evil, we are 
 obliged to confess that there is vefy little difference 
 between the philosopher and the savage, between 
 what man is now and what he was two thousand 
 years ago. Human life is not an abstraction which 
 can grow really better or purer, except so far as 
 those who are born into it and live in it are better 
 and purer. It is not that one generation begins 
 where the other left off; it may be so in knowledge, 
 in organisation, in the arts and appliances of life, but 
 it is not so with the secret springs of thought and 
 feeling with which each man is born into the world. 
 These are for the most part the same. Jealousy, the 
 love of power, of self, of pleasure, of money — are not 
 they as rife and strong in our towns, or ports, or 
 schools, as they were when the places where these 
 
so LECTU R E III. 
 
 stand were occupied by men who knew nothing of 
 civilised life ? And what result can be produced by 
 time? If the world were to last millions of years, we 
 have no reason from analogy to suppose that the 
 living soul, which was last born into it, would, by 
 virtue of any moral or intellectual perfection of his 
 forefathers, inherit as his principle of being capa- 
 cities different in kind from our own, any more than 
 we can conceive that by successive development of 
 the body man would in time arrive at the stature 
 of a giant or the beauty of an angel. Not that I 
 mean to say that in the outward developments of 
 the moral nature, the actual phases of moral life, no 
 improvement can take place ; such an assertion 
 would be contrary to the world's history. We can 
 discover a gradual though real improvement in the 
 tone and feeling of society in one generation as com- 
 pared with another, as the reason discerns and ap- 
 proves more and more of rational good. We can see 
 that there is less of actual evil in the daily lives of 
 men in one time and place as compared with ano- 
 ther, just as we see a difference between children 
 brought up in a godly home and those for whom 
 such a home exists not. Man may again from si- 
 milar though opposite causes sink lower in one age 
 or place than in another; but this is not a difference 
 of nature, but the same nature acted upon somewhat 
 differently by the different circumstances and exam- 
 ples whereby it is developed and moulded ; and this 
 has a limit- a man may rise or sink in the scale, 
 but he does but seldom destrov entirely the rational 
 
LECTURE III. 81 
 
 good which is in him ; never can he eradicate the 
 evil ; he can neither rise nor sink beyond his 
 proper nature; he can become neither devil nor 
 angel. 
 
 Vain, then, are the theories and attempts of those 
 who think that man carries within himself his own 
 perfection, the seeds of a mighty present, a mightier 
 future. Proud dreamers ! foolish wisdom ! suicidal 
 self-worship! for see how they frustrate the purposes 
 of God for them. He, knowing the secrets of their 
 hearts and the issues thereof, has provided for them 
 a moral growth by having their natural powers 
 clothed upon by the Spirit ; real holiness by having 
 their sinfulness and sin washed out by the blood of 
 Christ, their imperfect endeavours after perfection 
 made perfect by being clothed upon with His right- 
 eousness. This is man's high destiny — to be set free 
 from the body of this death, to be made partakers of 
 the Divine nature: this is God's purpose for him, 
 at this His counsels aim, towards this His dispensa- 
 tions work ; man turns from them and trusts to 
 himself: and what is the end thereof, even at the 
 best ? Does he succeed ? He may for a time act up 
 to his creed, he may struggle with himself and the 
 evil he cannot but feel to be within and around, he 
 may try to familiarise his soul with what seems to 
 him to be pure and good, but the evil will present 
 itself in spite of him; he may try to fashion his life 
 on unselfish principles, but selfishness will come in 
 some shape or other; he may flatter himself in that 
 he turns from the grosser forms of sin, but he does 
 
 G 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 not know the various disguises which sin as an 
 enchanter assumes : not the same to the philosopher 
 and the peasant ; nor to the man of cold blood, and 
 to him in whose veins passion flows as the very 
 principle of life ; not the same in all ages ; not the 
 same to the solitary of the desert and to the dweller 
 in cities; but still the same in issue and result. He 
 may fancy that he may be as a good spirit among 
 men, that he can purify and elevate the world ; he 
 may enter on the task with as much singleness of 
 aim and honesty of heart as man is capable of, and 
 he may perhaps do something; but it falls far short 
 of his own notions of what man should be, how in- 
 finitely short of what God designs him to be ! He 
 finds that it is like fighting singlehanded against 
 giants; the world, with its evil is too strong for him ; 
 he sinks into dreamy unrealities, a shadowy life, made 
 up of words and theories, or else wraps himself up in 
 an unsvmpathising communion with a chosen few ; 
 he has failed, aud knows he has failed, but can de- 
 vise no remedy. The Christian, on the other hand, 
 knows his weakness and his strength before he be- 
 gins; feeling the evil of his nature to be too strong 
 to be curbed by human will, already corrupted and 
 betrayed by it, he throws himself on Christ ; his 
 own inability is to him a pledge of power from 
 above : out of weakness springs forth strength ; out 
 of failure, triumph ; out of sin, so that it be not 
 wilful, springs righteousness; out of deserved pun- 
 ishment springs up undeserved reward. 
 
 Nor, again, as it seems to me, are they to be heard 
 
LECTURE III. 83 
 
 who hold the corruption of nature so exclusively as 
 to place the Christian and the man in unmixed and 
 unvarying antagonism ; for though it is maintained 
 by faith as a fundamental truth that no degree of 
 moral perfection attainable by man can raise him 
 above the world, no degree of intellectual develop- 
 ment translate him to heaven, yet she does not in 
 the practical application of this doctrine confine her- 
 self to a one-sided view. She does not think that 
 evil is to be acquiesced in as a necessary condition 
 of our life, or that we are to retire from the duties 
 and cares of that world in which evil reigns. She 
 does not teach men to say to God, ' I have no talent 
 to account for, Thou never gavest me any.' She 
 recognises the natural powers of man as a gift from 
 God : in their proper development and use, she sees 
 something that elevates even the heathen above what 
 is low aud sensual, and brings his soul more into 
 harmony with the higher and spiritual things for which 
 God designs him. She does not sympathise with that 
 view which makes it almost a part and duty of religion 
 to let the faculties of the mind and heart be neglected 
 and misused. She sees they have their part and office 
 even in the regenerate man, so that it be in strict 
 subordination to the mysteries, the precepts, the 
 powers of Christ and His Spirit. She sees that rea- 
 son may be enlightened to discern and realise spi- 
 ritual things, that desire may become hope, affections 
 deepen into charity. She gives earthly wisdom its 
 due, but does not make it a god or worship it. She 
 holds that the notion of man's real perfection being 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 the putting on of Christ in no way implies the 
 neglect of the rational man. 
 
 Nor does faith oppose progress, provided that it is 
 real and not chimerical; that it does not claim to 
 do what it cannot do, nor hold out false hopes of 
 gathering figs from thorns and grapes from thistles. 
 Faith sees that progress in anything which tends 
 to elevate society by turning man's desires and 
 thoughts from what is merely animal and carnal is, 
 provided it does not deny or usurp religion's place 
 and functions, a progress in, or, at the least, towards 
 religion. She uses the arms and energies arising 
 from such progress in advancing the kingdom of 
 Christ. She holds out to art and science the right 
 hand of fellowship, and bids them God-speed : 
 surely art and science should embrace the offer 
 which faith makes them of rendering their work 
 more certain, more effectual, more enduring. 
 
 Man then is by nature at a distance from God, ca- 
 pable only of the lower good which Adam in his 
 foolishness chose for himself and his children in lieu 
 of the higher good in which he was created ; and 
 further, he is under the dominion of that evil under 
 which Adam fell by obeying Satan unto disobe- 
 dience. By God's mercy, however, the comparative 
 restoration of the higher good, and a comparative 
 freedom from evil is offered him, according to a 
 scheme of salvation ordained before he fell. How 
 is he to lay hold of it ? And here Christians 
 differ. 
 
 And herein, too, faith is comprehensive : she 
 
LECTURE III. 85 
 
 firmly believes what the Spirit has told her, that no 
 man can come to Christ except the Father dratv 
 him, but she cannot, on the other side, shut her 
 eyes to the correlative truth that man has something 
 to do in the matter, implied in the numberless ex- 
 hortations and reproaches addressed in Scripture to 
 those to whom the gospel was preached : for ex- 
 hortations and reproaches find no place where there 
 is no room for choice and action, no responsibility 
 for acceptance or rejection. She does not believe 
 that a man may safely live in the works of the flesh 
 in the notion that God will surely compel him to 
 come against his will : the call to change of heart, 
 which was the prelude to the gospel, implies that 
 there is a state of heart which is a preparation for 
 its acceptance, and that this change comes not upon 
 the will which has hardened itself against it. She 
 knows that the coming to Christ cannot be done by 
 man, that it is the work of the Spirit, but she gathers 
 from Scripture that the spirit of man must work with 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 And this may be in two ways ; first, negatively : 
 man has a power of opposition and refusal, whether 
 this arises from the natural evil of his nature in- 
 creased by self-indulgence, or is, as with the Jews, 
 a judicially inflicted blindness. Thus Christ came to 
 His own, and His own received Him not. Thus in 
 the marriage feast did the guests refuse the invita- 
 tion of their King, who would have drawn them to 
 His table. Against this power of refusal he may 
 successfullv struggle. 
 
 Next positively ; we have seen that man, lost as 
 
8G LECTURE llf. 
 
 he is, may still have rational yearnings, indistinct 
 and aimless though they be, for something bettor, 
 a certain dissatisfaction with what he is. Indeed, 
 the very purpose of God in giving the natural man 
 a law, and implanting the motions of conscience dis- 
 cerning between good and evil, was not merely to 
 guide him in life, but to make him long for a better, 
 by giving him the knowledge of sin, as displeasing 
 to God and contrary to his own real happiness. 
 And when this has been increased and improved by 
 a life of such righteousness as is within a heathen's 
 reach, then is his soul in some sort ready to receive 
 the gracious and merciful inspirations of the Holy 
 Spirit, whereby, transmuting the rational into the 
 spiritual, He draws them to Christ, in whom they 
 will find what they have been longing for. We may 
 never forget that, even when the soul is moved to 
 desire something above itself, yet without God's 
 preventing grace it is not so really conscious of 
 the corruption of nature as to desire or even com- 
 prehend the real remedy. Grace vouchsafed in- 
 creases the desire by making sin appear still more 
 sinful, placing it before our eyes not as an outward 
 act, or even as an act of choice alone, but as the 
 natural fruit of the corrupt tree. The will too, 
 weakened by the very inherited and inherent evil 
 from which it longs to escape, is too weak and blind in 
 itself to accept the mercy of God in the shape in 
 which it is offered him : The natural man under- 
 standeth not the things of the >S///Y/7,and therefore would 
 never conceive or understand the promises and pur- 
 poses of God through Christ, unless God Himself 
 
LECTURE III. 87 
 
 interpreted them to him by His Spirit : strong 
 desires perhaps were his, but these were impotent of 
 themselves, unless God had helped them. It is as 
 if a man were weary of earth, and God were to open 
 heaven to his view and give him wings to rise there- 
 to ; as if a blind man were mourning hopelessly over 
 his blindness, and Christ had given him sight. Where 
 the Holy Spirit is present in power, there the human 
 will is able to receive the gospel ; where He is not, 
 there the human will is blind, and halt, and deaf. 
 
 And that good works only so far prepare a man 
 for salvation as to imply a vague desire to be saved, 
 may be seen from the fact that not only the " just," 
 or " righteous," those who were waiting for the 
 kingdom of God, such as Simeon or Anna ; or those 
 who, according to their light, had sanctified their 
 unregenerate nature by keeping God and His will 
 in view, such as Cornelius ; not only were these 
 blessed with ears to hear and eyes to see, but even 
 those who had spent their substance in riotous 
 living, and yet when the strange fame was spread 
 abroad that a Messenger from heaven had come to 
 seek and save such as they were, felt themselves 
 moved by thoughts which had never before oc- 
 curred to them, by wishes which had never before 
 stirred with them — these too had their wishes con- 
 firmed and fulfilled by receiving the will and the 
 power to come to Him Who was to save them. 
 
 It seems, then, that we may conclude generally that 
 those who having nothing higher than natural reli- 
 gion yet did try to listen to and live up to this, were 
 
88 LECTU RE III. 
 
 so far in a better condition than those who did not, 
 as to have a certain willingness to be saved, hindered 
 indeed by the lusts of the flesh and their captivity 
 to Satan. The mode too of salvation was indeed 
 still a stumbling-block : but to those who were or 
 are in earnest, these hindrances vanish before pre- 
 venting grace, and they see spiritual things by the 
 light of the Spirit. If a man will (or rather wishes) 
 to keep my commandments, he shall know of my doc- 
 trine whether it be of God. To those that received 
 Him, He gave power to become the sons of God. Those 
 who, in the Jewish or Gentile world, either humbly 
 walking with their God, or obeying His call to re- 
 pentance, received Christ, and saw in Him a messenger 
 from heaven, those were drawn to Him in His more 
 definite character of a Redeemer and Sacrifice. 
 
 But to look at this a little more closely, let us take 
 a man in whom human ability may be supposed to be 
 strongest ; give him all the natural perfection and de- 
 velopment which may raise him above the lower ap- 
 petites and grosser forms of evil; let him have as true 
 and practical knowledge of God and his duties as may 
 be gathered from natural religion or his own moral 
 sense, — and such men have been found in nations 
 where the name of Christ has never been heard — so 
 far there would be chords in his soul which would 
 vibrate to the echoes of our Saviour's voice : the 
 news of the Prophet of Nazareth would have some 
 attraction for him : in as much as he had in some 
 sort loved truth, he would not wholly shrink from 
 the light : but how far will his human perfec- 
 
LECTURE III. 89 
 
 tions lead such a one to the doctrine of the cross, 
 or even to the doctrine of such a Saviour as Christ ? 
 how could they recommend to him the notion that 
 his only real perfection, his only real wisdom, his 
 only real virtue, is to be found, not in working out 
 the tendencies and capacities of humanity, not in any 
 surpassing excellence of developed reason or taste, 
 but in sitting at the feet of the lowly Jesus, and 
 learning from Him the alphabet of knowledge, and 
 in being clothed upon with a righteousness not his 
 own ? Would not his natural perfections rather lead 
 him to think scorn of that religion which held them 
 so cheap, which contradicted all the principles of 
 his philosophy and the results of his experience, 
 unless the Holy Spirit, having led him to a deeper 
 insight into the realities of things present and to 
 come, had presented the gospel to him in such a 
 shape as he could hardly fail to accept? Thus does 
 the Spirit graciously overrule the inability of human 
 nature. 
 
 Next, take a man in whom the inability of the 
 natural man may be supposed to be strongest, short 
 of the case of the reprobate man, whom we shall 
 consider presently ; one over whose reason and feel- 
 ings the genial influences of religion, philosophy, 
 civilisation has never been shed, whose moral sense 
 has from childhood been blunted by familiarity with 
 notions and customs and deeds from which civilised 
 man shrinks. Even in such a man there may be 
 some relics of good ; some trace of his belonging 
 morally as well as physically to the same race as the 
 
90 LECTURE III. 
 
 sages and saints of old. His conscience need not at 
 all times and in all cases be dumb ; he may be 
 open to some of the tenderer influences of natural 
 affection, the absence of which is a sign of the re- 
 probate mind, and which, even in its less exalted 
 form, has something in it of good ; there may 
 come over him now and then a feeling of self- 
 reproach ; a dim shadow of guilt and punishment 
 hanging over him ; and when Christ is preached to 
 him as able to deliver him from the body of this 
 death, would there not rise up a voice within him 
 which would say, "Go and be healed?" and if this 
 feeling were not present to him, would he not go 
 on his way without heeding the Saviour, just as a 
 man who is not thirsty passes by the fountain to 
 which others throng? But he would be little able 
 to obey this voice of his soul thus pleading for him- 
 self, unless some strength greater than his own were 
 vouchsafed him from on high to overcome the 
 otherwise invincible obstacles which his evil lusts 
 and evil habits would oppose to his laying hold of 
 the offered Saviour. 
 
 But besides these two, there is one yet lower than 
 the lowest of them — the man of reprobate mind ; in 
 whom natural corruption has been worked out to its 
 fullest and deadliest issues, so that he is neither under 
 the influence of any instincts towards even his lower 
 good, nor of such principles of right and wrong as 
 obtain even in the heathen world ; the light that is 
 in him is darkness ; his reason approves sin as the 
 law of his being, his heart rejoices in it for its own 
 
LECTURE III. 91 
 
 sake. On his ears naturally our Saviour's message 
 would fall as music on the ears of the deaf, or light 
 on the eyes of the blind. He would be unable and 
 unwilling to accept salvation, unless by some special 
 manifestation of wrath or mercy the Spirit roused 
 and changed him. And if we look to this cha- 
 racter alone, we must say, that man is totally 
 corrupt, without any trace of his original creation, 
 utterly averse to being saved : and, if he is saved at 
 all, it must be by a special miracle of grace, with- 
 out any even passive cooperation whatever on his 
 part ; while in the other two cases, w T e might in 
 the one be led to mistake the wish of a better life 
 for the will and power to be saved, the desire to 
 have a Saviour for the actual coming to Christ ; 
 and in the other, we might confound the absence of 
 the power and will with the entire absence of that 
 impatience of evil, those yearnings towards good, 
 which make a man in some sort ready, though not 
 able or willing, to receive Christ. [And we should 
 be wrong in so doing; for in either of these cases 
 there is, in different degrees, a willingness, or 
 rather a wish more or less vague, to be saved ; 
 though, almost coincidently with it, the old man 
 would neutralise and make it ineffectual. In the 
 one, it would be pride of reason, in the other, the 
 lusts of the flesh ; so that unless the Holy Spirit 
 interposed to give them that power which by nature 
 they cannot have, the offer of Christ would be 
 made to them in vain.] 
 
 Tu our own age and country indeed this question 
 
92 LECTURE III. 
 
 is scarcely a practical one, as far as regards the first 
 acceptance of Christ, inasmuch as the boy who as he 
 grows up comes to Christ, and accepts the mysteries 
 and duties of Christianity with his reason and his 
 will, lias already in his baptism received the grace of 
 the Spirit for this especial purpose ; and as he im- 
 proves or neglects this gift, as the Holy Spirit is 
 cherished or stifled, the spirit of the man has or has 
 not the desire and the will and the power to compre- 
 hend and lay hold on gospel promises and privileges, 
 the doctrines and precepts of the Bible. To him 
 who submits himself to the Spirit, these doctrines 
 and precepts are as living waters ever springing up 
 unto everlasting life, a savour of life unto life: 
 to him who does despite to the Spirit, and follows 
 the will of the old man, these mysteries and precepts 
 become, under the influence of. his natural cor- 
 ruption, mere formal unrealities, a savour of death 
 unto death ; he is ever being taught, ever learning, 
 and yet never coming to the knowledge of the 
 truth. Of all miserable sights, there is none much 
 more so, than to hear a deliberately wicked child 
 saying the Catechism or repeating chapters of the 
 Bible. It may possibly be of use to him in after 
 life ; at present it seems to me to be a taking God's 
 name in vain. 
 
 It is not however only with regard to our first ac- 
 ceptance of the gospel that in consequence of the 
 corruption of our nature we need God's grace, 
 but throughout every stage, every moment of our 
 Christian life. For though we are delivered from 
 
LECTURE III. 93 
 
 the powers of darkness, though we have with the 
 putting on of Christ received a new principle of spi- 
 ritual life, yet side by side there still is the old man; 
 the infection of nature yet remains. There is the 
 same struggle between the law of the mind and law 
 of the members, but its issues are reversed : before, 
 the law of the members conquered by virtue of the 
 corruption of nature ; now, the law of the mind by 
 virtue of the power of the Spirit. It is not however 
 that having received in addition to our natural being 
 a Divine nature, we are henceforward able to act for 
 ourselves by the goodness and strength of our own 
 reason and feelings; it is not that our heart is so 
 changed that henceforward it naturally, vi natures, 
 chooses its highest good, not that our feet are so strong 
 that we can walk by ourselves, that our reason is so 
 clear that we can see with our own eyes ; we need 
 fresh and continual supplies of grace from the Holy 
 Spirit, to strengthen, purify, enlighten us from day 
 to day and hour to hour. 
 
 On the other hand, we are so far restored by the 
 indwelling of the Spirit, as to be capable of and 
 bound to a spiritual life in faith and good works. 
 We are not to be content with continuing in sin, in 
 the notion that sin is the ordained life of man, 
 or that the more we sin the more will grace 
 abound ; nor to fancy that the proper actions 
 of the natural man are in themselves higher or 
 better than they were before, so as to become the 
 highest life of the Christian ; they are so only so far 
 higher as the Spirit dwells in and works in them, 
 
94 LECTU RE III. 
 
 and the Spirit leads us to a life far above the highest 
 and best of the heathen. We are to be perfect not 
 as man is perfect, for here love admits hatred to sit 
 beside her; but we are to be perfect as God is perfect, 
 not so much in degree as in kind. It is true that 
 when our natural tendencies towards mere human 
 good are under the guiding influence of the Spirit, 
 our wills, not by virtue of any inherent goodness or 
 holiness of their own, but by virtue of that indwelling 
 grace, do move in a new and heavenly direction. It 
 is true that our reason, desires, affections may have 
 an habitual, though not wholly unopposed, and there- 
 fore not sinless, impulse towards that spiritual good 
 in Christ to which the natural man is a stranger ; but 
 these habits, this second nature as it were, are not 
 formed by those faculties having by repeated ener- 
 gies glided into powers of good, but they are merely 
 the results and energies of the expansive power of 
 that grace which has been at work in us and 
 on us. We are not so wholly restored as the Ro- 
 manists hold, to be able to attain to spotless, sinless 
 perfection, not yet, as Wesley says a , to be unable to 
 sin, but we are so for restored as not to be unable to 
 do anything but sin. We are still obliged to confess 
 ourselves miserable sinners, and to say there is no 
 health in us ; we are still so for gone from original 
 righteousness, that evil lusts and tempers, which the 
 original creation knew not, abide in us and burst 
 out into choice and action; but still those natural in- 
 stincts whence man's natural good springs are not to 
 
 a See Magee's Atonement, vol. i. p. 163. 
 
LECTURE III. 95 
 
 be quenched, but having been so far set free as to be 
 able to accept and follow the desires and counsels 
 which come from God, are to be yielded as servants 
 of God, His instruments of good, as before they 
 were servants of Satan, his instruments of iniquity. 
 Those who say we are so wholly restored in baptism 
 as to be able wholly to avoid sin, make shipwreck of 
 their faith on the quicksand of self-merit. Those 
 who say that we are so wholly restored by being 
 justified by Christ as not to be able to sin, have to 
 take heed lest they fall into spiritual pride, and en- 
 danger the possession of that grace which is given 
 only to the humble. Those who say that we need 
 no restoration, will find in the end that their natural 
 powers will not, if the Bible be true, avail them. 
 Those who say we are not restored at all, are apt to 
 lay their actual sins to the account of their original 
 sin, and to take no care to rid themselves of those 
 habits which they think will be atoned for by 
 Christ, or to form that real holiness without which 
 no man can be saved. They are apt to forget that 
 Christ came not only to bear their sins, but also to 
 purify to Himself a peculiar people zealous of good 
 works — to purge oiwr conscience from dead works to 
 serve the living God. 
 
 Nor, again, is there any indefiniteness here, ex- 
 cept what arises from taking only one side of the 
 truth. The doctrine of the corruption of man, his 
 sinfulness in God's sight, his inability to help him- 
 self or wholly to avoid sin, stands out as boldly 
 in the comprehensive faith of our Church as it 
 
96 LECTURE III. 
 
 does to liim who makes it the sum and substance 
 of Christian life. The doctrine that the re£>ene- 
 rate Christian is able to do good works accept- 
 able unto God, that the natural powers of man, 
 when directed and guided by the indwelling Spirit, 
 have something to do in that which Christ sets be- 
 fore us as our work in life, is not less firmly and 
 practically held by our Church than it is by those 
 who wrest it to the heresy of human merit, and the 
 essential holiness and ability of a Christian man. 
 The man of comprehensive faith feels deeply his own 
 corruption, but he does not make it an excuse for 
 sinning, or a substitute for repentance: he feels that 
 he is a sinner, saved by Christ, as a brand from the 
 burning, but he feels likewise that, if he would in 
 the end be saved, he must conquer sin ; he feels 
 deeply and strongly too his call unto good works; 
 feels within him strongly his liberty to avoid sin 
 and to choose good, and his choice is made ; 
 but he knows whence his power conies : he feels 
 deeply his proneness to sin, his duty to turn from 
 it, but he knows too in whose strength his weak- 
 ness is made strong, with what arms he must 
 fight against his spiritual foes. He feels bound to 
 bend all his natural capacities to good, but he knows 
 Who alone can enable him to do it. He knows too 
 that his best works cannot endure the severity of 
 God's judgment ; he knows that he must serve Cod, 
 but he knows too that his service must be unpro- 
 fitable. He listens to the suggestions of his natural 
 love, benevolence, piety, bravery within, shame, ho- 
 
LECTURE III. 97 
 
 nour, praise, blame without ; to the promptings and 
 warnings of his natural conscience, knowing they 
 now speak to him with a higher authority than 
 his own ; he turns from his natural evil — lusts of 
 the flesh, impulses of anger, revenge, jealousy, covet- 
 ousness and the like, knowing that God will make 
 a way for him to escape, if he will follow His will 
 and use His grace ; but in his aspirations and en- 
 deavours after holiness, in the hour of temptation or 
 of doubt such a one takes not counsel of his reason 
 alone ; places not his reliance on any resolutions of 
 his own human will ; takes not his stand on his own 
 powers of resistance, but falls on his knees and 
 seeks fresh supplies of grace, without which he 
 knows that his counsels, his will, his resolutions, will 
 pass away as the morning dew before the mid-day 
 sun ; with which he knows his counsels will be made 
 sure, his will determined, his resolutions effectual ; 
 Lord, save me, or I perish, is the watchword of his 
 vigil, the battle cry of his warfare. In all his 
 musings on bis spiritual progress, in all his endea- 
 vours to grow in faith, he looks not to his own 
 wisdom, or desires, or love of God, but holding his 
 reason ready to believe, his desires and his love 
 ready to obey, he looks up to the cross, with the 
 words, Lord, what must I do to be saved f 
 
 H 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 Acts xvi. part of 30th verse. 
 What must I do to be saved f 
 
 1HE question which the gaoler of Philippi thus 
 earnestly put to his prisoners is the first sign of a 
 change of heart in those to whom Christ has effectu- 
 ally presented Himself as able to deliver them from 
 the body of this death : and though the answer to it 
 contains the sum and substance of practical reli- 
 gion, yet it is a question which a man very sel- 
 dom puts to himself; for it is one of the disadvan- 
 tages of living in a Christian community, and in the 
 midst of Christian ordinances, that we are apt to 
 take it for granted that we are in the way of salva- 
 tion, and therefore care not really to inquire what 
 we must do to be saved. It is a question indeed 
 which is frequently asked in tones of deepest agony 
 at the last, when a man who has all his life long 
 either cared nothing for his salvation or taken it for 
 granted, finds the vanities of this world passing away, 
 and the realities of the next forcing themselves 
 upon his soul with more and more distinctness: and 
 
LECTURE IV. 99 
 
 therefore it is a question which every man would do 
 well to examine into while he is yet able to realise 
 in his life the answer which the Bible gives him ; 
 and besides this practical bearing, it is a question 
 which must be of the utmost importance in any 
 inquiry into the nature and extent of Christian faith ; 
 because to enable us to answer it truly is the proper 
 object of the teaching of the Apostles, of the preach- 
 ing and ministrations of the Church in all ages — it 
 is this question which theologians and pastors have 
 alike to solve. 
 
 There are not wanting those who make this grave 
 matter of very little moment, by holding what they 
 call the universality of salvation : by which is meant, 
 that as Christ died for all men, all men will be 
 saved. Indeed it Mould seem that this opinion is 
 held by many who do not openly profess it, if we 
 listen to the way in which it is generally assumed 
 that every one who departs this life passes at once 
 and without doubt to heaven. It may possibly he 
 from charity or sympathy that men thus follow their 
 dead in hope ; but if this hope is real, it must, I 
 think, imply that Scripture speaks of all men as 
 finally saved by Christ. 
 
 Others again restrict the possibility of salvation 
 to a chosen few, and contend that for these alone 
 the sacrifice of Christ is efficacious. And as each 
 party adduce Scripture to support their respective 
 positions, it is part of the scheme of these Lectures 
 to see what is the whole truth which these respective 
 tenets bring before us in parts. 
 
 h 2 
 
100 LECTURE IV. 
 
 There are undoubtedly texts which speak of all 
 mankind as in some way or other benefited by 
 Christ's death. Such for instance are, As in Adam 
 all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive*-. 
 As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men 
 to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the 
 free gift came upon all men unto justification of life^. 
 In both these passages the results of Adam's fall 
 and the results of Christ's triumph are represented 
 as coextensive. So again He is said to have tasted 
 death for every man c , and to have given Himself a 
 ransom for all d . While in many other passages the 
 form of expression evidently limits the benefits of 
 His sufferings to those who believe. 
 
 That Christ died for all mankind may be inter- 
 preted to mean that the sacrifice of Christ will be 
 available to all who in heart and soul turn to Him : 
 or again, it may mean that salvation is now within 
 the grasp of all men, if they only according to God's 
 will accept it. But I am inclined to think that this 
 is more definitely and really expressed by saying, 
 that by the death of Christ the whole human race 
 was in part at least relieved from the spiritual curse 
 which Adam's disobedience brought upon it, and was 
 placed in a new relation to God. I confess, I cannot 
 read (for instance) of the world having been recon- 
 ciled to God e through Christ, without gathering 
 
 a i Cor. xv. 22. b Rom. v. 18. c Heb. ii. 9. 
 
 d 1 Tim, ii. 6. Cf. 2 Cor. v. 14, i^, where mention of the 
 death of Christ for all is immediately followed by a limitation to 
 those who live unto Him. So again in 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
 
 e 2 Cor. v. 19. Cf. Col. i. 20. 
 
LECTURE IV. 101 
 
 from it something more than the all-sufficiency of 
 Christ's sacrifice, or the mere universal possibility of 
 salvation, though of course these must be included 
 in whatever interpretation we give to such passages : 
 it seems to me that it is not merely a possible but 
 an actual benefit which is spoken of as vouchsafed 
 to the world through Christ. And we may find 
 such a benefit in the fact which is revealed to us in 
 Scripture, that Christ's death abolished so much of 
 the consequences of Adam's sin as consisted in all 
 the world, save the Jews, being excluded from the 
 highest love of God and the highest energies of 
 spiritual life. Before our Saviour's death mankind, 
 as a race, were, with the exception of the chosen 
 people, enemies of God f, aliens to the covenant of 
 the promises — removed from all spiritual intercourse 
 with Him. God did not reveal Himself to them in 
 His personal relations ; Pie was the Lord of heaven 
 and earth and sky, summer and winter, seed time 
 and harvest ; but He was not the Father, the Guide, 
 the Pattern of life. They were left to grope their 
 way in the world, to feel after God with no better 
 guide than the instincts of their souls, and the wit- 
 ness which He gave them of Himself in the things 
 which He had created, and in the workings of His 
 providence. God's spiritual gifts were out of their 
 reach — no rules for life save the few sparks which 
 they might strike from their own hearts — no form or 
 ceremonies of religion whereby they might approach 
 God. Their sacrifices had no meaning, nay, so small 
 
 f Rom. v. io. 
 
102 LECTURE IV. 
 
 was their knowledge of the true God, that they 
 were often offered to devils. They might be thirsty, 
 but no one said, " Come to the fountains" — they 
 might be hungry, but no manna of consolation fell 
 to them from heaven — no voice of prophecy to 
 lead the longing eye of hope over the present degra- 
 dation to the future deliverance. The whole creation 
 was groaning and travailing till Christ came to do 
 for the whole world what the call of Abraham and 
 the gift of the law had done for the Jews. And 
 then God was in Christ reconciling the world to 
 Himself*. The middle wall of partition was broken 
 down — the enmity was abolished h . Mankind fell 
 in Adam — mankind rises in Christ — and by His 
 death for all men, all men, being so far reconciled 
 to God, became friends instead of enemies ; no 
 longer strangers and aliens, but capable of becoming 
 fellow citizens with the saints and of the blessed 
 household of God ; capable of admission to as close 
 communion and intimate relations with God as the 
 elect people themselves. God disclosed Himself no 
 longer only in the sacrifices and oracles of the 
 law — not only in Jerusalem — but in Christ — in all 
 the world. The life and immortality which they 
 had dimly guessed at were brought to light, and 
 made as much realities and certainties as the life 
 which now is. God was henceforth the God of 
 the Gentiles as He had been of the Jews. They 
 were the objects of His loving will'. Tims in 
 
 ? 2 Cor. v. j 9. h Eph. ii. 14, 15. 
 
 ' 1 Pet. iii. 9. 
 
LECTURE IV. 103 
 
 Abraham's seed were all the nations of the earth 
 blessed. Thus did they who sat in darkness see a 
 great light; thus did Christ become a light to 
 lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of His 
 people Israel. And as a result of mankind being so 
 far released from the curse of Adam's guilt as no 
 longer to be looked upon as enemies, the Holy 
 Spirit was poured out on all flesh k , so that He was 
 within the sphere of their prayers and wishes. They 
 might by His help become that which they could not 
 become before, His chosen people 1 . The apostles' pro- 
 phetic office was addressed to them as much as to the 
 Jews m , while it is observable, that previous to the 
 descent of the Holy Spirit the revelation was con- 
 fined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The 
 message of salvation which was now to be preached 
 throughout all the world n was a real message, a 
 real offer to them, because they could now by the 
 help of the Holy Spirit accept it°. And thus did 
 Christ die for all men; firstly, because His love was 
 not confined to this or that portion of the human 
 race, but shone as widely as the sun itself; secondly, 
 because the virtue of His death was so great that 
 it sufficed for all the wickedness of all mankind ; 
 thirdly, because He placed them in a new relation 
 to God ; and lastly, because by His death He pro- 
 cured for them the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that 
 it was possible for any one by His grace to accept 
 
 k Acts ii. 17, and x. 45. 1 Eph. iii. 6. 
 
 m Rom. iii. 29, 30. 2 Tim. i. 11. Rom. x. 12. Acts xxvi. 17, 18. 
 n Luke xxiv. 47. ° Acts xi. 18. See also Acts xvi. 14. 
 
104 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the salvation unto everlasting life. Thus is the 
 world saved through Christ. 
 
 Nor does the interpretation which makes it to 
 mean that all might be saved if they came to Christ, 
 really differ from that which makes it refer to the 
 outpouring of the Spirit ; for we have seen that no 
 one without the Holy Spirit can come to Him : and 
 therefore the universal possibility of salvation and 
 the universal gift of the Spirit are in reality different 
 ways of looking at the same result, except that the 
 former expresses only a possible, the latter an actual, 
 benefit resulting to all mankind from the death of 
 Christ ; the actual though not complete reconcilia- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 Comprehensive faith then takes no narrow view 
 of the purpose of God in sending His Son into the 
 world ; she believes that it was and is for all men ; 
 and this not only from any mere abstract notions of 
 what God's love must do ; [we rejoice indeed when 
 we find that Scripture confirms and recognises those 
 instinctive notions of the human heart which look 
 upon God's love as universal. For there certainly is 
 an instinct, though possibly a false one, which makes 
 one shrink from the doctrine of God's love working 
 only for a few as contrary to the view of that love 
 which we get alike from nature and from grace : 
 who can look upon the glorious sun, the blessings of 
 light, air, strength, reason, vouchsafed to all man- 
 kind, who can read of the rain coming on the just 
 and unjust, and not feel that this love can neither 
 be partial nor sparing? but still it is not on these 
 
LECTURE IV. 10.5 
 
 that we rest our belief. In all revelations of God's 
 nature and will we know that those instincts of 
 natural religion which are revelations in matters of 
 duty cannot be relied upon :] it is not that all men 
 have the same abstract claim, that God would be 
 unjust if He gave to one what He denies to another ; 
 we know that the creature may not thus argue with 
 the Creator ; the clay must not thus reply to the 
 potter ; that the Gentile had no right to complain 
 of Jews being admitted while he himself was shut 
 out : but we rest on the Scripture witness that 
 Christ died for all ; we magnify God for His mercy 
 for all mankind, and call upon all the ends of the 
 earth to join with grateful hearts in praising His 
 redeeming love, as set forth in Scripture. 
 
 And yet again the same Scripture compels us to 
 fix our eyes in silent sadness on that smaller body 
 for whom alone Christ's sacrifice is in the highest 
 sense and most proper results effectual ; not for any 
 lack of God's love towards the many, but from their 
 blindness and perversity : on those few 7 who for His 
 sake and through His sufferings are sanctified in 
 this life, and will be placed on His right hand in 
 the day of judgment : while of the world at large, 
 great as are the blessings which He procured for 
 them, it will, inasmuch as they have rejected God's 
 message, but increase their condemnation : and so, 
 surely, many of God's natural gifts are created for 
 and offered to all, and yet practically exist only for 
 some. And we can find the interpretation of this 
 limitation of God's universal mercy in the indolence, 
 and carelessness, and worldliness of mankind ; in the 
 
106 LECTURE IV. 
 
 spiritual state of heathendom as well as Christendom. 
 Even while we believe that it was for all that Christ 
 died, we cannot but see that there are thousands 
 upon thousands who have never laid hold on the hope 
 which springs from, or rather is in Christ ; thousands 
 upon thousands who have never heard of His name; 
 to whom those mysteries of God revealed, Christ 
 crucified, the Holy Ghost poured out, which are to us 
 as household words, are utterly unknown. And were 
 it safe for faith to pass the bounds which God has 
 marked out for her, and to speculate on the possible 
 future of the myriads to whom from age to age the 
 Gospel has never been preached, we could scarcely 
 say " nay" to a pious hope, or even a pious belief, 
 that even these having been so far reconciled by 
 Him may in Him likewise find a Saviour; that He 
 will be to them, as to us, the Lamb which taketh 
 away their sins ; to them, as to us, wisdom, and sanc- 
 tification, and righteousness, and redemption. Who 
 shall venture to say that God turns his face from 
 these to save whom Christ died ? that His eye sees 
 not their trials? that His ears are closed to their 
 prayers? Who shall say that the life of the savage, 
 ignorant and perhaps superstitious though it may 
 be, is not acceptable unto God through Christ? 
 or when one in the solitude of his desert, with 
 no other temple than those mountains on which 
 our Saviour was wont to commune with His 
 Father, lifts up his heart to God in rude thanks- 
 giving for the blessings of his natural life, or for 
 preservation from some danger, or some special 
 blessing vouchsafed to him or his, who shall say 
 
LECTURE IV. 107 
 
 tliat Christ does not present this outpouring be- 
 fore the Christian throne of grace? who shall say, 
 when he prays God to pardon some sin which even 
 his uninformed moral sense has pointed out to him, 
 that these sighings of a contrite heart are but 
 wasted on the desert air? When a sinner, by some 
 mysterious providence, which men call chance, is 
 moved to leave his sin, and to be as righteous as he 
 may be, who shall deny, not indeed that he, but 
 that Christ, will save his soul alive ? Who shall say 
 that the pulses of human love in any breast are un- 
 marked by Him without whose knowledge not a 
 sparrow falls to the ground ? When one in his 
 forest hut, or amid the busier scenes of a heathen 
 town, looks on mankind with a loving eye ; cherishes 
 the wife of his bosom, the children of his flesh, 
 the sick or needy, with an affection, only less deep 
 than that of the best and holiest of Christians, 
 because it lacks the Divine element of Christian 
 love, the love of Christ, who shall say that he is 
 not owned by Him, even though he knows Him 
 not? When the ruler of an heathen nation observes 
 right and judgment, defends the cause of the father- 
 less and widow, sees that such as are in need and 
 necessity have right ; who shall say that he will not 
 be placed on the right hand in the day of judgment, 
 when those professing Christians who have sacrificed 
 thousands and thousands to their ambition or pride 
 or selfishness will be cast out? When a heathen 
 suffers for what he believes to be, and even, in its 
 degree, is righteousness' sake ; or when he bears 
 bravely and patiently the sorrows or evils which 
 
108 LECTURE IV. 
 
 God has pleased to send him, who shall say that his 
 sufferings do not in Christ's eye take the shape of the 
 cross ? who shall say that his soul is not sustained 
 and comforted by the Holy Spirit, whose motions 
 he thus unwittingly obeys? who shall deny that he, 
 living up to the light which he hath, will be judged by 
 that light, and not by the light which he hath not ? 
 who shall deny that he will, not for his own right- 
 eousness, but by Christ's death and for His merits, 
 be numbered with the saints? And surely the same 
 may be said of and hoped for those who even in 
 Christendom itself are ignorantly in deadly error, 
 not by wilful rejection of the truth, but rather by 
 circumstances of their birth, or by the cunning of 
 designing teachers, whose spiritual dominion is more 
 or less founded on the spiritual ignorance of the 
 people. 
 
 But it may be said, If so, what is the need of 
 preaching the Gospel to the heathen? what ad- 
 vantage hath the Christian ? Much every way. Be- 
 cause to them are committed the oracles of God ; 
 because they enjoy that soul-stirring knowledge; 
 those grace-giving dispensations which the heathen 
 has not; that stream which to the heathen creates 
 an oasis here and there, gladdens the whole of 
 Christendom. It is still true that the Gentiles 
 need a preacher to bring to their knowledge those 
 counsels of God which are working invisibly for 
 them. Supposing our wishes and hopes to be true, 
 that the (humanly speaking) good heathen will be 
 owned by Christ, still how few in each nation arc 
 these compared with the number that might have 
 
LECTURE IV. 109 
 
 been turned unto God, had the pure Bible light 
 shone upon them ; had their hearts been moved by 
 the actual preaching of the Gospel ; by a deep 
 sense of their sin, and of their need of a Saviour; 
 by the wonderful history of God's love and Christ's 
 sufferings ; by certain hope of forgiveness and 
 salvation ; by the dispensations of the Holy 
 Spirit in His Church ; in short, by all that living- 
 word which we know has the power of moving 
 men's souls and turning them to God. But, after 
 all, these thoughts, like all other speculations on 
 God's counsels and man's future, which are not di- 
 rectly revealed, savour too much of the ques- 
 tion, Are there few saved ? Suffice it for us to 
 know, that we and those with whom our lot is cast 
 have been called, and that it is part of our calling 
 to spread that knowledge, and to repeat that calling, 
 which we ourselves have received. We cannot how- 
 ever turn from these myriads of immortal souls 
 without a prayer that God would of his infi- 
 nite mercy so mould their hearts by the secret 
 agencies of His Holy Spirit that they may work 
 out their salvation in Christ, as we in our light, so 
 they in their darkness : not without a prayer too that 
 our hearts may be effectually moved to minister to 
 them of those spiritual blessings to which (humanly 
 speaking) they have as good a right as ourselves, 
 seeing that we are all sinners in the sight of God, 
 equally in need of a Saviour. 
 
 But when we turn our eyes from the heathen to 
 the civilised world lying in the mid-day light of the 
 Gospel, and see how that world is occupied with it- 
 
110 LECTURE IV. 
 
 self, careless of Christianity, as if it wore still a 
 heathen world ; how it is still fast bound in the 
 misery and sin of the flesh, still doing the works 
 and receiving the wages of evil ; what a fearful 
 significance is given to texts of Scripture which 
 speak of Christ's sacrifice as available only for a few ; 
 such as, Many are called, but few are chosen. Look 
 at the actual facts of the Christian world. Many 
 are called to an actual knowledge of Christ; many 
 do know Him, have known Him from childhood ; 
 think of Him, speak of Him as their Redeemer. 
 Few are working out their salvation ; few are living 
 up to the doctrines they profess, to the mysteries 
 they receive, to the love which they express in 
 words. No barren question this, no idle speculation ; 
 it is the serious lesson suggested by our Saviour's 
 practical answer, Strive to enter in. See every 
 where new forms of error, some of them even re- 
 pulsive to reason and morality, establishing them- 
 selves on some negation or perversion of God's truth, 
 and assuming to themselves the name and form and 
 office of churches, leading men away from Christ 
 even while they profess to lead them to Him. See 
 many men waxing weary of religious differences, and 
 learning to believe nothing. See men persuading 
 themselves that the broad road is the narrow way. 
 See social evils every where defying faith to remove 
 them — every where declaimed against, every where 
 submitted to ; the world, and the principles and 
 fashions of the world, every where triumphant. 
 Walk through our streets, and see, not the cheer- 
 ful face ami light heart of industry and piety, 
 
LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 but covetousness rushing about with wild and dis- 
 ordered step See vice in the very light of day 
 proclaiming herself tolerated, and even welcomed in 
 a Christian city. Go into our villages and hear 
 deadly sins spoken of as trifling occurrences ; watch 
 shame fading away from the fresh countenances of 
 the young, and shamelessness taking its place. What 
 clergyman is there who could not in his own min- 
 istrations find the meaning of the words, Many are 
 called, but few are chosen ? See our schools ; those 
 nurseries and mimicries of after-life, and mark there 
 how a generous sense of duty to God for Christ's 
 sake ; how the pious lessons of Christian faith and 
 duty, the noble principles of Christian honour, are 
 sapped and destroyed by temptation, or ridicule, or 
 example. Take even this very place, where religion 
 and learning are designed to go hand and hand in 
 forming minds according to the image of God by 
 the power of grace ; see the numberless opportuni- 
 ties and means of growing in grace — the numberless 
 pious influences, past and present, by which we are 
 surrounded: — it were needless for me to point out 
 to you the things which, even in this place, furnish 
 us with a commentary on the words, Many are 
 called, but few are chosen. No idle question, then, 
 no barren speculation — but one fraught with the 
 deepest interest to ourselves, and the deepest results 
 to us as a Church and nation — one which strikes 
 harshly on many a chord of anxious thought in all 
 who care for their own or their brethren's salvation. 
 To the mere theologian, indeed, it is a topic which 
 can be handled as coolly as any abstract point of theo- 
 
112 LECTURE IV. 
 
 logy or morals ; but by him on whom the Bible lias 
 done its work it cannot be approached without feel- 
 ings of the deepest anxiety, like that of a city which 
 is hanging on the word of the physician, who is to say 
 whether the plague is among them or not. 
 
 And yet, even when we fix our eyes sadly on the 
 few who are in the narrow way, we cannot but see, 
 with deep gratitude to God, that even the many who 
 in the civilised world practically refuse their calling 
 are somewhat benefited by Christ. What has for 
 such an one placed the possibility of salvation, 
 even yet within his reach ? what has ordained the 
 means of grace and the word of God, which from 
 time to time thrust themselves on him ? what the 
 possibility of repentance, the efficacy of repentance, 
 if he repents, but the sacrifice of Christ ? through 
 whom is it that, if he has wandered, he may yet re- 
 turn ; and if he does, he will be accepted ? What 
 has done all this for him but the death of Christ on 
 the cross for all mankind ? Whence does consolation 
 spring up in the heart of a mother who is sighing 
 over the wasted youth, the abused talents, the de- 
 spised grace, the unchristian life of a wayward son, 
 but from the knowledge that Christ died to save 
 him ; from the trust that He will yet so order his 
 way that he may not perish for whom Christ died ? 
 
 The question of predestination will be considered 
 presently ; but though it is suggested by the point 
 immediately before us, yet it has no direct bearing 
 upon it; for whether the few chosen are predestinate 
 or no, it is equally true that Christ's sacrifice, oft'ered 
 for all the world, and bringing some spiritual bless- 
 
LECTURE IV. lis 
 
 ings to all, will in the end be practically confined to 
 comparatively few; equally true that He died for 
 all, and yet only for someP. Each truth may and 
 has been used as a source of pure contemplation, as 
 well as a practical lesson by that faith which takes 
 in the whole counsel of God — may be, and has been, 
 and is, a source of error to those who take each by 
 itself as if it were the whole. 
 
 And comprehensive faith, as a necessary conse- 
 quence of her acceptance of both, shrinks from the 
 exaggeration of each — on the one hand, from that 
 misuse of Scripture language and misconception 
 of God's purpose i, which would restrict Christ's 
 death, by an absolute decree of the Almighty, to a 
 chosen few, without any regard to human conduct ; 
 shutting out those whose hearts and lives bear wit- 
 ness to their desire to be saved ; making God turn a 
 deaf ear to the sighings and groanings of their con- 
 trite and believing heart, unless they be among that 
 chosen few ; while those who are, or rather who 
 suppose themselves to be, of this chosen number, 
 may go on in reckless wickedness, relying on their 
 natural sinfulness as an excuse for sin, confident that 
 their sins are pardoned, and themselves accepted in 
 Christ. 
 
 Comprehensive faith, too, on the other hand, turns 
 from the presumptuous philanthropy which ventures 
 to extend the sacrifice of Christ to all; even to those 
 who are walking not after the Spirit, but after the 
 flesh; and even to those who rely and trust in them- 
 
 P See i Tim. iv. 10. q See Acts xvii. 30. 1 Tim. ii. 4. 
 
 1 
 
114 LECTURE IN. 
 
 selves, and count the blood of the covenant an un- 
 holy, or at the least a needless thing. 
 
 Nor does the doctrine that Christ died for all men 
 give authority to the notion, which either tacitly or 
 openly has obtained very commonly in the religious 
 so called liberality of the day, that it matters not 
 what a man's creed is, provided he is living up to the 
 convictions of his own reason and heart, and that his 
 life be pure and holy. We have seen in the last 
 Lecture that the terms pure and holy can only be 
 applied to the life of a natural man in a lower and 
 secondary sense, because there is nothing better or 
 holier within his reach; and therefore those who hold 
 this notion are begging the question when they as- 
 sume that the life of any man who cannot or will not 
 believe in the truth when set before him can be pure 
 and holy ; for surely the power of submitting the 
 reason to the word, and the practical submission 
 thereof, is an element and a test of that spiritual 
 state which is acceptable to God through Christ. 
 And such texts as Every one that worketh righteous- 
 ness is accepted of Him, do not prove the point in 
 question. Even in the case of the heathen these 
 words may hold good only in the sense in which they 
 were applied to Cornelius; in respect of his capacity 
 for admission to Christian privileges, rather than of 
 being saved where those privileges are not given ; 
 but still it may be true, as we have seen above, of 
 the ignorant heathen, (God grant that it may be so,) 
 that he will be saved, not by the powerless creed 
 which he professes, but by the Divine application 
 of Christ's sacrifice, if he perform according to his 
 
LECTURE IV. 115 
 
 knowledge and ability those conditions of the 
 Christian covenant which are necessary for the 
 Christian ; faith readily and gladly confesses that this 
 would only be in analogy with the general known 
 purposes and will of God towards reconciled man : 
 but this evidently is a very different case from that 
 of the man who, living in a Christian country, in 
 the full light of the Gospel, adds to the ignorance 
 of Christ, which he has in common with the hea- 
 then, that from which the heathen is free, the posi- 
 tive rejection or neglect of Kim through pride of 
 intellect and love of self; even though that very 
 pride of intellect and love of self may keep him 
 from the grosser forms of sin, or urge him to recog- 
 nised acts of holiness. I confess it seems clear to 
 me that it is both logically and theologically wrong 
 to argue from the possible salvation of the ignorant 
 heathen to the certain safety of the obstinate infidel. 
 But while the Church can find in human conduct 
 as we see it in the world, a sufficient explana- 
 tion of the doctrine contained in the words, mam/ are 
 called, bid few are chosen, without either limiting or 
 extending God's mercy otherwise than it is set forth 
 in Holy Writ ; yet she is not blind to the fact, that 
 the doctrine of predestination or preordaining in 
 God's counsels, whether it is viewed as a result of 
 the arbitrary will of the Omnipotent, or as the fore- 
 knowledge of the Omniscient, is stated in Scripture 
 in terms which it is impossible to explain away. 
 Nor need we shrink from the question, or approach 
 it in any feeling of fear, lest the real happiness of 
 
 i 2 
 
116 LECTURE IV. 
 
 mankind, or real practical holiness, can be injured 
 by the receiving it, and teaching it as God has given 
 it us: we are certain that whatever God has given us 
 is designed for the spiritual good, not of a few, but 
 of the whole world; and therefore we may search out 
 this question in the full conviction that the doctrine 
 will be found to be life-giving — the danger is, lest it 
 be allowed to overthrow or overshadow other truths, 
 which in their turn and place are equally parts of 
 God's truth, equally portions of the bread which 
 cometh down from heaven. 
 
 The doctrine itself is indeed but sketched in dim 
 and mysterious outlines 1 ', such as we might expect 
 in a subject of such profound mystery ; neither is it 
 possible for man, either by random guesses or by 
 any philosophical anatomy of abstract intelligences, 
 to fill up the outline thus left unfinished, of course 
 for some wise end, by the Spirit of God — God's will 
 is our wisdom — if we shut our eyes to what He tells 
 us, we are foolishly losing something which He de- 
 signed for our good — if we define where He has not 
 defined, or speak where He is silent, then are we 
 equally frustrating and preventing His wise and mer- 
 ciful designs towards us. 
 
 It seems to me to be agreeable to the general 
 analogies of Scripture to look upon the doctrine 
 to have been thus mysteriously set forth rather to 
 exalt the glory of God in our salvation s , than to 
 give any practical guidance to men ; though of 
 course it may be used for this purpose, provided 
 that the matter be handled as it is in Scripture. 
 r See Eph. i 9. s Eph. i. 5. 6. 
 
LECTURE IV. 117 
 
 It was meant to show, or at all events it may be 
 viewed as showing, that the whole scheme and 
 work of our redemption in its design and execu- 
 tion, in its principles and details, in all its relations, 
 past, present, or future, were at once comprehended, 
 designed, ordained, as it were, by a single glance, a 
 single act of the will (to use human expressions) 
 of Him, for whom time has no existence ; to whom 
 what is, humanly speaking, undone is as if it were 
 done ; things that are not, as if they were ; whose 
 counsels, though they seem in execution to spread 
 over generation after generation, and to be worked 
 out by a long succession of men and events, did ne- 
 vertheless spring into actual being at once, perfect, 
 and complete, designed and accomplished : and yet 
 are continually sustained and developed throughout 
 all ages by the Almighty power. Nor is this a mere 
 fanciful speculation : we are expressly told, that to 
 God one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
 years as one day 1 — and of course this is but a 
 human way of putting before us the great fact 
 that time belongs to earth, and not to heaven ; to 
 man, and not to God — that it is an accident of hu- 
 man existence. It has always seemed to me that a 
 great truth was embodied in that fanciful tale of the 
 East, wherein we read of a king who merely dipped 
 his head into water and took it out again in a single 
 moment of time, and yet in that space had gone 
 through a strange variety of adventures for many 
 years. 
 
 1 2 Pet. iii. 8. 
 
118 LECTURE IV. 
 
 At all events, whatever may have been God's pur- 
 pose in revealing it, man's part is to receive it in 
 reverent contemplation, as a subject wherein God has 
 been pleased to allow him a slight glance of His 
 Omnipotence and Omniscience ; not as a subject for 
 curious speculation, which can end in nothing but 
 increasing the difficulties of the subject, by judging 
 of it on human experience and principles; far less 
 was it designed to be made by theological dog- 
 matism the basis of a whole system of religion, to 
 which all other truths were, if necessary, to be sacri- 
 ficed. And as to the point alluded to above, whe- 
 ther this predestination is a result of the arbitrary 
 will or of the absolute foreknowledge of God, it seems 
 to me to be one of those things which will not be 
 solved to us till we know even as we are known. It 
 is in vain for us to attempt to balance one Divine 
 energy against another, even by the aid of the most 
 successful results of metaphysical researches. Who 
 shall distinguish between the will and the know- 
 ledge of such a Being as God? who shall say where 
 one begins or the other ends? who shall say that 
 they are not identical, even though they present 
 themselves to human comprehension as distinct and 
 divisible ? 
 
 Be this however as it may, it does not directly 
 affect our actions, or give any direct answer to the 
 question, What mast we do to be saved? for it is clear 
 from Scripture, that however certain the doctrine 
 of predestination may be, yet in some way or other, 
 incomprehensible perhaps to us. it does not interfere 
 
LECTURE IV. 119 
 
 with the free agency and consequent responsibility 
 of man ; for if it be held to the contrary, that man 
 is so predestinated that his spiritual present and 
 future is in no way affected by his own choice or 
 actions, then no small portion of Scripture is made 
 of no meaning. It may perhaps be true that prac- 
 tical exhortations to live worthily of our Christian 
 vocation, as a matter of propriety, might still find 
 place, even supposing that our destiny w r ere not af- 
 fected thereby; but what becomes of all exhortations 
 and directions to which hope and fear are attached 
 as motives? All passages wherein exertion, or repent- 
 ance, or holiness, are spoken of as necessary for one 
 who would be saved ; all calls to repentance in or- 
 der to salvation ; all revelations of a future judg- 
 ment, of rewarding men hereafter according to their 
 works here, are mere forms and pretences. The 
 apostolic writers cannot have been inspired by the 
 Spirit, if that to which they give the prominent 
 place in Scripture is a mere delusion ; and if they 
 were not inspired, the doctrine of predestination has 
 no ground to stand upon. It would be endless to 
 go through the confusion and absurdity which a one- 
 sided view on this question casts upon Scripture. 
 If certain men are saved whatever they do, the an- 
 swer to the question, What must ive do to be saved f 
 should have been, not Repent and be baptized, but 
 " Do nothing — you are either saved already, or you 
 never can be saved." What sort of exhortation is 
 it to say, " Do this which you cannot do ?" " Take 
 care to keep that which vou cannot lose ?" " Seek 
 
120 LECTURE IV. 
 
 for that which you already have ?" k ' Seek for that 
 which you can never find ?" " Strive to enter in 
 where your striving can make no difference one 
 way or the other?" The two doctrines of predes- 
 tination and free will must either both be true to- 
 gether, (which is the position I am contending for,) 
 or one must be false ; and there cannot, I think, be 
 any doubt that the passages which testify to our 
 hopes of salvation being affected by our choice and 
 conduct are more numerous, direct, and clear, than 
 those which favour predestination : if either is to be 
 explained away (which God forbid), it certainly can- 
 not be the responsibility of man. 
 
 Again, the promises of God must of course be co- 
 extensive with his predestinated will, whatever this 
 may be; and these promises are, in almost every 
 case, made expressly to depend on the performance 
 of certain conditions by those to whom they are 
 given : whence it is clear, that regard to human 
 conduct is not incompatible with predestination ; 
 otherwise the promises, which are the expression 
 thereof, would be absolute and unconditional, not 
 contingent and conditional. 
 
 Nor, on the other hand, can we fail to give some 
 definite value and reality to the passages which are 
 relied on in proof of this doctrine. It is true that 
 some of them may be considered as expressing only 
 a national, and not a personal appointment to or 
 exclusion from spiritual privileges, as the argument 
 in the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 founded on the history of Esau and Jacob u ; or as 
 
 " Sec also Acts ii. [Q. 
 
LECTURE IV. 121 
 
 generally signifying- God's supreme prerogative to 
 do what He thought best with His creatures, such 
 as the passage in the same chapter, He hath 
 mercy on whom He icill have mercy, and whom He 
 will He hardeneth. But still there remain a suffi- 
 cient number of passages 31 in which men are spoken 
 of as definitely and personally appointed or preor- 
 dained to life eternal, to justify our Church in giving- 
 this doctrine a place among the revealed truths of 
 God's word ; especially as she takes care to premise 
 that these preordained counsels are secret to us, and 
 depend, in some sort or other, on the further gift of 
 grace to those who are the objects of them ; and we 
 know that the gift of grace by God, and the accept- 
 ance thereof by man, does depend on the state of 
 the soul : God, for instance, we are told, resisteth 
 the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble ; and this 
 may be the way in which men may frustrate or fulfil 
 the merciful purposes of God for them : for we 
 must not forget that all human holiness arises from 
 the submission of our wills to the grace of God, and 
 that resistance to that grace is the refusal of, or the 
 falling away from, that spiritual state of acceptance, 
 wherein we are to make our calling and election sure. 
 That the human will can thus withstand the grace 
 of God, is clear from the fact, that the Jews are 
 spoken of as having rejected the counsel of God 
 against themselves y. Wherefore, when we read in 
 Scripture of men being preordained or appointed 
 
 x Acts ii. 47. xiii. 48. 2 Thess. ii. 13. 
 y Luke vii. 30. Acts xiii. 46. 
 
122 LECTURE IV. 
 
 for the wrath of God z , though our hearts may well 
 sink within us, yet surely may they draw comfort 
 from the conviction which Scripture likewise gives 
 us, that this terrible sentence is not pronounced, 
 except we by our want of lively obedient faith bring 
 it on ourselves. There is comfort in the thought, 
 that we perish not except with the consent and 
 agency of our own wills ; there is fear also when we 
 reflect how readily and how often those wills choose 
 the evil and refuse the good. 
 
 Nor does it in any way solve the difficulty, to say 
 that man is not predestinated to everlasting life, or 
 everlasting punishment, without any respect had to 
 his holiness or his wickedness ; but that the one 
 sort are predestinated to be wicked, to prefer dark- 
 ness to light, evil to good, while the others are pre- 
 ordained to be holy ; for the Jews, on whom this 
 spiritual blindness is represented as falling by God's 
 will, were once confessedly the beloved people of 
 God a , the elect heirs of the promise; so much so that 
 the offer of salvation was not made to the Gentiles 
 till the Jews had refused to retain their former pre- 
 ordained privilege of being the witnesses and mes- 
 sengers of God's truth to the surrounding world; and 
 they were brought to this state of rejection in conse- 
 quence of their own neglect of their inheritance, and 
 the abuse of the privileges which as heirs they en- 
 joyed. St. Paul, too, in the first chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Romans, traces the downward progress of the 
 Gentile world, which ended in their being given 
 
 z i Pet. ii. 8. Jade 4. il Deut. vii. 6. 
 
LECTURE IV. 12S 
 
 over to a reprobate mind, ay proceeding from the 
 choice of men, and not from the will of God, except 
 as a consequence of that choice b , and rather against 
 the lights and aids from without and within, which 
 His will had provided for them ; this shows that 
 man neither begins nor proceeds in wickedness 
 without his own consent and agency. Hence no 
 one (such is the weakness of man) is so holy, that 
 he may without doubt assure himself that he is 
 predestinated to final salvation; for he that thinketh 
 he standeth has most cause to fear lest he fail ; no 
 one (so great is the mercy of God and the power of 
 grace), no one who has one spark of the Spirit yet 
 unquenched, one yearning after forgiveness, need 
 fear that he is by any Divine decree excluded from 
 the possibility of repentance c . Our Church does 
 but embody the sense, not of this or that text alone, 
 but of all Scripture, when she says, that God " desir- 
 eth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
 may turn from his wickedness and live/' 
 
 Nor is there any greater inconsistency between 
 the predestinate counsels of God and the free agency 
 of man than there is between those passages of 
 Scripture which declare God's purposes to be fixed 
 and unchangeable — His gifts without repentance 
 or shadow of turning — and those passages which as- 
 sign to prayer the power of turning away God's 
 wrath or winning God's favour for nations and indi- 
 viduals ; or those passages which speak of promises 
 
 b Rom. i. 26. For this cause, &c. 
 c James iv. 8. 2 Pet. iii. 9. 
 
124 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and privileges being withdrawn from some persons 
 and transferred to others — Twill call them my people 
 which were not my people, and her beloved which was 
 not beloved d . God's promises are doubtless without 
 repentance ; there is in Him no shadow of turning: 
 He is ever the same : He does not withdraw His 
 gifts from men, but men reject them, and sometimes 
 sin themselves into a state past the possibility of re- 
 ceiving them ; and then of course His promises, 
 though living and unchanged in themselves, are a dead 
 letter to such men. Thus prayer is effectual as being 
 part of the act of seeking after and receiving some- 
 thing which we do not know whether it is Cod's 
 pleasure to give us, but which we shall surely receive 
 if it is His pleasure. Lack of prayer argues either 
 a lack of the wish to have God's gifts, or a disbelief 
 that God can or that He will grant them ; earnest 
 prayer implies exactly the contrary. Thus it is that 
 God's gifts are poured forth in answer to prayer; 
 thus it is that the effectual fervent prayer of a right- 
 eous man availeth much in bringing to pass God's 
 purposes of pardon and blessing. 
 
 But we must not attempt to explain, or even to 
 illustrate, what is inexplicable, and to which nothing 
 that we can know or conceive presents any real 
 analogy ; but neither does the impossibility of expla- 
 nation make it uncertain. Predestination is one 
 Divine truth certainly and definitely revealed in 
 Scripture; the free agency and responsibility of man 
 is another. We know not how this can be ; but we 
 cl Rom. ix. 25. 
 
LECTURE JV. 125 
 
 do know that it is. We must let each perform 
 its function in conforming us to the image of Christ. 
 The practical result of what we do know is, that 
 we should walk as those whom God has chosen: 
 worthily of our calling, leaving low and sensual 
 things, and rising to the high and spiritual ; heartily, 
 as those who are assured that the Lord will finish 
 the work He has begun in us ; carefully, fearfully, 
 watchfully, lest after all we should frustrate His pur- 
 pose for us. It is certain, that if a man be walking 
 with Christ with an honest heart, if his will and 
 conscience do not bear witness against his profession, 
 he may find much comfort in the thought that he is 
 not walking in his own strength and wisdom, but 
 according to the wisdom and strength and will of 
 the Omnipotent and Omniscient. Nor need any one 
 who has unhappily fallen into sin fall still lower into 
 desperation or wretchlessness of unclean living, by the 
 notion that he is ordained to die, as long as he sees 
 around him God's mercies and warnings and dispen- 
 sations of grace, whereby Christ is seeking to recall 
 the sheep that is lost. 
 
 It is certain, too, that all of us in this Church and 
 nation are called ; called in Baptism ; called in the 
 Church ; called by preaching ; called by all the va- 
 rious ministries of grace : it has now become almost 
 part of our birthright that we are Christians by call- 
 ing ; our very names signify as much : what we are 
 we know ; what we may be we know 7 ; what we shall 
 be we know not till the day when the chosen of 
 God are acknowledged as His. Then will the secret 
 
126 LECTURE IV. 
 
 counsels of God stand forth, and also the secret 
 hearts and wills of men. Then will it be seen how 
 the many reprobate have worked their own destruc- 
 tion, even out of the very things which were sent 
 for their salvation. It will be seen too how God's 
 foreknowledge worked on and with the wills of the 
 few chosen, and framed their willing souls and mind 
 to conformity to Him. For the coming of the time 
 when all this will be known we must perforce wait 
 God's good pleasure. 
 
 And the doctrine of predestination may raise our 
 eyes to the God of all power and might, the God of 
 heaven and earth, the same Almighty Being from 
 whom all things sprung, and in whom all things have 
 their being, as the Author and Giver of our salvation. 
 And thus it is that definite faith in God the Father 
 as the Author of our salvation is necessary, as well as 
 in Christ ; for only those who believe in this His will 
 can expect it to work in them and on them. Thus 
 Ave are said in Scripture to be justified by God the 
 Father 6 : that is, released from our sins, and recon- 
 ciled to Him, whose love sent the onlv-be° - otten Son 
 into the world for this end. And this love, shining 
 forth as it does, not only out of the Book of grace, 
 the Scripture, but out of the book of nature also, 
 some have thought to be the sole and sufficient 
 cause of our salvation ; as if no sacrifice of Christ 
 was needed, before Almighty love, by its own sole 
 energies, took wretched man out of his wretched- 
 ness, and gave him happiness here and hereafter: 
 c Rom. viii. 33. 2 Cor. v. rt). 
 
LECTURE [V. 127 
 
 and hence men think to trust to the unlimited 
 love and mercy of God for salvation. " If God so 
 loved the world," say they, " He surely will not cast 
 out any whom He thus has loved." Doubtless it 
 might have been so ; but Scripture tells us that God, 
 of His own good will, has been pleased to bind up 
 His saving love for man to the sacrifice of Christ, 
 and our acceptance of it. Why this is we know not, 
 nor does it concern us to know : we seem to gain 
 some faint glimmering of it when we catch sight of 
 His justice in the words, that He might be just, and 
 the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; but it is 
 wiser, surely, to receive and wonder than to rea- 
 son before receiving. Suffice it to say, that so far 
 from the preordained mercy of God being excluded 
 or lessened by the sacrifice of Christ, it is rather 
 heightened and glorified thereby ; for this very love 
 of God is most fully set forth and realised in the 
 scheme of Redemption by Christ, far more fully than 
 it is by those who trust to God's mercy without 
 Christ ; to them God's love, in spiritual things at 
 least, must be an abstract term conceived of in the 
 visions of hope as that which will embrace them 
 when this life is over and another begins. We do 
 not merelv forecast God's love in the far off future, 
 but we realise it to ourselves in His will for us in 
 the past and present. We know that He has loved 
 our souls ; we know how 7 and when : we know that 
 God commendeth His love towards us, in that while 
 we were yet sinners Christ died for us; that in Him 
 He loved the world : that in Him His love is mani- 
 
128 LECTU R E IV. 
 
 fcsted towards us. To God's mercy and love then do 
 we look as the first cause, as of all things, so of our 
 salvation, but not as excluding the sacrifice of Christ; 
 to the preordaining will of this His love, though not 
 excluding the will and agency of man. 
 
 Again, while the doctrine of predestination leads 
 our hearts to ascribe our salvation to God the Father, 
 and to see His will ever working therein ; so with 
 reference to our part in the work are we said to be 
 justified f or saved by the Holy Spirit; according to 
 His mercy hath He saved us by — the renewing of the 
 Holy Spirit ; because it is that Holy Spirit who is 
 (so to speak) the minister of His predestinating will : 
 He it is who gives us both effectual repentance and 
 lively faith : He it is by whom, sent to us by God 
 as the Spirit of faith or repentance, our wills, free to 
 err, are turned with gentle violence to Christ, pre- 
 pared for the effectual reception of Him ; through 
 whose invisible operation in the water of baptism 
 the merits of Christ are by faith applied to our souls 
 on our acceptance of Him : He it is who works in 
 us, moving us with good desires, convincing us of 
 sin, purging us and presenting us to Christ ; giving 
 us knowledge of the things that are freely given us 
 by Christ; shedding the love of God abroad in our 
 hearts; sealing us with Christ's seal as accepted and 
 beloved; creating us anew unto good works, teaching 
 us in our ignorant minds, guiding us in our faltering 
 steps, enlightening us in our blindness, strengthening 
 ns in our weakness, comforting us in our troubles; 
 f i Cor. vi. i J. 
 
LECTURE IV. 129 
 
 giving us the spirit of prayer, interpreting for us our 
 utterances. And this will shew us how faith in the 
 existence and operation of the Holy Spirit is neces- 
 sary for those who would be saved ; for he who re- 
 jects the Holy Spirit cannot hope to be partaker of 
 the gift of that Spirit, without which no one can 
 even take the first step in the narrow path which 
 leadeth to everlasting life. Thus he who blasphemes 
 and denies the Holy Ghost does virtually and practi- 
 cally cut himself off from the possibility of salvation; 
 he can never hope to be forgiven, either in this world 
 or in the world to come. It is as if a man in a laby- 
 rinth were to cut the clue which is to guide him out. 
 And as the predestinating will of God the Father, and 
 the sanctifying operation of God the Holy Ghost, 
 having their separate yet indivisible functions in our 
 redemption, are neither superseded nor controlled 
 by our free agency, so neither do they in any way 
 trench upon or interfere with the sacrifice of Christ 
 as the sole meritorious cause of our Salvation. Who 
 is it that most fully realises God's eternal purposes 
 for him, and his calling in Christ, who is it that most 
 completely apprehends the preconceived message, and 
 experiences the preordained working of the Holy 
 Spirit in his soul, but the man who most fully un- 
 derstands and lays to heart, in its height and length 
 and breadth, the great Gospel revelation, that the 
 Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the pro- 
 mise by faith of JESUS CHRIST might he given to 
 them that believe? 
 
 K 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 GALATIANS III. 22. 
 
 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that 
 the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given 
 to them that believe. 
 
 1 HE way in which salvation is offered to man, 
 though full of Divinest wisdom and mercy, is the 
 very last which would have been devised by human 
 reason, or acceptable to human pride. Ambition 
 has ever been a principle of our nature, though in 
 most men it has been checked by that indolence 
 and love of pleasure which is a direct consequence 
 of the fall. Even when earth was more like heaven 
 than it can ever be again, the temptation by which 
 Satan chose to assail Eve was the hope of becoming 
 as gods, knowing good and evil ; while the Bible 
 history of the tower of Babel, reflected as it is in 
 the myth of the rebel giants, seems to point to 
 man's desire to raise himself above his present state, 
 and his belief that he had the power of setting at 
 nought the will of Him who had made him what, 
 and placed him where, he is. And we may perhaps 
 find traces of the same notion in the yearnings and 
 strivings of the higher order of minds in old times, 
 
LECTURE V. 131 
 
 to pass from the visible world into the invisible, 
 which stood to them in the place of, and seemed to 
 them to be, a higher and more spiritual state. 
 
 If then salvation had been set before men as 
 something to be won by their own will and strength, 
 those of more energetic temper would have found no 
 slight attraction in the notion of freeing themselves 
 by their own moral or mental energies from the evil 
 which was around and within ; it would have flattered 
 man to feel himself the conqueror and to have fought 
 his own way to the promised land. When too we 
 look at the trials and duties of the Christian's course 
 as marked out in the Bible, it seems hard to strip him 
 of his laurels ; it seems hard that one who has to fight 
 so hard should after all have to receive the crown 
 as an undeserved gift from the hand of another. 
 Thus man's pride ever rebels against confessing him- 
 self to be what he is. 
 
 [Now to these ambitious hopes and energies the 
 doctrine of justification by faith only is directly 
 opposed ; we are not allowed the triumph — it is of 
 faith, not of works, lest any man should boast — the 
 glory is reserved for God alone — and well it is for us 
 that it is so ; that God knows man better than he 
 does himself. Salvation is given us in the only way 
 in which it could be ours ; we have seen in the last 
 Lecture how those who think to work out their 
 own salvation find it leads them to a disappointment 
 which is oftentimes the very shadow of despair.] 
 
 It is a natural result of this inherent pride and 
 ambition, that to all those who have sought to adapt 
 
 k 2 
 
132 LECTURE V. 
 
 Christianity to human views and aims, the doctrine 
 of justification by faith only lias always been a stum- 
 bling block. Indeed for those many ages of the 
 Church's history in which Christianity was trans- 
 formed to the likeness of the world, this great Gospel 
 truth was almost forgotten. And on the other hand, 
 it was a natural reaction from its long neglect, that 
 others who saw its scriptural nature, and its adapta- 
 tion to the real state and real wants of man, gave it 
 so prominent a place in their religious system, as to 
 exclude other truths no less scriptural and necessary, 
 and indeed absolutely implied in it, but which 
 seemed to them to encroach upon or even to con- 
 tradict the truth to which they had exclusively con- 
 fined their attention and teaching. [And no small 
 portion of the Christian world were only too glad to 
 accept a view which they could easily use to the 
 purposes of self-deception. 
 
 For in most men the principle of ambition was 
 checked by the love of pleasure and dislike of exer- 
 tion which made them shrink from the toils and 
 sacrifice through which even heathen philosophy 
 made the road to heaven lie ; and thence when the 
 doctrine of justification by faith was set forth, many 
 
 were willing- enough so to understand it as if it 
 © © 
 
 superseded good works, and thus enabled them to 
 enjoy all that earth holds out for the present, and to 
 hope for all that heaven promises for the future. 
 This Christianity was all the more acceptable to them 
 in that it did not entail upon them the labours and 
 energies which Scripture requires. 
 
LECTURE V. 133 
 
 And thus there were two opposite errors — the 
 one flattering human pride, the other favouring 
 human self-indulgence ; and yet each is founded on 
 that scripture which is meant to destroy both pride 
 and sin ; each points to texts of Scripture as its 
 warrant, while comprehensive faith receives and 
 applies them all.] 
 
 Nor is this a point of mere abstract theology ; for 
 our Church does but say the very truth when she 
 calls the doctrine of justification by faith only most 
 wholesome and very full of comfort ; what it takes 
 from human pride it adds to human hope : but it is 
 of the utmost importance to our spiritual state that 
 this doctrine should not be so misused as to be a 
 cloak for continuing in wilful or unrepented sin : for 
 then instead of hope it will bring forth fear, death 
 instead of life. 
 
 I must first of all lay before you some distinctions 
 to which I wish to call your attention in the con- 
 sideration of this very difficult subject. We must 
 distinguish between the act of God by Christ, and 
 the state of man resulting from that act. Justifica- 
 tion or remission of sins a may be looked upon, firstly, 
 as the act of the Judge of all the earth ; wherein, the 
 
 a The term Justification in its scriptural and theological sense 
 is so nearly equivalent to the remission of sins for Christ's sake, 
 that it may be laid down that when a man is spoken of as justi- 
 fied, it is meant that his sins are forgiven, and whenever a man 
 is said to have obtained remission of sins, there justification must 
 have taken place ; and as the latter term conveys of itself a definite 
 notion, which is scarcely the case with the other, I shall not un- 
 frequently use the term Remission of sins, where I might have 
 used with propriety the term Justification. 
 
134 LECTURE V. 
 
 sufferings of Christ being accepted in place of the 
 penalty we owe, He is pleased to pronounce us judi- 
 cially (so to speak) free from the punishment of sin, 
 and to account us righteous; imputing to us that 
 guiltlessness which in fact only exists in the person 
 of Him who has thus borne our punishment ; and 
 secondly, it may be viewed as the state of guiltlessness 
 wherein a man in Christ is thus placed by God ; the 
 state of forgiveness and remission of sins; the being 
 accounted righteous bv virtue of the righteousness 
 of Christ — and these must be distinguished from 
 each other. Again, we must distinguish between the 
 act of God's pardoning mercy, of Christ's redeeming 
 love, and our application of it to ourselves ; and 
 further, between that which is thus vouchsafed to us, 
 and the instruments and channels whereby it is con- 
 veyed to and accepted by us. 
 
 With regard to the act of God's pardoning mercy, 
 each man's sins were atoned for at once and for ever 
 when Christ died on the cross. Christ's act whereby 
 our pardon is obtained is not a thing of to-day, or 
 yesterday, or to-morrow ; it has been and is per- 
 formed once for all : and therefore in this sense our 
 justification is already accomplished even before we 
 arc born into the world ; and God's love for us, Christ's 
 death for us, sinners though we be, nay, because we 
 are sinners, stands forth in the Christian scheme 
 prior to any acceptance or even seeking on our part. 
 
 Our pardon is prepared, the price has been paid, 
 the sentence has gone forth — but this does not ex- 
 clude the acceptance thereof on our part; each per- 
 
LECTURE V. 135 
 
 son must, so to say, sue it out, and apply the sacri- 
 fice of Christ to his own individual soul. And this 
 application of Christ's merits to the cleansing away 
 our sin, and reconciling us with God, this laying hold 
 of the pardon of our sinfulness is not performed 
 once for all ; it may, it must, be repeated throughout 
 our life, although it is not in all its details and 
 effects always exactly the same, but differs somewhat 
 according to the state and need of individuals. 
 
 When we first accept God's offer of justification 
 we are thereby placed in new relations with God ; 
 we become what we never were before, sinless 
 in His sight, His children by adoption, and heirs of 
 the kingdom of heaven : and for this there never can 
 be any claim, or worthiness, or meetness in any of 
 the sons of the fall : all mankind are in this point 
 equal : all have sinned and come short of the glory of 
 God. Every one is concluded under sin, so that the 
 gift of life might come through Jesus Christ, and 
 from Him only. It is a free act of the mercy and 
 grace of God in pity towards the sinfulness and 
 hopelessness of those beings whom He had once 
 created in his own likeness ; not, indeed, so free 
 but that it is purchased for us by the blood of 
 Christ, but still perfectly free as far as regards our- 
 selves, or any thing we have done or can do. God's 
 mercy has provided for us an ark not of man's build- 
 ing ; and for those who take refuge therein, the flood 
 of sin which overwhelms the rest of the world does 
 but bear them higher and nearer to heaven ; their 
 sins are atoned for in Christ's person on the cross : 
 
136 LECTURE V. 
 
 His righteousness is imputed to them in consequence 
 of their believing in and trusting to Him and His 
 work for them. 
 
 But while Scripture thus places before us the re- 
 mission of our sins and the imputation of righteous- 
 ness not our own as the free gift of God to faith, with- 
 out any works or merit of our own, so does it like- 
 wise perpetually place before us also sanctification as 
 implied in the effectual application of Christ's merits 
 to our souls. It is, surely, impossible to read the 
 Bible without seeing that a Christian from the very 
 moment of his becoming so is to be holy ; that though 
 sinners, we are to be saints ; that every one who 
 nameth the name of Christ is to depart from iniquity. 
 Nor is this spoken of merely as if it were vicarious 
 holiness consisting in the imputation of Christ's right- 
 eousness to us, though that is the crown and perfection 
 of our spiritual state ; but in that personal holiness 
 which consists in the work of the Holy Spirit within 
 us : for we cannot too constantly remember that any 
 holiness we have in ourselves is simply the submis- 
 sion of our wills to that most holy Power of good ; 
 and this connection between justification and sancti- 
 fication may be shown in more ways than one. 
 
 [First, In the benefits of Christ's sacrifice applied 
 to our souls by faith, there is not only remission, but 
 also renovation. In justification the penalty of Adam's 
 sin is remitted to us ; and part of that penalty was the 
 withdrawal of the Spirit and the consequent inability 
 to do good works pleasing unto God in the highest 
 sense; and hence our punishment having been borne 
 
LECTURE V. ]37 
 
 by Christ, this power of good works is restored to us, 
 not by any change in our natural powers themselves, 
 but by the gift of the Spirit to direct and sanctify 
 them ; and thus it is not, like faith, the instrument 
 whereby we lay hold on Christ's mercy, but part of 
 the benefit received. Hence we do not make void 
 the law through faith ; yea, we rather establish the 
 law: for if good works be, as is generally held, the 
 necessary result and fruits of faith, then must there 
 be implied in the spiritual state produced by faith 
 the gift of the Spirit, without which good works are 
 impossible. And the same connection is implied in 
 the expression purifying their hearts by faith b , for 
 this purification is the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 And again the victory over the world ascribed by 
 St. John to Faith has the same bearing on this 
 question, for this victory over the world is nothing 
 more or less than that practical holiness of life which 
 flows from the gift of the same Spirit. 
 
 And again, such texts as If any man be in 
 Christ, he is a new creature, show us that an in- 
 pouring of the Spirit as the power of holiness accom- 
 panies the imputation of Christ's righteousness in 
 our justification, though it is distinct and different 
 from it ; that the gift of the Spirit and the remission 
 of sins are two parts of the same gift : if any man 
 be in Jesus he must be justified, nor can any man be 
 justified without being in Jesus : they are, logically 
 speaking, convertible terms, and imply each other ; 
 and surely this new creation does not consist in a new 
 
 b Acts XV. Q. 
 
138 LECTURE V. 
 
 view of ourselves, our conditions, our destinies, our 
 salvation, but in a real power of spiritual good within 
 us, issuing in actual counsels and acts of life, in actual 
 turning from sin, in the actual possession of the 
 Christian graces : If Christ be in us the Sjririt is 
 life because of (or rather through, Sid) righteousness : 
 and hence in the Epistle to the Corinthians sanctifi- 
 cation and righteousness are said to be the results of 
 our being in Christ Jesus ; and in the same Epistle 
 sanctification and justification are spoken of in the 
 same breath ; and again in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews we are said to be sanctified through the offer- 
 ing of the body of Jesus Christ, and the blood of the 
 covenant a . 
 
 And though there are passages which speak of 
 imputed righteousness as the only result of faith, 
 yet also are there passages which speak of holiness 
 as if it were the sole result of our Saviour's coming 
 upon earth : but in neither passage does the mention 
 of the one exclude the other, which is similarly set 
 forth elsewhere.] 
 
 Nor does this presence of the Spirit of righteous- 
 ness in our souls as a living and governing prin- 
 ciple of action in any way trench on the office of faith, 
 or on the being accounted righteous by faith only. 
 We need the righteousness of Christ no less than wc 
 should if there were no mention of personal holiness 
 in the Bible ; for this personal holiness, does not 
 atone for our sins, nor cover them, nor procure us 
 
 1 i Cor. i. 30 : vi. 11. Heb. x. 10 and 29. 
 
LECTURE V. 139 
 
 salvation, nor reconcile us to God : this is done by 
 Christ's righteousness alone. It is, moreover, as I have 
 before observed, something received by faith as 
 part of that which is given us for Christ's sake, not 
 set up against it as if it Mere an antagonistic and 
 independent instrument of salvation. 
 
 Comprehensive faith, then, holds each without 
 denying the other ; she finds that both are definitely 
 and clearly stated in Scripture, and therefore she does 
 not venture to sacrifice either to the other : and it is 
 from contrasting these two results of the sacrifice of 
 Christ, instead of combining them, that some have 
 held that justification does make us personally right- 
 eous, others that it does not : the truth being that 
 imputed righteousness and personal righteousness are 
 so inseparably connected, that when one takes place 
 the other takes place also ; so sometimes one, some- 
 times the other is represented as the result of the 
 cause common to both, the sacrifice of Christ, and 
 our personal application thereof by faith. 
 
 [Tn order to understand this more clearly we must 
 distinguish between the scriptural use of the word 
 righteous when used to signify the being looked upon 
 as innocent, in what may be called its forensic sense, 
 and when used to denote either the state of the un- 
 regenerate man who was living up to the light and 
 law which he had, or that comparative degree of holi- 
 ness which man by the Holy Spirit is able to attain 
 unto, and to which, perhaps, we should hardly have 
 ventured to apply the term had not Scripture so ap- 
 plied it ; even though it also declares that there is 
 
140 LECTURE V. 
 
 none righteous, no, not one b . In the first sense 
 Christ's holiness is only imputed to us ; in the second, 
 it is proposed to us as an example, and up to a cer- 
 tain degree communicated to us by the gift and 
 working of the Spirit ; inasmuch as we are in our 
 hearts and lives to be conformed to the image and 
 stature of Christ, to follow him, though with faltering 
 steps and at an immeasurable distance. 
 
 Nor does the imputed righteousness of Christ 
 exhaust the Scripture idea of righteous as necessary 
 for salvation, nor are they to be confounded together 
 in such a way as to allow any one to argue that he 
 is righteous in the one sense because he fancies him- 
 self to be righteous in the other. It must have been 
 some such notion that St. John is warning us against 
 when he says, Be not deceived, he that docth righteous- 
 ness is righteous c . It may be said that the one implies 
 the other. So it does, if it is real : but it is safest to 
 use Scripture language, and Scripture certainly does 
 use the term in both senses : righteousness was im- 
 puted to Abraham in the first sense, and it is attri- 
 buted directly to Lot in the second.] 
 
 Nor must I omit again to state distinctly that, 
 after all, this personal holiness is no work of man's 
 self, no result of any power or tendency of our own, 
 but of grace turning our powers and tendencies 
 into a new direction, and by a new path. It is 
 simply Christ abiding in us by His Spirit, and using 
 our wills and faculties, so far as we yield them to 
 Ilim, as the instruments whereby He works and 
 
 b Rom. iii. i o. ( ' i John iii. 7. 
 
LECTURE V. 141 
 
 manifests Himself. So that He is not only our right- 
 eousness in the sense of our being- accounted that 
 which we are not and cannot be, unstained by sin, 
 but also because whatever holiness we may have is 
 His, or rather, He in us. He is our sanctification as 
 well as our justification : He is our wisdom, because 
 if we are wise unto salvation it is He that is wise in 
 us, and not we ourselves. 
 
 And though all holiness within us is God's work 
 and not man's, and thus has in it somewhat of the 
 Divine life, yet it in no wise supersedes or supplies 
 the place of that complete clothing of the whole 
 Christian man, body, soul, and spirit, by Christ's su- 
 perhuman and yet human righteousness; that stain- 
 less wedding robe which is prepared for His ser- 
 vants, when their bodies have been purified by death, 
 their souls set free from earthly lusts, their spirits 
 wholly clothed upon by the Spirit of God : when they 
 will be summoned to the marriage supper of the Lamb, 
 when His bride, the Church, shall be received into 
 her place in heaven. As long as we live here, as 
 long as we are men on earth, this holiness of ours, 
 as far as it is in us, must be a very imperfect and 
 comparative acceptance of what is in itself perfect 
 and final ; for our sanctification consists of the in- 
 pouring of the Spirit, and submission of our wills ; 
 the former is the positive act of God through faith, 
 ever accompanying the real application of the merits 
 of Christ ; the latter, alas ! is in our power to do 
 or not to do, as we choose ; for Scripture tells the 
 sad secret of the falling away of the children of God : 
 that we are able to quench the Spirit, by being en- 
 
142 LECTURE V. 
 
 tice<l of our own lusts into following our fleshly 
 wijls. Nor need it be said in how many cases the 
 combined deceitfulness of sin and of our hearts 
 makes it needful for us to use heartily the confes- 
 sion which the Church wisely and truly puts into 
 our mouths, " We have left undone those things which 
 we ought to have done, and have done those things 
 which we ought not to have done, and there is no 
 health in us." How earnestly, even while we strive 
 to let our light shine before men to the glory of God, 
 we must look forward to the time when the light, as 
 well as the darkness which is in us, will be absorbed 
 and lost in the glories of imputed righteousness. 
 
 Hence, from the imperfection of our most perfect en- 
 deavours, arises the necessity for what may be called 
 the daily application of the merits of Christ to our- 
 selves ; a daily taking advantage of the act of justi- 
 fication, of the pardon once pronounced over us by 
 God for Christ's sake ; so that we may be released 
 from the burden of those sins which day by day we 
 have grievously committed, in thought, word, and 
 deed, against His Divine Majesty. We must know 
 that we have no health in us : but thanks be to 
 God, our sickness need not be unto death ; our 
 Physician is ever at hand to heal us ; we have not 
 to cast about for an acceptable way of making our 
 peace with God ; we have not to say, " how shall we 
 ascend into heaven, or how shall we descend into 
 the deep?" but we have to feel our sin, our need of 
 a Saviour; to turn from our sin. at least in heart 
 and will, and to believe on Him, and what He has 
 done for us; and our past sins, though they were as 
 
LECTURE V. 143 
 
 scarlet, will become white as snow. Oh wonderful 
 wisdom of Hod, in thus seeing the secret needs of 
 man s heart ! oh wonderful love of the Father ! oh 
 wonderful virtue of the blood which was shed ! oh 
 wonderful power of faith ! 
 
 This need of continual cleansing, this laying hold 
 of His all-sufficient sacrifice, by this power of 
 faith, is what our Church teaches us to seek in her 
 several prayers and sacraments. This is what she 
 teaches us to seek in the daily confession of our 
 sins : this too, when she puts into our mouth the 
 prayer, " that we may obtain remission of our sins, 
 and all other benefits of His passion" — " that we, 
 worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our 
 wretchedness, may obtain of the God of all mercy 
 perfect remission and forgiveness." This is what 
 she teaches us when His ministers in her proclaim 
 to all that truly repent, that He pardoneth and ab- 
 solveth them. It is this scriptural comfort that she 
 teaches us to seek, when she puts before our souls 
 the Scripture truth, that "if any man sin, we have 
 an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
 eous'''' — " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanscth from all 
 sin." In the midst of the condemnation which 
 speaks to us from our works, it is a wholesome doc- 
 trine truly and full of comfort, that if we believe 
 with our hearts on the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall 
 be saved. It is no small blessing to us, that in our 
 Church we are led to feel the necessity and the cer- 
 tainty of obtaining day by day, by daily energies of 
 faith, the pardon of the sins we have committed. 
 
144 LECTURE V. 
 
 And thus life goes on; the Christian pilgrims <lay 
 by day seeking for and obtaining mercy from Him in 
 whom their faith unceasingly and unchangeably rests, 
 till at the last we shall stand before the judgment- 
 seat. What shall we then do? Shall we point to 
 our lives — to what we have done — to what we have 
 suffered? Shall we say that our good deeds, if fairly 
 weighed, will be found to counterbalance the evil ? 
 No, surely ; unless we have put on Christ, we shall 
 be speechless ; our works will make us dumb : and 
 if we have put Him on, we shall turn in haste from 
 what we were on earth, to what He was and is for 
 us. We shall look to Him, and say, " Lord, Thou 
 hast saved me." We shall point to the cross, and 
 say, we trust to Him who died thereon ; that there 
 our sins are atoned for, our pardon won. Who shall 
 lay any thing to the charge of those who thus put 
 their trust in Him, round whose unrighteousness His 
 righteousness is thrown, as a robe of spotless light, 
 such as no fuller on earth can whiten ? Our Judge 
 — nay, He is our advocate, our sacrifice — sinless 
 Himself, He makes us sinless in Him. Shall the 
 adversary, the accuser, lift up his voice against us? 
 Nay, but he sees that we have our pardon in our 
 hands : he knows that we do not trust to our works, 
 wherein he could easily find enough to condemn us; 
 he knows that the sacrifice of Christ has long been 
 accepted by God as a full, perfect, and sufficient satis- 
 faction for the sins of the whole world, and specially 
 of those who believe. 
 
 But while our Church does thus seripturallv sot 
 
LECTURE V. 145 
 
 forth and hold most unreservedly the great evan- 
 gelical doctrine of justification by faith only, neither 
 does she lose sight of the equally scriptural fact, 
 that holiness and repentance have both of them 
 definite places assigned to them by God in the 
 work of our salvation — places from which man has 
 not the power, and ought not to have the wish, to 
 cast them down. Repentance necessarily waits on 
 justification, whether it be viewed as the change of 
 heart which chooses God instead of mammon; that 
 abhorrence of and sorrow for sin, without which a 
 man cannot effectually turn to Christ ; or the con- 
 tinual progressive renewal which follows on such 
 an effectual turning. And the relations between 
 repentance and faith before conversion are suffici- 
 ently marked in Scripture, where it is repent and 
 believe, not believe and repent. There are even 
 passages which speak of repentance as alone neces- 
 sary to salvation, without one word of belief or faith, 
 just as there are texts which speak of faith without 
 one word of repentance ; but the latter no more 
 exclude repentance, than the former exclude faith; 
 in fact, they imply each other. The immediate re- 
 sult of true repentance is acceptance of our Saviour 
 by faith, just as true faith implies previous repent- 
 ance d ; while the one or the other is brought for- 
 ward according to circumstances of time, place, or 
 person. Thus when the Jews, on the day of Pen- 
 tecost, asked St. Peter, What shall we do to be saved f 
 St. Peter answers them, Repent and be baptized ; 
 (1 See Acts xx. 21. Mark i. 15. 
 L 
 
146 LECTURE V. 
 
 because on that repentance, on the removal, that is, 
 of the hardness of heart, of the false views of sal- 
 vation, which had so long made them shut their 
 minds against the evidently Divine character and 
 mission of Christ, it would follow, as a matter of 
 course, that they would believe on Him, whom they 
 had ignorantly crucified. While in another case, that 
 of the gaoler at Philippi, he had. by his very anxiety 
 to receive the religion for the sake of which the 
 Apostles were in prison, manifested repentance, and 
 therefore St. Paul answers the same question by, 
 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ," without one word 
 of repentance; while it is clear, from the history 
 of Simon Magus, that the words, Believe, and thou 
 shall be saved, would not in every case express all 
 that was necessary for justification ; for we read 
 that Simon Magus believed, as his very sin proves 
 that he did; and yet St. Peter tells him that he was 
 in the bond of iniquity. And sometimes neither 
 faith nor repentance are mentioned, as in the case 
 of St. Paul : here repentance and faith had evidently 
 taken possession of his mind at his conversion, and 
 hence, by God's command, it was said to him, "Arise, 
 and be baptized, and wash away thy sins? Baptism 
 alone was in his case required to complete the work 
 which faith and repentance had begun : but surely 
 we should be wrong in arguing from this passage, 
 that baptism alone was necessary to salvation, though 
 the argument is as fair and conclusive in one case 
 as the other. 
 
 Repentance, then, occupies a place in the work of 
 
LECTURE V. 147 
 
 making the merits of Christ available to us; and the 
 system which excludes the one is as unscriptural as 
 that which excludes the other ; not that repentance 
 occupies the same place as faith — there is no such 
 thing as justifying or saving repentance, even in the 
 sense in which there is justifying or saving faith. 
 
 But there are other grounds drawn directly from 
 Scripture, why we are not warranted in thinking 
 of repentance as of no importance to faith, much 
 less in speaking of it, as it has been spoken of — 
 for our trust in Christ must of course be wholly 
 founded on His promises, — we cannot trust further 
 than His promises extend — and His promises do 
 not extend to unrepented sin, and therefore without 
 repentance our trust in Christ is impossible. And 
 hence from the moment of a believers acceptance of 
 Christ and the benefits of His Passion, he has need 
 of daily repentance — not as a substitute for faith, 
 but as the handmaid thereof — firstly, because there 
 must be daily progress, daily renewal, daily trans- 
 formation, continual mortifying the old man, daily 
 advancement in Christian graces. In religion, non 
 progredi est regredi — the pale shades of night must 
 be hourly giving way to the bright tints of morning 
 — the bright tints of morning must ever be bright- 
 ening into the brightness of the mid-day sun ; the 
 powers of the old man must daily be clothed upon 
 by the Christ within. And, secondly, because, unless 
 we repent of and confess our sins, we shall fail daily 
 to apply by faith the merits of Christ to ourselves to 
 do away with those sins, which, if allowed to accu- 
 
 l 2 
 
148 LECTURE V. 
 
 mulate, will create a darkness in our souls whereby 
 we shall not be able to see them, much less to lay 
 them on Christ's head. It is often from this neglect 
 of daily sins, this hiding them, as it were, in a vague 
 notion of the general sinfulness of mankind, that 
 men allow sin to regain dominion over them. There 
 is no more fatal sign of a man's spiritual state, no 
 more hardening process, than when a man sins at 
 first without caring for it, then without knowing it. 
 If we say that we have no need of daily repentance, 
 no daily sins to confess, we not only deceive our- 
 selves, but we destroy ourselves, for we shut our- 
 selves out from the fountains of mercy. 
 
 And, lest the doctrine of justification by faith only 
 should become a snare to men's souls, by making 
 them careless about holiness, Scripture sets before 
 us most plainly and unceasingly a doctrine of good 
 works; assigning to them not indeed the same office 
 as faith, but still a very important one. We have 
 already seen that holiness is rather a result than a 
 cause of our being accounted righteous ; it is true, 
 indeed, that the so called good works of the heathen 
 may, as we have seen in a former Lecture f , make 
 him more ready to receive the Gospel ; the instru- 
 ment that is tuned, though but rudely, obeys the 
 master's touch more readily than that in which there 
 is nothing but discord ; and the history of Cornelius 
 teaches us that they may in this way be said to 
 move God to present for our acceptance by faith the 
 knowledge of a Saviour: but good works in no sense 
 
 1 See Lecture III. 
 
LECTURE V. 149 
 
 make a man more worthy or more meet for this un- 
 deserved mercy of God ; and it is clear from many 
 passages, as well as many instances in Scripture, 
 that they are not even the necessary antecedents 
 of justification. We have seen, too, that faith is the 
 instrument whereby certain gifts are conveyed to 
 the soul, and that the power of good works, without 
 which of course good works cannot exist, is part of 
 the gift so conveyed, part of that gift which is given 
 us so freely, that we have done nothing, can do no- 
 thing, to earn or deserve it. In ourselves as men, 
 in ourselves even as Christians, we have no title to 
 forgiveness. In Christ we have through faith, for thus 
 God has promised it us. Nor does this doctrine of good 
 works involve any notion of establishing our own 
 righteousness. It is not by any works or deservings of 
 our own that the stain is washed out, and the punish- 
 ment averted ; even in our best works, inasmuch as 
 they fall short of perfect obedience, we are accursed-; 
 and all mankind are on the same footing, as far as merit 
 is concerned, sinner and saint alike: all this will suf- 
 fice to show that faith and good works in no way in- 
 terfere with each other. Nor again does it take away 
 from the comfortableness of the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion — for Scripture does not lay down any absolute 
 standard or degree of holiness — this must differ, will 
 differ in different men, according to temperaments, 
 opportunities, position, temptations : hence no man 
 may on these grounds judge his brother in respect 
 of his final acceptance; God is the sole judge; what 
 is at the least required of all is an honest struggle 
 
 £ Gal. iii. 10. 
 
150 LECTURE V. 
 
 against sin and temptation ; but, it is a sad misuse 
 of the comfort contained in the doctrine of faith, so 
 to set it forth as to make willing sinners comfortable 
 in their sin. 
 
 The notion of the merit of good works has probably 
 arisen from those texts which excite us to good works 
 by putting before us the reward attached to them ; 
 for though the notion of merit is excluded, not so that 
 of reward. There are very many passages of Scrip- 
 ture which speak of salvation, everlasting life, the 
 crown of glory, as the reward, though not the conse- 
 quence of good works, vouchsafed to faith through the 
 free mercy of God for the sake of the sufferings of 
 Christ. It cannot be denied that works of piety and 
 charity are represented in Scripture as winning God's 
 favour for those who believe ; and it is surely doing 
 great injustice to the doctrine of justification by 
 faith only, to speak of it as if it destroyed the 
 teaching of these passages ; if either one or the 
 other must be given up, for one passage which 
 speaks of justification by faith only, many may be 
 brought which speak of or imply the absolute neces- 
 sity of good works ; but they stand together in the 
 word of God, as they were combined by His wisdom. 
 
 And this has a practical bearing on our views of 
 life, and our salvation. There is doubtless danger lest 
 those whose will and opportunities, inspired and im- 
 proved by grace, lead them to a life of active piety 1 ', 
 should trust to it rather than to Christ, and so make 
 shipwreck of their faith. So cunning, so watchful, 
 so persevering, is our enemy, that he seeks to turn 
 
 '' Whitehall Sermon?, page 172. 
 
LECTURE V. 151 
 
 what should have been for our good into an occasion 
 of falling. But the devil does not tempt us on one 
 side only ; there is a danger, put forward quite as 
 prominently and frequently in Scripture, lest those 
 who have opportunities vouchsafed to them should 
 be as barren fig-trees, — leaves, and no fruit ; words, 
 and no works ; — it is true, too, that the more a man 
 abounds in good works, the greater will be the as- 
 surance with which, grounding himself on the ex- 
 press counsels of God, he looks forward to the re- 
 compense of the reward ; but still, as far as any no- 
 tion of desert goes, he is no wise in any different 
 position from him who comes to Christ when the 
 heat of the day is over. Salvation is the gift of God 
 to both alike. 
 
 Nor does it make much difference whether the 
 doctrine of human deserving be modified by adding, 
 that good works have indeed in themselves no merit, 
 but have been made meritorious by Christ's death. 
 Here is the same confusion between reward and 
 merit; it is indeed by Christ's death that reward is 
 attached to them ; but this blessing, undeserved as 
 it is, rather excludes than implies the notion of merit, 
 which is of right. 
 
 Those then alike fall short of the comprehensive 
 faith of the Bible and of our Church, who, on the 
 one hand, hold or teach that good works are, either 
 in themselves or by virtue of Christ's death, merito- 
 rious ; and those who, on the other, speak of good 
 works as if they were absorbed or rendered unneces- 
 sary by faith, or as if they were a presumptuous in- 
 
152 LECTURE V. 
 
 terference with the work and glory of Christ; each 
 loses sight of the truth which the other exclusively 
 maintains. The Bible is our sure guide, and it is 
 sufficient for me to remind you of the great practical 
 lesson which, amid all the theological strifes on jus- 
 tification and sanctification, faith and works, is ever 
 in the Bible impressed on those who wish to make 
 their calling and election sure, that while they put 
 all their trust in Christ by faith, none in themselves, 
 or in what they do, they nevertheless be careful to 
 maintain good works, and to have a conscience void of 
 offence towards God and man. 
 
 And this is most forcibly impressed upon us by 
 the Scripture revelation, that in the day of judgment 
 every man will have to appear before the judgment 
 seat of Christ, and give an account of what he has 
 done in the body, and receive according to his 
 works, whether they be good or evil. Our Lord has 
 in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew lifted a corner 
 of the veil, and allowed us to see some of the secrets 
 of that day. There is not in the whole Bible a more 
 impressively awful passage than that, in which we 
 read of those who, thinking themselves safe through 
 their belief, find themselves cast out for lack of those 
 works which would have resulted from their faith, 
 had it been real: and of those too who, so far from 
 trusting in or pleading their works that they were 
 even unconscious of them, do nevertheless find those 
 works acknowledged and accepted by Christ as done 
 to Himself — here we find that in the day of account 
 the question whether we have faith, whether we are 
 
LECTURE V. 153 
 
 Christians or not, will be decided by those very 
 works which are utterly powerless of themselves to 
 save us. 
 
 But after all, the mean whereby the merits of 
 Christ are applied to our souls, and the blessings, 
 thus given us, accepted, whether at our first admis- 
 sion into His body, or in our daily struggles, or at 
 the last, is faith. Not, however, that we ascribe even 
 to faith any merit or justifying power of its own ; 
 this belongs to Christ alone : and faith, like other 
 energies belonging to man, may not interfere with 
 His glory or prerogative. We only mean, that we 
 are made partakers of the justification which Christ 
 has prepared for us solely by putting our whole trust 
 in Him, or, in other words, by faith, per fidem pro- 
 pter Christum. 
 
 And what is faith ? It is no wonder that an ab- 
 stract term, which must, up to a certain point, derive 
 a meaning from the experiences of each individual 
 and the dogma of each school, should have received 
 a variety of explanations and definitions, each of 
 which has narrowed its scriptural force and use ; 
 these it is the privilege of comprehensive belief to 
 realise, by receiving and combining them all as far 
 as they are found in God's word. 
 
 What is faith ? It may be somewhat understood 
 by its results. It is no partial or transient feverish 
 emotion, with which the soul throbs now and then, 
 but it is the regular pulse of our spiritual life. It is 
 not an occasional recognition of the facts of our re- 
 demption, but a steady, lively remembrance of all 
 
154 LECTURE V. 
 
 that Christ has done for us. It is not merely the 
 casting an occasional glance to Him, not an occa- 
 sional dedication of ourselves to Him as His liege 
 subjects ; but it is a fixed and concentrated gaze, the 
 total surrender of ourselves, our reason, and our wills. 
 It is not an occasional Lord, Lord ; but it is as if a 
 man should say, " Lord, Thou art mine, and I am 
 Thine ; I am sick, do Thou heal me ; I am lame, do 
 Thou support me; I am blind, do Thou lead me; I 
 am lost, do Thou save me ;" combined with a ready 
 mind, a firm step, a quick eye : a ready mind, to do 
 what He bids, to follow where He leads; a quick 
 eye, to see His bidding, catch His glance and mean- 
 ing; a firm step, to tread in His path. In the days 
 of physical miracles, or of the more visible working 
 of God's hand in the things of daily life, it could 
 remove mountains, stop the mouths of lions : in 
 these clays of spiritual miracles, of the invisible deal- 
 ings of God with the soul, it can remove the burden 
 of sin, and ward off the 'fiery darts of the wicked one: 
 keep us safely from the lion, who goeth about seeking 
 whom he may devour. 
 
 Thus it bends our wills to the will of the Spirit, 
 making us see our true wisdom and happiness. Faith 
 arms us for the battle; faith promises us victory, and 
 reveals to us Christ on our side. Faith puts vividly 
 before us the crown of glory; it looks into futurity; 
 in self-denial it can see future triumph ; in the seed 
 time it can see the crop ; it can trace beginnings to 
 their ends, counsels to their issues: in sin it can hear 
 the weeping, mid wailing, and gnashing of teeth ; in 
 
LECTURE V. 155 
 
 holiness it can catch the words, Well done, (food and 
 faithful servant : it sees and seizes upon opportu- 
 nities which pass by other men unobserved : it sees 
 the angel of God in the way. It can detect Satan 
 in his most cunning disguises. In a vain, profitless, 
 idle, thoughtless youth, it can see the worldly, am- 
 bitious, covetous, selfish man of the world ; and still 
 further, unless repentance comes in, the faithless, 
 hopeless, godless death-bed. In the light-hearted 
 enthusiasm, the noble self-denial and self-discipline, 
 the patient, eager industry, the humble trust, of a 
 godly boy, it can see the formed mind, the vigorous 
 action, the determined will, the patient purpose, of 
 the man of God. 
 
 And in itself it is variously described in Scrip- 
 ture. First, it is what might perhaps be more con- 
 veniently called belief, except that it is not dis- 
 tinguished by a separate term in Scripture ; and 
 that it is safer and truer to use Scripture language 
 on such points than the terms and distinctions of 
 theology : it is a merely intellectual energy, wherein 
 the reason assents to what is proposed to it on the 
 sufficient evidence of Divine revelation, whether in 
 nature or in grace, though it be above its power 
 to comprehend the nature or possibility of its ex- 
 istence. Now this simple act of the intellect is 
 not excluded from the notion of faith ; for it is 
 mostly this sort of faith which we read of previously 
 to our Saviour's resurrection in those who received 
 and worshipped our Saviour as the Prophet sent from 
 God. Nor indeed does even St. Peter's declaration. 
 
156 LECTURE V. 
 
 Thou art the Son of God, seem to go further than 
 the recognition of our Saviour as the Messiah : and 
 even this intellectual act of belief may be considered 
 to imply a certain degree of repentance or prepara- 
 tion of heart ; for the evidence being moral, and 
 not scientific, the intellect would have rejected it, 
 unless itself had been biassed by some degree of spi- 
 ritual desire and hope. And thus, on the other hand, 
 hardness of heart is given as the cause why the Jews 
 were unable to see any thing but foolishness in Him 
 to whose Divine nature and office every hour bore a 
 more and more convincing witness. 
 
 And it may well be that in old times this intel- 
 lectual faith had a greater religious value, so to 
 speak, than it can have now : for it then required a 
 far greater submission of the reason, and implied a 
 far greater preparation of the heart, to receive a re- 
 ligion everywhere spoken against and persecuted, 
 than now, when, in name and profession at least, it 
 is accepted in every part of the civilized world ; when, 
 in our way of viewing it, it is almost synonymous 
 with civilization : with most men it now requires 
 no effort of the reason, no submission to the will, to 
 assent, at least, to that which is everywhere recog- 
 nised by the general voice of the world ; which has 
 been handed down and impressed on our tenderest 
 memories, and is repeated around us by a thousand 
 voices of popular belief and feeling. And hence in 
 Scripture faith is sometimes spoken of as if it were 
 merely an intellectual belief in this or that part of 
 revelation ; not that it excluded or superseded the 
 
LECTURE V. 157 
 
 rest, but included and implied them. At the pre- 
 sent day it affords very little evidence of the state 
 of the inner man ; and therefore by no man can it 
 be received as giving him assurance of safety, till it 
 has passed from the reason to the other parts of our 
 being : for the essential resemblances and essential 
 differences between a living and a dead faith, be- 
 tween a saving and an accusing faith, may be stated 
 very briefly, and yet, I think, fully, by saying that in 
 both the intellectual energy is the same : the same 
 truth believed, the same propositions accepted : but 
 in a dead faith these do not go beyond the reason ; 
 they abide there like any mathematical truth : in 
 living faith they pass from the reason, though still 
 abiding there ; they steal through, and leaven and 
 spiritualise the instincts, desires, affections: in short, 
 the whole inner man, changing both it and its rela- 
 tions to the outer world, arming conscience with 
 new powers, giving love a new sphere, opening to 
 hope new visions, giving life a new character and 
 new destiny. And this again shews that justification 
 cannot take place without sanctification ; for if faith, 
 to be real faith, must spread itself through the moral 
 man, turning him from the world to God, it fol- 
 lows, that if a man is not sanctified, neither is he 
 justified. 
 
 And this faith again, whether living or dead, is 
 spoken of in Scripture in different ways. In its 
 simplest form, it is that faith of natural religion 
 which is also an element in Christian faith — a belief 
 in God and His goodness and power: He that cometh 
 
158 LECTURE V. 
 
 to God must believe that He is, and that He is a 
 rewarder of them that diligently seek Him h . This is 
 doubtless an element of saving faith ; but where do 
 we find in Scripture that it is, as some would con- 
 tend, the whole of it ? 
 
 So again it is spoken of as a simple belief in some 
 special revelation which God was pleased to give of 
 Himself and His will and His power. The faith of 
 Abraham ', for instance, which was counted to him 
 for righteousness, as our faith is to us, was belief in 
 the wisdom and truth of God, and a reception of Him 
 as the rightful Lord of all his actions and counsels, his 
 goings out and comings in. And, indeed, the whole 
 of the instances of the acts of faith given in the 11th 
 chapter of the Hebrews do not imply a belief of any 
 thing relating to our Saviour, but a simple belief in 
 God, and a reception of His word ; sufficient for 
 them, because no more was within their reach ; not 
 sufficient for us, to whom the whole counsels of God 
 have been disclosed. 
 
 Again, it is spoken of as a simple belief in our 
 Saviour, in whatever character and degree He was 
 pleased to reveal the kingdom ; a simple acceptance 
 of the mysteries and powers connected with Him ; 
 a knowledge of spiritual things ; of Gospel facts, as 
 told to us by Christ or His apostles, and handed 
 down to us in the Scriptures. 
 
 This was the faith which could work miracles, 
 speak in tongues, or exercise other spiritual powers, 
 as the Spirit gave, not to all alike, but severally 
 
 >' Heb. xi. 6. I IM>. m. 8. 
 
LECTURE V. 159 
 
 to every man according to His will. This in itself 
 implied no real acceptance, nor even a real know- 
 ledge, of our Lord in His highest functions, no real 
 belief of the heart unto salvation. This was the faith 
 of those who were to prophesy in His name, and 
 cast out devils, (and who therefore must have had 
 some faith,) and yet all the while work iniquity, so 
 as to draw from Him the words, Depart from me J. 
 This is the faith which is below charity, as being 
 only an imperfect sort of knowledge; which will be 
 lost when we see face to face. And this knowledge 
 of and belief in spiritual things is necessary, in a 
 greater or less degree, according to our opportunities, 
 as an ingredient of true faith. 
 
 And this to us, with the Bible in our hands, and 
 the Church as a witness to the Bible around us, im- 
 plies a belief in all that the Spirit of God has told 
 us in the Bible; such as the doctrine of Trinity in 
 Unity ; belief in Three as One, belief in each sepa- 
 rately ; and this not only because each is revealed 
 to us by Christ, but because a belief in each is ne- 
 cessary to the effectual acceptance of that part of 
 our spiritual privileges which flows to us severally 
 from each : for instance, belief in God the Father 
 as our Father is necessary in order to our effectually 
 receiving the adoption of sons ; in His will for us is 
 necessary in order to that will working in us ; in God 
 the Son as our sacrifice, in order to our effectually 
 laying hold of the benefit thereof; in God the Holy 
 Ghost, as the Spirit of truth and holiness, in order 
 
 J Mat. vii. 22. 
 
160 LECTURE V. 
 
 to our partaking of those operations and influences 
 without which we cannot be saved. Thus does faith 
 minister to us of the several mercies which God lias 
 been pleased to provide for us, as it is written, 
 according to your belief be it unto you. 
 
 Nor is it confined exclusively to one part of our 
 Saviour's life or being; of all the Persons in the 
 Godhead He is oftenest revealed to us, most clearly 
 and variously; and therefore our faith in Him must 
 be, so to speak, more manifold, as it presents Him 
 to us in a greater variety of aspects and relations : 
 each of these points, as far as they are presented to 
 us, is to be believed with our whole heart as fully, 
 and definitely, and lovingly as if each were the whole, 
 and yet not so as to hide or overshadow the rest. 
 
 And thus does Scripture speak. We are, for in- 
 stance, said sometimes to be saved by our belief in 
 our Saviour as God, and the Son of God, and in His 
 mission upon earth 1 ; the first step, so to say, to re- 
 ceiving Him in His more immediate relation to us. 
 Thus the eunuch's belief that Jesus was the Son of 
 God was complete enough to admit him to the privi- 
 leges of a believer, because this is what he gathered 
 from the prophecy which Philip interpreted to him ; 
 though of course, compared with the knowledge of 
 Christ, which was afterwards disclosed to him or the 
 Church, it was a very imperfect state of belief. Not 
 that this belief in our Saviour's divinity and mission 
 renders unnecessary a belief too in any or all of the 
 points which Scripture reveals as connected with 
 
 1 I St. John iv. 2 and i J. 
 
LECTURE V. 161 
 
 this twofold nature ; His eternal existence ; His mi- 
 raculous conception by the Holy Ghost ; His per- 
 fect humanity, and yet freedom from sin ; in short, 
 all those matters which our creeds have gathered for 
 us from Scripture, and which make up the Scrip- 
 ture account of Christ, come into that belief which 
 believes in the Christ of the Bible ; and each of 
 them moreover has a distinct bearing on the general 
 scheme of Christ's redemption. 
 
 Some of them are pointed out in Scripture as 
 special objects of belief, especial causes of our salva- 
 tion : thus, for instance, we are said to be saved by 
 our Saviour's resurrection, because this is the part of 
 Christ's existence, by power and virtue of which we 
 rise again unto newness of life through faith in the 
 operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead^. 
 This is spoken of as absolutely as if nothing else were 
 necessary for our salvation; and yet no true Christian 
 would argue from it that it is not necessary for a 
 man to believe in Christ's sacrifice ; it does not ex- 
 clude the rest ; our belief in this, if it is faith, 
 includes and implies belief in all ; for, as I have 
 shewn in the first Lecture \ that alone is Scripture 
 faith which receives not only this or that portion of 
 Divine truth, but the whole of it, as it falls on our 
 spiritual vision. 
 
 And yet comprehensive faith, while it accepts and 
 realises each of these articles of our belief, each in 
 its fulness, does not limit itself to them ; for these 
 several acts and parts of faith tend to and end in, 
 
 k Col. ii. 12. Rom. x. 9. Cf. Rom. iv. 24. ' Page 27. 
 
 M 
 
162 LECTURE V. 
 
 are combined and perfected by that highest revela- 
 tion of God, which points to Christ on the cross; 
 that highest energy of the soul, which looks to the 
 crowning act of His suffering, the act of our justifi- 
 cation, with undivided trust. This it is which may 
 perhaps be in the highest and most proper sense 
 called justifying faith, because it realises that which 
 justifies us ; but neither does this exclude the rest, 
 each in their several proportion and degree ; nor do 
 any of these supersede the necessity of Baptism, or 
 Prayer, or the Holy Communion, or any thing else 
 which God has been pleased to ordain. 
 
 Nor is there any thing indefinite or uncertain here- 
 in, whether they be taken separately or together; 
 each is laid down in Scripture with as much clearness 
 and precision as if it alone were all ; they do not 
 neutralize nor interfere with each other: together 
 they fill the intellect, leaven the heart, move the 
 feelings, quicken the desires, raise the hopes, purify 
 the souls of those whom thev are designed to brinjr 
 unto final acceptance, and in some sort to prepare 
 for heaven. 
 
 And besides all these, perfect and complete as they 
 seem to be, there is yet another element of saving faith, 
 the result of all the rest : a personal assurance of our 
 own redemption in Christ, a looking forward to the 
 realisation of that hope the consolations of which we 
 now feel. To the eye of this sort of faith it is not 
 mankind who are sinners, but ourselves. It was not 
 Adam's sin only which crucified Christ, but my sin. 
 It was not for mankind that Christ died, but for me. 
 
LECTURE V. 163 
 
 It was not that He has sought for many lost sheep, 
 but that He has sought me, and found me, and car- 
 ried me gently in His arms, and placed me in His 
 own fold, and given me to drink of that grace which 
 springs up unto everlasting life. An assurance un- 
 mixed with fear, unsullied by doubt as far as re- 
 gards Christ's power and will to save, as far as re- 
 gards His having saved us; but not without fear 
 and trembling when we look to ourselves, and know 
 that in order to be saved finally we must remain 
 steadfast in good works. He who has not this sort 
 of assurance, who does not believe that He is in 
 Christ and Christ in him, in whose soul fear of the 
 Judge ever rises up rather than trust in the Advo- 
 cate, he has not saving faith. There is some secret 
 sin growing at the root of the tree ; some enemy 
 has poisoned the spring whence should flow unto him 
 the waters of everlasting life. And hence too we may 
 see how good works are essential to faith. He who 
 is in unrepented sin, or he who cares not for works 
 of piety and love, cannot, with the 25th chapter 
 of St. Matthew before him, think of himself as 
 living in the faith and fear of Christ; cannot truly 
 think of Christ as any thing more to him than the 
 Saviour of the world. It is essential to our faith 
 that we should know it to be justifying faith. 
 
 For can it ever be a matter of much doubt to us, 
 unless we wish to deceive ourselves, whether we 
 have faith or not : it is neither slow nor unwilling to 
 bear witness to its own presence. If it is present, 
 it will overcome the world ; if it be absent, the 
 
 m 2 
 
164 LECTURE V 
 
 world will have overcome us, and destroyed us : 
 if it be present, it will consecrate us and all that 
 belongs to us to the service of God ; if it be ab- 
 sent, we shall straightway think that what God has 
 given us is wholly our own : we shall stand as it 
 were on the rights of self against God ; if it be pre- 
 sent, the course and the wisdom of this world, life, 
 power, talents, opportunities, wealth spent in no- 
 thing but self-indulgence and self-degradation, will 
 seem to us madness ; if it be absent, the lusts of the 
 flesh and the spirit, the pomps and vanities of the 
 world, amusements, pleasures — pride of place, birth, 
 talents, wealth — will occupy our being: those spi- 
 ritual blessings and duties which God has intrusted 
 to us, and put in our path, will seem both in theory 
 and practice to be of little moment when compared 
 with the accidents of temporal existence. If it be 
 absent, we shall ever be clinging to some unscrip- 
 tural form or view of Christianity or other : to the 
 notion that being sinners we shall be saved by our 
 sin : or that the undefined mercy of God will save 
 those who have not been His or on His side in life ; 
 to the hope that after all, personal union with Christ 
 through faith working by love is not the secret of 
 our salvation, fearing lest perchance the Bible be 
 true, and our hopes false. If it be present, it will ever 
 be increasing; we shall ever be growing in grace and 
 holiness, and dwell with increasing fruition and in- 
 creasing assurance on the sure mercies of God in 
 Jesus Christ, for then the Spirit icill bear witness with 
 our spirit that we are the sons of '( *od '. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 Rom. viii. 16. 
 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 
 
 we are the children of God. 
 LlT is one of the most practical results of Christian 
 faith on the heart of man that it raises the eye of 
 hope from earth to heaven, from this life to another. 
 In days of old, visions, perhaps, of the islands of 
 the blessed, and of the princes and judges of the 
 dead mav have floated across the mind ; but it was 
 rather as the creations of the poet's imagination, or 
 the fancies of a popular superstition, than as giving 
 any real practical direction to the thoughts or hopes. 
 They did not find any place among the realities of 
 life from which they were separated by the broad 
 river of death. The needs or the aims of the day, 
 the good of country or family, the calm ease of phi- 
 losophic study, or the busy excitement of active life ; 
 the ambitions and triumphs of the forum or the battle- 
 field, — these gave shape and purpose to the powers 
 and energies of men ; and if a serious thought of 
 future reward and punishment, future happiness and 
 misery, ever crossed the mind, it was too dim and 
 
166* LECTURE VI. 
 
 vague to turn them from the pursuits of the present ; 
 they were content, for the most part, to enjoy their 
 day, and let life's morrow take care for itself. 
 
 Now with the Christian all this is altered ; nay, 
 even wherever Christianity is preached, there can be 
 very few, even of those to whom it is practically 
 preached in vain, on whom the future does not press 
 with more or less of importunity; whatever may be 
 a man's calling, whether he be in luxury or poverty, 
 in the busiest crowds of the city or the quietest re- 
 treats of the country, the same question is suggested 
 to the mind by a thousand things and voices around, 
 "Am I in the way of salvation ?" " Will heaven be 
 mine?"] 
 
 We have seen, moreover, in the last Lecture, that 
 the being able to give a satisfactory answer to this 
 question ; the being able to feel assurance more or 
 less according to individual temperament and cir- 
 cumstances, of our being among Christ's elect — the 
 looking to Him as dying for us, on ourselves as saved 
 by Him — is necessary to the completeness of that 
 faith which so applies to us His merits as to obtain 
 justification and all other benefits present and to 
 come of His Passion. 
 
 And to this question theologians and schools of 
 theology have returned a variety of answers, each 
 professing to be founded on the word of God, and 
 each, perhaps, containing an element of truth with 
 more or less admixture of error. These it is my 
 purpose to consider in the present Lecture, together 
 with such collateral notions as will spring out of 
 points more directly brought before you. 
 
LECTURE VI. 167 
 
 And first I will speak of those who place their 
 hopes of salvation on the predestinate counsels of 
 God for them. Now that this can give them no 
 real assurance is clear from the fact that these abso- 
 lute decrees of God, be their nature and effect on 
 human destinies what they may, are hidden from 
 mankind; whatever may be the certainty and necessity 
 of their operation, yet the test and evidence whereby 
 this predestination is discerned or even guessed at 
 must be looked for in something besides itself; there 
 must be something to which it is to be referred; and it 
 is evident that whatever is to be referred to something 
 else cannot of itself give assurance. And our Church 
 does truly give the teaching of Scripture, when in 
 her article on predestination she lays down the result, 
 and therefore the tangible test, of being predestinate, 
 to be the walking religiously in good works. 
 
 We have already seen that the doctrine of predes- 
 tination does not destroy the free will or the re- 
 sponsibility of man, or do away with the necessity of 
 a holy life. And hence no man can say of himself 
 that he is predestinate ; for there must be much in 
 his heart and life which, if fairly examined, will lead 
 him to doubt it. Every one, on the other hand, who 
 knows that he has been admitted into Christ's body 
 according to His will, and by His ordinances — who 
 knows that he is created anew unto good works, and 
 lives in accordance with this conviction, may hope that 
 he is of the number of those who have from the begin- 
 ning been ordained unto salvation : but no one who is 
 living in wilful or unrepented sin, no one who is setting 
 God's grace and God's laws at defiance, can find any 
 
168 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Scriptural reason for comfort or hope in the predesti- 
 nate counsels of God ; and to apply such comfort or 
 hope to oneself or others is indeed a most fearful per- 
 version of Scripture, a most fearful injury to the souls 
 of men. It is, surely, no light thing to say of the 
 Holy Spirit that He has sealed unto the day of re- 
 demption those whose lives are a practical denial of 
 God and Christ. 
 
 [Still, though we may hold that the main pur- 
 pose of this mysterious doctrine being thus revealed 
 is to set forth the glory of God, yet it is, doubtless, 
 of great practical use in giving encouragement to 
 those who are working out their salvation with serious- 
 ness of purpose : it may aid us much in resisting the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil, to know, that if we 
 are true to ourselves God will never desert us : to 
 have the conviction that it is God's purpose and will 
 for us that we should triumph over them.] 
 
 Nor is their confidence much more sure who rest 
 on that modified form of predestination which teaches 
 men to believe, not, perhaps, that they have been 
 irrespectively and irreversibly preordained to ever- 
 lasting life, but that having accepted Christ through 
 faith they cannot fail of everlasting life, in conse- 
 quence of their being among the elect. For although 
 the Bible does most clearly tell us that in the midst 
 of this wicked world there is an elect people; nay, 
 that individuals are elect; yet we must avoid that 
 false security into which so many have been led by 
 not taking heed of the corresponding truth, that 
 these elect may fall from the state of grace in which 
 by God's mercy they have been placed. 
 
LECTURE VI. 169 
 
 The doctrine of an elect people of Christ is almost 
 a necessary result of Christianity being preached in 
 a world some part only of which would receive it. 
 [In some passages, indeed, the term elect is used 
 for the whole body of believers, either in the whole 
 church or in its several branches in different parts 
 of the world ; the professing as well as the real 
 members thereof, inasmuch as all had been called 
 out of the world by Christ, and had, to all appear- 
 ance at least, obeyed the call : and these passages 
 have, of course, no definite bearing on the doctrine 
 in question, except so far as they illustrate the mean- 
 ing of the term : but it is also used in Scripture evi- 
 dently to denote those who have obeyed the call in 
 reality, and are the chosen and adopted sons of God in 
 Christ.] Nor is there any reason to doubt that these 
 elect have many and great privileges, great and pre- 
 cious promises, of which I do not say they may well be 
 proud, but of which they ought to be gratefully con- 
 scious. Blessed indeed is the thought that we are 
 embraced by the arms of God's special mercy and 
 grace ; that we are the sons of God, brethren of Christ, 
 temples of the Holy Ghost : such thoughts may well 
 lift our souls above this lower world, except so far as 
 we may serve God herein. Blessed is the thought, 
 that for us the mercy of God through Christ is ever 
 ready to forgive, his power ever ready to strengthen ; 
 blessed is the thought, that the fountains of grace are 
 ever open to us ; such thoughts may well make us 
 ready to embrace this mercy, and use this grace. 
 Blessed is the thought, that in all our spiritual trials 
 the eye and hand of God is over us just as it is over 
 
170 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the affairs of all men in life temporal ; that as He 
 sends rain or sun as seemeth Him best for the tem- 
 poral good of men, so whatever He does is for our 
 spiritual good ; such thoughts may well make us 
 careful to see in all things how they are to be spiri- 
 tually used by us ; may well make us submit our- 
 selves wholly to His holy will and pleasure as loyal 
 sons to a loving Father. And more blessed still is 
 the hope, that in the day of judgment we shall be 
 on His right hand ; such hopes may well quicken 
 our souls, and steady our wills, and bind them to 
 Christ, and loosen them from the world, to which we 
 feel, as God's elect, that we belong only for a time ; 
 but still to these promises and hopes the Holy Spirit 
 has by the Bible joined the awful word if: If we 
 hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto 
 the end*. And who shall venture to take away the 
 condition which the Holy Spirit has attached to 
 His promises? or if any one is bold enough to 
 do so, what reasonable hope can he have that his 
 sentence will stand ? [It is most true, that God 
 after His own good pleasure worketh in us both to 
 will and to do ; but we are not on that account 
 the less to work out our own salvation, but rather 
 all the more ; for if it were our work and not 
 God's, we might well fold our hands in despair, as 
 those who had been told to move a mountain, or 
 make the shadow go back on the dial. But now 
 that it is God's work in us, God's pleasure for us, we 
 may be sure that our work is not in vain. What we 
 have to do is to submit ourselves to Him who is 
 n Hebr. iii. 14. 
 
LECTURE VI. 171 
 
 at work in our work, and to follow His pleasure : 
 and it can scarcely be too often repeated, it certainly 
 cannot be too constantly remembered, that man's 
 part in the work of his salvation is not the result of 
 his independent active powers of goodness or piety, 
 but of his submission to the Holy Spirit within him ; 
 to that expansive Spirit of holiness which turns away 
 from the proud, and works in those who are humble 
 and lowlv of heart.] And not onlv do the direct 
 expressions of Scripture make our final acceptance 
 depend on our final stedfastness, but the same doc- 
 trine, that the elect are not so absolutely sure of their 
 salvation as to make themselves or others careless 
 about it, is taught in other passages b , which will lose 
 their meaning if it is denied. What is the meaning 
 of St. Peter's telling those who had obtained like pre- 
 cious faith with himself, through the righteousness of 
 God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and who therefore 
 must have been among the elect, that they were to 
 make their calling and electio7i sure? If they were 
 sure already, what need of being more so ? if they 
 could make themselves neither more sure nor less 
 sure than they were (as the exaggerated doctrine of 
 election implies), what need of telling them to do 
 that which they could not do? Again, what is the 
 meaning of St. Paul, who, called by Christ's very 
 self, did, in some moments of highest spiritual vision, 
 see clearly the crown of glory, when he expresses 
 his fear lest he should be a cast-away ? The persua- 
 sion, then, nay, the fact of a man's being among 
 
 h Compare i Tbess. i. 4, and v. 9. with several exhortations 
 in the two last chapters. 
 
172 LECTUR E VI. 
 
 the elect, even could he be perfectly certain of it, 
 though it may give him hope, cannot by itself give 
 him assurance. 
 
 But, nevertheless, the doctrine of perseverance is 
 so laid down in Scripture that it cannot but form a 
 part of comprehensive faith : and Scripture has more- 
 over explained clearly enough its nature and bearing 
 in the passage of St. Peter, where, after exhorting his 
 readers to the progressive acquirement of Christian 
 graces, he adds these words — -for if ye do these things, 
 ye shall never fall* ; that is, as long as we retain God 
 in our love ; as long as we so use the grace given us 
 that we are fruitful and abound ; as long as a sin- 
 cere, earnest, real endeavour to live after the Spirit 
 is borne witness to by our spiritual growth ; so long 
 God will never desert us,* or allow the issues of 
 our own hearts, or the temptations of the world, 
 to carry us away from Him ; He will bear with our 
 infirmities; He will listen to the sighings of a con- 
 trite heart ; He will send down the consolations of 
 His Spirit, with the assurances of pardon for Christ's 
 sake; He will make us strong : as long as we are in 
 earnest in the work, Christ will work with us, even 
 unto the end. And this we find in other parts of Scrip- 
 ture. But this is a very different thing from that form 
 of the doctrine of perseverance which sets at nought 
 the texts which speak of the possibility, nay, the 
 danger of our falling, through our hearts being either 
 insensibly or suddenly turned from God. [And we 
 can even so far trace the course of sin as to see how 
 all this may be, if we keep in mind what I have be- 
 
 ;| j St. Petri- i. 10. 
 
LKCTURE VI. 173 
 
 fore said — that the submission of the will to the 
 Holy Spirit is the principle of holiness, as far as we 
 are concerned. As long as one who has tasted of 
 the powers of the Gospel keeps his heart in subjec- 
 tion to the Spirit ; as long as he desires in very truth 
 to make that Divine Will his will, though he may be 
 sorely tried by temptations, yet will that Spirit ever 
 make a way for him to escape : but let self creep in 
 as the spring of action, as the guide of our wills, 
 then we cast off the Spirit, and though He may strive 
 with us for our own souls, and seek to win us back 
 to Himself and our calling, then are we in imme- 
 diate danq-er — though unseen by others, and even un- 
 suspected by ourselves — of falling into those sins, 
 which are falls from grace. As long as the ship obeys 
 her helm, the sailor may see without alarm the fury 
 of the storm ; but when the power that guides her 
 is cast off, then hope must be cast off too. When 
 the counsel of the Spirit is put from us as a prin- 
 ciple of action, and we begin, even before we commit 
 actual, wilful sin, so far to love sin as to wish it were 
 possible to sin without losing our salvation, then our 
 strength is passing away, and, being left to our own 
 weakness, we straightway fall. And hence the ne- 
 cessity for that daily repentance and forgiveness of 
 even what we may call little sins : for the very 
 smallest sin is, in its degree, an energy of self, and 
 a quenching of the Spirit: a departure from God, 
 which may lead, and, if not counteracted, will lead, 
 to fresh and further transgressions. Or if, casting 
 off the Spirit in another fashion, we think we can 
 stand by our strength, then is the result the same : 
 
174 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and herein is one of the dangers of the exaggerated 
 doctrine of perseverance, that men are taught to 
 trust to themselves, to their calling, to their own 
 supposed spiritual state, rather than to a continued 
 and conscious dependence on God : hence men think 
 that they stand, even while the ground is slipping 
 from under them. Thus does spiritual pride confute 
 and confound itself.] 
 
 Nor is there any better scriptural foundation for 
 the notion, that though the elect may fall, yet they 
 are sure to rise again, while the practical encou- 
 ragement to sin is as great, and even greater : 
 the word which St. Paul used to express the state 
 into which he thought it possible he himself might 
 fall, does not signify a temporary or partial, but a 
 total and final fall. It is certain, however, that as 
 long as our hearts are right before God, as long as 
 there is no secret heart of unbelief, no secret prefer- 
 ence of sin, we shall by God be enabled to stand. 
 The spiritual enemies on all sides, the fiery darts 
 of the evil one — whether they take the shape of 
 persecutions and afflictions, as in apostolic times, 
 or of the sorrows, pleasures, aims of life — may well 
 make us afraid, when we think of what we are in 
 ourselves; but still we may gird on our arms and 
 trust in God, knowing that He who is for us is 
 greater than he that is against us; that our weak- 
 ness will be to His glory who strengtheneth us. And 
 thus faith is the weapon whereby we are to resist 
 the enemy; for faith is not merely the receiving 
 Christ as our Saviour, but clinging to God through 
 Him, heart and soul and Mill ; submitting ourselves 
 
LECTURE VI. 175 
 
 wholly to His holy will and pleasure as given us 
 through the Spirit, and studying to serve and please 
 Him all the days of our life. 
 
 [There may perhaps be a point in a believer's 
 spiritual growth where he is past the possibility of 
 sinning, by the Spirit's having complete possession of 
 his whole being: that we acknowledge such a notion 
 is clear, from our surprise when we see one whom we 
 supposed to be righteous fall away : but no one can 
 know himself to be in such a state ; the only outward 
 test of it would be his never sinning, even in trifles — 
 for no one can tell where a trifle may lead him — and 
 if we say we do not sin, we deceive ourselves. I need 
 not remind you that the Scripture in which the impos- 
 sibility of sinning is most emphatically ascribed to 
 perfect faith or holiness, is the first Epistle of St. John ; 
 and I think it will be seen that the whole of this Epistle 
 is an emphatic warning against our being contented 
 with our spiritual state, and an exhortation to come 
 nearer to the unattainable perfection whereunto we 
 had been called. The application of the argument 
 is not, " You have the Spirit, and therefore you do 
 not sin ;" but, " If you sin, and as far as you sin, you 
 are not so perfect as you may be."] 
 
 Nor can they be thought to have any sure or suf- 
 ficient ground of confidence who are resting entirely 
 or mainly on their fellowship with Christ's visible 
 church on earth. For though Scripture does set 
 forth all true Christians as belonging to that visible 
 body, with visible ministers, word, sacraments ; and 
 commands that those who are utterly reprobate 
 should be shut out therefrom, yet she never speaks 
 
176 LECTURE VI. 
 
 of those who are in that body as certain of salvation, 
 nor even as of necessity belonging to the true mys- 
 tical body of Christ : [and though it is, to say the 
 least, safer and better to be joined to that body which 
 Christ blessed, and promised to be with to the end 
 of the world ; to be enclosed in that net which was 
 cast by Christ's apostles at His bidding and by His 
 authority ; to be citizens of that commonwealth 
 which was founded by Christ himself; members of 
 that family which can trace up its spiritual ancestry 
 by a long succession, not of clergy only, but of clergy 
 and laity together, to the day of Pentecost, and to 
 the upper chamber at Jerusalem ; to eat the same 
 spiritual meat and to drink the same spiritual drink 
 with the saints of old, who saw Christ face to face ; 
 to feel that His word and sacraments are ministered 
 to us by those who have commission and authority 
 from Him: — yet all this is not safety; nor can it 
 give us confidence ; for all such outward fellowship 
 and privileges may, though they should not, exist 
 without conformity to Christ, without that personal 
 faith in Him which is necessary to Christian as- 
 surance.] It is in vain for any one to fancy or 
 to teach, that this is the only, nay, that it is the 
 main point to be considered ; that the being recon- 
 ciled to the visible church, and readmitted to her 
 offices at the last, will place a man among the elect: 
 will be a talisman to apply the merits of Christ to the 
 soul, or to open the gates of heaven to those whose 
 lives have been of the flesh, and not that of the Spirit. 
 Nor, again, can any true hope be drawn from 
 those austerities or self-abasements whereby some 
 
LECTURE VI. 177 
 
 have thought to assure themselves of heaven. Such 
 things, founded on a wrong view of the great prac- 
 tical doctrine of self-denial, are too ant to o-ive self- 
 denial a shape and a place in the scheme of redemp- 
 tion which is not given to it in Scripture. To mor_ 
 tify the body does not imply the mortification of the 
 carnal mind, much less stand in its place ; mere 
 penances can never give assurance of repentance or 
 of faith. It seems to me, that the self-denial which 
 is spoken of in Scripture, as necessary for our being 
 Christ's, is mainly that submission of the flesh to 
 the Spirit of which I have so often spoken. It is 
 not merely the abstaining from particular food on 
 particular days; it is not the being of a sad counte- 
 nance, and declining amusements and relaxations ; 
 it is not withdrawing from social life, and spending 
 one's days within the walls of a convent or the 
 friendless home of the desert : but it is checking, 
 keeping under, mortifying, crucifying the corrupt 
 affections of self, which, alas! spring up within us, 
 whether we fast or feast, whether we turn from God's 
 good things or enjoy them : whether we are in a con- 
 vent or a court, in a city or a desert. We deny our- 
 selves, i. e. what we by nature are, when we turn away 
 from the suggestions of anger or lust ; when we curb 
 our tongues ; when we humble our pride. No doubt 
 but that external acts of mortification and absti- 
 nence, so far as they promote our powers of self- 
 denial, are agreeable to the spirit of Scripture b ; but 
 neither is there doubt but that they have, by individuals 
 and churches, been made to stand in place thereof: 
 
 b See Collect for first Sunday in Lent. 
 
 N 
 
178 LECTURE VI. 
 
 that they have kept thousands from self-denial rather 
 than led them to it. The utmost they can do is to 
 testify to a person's self of his sincerity; and in this 
 they often testify falsely. [They are not so sure a 
 sign of the soul being subdued to the Spirit as Chris- 
 tian bearing amid the trials, troubles and duties of 
 every day life ; for as these trifles supply in them- 
 selves a less motive to spiritual exertion, the in- 
 ward spiritual principle must be stronger.] These 
 penances often proceed from that sort of pride 
 which finds pleasure in enduring what others shrink 
 from ; as may be seen from the otherwise inexpli- 
 cable tortures which we read of as inflicted by per- 
 sons on themselves, without any motive beyond ex- 
 hibiting their powers of endurance. And moreover 
 they have, in many recorded cases, been mere ex- 
 cuses for continuance in sin, whereby Satan contrives 
 to deprive men's consciences of their sting, and to 
 substitute formal service for real. [What answer do 
 self-inflicted sufferings give to the question, "Am I 
 in the way to be saved ?" Not surely the answer of 
 faith, for that puts its whole trust in Christ, as having 
 made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and atone- 
 ment for any sins of which we repent; and if we re- 
 pent, such penances savour rather of a mistrust of 
 God's mercy, or may be merely the energies of our 
 human self, thinking that by our own sufferings we 
 may be cleansed, and thus keep us from Christ to 
 whom our repentance should have led us. And if 
 we do not repent, then are they but vain subterfuges 
 of a conscience which knowing its sin, and what are 
 its consequences, yet loving it too well to leave it, 
 
LECTURE VI. 179 
 
 had sooner bear pain and privation than give up 
 the pleasure and self-indulgence which has become a 
 second self. Such devices might suit the heathen, 
 who look upon God as a power of fear, and think 
 that He is a man whom they may cheat ; but they 
 do not suit the Christian to whom God is revealed 
 as a God of love, as ready to pardon us, as having par- 
 doned us, without any punishment borne, any satis- 
 faction made, by us : as seeing not our outward pre- 
 tences only, but the very secrets of our hearts.] 
 
 Nor is that reliance much better which is placed 
 wholly on the text, If our heart condemn us not, then 
 have ive confidence towards God a ; for we know that 
 the heart is deceitful above all things, and to many 
 men speaks peace when there is no peace. It is 
 true that this answer of a good conscience, this ap- 
 proval of our heart, is necessary to the looking for- 
 ward with real hope to the day of the Lord. How- 
 it is that sinners, such as the best of us must ever be, 
 can have the answer of a good conscience, we shall 
 be led to inquire hereafter ; suffice it now to say, 
 that we are not saved by works, and therefore works 
 by themselves cannot assure us. And again, how easily 
 do men deceive themselves in this matter : how 
 many men there are, who, measuring their lives by 
 mere human morality, comfort themselves with the 
 thought that they are free from what the world calls 
 sin, and care not to inquire whether they are free 
 likewise from what the Bible calls sin; who know 
 nothing of the energies of Christian life ; who mis- 
 take the silence of a sleeping soul for the approval 
 
 a i John iii. 2 1 . 
 N 2 
 
180 LECTURE VI. 
 
 of a watchful and sensitive conscience. Strange to 
 say, the more a man has the answer of a good con- 
 science, the more sensitive and dissatisfied with itself 
 does his conscience become, the more does it notice 
 and reprove those things which other men pass 
 over uncared for. The more spotless the sky, the 
 more clearly is every spot discerned. So far from a 
 quiet conscience being a test of saving faith, and 
 hence a source of assurance, there is nothing easier 
 than for a man without faith to satisfy his conscience ; 
 in fact, the less the faith, the easier is conscience 
 satisfied ; and yet without faith it is impossible to 
 have even a true conception of Christian hope. And 
 again, suppose that a man really had a conscience 
 void of offence towards God and man, what is there 
 in this to save him, unless faith in Christ crucified 
 takes possession of his soul ? What sacrifice for sin will 
 his works provide him, if in the pride of spotless mo- 
 rality he think scorn of the blood which was shed ? 
 Much then must be added to a good conscience before 
 it can speak to us the assurance which we seek. 
 
 But still less can any comfort rise up from the 
 answer of a bad conscience, from our souls being 
 burdened with the memory of some great sin ; nor 
 yet from an uneasy consciousness that we are sinners, 
 joined to an involuntary recognition of the fact that 
 Christ died to save sinners, forced upon us by the 
 jreneral belief of the world around ; for there are 
 two sorts of this consciousness of sin — one is a ne- 
 cessary element of faith, the other is a direct nega- 
 tion of it. And though the love of Christ for sinners, 
 His death for sinners, is the foundation of all Christ- 
 
LECTURE VI. 181 
 
 ian hope, and is written in characters of light on 
 every page of Scripture, yet another truth is found 
 side by side with it, not less bright than the other, 
 yet often seemingly dark and threatening to those who 
 read not Scripture aright — that the real will of this 
 love is, that those whom He loves, and who name His 
 name, should fly from and conquer sin. And hence 
 a sense of our being sinners cannot be a source of 
 true comfort to us, unless we obey that His will for 
 us. Those who try to take the one truth without the 
 other ; who persuade themselves or others that His 
 love will accept them simply because they are sin- 
 ners, without their leaving their sin, cannot be 
 said to have a scriptural foundation for their assur- 
 ance, but rather to most fearfully misread the mes- 
 sage of mercy, and despise the longsuffering of God, 
 which leads them to repentance. Do they say they 
 believe in Christ ? Mere belief will not justify them. 
 We are expressly told that Simon Magus believed, 
 and yet was in the bond of iniquity : he believed in 
 Christ perhaps so far as to see in Him a possible 
 way of preserving and increasing his own power and 
 fame ; but he did not believe on Him as He was 
 preached by the apostles ; and this is the case with 
 those who look on Christ merely as a means of their 
 living their own way in the world with impunity. 
 Those who fancy that turning to Christ is nothing 
 more than being saved while in unrepented sin may 
 do well to ponder His words, Not every one that 
 saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- 
 dom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 which is in heaven. 
 
182 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Much less can we receive those still greater per- 
 verters of the great doctrine, that all men are sinners, 
 and that for sinners Christ has died, who would 
 have it believed that past deeds of darkness are the 
 surest warrant for their being now children of light, 
 elect of God ; who say not only, " My sins have made 
 me a fitter object of God's mercy — my pardon is a 
 greater miracle of God's redeeming love" — which in 
 very truth it is — but " my sins have actually made me 
 more sure of my being Christ's than I should have 
 been without them ;" who, in the echoes of former 
 unholy lusts and unbridled passions, and in the 
 avenging voice of self-condemnation, can hear no- 
 thing but the harmonies of heavenly hope. Surely 
 such men would turn funeral bells into merry 
 chimes, and see hope and health in the fixed eye 
 and pale wan face of death. 
 
 And not only so, but often they even cast scorn 
 and despair on the spiritual state of those, who, 
 having from their youth up striven as far as might 
 be to make their calling <ui<I election sure, have in 
 no time of their lives felt the agonies of despair or 
 the conviction of being outcasts from the covenant 
 into which they were through faith baptized. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that the conviction of pre- 
 sent or the remembrance of past sin, need not 
 (thanks be to God for his unspeakable mercy) keep 
 any one from hopefully turning to Christ in repent- 
 ance unto faith, and seeking from Him that which 
 repentance and faith are sure to find — acceptance 
 and renewal. YV r e cannot repeat too often our Sa- 
 viour's invitation to those who travail or are heavy 
 
LECTURE VI. 183 
 
 laden ; we may impress upon the most fallen God's 
 love for sinners, His will that men should not perish, 
 in order to move them to come to Him ; we may 
 tell such a one of the joy in heaven over the one 
 piece of silver, the single sheep — great truths, in 
 which all our consolation lies; we may endeavour to 
 animate his faith, and quicken his hope, and kindle 
 his love, by holding these gospel truths before him. The 
 salvation of sinners is most assuredly one object of 
 Christ's coming upon earth ; but will any one with 
 the Bible in his hand say, that the promotion of prac- 
 tical holiness of heart and life is not another? We 
 may not so teach the one as to destroy the other ; we 
 may not, consistently with Scripture, throw around 
 the murderer's head, when his life is forfeited to his 
 country's justice, a brighter glory than we give to 
 the saint, whose faith has been tried and proved 
 by the fiery trials of life. It is true the greater the 
 sinner the greater his need of God's mercy, but the 
 mere conviction that he is a sinner cannot make 
 him sure that he has entered in by the straight gate, 
 or even left the broad way, for the conscience even 
 of sinners is not dumb. It is true also, that the 
 remembrance of past sins may, when the sacred love 
 of Christ has once been kindled, well make it burn 
 more unceasingly and intensely, as in the woman 
 whose many sins were forgiven ; but still in them- 
 selves these are no warrant for believing- that the 
 love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts ; for this 
 implies something real and practical ; a real subjec- 
 tion of our hearts and affections and wills and pas- 
 sions to Him, of which the remembrance of sin is no 
 
184 LECTURE VI. 
 
 sign. Where in Scripture do we find that sin, even 
 committed ignorantly, is the seal of salvation ? much 
 less when it has been persevered in, in spite of 
 grace and opportunities and professions. It may 
 be the occasion of the manifestation of God's love; 
 the disease calls forth the physician's skill, and, it 
 may be, the patient's gratitude for his cure; but 
 who would point to his bed of sickness, to his once 
 wasted limbs and exhausted nerves, as a proof that 
 he is now in perfect health and strength ? It was 
 not so with St. Paul ; he does not rest his sure 
 hope of mercy on the great sin of his early life, but 
 on Christ's love for sinners and on his having fought 
 the good fight. He was the chiefest of sinners, and 
 therefore with good reason magnified God's mercy; 
 but it was in consequence of his labours of love, not 
 of his former preeminence in sin, that he knew 
 himself to be not a whit behind the chiefest of the 
 Apostles. It is true that publicans and harlots pressed 
 into the kingdom of God before the self-righteous 
 Pharisee, or the infidel Sadducee, equally sinful, 
 though in a different way, with themselves: but not 
 without repentance, nor yet before Simeon or Anna, 
 or Peter or John. It Mas surely no heinous sin that, 
 opened the door for Cornelius; but his prayers and 
 alms, which went up for a memorial before God. 
 True hope is not the reflection of the avenging fire 
 which waits on sin, but of the Sun of righteousness, 
 which, in spite of sin, dawns on that repentance 
 which ends in faith. 
 
 And hence it cannot be safe to place assurance on 
 those agonized professions of faith which sooften mark 
 
LECTURE VI. 185 
 
 the death-bed of one who has all his life avowedly 
 been merely a nominal Christian. This is no sure 
 sign of saving faith, no sure sign of repentance. It 
 were needless to remind you of the numberless eases 
 in which seemingly death-bed professions, when tested 
 by the return of health and strength, have been found 
 to pass away as specks of light in a tempest. True 
 faith forbids us to doubt that as the pale form of 
 death stands by the bedside of the faithful, and 
 brinars him the message that he is to come to God, 
 his soul will oftentimes break into fervent ejacula- 
 tions, cries of passionate devotion, earnest entreaties 
 for mercy, undoubting expressions of trust, sure vi- 
 sions of glory ; yet these ejaculations, if they are to 
 express hope, must rise from something better than 
 the immediate pressure of death. Sorrow for sin, to 
 give witness of saving faith, must be something more 
 than the maddening feeling of remorse which sinful 
 pleasures are wont to leave in the soul when ebbing 
 life bears witness to their being pleasures no more. 
 Expressions of faith must be something more than 
 the mere echo of despair which is making merry in 
 the soul — more than the mere convulsive catching of 
 a drowning man at what the world holds out to him 
 as a substitute for Christianity — more than the mere 
 repetition of formal professions. Those who trust to 
 such, or teach others to do so, must take the texts 
 which speak of the salvation of sinners without those 
 which speak of repentance and fighting the good 
 fight, and the judgment of men good and bad, and 
 the account which every man must give of his works 
 in this life, whether they be of the flesh or of the 
 
18b' LECTURE VI. 
 
 Spirit. And whence do they get authority so to hold 
 or interpret one passage of Scripture that it shall 
 destroy others ? 
 
 God forbid that any limits should be placed to 
 the Divine mercy, save those which He Himself has 
 placed — it were the act of a suicide to do so ; but 
 neither may we represent His mercy otherwise than 
 He has revealed it. And it seems to me that Scrip- 
 ture gives us no warrant to speak of those who thus 
 depart this life, as we may of those whose light has 
 shone before men ; whose faith is not at the best a 
 mere possibility, hidden from our eyes, but a reality, 
 as far as we can see or conclude. God forbid too that 
 any doubt should in such moments be thrown upon 
 the soul which, on the brink of eternity, is already 
 in an agony of doubt. We may pray, we may hope, 
 we may exhort him to look to Christ as his only 
 Saviour; in Him to put his trust; to lay aside all 
 that shuts him out from Christ ; to repair injuries, 
 to forgive enemies, and the like; we may leave the 
 issue in God's hand, not perhaps without hope; but 
 surely we cannot say he is safe ; nor can we, when 
 he is gone, hold him up as a shining light ; for we 
 cannot conceal from ourselves, we may not conceal 
 from others — lest we bring ourselves and them to the 
 same miserable end — that in order to be saved by the 
 Saviour we must come to Him with changed hearts : 
 not as Judas came, not as Simon Magus came, not 
 even as the Milling rich young man came ; not only 
 from terror of the punishment of hell fire, but in 
 grief for the burden, impatience of the evil, abhor- 
 rence of the pleasures of sin ; not merely with a dead, 
 
LECTURE VI. 187 
 
 but with a living- faith — the faith of the whole heart, 
 not merely of part of it. And what if sin has got 
 such possession of the dying man, that it will not let 
 him go ? — for often one of the results of sin is, that it 
 binds a man in chains too strong to break. When 
 a man turns in health, he can tell, and we can in 
 some degree tell, whether his faith is real or false ; 
 but the actual state of the soul of one who only 
 turns from sin at the last, no one knows but God ; 
 we have no means of testing it; all that we do know 
 of him is, that his life has been spent in wilful re- 
 jection of the Holy Ghost, wilful despite of Christ. 
 In the midst of light he has preferred darkness, be- 
 cause his deeds were evil ; we cannot tell whether 
 his turning to Christ is the returning of the will in 
 love, or merely of the reason in fear. In good truth, 
 the profession of such persons very often bears witness 
 against themselves ; it is very seldom that it wears 
 the calm, assured features of real faith in such ex- 
 tremity. There is very seldom the calm confidence 
 which breathes in the words, Lord, remember me when 
 Thou contest into Thy kingdom. Nor does the thief 
 on the cross afford any real parallel to such cases ; 
 his case would be found in that of a heathen who had 
 not known or heard of Christ till his very last, and 
 then turned to Him in love and faith. The parallel 
 to the death-bed of the ungodly Christian would have 
 been exhibited to us, if it had been Judas Iscariot 
 who hung on the cross beside the Lord whom he 
 had betrayed. 
 
 Nor can a man rest with confidence on having par- 
 taken in any of the outward privileges of religion ; 
 
188 LECTURE VI. 
 
 such as Baptism, or the Lord's Supper ; nor on going 
 to Church ; nor sermon-hearing ; nor knowledge of 
 the Bible ; nor again, on being deeply and sensibly 
 moved by Divine things when forcibly brought before 
 him. Faith is not the feverish excitement of an hour, 
 which is mostly a sign of spiritual sickness, but the 
 steady pulse of life. The Jews were strongly excited 
 by our Saviour's entry into Jerusalem, and welcomed 
 Him as their King with palms and hosannahs, and 
 yet it was all unreal ; for within five days they cried 
 out, Crucify Him ! Crucify Him ! 
 
 Nor can assurance be a witness to itself; no one 
 can safely say he is sure because he is sure ; if he is 
 sure, it will shew itself in a thousand ways ; in his 
 life ; his conversation ; his acts without ; in his tem- 
 pers, counsels, wishes within. 
 
 If then true scriptural assurance waits on none of 
 these simply and separately, the question is, Whence 
 does it spring? comprehensive faith answers readily, 
 From each and all together as far as they are scrip- 
 tural ; from the spiritual life as distinguished from 
 and yet containing and implying the moral life ; com- 
 prising within itself a deep, humble, contrite sense of 
 and sorrow for our sin and sinfulness ; the earnest 
 and practical energies of repentance ; full belief in 
 all that the Scripture tells of God and ourselves; 
 love of God and man ; a striving after all the graces 
 of Christian holiness ; earnest self-denial of our car- 
 mil wills and passions; the practical energies of good 
 works ; a deep gratitude for His will that we should 
 be saved, with an earnest zeal in making our calling 
 and election sure, and a full belief that if we watch 
 
LECTURE VI. 189 
 
 and pray, God will surely finish the good work He 
 hath begun, and bring us to everlasting life through 
 Christ; an earnest looking to Christ; a deep faith 
 in Him ; full reliance on Him and His atonement 
 by the sacrifice offered on the cross ; none on our- 
 selves or our works ; full conviction that He has 
 both the will and the power to save us ; nay, that He 
 has saved us : with a loving remembrance of all that 
 He has done for us, and, above all, of His death for 
 us. These elements may differ in different minds, 
 but none may be absent, because all are scriptural : 
 one must ever hold the chiefest place — deep love 
 towards Him, arising as well from His infinite per- 
 fections, as from a deep sense of what He has wrought 
 for us and in us— and to such an assurance it is God's 
 will, unless we reject His will, that all who are called 
 shall come. 
 
 And all this is very briefly but forcibly set forth in 
 the words of my text, The Spirit itself beareth wit- 
 ness with our spirit that we are the children of God : 
 for herein are evidently two elements of assurance : 
 first, the witness of the Spirit, and next the witness 
 of our own hearts: both are required to a true wit- 
 ness : if the witness of our own spirit be true, the 
 Spirit beareth witness with it; if it be false, the 
 Spirit is silent : if that which is outwardly the wit- 
 ness of the Spirit be so indeed, then will our spirits 
 bear witness to it ; if it be not, then will our spirits 
 be unmoved and listless, and we may know that the 
 Spirit does in reality bear no witness to our salvation. 
 
 The witness of our own spirit consists in various 
 emotions and energies of our souls, which may be 
 
190 LECTURE VI. 
 
 classed under reason or the feelings ; and each of" 
 these, though differing in degree in different cases. 
 will nevertheless be held by comprehensive faith to 
 have its place in real assurance. 
 
 First, there is the witness of our reason when we 
 find within ourselves that our reason submits to the 
 mysteries of God's revealed Word ; a firm intellec- 
 tual assent to and persuasion of the truth of the 
 mysteries which God has revealed to us, and, above 
 all, of the sacrifice of His Son. Hence it is said in 
 Scripture, He that bclieveth on the Son of God hath 
 the witness in himself''. On this no doubt must ever 
 cast its shadow, or, if it be ever cast by the tempter, 
 must quickly be repelled, and pass away before the 
 brightness and certainty of the Gospel revelation. 
 
 And next, this apprehension and conviction of 
 the Gospel mysteries must pass from our reason 
 into our feelings, for it is with the heart that man he- 
 lieveih unto salvation : and must not only bring those 
 various feelings into subjection to itself, but must 
 awaken them to higher objects and energies. The 
 believer must believe, not only that Christ died for 
 all mankind, but that He died for him personally 
 and individually. The gospel-history must fall on 
 his ears as a message which brings to his very self the 
 tidings of pardon and peace; and thence there will 
 naturally arise a grateful confidence that Christ has 
 died for him, has cleansed his soul, has washed away 
 his sins, has restored him to the love of the Father, 
 has placed him among His elect, has made him an 
 inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ; and then in 
 
 '' i St . .John v. 10. 
 
LECTURE VI. 191 
 
 his heart necessarily there will spring np, as water 
 from the earth, a deep love of God, a casting of all 
 our care upon Him, a sense of being adopted by 
 Him, of being by Him preordained to everlasting- 
 life. A man may well feel himself lifted somewhat 
 above his fleshly and mortal self by such thoughts 
 and persuasions as these ; some of warmer tempera- 
 ment may well feel themselves in an ecstasy ; while 
 in others of a colder and more practical mould, their 
 love and peace in believing may be of a less tu- 
 multuous sort, but not less deep or pure for that. 
 
 And perhaps the more ecstatic witness of the 
 feelings may wait on those who after a long course 
 of sin find themselves by God's infinite mercy 
 awakened to repentance and faith ; just as one who 
 is rescued from shipwreck, or drawn back from the 
 edge of a precipice, has a more lively sense of deli- 
 verance, than those who have been preserved from 
 day to day without death thus threatening them face 
 to face ; though in reality they owe their life to the 
 same Providence. We read in Scripture b of two 
 persons standing before our Lord, to one of whom 
 our Lord says much had been forgiven, to the other 
 comparatively little — it is true it is a parable, but it 
 seems to apply directly to the two persons then in 
 our Lord's presence. — The assurance of both was 
 the same. The sins of both were forgiven, and they 
 knew it. She to whom many sins were forgiven 
 showed her joy after a fashion which seemed strange 
 to the disciple who had never known what it was 
 to have passed from utter wretchlessness of unclean 
 
 ! St. Luke vii. 41 . 
 
192 LECTURE VI. 
 
 living to the knowledge of Christ. Our Saviour did 
 not by this parable so much find fault with Simon's 
 lack of sensible emotion, as with his finding fault 
 with her who ceased not to show her joy; — a lesson 
 for those who think that all such transports of joy 
 are either self-deception or deceit. 
 
 It may not, however, be denied, that in this 
 witness of the feelings men easily and readily 
 deceive themselves ; and therefore to it must be 
 added the witness of the Spirit; and since the power 
 to bear fruit meet for our calling, to make a fruitful 
 use of our spiritual blessings and privi leges, to do 
 good works pleasing and acceptable to God, can be 
 the work of no other save the Holy Spirit within us, 
 it follows that a life of faithful obedience, our walk- 
 ing after the Spirit and not after the flesh, brings 
 with itself the witness of the Spirit: it is a witness 
 that the Spirit is with us. It is not safe to trust 
 to mere spiritual emotions or convictions ; we must 
 test their reality by seeing whether our life is that 
 of the Spirit ; whether He is abiding in us in power; 
 wh ether in daily events, as they come before us, He 
 puts into our minds holy desires, good counsels, and 
 enables us to bring the same to good effect ; whe- 
 ther the means of grace are effectual upon us ; whe- 
 ther w r e have the power of prayer : if not, then is 
 the witness of the Spirit against us, and not for us ; 
 the witness of our reason or our feelings is a delu- 
 sion ; our spirit beareth witness alone; and being 
 alone, its witness is unreal. 
 
 And, on the other hand, if the answer of a good 
 conscience, the witness of good works, stands alone, 
 
LECTURE VI. 193 
 
 then it, too, being alone, is a delusion. If a man 
 never feels himself moved by the high and noble 
 thoughts, aspirations, hopes, assurances, which wait, 
 more or less, on Christian faith ; if he never feels 
 the love of God and Christ ; if he never feels his 
 soul beat quicker as he thinks of Christ having died 
 for him ; if his obedience is a cold, formal matter; 
 if he prides himself upon it, and thinks scorn of 
 those who are less able to resist temptation than 
 himself; then may he know that his obedience is 
 hiding Christ from him, even as He was hid from 
 the Pharisees. He may be sure that he yet needs 
 to be especially renewed in the spirit of his mind ; 
 to look to his sins, rather than to his obedience, in 
 order that a true sense of what he is, and what he 
 needs, may give him somewhat of the spirit of the 
 woman who had been a sinner. 
 
 For thus it is that a sense of sin, which is some- 
 times made the sole ground of assurance, is a neces- 
 sary element in it : first, because it makes us put 
 our trust in Christ ; next, because it makes us sen- 
 sible of what He has done for us ; and thus, by the 
 spiritual power which God has given us, makes our 
 love more quick and active ; not the sense of sin 
 unrepented and continued in, but the sense of sin 
 forgiven and abandoned ; for sin unrepented and 
 continued in, sin unconquered, comes as a dark 
 cloud between us and Christ, and hides Him from 
 us. Every such sin perils our salvation, not only 
 by putting us out of covenant with God, and ex- 
 posing us to His wrath, but by weakening and de- 
 
 o 
 
194 LECTURE VI. 
 
 stroying our faith and assurance in Him. Faith 
 
 looks at our Saviour as our Advocate, not less than 
 our Judge. Disobedience in its first beginnings weak- 
 ens this holy confidence, and in its end destroys it. 
 At first it seems to us as if our Saviour's lovino- eve 
 was turned in sorrow and pity on His children as 
 they begin to go astray. He calls to them, and tries 
 to win them back ; but as sin follows on sin, and at 
 last the dark waters close over the soul, then the 
 wrath of the Judge seems to speak to us from the 
 eyes which to faith beam with love. We may still, 
 indeed, hold ourselves to be Christians, but it will 
 be in the spirit of bondage, not in the spirit of adop- 
 tion, whereby ice cry, Abba, Father. 
 
 And hence, combined with this sense of sin, there 
 must be that answer of a good conscience which seems 
 at first sight to be incompatible with it: it seems a 
 hard saying, that we must be sinners, and yet must be 
 saints: and yet so it is; though one of these truths 
 or the other is lost sight of in too manv religious 
 systems of the present day. Even supposing the two 
 were to us incompatible, both are laid down in Scrip- 
 ture, and therefore must find a place in any true 
 portraiture of our faith. But they are not only not 
 incompatible, but are even closely connected ; for 
 the answer of a good conscience is not the con- 
 sciousness of any excellence in ourselves, or of our- 
 selves, but of our will being in subjection to the 
 Holy Spirit; free from the dominion, though not 
 free from the presence of sin. In ourselves we are 
 woak. blind, easilv deceived, full of evil desires 
 
LECTURE VI. 195 
 
 and lusts, disinclined to real good, and therefore 
 sinful ; in almost every thing we do even well, we 
 can trace either the impulses of evil overruled by 
 grace, or the motions of grace opposed and hindered 
 by the flesh. All that our conscience can tell us of 
 any good in us is, that we are yielding ourselves to 
 Him who is perfect good, as far as our weakness 
 will admit : and therein are by Him kept from 
 much that is evil, and enabled to do something 
 that is good, though imperfectly, and even sinfully 
 in respect of the element of sin, which our 
 fleshly nature introduces into all we do: and this 
 may easily be tested by the experience of any one 
 who takes the trouble to analyse his heart and ac- 
 tions. Thus the answer of a good conscience, the 
 actual deeds of a holy life, so far from contradicting 
 our sense of sin, do in reality set it forth and illus- 
 trate it; for our holiness is sin overpowered by grace. 
 And further, we must distinguish between those 
 which are called sins of infirmity : which even where 
 the Spirit is in power, spring up from the weakness, 
 or weariness, or carelessness, or hastiness of human 
 nature; and those which come from the heart; where 
 the Spirit is absent and the flesh reigns supreme. 
 The one sort do not destroy our assurance, for if we 
 say we are free from them, the truth is not in us. 
 The other sort, according to their degree and fre- 
 quency, are signs of our falling or having fallen from 
 a state of grace a . 
 Nor, again, can this assurance be generally so coni- 
 
 a Whitehall Sermons, on "Sins of Infirmity," p. i iq, sqq. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LECTURE VI. 
 
 plete but that some doubt must yet remain ; not, in- 
 deed, doubt of God's mercy and love, or of our having 
 been called by Him to the adoption of sons, but of 
 our being able to continue stedfast unto the end : 
 perfect love, indeed, casteth out fear ; but where in 
 this life shall we find perfect love ? St. Paul, when 
 speaking of himself or to others, counts not himself 
 or them to have apprehended, but presses forward 
 towards the prize, and urges them so to run that 
 they obtain. 
 
 We must, indeed, ever doubt, when we look at 
 ourselves, and think on the many temptations which 
 beset us ; the evil which is around, ready to lead us 
 wrong ; the evil which is within, ready to follow 
 therein. We must ever distinguish between the doubt 
 which arises from this sense of our own frailty and sin, 
 and that which springs from the secret conviction that 
 in our hearts and lives we are God's enemies rather 
 than his children ; that we are walking after the 
 flesh, and not after the Spirit : the one brightens 
 into hope ; the other deepens into fear: the one is the 
 fruit of holy humility, and that distrust of ourselves 
 which is part of our assurance in Christ; the other 
 is the sentence of conscience, in anticipation of the 
 day of judgment, when the Saviour will say to those 
 who work iniquity, Depart from me, I know you not. 
 
 And I would again remind you that assurance is 
 not always the same in kind or degree to all; the ele- 
 ments are variously mixed. In one soul, the witness 
 of our own spirit, the deep energies of a spiritualized 
 reason, or the sensible emotions of spiritualized feel- 
 
LECTURE VI. 197 
 
 ings, will be most prominent, though not to the 
 exclusion of the answer of a good conscience. Others 
 will commit the keeping of their souls to Him in 
 well doing: not trusting therein, or priding themselves 
 therein, but blessing God for that they can in their 
 lives of Christian faith find that sufficient evidence of 
 their being Christ's which they in vain look for, and 
 perhaps long for, in their reason or their feelings. 
 
 And as this assurance must vary in kind and de- 
 gree in different sorts of men, so must it also in dif- 
 ferent stages of life. In early childhood, when the 
 soul first learns to trust in Christ crucified, and to 
 look up to Heaven as its home : while the evil of the 
 world, with its selfish pleasures and unworthy tempt- 
 ations, is yet hid from our eyes — we are able to rest 
 with undoubting confidence on the truths which we 
 have heard and received. The child rests in his 
 Father's bosom, in love and hope. As life calls 
 the youth or man into the busy temptations and dis- 
 tractions of life, as new pleasures solicit him, new 
 desires unfold themselves, he cannot but fear for 
 himself, lest he be led away to destruction, as thou- 
 sands have been, and are, before our very eyes. Here 
 his assurance will show itself to him in an ever pre- 
 sent belief of the realities of his spiritual existence, 
 a deep sense of his own unworthiness : in earnest 
 trust in Christ ; earnest seeking after and use of 
 grace : an earnest performance of the duties of love 
 towards God and man : in an earnest and fearful 
 struggle against those things which will bring him 
 into captivity to the law of the members, and turn 
 him from that love and grace which he is gratefully 
 
198 LECTURE VI. 
 
 conscious have hitherto held him up. And as he thus 
 goes on in life, his assurance increases day by day. 
 As each temptation resisted, each sinful desire sub- 
 dued, each duty performed, bears witness to the pre- 
 sence of the Holy Spirit within, something is daily 
 added to his hope, as the strong man stores up the 
 spoil from the battle, or the covetous man adds gold to 
 his gains. And as hisfaith keeps its ground, and waxes 
 stronger, not only will his present security in Christ 
 increase, but it will throw itself more and more into 
 the future : so that at the last the -Spirit does com- 
 pletely bear witness with his spirit, and he looks for 
 death as the messenger which is to carry him to his 
 rest first, and then to his crown ; as he traces through 
 life the predestinating will of God leading and hold- 
 ing him up by mercies and by trials, his faith brightens 
 into undoubting assurance and almost fearless hope, 
 and the old man once more trusts as the loving, fear- 
 less, child. The hill, which, when he began his journey 
 seemed so far off, is now brought within his sight, 
 and he can almost see the walls and count the towers 
 of the heavenly Jerusalem ; not that he is even yet 
 content with his faith or his assurance; he whose faith 
 and assurance are strongest knows most surely that 
 if they seem strong enough, if they do not increase, 
 they are insecure and unreal: inexpressibly thankful 
 that he sees so much, that he can hope so much, he 
 is still yearning, still praying to see more, still striving 
 to hope more ; and this is the gift of God to the 
 obedient faith of the godly; — how different from the 
 wages «»f sin to the sinner ! how different from the 
 struggles of death-bed repentance ' 
 
LECTURE VI. 199 
 
 And if we wish that this assurance shall wait on us, 
 either in our active life or in our quiet age, or on 
 our death-bed, come when it will, we must recollect 
 that as our assurance must spring from the death of 
 Christ for us sinners, so whatever sin weakens or 
 destroys our personal union with Him, in the same 
 degree weakens or destroys our assurance. Falling 
 away from a godly childhood to a godless youth- 
 hood ; wilful, beloved, unrepented sins; nay, even 
 sins of infirmity if not repented of and watched ; 
 self-indulgence; amusements, if they degenerate into 
 self-indulgence and luxury and forgetfulness of our 
 calling and election — all such energies of the flesh 
 coming over our souls, and wrapping them in dark- 
 ness, hide Christ from our view, as the mists which rise 
 from earth obscure the glorious sun. If we find our- 
 selves forgetting our Christian profession as embodied 
 in our baptismal vows ; if we find ourselves deaf to 
 those warnings which the Holy Spirit gives us by our 
 reason, our memory, our hope; if we find ourselves 
 unwilling or unable to pray; if we feel a secret wish 
 to turn from the holy communion ; if the high and 
 noble motions and desires of the Spirit seem strange 
 and foolish to us ; if we love to explain away the 
 higher and nobler functions of the Christian life, we 
 may fear lest the axe be laid to the root of the 
 tree ; for we may be sure that we are not re- 
 newed in the spirit of our mind ; that we have not 
 put on the new man, which after God is created in 
 riqhteousness and true holiness. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 Ephesians iv. 23, 24. 
 
 Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye 
 put on the new man, which after God is created in 
 righteousness and true holiness. 
 
 1 HE blessings which wait upon the Christian are 
 not confined to the future ; even in this life he has 
 an inestimable advantage over other men. While 
 they are obliged to wait for their happiness upon 
 the tide of human affairs — to be humble suitors to 
 the world for what it has to give, the Christian rides 
 triumphantly over the troublesome waves, and uses 
 the world as his servant instead of bowing down to 
 it as his master. That which is commonly most 
 valued and sought for in life has for him but a value 
 and an interest as it subserves the higher interests 
 in which and for which he has his being. His 
 whole course is a puzzle to the man of the world ; 
 it seems trackless and aimless ; but in reality his 
 path, though unseen save by the spiritual eye, un- 
 known save to the spiritual mind, is far more marked 
 and certain than any of the highways of life — more 
 
LECTURE VII. 201 
 
 secure too and more happy ; for from every step he 
 takes, instead of care and vexation there spring up 
 joy and peace ; fleshly sorrows do not destroy his 
 peace of mind, fleshly trials do not weary him ; they 
 are but petty annoyances, which are scarcely felt by 
 those who are travelling with eager and certain hope 
 towards a long-desired much-loved home, in company 
 with a much-loved all-trusted guide — he is walking 
 not after the flesh, but after the spirit. 
 
 When we look into the nature and origin of 
 this spiritual life, from which alone, as we have 
 seen, springs the assurance necessary to justifying 
 faith, we shall find that most if not all of the con- 
 flicting views on this subject are really embodied in 
 the comprehensive faith and definite teaching of our 
 Church. Each of these views by itself takes some 
 particular aspect, some particular part of the spiritual 
 life, some particular stage of the spiritual growth, 
 as the complete and only development of which the 
 man in Christ is capable ; as if a physician were to 
 draw his science from one class of patients alone, 
 and to suppose that death was in all cases produced 
 by the same causes, and to be met by the same 
 remedies. 
 
 In considering the beginnings of the spiritual life, 
 we must try to trace how the Spirit works herein ; 
 for whatever degree of religious perfection we may 
 attain unto, it is solely by His dwelling in us as the 
 Spirit of life, and by His omnipotent power mould- 
 ing what we are or what we have to the work of our 
 calling ; hence the motions of our merely rational 
 being give us a very inadequate idea of the motions 
 
202 LECTURE VII. 
 
 of our spiritual being ; so the various powers of the 
 physical world — the gigantic forces of steam — the 
 irresistible strength of water — the subtle fluid of 
 electricity, are by themselves powerless for the pur- 
 poses of man for which they now seem designed ; 
 but when the spirit of man takes possession of them, 
 working in and by them, then do they assume 
 almost the energies of life, the functions of animate 
 beings ; they seem by their own inherent power to 
 produce results which affect the destinies of the 
 whole world, and which were undreamt of till human 
 invention made them what they are ; their full nature 
 is only known by viewing them through the medium 
 of human genius and skill. Thus if we wish to 
 know the powers of the spiritual life, we must see 
 how the Holy Spirit acts upon and directs the various 
 parts of our nature, which without Him have no life 
 in them. 
 
 Now one function of the Holy Spirit in making 
 us spiritually alive is to impress upon the soul a con- 
 viction of the truth of the Christian Revelation, so 
 as either to give the general desire for salvation a 
 definite direction towards Christ, or to awaken that 
 desire by making us feel that Christ has died for us. 
 In the early church this conviction of the truth of 
 Christianity was sometimes impressed upon willing 
 men by supernatural signs and wonders, as in the 
 case of Cornelius : but now, it is generally by the 
 word, the foolishness of preaching and teaching, that 
 the Spirit works in putting before us the various 
 mysteries and promises and precepts of the Gospel. 
 And without doubt those who listen fo Scripture 
 
LECTURE VII. 203 
 
 with attentive and willing hearts do feel therein the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit working- upon them, 
 and creating in their souls spiritual desires and 
 counsels : the word preached can scarcely fail to 
 be unto them a well of water springing up unto 
 everlasting life, food come down from heaven ; for 
 we must bear in mind that the words of the Bible 
 are in outward form alone the words of man ; 
 within they are the very breath of the Spirit speak- 
 ing through human lips. Where this word is re- 
 ceived as God's word, there it naturally works as of 
 God to the quickening of our souls ; and thus are 
 Christians said to be begotten of the word ; hence 
 the preaching of the Gospel is in one view the com- 
 mencement of the spiritual life. 
 
 But this does not supersede Baptism ; for the 
 spiritual life cannot actually, or properly speaking, 
 begin, till we have been taken out of the state of 
 nature into grace by the formal acceptance and ap- 
 plication to ourselves of the merits of Christ ; and 
 hence when the believing child of Adam has in 
 Baptism been definitely admitted to the place and 
 privileges of a Christian, has therein been sacra- 
 mentally and figuratively, though for spiritual pur- 
 poses really, buried into His death, then does the 
 Holy Spirit coincidently with this death of the old 
 man come into our souls as the Spirit of the new 
 man. A new birth takes place; we are born again, 
 in that by this indwelling of the Spirit we have 
 new powers and tendencies proper for the life of 
 the Christian, as in our natural birth we have the 
 
204 LECTURE V1J. 
 
 powers and tendencies proper for the life of the 
 man ; and thus are we born again in Baptism — thus 
 is Baptism the commencement of the spiritual life. 
 
 But the nature and functions of this Sacrament 
 are so manifold, and so much confused in the theo- 
 logical disputes of the day, that it is necessary to 
 examine this rather more closely, and to distinguish 
 between the essence of Baptism and its antecedents 
 and results : the former will be in every case the 
 same, the latter will vary somewhat according to 
 persons and circumstances. 
 
 And firstly, we learn from Scripture that in Bap- 
 tism there is remission of sins through the applica- 
 tion of Christ's merits by faith ; the believer is 
 therein identified with Christ, and being spiritually 
 nailed with Him to the cross, pays thereon the 
 penalty of his sins both original and actual ; so that, 
 secondly, his relation to God is changed, he is no 
 longer an enemy and rebel, but a son and a coheir 
 with Christ. And thirdly, the old man, whereby he 
 was held in captivity to sin 1 , that whereby sin was 
 his master, being dead, he is now set free to work 
 things pleasing and acceptable to God, and is bound 
 not to allow Satan to regain his dominion over him. 
 And fourthly, when he is thus freed from the 
 dominion of sin, there rises up from the grave of the 
 old man, by the power of the resurrection of Christ, 
 the new man, after the pattern of Christ, that is, 
 the Spirit of God clothing Himself upon our natural 
 being; and if we were at liberty to follow out the 
 a Rom. vii. 6. 
 
LECTURE VII. 205 
 
 figurative reasoning strictly, we should say that, the 
 old man being thus dead, the evil lusts which belong 
 to the old man would wholly perish ; but Scripture 
 tells us they remain, and therefore we see that this 
 logically true analogy cannot be carried further ; the 
 evil tendencies are still in us, but in consequence of 
 the power of grace they are not the supreme or active 
 principles as before. But the existence of evil within 
 us is not incompatible with a spiritual state, for 
 even before the Fall, Eve, as well as Adam, was liable 
 to evil desires, and by admitting them fell. Yet 
 Satan is no longer our tyrant ; he comes again only 
 as the cunning tempter, trying to seduce us into 
 allowing him to regain his throne. 
 
 And if we look to the conditions of Baptism being 
 thus effectual unto our partaking of the sanctifying 
 and regenerating influences of the Spirit, we shall 
 see that in the adult at least there must be a definite 
 sense and weariness and dislike of sin — a belief in 
 and acceptance of Christ as the sacrifice for sin, as 
 the Mediator and Priest between God and man, — a 
 renunciation of ourselves and our works — and a 
 general belief in the promises and mysteries of re- 
 velation, as far as they have by the ministry of the 
 word been brought before us. There need not in- 
 deed be good works, for of these in their Christian 
 sense the man is not yet capable ; and in their hea- 
 then sense God may have drawn him to Himself 
 without them ; a man may turn to God in heart 
 and desire, and straightway be baptized, as in the 
 case of St. Paul and others, of whom we read in 
 
206 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Scripture ; but there must always be that change in 
 our notions of our nature, our good, our pleasures, our 
 happiness — in our views of the world and its belong- 
 ings ; of ourselves, our aims and destinies, which is 
 usually termed repentance — and where this repent- 
 ance whereby we forsake sin, and this faith whereby 
 we steadfastly believe the promises of God, are pos- 
 sible, and as far as they are possible, there are they 
 requisite before a man can be justified, and therefore 
 of course before he can be born again unto newness 
 of life by water and the Spirit. 
 
 So again in an adult the results are immediate 
 and sensible, unless there be in him something which 
 hinders the proper operation of the sacrament, so that 
 it becomes merely a fruitless outward sign, without 
 any inward grace : whatever he has, it is clothed 
 upon by the Spirit and turned to God ; his powers 
 and tendencies of mind and heart, being in full 
 activity, straightway move in the new and hea- 
 venly path which is opened for them ; his reason 
 apprehends Christ; his will obeys Him; his ima- 
 gination passes to the invisible world ; his desires 
 and hopes rise to heaven ; old things have passed 
 away, and he is become a new creature, in active 
 possession of those spiritual powers which have 
 been engrafted on his natural being in its full deve- 
 lopement and strength ; he thinks, reasons, desires, 
 acts as a man born again of Christ into a new sphere 
 of desire, thought, and action ; his regeneration may 
 be tested in his life and conversation. 
 
 But where neither these conditions nor these 
 
LECTURE VII. 207 
 
 results are possible, there of course they are not re- 
 quired before nor to be looked for after the ordi- 
 nance ; and therefore in the baptism of infants this 
 regeneration is the sole gift and act of God ; His 
 sole gift not only in the sense of our having done 
 nothing to procure or deserve it, but without any 
 desire, wish, belief, preceding on the part of the 
 recipient. Nor can its results be visible or tested by 
 thought and action, because the child has not yet 
 begun to think or act, at least so as to be discernible 
 to us. And this brings me to a part of the subject 
 which cannot be approached without trembling, lest 
 I should add fuel to the fire, even while wishing to 
 do something towards extinguishing it. 
 
 And first, it will I presume be allowed, that where- 
 ever Baptism is spoken of in Scripture in connection 
 with the new birth, there is no limitation excepting 
 infants from its operation ; we must see whether 
 there is any Scriptural warrant for limiting it more 
 than it is limited in Scripture ? 
 
 I cannot help thinking that the objections to in- 
 fant regeneration arise partly from applying human 
 reasoning to Scripture revelation, and partly from 
 supposing that certain Scripture truths are incompa- 
 tible with the doctrine, and therefore prove it to be 
 unscriptural. I believe it will be found, that in 
 reality each and all have an independent place in 
 Scripture, as the facts which they represent have a 
 definite function in our salvation ; are each and all 
 taught in the Bible as they are recognised in the 
 comprehensive faith of our church. I cannot, for 
 instance, see any reason why the Scripture language 
 
208 LECTl \i E VI I. 
 
 on Baptism should be explained away or limited 
 from any jealousy lest it should interfere with that 
 personal religion which is taught in every page of 
 the Bible. Baptismal regeneration, so far from 
 excluding or neutralizing any one requisite of spi- 
 ritual life, does in reality point to, and enforce 
 them. There can be no stronger reason for living 
 spiritually than having from the beginning received 
 spiritual life. There is much more danger lest per- 
 sons should fancy themselves relieved from the obli- 
 gations to this Divine life, from supposing that their 
 new birth is something yet to come. 
 
 Nor is there any weight in an argument which 
 attempts to overthrow the doctrine in question by 
 saying that, as no one can be regenerate without 
 faith, and infants are not capable of having faith, 
 therefore they cannot be regenerate ; this reasoning 
 is fallacious. By an exactly similar argument it 
 might be said, No one can be saved without faith ; 
 infants cannot have faith; and therefore infants can- 
 not be saved — a conclusion which I need not occupy 
 your time by disproving. The position on which 
 the argument is founded must be qualified in order 
 to be true; no one who is capable of faith can be 
 regenerate or saved without it — and the bear- 
 ing of the one premiss thus stated is evidently 
 destroyed by the other. 
 
 The reasoning, such as it is, might easily be turned 
 against those who introduce it, by saying that no one 
 can be saved who is not regenerate ; and therefore 
 baptised infants, being saved* 1 , must be regenerate. 
 
 8 See the Rubric at t lie end of the Baptismal Service. 
 
LECTURE Vll. 209 
 
 But how are they able to assert that a child has 
 not faith ? Who shall tell what are the secret motions 
 of an infant soul, where the Holy Spirit deigns to 
 dwell? Who shall say what visions of heavenly 
 things float across it — visions which, if they exist at 
 all, are not the less clear or less glorious because 
 the reason has not yet begun to stir, or because the 
 world of sense has not yet sullied the mirror ? Who 
 shall say what visions crossed the souls of those 
 whom Christ blessed b ? who shall say what is in the 
 soul of the poorest and weakest infant ? Ask Philo- 
 sophy, she is dumb ; ask your own memories, and 
 they answer not. 
 
 But leaving this, on which it is impossible to 
 make any certain assertion on one side or the other, 
 we may allow for a moment that an infant cannot 
 have faith ; but this does not prove that an infant 
 cannot be regenerate ; for we must not confound 
 the power of life with the life itself; the energies 
 and functions of the body — feeling, motion, breathing 
 — with that which is the secret principle of them all, 
 the breath of life, whereby man becomes a living 
 soul. And so in spiritual things, we must not con- 
 found the principle or power of spiritual life with 
 the exhibitions and workings thereof, either within 
 or without. Regeneration is not faith or hope or 
 charity, but that which enables us to form and pos- 
 sess and enjoy those graces, that whence these graces 
 spring, the new power of life, the presence of the 
 Holy Spirit. The essence of this regeneration is, 
 
 t» Mark x. i 6. 
 P 
 
210 LECTU R E VTI. 
 
 that this Spirit takes possession of our being as far 
 as it is developed, and works in us as far as we are 
 capable of working ; and hence there is a material 
 difference between our judgment of the regeneration 
 of an adult and that of a child c . In the former case, 
 as I have before observed, the several parts and 
 powers, being more or less in active exercise, are 
 spiritualised coincidently with the act of regeneration: 
 so that faith, hope and charity must be in a greater 
 or less degree the immediate results and tests of the 
 inpouring of the Spirit, and hardly to he distin- 
 guished from it. But this is not the case, as far 
 as we can see, in the child ; he has little else than 
 faculties and tendencies which do not at once, and 
 may never, exhibit themselves in act ; and there- 
 fore the absence of visible fruits of the Spirit is 
 in this case no proof of the absence of His regene- 
 rating presence, as it would be in the case of the 
 adult. For an infant may be, as far as his undeve- 
 loped nature admits, as really a new creature as the 
 saint who dies in the full stature of Christ. The 
 powers of life are as real in the unconscious child as 
 in the giant beneath whose step the earth trembles. 
 Nor again, as it seems to me, is that argument 
 more conclusive, which is drawn from the actual 
 workings of the child's heart, when, as life goes on, 
 they become discernible. " This child," they say, 
 " cannot be regenerate : look at the actual motions 
 " of the unregenerate man in him ; look at the work- 
 
 c Sec Davison on Baptismal Regeneration. — Quarterly Review, 
 vol. XV. 475 sqq. 
 
LECTURE VII. 211 
 
 " ing of Adam's sinfulness ; self-will breaking out 
 " into disobedience ; watch his struggles to get his 
 " own way ; his wayward tempers, his selfishness, 
 " and even lusts making their presence felt before 
 " their time." Yes, my brethren, true enough ; but see 
 also how a careful parent, by prayer and watching, 
 can call into existence the struggles against self and 
 the flesh, whence in course of time result the Christ- 
 ian graces of self-denial and self-control ; how, even 
 in a wayward child, the energies of prayer, and of 
 love of Christ, a trust in Him, a desire for heaven, a 
 wish to be good for Christ's sake, can be awakened ; 
 whence comes this power of resistance to evil, of 
 motions towards good ? from nature ? surely not : 
 there is no principle in nature of denying self for 
 righteousness' sake, whatever there may be of form- 
 ing the virtues which are in fashion in the world. 
 Surely in this we can trace the operation of the 
 grace of God's ordinance, of which Scripture speaks, 
 the being born again of water and the Spirit ; the 
 renewal by the Spirit in the washing of regeneration, 
 working in him so as to bring the law of the mem- 
 bers into captivity to the law of the mind. 
 
 Others again point to baptized persons, and urge, 
 with but too much truth, that they belong not to 
 the new birth, but to the old : and were it true, that 
 the having been regenerated necessarily implies a 
 present spiritual life — were it true, that having 
 been once born again unto righteousness, we could 
 not become again dead in trespasses and sins, the 
 argument would be conclusive. The proper result 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LECTURE VII. 
 
 indeed, of having received the Spirit in infancy is. 
 that as our being expands day by day in the succes- 
 sive stages of life, each power, each tendency, each 
 affection, as it unfolds, should yield itself to the 
 Divine life, and become a Christian grace ; but we 
 have already seen that the human will is free to ac- 
 cept or reject the spiritual influences which are 
 offered to it, and that even after the entrance of the 
 Holy Spirit into the soul the flesh strives to turn 
 us from Him to itself : and therefore we cannot 
 argue, from the present carnal life of any baptized 
 person, that he lias never received the new birth 
 unto faith and good works, any more than we can 
 argue from a man's sickness or death that he never 
 was born. 
 
 It is, however, urged by some, that if the regene- 
 rating work of the Holy Spirit has taken place in 
 the soul, it is impossible to conceive that the work 
 of that infinite and omnipotent Being can ever be 
 undone : to these it is sufficient to answer, that it is 
 no sound theology to set aside the statements of 
 Scripture by reference to supposed possibilities or 
 impossibilities in spiritual things. The argument 
 they use lias essentially that rationalistic character 
 which they themselves would most shrink from ; it 
 may be used against the whole doctrine of all spi- 
 ritual agencies by those whom they would most 
 oppose. When we meet plain Scripture statements 
 by our impossibility of conception, we are putting 
 arms into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 Nor have the Scripture texts which are adduced 
 
LECTURE VII. 213 
 
 to support the notion that the regenerate cannot 
 fall, any real weight in this matter. Thus, to take 
 the most decided of them, that from the Epistle of 
 St. John — Whosoever is born of God doth not com- 
 mit sin, for His seed remaineth in him, and he 
 cannot sin because he is born of God A — it has been 
 shown by a variety of most trustworthy divines, on 
 grammatical as well as theological grounds, that it 
 does not bear the meaning which is sought to be 
 given it : and we may further observe, that the 
 seed of God is simply the Holy Spirit, which is 
 sown in the heart of the sons of God ; as long as 
 we continue to be sons of God, as long as that seed, 
 the Spirit, abides in reality and power, so long is 
 the man kept from sin ; not of course from those 
 sins which spring from the weakness of our nature, 
 and are therefore inseparable from our state here e , 
 but from those which spring from wilful rebellion, 
 and end in, or rather are spiritual death. Before 
 Satan can lead a child of the adoption into this sort 
 of iniquity, the will must be alienated from God ; 
 in wish he must have sinned, though not, perhaps, 
 in act : and thus is the process described by St. 
 James f ; first, a man is enticed of his own lust to 
 wish to disobey God, by a rebellious heart of un- 
 belief: the seed of God is blighted, the Holy Spirit 
 is unheard or despised ; then lust conceiveth ; the 
 desire of sin is matured into resolution and counsel; 
 and then after this cometh forth sin in act and com- 
 pletion. Thus it is true that a regenerate man does 
 d i John iii. 9. c 1 John i. 8. f James i. 13. 
 
214 LECTURE VII. 
 
 not fall from God as long as he submits himself to 
 the Spirit, that is, as long as he continues to be re- 
 generate ; but when the seed of God fails in him 
 through the preference of his will for selfish lusts, 
 then does he in the same degree cease to be regene- 
 rate, and falls away, not necessarily into, but at least 
 towards actual trespasses and deadly sin; still, as 
 was before observed, his ceasing to be regenerate does 
 not prove that he has never been regenerated. If a 
 man who had been once made alive had no cause to 
 fear spiritual death, there would be no such notions 
 or expressions in Scripture as being again dead in 
 trespasses and sins, or turning to old sins, or falling 
 away after having been made partakers of the Holy 
 Ghost f . 
 
 It may be said that there is danger lest a trust in 
 Baptismal Regeneration should deceive persons as 
 to their spiritual state, and make them slack in the 
 work of their salvation. This may be true ; but we do 
 not teach any one to trust to his baptism for his 
 spiritual state ; this must be evidenced by the state 
 of his heart and the course of his life: still there 
 may be danger lest some may do so. This is a rea- 
 son for stating the doctrine clearly, and pointing out 
 in connection with it those other Scripture doctrines 
 which bear on the spiritual life, and which will se- 
 cure us from the expected danger : it can be no rea- 
 son for explaining away the doctrine altogether. 
 The self-wisdom of man needs perpetually to be re- 
 minded, that theologians and pastors have not to 
 coiil rive- ;i system of their own. but to use and ad- 
 
 Heb. vi. 4 . 
 
LECTURE VII. 215 
 
 minister a system which a higher wisdom than 
 theirs has put into their hands. 
 
 For if there is danger herein, there is wisdom 
 also ; and in this wisdom comfort and blessing ; for 
 I cannot but think that no small comfort and bless- 
 ing is missed by those who are unable to receive the 
 doctrine of the Regeneration of infants in Baptism : 
 surely, for any of us who are impressed with a sense 
 of the responsibility of training and teaching those 
 whom God has given us, who feel how weak are 
 our powers of instructing them properly in spi- 
 ritual things, it is no small blessing to know, on the 
 pledge and security, as it were, of Christ's ordained 
 Sacrament, that before those infant wills are able to 
 discern between good and evil — before they can fully 
 understand those holy lessons which we would fain 
 impress upon their inmost hearts — before they even 
 know whether there is a Holy Spirit or not — there 
 is a Power within moulding their unformed will, 
 making them understand those mysteries of life and 
 death which can be but faintly expressed in the most 
 earnest and powerful words : quickening their in- 
 stincts to see good ; making them shrink from evil ; 
 putting godly sorrow into their hearts when the old 
 man leads them wrong : it is true, that all this is in 
 miniature ; the evil is small, the tears soon dried, 
 the self-reproach soon forgotten ; but they are not 
 for that any less the work of the Spirit. So 
 again, when we have to cast them on the sea of 
 life, it is no small comfort to us to know, on 
 the security of Christ's ordained Sacrament, that 
 
216 LECTURE VII. 
 
 it is not our own strength or wisdom alone 
 which has been labouring for them, that thev mav 
 be able to li^ r e and die in the faith and fear of 
 Christ, and thus be partakers with us of the 
 resurrection unto everlasting life. We would lay 
 down our lives to save them, we would almost con- 
 sent for them to be anathema ; but in vain ; no 
 man may make agreement even for his child's soul. 
 No love, no care can shield them from the snares, 
 the temptations, the example, the ridicule of the 
 evil world. We know that the lessons of faith, 
 hope, charity, if merely impressed upon their me- 
 mory, or even engrafted on their reason, by our 
 careful teaching alone, will pass away before the 
 fiery darts of the enemy, as the image of heaven in 
 the morning lake before the shadows of a stormy 
 day. What a comfort for us to know, on the secu- 
 rity of Christ's ordained sacrament, that if by God's 
 blessing they have laid to heart those things which 
 they have been taught for their souls' health, the 
 religious principles which are within them are not 
 the result of our weak teaching and training, but of 
 the new birth unto righteousness; of the indwelling 
 power of the Spirit, who has impressed and confirmed 
 in their souls those lessons which we ignorantly 
 and weakly, though lovingly, have endeavoured to 
 teach them. 
 
 But then it must not be to us a mere doctrine to 
 talk about, or preach about, or argue about, to 
 others ; it must be to us an household heartfelt 
 truth, i(» guide, comfort, help us in the spiritual 
 
LECTURE VII. 217 
 
 nurture of those souls whom God lias intrusted to 
 our care ; to guide us really and definitely in our 
 practical views and treatment of them, as having 
 great treasures, though in earthen vessels ; causing 
 us to keep in mind that the great secret of spiritual 
 growth, and therefore of continuance in spiritual 
 life, is submission to the Spirit ; that as in the man 
 so in the child the Spirit is quenched by following 
 his own will ; that to check this dangerous impulse 
 of their own wills, we must work watchfully and 
 humbly with the Spirit; in trying to fill the opening 
 mind with divine things and principles ; praying 
 to God and trusting to the Spirit to engraft them 
 spiritually in the soul ; to lead them by gentle 
 firmness from self to God ; to teach them to find 
 the highest self in Christ ; their highest virtue in 
 yielding themselves to grace; to form in them a 
 principle of obedience, not merely of obedience to 
 their parents and masters without, but obedience to 
 the Divine Guide within. 
 
 And very far it is from our Church's teaching to 
 make any one contented with his spiritual state or 
 progress, because he believes that he was born 
 again in Baptism. Our Church teaches us to seek 
 for and to pray for daily renewal; continual mor- 
 tification of the flesh ; daily increasing submission 
 to the Spirit ; a daily increasing power of good 
 works ; a daily increasing heavenly-mindedness ; a 
 daily increasing distrust of ourselves and trust in 
 Christ ; in short, a daily increase of real, lively, 
 personal religion. Baptismal regeneration does not 
 
218 LECTURE VII. 
 
 imply that a man is now alive because he was 
 alive once, or that nothing more remains to be done. 
 Regeneration is but the beginning to which the rest 
 of our lives here should be conformable. Even after 
 the new birth in Baptism we are taught that we have 
 yet to put on the new man ; to pass by the successive 
 stages of spiritual growth from spiritual childhood to 
 spiritual manhood. And for this our spiritual man- 
 hood all the several instruments of the Spirit are in 
 their proper degree and office necessary ; the Word, 
 the ministrations and teaching of theChurch, the Holy 
 Communion, in short, all those things which God has 
 ordained as means towards the development of our 
 spiritual life. Even after Baptism we may be said 
 to be continually begotten of the word, inasmuch as 
 in those who are alive in Christ, the word, which 
 is a mere dead letter to those who are dead, conti- 
 nually produces fresh stages of growth — spiritual 
 thoughts, feelings, desires. All these are so far 
 from being superseded by Baptismal Regeneration, 
 that they belong to it as its proper results, lacking 
 which, it is as something which has passed away 
 without leaving any trace behind. 
 
 And as Baptismal Regeneration in no way super- 
 sedes personal religion or spiritual growth, or the 
 other means of grace according to the nature and 
 power of each, so neither is it opposed to conver- 
 sion. This undoubtedly has a definite place and 
 office assigned to it by Scripture: but we may not 
 extend this place and office beyond its scriptural 
 limits. To those in whom, by God's blessing, their 
 
LECTURE VII. 219 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration has brought forth its proper 
 results, there is no need of conversion, except in the 
 sense of that daily growth, wherein the most advanced 
 Christian is daily advancing nearer to God, daily 
 turning more and more from earth to Christ ; but 
 in the sense in which conversion is often used in 
 modern theology, as the beginning of spiritual life, 
 it is clearly inapplicable to those who have grown 
 up into Christ from the beginning, or even to those 
 who later in life are striving to make their calling 
 and election sure. 
 
 But where these fruits of the Spirit are not — 
 where a person who has once received the gift of 
 grace for the work is nevertheless living in careless 
 ignorance or infidelity, or in careless formality, 
 having a name to live even while dead — then there 
 is as much need of conversion as of Baptism itself. 
 If, as children, our own wills lead us instead of the 
 Spirit ; if our hearts with their impulses and issues 
 are moulded by the principles, fashions, maxims of 
 men and not by the laws of God, then the precious 
 gift we have received is passing away, and we fall 
 into the old condemnation, and we need conversion. 
 If as men we live merely a natural life, excelling, it 
 may be, in our several paths — being merely philoso- 
 phers, statesmen, moralists, teachers, merchants, and 
 not Christian philosophers, Christian statesmen, 
 Christian moralists, Christian teachers, Christian 
 merchants — then are we strangers to grace, even 
 while belonging seemingly, through our baptism, to 
 the number of the elect, and living within the dis- 
 pensations of grace, and we need conversion. It 
 
220 LECTURE VII. 
 
 need hardly be said what is the effect of grosser 
 sin ; one might as well say that the thunderbolt 
 kills the tree it strikes, or that the body is dead 
 when the soul has departed from it ; and it is im- 
 possible not to see that this is the state of a very 
 large proportion of baptized persons. 
 
 And yet sometimes such an one is not dead, but 
 sleepeth; Christ raises him up by some of those min- 
 istrations which are always at work among men, some 
 for one sort, some for another : comprehensive faith 
 does not dogmatize as to the precise way in which 
 life is restored to those who have lost it ; we know 
 that the hearts of men are as various as their paths 
 in life, and that God has, in his infinite mercy and 
 wisdom, provided means of restoration for all who 
 desire it. Our Church takes Baptism as it is in 
 Scripture, without limiting or extending or alter- 
 ing either itself or its privileges. We follow Scrip- 
 ture in teaching that Baptism is necessary for all, 
 and that certain spiritual gifts are vouchsafed 
 therein to all who receive that sacrament according 
 to Christ's institution. We follow Scripture in 
 laying down the necessity of conversion for all who 
 are not spiritual ; and while we hold out the vari- 
 ous means and ministrations which are provided by 
 God as well for the refreshment of the strong as the 
 recovery of the weak, we do not venture to lay 
 down one universal rule for the awakening again 
 unto life. We receive and teach them all as far 
 as they are found in Scripture; or even in the 
 religious experiences of those who having been 
 again dead have again been made alive, as far as 
 
LECTURE VII. 221 
 
 these are confirmed, or at least not contradicted 
 by the revealed truth. 
 
 Thus it is not denied that to many persons the 
 new creation unto holiness comes into active being 
 at a later period : nor can there be any doubt but 
 that many, especially among the uneducated classes, 
 have dated their becoming spiritually alive from 
 some definite moment, in which God's mercy has 
 visited them ; from some startling warning, or by 
 some sudden and strange accident ; sometimes even 
 the visions of a disordered imagination ; or some 
 chapter in the Bible ; or some soul-stirring dis- 
 course which placed things in a new light, and 
 awakened feelings of self-reproach akin to despair ; 
 and then, when at the same time Christ and His 
 promises were brought before them, they hastened to 
 Him as men in a shipwreck hasten to the boat 
 which is to save them ; old things in that short 
 space of time have so far passed away, that what was 
 their best is now such no longer ; what a few hours 
 before they did not know or care for, they now seek 
 and desire ; the sins they loved, they now hate and 
 fear; what they hated, they now love. There is 
 nothing contrary to Scripture in this ; it is not in 
 all cases mere self-deceit or delusion. 
 
 Let us take a case to illustrate what has been 
 said : a man, who has been long living in wilful 
 sin or carelessness, has the promises of God and 
 the sure mercies of Christ, the terrors of the Lord, 
 set before him in words which have the breath 
 of the Spirit, and to which he cannot help listening 
 
222 LECTURE VII. 
 
 in spite of himself: ;>s he listens dark images <>l 
 wrath, rendered still more striking by the light 
 which is cast on them by the star of mercy shining 
 from afar, throng his soul ; the fear of hell awakens 
 him; he ventures to look into himself; and there 
 the busy crowd of sins moving to and fro on their 
 several ministries of evil disclose themselves to him. 
 He sees himself as he is in God's sight, and he cries 
 out in his fear, " Who shall save me ?" Christ the 
 sacrifice answers, Come unto me, all that travail 
 and are heavy laden ; the sweet sense of hope, of 
 gratitude, comes across his soul ; he believes that 
 Christ did die to save him; his eyes are opened, and 
 he sees, on the one hand, the bottomless pit, with his 
 own shadow reflected therein, and on the other, his 
 Lord nailed to the cross, and bearing his punishment 
 for him, and he turns to Him : it is as if a leper who, 
 by some strange lack of sense and reason, had long 
 walked among men ignorant and careless of his 
 disease, were suddenly to have his eyes opened, and 
 seeing the Healer by his side, were to say, " Lord, 
 if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Does our 
 Church a teach us to doubt what our Saviour's reply 
 would be ? Who can doubt, who can teach others to 
 doubt, whether Christ would accept him? who would 
 teach such a one to expect to be rebuffed ? Does 
 our Church venture to keep out of sight the Scrip- 
 ture promise, that though his sins be as scarlet, yet 
 shall they be made as white as snow? Far from it: 
 we bless God for His mercy thus shown to him and to 
 a See The Exhortation in the Commination Service. 
 
LECTURE VII. 223 
 
 us. We do not strive so much to turn bis eyes to God's 
 past mercies, vouchsafed to him at Baptism, as if lie 
 were still alive in them, but to the fresh mercies of 
 spiritual life now vouchsafed to him. But still it 
 must be remembered that such a one is, at the best, 
 in no better or more spiritual state than he would 
 have been, had he made use of God's former mercies 
 in Baptism ; than those who have submitted them- 
 selves to the Spirit from their infancy ; in many, 
 and those not unimportant respects, he is worse 1 '. 
 
 For we must distinguish the pardon of past sins, 
 and the beginnings of spiritual life which are con- 
 nected therewith, from the restoration of that life 
 to its full functions and powers ; that holiness, in 
 short, without which we are told no one can see the 
 Lord. While therefore we hold that in such a con- 
 version the spiritual life is revived, we do not 
 therefore conclude that it is developed to the full 
 stature of the man in Christ. The work is begun, 
 but it is not therefore completed ; conversion is not 
 final, any more than Baptismal regeneration ; and 
 moreover, the work of spiritual progress is more 
 difficult in the one case than the other. Has his 
 life left no traces behind ? has he nothing to do 
 which hitherto he has left undone? nothing to 
 undo which he has done ? his heart is in its full 
 strength, with its faculties, passions, active and 
 vigorous ; are they renewed by grace ? do his feel- 
 ings, thoughts, desires, ebb and flow with the Spirit? 
 have they thrown off their fleshly leaven ? are his 
 b See Whitehall Sermons, p. 101. 
 
224 LECTURE VII. 
 
 energies spiritual? is anger still J covetousness 
 motionless, lusts quenched ? does he in his daily life 
 serve the flesh or the Spirit? All this surely makes 
 the development of the spiritual life after a long 
 continuance in sin, even more difficult and uncertain 
 than it is in consequence of our natural corruption. 
 And does the sense of this very corruption of nature 
 make him more vigorous and determined in resist- 
 ing nature, and using grace ? or is it a mere cloke 
 for continuance in sin ? In good truth, it is to be 
 feared that the onesided view of conversion, wherein 
 the first moment of turning to God is every thing, 
 leaves many men more unconverted than they were 
 before. 
 
 Nor, again, can it be doubted that to many men 
 the work of conversion has been begun and perfected 
 by a more gradual process ; by the work of the Spirit in 
 a gradual repentance ; by a sorrowful recollection of 
 their baptismal vo" r s and privileges ; by the laying 
 aside one sin after another, from the principle of 
 formal obedience to God ; by an earnest use of the 
 means of grace. They gradually feel the emotions 
 and energies of the Spirit, and not merely His 
 counsels and promptings ; a lively sense of spi- 
 ritual blessings, the consolations of spiritual peace ; 
 and then, after a while, Christ discloses Himself 
 to them as their Saviour, their sacrifice, and wel- 
 comes them again to His bosom ; so that they find 
 themselves spiritually alive in Him, though not con- 
 scious of the exact time, nor even mode in which 
 the Holy Spirit of life first began to work in them. 
 
LECTURE VII. 225 
 
 And they have this advantage over the other sort, 
 in that they have in some degree snhdued the old 
 man, and thus done that which the others have yet 
 entirely to do. 
 
 Or, again, spiritual life may be rekindled by the 
 working of the Spirit in the personal ministrations 
 of one of God's servants : by his labour in teaching, 
 his remonstrances, entreaties, warnings, example ; and 
 it is in this sense that St. Paul speaks of himself as 
 travailing of certain of his converts till Christ be 
 born again in them !l : though the confusion of 
 metaphor in this passage scarcely allows of its 
 having any direct bearing on the question, beyond 
 the fact, that the personal labours and prayers of 
 the Apostle had in some way or other been effectual 
 in promoting the spiritual life of those for whom he 
 laboured . 
 
 Thus do many things combine to produce arid keep 
 alive and restore that new man whereof we are speak- 
 ing ; and no one of these excludes the other. Regene- 
 ration in Baptism does not exclude what may be called 
 Regeneration in conversion, when it is needed, or the 
 begetting again by the Word, or by the labours of 
 God's servants, in whatever sense these are set forth 
 in Scripture : still less can any of these exclude 
 Baptism from the office which is given to it in Scrip- 
 ture without exception or limitation. 
 
 And we must not omit to notice a distinction be- 
 tween the Sacraments and the other means whereby, 
 as we have seen, certain spiritual emotions and 
 a Gal. iv. 19. 
 Q 
 
226 LECTURE VII. 
 
 energies are produced : and this distinction is 
 suggested by the objection which some make to 
 Baptismal Regeneration — that it is impossible to 
 conceive how water can produce the new birth. It 
 is true, it is beyond our conception ; it is the imme- 
 diate and (so to speak) the arbitrary working of 
 God's Spirit, according to His own good pleasure, 
 and above our conception, attached to this rite by 
 God in Scripture : its being beyond our conception 
 is a feature of its sacramental character. We can 
 tell how the Spirit works upon us in reading the 
 Scriptures, or hearing sermons, for instance ; the 
 connection can be traced: by exciting thoughts, hopes, 
 or fears, or some one or other of those feelings whence 
 human action springs : while in the Sacraments the 
 connection between the means used and the result 
 produced cannot be traced ; the operation is secret 
 and incomprehensible. The Spirit bloweth where it 
 listeth ; we cannot tell whence it cometh, except 
 where God has revealed it to us. And thus the ar- 
 gument brought against these especial means of grace 
 does in reality confirm our belief in them, and point 
 out, though not explain, their distinctive character. 
 After what has been said, I need not detain you 
 by pointing out at any length that Baptismal Rege- 
 neration does not shut out from forgiveness those who 
 have failed of that spiritual growth which is the 
 proper privilege and inheritance of every baptized 
 person : nor how such persons may regain what they 
 have lost or neglected. Let the Scripture speak for it- 
 self: I will arise and go to my Father, and will say 
 unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven. 
 
LECTURE VIL 227 
 
 and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
 Thy son. This is the first step towards recovery; and 
 it may he taken without hesitation or doubt, so it be 
 taken with childlike humility and confidence. There 
 is no sinner so lost but that he may go in faith and 
 repentance to Christ, and he will he accepted a ; he 
 will receive of the gift of the Spirit for the work 
 which is before him. Nor is there any delay in his 
 acceptance : if lie wishes for Christ, much more does 
 Christ yearn towards him. A penitent sinner may 
 be led by his natural temperament to take vengeance 
 on himself for the injuries formerly done to his soul : 
 but God does not require this of us; such severities 
 and outward acts of self-abasement are not, properly 
 speaking, acts of religion ; they are not necessary to 
 acceptance ; no long course of penitential discipline, 
 no fountains of tears before Christ will accept us, 
 and restore us to our privileges as seemeth to Him 
 best for us : the prodigal son had not to sit at his 
 father's door in sackcloth and ashes. No long course 
 of good works before Christ will accept us, and give 
 us fresh supplies of His Spirit : the prodigal son 
 had not to work in his father's fields as a hired ser- 
 vant, though he was willing to do so. But, on the 
 other hand, we may not think that a simple act of 
 belief will make us alive again ; for we have seen 
 that this belief is not faith, unless the Spirit be in 
 us : where the Spirit is not, there Christ is not ; 
 where Christ is not, the notion of our being spiritu- 
 ally alive because we believe in Christ, or because 
 
 a Whitehall Sermons, " There remaineth no more sacrifice for 
 sin," p. 59, sqq. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LECTURE VII. 
 
 we have been baptized as infants, or for any other 
 reason whatever, is simply a spiritual delusion, an act 
 of self-deceit. It is in vain for one who hath not Christ 
 to say that he hath life. Wherefore our church scrip- 
 tnrally limits Christ's mercy in pardoning and ab- 
 solving to them who both truly repent and unfeign- 
 ed ly believe. 
 
 It is true, that to many persons it would seem 
 waste of time and words to speak so much of the 
 spiritual life, of which so little is visible in com- 
 parison with that which is continually before us 
 in the varied affairs of men. It is as if one were to 
 bid us turn our eyes from a mighty river, with cities 
 on its banks and fleets on its waters, to contemplate 
 a rivulet, whose course can hardly be discerned. 
 And hence it is. I fear, little thought of even amongst 
 those to whom life presents itself as a battle-field 
 rather than a playground — as a sphere for serious 
 exertion rather than for self-indulgence. And for 
 this reason we must be careful to keep in mind, not 
 only the difference between the life of the Spirit and 
 the life of the flesh, but between the life of the 
 Spirit and what we may call the life of the rea- 
 son ; I mean, that life which a rational creature 
 would choose in preference to the life of sense : and 
 this all the more, because one is so easily and so 
 often mistaken for the other: because in their out- 
 ward appearance and acts they resemble one an- 
 other : and because so few live up even to the ra- 
 tional life, that those who do so are apt to fancy that 
 they have attained their highest perfection. In 
 reality, this rational life is as far below the spiritual 
 
LECTURE VII. 229 
 
 life as the animal life of the uneducated sensualist 
 is below the energetic life of the philosopher, or 
 statesman, or poet. This, indeed, may seem to open 
 a wide field for our highest powers — to promise 
 great and glorious results. The perfect man of an- 
 cient philosophy was, in many respects, a noble 
 character, and presents many points for our imita- 
 tion. But we, as Christians, have a more noble 
 perfection, a more excellent destiny, even in this 
 world. Our highest life is not merely the punc- 
 tual performance of duties or acts of love, in which, 
 like the rational life, it outwardly consists : but 
 Christ dwelling in us by that His spiritual pre- 
 sence, of which outward duties and acts are but the 
 reflections : it is hid with Christ in God, but it will 
 be seen when He who is our life shall appear. Not 
 that the rational and spiritual life are necessarily 
 opposed or incompatible; it is only when they are 
 separated that the difference between them appears, 
 and the different results which wait upon each be- 
 come seen : when united, as they ought to be, they 
 work together towards the same end, and to their 
 mutual increase. It is not possible for us, it is not 
 required, it would not be right, that we should 
 neglect the duties of individual and social life ; but 
 these, when they are all in all, have but a savour 
 unto death, as the body without the soul : while 
 to those who are spiritually alive, fresh life springs 
 up even from what by itself and in itself is lite- 
 less. There is much in the world, much in our 
 hearts, to make us neglect the spiritual life, to make 
 us lose sight of it, in the formal duties and pursuits 
 
230 LECTURE VII. 
 
 of life : but recollect, no amount of rational develop- 
 ment can supply the place of the life of the Spirit ; 
 no amount of temporal success can compensate 
 for spiritual death ; though each of these is, in 
 its proper degree and place, among the motives 
 which may animate us to labour and perseverance. 
 It is a legitimate object of your ambition, nay, it is 
 part of your spiritual duty, to develope the powers 
 which God has given you : it is a legitimate object of 
 your ambition, that you should hereafter direct the 
 destinies of empires, or be guides and lights among 
 men ; that you should have within your reach, and 
 be able to place within the reach of others, the 
 means of self-improvement and recreation ; that by 
 your progress in the arts and sciences you should 
 bring to light those blessings which God has pre- 
 pared for our comfort or use, and which may yet lie 
 hid in the secret treasuries of His natural world. 
 All these, and such as these, may stimulate your 
 exertions, so that you keep in mind the higher ob- 
 ject of a Christian's aims, and that which is to sanc- 
 tify all the rest — that object which, though capable 
 of almost infinite expansion, and placed before us in 
 the Bible under a vast variety of aspects, is yet 
 shortly stated in the Apostle's exhortation — that 
 speaking the truth in love, ye grow up into Him 
 in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: 
 from whom the whole body, fitly joined together 
 and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, 
 according to the effectual working in the measure 
 of every part, maheth increase of the body unto the 
 edifying of it, self in love. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Ephesians iv. 1 6. 
 
 From whom the whole bodly fitly joined together and 
 compacted by that which every joint supplieth, ac- 
 cording to the effectual working in the measure of 
 every part, makcth increase of the body unto the 
 edifying of itself in love. 
 
 IHAT there is nothing fixed in the affairs of men, 
 is an aphorism to which the history of the world, as 
 well as our own experience, bears abundant witness. 
 Various indeed have been the empires, languages, 
 customs, which the stream of time has reflected on 
 its bosom as it has silently glided by and left them be- 
 hind. The crumbling memorials of past ages, whether 
 in the silent ruins of some deserted city, or in the 
 crowded rooms of our museums ; new cities rising 
 up in desert places ; new inventions changing the 
 whole tone and destinies of nations; empires rising 
 and falling before our eyes ; our languages living 
 and dead ; the customs of the childhood and the age 
 of the present generation ; all repeat the same tale, 
 there is nothing fixed in the affairs of men. 
 
232 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 And yet it is not so universally true as it seems. 
 There is a kingdom, v. liich from its first institution, 
 though ever changing, yet remains unchanged ; ex- 
 isting, and ever to exist in some part of the earth 
 or other ; with the same powers and constitution, 
 governed by the same laws, preaching the same 
 word, administering the same blessings, performing 
 the same office, in the same Name and by the same 
 authority as when it first sprung into being by the 
 breath of the Spirit at the day of Pentecost. 
 
 Nor is this strange when it is remembered, that 
 this kingdom of Christ, the church, is no human in- 
 stitution, depending on the wisdom or skill, or even 
 consent of man. The breath of its life is that which 
 can never leave it, the presence of Christ the Lord. 
 Men indeed can leave it, cau withdraw from it their 
 support and protection ; but as long as any remain 
 who retain the faith once delivered to the saints as 
 it was delivered to them, so long will the church 
 have a visible place among men ; bearing witness by 
 the miracle of her own unchanged existence to her 
 divine original and foundation. 
 
 There are those who deny any visible church. 
 "The kingdom of God," they say. '• is within you." 
 And so it is ; there is a kingdom of God in the 
 soul of every true Christian. There sits God on the 
 throne of our hearts as a king in his palace, as a 
 Deity in his temple. There too by ITis side is the 
 Son, the Priest, the Sacrifice, the Intercessor; there 
 too the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Counsellor. 
 There arc faith, hope, charity, the princes and 
 
LECTURE VIII. 2SS 
 
 warriors of the kingdom : there are the reason, the 
 desires, the energies of the natural man, as the 
 subjects and ministers hastening in loyal obedience 
 to do their sovereign's will. There is indeed a 
 kingdom within ; woe for us if we know it not ; 
 but that does not prove that the kingdom without, 
 of which Scripture so often speaks, is a mere dream 
 and unreality, which has imposed upon the whole 
 world from our Saviour's day to the present : it does 
 not disprove that which Scripture tells us, that Christ 
 did institute a visible kingdom, with functions, mi- 
 nisters, sacraments, and has declared it should exist to 
 the end of the world. And if so, it must exist some- 
 where now ; and I need not remind you that, among 
 other unhappy differences, the question as to where 
 the church exists, and what is the nature thereof, 
 holds a very prominent place. 
 
 There are those who look upon the visible Church 
 as merely the creation of man ; merely composed of 
 a number of men professing, in some shape or other, 
 to be followers of and believers in Christ ; and thus 
 that any such assemblage of men can at their own 
 free will and pleasure assume an independent exist- 
 ence as a Church. Others, again, almost worship 
 it, as partaking of the Divine nature, second only 
 to the Divine Persons in the economy of salvation, 
 representing His will to the world in her formu- 
 laries and doctrines ; the mother of all Christians, 
 from whom all life flows to those whom God has 
 given into her bosom ; in no May depending for her 
 existence, on those who compose her, but solely on the 
 
2<M LECTURE VIII. 
 
 unchangeable life of Christ. The former would say, 
 that the Church only exists as made up of individual 
 Christians ; the latter, that individual Christians 
 have a spiritual existence only by virtue of their 
 corporate connection with the Church. 
 
 We may, I think, discern in a visible Church a 
 twofold character, each part of which is inseparable 
 from the other, so that if either is wanting we have 
 an incorrect idea of the whole. 1. It is outwardly 
 a congregation of men in the same place and time, 
 professing a common faith, joining in the acts of a 
 common worship, and hence varying from generation 
 to generation, according to the changes and chances 
 of this mortal life. And so far the opinion which 
 views it merely as an assemblage of Christians is 
 correct ; but this is not all. For 2ndly, it has an 
 abstract, though real, existence as the depositary of 
 God's word and Sacraments, in and by which the 
 Spirit works from hour to hour, and from generation 
 to generation, in the work of carrying out God's will 
 for the salvation of mankind ; and hence it is the 
 same in all ages, existing eternally, above and beyond 
 the particular individuals composing it from age to 
 age. 
 
 And thus, as in this body there is part changeable 
 and depending on man, part unchangeable and de- 
 pending on something above man, it follows that a 
 real Church must, in all its unchangeable points, be 
 the same now as it was in Apostolic times. It is 
 true that the whole face of the world is changed ; 
 generation after generation, congregation after con- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 235 
 
 gregatioii have passed away ; but still in its essential 
 points the Church now on earth is the same as that 
 in which Christ first gave authority to the Apostles. 
 Nor is it the same, merely by resemblance; but it 
 is the same Church, reproduced from day to day in 
 the congregations of successive ages. The ocean and 
 the seas, into which it divides itself, are continually 
 varying from age to age in their material com- 
 position ; fresh waters are ever pouring in to supply 
 the place of that which from time to time has been 
 drawn up to heaven ; and yet this mighty body 
 performs the same functions in the economy of the 
 visible world now, as it has performed from the 
 beginning ; it is the same as to the powers and the 
 laws which God has given it. And thus faith can 
 see in the visible Church now existing upon earth 
 the same body as there was eighteen hundred years 
 ago, having the same nature, and performing the 
 same functions, with the exception of those points 
 which arise directly from the necessities of ancient, 
 or the circumstances of modern times. With God 
 these eighteen hundred years are as nothing : hence 
 we have no reason to conclude, that in God's sight 
 there is any greater difference between the true 
 Church of to-day and the Church of the Apostles, 
 than between the Church of to-day and the Church 
 of to-morrow : or than between the Church in the 
 fellowship of which the last of the Apostles died, 
 and the Church in which, on the day after his death, 
 the Christians joined in blessing God for his depar- 
 ture. Whatever was requisite to the essential ex- 
 
236 LECTU RE VIII. 
 
 istence of the Church then must be requisite now ; 
 whatever ordinary powers and privileges the Church 
 
 had then, she must needs have now ; for what is 
 essential in the Church is not affected by the ac- 
 cident of time. Hence, when any body of Christians 
 desire to examine into or advance their claims to 
 be a branch of the original Church of Christ, the 
 safest plan is to inquire whether they would have 
 been taken for such in the Apostolic times ; and for 
 this it will be safest to refer to Scripture, though 
 there is not wanting historical evidence of another 
 kind, which might fairly be brought forward in this 
 matter, were it not that I think we find in Scrip- 
 ture itself sufficient indication of the truth. 
 
 In Scripture then, we find the Church as the 
 visible embodiment of Christianity, combining into 
 one ali individual Christians, with forms, arrange- 
 ments, government, and acts of worship, ordained 
 by the Apostles according to the will of Christ, 
 by the guidance of His Spirit. It would seem that 
 the first and simplest bond whereby the members 
 were thus bound into one body was congregational ; 
 the Christians who found themselves by the acci- 
 dent of place thrown together naturally assembled 
 together for the purposes of common worship, or 
 common safety and comfort. But besides this, they 
 were bound together in this bond of peace by their 
 unity in the Apostles" doctrine. Their prayers, their 
 praises rose up to heaven together ; their hearts 
 beat together with common desires and hopes, their 
 souls with common definite faith ; their acts of wor- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 237 
 
 ship were the common acts of each and all. They 
 were joined together by the strongest of all ties, 
 real, lively religious sympathies on their daily con- 
 gregations. 
 
 But further, there was not merely a congregational 
 or doctrinal, but also a spiritual bond of unity: 
 no congregation had a spiritual existence indepen- 
 dent of the whole body. Christians were not mem- 
 bers one of another and of the whole only because they 
 worshipped in one place, or because they all thought 
 the same thing ; but also because they were by one 
 Spirit baptized into one body, between which and 
 Christ there exists a spiritual, but real, union, spoken 
 of in Scripture in mysterious terms which well suit 
 so great a mystery ; in which His presence dwells 
 and His Spirit works in the public acts and minis- 
 trations of the whole body, dispensing grace to each 
 one severally as he has need. 
 
 And if this be so, we must, I think, conclude that 
 not every accidental assemblage of men, met toge- 
 ther to worship, is a church in God's sight ; to this 
 must be added identity in doctrine and in ministra- 
 tions with the Church of the Bible : for as these are 
 the unchangeable elements in the church's existence, 
 they cannot vary from generation to generation, ac- 
 cording to the caprices and judgment of men ; they 
 must be the same as of old. [And thus the visible 
 church of the present day is not only held together 
 (so to say) by these principles of unity, but also is 
 by them joined to that part of the church which, 
 once visible, has now, by the course of time, been 
 carried out of our sight. 
 
238 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 And, of course, the doctrinal bond of unity is pre- 
 served and continued by the holding and speaking 
 the truth. A true visible church must be composed 
 of men who, in respect of their scriptural views, 
 would have been recognised by St. Paul or St. James 
 as belonging to the body of Christ in their days. 
 Christian truth must be the same in all aees ; no 
 doctrine which was unknown to the inspired apostles 
 can be true now : hence no modern so-called disco- 
 very of Scripture doctrine can be true ; it bears wit- 
 ness against itself. Nor can the term church be 
 applied to any congregations who claim to them- 
 selves a spi ritual existence by virtue of some doc- 
 trinal peculiarity unknown to Christendom in times 
 past, except by a secondary and deceptive use of the 
 word. Thus we cannot, suppose that there was in 
 St. Paul's mind any such notion as the church of the 
 Nicolaitans, or of the Gnostics, or of any other of the 
 heretics who disturbed the unity of the early church. 
 
 But how was the spiritual unity of the church 
 preserved from generation to generation? As the 
 life of the body is sustained by the continual ener- 
 gies of the living powers, and continued by the 
 continual handing down of these from genera- 
 tion to generation ; so was the spiritual life of the 
 body of Christ, as distinguished from the spiritual 
 life of the members, sustained by the perpetual 
 ministrations of the Spirit. Where these ministra- 
 tions were from time to time carried on according to 
 Christ's institution, there was the Spirit from age to 
 age continued : and where the Spirit was, there was 
 Christ; and where Christ was, there were all bound 
 
LECTURE VIII. 239 
 
 together; not only the congregations and individuals 
 of the existing generation, but also the church of 
 one age to the church of all the ages which had 
 preceded it, up to its very earliest days.] 
 
 But this unity of the whole does not destroy the 
 individuality either of congregations or persons ; each 
 member of the church has an individual existence 
 by his own personal faith and holiness : and it was a 
 natural consequence of the rapid increase of the dis- 
 ciples, and the preaching of the Gospel in various 
 parts, that this one church should comprehend a 
 number of congregations, the members of which 
 were bound together as well by their common belief 
 and common worship, as by their relations to the 
 other churches, and to the whole body of which 
 Christ was Head. 
 
 When we examine into the gradual division of 
 Christendom into national or local churches, we shall, 
 I think, recognise the providential wisdom of God in 
 giving a spiritual character to even earthly bonds of 
 union. Wherever men were already bound together 
 by common country, common language, or laws, there 
 arose national churches ; each differing possibly from 
 the rest in some accidental points, but identical with 
 them in its essence; and this not only by a common 
 profession of Christianity, but by a common possession 
 of the essentials of Christian verity — the same views 
 of God in heaven, and Christ on earth, of man's call- 
 ing, duties, destinies — and by common relations to 
 the whole body. And where, again, in any nation 
 local subdivisions had created fresh centres of union, 
 
240 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 there arose too diocesan or parochial churches, dif- 
 fering from the national church in the accident of 
 place, but agreeing with it in all else. So that the 
 several churches scattered over the world, though 
 many, were still one: there was but one church in 
 the same place, but one church in the same nation, 
 but one church in the whole world. 
 
 And as we have seen that the church of the 
 present day must be the same as that of the apostles, 
 that would seem to be a perfect church, in which 
 these elements of unity are combined — the faith 
 and holiness of the individual members — the posses- 
 sion of the faith of the saints — and the ministrations 
 of the word and sacraments as ordained by Christ at 
 the first. But still these may exist separately; and 
 as far as any of them do exist, so far does the body 
 partake of the character and hold the position of a 
 branch of the true church. The apostolic ministra- 
 tions may survive in their original integrity, and yet 
 there may be errors of doctrine and practice; or 
 there may be true doctrine, and yet, for some reason 
 or other, the public acts and ministrations may differ 
 in some essential points from those in which Christ's 
 Spirit worked at first: and for such as these modern 
 theology has invented the term of an imperfect 
 church. 
 
 Further, as we must distinguish between the con- 
 gregational, doctrinal, and spiritual character of 
 church unity, so must we not confound the spiritual 
 union of the church to Christ with the spiritual 
 union of each individual to Christ by virtue of His 
 
LECTURE VIII. 241 
 
 presence in the soul of each. It does not follow 
 that because a church in its corporate capacity is 
 imperfect, as lacking some one of the requisites for 
 a complete church, that all the members thereof are 
 cut off from Christ. Nor again, because the indi- 
 vidual members are as single Christians striving to 
 work out their salvation with fear and trembling, can 
 we argue that the body in its corporate capacity is a 
 member of the church catholic. We cannot argue 
 from the completeness or incompleteness of the 
 ministrations in a church that the members thereof 
 are or are not united to Christ ; nor yet from the 
 piety or wickedness of individual Christians that 
 the Body is or is not part of the church of 
 Christ : the two points are distinct : and therefore 
 we do not conclude from any one belonging to a 
 body, which is an imperfect church, or no church at 
 all, that therefore he is lost. This depends on the 
 spiritual state of each individual soul in Christ's sight ; 
 and though of course the spiritual life and growth of 
 a Christian must be hindered or furthered, as the 
 case may be, by the privileges and teaching of the 
 body to which he belongs, yet his salvation or con- 
 demnation is only the accidental result of his belong- 
 ing or not belonging to the visible body of Christ ; 
 except, of course, so far as he is personally responsi- 
 ble for the wilful rejection of any part of God's 
 truth, or any part of what God has ordained by His 
 Spirit. 
 
 As for ourselves we cannot be thankful enough 
 to God, who in His infinite mercy planted His 
 
 R 
 
242 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 church, and allowed her to exist from age to age, 
 that He has also caused her to shake off the corrup- 
 tions which a superstitious perversion of, or addition 
 to, Christian truth had thrown round her; that He 
 has led her back to her first love ; so that in the 
 spirit of comprehensive faith, which is her essential 
 characteristic, she has been careful to retain each of 
 the three elements of church unity — congregational, 
 doctrinal, and spiritual — after the pattern of early 
 times. Our people join together in the offices of 
 prayer and praise; our acts of worship are performed 
 by the whole congregation, except where, from the 
 nature of the case, or for the sake of decency and 
 order, they are committed to men appointed for that 
 purpose. We can see too, that the unchangeable 
 elements of unity are preserved to us ; we are bound 
 together by the doctrinal truth of the gospel, as may be 
 seen by comparing our teaching with the Bible, and 
 by the fact that it agrees with that of the catholic 
 and apostolic church of ancient times. The essential 
 ministrations of this early church have been con- 
 tinued in our church from age to age, overlaid indeed 
 at one time by the inventions of man, but restored 
 to us in their original purity and power. 
 
 It is difficult perhaps to point out from Scripture 
 the hindrances to spiritual growth, arising from not 
 being in the fellowship of the visible church ; for 
 the simple reason that Scripture does not contem- 
 plate such a case as persons who were spiritually 
 alive not being in the visible fellowship of the whole 
 body ; but it is impossible not to see in Scripture 
 
LECTURE VIII. 243 
 
 that the visible church, with its visible congrega- 
 tions, visible ministrations, visible ordinances, oc- 
 cupies a very prominent place in the scheme of 
 redemption. It is impossible not to gather from 
 Scripture that church fellowship was an important 
 element of the Christian profession, and that many 
 privileges and blessings flow to us thereby, which 
 can ordinarily flow to us in no other way. It is 
 true that the Bible is full of the calling, the posi- 
 tion, the privileges, the duties, the hopes of indi- 
 vidual Christians; but this does not do away with 
 the texts in which Scripture speaks of the visible 
 church as the body of Christ — the pillar and ground 
 of the truth — the spouse of Christ ; whereby we are 
 members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones — 
 that which He sanctifies by His word and sacraments. 
 Faithful Christians are invariably viewed and address- 
 ed in Scripture as belonging to the visible Church ; 
 those who were admitted by baptism to the position 
 of Christians are spoken of as being added to the church 
 in which the Apostles visibly ministered. When 
 any had plainly lost their spiritual life they were 
 cast out from the same visible fellowship. And the 
 position which the visible church held in apostolic 
 times is curiously recognised by those, who, practi- 
 cally denying the existence of any visible centre of 
 unity, assume to themselves the name and, as far as 
 may be, imitate the functions of that body which they 
 profess to despise. Tt is for them to consider whether 
 they have not lost the substance by grasping at the 
 shadow. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Nor is it difficult to see, even bv the light of 
 human reason, that it is no small blessing and pri- 
 vilege to belong to the fellowship of God's chosen 
 saints of old ; to know that we are flesh of their 
 flesh and bone of their bone, not only by the sym- 
 pathies of faith and hope, but by our having been 
 baptized into the same visible body — by partaking 
 of those same unchangeable and unchanged ministra- 
 tions with which Christ blessed them at the begin- 
 ning; to know that we eat of tlie same spiritual 
 meat, and drink of the same spiritual drink. Surely 
 it must add to our joy and peace, our resolution and 
 patience, when we hear the Church speaking to us 
 out of the far off past the wonderful mercies and 
 providences of God to that body to which we in this 
 our generation belong ; to feel that, being in the 
 fellowship of our Church, we may have a double 
 ground of sure hope — our own personal faith and 
 union with Chirst, and our being in the unity of that 
 body which He will one day present to Himself 
 without spot or blemish a . 
 
 It cannot indeed be doubted that there have been 
 and are systems of Christianity in which the Church 
 is put so prominently forward as to obscure Christ 
 on the one side, and the individual Christian on the 
 other ; but of this there is no danger as long as we 
 recollect that personal union with Christ by personal 
 faith and holiness is the essence of personal Christ- 
 ianity, the test of personal hope. Our Church insists 
 no less on personal religion than on Church fellow- 
 
 « See E|)h. iv. 27. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 245 
 
 ship. Nor do I see why they should be separated — 
 why one should be allowed or supposed to interfere 
 with or supersede the other; it is not so in Scrip- 
 ture : a belief in the privileges and blessings flowing 
 to us from the Church is so far from being- incom- 
 patible from hindering personal holiness, that this 
 latter is a condition of our really and effectually 
 possessing the former. The text of St. John b , If we 
 walk in the light as He is in the light, ive have fellow- 
 ship one with another, enters as much into our theo- 
 logical teaching as the text of St. Paul c , by one 
 Spirit ive are all baptized into one body, which brings 
 forward the formal and spiritual ministrations of the 
 Church as binding us together and joining us to the 
 Head. 
 
 Nor does the Church interfere with the Divine 
 prerogatives ; we own but one Head, the Lord 
 Christ — we own but one Priest, the Lord Christ — we 
 own but one Sacrifice, the Lord Christ — we own 
 but one Mediator, the Lord Christ — we own but 
 one infallible Guide, the Holy Spirit of God, 
 speaking to us from the Bible, and from the practice 
 and teaching of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
 as the witness and interpreter of the Bible, where 
 such aids are needed. 
 
 Nor again does the Church interfere with or 
 supersede the royal Priesthood which true Christians 
 possess as personally united to Christ ; by virtue of 
 which we may in our own sinful persons, our own 
 mortal bodies, draw near with boldness and obtain 
 b i John i. 7. c 1 Cor. xii. 1.3. 
 
246 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 mercy and mid help in time of need. The public 
 acts of the Church are not the acts of the clergy for 
 the laity, but of the clergy and laity together ; personal 
 acts of worship in which each bears his part, to the 
 increase of the body and the edifying of the whole. 
 There is properly speaking, and in what may be 
 called the technical sense of the word, no priest in 
 the Church save Christ : there is no priestly caste 
 or office on earth ; all priesthood is confined to 
 Christ. The minister of our Church does not in 
 his ministerial functions stand as a mediator be- 
 tween God and man to procure peace and pardon. 
 He does not offer a sacrifice for them, when with 
 them he shewn forth the Lord's death till He come. 
 He does not in the public offices of prayer pray for 
 them as a mediator, but with them and in their 
 name. It is not " I beseech Thee," but " We be- 
 seech Thee, O God ;" though his private prayers 
 have of course the same intercessory power as those 
 of any other righteous man. 
 
 Nor again do these privileges of the whole church, 
 or of individual Christians, do away or destroy the 
 spiritual character or the ministerial office of the 
 clergy ; these do not derive their authority and com- 
 mission from man, except so far as the visible minis- 
 trations of man have been from the beginning the 
 appointed channels of grace. They come to us ac- 
 cording to Christ's institution, and by His authority, 
 and in His name. They are not indeed ambassadors 
 from man to God, but from God to man. To them 
 is entrusted the stewardship of God's mysteries, the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 247 
 
 ministry of reconciliation ; the dispensing of those 
 spiritual blessings which are committed to the whole 
 Church, in which they are Christ's ordained messengers 
 and ministers. It is their high privilege to awaken re- 
 pentance, to engraft faith, to give in Christ's ordi- 
 nances the grace of the Comforter ; in their public 
 and private ministrations so to proclaim Christ's pardon 
 to the penitent according to the needs of each, that he 
 may be able to lay hold of it with faith and hope. It 
 is their privilege to feed His sheep, to preach His 
 word ; to warn the impenitent, to strengthen the 
 bruised reed, to raise up them that fall ; in short, it 
 is their office and privilege to perform among men 
 those ministerial functions which Christ performed 
 when He came on earth to preach the Gospel, as far 
 as they did not arise from those miraculous and 
 divine powers which He possessed as God ; and which, 
 though in part vouchsafed at first to those whom He 
 chose, have now passed away from the Church. High 
 and noble functions and privileges, and which may 
 well excite the zeal, the ambition, the energies of 
 the most gifted of God's creatures. But they may 
 not assume to themselves the divine character or 
 office ; nor act as possessing the powers of spiritual life 
 and death ; or as independent sources of revelation 
 or of grace ; or as being able to open or shut the 
 gates of heaven at their caprice. Woe to the church 
 that is in such a case ; woe to the church of which 
 Christ is not the head. 
 
 Nor have these ministrations of grace any power 
 to make alive without the personal cooperation of 
 each man in his own soul. It is in vain that confes- 
 
248 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 sion of sins is made in the congregation, unless our 
 hearts join therein ; it is of no avail that the pro- 
 mises of pardon are proclaimed in our ears by the am- 
 bassadors of Christ, unless we lay hold thereof by the 
 energies of faith. It is in vain for us that the prayers 
 or praises of the church are poured forth, unless our 
 desires, and needs, and gratitude ascend in and with 
 them. It is in vain that we are baptized into the body 
 of Christ in His church, and by the ministrations of 
 His minister, unless we grow up into Him in all things. 
 It is in vain that the consecratedelementsare presented 
 to us by the minister, unless by faith we receive and 
 in our souls feed upon His spiritual body and blood. 
 It is in vain that our names are written among Christ's 
 disciples, unless they be written also in the book of life. 
 It is in vain that we belong to the visible, unless we 
 be enrolled in the invisible and mystical church. 
 
 Nor can submission to one visible head in matters 
 of faith, or even in matters of government, be es- 
 sential either to church fellowship or to church unity ; 
 for it was not so in the catholic and apostolic church. 
 It is true that apparent unity may be produced by 
 such submission; nay, it is even true that, in a certain 
 degree, real unity in matters of faith might arise 
 from it, provided that the judgment of this one visi- 
 ble head, was always in harmony with God's will. 
 But still it would be a result of a human, not of 
 spiritual wisdom. And I need not remind you that 
 no outward unity between the members of any 
 church now existing, can compensate for that disunion 
 from the primitive body of Christ which has resulted 
 from trying the perilous experiment of giving to the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 249 
 
 voice of man, the authority of the voice of Cod ; from 
 substituting the judgment of man for the teaching of 
 the Bible. 
 
 And though there can, I think, be no doubt that 
 in apostolic times the faith of the individual was in 
 all essential points moulded by and identified with 
 the faith and teaching of the church, yet this does 
 not deprive any man of the right or do away with the 
 duty of studying and interpreting the Scriptures for 
 and to himself, and realising by his own moral and 
 mental powers the divine truth ; so that it may be 
 not merely something without, to which he bows his 
 head in submissive silence, but something within, 
 part of his spiritual, his moral, his rational being. 
 He may form his own opinion if he will ; to his 
 own Master he will fall or stand. But neither does 
 this liberty of prophesying imply that every man's 
 judgment will lead him right, or that he will not 
 have to answer for every error of faith or practice 
 into which it may lead him. It is for each individual 
 to consider whether private judgment is likely to 
 lead him to truth or error : we know it has led 
 thousands wrong : it has been the parent of much 
 evil : we know that it has led many right : to the 
 exercise of private judgment against the authority 
 of the Church of the time we owe the Reformation. 
 A man has a perfect right to be, if he pleases, his 
 own physician ; he will live or die according as the 
 treatment he adopts, and the remedies he uses, are 
 right or wrong ; but this does not give that treat- 
 ment or those remedies the power of restoring health 
 or averting disease ; and therefore while our Church 
 
c 250 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 puts the Bible into the hands of every one, and 
 thereby recognises and encourages private judgment, 
 yet it recognises too its correlative responsibilities; 
 wherefore have we at the same time placed before us, 
 from our childhood, those essential points of faith 
 which the primitive Church collected out of Scripture, 
 or to which, where the primitive church is silent, the 
 fathers of our own church were led, we trust, by the 
 Spirit of God ; not indeed to supersede private judg- 
 ment, but to guide it to a right knowledge of the 
 word, and to guard it against the errors of later 
 times by the statement of that definite truth which 
 in God's counsels seems designed to correct the weak 
 inventions or additions of man. Thus true private 
 judgment, so far from looking on church authority 
 as hostile to it, accepts it to strengthen and guide 
 its own faltering steps. I think, indeed, there 
 can be but little doubt to what issue private judg- 
 ment will, in most cases, lead those who so exercise 
 it as to reject the aid which right reason expects, 
 and which God has mercifully provided ; who neither 
 in the voice of the church in which God has placed 
 them, nor in that of the primitive church, nor in the 
 opinions of men whose powers and studies make 
 them competent judges, can find any clue to the 
 meaning of Scripture ; who trust to their own su- 
 perficial view of an expression or a passage or a 
 version to insist upon an opinion or practice which 
 has hitherto been unknown in Christendom : but 
 still if any one in consequence hereof fails of his 
 salvation, it will only be an accident of his failure 
 that private judgment led him astray : the essence 
 
LECTURE VIII. 251 
 
 of it will be that lie did not understand Scripture 
 aright, and thus missed saving truth. The truth 
 which by God's blessing we teach is not true because 
 the church teaches it, but because the Spirit has re- 
 vealed it in the Bible ; to this the church, in her 
 doctrine and practice, bears witness, and sound 
 private judgment receives her witness as true. 
 
 And as there are points in which church authority 
 and private judgment may cooperate, so are there 
 points in which each obtains separately. Individual 
 opinions, or convenience in matters of public form, 
 order, discipline, must be sacrificed to the judgment 
 of the church ; while on the other hand a man's 
 private acts of religion or of worship are left to his 
 own discretion as to what may best promote his 
 spiritual welfare. And hence all such matters as 
 fasting, special confession of our sins, receiving per- 
 sonal absolution* 5 , and the like, are left to the decision 
 of each to do, or to leave undone, as seemeth him 
 best. To insist on such matters as necessary to sal- 
 vation is as absolutely unscriptural, as it is to pro- 
 nounce them incompatible with a true and lively 
 faith. 
 
 So again with regard to forms : it is perfectly 
 true, that the Spirit giveth life, the letter profiteth 
 nothing ; that God must be worshipped in spirit and 
 in truth ; that we are not to think to be heard for 
 vain repetitions. But how do forms prevent a per- 
 son worshipping in spirit and truth ? what is there 
 in them to destroy or disparage spirituality? The 
 
 A Whitehall Sermon?, X. " on Times of Fasting," p. i 75., and 
 
 XI. " on Confession and Ahsolution," p. [95. 
 
252 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Spirit does not work less certainly in baptism be- 
 cause it is administered in the form Which our Sa- 
 viour appointed : the Spirit does not breathe less in 
 our prayers because through the use of forms of 
 prayer we know what we are going to pray for, be- 
 cause the souls of the faithful c/m pray with one 
 breath, instead of listening to a single voice praying 
 for them. If our forms are lifeless, they are so, not 
 because they are forms, but because the spirit of 
 prayer is dead in the hearts of those who use them. 
 And this spirit of prayer is awakened by the well 
 known words as they fall on our ears and reach our 
 hearts, and our souls are able at once to rise up, as 
 it were, and go along with their brethren's souls in 
 their approaches to the throne of grace. If all forms 
 were vain repetitions, then would not our Saviour 
 have taught us to pray in the form of the Lord's 
 Prayer. It is true also that the gift of the Spirit in 
 any sacrament or other rite depends on the state of 
 the souls of those to whom it is offered ; but the use 
 of forms does not contradict this. The apostles were 
 to say, Peace be to this house d , as a form of conveying 
 the spiritual blessing of peace. Where the Son of 
 peace was not, the blessing did not work; where 
 the Son of peace was, the house was blessed. The 
 blessing did not come without the form ; but neither 
 did the form, by its own virtue, convey the blessing 
 to those who were unfit for it. We can see some uses, 
 at least, of forms in their securing that identity of 
 thought and action in the souls of all Christians which 
 makes the religious acts of all and each more acceptable 
 
 (1 Luke x. c. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 253 
 
 and more prevailing; and their reminding- ns that the 
 blessing in everv case is the same, and flows from 
 the same Divine Source, the Head of the Church, 
 without taking its shape or power from the thoughts 
 or the will of those who speak in His name: so 
 far from hiding or diminishing the spiritual element, 
 they are found, when rightly viewed, to illustrate 
 and confirm it. 
 
 So, again, those who assert the Church's inde- 
 pendence of the temporal power, and those who 
 bind her hand and foot, have each to learn some- 
 thing from the other. It is certain that the church 
 has an existence independent of any earthly power; 
 that the Lord is her Head, and King, and Master, 
 and Guide ; that to Him she must look in all things : 
 but for the church to assume a temporal power; to 
 dispute, in things purely temporal and accidental, 
 the civil authority, is contrary to the spiritual nature 
 of Christ's kingdom. It is true that the apostles, 
 when commanded by the Jewish council to preach 
 no more in that name, answered by the Spirit, We 
 ought to obey God rather than man ; an answer which 
 every true Christian should sympathise in, and be 
 ready, if need be, to adopt. But suppose the Jewish 
 council had merely commanded the apostles to 
 preach in a particular part of the city, or at a par- 
 ticular hour of the day ; can we think that they 
 would have deemed it contrary to obedience to 
 God to be subject in such matters to the higher 
 powers ? 
 
 There are other points by which I might illustrate 
 
254 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 and enforce the comprehensive and definite faith, 
 which I have thus partially and imperfectly brought 
 before yon ; but the space allotted to these Lectures 
 forbids me to enter upon them. I trust enough has 
 been said to suggest a principle which may be 
 carried out in our personal faith — in our theological 
 studies, as well as our pastoral ministrations ; enough 
 to show, that as in the true Church the whole body 
 is fitly joined together by that which every joint 
 supplieth, so in the faith of that Church the several 
 doctrines work effectually together. Apart they are 
 comparatively powerless, or by exaggeration lead to 
 error ; together, they have the Spirit, and may hope 
 for the victories of truth. Again, as each fact, or 
 mystery, or precept has its proper place in the Divine 
 economy, so the doctrine which embodies each is 
 meant to have its effect on the believer's soul ; so 
 that in these too, the several parts of our nature, 
 quickened and spiritualised, may work together to 
 the edifying and increase of the whole. 
 
 It will not, T hope, be deemed foreign to my 
 subject, if I conclude these Lectures by a few words 
 on what seems to me, one at least of the causes 
 why this comprehensive faith has, on the one side or 
 the other, been mutilated of its fair proportions. I 
 mean the lack of self-preparation on the part of 
 those who propose to themselves to seek the office 
 of stewards of the mysteries and interpreters of the 
 word of God. I do not mean merely their moral, 
 (which of course is indispensable,) but likewise their 
 intellectual preparation. A contrast is sometimes 
 drawn between a pious and a learned ministry. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 255 
 
 to the disparagement of the latter; and a practical 
 inference is drawn, that as a learned ministry is 
 not always or necessarily pious, that an igno- 
 rant ministry is therefore better than a learned 
 one. But why cannot piety and learning be joined ? 
 surely each must be more powerful together than 
 either separately. It is true that in apostolic times 
 the lack of worldly position and worldly gifts was 
 compensated by inspiration ; the learning which 
 we have to seek was given them directly by God ; 
 they were ignorant men no longer. It is true if a 
 man depends on his learning, or acquirements, or 
 gifts, whatever they are, rather than on the Spirit 
 of wisdom and grace, that then his gifts become 
 worse than useless to him ; but ignorance is not 
 found to be a specific against self-dependance or 
 spiritual pride. I know nothing in reason, I know 
 nothing in Scripture, which would lead us to suppose 
 that the cultivation of whatever talents we have, in 
 subordination to the Spirit, the possession of what- 
 ever acquirements may be within our reach, will 
 shut a man out from the ordinary inspirations of the 
 Holy Ghost, or make his ministrations less accept- 
 able to God, less effectual to the saving of souls. It 
 may be said, that piety is always necessary, learning 
 not so; but this latter statement does not hold alto- 
 gether good ; for surely our having made good use of 
 opportunities already vouchsafed to us, is a Scriptural 
 condition of further gifts and aids. And where 
 we have had opportunities of mental cultivation, 
 then the absence of that cultivation according to our 
 
256 L EC TURK VIII. 
 
 several talents, is a proof of wasted time and neg- 
 lected opportunity. And do not suppose that the three 
 years wasted here will easily be compensated by a 
 year's retirement to some fresh place of study, or by 
 reading through a few books on divinity, or even 
 some slight acquaintance with the practical workings 
 of the Gospel, and the practical experiences of indi- 
 vidual souls. The pastor's mind, to be able to 
 become what it should be, a spiritual treasure-house, 
 must have its natural powers quickened and informed 
 as well as spiritualised, it must by reason of use hare its 
 senses exercised to discern both good and evil e , both 
 truth and error. 
 
 Nor need I remind you how often it happens that 
 those, who have thus wasted their time and energies 
 here, have found themselves, when their spiritual call- 
 ing has brought the Gospel really before them, unable 
 to cope with the manifold and wonderful questions of 
 belief and practice which they have had almost daily to 
 solve for themselves or others; and, unable to realise 
 the faith in its comprehensive and definite charac- 
 ter, have betaken themselves to one extreme or the 
 other, or sometimes alternated between both as their 
 temperaments or their spiritual experiences have led 
 them. Their own awakening from spiritual death 
 was sudden ; and they have made this sudden con- 
 version the sole and universal condition of spiritual 
 life; or they have been led back by the more gra- 
 dual ministrations of the Church, and they think that 
 every one must return by the same path. In either 
 e Neli v. 14. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 257 
 
 case they cast down the other means of life and grace 
 from the place which the Scripture has assigned 
 them — in either case they think they have solved 
 all their difficulties by adopting a simplicity which 
 is in good truth only simple, as it suits their imper- 
 fect knowledge of spiritual things; not simple in the 
 sense of combining in one comprehensive view all 
 that Scripture teaches us as necessary for our souls' 
 health. 
 
 Nor does it seem quite clear that Christianity is 
 so simple a matter as it is sometimes represented. 
 In it indeed there are certain central points which 
 involve the rest — which stand out by themselves in 
 their grandeur ; as in a distant mountain view our 
 gaze is arrested and engrossed at first at least by 
 the more striking features — and to these we must 
 of course always give the same prominence which 
 they occupy in God's word; but still we may not 
 neglect them in that expanded and detached form 
 in which Scripture likewise presents them to us. 
 Even that simplest Gospel, on which all our teaching- 
 is founded, by which we are able to awaken so many 
 to spiritual life, " Christ came to save the world," — 
 how infinitely is it worked out in Christ's own 
 teaching, and still more by those whom He in- 
 structed in the things of the kingdom of God ! 
 How much does it imply in its Divine as well as 
 human aspect — man's original state — man's fall — 
 man's natural corruption — the curse under which we 
 lay for the present and the future — God's Justice, 
 Mercy. Love — our need of a Saviour- — His predesti- 
 
 s 
 
258 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 nated counsels — His predestinating providence — 
 man's free-will and responsibility — Christ's nature 
 and office — His birth, life, death, resurrection, ascen- 
 sion, mediation — His office as our Priest of sacrifice 
 and prayer — our salvation from the punishment and 
 release from the power of sin — our own part in the 
 work — the motives of fear, love, gratitude, which 
 should move us thereto — our perpetual conflict with 
 the power of evil — our struggles with ourselves — 
 our need of a sanctifier — the office and power of the 
 Holy Spirit — our new birth in Baptism — our daily 
 begetting by the word — the daily regeneration of 
 the heart — our daily renewal — our spiritual nourish- 
 ment and growth — the power of prayer — of the 
 Holy Communion — our nourishment by the spiritual 
 body and blood of Christ — the nature and office of 
 the Church — the nature of Christian hope and as- 
 surance — individual and personal union with Christ. 
 — How our reason is to be spiritualised, our wills 
 subdued — the relation between faith and good works ; 
 — our lives here — our resurrection — the day of ac- 
 count — how we may hope to be accounted righteous 
 therein — Which of these points, and indeed, of many 
 others, can be left out without leaving out a part of 
 Scripture, and thus neglecting something which it 
 behoves us to know and act upon ? 
 
 And if this acquaintance with the revealed word is 
 no simple or easy matter even for the spiritual nurture 
 of our own souls, how much more complex and diffi- 
 cult must a full knowledge of the Gospel be to those 
 who have to divide the word of truth ! to those who 
 
LECTURE VIII. 259 
 
 are to train and bring others to the practical know- 
 ledge of the Gospel in its bearings on their own sonls ! 
 For they must not only have a definite and dogmatic 
 acquaintance with saving truth in all its scriptural 
 proportions, but they also require no small know- 
 ledge of human nature, in its infinite varieties ; and 
 if they are to exercise their ministry profitably they 
 must know how to apply the several truths of Scrip- 
 ture as may suit the spiritual needs of each. We 
 have to present Christ crucified in all the aspects 
 and relations in which He is pourtrayed in Scripture, 
 and yet to bring one or the other more forward ac- 
 cording to the soul with which we have to deal. At 
 one time we must hold Him up as the Saviour, at 
 another as the Intercessor, at another as the Judge, 
 at another as the King. The Pharisee who is lost 
 in spiritual pride we have to humble, by showing 
 him how little there is in man's best works to stand 
 the severity of God's judgment. The Publican 
 whose heart is doubting and step faltering, we have 
 to tell that the fruits of the Spirit are the sure tests 
 of faith. To one who rests his hopes on the security 
 of the Elect, we have to point the true nature and 
 limits of that security, and the fact of human re- 
 sponsibility. Another who is ever fearful and weak 
 hearted we have to remind of the predestinate 
 counsels of God, and to give him Scriptural confi- 
 dence for hoping that God will continue the work 
 He has begun. To the impenitent sinner we have 
 to hold up the terror of the Lord — to the returning 
 sinner His mercies. In one we have to watch the 
 
 s 2 
 
260 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 developing energies of life begun in Baptism — in 
 another the more convulsive throes of conversion — 
 and to guide a third safely through the paths of 
 repentance. At one death-bed we have to rouse 
 and sustain faith, at another we must try to awaken 
 repentance. In short, as many as are the varieties 
 of human temperaments, of human failings, and 
 human circumstances, so manifold is the Pastor's 
 office in applying the Gospel of Christ as Christ 
 Himself would have done it — as the Apostles did do 
 it. We must bring out of our treasures things both 
 new and old ; and how can this be, except we be 
 thoroughly instructed in the things of the kingdom 
 of God ? 
 
 Nor can we hope that our people will be bound to- 
 gether by the acceptance of this comprehensive faith 
 — that the whole counsel of God will take root in our 
 land, unless we have comprehensive teaching, and 
 we cannot have comprehensive teaching, unless and 
 until we have comprehensive learning. 
 
 If you, my younger brethren, have at all gone 
 with me in what has been said, it will not be neces- 
 sary for me to use many words to persuade you that 
 logical quickness and accuracy of thought. — clearness 
 of perception — readiness and variety of expression 
 — an acquaintance with human nature — will make 
 you all the more effectual instruments in the hands 
 of that Spirit, by whose strength alone you can be 
 strong ; it is your business to cultivate your talents 
 to the utmost : if you do not do so, you may depend 
 upon it that hereafter you will have to leave many a 
 
LECTURE VIII. 261 
 
 sinner unconverted, many a death-bed comfortless. 
 Of course it will not be supposed that I mean that 
 mere intellectual cultivation will enable you to do 
 the work. The truths which you will have to teach 
 must sink into your own hearts in their practical 
 reality ; your own faith must be comprehensive, 
 definite, real, before yon can give comprehensive- 
 ness, definiteness, and reality to the faith of others. 
 Nor do I mean that only men of great talents 
 can be labourers in God's vineyard. If you have 
 not great talents, it matters not, so that you honestly 
 improve what you have ; then may you hope that 
 whatever your deficiencies, they will be made up by 
 Him, without whom the most eloquent human wis- 
 dom is but foolishness and weakness. If the bow 
 be strung, and the arrow fitted to the string, then 
 may we hope that the breath of the Spirit will guide 
 our shafts in power to their mark. But if the bow 
 be unstrung, and the arrows allowed to remain in the 
 quiver, how can we hope that men's souls will fall to 
 us as our prey ? If our rude instrument be in tune, 
 then may we hope that even our powerless touch 
 will draw from it most heavenly harmonies, powerful 
 by grace; sounds far more persuasive than those 
 which any master-touch of man can draw from the 
 most perfect instrument of human workmanship. 
 But if the strings hang loosely, and only give out now 
 and then a few chance notes, as they are swung 
 hither and thither by every shifting wind of doctrine, 
 what reason have we to hope that our discord will 
 be changed to angels' songs? 
 
262 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 And in good truth it is time that all those who 
 have at heart the welfare of this Church and nation 
 should buckle on their armour ; not only against 
 superstition on the one hand, and avowed infidelity 
 on the other, but also against those, who being 
 secretly conscious that they fall short of the truth, 
 would persuade us for the sake of peace, as they say, 
 to betray the trust which God has committed to us, 
 of preserving and spreading His gospel. I say " com- 
 mitted to us," for it is, I think, impossible not to 
 recognise the office which God has designed for us. 
 Our privileges as a nation illustrate our duties as a 
 Church ; our privileges as a Church illustrate our 
 duties a nation. God has preserved to us the 
 Apostolic truth of the Bible in all its comprehen- 
 siveness, the Apostolic ministrations in all their 
 purity. This teaches us why it is that he has 
 allowed our nation to spread itself to the East and 
 the West, the North and the South, why He gives 
 victory to our arms, and free passage to our com- 
 merce, and has blessed us with singular success in the 
 arts of life — that the light of His truth might through 
 us shine forth among men. These blessings to us, as a 
 nation, tell us that we must be doubly careful to 
 preserve the faith once delivered to the saints, in 
 order that the message we are to bear to the end 
 of the world may be His message and not man's. 
 By God's mercy to our Church, our Prayer-book, 
 our teaching, our formal definitions of faith, do truly 
 represent His truth in its comprehensive and definite 
 character as it is in the Bible. No partial view — 
 
LECTURE VIII. 263 
 
 no concealment of this part of God's message, or of 
 that, because to human reason they may seem at 
 variance — no faltering voice of doubt whether God 
 has spoken or not, or whether the book in which 
 His voice still speaks to us is true or false — we have 
 a definite Revelation from God, definite in its out- 
 line, definite in its details ; it is in vain that men 
 try to get rid of the smallest portion of it, or diminish 
 its certainty ; it is in vain that the various counter- 
 feits of truth conspire together to destroy her, and to 
 share the empire between them, and each to bear 
 rule in her name — to work, each by itself, her work ; 
 God's truth will not bear to be thus treated; she 
 will arise and go forth and seek another people, more 
 truthful, more faithful than we are. We moralise 
 on Tyre, and Babylon, and ancient Rome ; we speak 
 of them in our pulpits, and schools, and books, as 
 monuments of God's judgments against abuse of 
 privileges and neglect of duties: but we need not 
 look so far; we have proofs enough, even in our 
 own land, of the judgments which God inflicts on 
 those who conspire against His truth. There is no 
 part of our land where the ruins of some ancient 
 church or abbey do not speak to us the same lesson 
 which Tyre, and Babylon, and Rome speak to the 
 world. We can scarcely tread such spots, even with 
 careless step and glad hearts, and under the glorious 
 sun of a summer day, without finding in them deeper 
 sources of thought and feeling than mere admiration 
 for the present beauty, to which decay has but added 
 
264 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 fresh charms, or mere sympathy for what has been 
 and is no more. As we pass along those noble courts 
 where religion once sat enthroned in all the pomp 
 which superstitious art could throw around her — 
 as memory's eye recalls those glorious processions 
 and services wherein men strove to set forth our 
 faith rather in gorgeous splendour than in primitive 
 simplicity — as memory's ear catches the echoes of 
 those soul-stirring anthems of praise and prayer, 
 which once pealed forth year after year, hour after 
 hour, to the glory of that Name, which we worship — 
 not alas ! unmixed with other names, to worship 
 which is sin — as we recall that past, and compare 
 it with this present, we cannot but be reminded 
 of the times when our Church, having accepted as 
 her master in matters of faith one visible head, 
 instead of the invisible Head, Christ, shared every 
 superstition and error with which man's foolishness 
 had overlaid God's wisdom ; and having thus fallen 
 away from the truth, and slumbering in idle pomp 
 and worldliness, was awakened from her dream by 
 the rough hand of the spoiler whom Cod sent upon 
 her, using the tyranny of man as the instrument of 
 His wrath, even as upon Jerusalem of old, to lay 
 her low. And of His mercy too, in that lie did 
 not utterly make an end, but allowed our fathers to 
 return to their first love, and caused our Church to 
 take root downwards and to bear fruit upwards ; 
 and hath given increase to our nation from that 
 day to this. And of our danger too — for surely 
 
LECTURE VIII. 265 
 
 if we, as a nation and a Church, again fall away, 
 though in a fashion somewhat contrary to the back- 
 slidings of our forefathers — if, having the whole 
 truth of God, we cannot or will not realise, and use, 
 and hand down that truth in its fulness and per- 
 fection — if we deny, some one part of God's truth, 
 some another, and thus, as far as gainsayers are 
 concerned, deny all truth — if we fraternise with 
 those who, jealous of the influence which religion 
 exercises on the world, say among themselves, 
 " Come, let us kill her, and then the inheritance 
 will be ours" — who are striving secretly and openly 
 to substitute philosophy for revelation, and self- 
 worship for morality — surely there is clanger lest 
 God's wrath be stirred up against us, and ruin 
 overtake us ; first as a Church, and then as a 
 nation ; there are not wanting those who would be 
 willing and stern instruments of our punishment. And 
 if our short-sightedness should bring this fate upon 
 us — if the churches in which we worship should 
 ever become mere picturesque ruins — if our palaces 
 of piety and learning should be level with the dust 
 — if our cities should return to their former de- 
 solation — if our ports should be filled up with the 
 crumbling relics of their former greatness — and what 
 has been once and to others, may well be again and 
 to us — then history will surely moralise on our fall, 
 and holding us up as a proverb and a parable of 
 warning to all nations, will write our Epitaph, 
 " This Church and nation was once blessed above 
 all others — she was false to her trust — she distrusted 
 
 T 
 
266 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 God's truth — she disbelieved it — she deserted and 
 betrayed it — lo ! her place is desolate !" 
 
 Passage referred to in foot-note p. 6. — Bacon's Works, 
 vol. ii. p. 510. 
 
 " The third occasion of controversies I observe to be, 
 an extreme and unlimited detestation of some former 
 heresy or corruption of the Church, already acknowledged, 
 and convicted. This was the cause that produced the 
 heresy of Arius, grounded especially upon detestation of 
 Gentilism ; lest the Christian should seem, by the assertion 
 of the equal Divinity of our Saviour Christ, to approach 
 unto the acknowledgment of more gods than one. The 
 detestation of the heresy of Arius, produced that of Sabel- 
 lius ; who holding for execrable the dissimilitude which 
 Arius pretended in the Trinity, fled so far from him, as 
 he fell upon that other extremity, to deny the distinction 
 of persons ; and to say they were but only names of several 
 offices and dispensations. Yea, most of the heresies and 
 schisms of the Church have sprung up by this root. This 
 manner of apprehension doth in some degree possess many 
 in our times. They think it the true touchstone to try 
 what is good and evil, by measuring what is more or less 
 opposite to the institutions of the Church of Rome ; be it 
 ceremony, policy or government — yea, be it other institu- 
 tions of greater weight, that is ever most perfect which is 
 removed most degrees from that Church ; and that is 
 ever polluted and blemished which participated in any 
 appearance with it. This is a subtle and dangerous con- 
 ceit for men to entertain ; apt to delude themselves, more 
 apt to delude the people.'" 
 
 THE END. 
 
A LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JOHN HENRY and JAMES PARKER, 
 
 OXFORD : and 377, STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 NEW THEOLOGICAL WORKS 
 
 REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. 
 THE COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH, from the Council of Jeru- 
 
 salem, a.d. 51, to the Council of Constantinople, a.d. 381 ; chiefly as to their 
 Constitution, but also as to their Objects and History. By the Rev. E B 
 Pusey, D.D. 8vo., 10s. 6d. 
 
 REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. 
 
 THE REAL PRESENCE OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR 
 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST THE DOCTRINE OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 CHURCH ; with a Vindication of the Reception by the Wicked, and of the 
 
 Adoration of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D. 
 
 f Svo. cloth, 9s. 
 
 REV. JOHN KEBLE. 
 SEQUEL of the ARGUMENT against immediately REPEALING 
 the LAWS which treat the NUPTIAL BOND as INDISSOLUBLE. By 
 the Rev. John Keble, M. A., Vicar of Hursley. Svo. 4s. 6d. 
 Also, recently published, by the same author, 
 
 AN ARGUMENT for not proceeding immediately to REPEAL the 
 LAWS which treat the NUPTIAL BOND as INDISSOLUBLE. 8vo. Is. 
 PROFESSOR STANLEY. 
 THREE INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON THE STUDY OF 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M.A., 
 Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, and Canon of Canterbury. 8vo., 
 sewed, 2s. 6d. 
 
 REV. CANON WOODGATE. 
 ANOMALIES IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH NO JUST GROUND 
 
 FOR SECEDING; or, the Abnormal Condition of the Church considered with 
 reference to the Analogy of Scripture and of History. By Henry Arthur 
 Woodgate, B.D., Honorary Canon of Worcester, Rector of Belbroughton. Fcap. 
 Svo., 2s. 6d. 
 
 MRS. HAMILTON GRAY. 
 THE EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH, from Constantine to Charle- 
 magne. By Mrs. Hamilton Gray. Crown 8vo., 12s. 
 REV. T. T. CARTER. 
 MEMOIR of the LIFE of JOHN ARMSTRONG, D.D., late Lord 
 Bishop of Grahamstown. By the Rev. T. T. Carter, M.A., Rector of Clewer. 
 With an Introduction, by Samuel, Lord Bishop of Oxford. Fcap. 8vo. 
 REV P FREEMAN 
 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST considered as a MYSTERY: being the 
 Introduction to Part II. of THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. 
 By the Rev. Philip Freeman, M.A. 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 This treatise is complete in itself, and may be had separately. It is of about the compass of 
 
 Bishop Bethell's work on Baptismal Regeneration, and is designed to serve as a similar manual 
 
 on the doctrine of the Eucharist. 
 
 Lately published, by the same author, 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. An Inquiry con- 
 cerning the true manner of understanding and using the order for Morning and 
 Evening Prayer, and for the Administration of the Holy Communion in the 
 English Church. 8vo., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 Volume II. is in the Press. 
 
 [857] 
 
2 Books and Pamphlets recently published by 
 
 REV. J. M. NEALE. 
 A HISTORY OF THE SO-CALLED JANSENIST CHURCH OF 
 
 HOLLAND ; with a Sketch of its Earlier Annals, and some Account of the 
 Brothers of the Common Life. By the Rev. J. M. Neale, M.A., Warden of 
 Sackville College. In the Press. 
 
 OXFORD LENTEN SERMONS. 
 
 A SERIES OF SERMONS preached on the Evening of each 
 
 Wednesday and Friday during the Season of Lent, in the Church of St. Mary- 
 the-Virgin, Oxford. By the lit. Rev. the Lord Bishops of Oxford, London, 
 Salisbury, and Lincoln ; the Rev. the Dean of Westminster ; the Rev. Drs. 
 Moberly, Heurtley, Wordsworth, Goulburn, and Pusey ; and the Revs. 
 C. J. P. Eyre and T. T. Carter. Separately, 1*. each ; or complete in one 
 volume, 8vo., cloth, Ms. 
 
 OXFORD SERMONS ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE ATONEMENT. Eleven 
 
 Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, with reference to the Views 
 published by Mr. Jowett and others. 
 
 With a Preface by the Rev. the Vice-Chancellor, and an Appendix of 
 Authorities. Svo. , cloth, 12s. 
 
 PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 A PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS, 
 
 (Prayer-book Version,) chiefly grounded on the Fathers; for the use of Families. 
 2 vols., fcap. Svo., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 THE ANNALS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE THIRD YOLUME, completing tho Work. With an Ap- 
 
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 Chroniclers, Foreign Collections, Government and Societies' Publications, Index 
 of the Statutes, and numerous Notes and Illustrations. Fcap. Svo , cloth, 5s. 
 Vide also p. 7. of this Catalogue. 
 
 DAILY SERVICES. 
 
 DAILY SERVICES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ; com- 
 
 plete in one portable volume. A new Edition. Crown Svo., with Rubrics. 
 Roan, 12s.; morocco, 16s.; best morocco, 18s. 
 
 Having been requested by Mr. Parker to examine his new edition of the " T>nitij Services" of 
 the United Church of England and Ireland, and to express my opinion of it, I, having dun" so, 
 most warmly commend it t>> all Churchmen, and especially to the Clergy, who will find in it a 
 great help towards maintaining that godly and wholesome use of these Daily Services which the 
 Prayer-book enjoins on " all Priests and Deacons who are not let by sickness or some other ur- 
 gent cause." S. OXOX. 
 
 < i duesdon Palace, Dec. 7, 185C. 
 
 REV. G. ARDEN, M.A. 
 
 BREYIATES FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE. Arranged for use hy 
 
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 Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Devon; Author of " A Manual 
 
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 Just published, by the same Author, 
 
 A COURSE OF LECTURES IX OUTLINE ON CONFIRMA- 
 TION AND HOLY COMMUNION. Fcap. Svo., sewed, Is. 
 
 HERBERT THORNDIKE. 
 
 THE THEOLOGICAL WORKS OF II HUBERT THORNDIKE. 
 Volume VI., 8vo., price 10s. The set, Six Volumes in 10 Parts, 8vo., price £5 2s. 
 
 ABP. LAUD. 
 THE WORKS OF ARCHBISHOP LAUD. Vol. VI., 2 Parts, 8vo., 
 
 price 16s. Six Volumes in 8 Parts, Svo., price £3 'Is. Cd. 
 
John Henry and James Parker. 
 
 A UNIFORM SERIES OF 
 
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 FOUR BOOKS. By Thomas a Kem- 
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 WILSON'S SACRA PRIVATA, 
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 Now first printed entire. From the 
 Original Manuscripts. Fcap. 8vo., 6s. 
 ANDREWES' DEVOTIONS. 
 DEVOTIONS. By the Right Rev. 
 Father in God, Launcelot An- 
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 DEVOTIONAL WORKS. 
 
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 TRUE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 MAN'S COMPANION IN THE 
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 of the Church of England. Sixteenth 
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 The above set of 5 Volumes, in neat grained 
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 THE RULE AND EXERCISES 
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 Jeremy Taylor. In which are de- 
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 obtaining every virtue, and the reme- 
 dies against every vice. In antique 
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 TAYLOR'S HOLY DYING. 
 THE RULE AND EXERCISES 
 OF HOLY DYING. By Bishop 
 
 Jeremy Taylor. In which are de- 
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 preparing ourselves and others respec- 
 tively for a blessed death, &c. In an- 
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 Fcap. Svo., cloth, 6s. 
 
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 Armstrong's Sermons eor Pasts and Festivals. A new Edi- 
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4 Books and ± anipfilets recently published by 
 
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 ANCIENT COLLECTS AND OTHER PRATERS, for the use of 
 
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 SCRIPTURE RECORD of the Life and Character of the Blessed 
 
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 THE NOVUM ORG ANON ; or, A True Guide to the Interpretation 
 of Nature. By Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Lord Chancellor of England. 
 A new Translation. By the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, M.A. 8vo., cloth, 9s. 6d. 
 
 GAISFORD'S HEPH^ESTION. Hephsestionis Alexandria Enchi- 
 ridion, iterum edidit Thomas Gaisford, S.T.P., &c. Accedunt Terentianus 
 Maurus de Syllabis et Metres, et Procli Chrestomathia Grammatica. 2 vols. Svo. 
 cloth, 11. 5s. 
 
 XENOPHONTIS EXPEDITIO CYRI, ex recensione et cum anno- 
 tationibus Ludovici Dindorfii. Editio Secunda, auctior et emendatior. 8vo 
 cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 THE OXFORD STATUTES. Statuta Universitatis Oxoniensis. 
 
 8vo., boards, 5s. 
 
 CLARENDON'S LIFE. The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, 
 
 Lord High Chancellor of England, and Chancellor of the University of Oxford : 
 in which is included a Continuation of his History of the Grand Rebellion. 
 Written by Himself. 2 vols. 8vo., boards, £1 2s. 
 
 BURTON'S EUSEBIUS. Ensebii Pamphili Historic Ecclesiastics. 
 Libri Decern. Ex recensione Edvardi Burton, S.T.P., SS. Theologiae nuper 
 Profeesoris Regii. 8vo., boards, 89. 6d. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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