^ , * *.,.,«, ^^^^^^^^^^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^i^Mn/e^^y ^cl^.v^ /¥s^, Fishback, James. \ Essays and dialogues, on th^ powers and susceptibilitiej ^" ESSAYS AND DIALOGUES, ON THE POWERS AND SUSCEPTIBILITIES OF THE HUMAN MIND FOR RELIGION; SHOWING THE NECESSITY OF THE WORD OP GOD, OR OF SUPERNATURAL REVELATION, TO THE EXISTENCE OF IT IN THE PRESENT FALLEN STATE OF MAN: AND ON MANY OTHER OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECTS OP CHRISTIANITY. -/- BY JAMES FISHBACK, AUTHOR OF TUB PHILOSOPHY OF TilK HUMAX mXA IN REGARD TO RELIGIO.V. '*Bowarc, ]«'st any man spoil yon, tlironwli pliilosopliy and vain de- ceit, after ilie Irailitions of im-n, allcr llie niJiiueiils ol' Uie world, anil not after Christ."— Paul. LEXINGTON: J. CLARKE & CO., UPPER STREET. 1834. a. CONTENTS. ESSAY 1. The knowledge of God essential to religion — That know- ledge is not natural to tlie fallen slate of man, but su- pernatural — God is an object of faith, and so is the fact of Creation — The povyers of the mind examined and limited, in proof of the above propositions. - 9 ESSAY II. The image and likeness of God in which man was made, — his co-eval endowments — his probation and fall, and his loss of the image of God without losing his mental faculties and susceptibilities. - - - 21 DIALOGUE L Natural Religion investigated and proved not to exist — no innate idea of God as was maintained by Calvin. 39 ESSAY III. Origin and use of Language in Religion. - - 66 ESSAY IV. Origin and use of Language agreeably to Parkhurstand others — The traditions by wJiich the knowledge of God and of Religion, have been handed down from one|generation to another — The chronological connec- tion between Adam and Isaac. - - - - 79 ESSAY V. •The New Covenant. 90 ESSAY VI. Atonement. -------- 104 ESSAY VII. Trinity. - 119 ESSAY VIII. Divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ — Dr. A.CIark*s view of the Atonement and Sonsliip of Jesus Christ. 139 ESSAY IX. Grace and Faith. 148 ESSAY X. Justification or the remission of sin — The justification of a sinner and ungodly man is by faith without ir CONTENTS. works: — the justifiGalion of a rig-hteous or godly matl, is by works and not by faith only. . - - 155 Luther's view of the subject. ----- 159 Paul and James reconciled. ----- 105 Baptism has no more to do with the actual justification of a sinner and ungodly man, now, than it had with making Abraham the Father of the faithful. - - 171 Romaa Catholic decrees. . - . . - 177 ESSAY XI. The New Birth — The meaning of the phrases "Born again — Born of water and of the Spirit — Born of God." 183 ESSAY XII. The Religion-giving operation of God — God in giving religion, creates no new faculties or powers in the mind — His religion-giving operation is by his word intelligibly presented to the mind, and by it perceiv- ed, understood and believed. . - - - 209 ESSAY. XIII. The Holy Spirit — The out-pouring of the Spirit — the baptism of the Holy Ghost — gifts of the Spirit — the Apostolic office. - - - - - - - 222 ESSAY XIV. Baptism. 246 The ordinance of baptism was designed to imite all true believers in one visible fellowship in Christ. - 248 Criticisms of Professor Stuart and others, on eis. - 255 It is by immersion, and emidemalically represents the death, burial and resurrection effected in tiie soul of the believer, through faith in the cross of Christ, be- fore he is baptized. .__--- 263 Baptism t>as nothing to do in procuring the actual re- mission of sin. ------- 271 ESSAY XV. 4%ristian Experience. - - - - - - 275 ESSAY XV I. Prayer. - - - - . - ^3 THE0L06ICx.L, "This voltimc is puhlishea ^S'iff la' Vcnse'of the impor- tance of the subjects investigated in it to the spiritual and moral improvement and happiness of mankind. The subject matter of it, in a great measure, lias been nnder the habitual consideration of llie author since the year 1802, and was first prompted by a great religions exciletncnt that existed at that time in the western country; out of which three nevr religions denominations were fjimdcd, one of which were -the SJiakers. In the year 181^5 he piiblishod a volume entitled ** The Philosophy of tlie human mind in regard (o religion," which was produced by the same cause, and embraced in some de- gree a few of the sul jects of this volume, though in a less perspicuous manner. It is believed that an erroneous piiilosophy of the human mind, and unscriptnral views of the operations of the Spirit ofGoi!,and of (he origin, nature and nseof the word of God, in tlio communication of Spiritual knowledge, according to which God gives religion, exist, and have existed more or less since early after the Apostulic age, and are the causes of the slow pmgress, errors, and iitspcrfections of the Christian Religion, and of I he Christian character in the world. If these errors exist, they must be sought out and correct- ed by a patient and candid inA'esiigalion of the various sub- jects in wliich ihey are ftnind, with an humble, trembling re- gard fur tiie woitl of God. Nothing can obviate the neces- eity of such an investigation; nor should any danger of being opposed or condotnnetl prove nt it. Nor should any measure or ticgrec of a!t;ichnief.t to or cor.fitlci.ce in existing views and systems, prevent the friends and lovers of truth from 2 PREFACE. carefully reading it. This volume is employed, in part, in the investigation of these things. Why ib it that the world is not now converted to the Chris- tian Religion) Why is it tliat but linle n ore o( the surface of this globe is covered with Christianiiy, with tliC exception of America, than there was when tlie last of the Apostles died? W^hy is it that Clirislians are all cut up and divided into sects, contrary to the ardent intercessory prayer of Jesus Ch'*ist, jnst befoi'e he entered upon his sufferings, that all who be- Uevd in him through the word of the Aposiles might he one, as he is in the t^'atlierand the Father in hiuj, that the vvorld might believe that the Father had sent him'J John xvii; 20, 2h2'S. Why is it that the word of GJod is by many of its most learned advocates, believed to have been invented and stipu- lated by men, as the things of God, that it reveals, were dis- covered by them, and wliich only becomes the woi\\ of God by his Using ii in making his communications to our world, and Avhich reveals noliiir;g that was not discovered by the hu- man mind without revelation? Can any person receive the word of God *'not as the word of man, hut as it is in truth and indeed the word of God which elTectuaily works in all who do thus believe it," who entertain the above sentiments] I iijink not. And why is it that others believe that the word of God is a sealed book and a dead letter, and that it imparls no spiritu- al idea or inforination to the human mind, previous to the immediate pliysical operation of the Spirit, by which the €Oul or spirit of man is regenerated; and tliat the word of God's ^race in the gospel has nothing to do in the regenera- tion of rnan; and who pay no attention to the religious edu- cation of their cljildren on that account! 'I'hese arc ques- tions of the most serious import, and demand the most patient and dispassionate attention. Either the Christian Religion is incapable of converting the world by its own intrin- «ic and divine sense and meaning as re\ea.leil and ordain- -cd of God, and n. It is an axiom in rnorah as well as in the religion of the New Testan)ent, that the l)!ood of Chfist cleanses from all sin. The history and prost:nt. state of the world prove it, as does the state of every christian sect; they nrc all [)iirc as this doctrine is held in righteousness. The God of grace is only known through theatonefnerit, and ho is revealed by the 'I'riniiy. There is in consequence of the fall, no naiurnl religion, or knowledge of God independent of his own revelation. The wliole sci- ence of theology consistsitj the knowledge of the sense and i:neanit}g of tlx word of God; and practical religion consists PREFA.CE. 7 in cherishing its spirit, and in practising its duties. The doctrines of the Gospel are tlie foundation and frame-work of Christianity, and practical piety is its covering and orna- ment. Both are cecessary to tlie stability and beauty of the edifice. Tlioss who feel no interest in doctrinal subjects, overlook thjB abasing truths which Paul calls " the offence of the cross." The duty of faith and repentance, and their privilege and happiness too, have their foundation in the doctrine of hu- man depravity, and of the atonement; and tlie atonement is the foundation of saving faith. God has given to man no natural cr moral ability to believe in, and love him without Jesus Christ; nor lias ho in the ab- sence of the Gospel. His religion giving operation is by the Gospel itself understood and believed. By this a natural man is made a spiritual man, and sinners are born to God and made heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. This is provided Cor and is conferred upon them through the rich provisions of the covenant of the Spirit, and is received by faith in .lesus Christ, who is " made of God tmio us wisdom, righteousness, sanctificalion and redemption." Wc should therefore only glory in the Lord. The reason why men remain dead in trespasses and sins in a christian land, is because christians live in trespasses and sins, and therefore do not quicken and convert them by tho Gospel of God's grace which is spirit and life. Before the world can be converted the sentiment must be- come universal among all Bible Christians, tiiat the word of the Gospel in its true sense and mealing is the religion J'or this whole w.-irld, and is the ordained means of God to enlight- en and convert mankind; and that it is the privilege and happiness of all to be converted, while it is the duty of chris- tians to convert them by imparling the truth to them, and by the example of a pious, holy life. I'hc understanding, tho judgment, and the affections must all be enliglilened, con- vinced and engaged by the truth of the Gospel. This would lead to the use of the word of God, and part iciilarly the Gos- pel in every grade of education, and to improvement aoddutf 8 PREFACE. from the cradle to the grave. All the languages that are learnt should be learnt to a considerable extent, by reading: the Scriptures translated into thenn. By these means all christians will become united in one hearty fellowship, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in all things. Peri- odical religious excitennenls will give way io perennial ones, which will be distinguished by vigorous, healthy, spiritual action and enjoyment, perpetually sustained by the grace and truth of God. The design of the investigations in this book, is to promote these ends. Their direct tendency is to augment the impor- tance of the Bible and of the Bible Society cause in the pub- lic mind, and to create and increase a desire for reading and understanding the Scriptures. "^I'he sentitnent must become more universal than it is now, or has been for a' long time^ that the Bible is a revelation from God, and teaches all that can be known of spiritual things, and was written to be read and understood by nil men. And that it is the meatjs through which God communicates faith in Jesus Christ, makes man- kind happy, and saves their souls. Until these be done the people will not read or desire t& read the Scriptures from proper views, and the labor and expense of the friends of the Bible Society cannot find an equivalent in the good that they do, in supplying every fam- ily with a bible. Were the friends of the bible to employ one half of their efforts and labors in proving- to the people that the scriptures Were written to be read and understood by them, they would ^etl one hundred bibles to be actually read, where they give, one now, whether it be road or noti THE K n'o^S l:1]^G E OF GOD» The knowledge of God essential to religion — That knowledge is not natural to man in his fallen state, but supernatural — God is an object of faith as is the fact of creation — They are made known by revelation — The powers and operations of the mind, examined and limited in proof of the foregoing propositions. The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. This truth will be evident if we remember that the word religion always denotes either a system of truth of which God is the great subject, or a system of affections and conduct of which he is the supreme object. Without the knowledge of the existence of God in some degree, no person can be said to possess religion either in thought or affection. Knowledge consists in the percep- tion of that which exists, or of truth and fact, or the per* <3eption and agreement, or disagreement, or repugnancy of our ideas. Our ideas are the signs of things, and are the elements of our knowledge, as words are the signs of our ideas. We cannot have any knowledge of that which does not exist, nor have we any knowledge of that whose existence is not perceived. Religious knowledge consists in the perception of the existence of God, of his operations and character, and of the relations which we sustain to him,, and the duties h« requires of us. 2 1M) KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. God is not an object of sense, but of faith. No man has' seen him at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared or revealed him. When I say that God is not an object of sense, but of faith, I mean that his existence cannot be perceived or in- ferred from nature or from mind, independent of revela- tion made in words or verbal language. Objects of faith in this sense are those which are made known by super- natural revelation, as distinguished from those which are made known by nature or natural phenomena or appear- ances. God exists distinct from, and independent of the objects of sense and of their appearances, which they manifest by the operation of their laws or powers and substances. God is therefore, not naturally perceived — that is, nature does not make any original suggestion of his existence to the mind by any of her operations. It is the duty of a thoroughly instructed natural Philosopher to explain all natural phenomena or natural appearances upon natural principles, and in all investigations of nature, having ar- rived at first principles, he is bound to stop there and to consider himself as having arrived at the utmost limits of natural science. These limits have no naturally perceived connection with or dependence upon God, and of course his existence cannot be inferred from them. The fact of creation is an object of faith, as is the ex- istence o^GfA — they are both made known by revelation. Sense informs us that the worlds are, and that all the va- rious objects, substances, laws or powers, and properties of nature, exist, whether animate or inanimate, physical or metaphysical, and moral ; but faith, or the revelations of God by his word, teach us that they were made; and by revelation we know that spiritual beings exist, and that all of them except God were made. KNOWLEDGE OP GOD. 14 it is the language of revelation alone that there wae a beginning of the pensible universe, and that in the be- ginning God created the heavens and the earth out of no- thing, or that he created the elements out of which he made them. As the mind, in viewing the phenomena or appearances of nature, cannot perceive any thing but the powers or laws and substances which are employed in producing them, so m its own states and operations, it is not con- scious of the existence, presence or operation of any being or thing extraneous to itself or to its own powers and feelings, and the objects of its perceptions and feel- ings or the organs through which it is impressed, and the sensible circumstances in which it is placed. Neither in the former or latter case does it perceive, or is it conscious of the existence or agency of God, because he exists dis- tinct from, and independent of nature and of her substan- ces and laws, and of the mind and its powers, suscepti- bilities and consciousness, and has no sensibly perceived connection with or dependence upon either. If therefore, God exists and operates in either or in both of these cases, the knowledge of it must be obtained, not from nature, but from external supernatural revelation, as the objects are objects of faith and not of natural sight or sense or deduc- tion from nature, or of natural consciousness. From these premises I assert, that to man's fallen state there is no ori- ginal natural knowledge of God, and of course that there is no Natural Religion distinguished from revealed religion. The existence and operations of God being distinct from the existence and operations of nature, the existence and operations of God are objects of faith and are only known through an original supernatural revelation — supernatu* ral I mean, to man's fallen, natural state. This revelation made at different times and in various manners, from the 12 KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. fall of man, has been handed down to succeeding ages hy oral traditions and rites of worship, and by written words. It began at the fall and was gradually enlarged by addition- Hi communications from God to the Patriarchs and Proph- ets, and particularly to these, and was perfected by Jesus Christ in the Gospel. Religion has existed in the world since man was made, but I repeat that it is not natural to his fallen state: — to his primitive, pure estate, the one in which he was made, religion was natural — it formed a part of the state in which he was made. To know and love God, and to enjoy communion with him formed a part of the image and likeness of God in which he was created. By the fall, man lost them. These endowments, which were natural to man's estate of innocence and purity, are, by reason of the loss he sustained by sin, supernatural and miraculous to his estate of guilt, as is the knowledge of them. Man, by violating the covenant and law of in- nocence in Paradise, changed or altered his state, and lost all that constituted the image and likeness of God. God withdrew from him the light of his countenance, and all the co-eval endowments, which he bestowed upon him at his creation, and which constituted his innate, spiritual and natural knowledge, and his righteousness, true holiness and happiness ceased. From that period, God's govern- ment in relation to man was changed or reorganized, and was made to assume a mediatorial character, and had re- ference to the incarnation and personal manifestation of God the word, his atonement and the new covenant which was to be ratified by his blood, which was appointed to be shed for the remission of sins. The propitiatory death of Jesus Christ was the great event in the divine purpose and grace which were given to us in Christ before the world began, in reference to which God made all his communi- cations in promises and blessings to our guilty world aft^cv KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 18 the fall, and through which, by faith, he freely and graciously justified sinners, and held communion with them from the fall of Adam to the advent of Messiah: Rom. iii, 24, 26; 2 Tim. i, 9; Heb. ix, 15. When the Scriptures were written the knowledge of God existed in the world, but they never hint that that knowlege existed in the v/orld independent of antecedent revelations, but abound with testimony to the contrary, and prove conclu- sively that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God . In every period of the world, since the fall .of man, if the knowledge of God and of divine things which had been previously obtained from God, had been entirely lost, or taken away, and new revelation had been withheld, the human mind would have been totally destitute of any idea of God, or of spiritual existence, or of the beginning or creation of the world. Hence it is true that since man fell, exclusive of what he remembered of God and of what he knew of spiritual things before and at the fall, all that he has known or does know of God has been communica- ted to him by external revelation, in words, which were for the most part associated with miraculous works when made, as they are in the record, to confirm and illustrate their divine truth. This has been the source and character of all true reli- gious knowledge that our world has possessed since the fall of man, and idolatry originated in its corruption — so that religion has not only been confirmed by miracles, but it has always been miraculous and supernatural to the fallen state of man. It was made known and developed, as J have already observed, in ancient times, and at different periods by God speaking to the prophets, and by various typical religious institutions which he ordained : but it was perfected by Jesus Christ in the Gospel. The Bible re- cord gives a short account of the pre-existing revelations. 2* ,M KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. and a history of God's dealings and conduct towards our world before the time of Moses and since; but there is no case in which God required mankind to know or to believe in, or to worship him without his own revelations, and al- ways charges guilt and condemnation upon them for cor- iiipting, or changing, forgetting, or disbelieving and reject- ing his word. Nor did God ever require of men under any dispensation, to cultivate human learning or the sci- ence of nature to learn his existence, or to worship him. And it is worthy of remark, that Christ and his Apostles, among all their doctrines and injunctions, never once men- tioned human learning, consisting in the science and phi- losophy of nature, as the means of acquiring the original knowledge of God and of his worship. These things had led off from the knowledge of God as he had revealed him- self, and were the cause of corruption and idolatry in eve- ry age: read Rom. i, and Deut. iv. In these passages, Paul and Moses concur in proof of what I say — Paul tells us that the Gentiles became idolaters by changmg the glo- ry of God which God had showed unto them, into images and idols. This they did because they did not like to re- tain the knowledge of him: — and Moses guards the chil- dren of Israel against the same sin to which they were per- petually inclined, and into which they several times fell, with the voice of their prophets perpetually sounding in their ears, and with the stupendous miracles, which God wrought by the hands of Moses and others, glaring in their eyes from every page of their history. And none, af^er losing the knowledge of God by corrupting his word, or rejecting it, ever regained it but by new revelation. The people always erred, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God therein revealed . Language or words, in spiritual knowledge, originated 'in the Logos or word, and is as necessary to our know- KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 15 ledge, faith and affections in religion, as light is necessary to our perception of visible objects, and to the siaf^e of mind produced by them. God who formed the eye gives to us vision by natural lignt, and God who formed the mind gives to us spiritual perception and religious know- ledge and affection by his word — and as certainly and de- monstrably as he has limited our perception of visible ob- jects to the use and influence of natural light upon the eye, has he limited the perception and knowledge of himself and of other spiritual objects to the use and influence of his word, given to us by supernatural revelations. After the mind has obtained the idea and knowledge of God as the creator of the Universe, and the knowledge of the fact that the world was made by him, to it, through faiths "the hea- vens declare his glory, and the firmament sheweth for^h hie handy work." This, I say, is the language of faith, and is not found in the vocabulary of nature strictly speaking, or of natural science. David derived the views expressed in •he 19th Psalm from revelation. Feeling the importance of a thorough discussion of this subject to a just knowledge of the nature and design of he word of God as distinguished from the word of man, and of its actual necessity and use to the existence of religion in the mind and heart of man, 1 will give to the powers and operations of the human mind, a more minute and particu- lar attention as to the ways and means by which it ac- quires knowledge. By this it will appear, that since his immediate miraculous revelations ceased, God has limi- fed himself to his own icord in communicating the knoA'- ledge of himself to the human mind; and of course that the religion giving operation of his spirit is by his vord^ which, when received as the word of God, works effectual^ ly in them that believe it. In accordance with this view, I observe that all thfe 16 KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. knowledge we can h ive of exernnl ihings naturally, we derive from nature by its operations upon the mind through our five senses, the sense of seeing, of hearing, of feeling, of taslin;j and of smeilin;^\ Objects acting upon these pro- duce impressions and sensations. The utmost perfection of our senses can show us only what is in reference to the things which impress them at rhe moment of tlie percep- tion; not what has been or what will be. There is no- thing in any quality of bodies perceived by us, which, without experience, could enable us to predict the changes that are to occur in them, or instruct us in what had hap- pened. Without experience, then, we could never from ndUire alone tell that the worlds were created or contrived, or that ihey ever will be destroyed. But experience has taught us neither of these things, nor that any thing ever was made or contrived out of nothing — all that experience and philosophy can do, is to expbiin the phenomena or ap- pearances of things that are, and to tell and explain the changes to which things are liable by the operation of the laws and principles of nature; but it is not within the pro- vince of experience and philosophy to know or to inquire into the origin of any thing from nothing — nor is there any thing in nature to suggest the thought or the inquiry. There is a want of facts and analogies in the case. What mind is, independent of its temporary variety of feeling and states, it is impossible for us to discern. Of tlie essence of mind, or of its duration, we know nothing from nature. In our own sensations uniformly ascribed to particular organs of sense, we find the elements of all our knowledge, the materials on which the mind is ever operating, and without which it seems, as is observed by Stewart, to be impossible to conceive that it ever could have operated at all, or have been conscious of its own ex- istence. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 17 The intellectual operations of our minds are perception, memory, imagination and judgment. The moral opera- tions and powers, which depend upon the intellectual ope- rations for their exercises, are the affections — to these may be added consciousness, which is the feeling the mind has of its own present state however produced. In the exercises of our minds, intellectually and morally, we are conscious to ourselves that we perceive, feel, think, remember, reason, and believe — that we love or hate, are happy or miserable; but we cannot perceive any power or influence by which we do these things, or by which these states of mind are produced, independent of ourselves, and of the objects and their qualities which we perceive, and which excite them, and of the sensible cir- cumstances in which we are placed. If there be any power or influence exterior to our bodies and minds, or separate from them and the things and circumstances which I have stated, by which we are excited or actuated, or are capacitated to act — if God exists and has any agency in these things, we must, in order to know it, be informed of it by external revelation. The fact of the ex- istence of God and of his agency are objects of faith and not of sight, nor of sense, nor of natural consciousness. Without faith or revelation in spiritual and religious matters, we can have no religious ideas or feeling, as with- out the perception of visible objects we can have no feel- ing produced by them as visible objects. The spirit of God, in whom we live, are moved and have our being, and who sustains all our powers and susceptibilities, we are not naturally sensible or conscious of the existence, pre- sence and operations of, in the feelings, exercises and consciousness of our own minds, more than we are of his existence, presefice and operation in external natural op- erations and appearances. If we apprehend or believe i^ 18 KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. his existence and operation in either case, it is the efteot of external revelation made to us by words, and confirmed originally by miraculous works — it is the effect of faith. Nothing affects the feeling of our hearts that is not per- ceived by our minds. Things operate upon the mind as it perceives them, and not as they are in their own natures. We can originate no new idea. We can perceive that which impresses our sense, and we can remember what we have perceived, and we can imagine many things, but our imaginations are limited by, and are dependent upon, the materials furnished the mind by previous perceptions, ideas and sensations, and by its own operations and states, for its fabrications. There is nothing found in the com- plex fabric wrought by the imagination or fancy more than the skill and talents of assorting, combining and arranging the materials, that is not found in the raw materials them- selves. This is well expressed by Mr. Hume, and which, by just conclusions from it, is fatal to his natural religion. He observes, "although nothing is so unbounded in its opera- tions as the powers of the mind and the imagination of man — to form monsters and join incongruous shapes and appear- ances cost the imagination no more trouble than to con- ceive of the most natural and familiar objects; and while the body is confined to one planet, along which it creeps with pain and difficulty, the imagination and thought can transport us in an instant into the most distant regions of the universe. But although our thought seems to possess this unbounded liberty, we shall find upon a nearer exam- ination, that it is really confined within very narrow lim- its, and that all this creative power of the mind amounts to nothing more than the faculty of combining, transpos- ing, augmcntinni;, and diminishing the materials afforded us by sense and experience." *• Analogical reasoning cannot be used or admitted in the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 19- present investigation in originating the idea of God from nature without revelation, because it cannot be employed to produce any original objective ideas. Analogy in phi- losophy, is a term of relation, proportion or agreement, which several things knoicn bear to each other in the view of the mind in some respects, though they differ in others. In reasoning from analogy, from a few points known and allowed, we deduce a number of others. As analogical reasoning pre-supposes the knowledge of the existence of the things compared, it cannot be used in any theological discussion whatever, until the existence of God is known or conceded; or until the things seen in nature are prov- ed to have been created from nothing, which I assert can- not be done. The formation of a watch or a house, which consists in the adjustment of certain substances and powers of na- ture which already exist, for particular purposes, bears no resemblance, relation or proportion, or analogy to the creation of the substances and powers which compose them, and of course no idea of a creation from nothing can be suggested by them. What these properties and laws are, independent of our perceptions of them, or rat'ier of their appearances, we are totally ignorant, as we are of what the worlds are. Sense informs us that they exist, and consciousness informs us that we exist, and think, and feel and act; but neither informs us that they were crea- ted, or that God is, and that he exists distinct from, and in- dependent of matter and its laws, and of the worlds we see, and of our own minds and bodies — none of all these in- form us that God created them, or that they were made at all, or that God is, and is every where present and sus- tains all things, though unperceived: it is the exclusive of- fice of revelation to do these. Many think that it is a disparagement of God's wisdom 20 KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. and goodness, to maintain that he has ordained and estab- lished a certain system and order of things according to which he makes himself known to mankind, and imparts spiritual knowledge, faiih and love, and restores them to himself. Vv'hy should it be any more a disparagement of God's wisdom and goodness to believe that he limits the knowlege of himself to his own revelation, than that he lim- its salvation to the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ, or natural vision to light, or the support and nour- ishment of the body to air and food? The only question for us to solve, is, has God done these things? If he has, our duty and interest are to acquiesce in them, and go along with him in the use of the means he has ordained; for should we violate his order of things in these respects, we shall loose the advantage and benefit of it. I do sincerely believe, that God has formed the mind with powers and affections which render it capable of re- ligion, and that in man's fallen state, God limits religious knowledge to his word revealed by Jesus Christ. And, I do moreover believe, that there is no such thing as natural religion as distinguished from revealed religion. In these sentiments and opinions I feel myself supported by the word of God itself, by the history of the world, and the consciousness of every human mind that will carefully attend to its own operations and states, in acquiring spir- itual knowledge, or the knowledge of the existence of God and of spiritual things. The testimony derived from these sources, authorises me to say, that the fall of man in Adam, lost for him the know- ledge of the existence of God and of spiritual things, as they exist distinct from nature and matter, and that religion, af- ter the fall, entered the world by external supernatural revelation in words, and that the religion -giving operation of the spirit of God upon the mind of man, is by his word KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 2l through Jesus Christ, the sense and meaning of which the mind is formed to understand, believe and feel, by suita- ble and proper instruction and culture . In my next Essay, I will exhibit what seems, from the word of God, and the history of the world, to have been the primeval state of man ; what were his co-eval endow- ments, which constituted the image and likeness of God, in which he was made ; how he fell, and what he lost by the fall. This investigation, will enable us the more clearly and consistently to apprehend God's method of restoring man- kind to his fellowship and enjoyment, by his grace through the new covenant, by the atonement and mediation of Je- sus Christ, and the agencies of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. ESSAY U. CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. The image and likeness of God in which man was made — His co-ieval endowments — His probation and fall, and the loss of the image of God, without losing his original mental faculties and susceptibilities. The scripture informs us, that God created man in hie own image, after his own likeness. God the Word was man's Creator. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." All things were made by him and for him, visible and invisible, and he is before all things, and by him they consist. The image of God, in which man was made, could not relate to man's corporeal part, or animal appetites and pas- uionsj because God has no corporeal part, nor animal appe- tites and passions; but it relates to his spiritual nature, to his intellectual and moral powers, and spiritual endow- ments. In that state of man's likeness to God, his spirit could not have been ignorant, evil, low or base. The im- age of God, in which he was made, must have compre- hended the knowledge and love of God, and fellowship with him, and the knowledge of the creatures which God had made, together with the knowledge and use of lan- guage upon natural and spiritual subjects, and dominion of the world. This knowledge and use of language, and the know- ledge of natural and spiritual things, were co-eval endow- ments, bestowed upon man by his munificent Creator, at CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. '4i^ the moment that he gave him existence. Hence, we find in the short account given us in the three first chapters of Genesis, that God and man spake together in the most fa- miliar and intimate manner. Adam named every living creature, by divine direction, which God had made; for *'the Lord God brought them to Adam to see what he would call them," to give proof of his knowledge of their nature and of his knowledge and use of language, "and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field :'" Gen. ii, 19, 20. Adam did not learn in these cases by the slow process of observation and experience, as we do. He invented nothing — but all was communicated to him immediately by his Maker, the Word or Logos. Adam knew as God knew; he saw as God saw; and he spake as God spake, in this case. His mind was the image of God's mind in these things, and in his affections. These endowments were characteristic of man's state in his first creation, to which we have nothing analogous but in what occurred on the day of pentecost, and at dif- ferent times afterwards during the Apostolic age, in the knowledge of spiritual things, and in the gift of tongues and the love of God. These were bestowed by the Word or. Logos made fiesh^ after his glorious exaltation at the com- mencement of the new creation, upon the new made men, who were renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created them. They spake, in languages or tongues, which they had not known before, and which they were taught immediately by God, the wonderful works of God. All that they said was in reference to Jesus Christ, and partook of the new creation. In the original and present state of man, we must dis- tinguish the powers or faculties, and the susceptibili- ^ CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. ties, which were, and are, essential to his existence and nature as a moral creature, from their actual im- provement or endowment with knowledge which is ne- cessary to their exercise and perfection. Without this distinction, we cannot conceive how man could have been made either wise or ignorant, or how sin could have been committed, or how any change could have been produced, or how it now can be in his intellectual or moral state. Man's capacity for knowing and loving God, and for the enjoyment of him, and for the knowledge and use of lan- guage, existed and now exists distinct from, and independ- ent of its actual improvement and exercise in these things. Man does not possess innate ideas, or innate knowledge of God or of natural things, nor does he possess innate knowledge of language ; but, in the divine constitution of his nature, he does possess native powers and susceptibil- ities, which capacitate him for acquiring them; and God, in the spiritual and natural economy, has ordained and appointed means for their attainment and improvement. These are applied and used by the influence of education. Every parent, and teacher, and missionary, acts upon these principles. Since immediate revelation ceased, the spiritual means of instruction are to be found in the Gospel of God's grace, and in previous revelations, preserved and perpetuated by traditions or by written records. In man's first estate, the actual possession and exercise of these endowments, as they were distinguished from the original moral faculties, depended upon immediate divine communications and influences. These were bestowed upon him, and might be withdrawn, and yet all the origi- nal native powers or faculties and susceptibilities remain. Agreeably to these views, when ^iod made man at first, he formed in him what may be called natural principlefi CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN, 25 consisting in mere human nature, and such as I have ob- served were essential to it, comprehending the body with its various members, organs, senses and powers ; and the human soul or spirit, with its powers of intellect and its moral susceptibilities, including the appetites and passions. These belong to, and constitute the nature of man in eve- ry circumstance and condition irrespective of good or evil. They existed as well before the fall as they have since. These, when alone and left to themselves, under the in- fluence and controul of the objects of sense and animal appetite, are what the scriptures call jlesh, and constitute the natural or carnal man : they are all earthly and self ish. In this state, sensual gratification, man's love of him- self, his carnal liberty, honour and pleasure are exercised. Besides these principles of nature, there were divine spir- itual endowments bestowed upon man, consisting in the knowledge and love of God and love of holiness, which were designed to govern, and did govern the natural ones, until the moment of the fall. In these consisted man's spiritual resemblance to God, or the image and likeness of God in which he was made. In their right exercise consisted his righteousness, true holiness and happiness. These were the co-eval endow- ments of which I have spoken. I repeat, that they com- prehended the knowledge and love of God, and fellowship with him, and the knowledge and use of language, being such as depended on God's immediate communications and influences, bestowed upon the original powers and sus- ceptibilities of the spirit of man as it came out of the hands of us maker. Their continuance and enjoyment depend- ed upon man's union and communion with God; and these depended on his preserving his allegiance to God as a moral subject of his government, in holy subordination and obedience to him. 3 * 26 CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OP MAN. These divine endowments and influences, co-evally bestowed, though withdrawn from man, and man's nature forsaken of them, human nature as before described, would be human nature still, man's nature as such being entire without them. The soul of man, when under the govern- ment and controul of these divine principles, the scrip- tures call spirit, in opposition to flesh as formerly explain- ed. The intellectual and moral nature of man, or his un- derstanding and affections may be governed by the one or by the other of these, and whichever of them has the mas- tery over and controuls the man, gives to him his moral character, either of religion and spiritual mindedness, or (rf irreligion and carnality. The spiritual and superior principles, were given to possess the throne, and to maintain an absolute dominion in the heart, while the natural ones were given to be wholly subordinate and subsen ient. While things con- tinued in this state, every thing was in excellent order 7* fellowship with God and love and happiness prevailed. This was the fruit of obedience under the covenant of in- nocence, under which God placed man, after making him in his own image and likeness. Obedience to the will of God was the dignity, true glory, security and happiness of man. Upon this, I repeat, depended the perpetuity of the image of God in which man was made, as did also his natural immortality and exemption from disease and pain. In this state, man could only be justified by his own works of righteousness in obeying the law of God, and preserving his innocence and purity. In this situation; religion, or the knowledge of God, was natural to man. it formed a part of the state in which man was made. The divine constitution, agreeably to which he was made and endowed, secured to him every thing that was neces- sary for his obedience, righteousness, holiness and happi- CREATION, TR^AL AND FALL OF MAN. '47 ness, without any grace or favor, as it is revealed in the gospel. Man needed no Mediator, and there was none. In his understanding there was no darkness nor ignorance to the full extent or degree of the limits which God pre- scribed for his knowledge, duty and happiness. In his heart no passion touched a discordant string, but all was harmony and love. By attending to the three first chapters of Genesis, we clearly see, that there was the most intimate and familiar intercourse between God and man. This was kept up and manifested by oral and verbal communications. They talked together — Adam received, by words, communica- tions from his Maker, and he understood them and spoke to him in an articulate, vocal manner. Verbal language or speech was the medium of communication between God and man before the fall, as it ever has been, through an atonement and a mediator, since the falL. I will now attend to man's probation or trial under the covenant of innocence, his temptation and fall, and the consequences of it. After God created man in his image and likeness, he put him in a state of probation, as he seems to have done all his intelligent creatures. He gave him dominion over all the things that he had created, except the fruit of one tree, and made him subject to himself only — he gave him also dominion over his own appetite, passions and ac- tions. He formed him with appetites, and forbade him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Gar- den of Eden, as the test of his obedience. The penalty denounced against the violation of this prohibition, which was made in plain words and sentences, was death — ■ •'And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Gar- den of Eden to dress and to keep it. And the Lord God CQtnaianded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden 28 CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," or dying thou shalt die: Gen. ii, 15, 17. This command and prohibi- tion of God, and the penalty annexed to transgression, Adam and Eve understood, as appears from what after- wards occurred. In this case, God did all that he^iould do, that was consistent with his character and agency as the moral Governor of man, and with man's agency as a subject of God's government, in a state of probation, to prevent man's fall » When God declared to man that he should not eat^ he did not mean that he might eat with his permission. But man did eat, and thereby sinned, by transgressing God's law or will. He sinned by withdraw- ing his attpntion from the w>ord of God and its authority^ by which he was prohibited and not allowed or permitted to eat, and by attending to, and acquiescing in the temp- ter'^s contradiction of God'^s icord, by which he made God a liar, and by yielding to the influence of his carnal ap'- petite, imagination and passion, in opposition to it : — or, in other words, he sinned by yielding )bedience to the inferior carnal principles, the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, in direct violation of God^s will and law, clearly expressed and understood, and in op- position to the superior principles of his nature. Before he sinned, and while in the image of God, man saw as God saw, he loved as God loved, and he willed as God willed. He corresponded in *hese respects, to the extent of his limited divine endowments and exercises, with his maker . The internal states of the mind are formed and regula- ted very much by the external perceptions of the mind,^ and the bearing which the objects have upon its passions and gratifications ; and the rule of duty and of conscience CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OP MAN. 29 is often violated by imagination and passion, excited by external objects of sense. This was clearly the case in the fall of man. The tempter began his work of ruin in Eden, by making a false representation of the word of God to the mind of man, by which he perverted his intel- lect; and he completed it by falsely clothing the forbid- den tree with qualities, and the eating of it with advanta- ges and benefits, which inflamed his imagination and pas- sions. Without these, the subtle deceiver well knew that he could not induce him to sin. "And the Serpent said unto the woman, hath God said ye shall not eat of ev- ery tree of the Garden? And the woman said unto the Serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the Gar- den, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die — for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasanf to the eyes, and a tree to be de- sired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat:" Gen. iii, 1, 6. It was by false words, in opposition, and in contradiction to the true word of God, that the mind of man in its perceptions ceased to harmonise with the mind of God, and his affections and will were put in op- positiv n to God, and by a decisive choice, in accordance with the false suggestions of the Devil, and his animal ap- petite and carnal imagination, he sinned against God. Releasing his mind from a sense of the truth and obliga- tion of God's word, by withdrawing his attention from it, and by attending to and becoming engrossed b)^ the sug- gestions of the tempter, which he did voluntarily, and in 30 CREATION, TR1A.L AND PALL OF MAN, violation of God's will and his duty and ability, man had nothing to oppose or controul his carnal appetite and passion, and was of necessity precipitated into transgres- sion. He ceased to use the power that God gave to him to stand, and he fell. And thus he separated himself from God by sin. By this he lost his- union and fellowship with God, extinguished his love in his own soul, and lost the image and likeness of God in which he was made, and in- curred his displeasure and all the penalties of the viola- ted law. Man, with the powers God gave him, could have con- tinued his attention to what God said to him, and could have continued to believe, feel and obey it, in opposition to what Satan said; but he did not, and sinned. ''Attention is the looking organ of the mind — the link of connection between man's moral nature and his intellec- tual nature — the messenger as it were, by which the m- terchange between these two departments is carried on — a messenger, too,, at the bidding of the will, which sayeth to it at one time, go, and it goeth — at another time, come, and it cometh — and again: do this, and it doeth it. It is thus that a man becomes directly responsible for the con- clusions of his understanding: for these conclusions de- pend altogether, not on the evidence which exists, but on that portion of the evidence which is attended to. He is reckoned with for the lack or sufficiency of his attention, and not for the lack or sufficiency of evidence. It is not for him to create the light of day, but it is for him to open and present his eyes to all its manifestations. Neither is it fbr him to fetch down to earth the light from the upper sanctuary. But if it be indeed true, that light hath come from thenfe, then it is for him to guide the eye of the un- derstanding towards i.." * •Dr. Chalmers. CREATION, TRIAL AND PALL OF MAN. 31 in consequence of man's transgression his state was to- tally changed ; God withdrew from him, because it would have been utterly improper in itself, and inconsistent with the covenant or constitution he had established with him in innocence, that he should have still maintained com- munion wiih him, after he had sinned and become a rebel. When God withdrew his complacential smiles and spiritual light and influence, he left man possessed of the inferior and carnal principles, and involved in spiritual darkness, guilt and death, to realize the penalty denounced against transgression, dying thou shalt die, in the day thou ea- test. The intellectual powers and moral principles, which were essential to man's existence, as an intelligent being, continued, but the co-eval endowments, which constituted the image of God, ceased, and man became flesh and nat- urally mortal; and religion ceased to be natural to man's state ; that is, the knowledge and love of God and of spir- itual things ceased to be natural as they had been. As, when the light is withdrawn from a room, it is left in dark- ness, so the withdrawal from man of God's spiritual man- ifestations, and the co-eval spiritual endowment swhich he bestowed upon him in consequence of sin, left him in spiritual darkness under the dominion of sense and of an- imal appetite and passion — a sensual, selfish being, in- volved in guilt, and under the sentence of death. It was on account of man's change from God, and God's withdrawal from him, that religion, which was natural to his first pure estate, ceased to be natural to his fallen state. The religion-giving manifestations and operations of God, which were natural to man while he possessed the image and likeness of God, were withdrawn; but the nat- ural presence and physical operations of God's spirit, were :^2 CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. not withdrawn from him. These do not give religion, nor religious and spiritual knowledge. Had these ceased with the withdrawal of God's religion-giving manifesta- tions and endowments, man would have instantly died a natural deaih, and the human race become extinct. If the natural and immediate presence and physical operations of God'^s spirit, had been the religion-giving and the > eli- gion'SUi>taining operations in the souU man could not have sinned, and all men would naturally, and necessarily have religion, and thev would all have it precisely alike, be- cause all men sre made alike, and these operations are alike, and common to all men, and are necessary to their existence. They sustain natural life, and all the native, intellectual and moral powers and susceptibilities of man, which survived the fall, and which render him capable of religion,- but the religion-giving operations of God's spir- it, which enlighten and improve his capacity, are by ex- ternal supernatural revelations, made in intelligible words and sentences, and which have for the most part been il- lustrated and confirmed by miraculous works. These words and works, since immediate supernatural revelations and miraculous works ceased, are embodied in the written oracles of God, and are the ordained means by which spiritual ideas are produced in the mind of man, and, under the gospel, are the means by which man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. I have said, that God did all that he could do, con- sistently with the moral nature of his government, to pre- vent man from sinning. In reference to the whole matter he might well have said, after man sinned : "What could have been done more to man that I have not done to and for him? Wherefore, when I looked that he should have been obedient and produced righteousness, he was diso- bedient." It is true that God could have prevented Adam CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OP MAN. 33 ^sating of the forbidden tree in various physical ways. He could have placed it out of his reach, or he could have giv- en him an instinctwe abhorrence of the tree, but in this he would not have acted as the moral governor of man, and in »hat case there would have been no need of any pro- hibition. When, man sinned by the misuse and abuse of his moral powers, God did not infuse any positive principle of cor- ruption or sin into his soul. He withdrew from him, and, agreeably to man's own choice, he left him under the in- fluence and controul of the inferior principles of time and sense, and animal appetite, involved in spiritual darkness and guilt, and under the sentence of death. In this state of sin, immediately after man fell, he had no power to choose life or to reject it; because it was not put in his pow- er. Until God spoke to him and gave him a promise, there was none to choose, or refuse, or hope for, I repeat, that God did not permit or allow Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden tree — he did not permit them to sin in any sense tha-. indicates his acquiescence or approval. Had this been the case, the essence of sin would have been wanting in the act of eating; it could not have been trans- gression of God's will and law for them to have eaten. The whole transaction is destitute of every appearance of permission or acquiescence on the part of God. Adam an-i Eve never once thought of it, nor did the Devil, which they certainly would have done had it been true, when God pronounced sentence upon them — when he said un- to Adam, "Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof / com- manded thee that thou shouldest not eat? and the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat ;" — and when the woman said, "The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat:" Gen. iii, 11, 13. I repeat, that Adam, who was made in the im- 4 34 CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. age and likeness of God, and who knew at least as much as our modern philosophers know of the divine mind in reference to God's will concerning himself, never once thought that God permitted him or Eve to sin; and God, in the sentence he pronounced against them, and the con- sequences that followed, gave awful proof of his in- finite and eternal opposition to sin. The divine permis- sion of sin, is asserted to suit certain human theories and systems of physical theology, which men have formed m- depcndent of the word, and, in many things', in opposition to it. Had God never spoken to man after he sinned, or had he made no new communications to him, his mind would have of necessity been limited in its knowledge to the remembrance of spiritual things, which he knew be- fore. But God had designs of mercy and grace, and, in reference to the incarnation of the Word, his atonement and salvation through him, manifested them. These were progressively developed through different ages, until they were perfected by Jesus Christ in the Gospel. By this Gospel man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him. The principles by which this re- newal is effected, are to be found in the gracious provis- ions in the new covenant through the offices and agen- cies of Jesus Christ as the nexD Creator. These secure to the true believer in Jesus Christ, the remission of his sins, through the redemption there is in his blood, by the free grace of God and a new nature, and fellowship with the Father and the Son, and eternal glory. The greatest part of the christian world are Natural- Religionists, who differ nothing from those who call them- selves Deists, in the sentiment that nature indicates or teaches the existence of God, independent of any revela- tion. In this case they both deny that the revealed word of God is the means of original spiritual ideas and know- CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. 35 ledge. The natural-religionist christian, with the Deist, moreover believes, that the word of God was originally in its' nouns, verbs and adjectives, of human invention and stipulation, as the ideas and objects which they express, were of human discovery, and that they became, or v/ere made the word of God only by his using them in speak- ing to man. These opinions are in direct opposition to what I believe to be true, and to the views given in this and in the former Essay. I consider them to be not only essentially erroneous and false, but to involve consequen- ces which are fatal to the consistency and practical belief of the Gospel, or the christian religion, as they are subver- sive of the whole word of God. They, of necessity, have led to unscriptural views of the operations of the Spirit in giving religion, as they have to the denial and rejection of an essential truth in the fall and depravity of man: — I mean the loss of the kno.vledge of God. The doctrine that asserts that religion is natural to ths fallen state of man, was incorporated into the Christian re- ligion in the second or third century, by Clement of Alex- andria, and was derived from the Platonic philosophy, which was taught by Plato more than three hundred years before Christ. That philosophy taught the doctrine of in- jiate ideas. John Calvin taught natural religion as the foundation of all religion, and maintained it as a self-evident truth, that all men have an innate knowledge of God, and of spiritual things. This appears from his Institutes. The doctrine of innate ideas and of innate knowledge continued through every period of the christian religion, from the days 6f Clement, and formed an essential part of it, down to the time of Locke, who exploded it in a great degree. But the effects of that doctrine have been more or less retained in the systems of the christian sects, and are now seen in 3b CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OP MAN, their creeds and confessions of faith, and in other printed books on religion. The doctrine of innate ideas derived from Plato, was incorporated with the christian religion and systematis- ed in the third century by Origen, and is called Platonic Christianity. This doctrine of the innate knowledge of God, and the doctrine that religion is given by the immediate inspira- tions and operations of God's spirit, without his word since his immediate revelations and inspirations ceased, have been, and are, at the foundation of all the errors that exist in the theories, systems and philosophy of religion^ deistical and christian, of the present age. The entire fallacy of these doctrines, and their per- verting, corrupting and destroying effects of Gospel truths can, I think, be made manifest; and my desire to make them so, induces me to institute an investigation of them in the form of a dialogue, to be conducted by a Deist, a Calvinistical Christian Philosopher^ and a Christian. Each of them will defend his own peculiar views and sen- timents, as far as the orii^in of religion, or of the know- ledge of God, and the origin and use of language, in words and sentences as connected with Ihat knowledge, are con- cerned. Deist will deny the necessity of a revelation in words altogether, in order to know God or to have reli- gion. The Calvinistical Christian Philosopher will de- fend natural religion too with the Deist, and deny that revelation is necessary to the knowledge of God and of divine things, to a limited extent, but will agree that it is nesessary to the knowledge of God's gospel character. Christian will deny that it is possible in the present state of man, to know or to learn that there is a God at all, who exis's distinct from, and independent of nature, or the things that are seen, or that it is possible to know that any thing CREATION, TRlXh AND FALL OF MAN. -i'l ever was created or began from nothing, without 'revela- tion. By revelation he will mean a supernatural commu- nication, or communications made by God in words, and illustrated and confirmed by miraculous works, by which the human mind alone can obtain the idea or knowledge of objective spiritual existences. Christain will defend the views given in the former and present Essay, and will maintain that the word of God, the history of the world, the philosophy of nature, including the human mind, and every man's own consciousness when truly regarded, jus- tify the sentiment, that religion, or the knowledge of God to the present fallen state of man, is not natural, but su- pernatural and miraculous; and that the revealed word of God is now the only divinely appointed means of impar- ting to the human mind, the idea or the knowledge of the existence of God, the fact of creation and the existence of spiritual beings, who have no perceived sensible connec- tion with matter and its laws. By this investigation it will be seen, that Deists and Natural-Religionist christians deny that God is, in the strict scriptural use of the term, an object of faith, or that the fact of the creation of the world is. By denying that the fall of man lost for him the image and likeness of God, in which he was made, which included the knowledge of God, they deny the necessity of the atonement, and of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the mediation of Christ under the new covenant, with their appropriate effects, offices and agencies, in restoring that image and likeness of God, comprehending the knowledge and lovo of him. While it is a fact, that shall be proven, that all the divine communications and revelations which have been made to our world since man fell, of a religious nature, have been made in reference to and in conse- quence of the vicarious sufferings and propitiatory deatk 4* ■w SS CREATION, TRIAL AND FALL OF MAN. of Jesus Christ, and have been made by the Father, anct the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all that has been known has been derived from this source. There has been but one true system of religion in our world since man sinned in Eden, and that was revealed . All the rest havje been false, and have been corruptions of the true one. That true system passed through various stages and degrees of development, through the long period of four thousand years, and was perfected by Jesus Christ in the Gospel, and is intended to bring this world, by its light and power, under his government, as Lord of all. But this cannot be done until all the erroneous and false lighrs are extinguished, and the world is brought to be- hold the true light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, hy which alone man can be renewed in the image of God. DIALOGUE I. NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. Natural religion investigated — The knowledge of God is not derived from nature — There is no Deism or Natural Religion; and no innate knowledge of God, as was maintained by Calvin. Deist. — Gentlemen, our world is very much divided and agitated on the subject of religion. The peace and harmony of our own neighbours are very much injured by it. Is there no remedy for these evils ; or are we d oomed to perpetual strife on account of religion? Calvinist. — These things are the consequences of hu- man depravity, and can find no remedy but in the sove- reign grace of God. Deist. — Your remedy seems to me to be the very eause of the disease. The people who you say are the subjects of God's grace, and talk most about human de- pravity, are the fomenters and agitators of the strife, and evince often more depravity and corruption than other people do. I have known many peaceable, kind citizens, who seemed to be humble, benevolent and charitable to their neighbours, before they professed religion and joined a church, afterwards become unkind and censorious, and manitest a spirit of persecution and slander. Indeed the most bloody persecutions that have ever fouled and dis- graced the name of humanity, have been perpetrated by professed christians, and to promote Christianity. There 40 NATIJRAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. has been no persecution of christians in Christendom, ex- cept by christians, for the last fifteen hundred years. Christian. — It is true that all Christendom is agitated by religious sects, and divisions, and dreadful persecu- tions have been perpetrated by professed christians a- gainst each other, and these are, and have been the effects of human depravity, which have no remedy but in the grace of God. But I fear, Calvinist, that God's method of impar- ting that grace to the human heart, is greatly misappre- hended and corrupted. The christian religion, which is a divine supernatural system of grace and truth, in its own appropriate operations and effects, never did, and never can produce pride, unkindness, or persecution. You see its proper nature and character manifested in the doctrines and life of Christ and the Apostles. This religion understood, believed and practised, will purify our worH, and produce union, peace and happiness in the human family. Deist. — I do not believe in your supernatural chris- tian religion. I am a natural religionist, and derive all my religion from nature, which is the religion of philoso- phy. Calvinist. — I profess to be a natural religionist too, but I believe also in the christian religion; but this "is hid from the wise and prudent and is revealed unto babes." There are two kinds of religion in the world, which are taught by all orthodox divines in our theological schools, and out of them. The first is commonly called natural religion, by which is meant, that knowledge of God which we derive from ourselves, and from the appearan- ces and operations of nature without any revelation. This religi'^»n is altogether independent of the second kind,* which is called revealed religion, and is the foundation of it. NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 41 The second kind of religion is termed re"^^ealed reli- gion, because it is supernatural, and makes known the moral character of God more fully than natural religion does. It moreover clearly reveals the salvation of sinners in the gospel, and is that which by the power of God con- verts sinners. Deist. — 1 cannot say any thing in favor of your su-r pernaturally revealed religion, because I <:onot believe it. I will leave 'hat for Christians to fight about, as they ever have done, and to settle. They say that it is the im nedi- ate gift of God, and has n >fhing to do with reason, or rea- son with it; the latter of which I believe. Sipernaturally revealed religion is properly the religion of the unlettered and ignorant portions of society, and is only suited for babes and novices, to the exclusion of ^^the ivise and pru- dent.'''' But natural religion is the religion of the Philoso- pher, and properly belongs to philosophy, and to men of learning and science — to the wise and prudent. With this religion I profess to be acquainted, and am prepared to defend it. When mankind shall have been improved and elevated by the knowledge of this, divisions and strife will cease, and peace and friendship will prevail. I call this nitu- ral revelation, because it is revealed by nature to the Philosophic mind. In this 5e7?5e, there is no man that be- lieves in revealed religion stronger than I do, but it is not the reveries of the Old Testament, or of the New, or of the Koran, that I dignify with that sacred title. That which is revelation to me, consists in something which no human mind can invent, and no human hand can counterfeit. Mine is the earlier, unsophisticated, universal revelation. Creation and nature which we behold, and which every body can see, are the word of God. This word of God reveals to all men who are capable of reading it, all that 42 NATURAL EELICION 1^V i S^TIGAl ID. is necessary for man to know of his Creator. Do we then want to know what God is? Search, not the book called the Scriptures, which any human mind might have formed, or any impostor have invented, but search the book called nature, and her laws. This is no counterfeit production of ignorance or knavery, or both, as is your Bible, and whi-'h ought to be rejected as a solemn impos- ture. Cultivate nature and follow her suggestions and dictates, and she will teach you all that you can know of God, and will guide you to heaven. Christian. — I am not displeased with the frankness with which you have expressed yourself, but feel greatly afflicted that your ignorance and impiety should have been thus manifested. Your natural religion is nothing more than a plagiarism from the revealed word of God, which you so much deride, as far as the idea of God and of Cre- ation are concerned. I agree with you, that that which is revelation in religion, consists in something which no hu- man mind can invent, and no human hand can counter- feit. This I assert is precisely true in regard to the reli- gion of the Bible, and of the knowledge of the being of God as the Creator of the world. Without supernatural revelation in words, illustrated and confirmed by miracu- lous works, the fact of the existence of God and of other spiritual beings, who exist distinct from, and independent of sensible nature, and of nature's laws and powers, and the fact of creation, could not be known to man in his present state. Divine revelation was the earlier, unso- phisticated source of religious and spiritual knowledge, and your natural religion is nothing more than a counter- feit production. Divine revelation has been handed down by tradition, and has been transmitted in some form or other, to every age and portion of ihe human family, where the idea of NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 43 God has existed. In its progress it has undergone many changes and corruptions; I therefore insist upon it, that your natural religion or deism, which you Deists and Cal- vinists defend, has been derived from divine revelation and is a corruption of it, and in your own language, Deist, is "a counterfeit production, of error, ignorance, or knave- ry, or all united, and ought to be rejected as a solemn im- posture." It has done more to pervert the human mind, and to strengthen its corruptions, and to nullify the word of God, and prevent mankind receiving it as the word of God, than all other causes united together. In the hands of those christian teachers who profess to believe in natu- ral religion, it has involved Christianity itself in the most glaring absurdities and contradictions. To the extent it operates, it supersedes the word of God as the means of the knowledge of spiritual and divine things, as it is the means of faith; and when a sinner is converted, it makes his conversion to depend uffon the mimediate physical op- erations of the spirit, and not upon the belief oi the truth. God has never spoken to our world since it first sinned against him, but in language, which was in strict accor- dance with man's fallen, corrupt, guilty, and ignorant state, and in reference to his purpose of grace and mercy given to us in Christ Jesus, and all the religion that is in the world was originally derived from his revelation. As I desire this subject to be thoroughly investigated, I wish you to read with care the two essays which pre- cede this conversation. This will save us much repeti- tion, and lead us directly into the merits of the investiga- tion. I repeat that there is no such thing as natural reli- gion, no idea or knowledge of God without revelation in words; this revelation has always been made in reference to the atonement of Jesus Christ, and by the Trinity. Calvinist. — This is all passing strange to me. Can 44 NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. it be possible tliat all the good and great men have been mistaken ? Surely it cannot. John Calvin was esteem- ed an orthodox divine. He believed, as much as any man can do, in the doctrines of grace and in human depravity, and its consequences, and he was a great naturai-religion- ist. He believed that man has naturally kn wledge suffi- cient, but that his heart is corrupt; his disposition is wrong. Christian. — If you will examine Calvin's views, as they are connected with natural religion, you will find them essentially deistical. He maintained the doctrine of innate ideas, and denied that sin lost for man the knowl- edge of God — he denies virtually that God is an object of faith, in the scriptural use of the term. Heb. xi, 1. Calvixist. — Permit me to exhibit a few extracts from Calvin's Iastit;.tes. The principles expressed in them form a part of almost all protestant creeds and confessions, and are found in almost all the systematic writers on the- ology. ' In the third chapter of the first vol. of the Institutes, en- titled, "ihe hitman mind naturally endowed with the know- ledge of God," he observes: "We lay it down as a propo- sition not to be controverted, that the human mind, even by natural instinct, possesses some sense of Deity, the ob- literation of which is more difficult than a total change of the whole disposition. * * * It will al'vays be evi- dent to persons of correct judgment, that the idea of a De- ity impressed on the mind of man, is indelible. That all have by nature an innate pert^uasion of the divine exis- tence, a persuasion inseparable from their very constitu- tion, we have abundant evidence." "Whence we infer that this is a doctrine not first to be learnt in the schools, but which every m^n from his l.irfh is self taught. Men need not go out of ihemselves pro- W . " NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 45 vided ihey do not, by arrogating to themselves what is giv- en from Heaven, smother the light which ilhiminates their minds, to a clear discovery of God." He also speaks of 'Hhe seeds of divinity sDwn in the nature of man."" Again he observes, "as the perfection of a happy life consists in the knowledge of God, that no man might be precluded from attaining felicity, God hath not only sown in the minds of men the seeds of religion already mentioned, but hath manifested himself in the formation of every part of the world, and daily presents himself to public view m such a manner, that they cannot open his eyes without being constrained to behold him. The Lord abundantly mani- fests his wisdom to every individual on earth, who is fur- nished with no other assistance than their own eyes. Such a knowledge ought not only to excite us to the wor- ship of God, but likewise to awaken and arouse us to the hope of future life," These are the views of Calvin on the subject of natural religion. The Westminster and Baptist confessions of faith also declare, that "the very light of nature, in man, and the works of God declare plainly, that there is a God." To the same purpose I might quote learned and pious men, in every age; such as Barrow, Butler, Tillotson, Stilling- fleet, Dr. S. Clarke, and Dr. A. Clarke, Doddridge, Mack- night, and Dwight. We are required to believe in the ex- istence of God, but we do not go to the Bible for proof of this great doctrine. It is presupposed from the very nature of things. Deist. — Calvin was a much greater philosopher than I had supposed him to be. Christians you see go to the Bible for the rule of faith, as they call it, but they derive faith itself from the light of nature. How much more rea- sonable are these views of Calvin than are those o^ reveal- ed religion, which involve all the revolting absurdities, 5 46 NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. perplexities and mysticisms that belong to the doctrine oi' your Bible, including the vicarious sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, or the atonement as you call it, and of the remission of sin through his blood, and of a Mediator, and of a Trinity, or three gods in one God. Of what use I ask 3^ou, is what you call the written word of God, and which is derived from, and based upon the religion of na- ture, as you have allowed, Calvinist, to a mind which pos- sesses from nature the ideas and knowledge which Calvin has described, "such a knowledge as ought not only to ex- cite us to the worship of God, but likewise to awake and arouse us to the hope of future life?" What is the use of your rule of faith, about which Protestants, and Papists contend so much, as derived from God by a supernatural revelation, when all agree that we possess the knowledge of God, and of faith itself, without any supernatural reve- lation from God? In comparison to the religious know- ledge derived from nature, your christian religion is as a lighted taper to the sun. And there is about as much use for it, to an enlightened mind, enlightened by natural sci- ence, in order to the knowledge of God, as there is for a lighted taper at noon day, to discover visible objects by. We need no revelation to make that known which we are informed of by nature j nor do we need any immediate miraculous operations of God, to produce or excite feelings which relate to God, or to naturally visible things, that are excited by the qualities of objects perceived by nature. This is a plain common-sense truth, that men practice up- on, and acknowledge every day in the ordinary pursuits of life. The various devices and means which christians em- ploy lO conceal the absurdities of their systems, to blind their own minds, and impose upon the ignorance and cre- dulity of others, are truly remarkable. The Papists prac- NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 4^ lice a hundred mummeries and nonsensical ceremonies, to advance their superstition and idolatry, and to perpetuate their despotism over the human mind. They claim the right, the exclusive right and authority, and the power to do these things from Peter, by divine appointment. The Protpfitant sects allow their people to read the scriptures, which is forbidden by the Papists, but deny that they can derive any light from them, without some immediate mi- raculous operation. They address the imaginations and passions of the people, and get up protracted and big meetings, and camp meetings, and anxious seats, by which they excite their fears, imaginations and passions, and render them credulous to what they say — all the emo- tions and sensations that are felt on these occasions, are ascribed to the immediate power of God, and the people believe it, and are induced to join the parties by which they have accidentally been excited. And in this wa}^ they strengthen their sectarian armies. The way by which this business is managed, is the following: the leaders will not allow to mankind, any native religious suscepti- bilities of mind, which may be acted upon, and excited and improved by natural religious objects, because this would subvert all the pretensions and claims they set up to the immediate distinguishing and special favour of the Almighty, which they think are manifested by the excite- ments and feelings they experience, to the exclusion of others, while they allow men to have natural religion, such as Calvin has described. Whitefield and Wesley were master spirits in this business, particularly the for- mer, as many men are in this age. Calvin's views of natural religion, as quoted by Calvin- ist, sweep away at one stroke all these impositions and absurdities. To allow to man natural powers and suscep- tibilities for religion, and to nature the power of improv- 48 .NATURAL RELIGION IN VESTIGATEiy. ing them into natural religion, as Calvinist has done, an«3 then to deny that their revealed religion has any power, or fitness in it to excite the mind, or the mind any power or susceptibility to be enlightened and excited by it, is an iibsurdity too glaring to escape the notice of any man whose mind is not blinded by ignoranfp; or prejudice, and is an acknowledgment that revealed religion has no claims upon the notice and regard of the rational powers of men as we find them. It proves that their revealed religion is untrue. While the history and the present state of the idolatrous world prove natural religion true. There is not a heathen nation upon earth that does not possess and man- ifest original native powers and susceptibilities, as well for religion as for other things — man would be a clod with- ®ut them. Their existence is essential to the constitution and being of the human mind. The manner and the or- der of the exercise and improvement of the mind in reli- gion, and in every thing else, are regulated by these laws and principles, or faculties of the mind; and the objects and systems by which it is influenced, give character to it, whether they be true or false. The truth of these re- marks is illustrated and confirmed, by the different man- uers and customs which distinguish different nations from each other, and by tlie present state of the various and opposing sects, as well among idolaters, as among chris- tians. I ask your pardon, gentlemen! perhaps I have spoken too freely in the views that I have given. I have ac»ed thus, because I supposed that you desired and designed to have a free investigation* marked with great frankness and cnndor. The truth is, that there is an utter inconsistency, and repugnancy, between natural religion nnd revealed reli- nfion, both in relation to the objects of them, and in their NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 49 connection with the mind, and in ihe faculties and powers of ilie inin J, by which they are professed to be perceived, believed and felt. The fbriner are natural, and are per- ceived to be connected with the mind by nature, and they are perceived, understood and believed and felt by the natuiai posvers, faculties and susceptibilities of the mind. The latter are supernatural or imaginary — they have no naturally perceived connection with the mind by nature, and they are not perceived, understood, believed or felt, by the natural faculties, powers and susceptibilities of mind, but by superinduced powers and affections by the immediate power of God. AH men have the former religion naturally, and until they are by one way and another, deprived of common sense and reason, and made to believe, like the Shakers and Mwrmoniie=^, that they have new and immediate divine revelations, and operations, they cannot receive the latter. Christian. — You see now, Calvinist, a plain state- ment of the inconsistency there is between your natural religion, and your revealed religion. One or the other is false. I maintain, that natural religion is false, or is a corruption of revealed religion, and was originally borrow- ed from it, and cannot exist without it. However offen- sive and revolting it may seem to you. Deist, and to other natural-religionists, I affirm, that without the fact of the Atonement and the Trinity, and their effects, there is no religion in the world. I desire a free and full discussion of this subject, and therefore wish you to use the utmost liberty of remark that is consistent with good decorum, and a proper regard for christian feelings. Protracted meetings do not of ne- cessity involve the evils of which you speak. Your quo- tati.ins from Calvin's Institutes, Cal"inist, prove what I al- ledgedofhim. He firmly believed in the doctrine of innate 5* 50 NATlTRAIi RELIGION INVESTIGATED. ideas, or of innate religion; a doctrine which early chris- tians derived from the philosophy of Plato, a leading prin- ciple in whi^h, Mosheim informs us, was, that •'the divine nature is diffused through all the human soul, and that the faculty of reason is an emanation of God into the human soul, and comprehends in it the principles-and elements of all truth, human and divine. With this view originated iAie doctrine of innate ideas." This doctrine has been long ii'irkce exploded by Locke, but its effects and consequences, have been retained by Papists and Protestants, under va- rious notions, and are found in the various systems of this age, and must be exploded before the Word of God, as the word of God, can have free course to be glorified. For my views of the subject look back into the first Essay. I concede to the human mind, original native powers and susceptibilities, which survived the fall, and which render man capable of acquiring from supernat- ural revelation the knowledge of God and religion, and which are improvable in spiritual things, by the word <9f God; but I deny that religious knowledge and affection, are natural to man's present state, or that he can acquire the idea of God, the knowledge of whose existence is the basis of all religion, or the idea of a creation, or of the fact of a creation without supernatural revelation made in svords and miraculous works. And I assert, that since immediate supernatural revelations ceased in words anr miraculous works, the human mind has been, by divine constitution and appointment, pr by fixed laws of its na- ture, limited to God's written word, and to the traditions «f his word, in acquiring the idea of God, and of religious knowledge. If this be true, then all the true knowledge of God that has existed, and does exist in the world, ha? been, and is derived from God's revealed word as the moans of spiritual ideas, and all the erroneous and false NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 51 knowledge has been the effect of perverting or corrupting that word. It will moreover follow, that Natural religion, or Deism, for which you both contend, is false, and that the Christian religion, embracing the Atonement and the Trinity, is the perfection of all former revelations, and that all that either of you know of God, or spiritual things, you are in truth and in fact dependent upon the word of God for. In this investigation there can be no difficulty; if you have arrived at the knowledge of God, and of a cre- ation, from or by nature, you can easily show me the pro- cess or rational procedure by which you did so. Do this truly, and I will yield the subject of investigation in fa- vour of natural religion; and if you cannot, you must yield it in favour of Christianity. You must take nothing for granted that is not self-evident in this investigation, and I will assume and concede nothing. I am thus par- ticular, because things operate upon the mind in matters of religion, not as they are in themselves, but as the mind perceives them. I desire you to see and receive the word of God, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth and indeed, the Word of God, that it may effectually work in you. When you shall thus believe it, you will need no other faculties and susceptibilities than those you possess, as native faculties and powers , and which are essential- to the existence of your mind, and are by their divine con- stitution, improvable by the Gospel into spiritual discern- ment, and spiritual mindedness. The mind, by its na- ture andcnd the bourne of what I mean by the term nature. I therefjre consider it supernatural, and denominate it spirit. In this process of investigation, the number of spiritual beings supposed to be discovered, will be in +he inverse ratio of the inielligence of the discoverer. The Philosopher will find but few, and they will be great. Their influence will be extensive, and their action will be powerful. They will be, according to circumstances, De- mi-gods or Gods. The Philosopher, by pushing this in- quiry to the requisite extent, widening progressively the sphere of his observations, generalizing as he advances, on an ampler scale, and embracing in his view the un- broken uniformity that pervades creation, and (he bound- less power and wisdom that mark the movements and economy of the universe — by proceeding thus, he arrives at length at a belief in the existence of one supreme — all povjerful and wise, the God at once of the Philosopher and the Christian. Here you perceive that there is no revelation in words and sentences, nor is any necessary. Here is no primi- tive invention of names to serve as means to conduct us to a knowledge of substances or things, to which they are to be afterwards attached, as their appellatives. No: we first discover \\\c things, and then name them — we discov- er them, as Calvin said, by looking at nature, and into our own minds. Christian. — I have now, I suppose, your entire sys- tem of reasoning by which you profess to arrive at the knowledge of God. I must repeat my regret, that you had not read more carefully the first Essay. Do exam- NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 59 ine it again. I have in that, anticipated all that you have said, and have shown that it is utterly inapplicable to the object you designed it for. Natural experience and obser- vation teach you nothing beyond the objects of sense, and the powers of nature, by which natural appearances are produced. In matters of natural science I grant that things must be first known, or discovered, before names can be invented and attached to them, as their appellatives. Natural things , however, are known by their natural phenomena, or sen- sible appearances. Without these they could not be dis- covered; and of course without them, names could not be invented and attached to them, as their appellations. Matters that are purely spiritual, have no natural phenom- ena or appearances^ and of course they cannot be natural- ly known or discovered, and therefore names cannot be invented and attached to them by the human mind, from any thing that appears in nature. This is truly and prop- erly the case with regard to God, and other spiritual exis- tences which have no perceived sensible connection with the objects of nature. As they have no natural appear- ances by which their existence might be known or discov- ered, and names might be given to them, they must have been revealed by supernatural manifestations. These supernatural manifestations were made by God himself. Spiritual things were made known by their names, which God himself stipulated and established by frequent revela- tions, as their signs . The poisons which produce the dis- eases to which you have referred, are made known and discovered by their sensible phenomena or appearances, in their production of diseases. This is also true of the principle of gravitation and life — they are known by their sensible effects, none of which have any applicadon to ihe subject now under discussion. As a Philosopher, 6 ;5y NATURAL RELIGION IN VESTIGATEl*. you arc compelled to concede, that it is your duty and your province to explain natural effects by natural causes, and having arrived at ultimate or first principles, to stop, as they constitute the limits or boundar}, beyond which, philosophy and science cannot go. Were you perfectly acquainted with all the principles and laws of nature, by which all the phenomena or effects in nature are produced, no case of ignorance could occur, in reference to any phenomenon, such as you have sup- posed, which would start your fancy, in violation and in subversion of your philosophy and reason, to create demi- gods or gods to explain it . Every natural phenomenon, is explicable by natural laws, and leaves you involved in Atheism, without any suggestion of the existence of God, if you reject revelation. When natural science shall have been perfected, and every thing concerning the operations and laws of nature shall be known, and appropriate names be given to every thing discovered by natural phenomena, within the whole bounding circle of the sensible universe, there will be no spiritual idea, or thought, or word, if you exclude revelation. If supernatural revelation in words and miraculous works, be entirely excluded, God will not be known, because all natural effects are explicable by natural causes, and rise no higher than nature. For the knowledge of God and spiritual things, we are limited to the supernatural revelations of God, which have been made by words and by miraculous works, neither of which can, in the present advanced period of natural science, be explained by natural principles, either in regard to the inventions of the human mind, or the operations of nature, which sufficiently prove that religion is supernatural and miraculous to the present state of man, and could not have existed but by the direct and immediate agency of God. I have often heard it alledged by way of reproach to chris- NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. OU lianity, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion,"" This has been said by Deistical philosophers — this you have now frankly acknowledged to be true in regard to Deists. In the case you have supposed, had you never heard of God as the Creator of nature, which is derived from revelation, when you discovered the phenomenon of which you were ignorant, you would have regarded it, as you are obliged to do many others, as the etiect of a law of na- ture, which you had not investigated, and your fancy could never have tak ea its flight, and by no possibility could you have transcended the bourne of nature, or have created any thing without the materials which nature fur- nished, as Hume has well observed. After fabricating your God by fancy, which you did in consequence of your ignorance of a phenomenon of nature, should that phe- nomenon be afterwards understood by you by a more per- fect knowledge of nature's laws, your God would become extinct; — yes, your God which is o. fiction of fancy, and which you denominate, because you borrowed the name from the scriptures, "the one Supreme, and all wise, the God at once of the Philosopher and the Christian," would be annihilated by that discovery, and you would sink down into Atheism. But Atheism cannot be true, or be for one moment sustained by reason, because the know- l€dge of God in the world cannot be explained or accoun- ted for, but b}- the fact of his existence, and of his having revealed himself — God the Word, in his mediatorial char- acter, has been the speaker and teacher to man since he fell, as he has been the revealer and source of language on spiritual subjects, and the source of spiritual know- ledge. Calvinist. — 1 have attended carefully to all that you have said, and have examined the two Essays, Christian, and confess, that I am at a loss how to defend Calvin's 60 NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. views of natural religion. The suggestions you have made in relation to the origin of language in religion^ which you assert originated in the Logos, or Word, and is the means of spiritual ideas and knowledge, are in di- rect opposition to all the systems and opinions of this age. All believe that God when he speaks to men, uses the words of men, invented by themselves, to make known the things of God, which if true, men must have known the things of God without any revelation, and must have dis- covered them before they invented the words which ex- press them. Can this be true? Deist. — Yes, it is true, if natural religion be true, and proves that there is indeed no revealed religion at all — it proves, that all that your Bible says, were the original in- ventions of men, both in regard to things and language, and that instead of men being dependent upon God for what is made known in the scriptures, God, if he has said any thing, was dependent upon men for what he said. The Bible, agreeably to this view of the subject, may do very well for the unlearned and ignorant portions of soci- ety, but the Philosopher and man of science, go to the source; they *'rise through nature up to nature*s God' without revealed words and sentences. I confess that Christian's views of the origin of language on divine and spiritual subjects, have something in them which embar- rasses me. I have ever considered lanr:^nage to be the ex- pression of the various states of the mind, which are pro- duced by its sensible connection with the external world, and by its own internal action; or in other words, that language is the manifestation, by sounds, andactions, and written signs, of the ideas and feelings, sentiments and re- flections of the mind, and which must have of course ori- ginated in, or been invented by man — scientific, natural man. NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 61 But agreeably to Christian's view of language in its ori- gin and use in religion, and on spiritual subjects, it was revealed and stipulated by God himself, and is by his ap- pointment the means of spiritual objective ideas, and of thought and feeling, as it is the instrument of expressing Ihem. If this be true, language in religion in its original ideas i& perfect, and is capable of no improvement, except by new revelations; and all that we have to do, or can do in religious improvement, is to learn the meaning and sense of the nouns and verbs, and adjectives, and other parts of speech, which compose what is called the word of God, and to improve the faith, and hope, and love which it produces, by cherishing its sense and spirit, and by practising the duties which it requires. But the truth of all this, is contradicted by the consent and conduct of ev- ery christian sect. They have almost all of them made their own creeds and confessions of faith, which must have been formed to remedy the perceived defects and imperfections of the scriptures, and to improve the word of God. They have by these means made different denominations, and differ- ent sorts of christians, which are known by different names, forms of worship and language j their views of God are different, and their affections and conduct towards each other are different from what they are towards their own parties . There are some, to be sure, who profess to renounce and disown all human creeds and confessions, and to take the naked book and word of God to be their religion, but there is as great a diversity and contrariety among them, a s there is among the creed-makers. Among them I find Arians and Socinisns, Unitarians and Trini- tarians. There are some among them, who deny the atonement of Jesus Christ and his proper divinity, and who assert, that sinners are saved by the grace of God with- 6* {y2 NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. out an atonement, and there are others who affirm these things. Indeed some of them approach so near to Deism, that It seems to me that the scriptures are rather an in- cumbrance to their systems, than any real use to them, except in furnishing them with some colourable pre- tence of being christians, and of giving consequence and importance to a low, selfish, vain, party spirit. Now, I ask, how can all this diversity and contrariety exist, if the scriptures be true, and are the only means of divine and spiritual knowledge, and of religious union, peace and love? Christian. — The word of God is perfect, and means the same things now, that it did when it was first reveal- ed, and is intended for the same purposes now that it was then. What is true now was true then, and ever will be; and of course admits of no changes. It speaks the same things to all men, under similar circumstances; and when truly apprehended, understood, believed and prac- tised, it makes all alike, in faith, hope and love. It leaves no room or occasion for new or original discove- ries in religion. The right interpretation of the scriptures is that which deduces from them the very sense which the Holy Spirit, by the writers of them intended to con- vey. To understand the writings of the Holy Spirit, is to connect with his words the objects and the thoughts which he designed to designate and express by them. The creeds, sects and systems, which you have men- tioned, and which you think originated trom the imperfec- tion and defects of the word of God among professed chris- tians, had their origin in the false opinion which you and Calvinist entertain of revelation, and in the corruption of it. They originated in a total misapprehension of the ne- cessity, nature and use of the word of God. Those per- sons with whom they began, believed as both of you do. NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. 63 that the language of the word of God was of human inven- tion and stipulation, and of course that the things which it reveals were discovered by the natural operations and ef- forts of the human mind, before the language was inven- ted. The false assumption of power that this opinion makes for the human mind, to invent and form religion, and to make religious creeds and systems without revela- tion, denies the Bible to be the word of God, and releases the mind altogether from its use and authority. And, ad- mitting God to have spoken to us by it, it makes him de- pendent upon man for all that he has said. It puts man in the place of God, in the original discovery of it, and it puts God in the place of man , as dependent upon him for its use. Calvinist. — What you have both said, taken in con- nection with the depravity of man, &hows the necessity of the operations of the Spirit distinct from, and independent of the word, to convert sinners, and to make them know and believe that the word of God is true, whether it was invented by men originally or not. Chkistian. — Agreeably to your views of the word, whatever may be said about the operations of the Spirit, in the conversion of sinners, it is self-evident that the Word has nothing fo do with it. That word, and the things which it expresses, having been of human invention, agreeably to your vieA' of it, it cannot by any divine in- fluence, impart to the mind more than it possesses natu- rally! It can communicate no idea or information that is not natural to the human mind. Agreeably to this view, the objects of faith are all of human invention or discove- ry, as is the language which expresses them. This is the reason of the confusion and contradictions, and of the sects an.l parties that exist in reiiifion. Every body is se- to work to make religion for himself, and cuts and mangles 64 NATURAL RELIGION INVESTIGATED. the precious word of God as if it was not a body of living triitli. And faith, instead of its heiui^ the knowledge and belief of things not seen, and which are onSy known by the revelations of ihe word of God, is any thing thai any person pleases to make it, except what God has described it to be. And all the sijcculations and controversies about the operations of the Spirit, are produced by unscriptural views of the subject, and essentially by wrong views of the word of God. Erroneous views of the operations of the Spirit, or rather unscripfcural ones^ are believed and main- tained, to remedy the defects, or rather the flagrant errors of your views of the divine origin and use of the word of God in religion. After nullifying the word of God, by making it the word of man, your system requires the im- mediate physical agencies of the Spirit, to enable you and others to believe it to be ihe word of God; and this of course cannot be supposed to he done without the opera- tion of new facuj'ies and powers, which are superinduced by the Spirit upon the human mind and manifest them- selves by imagination and passion. The Spirit never can reveal any thing more by the word than is in it — than is in its sense and meaning, and which it had when it was first revealed and written, and will forever have. Agreeably to Paul's view of the sub^ ject, the word of God itself was revealed by the Spirit to the Apostles, \vhich they .spoke to make kfiown the things of God, and faith produced by it consists in the belief of that word, by which the things of the Spirit are received, havinji been first discerned through the word. The nat- ural or animal man — the man who sees, and judges every thing by sense, nnd the light of nature and carnal rea- son, as Deists and Natural-religionists discern them, — dis- cerns not the things of the Spirit, because he rejects the word of God, as the ivord of God, by which they are NATURAL RELIGION IN VESTIGATEb. 65 made known, and therefore he receives them not as they are revealed: Cor. ii, 11, 14; and this is the reason why natural men are not subject to the law of God, neither in- deed can be: Rom. viii, 7. Before they can be made subject to the law of God, and dm righteousness of the law be fulfilled in them, by walking according to the spirit, they must be made free by the faith of the Gospel, which Paul calls the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus: Rom. viii, 2. I repeat, that there is no power given to man, or occasion left him for making any new or original discoveries or improvements in religion. What you have said, Deist, is true; all that we can do, is to learn the grammatical and historical sense and meaning of the word of God, in its own parts of speech, facts, statements and connections, and to believe it by its own testimony, as it is in truth and indeed the word of God; to submit implicitly to its authority ; to cherish the spirit and temper which it inculcates, and to practice the duties it requires, regarding all the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel, as instru- mental and subservient to the formation and improve- ment of the christian character, and to the individual and social usefulness and happiness of man, and the glory of God. This, if suitably regarded, would soon bring all christians to the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace, and to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. It is not realized sufficiently by christians, that the existence and operations of the spirit himself, are objects of faith, and are only known by revelation. In the next Essay I will take up in form, the investiga- tion of the origin and use of language in religion, and spiritual science. ESSAY IIL i'HE ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION Without revealed language, revealed and stipulated h\ God himself, I maintain, that in the fallen state of man, he would be destitute of the knowledge of God, and of spiritual things. I grant that the knowledge of God, and the use of lan- guage have existed in the world since it was made. The Bible takes these thinfis for granted, but it in no instance or degree asserts, or implies, that since the fall of man, they have existed independent of supernatural revelation in words and sentences, or that they have existed as a natural endowment, but uniformly the contrary. It is true that language is the expression of the various ideas and states of mind, which are prodaced by its sen- sible connection with the external world, and by its own internal operations. In other words, language is the manifestation, by sounds and actions, and written signs, of ideas and feelings, sentiments and reflections. Language bears a necessary and specific relation to the intellect in all its varying states and conditions, as produced by external objects, and its own perceptions and operations. But language cannot be employed to express or represent a state that does not exist. The mind sustains no naturally perceived sensible connection with spiritual things, and consequently, no idens, thoughts or feelings, are produced by such a connection. Language in this case cannot bo ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. 6/ invented by man, because of the want of tiie ideas and knowledge of the spiritual things of which language is the sign, and represent ation. Ideas and feelings must exist before language can be formed or used to express them. Bat original ideas and feeimi^s, in relation •;o God and spiritual things, are not produced by any connection that the mind bears to natural and sensible objects, and of course language to express them could not be formed by any operaii.)n of the mind upon them, or by any sensible connection they sustain to it. On divine and spiritual subjects, the Logos or Word is the author of language, as he is the Light of the world. Language in this case, is the means by which spiritual ideas, knowledge, faith and feeling are produced in the human mind, as it is the in- strument by which they are expressed. The objects which produce the various ideas and states of mind in re- ligion, are objects o^ faith, and not of sense, and bear no naturally perceived sensible connection with the mind. Revelation makes them known to the mind, as it is the evidence of things not seen. This recorded revelation consists in nouns and verbs, and adjectives, which are all supernatural, miraculous and divine in their origin, as they are in the record and in the heart that believes them. These are the sounds, and actions, and written signs, by which God communicates or produces ideas, knowledge, faith and feelings, of and concerning himself, and other spiritual things, in the human mind, and by which they are expressed and manifested. In this case the mind is the recipient of spiritual intel- ligence, and language is the instrument by which it is conveyed to it, and is afterwards the means of expressing it and its effects upon the mind and states which it produ ces. After the mind is instructed by revelation in the exis- 68 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. tence of God, and the fact that he created the world and sustains it, it cannot embrace either his form or essence, or mode of opera. ion, because we see him only through the revelation wh'ch is the evidence of things not seen. That revelation associates God with the things seen as their Creator. Nature is necessary for acquiring spiritual ideas, since the immediate, supernatural, and miraculous revelations and inspirations ceased, although it does not teach ihem, as light is necessary to enable us to read, although it nei- ther supplies us with the book, nor teaches us to read. We must understand in some degree what is natural to man, in order that we may know what is supernatural. The ideas, knowledge, faith and feelings, produced in the mind by religious objects, partake of the nature and qualities of the objects which excite them. They operate upon the mind as (he mind perceives them, and not as they are in thenjselves. Hence the importance and the neces- sity of seeing things in vheir own proper nature, sense and character, that they may produce their proper effects. We must apprehend ihe word of God, as it is in truth and indeed, the Ward of God, and not the word of man, that it may work effectually. The ideas and views, the faith, the hope and the love produced by the ivord of God in its own proper sense and meaning, are as really spiritual and divine as they would be, were they produced by the immediate inspirations and revelations of the Spirit. For a fvirther illustration and proof of the divine origin, and the necessity and use of language in religion, T ob- serve, that every nation has words peculiar to itsv If, just so far as il has objects ant! things peculiar to itself. Na- tions, among whom particular objects are wanting, cannot invent words to express then, nor can there be a transla- tion of the words borrowed from other nations, expressive ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. 69 «t unknown objects into their own language. All that can be done, is to transfer the words themselves into their lan- guage, and leave them to be explained in the Lexicons by much periphrasis or historical description, to be made by those who know the objects. The inhabitants of the tropics, for example, have no ice or snow, and therefore, words which are the signs of these things in our country, and latitude, could not have been invented by tropical inhabitants, who had never seen or known them; and if ever incorporated into their language, must be transferred without a translation. The Greeks and Romans had no cannon, or mariners' compass, elec- tricity, or man of war; and therefore words which are signs of these things, in our age, could not have been in- vented by them; and if now incorporated into their lan- guage, they must be transferred without a translation. All these things were discovered or known before names were given to them, in the ages and countries in which they were named. The phenomena of nature, and the inventions and arts of men, brought forth these things into sensible manifestation, and they exhibit nothing but natu- ral existences, consisting of natural substances and pow- ers, and natural inventions. But this is not the case with respect to God or spiritual existences. The original ideas of these were not obtained from natural appearances, nor were the words which are expressive of them suggested by them. No man hath seen God at any time; the only be- gotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de- clared him. The appearances and operations of nature are as well understood now as they were in the thousands of years that are passed. Now they exhibit nothing but natural existence. They indicate the original creation or begin- ning of nothing, nor do they .suo^gest the existence or ope- 70 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION, ration of any thing cr being that exists distinct from and independent of nature and its powers. Had the present state of things always existed, without immediate miracu- lous operations and supernatural revelations, as is the case now, there could have been no idea or knowledge of God or of spiritual things, or words to express them. There could have been no Bible — no vocabulary of spiritual things, or ideas, thoughts or feelinjis concerning them, such as we now have. There were then periods when the pres- ent state of things did not exist. When supernatural and miraculous revelations in words and works originated and were made, by which the knowledge of spiritual things was communicated and confirmed. These were made by God himself. In these originated our Bible, which is the divinely created and established source and means of all true religious and spiritual perception and knowledge. It is roundly asserted by some deistical philosophers, and Natural Religionist Christians, that language cannot impart the idea or knowledge of any thing to the mind, which it had not before obtained or learnt from nature ; and that it cannot be the instrument of communicating from one mind to another information, thoughts and feelings on objects and subjects, which were not previously known to the mind receiving the communication. This was Locke's opinion. If this be true, I confess that revelation, in words and sentences, and miraculous works, can teach us noth- ing — can make known nothing that was not obtained from nature. The following case proves the error of all this, and illustrates the supernatural origin and present use of the word of God in our spiritual knowledge and religious improvement, exercises and enjoyments. Here is blind Bartimeus, who has never seen one visi- ble object, nor has one ray of light ever entered his eye or been heard of by him. He is totally destitute of all ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. ll rhought and feeling upon the subject of the existence of light and vision. He has no word or sign to express either. Examine him carefully and you will find this to be the case. The reason of it is that he was born with a cata- ract which rendered him totally blind, and he was raised among a people who never used any word or expression which indicated the existence of light or vision. I am now about to teach him by ivords and actions, the existence of light and of visible objects which he could never naturally know, as they are to his situation super- natural. He is well acquainted with the objects, that impress his senses of touch, of smell and of taste, and the sensations produced by them, and the language which he has been taught, and the words and sentences, which he has used in conversing with others, have been strictly formed and limited by them. These form the bounding circle within which his perception, memory, imagination and judgment operate, including the various states of mind, which its own action upon these objects and their opera- tions upon it produce. I take him by the hand and say to him, Bartimeus, I am about to teach you something that you never knew or thought of before. I tell him that there are such things as light and vision. These words upon his first hearing them produce no definite idea, because they have no distinction in the sound. My design is to communicate to him as far as possible the sense and meaning which these words have in my own mind. This I can do only by words and ac- tions, which can in neither case be addressed to his eyes, because they are blind. Light and vision to his natural state are objects of faith, and can only be made known to him by revelation. I describe light and vision to him, and associate them with and illustrate them by words and actions, all of which are supernatural to his situation. 72 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. I say to him, Bartimeus, we are now standing in the light, and it is all over and around us. By its influence upon my eyes, I see and can lead you in perfect safety along the most difficult, intricate, and dangerous w^ys. Light enables me to see at a distance, all the objects that lie in our way, and to avoid them. I lead him on with rapid steps, and inform him of all the things we pass be- fore we arrive at them, and describe their nature and quali- ties; the truth of which he tests by his senses of touch, of taste, of smell, and of hearing, as we pass them. In this process every word and action in his mind is associ- ated with the word light, and clothes it with the appropri- ate qualifications which make it the stipulated sign of the thing which I call light. I inform him that light makes fruits and vegetables grow, which supply him every day and hour with food, as they do many other animals. He feels and tastes the fruits and vegetables. I describe to him the power of light in enabling me to read books, which were written by its influence, and which treat of periods, events and things at a great distance off* in time and place. The truth of these things I illustrate and confirm in vari- ous ways. I inform him that all mankind are enabled to pursue their necessary and daily business by the influence of light. Of this he is also assured by his neighbours with whom he holds intercourse. By these means the word light, which has now so often sounded in his ears, and been associated with actions and things, which could not have been performed or have been known without it. becomes fixed in his mind as the sign of the thing or sub- stance which it stands for. Bartimeus cherishes the remembrance of the wortl light, with all its qualities which have been associated with it by verbal descriptions, actions and feelings. He talks about them as I talked to him, and he thinks and feels about ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. 73 them. He believes in the existence of light though he has never seen it. He believes by revelation and testimony which to his state are altogether supernatural. They are however, not more supernatural, nor as much so as the means are supernatural to our state, by which we know and believe in God, and in the fact of creation. In addition to what 1 have already taught Barlimeus, by which I have produced faith in him, which "is the evidence or demonstration of things that he has not seen," I inform him thai I can perform an operation upon his eyes bv couching them, by which I will enable him to see and walk, and feel, and read, and enjoy light and vision as I do. This excites in him netc ideas and feelings, and by believ- ing it, he has hope. His " faith is (now) the substance of things hoped for" and also "the evidence of things not seen." In order that I may operate successfully, I tell him that he must submit to some privations and pains — that he must take medicine, and be bled, and perhaps blistered, and live abstemiously. His faith and hope enable him to overcome every natural indisposition to follow my di- rections, and to submit implicitly to them, which he could not possibly have done, without the information and mo- tives which I have furnished him with. By faith he hag obtained power to do these things. Now examine Bartimeus, and say whether or not he has received any information, or any ideas, perceptions, views or feelings, from my instructions that he had not before? He will tell you he has. He manifests actual states of mind in words and actions, of which he is conscious, which he knew nothing of previously. He has a new vo- cabulary, as he has a new class of objects and feelings. His vocabulary includes nouns, and verbs, and adjectives, which he never thought of, knew, or felt, or used before. The new views,, information, faith, hope, affection* and. 7 * 74 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. oondiict which he now possesses, were produced by words and sentences, and works, which I employed to instruct him. To have proposed to Bartimeus to deny himself various articles of food that he loved, and to submit to take medi- cine, to be bled and blistered, and to have his eyes pierc- ed with a sharp instrument in couching them, without the information that I imparted to him, would have excited his most decided opposition, hostility and rage. Suppose Bartimeus, before being couched^ should desire to teach other blind men what he has learnt and now knows, and to impart to them the same views^and feelings^ that he has^ and to induce them to prepare for the opera- tion of couching that they also may see, what must he, or what can he do? He must speak to them as I spoke to him; he must use the word light as I used it, and describe it as I described it. He must represent its operations upon me in enabling me to see, and through me upon himself, as I manifested them to him, and as its influences were excited upon him. He must tell of my leading him about by its influences, and of my seeing objects at a distance, and the proof that I gave him of it by telling him of it, and of my leading him to them, and of his touching them. He must impress by verbal description and action the word light upon their minds, and tie io it,, or associate with it, all the properties of light that he has learnt, and thereby fix that word in their minds as the sign of the thing called light. And thus by the nouns, and verbs, and adjectives, answering to the objects or things, actions and qualities which I used and manifested to him, he will transfer to or excite in other blind men's minds the same ideas and views, desires, and states of mind, which he derived frona me. And by the faith and hope which Bartimeus has thus produced, and the desires h^e has excited in their minds, ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. 79 which are anaiogous to his own, ihey will pursue the same course of conduct in preparing themselves to be success^ fully couched, that they may see. They possess the same views and feelings, and are influenced by the same mo- tives that he is, because they are produced by the sam© means, which operate upon minds possessing the same faculties and susceptibilities with his own. Should these blind men desire to instruct other blind men as they have been instructed, and with the same objects in view, they must use the same words and actions that Bartimeus used with them, and which I used with him. The same means of instruction would, if used in the same way, produce the same effects through a thousand gene- rations. But a change of words and sentences, and of ac- tions, would produce correspondent different effects, and prevent or but partially produce the states of mind de- signed. These supposed cases illustrate my view of the super- natural origin of language, and of its use in religion to the fallen state of man, in transmitting from mind to mind and from age to age spiritual knowledge. The mind of man is naturally as destitute of the knowledge of God and of spiritual things without revelation, as the mind of Bar- timeus was of the existence of light and of visible objects without instruction. The word of God and the miracu- lous works which were associated with it when it was first revealed^ and which are recorded, are as necessary now to produce religious or spiritual ideas, faith, hope and feel- ing, and religious conduct, as words and actions are to impart to men's minds who were born blind, the know- ledge of the existence of light, and the other effects which I have described. What I have said indicates the necessity of preserving the word of God pure as the author gave it, and of its be- 76 ORIGIN ANl> USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION i ing taught and learnt, and used in its own nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and other pans of speech, that the same ideas and perceptions, the same sentiments and feeangs, the same failh, hope and conduct may be produced in all, which God designed should be. For a further illustration of my views of the origin and use of language in religion, I might refer to the case of persons who were born deaf and dumb, and who in the asylums have been taught to read and understand the Scriptures. In every case, these unfortunate mutes had no idea or knowledge of God or of spiritual beings as ex- isting distinct from and independent of natural ones, or of the creation of any thing from nothing, until they were taught them by words and actions; none had any idea of God until it was communicated by instruction. The case published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, of a tradesman in Chartres, whose son was born deaf, and when he was twenty-thiee years old obtained his hearing, is full of conclusive information and evidence upon this subject. That case was published in *Hhe Philos- ophy of the human mind in respect to religion," in 1813, p. 56-7. After the young man obtained his hearings which was done without his knowing how, by a change taking place in his ears; and after learning to speak, he said, upon his being interrogated by several Catholic Priests, that concerning God, and the soul, moral good and evily although he had been raised by religious parents, and had been used to go to mass, and had been instructed in all the externals of devotion, he knew nothing and had thought nothing. So true is it, that w«>rds are the instru- ments of our thoughts in spiritual and divine things, as they are the means of our ideas and knowledge. The difference between ;.he state of blind Bartimeus in regard to light and vision, and the state of mankind in re ORIGIN AND WSE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. 77 gard to spiritual and divine things, is in some respects very great, but in others very small. Although it be true, that God is, and that it is in him we live, move and have our being yet without revelation we are as ignorant of these things, as was Bartimeus of the existence and operations of light before he was instructed. God created us and preserves us, and is a living, intelligent, holy, righteous, merciful, and perfect being, without whose presence and power we cannot live for one moment. All these things are objects and matters o^ faith, and are manifested to us through the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ by revelation; without which, we should not know them, or have one thought or feeling concerning them. The use of God's worri, and of the ordinances of the Gospel in religious instruction and worship, and devotional exercises, is to enlighten and imbue our minds more and more with the knowledge and sense of divine things, and to increase and strengthen our faith and hope, and love, and spiritual-mindedness. These are done by reading and understanding the word of God's grace, and by pray- erful meditation, by singing God's praise, and by religious conversation and social worship, and by good works in deeds of Christian charity. In all this, Jesus Christ in his mediatorial character, who is Immanuel, God with us, and is our prophet, priest and king, is Alpha and Omega, our wisdom and righteousness, and sanctifi-^ation and redemp- tion; without whom we can do nothing, either in the knowledge or the enjoyment of divine things, as he is the light of the world, the way, the truth and the life, the au- thor and the finisher of our faith. Through his blood, by faith in his blood, God purifies our hearts or justifies us. Through faith in him the spirit operates upon the heart in sanctifying it. All ^he doctrines, ordinances and duties of the Gospel are designed for the same purpose, and when -78 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN RELIGION. truly believed, cherished and practised, produce and in- crease spiritual-mindedness. There are but few original spiritual ideas produced by revelation, perhaps not more than the following: the existence of Jehovah, in whom is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the existence of other spiritual beings; the creation of the world ; the image of God in which man was made; his fall and redemption through the vicarious death and mediation of Jesus Christ; gra- tuitous justification; the separate existence of the soul at death from the body, the resurrection of the body and their re-union ; a future judgment ; the destruction of this world by fire; the existence of heaven and hell; the eternal hap- piness of the righteous, and everlasting punishment of the wicked. I will in my next Essay give the views of a number of philologists of the divine origin of language, which strengthen the views which the previous investigations have established. ESSAY IV. THE ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. The origin and the use of language, agreeably to Parkhurst, Dr. Johnson, Dwight, Prof'r. Brown, and Dr. Webster — Tlie traditioiary means by which the knowledge of God and religion have been hand- d down from one generation to another — The chronological connection be- tween Adara and Isaac. Language was a co-eval endowment, bestowed upon our first parents by their munificent Creator the moment that gave them existence, as was the knowledge of spirit- ual and divine things, to the extent it was proper fhat they, as the moral subjects of God's government, should know them. On this subject, Parkhurst, the author of the He- brew and Greek Lexicons, observes, " it is evident from the Mosaical account of the original formation of man, that language was the immediate gift of God to Adam, or that God himself, either taught our first parents to speak, or, which is the same thing, inspired them with language. It appears from Gen. ii, 19, 20, to be evident that Adam must in general have had ideas of actions and words suited to ex- press those ideas, which words were no doubt taught him im- mediately by God; or in short that he must have language before he could give the animals proper and descriptive names. I cannot forbear adding on this occasion, that whatever fantastical notions some men may advance con- cerning the origin of language, and the possibility of man's gradually inventing it by his own natural, unassisted 89 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. powers, yet in fact not a single instance can be produced since the creation of the world of any human creature ever using articulate sounds as the signs of ideas, or in other words, of his speaking or having language, unless he was first taught it eirher immediately, and at once by God, as Adam was at his first formation, and the Apostles on the day of Pentecost were, or gradually by parents and nurses." The endowments of Adam were a part of the first or old creation, and constituted in part the image and like- ness of God in which he was made; and those of the Apos- tles were a part of the new creation. Both were bestow- ed by God, the Logos or Word ; the former in his original, the latter in his mediatorial character. Dr. T. Dwight says, that " God endowed man immedi- ately with the power of speech and the knowledge of lan- guage to an extensive degree. It is proved among other thino-s by the fact that our first parents were made social beings^ and were made helps meet for each other. With- out speech we cannot conceive a social state to exist, nor imagine the mutual assistance aimed at in the creation of the first pair to be in any possible manner accomplished. Without speech, millions crowded together would, for this very reason, find themselves in a more perfect solitude. Without speech mutually understood, mankind even now are strangers and aliens to each other; and are not only unable to render to each other any mutual assistance, but are ever ready mutually to suspect, hate, and separate. Confidence is never reposed, friendship never springs up where language is not understood, and where communica- tions are not intelligibly and definitely made. " That language was revealed, is a fact that cannot have been otherwise. Without language, society could not have been formed. God also revealed to man, in di- ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. SI i-eet and definite terms his whole duty, and disclosed t© him the law by which his life was to be governed." Dr. Johnson says, "Language must have been by inspiration. Inspiration was necessary to give man the knowledge of the faculty of speech, to inform him that he may speak, which I think he could no more find out without inspiration, than cows or hogs would think of such a faculty."' Brown, in his Lectures on Mental Philosophy, says,^' to be without language written or spoken, is almost to be without thought. " The noblest of all the benefits which language con- fers, is that permanent transmission of thought, which gives to each individual, the power and wisdom of his species; — by it the boundaries of time seem to be at once removed. Nothing is past, for every thing seems to live before us. T \e thoughts of beings who have trod the most distant soil, and the most distant periods, arise again in our mind wi;h the same warmth and freshness, as when they fii*st awoke m the bosom of their author. That system of perpetual transmigration, which was but a fable as believed by Pythagoras, becomes reality when it is applied not to the soul itself, but ^o its ideas, thoughts and feelings, through the intervention and instrumentali- ty of language. ^' There is beyond all doubt, a chain of thoughts of hu- man kind, from the origin of the world down to the mo- ment in which we exist — ^a chain n-)t less universal than that of the generation of every thing that lives. We are in possession of opinions, which perhaps regulate our life in its most important cfmcerns, with respect to which, we are as ignorant of the original author, by whom they have been literally and imperceptibly transmitted to us from mind to mind, as wc are ignorant of those ancestors on 8 S2 ©RIOIN AND USE OF LANGUAOfE. whose existence, in the thousands of years which preced- ed our entrance into the world, our life itseif had depend- ed, and without whom, therefore, we should not have been. "Such are the benefits which result from language, the happiest of all inventions — if indeed it be an invention of man, and not rather as many have thought, a co-eval poicer bestowed on him by his provident Creator, at the moment that gave him life. " Dr. Webster says that "Adam was not only endowed with intellect for understanding his Maker, or the signification of words, but was furnished both with the faculty of speech, and with speech itself; or the knowledge and use of words as signs of ideas; and this before the formation of the woman. Hence we may infer that language was bestow- ed on Adam, in the same manner as all his other faculties and knowledge, by supernatural power; or in other words was of supernatural origin." The observations of these distinguished men, apply with peculiar force to the origin and use of language, in regard to spiritual and divine subjects. In the first crea- tion of man, the knowledge and use of language, on natu- ral and divine subjects, and the knowledge of natural and divine things, were co-eval . After the fall of man these co-eval endowments ceased, and the communications of God were made to him by external revelation, in words and sentences, suited to his fallen, guilty condition, and in reference to his redemption by Christ Jesus. They were enlarged at different periods by new revelations, under the Patriarchal and Mosaical dispensations, and were per- fected by Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, in the Gospel. That external revelation by language, after the fall repeat- edly made, has been the means of spiritual knowledge, and the instrument by which the knowledge of God and spiritual things has been transmitted from mind to mind. ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. 83 and from age to age, and from nation to nation, and is now the instriimeot, is evident from the fact that no period has existed since the fall of man, at which this chain of spir- itual and divine knowledge being broken, and the intelli- gence communicated by it bemg forgotten or lost, and . new revelation withheld or denied, that the human mind could, by any effort employed upon nature or itself alone, supply its use, or receive the ideas or information which it conveys, or could " rise through nature up to nature's God." The language of God in his Word, is now as well the instrument of thought and feeling upon spiritual and di- vine subjects, as it is of speech. It is the only means which enables the mind to transcend the boundaries of time and sense, in thought and feeling, by carrying it back- wards and forwards into eternity. By it we are made spectators of the birth of the Universe, and live through every age of time,^ and witness its close in the funeral of nature. The word of God's grace brings into the present states of mind, through faith in Jesus Christ, a sense of pardoned sin and of divine favor, and enables us to hold fellowship with God, and to enjoy eternal things. We are informed by the scriptures, that religion, or the knowledge of God, and the knowledge and use of lan- guage in our world began with Adam in paradise, and that they were co-eval endowments. After he fell, and by the fall he lost these co-eval endowments, which of course did not descend to his posterity. In his fallen state he begat children after his own likeness. These by wis- dom did not know God. The change which sin produced in the state of man, and in the relation he sustained to God, changed the order and system of religion which exist- ed Lefore. And the spiritual knowledge and feeling which were co-eval and natural to man's primitive state of purity 84 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. and innocence, became supernatural to \\\& fallen state, in that state, religion has ever since been imparted to him by grace, through external revelation, and has always had ref- erence to the atonement or expiatory death of Jesuft Christ. God spoke often, in various ways, to sundry persons, which began immediately after the fall, partly for their own instruction and guidance in the knowledge of him- self and will, and partly for others. So he spoke to Ad- am immediately after the fall, and to Abel, who by faith, that is, by obedience to the revealed will and command of God, offered an acceptable sacrifice, and by which, he be- ing dead, yet speakelh. He spoke also unfo Enoch, who was enabled thereby to walk with God, and to prophecy, and to warn and instruct others. God spoke also to No- ah, who was faithful to what he was taught, and was con- stituted the heir of the righteousness which is by faith, and was made a preacher of righteousness. He being warned of God, by revelation, of a flood and other things not seen as yet, which existed in the divine mind and pur- pose, and which were altogether supernatural, moved with fear prepared the ark. God also spoke to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Every age and season had, by divine revelation, light enough to guide them in the whole obedience required of them, had they been faithful to what was given to them. The anfe-diluvians did not perish for the want of sufficient revelation, but, as Faber, in his work on the three dispen- sations has proven, because they rejected altogether the doctrine of Redemption. And no other nation has died since the flood, for the want of sufficient revelation, but because of the corruption of the doctrine of redemption,, for the rejection of which the antc-diluvians perished. It is true, ihat when we consider, in the light that we have, those divine instructions which are upon record^ OUIGIN AKD USE OF LANGUAGE. 85 which God gran-ed to those who lived at early periods of the world, we are scarcely abl^ to discern how they could siitiicienH.y know all ihat was necessary for them to be- lieve and do. They were to rhem "as a light shining in a dark place." Setup a candle in a dark room, and it will sufficientlyeniighten it for men to attend to their bu- siness in it. Bur when the sun rises and shines in at the windows, the light of the candle grows so dim and useless that it seems strange that it could have been of any use. The Sun of righteousness is now risen upon us, and the light of the candle has disappeared. The light of :he knowledge of the glory of God, shines upon us thr,>ugh the Gospel, in the face of Jesus Christ, and the way int© the holiest of all is made manifest. If we look on the revelations granted to those who liv- ed before the Gospel times, we see there was ligh' in them, which, however, yields us as little as a candle does, set in fhe sun-shine. But to them who lived before Christ came, they were a sufficient guide to all the duties of faith and conduct required of them. There was, during this season, a sufficient ministry for the declaration of the revelations which God made of himself and will. There was the natural ministry of parents, who were obliged to instruct their children and families in the knowledge and practice of the truth iliey had received. This began with Adam, who first received the promise of Messiah, the seed of the woman. He in-. structed his sons and daughters. They learnt from him the state in which he was made and from which he tell, and what he lost by the fall. He taught them the divine institution of worship, which was suited to his fallen sm- ful state; and of sacrifice, which pointed to the atonement of Jesus Chris: — the bruising of the seed of the n'oman. He contin ;ed to instruct them nine hundred and thirtv 8* 86 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. years, during which time he doubtles<^ received many ne'wr revelations. The knowledge of these things could not be lost without the wilful neglect of parents in teaching their children and families, or in their neglect in learning them. There was abo the Sabbath, which was a memo- rial of the Creation of all things, and was made a sign between God and man, by God's own appointment, to pre- serve the world from idolatry and from Atheism. They had, moreover, the ministry of such persons as God in- trusted, from time to time, with new revelations, for the nfirmation and enlargement of those before given, who were all of them preachers of righteousness unto the rest of mankind. From the giving of the first promise, when external di- vine revelation began to be the means of spiritual instruc- tion, or the means of faith and the directory of life, to the writing of the law of Moses^ which was about twenty- four hundred and sixty years, there were always alive, one and another, who, receiving divine revelations imme- diately from God, were a kind of infallible guides to all others. If it was otherwise at any time, it was after the death of the patriarch?, and before the call of Moses, du- ring which time all things went into darkness and confu- sion. The righteousness of God, suited to their state, had been revealed to them by inspired men, but they held the truth in unrighteousness. Paul says, " that which might be known of God from the creation of the world, he showed unto them, but they glorified him not as God when they knew him, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened- Professing themselves to be wise without the revelations of God, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible wan, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. 87 things. And as they did no^ like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate or iindis- cerning mind.'' Such seems to have been the orii^in of idolatry in the patriarchal state, as it was afterwards amon^ the Jewish nation. Oral tradition alone could not preserve the truth of rev- elation pure, especially when men's lives were so much shortened as they were after the flood. Tu alter or corrupt the language in which religion wag revealed, would be to corrupt the people. Hence, when God formed the Old Covenant, and organized the Jewish nation upon it into a church or congregation, under a The- ocracy, or a government which God himself administered, he wrote that Covenant upon two tables of stone, which was perhaps, the first written document that man ever saw; and hence it is called the Covenant of the letter, by Paul. 2 Cor. iii, 6, in allusion to Exodus xxxiv, 28. The following chronological statement indicates the connection and the order of communication that existed from Adam to Isaac, and plainly shows how easily reli- gious knowledge, by tradition., might be communicated from one to another, and how the nations of the earth obtained their religious information. Adam was co-temporary with Lamech 56 years, with Methuselah 243 years, and wi;h Jared 470 years. N >ah was co-temporary with Lamech 595 years, with Me huse- lah 600 years, and with Jared 336 3'ears. These lived before the flood. And Shem, Ham and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, were one hundred years old when the flood came. Thev were co-temporaries with Lamech 95 years, and with Methuselah 98 years, before the floor!, and lived with their father Noah before the flood 100 }ear?. And Shem lived with him after the fl/od 350 years. He lived also with Abraham 150 years, and with Isaac 50 years. 86 ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. 1 he first chap or iS Paul's Epistle to ih-i R ♦mans, shows how idoialrv was iniroduced into the vvarid arn -iig the Gentiles, and from which I have made quotadons. Mo- ses guards the Jewish nation against the same tendency, arising from the same causes, in Deut. iv, and which sev- eral times led them into idolatry. These historical facts show the tendency of the human mind to corrupt the know- ledge of God, after it has been communicated or made know by revelation, which all history corroborates. But there is no instance in the world of any nation or individ- ual arriving at the knowledge of divine truth by its own discoveries, or of regaining it after it was lost, but by a new revelation. In accor^^ance with the truth of rhis statement, i^he nearer we approach to Noah, the nearer we universally come to the true and^erfect character and \m'>erplexed worship of Jehovah j-*^ and the further we recede from this patriarch, (he deeper we find ouriselves sinkino- into the abyss of idolatry. WhercMS, were the knowledge of God and religion inferable from narure, this process would of course be inverted. For as man became more enlightened by science, the world would know God better. The fact however, has been unif >rmly contrary to this. As tradition has declined, the knowledge of God has declined with it; as tradition has been corrupt- ed, the knowledge of God has been corrupted ; when it has been lost, the knowledge oi' God has been lost. The same is true in respect to the written word of God under the '>ld and new dispensations. As the word has l)oen cor- rupted or neglected, so has religion been . When Christ came into the world, the Jewish n.-tion had made the word of God of none effect by their traditions and com- mand'.nents, and the G(;ntiies were wholly given to idola- try and to Atheism. And no nation or individ\ial has ever been extricated from idolatry or Atheism, &incc ORIGIN AND USE OF LANGUAGE. 89 Christ came into the world, but by the Gospel ; or been civ- ilized, but by the same means. This is the perfect law of liberty, whose light and moral influence alone can quali- fy a nation for a free government. KSSAY V THE NEW COVENANT. The New Covenant, or Gospel constitution of religion, signifies that divine settlement or establishment of things, wherein God, by means of the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ, and the word of the gospel, communicates his grace , mercy and truth to mankind ; gives to them re- mission of sins and repentance through faith, reconciles them, and takes them into a friendly relation to himself, and puts his laws into their minds and writes them on their hearts; stipulates blessings and privileges to them, and gives them his laws and ordinances as the rules of their obedience and correspondence with Him, and of their union and fellowship with each other in Jesus Christ. The New Covenant, or Gospel dispensation, is that, according to the rich provisions of which, the heathen is given to Jesus Christ for his inheritance, and the ut- termost parts of the earth for his possession. Under it, Ihe light of God's glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ, and is intended to enlighten the world. He achieved the authority and power of universal king by virtue of his death. Every ray of light that emanates from him is of a gospel character, and shines through his cross. Every word that is uttered by his ambassadors and is derived from his gospel, proclaims good news to sinners — re- demption ihroufrh his blood, and the forgiveness of sin, to every humble, sincere believer. Through his sufferings *HE NEW COVENANT. 91 ?ind death, he obtained 'he power and office of Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sin; and there le no true repentance that is not given by hioi through the gospel. The New Covenant was described by, and was compre- hended in the promise that God made by Jeremiah and repeated by Paul, "Behold the days come, sailh the Lord, that I will make a New Covrenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah : Not according to the Cov- enant that, I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to brin^- them out of the land of Egypt; which my Covenant they brake, although I was a hus- band unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; Af- ter those days sairh the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, alid write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord : for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will re- member their sins no more." Jer. xxxi, 31-34; Heb. 8. This Covenant is called a New Covenant, in compari- son to the Covenant God made with the Jewish nation at Horeb, which is called the Old Covenant, and upon which he organized them as his church or congregation, and which, with its priesthood, was only typical and tempora- ry, and was abolished by the death of Christ and by the establishment of the Gospel Covenant. Heb. viii, 6, 13; X, 5, 18. The New Covenant has laws as the Old one had. Mo- ses wrote the laws of the Old Covenant; and the laws of the New one are to be found in the hook of the New Cov- enant, which was written by the Evangelists and the Apos- tles B2 THE NEW COVENANT. The laws of the Old one, though written twice by the finger of God, were engraven only on tables of stone, (Exod. xxxi, 18; xxxiv, 1;) and n>)t on the hearts of the people; and fheieiore, when 'he Jewish people promised to obey them, the Lord, who knew their hearts better than they did them^e»ves, said, "O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me, and keep my com- mandments always." Deut. v, 21-29. Bur in the New Covenant he proimised to supply what was wantmg in the first, and to give his laws in a more effectual manner, so as to secure the obedience of his people under it. They were to be " written, not with ink," as in the book of the law, '"but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. " 2 Cor. iii, 3 . This was done by failh in the atonement of Jesus Christ, which secured the actual remission of sin to every true believer, and the reception of the Spirit of God. The old Jewish or Horeb Covenant was temporary and typical, and its offerings were carnal. It made no provis- ion for the actual remission of spiritual sins; " 'he blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprmkling the unclean, sanctified only to the puritying of the flesh; but the blood of the New Covenant, ihe blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spii*it, offered himself without Sj)ot to God, purifies the conscience from dead W'.)rk!-, to serve the living God." Heb. ix, 13, 14. Through it God purifies the heart by faith. Acts xv, 9. The Old Covenant and offerings were only a shadow of good things to come, and never made the comers there- unto perfect. In its sacrifices there was a remembrance again matle of sins every year, and not the remission of them. Wherefore, when the New Covenant was about to be ostublished, and Christ's blood was to ho. shed for the remission of sin, or in order to it, he said, " Lo, 1 come to THE NEW COVENANT. 93 do thy will, O God, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins thou hast no pleasure." Jesus Christ did the will of God by offering his body, which God had ordained and prepared for him, once for all, by which he perfected for- ever them that ar€ sanctified . By faith in him, the sins and iniquities of all true believers are remembered no more. They are justified freely, by grace, through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus: they have redemp- tion through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. The New Covenant is called by Paul the Covenant of the Spirit, in comparison with the Oid Covenant, which is termed the Covenant of the letter: 2 Cor. iii, 6, in allusion to Exod. xxxiv, 28, where the ten commandments written with letters on two tables of stone are called, "the words of the covenant." The New Covenant on which the Gospel Church is built, and which secures the remission of sin, by the blood of Christ, to all true believers, who are the only proper members of that church, and of which the Apos- tles were able ministers, is called the Covenant of the Spirit, in allusion to Jer. xxxi, 33 ; and because it secures the remission of spiritual sins — bestows spiritual influences, and gives the qualifications for spiritual worship, and se- cures spiritual enjoyment . It is also called the Covenant of the Spirit, because it was ushered in, agreeably to ancient prophecy, by the outpouring of the Spirit at its commence- ment on the day of Pentecost and afterwards, and was the foundation of a spiritual church, and of the spiritual kingdom of God; and because it was published to ihe world, after Christ made the one offering of his own bodv in Heaven, and was glorified as High Priest forever, by the inspirations of the Spirit, and was confirmed and 9 !)4 THE NEW COVENANT. sealed by the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, bestowed upon the early believers. Paul said, "God hath made us able minister? of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive;" the Covenant of the letter killeth every sinner by its curse, but the Covenant of the Spirit mak- eth alive every believer by its promises: 2 Cor. iii, 6. It is called the Covenant of the Spirit also, because it se- cures the resurrection of our corrupt natural bodies, in- corruptible and spiritual bodies: 1 Cor. xv, 44. Paul terms the Covenant of the letter, Moses, because he was the minister of that Covenant, and he calls the Covenant of the Spirit the Lord, because the Lord Jesus Christ is the author and mediatorial administrator of it: 2 Cor. iii, 17. In the last verse, he says, "the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Macknight explains it thus, "The Lord signi- fies the Covenant of the Spirit, of which the Apostles were ministers, and where the Spirit, the inspiration of the Lord is, there is freedom of speaking." In Paul's Epistles, Christ, and Christ Jesus, are often put for the Gospel or the Covenant of the Spirit. The establishment of the New Covenant, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, abrogated the Old Cov- enant and Jewish state. This left the Jews in a state of widowhood, in respect to that Covenant, and fi-ee to mar- ry him who was risen from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ: Rom. vii, 4. This they did, when they believed in him as Messiah and were baptized into his name. The New Covenant knows nothing of any salvation but through faith. Infants dying in infancy are saved, as to the price of redemption, just as adults are. They are saved by the same atonement, but they are not saved as adults are, by the truth believed. That sacrifice, which THE NEW COVENANT. 95 is the ground of the New Covenant, is the salvation of in- fants who die in infancy. But there is no part of the Word of God that intimates, that it is through faith in that sacrifice that they are saved. God, who purifies the hearts of aduhs through faith in that sacrifice, can apply it to dying infants without faith; for faith has no merit more than works. Infants have nothing to do with a cov- enant that requires faith for salvation. The atonement of Christ is not the New Covenant, though it is the founda- tion of it. Were it true that infants could not be saved but by this Covenant, none of them would be saved, be- cause none of them can believe. This would denounce to condemnation, all who die before the belief of the Gos- pel. Infants who die are included in the Covenant of re- demption, according to which Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. Though infants are not saved by faith, they can join in the song of the Lamb in Heaven — " Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." The subjects of the New Covenant knoic the Lord — all of them know him — even the least of them: — they have the law of God put into their mind, and icritten on their heart. This is done by faith in the Gospel. This surely cannot include infants, who know nothing. Is there not a necessity to teach children as soon as they are capable of instruction, to know the Lord? Are any children found, who need not this instruction? We have seen that Calvin's notion of instinctive or innate religion is not true. If not, there are no infants in this Covenant. I repeat, that the sacrifice of the Son of God was as ne- cessary for infants as for adults. But had it pleased God, that ail that shall be saved should die in infancy, there would have been no need of the New Covenant at all. 96 THE NEW COVENANt- The gospel, then, would have never been preached; no person in his senses would preach to infants before they could know the meaning of words. The necessity of taith, and the necessity of atonement, are not of the same kind. Without the atonement, none can be saved. Adults are saved by faith in the atonement; — infants who die in infancy, are saved by the grace of God, through the atonement, without faith. The infants of Abraham were not saved, when they died in infancy, by Abraham's Covenant. He was not the spiritual father of his own infant seed. He was not constituted the head of all the redeemed, but the head of believers only. By the Covenant made with him, he was constituted the father of all them that believe, out of every nation. To his own descendants he was " the spiritual father only of them who walk in the steps of that faith " which he had. He was justified by faith, and was made the father of all of them that believe: Rom. iv, 9 — Gal. iii, 6, 7, 9. There was no spiritual connection between Abraham and his infant seed, by the Covenant that God made with him. His justification was not the pattern of theirs. He was justified by faith: his mfants dying in infancy were not justified by faith. They were saved, as all infants were saved from the beginning of the world, and will be to the end of the world, through the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman. The Covensnt made with Abraham in Gen. xii, 1-3, is not made with all believers. Has God promised to every believer that he will make him a great nation as he did to Abraham? Or that he shall be as celebrated as Abraham? Or that Messiah shall descend from him? Or that in him all fam- ilies of the earth shall be blessed? Every believer shall be blessed ncconiing to that Covenant, but it is by having his faith, like Abraham's, counted to him for righteousness* THE NETVV COVENANT. ^97 not by being like Abraham, the father of any of the faith- ful. The Covenant made with Abraham has a letter and a spirit. For the aocomplishment of the grand promise, that all nations should be blessed in Abraham, several promises were given him. He was to have a numerous posterity, which was fulfilled in the letter, in the nation of Israel. It was fulfilled in the spirit, by the divine con- stitution that mokes all believers the children of Abraham, under the Gospel. The nation of the Jews were Abra- ham's children, according to the Jiesh, yet there is a sense in which Jesus Christ denies that they were the children of Abraham : John viii, 39-44 : Gal. iv — and in that sense they were the bond sons of Hagar The christian Gen- tiles are not the children of Abraham according to the flesh, but they are his children according to the Spirit, by having Abraham's faith: Gal. iii, 7, 9, 26-29: Gal. iv and they answer to the free born son of Sarah. God promished to be a God to Abraham and his seed. This was fulfilled in the letter, by his protecting Israel in Egypt — by his delivering them from bondage — by his taking them into Covenant at Sinai — and all his subse- quent dealings with them in their generations, till they were cast off for their rejection of Christ. This promise was fulfilled in the Spirit, by God's being a God to all be- lievers, and to them alone, (Rom. iv, 11, 12,) in a higher sense than he was to Israel : Jer. xxxi, 33. Another prom- ise was, the land of Canaan; fulfilled in the letter to Israel, and in the Spirit fulfilled to the true Israel, in the posses- •sion of the heavenly inheritance. The New Covenant is the foundation of a new creation, which embraces in its rich provisions of divine favour, Jew and Gentile, male and female, bond and free. If any man be in Christ, he is a nexc creature. We miii^ 9 * 9y THE NEW COVENANT. look into the blessings and privileges secured and given to us in the New Covenant, to learn what the blessings and privileges of true believers are, and which, by 6ie grace of God, constitute them new creatures,' as we must look into the Constitution of the United States, to learn the blessings and privileges of citizenship in the United States. Under the Old or Jewish Covenant the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, possessed many distinguished privileges, and blessings, conferred upon them by God^ their political King; — and the Old Testament Scriptures employ many forms of expression to represent them. The Jewish na- tion were said ta have been created, made, begotten and formed by God, on account of their natural connection with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patri- archs, and their natural birth under the Old Covenant, by which they were citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. They were said to be a nation of kings and priests, and the people and kingdom of God, as expressive of the hon- ors, privileges and blessings they possessed under God, in distinction from the Gentiles, who were called no peo- ple, aliens, strangers, foreigners and enemies. The Old Covenant, however, with its priests and sac- rifices, procured no actual remission of the sins of the •^oul, and gave them no spiritual blessings. These were reserved for the New Covenant, or the Covenant of the Spirit, and, as far as possessed, were derived by anticipa- tion from it: Rom. iii, 25; Heb. ix, 15. The introduc- tion and establishment of the New Covenant, destroyed all the proud distinctions that existed between the Jews and the Gentiles. By the law of God, all were concluded under sin, and the commission given to the Apostles was, to preach the Gospel to every creature, to Jew and Gen- tile, r»ale and female, bond and free, as equally sinful and THE NEW COVENANT. 99 helpless. The Jews, who had been born naturally under the Old Covenant, were religiously bovn of God, but not of the Spirit. They, therefore, must be born again, must be created anew, and made new creatures by God, agree- ably to principles of the New Covenant, the Covenant of the Spirit, in order to their discerning and enjoying the Gospel Kingdom of God. H>wever pre-eminent may have been the distinctions and honors conferred upon the natural descendants of Abraham, under the Old Covenant, in comparison to those enjoyed by the Gentiles, God says, in reference to the New Covenan*, and the new heavens and the new earth, that the former,or the old ones, shall not be remembered, or come into his mind: Isa. Ixv, 17. Paul, in comparing the Old Covenant and Jewish church with their ordinances and worship, with the New Covenant and Gospel church, and the spiritual blessings, and privile- ges, compares the former to Hagar and her bond son Ish- mnel, who was born after the flesh; and the latter, to Sarah and her free son, Isaac, who was born after the spirit. He observes," Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond- woman, was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants : the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this A'hich- give a divine gracious character to the gospel, have long since ceased. The word of God's grace, thus revealed and confirmed. is the divinely established means, through which the bles- sed operations and influences are exerted upon the hearts of all true believers. iVnd these are the gracious influ- ences of the Spirit. By revelation we know that the objects of faith exist, but the mode or manner of their existence, or, if created, the mode or manner of their creation, is totally inscruta- ble and incomprehensible to the human mind, as much so as is the mode or manner of the existence of light and vision, to the mind of blind Bartimeus. The only formal definition of faith, in a scriptural theo- logical use of the term, that we have in the word of God, is the following, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." Heb, xi, 1, 150 GRACE AND FAITH. This definition is plain, and agrees exactly with all that the scriptures say on the subject. The objects of faith are things hoped for, things not seen. Things hoped for are future good things, or they could not be objects of faith or hope. Faith is the evidence or conviction of things not seen. Things not seen are more numerous and comprehensive than things hoped for. They include not only things promised, but also things testified; John iii, 33: 2 Thess. i, 10; not only good things to be hoped for, but evil things to be dreaded; Heb. xi, 7; not merely future things, but things also past, and present; Heb. ix, 6. It is, however, common to them all, that they are things not seen, and are only known by revelation; for it is only unseen things, that can properly be objects of faith; and hence faith is opposed to sight or sense. 2 Cor. V, 7; Heb. xi. 3; 1 Pet. i, 8. Faith in its theological sense, as has been formerly proven, is produced by the word of God, as it reveals or makes known things not seen by sense, or which cannot be inferred from nature, or natural appearances. Rom. x, 17; Acts xvii, 11, 12; 1 Cor. ii, 11, 12, 13. Things which are known by na- ture, reason or experience, without revelation, are not scriptural objects of faith. Divine faith is the belief of divine revelation and testi- mony. This faith is the belief of the truth of whatever God is pleased to reveal, and which, but for his revelation had not been known. Human faith rests upon human testi- mony, as divine faith rests upon divine testimony; it is the same mind that believes both, and it partakes in its states of the nature and qualities of the objects believed, as it perceives them. It is reasonable to believe, what God has revealed, and testified, because it is truth, for God cannot lie. The conviction that is in divine faith or belief, is not a GRACE AND FAITH, 151 blind enthusiastic fancy, or the working of a weak cred- ulity. When a man really believes, his mind will be af- fected by the objects of his belief, according to their per- ceived natures, and the relations they bear to him, and he to them. "He acteth differently upon that, which each passage of scripture containeth, if it be faith in di- vine things, yielding obedience to the commandments, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God, for this life and that which is to come." If what a man believes appears to him evil, disagreea- ble or hurtful, it will excite his hatred, aversion, or fear; but if it appears to him excellent and true, amiable or beneficial, it will draw forth his esteem and confidence, love, desire, hope or joy. These dispositions, passions and affections evidently suppose the previous perception and belief of what excites them; these are therefore not faith but the effects of it. Though faith is the confidence, or substance, of things hoped for, and also, in the christian's heart, worketh by love, yet it is neither hope nor love for the Apostle distinguishes it from both; "Now abideth faith, hope and love, these three." 1 Cor. xiii, 13. Noah, by faith of God's warning respecting the flood, was moved with fear lo prepare the ark, (Heb. xi, 7,) yet this fear was not faith but the effect of it, as was his la- bour in building the ark, and preaching righteousness. The objects of faith are different, and when believed, they produce different effects upon the mind, correspond- ing with their perceived natures, and the relations the mind bears to them . True faith is the belief of the truth ; and saving faith, is the belief in Jesus Christ the Sa- viour, by the testimony that God has given of his Son. By faith we know that God is, but the belief of this alone, does not save. Saving faith is called by the Apostles " Believing with the heart unto righteousness. " Christ 152 GRACE AND FAITH. is the object of it; he is the end of the law for righteous- ness to them that believe. Edwards says, as the conclusion of all his inquiries, " the best and clearest and most perfect definition of jus- tifying or saving faith, and most according to the scrip- tures, that I can think of, is this : faith is the soul's entire- ly embracing the revelation of Jesus Christ as our Sa- viour. " Saving faith embraces or receives Jesus Christ, for justification. This faith works by love, as it is that by which God purifies the heart. This faith understands the truth, believes it, acknowledges it and practices it. Speculative faith, that, is faith which produces no purify- ing -practical effects, consists in the superficial belief of a few truths detached from their connection with the more essential parts of revelation. These in their nature, are not suited to produce, and are incapable of producing, pu- rifying effects. The faith of such a believer does not embrace the essential truths of the gospel, which operate to the saving of the soul. As it does not justify the per- son, and there is no wonder that it does not produce the fruits of righteousness. Some describe fliith to be an inward principle of grace, implanted in the heart by the operation of the Spirit, separate from, and previous to, the knowledge of the word of God. It is impossible to conceive what is meant by such a principle of grace as this. It cannot be any sentiment respecting Christ or his salvation, since it is supposed to be previous to the knowledge and belief of the word of God, wherein alone Christ is revealed. Nor can it be any disposition or affection of mind towards Christ; for the mind cannot be affected by any object with which it has no knowledge. Faith is the belief of the truth or of GodPs word. The word of God^s grace, is the very thing GRACE AND FAITH. 153 that is established in the heart by faith. Sinners cannot love God in their sins. Christ by the gospel is presented to them as the object of their faith, the Jirst object that meets the eye of their mind; and their sins are remitted by faith in him. And "being justified by faith, they have peace with God, through the Lord Jesus Christ." When men conceive faith to be a principle wrought in the heart, by the Spirit abstract from the Word, it will lead them to look within themselves for the operation of some spirit; very different from the Spirit of truth, who speaks in the scriptures, whose work it is to guide into all truth, to speak of Christ, and to glorify him. It will make them seek after this inward principle, in the first instance, as the main hinge of their hope without the Word, and prevent them taking any comfort from it, till they fancy they find this unscriptural principle wrought in them, which after all, seems to be only a principle of blind enthusiasm or self-conceit. When faith is confounded with its effects, and made to consist of a number of good dispositions, and vigorous exertions of the mind, it limits the extent, and clouds the immediate freeness of divine grace to the chief of sin- ners, by confining it to such as are supposed to be better disposed and qualified than others. It sets the gospel ground of hope, at a distance from those who are self- condemned, who cannot find such good dispositions in themselves, and puts them upon striving to attain them \fy some great exertion of mind, and perhaps body, in order to be justified. The consequence is, that they either become discouraged and sink into despondency, or fall into despair after much fruiUess labour, or if they obtain any fluctuating peace in this way, it is not found- ed on, or derived from what they believe concerning Christ, but from a better opinion of themselves. There 14 154 GRACE AND FAITH. is a wide difference between believing "that God will justify only such as are well disposed, and properly qual- ified by their own good deeds and protracted efforts ; " and believing "that he justifies the ungodly freely, by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom. iii, 24 j iv, 5. The former leads a man to seek re- lief to his guilty conscience, and peace with God from something to be wrought in him, or done by him, distinct from faith in and reliance upon Jesus Christ. The latter leads him directly to the character and atonement of Christ, as the sole foundation of his justification, and of his hope and peace with God. On him he believes, and receives him for wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti- fication, and redemption — his faith is produced by, and is resolved into, the record that God has given of his Son. ESSAY X. JUSTIFICATION. The justification of a sinner and ungodly man, is by faith without works: — the justification of a righteous or godly man, is by works, and not by faith only. The gospel doctrine of the justification of sinners or ungodly men, as distinguished from the justification of saints, is the same as the doctrine of the remission of sin, of the forgiveness of sin, or of pardon and acquittal, and is called the righteousness of God. The justification of a sinner, is by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and is by the divine constitution of the New Covenant, based in the atonement, or the expiatory sufferings and vicarious death of Jesus Christ, which he submitted to willingly, and endured by divine appoint- ment; "God hath made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." "He humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the cross." 2 Cor. v, 21 : Phil, ii, 8. The doctrine of justification, claims to itself a sort of precedency and pre-eminence over all other doctrines, as being the one in which all the other doctrines of grace unite. A person, who is wrong on the subject of gospel justifi- cation, will scarcely be right in any other which is con- nected with it. Wrong views of the doctrine of justifica- tion, are usually connected, either with light aijd trifling 156 JUSTIFICATION. views of sin, and of human depravity and corruption, and erroneous views of the atonement of Jesus Christ, or with wrong views of the gospel method, by which the grace of God, is applied for the justification of sinners. In the former case the expiatory sufferings and sacrifice of Christ, are often rejected altogether, and reliance is placed upon a few external rites and ceremonies for sal- vation, without any deep affecting views of sin, or scrip- tural views of its remission. In the latter case, persons are often truly convinced of sin, and feel the want of the remedy which the gospel has provided, but mistaking that remedy, instead of believing and trusting in Jesus Christ, for righteousness and salvation, they seek the divine fa- vour by agonizing and striving, and waiting for the ope- rations of the Spirit to relieve them, before they believe in Jesus Christ. This is confounding justification with sanctification. No operation of the Spirit will ever bring peace to the soul of an awakened sinner in his sins, ac- cording to the gospel. The sinner must be justified by faith in Christ — his sins must be pardoned through faith — he must be acquitted, before he can have peace with God. This pardon and acquittal is not effected by the operation of God's Spirit physically, but through faith in Christ. Those who believe that it is effected by physi- cal operations, are under a mistake. Many persons un- der mistaken views upon this subject, neglect religion al- together. And many, after long and laborious efforts to obtain relief by the operations of the Spirit, without find- ing it, set down in hopeless melancholy. Others gradual- ly get clear of their trouble, and conclude that if religion be a reality, it is not within their power, and that it is use- less to attend any longer to it. Others by great effort of mind, and amidst much religious excitement and declamation feel a sudden vibration of mind from pain- JUSTIFICATION. IS? ful anxiety to a state of tranquillity, and seize upon that as evidence of conversion, but which is not as- sociated with any believing view of the character of Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in the gospel as the Saviour. In this case the peace that is felt, does not proceed from faith in Jesus Christ. It is not because they are justified by faith, that they have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is thought to proceed from an inward principle of grace, implanted in the heart by the operation of the Spirit, previous to faith in Jesus Christ. In this, it is essentially different from the con- versions recorded in the New Testament. No person can be converted to God in his sins, as no person can love God in his sins; and all are in their sins who are not jus- tified by f^iith in Jesus Christ. The Apostles never per- mitted their hearers to withdr.iv/ their attention one mo- ment from the character and oliic-es of Jesus Christ and him crucified, as the o!;J3ct of faith who alone could jus- tify and save thorn, when they adJresseJ them; and the Spirit, in no instance that we have upon record, ever wrought a miracle, or spake a vrora, or did one thing in the conversion of a sinner, which was not with a direct view of producing faith and confijencc in Jesus Christ. He never diverted the attention of the peoployVoTZi Christ to himself, because ho was sent not to speali: of, or to glo- rify himself, but to speak of and to-glorify Jesus Christ. The Spirit, as Christ promised to the Apostles in John xvi, 8—10, after he came, convinced the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, that is "he instruct- ed the world on the subject of their sins, their pardon, and their liberation from the power of Satan, which was grounded on Christ's going to the Father — his death, re- surrection and glorification." Storr and Flatt. We see how this was done in every instance, in which the Apos- 14* 158 JUSTIFICATION. ties preached the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and how clearly they exhibited the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ. Peter's two ser- mons in Acts ii, and ch. x, and Paul's in Acts xiii, 16-41, exhibit in a plain hisorical detail, the method and order of God in justifying sinners, — as Paul does in his Epis- tle to the Romans and Galatians. It seems to me that protestant christians in the present age, have greatly ob- scured, and confused the doctrine of justification, which was held by the Apostles, and the Reformers of the six- teenth century. They seem to labour more for the phys- ical agencies of the Spirit upon their congregations, than they do, that they may understand and believe the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, that they may be justified through faith in him; and there is much more attention paid to the imaginations and passions of the people, than to their un- derstandings, judgments and affections. Milner, in his Church History, remarks, that the doc- trine of justification in its explicit form, had been lost for many ages of the christian world, previous to the time of Luther, and attributes the great corruptions of Christiani- ty to it. He asks " If men had really believed that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, salvation was obtained, and that " God justifies the ungodly through faith without works," how could they have been imposed on, by the traffic of indulgences? The whole system of indulgencies was impious, and the right knowledge of justification was the only remedy adequate to the evil. This was the capital ol)ject of the reformation. This is the great mystery revealed by the gospel. The only ground of hearty and grateful obedience, and real com- fort, is the doctrine of justification by faith. No certain rest can be afforded to the weary mind, and to a state of doubt, but in this doctrine." And no possible ground of JUSTIFICATION. 159 christian union and fellowship can be proposed, when there is such a difference about baptism and other things, but in the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ. In him all true believers mefet and are one; they are the children of God by faith in him, however they may differ respecting baptism and other things. The following account Luther gave of his own exercies and views upon this subject, which delivered him from Roman Catholic superstition, and introduced the great Protestant reformation. It would be well for Roman Catholics and erring Protestants to consider it well. He observes, "From scholastic divinity I learnt no- thing of the real nature of sin, of righteousness, or of the whole christian life, or any thing of the excellency of God or of his works, his grace or his justice. Faith, hope and charity were to me words without meaning. In short I not only learnt nothing right, but I had to unlearn every thing which I had acquired in that way. In the school I lost Christ, I have found him in Saint Paul. '•However blameless a life I might lead as a monk, I experienced a most unquiet conscience. I perceived my- self a sinner before God; I saw that I could do nothing to appease him, and I hated the idea of a just God, that punishes sinners. I was well versed in all Saint Paul's writings, and in particular I had a most wonderful desire to understand the Epistle to the Romans. But I was puzzled with the expression in reference to the Gos- pel Hherein is the righteousness of God revealed^ My heart rose almost against God with a silent sort of blas- phemy. At last in secret, I said with great murmur and indignation, was it not enough that wretched man, already entirely ruined by the curse of original depravity, should be oppressed with every species of misery through the condemning power of the commandment, but even through 160 JUSTIFICATION. the gospel, God threatens us with his anger and justice, and thereby adds affliction to affliction ! Thus I raged with a troubled conscience. Over and over I turned the above mentioned passage to the Romans, most importunately. My thii^t to know the Apostles meaning was insatiable. At length while I was meditating day and night on the words, and their connection with what immediately fol- lows, namely, "the just shall live by faith," it pleased God to have pity upon me, to open mine eyes and to show me that the righteousness of God, which is here said in the Gospel to be revealed from faith to faith, relates to the method by which God in his mercy justifies a sinner through faith agreeably to v/ha.t is written "^7/c just shall live hy faith?'' Hence I felt myself a new man, and all the scriptures appeared to have a new face. The right- eousness of God nov/ became as sweet to my mind as it had been hateful before, and this very passage of Saint Paul proved to me, to be the entrance into Paradise." This discovery of Luther, I repeat, v/as the beginning of the great Protestant reformation from Roman Catholic superstition and ignorance in the sixteenth century. The doctrine, which lies upon the surface of the gospel, that the justylcation of sinners and ungodly men, is hy faith without ivories; and the doctrine that the just by faith shall live and do good woi'Jrs, or be justified by works and not by faith only, are the great distinguishing doctrines of the christian religion. Respecting those who departed from" the gospel views of JListification, it uas declared by Paul, that "Christ should p.-ofit them nothing — to (hem the gos- pel had become of none effect — they had fallen from grace — they were enemies of the cross of Christ." Gal. iii: iv, 2-4: Phil, iii, 18. To be more explicit I observe, 1. That justification is a law term, and is taken from the business of judicial JUSTIFICATION. 161 courts, and denotes the acquittal of a person tried by such a court upon an accusation of crime. The person accused being put upon trial and found innocent of the charge, is declared by the judge to be just in the viesv of the law; and by an easy and natural figure is said to he justified or made just. The judgment of acquittal, by which he is said to be justified in this case, does not make the person innocent of the crime charged against him; but having been innocent, the judgment of acquittal by which he is said to be justified, declares or manifests his innocence. This is meritorious justification; that is, justification by personal innocence or merit, and is applicable to innocent or sinless beings alone. 2. This justiiication is not the justification of a sinner and ungodly man before God. Hence the gospel sense and meaning of the word justification, is very different from the above, because ''all have cinned, and all are guilty before God — all are under sin, and none are righteous, no not one?"^ No one therefore of the human family can be justified meritoriously, that is on account of his own personal innocence or merit. Hence the justifi- cation provided for in the New Covenant for sinners, is, by the grace or favour of God'through faith in Jesus Christ. It was in reference to this that God promised by Jeremiah to make a New Covenant, by i\\e rich provisions of which he would forgive the iniquity, and remember the sins of his people no more, which was not done under the Old Covenant except prospectively in reference to the New Covenant, because the Old Covenant had no atonement by which the spiritual or internal sins of the soul could be re- mitted. Jer. xxxi, 31-33: Heb. viii,9: x, 4: See the Essay on the new Covenant. It was of this justification by grace through faith, that Isaiah spoke, "by his knowledge shall my righteous ser- 162 JUSTIFICATION. vant justify, (that is, procure pardon for) many, for he shall bear their iniquities." Isa. liii, 11. Of the same, Zacharias spoke when addressing his infant son John, at his birth, who was the harbinger of Christ, "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways ; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the re- mission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke i, 76-79. "John the Baptist filled this commission in part when he said " behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" — "he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of Goi abideth on him." John i, 29: iii, 36. "John preached the baptism of repent- ance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." Acts xix, 4. John's preaching and baptism were only preparatory to the Jewish nation receiving Jesus Christ as the expected Messiah. They who professed a willingness to reform and to believe in Christ when he should come, were bap- tized by him. It was in reference to this justification by grace, through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, that he, when he insti- tuted his supper, and gave the cup to his disciples, said " Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Cov- enant, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." 1 will now endeavour to illustrate the principle or doc- trine of the justification of a sinner by grace through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus, as contrasted with meritorious justification. The sinner supposed, is a true JUSTIFICATION. 163 penitent believer in Jesus Christ, and is put upon his trial. Charges of various sorts are placed against him — they are true. He has been guilty of many aggravated and heinous sins. How is he to be-justified, or how can God be just, and the justifier of this sinner? The gospel an- swers these questions,- *'God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life" — " the justifi- cation or righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe — through him is preached the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things" — " they are jus- tified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sin, that he might be just and the justi- fier of him which believeth in Jesus" — "to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever be- lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins." John iii, 16: Rom. iii,22: Acts xiii, 38-39: Rom. xxiv, 26: Acts x,43. The truth of the declaration that sinners are justified by faith without works or any act of the body, as was Abraham, who believed, and his faith was counted or im' puled to him for righteousness, is sealed and confrmedhy the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were bestow- ed upon the believing Gentiles the moment that they be- lieved. Acts X, 44-46: xi, 15-18: xv, 7-9: Eph. i, 13. Therefore, however true and aggravated the charge of sin may have been against the true penitent believer in Jesus Christ previous to his faith, by it he is justified from all things, his faith is counted to him for righteousness. And therefore Paul asks the question in reference to him, *'who shall condemn him, since it is God that justifies him through Christ who died for him?" Rom. viii, 33-34. 164 JUSTIFICATION. In this case the formal judgment of acquittal does not make the true believer just, or innocent of the sins charged against him, but it declares him to be so, and to have been made so by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ at the time he believed with his heart, for with the heart man believeth into righteousness. He was then made the righteousness of God in Christ, because in the gospel of the New Covenant, Christ was made unto him righteous- ness or justification, and redemption, and he received him and believed on his name, and by God's grace he was made the righteousness of God in him. Cor. i, 30 : 2 Cor. v, 21: John i, 12-13. The faith by which the true believer receives Christ is an internal action of the soul, and not an external one of the body, and is that upon which God suspends the remis- sion of his sin, and by which the believer receives it, and by which God communicates his favour to him as a justi- fied person, and imparts his divine influence into his heart. The external acts of this faith are whatever the be- liever says or does according to the word of God, whether they relate to submitting to, or obeying the ordinances of the gospel, or to acts of self-denial, or of good works or worship. Man by nature and practice is involved in guilt, and in the love of sin, vvhich is his disease. God's righteousness revealed in the gospel delivers him from both. The justi- cation then of a sinner is complex. It includes the idea of pardon, and also of acquittal. To pardon sin, and yet to let the disease or the love of sin remain, would be to accomplish but little for the guilty, polluted sinner. God's grace and mercy through the blood of Christ operate in such a way as to heal the disease as well as to pardon or remit sin; in such a way as to associate sin with the abhorrence of the heart and duty, or the service of God JUSTIFICATION. 165 •with the love of it. Sanctitication begins in justification. Sin lost for man communion with God, and destroyed his qualification for the enjoyment of him. Justification re- stores the former, and sanctification restores the latter. Gospel justification is a change of state and condition in the eye of the law, and of the law-giver. Gospel sanctification is a blessed conformity of heart and life, to the law of the gospel, or will of the law-giver. The first is a relative change from being guilty to being righteous. The other is a real change from being filthy to being holy. By the one v/e are made near to God, by the other we are made like him. By being justifiejl, of aliens we are made children, and by being sanctified, the enmity of the heart is slain and the sinner is not only made a faithful loyal subject, but a loving dutiful child. To be justified therefore, is more than to be barely for- given. To be entitled to and qualified for heaven and brought there, are more than to be saved from hell. A man may be brought in not guilty, at the bar, without being ad' vanced to a throne. A prince may pardon a traitor with« out conferring on him any further favour. But those whom God justifies, are not only forgiven accordino- ta the riches of his grace, but they are blessed with all soir- itual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and will be finally glorified. They are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Christ, as our wisdom, and as the Lord our righteous^ uess, has brought in such a way of knowing and of enjoy- ing God, as the first Adam and the covenant of inno- cence under which he was placed, were utter strano-ers to, God's justified ones are not only to live, but they are to reign in life by Jesus Christ, It is thought by some that there is a contradiction be- tween PauPs account of justification in his Epistle to the 166 jrrsTiFicATioN. Romans and Galatians, which is "6y faith withottt works, ''^ and " by faith that it might be by grace,'''^ and James's account which is " by works and not by faith oji- lyy When they are both understood, there is no contra- diction or inconsistency between them. James ii, 14, in our common version, bears an apparent repugnance to the doctrine delivered by St. Paul. But a slight correction strips it of the difficulty, and exhibits the harmony of the sacred writings; ^'*What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him?"^"^ In this translation the article before faith is wholly omitted ; whereas, it is clearly intended to be em- phatic: " can this faith save him ? " Can a faith of which we see and know nothing of its fruits, a faith inoperative and counterfeit, save him? "Can such a faith, "says Doddridge in his paraphrase, " as may be separated from good works, save him?" So says Macknfght, " Can this faith save him?" James does not say that faith will not save him, but denies that a dead faith will. In this Paul and he are agreed. This faith, before it works, exists, and believes in Jesus Christ, and by it the sinner is justi- fied, and then he works : — this is not that faith that is dead, it purifies the heart and works by love. Paul speaks of the justification of a sinner, and James speaks of the justi- fication of a saint. They both speak of a true faith. Agree- ably to the view that Paul takes of the subject, the charge of sin is brought against a sinner by the laiv of God, who is guilty. How is he to be justified before God? Paul answers — By faith in Jesus Christ, without works. Ho must believe in Jesus Christ for righteousness. He must be justified as Abraham was without works, who believed in God and his faith was counted to him for righteousness. Gen. XV. 6: Rom. iv, 3. God promised to Abraham af ter he believed, that in his seed, Jesus Christ, all nations JUSTIFICATION. 167 should be blessed. And Paul declares that they that be- lieve are blessed with faithful Abraham. Their faith is counted to them for righteoO^ness as his was. They be- come the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and are made saints by the gracious provisions of the New Covenant, and are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Gal. iii. 29. The view that James takes of the subject is quite a different one, and relates to a differ- ent person. The person that he has in his eye is a saint and not a sinner. The charge of hypocrisy is brought falsely against him. How is he to be justified against this charge? By good works, or by doing the v/orks of righteousness . To illustrate this, he adduces the case of Abraham long after he had been justified by faith without works, as Paul describes it, and long after he had been made the father of the faithful. He asks, " was not Abra- ham our father justified by works when he had offered up his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was his faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham be- lieved God, and it v/as imputed unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see, then, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." ch. ii, 21-24. It is true, that when Abraham offered up his son upon the altar, he was justified by icorJcs and not by faith only. But I ask how was he justified when he be- lieved in God forty years before, and did nothing else? Moses and Paul tell us that he was justified by faith ; he believed, and his faith was counted to him for righteous- ness. Gen. XV, 6: Rom. iv, 3. It was on account of his being justified by faith without works, that Abraham had nothing whereof to glory before God ; and so it is now. Rom. iv, 2, 4, 5, 11, 16. James did not intend to contra- dict Moses and Paul. When he speaks of justiijcation by 168 JTJSTIFTCATION. works, he does not nse the term justification in the sense q[ forgiveness of sins, as Paul does, when he says that an ungodly man or a sinner is justified by faith without works. At the last judgment, when men shall be justified by their works, we have no account of any remission of sin there. Justification will be declarative and remuner- ative. The righteous will be declared by their works to be righteous, and will receive a crown of life. These works will be the works which faith wrought, and the scripture will be fulfilled or rather illustrated and con- firmed in the same way it was in the case of Abraham and Rahab, by the works of faith which they did after they believed, as is the case of every sincere believer; while hypocrites who in this life prof ess faith, hut which is alone and dead and produces no fruits of righteousness, will be manifest and declared to he hypocrites by the want of the works of faith, and by their wicked works. And the professedly wicked will be judged and condemned by their works. A hypocrite now is known by his want of the works of faith, or of righteousness, and he may be a hypocrite or a deceived person, although he may have been baptized. It is a matter of great importance to un- derstand the distinction between the account that Paul gave of justification, and that which James gave. Without it, great confusion and error, and great corruptions in the cliristian religion, must exist. Ignorance and error on this subject were, and are, the causes of the superstition and corruption, that exist among the Roman Catholics. It is o\ving to the same causes, that among professedly Bible Christians in this age, an opinion prevails that remission of sin is by the physical operations of the Spirit, and which makes haptism necessary to the actual justification of a sinner and ungodly man, or to the remission of his pins. JUSTIFICATIOS. 169 There is actual gospel justification, and there is decla- rative gospel justification. Of the former Paul speaks in his account of God justifying a sinner by faith without works, in order to his introduction, into the fellowship and love of God, Of the latter James speaks. The for- mer is the justification of a sinner by faith. The latter is the justification of a saint, or if you please, of James himself, by works and not by faith only. James, who had been justified by faith without works, as Paul had been, and as all sinners are, who are in the divine favour, is now declared to be a saint, or is justified as a saint by works and not by faith only — " I will show" said he "ray faith by my v/orks ." I repeat, that agreeably to Paul's account of the justifi- cation of an ungodly man, the charge of sin is brought against him by the law of God. He is guilty, but by the grace or favour of God provided in the gospel of the New Covenant, he may be justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by works. This is the righteousness of God. But agreeably to the account James gives, the charge of hypocrisy is brought falsely against a saint, and a true believer, who had been justified by faith without works. He is now justified by good works against the charge in the sight of men, which are declarative of his faith as they are the effects of it. The faith by which he had previously been actually justified, manifests or proves it- self by the good works which it produces in the view of the world. Hence said James, "I will show you my faith by my works. " Faith without works is dead, and is indeed no faith, as a man without life is dead, and is no man. But it was not by any works of righteousness in the sight of God, that James or Paul had done, that freed them from the guilt in which the gospel found them. They were justified by faith that it might be by grace, " not of 15* 170 JUSTIFICATION. works lest they should boast." Hence a person before he can be declarativelj/ instiled before men br/ works, must be actually justified hy faith iclthout worlcs before God. This was the doctrine the Apostles preached, and all who believed, were baptized into this doctrine as an essential gospel doctrine. They did not perform and submit to the loork or act of baptism that they might be justified as sin- ners, or to obtain the actual remission of their sins from God, but, having been justified by faith, or God having jmrijied their hearts by faith, they were baptized into the doctrine of remission through faith without works. Acts XV, 7-9. By their baptism they renounced and disowned every other name and system of religion but the name and system of Jesus Christ, which they had previously believed with the heart. They moreover renounced all works and ordinances of every kind, whether Jewish or pagan, or christian, moral or ceremonial, including bap- tism itself, as having had nothing to do in their actual justification before God as sinners; and they avouched Jesus Christ as their righteousness, who they received by faith and put on by baptism. Having been crucified with Christ by faith in his cross, they were buried with him by baptism into death. Luther, in saying that "the just by faith shall live," was violently opposed by the Roman Catholic divines of the stamp of Eckius, who said, " not by faith only, " which they added, as they said, to prevent mistakes. Luther objected to their adding to the scriptures, "not by faith only," because he asserted that a life of faith is a life of good works, and that there are no good works without faith, good works do not 'produce faith, but faith produces good morks. Luther says that " the meaning of the Apostle is, not that justified persons neglect good works, but that their JUST1F1CA.T10K. l7i justification is prior to good works; and that good worfe can be performed by justified perBons only,'^ living and acting by faith. Every true believer will oBey God in all things, as far 03 he understands God's will ^ he will be baptized b^ cause Jesus Christ the author and finisher of his faith commands hira. He will be immersed if he understands the ordinance as consisting in immersion. Possessing the spirit of obedience through faith, his desire is fo abound in the works of the Lord. But if he fixes upon any one rite, ordinance or act, as covering the ground ot dbedience — the spirit of obedience, will be perverted or extinguished to that point. Abraham, through faith in God's promise to make him a father of many nations in his old age, was, by God con- stituted the father of all true believers in Jesus Christy who was the seed of Abraham to whom the premise was made. Gen. xv, 5: Rom. iv, 16-24: Gal. iii, 16. What was necessary to Abraham's justification and to his constitution as the father of the faithful, is necessary to the justification of sinners now, by which they are, in the divine constitution of things, made the children of Abraham. Children derive their nature from their pa- rents, and not parents from their children. "If Abra- ham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For v/hat saith the scripture? Abrar ham believed in God, and it, his faith, was counted to him for righteousness. Gen. xv. 6. Now to him that workr eth is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. Bal to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.^ Eom. iv, 2-5. Faith was counted to Abraham for rightiB- ^^usness before he was circumcised twenty-four year?, aod lie received the sign of circumcision, a seal of U$ ITS JUSTIFICATION. righteousness of the faith, or a seal of his justification by faith, which he had before he was circumcised, that ke might he the father of all them that believe. "Justification is therefore of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed — to all that are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all that believe." If faith without baptism justified Abraham, and made or qualified him to be the father of all them that believe, so faith without baptism, justifies his spiritual seed; for what was essential to his righteousness or justification and blessing, is essential to the righteousness or justification and blessing of his spiritual seed. If baptism is necessary now to the actual justification of a sinner in the sight of God, it was necessary to the justification of father Abra- ham in the sight of God, because their faith and righteous- ness are the same. The actings and doings of Abraham under the inflU' ence of that faith by which he was justified and made the father of all them that believe, were diflTerent from the actino-s and doings of his spiritual seed under the christian dispensation, because they are by the will of God placed under different circumstances. Sinners are justified by faith as Abraham was, and the just by faith shall live. They all live by faith, but the rule of conduct is different as God's will is different from what it was under the patri- archal state. Abraham's circumcision was not necessary to his justification, because he was justified before he was circumcised, neither is it necessary to the justification of his spiritual seed. It was his duty to be circumcised after he was justified, because God commanded it, but it is not necessary to his spiritual seed after they believe to b© circumcised, because God has not commanded it to thonj» Abraham was justified by faith without baptism, and it JtfSTIFICATION. 178 was not his duty to be baptized after he was justified by faith, because God did not command it. Sinners are now jjistified by faith as Abraham was without baptism, blU God makes it their duty after they are justified by faith iH Jesus Christ, to be baptized into Ids name, and to put hiii} an. He is the promised seed of Abraham, in whom thre nations of the earth should be blessed, and in him all trUB believers are one. ''Ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and as many of you as have been baptiz* ed into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nt3r Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neithejr male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heir, Recording to the promise." Gal. iii, 26-29. Neither the baptism of Abraham's spiritual seed, nor the circumcision of Abraham as their spiritual Father, con stitute any part of their justification as sinners before God ur of the actual remission of their sins. And therefore, true believers in Jesus Christ, who differ about baptism and other things, are notwithstanding, the children of QoA by faith in him, and are Abraham's seed and heirs accord- ing to the promise. The just by faith shall live. But justification by faith does not make the individuals justified by faith infallihh and perfect in their judgment about baptism or any thing dse. Those who practice immersion as baptism, and who regard believers the only proper subjects of it, do not daim to themselves infallibility. And there is as great a diversity of opinion among them, and in some things a much greater one, than there is between orthodox baptists and pedo-baptists. The old protestant baptists and pedo- baptists agree in their views of justification by faith with- out baptism. The former have copied into their confes- irfon of faith the doctrinal principles of the latter out of 174 JtrSTlMCATION. their confession, of which that of justification is a most prominent one. See the Presbyterian and Baptist confes- sions of faith. They esteem the atonement and divinity of Christ essential to the christian religion. While there arc others who practice immersion for baptism, and regard be- lievers as the only subjects, who deny the propitiatory suf- ferings of Jesus Christ and his vicarious death altogether, or that they have any thing to do in that system of grace, ac- cording to which sinners are freely justified by faith. They require faith and obedience, that is, baptism, in or- der to the remission of their sins; but deny that the blood of Christ has any thing to d^, in the^divine government, in the pardon of sin, and deny that it is revealed in the word of God 1 Belief i/2 something and in baptism in order to re- mission, and obedience by baptism or by immersion ^ secures the remission of their sins, or justifies them as sinners without the blood of Christ. Remission of sins in their judgment is, by divine appointment, suspended upon faith and the act of immersion, to the exclusion altogether of the sacrificial death and expiatory ofiering of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. These things show that the prac- tice of believers, baptism does not secure its votaries against extravagant errors. Abraham, was constituted the father of the faithful when he believed the promise of God of a numerous offspring in a very advanced old age; and true believers in Jesus Christ, who is Abraham's seed, to whom the promise was made, (Gal. iii, 16,) are made the spiritual children of Abraham. Upon them the blessing of Abraham has come through Jesus Christ, and they receive the promise of the spirit through faith. Gal. iii. 14. Jesus Christ in the Gos- pel is the only object of justifying faith; he was made a sin offering for us, that we might be made the righteous- ness of God in him. It is not every thing, nor Qvery sort JUSTIFICATION. 175 of being that is called Christ, that is the object of saving faith, for the belief of which people are to be baptized. He has himself guarded us against false prophets and false Christs. Math, xxiv, 24. The Christ in the gospel, into whom true believers are commanded to be baptized, who is the object of saving faith, concerning the flesh, or his hu- man nature, came from the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and^who, concerning his divinity,^ is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Rom. ix, 5. The object of sav- ing faith, must have power to save. This power Christ obtained, and possesses through his own death ; therefore? Christ crucified, who died for the ungodly and sinners, and by whose blood they are justified, is the object of saving faith: he has all power in heaven and in earth, and is ex- alted a Prince and Saviour to give repentance and remis- sion of sin. Although Paul has said nothing in respect to the justifi- cation of a sinner and ungodly man, by which he is made a saint, but only a true and a living faith, and by wiiich he is for the first time introduced into the divine favour, yet that faith does not shut out its consequences, reforma- tion, hope, love, and the fear of God, and good works, and attention and submission to the ordinances and command- ments of the gospel. These are only excluded from th© office of justifying a 5mwer, and in making him a rio-hteouF man. That faith, that does not prompt ^to obedience, ig worth nothing, notwithstanding the person may have been baptized. Neither does the justification of a sinner bv faith without works, shut out the justice of God in requiring good works afterwards to be done. For it is by faith that good works can be performed, as it is by faith in Jesus Christ, that we are made new creatures, and are qualified for doing good works that are pleasing to God. ^ 'By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it 176 JTJSTllICATION, is the gift of God J not of works, lest any man should boast." This is justification and is thefoundation — and we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, for which God hath prepared us by justification and a change cfif heart, that we should walk in them, — this is sanctificor Hon, or the superstructure of the edifice. Faith is the fruitful principle of all good loorks. And every true believer is inclined to do good works, and finds his happiness in them, though he does not expect to be sav- ed/br them. The doctrine of justification by faith without works, is felt by every true believer to give all its spirit and scope to the new obedience of the gospel. Under the sacred and constraining influence of that faith, by which Ood purifes the heart, and which worJcs hy love, the ques- tion is not how much must I do to escape punishment, of to obtain salvation, but " what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?" In all ages those who have practically received the doctrine of justification by faith without works, have been more distinguished than any others for doing good works, and for denying themselves of all ungodliness and worldly lusts. This was pre-emi- nently the case with Abraham and Paul, and has been with all of Abraham's spiritual seed, down to this day, and ia that by which the true spiritual seed of Abraham are distinguished from others. Some seem to think that God justifies sinners by the physical operations of the Spirit, as Naaman was cured of the leprosy, when he washed in the Jordan, and they re» ly upon the act of baptism for it. They seem not to know that justification is a gvdicions judicial act of God, and not a physical one. The spiritual moral acts of God are dif- ferent from his spiritual j>/t7/5icaZ ones. This opinion of jua^ tification by the physical agency of the Spirit is subve> divo of the whole gospel system of religion as far as it JUSTIFICATION. / -» 17 operates. It destroys its moral nature and character, and makes it physical. The difference between God justify- ing a sinner through faith in Jesus Christ, and the physi- cal agencies of the Spirit, is as great as is the difference between the Governor of this Commonwealth pardoning a felon, or a judge acquitting a criminal at the bar, and a physician curing the cholera or an eruptive fever. Those teachers of the christian religion who entertain this opin- ion, must of necessity feel but little concern about the true sense and meaning of the word of the go|pel as the means of faith, which sinners must understand and truly and cordially believe in order to their justification, and labour for physical agency, and ceremonial rites to effect it. This accounts for a great many peculiarities which have appeared in the religious opinions and practices eince the age of the Apostles, as to the design and use of preaching and praying, and of the meanhig and effects of baptism, which cannot be found in the Apostolic wri- tings. It is a most destructive error in theology to confound justification with sanctification. This is the great master error of the Roman Catholics. Its deadly hostility to gospel truth, intelligence and purity, is seen in all that ig- norance, superstition, corruption and cruelty, which have marked the whole history of popery. The following were some of the decrees which were passed by the Roman Catholic Council at Trent, held in the sixteenth century, which were designed to oppose the principles of the Protestant Reformation: ' ' Whosoever shall affirm that those words of our Lord Jesus Christ, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, (John iii, 5) are to be figuratively inter- preted: let him be accursed. 16 178 JUSTIFICATION. '•'Whosoever shall affirm that baptism is not necessary to salvation: let him be accursed. " Whosoever shall affirm that the ungodly is justified by faith only, so that nothing else is to be required to co- operate there\Vith, in order to obtain justification: let him be accursed. "Whosoever shall affirm that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy, by which sins are forgiven for Christ's sake: let him be accursed." The foll^vving were the sentiments of the Protestants of the sixteenth century, as opposed to the Roman Ciitho- lics, on the subject of justification, and are found in all their confessions of faith: — "God justifies the true believers freely, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting- their persons as righteous; not ybr any tJiing rcronght in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, they receiving and resting on his righteousness by faith. Faith, thus receiving. and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of jusiifcation; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces and is no dead fjiilh, but worketh by love." None can be justified by works until they are justified by faith without works. The gospel proclamation of peace and good will towards man from God, is based in the atonement — in ^' Christ and him crucifed,'^^ as sinners are justified by believing in him. God speaks to man as he sees him, a guiltj'^ polluted helpless sinncrj and accord- ing to his own gracious purpose towards him. He there- fore speaks to him by the gospel through the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ. - Of what advantage would spiritual instruction be to a sinner, which does not bring with it the glad tidings of pardon? What view of the di- JUSTIFICATION. 179 vine character could be nianifestcd4o a sinner, that would not tei-rify or consume him, pr that could in any degree lead hira to repentance, and reconcile- him to God, except the gospel view, which proclaims grace and forgiveness, through the expiatory sufferings and death, and mediation of Jesus Christ, to every true believer? The revelations and communications of God since the fall, have been made to our world according to his purpose and grace, given. to us in Christ before the^ v/orld began. The Apostles in preaching the gospel under the com- mission given to them, by Jesus Christ, never preached the law to justify and convert sinners. Nor 'did they seem to expect that the Spirit would convert or regenerate sin- ners in their sins by any operation. They were all in their sins until they believed. They considered that faith in Jesus Christ, which was the truth believed, concern- ing him, was itself the spiritual birth, and secured the -divine favour and all evangelical blessings and privileges, to the sincere enlightened believer, as it was the living principle of union with God, and of a holy, obedient life. They always preached to the people that they might be- lieve, and that believing they might be saved. They preached to. them by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It was the Spirit of God that was in them, who spoke in and by them, the things of God, concerning Je- sus Christ, in his own words, which gave to the people spiritual discernment, and enabled them to receive them. The Spirit was not given until Jesus Christ was glori- fied through his own death. And when the Spirit came he glorified Jesus Christ in all that he said and did, by his inspirations, revelations, and miraculous works bestowed upon and performed by the Apostles, which were all re- ceived and performed in the name of Jesus Christ. The Spirit now speaks to mankind, not by the living voice of 180 JUSTIFICATION, the Apostles, but through their word, or rather through hu own word, spoken diW^ written hy them. It is now founvj in the written oracles, and possesses the same limng sensd and meaning {ha.t it did when first revealed, and is intend- ed by the divine constitution of things in the New Cove- nant, to produce the same spiritual ideas and views, and the same divine faith, that it did produce when spoken by the Apostles; "these things are written that ye rnighc be- lieve that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name." And it "is the power of God to salvation to them that believe." We are justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus, whom he hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to de- clare his righteousness for the remission of sins, — that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Je- sus." Rom. iiij 24-26, Nothing can justify a sinner by being received, that is not by divine appointment a sin- offering. Christ was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. But baptism does not justify the ungodly, because it is not a sin-offering. Christ and him crucified, is the object of saving faith; that object is made known by the revelation in the gospel- He shed his blood /or the remission of sin and without it there is no remission. God purifies the heart through faith in his blood. No person can have right views and feelings on the subject of God's righteousness, in the justification of a sinner, through the blood of Christ, without just and true riews of sin and of the purity and holiness of God; nor can he have right views of the gospel. He must realize his own guilt, to believe with the heart unto righteous- ness. He must view our world ruined by sin. To this source he must trace all the pains and sufferings of mind JUSTIFICATION. 181 and body and death itself. He must view the ruiii of fallen angels in hell, and finally impenitent men, in the lake of fire which is the secopd death, and he must place himself bef3re the judgment seat of Christ as it is devel- oped in the word of God, before he can have suitably af- fecting, or any thing like competent views of the nature of sin, and before he can appreciate the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ, or feelingly apprehend the in- finite ralue and suitableness of God's method of saving sinners, by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person that has justifying faith, has felt his guilt and helplessness, and perceives the excellence, suitable- ness and necessity of Jesus Christ as Saviour, to his lost condition as a sinner, and belie'ves in and relies upon him for pardon and salvation. In this case the truly be- lieving and repenting sinner, is taken into the divine fa- vour, without a degrading compromise between the purity and holiness of God, and the guilt and impurity of man. The purity and holiness and justice of the divine charac- ter and government, are maintained and gloriously dis- played, in the exercise of grace and mercy in the free pardon of sin, through the propitiatory sufferings and death, and expiatory offering of Jesus Christ. And the true believer, who is thus received into the divine favour, feels himself under an everlasting debt of love to divine mercy and grace, and the love of Christ constrains him to obedience. He prefers doing good works, though he is justified by grace through faith without works. Nor would he prefer going to heaven, if it were practicable, in the neglect of duty or good works, or to his being made abundantly fruitful in them. He feels it to be his priv- ilege, duty and happiness to be engaged in doing good works, because it is the will of God that he should do them. The law of God is written upon his heart, through 16* 182 JUSTIFICATION. faith in the gospel, and it is his meat and drink to do his will. He loves God supremely, and longs to love him perfectly. He loves his neighbor greatly, and desires to love him absolutely as himself. He loves the household of faith, because it is composed of the children of God. His affections and fellowship are not limited by sectarian views, and by a party spirit, if he stands fast in the liber- ty wherewith Christ hath made him free, because he is under the law of love, which is the law of Christ. A tender mother will not decline the most self-denying attention to her darling child, because she is not as a hireling nurse, to receive wages for her labour and trou- ble: nor would she injure it, even if she could bo assured that she would escape all punishment. Love would suf- fice in both cases. A servant works for hire; and a slave from fear of punishment, each alike from mere self-love, even when they dislike both their master and their work. But a dutiful, affectionate sen, \yill labour for his father, and for the benefit and honour of his family, with alacrity from love, because he accounts their interest and credit and comfort in some respects his own. Nor will he need to be deterred by fear of punishment from doing those things which he knows will displease his kind and hon- oured father, and injure his respectable, affectionate famih\ This is the precise difference between '' the spirit of bondage," and "the spirit of adoption;" between those whose hearts have not been purified through faith by the blood of Christ, and those who?e hearts have been thus purified. The latter have not received the spirit of bon- dage again to fear — but the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry Abba Father. And thus by possessing filial confidence, reverence, and love, the Spirit himself wit- nesselh with their spirits, that they are the sons of God. ESSAY XI THE NEW BIRTH. The meaning of the phrnses "Born again — Born of water and of the Spirit — Born of God — and the New Birth." In the change of the heart from enmity to the love of God — from a carnal niinJ, to spiritual mindedness, through the faith of the gospel, whether it be prodaced by the im- mediate physical operations of the Spirit, or by the moral operations of God by the word of his grace through the atonement of Christ, the change is a- real spiritual one — one that forms a most important period in the life of the subject of it, and one of which he is conscious when he compares the present state of his views, desires and feelings under the light of God's word, with what they were before ihe change took place; there is that in him which makes him a new creature. Much difficulty and obscurity have rested upon the ex- pressions "born again — born of water — born of the Spirit, and born of God," in the New Testament. The following are suggestions which I make for the considera- tion of others, after having examined the subject as well as I could. In the conversation of Christ with Nichoderaus, when he used the expression "born again — born of water — and born of the Spirit," and the language used by all the Apostles when speaking and writing on the subject of 184 THE NEW BIRTH. being horn again, we must remember that they were all Jews; and when speaking to Jews used words and phrases ao-reeably to Jewish views and in a Jewish sense. In the language of the old testament, the Jewish nation were said to have been horn of God and hegotten of him; to have been created and made by him. These forms of Fpeech were used to express the high distinction and hon. orthat were conferred upon them, en account of being the natural seed of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob and the twelve patriarchs, and on account of their being incor- porated on the Sinai Covenant, as the Commonwealth of Israel and church of God under that covenant and laws, and God's peculiar care over them as a nation, in distinction from the Gentiles. All vvho were born the natural seed of Abraham, under that covenant, were said to have been born to God. The following are old testament expressions relative to the religious birth of carnal and typical Israel under the old covenant, who, Christ said, must ha horn again — born of water and of the spirit, in order to discern and enter in- to the spiritual reign or kingdom of God based upon the new covenant, which he came to establish by his death: <' Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and un- wise? is not he thy Father that hn.i\\ h ought Xheet hath he noi made thee?*' "Of the Rock that hegat thee thou art unmindful." Deut. xxxii, 6, 18. "Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Is- rael acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, uri our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting." Isa. Ixiii. 63, IG. "Have we not all one Father; hatli not God creor ted usV Mai. ii, 10. As the whole body of the Jews were the children of one Father, even of God, this naturally established among themselves the universal relation of brethren, and they THE NEW BIRTH. 185 were obliged to consider and deal with each other accord- ingly. Levit. XXV, 46; Deut. i, 16; ch. iii. 8: xv, 7. The Israelites being the family of God, he is styled their God and Governor; protector or king; and they his people, subjects or servants. "Ye shall, be unto me a kingdom of priests nnd a holy nat'wn.'^'^ Exod. x\\. 6. " Hath God assayed to go and take him « nation from the midst of another nation?" Deut. iv, 34. " Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, 7ny nation.'*'' Isa. li, 4. Moses having been appointed by God to be the lawgiver and leader of Israel, they were said to be baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, by which they were dis- tinguished from all other people, and were consecrated to God, imder the Mosaical dispensation, 1 Cor. x, 3. By this they come under a formal obligation to submit themselves implicitly to the authority of Moses, and to receive his doc- trines and kvvS. As other nations of the world did not belong unto this city, commonwealth or kingdom, and so were not GocVs sub- jects and people, in the same peculiar se'nse that the Jews were, for these reasons they Were frequently represented as strangers ^nd^ foreigners, and aliens, ^nd as being not a people. And as they served other god^, and were idola- ters, they are termed enemies. Exod. xx, 10: Levit. xxv, 47. Deut. xiv, 21 : Eph. ii: Col. i, 21. All the above expressions of high distinction and hon- or were conferred upon the Jewish nation without refer- ence to any actual spiritual qualif cations which they pos_ gessed, and only on account of their being the natural off. spring of Abraham, and of their being incorporated upon the old typical covenant, and placed under the laws and ordinances which belonged to it by the authority of God, " the whole service of which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse warnings and carnal ordinances impos- 18G THE NEW DIRTH. ed on them until (lie tiice of rcfoiniation." Hcb. ix, 10. In regard to the time of refcrmaticn, the old testament writers abound with predictions of the new or spiritual cQvcnmit and church and kingdom of Christ, a new crea- tion under xanous forms of expression, of which some are the following: Isa. xlii, 1, 4, G, 8: ch. Ixv, 17: Jerm. xxxi, oi,7.4: Comp. with Il.eh. viii and ch.x, 1, 18: Psal. ii, 1, 2,G, 7: Dan!, vii, 13,14: Acts xlii, 32,33. Notwith- standing the high terms of honor and distinction bestowed Kpon the Jewish nation and people in, the old testament by God on account of their being Jews by nature and not sin- ners of the Gentiles, and whick never w"ere or could be ap plied to the Gentiles, when the new covenant and church were established v/iih uji the spiritual blessings and privi- leges which belong to it, embracing Gentiles as well as Jews in its gracious provisions and blcssingr!,the oldcovenantand the Jevv'ish chiH'ch, were lilieried to Hager and her bond ton, who was^borri after the flesh, in comparison to Sarah and her free born son, who \yas born after the spirit, Gal. iv, 22, a.nsvvering to the new covenant and church of Christ. Tl^e Jews who had lecn born after the flesh into the old carnal covenant, which gendered to bondage, and were only the typical children and church of God, these, Christ said, must be born again, born into the new cove- nant, or into thccovcnantof the spirit. This new birth wag not of blood, nor of the vv ill of the (icsh, nor of the will of man, as the birth of the Jewish nation had been, but of God by faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord of that covenant. It is called the covcnx;nt,of the spirit, .2 Cor. iii, 6, for the reasons stated in the Essay on the New Covenant. Ciirist taught NiChodemus that unlessa mail be born again, though a Jew, he could not discern the Icingdom of God; and un- less he were born of water and of the spirit, he could not ^ enter into or enjoy it. John iii. 3, 5. This kingdom of God THE NEW EIRTH. 187 is a spiritual kingdom, which Jesus Christ came into the world toestabjish upon the new covenant. With a view to the figarative meaning of water, as used by Moses and the propliets in ike old testament, to describe the gospel and its purifying efFecjs upon believers under tho dispensation of the spirit in justifying sinners and in purify- ing their hearts, I a.^k ought not Nichodemus as a teacher in Israel, to have understood what Christ meant when he said to him that, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God? Nichodemus ought to have known whn,t Moses and the prophets had said about the nev/ covenant and the reign of Messiah un. der the gospel. Various forms of expression were used by them to signify the purity and spirituality of the gospel in its effects in justifying sinners, and sanctifying the hu- man heart, and in destroying idolatry and pollution. In these predictions and reprepentations nothing could be more appropriate than the use of water as expressive of the influence of the word of the gospel- of God's grace, or the word of the covenant of tho spirit, as it is termed by Paul, 2 Cor. iii, 6, in purifying the heart from sin and the world from idolatr}'. The following are a fov/ of ihe predictions and prophe- cies in the old testament, vvhich Nichodemys ought to have understood : "Give ear, O ye heavens, and Iv/ill speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrines shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender borb, and as the showers upon the grass: because I will publish the name of the Lord; as- cribe ye greatness to our God. Pie is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are jvidgment: a God of truth without iniquity ; just and right is he. " Deut. xxxii, 1-4. "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water." Psal xlv, 9. 188 THE NEW BIRTH. " He shall come down like rain upon the new mown grass, and showers that water the earth. In his day shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon cndureth." Psaj. Ixxii, 6, 7. - "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. And an high-way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it." Isa. XXXV, 6-8. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground-. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy off-spring, and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say I am the Lord's and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall sub- scribe with his own hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." Isa. xliv,3-5. " So shall he sprinkle many nations." Isa. lii, 15. "I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Then will I spinkle clean water upon you and ye shall he clear from all yourJiWiiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new Iieart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I willput my spirit within ?/om, and cause you to vvalk in my statutes, and ye shall keep myji^tlg- ments and do them." Ezek. xxxvi, 24-27. "In that day there shall be r fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the name of the idols out of the land, and they shall be no more re- THE NEW BIRTH. 189 inembered.'" Zachariah xiii, 1, 2; Revelations vii, 13-17. The above were figurative representations of the puri- fying effects of the gospel upon every true believer, which should be published iif consequence of the atone- ment of Jesus Christ. But Nichodemus, from his ignor- ance of Moses and the Prophets on this subject, thought that Christ meant a natural birth. In this he was mis- taken. Christ told him that "that which is born of tha flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spir- it." *' Art thou," said he, " a teacher in Israel, and know- est not these things?" which was as much as to say, *-Had you understood Moses and the Prophets, you would understand what I have said to you of the necessity of l>einf^ born asrain — of bein"; born of water and of tha Spirit." The New Covenant or dispensation of the Spirit, was to be established by Jesus Christ, and was to be the foun- . dation of the new creation, and by it the old Jewisli Cov- enant and church were to be abolished. Jer. xxxi, 31- 34: Heb, viii. Nichodemus ought to have understood from the Jewish scriptures, that Messiah was to be made an offering for sin — that he vvas to die and rise again, and that through his blood by the divine constitution of the gospel covenant, sins were to be remitted, a new- heart was to be given, and the Spirit of God was to be imparted io believers, and they made to love God and his laws. Of these things Moses and the prophets wrote and testified. Luke xxiv, 25-27, 45-47. " To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, lohosoever he- lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins. " Acts x, 43^ These things Christ plainly told Nichodemus, when he ex- plained to him what he meant when he said that, except a man be bora again — born of water and the spirit, he cannot fee, or enter into, or enjoy, the kingdom of God, which he 17 199 THE NEW BIRTH. did when he said unto him in the same conversation, "As Moses lifted- up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii, 14, 16. This was Christ's explanation of what he said about being born again — -born of water and the spirit. I judge that this is what Christ meant from the fact that he never refused instruction to any sincere in- quirer after truth, who applied to him for it, as Nichode- mus did, and tliis is the solution he gave to him of the -sub- ject — he said not a word about baptism. If these views be correct, then, to be born again — born of water and of the spirit, in the sense Christ used the expressions, aro terms of the same meaning with a true, practical faith in Jesus Christ, which produces a holy life and true obedience. This secures to the faithful believer all thfe blessings and privileges, present and future, which are pj-ovided by God's mercy and grace in the new covenant, and which will be conferred upon and enjoyed by him in the different periods and stages of his existence through time and in eternity. That true faith in Christ means the same thing with being born of the spirit, I think the gospel abundantly proves. "To as many as received him gave he power, or privilege, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, who icere horn not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.''"' John i, 12, 13. " These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. " John xx,30, 31. "Ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus — and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. " Gal. iii, 20,29. " Being 5orn THE NEW BIRTH. 191 e.gain, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which hy ike gospel is preached unto you. " 1 Pet. i, 23, 25. *' Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God."" 1 Jphn v, 1. "If any man be in Christ, (united to him by faith) he is a new creature; old things arc passed away, behold all things are be- come new- and all things are of God," 2 Cor. v. 17. <* Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the d^ad, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by 'the power of God through faith nnto salvation. " 1 Pet. i, 3-5. ^' In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. ''"■ 1 Cor. iv, 15. " Of his own iL'ill begat he us through the icord of truth, that we should be .a kind of first fruits of his creatures." James i, 18. That practical faith in Jesus' Christ and the new birth, as far as a new heart is concerned, are the same things, appears from Paul: " In Christ Jesus neither cir- <;umcision availeth any thing, nor imcircumcision, but faith that worketh by love, " or " a new creature. " Gal. v, 6 : ch. vi, 15. What are there, in the state and in the spiritual blessings and in the qualifications of the true believer in Jesus Christ, which answer to the idea of his beino- born a^rain — o o of his being born of the water and of the spirit, and to his being a new creature, and which distinguish him from a Jew under the old covenant? t will enumerate a few of them. The true believer in Jesus Christ is enlightened by the spirit through the gospel of God's grace, and he has repented of his sins; he is justified from all things from which the law could not justify him, and possesses the right- eousness of God in the remission of his sins through the 192 THE ^EW BIRTH. blood of Christ by faith in him; he has the spirit of adoption, by which he calls God his father, as the Gentiles had before they were baptised. Acts x. The lasv of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus or the gospel, has made him free from the law of sin and death through the atonement of Christ, and he is accounted and treated as righteous in the sight of God — this the law could not do. Rom. viii, 1-4. Ilis enmity against God and his law is removed, and he is peconciled to him through the death of his Son. He holds fellowship with the Father and the Son — worships them in spirit and in truih, and is made a partaker of the divine nature through the precious promises of the gospel J he is an heir and an ex- pectant of glory ; and his treasure is in heaven His life is hid with Christ in God, and he looks for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change his vile body that it may be fashioned like u«to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unta himself. He feels and realizes the fruits of the spirit in his heart and manifests them in his life of love, joy, peace,, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness and temperance — he is a new creature. These are some of the things which belon^j to, and are conferred upon, the true believer in Jesus Christ, and are provided for and secured to him, by the grace of God, in the new covenant, or covenant of the spirit, by the death and mediation of Jesus Christ, and which the old covenant could not give. When we contrast these with the works of the flesh or the deeds of the law and the carnal mind> we see plainly the difference between the true believer of the gospel and he that believcth not, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile. The law was a dispensation oi^ihe let- ter. But the gospel is a dispensation of the spirit^ and is full of spiritual blessings. The law killed every sinner whether he was truly penitent or not, by its dreadful THE NEW BIRTH. 193 curses. But the atonement of Christ in the gospel by the grace of God has procured repentance and remission of sin, and the gospel gives life to till true penitent believers? without exception, by its gracious promises. The gospel is therefore a covenant of life and they that believe in Jesus Clirist have everlasting or eternal life. John v, 24: ch. iii, 16, 18, 33: ch. vi, 40, 47: ch. viii, 51. God in the original or first generation of man, or in hit primitive creation, made him in his own image and like- ness : man's intellect, as we have seen in the second Es- say, was in accordance with the mind of God j he perceiv- ed as God perceived; and his affections were in harmony with the affections of God. He loved as God loved, and his will was in unision with God's will. Man's body was not corruptible and mortal. His physical frame and nature in all their parts and powers, as the habitation of his pure spirit "were all very good." But man sinned and lost the image and likeness of God in his soul, and became corporeally corrupt and mortal. In the new covenant, God has made provision for the regen- eration of man. Regeneration consists in making man over again, and comprehends the renewal of his mind into the image of God in which it v/as made, and in the renew- al of his body. This comprehends a spiritual or divinb moral change of the soul, and a spiritual or divine phys^ ical change of the body, by the moral and physical agen- cies of God's spirit. These are provided for, and are and will be accomplished by Jesus Christ in the administration of the new covenant, or the covenant of the spirit. The soul of man is not only renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created it by the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but the body of the true believer, who is one with Christ, will be made a spiritual body, and be like the glorified body of 17* 194 THE NEW BIRTH. Jesus Christ. This last will be spiritual-physical regen- eration, and will be effected by the resurrection from the dead: the former is spiritual-moral regeneration, and is effected in this life by the gospel of God's grace. Is not " all this comprehended in the scriptural idea of being born of the spirit in its full meaning? Was it not necessary that Jesus Christ himself, as the head of all th^ saints and the Lord of the covenant of the Spirit, 2 Cor. iii, should be begotten by the resurrection of his dead body from the grave by the Spirit, before he could establish or enter into his own glorious kingdom, and before he could be placed as king upon the holy hill of Zion? Psal. ii: Luke xxiv, 26, 46, 47: John vii, 39. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incor- ruption. 1 Cor. xv, 50, The covenant of innocency broken, left the body un- der the power of death forever; but the new covenant pro- vides for and secures to it a, resurrection from the dead by Jesus Christ, who died and rose again , that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living. The physical power of the Spirit will regenerate the nat- ural bodies of the saints by their resurrection from the dead and by making them spiritual bodies, as his moral spiritual power, or his religion-giving poiccr, by the word^ of his grace, regenerates their, souls. The body will fol- 1 low the spirit of man and will partake of its nature of purity or impurity. Christ did not C04iQe into the world to gave men from natural death; he was himself obliged to die and to rise again, as I have just said, to be the Lord of the dead and of the living. Rom.xiv,9. For this cause came he into the world. Under the new covenant, it is appointed ^nto the righteous to die as well as the wicked — they are also liable to pains and afflictions of body and mind. Christ did not undertake to prevent these. They were permitted ^ THE NEW BIRTH. 125 to continue under the new covenant, as the consequences of sin, and to show its dreadful, ruinous nature, and to weaken its power, and by comparison to illustrate the greatness of the salvation of Jesus Christ revealed in the gospel. These afflictions are through grace sanctified to the humble believer, when he is suitably exercised by them. « The conversation of Christ with Nichodemus has been the subject of much speculatioli. Whatever else may be said of the things therein taught, all pious men agree that a spiritual change of heart is taught and is insisted on by Jesus Christ, in orden to the enjoyment of God, which is experienced by every true christian, however they may differ in their philosophy of it, as fo the mode of the di- vine agency by which it is produced. These things con- ceded, I would submit the following questions and obser- vations lO the impartial reader. Was the expression used by Christ to Nichodemus, '• except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," limited to the Jews alone, on account of their having been once religously born under the old covenant, though not spiritually born, as we have seen in the quotation from the old testament? To be born again implies that they to whom the word ap- plies had been once born; was the ^rsi birth meant by Christ the natural birth, which is common to Jews and Gentiles? or was it peculiar to the Jews, who were the natural seed of Abraham,, and by having been born un- der the old carnal covenant or constitution of religion, were said to be born of God, and were ''Jews by nature, and sinners of the Gentiles." Gal. ii, 15. The Gentiles never were once born to God under any covenant of re- ligion, as the Jews had been, and we do not find in the new testament (hat the expres5?ion "born again'''' is ever applied to them. Tiiose who, nni( ng them, were convert- ed to God were said to be the children of God, and were 196 THE NEW BIRTH. begotten of God, and were horn of God, but they are not said to have been born again, as was said of the Jews. If this be true, does it not appear that the birth alluded to. which is the object of comparison with the second birth, was the religious carnal birth, which was limited to the Jews on account of their natural connection with Abra- ham and the old covenant under which they were born by nature. Under that covenant they had been "born of the flesh only, and were flesh." Christ came to estab- lish the covenant of the spirit and to erect a spiritual king- ees in the cloud and in the sea, but they are not said to have been born by their baptism. 1 Cor. x, 2. *f W» arc all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, havo put on Christ. There is is neither Jew nor Greek, &c. THE NEW BIRTH. 201 Gal. iii, 26. By their baptism the Galatians were not said to be. born of water, but only to have put on Christ, through the operation of that faith, by which God purified their hearts, and made tkem niis children, agreeably to the new covenant and the promise made to Abraham. Gen. XV, 5, 6. Both Jews and Gentiles were made the chil- dren of Abraham by faith in Jesu? Christ, as Abraham was made, or constituted, their spiritual father by God, through faith in God's promise to bless the nations of the earthj through his seed, Christ. Gal. iii, 7-9, 16; Gen. xii, 3,7: ch. XV, 5, 6: ch. xvii, 7. By baptism they all re- nounced their Jewish and Gentile peculiarities, and as- sumed Christ and his gospel, as the only Saviour and system of laws. The Gentiles received the promise of the Spirit through faith, and after they believed they were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, before they were baptized with water. Acts x, 43-47: ch. xi, 15,18: Acts XV, 7-9: Eph. i, 13. From the previous quotations, it does not appear that in the New Testament baptism is always meant when water is mentioned, but only when it is so expressed. I do not intend to disparage baptism in any degree, but I do believe that wrong views of it have been the occasion o^ more practical error and corruption, in the christian religion, than any other one thing in it. Instead of its bringing all true believers into one fellowship in Christ, in peace and love, as expectants of a glorious resurrection and a blessed immortality, by his grace and power, as it was designed, it has been desecrated and made the occasion of great corruptions, divisions and per- secutions. Nicodemus was censured by Christ for not under* standing what he said, when he declared to him that a man must be born again, born of water and of the Spirit, 18 202 THE NEW EIRTH. before he can see, or enter into the kingdom of God. He was censured, as a teacher in Israel, for not knowing these things, of which he had been speaking, that is, for not understanding what Moses and the Prophets had said concerning Messiah and his kingdom, of which Christ had told him: "Art thou a teacher in Israel and knowest not these things ? " But Nicodemus could not find bap- tism, which is a gospel ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ himself, in the Old Testament. At the time of the conversation with Nicodemus, he had not instituted it. Christ could not have meant the baptism of John the Baptist. His baptism did not introduce any body into the kingdom. The kingdom was not set up — the atonement was not made, nor was the nevy covenant establishetl, rior . the King crowned, until after Christ died. Christ did not mean proselyte baptism among the Jews, for there was none for more than a hundred years after, the establish- ment of the christian religion practised among them in introducing proselyted Gentiles into their fellowship ; and this was probably borrowed from the christian institution. This is made clear by Drs. Owen, Gill and others. If we consider water in the Old Testament, used figurative- ly, to represent the purifying influences of the gospel in the New, in the remission of sins, or the justification of sinners by faith and the purification of the heart, and the destruction of idolatry in the world, the obscurity or difficulty of John iii, 5, is, I think, obviated. 1 repeat that Christ explained to Nicodemus his meaning, as far as it had a personal and individual application, when he told him after reproving him for his ignorance, that," As Mo- Ses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever belie veth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that THE NEW BIRTH. * - 203 irkosoever believeth in hira should not perish, but have eternal life." John iii, 14fe-16. Surely those who pos- sess everlasting life, must be born again; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he thatheareth my word and believeth on him that sd^nt me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto lite." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that be- lieveth in me, hath -everlasting life." "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is theChrist, is born of God." John v^24: eh. vi, 47: 1 John v, 1. ESSAY XIL THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION, God, in giving religion, creates no new faculties or powers in the mind — His religion-giving operation is by his word intelligibly present- ed to the mind, perceived, understood and believed. Payne, in his book entitled " Elements of Mental and Moral Science," which has been very highly recom- mended by a number of the most distinguished orthodox theological professors and teachers in these United States, observes, that "The mind is a simple, indivisible essence. It does not, like the body, consist of parts. The powers of perceiving, and feeling, and judging, are not to be con- sidered as separate portions, or members, so to speak, of mind, but as capabilities imparted by its Creator, of ex- isting in various states of thought, and feeling, which con- stitute the whole phenomena of mind. These phenome- na are the mind itself in different states. A thought existing in the mind, is the mind thinking; an idea is the mind conceiving. Our notions, thoughts and ideas, are nothing more than the mind itself indifferent states. The same is true with our endlessly diversified sensations. They are not distinct and separate from the mind. There is not the mind and its sensations, as we say there is the body and its limbs, tor the sensation is the mind affected in a particular state. "The mind is an unknown substance of which tho qualities only can be ascertained. The faculties of the THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. 205 mmd, or its powers and susceptibilities, are not to be dis- tinguished from the mind itself. The powers and suscep- tibilities of the mind denote the constitution it has re- ceived from its Creator, by ^vllich it is capable of existing in all the different states which form the consciousness pf life. '-'Our feelings ' depend upon the nature of mind, and the nature of the objects lij which the mind is affected. It is the object that affects the mind when sentient; but it is the original susceptibility of the mind itself, which determines and modifies the particular affection. '• T-hough the fall of man effected no change in the original susceptibilities of the mind, though it created none, and extinguished none, it perverted all." Religious states ' of mind, if produced- by the percep- tion and belief of the truth, are produced by the mani- festations God makes of himself. Different manifesta- tions of his character perceived, produce different feel- ings. Hence tJie religious feelings under the different dispensations were diff^erent, as the character of God was differently manifested. The perfection of religious feel- ing is realized under the display of the perfections of God in the gospel, in the states of mind of the enlighten- ed, humble christian. I defined religion to be a system of truth, of which God is the great subject; or, a system of affections and conduct, of which God is the supreme object. This sys- tem was revealed by God himself. And, since immedi- ate, supernatural revelations ceased, by which it was origi- nally made known, mankind have been limited by the constitution of their minds, and the relations they bear to spiritual things, to the. record and the oral traditions of these revelations, for religious or spiritual knowledge. God has never employed miraculous power to produce 18* 20.6 THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION j effects, that could be produced by the operation of second causes. The word of God, in its original revelation, was miraculous and supernatural, and imparted spiritual and divine states of mind, consisting in spiritual ideas, thoughts and feelings, which could not be produced without it. This word is now established by God, in the order of second causes in the spiritual economy, for the production of re- ligious or spiritual effects in the human mind. It retains the nature and qualities of its original, supernatural, di- vine character, and affects the mind, when sentient or per- cipient with a sense of divine things, corresponding with its sense and meaning when truly apprehended : — -it is the. instrument of ideas and thought, of knowledge and feeling. The miraculous and supernatural origin of religion in the world, by the revelatibns of God, are proven by the fact that there is no nation upon the earth that has any notion of religion, which does not refer it to a supernatural origin, and to some remote period when its god or gods reveal- ed it to mankind. All nations, besides the Jews, Chris- tians and Mahometans, have been unable to give any other account of their religion, further than that they re- ceived it from tradition, and they give some fabulous mi- raculous account of its origin. The existence and character of God, can only be known by his personal manifestations, or by -his historical ac- tions and doings. These must be miraculous and super- natural to bring them within the reach of tlie perceptions of the mindj and to associate the invisible God with the sensible universe in the view of the mind. These arc effected by the manifestations of Jehovah in the old and new testaments. Two things, then, are necessary to the existence of re- ligion, as I have above defined it, in the human mind. The first is a capacity for it. This is an original or na- THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. 207 live power, and which, as Payne remarks, was not extin- guished by the fall, and consisits in the intelligent nature of the mind. The second is a revelation of divine truth, as mankind have it not naturally. The revelation must be made in intelligible words and sentences. Since the immediate miraculous revelations ceased, all that can be alleged of the immediate operations of God's Spirit, in the production of religion in man, relates to the powers and susceptibilities of his mind, which render him capa- ble of religion; th'ese are greater at some times than at others, but no measure or degree of these can enable the mind to acquire religious or spiritual knowledge, without revelation, more than a wellorganizcd eye can enable a man to see without light. Every person whose organization is natural and healthy,- and v/hose mind is not deranged, has, in the con- stitution of his moral nature which God has given him, and which he sustains, a capacity for religion, under the light and influence of revelation. The history of the world, from the creation of man to the present period, and the entire ground exhibited in the scriptures, of man's re- sponsibility to God under the covenant of innocence in Eden, and under the Patriarchal and Mosaical dispensa- tions, and under the gospel, and the whole process of man's probation and of the future judgment, are based upon, and prove the existence and influence of, this capa- city. And all show that the actual improvement of it into religion, or into spiritual knowledge and affection, is limited, by divine appointment, to the use and influence of the revealed word of God, which makes known his ex- istence and moral chapacter. I will illustrate and prove these things by a direct appeal to some scripture exam- ples and authority, in the old and in the new testament, which indicate the nature and character of the whole. 208 THE RELIGION-GIVING OPEKATION. These references are made us examples of the whole, and to engage the attention of the reader to examine the sub- ject, by carefully reading the scriptures for himself. I beo^in vvith the first communication that was made by God to our first parents after the fall: These vrill exhibit the moral character and governmental authority of God, as well as his manner of.manifesting his will anci of making himself known "to mankind. They will also show that the religion-givivg operation of God is hy his word. "And they (Adam and Eve) heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. ^' And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said I heard'thy voice and was afraid. Gen. iii, 8-&c. Read this chapter to the end and obsarvG the speeeh used by God, which Adam and Eve understood, and the religious instruction he gave to them, and the understanding and moral feeling they evinc- ed under what he said to them. God addressed Cajnin the. same way in words after he killed Abel, " And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is thy brother? What hast thou done? The voice of thy bro- ther's blood .crieth unto me- from the ground. And now- art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hands. Gen. iv, 9 11. Read' this chapter also for the same purpose, and particularly to see evinced the moral and religious feeling manifested by Cain, under the weight of guilt, un- der the display of God's personal authority and justice. " And God said unto Noah, The end of allfesh is come lefare me; for the earth is filled with violence through them: and behold I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher- wood: rooms shalt thou make in the ark, &c. And behold I, even I, do bring a food of THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. 209 waters upon the earth. " And the Lord said unto -Noah, come thou and all thy house int© the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. " Gen. vi, 13, 14, 17: ch. vii, 1. Paul says that ^^ bi/ faith- •'Soah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an arliy Heb. xi,7. Notice in this, the personal-moYdi\, purity and righteousness of God, and the display of his physical power. The following quotations show, that the religion-giving operations of the Spirit of God were by words, " And the Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto Moses, and he took of the Spirit that was upon hini, and gave it unto the Seventy Elders. '• And when the Spirit rested upon them they prophesied, and did not cease. " Numbers, chap, xi, vers. 25, 2G, 29. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Balaam, and he took up a parable and said, How good- ly are thy tents, O Jacob, and ihy tabernacles, O Israel! Numb, xxiv, 2, 8. •' And the Spirit of God came upon Saul and he prophesied among the prophets. " 1 Saml. x, 19, 20. " The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word icas in my tongue. The God of Israel srmZ, the rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleih over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." 2 Sam. xxiii, 2, 3. "Thou testifest against them by thy Spirit in the prophets. " Neh. ix, 30. " The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. " Isa. xlvi, 16. " The Spirit entered into me whenhe spake unto me. Ezek. ii, 2. The Spirit took me up and I heard a voice saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord. Ez6k. iii, 12, 24. " The Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak : Thus saith the Lord : "Thus have yc said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come ^ into your mind, every one of them. " Ezek. xi, 5. " 1 '_^^\\\ pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy .'"' Joel ii, 28. " I am full 210 THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. of power by the Spirit of tlie Lord, and of judgrnejit and of might, to dccla7'e unto Jacob his sins. " Mic. iii. 8. '^ The words which the Lord, of hosts hath sent in Ms spir- it hy tlve former prophets. " Zech. vii, 12. The personal chaiTtcter and office of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, who. is the author and finisher of our fliith, are described by Moses .and the prophets as a speak- er and preacher : " And the Lord said I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren* — and I will put mj/ words into his mouth and he shall speah unto them all that I shall command him— and whosoever shall not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my nmne, I will re- quire it of him.'''' Deut. xviii, 15-lS. Comp. \vilh Acts iii, 22,23. "The Spiritof the Lord God is upon me, be- cause the Lord' hath anointed" me to preach good tidings unto the meek — to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Isa. Ixi, 1. Comp. with Luke iv, 18-20. Sin and rebellion always consisted either in the unhe- lief, corruption or rejection and transgression of God'^s word, after, it had been spoken and puhUshed to the people, by his authority properly attested, — and the law of God was always published by icords and sentences. Of the physical operations of the spirit which do not give religion, and which are common to all mankind, and which sustain their natural and moral existence and pow- ers, which render them capable of religion under the light and influence of the revelation of the Spirit, the ^riptures speak in the following manner: " By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens; hjs hand hath formed the crooked serpent. The Spiritof God.hath made me,.and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job xxxvi, 13: ch. xxxiiii4. " If he set his heart upon me, if lie gather un- to himself his Spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust." Job xxxiv, THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. 211 14, 15. The immediate physical operations of the Spirit sustain our natural lives, and all our spiritual, intellectual and moral powers and susceptibilities, which render us ca- pable of religion ; but religion itself is imparted by the icord of God, which enlightens and impresses these spiritual pow->. ers and susceptibilities. '' Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, thou renewest the face of the earth." Psal. civ, 30. " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there: if I make my ted in hell, be- hold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttern^ost part of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me and thy. right hand shall hold me." Psal. cxxxix, 7-10. "God giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all the nations of men — for in him we live and move and have our being. "' Acts xvii, 24-26, 28. The powers of the mind, which render man capable of religion, and which were " perverted by sin, " are, when sentient, acted upon by the word of God's grace and truth in the gospel through the ears or eyes, which it perceives; and in turn the mind attends to and acts upon the word, and iirvestigates its sense and meaning, which are not manifold but one. By these means the mind perceives or discerns spiritual things through and by the word, believes in and receives them. By these means the natural mind is made spiritual — it discerns' spiritual things through the words of the Spirit, and receives them. But the natural man receives them not, because he does not discern them; he judges of things by his senses, and passions, and reason exercised upon natural appearances and upon natural tilings alone. Every thing that is supernatural, or that does not fall with- in the bounding circle of nature and natural phenomena, 212 THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. he rejects as foolishness. Every thing of divine revela- tion is of that character in his view, because every thing is supernatural, and therefore, as long as he is limited by nature in his perceptions and investigations, he never can discern or receive spiritual things — he will continue a na- tural or an animal man. Tne power of God which sus- tains the mind in its intellectual arid moral faculties and susceptibilities when attending to and investigating the word, is altogether different from the operations of the Spirit by which the word was made known or revealed, which is the subject of its investigation, and which en- lightens it. That word, when understood and truly be- lieved, rectifies " the perverted susceptibilities." Sin that perverted them is pardoned through fjiith in the blood of the atonement, and the soul is restored to the knowledge and love and fellowship of God, by his mercy and grace re- ceived by the faith of the gospel. I will illustrate my meaning: The Flat-headed Indians are a tribe who live beyond the Rocky Mountains, about three thousand miles distant from St. Louis. A trader from Canada visited that tribe two years and a half ago, and saw them engaged in idolatrous worship. He told them that there exists a true God who is altogether differ- ent from the one that they worshipped, which was an idol, and had no definite existence or character; and that the true God had given to the -people of these United States , A. BOOK, in which he had made knoicn his own character and worship, which would teach them all that was neces- sary for them to know concerning him and themselves, and how they might worship him acceptably, and possess his favour, and be happy in him. This information ope- rated upon their sentient minds, and induced them to call a council of the whole tribe to consult on the subject, and upon full consideration, determined them to send several THE RELIGION-GIVING OPEUATIOWv 213 of their Chiefs on a journey of three thousand miles to Gen. Clark at St. Louis, with whose character they were acquainted, to obtain information relative to the book and the God that it revealed. They undertook the journey, and two of the number died on their way. The survivors arrived, and after being informed by Gen. Clark that there is such a book, and such a God, and such a worship as had been described to them, and having learnt somethino" about them, they resumed their journey of three thousand miles back again, to bear the pleasing intelligence to their tribe. As far as these Chiefs understood the chris- tian religion, by the instruction they received from the tra- der and Gen. Claris, they believed it. These people had native religious susceptibilities, al- though, like the Ephesians, they were dead in trespasses and sins. Their susceptibilities were acted upon, and they were enlightened in some small degree, by the informa- tion of the Canadian trader. And the minds of these Indians acted upon the intelligence they received. Their whole nation or tribe, lived, moved and had their being m God, through the ages and generations that were passed. God, in their constitution, had given to them powers of intellect and feeling, which rendered them ca- pable of religion, and which He sustained, hut of his sup- port they were naturally ignorani:; and their messen- gers travelled six thousand miles on foot, to obtain 'in form- ation on the subject. There is but one Jehovah, one only living and true God. He giveth to all, life and breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all the nations of men. In his wisdom, the world by wisdom, since man fell, has not known him. His existence and character, have been made known, by the personal manifestations of Father, Son and Holy Spirii, who exist in the one Je- hovah. These manifestations were made by divine super- 19 214 THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION, natural revelations, in words and sentences, and in mirac- ulous works. These have been recorded in the book of God, and since the miraculous powers have ceased or have been withdrawn, which was not long after the record was finished, this record of God''s word ha^sbeen the established means, by the appointment of God, for enlightening the hu- man mind in religion, in the knowledge of God, and of di- vine and eternal things. Do not matters of fact prove these things to' be true? Why \y ere the Flat Head Indians obliged to travel six thausand miles to obtain this informa- tion from the Word of God itself, imparted to them by Qeneral Clark and friends, if God gives to -the mind this information without his v/ord? .The^arae question might be asked in reference to the v. hole world, since the Apos- tles were commissioned to go and preach the v»^ord, and its effects in turning men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to serve the living God. It might also be asked, could not God have given these Flat Head Indians religion without this long journey, to learn from the word his existence, and gospel character and plan of salvation, and acceptable worship? And could not God have given the Athenians and Ephesians,and other idolaters and Atheists, religion without sending Paul and the other Apostles to them with his word? And cannot the present heathen na- tions be converted without gospel missionaries, by the im- mediate revelations and power of God? and cannot child- ren be taught religion by the Spirit without religious in- struction and training by the Scriptures ? It would he just as reasonable to ask further, cannot God support men without air and food? cannot God enable a person to see without light, for he made all these things and sustains them? God has a right to limit him&elf to the ways and means of his own appointment and choice, in the accom- plishment of religious purposes and ends, as well as in na- THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION. 2lb aiire. This he has done, and requires of us to know it and ?o acquiesce in it, and to go.along v/ithliim in the use of the means which he has ordained in botli cases. It was God?s iL'orcl that Paul and Apollos planted and, watered. They planted and watered this word in the soil of the human mind that God had raade, and which he rendered suscep- tible of growing the seed and pfoducing'the increase: and thus iJw whole was from God: tka seed — Hie power of the ^ower arid waterer, nnd their commission to sow and water, and their qualifications to. do so, and ihe fertility of the soil, are all' of God, and there is nothin_g properly human or natural — nothing that is properly Paul's cr Apbllos's in the c:ise — Paul and Apollos were only ministers of the '^^3d, by whom the Corinthians believed, and nothing -more — God gave the increase and claims the glory to him- .self. This is true in the present day. The word of God revealed to Paul and to the other Apostles, and to the Evangelists is recorded, and by divine appointment we are limited to it in preaching and teaching aiKl learning the things of God in the gospeL Bat we are apt to de- stroy the good seed of the word, or the soil in 7vhich we are commanded to sow it, hy erroneous views of that word, and by a false philosophy concei'ning it and the soil. These things unfit men for- sowing the good seed. They of en destroy the vitality of the word, which is spirit and life, and extinguish. the fertility of the soil, before they sow; and they often sow their wretched speculations, which are no better than darnel or pebhles, instead of the good seed of the word of the gospel. They are more con- cerned to maJce the people believe that the gospel of God's grace is a sealed book and a dead letter, and that they can- not believe itj than they are so to present it as to occasion them to believe it: and this they call orthodoxy or the true faith. 216 THE RELIGION'GIVING OFERATION, The pious zeal of the Methodist denomination of Chris- tians in New York, has induced them to set on foot a mis- sion to bear the word of the gospel of God's grace to the Flat Head Indians. The missionaries will not carry the natural presence and physical operation of God to them, or spiritual susceptibilities and power. - These they possess, and they have been under the influence of them since they had a ?ja^wraZ existence: but fliey -will carry to them the religion-giving system of truth — the word of God'' s grace, by which He. gives religion, and which was fuiiy revealed and perfected more than seventeen hundred years ago, by the revelations of the Spirit of God. To this system no- thing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be taken, ^n giving them religion, God limits himself io his o>^'ni|C|d and to a known language ; therefore the gospel must be eith- er translated into the language of the Flat Head Indians, or thev must learn the Eno-lish lanjjuaije in v>hich it is written, in order that he shall give it, and they shall re- ceive it. These observations to many may appear to be very strange, gratuitous and arbitrary. To such I would ask, Of what use to an English congregation would the reading of the Scriptures in Greek or Hebrew or Latin be? Of what advantage would preaching the gospel in a foreign language be to such a congregation? Paul says, that such reading and preaching would be of no use whatever — that the reader and preacher and congregation would be bar- barians to each other, not because Gol cannot enable their hearers to understand, but because he u'ill not; and he Vf'iWnot bccaise it is not according to his own chosen wise method or plan for doing it. The hearers have powers and susceptibilities which render them capable of religion, but they are not acted upon, and cannot be by God's word, when presented in an unknown language. 1 Cor. xiv,2-!i-. 25: Rom. X, 17. THE RELIGION-GIVING OPEIIATION. 217 I formerly observed, that the original ideas which are revealed by the word of God, .«nd which are essential to the existence of religion, and particularly to the Christian religion, are but few; but these, if taken away, with all their spiritual associations, extinguish every idea or notion of spiritual existence. These are, God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost — Creation — Man's fall — his immortality, spir- itual existence — redemption through the blood of Christ — the resurrection of the body — a future judgment — heaven and hell — new heavens and a new earth. These ideas were revealed by words, and are perpetuated by the same. Some of these ideas the nations of the earth have, through traditions derived from early revelations, which are, how- ever, very much corrupted. If the missionaries, v, ho go to the Flat Head Indians, sow the good seed that Paul sowed, and water as Apollos watered, they will make just such Christians as Paul and Apollos made; or if they alter in theso respects the Apos- tolic means and order of things, they will produce a dif- ferent increase from what Paul and A olios produced. But it will not do to ascribe it to God in ihe degree in which it differs from the religion of Apostolical Christians. " What- soever a man soweth ih it shall ho ; :so reap." The seed must be God''s seed — it must be t.. > incorruptihle seed of the word, apprehended and belie ved in its own divine sense and meaning, and appropriated to t'le purposes of thought, fliith, hope, love and conduct, for which it was de- signed, in order to produce the fruits of righteousness. It is in this way that it grows. It must be taught them in a known language, for 3od will not give them religion — he will not save them by grace through faith, which is the gift of God, but through his own word, which is easy to be understood, when properly presented, and which they must believe; because faith comes by the word of God. Thia 19* 218 THE RELrolON-GlVING OPERATION. was verified on the day of Pentecost, when the prophecies in the old testament, and the promises of Christ in the new, were fulfilled in a literal and perfect manner by the out-pouring of the spirit. When the Galilean discipliss, upon whom the spirit was poured out, spaJie in foreign tongues, the men of Judea did not understand what they said; and while the strangers, the devout Jews from every nation under heaven — heard them speaking in their own languages in which they were born, the wonderful works of God in reference to Jesus Christ and the gospel, with amazement and wonder, the men of Judea mocked and said, that they were drunk with new wine : their speech was without meaning or sense. To these very men, who thus mocked, Peter, by the Holy Ghost, and the rest of the Apostles, spoke : — Peter addressed their sentient minds in- telligibly, and said, " Yo men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, he this known unto you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken us ye suppose. But this is that which was spoken by Joel the prophet, " &:,c. These mockers, at the end of the disconrse, on ac- count of what they saw and heard and understood, were pricked in the heart, believed in Jesus Christ, changed their minds, and renounced Moses and the law for remis- sion of sin, and received Jesus Christ for salvation, and were baptised into the remission of sins for his sake, or into his salvation. Faith was given to them and salvation with it, by God, by their hearing, understanding and be- lieving the word. The Apostle Paul also testifies most clearly that the religion-giving operation of God is by his word, uttered in a known language and understood. He says, " I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all, yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that is, intelligibly, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an un- THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATlOiN. 219 known tongue. If, therefore, the whole church be come together into one place, and aft speak with tongues, and there come in these that are unlearned and unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad ? But if all prophesy, or teach intelligibly, and there come in one that believeth not, or one that is unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all : (by the Spirit speaking in them intelligibly) and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." 1 Cor. xiv, 18, 19, 23-25. By tliese means their religious and spiritual powers and susceptibilities are impressed and improved into religion — God does it all. On the day of Pentecost the religious or spiritual susceptibilities of the three thousand were improv- ed into Christian capabilities by the gospel of God's grace spoken by the Holy Ghost, who was in the speakers. The agency God empJoyed in converting them.v,as a real and proper agency—aul it v/as a religion-giving agency, exer- cised upon the minds of the people in a way suited to their intellectual and. moral nature; and the means employed were spiritual means, consisting in the very words and sen- tences which were revealed by the Spirit of God, and in the miraculous works which they saw. It was by i\ie\r sense and meaning, understood and believed, that these people were converted. God gave to them a new heart, comprehending a neiD taste and disposition to relish divine things, and to love and serve him. These, however, were given to them through the atonement of .lesus Christ, and by the grace of God by the gospel. They had no power in themselves naturally to enlighten their own minds or to change their own hearts, or to give themselves new hearts. Salvation is of God — God had mercy upon them, and sent to them de- liverance hy the gospel, ^' ivhich proclaims liberty to the captive, and is the power of God unto salvation to every 220 THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATION, one that hclievetlu " The religion-giving operation of God was different from the agency that he employed in raising the dead body of Lazarus, and in curing the palsy; and it was different from that employed in sustaining Moses forty days without food, " As our feelin;^?, " in the language of Payne's Philoso- phy, "depend upon the nature of theohjects by which the mind is affected,*' so the religious affections must be pro- duced by the percewed sense and meaning of the spiritual or divine o!)jects which impress the mind through revela- tion. God's justice and mercy, and his grace and truth manifested by the gospel, bring the soul wiih all its powers and susceptibilities under divine gospel influence. The Holy Ghost was promised by Christ to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment, or as Storr and Piatt render it, as formerly quoted: " lie will instruct the world on the ^ul ject of their sins, their pardon, and their liberation from the power of Satan, which was ground- ed on Christ's going to the Father, his death, resurrection and glorification. " John xvi, 8-10. The Holy Ghost con- vinced the penticostal Jews of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment, and conver!:ed them to Jesus Christ. He did not speak of himse-f, but he took the things of Christ and showed them to (he Apostles, and through and by them to the people, as he did en all other occasions, in which sinners were converted by them. If we examine care- fully what the Spirit said by Peter in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which convinced and convert- ed three thousand souls, we shall see a great difference be- tween the agencies of the Sjjirit on that occasion, by which Jewish sinners were con veiled, and the agencies which are supposed to be employed in ihc conversion of sinners in modern times. We have now the record of what was then exhibited miraculously.^ but the record is not relied on. THE RELIGION-GIVING OPERATIO:*. 22t The powers and susceptibilities of the mincl, which ren- der men capable of religion, and which enable thera to at- tend to, understand, berieve and feel ifs t-rulh and import- ance, are, by the divine constitution of things, i^iprovablk under gospel light and iiulaence. They are the same now that they v/ere in the d lys of the ApbstlBs. This is man- ifested in the eilecrs of the judicious and well directed ef- forts of pious parents in the religious instruction of their children f and in missionary labors among the heathen na- tions, and also in the effects of protracted meetings for pub- lic worshipi. If these meetings were conducted more with a view to enlighten the'un Jerstanding by the knowledge of gospel truth, to convince the jud^ "249 sind remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," and then gave them their commission, in the following words, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth: Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," Luke xxiv, 43, 47: Matth. xxviii, 18-20. The commission given to the' Apostles to preach and baptize, recorded by Matthew, contains the only form of words to be used in baptism. Mark has left it to Mat- thew to inform us into ichom or into what the Apostles were to baptize those who believed. These words in Matthew, in their full sense and meaning, comprehend all that is said in every other part in the New Testament, relative to the ordinance of baptism, as administered by the Apostles under the commission that Christ gave to them. The record of Matthev/ plainly indicates the 'ir/i- ty and agency of the Fathsr, and the Son, and liie Holy Ghost, as I have shown in a former Essay, in the author- ity of Jesus Christ, and in the religion of the gospel, and the faith and salvation of every true believer. Therefore, whatever else may be included in baptism, those who be- lieve the gospel and are baptized with scriptural views of it, are baptized into the faith that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are unitedly concerned in the supremacy of Jesus Christ, in his Mediatorial office and reign, and in the religion and salvation of the gospel. Dr. Dwight, on Matth. xxviii 19, observes, that "Per- sons are baptized not in but [eis) into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; that is, by Christ's appointment they are introduced into his fami ly, and take his name upon them as being his children.'* 22 860 AAPTieif. Another Greek scholar gives it, "baptizing them (net iW but) into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; that is, introducing them into the profes- sion of that manifestation of the divine character, (foy that is the meaning of name here,) in which God reveals himself the Restorer of fallen man, through the atone- ment and mediation of the Son, and the influences and quickening of the Spirit." I formerly stated and endeavoured to prove, that with- out the revelation of God, in the personal manifestations of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the fallen state of man, there is no idea or knowledge of God in the world, and that the doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in their practical de- velopment, operation and influence, are the christian re- ligion. Mark, in his account of the commlssicn given by Je- sus Christ to the Apostles to preach and baptize, informs us that Christ said unto them, "Go ye into all the world and pi'^ach the gospel to every creature. He that be- lieveth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believ- eth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: -n my name they shall cast out devils; tljey shall speak with new tongues," &lc.; and he subjoins, "and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following." Mark xvi, 15-20. Mark does not inform us into what they are to be baptized, or whether Christ in this place meant the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which he was to administer, or baptism in water: perhaps he meant both. The signs which he promised should follow, were the direct effects of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, in every case, and confirmed the word of the Apostles, ai we have seen in the last Essay. Simon Magus was not ap lized with the Holy Ghost, and was not saved. ^BAPTISM. 251 The Apostles began to preach at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, after they received power from on high. The introduction of the kingdom of heaven and the first discourse delivered, vv^e have an account of in the second <:hapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter by referring to the ancient prophets, and by what was exhibited to the eyes and ears of the spectators and auditors, proved that Messiah had come, that the men of Judea and Jerusalem, whQ heard him, had with wicked hands crucified him, and that God had raised him up from the dead, and made him both Lord and Christ; and that the great and dreadful day of the Lord was at hand, which God had foretold by the prophets should come, and which would destroy the Jewish state and nation. A number of them " were prick- ed in their hearts and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the Apostles, J\Ien and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, into Ih© remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and your chil- dren, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying. Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly re- ceived the v/ord were baptized." Acts ii, 37-41. I have given verse 38 into the remission of sins, in- stead of for or in order to the remission of sins, as Dr. Doddridge and others have given it, because the meaning of into and for or in order to, in this place is essentially difTerent, and because the same word eis is rendered into in every other place in the New Testament where it •fitands in the same connection with the gospel ordinance of baptism. ThQ iustru.ctioji and esJioitations of Peler to these Jew« 252 BAPTISM. to reform or change their minds and be baptized into the remission of sin on account of Jesus Christ, which is the same as to be baptized into his salvation, agrees in my apprehension with the direction of Jesus Christ to the Apostles, to baptize believers, into the name of the Father^ and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. From our com- mon version, it would seem, that Peter intended the Pen- tecostal Jews to be baptized in order to obtain the remis- sion of their sins, and many so regard it. This rendering seems to have originated at a period soon after the Apos- tolic age, from a belief that water in John iii? 5, meant baptismal water, and wiiich rendered baptism absolutely necessary to salvation. This is the reason why the early Fathers speak of baptism as of the same meaning with regeneration. Tcrtullian, who lived about two hundred years after the birth of Christ, said that John iii, 5, " ex- cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven," related primarily to baptism, and made it absolutely necessary to salvation; " What, said he, can be more miraculous than to see that by washing the body by external baptism, we efface at the same time the mortal stain of the soul, and when that stain is once taken away, the punishment is likewise re- mitted to us. There is no doubt to be made, but that at present baptism is necessary to salvation . Jesus Christ has made a law for it, and prescribed the manner of it. If a man be not born again of the ivatcr, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the hingdom of heaven, which does universally establish the necessity of baptism." In the Bishop's Bible, which was published in England in 1568, Acts ii, 38, was translated in accordance with this opinion of John iii, 5. And King James in 1G03, gave di- rections and rules, agreeably to which, his translators were to follow the translation of the Bishop's Bible. His fourtk BAPTISM. 253 instruction was the following: "When any word hath di- verse significations, (as was the case with eis,) that one is to be kept which hath been most commonly used by the most ancient Fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place and the analogy of faith. " Reese, in his Cyclo- pedia, says, that "the two sayings of our Saviour in Mark xvi, 16, and John iii, 5; were the foundation of the sup- posed necessity of baptism, in order to salvation, in the age immediately following that of the Apostles, and that accordingly we find baptism and regeneration were used as synonymous terms. It was then imagined, that there was something in the rite of baptism itself to which par- don was annexed, and in general it was thought, that this sanctif5'ing virtue was in the water. Some asserted, that the Holy Spirit was always given in baptism, and that he descended upon the water of baptism like a dove. Aus- tin says, that the baptismal water touches the body and purifies the heart." These have ever been Roman Catho- lic opinions, and were the occasion of the decrees of the Council of Trent, on the subject of baptism and justifica- tion, which I have recorded in pages 177-8. These opinions of baptism and justification in opposi- tion of the gospel views of these subjects, were the causes of the corruption of the religion and church of Jesus Christ, from the second century, and are in a great meas- ure the cause of them now. Calvin acknowledged and lamented these things in his day, notwithstanding he was a Platonic philosopher, and practised infant baptism. He says, " there are some who attribute to the sacraments, I know not what latent virtues, which are nowhere repre- sented as communicated to them by the word of God. By this error the simple and inexperienced are danger- ously deceived, being taught to seek the gifts of God, where they never can be found, and being gradually 254 BAPTISM. drawn away from God, to embrace mere vanity, instead of his truth. By representing the sacraments as the cause of justification, it envelops the minds of men, na- turally too much inclined to the earth, in gross supersti- tion, leading them to rest in the exhibition of a corporeal object rather than in God himself. " He declared that bap- tism was of no advantage whatever to any person until after he believes. His leading principles of reformation were, justification by faith without works, and a denial that baptism conferred any spiritual blessings or church privilege, previous to faith. Why he continued to prac- tice infant baptism with this opinion of its uselessness I cannot tell, unless it was as an ear mark to distinguish Protestant children from Roman Catholic children. If bap- tism is in the place of circumcision, it must bo in the place of Abraham's circumcision, who is the Father of all that believe. His circumcision was a seal of the right- eousness of the' faith he had before he was circumcised. As all of his spiritual seed are believers in Jesus Christ, they ought not to be baptized until after they believe. No man was ever circumcised on account of his faith but Abraham, and none ought to be baptized without faith . If Peter's teaching and exhorting the Jews on the day of Pentecost to " repent and be baptized into the remis- sion of sin, for the sake of Jesus Christ," be altogether different from his directing them to repent and be baptiz- ed,m order to obtain remission of sin; and if the former be of the same meaning with the direction of Christ to baptize believers, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and the latter is not, it is important to ascertain the real difference between the two forms of expression. The importance of the subject ig ieen in its bearing on the scripture doctrine of Justifiob- tion, which was treated in a former essay, and upon th« BAPTISM. 255 personal views and objects of individuals, who are baptiz- ed. Christ has said, that not one jot or tittle of his word shall fail. The spiritual order and purity of his religion and church, depend upon preserving the scriptural sense and meaning of his word pure, even down to a monosyl- lable, and in acting according to it. Groves , in his _Greek and English dictionary, says, that eis is a preposition, governing the accusative case in, in- to; to, unto, until; among, at, before, in 'presence of; on, upon; towards, against; as to, in respect of, concerning; through, by; for, for to, in order to; to the end that, so that. Into is the second rendering of the word eis, in the order that Groves has presented it; for, or in order to, is the twentieth and twenty-second. The following are Profes- sor Stuart's remarks and criticisms on the subject. His object is to ascertain the meaning of eis, as it is connect- ed with baptism, the ordinance of the New Testament, and of baptism in preceding eis, and not in any other connec- tipn. " The word baptize, may be followed by a person or a thing, (doctrine) which has eis before it. In the first place, when it is followed by a person, it means by the rite of baptism, to bind one's self to be a disciple or follower of a person, to receive or obey his doctrines or laws; for example, "all our fathers were under the cloud, and passed through the sea; and were all baptized {eis) into Moses iw the cloud and in the sea." 1 Cor. x, 1-2. "For a3 many of you as were baptized {eis) into Christ, have put on Christ," that is, have professed to receive and rely upon him as Saviour, and bound yourselves to be his disciples and followers, and to receive and obey his doctrines and laws." Gal. iii, 27. " Were you baptized {eis) into tho name of Paul? 1 thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest they should say that I baptiz- ed {eis) into my own name. 1 Cor. i, 13-15. 256 BAPTISM. "Or it means, to acknowledge him as Sovereign, Lord and Sanctifier." "Baptizing them (m) into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. " Math, xxviii, 19. " When they heard this they were bap- tized (eis) into the name of the Lord Jesus." • Acts xix, 5'. " That 7iame is used after eis, as it is in some cases, makes no difference in the sense. In Hebrew, "the name of the God of Jacob defend thee, " is just the same as " the God of Jacob defend thee. " And to call upon the the name of the Lord, is the same as to call upon the Lord. "A person may be baptized into a thing, (doctrine). 'I baptize you with water {eic) into repentance.' Math, iii, n. That is, into the profession of the reality and neces- sity of repentance, involving the idea that they themselves professed to be subjects of it. In Acts xix, 3. — " We were baptized (ei^) into John's baptism." That is, "into the baptism of repentance." Math, iii, 11: In 1 Cor. xii, 13. — 'We are all baptized into one body or fellowship.' All in the like sense, viz: by baptism, the public acknow- ledgement is expressed of believing in, and belonging to one doctrine or one body. " So in Acts ii, 38: ' Baptized in the name or on account of Jesus Christ (eis) into the remission of sinj' — That is, into the profession of the doctrine of remission; in other words, by baptism, a profession and acknowledgement of this doctrine on account, or for the sake of Jesus Christ, was made:*'' Christ v/as acknowledged as Saviour. Another Greek scholar remarks, on Acts ii, 38, " 1 think any person acquainted with the original Greek, will agree with me in translating Acts ii, 38, differently from the common version, which reads, " Repent, and be bap- tized every one you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the emission of sin : " It ought to be, repent, or rather reform BAPTISM. 2o7 or change your minds, and let every one of you be baptiz- ed (cis) into the doctrine of forgiveness of sin, for Christ's sake. To be baptized into a doctrine, is the ordinary phrase of the New Testament. The commission given to the Apostles, ought to be so rendered, *' Baptizing them into the name," &lc. Math xxviii, 19. So Rom. vi, 8, '^As many of us as were baptized (eis) into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death, that is, were baptized into the doctrine that he died for sinners." To be baptized into Christ, is to be baptized into him a? Lord and Sav- iour. And as there is but one baptism, it is the same as to be baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as it is into the remission of sin, for Christ's sake. The same author further observes, " Acts ii, 38, I do not think can, in justice, be made to bear any other sense than that which I have given it, viz: " let every one of you be baptized into that doctrine which te?xhes for- giveness of sin in the nanie or throufrh the work of Jesus Christ. The Greek preposition cis, which belongs to " the forgiveness of sin," and not that one {epi,) which pre- cedes, ^'the name of Jesus Christ," is the preposition which in the Greek Testament usually indicates the direct object of baptism. " I cannot forbear giving the observations and criticisms, in part, of the editor of the new translation of the New Testament, by Drs. Campbell, Doddridge and McKnight, second edition, append, note 3. I do this to show the agreement of these Greek scholars, when criticizing the same word. His remarks are in favor of rendering the word cis, in Math, xxviii, 19, into instead of /«, which are equally as applicable to rendering the same word in Acts ii, 38: zn^o instead o^ for, or in order to, as Dr. Dod- dridge has given it in his translation, agreeably to the •58 BAPTISM. early Fathers. « The changing of a syllable, may some- times materially affect the meaning, when the changing a phrase does not." "By what inadvertency, the King's translators gave {eis) m instead oHnto, in Math, xxviii, 19, and elsewhere gave it into, when speaking of the same ordinance, I presume not to say. But they have been followed by most of the modern translators, and with them they translate it into in other places v/here it stands in relation to the institution of baptism, as for example 1 Cor. xii, 13: Rom. vi, 3. Gal. iii, 27: Acts xix, 3: 1 Cor. i, 13. Oar fathers were all immersed into Tdoses, in the cbiid and in the sea. They were immersed into Moses — not x?n'o the cloud and into the sea — l)ut in the cloud and in {he sea, they were immersed into Moses. The authority by which any ac- tion is done is one thin^, and the oljcct for vrhich it is done is another. None who can discriminate, can think that it is one and the same thing to be immersed in the name of the Lord, and to be immersed into the name of the Lord. The former denotes the authority by which the action is performed, the latter the object for which it is perform- ed. " ''To be immersed into the name of the Lord J^sus, was a form of speech in ancient usage, as familiar and signifi- cant as to enter into matrimony — into an alliance — to run into danger, &c. And when we analyze these ex- pressions, we fmd tliey all import that the persons are either under the obligations or influence of those things into which they arc said to enter, or into which they are introduced. Hence those immersed into one body (1 Cor. xii, 13) were under the influence and obligation of that one body." And I would say, that those immersed into the remission of sins, were under the influence of remission, on tlie day of Pentecost." '« Those immersed into Moses, BAPTISM. 259 assumed him as their law-giver, guide and protector, and risked every thing upon his authority, wisdom, power and goodness. Those who were immersed into Christ, put him on, acknowledged his authority and laws, and were governed by his will — and those who were immersed in- to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Ho- ly Ghost, regarded the Father as the fountain of all au- thority — the Son as the only Saviour — :and the Holy Spirit, as the only advocate of the truth and teacher of Christianity." * * * -^ * *' They who are immersed into the name of Christ, as» Bume his name, acknowledge him as Lord and Master, and Icok to him for support and protection " — and salva- tion. " This view of the matter made Paul thank God when the Christians in Corinth were assuming different names, (one the name of Paul, and another the name of Apollos,&c.) that he had immersed none, or ^ew of them, lest the report should get abroad that he had immersed into his own name.'" From the precedingremarks of these Greek biblical scholars, including Dr. Dwight, we see the design and use of baptism as a gospel ordinance, and that it is necessarily connected with the authority and religion of Jesus Christ. The Jewish nation, in the persons of the Fathers, had been baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. They v.ere, on the day of Pentecost, to be baptized into Jesus Christ as Messiah and Saviour, which was the same as to be baptized into the name of the Fa- ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. What Home has said in his Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Scriptures, of the Jewish ideas of re- mission of sin, will enable us better to understand the meaning of Peter in Acts ii, 38 ; and to see the propriety of the remarks of Professor Stuart and others. Home ob* 260 BAPTISM. serves, that "the Jews assigned three grounds for remission of sin or justification before God, by which they were de- livered from (he guilt and punishment of sin, viz: 1. The extraordinary piety and merits of their ances- tors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve Patri- archs, and the Covenant God made with them. 2. The knowledge of God through the law of Moses, and their diligence in the study of that law, which they esteem so holy as to make it a plea for the remission of sin. 3. The works of the Levitical laws, which were to ex- piate sin, epecially circumcision and sacrifices; whence the Jews inferred that the Gentiles must receive the whole law of Moses in order to be justified; in other words, that there was no salvation out of the Jewish Church." The old Covenant and Jewish economy were abolished by the death of Christ, and the Jews, on the day of Pen- tecost, were instructed and exhorted by Peter, to reform or change their minds, in accordance with the manifesta- tions made to their senses of the truth of the introduction and establishment of the new covenant and gospel, and to renounce their former grounds on which they relied for the divine favor, and be baptized into the remission of sin, on account of Jesus Christ, who was made Prince and Sa- viour. They that gladly received the word were baptiz- ed into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Ho- ly Ghost, as Christ had commanded. This was of the same meaning as to be baptized into Jesus Christ, or into the remission of sin, in his name, or for his sake. After Atior they were baptized, they doubtless received the gift of the Holy Ghost as they saw the hundred and twenty dis'^lples possess it, and as Peter promised, which sealed und confirmed the divine truth of all that Peter had said, and of all that they believed, and of baptism itself as an BAPTISM* 261 tjrdinance of Josus Christ, by which they were to renounce Moses and the law, and put on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was made of God unto them wisdom, and righteousness and sanctifi^ation and redemption, an J they received him in the fullness of his character, as an entire and perfect Saviour, and bound themselves by then baptism, to rely upon him for every thing, as we fl:>rmet]y viewed him, at the light and deliverer of the worid, tiiid the author of a new, miraculous, spiritual and universal religion, whoso majesty, glory and dominion, are without limits. The Samaritans, also, when they heard the gospel and believed it, were baptized into Jesus Christ, as the Jews had been — and became one with the Jewish converts. This was the case also with the Gentiles. But owing to the difference of their previous religious and political state, from those of the Jews, there was some difference attending the introduction of the gospel among them, and their baptism. The Holy Ghost, as we saw in the last Essay, was poured out upon the.n after they believed, and before they were baptized in witer, as a seal of the for- giveness'of their sin. As there was but one baptism for Jew and Gentile, they were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. They, with the Jews, were made the childrers of God by faith in Christ Jesus, under the free, gracious provisions of the new covenant, obtained remission of sin through his blood, and put him on by baptism. They renounced their Gentileism, and came into the same fellowship with the Jews. They were sealed and confirmed by the baptism or the gifts of the Holy Ghost, as being in the possession and enjoyment of the divine favor before they were baptized in water. And Peter declares, that the gift of the Holy Ghost, bestowed upon them after they believed and befor« they were baptized in water, as it was upon him and 23 216^ BAPTISM. the rest of the hundred and twenty disciples at the begin- ning (Acts ii, 1-4), was God's witness that he had put no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles, having pu- rified their hearts by faith. Acts xv, 7-9. This accords with what was said in the Essay on Justi- fication, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Through the gospel of his grace, and justification or the remission of sin through faith in Jesus Christ, God granted to the Gen- tiles repentance unto life, and made them, with the believ- ing Jews, the spiritual seed of Abraham, and heirs accord- ing to the promise. THE OEDINAISCE OF BAPTISM IS IM3IERSI0X IN WATEH. The most astonishing and prominent facts in the Chris- tian religion, are the death and resurrection of Jesun Christ, and the resurrection of his disciples to a happy immortal life through him. It would be passing strange that the Christian religion should have had no ordinance instituted by Christ to me- morialize, and strikingly to represent these things. The supper represented his death, but not his burial and res- urrection. If Christ be not risen, there is nothing true in the whole of his religion : — but he is risen. He wa» delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justifi- cation. A true faith in his death and resurrection, is the first principle of life in the soul. I do not intend to go in- to a protracted discussion of this subject. Every true be- liever in Jesus Christ does believe in his death and resurrection, and is actually justified through his blood, "whether he believes in baptism by immersion or not. It is, however, greatly to be desired, that the truth in respect to the one baptism, as in every thing else, should prevail. A difference in this ought not to prevent Christian fellow- BAPTISM. 2W •hip. Oar best Greek scholars agree, that the Greek word which is always used to express the ordinance of baptism, means nothing more nor less than to dip or immerse. It never expresses any thing but mode. Bapio signifies to dip^ tinge, or die; but haptizo, to immerse alone. I will here employ some of the views of Carson on the subject of baptism. The following expression of Paul, cannot by any just principle of interpretation, be made to mean any thing else than that baptism is immersion, and it ehows, too, that the proper subject of gospel baptism, has died to sin and risen with Christ in spirit, by faith in hia cross, before he is baptized in water; that is, he has ob- tained the remission of his sin, through faith in the blood of Christ. "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Fatiier, eveo so we also should walk in newness of life." Rom. vi, 2-4. As in Christ's death, we have died with him; so in bap- tism we are figuratively put into the grave along with him. Words cannot more plainly teach any thing, than these words teach that in baptism we are buried with Christ. Baptism, then, must not only contain a likeness to burial, but that likeness is emblematical. Baptism ii not a figure of speech; it is an emblematical action. Baptism is also an emblem of the new life of the Chris- tian: " that like as Christ was saved from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in new- ness of life." We die with Christ to sin, through faith in his cross, and rise with him to a new life of holiness. There is then something in baptism that is an emblem Qi a resurrection as well as of a burial. Immersion is a !W4 BAPTISM. mode that answers both, and it is !he only mode that doei ao. In baptism we are emblenratically laid in the grave with Christ, and we are emblematically raised with him out of it. It is designed to point to our own resurrection, as well as to ihe resurrection of Christ. In baptism we profess our faith in the one as past, and in the other as future. What simplicity, what beauiy, what edification is contained in this ordinance, and how necessary it is to keep the most striking facts of the gospel in our view I We are made parta- kers by faith in the death of Christ, by which we are justi- fied. We do not become partakers in his death by being bap- tized into the faith of his death. We become partakers in the death of Christ by faith, before and without baptism; and would have been equally so had baptism never been instituted. In baptism, this participation in Christ is ex- hibited in figure, just as we are said to wash away our sins in baptism. Sins are washed away by faith in the blood of Christ, but they are symbolically washed away in baptism. Just so we become partakers in the death of Christ the moment that we believe; in baptism this par- ticipation is exhibited by a symbol. The Christian has a real death, burial and resurrection with Christ by faith. He has all these also in baptism by figure. The previous death , burial, and resurrection with Christ hy faith, must have really taken place before bap- tism, or baptism is misplaced and has no meaning; it is an emblematical action in that case, of nothing that has taken place in the subject of it. None then ought to be baptiz- ed in order fo obtain the actual remission of sin. The believer is one with Christ by a real union. He is one with Christ as truly as he is one with Adam. He dies with Christ as truly as he fell with Adam It is by the di- ▼ine constitution of the New Covenant, that all true belief- BAPTISM. 2G5 crs are one with him. When Christians are therefore said to have died with Christ by faith, there is no more figure than when it is said that they have died in Adam, or that they shall die themselves. ^' How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Death here is a real death. But how are wo dead? By faith in Christ, we are dead to sin — and in bap- tism this truth is exhibited in figure : " Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? To be baptized into Jesus Christ imports the being baptized into the faith of his death as our substitute, but to be baptized into his. death, imports that by baptism we are exhibited as dying along with him. The death in baptism is a figurative death, founded on the real death by faith; and the washing away of sin in bap- tism, is a figurative washing away of sin; but if it had not been actualhj washed away previously by faith in Christ's blood, baptism would not be a figurative washing away of sin in the subject: — This was the case with Si- mon Magus, and it is the case with all those who are bap- tized in order to obtain the actual remission of their sin, and who had not obtained remission previously through faith in Jesus Christ. We are not said to be buried with Christ by faith, but buried with him by baptism into death. This burial is not merely a burial by faith, but a burial by baptism. The language imports also that baptism has a reference both to Christ's resurrection and our own life. " We are bu- ried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Thii is stated as the end of baptism, not as the end of faith* Af baptism does not effect these things , i t must be vie wed as a fi- gure. Baptism makes us die, buries us, raises us, only in fiir- 23* ' 366 BAPTISM. ure ; therefore when we are said todie, to be buried to rise in baptism, baptism must contain a likeness to these things. It is not in baptism, nor by means of baptism, that we die with Christ really, or are made spiritually alive. This death and this life take place before baptism. So it is with the remission of sin, they all take place by faitb in the cross of Christ. Baptism, then, can have these things ascribed to it only in figure. We wash away sins in baptism, just as we eat the flesh of Jesus Christ, in the Lord's Supper. " The cup of blessing which we bless^ is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" How are the cup and the bread the communion of the blood and body of Christ? In figure. Just so bap- tism washes away sin. Just so in baptism we die, we are buried, and we rise. But the truth of the emblem is effected, not by baptism in any sense, but by faith. The death, burial and resurrection, which are ascribed to bap- tism, take place in baptism, and by means of baptism. The washing away of sins ascribed to baptism, is eflfected by baptism. This washing, this death, this burial and this ' resurrection, cannot be the washing, death, burial and res^ urrection which are effected by faith, and which take place before baptism. The reality of these things has already taken place by faith, but it is represented in fi- gure as taking place in the ordinance, and by means of the ordinance. In the expressions wasJi away sin by bap- tism, death, burial and resurrection in baptism, there is no figure of speech. It is a figurative action, not a figu- rative expression. A symbol is not a figure of speech. Death, burial and resurrection, we do not consider as tho primaiy meaning of baptism, and washing away sin as a secondary meaning. It takes both together to make on© HiMining. The ordinance has one meaning only. It ufA BAPTISM. 267 only signifies washing away sin through faith in the blood of Christ, but denotes that such sins are washed away by our fellowship with him in his death. Another passage that favors the view and import given of baptism, is 1 Cor. xv, 29: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they baptized for the dead?" There is in this passage an argument, and the object of baptism must be a scriptural object, otherwise it could not be an argu- ment. Baptism here plainly represents the resurrection of the saints from the dead, to inherit eternal life with Christ, and that his death and resurrection are a proof and pledge of it. To deny the resurrection of the dead, it would appear from this passage, sets aside the crowning desiorn and meaning of baptism, and renders it of no conse- quence. And to deny that baptism is a representation and pledge of this, takes from it an essential part of its meaning. " By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even BO in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order." 1 Cor. xv, 21-23. I repeat the question formerly stated, would it not be atrange that in the Christian religion, which is based in, and rests upon the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel^ and upon which the hope and assurance of the resurrection of hit disciples depend, there should be no ordinance to repre- sent the resurrection, either of Christ or his followers, although, in this very article, that religion is preeminently distinguished from all other religions? Is it not Strang that it should be thought that baptism does not represeni thd resurrection of Christ and his people, although it is «• £33 BAPTISM. expressly asserted that, having died to sin by faith in hii cross, they are buried with him by baptism into death f What shall they do who are baptized for the'.r belief in th« resurrection of the dead, if the dead rise not? The Sup- per represents the death of Christ, and baptism his resur- rection. The resurrection of the dead is a fact that is altogether supernatural and miraculous, and is one of the most diflicult facts to be believed that can be proposed to the human mind, and ever has been, and which could not be believed but for the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the miracles which the Apostles wrought in proof of it. These stand inseparably connected with the redemp- tion and eternal salvation of the true believer through the blood of Christ, as his faith, hope and confidence are based in his death and resurrection, by the word of God. At the same time that baptism is a symbolical action which represents the fact that the true believer is dead to sin, in a spiritual and moral sense, and is risen to newness of life with Christ through faith in his cross, it manifests, moreover, his faith in the fact of the resurrection of Je- ius Christ from the dead, which is passed, and his faith in his own resurrection, which is future. There could have been no proselyte baptism which preceded the bap- tism of the New Testament, that could have any connec- tion with it, because that baptism emblematically repre- sents and memorialize a fact that never existed before Christ rose from the dead, and it is an institution in a reli- gion that never existed before, it being based in the ne\f covenant, which was established by the death and resu»- rcction of Jesus Christ. Without the resurrection of the dead, which is an event which is alone incident to the new covenant, and is represented in the action of baptism, wherein believers are immersed in water into the name BAPTISM. 259 ©f the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and are raised out of it, believers cannot inherit the king- dom of God. 1 Cor. XV, 50. Under the spiritual provis- ions and blessings of tlie new covenant, "the body of the eaints is sown a natural body ; it will be raised a spiritual bo- dy for as they have borne the image of the earthly,lhey shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 1 Cor. xv, 49. Hence through that faith by which the mercy of God hath begotten us to the hope of another life, through the resur- rection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to sub- due all things unto himself. 1 Pet. iii, 5: Phil, iii, 20, 21. The complete work of regeneration cannot, be effect- ed without the resurrection of the body from the dead. With a view to Christ's commission given to the Apostles, to preach the gospel and to baptize, and with a view to the design and meaning of baptism, is it not really strange that the ordinance of baptism by immersion, should be re- garded as a sectarian ordinance among Christians, and that there should be any sect that disowns it? There would be just as great proprie y in asserting, that the doc- trine of a change of heart, and of the resurrection from the dead of the saints to a glorious immortal life, are sectarian doctrines. And what is more strange atill, is, that baptism itself, shotild have been made the occasion of more corruptions, divisions and persecutions in the religion and church of Jesus Christ, than any one thing that has ever occurred. These effects have resulted from two causes: the first was in detaching the ordinance from Je- sus Christ himself and from the belief of the gospel, and from the spiritual nature of his religion and kingdom. The iecond was in the profanation of baptism by administer^ 1670 BAPTISM. ing it for uses and purposes, and by ascribing to it rirtues and properties, which the word of God does not authorize, and which are na where represented as com- municated to it by the word of God. The early Father^: — wih Irsiwing their attention from the supremicy of Jesus Christ, and from (he spiritual na- ture and universality of his religion and kingdom, and failing to regard bapiisin and the sapper as subordinate to tlieir promotion, and misapprehending the divine nature of the New Covenant administered by him, whose gra- cious blessings secure the remission of sin, and a nevr nature through faith in his blood to every true believer — gave to baptism itseif the power of renewing, and of regenerating men's hearts — of remitting sin, and of justifying sinners before God. And thus baptism was perverted to a superstitious and idolatrous use, as was also the bread nnd wine in the Lard's supper. A i'ew equivo- cal passnges of scripture, by a gratuitous or tortured con- struction, were resorted to, to support them. By these means the ordinance of baptism and the supper, were made to occupy the place of Jesus Christ himself, who instituted them, and his religion and church became cor- rupted, an{l their immoralities became abominable; tho salt lost its savour, and the mass became morally pu- trid. The blood of Christ, which, through fiiith, cleanseth from all sin, was made to give wAy to baptismal water, and ceased to exert any purifying effect upon the heart. These evils, in some considerable degree, exist in the present da3^, and in some cases have been revived with new energy. Their only remedy is in a correct knowl- edge of the principles and truths of the gospel, and in pi- ous godly living. The foundation of the whole super- itructure of the gospel is laid in the principle of the justift. BAPTISM. 271 cation of sinners, or the method according to which God remits the sins of the ungodly, and takes them into hii favour. To engage the mind of the reader in a fair and thorough investigation of the subject, in concluding what I have to say on baptism, I would ask him the following questions, and demand of him a specific answer, derived from the Acts of the Apostles: 1. Has the gospel ever been preached to the Gentilei by divine authority, and when was it first preached to them? 2. Has God given to the Gentiles repentance unto lif» or the remission of sin, and if he has, did he doit by faith in Jesus Christ without water baptism, or was it by faith, in water baptism? I find no account of the gospel having been preached to the Gentiles, in the nine first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which give a history of their labors for the first seven or eight years. Had the Apostles continued to preach as they had done from the day of Pentecost up to that time, the gospel would not up to this day have been sent to the Gentiles. As God sealed and confirmed the fact that he gave remission of sin to the Jews and Samari- tans, and abolished their religious institutions and estab- lished the gospel among them by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, I ask the same testimony — the same mi- raculous gifts as God's seal and confirmation of the fact of the remission of sin among the Gentiles, and of the principle or operation through which remission was com- municated to them, and that by which they received it. I ask for information and proof on these subject! in a historical detail given by the direction oj the Holy Spirit, as the best evidence that the nature of the case af- fords. I have a right to expect it, because of the vast im- portance of the introduction of the gospel to the Gentilof SP7^ BAPTISM. to the nations of the whole world — and of the necessity of a definite and explicit account from God himself, that there may be no difficulty or doubt upon the subject, which would be the case if the information was left to be collect- ed from distant allusions, hints and references in the Epis- tles. Now, reader, turn to the 10 h chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and read it over carefully, and there you will Bce that the gospel was sent to the Gentiles by divine ap- pointment, and that according to the testimony of all the prophets, and of Peter himself, and of the Holy Ghost, God gave to the Gentiles remission of sin before there was a word said about water baptism: — the truth of this was sealed and conjlrmed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Turn to the 11th chapter, 2 ,-18, there you find Peter rehearsing the matter in order, and expounding it to the Jewish converts at Jerusalem, and proving to them that God had granted to the Gentiles remission of sin, which was in no way connected with water baptism whatever. This he proved by stating the fact that the moment they believed what he declared from the prophets, (see the 10th ch. 43) " that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of tin, " the Holy Ghost fell on them as on Peter and the rest of the Apostles, at the beginning, as Christ had said in. Acts i, 5. When they heard these things, they glorified God saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. In this case Peter said not a word to them about water baptism, and they asked not a question about it, because It had nothing to do with the actual remission of their sins; the Gentiles having received remission before Peter direct* ed them to be baptized. See ch. x, 47-48. In Acts xv, 7-9, we have Peter's testimony repeated, in which he BAPTISM. 273 says, that '• God who knovveth the hearts, bare the Gen- tiles witness, giving ihem the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, (Acts ii, 1-4) and put no difference between us and them, having purified their hearts by faith. " This testimony, which satisfied Peter and the apostolic Chris- tians in this matter, and which forever settled the princi- ple according to which God gives remission of sin, puri- fies the heart and justifies the ungodly, ought to satisfy us. It proves that remission of sin is received by faith before baptism, and that the assurance and enjoyment of remission ;ire to be found in the truth and reality of our faith in ;he sealed record of God'^s gracious truth, and in a holy life, and that to be baptised is the duty of those that believe. God havin? put n > difference between the Jews and Gentiles, having purified their hearts by faith, it is mani- festly an error to look f >r remission of sin in baptism, where it is not promised and cannot be found. Instead of its being an act of obedience to be baptized in order to obtain the remission of sin, it is a total misapprehen- sion of the design of I iptism, and of God's method of giving remissi sn. If it is not obtained through faith in Christ without bipism, the gospel does not authorise us to believe that it is obtained at all. There is as much scriptural authority for -he baptism of infants in order to their salvation, as there is for the actual remission of sin in immersion — nei her can be sustained by scripture. We receive Christ by faith, and put him on in baptism. The faith of the Christian ends in Christ for remission, and not in baptism. I have been this particular, because among the true believers in Jesus Christ, who are made the children of God by faith, although there may be a difference in their riev's of baptism, they ought to fellowship each other as ■ rethren. 24 274 BAPTISM. There never can be any real practical Christian reibr- mation among those who are wrong on the subject of jua- tification or the remission of sin. They may build up a party tor a time, through the influence of novelty, collision, and strife, but it must inevitably go down through the want of the cleansing influences of the blood of the atonement, and by unscriptural views and sentiments of the charac- ter and glory of Jesus Christ, and of christian duty. The proof that I have adduced of remisssion of sin by faith without baptism, consisting in the gifts of the Holy Ghost, may be objected to, on account of their being mi- raculous. This objection arises from a misapprehension ofthe design and use of these gifts . They were in this case God's witness or proof, or confirmation of the truth of remission communicated by the gospel, and received by faith. Take away all that was miraculous, and we have destroyed the whole record of the fact, and the proof of it too, that God has given to the Gentiles remission of sin. I am thus particular, because ihjse why ;ui opt the opin- ion of remission in baptism, put it out of their power to regard any as Christians wha differ from them in baptism. They ore compelled to give up |>ious pedobnptists to tho uncovenanted mercies of God, and to reg;ird them as in the same state with the heathen, which arises from a mis- apprehension of remission aitogelher- and they involve themselves in danger of eternal ruin, by relying for re- mission open baptism, in which God never promised it. Baptism h;is no more to do in procurin^j; the actual re- mission of sin thnn the Lord's Siipi)cr h;is. They are both to be submitted and attended to in consequence v^ re- mission already received through fuiih in Christ. The as- surance and enjoyment of remission are found in that faith by which God ptuifics the heart, and which prompts to obedience and works by love. ESSAY XV, aELIGIOVS EXPERIENCE, Religious, or Christian Experience, is of greal importaflce. Those persons who profess religion and liave no Christian experience, have yet to learn their own depravity and corruption, the evil nature of sin, and the change of heart that is effected by divine grace, through the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christby the gospeU Man, by nature, is an outcast from God, and is involv- ed in spiritual darkness, guilt, corruption and death. The Christian religion is designed to remedy this stat« — to give spiritual light and life — to change and purify the heart, and impart eternal life to the soul. Many despise what is called Christian experience; In- fidels sneer at it; formalists, and nominal professors ridi- cule it. All this arises from their ignorance of what real religion is. Every Christian should be willing, like David, to celebrate the mercies of God vouchsafed to him, and be willing to say, ''come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul;'' and to **be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks him a reason of the hope that is in him, with meekness and fear,*' Psal. Ixvi, 16: 1 Pet. iii, 15. It is a debt of gratitude that every Christian owes to his God and Saviour to do this, who is glorified thereby; and it is a debt of love he owes to his brethren, and even 27& EXPERIENCE. to sinners who desire it, and who may be edified theYehf* provided it be done in meekness and humility. And, in- deed, when the Christian religion shall be restored to its spiritual simplicity and purity, they that fear and love the Lord, will speak often one to another about their religious experience, and they will let their light so shine before men that they will glorify the blessed Saviour more than is now done. The subject of Christian experience is often made dark, and is confused by erroneous apprehensions j and Christians are unwilling to talk about it for want of due care in distinguishing between truth and error, and in fixing the sense and meaning of the terms made use of to express the views, feelings and exercises of the mind, ■when under the influence of divine truth. No person who passes from darkness, guilt and death, into a state of light and pardon and life, but what must have experience — must be possessed of something that he has felt and realized, which truly answers to these descriptions : — Of all this he is conscious in the present state and feeling of his mind. [Read pages 224-5 in this connection.] Experience, in its general acceptation, means knowl- edge obtained by practical proof or frequent trial. — Knowledge acquired solely by the efforts of the intellect in reading and investigating any subject, is termed theo- retical and speculative knowledge. Of this every person of common sense, with ordinary means, is capable; and it must, in some degree, go before experimental knowl- edge. Agreeably to this view of the subject, speculative,, or theoretical Christianity, is acquired by the exercise of the intellect, in reading or hearing, and in investigating the Christian religion, as it is revealed in God's word. The design of investigation in this case, as in all others, is to ascertain the meaning and sense of the words and sen- BXPBRIENCE. 2T7 tences which compose the word of God, and which the Spirit of God gave to them when he first revealed them. But, alas, how few investigate the scriptures to obtain correct speculative knowledge of the Christian religion, as it is exhibited in God''s word, even among the profes- sors of it! This is owing to the confusion, darkness and contradictions, in which it is often involved by the views in which it is presented by the teachers of it. In man's state of pollution and guilt, there are feelino^s still remaining, which in the hour of sorrow and fear, may melt at the voice of compassion and love. There are events in the store-house of God's Providence vvhich bring the stoutest heart to a stand, and then the charge of guilt is no longer disregarded, and the graoious invi- tations of an Almighty Father are not despised. An- guish and doubt, and fear and pain enter the sinner's soul. ,To these feelings are the glad tidings of the gospel ad- dressed. It is a message of love and deliverance to the guilty, distressed and helpless, and it descends upon the tide of the Saviour's blood. And many come, led by in- stinctive longings after peace and enjoyment, and try the gospel as the last expedient, after the failure of every oth- er attempt to obtain happiness, and they find Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write by the light and influ- ence of God's Spirit, thrcugh the gospel. Faith, in this case, by its justifying and sanctifying effects, brings a worm of the dust into union with the King of heaven, and converts a rebel against God, into an heir of glory, as it is the channel by which the divine testimony, con- cerning . pardon through the cross of Christ, is conveyed to the understanding, and operates upon the heart. Il is therefore not a work of merit, but of grace, and is merely the inlet by which spiritual light and influence, enter the soul, and purify it, and through which the au- 24 * 278 EXPERIENCB. thority of God operates. All is of grace in man's salva- tion, and is communicated through the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ. And were his native powers and susceptibilities which render him capable of religion by the gospel of God's grace, ten thousand times greater than they are, they would avail him nothing without the mercy and grace of God, as they would be the powers and susceptibilities of a being, utterly lost, hopeless and help- less in himself We are saved by grace, and have redemp- through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sin. To deny to man moral pov/er of understanding and feel- infy, which God gave him, though exceedingly perverted, and which God addresses by the gospel, cannot honor God or benefit man, to say the least of it. Nor does such a denial add any thing to the scriptural account of man's absolute depravity, or inviie in an^/ measure the influences of God's Spirit, or give efficacy to his gospel upon the heart. Such views are often given of this subject as to prevent any attention to reading or hearing the gospel, and such as to deny to guilty man under the gospel, spiritual and moral faculties and susceptibilities altogether. No man has ever yet been able to explain any thing about the in- ternal operations of the mind, and why should it be at- tempted in religion more than in any thing else? True experimental Christianity is the truth of the gos- pel proved atid confirmed by the judgment and by the feel- ings of the heart, and by frequent trials in practice. Practical religion includes speculative truth, but specula- tive truth is not always connected with experimental reli- gion. One reason why it is so seldom, is, that there is so little of real speculative truth known in our country, on the subject of the Christian religion, owing to the causes before alleged, and to the fact that the gospel EXPERIENCE. 279 record, read, or heard and understood, is often denied to have any part or lot in religious experience. In regard to religious feelings, we cannot help being, in some degree, affected by.vvhat we really believe con- cerning our situation. x\nd the great concern in this case, in order to right feelings, is to believe the truth. But how^ can this be done without its being known? From the ac- count I have given of the condition of man in his ruined and helpless estate of sin and misery, it is manifest that there must be a turning jmint between it and the knowl- edge, love and enjoyment of Gt)d — and in passing from the one state to the s i:s aso redetnptic n and ihc forgiveness of sin, . accor.ling to the riches of his grace, th.-ough ho blood of Christ, r.nd has aj>|)ointed the gospel as the means of our fai:h and ic'igioi-s in'crcourse wi h him. And he has ap- pointed prayer as a sn si essential an ! ne?essary exercise nnd do y, thr )n;h an 1 by which Iiq c.tmm"!nicates divino infliien (3 inl s reng h to the sou!, and holds commun'on with the .••pi;-ii As (j Ki om-nands ',;«; to pray to him through fi;i h in the nam;' <»i .Icsusj Chris*, f»r things according to his wil', *J3 280 PRAYER. he must intend us to believe that he regards our prayer, and has ordained it as necessary to his glory and to our good. Michaelis, specifies the following benefits of prayer as some of the blessings which God bestows through it. "It imparts a sensible form or realty to our abstract or theo- retical faith, and reduces it to practice before the throne of God, and thus renders it a better shield against the as- saults of vice, which come armed with the powers of sense. It renders us familiar w'ith God and spiritual and invisible things as they are revealed in the gospel. It makes us recollect and realize the presence of the invisi- ble God, more frequently and feelingly, as he has revealed himself amid our ordinary vocations. It familiarizes us with God's law, and his grace in Christ, and our duty, and makes us afraid of transgressing the divine will and in- disposes us to do so, and causes shame before God for our past sins. And lastly, it awakens a lively feeling of Ipve and gratitude to God for all his favors. '- By humble, faithful prayer, the heart is more effectually purified by the blood of Christ, and the soul imbued with the divine influence, than in any other way. The Spirit of God in his gracious influence is present, and he gives to the exercise of prayer divine spiritual effects in the ■ feelings and enjoyments of the soul, answerable to the promises in his Word. Agreeably to the divine constitu- tion of things over which Jesus Christ presides, the repe- tition of proper spiritual ideas and sentiments by the use of God's word and other appropriate language, revive and strengthen the views and sentiments, feelings and affec- tions which they originally produce and express. From this state of things in thT3 divine economy, arises the benefit of all religious exercises in reading God's word, in mediation, in prayer and in praise, and in ro PRAYER. 2^/ iigions conversation, and in social public worship in gen- eral. The religious states of mind which are produced, not by foreign mixtures or superinduced faculties, but by di- vine influence in the use of God's word, through prayer and other religious exercises, cannot exist in the mind without these exercises, because these are the very means that God has ordained by which he imparts and produces, them. Therefore, those persons icho do not pray and perform these works of piety, or who do not do the will of God, do not possess or enjoy them. Although we are not to look for immediate inspirations and revelations of the Spirit to teach us verbally the things of God, as the Apostles possessed them, yet we need the gracious and sanctifying influences of God's Spirit in acquiring the true spiritual sense and meaning of the scriptures. These are communicated in the pray- erful exercise of searching and investigating the scrip- tures. When we pray for the conversion of sinners, and for the accomplishment of any end, it ought always to be done in reference to the use of the means which God appoint- ed, and with the purpose of acquiescing and going along with him in using them. If our prayers do not produce these effects upon ourselves they are not of faith. A person who prays for the conversion of the world, or of his family and neighbors, and does not use the means which God has appointed for effecting it — if he does not instruct them in the scriptures, or aid in sending scripture instruction to them, he does not pray in faith, as the prayer of faith is as much concerned in tlie use of the means that God has appointed as it is for his agency, for accomplishing the end. God converts no soul by the gospel but by its being 288 PRAYER. heard or read and believed. And there seems to be no other limitation annexed to the divine promises of divine influences and effects, than what is fixed by the faith and conduct of the people of God. It appfears, by an atten- tive examination of the subject, that the prayer and con- duct of faith in the use of God's means have, by a fixed law of the divine government, an absolute efiiciency, such however as originates purely in the appointment of God, as certainly as effects follow their causes and partake of their nature in any visible operation of nature. This is as much the law of the divine economy and procedure in spiritual operations and influence on the soul of man, as gravitation is a law of the physical world on matter. The success of our efforts, consequently, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and in ad- vancing his kingdom and glory, are in a due proportion to the scHpiural means we use, through a true practical faith, for these purposes. Under these limitations, God seems to be so much on the side of man's spiritual improvement and happiness, as not to have reserved to liiinself the right, if I may be allowed the expression, to withhold any good thing that will correspond with the scriptural faith, and prayers, and labors, of those who walk uprightly. Why should it be thought that in the gracious, spiritual government of God, every thing is at loose ends, and left to coiitingonciee which are in no wise under the influence of a regular system of causation, superintended and man aged by Jesus Christ, who is supreme while there is such a close and necessary connectipn between cause and effect, means and ends, by divine appointment, in the natural world; seeing, too, that the latter is subordinate to, and is sustained for the benefit of the former? Is not the word of God truth, and is He not a God of faithfulness and t rath? By how much christians believe and trust in God, PRAYER. 289 and pray and act according to the sense and manning of his word, in waiting upon him and. in doing his will, by so much will He perform all his promisees, and advance his religion and kingdom in the world. If God is doing no mighty work among us, it is for the same reason that Jesus Christ did not many mighty works HI a certain place, because of their unbelief. No want of power or benevolence belong to God, or unwillingness to exercise his kindness; but v/e set bounds to the Holy One of Israel by our unsciptural, party, selfish views and desires, and by our faithlessness, indolence or unconcern for his honor and glory according tc the gospel. He can- not deny himself. His word is truth, and cannot be alter- ed and yet retain its divine character and efficacy. His language is now as it was of old, "I am the Lord thy God. which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me. So I gave them unto their own heart's lusts; and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their advei'saries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat, and with the honey out of the rock, should I have sustained thee." Psal. Ixxxi, 10-16. While God reserves to himself the right to bestow his gracious blessings upon the souls of men, he claims the right also of ordaining the means of doing it, and requires of his people strict subordination to his will in the use of them. Agreeably to his own method and means he gives to his people the key that unlocks the sacred store house, and employs them as workers with him in the administering 25 * >90 PRAYER. lis blp.ssings to themselves, and in distributing its treasures to others. Many poor souls are however starving at the door froiii an unwillingness of his professed people to use the key which he has given them to unlock the door, and to use the means of distributing its treasures. This is the reason why there is but little more of this earth covered by the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the exception of Amer- ica, than there was when the last of the Apostles died, and the reason why religion partakes so little of the spirit of its author. For many hundreds of years christians have been di- vided, and have expended their strength in opposition to each other, and have thereby done the work of the com- mon enemy instead of being united in Jesus Christ, and making it a common cause against the prince of darkness. This is the reason why the christian religion does not now prevail among all nations. And were the world to be converted agreeably to the present state of things in re- gard to sectarian Christianity, it would need to be convert- ed over again. It would fall entirely short of that state of his religion and kingdom which Jesus Christ came in- to the world to establish. Were the kingdom and the do- minion, which are to be given to the saints of the Most High, to be given to either of the christian sects, there is not one of them that is prepared to receive them : they are all too much engaged " in sacrificing unto their own net and in burning incense to their own drag." Hab. i, 16. In making these remarks I have not an unkind feel- ing towards any of them,^ — I esteem all as my brethren who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; nor would I disturb the peace and happiness of any of their churches, but would have them to cherish more supeme love to Je- sus Christ, as the one Lawgiver and their common Head, and come nearer together in the unity of the Spirit and in PRATER. 291: the bonds of peace. I would exhort them and myself to enter more deeply into the meaning and spirit of the in- tercessary prayer of Jesus Christ, and pray, like him, ^Hhat all who believe in him through the word of the Apos- tles may I o c.;! as he is in the Father and the Father in him ; that they may be one in them, that the world may be- lieve that the Father hath sent him," John xvii, 20, 21: and act out the spirit of the prayer in christian fellow- ship and effort. A leading object in our prayers ought to be, that our own minds and wills be according to the mind of God, and that we may acquiesce in the method, and go along with God in the use of the means, that he has ordained for our own happiness, and for the conver- sion of the world. The supposed unwillingness of God to convert sinners, and the creeds and systems based up- on it, arise from the failure of the means which men em- ploy to do it, which are inconsistent with those that God has ordained to accomplish it. God's will to convert sin- ners is according to his own method and means. He is willing to convert sinners by the gospel, and in no other way, and by the use of human agency in instructing man- kind in the sense and meaning of his word, and by a con- sistant and godly conduct. Men pray to God to make him willing to save sinners. They seem to think that they are more willing than God is. Their prayers to God ought to be, that they themselves, and ail other christians might be willing to use the means in the way and manner that he has ordained for their conversion. Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and in earth for ihe very purpose of converting the world; and he is the unchangeable God, and is always willing, by the faithful use of the means he has ordained, to convert sinners. His gospel is the power of God to salvation to them that believe; but the theories and speculations of men are no part of it, and very often nullify it. 292 PRAYER. The Apostles were successful in converting sinner.* because they pursued God's method of doing it. Their prayers and their labors went together. The long period of darkness that succeeded was owing to the exclusion of God's word from the people. And the revival of religion in the 16th century, and its success since, have been ow- jiig to the knowledge and use of the gospel of God. The translation of the scriptures and missionary eiforts — the use of Sunday Schools and Bible classes, are all in the way of the divine method and means for the advancement of he religion and kingdom of Christ. All things on the part of God are ready, and noic is his time. Christians ought to believe this and to realize that their unio7i and oNE-NEss in the Father and the Son, through the icord of the Apostles and acquiescence with God in its use in pro- moting their own piety and happiness, the conversion of sinners, and the glory of Christ, are their indispensable duty. Their prayers are not the offering up of their de- •sires to God for things agreeable to his will, through the mediation of Jesus Christ by faith, if they do not produce these very effects. Prayer is essential to the spiritual comfort and happi ness of the christian. A sense of want excites desire, and desire, if agreeable to God's will, is the very essence of prayer. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after." Psal. xxvii,4. Prayer must ])c made with confession of our sins and acknowledgment of God's mercy: " I prayed and made confession." Dan. ix, 4. Sin is a burden of which confes- sion unloads the soul. We often feel a sense of pardon communicated at the time of prayer. When burdened by a sense of neglected or of violated duty, confession of our sins, with faith in God's forgiveness through the atone- ment, and disburdening our souls into the bosom of our PRAYER. 293 heavenly Father, while yet speaking he hears us. In drawing nigh to him he draws nigh to usi. " Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee. Psal. 1, 15. In this world we are to expect tribulations, yet our prayers are answered with respect to them when we are support- ed under them. When they work for our good they pro- duce the peaceful fruits of righteousness. They lead us to fix our hope and confidence on God in Christ, and the eternal weight of glory. He that would have his prayers answered must keep God's commandments, " whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." 1 John iii, 22. "And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave commandment. He that keepeth his command- ments dwelleth in him, and he in him. This is the con- fidence we have with him, that if we ask any thing accord- ing to his will he heareth us." 1 John v, 13, 14. Prayer doubles the christian's enjoyments. While the natural food feeds the body, prayer and thanksgiving for it feeds the soul — it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. When all our desires and wants are satisfied prayer will be converted into praise. Till then we must live by prayer, and by prayerful effort according to the word of God, lie at the mercy seat. "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." Psal. Ixv, 2. Date Due (liid.#»^ » m PRINTED IN U. S. A. Pnncelon Theological Semmary-Speer Librar' 1 1012 01007 0821 pi?* *r^^^-